16 research outputs found
Effect of moving dairy cows at different stages of labor on behavior during parturition
No full textCows are often moved from a group to an individual maternity pen just before calving. However, it is unclear whether moving cows during labor may alter their behavior or affect the progress of labor. The aim of this study was to determine if moving cows to a maternity pen at different stages of labor would influence calving behavior or the length of the second stage of labor. Seventy-nine multiparous Holstein dairy cows were moved from 1 of 2 group pens to 1 of 10 maternity pens adjacent to each group pen either 3 d before expected calving date or when one or more behavioral or physical signs of labor were observed. These signs were noted, and were used to retrospectively categorize cows into 1 of 3 movement categories: (1) moved before labor, (2) moved during early stage I labor (signs of suddenly tense and enlarged udder, raised tail or relaxed pelvic ligaments; could also be immediately prelabor), or (3) moved during late stage I labor (signs of viscous, bloody mucus or abdominal contractions; could also be transitioning to stage II labor). Calves were weighed within 12h of birth and remained with their dam for 3 d. The length of the second stage of labor (the time between first abdominal contractions to the delivery the calf) and the total time of abdominal contractions, lying time, and number of position changes from standing to lying made by the cow in the hour before calving were recorded. A single blood sample was taken from the jugular vein of cows 3 to 27h after calving to determine content of haptoglobin, a marker of systemic inflammation. The effect of movement category on length of the second stage of labor and behavioral variables was tested with ANOVA; category was a fixed effect and calf body weight (BW) and cow parity were covariates. The relationship between haptoglobin and the length of the second stage of labor was tested in a model with time of sampling relative to calving as a covariate. Cows moved during late stage I had the longest labor, but did not have longer contractions compared with cows in the other categories. These same cows spent half as much time lying in the 1h before calving compared with cows in the other categories, but did not differ in the number of position changes from standing to lying. We did not have the power to test the effect of movement category on haptoglobin, but cows with longer stage II labor had higher haptoglobin postcalving. Moving cows to a maternity pen during the late part of the first stage of labor caused a delay in the second stage of labor, and this was likely driven by altered lying behavior
Direct Shaping of Minimum and Maximum Singular Values: An H<sub>-</sub>/H<sub>∞</sub> Synthesis Approach for Fault Detection Filters
No full textThe performance of fault detection filters relies on a high sensitivity to faults and a low sensitivity to disturbances. The aim of this paper is to develop an approach to directly shape these sensitivities, expressed in terms of minimum and maximum singular values. The developed method offers an alternative solution to the H-/H∞ synthesis problem, building upon traditional multiobjective synthesis results. The result is an optimal filter synthesized via iterative convex optimization and the approach is particularly useful for fault diagnosis as illustrated by a numerical example.Team Jan-Willem van Wingerde
Filtered Split-Path Nonlinear Integrator: A Hybrid Controller for Transient Performance Improvement
No full textThe filtered split-path nonlinear integrator (F-SPANI) is a generic nonlinear controller designed to improve the transient performance of linear (motion) systems in terms of overshoot. The main idea underlying F-SPANI is that the amplitude and phase of an integrator can be tuned using independent filters, resulting in more efficient use of the buffer of the integrator. In this article, a general description of F-SPANI is presented. In addition, a stability analysis result is presented that provides sufficient conditions in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) for closed-loop stability analysis on the basis of construction of a common quadratic Lyapunov function (CQLF). The ease of the design, implementation, and the potential of the proposed controller are illustrated both in simulations and in experiments on an industrial pick-and-place machine.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Team Bart De Schutte
Phylogenomics Reveals Ancient Gene Tree Discordance in the Amphibian Tree of Life
No full textThe Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists. Molecular phylogenies have yielded strong support for many parts of the amphibian Tree of Life, but poor support for the resolution of deeper nodes, including relationships among families and orders. To clarify these relationships, we provide a phylogenomic perspective on amphibian relationships by developing a taxon-specific Anchored Hybrid Enrichment protocol targeting hundreds of conserved exons which are effective across the class. After obtaining data from 220 loci for 286 species (representing 94% of the families and 44% of the genera), we estimate a phylogeny for extant amphibians and identify gene tree-species tree conflict across the deepest branches of the amphibian phylogeny. We perform locus-by-locus genealogical interrogation of alternative topological hypotheses for amphibian monophyly, focusing on interordinal relationships. We find that phylogenetic signal deep in the amphibian phylogeny varies greatly across loci in a manner that is consistent with incomplete lineage sorting in the ancestral lineage of extant amphibians. Our results overwhelmingly support amphibian monophyly and a sister relationship between frogs and salamanders, consistent with the Batrachia hypothesis. Species tree analyses converge on a small set of topological hypotheses for the relationships among extant amphibian families. These results clarify several contentious portions of the amphibian Tree of Life, which in conjunction with a set of vetted fossil calibrations, support a surprisingly younger timescale for crown and ordinal amphibian diversification than previously reported. More broadly, our study provides insight into the sources, magnitudes, and heterogeneity of support across loci in phylogenomic data sets.[AIC; Amphibia; Batrachia; Phylogeny; gene tree-species tree discordance; genomics; information theory.].This work was supported by grants from a graduate student research award from the Society of Systematic Biologists and the University of Kentucky G.F. Ribble Endowment (to P.M.H.), by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES/BEX 2806/09-6 to P.L.V.P.), and by the National Science Foundation (DEB-0949532 and DEB-1355000 to D.W.W., DEB-1120516 to E.M.L., IIP-1313554 to A.R.L. and E.M.L, DEB-1355071 to J.M.B., DEB-1441719 to R.A.P., DEB-1311442 to P.L.V.P., DEB-1354506 to R.C.T., DEB-1021247 to E.P. and C.J.R., DEB-1021299 to K.M. Kjer, and DEB-1257610, DEB-0641023, DEB-0423286, and DEB-9984496 to C.J.R.), and the Australian Research Council (DP120104146 to J.S.K. and S.C.D.). S.R.R. thanks SENESCYT (Arca de Noé Initiative; SRR and O. Torres-Carvajal principal investigators) for funding for tissue collection. J.L. was supported by the Systematics Association and the Linnean Society Systematics Research Fund. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-3048109801 to P.M.H.) and by the National Science Foundation-supported National Center for Supercomputing Applications Blue Waters Graduate Research Fellowship Program (under Grant No. 0725070, subaward 15836, to P.M.H.). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation
Altmetric analysis of the contemporary scientific literature in Endodontology
No full textAim
To analyse and visualize the knowledge structure of scientific articles in the field of Endodontology with high altmetric attention scores to discover hot topics, active researchers and the journals involved.
Methodology
On 5 June 2019, the altmetric database (Altmetric LLP, London, UK) was searched using the titles of 11 endodontic journals. Bibliometric data from endodontic articles and journals with an altmetric score >5 (top 5%) were retrieved from PubMed and analysed using the VOSviewer. Science mapping of articles with an altmetric score >5 at two levels was created: author keywords co‐occurrence and co‐authorship network analysis.
Results
Of the 2197 articles in the field of Endodontology identified with altmetrics, 192 had altmetric scores >5 (top 5%). Considering the total mentions amongst all altmetric resources, the Journal of Endodontics had the highest rank followed by the International Endodontic Journal and Australian Endodontic Journal. Twitter was the most popular altmetric data resource followed by patents and Facebook. Meta‐analysis, systematic review and pulpitis were the hot topics. At the author level, Dummer P.M.H had the greatest influence on the network. There was no significant correlation between altmetric score and citations count (P > 0.05). Mendeley mentions correlated with citations (P < 0.05).
Conclusions
Overall, the altmetric scores of topics within Endodontology were low, possibly due to the specific and specialized nature of the specialty, as well as the difficulty members of the public probably have in understanding endodontic research. Journals and researchers with a focus on Endodontology would have more influence if they were to set‐up their own social media profiles and thus enhance their visibility and social impact by immediately sharing research findings and communicating with their network and audience
Combining social and nutritional perspectives: from adolescence to adulthood (the ASH30 study)
No full textPurpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus specifically on the benefits of using mixed methods to investigate dietary change from adolescence to adulthood exemplified using the findings from the ASH30 longitudinal study. The ASH30 study is a longitudinal dietary survey which provided quantitative evidence of dietary change and investigated factors influencing dietary change from adolescence to adulthood.
Design/methodology/approach
Two three-day food diaries were collected both in 1980 (aged 11-12 years) and 2000 (aged 31-32 years) from the same 198 respondents in North East England. In 2,000 questionnaires were used to collect perceptions of, and attributions for, dietary change and open-ended responses were analysed using content analysis.
Findings
The use of mixed methods brings added breadth and depth to the research which cannot be achieved by a single discipline or method. Determining what has influenced change in dietary behaviour from adolescence to adulthood is a complex and multifaceted task. Eating habits are influenced by multiple factors throughout the life course. Change in food intake between adolescence and adulthood related to life-course events and trajectories. The qualitative findings highlighted relevant contextual information such as themes of moral panics, the concept of “convenience” and “fresh” foods.
Practical implications
Adopting mixed method approaches to exploring dietary change should offer a rich perspective from which to base realistic interventions.
Originality/value
Longitudinal dietary surveys present an opportunity to understand the complex process of dietary change throughout the life course in terms both of how diets have changed but also of why they have changed
Fault Detection for Precision Mechatronics: Online Estimation of Mechanical Resonances
No full textThe condition of mechatronic production equipment slowly deteriorates over time, increasing the risk of failure and associated unscheduled downtime. A key indicator for an increased risk for failures is the shifting of resonances. The aim of this paper is to track the shifting resonances of the equipment online and during normal operation. This paper contributes to real-time parametric fault diagnosis by applying and comparing parameter estimators in this new context, highly relevant for next-generation mechatronic systems. The proposed fault diagnosis systems consist of recursive least squares algorithms and the effectiveness is illustrated on an overactuated and oversensed flexible beam setup, allowing to artificially manipulate its effective resonances in a controlled manner
Adapting temperature predictions to MR imaging in treatment position to improve simulation-guided hyperthermia for cervical cancer
No full textHyperthermia treatment consists of elevating the temperature of the tumor to increase the effectiveness of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Hyperthermia treatment planning (HTP) is an important tool to optimize treatment quality using pre-treatment temperature predictions. The accuracy of these predictions depends on modeling uncertainties such as tissue properties and positioning. In this study, we evaluated if HTP accuracy improves when the patient is imaged inside the applicator at the start of treatment. Because perfusion is a major uncertainty source, the importance of accurate treatment position and anatomy was evaluated using different perfusion values. Volunteers were scanned using MR imaging without ('planning setup') and with the MR-compatible hyperthermia device ('treatment setup'). Temperature-based quality indicators were used to assess the differences between the standard, apparent and the optimized hyperthermia dose. We conclude that pre-treatment imaging can improve HTP predictions accuracy but also, that tissue perfusion modelling is crucial if temperature-based optimization is applied.</p
Improved productivity in fusion welding : executive summary
No full textThis document is an Executive Summary of individual submissions of work that the
author has submitted towards the degree of Engineering Doctorate. The work
comprises three main themes, which can be demonstrated in a broader sense as
contributing towards improved productivity in fusion welding:
i) The use of active fluxes for Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding.
ii) An investigation into the reduction of porosity when Metal Active Gas (MAG)
welding galvanneal coated steel sheet used in the automotive industry.
iii) The use of high power Nd:YAG laser welding for the production of large
diameter, long distance land pipelines.
Active fluxes give improved productivity by increasing the penetration depth of the
TIG welding process by the simple addition of a flux applied to the surface.
Although the productivity benefits of the process had been proven through a joint
TWIIindustry project, the mechanism by which the fluxes produced this
improvement was not fully understood. The first theme investigated the mechanisms
at work in providing increased penetration and concluded that the primary
mechanism responsible for the action of the fluxes was not due to a change in the
flow of the molten pool but, as others had suggested, due to arc constriction. This
work contributed to a greater understanding of the welding process and,
furthermore, a greater understanding of the potential opportunities and limitations of
the process when designing new fluxes for other alloy systems.
MAG welds in coated steel sheet used in the automotive industry are prone to
porosity leading to high reject rates. The second phase of work reported here
determined welding procedures capable of delivering low porosity welds developed
through statistical experimental design. These procedures demonstrated how low
porosity welds could be made using conventional MAG welding techniques on
steels that had been galvanneal coated to provide corrosion resistance. The
procedures developed could be easily implemented at high production rates in an
industrial manufacturing environment to reduce defect levels, and thus costly repairs
or high scrap rates.
The third theme of the work demonstrated how Nd:YAG laser welding could
potentially be used to replace conventional arc welding techniques for land lay of
gas transmission pipelines. The application of a single laser fill pass, made at high
production rates, could replace the use of multiple MAG welding stations greatly
reducing the costs associated with pipeline fabrication. BP has claimed that half
pipeline cost savings of up to $300 million dollars are achievable through the
implementation of such a technique. The justification for the use of lasers in
pipelines is discussed in terms of both technical and economic suitability.
Preliminary experimental work showed that high power Nd:YAG laser welds could
achieve productivity targets, although in order to reduce defects and achieve the
necessary structural performance it would be necessary to combine laser welding
with a MAG welding process
