15,216 research outputs found
Dry matter yields and quality of organic lupin/cereal mixtures for wholecrop forage
In view of climate change predictions and the general desirability of increasing the amount of home grown protein, a case exists for the investigation of lupins and lupin/cereal bicrop combinations as wholecrop forage on organic farms. A replicated randomised block trial is described which took place at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, in 2005. This involved spring sown blue, white and yellow lupins, millet, wheat and triticale and lupin/cereal bi-crops. Data for dry matter yields for wholecrop silage, crude protein, MAD fi bre content and estimated ME, are presented for a single harvest. It is concluded that white lupins and white lupin bi-crops with spring wheat or triticale offer the best prospects for a viable wholecrop forage crop in an organic situation
The Effect of Sowing Date and Autumn Management on Sainfoin \u3cem\u3e(Onobrychis viciifolia)\u3c/em\u3e Regrowth and Yield
Due to its characteristics (palatability, non-bloating, high protein, high voluntary intake etc.: Frame, 1998), sainfoin was a traditional forage legume in the UK, grown widely during the 17-19th century (Bland, 1971). It has almost disappeared in recent years. The rise of organic farming and the need for home-grown protein may encourage the return of sainfoin. This experiment aimed to explore the impact of sowing date and autumn management on the growth and yield of sainfoin in UK
An Appraisal of the Potential for Soybeans in the United Kingdom
Soybean is a most important crop worldwide, accounting for 56% of world oilseed production and 69% of world protein meal consumption in 2003 (Soystats, 2004). Since their introduction in the early 1800\u27s, forage soybeans have been grown widely in USA. Used originally as a forage crop, this use largely had been forgotten until Dr T. E. Devine (United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service; USDA-ARS) released 4 new forage cultivars. Soybeans potentially offer UK farmers a high quality protein source in a short season and also meet the requirements of supermarket chains to remain GM free. This paper aims to indicate whether soybeans can be grown successfully in the UK
In vitro - in vivo correlation in dermal delivery: the role of excipients
The composition of topical and transdermal formulations is known to determine the rate and the extent of drug delivery to and through the skin. However, to date, the role of excipients in these formulations on skin delivery of actives has received little attention from scientists in the field. Monitoring skin absorption of both drug and vehicle may provide insights into the mechanism by which excipients promote permeation and may facilitate the design of effective and safer products. Previously, we have investigated the use of quantitative Confocal Raman Spectroscopy (CRS) to investigate the delivery of an active to the skin, and we also reported the first fully quantitative study that compared this method with the well-established in vitro permeation test (IVPT) model. To further explore the potential of quantitative CRS in assessing topical delivery, the present work investigated the effects of commonly used excipients on the percutaneous absorption of a model drug, ibuprofen (IBU). Permeation of IBU and selected solvents following finite dose applications to human skin was determined in vitro and in vivo by Franz diffusion studies and quantitative CRS, respectively. The solvents used were propylene glycol (PG), dipropylene glycol (DPG), tripropylene glycol (TPG), and polyethylene glycol 300 (PEG 300). Overall, the cumulative amounts of IBU that permeated at 24 h in vitro were similar for PG, DPG, and TPG (p > 0.05). These three vehicles outperformed PEG 300 (p TPG, while PEG 300 did not permeate the skin. A linear relationship between maximum vehicle and IBU flux in vitro was found, with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.95. When comparing in vitro with in vivo data, a positive in vitro–in vivo (IVIV) correlation between the cumulative permeation of IBU in vitro and the total amount of IBU that penetrated the stratum corneum (SC) in vivo was observed, with a Pearson correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.90. A strong IVIV correlation, R2 = 0.82, was found following the linear regression of the cumulative number of solvents permeated in vitro and the corresponding skin uptake in vivo measured with CRS. This is the first study to correlate in vivo permeation of solvents measured by CRS with data obtained by in vitro diffusion studies. The IVIV correlations suggest that CRS is a powerful tool for profiling drug and vehicle delivery from dermal formulations. Future studies will examine additional excipients with varying physicochemical properties. Ultimately, these findings are expected to lead to new approaches for the design, evaluation, and optimization of formulations that target actives to and through the skin
AAOmega spectroscopy of 29 351 stars in fields centered on ten Galactic globular clusters
Galactic globular clusters have been pivotal in our understanding of many
astrophysical phenomena. Here we publish the extracted stellar parameters from
a recent large spectroscopic survey of ten globular clusters. A brief review of
the project is also presented. Stellar parameters have been extracted from
individual stellar spectra using both a modified version of the Radial Velocity
Experiment (RAVE) pipeline and a pipeline based on the parameter estimation
method of RAVE. We publish here all parameters extracted from both pipelines.
We calibrate the metallicity and convert this to [Fe/H] for each star and,
furthermore, we compare the velocities and velocity dispersions of the Galactic
stars in each field to the Besan\c{c}on Galaxy model. We find that the model
does not correspond well with the data, indicating that the model is probably
of little use for comparisons with pencil beam survey data such as this.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A. Data
described in tables will be available on CDS (at
http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/530/A31) once publishe
Composite Scalars at LEP: Constraining Technicolor Theories
LEPI and LEPII data can be used to constrain technicolor models with light,
neutral pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons, Pa. We use published limits on branching
ratios and cross sections for final states with photons, large missing energy,
jet pairs, and b bbar pairs to constrain the anomalous Pa Z0 Z0, Pa Z0 photon,
and Pa photon photon couplings. From these results, we derive bounds on the
size of the technicolor gauge group and the number of technifermion doublets in
models such as Low-scale Technicolor.Comment: 27 pages (including title page), 15 figures, 6 tables. version 2: In
addressing PRD referee comments, we have significantly expanded our
manuscript, to include detailed discussion of limits from LEP II data, as
well as expanding the number or specific models to which we apply our
results. As a result, we have changed the title from "Z0 decays to composite
scalars: constraining technicolor theories
Periodic Bursts of Coherent Radio Emission from an Ultracool Dwarf
We report the detection of periodic (p = 1.96 hours) bursts of extremely
bright, 100% circularly polarized, coherent radio emission from the M9 dwarf
TVLM 513-46546. Simultaneous photometric monitoring observations have
established this periodicity to be the rotation period of the dwarf. These
bursts, which were not present in previous observations of this target, confirm
that ultracool dwarfs can generate persistent levels of broadband, coherent
radio emission, associated with the presence of kG magnetic fields in a
large-scale, stable configuration. Compact sources located at the magnetic
polar regions produce highly beamed emission generated by the electron
cyclotron maser instability, the same mechanism known to generate planetary
coherent radio emission in our solar system. The narrow beams of radiation pass
our line of sight as the dwarf rotates, producing the associated periodic
bursts. The resulting radio light curves are analogous to the periodic light
curves associated with pulsar radio emission highlighting TVLM 513-46546 as the
prototype of a new class of transient radio source.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
The night-sky at the Calar Alto Observatory
We present a characterization of the main properties of the night-sky at the
Calar Alto observatory for the time period between 2004 and 2007. We use
optical spectrophotometric data, photometric calibrated images taken in
moonless observing periods, together with the observing conditions regularly
monitored at the observatory, such as atmospheric extinction and seeing. We
derive, for the first time, the typical moonless night-sky optical spectrum for
the observatory. The spectrum shows a strong contamination by different
pollution lines, in particular from Mercury lines, which contribution to the
sky-brightness in the different bands is of the order of ~0.09 mag, ~0.16 mag
and ~0.10 mag in B, V and R respectively. The zenith-corrected values of the
moonless night-sky surface brightness are 22.39, 22.86, 22.01, 21.36 and 19.25
mag arcsec^-2 in U, B, V, R and I, which indicates that Calar Alto is a
particularly dark site for optical observations up to the I-band. The fraction
of astronomical useful nights at the observatory is ~70%, with a ~30% of
photometric nights. The typical extinction at the observatory is k_V~0.15 mag
in the Winter season, with little dispersion. In summer the extinction has a
wider range of values, although it does not reach the extreme peaks observed at
other sites. The median seeing for the last two years (2005-6) was ~0.90",
being smaller in the Summer (~0.87") than in the Winter (~0.96"). We conclude
in general that after 26 years of operations Calar Alto is still a good
astronomical site, being a natural candidate for future large aperture optical
telescopes.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publishing in the Publications of
Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP
The Collider Phenomenology of Technihadrons in the Technicolor Straw Man Model
We discuss the phenomenology of the lightest SU(3)_C singlet and non-singlet
technihadrons in the Straw Man Model of low-scale technicolor (TCSM). The
technihadrons are assumed to be those arising in topcolor--assisted technicolor
models in which topcolor is broken by technifermion condensates. We improve
upon the description of the color--singlet sector presented in our earlier
paper introducing the TCSM (hep-ph/9903369). These improvements are most
important for subprocess energies well below the masses of the technirho and
techniomega, and, therefore, apply especially to e+e- colliders such as LEP and
a low--energy linear collider. In the color--octet sector, we consider mixing
of the gluon, the coloron V_8 from topcolor breaking, and four isosinglet
color--octet technirho mesons. We assume, as expected in walking technicolor,
that these technirhos decay into qbar-q, gg, and g-technipion final states, but
not into technipion pairs. All the TCSM production and decay processes
discussed here are included in the event generator Pythia. We present several
simulations appropriate for the Tevatron Collider, and suggest benchmark model
lines for further experimental investigation.Comment: 42 pages, 7 figure
Anharmonic properties of double giant dipole resonance
A systematic microscopic study of the anharmonic properties of the double
giant dipole resonance (DGDR) has been carried out, for the first time, for
nuclei with mass number spanning the whole mass table. It is concluded that
the corrections of the energy centroid of the and
components of the DGDR from its harmonic limit are negative, have a value of
the order of few hundred keV and follow an dependence.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
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