688 research outputs found
Performance of temperate perennial pastures in the Australian subtropics 2. Milk production
Milk production from irrigated, pure stands of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne cv. Yatsyn), prairie grass (Bromus willdenodii cv. Matua) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea cv. AU Triumph) were compared with that achieved from Italian ryegrass (L. multiflorum cv. Concord) over 3 lactations of multiparous HolsteinâFriesian cows at Mutdapilly in south-east Queensland.
Pastures were fertilised with 50 kg nitrogen/ha . month as urea and annual dressings of 20 kg phosphorus/ha and 50 kg potassium/ha (as superphosphate and muriate of potash respectively). There were 4 pasture treatments grazed at 3 cows/ha in a 1-week-on, 3-weeks-off rotation with 2 replicates and 3 cows/treatment block. Cows grazed the pastures day and night from May to November. Over summer, cows grazed the pastures during the night and were fed supplements (silage in the first lactation, and lucerne hay in the second and third lactations) during the day because there was no shade available in the irrigation areas. In autumn, the animals were removed from the ryegrass and prairie grass pastures for 8 weeks to allow seedling re-establishment, either by oversowing (ryegrasses) or natural reseeding (prairie grass). Cows continued to graze the fescue pastures at night during autumn. All cows received a ration of 4 kg/cow of a grainâminerals mixture in the first lactation and 5 kg/cow in the second and third lactations.
Milk production from perennial ryegrass was higher than from fescue in the first lactation and Italian ryegrass in the second and third lactations. Prairie grass gave similar milk production to perennial ryegrass in all 3 years. In the third year, perennial ryegrass, prairie grass and fescue gave similar milk production. Milk quality from the 4 grasses was similar except in the third lactation when the lactose content of milk from perennial ryegrass pastures was lowest. There were also small and inconsistent differences in milk component yields between the 4 grasses. Liveweight changes were small except in the second lactation when the cows grazing fescue lost weight relative to the other treatments. Mean liveweight at calving increased over the 3 lactations.
It was concluded that all 3 temperate perennial grasses demonstrated useful traits for use in subtropical dairy pastures. Perennial ryegrass produced the most milk from the lowest amount of dry matter on offer. Prairie grass produced similar milk yields to perennial ryegrass, was well eaten by cattle and was self regenerating. Although fescue was slower to establish and needed more intensive management to control maturity, it was the most persistent and was the only grass to provide autumn grazing. In the second year this attribute resulted in a lower requirement for supplementary feeding. Fescue produced the highest gross margin in the second lactation and was only marginally less than prairie grass in the third. The performance of Italian ryegrass was as good as that of perennial ryegrass in the first lactation but fell substantially in the second and third lactations as the level of summer grass invasion increased
Biophysical characteristics of a morphologically-complex macrotidal tropical coastal system during a dry season
Four boat-based surveys and several moored measurements were conducted over the dry season in June,
July, August and September 2008 in the central Kimberley region of northwestern Australia; a macrotidal
tropical coastal region, characterised by numerous island archipelagos and shallow reefs. The objective
was to determine the influence of this complex morphology on the biophysical properties of the local
coastal water masses and the resultant impact on phytoplankton biomass. Despite negligible rainfall
during the dry-season, decreased salinity towards the coast suggested a persistent fresh water source.
The water column was weakly vertically-stratified throughout much of the study region, only becoming
well-mixed in topographically constricted regions. The vertical stratification resulted in a cross-shore
subsurface in situ chl-a fluorescence maxima (at ~30 m depth) in June, July and August. The presence
of a chain of islands and shallow reefs led to the partial isolation of the semi-enclosed embayment,
Collier Bay, creating distinct water masses across this relatively small area. The confluence of the two
most distinct water masses formed a front at latitude ~15.65e15.7 ïżœS, in both June and August, indicating
it was a persistent feature during the dry season. In situ chl-a fluorescence was highest at the front
location. In Collier Bay, NOx concentrations were up to five times higher, with a 20% higher proportion of
larger extracted chl-a biomass (cells > 5 mm), a proxy for phytoplankton. In the more open waters of
Camden Sound, relatively high concentrations of picophytoplankton, bacteria and viruses were observed.
Such spatial shifts in nutrient concentrations, phytoplankton biomass and phytoplankton and microbial
community composition across the persistent density front are likely to have important consequences on
the region's planktonic food web function
Initial State Interactions for -Proton Radiative Capture
The effects of the initial state interactions on the radiative
capture branching ratios are examined and found to be quite sizable. A general
coupled-channel formalism for both strong and electromagnetic channels using a
particle basis is presented, and applied to all the low energy data
with the exception of the {\it 1s} atomic level shift. Satisfactory fits are
obtained using vertex coupling constants for the electromagnetic channels that
are close to their expected SU(3) values.Comment: 16 pages, uses revte
PP-Wave Light-Cone Free String Field Theory at Finite Temperature
In this paper, a real-time formulation of light-cone pp-wave string field
theory at finite temperature is presented. This is achieved by developing the
thermo field dynamics (TFD) formalism in a second quantized string scenario.
The equilibrirum thermodynamic quantities for a pp-wave ideal string gas are
derived directly from expectation values on the second quantized string thermal
vacuum. Also, we derive the real-time thermal pp-wave closed string propagator.
In the flat space limit it is shown that this propagator can be written in
terms of Theta functions, exactly as the zero temperature one. At the end, we
show how supestrings interactions can be introduced, making this approach
suitable to study the BMN dictionary at finite temperature.Comment: 27 pages, revtex
The Localization Transition of the Two-Dimensional Lorentz Model
We investigate the dynamics of a single tracer particle performing Brownian
motion in a two-dimensional course of randomly distributed hard obstacles. At a
certain critical obstacle density, the motion of the tracer becomes anomalous
over many decades in time, which is rationalized in terms of an underlying
percolation transition of the void space. In the vicinity of this critical
density the dynamics follows the anomalous one up to a crossover time scale
where the motion becomes either diffusive or localized. We analyze the scaling
behavior of the time-dependent diffusion coefficient D(t) including corrections
to scaling. Away from the critical density, D(t) exhibits universal
hydrodynamic long-time tails both in the diffusive as well as in the localized
phase.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures
Testing Reactive Probabilistic Processes
We define a testing equivalence in the spirit of De Nicola and Hennessy for
reactive probabilistic processes, i.e. for processes where the internal
nondeterminism is due to random behaviour. We characterize the testing
equivalence in terms of ready-traces. From the characterization it follows that
the equivalence is insensitive to the exact moment in time in which an internal
probabilistic choice occurs, which is inherent from the original testing
equivalence of De Nicola and Hennessy. We also show decidability of the testing
equivalence for finite systems for which the complete model may not be known
Global declines in coral reef calcium carbonate production under ocean acidification and warming
Serum-free process development:improving the yield and consistency of human mesenchymal stromal cell production
Background aims: The cost-effective production of human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) for off-the-shelf and patient specific therapies will require an increasing focus on improving product yield and driving manufacturing consistency. Methods: Bone marrow-derived hMSCs (BM-hMSCs) from two donors were expanded for 36 days in monolayer with medium supplemented with either fetal bovine serum (FBS) or PRIME-XV serum-free medium (SFM). Cells were assessed throughout culture for proliferation, mean cell diameter, colony-forming potential, osteogenic potential, gene expression and metabolites. Results: Expansion of BM-hMSCs in PRIME-XV SFM resulted in a significantly higher growth rate (P 2 = 0.8705) across all conditions. PRIME-XV SFM has also shown increased consistency in BM-hMSC characteristics such as per cell metabolite utilization, in vitro colony-forming potential and osteogenic potential despite the higher number of population doublings. Conclusions: We have increased the yield and consistency of BM-hMSC expansion between donors, demonstrating a level of control over the product, which has the potential to increase the cost-effectiveness and reduce the risk in these manufacturing processes
Depositional setting, provenance and tectonic-volcanic setting of Eocene-Recent deep-sea sediments of the oceanic Izu-Bonin forearc, NW Pacific (IODP Expedition 352)
New biostratigraphical, geochemical, and magnetic evidence is synthesized with IODP Expedition 352 shipboard results to understand the sedimentary and tectono-magmatic development of the IzuâBonin outer forearc region. The oceanic basement of the IzuâBonin forearc was created by supra-subduction zone seafloor spreading during early Eocene (c. 50â51 Ma). Seafloor spreading created an irregular seafloor topography on which talus locally accumulated. Oxide-rich sediments accumulated above the igneous basement by mixing of hydrothermal and pelagic sediment. Basaltic volcanism was followed by a hiatus of up to 15 million years as a result of topographic isolation or sediment bypassing. Variably tuffaceous deep-sea sediments were deposited during Oligocene to early Miocene and from mid-Miocene to Pleistocene. The sediments ponded into extensional fault-controlled basins, whereas condensed sediments accumulated on a local basement high. Oligocene nannofossil ooze accumulated together with felsic tuff that was mainly derived from the nearby IzuâBonin arc. Accumulation of radiolarian-bearing mud, silty clay, and hydrogenous metal oxides beneath the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) characterized the early Miocene, followed by middle MioceneâPleistocene increased carbonate preservation, deepened CCD and tephra input from both the oceanic IzuâBonin arc and the continental margin Honshu arc. The IzuâBonin forearc basement formed in a near-equatorial setting, with late Mesozoic arc remnants to the west. Subduction-initiation magmatism is likely to have taken place near a pre-existing continentâoceanic crust boundary. The IzuâBonin arc migrated northward and clockwise to collide with Honshu by early Miocene, strongly influencing regional sedimentation
Gemini/GMOS Transmission Spectroscopy of the Grazing Planet Candidate WD 1856+534 b
WD 1856+534 b is a Jupiter-sized, cool giant planet candidate transiting the white dwarf WD 1856+534. Here, we report an optical transmission spectrum of WD 1856+534 b obtained from ten transits using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph. This system is challenging to observe due to the faintness of the host star and the short transit duration. Nevertheless, our phase-folded white light curve reached a precision of 0.12%. WD 1856+534 b provides a unique transit configuration compared to other known exoplanets: the planet is 8 larger than its star and occults over half of the stellar disk during mid-transit. Consequently, many standard modeling assumptions do not hold. We introduce the concept of a "limb darkening corrected, time-averaged transmission spectrum"and propose that this is more suitable than for comparisons to atmospheric models for planets with grazing transits. We also present a modified radiative transfer prescription. Though the transmission spectrum shows no prominent absorption features, it is sufficiently precise to constrain the mass of WD 1856+534 b to be >0.84 M J (to 2Ï confidence), assuming a clear atmosphere and a Jovian composition. High-altitude cloud decks can allow lower masses. WD 1856+534 b could have formed either as a result of common envelope evolution or migration under the Kozai-Lidov mechanism. Further studies of WD 1856+534 b, alongside new dedicated searches for substellar objects around white dwarfs, will shed further light on the mysteries of post-main-sequence planetary systems
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