The Feasibility of a Cooperatively Owned Large-Scale Hog Farrowing System in North Dakota

Interest in the feasibility of a cooperatively owned large-scale hog farrowing system has been shown by hog producers in North Dakota. The producers realize the problems in securing a continuous supply of disease free feeder pigs of uniform quality during fluctuating price periods. Lack of published data concerning large-scale farrowing systems makes decisions regarding the feasibility and negotiation with lending institutions difficult. The research for this report was conducted under North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station Projects 1350 and 3337. The research was supported in part by grants from the Business and Industrial Development Department and the Economic Development Administration (Grant Project Number 05-6-01402). Special assistance in conducting the study and preparing the report was provided through the Research and Extension Rural Development Project at North Dakota State University.Agribusiness, Production Economics,

A search for signatures of interactions of X-ray binary outflows with their environments with ALMA

We observed the X-ray binaries CirX-1, ScoX-1, GRS 1915+105, GX13+1, and CygX-1 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Unresolved continuum emission is found at the positions of all the sources at a frequency of 92 GHz, with flux densities ranging between 0.8 and 10 mJy/beam. In all cases the emission can be associated with jets that have been extensively observed at lower frequencies. We searched for line emission from H$\alpha$ recombination, SiO,H2O, and CH3OH at the positions of all the sources and, for CirX-1 and CygX-1, also at regions where shocks associated with an interaction between the jet and the interstellar medium had previously been observed. The search did not yield any significant detection, resulting in 3$\sigma$ upper limits between 0.65 and 3.7 K km s$^{-1}$ for the existence of line emission in these regions. In contrast, we detected spatially unresolved SiO emission in the field of view of GX13+1, and we tentatively associate this emission with a SiO maser in a potential young stellar object or evolved star. We also found spatially extended line emission at two additional sites in the field of view of GX13+1 that we tentatively associate with emission from SO and CH3OH; we speculate that it may be associated with a star-forming region, but again we cannot rule out alternative origins such as emission from evolved stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

A Study of Lyman-Alpha Quasar Absorbers in the Nearby Universe

Spectroscopy of ten quasars obtained with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is presented. A clustering analysis reveals an excess of nearest neighbor line pairs on velocity scales of 250-750 km/s at a 95-98% confidence level. The hypothesis that the absorbers are randomly distributed in velocity space can be ruled out at the 99.8% confidence level. No two-point correlation power is detected (xi < 1 with 95% confidence). Lyman-alpha absorbers have correlation amplitudes on scales of 250-500 km/s at least 4-5 times smaller than the correlation amplitude of bright galaxies. A detailed comparison between absorbers in nearby galaxies is carried out on a limited subset of 11 Lyman- alpha absorbers where the galaxy sample in a large contiguous volume is complete to M_B = -16. Absorbers lie preferentially in regions of intermediate galaxy density but it is often not possible to uniquely assign a galaxy counterpart to an absorber. This sample provides no explicit support for the hypothesis that absorbers are preferentially associated with the halos of luminous galaxies. We have made a preliminary comparison of the absorption line properties and environments with the results of hydrodynamic simulations. The results suggest that the Lyman-alpha absorbers represent diffuse or shocked gas in the IGM that traces the cosmic web of large scale structure. (abridged)Comment: 36 pages of text, 15 figures, 4 tables, 36 file

Bound q2qˉ2q^2\bar q^2 states in a constituent quark model

We consider the existence of bound systems consisting of two quarks and two antiquarks ($q^2\bar q^2$) within the framework of a constituent quark model. The underlying quark dynamics is described by a linear confinement potential and an effective $q^2\bar q^2$ interaction which has its origin in instanton effects of QCD. We calculate the spectra and examine the internal structure of the states found.Comment: 11 pages, needs epsf.st

Evaluating the Application of Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation Technique to Stabilize Expansive Soils

Expansive soils, also known as swell-shrink soils have been a problem for civil infrastructures including roads and foundations from ancient times. The use of chemical additives such as cement and lime to stabilize expansive soils is a common practice among geotechnical engineers, especially for lightly loaded structures. However, several occurrences of subgrade failures have been observed after stabilizing with chemical additives. Hence, engineers are in search of sustainable stabilization alternatives. Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) is gaining attention as an environmentally friendly soil improvement technique. Several researchers have successfully tested its feasibility in mitigating liquefaction-induced problems in sandy soils. In this research, the authors are evaluating its effectiveness in stabilizing expansive soils. For this purpose two natural expansive soils with high and low plasticity properties were subjected to MICP treatments. The soil samples were first augmented with bacterium Sporosarcina Pasteurii and then treated with Calcium Chloride and Urea. Variables such as microbial concentrations and curing times were studied in this research. Geotechnical testing including Atterberg limits and unconfined compression strength were performed to evaluate the efficacy of MICP treatments. Preliminary results indicate that there is a reduction in plasticity and swelling characteristics of the soils and increase in the unconfined compression strength

Photoinduced ordering and anchoring properties of azo-dye films

We study both theoretically and experimentally anchoring properties of photoaligning azo-dye films in contact with a nematic liquid crystal depending on photoinduced ordering of azo-dye molecules. In the mean field approximation, we found that the bare surface anchoring energy linearly depends on the azo-dye order parameter and the azimuthal anchoring strength decays to zero in the limit of vanishing photoinduced ordering. From the absorption dichroism spectra measured in the azo-dye films that are prepared from the azo-dye derivative with polymerizable terminal groups (SDA-2) we obtain dependence of the dichroic ratio on the irradiation dose. We also measure the polar and azimuthal anchoring strengths in nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cells aligned by the azo-dye films and derive the anchoring strengths as functions of the dichroic ratio. Though linear fitting of the experimental data for both anchoring strengths gives reasonably well results, it, in contradiction with the theory, predicts vanishing of the azimuthal anchoring strength at certain nonzero value of the azo-dye order parameter. By using a simple phenomenological model we show that this discrepancy can be attributed to the difference between the surface and bulk order parameters in the films.Comment: revtex4, 25 pages, 9 figure

Kinetics of photoinduced ordering in azo-dye films: two-state and diffusion models

We study the kinetics of photoinduced ordering in the azo-dye SD1 photoaligning layers and present the results of modeling performed using two different phenomenological approaches. A phenomenological two state model is deduced from the master equation for an ensemble of two-level molecular systems. Using an alternative approach, we formulate the two-dimensional (2D) diffusion model as the free energy Fokker-Planck equation simplified for the limiting regime of purely in-plane reorientation. The models are employed to interpret the irradiation time dependence of the absorption order parameters extracted from the available experimental data by using the exact solution to the light transmission problem for a biaxially anisotropic absorbing layer. The transient photoinduced structures are found to be biaxially anisotropic whereas the photosteady and the initial states are uniaxial.Comment: revtex4, 34 pages, 9 figure

Multiwavelength observations of Mkn 501 during the 1997 high state

During the observation period 1997, the nearby Blazar Mkn 501 showed extremely strong emission and high variability. We examine multiwavelength aspects of this event using radio, optical, soft and hard X-ray and TeV data. We concentrate on the medium-timescale variability of the broadband spectra, averaged over weekly intervals. We confirm the previously found correlation between soft and hard X-ray emission and the emission at TeV energies, while the source shows only minor variability at radio and optical wavelengths. The non-linear correlation between hard X-ray and TeV fluxes is consistent with a simple analytic estimate based on an SSC model in which Klein-Nishina effects are important for the highest-energy electrons in the jet, and flux variations are caused by variations of the electron density and/or the spectral index of the electron injection spectrum. The time-averaged spectra are fitted with a Synchrotron Self-Compton (SSC) dominated leptonic jet model, using the full Klein-Nishina cross section and following the self-consistent evolution of relativistic particles along the jet, accounting for gamma-gamma absorption and pair production within the source as well as due to the intergalactic infrared background radiation. The contribution from external inverse-Compton scattering is tightly constrained by the low maximum EGRET flux and found to be negligible at TeV energies. We find that high levels of the X-ray and TeV fluxes can be explained by a hardening of the energy spectra of electrons injected at the base of the jet, in remarkable contrast to the trend found for gamma-ray flares of the flat-spectrum radio quasar PKS 0528+134.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ, 31 pages, 11 figure

Promoting bioengineered tooth innervation using nanostructured and hybrid scaffolds

The innervation of teeth mediated by axons originating from the trigeminal ganglia is essential for their function and protection. Immunosuppressive therapy using Cyclosporine A (CsA) was found to accelerate the innervation of transplanted tissues and particularly that of bioengineered teeth. To avoid the CsA side effects, we report in this study the preparation of CsA loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles, their embedding on polycaprolactone (PCL)-based scaffolds and their possible use as templates for the innervation of bioengineered teeth. This PCL scaffold, approved by the FDA and capable of mimicking the extracellular matrix, was obtained by electrospinning and decorated with CsA-loaded PLGA nanoparticles to allow a local sustained action of this immunosuppressive drug. Dental re-associations were co-implanted with a trigeminal ganglion on functionalized scaffolds containing PLGA and PLGA/cyclosporine in adult ICR mice during 2 weeks. Histological analyses showed that the designed scaffolds did not alter the teeth development after in vivo implantation. The study of the innervation of the dental re-associations by indirect immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), showed that 88.4% of the regenerated teeth were innervated when using the CsA-loaded PLGA scaffold. The development of active implants thus allows their potential use in the context of dental engineering. Statement of Significance Tooth innervation is essential for their function and protection and this can be promoted in vivo using polymeric scaffolds functionalized with immunosuppressive drug-loaded nanoparticles. Immunosuppressive therapy using biodegradable nanoparticles loaded with Cyclosporine A was found to accelerate the innervation of bioengineered teeth after two weeks of implantation