8,294 research outputs found
Genetic parameters for animal mortality in pasture-based, seasonal-calving dairy and beef herds
peer-reviewedIn the absence of informative health and welfare phenotypes, breeding for reduced animal mortality could improve overall health and welfare, provided genetic variability in animal mortality exists. The objective of the present study was to estimate genetic (and other) variance components for animal mortality in pasture-based, seasonal-calving dairy and beef herds across multiple life stages as well as to quantify the genetic relationship in mortality among life stages. National mortality records were available for all cattle born in the Republic of Ireland. Cattle were grouped into three life stages based on age (0 to 30 days, 31 to 365 days, 366 to 1095 days) whereas females with ≥1 calving event were also grouped into five life stages, based on parity number (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), considering both the initial 60 days of lactation and a cow's entire lactation period, separately. The mean mortality prevalence ranged from 0.70 to 5.79% in young animals and from 0.53 to 3.86% in cows. Variance components and genetic correlations were estimated using linear mixed models using 21,637 to 100,993 records. Where heritability estimates were different from zero, direct heritability estimates for mortality in young animals (≤1095 days) ranged from 0.006 to 0.040, whereas the genetic standard deviation ranged from 0.015 to 0.034. The contribution of a maternal genetic effect to mortality in young animals was evident up to 30 days of age in dairy herds, but this was only the case in preliminary analysis of stillbirths in beef herds. Based on the estimated genetic standard deviation in the present study, the incidence of mortality in young animals could be reduced through breeding by up to 3.4 percentage units per generation. For cows, direct heritability estimates for mortality, where different from zero, ranged from 0.003 to 0.049. The genetic standard deviation for mortality in cows ranged from 0.005 to 0.016 during the initial 60 days of lactation and ranged from 0.011 to 0.032 during the cow's entire lactation. Genetic correlations among the age groups as well as between the age groups and cow parities had high standard errors. Genetic correlations among the cow parities were moderate to strongly positive (ranging from 0.66 to 0.99) and mostly different from zero. Results from the present study can be used to inform genetic evaluations for mortality in young animals and in cows as well as the potential genetic gain achievable
Influence of convective transport on tropospheric ozone and its precursors in a chemistry-climate model
The impact of convection on tropospheric O<sub>3</sub> and its precursors has been examined in a coupled chemistry-climate model. There are two ways that convection affects O<sub>3</sub>. First, convection affects O<sub>3</sub> by vertical mixing of O<sub>3</sub> itself. Convection lifts lower tropospheric air to regions where the O<sub>3</sub> lifetime is longer, whilst mass-balance subsidence mixes O<sub>3</sub>-rich upper tropospheric (UT) air downwards to regions where the O<sub>3</sub> lifetime is shorter. This tends to decrease UT O<sub>3</sub> and the overall tropospheric column of O<sub>3</sub>. Secondly, convection affects O<sub>3</sub> by vertical mixing of O<sub>3</sub> precursors. This affects O<sub>3</sub> chemical production and destruction. Convection transports isoprene and its degradation products to the UT where they interact with lightning NO<sub>x</sub> to produce PAN, at the expense of NO<sub>x</sub>. In our model, we find that convection reduces UT NO<sub>x</sub> through this mechanism; convective down-mixing also flattens our imposed profile of lightning emissions, further reducing UT NO<sub>x</sub>. Over tropical land, which has large lightning NO<sub>x</sub> emissions in the UT, we find convective lofting of NO<sub>x</sub> from surface sources appears relatively unimportant. Despite UT NO<sub>x</sub> decreases, UT O<sub>3</sub> production increases as a result of UT HO<sub>x</sub> increases driven by isoprene oxidation chemistry. However, UT O<sub>3</sub> tends to decrease, as the effect of convective overturning of O<sub>3</sub> itself dominates over changes in O<sub>3</sub> chemistry. Convective transport also reduces UT O<sub>3</sub> in the mid-latitudes resulting in a 13% decrease in the global tropospheric O<sub>3</sub> burden. These results contrast with an earlier study that uses a model of similar chemical complexity. Differences in convection schemes as well as chemistry schemes – in particular isoprene-driven changes are the most likely causes of such discrepancies. Further modelling studies are needed to constrain this uncertainty range
Quantum Heating of a nonlinear resonator probed by a superconducting qubit
We measure the quantum fluctuations of a pumped nonlinear resonator, using a
superconducting artificial atom as an in-situ probe. The qubit excitation
spectrum gives access to the frequency and temperature of the intracavity field
fluctuations. These are found to be in agreement with theoretical predictions;
in particular we experimentally observe the phenomenon of quantum heating
Cognitive demands of face monitoring: Evidence for visuospatial overload
Young children perform difficult communication tasks better face to face than when they cannot see one another (e.g., Doherty-Sneddon & Kent, 1996). However, in recent studies, it was found that children aged 6 and 10 years, describing abstract shapes, showed evidence of face-to-face interference rather than facilitation. For some communication tasks, access to visual signals (such as facial expression and eye gaze) may hinder rather than help children’s communication. In new research we have pursued this interference effect. Five studies are described with adults and 10- and 6-year-old participants. It was found that looking at a face interfered with children’s abilities to listen to descriptions of abstract shapes. Children also performed visuospatial memory tasks worse when they looked at someone’s face prior to responding than when they looked at a visuospatial pattern or at the floor. It was concluded that performance on certain tasks was hindered by monitoring another person’s face. It is suggested that processing of visual communication signals shares certain processing resources with the processing of other visuospatial information
Low Gain Avalanche Detectors (LGAD) for particle physics and synchrotron applications
A new avalanche silicon detector concept is introduced with a low gain in the region of ten, known as a Low Gain Avalanche Detector, LGAD. The detector's characteristics are simulated via a full process simulation to obtain the required doping profiles which demonstrate the desired operational characteristics of high breakdown voltage (500 V) and a gain of 10 at 200 V reverse bias for X-ray detection. The first low gain avalanche detectors fabricated by Micron Semiconductor Ltd are presented. The doping profiles of the multiplication junctions were measured with SIMS and reproduced by simulating the full fabrication process which enabled further development of the manufacturing process. The detectors are 300 μm thick p-type silicon with a resistivity of 8.5 kΩcm, which fully depletes at 116 V. The current characteristics are presented and demonstrate breakdown voltages in excess of 500 V and a current density of 40 to 100 nAcm−2 before breakdown measured at 20oC. The gain of the LGAD has been measured with a red laser (660 nm) and shown to be between 9 and 12 for an external bias voltage range from 150 V to 300 V
Constraints on Stirring and Dissipation of MHD Turbulence in Molecular Clouds
We discuss constraints on the rates of stirring and dissipation of MHD
turbulence in molecular clouds. Recent MHD simulations suggest that turbulence
in clouds decays rapidly, thus providing a significant source of energy input,
particularly if driven at small scales by, for example, bipolar outflows. We
quantify the heating rates by combining the linewidth-size relations, which
describe global cloud properties, with numerically determined dissipation
rates. We argue that, if cloud turbulence is driven on small internal scales,
the CO flux (enhanced by emission from weakly supersonic shocks) will be
much larger than observed; this, in turn, would imply excitation temperatures
significantly above observed values. We reach two conclusions: (1) small-scale
driving by bipolar outflows cannot possibly account for cloud support and yield
long-lived clouds, unless the published MHD dissipation rates are seriously
overestimated; (2) driving on large scales (comparable to the cloud size) is
much more viable from an energetic standpoint, and if the actual net
dissipation rate is only slightly lower than what current MHD simulations
estimate, then the observationally inferred lifetimes and apparent virial
equilibrium of molecular clouds can be explained.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. To appear in ApJ (2001 April 10
Circuit QED with a Nonlinear Resonator : ac-Stark Shift and Dephasing
We have performed spectroscopic measurements of a superconducting qubit
dispersively coupled to a nonlinear resonator driven by a pump microwave field.
Measurements of the qubit frequency shift provide a sensitive probe of the
intracavity field, yielding a precise characterization of the resonator
nonlinearity. The qubit linewidth has a complex dependence on the pump
frequency and amplitude, which is correlated with the gain of the nonlinear
resonator operated as a small-signal amplifier. The corresponding dephasing
rate is found to be close to the quantum limit in the low-gain limit of the
amplifier.Comment: Paper : 4 pages, 3 figures; Supplementary material : 1 page, 1 figur
Semi-device-independent bounds on entanglement
Detection and quantification of entanglement in quantum resources are two key
steps in the implementation of various quantum-information processing tasks.
Here, we show that Bell-type inequalities are not only useful in verifying the
presence of entanglement but can also be used to bound the entanglement of the
underlying physical system. Our main tool consists of a family of
Clauser-Horne-like Bell inequalities that cannot be violated maximally by any
finite-dimensional maximally entangled state. Using these inequalities, we
demonstrate the explicit construction of both lower and upper bounds on the
concurrence for two-qubit states. The fact that these bounds arise from
Bell-type inequalities also allows them to be obtained in a
semi-device-independent manner, that is, with assumption of the dimension of
the Hilbert space but without resorting to any knowledge of the actual
measurements being performed on the individual subsystems.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures (published version). Note 1: Title changed to
distinguish our approach from the standard device-independent scenario where
no assumption on the Hilbert space dimension is made. Note 2: This paper
contains explicit examples of more nonlocality with less entanglement in the
simplest CH-like scenario (see also arXiv:1011.5206 by Vidick and Wehner for
related results
C2 and CN Emission in the Shock Tube
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70038/2/JCPSA6-27-6-1415-1.pd
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