Effect of days to conception in the previous lactation on the risk of death and live culling around calving

The objective was to quantify the effect of days to conception (days open) in the previous parity on the risk of death and live culling (excluding the disposal reasons “dairy purposes” and “death”) in the proximity of a subsequent calving in Holstein cows enrolled in the Dairy Herd Improvement program. After edits, 2,075,834 observations of cows calving between 2001 and 2007 in herds located in 36 US states primarily east of the Mississippi river were available. The period at risk included the time between 14 d before expected calving to 60 d after calving. Days open were categorized in 6 periods: 0 to 45 d, 46 to 90 d, 91 to 150 d, 151 to 210 d, 211 to 300 d, and 301 to 600 d after calving in the previous parity. Other variables of interest included parity, length of the dry period before calving, relative last test-day milk yield before dry off before calving, season of calving, and the cow's relative 305-d mature equivalent (305ME) milk yield before calving. Control variables were calving year, herd size, and relative herd 305ME milk yield. All variables were categorized. Generalized mixed models were used and included herd as random effect. Interactions between days open and the variables of interest were included in the models. Least squares means for the risk of death between −14 and 60 d after calving were 2.5, 2.5, 2.9, 3.6, 4.4, and 5.8% for increasing categories of days open. Similarly, for the same categories, least squares means for the risk of live culling were 4.5, 5.0, 5.4, 6.1, 6.9, and 8.1%. The effect of days open on the risk of death was slightly greater for third-parity cows, for long dry periods, for cows with low test-day milk yield before dry off before calving, for spring calvings, and for intermediate relative 305ME milk yield before calving. Similar trends for these interactions were found for the risk of live culling, except for relative 305ME milk yield before calving, where the effect of days open was more pronounced for high-producing cows. In conclusion, increased days open in the previous parity were associated with a greater risk of death and live culling around calving.     

多雨地区复线涵洞接长施工

结合具体工程实例,介绍了路堤防护采用抗滑桩、挡土板、圆木支撑及草袋组合加固方案,涵洞施工采用逆向砌筑法方案的施工方法,以及雨季施工和安全防护措施,以期指导多雨地区复线涵洞接长施工。     

浅谈特殊气候条件下水泥混凝土路面施工

详细介绍了水泥混凝土路面在高温季节、低温季节和雨季三种特殊气候下的施工工艺,从一般规定、施工要求及对特殊环境的特殊要求三方面进行了具体阐述,以指导实践。     

浅谈路堤土石方雨季施工措施

针对我国大部分地区都有雨季的现状,根据施工实践,详细地阐述了雨季到来之前和雨季中的路堤施工措施,以帮助路堤施工人员采取行之有效的应对措施,确保雨季施工的工程质量,从而保证路堤土石方开挖及填筑正常进行。     

Effect of processing methods and starter culture (Staphylococcus xylosus and Pediococcus pentosaceus) on proteolytic changes in Turkish sausages (sucuk) during ripening and storage

Proteolytic changes in Turkish sausages (sucuk) produced by two methods (heat processing and traditional) were determined during processing and storage for 90 days. The sausages were produced with or without starter culture in both methods. A mixture of Staphylococcus xylosus and Pediococcus pentosaceus was used as starter culture for their acidic and proteolytic characteristics.The major changes in proteolytic characteristics of sucuk took place during the fermentation stage, with an increase in non-protein nitrogen (NPN) and a decrease in protein solubility. Proteolytic activity was observed in both starter-inoculated and non-inoculated (control) sausages during processing. Moreover, a slight increase in proteolytic activity was detected during storage in both starter-inoculated and control traditional sausages, and also in heat-processed sausages due to some heat-resistant proteolytic enzymes. Protein solubility was significantly affected by processing time and heat treatment. Sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar proteins were also affected by starter addition, fermentation, drying and heat processing. During fermentation, starter-inoculated and control sausages showed intense proteolysis in both the traditional and heat processing methods. After heating, intensive degradation of both sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar proteins due to denaturation was observed in heat-processed samples.     

Genetic components of days open under heat stress

A reaction norm approach was used to estimate the genetic parameters of days open (DO) with a model that accounted for heat stress. Data included DO records for Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina in the Southeastern United States. A fixed effect model included herd-year, month of calving (MOC), age of cow, and a regression on 305-d milk yield. The reaction norm model additionally included the effect of animal with random regression on a heat stress index (HI), calculated as the standardized solutions to MOC derived from the fixed effect model; the residual variance was assumed to be a function of the HI. The shape of the distribution of the HI was close to a sinusoidal function with the highest value in March/April and the lowest value in September. Genetic and residual variances and heritabilities were highest for spring calvings and lowest for fall calvings. The variance associated with the random regression of the highest level of HI was 33% of the genetic variance of the regular animal genetic effect. Genetic correlation between these effects was 0.67. As a validation, DO data were grouped into 4 seasons of calving and treated as different traits. A 4-trait mixed linear model that included the fixed effects listed above except MOC, was used to analyze the grouped data. In general, the estimates of genetic and residual variances of the multiple trait analyses followed those of the reaction norm model. Genetic correlations of spring with summer, and fall with winter were both 0.90. Genetic correlations between spring/summer and fall/winter were around 0.80. The reaction norm model for DO allows inexpensive genetic evaluation of fertility under heat stress. Results of such an evaluation may strongly depend on editing criteria and model specifications.     

Shortwave infrared hyperspectral imaging for detecting sour skin (Burkholderiacepacia)-infected onions

Sour skin (Burkholderiacepacia) is a major postharvest disease for onions and causes substantial production and economic losses in onion postharvest. In this study, a shortwave infrared hyperspectral imaging system was explored to detect sour skin. The hyperspectral reflectance images (950-1650 nm) of onions were obtained for the healthy and sour skin-infected onions. Principal component analysis conducted on the spectra of the healthy and sour skin-infected onions suggested that the neck area of the onion at two wavelengths (1070 and 1400 nm) was most indicative of the sour skin. Log-ratio images utilizing the two optimal wavelengths were used for two different image analysis approaches. The first method applied a global threshold (0.45) to segregate the sour skin-infected areas from log-ratio images. Using the pixel number of the segregated areas, Fisher’s discriminant analysis recognized 80% healthy and sour skin-infected onions. The second classification approach used three parameters (max, contrast, and homogeneity) of the log-ratio images as the input features of support vector machine (Gaussian kernel, γ = 1.5), which discriminated 87.14% healthy and sour skin-infected onions. The result of this study can be used to further develop a multispectral imaging system to detect sour skin-infected onions on packing lines.     

Photorealistic real‐time rendering of spherical raindrops with hierarchical reflective and refractive maps

Synthesizing rainy images is a common challenge found in film, game engines, driving simulators, and architectural design. Simulating light transport through a raindrop's optical properties is a view‐dependent problem, and large quantities of raindrops are required to produce a plausible rainy scene. Accurate methods for rendering raindrops exist but are often off‐line techniques that are cost prohibitive for real‐time applications. Most real‐time solutions use textures to approximate the appearance of moving raindrops as streaks. These approaches produce plausible results but do not address the problem of temporal effects such as slow‐motion or paused simulations. In such conditions, streak‐based approximations are not suitable, and proper raindrop geometry should be considered. This paper describes a straight‐forward approach for rendering raindrops in such temporal conditions. The proposed technique consists of a preprocessing stage that generates a raindrop mask and a run‐time stage that renders raindrops as screen‐aligned billboards. The mask's contents are adjusted on the basis of the viewpoint, viewing direction, and raindrop position. The proposed method renders millions of raindrops at real‐time rates in current graphics hardware, making it suitable for applications that require high‐visual quality without compromising performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MD地区雨季与干季地震采集差异性分析

MD地区属山区,近地表复杂多变,激发及接收条件差,地震资料信噪比低。为了获得较高品质的原始地震资料,分别在干季和雨季进行了野外资料对比采集;通过对不同季节施工的单炮记录和叠加剖面进行对比分析,认为在MD地区干季施工的地震资料品质要好于雨季施工的地震资料品质。研究结果对于该区后续地震采集及类似地区地震采集具有很好的借鉴意义。     

沼泽沉积环境的辫状河道特征及其识别方法

鄂尔多斯盆地二叠系石盒子组盒8砂岩岩性气藏属沼泽背景下的辫状河沉积。砂岩以粗砂岩、中粗砂岩和中砂岩为主。层理类型主要为块状层理、板状交错层理。沉积序列总体上呈下粗上细的正旋回。心滩沉积微相是最主要的有效储层沉积单元，其内部结构较均匀，伽马曲线表现为较平滑的低值箱状曲线特征。河道地震反射外形呈透镜状或顶平下凸的丘状，属差连续性、中振幅、上超充填地震相。在开发前期井少且井距大的情况下，综合应用地震、地质，测井、钻井等资料，利用地震波形聚类分析和古构造恢复方法进行河道识别，得到盒8期辫状河道平面分布特征。据此优选建产区块和部署开发井位，取得了较好效果。