Master of Science / Department of Animal Sciences and Industry / Christopher D. Reinhardt / Three experiments were conducted to examine nutritional and management strategies for different segments of the beef industry. The first experiment examined the effects of feeding traditional step-up diets (STEP) vs. limit-feeding (LIMIT) the finishing diet to adapt cattle to high-concentrate diets. When all cattle reached ad libitum intake of the finishing diet there was a trend (P = 0.09) for DMI to be different between treatments. During week 1, STEP cattle had higher total VFA concentrations (P = 0.02), while LIMIT cattle had higher valerate absorption (P = 0.02) and disappearance (P = 0.08). During week 4, LIMIT cattle had higher total VFA concentrations (P = 0.03) and lower valerate disappearance and absorption (P = 0.05) than STEP cattle. These results indicate that limit-feeding the finishing diet may inhibit nutrient absorption from the rumen or this method may cause increased production of valerate by lactate utilizing bacteria due to a more acidotic rumen environment. The second experiment examined the effects of feeding 5% (DM basis) dried, full-fat corn germ (GERM) on feedlot performance and carcass characteristics of naturally raised yearling steers and heifers. Carcass-adjusted ADG was higher for GERM cattle (P = 0.04). There were no other differences in performance or carcass characteristics. Total incidence of liver abscesses and the incidence of severe liver abscesses were decreased by 12 and 8.2% (P = 0.01 and 0.02, respectively) when GERM was added to the diet. Corn germ can be added to finishing diets at 5% without affecting performance and carcass characteristics. Producers raising natural cattle may also be able to benefit from the reduced incidence of liver abscesses. The third experiment examined concurrent metaphylactic treatment of high-risk calves with tulathromycin and chlortetracycline. Calves were placed on 1 of 3 treatments: 1) no top-dress pellets; 2) diet top-dressed with pellets containing chlortetracycline; or 3) diet top-dressed with pellets containing no chlortetracycline. There were no differences in the performance or health of these calves (P > 0.25). There are no additive benefits of concurrent metaphylaxis using both tulathromycin and chlortetracycline. This information could assist producers when designing receiving health protocols for high-risk calves.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / As frequency allocation restrictions are tightening, and data rates are increasing, it is becoming necessary to incorporate higher order modulation techniques to make more efficient use of available spectrum. When used with Square Root Raised Cosine filtering, 8-ary Phase Shift Keyed modulation is a spectrally efficient technique that makes better use of today’s RF spectrum in comparison to standard formats. This paper will discuss 8-ary PSK modulation and its spectral efficiency with a SRRC filter, along with comparisons to BPSK, QPSK, and FSK.

The aim of this study is to show how the thoughts have been motivated for the cell penalties extension. The new law which came through 1892 meant more isolation for the prisoners. Before this law the government priority meant much more work penalty but after the law which came through 1892 meant work penalty after three years of isolation. My main conclusion of this study is that the government priority was that the work should be equally as the extension of the isolation. The law texts showed that the isolation penalty was a way to rehabilitate the prisoners so that they would be ”good” corporate citizens and for them to achieve this result the government meant that they needed isolation so that the prisoners could rehabilitate, be raised and then could get a work after the release.

In a traditional safety impact analysis, it is necessary to have crash data on existing roadway conditions in the field and a few years must pass before accumulating reliable crash data. This is a time-consuming approach and there remains uncertainty in the crash data due to the random nature of crash occurrences. The Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) was developed for resolving these issues. With SSAM, a conflict analysis is performed in a simulated environment. A planned improvement alternative under study is modeled and no physical installation of the alternative is needed. Hence, the method using a simulation software along with SSAM consumes less time compared to other traditional safety analysis methods that may require a physical installation of the new alternative and a long wait time for data collection. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if SSAM can be used to assess the safety of a highway segment or an intersection in term of the number and type of conflicts and to compare the safety effects of multiple access management alternatives with less time, less cost and less uncertainty than the traditional safety analysis methods. To meet the purpose of the study, two study sections, one on University Parkway in Orem and Provo and the other on Main Street in American Fork were selected and analyzed in this research. Based on the findings from the calibration of SSAM on the University Parkway study section, an evaluation of the effect of converting a TWLTL median into a raised median on a section of Main Street (US-89) from 300 West to 500 East in American Fork was performed using SSAM working on VISSIM simulation's trajectory files of the study section. This evaluation study was conducted to show how SSAM could be used to evaluate the effect of access management alternatives using surrogate safety measures. The analysis showed that a raised median would be much safer than a TWLTL median for the same level of traffic volume. Approximately a 32 to 50 percent reduction in the number of crossing conflicts was achieved when a raised median was used in lieu of a TWLTL median at the Main Street study section.

In order to mitigate the burden of government expenditure and improve the management of university, national universities in Taiwan have implemented the system of University Endowment Fund. The establishment of University Endowment Fund System has enacted for 16 years since 1996. The maintenance of National University mostly depends on government support in the past. And the college maintenance fund turned into half government support and half self-raised fund after the University Endowment Fund System has been enact. The investment gain is the most undeveloped item in five self-raised items. Most of National universities take bank deposit as its only investment. As a result, this paper aims to study about university investment. Investigate the latest law and regulation of national university and find the characteristic of college investment. Take National Sun Yat-sen University for example and establish the investment policy for national university. Select appropriate invest stock for National Sun Yat-sen University, and the select mechanism depends on the investment policy. Take the cash dividend to improve the financial income. The University Endowment Fund can improve its asset allocation gradually in the future.

Retroreflective Raised Pavement Markers (RRPMs) supplement other pavement markings to provide guidance to road users. Previous research concerning durability of the RRPMs suggests that their performance has been degrading over the years. One of the main causes for underperformance of the RRPMs is the lack of appropriate laboratory testing standards that can test the adequacy of the RRPMs to perform in field conditions. There is a need to modify the existing standards or develop new testing procedures that can better simulate field conditions. This requires identifying critical locations and magnitudes of stresses inside the markers during the tire-marker impacts that happen on roads. The goal of this research was to identify critical magnitudes and locations of the stresses in RRPMs during the tire-marker impacts by doing the finite element modeling and simulation of the impacts, and use the information to recommend laboratory testing procedures that could simulate real-world conditions. The researcher modeled and simulated the tire-marker impacts using the finite element tools Hypermesh and LS DYNA. He calibrated the material properties of the marker models to improve the tiremarker model. Based on the tire-marker impact simulations, the researcher concluded that the critical compressive stresses during impacts are located at the edge contacts of retroreflective sides with the top surface. The critical stresses may also occur at lower and upper corners of the marker. The other areas, especially the lower half of the marker, had tensile stresses. Angle of impact was found to be a critical external variable that affected the stresses inside the markers and the marker-pavement interface forces. The researcher then modeled and simulated a few laboratory-testing procedures that could simulate the field performance of the RRPMs. Based on these simulations, the researcher recommended that the ASTM compression test for evaluation of RRPMs be continued or a similar test be developed. He suggested development of one new test (named as offset compression test) that could better replicate the field conditions. He also recommended having a review of the ASTM flexural test.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Salinity usually reduces plant growth in terms of height and biomass, but can increase secondary metabolite production. This frequently reported observation in guayule (Parthenium argentatum Gray, Asteraceae) was investigated for possible mechanisms.Osmotic and specific ion effects of four chloride salts (CaCl2, MgCl2, KCl, and NaCl) on leaf anatomical and plant physiological parameters were studied. One-year-old plants of guayule line AZ 2 were grown under two salt concentrations (750 ppm and 1500 ppm) for each salt type (plus a control) in sand culture (semi-hydroponic) for eight weeks under controlled greenhouse conditions in Tucson, Arizona.Growth in height decreased with increasing salt concentration. Shoot dry weight, rubber, and resin contents, however, showed no significant differences between treatments, indicating no effect from either salt concentration or salt type. There was a trend for increasing rubber content with increasing salt concentration, although not statistically significant. At the same time, net CO2 gas exchange rates decreased significantly with increasing salinity.With increasing salt concentration, guayule showed osmotic effects in terms of height, indicating a lower hydraulic conductivity. Although plants of higher salt concentrations utilized significantly less water, they had the same shoot dry weights, rubber, and resin contents. Salt-stressed plants therefore achieved higher water use efficiencies. The diurnal net CO2 gas exchange rates were significantly reduced with increasing salinity; the nocturnal net CO2 gas exchange rates showed no significant difference between the treatments.Anatomically, it was found that the stomata were raised or elevated above the epidermis, and supported by upwardly curving cells. When guayule was grown under salt treatments, the trichomes were found to include deposits of material. Trichomes might act as a detoxification repository for excess ions. Although the physiological significance of raised stomata is unknown, it is hypothesized that the unique combination of raised stomata, indumentum, and multiple layers of palisade parenchyma allows for an overall high photosynthetic capacity and performance. During stress conditions such as salinity or drought, guayule might activate an internal CO2 concentrating mechanism, i.e., bicarbonate/CO2 pump, internal CO2 recycling, or PEP carboxylation activity.

Abstract The current study evaluated the effects of training on the haptic classification of culturally universal facial expressions of emotion as depicted in simple 2D raised-line drawings. Blindfolded sighted (N = 60) and blind (N = 4) participants participated in Experiments 1 and 3, respectively. A small vision control study (N = 12) was also conducted (Experiment 2) to compare haptic versus visual learning patterns. A hybrid learning paradigm consisting of pre/post- and old/new-training procedures was used to address the nature of the underlying learning process in terms of token-specific learning and/or generalization. During the Pre-Training phase, participants were tested on their ability to classify facial expressions of emotion using the set with which they would be subsequently trained. During the Post-Training phase, they were tested with the training set (Old) intermixed with a completely novel set (New). For sighted observers, visual classification was more accurate than haptic classification; in addition, two of the three adventitiously blind individuals tended to be at least as accurate as the sighted haptic group. All three groups showed similar learning patterns across the learning stages of the experiment: accuracy improved substantially with training; however, while classification accuracy for the Old set remained high during the Post-Training test stage, learning effects for novel (New) drawings were reduced, if present at all. These results imply that learning by the sighted was largely token-specific for both haptic and visual classification. Additional results from a limited number of blind subjects tentatively suggest that the accuracy with which facial expressions of emotion are classified is not impaired when visual loss occurs later in life. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2009-10-23 12:04:41.133

Thesis (Ph.D. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.