848 research outputs found
Liver copper concentrations in cull cattle in the UK: are cattle being copper loaded?
With the release of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs/Advisory Committee on Animal Feed Guidance Note for Supplementing Copper to Bovines it was noted that the current copper status of the national herd was not known. Liver samples were recovered from 510 cull cattle at a single abattoir across a period of three days. The samples were wet-ashed and liver copper concentrations determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis. Breed, age and previous location information were obtained from the British Cattle Movement Service. Dairy breeds had higher liver copper concentrations than beef breeds. Holstein-Friesian and ‘other’ dairy breeds had 38.3 per cent and 40 per cent of cattle above the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) reference range (8000 µmol/kg dry matter), respectively, whereas only 16.9 per cent of animals in the combined beef breeds exceeded this value. It was found that underlying topsoil copper concentration was not related to liver copper content and that age of the animal also had little effect on liver concentration. In conclusion, over 50 per cent of the liver samples tested had greater-than-normal concentrations of copper with almost 40 per cent of the female dairy cattle having liver copper concentrations above the AHVLA reference range, indicating that a significant proportion of the UK herd is at risk of chronic copper toxicity
Observation of Target Electron Momentum Effects in Single-Arm M\o ller Polarimetry
In 1992, L.G. Levchuk noted that the asymmetries measured in M\o ller
scattering polarimeters could be significantly affected by the intrinsic
momenta of the target electrons. This effect is largest in devices with very
small acceptance or very high resolution in laboratory scattering angle. We use
a high resolution polarimeter in the linac of the polarized SLAC Linear
Collider to study this effect. We observe that the inclusion of the effect
alters the measured beam polarization by -14% of itself and produces a result
that is consistent with measurements from a Compton polarimeter. Additionally,
the inclusion of the effect is necessary to correctly simulate the observed
shape of the two-body elastic scattering peak.Comment: 29 pages, uuencoded gzip-compressed postscript (351 kb). Uncompressed
postscript file (898 kb) available to DECNET users as
SLC::USER_DISK_SLC1:[MORRIS]levpre.p
Hawaiʻi Coral Disease database (HICORDIS):species-specific coral health data from across the Hawaiian archipelago
AbstractThe Hawaiʻi Coral Disease database (HICORDIS) houses data on colony-level coral health condition observed across the Hawaiian archipelago, providing information to conduct future analyses on coral reef health in an era of changing environmental conditions. Colonies were identified to the lowest taxonomic classification possible (species or genera), measured and assessed for visual signs of health condition. Data were recorded for 286,071 coral colonies surveyed on 1819 transects at 660 sites between 2005 and 2015. The database contains observations for 60 species from 22 genera with 21 different health conditions. The goals of the HICORDIS database are to: i) provide open access, quality controlled and validated coral health data assembled from disparate surveys conducted across Hawaiʻi; ii) facilitate appropriate crediting of data; and iii) encourage future analyses of coral reef health. In this article, we describe and provide data from the HICORDIS database. The data presented in this paper were used in the research article “Satellite SST-based Coral Disease Outbreak Predictions for the Hawaiian Archipelago” (Caldwell et al., 2016) [1]
Impact of pulmonary disease on the prognosis in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: the TOPCAT trial
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154618/1/ejhf1593_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154618/2/ejhf1593.pd
Emergence of Skyrme crystal in Gross-Neveu and 't Hooft models at finite density
We study two-dimensional, large field theoretic models (Gross-Neveu
model, 't Hooft model) at finite baryon density near the chiral limit. The same
mechanism which leads to massless baryons in these models induces a breakdown
of translational invariance at any finite density. In the chiral limit baryonic
matter is characterized by a spatially varying chiral angle with a wave number
depending only on the density. For small bare quark masses a sine-Gordon kink
chain is obtained which may be regarded as simplest realization of the Skyrme
crystal for nuclear matter. Characteristic differences between confining and
non-confining models are pointed out.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures, added reference, corrected sig
The Future of Our Seas: Marine scientists and creative professionals collaborate for science communication
To increase awareness of the current challenges facing the marine environment,
the Future of Our Seas (FOOS) project brought together the expertise of
scientists, public engagement experts and creatives to train and support a
group of marine scientists in effective science communication and innovative
public engagement. This case study aims to inspire scientists and artists to
use the FOOS approach in training, activity design and development support
(hereafter called the ‘FOOS programme’) to collaboratively deliver novel
and creative engagement activities. The authors reflect on the experiences
of the marine scientists: (1) attending the FOOS communication and
engagement training; (2) creating and delivering public engagement activities;
(3) understanding our audience; and (4) collaborating with artists. The authors
also share what the artists and audiences learned from participating in the
FOOS public engagement activities. These different perspectives provide new
insights for the field with respect to designing collaborative training which
maximizes the impact of the training on participants, creative collaborators and
the public. Long-term benefits of taking part in the FOOS programme, such as
initiating future collaborative engagement activities and positively impacting
the scientists’ research processes, are also highlighted
BOUT++: a framework for parallel plasma fluid simulations
A new modular code called BOUT++ is presented, which simulates 3D fluid
equations in curvilinear coordinates. Although aimed at simulating Edge
Localised Modes (ELMs) in tokamak X-point geometry, the code is able to
simulate a wide range of fluid models (magnetised and unmagnetised) involving
an arbitrary number of scalar and vector fields, in a wide range of geometries.
Time evolution is fully implicit, and 3rd-order WENO schemes are implemented.
Benchmarks are presented for linear and non-linear problems (the Orszag-Tang
vortex) showing good agreement. Performance of the code is tested by scaling
with problem size and processor number, showing efficient scaling to thousands
of processors.
Linear initial-value simulations of ELMs using reduced ideal MHD are
presented, and the results compared to the ELITE linear MHD eigenvalue code.
The resulting mode-structures and growth-rate are found to be in good agreement
(BOUT++ = 0.245, ELITE = 0.239). To our knowledge, this is the first time
dissipationless, initial-value simulations of ELMs have been successfully
demonstrated.Comment: Submitted to Computer Physics Communications. Revised to reduce page
count. 18 pages, 16 figure
Ulipristal acetate versus levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system for heavy menstrual bleeding (UCON) : a randomised controlled phase III trial
Acknowledgments This project was funded by the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation programme, a Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research partnership (grant 12/206/52). Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre grants to the Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH) (G1002033 and MR/N022556/1) are also gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, or Department of Health and Social Care. We thank our Collaborative Group (listed in the Supplementary Material) for their contribution to recruitment, randomisation and collection of data, and to our Trial Steering and Data Monitoring Committees (members listed in Supplementary Material).Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Guidelines for reporting on animal fecal transplantation (GRAFT) studies: recommendations from a systematic review of murine transplantation protocols
Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) is a powerful tool used to connect changes in gut microbial composition with a variety of disease states and pathologies. While FMT enables potential causal relationships to be identified, the experimental details reported in preclinical FMT protocols are highly inconsistent and/or incomplete. This limitation reflects a current lack of authoritative guidance on reporting standards that would facilitate replication efforts and ultimately reproducible science. We therefore systematically reviewed all FMT protocols used in mouse models with the goal of formulating recommendations on the reporting of preclinical FMT protocols. Search strategies were applied across three databases (PubMed, EMBASE, and Ovid Medline) until June 30, 2020. Data related to donor attributes, stool collection, processing/storage, recipient preparation, administration, and quality control were extracted. A total of 1753 papers were identified, with 241 identified for data extraction and analysis. Of the papers included, 92.5% reported a positive outcome with FMT intervention. However, the vast majority of studies failed to address core methodological aspects including the use of anaerobic conditions (91.7% of papers lacked information), storage (49.4%), homogenization (33.6%), concentration (31.5%), volume (19.9%) and administration route (5.3%). To address these reporting limitations, we developed theGuidelines for Reporting Animal Fecal Transplant (GRAFT) that guide reporting standards for preclinical FMT. The GRAFT recommendations will enable robust reporting of preclinical FMT design, and facilitate high-quality peer review, improving the rigor and translation of knowledge gained through preclinical FMT studies.Kate R. Secombe, Ghanyah H. Al-Qadami, Courtney B. Subramaniam, Joanne M. Bowen, Jacqui Scott, Ysabella Z.A. Van Sebille ... et a
Avaliação da corrosão sob tensão em aço inoxidável AISI 321 em ambiente de reator nuclear
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