Reproductive Management of the Dairy Goat Doe

With the slow but steady increase in interest in dairy goats, our profession finds itself facing the problems of this unique species with increasing frequency. This creates a special challenge for us in two respects. First, our medical knowledge about the goat is still sparse and is just now beginning to expand due to an increased interest within the veterinary profession

DIRE: A Digital Reactor Model for Excursion Studies

The code described in this report was written about a month prior to the September NRX-A2 cold flow tests. These tests were scheduled to be run at a fixed low reactor power level of about 1 kilowatt or 1 millionth of full power

Cosmological Acceleration from Virtual Gravitons

Intrinsic properties of the space itself and quantum fluctuations of its geometry are sufficient to provide a mechanism for the acceleration of cosmological expansion (dark energy effect). Applying Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon hierarchy approach to self-consistent equations of one-loop quantum gravity, we found exact solutions that yield acceleration. The permanent creation and annihilation of virtual gravitons is not in exact balance because of the expansion of the Universe. The excess energy comes from the spontaneous process of graviton creation and is trapped by the background. It provides the macroscopic quantum effect of cosmic acceleration.Comment: 6 pages, REVTeX

Simple Space-Time Symmetries: Generalizing Conformal Field Theory

We study simple space-time symmetry groups G which act on a space-time manifold M=G/H which admits a G-invariant global causal structure. We classify pairs (G,M) which share the following additional properties of conformal field theory: 1) The stability subgroup H of a point in M is the identity component of a parabolic subgroup of G, implying factorization H=MAN, where M generalizes Lorentz transformations, A dilatations, and N special conformal transformations. 2) special conformal transformations in N act trivially on tangent vectors to the space-time manifold M. The allowed simple Lie groups G are the universal coverings of SU(m,m), SO(2,D), Sp(l,R), SO*(4n) and E_7(-25) and H are particular maximal parabolic subgroups. They coincide with the groups of fractional linear transformations of Euklidean Jordan algebras whose use as generalizations of Minkowski space time was advocated by Gunaydin. All these groups G admit positive energy representations. It will also be shown that the classical conformal groups SO(2,D) are the only allowed groups which possess a time reflection automorphism; in all other cases space-time has an intrinsic chiral structure.Comment: 37 pages, 4 Table

A qualitative approach to guide choices for designing a diary study

Background: Electronic diaries are increasingly used in diverse disciplines to collect momentary data on experienced feelings, cognitions, behavior and social context in real life situations. Choices to be made for an effective and feasible design are however a challenge. Careful and detailed documentation of argumentation of choosing a particular design, as well as general guidelines on how to design such studies are largely lacking in scientific papers. This qualitative study provides a systematic overview of arguments for choosing a specific diary study design (e.g. time frame) in order to optimize future design decisions. Methods: During the first data assessment round, 47 researchers experienced in diary research from twelve different countries participated. They gave a description of and arguments for choosing their diary design (i.e., study duration, measurement frequency, random or fixed assessment, momentary or retrospective assessment, allowed delay to respond to the beep). During the second round, 38 participants (81%) rated the importance of the different themes identified during the first assessment round for the different diary design topics. Results: The rationales for diary design choices reported during the first round were mostly strongly related to the research question. The rationales were categorized into four overarching themes: nature of the variables, reliability, feasibility, and statistics. During the second round, all overarching themes were considered important for all diary design topics. Conclusions: We conclude that no golden standard for the optimal design of a diary study exists since the design depends heavily upon the research question of the study. The findings of the current study are helpful to explicate and guide the specific choices that have to be made when designing a diary study

The genetic relationship between neuroticism and autonomic function in female twins

Background. Neuroticism is widely used as an explanatory concept in etiological research of psychopathology. In order to clarify what neuroticism actually represents, we investigated the genetic association between neuroticism and cardiovascular measures. Method. In 125 female twin pairs (18-30 years), electrocardiogram and continuous finger blood pressure were assessed during two rest and two mental stress conditions. Mean values for baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), heart rate variability (HRV) and inter-beat interval (IBI) were calculated for each condition. Neuroticism was assessed by multiple questionnaires. Multivariate genetic model-fitting analyses were used to investigate the genetic correlation between latent neuroticism and the cardiovascular autonomic nervous system (ANS) measures. Results. Neuroticism was negatively correlated to BRS and HRV. Neuroticism was not correlated to IBI. For BRS, this phenotypical relation was entirely determined by shared genetic influences. For HRV, the genetic contribution to the phenotypical correlation was not significant, but the proportions of explained covariance showed a trend of more genetic than environmental influences on the phenotypical relationship. Conclusions. High neuroticism is associated with a deregulated ANS. Pleiotropic genetic effects may be partly responsible for this effect