Improving feedlot efficiency through feed resource optimization

Although the U.S. cowherd is at its lowest since the1950s, there remains a focus on increasing the efficiency of production rather than maximizing total output. The feedlot sector benefits greatly from the availability of hormone implants, beta agonists, ionophores as well as products for disease prevention and treatment to improve animal efficiency. The combined impact of beef production technologies on animal efficiency is significant, with estimates of 25% (Wileman et al., 2009) and 45% (Lawrence and Ibarburu, 2007). The realities of the cost and time involved in the development of new technologies, as well as an increasingly vocal portion of the public with negative views on the use of such technology, likely limits the number of new products entering the marketplace for the foreseeable future. Unperceived or previously ignored inefficiencies in basic sub-systems offer an alternative opportunity to improve feedlot efficiency and profitability

Internal Validation of MaSTR™ Probabilistic Genotyping Software for the Interpretation of 2–5 Person Mixed DNA Profiles

Mixed human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) samples present one of the most challenging pieces of evidence that a forensic analyst can encounter. When multiple contributors, stochastic amplification, and allele drop-out further complicate the mixture profile, interpretation by hand becomes unreliable and statistical analysis problematic. Probabilistic genotyping software has provided a tool to address complex mixture interpretation and provide likelihood ratios for defined sets of propositions. The MaSTR™ software is a fully continuous probabilistic system that considers a wide range of STR profile data to provide likelihood ratios on DNA mixtures. Mixtures with two to five contributors and a range of component ratios and allele peak heights were created to test the validity of MaSTR™ with data similar to real casework. Over 280 different mixed DNA profiles were used to perform more than 2600 analyses using different sets of propositions and numbers of contributors. The results of the analyses demonstrated that MaSTR™ provided accurate and precise statistical data on DNA mixtures with up to five contributors, including minor contributors with stochastic amplification effects. Tests for both Type I and Type II errors were performed. The findings in this study support that MaSTR™ is a robust tool that meets the current standards for probabilistic genotyping

Influence of Social Economic Factors on Completion of Construction Projects in Public Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya

The aim of this paper was to establish the influence of social economic factors on completion of construction projects in public secondary schools in Bungoma County, Kenya. The study was informed by construction management and soft value management theories. In the study purposive sampling technique was used in choosing 461study respondents (Principals and Chairpersons of Parents Teachers Association) who were sampled to ensure homogeneity of the selected sample in ensuring that samples were drawn from each region encompassed in the target population, then followed by simple random sampling technique from each sub county. Questionnaires and interview schedules were the main data collection instruments. Data analysis involved use of statistical package for social sciences, SPSS version 21 tool where both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Cronbach Alpha of coefficient of 0.831 was attained on all constructs of social economic factors, which was above 0.7 as recommended by Cronbach (1951) implying the research instruments were reliable. The correlation coefficient (R) or the beta value β of 0.423≠0 at p=0.00 indicated that the hypothesis was accepted. The coefficient of determination, R-square of 0.422 implied that 42.2% of the variance in completion of construction projects was attributed to social economic factors. From the study findings, social economic factors namely; interpersonal skills of project manager, inflation, corruption and community involvement affects completion of construction project progress. The community should be involved directly in school projects. This will improve their perception and goodwill towards completion of construction projects in public secondary schools. The management need to be keen on price fluctuations that eventually have an effect on completion of construction projects. Future research is encouraged to cover other sectors other than education and compare the findings. The findings are of importance to the Ministry of Education in Kenya and other interested parties in future. Researchers in future have a basis for reference from this study. Keywords: Social economic factors, Completion of construction projects, Public Secondary schools. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-12-05 Publication date: April 30th 201

Influence of Availability of Resources on Completion of Construction Projects in Public Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya

The paper aimed to determine influence of availability of resources on completion of construction projects in public secondary schools in Bungoma County, Kenya, informed by construction management and soft value management theories. The study employed purposive sampling technique in choosing 461study respondents (Principals and Chairpersons of Parents Teachers Association) who were purposively sampled to ensure homogeneity of the selected sample in ensuring that samples are drawn from each region encompassed in the target population, then followed by simple random sampling technique from each sub county. Questionnaires and interview schedules were the main data collection instruments. Data analysis involved use of statistical package for social sciences, SPSS version 21 too where both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Cronbach Alpha of coefficient of 0.927 was attained on all constructs of availability of resources, which was above 0.7 as recommended by Cronbach (1951) implying the research instruments were reliable. The correlation coefficient (R) or the beta value β of 0.577≠0 at p=0.00 indicated that the hypothesis was accepted. The coefficient of determination, R-square of 0.333 implied that 33.3% of the variance in completion of construction projects was explained by availability of resources. From the study findings, availability of resources namely funds for school construction, unavailability and or shortage of equipment and workers interferes with project quality and hinders project progress. The study concludes that availability of resources positively influences completion of construction projects. Availability of funds for school construction projects is necessary for their completion and delay in construction project funds interferes with project completion. Availability of materials and workers for school construction projects hastens project work. The current study was done in public secondary schools in Bungoma County. Future studies are encouraged to be done in both private and public secondary schools in the whole country and compare the results. In addition, the research concentrated on education sector. Future research is encouraged to cover other sectors and compare the findings. The findings are of importance to the Ministry of Education in Kenya and other interested parties in future. Future research have the basis of reference from this study. Key words: Availability of resources, Completion of construction projects, Public Secondary schools

IoT Networks: Using Machine Learning Algorithm for Service Denial Detection in Constrained Application Protocol

The paper discusses the potential threat of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks in the Internet of Things (IoT) networks on constrained application protocols (CoAP). As billions of IoT devices are expected to be connected to the internet in the coming years, the security of these devices is vulnerable to attacks, disrupting their functioning. This research aims to tackle this issue by applying mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative for feature selection, extraction, and cluster algorithms to detect DoS attacks in the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) using the Machine Learning Algorithm (MLA). The main objective of the research is to enhance the security scheme for CoAP in the IoT environment by analyzing the nature of DoS attacks and identifying a new set of features for detecting them in the IoT network environment. The aim is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the MLA in detecting DoS attacks and compare it with conventional intrusion detection systems for securing the CoAP in the IoT environment. Findings The research identifies the appropriate node to detect DoS attacks in the IoT network environment and demonstrates how to detect the attacks through the MLA. The accuracy detection in both classification and network simulation environments shows that the k-means algorithm scored the highest percentage in the training and testing of the evaluation. The network simulation platform also achieved the highest percentage of 99.93% in overall accuracy. This work reviews conventional intrusion detection systems for securing the CoAP in the IoT environment. The DoS security issues associated with the CoAP are discussed

Spall And Dynamic Yielding Of Aluminum And Aluminum Alloys At Strain Rates Of 3X10(6) S(-1)

We have explored the role that grain size, impurity particles and alloying in aluminum play in dynamic yielding and spall fracture at tensile strain rates of similar to 3x10(6) We achieved these strain rates shocking the aluminum specimens via laser ablation using the Z-Beamlet Laser at Sandia National Laboratories. The high purity aluminum and 1100 series aluminum alloy produced very different spall strengths and nearly the same yield strengths. In contrast, various grain-sized Al + 3 wt. % Mg specimens presented the lowest spall strength, but the greatest dynamic yield strength. Fracture morphology results and particle analysis are presented along with hydrodynamic simulations to put these results in context. Impurity particles appeared to play a vital role in spall fracture at these fast strain rates. Alloying elements such as Mg seem to be the dominant factor in the dynamic yield results.Mechanical Engineerin

Turning Points in Containment of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Underground Nuclear Tests

Sometime in 1987 Billy Hudson, a long-time LLNL Containment Scientist and the Task Leader for Containment Diagnostics, put together a presentation entitled ''Turning Points in Containment''. This presentation identifies challenges, lessons learned, and changes made in containment practice over a 20-year period, from 1967-1987. Besides providing a significant historical summary, the presentation is valuable as we maintain a position of readiness 14 years after the last underground nuclear detonation. It is particularly valuable to personnel who are new to the program and have no first-hand experience in implementing underground nuclear test containment for actual tests. We now view this material as a unique containment summary with timeless importance. We envision this report to be particularly useful to new Containment Program members and anyone interested in the history of underground nuclear test containment practices. We believe that the Barnwell test, detonated in 1989, would have been added to this summary if Billy Hudson had the opportunity to update the presentation. We have chosen to add a few slides to the end of the original presentation to describe the issues and lessons learned from Barnwell

Propuesta de procesos complementarios para un sistema de recuperación de información

Con la finalidad de mejorar el proceso de búsqueda de información para investigadores por medio de la utilización de un Sistema de Recuperación de Información (SRI) específico de las ciencias de la computación, es necesario definir métodos que trabajen sobre el análisis de los datos existentes para generar operaciones que incrementen la relevancia de los resultados a presentar a los usuarios. Entre las alternativas de técnicas aplicables se destacan: el tratamiento de tópicos clave, técnicas de clustering y de análisis de probabilidad basadas en Bayes, entre otras. En el presente trabajo se exponen propuestas de procesos a través de las que se busca demostrar que es posible utilizar distintas técnicas para generar procesos que, a partir de datos disponibles en el sistema, proporcionen información para mejorar la calidad de los resultados y operaciones internas de la herramienta, siendo este el objetivo principal de la presente línea de investigación.Eje: Bases de datos y Minería de datos.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Large-scale protein level comparison of Deltaproteobacteria reveals cohesive metabolic groups

Deltaproteobacteria, now proposed to be the phyla Desulfobacterota, Myxococcota, and SAR324, are ubiquitous in marine environments and play essential roles in global carbon, sulfur, and nutrient cycling. Despite their importance, our understanding of these bacteria is biased towards cultured organisms. Here we address this gap by compiling a genomic catalog of 1 792 genomes, including 402 newly reconstructed and characterized metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from coastal and deep-sea sediments. Phylogenomic analyses reveal that many of these novel MAGs are uncultured representatives of Myxococcota and Desulfobacterota that are understudied. To better characterize Deltaproteobacteria diversity, metabolism, and ecology, we clustered ~1 500 genomes based on the presence/absence patterns of their protein families. Protein content analysis coupled with large-scale metabolic reconstructions separates eight genomic clusters of Deltaproteobacteria with unique metabolic profiles. While these eight clusters largely correspond to phylogeny, there are exceptions where more distantly related organisms appear to have similar ecological roles and closely related organisms have distinct protein content. Our analyses have identified previously unrecognized roles in the cycling of methylamines and denitrification among uncultured Deltaproteobacteria. This new view of Deltaproteobacteria diversity expands our understanding of these dominant bacteria and highlights metabolic abilities across diverse taxa

Ultrashort filaments of light in weakly-ionized, optically-transparent media

Modern laser sources nowadays deliver ultrashort light pulses reaching few cycles in duration, high energies beyond the Joule level and peak powers exceeding several terawatt (TW). When such pulses propagate through optically-transparent media, they first self-focus in space and grow in intensity, until they generate a tenuous plasma by photo-ionization. For free electron densities and beam intensities below their breakdown limits, these pulses evolve as self-guided objects, resulting from successive equilibria between the Kerr focusing process, the chromatic dispersion of the medium, and the defocusing action of the electron plasma. Discovered one decade ago, this self-channeling mechanism reveals a new physics, widely extending the frontiers of nonlinear optics. Implications include long-distance propagation of TW beams in the atmosphere, supercontinuum emission, pulse shortening as well as high-order harmonic generation. This review presents the landmarks of the 10-odd-year progress in this field. Particular emphasis is laid to the theoretical modeling of the propagation equations, whose physical ingredients are discussed from numerical simulations. Differences between femtosecond pulses propagating in gaseous or condensed materials are underlined. Attention is also paid to the multifilamentation instability of broad, powerful beams, breaking up the energy distribution into small-scale cells along the optical path. The robustness of the resulting filaments in adverse weathers, their large conical emission exploited for multipollutant remote sensing, nonlinear spectroscopy, and the possibility to guide electric discharges in air are finally addressed on the basis of experimental results.Comment: 50 pages, 38 figure