Intensive Rotational Grazing Systems for Dairying in a Subtropical Environment: Animal, Plant, and Soil Responses

Forage species, stocking rate, and supplementation rate effects upon performance of lactating dairy cows were studied. Forage mass and nutritive value and nutrient concentration in shallow groundwater also were measured. Cows (n = 44) grazed bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) or rhizoma peanut (Arachis glabrata), stocked at 4.9 or 7.4 cows ha-1, and 2.5 or 4.9 cows ha-1, respectively. Pelleted concentrate:whole cottonseed (80:20) was offered twice daily post milking at 1 kg per 2 or 3 kg of daily milk production. Cows grazing rhizoma peanut produced more (P = .076) milk per day but had greater (P = .028) loss of body condition. Higher stocking rates caused greater (P \u3e .070) weight loss. Greater supplementation increased (P \u3c .05) production of milk, fat and protein, but also increased (P \u3c .044) weight and body condition losses. Higher stocking rates and lower supplementation reduced pasture (P \u3c .001) herbage mass. Rhizoma peanut herbage was higher in nutritive value than bermudagrass. Nutrient concentrations in shallow groundwater were not affected by treatments. Use of pasture for lactating cows has potential in Florida, but low milk production and loss of body condition during summer pose management challenges

Phase Stable RF-over-fiber Transmission using Heterodyne Interferometry

New scientific applications require phase-stabilized RF distribution to multiple remote locations. These include phased-array radio telescopes and short pulse free electron lasers. RF modulated onto a CW optical carrier and transmitted via fiber is capable of low noise, but commercially available systems aren't long term stable enough for these applications. Typical requirements are for less than 50fs long term temporal stability between receivers, which is 0.05 degrees at 3GHz. Good results have been demonstrated for RF distribution schemes based on transmission of short pulses, but these require specialized free-space optics and high stability mechanical infrastructure. We report a method which uses only standard telecom optical and RF components, and achieves less than 20fs RMS error over 300m of standard single-mode fiber. We demonstrate stable transmission of 3GHz over 300m of fiber with less than 0.017 degree (17fs) RMS phase error. An interferometer measures optical phase delay, providing information to a feed-forward correction of RF phase

Internet-delivered cognitive-behaviour therapy (ICBT) for obsessive-compulsive disorder when delivered as routine clinical care: A phase IV clinical trial

Cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but many patients experience difficulty accessing this treatment. Internet-delivered CBT (ICBT) enhances access to CBT for individuals with OCD and has been shown to be efficacious in Phase I, II, and III clinical trials. However, there are fewer studies investigating ICBT for OCD in Phase IV clinical trials, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention when provided as part of routine care. The aim of the present study was to report on the effectiveness of ICBT for OCD, using data from Australia’s MindSpot Clinic, a federally funded treatment service that provides free ICBT to Australian adults with anxiety, depression, and pain conditions. A total of 225 MindSpot users (68 % female; Mage = 34.82; SD = 11.02) were included in the study. Within-group effect sizes at post-treatment on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, indicated medium effect sizes (g = 0.6; 95 % CI: 0.5−0.7), increasing to large effects at three-month follow up (g = 0.9; 95 % CI: 0.8–1.0). Effects on secondary outcome measures including measures of depression, generalized anxiety, and psychological distress ranged from (g = 0.5–0.6) at post-treatment and (g = 0.5–0.7) at three-month follow up. Results from benchmarking analyses indicated that the results from routine care were significantly smaller than those found in a recent clinical trial using the same treatment protocol. The results indicate that ICBT delivered in real world settings is associated with meaningful improvements in OCD symptoms, however future research may wish to examine which patients respond best to this treatment approach and how to enhance outcomes

(±)-9-exo-Amino-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-5,8-methano-9H-benzocyclohepten-8-ol Hydrochloride

This is the published version, also available here: http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1107/S0567740878004458

Techniques for synchronization of X-Ray pulses to the pump laser in an ultrafast X-Ray facility

Accurate timing of ultrafast x-ray probe pulses emitted from a synchrotron radiation source with respect to the signal initiating a process in the sample under study is critical for the investigation of structural dynamics in the femtosecond regime. We describe schemes for achieving accurate timing of femtosecond x-ray synchrotron radiation pulses relative to a pump laser, where x-rays pulses of <100 fs duration are generated from the proposed LUX source based on a recirculating superconducting linac. We present a description of the timing signal generation and distribution systems to minimize timing jitter of the x-rays relative to the experimental lasers

A Femtosecond-Level Fiber-Optics Timing Distribution System Using Frequency-Offset Interferometry

An optical fiber-based frequency and timing distribution system based on the principle of heterodyne interferometry has been in development at LBNL for several years. The fiber drift corrector has evolved from an RF-based to an optical-based system, from mechanical correctors (piezo and optical trombone) to fully electronic, and the electronics from analog to fully digital, all using inexpensive off-the-shelf commodity fiber components. Short-term optical phase jitter and long-term phase drift are both in the femtosecond range over distribution paths of 2 km or more