Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Grazing Systems For Beef Cattle, John Johns

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Beef cattle represent the most important grazing livestock enterprise to Kentucky producers. As of January 1, 2003 there were 1,120,000 producing beef brood cows on 39,000 farms in the state. In addition, more than 600,000 yearling cattle are also produced. The number of total beef animals is increasing as producers put more economic reliance on beef and forage programs. In many cases, beef cattle represent the only practical method of converting high quality forage to income for producers.

Grazing Systems For Dairy, Donna M. Amaral-Phillips

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Forages which are grazed can provide anywhere from 25 to 100% of the forage consumed by growing dairy heifers, dry cows or the milking herd. In this paper, I would like to specifically deal with devising a grazing program for a dairy lactating or milking herd. Lactating dairy cows are a “high performance animal” and, as such, any decreases in the availability or quality of forage can quickly decrease milk production. Thus, the goal when designing a grazing system is to provide adequate quantities of high-quality, vegetative forage to prevent decreases in performance. These decreases in performance occur in all …

Opportunities For Warm Season Grasses, Ken Johnson

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Today I would like to do two things, first talk a little about warm season grasses, where they come from, and where they might fit in your grazing program; and second, talk about the four major native grass species and two introduced species.

Native warm season perennial grasses were an important part of the native forage species of Kentucky, supplying food and cover for deer, buffalo, and other wildlife when settlers arrived into Kentucky. With settlers plowing, overgrazing, and the introduction of other forages, Native Warm Season Grasses (NWSGs) were on the brink of extinction. These grasses included switchgrass, eastern …

Optimize Grazing--Minimize Stored Feed, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Grazing Conference

The title “Optimize Grazing – Minimize Stored Feed” appears to be a bit redundant at first glance. Indeed if we optimize grazing, we will certainly minimize the amount of stored feed required to winter our animals. Putting both concepts together can serve as a reminder of the tremendous benefit of both.

Grazing represents the cheapest source of nutrients for our beef industry. Several studies have shown that the best predictor of profitability in the beef industry is cost of stored feed. In Kentucky, specifically, that means cost/amount of hay required to winter on beef animals.

Foreword And Kfgc Award Winners [2003], Garry D. Lacefield, Christi L. Forsythe

Kentucky Grazing Conference

No abstract provided.

Giant Metamagnetic Moments In A Granular Fecl2-Fe Heterostructure, Sarbeswar Sahoo, Christian Binek, Wolfgang Kleemann

Christian Binek Publications

Giant moments are observed at low temperatures in a granular FeCl₂-Fe heterostructure owing to a local metamagnetic transformation of the antiferromagnetic (AF) FeCl₂ matrix due to dipolar interactions. A model of metamagnetically (MM) "dressed" single-domain Fe particles is suggested to explain the observations. These include polydispersive ac susceptibility induced by AF-MM domain configurations and weak exchange bias due to non-spin-flipped AF crystallites.

Hardware-Based Dynamic Storage Management For High-Performance And Real-Time Systems, Victor H. Lai

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Most modern application programs depend on dynamic storage management to handle allocation and deallocation of memory. Unfortunately conventional software-based storage managers are relatively low performance due to the latency associated with accessing DRAM memory. Consequently, developers of programs with very specialized memory requirements, such a real-time systems, often choose to manage memory manually at the application-code level. This practice can greatly increase performance but it can also significantly complicate the development process. In this thesis we present the design, VHDL implementation and performance evaluation of hardware-based storage manager called the Optimized Hardware Estranged Buddy System (OHEBS). The OHEBS implements four …

Weighting Adjustments For Unit Nonresponse With Multiple Outcome Variables, Sonya L. Vartivarian, Rod Little

The University of Michigan Department of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Weighting is a common form of unit nonresponse adjustment in sample surveys where entire questionnaires are missing due to noncontact or refusal to participate. Weights are inversely proportional to the probability of selection and response. A common approach computes the response weight adjustment cells based on covariate information. When the number of cells thus created is too large, a coarsening method such as response propensity stratification can be applied to reduce the number of adjustment cells. Simulations in Vartivarian and Little (2002) indicate improved efficiency and robustness of weighting adjustments based on the joint classification of the sample by two …

Search For The Flavor-Changing Neutral Current Decay D0→Μ +Μ - In Pp̅ Collisions At √S =1.96 Tev, Darin Acosta, Kenneth A. Bloom, Collider Detector At Fermilab Collaboration

Kenneth Bloom Publications

We report on a search for the flavor-changing neutral current decay D⁰→µ⁺µ^- in pp̅ collisions at √s =1.96 TeV using 65 pb^-1 of data collected by the CDF II experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. A displaced-track trigger selects long-lived D⁰ candidates in the D⁰→µ⁺µ^- search channel, the kinematically similar D⁰→ π⁺ π^- channel used for normalization, the Cabibbo-favored D⁰→ K^-π⁺ channel used to optimize the selection criteria in an unbiased manner, and their charge conjugates. Finding no signal …

Underestimation Of Standard Errors In Multi-Site Time Series Studies, Michael Daniels, Francesca Dominici, Scott L. Zeger

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

Multi-site time series studies of air pollution and mortality and morbidity have figured prominently in the literature as comprehensive approaches for estimating acute effects of air pollution on health. Hierarchical models are generally used to combine site-specific information and estimate pooled air pollution effects taking into account both within-site statistical uncertainty, and across-site heterogeneity.

Within a site, characteristics of time series data of air pollution and health (small pollution effects, missing data, highly correlated predictors, non linear confounding etc.) make modelling all sources of uncertainty challenging. One potential consequence is underestimation of the statistical variance of the site-specific effects to …

Incommensurate Spin Density Waves In Iron Aluminides, D. R. Noakes, A. S. Arrott, M. G. Belk, S. C. Deevi

Dartmouth Scholarship

Neutron diffraction in Fe(Al) reveals incommensurate spin density waves (SDWs) in alloys known to be spin glasses. The wave vectors for crystals of Fe(34Al), Fe(40Al), and Fe(43Al) show n varying from 11 to 6 for →q=2π(h±1/n,k±1/n,l±1/n)/a0, where (h,k,l) and a0 characterize the parent bcc lattice of the CsCl structure. The magnetic reflections are present far above the spin-glass freezing temperatures. These SDWs keep the spins on nearest-neighbor Fe atoms close to parallel, in contrast with SDWs in Cr, which keep nearest-neighbor spins close to antiparallel.

Estimating Predictors For Long- Or Short-Term Survivors, Lu Tian, Wei Wang, L. J. Wei

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Twin-Rainbow Metrology. I. Measurement Of The Thickness Of A Thin Liquid Film Draining Under Gravity, Charles L. Adler, James A. Lock, Ian P. Rafferty, Wayne Hickok

Physics Faculty Publications

We describe twin-rainbow metrology, a new optical technique used to measure the thickness of thin films in a cylindrical geometry. We also present an application of the technique: measurement of the thickness of a Newtonian fluid draining under gravity. We compare these measurements with fluid mechanics models. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.

Bomb-Pulse Chlorine-36 At The Proposed Yucca Mountain Repository Horizon: An Investigation Of Previous Conflicting Results And Collection Of New Data, Klaus J. Stetzenbach, Fred Phillips, Drew Coleman, Don Baepler, Amy J. Smiecinski

Publications (YM)

Previous studies by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) quantified ³⁶Cl/Cl to test for the presence of fast pathways at the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository. The goal of these studies was to determine whether or not fluids containing bomb-pulse ³⁶Cl/Cl traveled along fast travel pathways and reached the repository horizon, however, the two groups followed somewhat different procedures and produced conflicting results. The objective of this study is to attempt to determine the cause of the conflicting results and to obtain additional data to determine whether or …

Validating And Refining Clusters Via Visual Rendering, Keke Chen, Ling Liu

Kno.e.sis Publications

The automatic clustering algorithms are known to work well in dealing with clusters of regular shapes, e.g. compact spherical/elongated shapes, but may incur higher error rates when dealing with arbitrarily shaped clusters. Although some efforts have been devoted to addressing the problem of skewed datasets, the problem of handling clusters with irregular shapes is still in its infancy, especially in terms of dimensionality of the datasets and the precision of the clustering results considered. Not surprisingly, the statistical indices works ineffective in validating clusters of irregular shapes, too. We address the problem of clustering and validating arbitrarily shaped clusters with …

Domain Wall Solutions With Abelian Gauge Fields, J. S. Rozowsky, R. R. Volkas, K. C. Wali

Physics - All Scholarship

We study kink (domain wall) solutions in a model consisting of two complex scalar fields coupled to two independent Abelian gauge fields in a Lagrangian that has $U(1)\times U(1)$ gauge plus $\mathbb{Z}_2$ discrete symmetry. We find consistent solutions such that while the U(1) symmetries of the fields are preserved while in their respective vacua, they are broken on the domain wall. The gauge field solutions show that the domain wall is sandwiched between domains with constant magnetic fields.

Time-Series Studies Of Particulate Matter, Michelle L. Bell, Jonathan M. Samet, Francesca Dominici

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

Studies of air pollution and human health have evolved from descriptive studies of the early phenomena of large increases in adverse health effects following extreme air pollution episodes, to time-series analyses and the development of sophisticated regression models. In fact, advanced statistical methods are necessary to address the many challenges inherent in the detection of a small pollution risk in the presence of many confounders. This paper reviews the history, methods, and findings of the time-series studies estimating health risks associated with short-term exposure to particulate matter, though much of the discussion is applicable to epidemiological studies of air pollution …

Smooth Quantile Ratio Estimation With Regression: Estimating Medical Expenditures For Smoking Attributable Diseases, Francesca Dominici, Scott L. Zeger

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

In this paper we introduce a semi-parametric regression model for estimating the difference in the expected value of two positive and highly skewed random variables as a function of covariates. Our method extends Smooth Quantile Ratio Estimation (SQUARE), a novel estimator of the mean difference of two positive random variables, to a regression model.

The methodological development of this paper is motivated by a common problem in econometrics where we are interested in estimating the difference in the average expenditures between two populations, say with and without a disease, taking covariates into account. Let Y1 and Y2 be two positive …

Results Of Soy-Based Meal Replacement Formula On Weight, Anthropometry, Serum Lipids & Blood Pressure During A 40-Week Clinical Weight Loss Trial, Kevin R. Fontaine, Dongyan Yang, Gary L. Gadbury, Stanley Heshka, Linda G. Schwartz, Radha Murugesan, Jennifer L. Kraker, Moonseong Heo, Steven B. Heymsfield, David B. Allison

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Background: to evaluate the intermediate-term health outcomes associated with a soy-Based meal replacement, and to compare the weight loss efficacy of two distinct patterns of caloric restriction. Methods: Ninety overweight/obese (28 < BMI ≤ 41 kg/m2) adults received a single session of dietary counseling and were randomized to either 12 weeks at 1200 kcal/day, 16 weeks at 1500 kcal/d and 12 weeks at 1800 kcal/d (i.e., the 12/15/18 diet group), or 28 weeks at 1500 kcal/d and 12 weeks at 1800 kcal/d (i.e., the 15/18 diet group). Weight, body fat, waist circumference, blood pressure and serum lipid concentrations were measured at 4-week intervals throughout the 40-week trial. Results: Subjects in both treatments showed statistically significant improvements in outcomes. a regression model for weight change suggests that subjects with larger baseline weights tended to lose more weight and subjects in the 12/15/18 group tended to experience, on average, an additional 0.9 kg of weight loss compared with subjects in the 15/18 group. Conclusion: Both treatments using the soy-Based meal replacement program were associated with significant and comparable weight loss and improvements on selected health variables.

Acute And Chronic Toxicity Of Compound Drc-1339 (3-Chloro-4-Methylaniline Hydrochloride) To Birds, John D. Eisemann, Patricia A. Pipas, John L. Cummings

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

DRC-1339( 3-chloro-4-methylaniline hydrochloride) is the only toxicant currently registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) for lethal bird control. DRC-1339 was first registered in 1967 for starling control at feedlots It may currently be used to manage blackbirds, rock doves, crows, ravens, magpies, gulls and starlings for purposes of protecting human health and safety, agricultural crops and threatened or endangered species. A large body of toxicity information is available because of the nature of DRC-1339 uses and its 35-year history of use. Laboratory testing has resulted in estimates of median lethal dose (LD₅₀) for 55 species of …

A Review Of The Range, Distribution, And Ecology Of The Invasive Northern Curly-Tailed Lizard In Florida, Henry T. Smith, Richard M. Engeman

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We examined the distribution and ecology of the exotic northern curly-tailed lizard (Leiocephalus carinatus armouri) in Florida. Published literature and especially unpublished documents and data were reviewed and synthesized. Our findings suggest that both the range and distribution of the Florida population have expanded at a rapid rate during the last 60 years. Ecological effects or this species on Florida's native lizards and other fauna have not been quantified and require thorough evaluation.

Nontarget Bird Exposure To Drc-1339 During Fall In North Dakota And Spring In South Dakota, Thomas W. Custer, Christine M. Custer, Paul M. Dummer, George M. Linz, Louis Sileo, Randal S. Stahl, John J. Johnston

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Blackbirds frequently use ripening sunflower (Helianthus annuus)as a food source in the northern Great Plains. In 1999 and 2000, the avicide DRC-1339 (3-chloro-4-methylaniline hydrochloride) was used experimentally on fall-ripening sunflower fields in North Dakota so researchers could evaluate its effectiveness for reducing crop depredations by blackbirds DRC-1339 was applied to rice and broadcast on the ground in a confined area within ripening sunflower fields. One objective of this study was to determine if nontarget birds, birds other than blackbirds, were eating rice and were exposed to DRC 1339. In 1999, 8 of 11(73%) sparrows collected by shotgun in sunflower fields …

Understanding Blackbird Sensory Systems And How Repellent Applications Work, Scott J. Werner, Larry Clark

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We reviewed the learning processes and sensory capabilities of birds, with a special emphasis on chemical repellents and wildlife damage management. Repellents include several methods and devices used to manipulate behavior of birds in attempt to reduce damage or nuisance. Effective applications of chemical repellents to reduce bird damages are dependant upon an adequate understanding of the sensory modalities and modes of animal learning that are affected by a repellent. Chemical repellents can elicit withdrawal from specific or combined sensory stimuli or by producing learned avoidance via association between adverse postingestive effects and specific sensory cues. The application of repellents …

Dietary Toxicity Test For 2% Drc-1339-Treated Brown Rice On Nontarget Avian Species, John L. Cummings, Darryl L. York, Kirk J. Shively, Patricia A. Pipas, Randal S. Stahl, James E. Davis Jr.

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In Louisiana and Texas DRC-l339 treated brown rice is used to manage blackbird populations that cause severe damage to newly planted rice. Non-target bird species have been observed on some DRC-1339 bait sites. We conducted dietary toxicity tests to provide additional data on the toxicity of DRC-l339 to the following non-target species observed on DRC-1339 bait sites: savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis), Canada geese (Branta canadensis), snow geese (Chen caerulescens), mourning doves (Zenarda macroura), western meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta), and American tree sparrows (Spizella arborea). During our 5-day DRC-1339 dietary …

Estimating The Number Of Nonbreeding Male Red-Winged Blackbirds In Central North Dakota, Richard S. Sawin, George M. Linz, Ryan L. Wimberly, Mark W. Lutman, William J. Bleier

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Red-winged blackbirds (Agelauis phoeniceus) have a polygynous breeding system that results in a group of nonbreeding males (floaters) who are unable to obtain territories. Floaters are often unaccounted for in population estimates during the breeding season because they are difficult to locate. We used a series of removals to estimate the population of non-breeding after-second-year male red-winged blackbirds in two townships in the northern Great Plains. The number of floaters determines the level of competition for vacant territories. In our study population, we estimated there were more floaters than territorial males, indicating that competition for vacant territories was …

Nontarget Bird Use Of Drc-1339 Bait Sites During Operational Baiting Programs In Louisiana And Texas, Patricia A. Pipas, John L. Cummings, John D. Eisemann, Richard M. Engeman

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Nontarget bird use of DRC-1339 bait sites was assessed during operational baiting programs from 2000-2002 in Louisiana and from 2001-2002 in Texas. DRC-1339 is an avicide registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to manage blackbirds causing damage to agriculture. It was used in Louisiana between 15 February to 15 March and in Texas from January though March to protect newly planted rice. In Louisiana, there were 55 bait sites observed during 316 observation periods (158 observation hours) and 312 flush-counts conducted from 2000-2002. In Texas, there were 26 bait sites observed during 182 observation periods (91 observation hours) and …

Amount And Economic Valuation Of Feral Hog Damage To A Unique Basin Marsh Wetland In Florida, Richard M. Engeman, Henry T. Smith, Robert G. Severson, Mary Ann M. Severson, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Bernice Constantin, Daniel Griffin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Feral hogs (Sus scrofa) have been introduced into many natural habitats throughout the world, and they have adversely affected the environment in most of those places. Basin marshes are unique, but dwindling ecosystems in Florida that are especially vulnerable to damage by feral hogs. We estimated the amount of hog damage to the last remnant of a basin marsh system in Savannas Preserve State Park (SPSP), and to ecotones within the marsh. We also applied an economic valuation method for the hog damage that was based on the dollar amounts that wetland regulators have allowed permit applicants to …

Reducing Blackbird-Human Conflicts In Agriculture And Feedlots: New Methods For An Integrated Management Approach, George M. Linz, H. Jeffrey Homan, Linda B. Penry, Philip Mastrangelo

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In the United States, blackbirds are abundant and widely distributed. with their winter populations estimated to be between 500 million and 1 billion. Annual damage to grain, fruit, and berry crops from blackbirds exceeds $100 million in direct costs. Additional costs, not estimated, include those spent to prevent human health and safety hazards and those from damage abatement efforts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services (WS) is charged with reducing the magnitude of health. safety, nuisance, agriculture, and feedlot/dairy problems caused by these birds. WS' goal is to improve profitability to agricultural producers, enhance the human health and safety, …

Long Coherence Times At 300 K For Nitrogen-Vacancy Center Spins In Diamond Grown By Chemical Vapor Deposition, John S. Colton, T. A. Kennedy, J. E. Butler, R. C. Linares, P.J. Doering

Faculty Publications

Electron-spin-echo experiments reveal phase-memory times as long as 58 μs at 300 K for nitrogen-vacancy centers in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) single crystals. The spins were optically polarized and optically detected. Two high-quality CVD samples were studied. From the current results, it is not clear whether these phase-memory times represent a fundamental limit or are limited by an external source of decoherence.

Intercontinental Transport Of Pollution Manifested In The Variability And Seasonal Trend Of Springtime O3 At Northern Middle And High Latitudes, Yuhang Wang, Changsub Shim, Nicola J. Blake, D R. Blake, Yunsoo Choi, Brian Ridley, Jack E. Dibb, Anthony Wimmers, Jennie Moody, F Flocke, Andrew Weinheimer, R. Talbot, Elliot Atlas

Earth Sciences

Observations (0–8 km) from the Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox (TOPSE) experiment are analyzed to examine air masses contributing to the observed variability of springtime O₃ and its seasonal increase at 40°–85°N over North America. Factor analysis using the positive matrix factorization and principal component analysis methods is applied to the data set with 14 chemical tracers (O₃, NO_y, PAN, CO, CH₄, C₂H₂, C₃H₈, CH₃Cl, CH₃Br, C₂Cl₄, CFC-11, HCFC-141B, Halon-1211, and ⁷Be) and one …