Long term farm study of organic milk production — moderate concentrate inputs and high milk yields on Tingvoll farm

Long term studies of organic milk production on a Norwegian organic farm (Tingvoll farm) show that it is possible to achieve high milk yields with moderate concentrate inputs in organic milk production with Norwegian Red Cattle. The milk yields at Tingvoll farm were generally higher, and the concentrate input lower than the average of all Norwegian dairy farms. Average annual milk yields, as well as annual concentrate consumption per cow increased during the study period both for organic and conventional dairy production in Norway. The results from Tingvoll farm may inspire conventional dairy farmers to convert, since the differences to organic production are not necessarily too large. Alternatively, they may be inspired to reduce their concentrate inputs

Unpredictable shoe midsole perturbations provide an instability stimulus to train ankle posture and motion during forward and lateral gym lunges

Unstable footwear may enhance training effects to the lower-limb musculature and sensorimotor system during dynamic gym movements. This study compared the instability of an unstable shoe with irregular midsole deformations (IM) and a control shoe (CS) during forward and lateral lunges. Seventeen female gym class participants completed two sets of ten forward and lateral lunges in CS and IM. Ground reaction forces, lower-limb kinematics and ankle muscle activations were recorded. Variables around initial ground contact, toe-off, descending and ascending lunge phases were compared statistically (p < .05). Responses to IM compared to CS were similar across lunge directions. The IM induced instability by increasing the vertical loading rate (p < .001, p = .009) and variability of frontal ankle motion during descending (p = .001, p < .001) and ascending phases (p = .150, p = .003), in forward and lateral lunges, respectively. At initial ground contact, ankle adjustments enhanced postural stability in IM. Across muscles, there were no activation increases, although results indicate peroneus longus activations increased in IM during the ascending phase. As expected, IM provided a more demanding training stimulus during lunge exercises and has potential to reduce ankle injuries by training ankle positioning for unpredictable instability

Senicapoc treatment in COVID-19 Patients with Severe Respiratory Insufficiency - A Randomized, Open-Label, Phase II Trial

BACKGROUND: The aim of the current study was to determine if treatment with senicapoc, improves the PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio in patients with COVID‐19 and severe respiratory insufficiency. METHODS: Investigator‐initiated, randomized, open‐label, phase II trial in four intensive care units (ICU) in Denmark. We included patients aged ≥18 years and admitted to an ICU with severe respiratory insufficiency due to COVID‐19. The intervention consisted of 50 mg enteral senicapoc administered as soon as possible after randomization and again after 24 h. Patients in the control group received standard care only. The primary outcome was the PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio at 72 h. RESULTS: Twenty patients were randomized to senicapoc and 26 patients to standard care. Important differences existed in patient characteristics at baseline, including more patients being on non‐invasive/invasive ventilation in the control group (54% vs. 35%). The median senicapoc concentration at 72 h was 62.1 ng/ml (IQR 46.7–71.2). The primary outcome, PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio at 72 h, was significantly lower in the senicapoc group (mean 19.5 kPa, SD 6.6) than in the control group (mean 24.4 kPa, SD 9.2) (mean difference −5.1 kPa [95% CI −10.2, −0.04] p = .05). The 28‐day mortality in the senicapoc group was 2/20 (10%) compared with 6/26 (23%) in the control group (OR 0.36 95% CI 0.06–2.07, p = .26). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with senicapoc resulted in a significantly lower PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio at 72 h with no differences for other outcomes

Organic selenium supplementation increased selenium concentrations in ewe and newborn lamb blood and in slaughter lamb meat compared to inorganic selenium supplementation

Background Selenium is part of the antioxidant defence system in animals and humans. The available selenium concentration in soil is low in many regions of the world. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of organic versus inorganic selenium supplementation on selenium status of ewes, their lambs, and slaughter lambs. Methods Ewes on four organic farms were allocated five or six to 18 pens. The ewes were given either 20 mg/kg inorganic selenium as sodium selenite or organic selenium as selenized nonviable yeast supplementation for the two last months of pregnancy. Stipulated selenium concentrations in the rations were below 0.40 mg/kg dry matter. In addition 20 male lambs were given supplements from November until they were slaughtered in March. Silage, hay, concentrates, and individual ewe blood samples were taken before and after the mineral supplementation period, and blood samples were taken from the newborn lambs. Blood samples from ewes and lambs in the same pens were pooled. Muscle samples were taken from slaughter lambs in March. Selenium concentrations were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry with a hydride generator system. In the ANOVA model, selenium concentration was the continuous response variable, and selenium source and farm were the nominal effect variables. Two-sample t-test was used to compare selenium concentrations in muscle samples from the slaughtered lambs that received either organic or inorganic selenium supplements. Results In all ewe pens the whole blood selenium concentrations increased during the experimental period. In addition, ewe pens that received organic selenium had significantly higher whole blood selenium concentrations (mean 0.28 μg/g) than ewe pens that received inorganic selenium (mean 0.24 μg/g). Most prominent, however, was the difference in their lambs; whole blood mean selenium concentration in lambs from mothers that received organic selenium (mean 0.27 μg/g) was 30% higher than in lambs from mothers that received inorganic selenium (mean 0.21 μg/g). Slaughter lambs that received organic selenium had 50% higher meat selenium concentrations (mean 0.12 mg/kg wet weight) than lambs that received inorganic selenium (mean 0.08 mg/kg wet weight). Conclusion Organic selenium supplementation gave higher selenium concentration in ewe and newborn lamb blood and slaughter lamb meat than inorganic selenium supplementation

Six pelagic seabird species of the North Atlantic engage in a fly-and-forage strategy during their migratory movements

Funding Information: We thank all the fieldworkers for their hard work collecting data. Funding for this study was provided by the Norwegian Ministry for Climate and the Environment, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association along with 8 oil companies through the SEATRACK project (www. seapop. no/ en/ seatrack). Fieldwork in Norwegian colonies (incl. Svalbard and Jan Mayen) was supported by the SEAPOP program (www.seapop.no, grant no. 192141). The French Polar Institute (IPEV project 330 to O.C.) supported field operation for Kongsfjord kittiwakes. The work on the Isle of May was also supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (Award NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCaPE programme delivering National Capability). We thank Maria Bogdanova for field support and data processing. Finally, we thank 3 anonymous reviewers for their help improving the first version of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Reproductive Performance, Udder Health, and Antibiotic Resistance in Mastitis Bacteria isolated from Norwegian Red cows in Conventional and Organic Farming

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The objectives of this study were to investigate whether there were differences between Norwegian Red cows in conventional and organic farming with respect to reproductive performance, udder health, and antibiotic resistance in udder pathogens.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty-five conventional and 24 organic herds from south-east and middle Norway participated in the study. Herds were matched such that geographical location, herd size, and barn types were similar across the cohorts. All organic herds were certified as organic between 1997 and 2003. All herds were members of the Norwegian Dairy Herd Recording System. The herds were visited once during the study. The relationship between the outcomes and explanatory variables were assessed using mixed linear models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were less > 2nd parity cows in conventional farming. The conventional cows had higher milk yields and received more concentrates than organic cows. Although after adjustment for milk yield and parity, somatic cell count was lower in organic cows than conventional cows. There was a higher proportion of quarters that were dried off at the herd visit in organic herds. No differences in the interval to first AI, interval to last AI or calving interval was revealed between organic and conventional cows. There was no difference between conventional and organic cows in quarter samples positive for mastitis bacteria from the herd visit. Milk yield and parity were associated with the likelihood of at least one quarter positive for mastitis bacteria. There was few <it>S. aureus </it>isolates resistance to penicillin in both management systems. Penicillin resistance against Coagulase negative staphylococci isolated from subclinically infected quarters was 48.5% in conventional herds and 46.5% in organic herds.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There were no large differences between reproductive performance and udder health between conventional and organic farming for Norwegian Red cows.</p

Election proximity and representation focus in party-constrained environments

Do elected representatives have a time-constant representation focus or do they adapt their focus depending on election proximity? In this article, we examine these overlooked theoretical and empirical puzzles by looking at how reelection-seeking actors adapt their legislative behavior according to the electoral cycle. In parliamentary democracies, representatives need to serve two competing principals: their party and their district. Our analysis hinges on how representatives make a strategic use of parliamentary written questions in a highly party-constrained institutional context to heighten their reselection and reelection prospects. Using an original data set of over 32,000 parliamentary questions tabled by Portuguese representatives from 2005 to 2015, we examine how time interacts with two key explanatory elements: electoral vulnerability and party size. Results show that representation focus is not static over time and, in addition, that electoral vulnerability and party size shape strategic use of parliamentary questions

Self-Supervised Clustering on Image-Subtracted Data with Deep-Embedded Self-Organizing Map

Developing an effective automatic classifier to separate genuine sources from artifacts is essential for transient follow-ups in wide-field optical surveys. The identification of transient detections from the subtraction artifacts after the image differencing process is a key step in such classifiers, known as real-bogus classification problem. We apply a self-supervised machine learning model, the deep-embedded self-organizing map (DESOM) to this "real-bogus" classification problem. DESOM combines an autoencoder and a self-organizing map to perform clustering in order to distinguish between real and bogus detections, based on their dimensionality-reduced representations. We use 32x32 normalized detection thumbnails as the input of DESOM. We demonstrate different model training approaches, and find that our best DESOM classifier shows a missed detection rate of 6.6% with a false positive rate of 1.5%. DESOM offers a more nuanced way to fine-tune the decision boundary identifying likely real detections when used in combination with other types of classifiers, for example built on neural networks or decision trees. We also discuss other potential usages of DESOM and its limitations

Searching for electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave merger events with the prototype Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO-4)

We report the results of optical follow-up observations of 29 gravitational-wave (GW) triggers during the first half of the LIGO–Virgo Collaboration (LVC) O3 run with the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) in its prototype 4-telescope configuration (GOTO-4). While no viable electromagnetic (EM) counterpart candidate was identified, we estimate our 3D (volumetric) coverage using test light curves of on- and off-axis gamma-ray bursts and kilonovae. In cases where the source region was observable immediately, GOTO-4 was able to respond to a GW alert in less than a minute. The average time of first observation was 8.79 h after receiving an alert (9.90 h after trigger). A mean of 732.3 square degrees were tiled per event, representing on average 45.3 per cent of the LVC probability map, or 70.3 per cent of the observable probability. This coverage will further improve as the facility scales up alongside the localization performance of the evolving GW detector network. Even in its 4-telescope prototype configuration, GOTO is capable of detecting AT2017gfo-like kilonovae beyond 200 Mpc in favourable observing conditions. We cannot currently place meaningful EM limits on the population of distant (⁠D^L=1.3 Gpc) binary black hole mergers because our test models are too faint to recover at this distance. However, as GOTO is upgraded towards its full 32-telescope, 2 node (La Palma & Australia) configuration, it is expected to be sufficiently sensitive to cover the predicted O4 binary neutron star merger volume, and will be able to respond to both northern and southern triggers

Breast cancer incidence in food- vs non-food-producing areas in Norway: possible beneficial effects of World War II

It has been suggested that World War II influenced breast cancer risk among Norwegian women by affecting adolescent growth. Diet changed substantially during the war, and the reduction in energy intake was assumed to be larger in non-food- producing than in food-producing municipalities. In the present study, we have looked at the influence of residential history in areas with and without food production on the incidence of breast cancer in a population-based cohort study consisting of 597 906 women aged between 30 and 64 years. The study included 7311 cases of breast cancer, diagnosed between 1964 and 1992. The risk estimates were calculated using a Poisson regression model. The results suggest that residential history may influence the risk of breast cancer, where the suggested advantageous effect of World War II seems to be larger in non-food-producing than in food-producing areas. Breast cancer incidence was observed to decline for the post-war cohorts, which is discussed in relation to diet