Vehicle test report: South Coast technology electric conversion of a Volkswagen Rabbit

The South Coast Technology Volkswagen Rabbit, was tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) dynamometer facility and at JPL's Edwards Test Station (ETS). The tests were performed to characterize certain parameters of the South Coast Rabbit and to provide baseline data that will be used for the comparison of near term batteries that are to be incorporated into the vehicle. The vehicle tests were concentrated on the electrical drive system; i.e., the batteries, controller, and motor. The tests included coastdowns to characterize the road load, maximum effort acceleration, and range evaluation for both cyclic and constant speed conditions. A qualitative evaluation of the vehicle was made by comparing its constant speed range performance with those vehicles described in the document 'state of the Art assessment of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles'. The Rabbit performance was near to the best of the 1977 vehicles

Effect of pre-weaning solid feed and milk intake on caecal content characteristics and performance of rabbits around weaning

The aim of this study is to know the effect of different solid feed and milk intake during suckling on performance around weaning and on caecal content characteristics at weaning. In order to obtain different intakes of milk and solid feed, 13 litters of pregnant females (PF) inseminated the day after delivery and 14 litters of non-pregnant females (NPF) were compared. At birth the litters were equalized at eight pups and during lactation dead pups were replaced by pups of the same age from nursing does. Compared to the PF group, rabbits in the NPF group had a higher milk intake (26.0 versus 21.4 g/day; P < 0.01) and lower solid feed intake (9.1 versus 11.5 g/day; P < 0.01) between 20 and 28 days of age. No significant difference was observed between the two groups in weight gain before and post-weaning (28-49 days). At weaning, the rabbits in group PF showed higher values in caecal content (g 26.3 versus 22.6; P < 0.05) and volatile fatty acids (mmol/l 52.2 versus 43.6; P < 0.01) and lower values in empty caecal weight (g 7.18 versus 7.78; P < 0.05), C3 (6.4 versus 9.3%; P < 0.01) and C3/C4 ratio (0.39 versus 0.63; P < 0.01) than the group NPF. On the basis of the above results, it may be concluded that the quantity of solid feed and milk intake before weaning influenced the charac- teristics of the caecal content, but not the performance of rabbits around weaning

Reproductive and nutritional management on ovarian response and embryo quality on rabbit does

Rabbit does in modern rabbitries are under intensive reproductive rhythms. Females are high milk producers with high energetic expenses due to the extensive overlap between lactation and gestation. This situation leads to a negative energy balance with a mobilization of body fat especially in primiparous rabbit does. Poor body condition and poor health status severely affect the reproductive features (fertility rate and lifespan of the doe as well as ovarian physiology). This paper reviews some reproductive and nutritional approaches used in the last years to improve the reproductive performance of rabbit females, mainly focusing on the influence on ovarian response and embryo quality and with emphasis on epigenetic modifications in pre-implantation embryos and offspring consequences

64-bit architechtures and compute clusters for high performance simulations

Simulation of large complex systems remains one of the most demanding of high performance computer systems both in terms of raw compute performance and efficient memory management. Recent availability of 64-bit architectures has opened up the possibilities of commodity computers accessing more than the 4 Gigabyte memory limit previously enforced by 32-bit addressing. We report on some performance measurements we have made on two 64-bit architectures and their consequences for some high performance simulations. We discuss performance of our codes for simulations of artificial life models; computational physics models of point particles on lattices; and with interacting clusters of particles. We have summarised pertinent features of these codes into benchmark kernels which we discuss in the context of wellknown benchmark kernels of the 32-bit era. We report on how these these findings were useful in the context of designing 64-bit compute clusters for high-performance simulations

Dried chicory root (Cichorium intybus L.) as a natural fructan source in rabbit diet: effects on growth performance, digestion and caecal and carcass traits

[EN] Three experimental diets were formulated including (per kg) 100 g oats (control diet), 50 g chicory root (Chicory 5 diet) or 100 g chicory root (Chicory 10 diet) at the expense of oats. The diets differed with respect to starch and fructan contents. In the performance trial, 120 Hyplus rabbits were randomly allocated to three groups (two rabbits per cage) and fed one of the three experimental diets between 31 and 73 days of age. At the end of the trial period, 20 rabbits per treatment were slaughtered and used for evaluation of carcass traits. In addition, the coefficients of total tract apparent digestibility (CTTAD) of the diets and caecal traits were determined from 45 to 49 days of age in 10 rabbits per treatment. The diets did not differ significantly in terms of weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, health status or carcass traits of rabbits. The CTTADs of crude protein (P=0.041) and ether extract (P=0.006) were lower in rabbits fed the Chicory 10 diet than in rabbits fed the control diet. The CTTAD of starch (P<0.001) was lower, whereas that of fructans (P<0.001) higher, in rabbits fed the diets based on chicory root. The caecum weight (P=0.037), the weight of its contents (P=0.025) and the lactic acid (P=0.028) concentration were higher in rabbits fed the Chicory 10 diet than in control rabbits. On the contrary, rabbits fed with the chicory diets showed lower caecal pH (P=0.048) than rabbits fed the control diet. There was a tendency towards a lower caecal dry matter content and higher total VFA concentration in rabbits fed the chicory diets. It may be concluded that chicory root can serve as a natural source of inulin-type fructans in rabbit feed. Diet supplementation with 10% dried chicory root beneficially affected the caecal fermentative activity in the rabbits, without significant reductions in the nutritive value of the diet, growth performance or carcass quality.Financial support for this study was provided by the institutional research project MZE 0002701404Volek, Z.; Marounek, M. (2011). Dried chicory root (Cichorium intybus L.) as a natural fructan source in rabbit diet: effects on growth performance, digestion and caecal and carcass traits. World Rabbit Science. 19(3):143-150. https://doi.org/10.4995/wrs.2011.850SWORD14315019

The role of demonstrator familiarity and language cues on infant imitation from television

An imitation procedure was used to investigate the impact of demonstrator familiarity and language cues on infant learning from television. Eighteen-month-old infants watched two pre-recorded videos showing an adult demonstrating a sequence of actions with two sets of stimuli. Infants' familiarity with the demonstrator and the language used during the demonstration varied as a function of experimental condition. Immediately after watching each video, infants' ability to reproduce the target actions was assessed. A highly familiar demonstrator did not enhance infants' performance. However, the addition of a narrative, developed from mothers' naturalistic description of the event, facilitated learning from an unfamiliar demonstrator. We propose that the differential effect of demonstrator familiarity and language cues may reflect the infants' ability to distinguish between important and less important aspects in a learning situation. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Proposal of the Readout Electronics for the WCDA in LHAASO Experiment

The LHAASO (Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory) experiment is proposed for very high energy gamma ray source survey, in which the WCDA (Water Cherenkov Detector Array) is the one of the major components. In the WCDA, a total of 3600 PMTs are placed under water in four ponds, each with a size of 150 m x 150 m. Precise time and charge measurement is required for the PMT signals, over a large signal amplitude range from single P.E. (photo electron) to 4000 P.E. To fulfill the high requirement of signal measurement in so many front end nodes scattered in a large area, special techniques are developed, such as multiple gain readout, hybrid transmission of clocks, commands, and data, precise clock phase alignment, and new trigger electronics. We present the readout electronics architecture for the WCDA and several prototype modules, which are now under test in the laboratory.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Implantation of a poly-L-lactide GCSF-functionalized scaffold in a model of chronic myocardial infarction

A previously developed poly-l-lactide scaffold releasing granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (PLLA/GCSF) was tested in a rabbit chronic model of myocardial infarction (MI) as a ventricular patch. Control groups were constituted by healthy, chronic MI and nonfunctionalized PLLA scaffold. PLLA-based electrospun scaffold efficiently integrated into a chronic infarcted myocardium. Functionalization of the biopolymer with GCSF led to increased fibroblast-like vimentin-positive cellular colonization and reduced inflammatory cell infiltration within the micrometric fiber mesh in comparison to nonfunctionalized scaffold; PLLA/GCSF polymer induced an angiogenetic process with a statistically significant increase in the number of neovessels compared to the nonfunctionalized scaffold; PLLA/GCSF implanted at the infarcted zone induced a reorganization of the ECM architecture leading to connective tissue deposition and scar remodeling. These findings were coupled with a reduction in end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes, indicating a preventive effect of the scaffold on ventricular dilation, and an improvement in cardiac performance