The Impacts of Administering Metabolites of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on Broiler Performance, Yields and Salmonella Content of Component Portions

The impacts of using health-promoting Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation metabolites in poultry production and processing can be measured in respect to multiple measures of success. Traditionally this yeast-based compound has been administered to poultry, livestock, poultry, and other species to improve animal performance and production volume output. In addition, Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation metabolites have also been shown in more recent research to reduce colonization of pathogenic bacteria in the host organism’s gastro-intestinal tract. In this dissertation, the impacts of administering a functional ingredient containing Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolites on broiler performance measures and pathogen reduction were measured. One of the studies in this research was conducted in controlled environment research pens, in the absence of disease or stress. In this study, broiler feed conversions and component parts yields were similar between the control and treated broilers. As indicated by studies elsewhere, these results may have been different had the broilers been exposed to a commercial setting, or disease challenges, or other stressors. Also, ceca and parts that were provided by commercial plants that had processed broilers treated with a Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolite product had lower presence and quantities of Salmonella in the ceca and component portions compared to samples obtained from non-treated broilers. In addition, the ceca provided by commercial plants which had been exposed to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolite treatments had reduced Salmonella strength, with increased susceptibility to selected antimicrobials. There are several practical applications of this research. The metabolites of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation may be considered in broiler and other meat-animal production systems as one alternative in the multi-hurdle approach to reduce pathogens. This technology may benefit some plants by reducing the need for in-plant interventions, such as antimicrobial sprays and dips frequently used to achieve regulatory standards. Researchers and integrators that choose to study the administration of the metabolites of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation to meat animals can gain valuable knowledge by measuring the impacts on performance, yields, and pathogen presence in settings where the technology has been applied over an extended period of time in a variety of experimental conditions

Context Dependence Signature, Stimulus Properties and Stimulus Probability as Predictors of ERP Amplitude Variability

Typically, in an oddball paradigm with two experimental conditions, the longer the time between novels the greater P3a amplitude. Here the research question is: Does an oddball paradigm maintain the greater P3a amplitude under several experimental conditions? An EEG study was carried out with an oddball number parity decision task having four conditions in control and schizophrenic participants. Contrary to previous findings (Gonsalvez and Polich, 2002; Polich, 2007) in control participants, non-correlation was found between the time of a novel (N) stimulus condition to the next novel condition and P3a amplitude. Moreover, with an innovative method for stimulus properties extraction features and EEG analysis, single trial across-subject averaging of participants’ data revealed significant correlations (r > 0.3) of stimulus properties (such as probability, frequency, amplitude, and duration) on P300, and even r > 0.5 was found when N was an environmental sound in schizophrenic patients. Therefore, stimulus properties are strong markers of some of the features in the P3a wave. Finally, a context analysis of ERP waves across electrodes revealed a consistent modulation in novel appearance for MisMatch Negativity in schizophrenia. A supplementary analysis running linear modeling (LIMO) in EEG was also provided (see Supplementary Material). Therefore, in a multiple condition task: stimulus properties and their temporal properties are strong markers of some of the features in the P300 wave. An interpretation was done based on differences between controls and schizophrenics relate to differences in the operation of implicit memory for stimulus properties and stronger correlations were observed within groups related contextual and episodic processes.</p

Non-Magnetic, Tough, Corrosion- and Wear-Resistant Knives From Bulk Metallic Glasses and Composites

Quality knives are typically fabricated from high-strength steel alloys. Depending on the application, there are different requirements for mechanical and physical properties that cause problems for steel alloys. For example, diver's knives are generally used in salt water, which causes rust in steel knives. Titanium diver's knives are a popular alternative due to their salt water corrosion resistance, but are too soft to maintain a sharp cutting edge. Steel knives are also magnetic, which is undesirable for military applications where the knives are used as a tactical tool for diffusing magnetic mines. Steel is also significantly denser than titanium (8 g/cu cm vs. 4.5 g/cu cm), which results in heavier knives for the same size. Steel is hard and wear-resistant, compared with titanium, and can keep a sharp edge during service. A major drawback of both steel and titanium knives is that they must be ground or machined into the final knife shape from a billet. Since most knives have a mirrored surface and a complex shape, manufacturing them is complex. It would be more desirable if the knife could be cast into a net or near-net shape in a single step. The solution to the deficiencies of titanium, steel, and ceramic knives is to fabricate them using bulk metallic glasses (or composites). These alloys can be cast into net or near-net shaped knives with a combination of properties that exceed both titanium and steel. A commercially viable BMG (bulk metallic glass) or composite knife is one that exhibits one or all of the following properties: It is based on titanium, has a self-sharpening edge, can retain an edge during service, is hard, is non-magnetic, is corrosion-resistant against a variety of corrosive environments, is tough (to allow for prying), can be cast into a net-shape with a mirror finish and a complex shape, has excellent wear resistance, and is low-density. These properties can be achieved in BMG and composites through alloy chemistry and processing. For each desired property for knife fabrication and performance, there is an alloy development strategy that optimizes behavior. Although BMG knives have been demonstrated as far back as 1995, they never found commercial success because they had to be ground (which presented problems because the alloys contained beryllium), they weren't low cost (because they weren't cast to a net-shape), they were brittle (because they were made with a low-quality commercial material), and they had extremely poor corrosion resistance (because corrosion was not well-understood in these materials). Ultimately, these shortcomings prevented the widespread commercialization. In the current work, the inventors have applied more than a decade of research on BMGs from Caltech and JPL to develop a better understanding of how to make BMG knives that exhibit an optimal combination of properties, processing and cost. Alloys have been developed based in titanium (and other metals), that exhibit high toughness, high hardness, excellent corrosion resistance, no ferromagnetism, edge-retaining selfsharpening, and the ability to be cast like a plastic using commercially available casting techniques (currently used by commercial companies such as Liquidmetal Technologies and Visser Precision Casting). The inventors argue that depending on the application (diving, military, tactical, utility, etc.) there is an optimal combination of design and alloy composition. Moreover, with new casting technologies not available at the inception of these materials, net-shaped knives can be cast into complex shapes that require no aftermarket forming, except for sharpening using water-cooled polishing wheel. These combinations of discoveries seek to make low-cost BMG knives commercially viable products that have no equal among metal or ceramic knives. Current work at JPL focuses on net-shape casting of these alloys and testing their mechanical properties versus commercially available knives to demonstrate their benefits

Euclid preparation : I. The Euclid Wide Survey

Euclid is a mission of the European Space Agency that is designed to constrain the properties of dark energy and gravity via weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering. It will carry out a wide area imaging and spectroscopy survey (the Euclid Wide Survey: EWS) in visible and near-infrared bands, covering approximately 15 000 deg$^{2}$ of extragalactic sky in six years. The wide-field telescope and instruments are optimised for pristine point spread function and reduced stray light, producing very crisp images. This paper presents the building of the Euclid reference survey: the sequence of pointings of EWS, deep fields, and calibration fields, as well as spacecraft movements followed by Euclid as it operates in a step-and-stare mode from its orbit around the Lagrange point L2. Each EWS pointing has four dithered frames; we simulated the dither pattern at the pixel level to analyse the effective coverage. We used up-to-date models for the sky background to define the Euclid region-of-interest (RoI). The building of the reference survey is highly constrained from calibration cadences, spacecraft constraints, and background levels; synergies with ground-based coverage were also considered. Via purposely built software, we first generated a schedule for the calibrations and deep fields observations. On a second stage, the RoI was tiled and scheduled with EWS observations, using an algorithm optimised to prioritise the best sky areas, produce a compact coverage, and ensure thermal stability. The result is the optimised reference survey RSD_2021A, which fulfils all constraints and is a good proxy for the final solution. The current EWS covers ≈14 500 deg$^{2}$. The limiting AB magnitudes (5σ point-like source) achieved in its footprint are estimated to be 26.2 (visible band I$_{E}$) and 24.5 (for near infrared bands Y$_{E}$, J$_{E}$, H$_{E}$); for spectroscopy, the Hα line flux limit is 2 × 10$^{−16}$ erg$^{−1}$ cm$^{−2}$ s$^{−1}$ at 1600 nm; and for diffuse emission, the surface brightness limits are 29.8 (visible band) and 28.4 (near infrared bands) mag arcsec$^{−2}$

Euclid preparation : XV. Forecasting cosmological constraints for the Euclid and CMB joint analysis

The combination and cross-correlation of the upcoming Euclid data with cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements is a source of great expectation since it will provide the largest lever arm of epochs, ranging from recombination to structure formation across the entire past light cone. In this work, we present forecasts for the joint analysis of Euclid and CMB data on the cosmological parameters of the standard cosmological model and some of its extensions. This work expands and complements the recently published forecasts based on Euclid-specific probes, namely galaxy clustering, weak lensing, and their cross-correlation. With some assumptions on the specifications of current and future CMB experiments, the predicted constraints are obtained from both a standard Fisher formalism and a posterior-fitting approach based on actual CMB data. Compared to a Euclid-only analysis, the addition of CMB data leads to a substantial impact on constraints for all cosmological parameters of the standard Λ-cold-dark-matter model, with improvements reaching up to a factor of ten. For the parameters of extended models, which include a redshift-dependent dark energy equation of state, non-zero curvature, and a phenomenological modification of gravity, improvements can be of the order of two to three, reaching higher than ten in some cases. The results highlight the crucial importance for cosmological constraints of the combination and cross-correlation of Euclid probes with CMB data

Mesh-free hydrodynamics in PKDGRAV3 for galaxy formation simulations

We extend the state-of-the-art N-body code PKDGRAV3 with the inclusion of mesh-free gas hydrodynamics for cosmological simulations. Two new hydrodynamic solvers have been implemented, the mesh-less finite volume and mesh-less finite mass methods. The solvers manifestly conserve mass, momentum and energy, and have been validated with a wide range of standard test simulations, including cosmological simulations. We also describe improvements to PKDGRAV3 that have been implemented for performing hydrodynamic simulations. These changes have been made with efficiency and modularity in mind, and provide a solid base for the implementation of the required modules for galaxy formation and evolution physics and future porting to GPUs. The code is released in a public repository, together with the documentation and all the test simulations presented in this work.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA