Effects of Weaning Age and Winter Development Environment on Heifer Performance

Our objective was to determine if early weaning (about 125 d) vs. normal weaning (about 250 d) and wintering replacement heifers in drylot vs. rangeland affected heifer growth and reproductive performance. Heifer calves from the 2009 and 2010 calf crops (n = 104 and 73, respectively) were allocated to the 2 weaning treatments and then stratified by age into the 2 winter development treatments forming a 2 by 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Heifers wintered in drylot received mixed grass and alfalfa hay (yr 1: 11.6% CP, 52.5% TDN; yr2: 12.3% CP, 53.4% TDN) plus 1.8 kg of a dried distiller’s grain (DDGS)-based supplement/hd/d (yr1: 22.7% CP, 75.8% TDN; yr 2: 25.4% CP, 76.7% TDN). Heifers wintered on rangeland also received 1.8 kg/hd/d of the same supplement. Over the winter, each treatment was allocated to a separate pen or pasture. After estrus synchronization and timed AI, all heifers were placed on rangeland to graze through the summer. During the summer of yr 1, heifers were allocated by winter treatment to 2 pastures, and in yr 2 all 4 treatment combinations were allocated to separate pastures. Responses measured were BW, ADG, pubertal status at initiation of estrus synchronization, and pregnancy status after breeding. Pubertal status was indicated by serum progesterone \u3e 1 ng/ml. A winter by weaning treatment interaction affected (P\u3c0.001) BW and ADG both years. During the winter months, range heifers were lighter and grew slower than drylot heifers, but BW did not differ due to winter treatments at the end of the summer. However, early-weaned heifers remained lighter than normal weaned heifers at the end of the summer. Weaning treatment affected (P=0.03) fall pregnancy rate (93.2%±4.0 and 74.7%±7.98 for early- and normal-weaning, respectively) in yr 2. In yr 1, there was a difference (P=0.006) between drylot and range heifers (92.7%±3.52 and 72.8%±6.47, respectively) in the proportion that obtained puberty before estrus synchronization. In conclusion, producers should consider important interactions between weaning and winter management practices when establishing a replacement heifer development program that best fits the goals of their operation

Incommensuration Effects and Dynamics in Vortex Chains

We examine the motion of one-dimensional (1D) vortex matter embedded in a 2D vortex system with weak pinning using numerical simulations. We confirm the conjecture of Matsuda et al. [Science 294, 2136 (2001)] that the onset of the temperature induced motion of the chain is due to an incommensuration effect of the chain with the periodic potential created by the bulk vortices. In addition, under an applied driving force we find a two stage depinning transition, where the initial depinning of the vortex chain occurs through soliton like pulses. When an ac drive is added to the dc drive, we observe phase locking of the moving vortex chain.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figure

Granzyme A-producing T helper cells are critical for acute graft-versus-host disease

Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) can occur after hematopoietic cell transplant in patients undergoing treatment for hematological malignancies or inborn errors. Although CD4+ T helper (Th) cells play a major role in aGVHD, the mechanisms by which they contribute, particularly within the intestines, have remained elusive. We have identified a potentially novel subset of Th cells that accumulated in the intestines and produced the serine protease granzyme A (GrA). GrA+ Th cells were distinct from other Th lineages and exhibited a noncytolytic phenotype. In vitro, GrA+ Th cells differentiated in the presence of IL-4, IL-6, and IL-21 and were transcriptionally unique from cells cultured with either IL-4 or the IL-6/IL-21 combination alone. In vivo, both STAT3 and STAT6 were required for GrA+ Th cell differentiation and played roles in maintenance of the lineage identity. Importantly, GrA+ Th cells promoted aGVHD-associated morbidity and mortality and contributed to crypt destruction within intestines but were not required for the beneficial graft-versus-leukemia effect. Our data indicate that GrA+ Th cells represent a distinct Th subset and are critical mediators of aGVHD

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

`What is a Thing?': Topos Theory in the Foundations of Physics

The goal of this paper is to summarise the first steps in developing a fundamentally new way of constructing theories of physics. The motivation comes from a desire to address certain deep issues that arise when contemplating quantum theories of space and time. In doing so we provide a new answer to Heidegger's timeless question ``What is a thing?''. Our basic contention is that constructing a theory of physics is equivalent to finding a representation in a topos of a certain formal language that is attached to the system. Classical physics uses the topos of sets. Other theories involve a different topos. For the types of theory discussed in this paper, a key goal is to represent any physical quantity $A$ with an arrow \breve{A}_\phi:\Si_\phi\map\R_\phi where \Si_\phi and $\R_\phi$ are two special objects (the `state-object' and `quantity-value object') in the appropriate topos, $\tau_\phi$. We discuss two different types of language that can be attached to a system, $S$. The first, \PL{S}, is a propositional language; the second, \L{S}, is a higher-order, typed language. Both languages provide deductive systems with an intuitionistic logic. With the aid of \PL{S} we expand and develop some of the earlier work (By CJI and collaborators.) on topos theory and quantum physics. A key step is a process we term `daseinisation' by which a projection operator is mapped to a sub-object of the spectral presheaf \Sig--the topos quantum analogue of a classical state space. The topos concerned is \SetH{}: the category of contravariant set-valued functors on the category (partially ordered set) \V{} of commutative sub-algebras of the algebra of bounded operators on the quantum Hilbert space \Hi.Comment: To appear in ``New Structures in Physics'' ed R. Coeck