Welzijn (opfok) vleeskuikenouderdieren

Praktijkcentrum 'Het Spelderholt' heeft in samenwerking met ID-Lelystad onderzocht of tweemaal in plaats van eenmaal per dag voeren in de opfokperiode het welzijn van vleeskuikenouderdieren verbetert. Hiermee werd niet het verwachte effect op het gedrag verkregen

Getting on the same page : team learning and team cognition in emergency management command-and-control teams

This study explores team learning in a team that needs to perform under high pressure: the on-scene-command team (OSCT). The OSCT team is responsible for the coordination of the multidisciplinary cooperation between different assistance units (fire department, police, medical assistance unit) at the scene of an incident or disaster. Chapter 2 contains a first exploration of team learning in emergency management command-and-control teams on which chapter 3 builds by developing a context specific model for team learning in the OSCT. Chapter 4 presents a validated measure of OSCT team effectiveness. Chapter 5 reports on an empirical study that shows how the combination of the team learning processes co-construction and constructive conflict add to the development of a team situation model of which emergency management processes are executed at the incident scene. This team situation model is beneficial for team effectiveness. Chapter 6 shows that it is important for team effectiveness that this team situation model evolves over time. The results of the research emphasize that team members need to get on the same page and that being critical in a constructive way towards each other__s contributions has an added value.Development Psychopathology in context: schoo

Invloed voersamenstelling op broedresultaten

Bij Praktijkonderzoek Pluimveehouderij Het Spelderholt (PP) is onderzocht of een voer met 50 maos betere broedresultaten oplevert dan een voer met 50 tarwe. Bij de overschakeling op 53 weken leeftijd op voer van een andere samenstelling en structuur vonden we bij de groep met 50 maos in het voer een daling van het percentage gezonde kuikens dat uit de bevruchte eieren is uitgekomen

Assessment of recent outbreaks of Dickeya sp (syn. Erwinia chrysanthemi) slow wilt in potato crops in Israel

Suspected Dickeya sp. strains were obtained from potato plants and tubers collected from commercial plots. The disease was observed on crops of various cultivars grown from seed tubers imported from the Netherlands during the spring seasons of 2004-2006, with disease incidence of 2-30% ( 10% in average). In addition to typical wilting symptoms on the foliage, in cases of severe infection, progeny tubers were rotten in the soil. Six strains were characterised by biochemical, serological and PCR amplification. All tests verified the strains as Dickeya sp. The repPCR and the biochemical assays showed that the strains isolated from blackleg diseased plants in Israel were very similar, if not identical to strains isolated from Dutch seed potatoes, suggesting that the infection in Israel originated from the Dutch seed. The strains were distantly related to D. dianthicola strains, typically found in potatoes in Western Europe, and were similar to biovar 3 D. dadanti or D. zeae. This is the first time that the presence of biovar 3 strains in potato in the Netherlands is described. One of the strains was used for pathogenicity assays on potato cvs Nicola and Mondial. Symptoms appeared 2 to 3 days after stem inoculation, and 7 to 10 days after soil inoculation. The control plants treated with water, or plants inoculated with Pectobacterium carotovorum, did not develop any symptoms with either method of inoculation. The identity of Dickeya sp. and P. carotovorum re- isolated from inoculated plants was confirmed by PCR and ELISA

Macroscopic quantum superposition of current states in a Josephson-junction loop

Superconducting circuits with Josephson tunnel junctions are interesting systems for research on quantum-mechanical behavior of macroscopic degrees of freedom. A particular realization is a small superconducting loop containing three Josephson junctions. Close to magnetic frustration 1/2, the physics of this system corresponds to a double well, whose minima correspond to persistent currents of opposite sign. We present DC measurements of the flux indicating a smooth transition close to the degeneracy point even at very low temperatures. Furthermore, microwave-spectroscopy experiments allow for the excitation to the next excited state. The dependence of the energy of the resonance on the applied flux clearly indicates the nature of these states as tunneling-splitted superpositions of flux states. We theoretically analyze the system using a generalized master-equation formulation of the spin-boson model. We address the nature of the measuring process by a switching DC SQUID and the possible interpretation of the spectroscopy data in terms of quantum coherence. We discuss these aspects in the context of further applications as a quantum bit

Suppression of airway inflammation by Illicium verum and trans-anethole

_Background_ SH2 domain containing inositol-5-phosphatase (SHIP1) is an important modulator of innate and adaptive immunity. In mice, loss of SHIP1 provokes severe ileitis resembling Crohn's disease (CD), as a result of deregulated immune responses, altered cytokine production and intestinal fibrosis. Recently, SHIP1 activity was shown to be correlated to the presence of a CD-associated single nucleotide polymorphism in ATG16L1. Here, we studied SHIP1 activity and expression in an adult cohort of CD patients. _Methods_ SHIP1 activity, protein and mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from CD patients in clinical remission were determined by Malachite green assay, Western blotting an

Pregnane X receptor activation constrains mucosal NF-κB activity in active inflammatory bowel disease

Background The Pregnane X Receptor (PXR) is a principal signal transducer in mucosal responses to xenobiotic stress. It is well-recognized that inflammatory bowel disease is accompanied by xenobiotic stress, but the importance of the PXR in limiting inflammatory responses in inflammatory bowel disease remains obscure at best. Methods We stimulate a total of 106 colonic biopsies from 19 Crohn’s disease patients with active disease, 36 colonic biopsies from 8 control patients, colonic organo

Progress in Classical and Quantum Variational Principles

We review the development and practical uses of a generalized Maupertuis least action principle in classical mechanics, in which the action is varied under the constraint of fixed mean energy for the trial trajectory. The original Maupertuis (Euler-Lagrange) principle constrains the energy at every point along the trajectory. The generalized Maupertuis principle is equivalent to Hamilton's principle. Reciprocal principles are also derived for both the generalized Maupertuis and the Hamilton principles. The Reciprocal Maupertuis Principle is the classical limit of Schr\"{o}dinger's variational principle of wave mechanics, and is also very useful to solve practical problems in both classical and semiclassical mechanics, in complete analogy with the quantum Rayleigh-Ritz method. Classical, semiclassical and quantum variational calculations are carried out for a number of systems, and the results are compared. Pedagogical as well as research problems are used as examples, which include nonconservative as well as relativistic systems