8,463 research outputs found
Implementation of the Licensing Act 2003: a national survey
The Licensing Act 2003 came into force in November 2005 and transferred responsibility for alcohol licensing to Local Authorities. This reports the findings of a nation wide survey of 225 (63%) local authority chairs of licensing committees/senior members of licensing teams in England evaluating the short-term impact of the Act
Responses to supplementation by dairy cows given low pasture allowances in different seasons 2. Milk production
Two factorial experiments were designed to determine the effects of stage of lactation, and season of the year, on cow responses to supplementary feeding. These experiments were conducted over consecutive years with 128 high genetic merit multiparous Holstein-Friesian cows in early, mid and late lactation in spring, summer, autumn and winter. At each stage of lactation, and in each season of the year, cows were offered a restricted pasture allowance (25 to 35 kg dry matter (DM) per cow per day), either unsupplemented (control) or with supplement at 50 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per cow per day in experiment 1 and 80 MJ ME per cow per day in experiment 2. The two supplements given in both years were rolled maize grain (MG) and a mixture of foods formulated to nutritionally balance the diet (BR). In experiment 2, another treatment, of a generous pasture allowance (60 to 75 kg DM per cow per day) (AP), was imposed on an additional group of early lactation cows during each season. Direct milk solids (MS) (milk fat plus milk protein) responses in experiment 1 to MG were 169, 279, 195 and 251 g MS per cow per day in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively, while those to BR were 107, 250, 192, 289 g MS per cow per day. In experiment 2, however, milk solids responses to both supplements during spring were slightly below the control treatment, with values similar to those in experiment 1 in summer and autumn for cows on the BR but not the MG supplement. Milk solids responses to supplementary foods were largest during seasons of the year when the quantity and quality of pasture on offer resulted in the lowest milk solids yield from unsupplemented cows. When carry-over effects of feeding MG and BR on milk solids production were detected, they were only about half the magnitude of the direct effects. Serum urea concentrations were higher in control cows than those offered MG with a similar effect for BR in all but summer in experiment 1, while serum glucose concentrations were highest in winter and lowest in summer. The most important factor influencing milk solids responses was the relative food deficit (RFD) represented by the decline in milk solids yield of the respective control groups after,changing from a generous pasture allowance to restricted allowance when the feeding treatments were imposed. Total milk solids responses (direct and carry-over) to supplements were greatest when severe food restrictions, relative to the cows' current food demand, resulted in large reductions in milk solids yield of the control groups. The RFD was the best predictor of milk solids response to supplementary foods. Therefore, it is likely that cows are most responsive to supplementary foods during or immediately after the imposition of a severe food restriction
InSb charge coupled infrared imaging device: The 20 element linear imager
The design and fabrication of the 8585 InSb charge coupled infrared imaging device (CCIRID) chip are reported. The InSb material characteristics are described along with mask and process modifications. Test results for the 2- and 20-element CCIRID's are discussed, including gate oxide characteristics, charge transfer efficiency, optical mode of operation, and development of the surface potential diagram
Responses to supplementation by dairy cows given low pasture allowances in different seasons 1. Pasture intake and substitution
Two factorial experiments were designed to determine the effects of stage of lactation, and season of the year, on cow responses to supplementary feeding. These experiments were conducted over consecutive years with 128 high genetic merit multiparous Holstein-Friesian cows in early, mid and late lactation in spring, summer, autumn and winter. At each stage of lactation, and in each season of the year, cows were offered a restricted pasture allowance (25 to 35 kg dry matter (DM) per cow per day), either unsupplemented (control) or supplemented with 50 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per cow per day in experiment 1 and 80 MJ ME per cow per day in experiment 2. Two different supplements were offered, namely, rolled maize grain (MG) and a mixture of foods (BR) formulated to nutritionally balance the diet. In experiment 2, a fourth treatment consisting solely of a generous pasture allowance (60 to 75 kg DM per cow per day, AP) was introduced. Offering MG and BR increased DM intake (DMI). At the restricted pasture allowance, increasing total ME allowance (MEA) by offering supplementary foods increased ME intake (MEI) by 0.68 (s.e. 0.047) MJ per extra MJ ME offered. This highly significant (P < 0.001) linear relationship was consistent across seasons, and did not diminish at higher MEA. In experiment 2, cows in early lactation had lower substitution rates than mid and late lactation cows irrespective of season. Substitution rate was higher when higher pasture allowance or quality of pasture on offer enabled the unsupplemented cows to achieve higher DMI from pasture than at other times of the year. These results suggest that one of the key factors determining the intake response to supplementary foods is pasture allowance. Within spring calving dairying systems, the largest increases in total DMI per kg of supplement offered is likely when offering supplements to early lactation cows grazing restricted allowances of high quality pasture
Metastable Quantum Phase Transitions in a Periodic One-dimensional Bose Gas: Mean-Field and Bogoliubov Analyses
We generalize the concept of quantum phase transitions, which is
conventionally defined for a ground state and usually applied in the
thermodynamic limit, to one for \emph{metastable states} in \emph{finite size
systems}. In particular, we treat the one-dimensional Bose gas on a ring in the
presence of both interactions and rotation. To support our study, we bring to
bear mean-field theory, i.e., the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, and linear
perturbation or Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory. Both methods give a consistent
result in the weakly interacting regime: there exist \emph{two topologically
distinct quantum phases}. The first is the typical picture of superfluidity in
a Bose-Einstein condensate on a ring: average angular momentum is quantized and
the superflow is uniform. The second is new: one or more dark solitons appear
as stationary states, breaking the symmetry, the average angular momentum
becomes a continuous quantity, and the phase of the condensate can be
continuously wound and unwound
Partnerships: survey respondents' perceptions of inter-professional collaboration to address alcohol-related harms in England
Tackling alcohol-related harms crosses agency and professional boundaries, requiring collaboration between health, criminal justice, education and social welfare institutions. It is a key component of most multicomponent programmes in the United States, Australia and Europe. Partnership working, already embedded in service delivery structures, is a core mechanism for delivery of the new UK Government Alcohol Strategy. This article reports findings from a study of alcohol partnerships across England. The findings are based on a mix of open discussion interviews with key informants and on semi-structured telephone interviews with 90 professionals with roles in local alcohol partnerships. Interviewees reported the challenges of working within a complex network of interlinked partnerships, often within hierarchies under an umbrella partnership, some of them having a formal duty of partnership. The new alcohol strategy has emerged at a time of extensive reorganisation within health, social care and criminal justice structures. Further development of a partnership model for policy implementation would benefit from consideration of the incompatibility arising from required collaboration and from tensions between institutional and professional cultures. A clearer analysis of which aspects of partnership working provide ‘added value’ is needed
Universal Mandelbrot Set as a Model of Phase Transition Theory
The study of Mandelbrot Sets (MS) is a promising new approach to the phase
transition theory. We suggest two improvements which drastically simplify the
construction of MS. They could be used to modify the existing computer programs
so that they start building MS properly not only for the simplest families.
This allows us to add one more parameter to the base function of MS and
demonstrate that this is not enough to make the phase diagram connectedComment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Catastrophic Phase Transitions and Early Warnings in a Spatial Ecological Model
Gradual changes in exploitation, nutrient loading, etc. produce shifts
between alternative stable states (ASS) in ecosystems which, quite often, are
not smooth but abrupt or catastrophic. Early warnings of such catastrophic
regime shifts are fundamental for designing management protocols for
ecosystems. Here we study the spatial version of a popular ecological model,
involving a logistically growing single species subject to exploitation, which
is known to exhibit ASS. Spatial heterogeneity is introduced by a carrying
capacity parameter varying from cell to cell in a regular lattice. Transport of
biomass among cells is included in the form of diffusion. We investigate
whether different quantities from statistical mechanics -like the variance, the
two-point correlation function and the patchiness- may serve as early warnings
of catastrophic phase transitions between the ASS. In particular, we find that
the patch-size distribution follows a power law when the system is close to the
catastrophic transition. We also provide links between spatial and temporal
indicators and analyze how the interplay between diffusion and spatial
heterogeneity may affect the earliness of each of the observables. We find that
possible remedial procedures, which can be followed after these early signals,
are more effective as the diffusion becomes lower. Finally, we comment on
similarities and differences between these catastrophic shifts and paradigmatic
thermodynamic phase transitions like the liquid-vapour change of state for a
fluid like water
Morse homology for the heat flow
We use the heat flow on the loop space of a closed Riemannian manifold to
construct an algebraic chain complex. The chain groups are generated by
perturbed closed geodesics. The boundary operator is defined in the spirit of
Floer theory by counting, modulo time shift, heat flow trajectories that
converge asymptotically to nondegenerate closed geodesics of Morse index
difference one.Comment: 89 pages, 3 figure
- …