Performance of Layers Submitted to Different Forced Molting Methods and Different Temperatures

This study was carried out to evaluate the performance and egg quality of laying hens, in their second laying cycle submitted to different forced-molting methods and three environmental temperatures. Six hundred layers were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design with 15 treatments with five replicates of eight birds each, according to 5x3 factorial arrangement (molting methods vs. temperatures). The following forced-molting methods were applied: 90%, 70%, 50% dietary alfalfa inclusion, addition of 2,800 ppm zinc, and feed fasting. Temperatures were: 20 degrees C, 27 degrees C and 35 degrees C. At the end of each period of the second laying cycle, bird performance and egg quality were evaluated. Data were submitted to analysis of variance and means were compared by orthogonal and polynomial contrasts. The highest alfalfa inclusion level (90% alfalfa and 10% basal diet) proved to be efficient as compared to the other methods, independently of temperature.

On the Milnor fibre and L numbers of semi-weighted homogeneous arrangements

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

On a moment problem associated with Chebyshev polynomials

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Efeitos do tipo de ração inicial sobre a morfologia intestinal e digestibiliade dos nutrientes em leitões

Thirty piglets, weaned at an average age of 28 days, were used in experiment one. After weaning, 24 animals were transferred to the nursery in groups of two to each pen and fed simple or semi-complex diets ad libitum. On weaning day (day 0), six pigs were slaughtered. On days 7 and 21 post-weaning, one animal from each nursery pen was slaughtered to study mucosal thickness (MTD and MTJ) and villi heights (VHD and VHJ) in the duodenum and jejunum. The average values observed for MTD, VHD, MTJ, and VHJ were not influenced by type of diet. MTD, MTJ, and VHJ increased from days 7 to 21 post-weaning. Polynomial regression spanning days 0, 7, and 21 showed a linear effect for MTJ and a quadratic effect for VHD and VHJ. In experiment two, 16 piglets weaned at an average age of 28 days were used in two metabolic trials carried out during two periods of the initial phase (days 5 to 14 and days 19 to 28 postweaning), to determine the nutritional value of simple and semi-complex diets. There were no differences among treatments in apparent digestibility of crude protein and dry matter and the values for digestible or metabolizable energy of the diets. It was concluded that composition of the starter diet did not influence the intestinal morphology of piglets, the digestibilities of dry matter and crude protein, or the digestible and metabolizable energy contents of the diets.

Algorithms for network piecewise-linear programs: A comparative study

Piecewise-Linear Programming (PLP) is an important area of Mathematical Programming and concerns the minimisation of a convex separable piecewise-linear objective function, subject to linear constraints. In this paper a subarea of PLP called Network Piecewise-Linear Programming (NPLP) is explored. The paper presents four specialised algorithms for NPLP: (Strongly Feasible) Primal Simplex, Dual Method, Out-of-Kilter and (Strongly Polynomial) Cost-Scaling and their relative efficiency is studied. A statistically designed experiment is used to perform a computational comparison of the algorithms. The response variable observed in the experiment is the CPU time to solve randomly generated network piecewise-linear problems classified according to problem class (Transportation, Transshipment and Circulation), problem size, extent of capacitation, and number of breakpoints per arc. Results and conclusions on performance of the algorithms are reported.

Torta de dendê em dieta para a tilápia-do-nilo: Desempenho produtivo

To evaluate the nutritional value of African palm kernel meal (Elaeis guineensis) on the performance of Nile tilapia (Oseochromis niloticus), five isonitrogenous (30% crude protein), isoenergetic (2,800 Kcal/kg of digestible energy), and isofibrous (10% crude fiber) diets, with increasing levels of African palm kernel meal (0, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35%) were fed ad libitum for 18 weeks to Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fingerlings, averaging 1.52 ± 0.04 g of body weight, housed for 120 days in 60 liter aquaria with six fingerlings. To determine the production traits, weight gain, apparent food conversion, specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio, weight gain percentage, net protein utilization, and body composition, fish were weighted at six-week intervals. Statistical analysis of recorded data were performed through multivariate profile analysis and polynomial regression models. Results showed that feeding fingerling Nile tilapia with ratios containing up to 35% of African palm kernel meal does not affect production performance.

Activation function study for wavelet network

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate theoretically and experimentally the use of family of Polynomial Powers of the Sigmoid (PPS) Function Networks applied in speech signal representation and function approximation. This paper carries out practical investigations in terms of approximation fitness (LSE), time consuming (CPU Time), computational complexity (FLOP) and representation power (Number of Activation Function) for different PPS activation functions. We expected that different activation functions can provide performance variations and further investigations will guide us towards a class of mappings associating the best activation function to solve a class of problems under certain criteria.

Quantal information entropies for atoms

The polynomials occurring in the wave functions of hydrogenic excited states are found to present difficulties for a straightforward analytical approach to the study of associated information entropies. A method is suggested to deal with them. It is then applied to calculate the information entropy for the Jacobi polynomial. A model calculation is presented to examine the effect of screening on the entropy sum. It is seen that the sum does not depend on the choice of screening.

On the picture dependence of Ramond-Ramond cohomology

Closed string physical states are BRST cohomology classes computed on the space of states annihilated by b- 0. Since b- 0 does not commute with the operations of picture changing, BRST cohomologies at different pictures need not agree. We show explicitly that Ramond-Ramond (RR) zero-momentum physical states are inequivalent at different pictures, and prove that non-zero-momentum physical states are equivalent in all pictures. We find that D-brane states represent BRST classes that are non-polynomial on the superghost zero-modes, while RR gauge fields appear as polynomial BRST classes. We also prove that in x-cohomology, the cohomology where the zero-mode of the spatial coordinates is included, there is a unique ghost-number one BRST class responsible for the Green-Schwarz anomaly, and a unique ghost number minus one BRST class associated with RR charge. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

A refinement of the gauss-lucas theorem

The classical Gauss-Lucas Theorem states that all the critical points (zeros of the derivative) of a nonconstant polynomial p lie in the convex hull H of the zeros of p. It is proved that, actually, a subdomain of H contains the critical points of p. ©1998 American Mathematical Society.

Higher order turän inequalities

The celebrated Turân inequalities P 2 n(x)-P n-x(x)P n+1(x) ≥ 0, x ε[-1,1], n ≥ 1, where P n(x) denotes the Legendre polynomial of degree n, are extended to inequalities for sums of products of four classical orthogonal polynomials. The proof is based on an extension of the inequalities γ 2 n - γ n-1γ n+1 ≥ 0, n ≥ 1, which hold for the Maclaurin coefficients of the real entire function ψ in the Laguerre-Pölya class, ψ(x) = ∑ ∞ n=0 γ nx n / n!. ©1998 American Mathematical Society.

Efeitos Ambientais sobre Ganho de Peso no Período do Nascimento ao Desmame em Bovinos da Raça Nelore

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Probing negative-dimensional integration: Two-loop covariant vertex and one-loop light-cone integrals

The negative-dimensional integration method (NDIM) seems to be a very promising technique for evaluating massless and/or massive Feynman diagrams. It is unique in the sense that the method gives solutions in different regions of external momenta simultaneously. Moreover, it is a technique whereby the difficulties associated with performing parametric integrals in the standard approach are transferred to a simpler solving of a system of linear algebraic equations, thanks to the polynomial character of the relevant integrands. We employ this method to evaluate a scalar integral for a massless two-loop three-point vertex with all the external legs off-shell, and consider several special cases for it, yielding results, even for distinct simpler diagrams. We also consider the possibility of NDIM in non-covariant gauges such as the light-cone gauge and do some illustrative calculations, showing that for one-degree violation of covariance (i.e. one external, gauge-breaking, light-like vector n μ) the ensuing results are concordant with the ones obtained via either the usual dimensional regularization technique, or the use of the principal value prescription for the gauge-dependent pole, while for two-degree violation of covariance - i.e. two external, light-like vectors n μ, the gauge-breaking one, and (its dual) n * μ - the ensuing results are concordant with the ones obtained via causal constraints or the use of the so-called generalized Mandelstam-Leibbrandt prescription. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.

On the integrable perturbations of the Camassa-Holm equation

We present an investigation of the nonlinear partial differential equations (PDE) which are asymptotically representable as a linear combination of the equations from the Camassa-Holm hierarchy. For this purpose we use the infinitesimal transformations of dependent and independent variables of the original PDE. This approach is helpful for the analysis of the systems of the PDE which can be asymptotically represented as the evolution equations of polynomial structure. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

Tachyon condensation in superstring field theory

It has been conjectured that at the stationary point of the tachyon potential for the D-brane-anti-D-brane pair or for the non-BPS D-brane of superstring theories, the negative energy density cancels the brane tensions. We study this conjecture using a Wess-Zumino-Witten-like open superstring field theory free of contact term divergences and recently shown to give 60% of the vacuum energy by condensation of the tachyon field alone. While the action is non-polynomial, the multiscalar tachyon potential to any fixed level involves only a finite number of interactions. We compute this potential to level three, obtaining 85% of the expected vacuum energy, a result consistent with convergence that can also be viewed as a successful test of the string field theory. The resulting effective tachyon potential is bounded below and has two degenerate global minima. We calculate the energy density of the kink solution interpolating between these minima finding good agreement with the tension of the D-brane of one lower dimension. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.