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

3-(3-Bromophenyl)-7-acetoxycoumarin

In natural product synthesis, the procurement of easily accessible starting materials is crucial. Chromenones and their subclass, coumarins, are a wide family of small, oxygen-containing aromatic heterocycles. Phenylcoumarins offer a particularly excellent starting point for a diverse chemical space of natural products, and thus are excellent staring materials for more complex natural products. Herein, we report an efficient synthesis of an easily accessible 3-phenylcoumarin bearing two orthogonally substitutable groups, bromine, and an acetyl-protected phenylic hydroxyl group

Digestibility Estimates Based on a Grass Growth Model Are Distributed via Internet to Finnish Farmers

Optimising the harvesting time of grass in primary growth is difficult under Finnish climatic conditions, because the digestibility of grass decreases on average by 0.5 percentage units daily. We constructed a model based on cumulative temperature and geographical location which estimates the digestibility of grass. This model is used to produce estimates utilising real time weather information. The estimates are presented as a map, which is revised daily. Farmers have free access to the maps via Internet

Prediction of Indigestible NDF Content of Grass and Legume Silages by NIRS

The future feed evaluation systems based on mechanistic digestion models require reliable estimates of forage digestible and indigestible NDF content (DNDF and INDF). The objective of this study was to examine the potential of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) in predicting INDF content of grass and legume silages

The biomechanical analysis of three plating fixation systems for periprosthetic femoral fracture near the tip of a total hip arthroplasty

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A variety of techniques are available for fixation of femoral shaft fractures following total hip arthroplasty. The optimal surgical repair method still remains a point of controversy in the literature. However, few studies have quantified the performance of such repair constructs. This study biomechanically examined 3 different screw-plate and cable-plate systems for fixation of periprosthetic femoral fractures near the tip of a total hip arthroplasty.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twelve pairs of human cadaveric femurs were utilized. Each left femur was prepared for the cemented insertion of the femoral component of a total hip implant. Femoral fractures were created in the femurs and subsequently repaired with Construct A (Zimmer Cable Ready System), Construct B (AO Cable-Plate System), or Construct C (Dall-Miles Cable Grip System). Right femora served as matched intact controls. Axial, torsional, and four-point bending tests were performed to obtain stiffness values.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All repair systems showed 3.08 to 5.33 times greater axial stiffness over intact control specimens. Four-point normalized bending (0.69 to 0.85) and normalized torsional (0.55 to 0.69) stiffnesses were lower than intact controls for most comparisons. Screw-plates provided either greater or equal stiffness compared to cable-plates in almost all cases. There were no statistical differences between plating systems A, B, or C when compared to each other (p > 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Screw-plate systems provide more optimal mechanical stability than cable-plate systems for periprosthetic femur fractures near the tip of a total hip arthroplasty.</p

Lasertutkalähettimen ja -vastaanottimen suunnittelu- ja toteutusvaiheet

Tiivistelmä. Työssä suunnitellaan ja toteutetaan piirilevyt kahteen eri lasertutkaan, joilla suoritettavat etäisyysmittaukset perustuvat optisten pulssien kulkuaikojen mittaamiseen. Molemmissa lasertutkissa käytettävä puolijohdelaser ja CMOS-tekniikalla valmistettu SPAD-TDC-ilmaisinpiiri ovat erityisesti kehitetyt pulssitettua etäisyysmittausta varten Oulun yliopiston ITEE-tiedekunnan CAS-tutkimusryhmässä. Työn ensimmäistä lasertutkaa kutsutaan viirututkaksi ja toista miniatyyritutkaksi. Käytettävä puolijohdelaser on kvanttikaivotyyppinen ja perustuu kaksoisheterorakenteeseen, jonka aaltojohde on vahvasti epäsymmetrinen. Suhteellisen paksu ja useita kvanttikaivoja sisältävä aktiivinen kerros on sijoitettu epäsymmetrisesti laserdiodin aaltojohteeseen. Aktiivista kerrosta ympäröivä aaltojohde sisältää lisäksi kyllästysvaimentimen, joka mahdollistaa passiivisen Q-kytkentätekniikan hyödyntämisen ja auttaa pitämään laserin emittoimat optiset pulssit yksittäisinä ilman jälkioskillaatioita. Työssä käytettyjen laserdiodien muodostamat impulssimaiset laserpulssit ovat merkittävästi lyhytkestoisempia kuin laserdiodien läpi johdetut virtapulssit, minkä vuoksi toteutusta kutsutaan tehostetuksi vahvistuskytkentätekniikaksi. Molempien lasertutkien vastaanottimissa käytettävä ilmaisinpiiri mahdollistaa jopa yksittäisten fotoneiden havaitsemisen. Ilmaisinpiiriin on sisäänrakennettu 9 x 9 kokoinen SPAD-matriisi sekä 10-kanavainen aika-digitaalimuunnin, joka suorittaa hyötyfotoneiden kulkuajan laskemisen mitattavaan kohteeseen. Fotoneiden aikavälimittausta varten ilmaisimesta valitaan haluttu 3 x 3 kokoinen alimatriisi, jonka sisältämät SPAD-diodit voidaan asettaa aktivoitumaan vasta halutun ajan kuluttua aloitusmerkkisignaaliin nähden. Jokaisen yhdeksän SPAD-diodin aktivointiviive voidaan asettaa erikseen tai halutut SPAD-diodit voidaan jättää kokonaan aktivoimatta. Lasertutkien lähettimille suoritettiin aikatasomittaukset, joissa selvitettiin lähettimien virta- ja laserpulssien huippuarvot sekä puoliarvoleveydet. Viirututkan tuottamat virtapulssit olivat puoliarvoleveydeltään keskimäärin noin 1,1 ns ja optiset pulssit vastaavasti noin 120 ps. Miniatyyritutkassa virtapulssien puoliarvoleveydet olivat pienimmillään noin 990 ps ja optisten pulssien vastaavasti noin 103 ps.Stages of designing and developing a laser radar transceiver. Abstract. In this thesis, printed circuit boards for two different laser radars are designed and implemented. Both laser radars are based on the principle of pulsed time-of-flight measurement. The semiconductor laser and the CMOS SPAD-TDC detector chip used in both laser radars have specifically been developed for pulsed laser time-of-flight rangefinding applications. The work has been carried out in the CAS research unit of the ITEE Faculty at University of Oulu. The first laser radar is referred to as a stripe radar and the second one as a miniature radar. The semiconductor laser is based on a double heterostructure and its active layer consist of multiple quantum wells. The waveguide structure of the laser diode is strongly asymmetric to provide a very small optical confinement factor. Combined with a relatively thick active layer, the laser is capable of generating high-power single-optical pulses. The optical resonator includes a saturable absorber that both enables passive Q-switching operation and helps to keep the optical pulses trail-free. The generation of sharp, impulse-like optical spikes with a laser diode, utilizing drive current pulse with much longer width, is called enhanced gain switching. The single-photon detection capability of both laser radar receivers is achieved with the use of a SPAD array that has been realized in CMOS technology. The detector chip includes an integrated 10-channel time-to-digital converter that measures the transit time of short laser pulses from the transmitter to the object. A sub-array of a size of 3 x 3 SPADs is freely chosen within a 9 x 9 SPAD array for time interval measurements. The SPADs can be set to be activated only after a desired period of time in relation to the arrival time of a start pulse from the transmitter. The activation delay for each SPAD can be set independently or the SPADs can be left completely unactived. The peak amplitudes and full width at half maximum values for the current and optical pulses were measured. The stripe radar generated current and optical pulses with a FWHM of about 1.1 ns and about 120 ps, respectively. The minimum FWHM values for the current and optical pulses generated by the miniature radar were about 990 ps and 103 ps, respectively

Disk and circumsolar radiances in the presence of ice clouds

The impact of ice clouds on solar disk and circumsolar radiances is investigated using a Monte Carlo radiative transfer model. The monochromatic direct and diffuse radiances are simulated at angles of 0 to 8° from the center of the sun. Input data for the model are derived from measurements conducted during the 2010 Small Particles in Cirrus (SPARTICUS) campaign together with state-of-the-art databases of optical properties of ice crystals and aerosols. For selected cases, the simulated radiances are compared with ground-based radiance measurements obtained by the Sun and Aureole Measurements (SAM) instrument. First, the sensitivity of the radiances to the ice cloud properties and aerosol optical thickness is addressed. The angular dependence of the disk and circumsolar radiances is found to be most sensitive to assumptions about ice crystal roughness (or, more generally, non-ideal features of ice crystals) and size distribution, with ice crystal habit playing a somewhat smaller role. Second, in comparisons with SAM data, the ice cloud optical thickness is adjusted for each case so that the simulated radiances agree closely (i.e., within 3 %) with the measured disk radiances. Circumsolar radiances at angles larger than ≈ 3° are systematically underestimated when assuming smooth ice crystals, whereas the agreement with the measurements is better when rough ice crystals are assumed. Our results suggest that it may well be possible to infer the particle roughness directly from ground-based SAM measurements. In addition, the results show the necessity of correcting the ground-based measurements of direct radiation for the presence of diffuse radiation in the instrument's field of view, in particular in the presence of ice clouds.Peer reviewe

Laboratory Experiments of Model-based Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive Optics Control

Direct imaging of Earth-like exoplanets is one of the most prominent scientific drivers of the next generation of ground-based telescopes. Typically, Earth-like exoplanets are located at small angular separations from their host stars, making their detection difficult. Consequently, the adaptive optics (AO) system's control algorithm must be carefully designed to distinguish the exoplanet from the residual light produced by the host star. A new promising avenue of research to improve AO control builds on data-driven control methods such as Reinforcement Learning (RL). RL is an active branch of the machine learning research field, where control of a system is learned through interaction with the environment. Thus, RL can be seen as an automated approach to AO control, where its usage is entirely a turnkey operation. In particular, model-based reinforcement learning (MBRL) has been shown to cope with both temporal and misregistration errors. Similarly, it has been demonstrated to adapt to non-linear wavefront sensing while being efficient in training and execution. In this work, we implement and adapt an RL method called Policy Optimization for AO (PO4AO) to the GHOST test bench at ESO headquarters, where we demonstrate a strong performance of the method in a laboratory environment. Our implementation allows the training to be performed parallel to inference, which is crucial for on-sky operation. In particular, we study the predictive and self-calibrating aspects of the method. The new implementation on GHOST running PyTorch introduces only around 700 microseconds in addition to hardware, pipeline, and Python interface latency. We open-source well-documented code for the implementation and specify the requirements for the RTC pipeline. We also discuss the important hyperparameters of the method, the source of the latency, and the possible paths for a lower latency implementation.Comment: Accepted for publication in JATI