490 research outputs found
Lessons from the Canadian Cattle Industry for Developing the National Animal Identification System
The primary focus of animal identification programs, which are rapidly developing throughout the world, is to effectively respond to animal health emergencies that have the potential to cause devastating consequences to animal and public health. Additional benefits of an animal identification program include maintaining or expanding international trade, increased consumer confidence, and improved supply chain management. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a series of recommendations for the U.S. to consider as it continues to develop the National Animal Identification System. The secondary objective is to explain how some progressive operations, spanning all sectors of the live cattle and beef industry supply chain complex in Canada, have utilized the technology of the mandatory cattle identification program to improve management intensity.Animal Identification, Canadian Cattle Identification Agency, National Animal Identification System, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q10, Q16,
Looking Beyond Looks: Comments on Sloutsky, Kloos, and Fisher (2007)
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75080/1/j.1467-9280.2007.01937.x.pd
Time-Symmetrization and Isotropization of Stiff-Fluid Kantowski-Sachs Universes
It is shown that growing-entropy stiff-fluid Kantowski-Sachs universes become
time-symmetric (if they start with time-asymmetric phase) and isotropize.
Isotropization happens without any inflationary era during the evolution since
there is no cosmological term here. It seems that this approach is an
alternative to inflation since the universe gets bigger and bigger approaching
'flatness'.Comment: 9 pages, no figure
Thermodynamics and Kinetic Theory of Relativistic Gases in 2-D Cosmological Models
A kinetic theory of relativistic gases in a two-dimensional space is
developed in order to obtain the equilibrium distribution function and the
expressions for the fields of energy per particle, pressure, entropy per
particle and heat capacities in equilibrium. Furthermore, by using the method
of Chapman and Enskog for a kinetic model of the Boltzmann equation the
non-equilibrium energy-momentum tensor and the entropy production rate are
determined for a universe described by a two-dimensional Robertson-Walker
metric. The solutions of the gravitational field equations that consider the
non-equilibrium energy-momentum tensor - associated with the coefficient of
bulk viscosity - show that opposed to the four-dimensional case, the cosmic
scale factor attains a maximum value at a finite time decreasing to a "big
crunch" and that there exists a solution of the gravitational field equations
corresponding to a "false vacuum". The evolution of the fields of pressure,
energy density and entropy production rate with the time is also discussed.Comment: 23 pages, accepted in PR
Irreversible Processes in Inflationary Cosmological Models
By using the thermodynamic theory of irreversible processes and Einstein
general relativity, a cosmological model is proposed where the early universe
is considered as a mixture of a scalar field with a matter field. The scalar
field refers to the inflaton while the matter field to the classical particles.
The irreversibility is related to a particle production process at the expense
of the gravitational energy and of the inflaton energy. The particle production
process is represented by a non-equilibrium pressure in the energy-momentum
tensor. The non-equilibrium pressure is proportional to the Hubble parameter
and its proportionality factor is identified with the coefficient of bulk
viscosity. The dynamic equations of the inflaton and the Einstein field
equations determine the time evolution of the cosmic scale factor, the Hubble
parameter, the acceleration and of the energy densities of the inflaton and
matter. Among other results it is shown that in some regimes the acceleration
is positive which simulates an inflation. Moreover, the acceleration decreases
and tends to zero in the instant of time where the energy density of matter
attains its maximum value.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, to appear in PR
Curvature in causal BD-type inflationary cosmology
We study a closed model of the universe filled with viscous fluid and
quintessence matter components in a Brans-Dicke type cosmological model. The
dynamical equations imply that the universe may look like an accelerated flat
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe at low redshift. We consider here
dissipative processes which follow a causal thermodynamics. The theory is
applied to viscous fluid inflation, where accepted values for the total entropy
in the observable universe is obtained.Comment: 11 pages, revtex 4. For a festschrift honoring Alberto Garcia. To be
publishen in Gen. Rel. Gra
Randall-Sundrum Model in the Presence of a Brane Bulk Viscosity
The presence of a bulk viscosity for the cosmic fluid on a single
Randall-Sundrum brane is considered. The spatial curvature is assumed to be
zero. The five-dimensional Friedmann equation is derived, together with the
energy conservation equation for the viscous fluid. These governing equations
are solved for some special cases: (i) in the low-energy limit when the matter
energy density is small compared with brane tension; (ii) for a
matter-dominated universe, and (iii) for a radiation-dominated universe. Rough
numerical estimates, for the extreme case when the universe is at its Planck
time, indicate that the viscous effect can be significant.Comment: 18 pages, RevTeX4, no figures. Discussion in Sec. III expanded; new
references. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Citizen Science 2.0 : Data Management Principles to Harness the Power of the Crowd
Citizen science refers to voluntary participation by the general public in scientific endeavors. Although citizen science has a long tradition, the rise of online communities and user-generated web content has the potential to greatly expand its scope and contributions. Citizens spread across a large area will collect more information than an individual researcher can. Because citizen scientists tend to make observations about areas they know well, data are likely to be very detailed. Although the potential for engaging citizen scientists is extensive, there are challenges as well. In this paper we consider one such challenge â creating an environment in which non-experts in a scientific domain can provide appropriate and accurate data regarding their observations. We describe the problem in the context of a research project that includes the development of a website to collect citizen-generated data on the distribution of plants and animals in a geographic region. We propose an approach that can improve the quantity and quality of data collected in such projects by organizing data using instance-based data structures. Potential implications of this approach are discussed and plans for future research to validate the design are described
Bulk viscosity driving the acceleration of the Universe
The possibility that the present acceleration of the universe is driven by a
kind of viscous fluid is exploited. At background level this model is similar
to the generalized Chaplygin gas model (GCGM). But, at perturbative level, the
viscous fluid exhibits interesting properties. In particular the oscillations
in the power spectrum that plagues the GCGM are not present. Possible
fundamental descriptions for this viscous dark energy are discussed.Comment: Latex file, 8 pages, 3 eps figure
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