198 research outputs found
Incorporating oldman saltbush hay and prickly pear in diets for red Sindhi calves
This study was designed to evaluate the nutrient intake, digestibility, degradability, and ruminal characteristics of Sindhi heifers fed diets that contained a combined total of 75% oldman saltbush hay (hereafter saltbush hay) and prickly pear cactus. Eight 12-month old intact male red Sindhi calves (four fistulated and four non-fistulated) with an initial mean weight of 170 ± 5 kg were assigned to 4 × 4 Latin squares, where factors consisted of four diets, namely 15% hay and 60% cactus; 30% hay and 45% cactus; 45% hay and 30% cactus; and 60% hay and 15% cactus, and four times at which rumen fluid was collected. Neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) intakes in kg/day and NDF in percentage live weight (LW), water intake, salinity, and conductivity increased with hay level. Intake and digestibility of non-fibrous carbohydrates were curvilinear with higher values in diets containing 30% saltbush hay. The apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM) and organic matter decreased linearly as the concentration of saltbush hay increased in the diet. The pH of the rumen fluid was within the acceptable range for favourable microbial growth. The low temperature and high salinity and conductivity indices in the diets should be viewed with caution at higher concentrations of saltbush hay, because of a possible decrease in nutrient absorption and the development of health problems in the animals. Apparent degradability coefficients of DM and NDF were affected significantly by inclusion of prickly pear and saltbush hay in the diets.Keywords: animal nutrition, apparent digestibility, Atriplex nummularia Lindl, Opuntia ficus, ruminal degradation, semi-arid environmen
Shortest paths on systems with power-law distributed long-range connections
We discuss shortest-path lengths on periodic rings of size L
supplemented with an average of pL randomly located long-range links whose
lengths are distributed according to P_l \sim l^{-\xpn}. Using rescaling
arguments and numerical simulation on systems of up to sites, we show
that a characteristic length exists such that for
. For small p we find
that the shortest-path length satisfies the scaling relation
\ell(r,\xpn,p)/\xi = f(\xpn,r/\xi). Three regions with different asymptotic
behaviors are found, respectively: a) \xpn>2 where , b)
1<\xpn<2 where 0<\theta_s(\xpn)<1/2 and, c) \xpn<1 where
behaves logarithmically, i.e. . The characteristic length is
of the form with \nu=1/(2-\xpn) in region b), but depends
on L as well in region c). A directed model of shortest-paths is solved and
compared with numerical results.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, revtex4. Submitted to PR
Spin-dynamics simulations of the triangular antiferromagnetic XY model
Using Monte Carlo and spin-dynamics methods, we have investigated the dynamic
behavior of the classical, antiferromagnetic XY model on a triangular lattice
with linear sizes . The temporal evolutions of spin configurations
were obtained by solving numerically the coupled equations of motion for each
spin using fourth-order Suzuki-Trotter decompositions of exponential operators.
From space- and time-displaced spin-spin correlation functions and their
space-time Fourier transforms we obtained the dynamic structure factor for momentum and frequency . Below
(Kosterlitz-Thouless transition), both the in-plane () and the
out-of-plane () components of exhibit very strong
and sharp spin-wave peaks. Well above , and
apparently display a central peak, and spin-wave signatures are still seen in
. In addition, we also observed an almost dispersionless domain-wall
peak at high below (Ising transition), where long-range order
appears in the staggered chirality. Above , the domain-wall peak
disappears for all . The lineshape of these peaks is captured reasonably
well by a Lorentzian form. Using a dynamic finite-size scaling theory, we
determined the dynamic critical exponent = 1.002(3). We found that our
results demonstrate the consistency of the dynamic finite-size scaling theory
for the characteristic frequeny and the dynamic structure factor
itself.Comment: 8 pages, RevTex, 10 figures, submitted to PR
Feeding preferences of Microtheca punctigera (Achard) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) for some Brassicaceae plants in multiple-choice assays
Indexing Information for Data Forensics
We introduce novel techniques for organizing the indexing structures of how data is stored so that alterations from an original version can be detected and the changed values specifically identified. We give forensic constructions for several fundamental data structures, including arrays, linked lists, binary search trees, skip lists, and hash tables. Some of our constructions are based on a new reduced-randomness construction for nonadaptive combinatorial group testing
Deterministic Encoding and Hashing to Odd Hyperelliptic Curves
The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comInternational audienceIn this paper we propose a very simple and efficient encoding function from Fq to points of a hyperelliptic curve over Fq of the form H : y2 = f(x) where f is an odd polynomial. Hyperelliptic curves of this type have been frequently considered in the literature to obtain Jacobians of good order and pairing-friendly curves. Our new encoding is nearly a bijection to the set of Fq -rational points on H . This makes it easy to construct well-behaved hash functions to the Jacobian J of H , as well as injective maps to J (Fq ) which can be used to encode scalars for such applications as ElGamal encryption. The new encoding is already interesting in the genus 1 case, where it provides a well-behaved encoding to Joux?s supersingular elliptic curves
Morphological phenotypic dispersion of garlic cultivars by cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling
Candida albicans-produced farnesol stimulates Pseudomonas quinolone signal production in LasR-defective Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains
Candida albicans has been previously shown to stimulate the production of Pseudomonas aeruginosa phenazine toxins in dual-species colony biofilms. Here, we report that P. aeruginosa lasR mutants, which lack the master quorum sensing system regulator, regain the ability to produce quorum-sensing-regulated phenazines when cultured with C. albicans. Farnesol, a signalling molecule produced by C. albicans, was sufficient to stimulate phenazine production in LasR− laboratory strains and clinical isolates. P. aeruginosa ΔlasR mutants are defective in production of the Pseudomonas quinolone signal (PQS) due to their inability to properly induce pqsH, which encodes the enzyme necessary for the last step in PQS biosynthesis. We show that expression of pqsH in a ΔlasR strain was sufficient to restore PQS production, and that farnesol restored pqsH expression in ΔlasR mutants. The farnesol-mediated increase in pqsH required RhlR, a transcriptional regulator downstream of LasR, and farnesol led to higher levels of N-butyryl-homoserine lactone, the small molecule activator of RhlR. Farnesol promotes the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a variety of species. Because the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine suppressed farnesol-induced RhlR activity in LasR− strains, and hydrogen peroxide was sufficient to restore PQS production in las mutants, we propose that ROS are responsible for the activation of downstream portions of this quorum sensing pathway. LasR mutants frequently arise in the lungs of patients chronically infected with P. aeruginosa. The finding that C. albicans, farnesol or ROS stimulate virulence factor production in lasR strains provides new insight into the virulence potential of these strains
The effects of trace elements, cations, and environmental conditions on protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase activity
Search for Higgs bosons decaying to tautau pairs in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV
We present a search for the production of neutral Higgs bosons decaying into
tautau pairs in ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The
data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb-1, were collected by
the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We set upper limits at the
95% C.L. on the product of production cross section and branching ratio for a
scalar resonance decaying into tautau pairs, and we then interpret these limits
as limits on the production of Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric
standard model (MSSM) and as constraints in the MSSM parameter space.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PL
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