•During water stress, elevated CO2 and temperature, WSC accumulated, but not NPN.•Digestibility and energy content were improved after 45d water stress (summer 2017).•After water stress and ...re-wetting, forage quality in subsequent cuts did not differ.•Summer water stress did not alter the development stage of orchard grass.•Tiller height and weight declined under summer water stress.
Grassland provides high nutritive forages for ruminants being a main factor in feeding beef and especially dairy cattle. Changes in precipitation patterns, asides rising temperature and CO2 concentration, will severely affect forage species and modify the nutritive value, and this in turn will also impact animal performance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of water stress on agronomic parameters and the nutritive value of orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata L.) in mountainous permanent grassland, under i) ambient (C0T0) and ii) future (C2T2) climate conditions with increased temperature (+3 °C) and elevated CO2 (+300 ppm). To simulate water stress, a drought experiment was conducted during the experimental period. The experiment took place at the Agricultural Research and Education Centre (AREC) Raumberg-Gumpenstein in Styria (Austria) from 2016 to 2018. Experimental plots were harvested in a 3-cut-system and plant samples were analysed for development stage, leaf weight ratio (LWR) and tiller height and weight. The nutritive value was determined by analysing crude protein (CP) and its fractionation, water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC), NDForg, ADForg, metabolizable energy (ME) and digestibility of organic matter (DOM), among others. The results showed that water stress did not alter the development stage of orchard grass, but decreased tiller height and weight under ambient climate conditions. Furthermore, an increase in ME and DOM, and a decrease in NDForg and ADForg occurred under water stress. In combination with elevated temperature and CO2, water stress improved CP, WSC, ME and DOM, and decreased NDForg and ADForg. Conclusively, water stress improved specific nutritive parameters but, in some circumstances, caused a decline in biomass production.
High yielding ruminant livestock require high nutritive value in forage for maintenance, growth and production. Climate change has been documented as impacting on the nutritive value of forage ...plants. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of increased temperature in combination with CO2-enhancement on the nutritive value of orchard grass (cocksfoot; Dactylis glomerata L.), as a C3 model plant, widespread in mountainous permanent grassland plant communities. Functional traits and forage quality of orchard grass were investigated both under ambient (C0T0) and under simulated, future climate conditions (C2T2) with increased temperature (+3°C) and enhanced CO2 concentration (+300 ppm) under field conditions. Plant samples were taken from each of the three growths over a period of three consecutive years and numerous functional properties and forage quality parameters were determined. Special attention was paid to the determination of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC), crude protein (CP), non-protein N (NPN) and metabolizable energy (ME) as possible indicators for different climatic conditions. It is hypothesized that (i) functional traits and (ii) forage quality of orchard grass are altered by increased temperature and higher CO2 concentration. The results showed a negative impact of C2T2 compared to C0T0 on tiller height (54.4 v. 70.6 cm) and weight (2.42 v. 3.22 g) as average over cuts and years. The NPN content was lower in C2T2 (312 g/kg CP) compared to C0T0 (339 g/kg CP). In contrast, the WSC content was higher in C2T2 (90.3 g/kg DM) compared to C0T0 (82.5 g/kg DM). Both ME content and digestibility were increased in C2T2 (9.18 ME/kg DM and 68.2%) compared to C0T0 (8.86 ME/kg DM and 65.4%). Concluding, under increased temperature and enhanced CO2, both functional traits and certain nutrients and their fractions appear to change in orchard grass.
Present literature seems to support the nonoperative management of penetrating renal trauma although data remain limited. We conducted a nine-year retrospective review of nonoperative versus ...operative management and mechanism of injury stab wound (SW) versus gunshot wound (GSW) among patients admitted with penetrating renal trauma. Of 203 patients, the median age was 24 years, with the majority being male and having GSW injuries. More than half (52.2%) were treated nonoperatively (69.9% of SW and 40% of GSW injured patients). When compared with all operative patients combined, nonoperative patients had a lower median Injury Severity Score (17 vs 26, P < 0.001), lower transfusion requirement (27.4% vs 77.3%, P < 0.001), shorter median hospital stay (4.7 vs 12.6 days, P < 0.001), and lower mortality (1.9% vs 13.4%, P = 0.002). Gunshot wound patients had a higher median Injury Severity Score (26 vs 14, P < 0.001), higher median American Association for the Surgery of Trauma-Organ Injury Score (3 vs 2, P = 0.001), greater need for transfusion (69.2% vs 29.3%, P < 0.001), longer median hospital length of stay (12.1 vs 3.9 days, P < 0.001), and greater mortality (12.5% vs 0%, P < 0.001) than SW patients. Nonoperative management of penetrating renal injury is safe in selected patients. In addition, renal GSW injuries are associated with a greater morbidity and mortality.
The formation and growth of self-assembled octadecylsiloxane monolayers on native silicon and mica substrates have been studied using atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry, and infrared spectroscopy. ...Submonolayer ODS films of varying surface coverages were prepared by immersing the substrates into dilute solutions of octadecyltrichlorosilane in toluene for different periods of time, and the submonolayer film structures were compared between mica and silicon substrates for different water contents of the adsorbate solutions and for different time delays between solution preparation and substrate immersion (solution age). It was found that, in general, both a continuous growth (formation of disordered, liquidlike submonolayers) and an island-type growth (formation of organized assemblies with vertically aligned hydrocarbon chains) are involved in the formation of ODS monolayers, whereby the relative contributions depend strongly on the solution properties. With increasing water content or increasing age of the adsorbate solution, island-type growth is strongly favored on both silicon and mica surfaces, which indicates the kinetically controlled formation of larger, preordered aggregates of silanol molecules as the primary hydrolysis products in solution. For identical conditions of film preparation, both the degree of structural order in the submonolayer films and the overall adsorption rate was found to be higher on mica in comparison to silicon. The higher structural order was interpreted as a consequence of the lower hydroxyl group concentration and a correspondingly enhanced surface diffusion rate of weakly bound film molecules on a mica substrate. The enhanced adsorption rate, on the other hand, points to some additional activation of a mica surface with respect to silanol adsorption, which might be related to its ionic composition containing mobile surface charges in contrast to the covalent, neutral character of a native silicon surface.
The SuperCDMS collaboration is presently operating a 9 kg Ge payload at the Soudan Underground Laboratory in their direct search for dark matter. The Ge detectors utilize double-sided athermal phonon ...sensors with an interdigitated electrode structure (iZIPs) to reject near-surface electron-recoil events. These detectors each have a mass of 0.6 kg and were fabricated with photolithographic techniques. The detector fabrication advances required and the production yield encountered are described.
We report a first search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) using the background rejection capabilities of SuperCDMS. An exposure of 577 kg days was analyzed for WIMPs with mass <30 ...GeV/c(2), with the signal region blinded. Eleven events were observed after unblinding. We set an upper limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section of 1.2×10(-42) cm(2) at 8 GeV/c(2). This result is in tension with WIMP interpretations of recent experiments and probes new parameter space for WIMP-nucleon scattering for WIMP masses <6 GeV/c(2).
There is a growing interest in cryogenic calorimeters with macroscopic absorbers for applications such as dark matter direct detection and rare event search experiments. The physics of energy ...transport in calorimeters with absorber masses exceeding several grams is made complex by the anisotropic nature of the absorber crystals as well as the changing mean free paths as phonons decay to progressively lower energies. We present a Monte Carlo model capable of simulating anisotropic phonon transport in cryogenic crystals. We have initiated the validation process and discuss the level of agreement between our simulation and experimental results reported in the literature, focusing on heat pulse propagation in germanium. The simulation framework is implemented using Geant4, a toolkit originally developed for high-energy physics Monte Carlo simulations. Geant4 has also been used for nuclear and accelerator physics, and applications in medical and space sciences. We believe that our current work may open up new avenues for applications in material science and condensed matter physics.
Accurate burn depth estimation remains one of the foundations of optimal burn care. The method by which burn depth is determined has traditionally been clinical examination alone. This continues to ...hold true in the United States, despite a plethora of literature supporting the use of more accurate modalities such as laser Doppler imaging (LDI). LDI has widespread use in burn centers in the United Kingdom and around the world. Thus, the reason for a lack of use in U.S. burn centers remains elusive. A survey of U.S. burn center directors was conducted to assess their current practices and attitudes with regard to burn depth estimation at U.S. burn centers in an effort to answer this question. Surveys were returned from 68 burn center directors (49% response rate). All respondents reported using clinical examination in their current practice for the daily evaluation of acute burns, with a biopsy being the next most commonly used modality. The most preferred modality was also clinical examination (60%), followed by LDI (6%) and biopsy (4%). The top three modalities ranked as "most promising" for daily use were clinical examination, LDI, and noncontact/high-frequency ultrasound. Directors identified the top three limitations to the use of new technology as cost (72%), availability (63%), and lack of support by evidence to date (35%). Future studies may need to focus on overcoming these perceived limitations before the widespread use of LDI or other new modalities will be realized at burn centers in the United States.
Abstract
High yielding ruminant livestock require high nutritive value in forage for maintenance, growth and production. Climate change has been documented as impacting on the nutritive value of ...forage plants. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of increased temperature in combination with CO
2
-enhancement on the nutritive value of orchard grass (cocksfoot;
Dactylis glomerata
L.), as a C3 model plant, widespread in mountainous permanent grassland plant communities. Functional traits and forage quality of orchard grass were investigated both under ambient (C0T0) and under simulated, future climate conditions (C2T2) with increased temperature (+3°C) and enhanced CO
2
concentration (+300 ppm) under field conditions. Plant samples were taken from each of the three growths over a period of three consecutive years and numerous functional properties and forage quality parameters were determined. Special attention was paid to the determination of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC), crude protein (CP), non-protein N (NPN) and metabolizable energy (ME) as possible indicators for different climatic conditions. It is hypothesized that (i) functional traits and (ii) forage quality of orchard grass are altered by increased temperature and higher CO
2
concentration. The results showed a negative impact of C2T2 compared to C0T0 on tiller height (54.4
v.
70.6 cm) and weight (2.42
v.
3.22 g) as average over cuts and years. The NPN content was lower in C2T2 (312 g/kg CP) compared to C0T0 (339 g/kg CP). In contrast, the WSC content was higher in C2T2 (90.3 g/kg DM) compared to C0T0 (82.5 g/kg DM). Both ME content and digestibility were increased in C2T2 (9.18 ME/kg DM and 68.2%) compared to C0T0 (8.86 ME/kg DM and 65.4%). Concluding, under increased temperature and enhanced CO
2
, both functional traits and certain nutrients and their fractions appear to change in orchard grass.
The considerable year-to-year and seasonal variation in grassland production is of major importance to dairy farmers in Europe, as production systems must allow for the risk of unfavourable weather ...conditions. A large portion of the variability is caused by weather and its interaction with soil conditions and grassland management. The present study takes advantage of the interactions between weather, soil conditions and grassland management to derive a reliable grassland statistical model (GRAM) for grasslands under various management regimes using polynomial regressions (GRAM-R) and neural networks (GRAM-N). The model performance was tested with a focus on predicting its capability during unusually dry or wet years using long-term experimental data from Austrian sites. The GRAM model was then coupled with the Met&Roll stochastic weather generator to provide estimates of harvestable herbage dry matter (DM) production early in the season. It was found that, with the GRAM-N or GRAM-R methodology, up to 0·78 of the variability in harvested herbage DM production could be explained with a systematic bias of 1·1-2·3%. The models showed stable performance over subsets of dry and wet years. Generalized GRAM models were also successfully used to estimate daily herbage growth during the season, explaining between 0·63 and 0·91 of variability in individual cases. It was possible to issue a probabilistic forecast of the harvestable herbage DM production early in the season with reasonable accuracy. The overall results showed that the GRAM model could be used instead of (or in parallel with) more sophisticated grassland models in areas or sites where complete data sets are not yet available. As the model was tested under various climatic and soil conditions, it is suggested that the proposed approach could be used for comparable temperate grassland sites throughout Europe.
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