The Effect of Harvesting Strategy of Grass Silage on Milk Production

Timing of harvest in primary growth of grass is a major factor affecting D-value (digestible organic matter, g/kg DM) of silage and dry matter (DM) consumption and milk production of dairy cows (Rinne, 2000). The objective of this research was to investigate whether there is a similar pattern in regrowths of grass

The Effect of Harvesting Strategy of Grass Silage on Milk Production

Timing of harvest in primary growth of grass is a major factor affecting D-value (digestible organic matter, g/kg DM) of silage and dry matter (DM) consumption and milk production of dairy cows (Rinne, 2000). The objective of this research was to investigate whether there is a similar pattern in regrowths of grass

Modelling mineral dust using stereophotogrammetry

Real, three-dimensional shape of a dust particle is derived from a pair of scanning-electron microscope images by means of stereophotogrammetry. The resulting shape is discretized, and preliminary discrete-dipole-approximation computations for the single dust particle reveal that scattering by such an irregular shape differs notably from scattering by a sphere or a Gaussian random sphere which both are frequently used shape models for dust particles

Pitkät yhtäjaksoiset yksilöterapiat : Terapioiden merkitys kuntoutujan ja kuntoutuksen eri toimijoiden näkökulmista

Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin kuntoutumisen merkityksiä pitkään yhtäjaksoisesti avomuotoista yksilöterapiaa saaneille kuntoutujille ja kuntoutuksen toteutumista kuntoutujan, palveluntuottajan ja hoitavan tahon näkökulmasta. Tutkimus on osa Kelan Pitkät yhtäjaksoiset yksilöterapiat -tutkimusta. Tutkimuksen kohderyhmä olivat vuoden 2015 Kelan kuntoutustietojen mukaan avomuotoista fysio-, musiikki-, puhe- ja toimintaterapiaa sekä neuropsykologista kuntoutusta yhtäjaksoisesti yli 5 vuotta saaneet kuntoutujat. Tutkimukseen osallistui 30 kuntoutujaa (8–64 vuotta), 30 terapeuttia ja 6 lääkäriä. Aineisto kerättiin teemahaastatteluilla, jotka nauhoitettiin ja litteroitiin. Haastattelujen lisäksi laadullisen sisällönanalyysin aineistona olivat kuntoutussuunnitelmat, -palautteet ja -päätökset. Kaikki haastatellut kokivat avokuntoutuksen hyödylliseksi, terapian jatkumiselle löytyi perusteita ja kaikki olivat edistyneet tai heidän toimintakykynsä oli pysynyt ennallaan viimeisimmänkin terapiavuoden aikana. Pitkään jatkuneen avokuntoutuksen merkitys haastatelluille kuntoutujille rakentuu laaja-alaisista hyödyistä kuntoutujan arkeen, osallistumiseen ja elämänlaatuun. Aineistossa toistuu hyvin toimivan kuntoutuksen moninainen hyöty myös yhteiskunnalle. Tämän tutkimuksen perusteella pitkiä yhtäjaksoisia yksilöterapioita tulisi kehittää hyödyntämällä toimintakyvyn arviointimenetelmiä, näyttöön perustuvaa toimintaa ja suosituksia sekä kuntoutuspalautteiden kirjaamista niin, että palautteissa tulisi selkeämmin esille niin kuntoutujan toimintakyvyn, tavoitteiden kuin terapian toteutuksenkin muutokset. Haastattelut tehtiin keväällä 2016, jolloin uusi laki Kelan vaativasta kuntoutuksesta oli juuri tullut voimaan. Tutkimusaineisto kuvaa vanhan lain ja Kelan standardien mukaan toteutettua pitkää vaikeavammaisten avokuntoutusta, eikä tuloksista voi tehdä johtopäätöksiä uuden vaativan lääkinnällisen kuntoutuksen lain mukaisesta tai määrittämästä kuntoutuksen toteutuksesta.peerReviewedVertaisarvioit

Single scattering by realistic, inhomogeneous mineral dust particles with stereogrammetric shapes

Light scattering by single, inhomogeneous mineral dust particles was simulated based on shapes and compositions derived directly from measurements of real dust particles instead of using a mathematical shape model. We demonstrate the use of the stereogrammetric shape retrieval method in the context of single-scattering modelling of mineral dust for four different dust types – all of them inhomogeneous – ranging from compact, equidimensional shapes to very elongated and aggregate shapes. The three-dimensional particle shapes were derived from stereo pairs of scanning-electron microscope images, and inhomogeneous composition was determined by mineralogical interpretation of localized elemental information based on energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Scattering computations were performed for particles of equal-volume diameters, from 0.08 μm up to 2.8 μm at 550 nm wavelength, using the discrete-dipole approximation. Particle-to-particle variation in scattering by mineral dust was found to be quite considerable and was not well reproduced by simplified shapes of homogeneous spheres, spheroids, or Gaussian random spheres. Effective-medium approximation results revealed that particle inhomogeneity should be accounted for even for small amounts of absorbing media (here up to 2% of the volume), especially when considering scattering by inhomogeneous particles at size parameters 3<<i>x</i><8. When integrated over a log-normal size distribution, the linear depolarization ratio and single-scattering albedo were also found to be sensitive to inhomogeneity. The methodology applied is work-intensive and the light-scattering method used quite limited in terms of size parameter coverage. It would therefore be desirable to find a sufficiently accurate but simpler approach with fewer limitations for single-scattering modelling of dust. For validation of such a method, the approach presented here could be used for producing reference data when applied to a suitable set of target particles

Artturi Assists Finnish Advisers and Farmers to Succeed in Grass-Based Dairy Production

Artturi is a collective name for a wide range of services. It is a common tool for different bodies who share an interest in strengthening grass-based dairy production in Finland: research, advisory service and industries. The Service is named after A. I. (Artturi Ilmari) Virtanen, the Finnish scientist who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1945, partly based on his work in developing the ensiling process of grass. The Artturi web site is available in Internet at: http://www.agronet.fi/artturi. Access to Artturi Services is free and no registration is required. The language used is Finnish. During summer 2003, 15,000 visits were recorded at the web site

High frequency of TTK mutations in microsatellite-unstable colorectal cancer and evaluation of their effect on spindle assembly checkpoint

Frameshift mutations frequently accumulate in microsatellite-unstable colorectal cancers (MSI CRCs) typically leading to downregulation of the target genes due to nonsense-mediated messenger RNA decay. However, frameshift mutations that occur in the 3' end of the coding regions can escape decay, which has largely been ignored in previous works. In this study, we characterized nonsense-mediated decay-escaping frameshift mutations in MSI CRC in an unbiased, genome wide manner. Combining bioinformatic search with expression profiling, we identified genes that were predicted to escape decay after a deletion in a microsatellite repeat. These repeats, located in 258 genes, were initially sequenced in 30 MSI CRC samples. The mitotic checkpoint kinase TTK was found to harbor decay-escaping heterozygous mutations in exon 22 in 59% (105/179) of MSI CRCs, which is notably more than previously reported. Additional novel deletions were found in exon 5, raising the mutation frequency to 66%. The exon 22 of TTK contains an A(9)-G(4)-A(7) locus, in which the most common mutation was a mononucleotide deletion in the A(9) (c.2560delA). When compared with identical non-coding repeats, TTK was found to be mutated significantly more often than expected without selective advantage. Since TTK inhibition is known to induce override of the mitotic spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), we challenged mutated cancer cells with the microtubule-stabilizing drug paclitaxel. No evidence of checkpoint weakening was observed. As a conclusion, heterozygous TTK mutations occur at a high frequency in MSI CRCs. Unexpectedly, the plausible selective advantage in tumourigenesis does not appear to be related to SAC

Toward on-sky adaptive optics control using reinforcement learning Model-based policy optimization for adaptive optics

Context. The direct imaging of potentially habitable exoplanets is one prime science case for the next generation of high contrast imaging instruments on ground-based, extremely large telescopes. To reach this demanding science goal, the instruments are equipped with eXtreme Adaptive Optics (XAO) systems which will control thousands of actuators at a framerate of kilohertz to several kilohertz. Most of the habitable exoplanets are located at small angular separations from their host stars, where the current control laws of XAO systems leave strong residuals. Aims. Current AO control strategies such as static matrix-based wavefront reconstruction and integrator control suffer from a temporal delay error and are sensitive to mis-registration, that is, to dynamic variations of the control system geometry. We aim to produce control methods that cope with these limitations, provide a significantly improved AO correction, and, therefore, reduce the residual flux in the coronagraphic point spread function (PSF). Methods. We extend previous work in reinforcement learning for AO. The improved method, called the Policy Optimization for Adaptive Optics (PO4AO), learns a dynamics model and optimizes a control neural network, called a policy. We introduce the method and study it through numerical simulations of XAO with Pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS) for the 8-m and 40-m telescope aperture cases. We further implemented PO4AO and carried out experiments in a laboratory environment using Magellan Adaptive Optics eXtreme system (MagAO-X) at the Steward laboratory. Results. PO4AO provides the desired performance by improving the coronagraphic contrast in numerical simulations by factors of 3-5 within the control region of deformable mirror and PWFS, both in simulation and in the laboratory. The presented method is also quick to train, that is, on timescales of typically 5-10 s, and the inference time is sufficiently small (Peer reviewe

Toward on-sky adaptive optics control using reinforcement learning Model-based policy optimization for adaptive optics

Context. The direct imaging of potentially habitable exoplanets is one prime science case for the next generation of high contrast imaging instruments on ground-based, extremely large telescopes. To reach this demanding science goal, the instruments are equipped with eXtreme Adaptive Optics (XAO) systems which will control thousands of actuators at a framerate of kilohertz to several kilohertz. Most of the habitable exoplanets are located at small angular separations from their host stars, where the current control laws of XAO systems leave strong residuals. Aims. Current AO control strategies such as static matrix-based wavefront reconstruction and integrator control suffer from a temporal delay error and are sensitive to mis-registration, that is, to dynamic variations of the control system geometry. We aim to produce control methods that cope with these limitations, provide a significantly improved AO correction, and, therefore, reduce the residual flux in the coronagraphic point spread function (PSF). Methods. We extend previous work in reinforcement learning for AO. The improved method, called the Policy Optimization for Adaptive Optics (PO4AO), learns a dynamics model and optimizes a control neural network, called a policy. We introduce the method and study it through numerical simulations of XAO with Pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS) for the 8-m and 40-m telescope aperture cases. We further implemented PO4AO and carried out experiments in a laboratory environment using Magellan Adaptive Optics eXtreme system (MagAO-X) at the Steward laboratory. Results. PO4AO provides the desired performance by improving the coronagraphic contrast in numerical simulations by factors of 3-5 within the control region of deformable mirror and PWFS, both in simulation and in the laboratory. The presented method is also quick to train, that is, on timescales of typically 5-10 s, and the inference time is sufficiently small (Peer reviewe