BACKGROUND T1 mapping is widely used today in CMR, however, it underestimates true T1 values and its measurement error is influenced by several acquisition parameters. The purpose of this study was the extraction of accurate T1 data through the utilization of comprehensive, parallel Simulations for QUAntifying RElaxation Magnetic Resonance constants (SQUAREMR) of the MOLLI pulse sequence on a l...

Flocks participating in sire referencing schemes can achieve greater genetic gains than those achievable by within-flock selection. However, requirements for joining these schemes can be prohibitive to some producers. The objectives of this study were to determine whether less restrictive schemes or schemes of shorter duration could achieve rates of gain and reduce inbreeding as efficiently as ...

While holding great development opportunities to be seized, Africa has been identified as particularly vulnerable to climate changes, and the ZRB is no exception to that. With increasing demands to the Zambezi system in terms or water and energy, and rising challenges in the form of less runoff due to climate change, it is paramount to plan ahead. In particular, it must be understood how major ...

The Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model is capable of estimating edge-of-field water, nutrient, and sediment transport and is used to assess the environmental impacts of management practices. The current practice is to fully calibrate the model for each site simulation, a task that requires resources and data not always available. The objective of this study was to compare m...

Using the most recent atmospheric neutrino data, as well as short-baseline, longbaseline and tritium β-decay data we show that the joint interpretation of the LSND, solar and atmospheric neutrino anomalies in (3+1) sterile neutrino schemes is severely disfavored, in contrast to the theoretically favored (2+2) schemes.

Profit Sharing and Training We analyze the impact of profit sharing on the share of workers receiving training. An effect is plausible because: 1) profit sharing is a credible commitment by firms to reward firmspecific skills acquired by formal or informal training, 2) profit sharing may reduce turnover and increase the returns to training, 3) a common payment for the whole workforce leads to p...

Payment for Performance (P4P) schemes by which physicians get a financial reward as long as they reach quality and efficiency targets provided by regulator have become increasingly popular in recent years in OECD countries (1) : in 2012, P4P program for primary care physicians were implemented in about 15 OECD countries. In the US, the number of P4P schemes has grown spectacularly, from 39 in 2...