Effect of forage conservation method, concentrate level and propylene glycol on the fatty acid composition and vitamin content of cows' milk

Based on potential health benefits, there is a need to develop effective strategies for enhancing milk fat concentrations of cis-9 18:1, 18:3 n-3 and conjugated linoleic (CLA) content in milk without compromising the sensory or storage characteristics of processed milk or dairy products. Sixteen Finnish Ayrshire dairy cows were used in a cyclic change-over experiment with four 21-d experimental periods and a 4 x 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments to evaluate the effects of forage conservation method, concentrate level and supplements of propylene glycol (PG), and their interactions on milk fatty acid composition and vitamin content. Experimental treatments consisted of four conserved forages offered ad libitum, supplemented with two levels of a standard concentrate (7 or 10 kg/d) and PG (0 and 210 g/d) fed as three equal meals. Primary growths of timothy and meadow fescue sward were conserved by ensiling with none (NA), an inoculant enzyme preparation (IE) or a formic acid based (FORM) additive or as hay 1 week later. Conservation of grass by drying rather than ensiling resulted in lower forage 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, total fatty acid and fat-soluble vitamin concentrations. In spite of lower intakes, milk fat 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3 content was higher (P < 0.05) for hay than for silage diets (12.1, 9.6, 9.6 and 9.3 and 5.00, 3.51, 4.27 and 2.93 g/kg total fatty acids, for hay, NA, IE and FORM silages, respectively). Forage conservation method had no clear effects on milk trans 18:1 or CLA content. Compared with silage, hay diets resulted in milk containing lower (P < 0.001) riboflavin, alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene concentrations, but had no effect on ascorbic acid, thiamine, pyridoxine or retinol content. Feeding more concentrates had no effect on milk fatty acid composition or milk vitamin content, other than lowering (P < 0.001) 16:0 concentrations from 348 to 338 g/kg fatty acids. Supplements of PG led to small (P < 0.05) increases in milk 13:0 anteiso and 15:0 content from 1.06 and 11.3 to 1.22 and 12.6 g/kg fatty acids and reduced (P < 0.05) the concentrations of ascorbic acid (16.1 v. 15.1 g/kg milk).     

Synthesis of Hand Clapping Sounds

We present two physics-based analysis, synthesis, and control systems for synthesizing hand clapping sounds. They both rely on the separation of the sound synthesis and event generation, and both are capable of producing individual hand-claps, or mimicking the asynchronous/synchronized applause of a group of clappers. The synthesis models consist of resonator filters, whose coefficients are derived from experimental measurements. The difference between these systems is mainly in the statistical event generation. While the first system allows an efficient parametric synthesis of large audiences, as well as flocking and synchronization by simple rules, the second one provides parametric extensions for synthesis of various clapping styles and enhanced control strategies. The synthesis and the control models of both systems are implemented as software running in real time at the audio sample rate, and they are available for download at at http://ccrma-www.stanford.edu/software/stk and http://www.acoustics.hut.fi/go/clapd     

Semi-supervised context adaptation: case study of audience excitement recognition

To recognise just the same human reaction (for example, a strong excitement) in different contexts, customary behaviours in these contexts have to be taken into account; e.g. a happy sport audience may be cheering for long time, while a happy theatrical audience may produce only short bursts of laughter in order to not interrupt the performance. Tailoring recognition algorithms to contexts can be achieved by building either a context-specific or a generic system. The former is individually trained for each context to recognise sets of characteristic responses, whereas the latter??in contrast to the context-specific one??adapts to the context via significantly more lightweight modification of parameters. This paper follows the latter way and proposes a simple modification of a hidden Markov model (HMM) classifier that enables end users to adapt the generic system to a context or a personal perception of an annotator by labelling a fairly small number of data samples of each context. For better adaptability to the limited number of the user??s annotations, the proposed semi-supervised HMM classifier employs the maximum posterior marginal, rather than the more conventional maximum a posteriori decision rule. The proposed user- and context-adaptable semi-supervised HMM classifier was tested on recognising excitement of a show audience in three contexts (a concert hall, a circus, and a sport event), differing in how the excitement is expressed. In our experiments the proposed classifier recognised reactions of a non-neutral audience with 10% higher accuracy than the conventional HMM and support vector machine based classifiers.     

Heart block caused by hyperkalemia as a complication of ureteroileostomy

Report case of a patient who, after an ureteroileostomy, developed complete atrioventricular block secondary to severe hyperkaliemia, a condition for which no references have been found in the literature. Special mention is made of the mechanisms which trigger the electrolytic changes in these by-pass techniques.     

Familial hypercholesterolemia in the Finnish north Karelia. A molecular, clinical, and genealogical study

A specific mutation termed FH-North Karelia [FH-NK] accounts for almost 90% of familial hypercholesterolemia [FH] cases in the Finnish North Karelia, with a population of about 180,000. Extensive search for its presence in the entire North Karelia province revealed 340 carriers of this mutation. Other mutations of the LDL receptor [LDLR] gene accounted for 67 cases of heterozygous FH. This gives a minimum FH prevalence of 1 in 441 inhabitants in North Karelia, with the highest density of patients in the Polvij?rvi commune (1 in 143 inhabitants). Old parish records, confirmation records, and tax records were used to track a common ancestor for most of the present-day North Karelian FH-NK patients in the village of Puso, located within an area where the FH prevalence today is the highest. DNA analysis indicated that 2% of the subjects aged 1 to 25 years would have been diagnosed as false-negative and 7% as false-positive FH patients on the basis of LDL cholesterol [LDL-C] determinations alone. Common genetic variations of apolipoprotein E [apoE], XbaI, polymorphism of apolipoprotein B [apoB], and PvuII polymorphism of the intact LDLR allele contributed little to serum lipid variation in established carriers of the FH-NK allele, although apoE2/4 genotype and the presence of the PvuII restriction site tended to be associated with relatively low LDL-C levels. Coronary heart disease (CHD) was present in 65 (30%) out of the 179 FH gene carriers aged > or = 25 years, and 19 individuals had a previous history of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The average age (mean +/- SD) at onset of CHD was 42 +/- 7 years for males and 48 +/- 11 years for females (P < .05). In stepwise logistic regression analysis carried out in carriers of the FH-NK allele, age, gender, smoking, and apoE allele E2 all emerged as independent determinants of risk of CHD or AMI. It may be concluded that the relatively high prevalence of FH patients in North Karelia province provides a unique founder population in which genetic and nongenetic factors modifying the course of FH can be effectively investigated.     

A View-Based Approach for Construction Process Modeling

Abstract: A number of process modeling methods are used for modeling construction projects. These methods are often rigid and cannot be modified to meet specific requirements. The generic construction process modeling method (GEPM) has been developed to overcome the deficiencies of the existing methods, such as scheduling, IDEF0, and simple flow methods. GEPM has borrowed some features from the above methods and thus, users can interact with a GEPM model through partial models or views that represent scheduling, IDEF0, and simple flow. These views are of particular importance to industry practitioners. A well-documented construction project was used as a test case material for the evaluation of GEPM and for finding out conversion rules between the methods. More modeling power is obtained for construction process modeling because a GEPM model represents more features of real systems than the other methods. In addition, a procedure for creating a project-specific model from a reference model, defined as an IDEF0 model, has been suggested.     

ANALYSIS OF FATIGUE CRACK PROPAGATION UNDER BIAXIAL LOADING USING AN INCLINED STRIP YIELD ZONE MODEL OF CRACK TIP PLASTICITY

The work reported in this paper is based upon an inclined strip yield zone model of crack tip plasticity under biaxial remote loading. Equations are developed to predict fatigue crack growth rate under steady state conditions. A qualitative agreement between model predictions and experimental data is shown.     

Towards an elastic-plastic fracture mechanics predictive capability for reactor piping

Intergranular stress corrosion cracks have been discovered in the recirculation bypass piping and core spray lines of several boiling water reactor (BWR) plants. These cracks initiate in heat-affected zones of girth welds and grow circumferentially by combined stress corrosion and fatigue. Reactor piping is mainly type 304 stainless steel, a material which exhibits high ductility and toughness. A test program described in this paper demonstrates that catastrophic crack growth in these materials is preceded by considerable amounts of stable crack growth accompanied by large plastic deformation. Thus, conventional linear elastic fracture mechanics, which only applies to the initiation of crack growth in materials behaving in a predominantly linear elastic fashion, is inadequate for a failure analysis of reactor piping.This paper is based upon research initiated by a need to develop a realistic failure prediction and a way to delineate leak-before-break conditions for reactor piping. An effective engineering solution for the type of cracks that have been discovered in BWR plants was first developed. This was based upon a simple net section flow stress criterion. Subsequent work to develop an elastic-plastic fracture mechanics methodology has also been pursued. A survey of progress being made is described in this paper. This work is based on the use of finite element models together with experimental results to identify criteria appropriate for the onset of crack extension and for stable crack growth. A number of criteria have been evaluated. However, the optimum fracture criterion has not yet been determined, even for conditions which do not include all of the complications involved in reactor piping.     

The development of a fluid/structure interaction model for flawed fluid containment boundaries with applications to gas transmission and distribution piping

In most instances, dynamic fracture mechanics analyses of structural components can safely assume that the external loads are independent of the crack propagation and arrest event. However, for pressure vessels and pipelines this will not always be the case. Here the flow of the contained medium through the crack opening can play a significant role in dictating the crack driving forces. Typical of this important class of problems is rapid crack propagation along the axial direction of a gas pipeline. Accordingly, a computational model has recently been developed to effect a detailed analysis of this problem that accounts for the high degree of interaction between the escaping gas and the pipe wall movement during the propagation event. For this purpose, a three-dimensional finite difference fluid dynamics code has been linked with a shell finite element code. In this paper comparisons are made between the model predictions in steady state conditions with available full scale burst data for steel transmission pipelines to assess the veracity of the coupled analysis model. Applications to polyethylene gas distribution piping systems are then made with the validated model.     

Elastic-plastic finite element analyses of stable crack growth and fracture instability in a girth welded pipe

Detailed elastic-plastic finite element fracture mechanics analyses were conducted on a 16 inch diameter Type 304 stainless steel pipe containing a circumferential through-wall crack located in a girth weld. Calculations were performed to analyze the welded pipe treated as (1) a monolithic pipe entirely composed of the base metal, and (2) a composite of base metal and weldment. In the latter, each constituent was assigned distinct mechanical and fracture properties. In both solutions applied J values were calculated for a fixed axial load combined with a monotonically increasing applied bending moment. The material J-resistance curves appropriate for the two problems were each used to initiate and grow the initial crack in a stable manner until fracture instability occurred under load control. It was found that the extent of stable crack growth and the applied loads at fracture instability are distinctly different in the two analyses. It is concluded that more precise fracture mechanics approaches than those now in current use are required for accurate assessments of weld cracking problems.