Colostrum source and passive immunity transfer in dairy bull calves

Colostrum is essential for good neonate health; however, it is not known whether different calves absorb the nutrients from colostrum equally well. In this study, the absorption of protein, IgG, and γ-glutamyl transferase was compared in newborn dairy bull calves for 1 wk after feeding colostrum from different sources. Thirty-five Holstein-Friesian bull calves were randomly allocated into 3 groups and fed colostrum within 4 h after birth. Group A calves (n = 12) were bottle fed colostrum from their own dam for 3 d. Colostrum from these group A cows was also used as foster cow colostrum for the group B calves (n = 12), such that each group A and B calf pair received identical colostrum from each milking of the respective group A dam (10% of birth weight per day). The group C calves (n = 11) were fed 1 bottle (2 L) of pooled colostrum and transition milk (referred to as pooled colostrum), as was the standard practice on the dairy farm. The pooled colostrum was collected from the other dairy cows on the farm 0 to 4 d postpartum and stored at 4°C for less than 12 h. Blood was sampled from calves before the first feeding and at 1, 2, 3, and 7 d after birth. Levels of total solids, total protein, and IgG were higher in the dam colostrum than in the pooled colostrum. At birth, there were no differences between the calf groups for any measurements, and all calves had very low IgG levels. After receiving colostrum, the glucose, plasma γ-glutamyl transferase, serum total protein, and IgG concentrations increased significantly in all calves. There were no differences in any blood measurements at any time point between the pairs of group A and group B calves that received colostrum from the same cow except for the IgG concentration 2 d after birth. However, the group A calves had a higher total serum protein level and IgG concentration than the group C calves for all the time points after the first feeding. The group B calves had a higher IgG concentration than the group C calves on d 1, 2, and 7 after birth. Compared with groups A and B, there was no difference in the proportion of calves in group C that failed to have passive immunity transferred adequately based on the IgG threshold (<10 g/L). Thus, the calves receiving identical colostrum from the same cow had the same levels of IgG, and even the pooled colostrum provided sufficient transfer of IgG as the calves were fed within 4 h after birth.     

Differential Game for Distributed Power Control in Device-to-Device Communications Underlaying Cellular Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - In the formulating of power control for wireless networks, the radio channel is commonly formulated using static models of optimization or game theory. In these...     

Effect of Supports and Promoters on the Performance of Ni-Based Catalysts in Ethanol Steam Reforming

Ethanol steam reforming (ESR) is one of the potential processes to convert ethanol into valuable products. Hydrogen produced from ESR is considered as green energy for the future and can be an excellent alternative to fossil fuels with the aim of mitigating the greenhouse gas effect. The ESR process has been well studied, using transition metals as catalysts coupled with both acidic and basic oxides as supports. Among various reported transition metals, Ni is an inexpensive material with activity comparable to that of noble metals, showing promising ethanol conversion and hydrogen yields. Additionally, different promoters and supports were utilized to enhance the hydrogen yield and the catalyst stability. This review summarizes and discusses the influences of the supports and promoters of Ni-based catalysts on the ESR process.     

浅谈越南三岛国家公园森林资源的影响研究

越南太原省大慈县文安乡位于三岛国家公园管理处,社区居民生活困难,收入低,所以目前森林资源侵害状况依然存在。其中,25-50岁的群人对森林资源的影响最大,50岁以上和16岁以下的群人对森林资源的影响较小。人们对森林资源的影响是:伐木,狩猎动物,收集柴火,收集蔬菜,收集竹笋、药用植物。统计结果表明,天然林中具有18种树木经常被开发利用,常用木柴12种,药用29种,食用17种。7种动物经常被猎食。这些影响使得森林结构相当大改变,生物多样性减少,森林结构破坏。造成这种情况的主要原因是人们意识不高,缺乏工作机会,缺乏耕种土地,农业生产没有满足用户的需求。因此,必要有有关部门的协调在违法森林法的处理,为人民改善物质和精神生活,教育宣传和提高执法的认识     

On Deciding Readiness and Failure Equivalences for Processes

In this paper, we study the complexity of deciding readiness and failure equivalences for finite state processes and recursively defined processes specified by normed context-free grammars (CFGs) in Greibach normal form (GNF). The results are as follows: (1) Readiness and failure equivalences for processes specified by normed GNF CFGs are both undecidable. For this class of processes, the regularity problem with respect to failure or readiness equivalence is also undecidable. Moreover, all these undecidability results hold even for locally unary processes. In the unary case, these problems become decidable. In fact, they are Π^p₂-complete, We also show that with respect to bisimulation equivalence, the regularity for processes specified by normed GNF CFGs is NL-complete. (2) Readiness and failure equivalences for finite state processes are PSPACE-complete. This holds even for locally unary finite state processes. These two equivalences are co-NP-complete for unary finite state processes. Further, for acyclic finite state processes, readiness and failure equivalences are co-NP-complete and they are NL-complete in the unary case. (3) For finite tree processes, we show that finite trace, readiness, and failure equivalences are all L-complete. Further, the results remain true for the unary case. Our results provide a complete characterization of the computational complexity of deciding readiness and failure equivalences for several important classes of processes.     

Operations standards for global ATM networks: network element view

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has completed work on a series of standards on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) equipment functional operations and network element management. The objective of these standards is to enable flexible design and interoperability of network elements for use in a global ATM network, independent of any specific implementation. This article discusses these standards with respect to their development and application in planning ATM networks. Specifically, it addresses the following: the modeling approach taken in the development of the ITU standards, key operational features specified in the ATM network element functional model, and the capabilities of the ATM network element management interface. Examples of ATM equipment are provided to illustrate how the functional models specified in the ITU standards may be used by network planners and equipment manufacturers to specify and develop ATM equipment tailored to specific needs, while ensuring network interoperability. The article concludes with some points on the future enhancement of these and related ATM equipment operations standards     

Purification and characterization of an alpha1,2,-L-fucosyltransferase, which modifies the cytosolic protein FP21,from the cytosol of Dictyostelium

A novel fucosyltransferase (cFTase) activity has been enriched over 10(6)-fold from the cytosolic compartment of Dictyostelium based on transfer of [3H]fucose from GDP-[3H]fucose to Galbeta1,3 GlcNAc beta-paranitrophenyl (paranitrophenyl-lacto-N-bioside or pNP-LNB). The activity behaved as a single component during purification over DEAE-, phenyl-, Reactive Blue-4-, GDP-adipate-, GDP-hexanolamine-, and Superdex gel filtration resins. The purified activity possessed an apparent Mr of 95 X 10(3), was Mg2+-dependent with a neutral pH optimum, and exhibited a Km for GDP-fucose of 0.34 microM, a Km for pNP-LNB of 0.6 mM, and a Vmax for pN-P-LNB of 620 nmol/min/mg protein. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis of the Superdex elution profile identified a polypeptide with an apparent Mr of 85 X 10(3), which coeluted with the cFTase activity and could be specifically photolabeled with the donor substrate inhibitor GDP-hexanolaminyl-azido-125I-salicylate. Based on substrate analogue studies, exoglycosidase digestions, and co-chromatography with fucosylated standards, the product of the reaction with pNP-LNB was Fucalpha1, 2Galbeta1,3GIcNAcbeta-pNP. The cFTase preferred substrates with a Galbeta1,3linkage, and thus its acceptor substrate specificity resembles the human Secretor-type alpha1,2- FTase. Afucosyl isoforms of the FP21 glycoprotein, GP21-I and GP21-II, were purified from the cytosol of a Dictyostelium mutant and found to be substrates for the cFTase, which exhibited an apparent K(m) of 0.21 microM and an apparent V(max) of 460 nmol/min/mg protein toward GP21-II. The highly purified cFTase was inhibited by the reaction products Fucalpha1,2Galbeta1,3GlcNAcbeta-pNP and FP21-II. FP21-I and recombinant FP21 were not inhibitory, suggesting that acceptor substrate specificity is based primarily on carbohydrate recognition. A cytosolic location for this step of FP21 glycosylation is implied by the isolation of the cFTase from the cytosolic fraction, its high affinity for its substrates, and its failure to be detected in crude membrane preparations.     

Performance analysis of a COFDM/FM in-band digital audiobroadcasting system

In this paper, we present a performance analysis of a coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing DAB system that is power multiplexed over a commercial FM station. We model the mobile channel with a time-frequency scattering function. Results show that the performance of the FM demodulator is crucial, since the level of the residual FM signal has a strong influence on the BER performance of the COFDM system. As with other mobile communication systems, the use of interleaving greatly enhances the performances     

Integrating local action elements for action analysis

In this paper, we propose a framework for human action analysis from video footage. A video action sequence in our perspective is a dynamic structure of sparse local spatial–temporal patches termed action elements, so the problems of action analysis in video are carried out here based on the set of local characteristics as well as global shape of a prescribed action. We first detect a set of action elements that are the most compact entities of an action, then we extend the idea of Implicit Shape Model to space time, in order to properly integrate the spatial and temporal properties of these action elements. In particular, we consider two different recipes to construct action elements: one is to use a Sparse Bayesian Feature Classifier to choose action elements from all detected Spatial Temporal Interest Points, and is termed discriminative action elements. The other one detects affine invariant local features from the holistic Motion History Images, and picks up action elements according to their compactness scores, and is called generative action elements. Action elements detected from either way are then used to construct a voting space based on their local feature representations as well as their global configuration constraints. Our approach is evaluated in the two main contexts of current human action analysis challenges, action retrieval and action classification. Comprehensive experimental results show that our proposed framework marginally outperforms all existing state-of-the-arts techniques on a range of different datasets.