Origin and Application of the Twinned Calcite Strain Gauge

This paper is a personal account of the origin and development of the twinned-calcite strain gauge, its experimental verification, and its relationship to stress analysis. The method allows the calculation of the three-dimensional deviatoric strain tensor based on five or more twin sets. A minimum of about 25 twin sets should provide a reasonably accurate result for the magnitude and orientation of the strain tensor. The opposite-signed strain axis orientation is the most accurately located. Where one strain axis is appreciably different from the other two, that axis is generally within about 10° of the correct value. Experiments confirm a magnitude accuracy of 1% strain over the range of 1–12% axial shortening and that samples with more than 40% negative expected values imply multiple or rotational deformations. If two deformations are at a high angle to one another, the strain calculated from the positive and negative expected values separately provides a good estimate of both deformations. Most stress analysis techniques do not provide useful magnitudes, although most provide a good estimate of the principal strain axis directions. Stress analysis based on the number of twin sets per grain provides a better than order-of-magnitude approximation to the differential stress magnitude in a constant strain rate experiment.

Effectiveness of Entomopathogenic Fungus Beauveria bassiana Isolate on Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Mortality under Different Concentrations in Kenya

Callosobruchus maculatus Fab. (Coleoptera: Bruchidae), is a major field-to-store post-harvest pest of in the tropics and worldwide. They cause weight loss, decreased germination potential and reduction in commercial and aesthetic value as a result of physical contamination of grain by insects, eggs and excrement, decreased nutritional value. Entomopathogenic fungi have been employed in control of a number of storage pests. Nine B. bassiana isolates were evaluated for effectiveness in controlling C. maculatus in cowpea grain under controlled laboratory conditions. Mortality of the bruchids was evaluated stepwise where the most effective isolate concentrations against C. maculatus were assessed. Initial assessment involved determination of the most effective concentration among the isolates following dilution. The most effective isolate concentrations were then doubled and halved to identify the most effective dose rate. The isolates showed significant differences on the mortality of cowpea bruchids at the different concentrations. The halved rate from the most effective rate with BBC recording 85% and 76.7 % cumulative mortality at day 3 during the first and second season respectively. Isolate J35 had 98.2% mortality at 5 days after application during the first season and 88.3% during the second season, which was only lower to the formulated isolates BBC and BVT. At the optimal dose rate experiment, isolate J57 presented the highest cumulative mortality (25.5%) at 14 days after application while J59 recorded the lowest cumulative mortality at 11.8% at the same time. The combination of isolate J39 and RI showed the highest cumulative mortality of 40.4% and 44.4% during the first and second season respectively. Results obtained from this study support the importance of exploring the use of B. bassiana in control of C. maculatus during storage.

Heated Corn Oil and 2,4-Decadienal Suppress Gastric Emptying and Energy Intake in Humans

Consumption of 2,4-decadienal (2,4-DD) delays gastric emptying (GE) rate in animals. Oil heating produces 2,4-DD and other aldehydes. Here we examined whether heated oil affects GE rate and food intake in humans, and whether it is mediated by 2,4-DD. In the first experiment, 10 healthy volunteers consumed 240-g pumpkin soup with 9.2 g of heated (HO) or non-heated corn oil (CO). Subsequently, 17 participants consumed pumpkin soup containing 3.1 g of either heated corn oil (HO), 1 mg 2,4-DD + non-heated corn oil (2,4-DD), or non-heated corn oil (CO). Sixty minutes following pumpkin soup, cod roe spaghetti was provided, and then energy intake was determined. To evaluate GE rate, 13C breath test (Experiment 1) and ultrasonography (Experiments 1 and 2) were used. The results from the Experiment 1 confirmed that consumption of heated corn oil reduced GE rate. Experiment 2 showed a delayed GE rate in HO and 2,4-DD trials compared with CO trial (p < 0.05). Energy intake was approximately 600–650 kJ lower in HO and 2,4-DD trials compared with CO trial (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that 2,4-DD, either formed by oil heating or added to food, contributes to suppressing GE rate and energy intake.

Nutrition al manipulation of feeding behaviour of birds

A research to manipulate the feeding behaviour of laying hens from nutritional perspective was conducted with 504 ISA Brown. Seventeen (17) week old ISA brown with weights ranging between 1590 and 1812 g were allocated to six dietary treatments. There were seven replicates per treatment with 12 birds each making a total of 42 pens in all. Experimental diets differed in the levels of energy, levels insoluble Non Starch Polysaccharide (NSP) and the particle sizes of the NSP. Birds had free access to water and feed during which feeding observations with video cameras were made to observe and record the feeding behaviour of birds at 17, 21, 25, 29, 33 and 35 weeks of age. A computer software programme called Observer 5.0 was used to analyze the observations by one person for 30 minutes per cage. In order to gain more insight in the feeding behaviour of laying hens, 60 laying hens were used for a passage rate experiment using titanium dioxide as an inert marker: Five birds were used for each dietary treatment, and replicated twice. At t=0, three titanium capsules were offered to each bird. After five different time points (30, 90, 180, 270 and 360 minutes), these birds were sacrificed and dissected. The gut (titanium) contents from different segments of the GIT (crop, gizzard, ileum, colon and caeca) of each bird were analysed using spectrophotometer at an absorbance of 408 nm. Results from the study indicate that the feeding behaviour of laying hen can be manipulated nutritionally. Bulky diets (10.6 MJ/kg) significantly (P<0.05) increased the eating time of laying hens by 15% compared with normal energy content (11.8 MJ/kg) and this led to consumption of more feed (average 2355g) than those of normal energy diets (2175g). Similarly, the separate effect of NSP, NSP coarseness and interaction between low energy; NSP and NSP coarseness influenced the eating behaviour. Feeding layers with low density diet containing a combination of low energy high NSP coarse NSP increased the amount of time birds spent feeding by 32% and consequently increased the feed intake by 11% (average feed intake of 135g ) above normal energy low NSP mixture diet (average feed intake of 120g). The passage rate experiment showed that Low energy High non starch polysaccharide coarse (LeHnspcoarse) diet reduces the gut transit time, thus birds quickly feel hungrier after a period of satiety, possibly resulting in a short inter-meal interval. Conclusively, the interaction between low energy, high NSP and NSP coarseness influence birds' feeding behaviour necessitating increase in eating time and faster passage rate via the GIT

Effects of speech rate on anticipatory eye movements in the visual world paradigm: Evidence from aging, native, and non-native language processing

Research has shown that suprasegmental cues in conjunction with visual context can lead to anticipatory (or predictive) eye movements. However, the impact of speech rate on anticipatory eye movements has received little empirical attention. The purpose of the current study was twofold. From a methodological perspective, we tested the impact of speech rate on anticipatory eye movements by systemically varying speech rate (3.5, 4.5, 5.5, and 6.0 syllables per second) in the processing of filler-gap dependencies. From a theoretical perspective, we examined two groups thought to show fewer anticipatory eye movements, and thus likely to be more impacted by speech rate. Experiment 1 compared anticipatory eye movements across the lifespan with younger (18–24 years old) and older adults (40–75 years old). Experiment 2 compared L1 speakers of English and L2 speakers of English with an L1 of German. Results showed that all groups made anticipatory eye movements. However, L2 speakers only made anticipatory eye movements at 3.5 syllables per second, older adults at 3.5 and 4.5 syllables per second, and younger adults at speech rates up to 5.5 syllables per second. At the fastest speech rate, all groups showed a marked decrease in anticipatory eye movements. This work highlights (1) the importance of speech rate on anticipatory eye movements, and (2) group-level performance differences in filler-gap prediction.

Fairway Renovation with Fraise Mowing Cultivation and Dazomet Fumigation

Renovation is an opportune time for golf courses to address annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) weed populations. Dazomet (tetrahydro-3,5-dimethyl-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione) is an effective fumigant, but without a tarp cover, it is only effective at the highest labeled rates. Fraise mowing cultivation could be used to help remove surface material and allow practitioners to effectively fumigate at lower rates. In Summer 2018 and Summer 2019, two cool-season fairway renovation experiments were conducted in East Lansing, MI. The objective of these experiments was to assess annual bluegrass control and creeping bentgrass establishment following dazomet applications to fraise mowed surfaces. In the first experiment (fraise mowing surface disturbance experiment), dazomet was applied at a fixed rate (294 kg·ha−1) to fraise mowed plots at varying levels of surface disturbance (0%, 15%, 50%, and 100%) to a depth of 1.9 cm. In the second experiment (dazomet rate experiment), fraise mowing removed 100% of surface material at a depth of 1.9 cm and dazomet was applied at five rates (0, 294, 588, 147 + 147, and 294 + 294 kg·ha−1). Both experiments were conducted on two soils (sand topdressed vs. native) and evaluated two methods of fumigant incorporation (solid-tine cultivation vs. tillage). Five days after treatments were applied, plots were seeded with ‘Pure Select’ creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.). The level of fraise mowing surface disturbance had no effect on annual bluegrass emergence, and creeping bentgrass cover was poorest in native soils at the highest levels of surface disturbance. In the dazomet rate experiment, dazomet applied twice at 294 kg·ha−1 provided the most consistent control of annual bluegrass. With the exception to single applications of 294 in 2018, all dazomet treatments allowed for greater creeping bentgrass establishment than the nontreated control. Fraise mowing cultivation may simplify the removal of surface material from large areas; however, even when combined with dazomet applied at the highest rates, it fails to provide complete annual bluegrass control.

Taking the perspectives of many people: humanization matters

In a busy space, people encounter many other people with different viewpoints, but classic studies of VPT examine only one agent at a time. This paper explores the issue of selectivity in VPT when different people are available to interact with. We consider the hypothesis that humanisation impacts on VPT in four studies using virtual reality methods. Experiment 1 &amp; 2 use the Director Task to show that for more humanised agents (an in-group member or a virtual human agent), participants were more likely to use VPT to achieve lower error rate. Experiment 3 &amp; 4 used a two-agent social mental rotation task to show that participants are faster and more accurate to recognise items which are oriented towards a more humanised agent (an in-group member or a naturally-moving agent). All results support the claim that humanisation alters the propensity to engage in VPT in rich social contexts.

Network Traffic Type-Based Quality of Experience (QoE) Assessment for Universal Services

Nowadays, more and more online content providers are offering multiple types of data services. To provide users with a better service experience, Quality of Experience (QoE) has been widely used in the delivery quality measurement of network services. How to accurately measure the QoE score for all types of network services has become a meaningful but difficult problem. To solve this problem, we proposed a unified QoE scoring framework that measures the user experience of almost all types of network services. The framework first uses a machine learning model (random forest) to classify network services, then selects different nonlinear expressions based on the type of service and comprehensively calculates the QoE score through the Quality of Service (QOS) metrics including transmission delay, packet loss rate, and throughput rate. Experiment results show that the proposed method has the ability to be applied on almost all the types of network traffic, and it achieves better QoE assessment accuracy than other works.

A Novel Human Respiration Pattern Recognition Using Signals of Ultra-Wideband Radar Sensor

Recently, various studies have been conducted on the quality of sleep in medical and health care fields. Sleep analysis in these areas is typically performed through polysomnography. However, since polysomnography involves attaching sensor devices to the body, accurate sleep measurements may be difficult due to the inconvenience and sensitivity of physical contact. In recent years, research has been focused on using sensors such as Ultra-wideband Radar, which can acquire bio-signals even in a non-contact environment, to solve these problems. In this paper, we have acquired respiratory signal data using Ultra-wideband Radar and proposed 1D CNN (1-Dimension Convolutional Neural Network) model that can classify and recognize five respiration patterns (Eupnea, Bradypnea, Tachypnea, Apnea, and Motion) from the signal data. Also, in the proposed model, we find the optimum parameter range through the recognition rate experiment on the combination of parameters (layer depth, size of kernel, and number of kernels). The average recognition rate of five breathing patterns experimented by applying the proposed method was 93.9%, which is about 3%~13% higher than that of conventional methods (LDA, SVM, and MLP).