136 research outputs found

    Replacement of soya bean meal with peas and faba beans in growing/finishing pig diets: effect on performance, carcass composition and nutrient excretion

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    There is now an increasing debate about the viability of using temperate-grown legumes in pig diets as a potential replacement for imported soya bean meal (SBM) and this is due to food security, sustainability and environmental concerns. Two trials were designed to examine nitrogen (N) retention, growth performance and carcass quality of grower and finisher pigs when fed nutritionally balanced SBM-free diets formulated to contain peas or faba beans at 300 g/kg, compared to an SBM-containing, pulse-free control diet. Trial 1 evaluated N digestibility/retention in four iso-energetic diets, comparing the SBM control with one diet formulated with peas and two with faba bean cultivars; a tannin-containing and a tannin-free variety. This trial employed a four by four Latin Square design with four male pigs housed in metabolism crates, fed twice daily at 0.9 of assumed ad libitum intake over four time periods during grower (30–55 kg) and finisher (55–95 kg) phases. Quantitative faecal and urine collection allowed determination of N coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility, coefficient of apparent metabolisability, and N balance. Results revealed that dietary treatment did not affect these N parameters (P > 0.05) during either the grower or finisher phase. Trial 2 evaluated growth performance (feed intake, daily live weight gain and feed conversion ratio) and carcass quality parameters. Five diets (based on SBM, peas and one of three faba bean cultivars) balanced for standard ileal digestible amino acids and net energy were each fed to eight replicates of individually housed entire male pigs over the same growth phases as Trial 1. The inclusion of three faba bean varieties allowed comparison of animal responses between tannin/tannin-free and spring vs. winter bean cultivars. At ∼95 kg, pigs were slaughtered and a comprehensive range of carcass measurements undertaken. Samples of shoulder backfat were also taken at slaughter to determine skatole and indole concentrations. As with N balance, feeding treatment did not affect performance data. Carcass parameters revealed pigs fed with the pea-based diet had a greater dressing percentage than those animals on faba bean-based diets. Pigs fed with the SBM or pea-based diets also had greater lean meat percentages than those on faba-bean diets. Mean skatole concentrations for all pigs were below the accepted maximum threshold level of 0.2 μg/g. In conclusion, it is suggested that peas and faba beans can be successfully fed in balanced pig diets throughout the grower/finisher periods as alternatives to SBM

    A conceptual modeling methodology based on niches and granularity

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    This paper presents a methodology for conceptual modeling which is based on a new modeling primitive, the niche, and associated constructs granularity and reconciliation. A niche is an environment where entities interact for a specific purpose, playing specific roles, and according to the norms and constraints of that environment. Granularity refers to the relative level of power or influence of an entity within a niche. Reconciliation is a relationship from N entities onto one reconciled entity, and represents explicitly a situation where two or more different perspectives of the same entity have been reconciled, by negotiation, into a single consensus view. The methodology we propose provides a systematic method of designing conceptual models along with a process for normalising inappropriate relationships. Normalising is a prescriptive process for identifying and remedying inconsistencies within a model based on granularities. Drawing on a number of case studies, we show how niches and granularity make complexity easier to manage, highlight inaccuracies in a model, identify opportunities for achieving project goals, and reduce semantic heterogeneity

    Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

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    High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries1,2. However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world3 and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health4,5. However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol—which is a marker of cardiovascular risk—changed from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million–4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.</p

    Plasma lipid profiles discriminate bacterial from viral infection in febrile children

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    Fever is the most common reason that children present to Emergency Departments. Clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of bacterial infection ar

    Measurement of the top-quark mass using a leptonic invariant mass in pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

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    A measurement of the top-quark mass (mt) in the tt¯ → lepton + jets channel is presented, with an experimental technique which exploits semileptonic decays of b-hadrons produced in the top-quark decay chain. The distribution of the invariant mass mℓμ of the lepton, ℓ (with ℓ = e, μ), from the W-boson decay and the muon, μ, originating from the b-hadron decay is reconstructed, and a binned-template profile likelihood fit is performed to extract mt. The measurement is based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 of s√ = 13 TeV pp collisions provided by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded by the ATLAS detector. The measured value of the top-quark mass is mt = 174.41 ± 0.39 (stat.) ± 0.66 (syst.) ± 0.25 (recoil) GeV, where the third uncertainty arises from changing the PYTHIA8 parton shower gluon-recoil scheme, used in top-quark decays, to a recently developed setup

    The Physics of the B Factories

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    Deep generative models for fast photon shower simulation in ATLAS

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    The need for large-scale production of highly accurate simulated event samples for the extensive physics programme of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider motivates the development of new simulation techniques. Building on the recent success of deep learning algorithms, variational autoencoders and generative adversarial networks are investigated for modelling the response of the central region of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter to photons of various energies. The properties of synthesised showers are compared with showers from a full detector simulation using geant4. Both variational autoencoders and generative adversarial networks are capable of quickly simulating electromagnetic showers with correct total energies and stochasticity, though the modelling of some shower shape distributions requires more refinement. This feasibility study demonstrates the potential of using such algorithms for ATLAS fast calorimeter simulation in the future and shows a possible way to complement current simulation techniques
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