Kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) intake determined by alkanes administered in a xantham gum suspension

The alkane method of measuring herbage intake in ruminants was compared with actual intake determined by transponder-controlled feed gates (Calan gates). Kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) intakes of yearling bulls (Holstein-Friesland and Hereford) were measured for a period of seven days. No significant effect of breed on intake was found. Herbage intake calculated from the alkane technique (mean of morning and afternoon faecal sampling times) compared favourably with actual intake with an average intake of 6.25 kg DM/day (93 g DM/kg W0.75/day) (CV 22%). However, a significant effect in the faecal sampling times on intake was observed. Herbage intake determined from alkane concentrations in the faecal samples that were collected in the morning underestimated actual intake by 11%, while intake calculated from faecal alkane concentrations of samples that were collected in the afternoon overestimated actual intake by 8%. It is hypothesised from this study that the dosing of the alkane (dotriacontane) should be every 12 hours when administered in a xantham gum suspensio

Les conséquences du sida dans la vie des hémophiles et de leurs soignants familiaux au Québec : stress, réponse au stress et soutien social

Le présent article présente les résultats de l'échantillon québécois d'une enquête nationale sur les besoins de soutien des hémophiles atteints du sida ou du VIH. Portant aussi sur les besoins des soignants et des proches (endeuillés ou non) de ces personnes, cette enquête se fondait sur une problématique qui considère le soutien social comme un moyen de faire face au stress. Les participants ont signalé avoir éprouvé plus de stress à cause de l'absence de soutien ou d'un soutien négatif que par suite de la détérioration physique due à la maladie. La question de la confidentialité a été fréquemment soulevée. En général, les participants se sont déclarés satisfaits du soutien reçu, surtout de la part des membres de leurs familles.The following article focuses on the Québec portion of a national survey on the care needed by hemophiliacs with AIDS or having contracted the HIV virus. The survey was based on an approach that considers social support as a means to face stress. It also examined the needs of dispensers of care and relatives (whether mourning or not) of these persons. Participants revealed having experienced more stress because of an absence of support or simply negative support, than because of the physical deterioration caused by the disease. In addition, the question of confidentiality was often raised. In general, participants said they were satisfied with the support they had received, especially on the part of members of their family

A controlled migration genetic algorithm operator for hardware-in-the-loop experimentation

In this paper, we describe the development of an extended migration operator, which combats the negative effects of noise on the effective search capabilities of genetic algorithms. The research is motivated by the need to minimize the num- ber of evaluations during hardware-in-the-loop experimentation, which can carry a significant cost penalty in terms of time or financial expense. The authors build on previous research, where convergence for search methods such as Simulated Annealing and Variable Neighbourhood search was accelerated by the implementation of an adaptive decision support operator. This methodology was found to be effective in searching noisy data surfaces. Providing that noise is not too significant, Genetic Al- gorithms can prove even more effective guiding experimentation. It will be shown that with the introduction of a Controlled Migration operator into the GA heuristic, data, which repre- sents a significant signal-to-noise ratio, can be searched with significant beneficial effects on the efficiency of hardware-in-the- loop experimentation, without a priori parameter tuning. The method is tested on an engine-in-the-loop experimental example, and shown to bring significant performance benefits

A Note on the Instability of Lorentzian Taub-NUT-Space

I show that there are no SU(2)-invariant (time-dependent) tensorial perturbations of Lorentzian Taub-NUT space. It follows that the spacetime is unstable at the linear level against generic perturbations. I speculate that this fact is responsible for so far unsuccessful attempts to define a sensible thermodynamics for NUT-charged spacetimes.Comment: 13 pages, no figure

Control of doublegee in sub. clover and medic pastures.

Trial 87ME61, 87ME68, 87WH49, 87ES39, 87NO80(B), 87NO80, 87WH67. Doublegees in pasture are a major concern of many farmers in most of the agricultural areas in Western Australia. In pasture, doublegees tend to compete strongly the first year after crop and then decline in subsequent years. When cropped, doublegees again appear in large numbers. Unfortunately, the WADA recommendation for doublegee control in pasture of Tribunil at 850 g/ha is now very expensive at $17/ha. A possible alternative is 2,4-D amine, but medics are very sensitive to this. 2,4-DB is another recommendation, but this tends to have low efficacy against doublegees and can reduce medic seed set by up to 50%. The following series of experiments were designed to investigate: 1. The effect a range of different herbicides sprayed at different rates and times have on doublegee.2. The effects the herbicides have on sub.clover and medic growth.3. Ways of reducing the large inherent variation which is associated with pasture trials

The tolerance of legumes to broadleaf herbicides.

Trial 87KA52 The control of broadleaf weeds in leguminous pasture is of major concern because of the ability of these weeds to compete strongly with the leguminous plants. The presence of broadleaf weeds in pasture reduces the pastures nutritional value as well as total nitrogen fixation. There are many herbicides which are available to control broadleaf weeds, but most of these are registered for use in cereals. The amount of tolerance that leguminous pasture plants show to many of these herbicides and herbicide mixes is not known. The experiments were designed to screen a large number of herbicides for legume tolerance, as assessed by legume growth and seed production

Pasture manipulation and spraytopping for barley grass in a medic pasture.

Trial 87KA53 The experiment was designed to determine: 1.The relative effectiveness of three herbicides with differing modes of action for barley grass control.2. The phenological development stage at which barley grass is most susceptible to the common spraytopping herbicides. 3. The effects of early (pasture manipulation) and late (spraytopping) herbicide application on pasture production, pasture quality, barley grass control, medic growth and medic seed set. 4. The effects the herbicides have on the grain yield of a following cereal crop

Phenological and reproductive development of the four major grass species

Trial 87KA51 The decision of when to spray is one of the major difficulties encountered when spraytopping grassy pasture for seed set control. Previous work has shown the general herbicide application timing window for the major grasses, but within this window, the amount of seed set control achieved can still be poor. Obviously timing within this window needs to be more rigorously defined. The fundamental question we need to answer is; when do the target grasses begin to produce viable seed in relation to their phenological development and in relation to other grass species? If we know this, then herbicide application before this time should greatly reduce seed set. A series of three experiments was designed to answer this question in 198

Gauss-Bonnet Black Holes and Heavy Fermion Metals

We consider charged black holes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity with Lifshitz boundary conditions. We find that this class of models can reproduce the anomalous specific heat of condensed matter systems exhibiting non-Fermi-liquid behaviour at low temperatures. We find that the temperature dependence of the Sommerfeld ratio is sensitive to the choice of Gauss-Bonnet coupling parameter for a given value of the Lifshitz scaling parameter. We propose that this class of models is dual to a class of models of non-Fermi-liquid systems proposed by Castro-Neto et.al.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, pdfLatex; small corrections to figure 10 in this versio