Kalte Schulter für die Tessiner

Warum haben es die italienischsprachigen Bundesratskandidaten seit dem Rücktritt von Flavio Cotti (1999) so schwer, auf das offizielle Ticket der eigenen Partei zu kommen, von einer Wahl in den Bundesrat schon gar nicht zu sprechen? Ohne Zweifel hängt vieles von der Ausstrahlungskraft, der Erfahrung und der Machtbasis der einzelnen Kandidaten ab. Es gibt aber mindestens zwei strukturelle Faktoren, die erklären dürften, warum die Wahlperspektiven der Kandidaten aus der Südschweiz immer dünner werden und warum dies wohl auch in Zukunft der Fall sein wird

Cross reactive arrays of three-way junction sensors for steroid determination

This invention provides analyte sensitive oligonucleotide compositions for detecting and analyzing analytes in solution, including complex solutions using cross reactive arrays of analyte sensitive oligonucleotide compositions

Supplementary Feeding of Grazing Dairy Cows

The objective of this paper was to consider the effect of supplementary feeding of grazing dairy cows on dry matter intake (DMI), milk production and milk composition. Accurate estimations of total DMI and pasture DMI are important to the management of dairy grazing systems. The intakes of dry matter (DM) and net energy-NEL are lower on the pasture-only diet compared with cows supplementary fed with concentrate. Many pasture factors affect DMI, including pregrazing pasture mass and pasture allowance. Milk production of high producing grazing dairy cows in early lactation increases linearly as the amount of concentrate increases to 10 kg DM/day with a milk response of 1 kg milk/kg concentrate. In late lactation, increases are with a lower milk response per kilogram of supplemented concentrate. With the amount of concentrate supplementation, milk fat and protein yield increase while milk fat percentage decreases. Supplementation with rumen undegradable protein (RUP) is important for meeting requirements of grazing dairy cows, because the pasture has high ruminal crude protein (CP) degradability. Corn silage supplementation to grazing cows may increase milk production if pasture offered is restricted, but if pasture is offered ad libitum milk production does not change or can decrease. Supplementation of ruminally inert fat could have positive effect on milk production with concentrate supplemented at a lower rate

Digital quantum simulation of scalar Yukawa coupling: Dynamics following an interaction quench on IBM Q

Motivated by the dearth of studies pertaining to the digital quantum simulation of coupled fermion-boson systems and the revitalized interest in simulating models from medium- and high-energy physics, we investigate the nonequilibrium dynamics following a Yukawa-interaction quench on IBM Q. After adopting -- due to current quantum-hardware limitations -- a single-site (zero-dimensional) version of the scalar Yukawa-coupling model as our point of departure, we design low-depth quantum circuits that emulate its dynamics with up to three bosons. In particular, using advanced circuit-optimization techniques, in the one-boson case we demonstrate circuit compression, i.e. design a shallow (constant-depth) circuit that contains only two CNOT gates, regardless of the total simulation time. In the three-boson case -- where such a compression is not possible -- we design a circuit in which one Trotter step entails 8 CNOTs, this number being far below the maximal CNOT-cost of a generic three-qubit gate. Using an analogy with the travelling salesman problem, we also provide a CNOT-cost estimate for quantum circuits emulating the system dynamics for higher boson-number truncations. Finally, based on the proposed circuits for one- and three-boson cases, we quantify the system dynamics for several different initial states by evaluating the expected fermion- and boson numbers at an arbitrary time after the quench. We validate our results by finding their good agreement with the exact ones obtained through classical benchmarking.Comment: 19 pages, 21 figure

Discrete-Time Filter Synthesis using Product of Gegenbauer Polynomials

A new approximation to design continuoustime and discrete-time low-pass filters, presented in this paper, based on the product of Gegenbauer polynomials, provides the ability of more flexible adjustment of passband and stopband responses. The design is achieved taking into account a prescribed specification, leading to a better trade-off among the magnitude and group delay responses. Many well-known continuous-time and discrete-time transitional filter based on the classical polynomial approximations(Chebyshev, Legendre, Butterworth) are shown to be a special cases of proposed approximation method

Public preferences for multiple dimensions of bird biodiversity at the coast: insights for the cultural ecosystem services framework

This work was funded by the NERC Research project Coastal Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (CBESS) project Grant NE/J015644/1 with support from the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) programme. BESS is a six-year programme (2011–2017) funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) as part of the UK's Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) programme.Biodiversity is valuable to society, including through its contribution to cultural benefits: “the non-material benefits people obtain from biodiversity and ecosystem services through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences”. Biodiversity encompasses numerous measures, but the distinct values of these measures have been little studied. We conducted a discrete choice experiment to elicit respondents’ (n = 3,000) willingness to pay for increases in four measures of bird diversity in UK coastal ecosystems: number of bird species (species richness), number of individual birds (abundance), probability of seeing rare or unusual bird species, and probability of seeing large flocks of birds (wildlife spectacles). Respondents had a positive willingness to pay (through one-time voluntary donations) for increases in all four measures (mean £3 to £5 per household). However, using latent class analysis we found considerable heterogeneity of preferences, identifying four classes of respondents with strikingly different levels of marginal willingness to pay for the four measures. Income, age, environmental activity, visits to environmental settings, and gender were important determinants of class membership. While focusing on birds, our results demonstrate the importance of a multi-dimensional conceptualisation of biodiversity in broader ecosystem management, rather than focussing on a single aspect such as species richness or abundance. Our findings also highlight the implications of heterogeneous public preferences for biodiversity for conservationists, planners, shoreline managers and developers. These need to be considered in the development of new frameworks for ecosystem services, and when planning and funding conservation actions so that the cultural benefits will accrue across a range of social groups.PostprintPeer reviewe

Correlations Between Incidence of Foot Pad Lesions and Body Weight of Broilers in Different Rearing Systems

The incidence of foot pad lesions of broilers of moderate growth was investigated in order to establish correlations with body weight. Broilers were reared until the age of 42 days in the floor system in the poultry house and then were divided into two groups. The first group continued growing in the poultry house until the age of 84 days and the second group was growing in the free range system until the same age. Individual measurements of body weight and evaluation of the incidence of foot pad lesions of broilers were carried out at the end of the experiment. In a correlation analysis of previously transformed data on the percentage of broilers with lesions and body weight within each weight group, data were obtained that showed an association between these traits depending on the rearing system. System of rearing had significant impact on the strength and direction of correlation between body weight and the incidence of foot pad lesions, in light of the determined correlation coefficient r = -0.95 at the significance level p=0.01 in the free range system, and r=0.56 (p>0.05) in chickens reared in the poultry house