Weaning and supplementation increase liveweight gain of Bali (Bos javanicus) cattle of small-holder farmers in Central Lombok, Indonesia

One of the constraints for improving productivity of Bali cattle in west Nusa Tenggara Province is the low growth rate of weaned calves. Results of on-station experiments showed that Sesbania grandiflora (sesbania) supplementation can significantly increase live weight gain of weaned calves. The objective of this experiment was to investigate whether sesbania supplementation can increase live weight gain of weaned calves and improve farmer income. This experiment was carried out in Tandek, Labulia Village (treatment village) and in Kelebuh and Sukaraja villages (control villages) central Lombok District from April to October 2008. A total of 21 calves (9 males and 12 females) aged 237±7 days with initial live weight of 122.3±4.5 kg were monitored in Kelebuh and Sukaraja villages (control villages). During the same period, 25 calves (13 males and 12 females) aged 237±6 days with initial weight of 108.8±4.1 kg were monitored in Tandek Village (treatment village) and fed fresh sesbania at 1% dry matter of live weight. To ensure that sesbania was fed at the recommended level, regular weighing of sesbania offered by each farmer was conducted 2-3 times per week. All calves were weighed every month to determine live weight gain. Farmers from the control villages and other villages were invited to a field day conducted in the treatment village at the end of the experiment. The results showed that sesbania supplementation significantly increased live weight gain (0.36±0.01 kg/day for calves in the treatment village compared to 0.22±0.01 kg/day for those in the control villages), increased body condition and health of the calves and improved farmer income. Weaning management and supplementation with sesbania was very easy to implement so most of the farmers participated in this study stated that they were willing to continue this feeding management

One-Loop NMHV Amplitudes involving Gluinos and Scalars in N=4 Gauge Theory

We use Supersymmetric Ward Identities and quadruple cuts to generate n-pt NMHV amplitudes involving gluinos and adjoint scalars from purely gluonic amplitudes. We present a set of factors that can be used to generate one-loop NMHV amplitudes involving gluinos or adjoint scalars in N=4 Super Yang-Mills from the corresponding purely gluonic amplitude.Comment: 16 pages, JHEP versio

Honeybee linguistics—a comparative analysis of the waggle dance among species of Apis

All honeybees use the waggle dance to recruit nestmates. Studies on the dance precision of Apis mellifera have shown that the dance is often imprecise. Two hypotheses have been put forward aimed at explaining this imprecision. The first argues that imprecision in the context of foraging is adaptive as it ensures that the dance advertises the same patch size irrespective of distance. The second argues that the bees are constrained in their ability to be more precise, especially when the source is nearby. Recent studies have found support for the latter hypothesis but not for the “tuned-error” hypothesis, as the adaptive hypothesis became known. Here we investigate intra-dance variation among Apis species. We analyse the dance precision of A. florea, A. dorsata, and A. mellifera in the context of foraging and swarming. A. mellifera performs forage dances in the dark, using gravity as point of reference, and in the light when dancing for nest sites, using the sun as point of reference. Both A. dorsata and A. florea are open-nesting species; they do not use a different point of reference depending on context. A. florea differs from both A. mellifera and A. dorsata in that it dances on a horizontal surface and does not use gravity but instead “points” directly toward the goal when indicating direction. Previous work on A. mellifera has suggested that differences in dance orientation and point of reference can affect dance precision. We find that all three species improve dance precision with increasing waggle phase duration, irrespective of differences in dance orientation, and point of reference. When dancing for sources nearby, dances are highly variable. When the distance increases, dance precision converges. The exception is dances performed by A. mellifera on swarms. Here, dance precision decreases as the distance increases. We also show that the size of the patch advertised increases with increasing distance, contrary to what is predicted under the tuned-error hypothesis

Effect of rejection on electrophysiologic function of canine intestinal grafts: Correlation with histopathology and na-k-ATPase activity

To investigate whether electrophysiologic changes can detect the early onset and progress of intestinal rejection, changes in in vitro electrophysiologic function, intestinal histopathology, and Na-K-ATPase activity were studied in dogs. Adult mongrel dogs of both sexes, weighing 18-24 kg, were used for auto and allo small bowel transplantation. The entire small bowels, except for short segments at the proximal and distal ends, were snitched between a pair of dogs (allograft). Animals receiving intestinal autotransplantation were used as controls. AIIograji recipients were sacrificed 3, 4, 5, 7, or 9 days after transplantation, and autograft recipients were sacrificed 3, 7, or 14 days afier transplantation. Immunosuppression was not used. Electrophysiologic measurements were done with an Ussing chamber. Histological analysis was performed blindly using whole thickness sections. Na-K-ATPase activity in the mucosal tissue, which is said to regulate the potential difference, was also measured. Potential difference, resistance, and Na-K-ATPase activity of the allografi intestine decreased with time and were significantly lower 7 and 9 days after transplantation compared to host intestine, normul intestine, and graft intestine of controls (autograft). Potential difference, resistance, and Na-K-ATPase activity of the native intestinal tissue and the autografts did not decrease with time. Detection of histologically mild rejection of the intestine, which is important for appropriate immunosup-pressive treatment in clinical cases, could not be achieved based on electrophysiology or Na-K-ATPase activity. Deterioration of electrophysiologic function during rejection correlated with the histological rejection process and Na-K-ATPase activity; however, electrophysiology my not be a reliable tool for monitoring grafrs, since it cannot detect early intestinal rejection. © 1995 Informa UK Ltd All rights reserved: reproduction in whole or part not permitted

Noncovalent Interactions by QMC: Speedup by One-Particle Basis-Set Size Reduction

While it is empirically accepted that the fixed-node diffusion Monte-Carlo (FN-DMC) depends only weakly on the size of the one-particle basis sets used to expand its guiding functions, limits of this observation are not settled yet. Our recent work indicates that under the FN error cancellation conditions, augmented triple zeta basis sets are sufficient to achieve a benchmark level of 0.1 kcal/mol in a number of small noncovalent complexes. Here we report on a possibility of truncation of the one-particle basis sets used in FN-DMC guiding functions that has no visible effect on the accuracy of the production FN-DMC energy differences. The proposed scheme leads to no significant increase in the local energy variance, indicating that the total CPU cost of large-scale benchmark noncovalent interaction energy FN-DMC calculations may be reduced.Comment: ACS book chapter, accepte

The No-Triangle Hypothesis for N=8 Supergravity

We study the perturbative expansion of N=8 supergravity in four dimensions from the viewpoint of the ``no-triangle'' hypothesis, which states that one-loop graviton amplitudes in N=8 supergravity only contain scalar box integral functions. Our computations constitute a direct proof at six-points and support the no-triangle conjecture for seven-point amplitudes and beyond.Comment: 43page

Adapted motivational interviewing to improve the uptake of treatment for glaucoma in Nigeria: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Glaucoma is a chronic eye disease associated with irreversible visual loss. In Africa, glaucoma patients often present late, with very advanced disease. One-off procedures, such as laser or surgery, are recommended in Africa because of lack of or poor adherence to medical treatment. However, acceptance of surgery is usually extremely low. To prevent blindness, adherence to treatment needs to improve, using acceptable, replicable and cost-effective interventions. After reviewing the literature and interviewing patients in Bauchi (Nigeria) motivational interviewing (MI) was selected as the intervention for this trial, with adaptation for glaucoma (MIG). MI is designed to strengthen personal motivation for, and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring a person's reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion. The aim of this study is to assess whether MIG increases the uptake of laser or surgery amongst glaucoma patients where this is the recommended treatment. The hypothesis is that MIG increases the uptake of treatment. This will be the first trial of MI in Africa. METHODS: This is a hospital based, single centre, randomized controlled trial of MIG plus an information sheet on glaucoma and its treatment (the latter being "standard care") compared with standard care alone for glaucoma patients where the treatment recommended is surgery or laser.Those eligible for the trial are adults aged 17 years and above who live within 200 km of Bauchi with advanced glaucoma where the examining ophthalmologist recommends surgery or laser. After obtaining written informed consent, participants will be randomly allocated to MIG plus standard care, or standard care alone. Motivational interviewing will be delivered in Hausa or English by one of two MIG trained personnel. One hundred and fifty participants will be recruited to each arm. The primary outcome is the proportion of participants undergoing laser or surgery within two months of the date given to re attend for the procedure. MIG quality will be assessed using the validated MI treatment integrity scale. DISCUSSION: Motivational interviewing may be an important tool to increase the acceptance of treatment for glaucoma. The approach is potentially scalable and may be useful for other chronic conditions in Africa. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN79330571 (Controlled-Trials.com)

From Trees to Loops and Back

We argue that generic one-loop scattering amplitudes in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories can be computed equivalently with MHV diagrams or with Feynman diagrams. We first present a general proof of the covariance of one-loop non-MHV amplitudes obtained from MHV diagrams. This proof relies only on the local character in Minkowski space of MHV vertices and on an application of the Feynman Tree Theorem. We then show that the discontinuities of one-loop scattering amplitudes computed with MHV diagrams are precisely the same as those computed with standard methods. Furthermore, we analyse collinear limits and soft limits of generic non-MHV amplitudes in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with one-loop MHV diagrams. In particular, we find a simple explicit derivation of the universal one-loop splitting functions in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories to all orders in the dimensional regularisation parameter, which is in complete agreement with known results. Finally, we present concrete and illustrative applications of Feynman's Tree Theorem to one-loop MHV diagrams as well as to one-loop Feynman diagrams.Comment: 52 pages, 17 figures. Some typos in Appendix A correcte

K-shell photoionization of ground-state Li-like boron ions [B2+^{2+}]: Experiment and Theory

Absolute cross sections for the K-shell photoionization of ground-state Li-like boron [B$^{2+}$(1s$^2$2s $^2$S)] ions were measured by employing the ion-photon merged-beams technique at the Advanced Light Source synchrotron radiation facility. The energy ranges 197.5--200.5 eV, 201.9--202.1 eV of the [1s(2s\,2p)$^3$P]$^2$P${\rm ^o}$ and [1s(2s\,2p)$^1$P] $^2$P${\rm ^o}$ resonances, respectively, were investigated using resolving powers of up to 17\,600. The energy range of the experiments was extended to about 238.2 eV yielding energies of the most prominent [1s(2$\ell$\,n$\ell^{\prime}$)]$^2$P$^o$ resonances with an absolute accuracy of the order of 130 ppm. The natural linewidths of the [1s(2s\,2p)$^3$P] $^2$P${\rm ^o}$ and [1s(2s\,2p)$^1$P] $^2$P${\rm ^o}$ resonances were measured to be $4.8 \pm 0.6$ meV and $29.7 \pm 2.5$ meV, respectively, which compare favourably with theoretical results of 4.40 meV and 30.53 meV determined using an intermediate coupling R-matrix method.Comment: 6 figures and 2 table