Lifelong guidance policy and practice in the EU

A study on lifelong guidance (LLG) policy and practice in the EU focusing on trends, challenges and opportunities. Lifelong guidance aims to provide career development support for individuals of all ages, at all career stages. It includes careers information, advice, counselling, assessment of skills and mentoring

Enzymes as Feed Additive to Aid in Responses Against Eimeria Species in Coccidia-Vaccinated Broilers Fed Corn-Soybean Meal Diets with Different Protein Levels

This research aimed to evaluate the effects of adding a combination of exogenous enzymes to starter diets varying in protein content and fed to broilers vaccinated at day of hatch with live oocysts and then challenged with mixed Eimeria spp. Five hundred four 1-d-old male Cobb-500 chickens were distributed in 72 cages. The design consisted of 12 treatments. Three anticoccidial control programs [ionophore (IO), coccidian vaccine (COV), and coccidia-vaccine + enzymes (COV + EC)] were evaluated under 3 CP levels (19, 21, and 23%), and 3 unmedicated-uninfected (UU) negative controls were included for each one of the protein levels. All chickens except those in unmedicated-uninfected negative controls were infected at 17 d of age with a mixed oral inoculum of Eimeria acervulina, Eimeria maxima, and Eimeria tenella. Live performance, lesion scores, oocyst counts, and samples for gut microflora profiles were evaluated 7 d postinfection. Ileal digestibility of amino acids (IDAA) was determined 8 d postinfection. Microbial communities (MC) were analyzed by G + C%, microbial numbers were counted by flow cytometry, and IgA concentrations were measured by ELISA. The lowest CP diets had poorer (P ≤ 0.001) BW gain and feed conversion ratio in the preinfection period. Coccidia-vaccinated broilers had lower performance than the ones fed ionophore diets during pre- and postchallenge periods. Intestinal lesion scores were affected (P ≤ 0.05) by anticoccidial control programs, but responses changed according to gut section. Feed additives or vaccination had no effect (P ≥ 0.05) on IDAA, and diets with 23% CP had the lowest (P ≤ 0.001) IDAA. Coccidial infection had no effect on MC numbers in the ileum but reduced MC numbers in ceca and suppressed ileal IgA production. The COV + EC treatment modulated MC during mixed coccidiosis infection but did not significantly improve chicken performance. Results indicated that feed enzymes may be used to modulate the gut microflora of cocci-vaccinated broiler chickens

Role of disorder in the size-scaling of material strength

We study the sample size dependence of the strength of disordered materials with a flaw, by numerical simulations of lattice models for fracture. We find a crossover between a regime controlled by the fluctuations due to disorder and another controlled by stress-concentrations, ruled by continuum fracture mechanics. The results are formulated in terms of a scaling law involving a statistical fracture process zone. Its existence and scaling properties are only revealed by sampling over many configurations of the disorder. The scaling law is in good agreement with experimental results obtained from notched paper samples.Comment: 4 pages 5 figure

Three-way optimisation of response time, subtask dispersion and energy consumption in split-merge systems

This paper investigates various ways in which the triple trade-off metrics between task response time, subtask dispersion and energy can be improved in split-merge queueing systems. Four ideas, namely dynamic subtask dispersion reduction, state-dependent service times, multiple redundant subtask service servers and restarting subtask service, are examined in the paper. It transpires that all four techniques can be used to improve the triple trade-off, while combinations of the techniques are not necessarily beneficial

Neural networks in interpretation of electronic core-level spectra

We explore the applicability of artificial intelligence for molecular structure - core-level spectrum interpretation. We focus on the electronic Hamiltonian using the H$_2$O molecule in the classical-nuclei approximation as our test system. For a systematic view we studied both predicting structures from spectra and, vice versa, spectra from structures, using polynomial approaches and neural networks. We find predicting spectra easier than predicting structures, where a tighter grid of the spectrum improves prediction. However, the accuracy of the structure prediction worsens when moving outwards from the center of mass of the training set in the structural parameter space

Mikrobit ja aineenvaihdunnan suunnittelu

Tiivistelmä. Olemme hyödyntäneet yhteiskuntana mikrobeja jo useita tuhansia vuosia. Mikrobien kehitys esimerkiksi ruokatuotteiden valmistuksesta monimutkaisempiin sovelluksiin, kuten läääkeaineden valmistukseen, on tapahtunut vasta viimeisen muutaman sadan vuoden aikana. Näitä sovelluksia on nykyisin monia PET muovin hajoituksesta biopolttoaineiden valmistukseen ja monien hankalien yhdisteiden tuottamiseen. Näiden saavuttamiseksi on myös kehitetty monia tekniikoita, joilla mikrobien aineenvaihduntaa kyetään manipuloimaan geneettisesti halutun lopputuloksen luomiseksi. Erityisesti tekniikat kuten MAGE, gTME, CRISPR ja monet DNA-kasaus menetelmät, kuten Golden Gate, ovat kehittyneet tätä varten. Näitä myös tukevat esimerkiksi erilaiset sekvensointi ja laskennallisen biologian tekniikat, jotka tekevät aineenvaihdunnan suunnittelun mahdolliseksi ja tehokkaaksi. Näiden tekniikoiden avulla pystytään tehostamaan mikrobien omaa ominaista aineenvaihduntaa tai luomaan uusia aineenvaihduntareittejä monien yhdisteiden, kuten erilaisten sekundaaristen metaboliittien, heterologista tuotantoa varten esimerkiksi siirtämällä geneettistä informaatiota toisesta organismista valittuun mikrobiin. Tässä työssä keskitytään näihin tekniikoihin ja sovelluksiin

The Effect of a Femoral Fracture Sustained before Skeletal Maturity on Bone Mineral Density: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study

Peer reviewe