Un mode de conduite biologique et un niveau élevé d'herbe améliorent la qualité nutritionelle des acides gras de la viande chez l'agneau engraisse au pâturage

This study aimed at comparing the nutritional quality of meat fatty acids (FA) of pasture-fed lambs reared organically or conventionally and offered two levels of herbage availability. Forty eight castrated male lambs of Limousine breed were used in a 2 x 2 experimental design, i.e. production system (Organic –O- vs. Conventional –C-) x level of herbage availability (High vs. Low). The O and C pastures differed in the level of on-pasture mineral N fertilization (0 vs. 100 U. ha-1. year-1) since 10 years. The level of pasture availability was managed to obtain a mean lamb age at slaughter of 5 vs. 6 months in the High and the Low level respectively. GLC analysis of fatty acids from the Longissimus thoracis muscle showed that organic farming system improved the health value of lamb meat by decreasing the level of saturated FA and especially 16:0, thus leading to a higher value of polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) to saturated FA ratio (+15%, P<0.03) and increasing the level of CLA (+18.2%, P< 0.002). The high level of herbage availability led to a better nutritional and health value of meat FA by increasing significantly deposition of n-6 PUFA (+16.3%), n-3 PUFA (+15%) and CLA (+20.2%) in LT muscle to the detriment of saturated FA (-3.4%). In conclusion, the present study confirmed the general interest of pasture-feeding on the nutritional quality of the lamb meat. It showed, for the first time, the beneficial impact of organic farming on the health value of lamb meat FA by favouring deposition of PUFA (compared to saturated FA) and CLA, this effect being reinforced by a high level of pasture availability

Роль сечової кислоти в механізмах кардіоінотропних ефектів бальнеотерапевтичного комплексу курорту Трускавець

В русле концепции оо эндогенной мочевой кислоте как одном из звеньев механизма действия биоактивной воды Нафтуся на функциональные системы организма проанализированы совместные изменения под влиянием бальнеотерапии на курорте Трускавець уровня урикемии и сократительной активности миокарда. Выявлены три типа детерминации урикемией инотропии: ураторто-, уратинверс- и уратнезависимый типы, реализация которых обуславливается констелляцией 22 исходных параметров вегетативной регуляции, велоэргометрии, электролитного и липидного обменов, гемодинамики, а также антропометрии.It is detected three types determination of inotropy by plasma level of uric acid: uratorthodependent, uratinversdependent and uratindependent types. It is selected constellation of initial parameters of vegetative regulation, veloergometry, haemodynamic, antropometry, electrolythic and lipid exchange conditionizes these types

In which shell-type SNRs should we look for gamma-rays and neutrinos from p-p collisions?

We present a simple analytic model for the various contributions to the non-thermal emission from shell type SNRs, and show that this model's results reproduce well the results of previous detailed calculations. We show that the \geq 1 TeV gamma ray emission from the shell type SNRs RX J1713.7-3946 and RX J0852.0-4622 is dominated by inverse-Compton scattering of CMB photons (and possibly infra-red ambient photons) by accelerated electrons. Pion decay (due to proton-proton collisions) is shown to account for only a small fraction, \lesssim10^-2, of the observed flux, as assuming a larger fractional contribution would imply nonthermal radio and X-ray synchrotron emission and thermal X-ray Bremsstrahlung emission that far exceed the observed radio and X-ray fluxes. Models where pion decay dominates the \geq 1 TeV flux avoid the implied excessive synchrotron emission (but not the implied excessive thermal X-ray Bremsstrahlung emission) by assuming an extremely low efficiency of electron acceleration, K_ep \lesssim 10^-4 (K_ep is the ratio of the number of accelerated electrons and the number of accelerated protons at a given energy). We argue that observations of SNRs in nearby galaxies imply a lower limit of K_ep \gtrsim 10^-3, and thus rule out K_ep values \lesssim 10^-4 (assuming that SNRs share a common typical value of K_ep). It is suggested that SNRs with strong thermal X-ray emission, rather than strong non-thermal X-ray emission, are more suitable candidates for searches of gamma rays and neutrinos resulting from proton-proton collisions. In particular, it is shown that the neutrino flux from the SNRs above is probably too low to be detected by current and planned neutrino observatories (Abridged).Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in JCAP, minor revision

Distribution and Kinematics of O VI in the Galactic Halo

FUSE spectra of 100 extragalactic objects are analyzed to obtain measures of O VI absorption along paths through the Milky Way thick disk/halo. Strong O VI absorption over the approximate velocity range from -100 to 100 km/s reveals a widespread but highly irregular distribution of thick disk O VI, implying the existence of substantial amounts of hot gas with T ~ 3x10^5 K in the Milky Way halo. Large irregularities in the distribution of the absorbing gas are found to be similar over angular scales extending from less than one to 180 degrees, indicating a considerable amount of small and large scale structure in the gas. The overall distribution of Galactic O VI is not well described by a symmetrical plane-parallel layer of patchy O VI absorption. The simplest departure from such a model that provides a reasonable fit to the observations is a plane-parallel patchy absorbing layer with a scale height of 2.3 kpc, and a 0.25 dex excess of O VI in the northern Galactic polar region. The O VI absorption has a Doppler parameter b = 30 to 99 km/s, with an average value of 60 km/s . Thermal broadening alone cannot explain the large observed profile widths. The average O VI absorption velocities toward high latitude objects range from -46 to 82 km/s, with a sample average of 0 km/s and a standard deviation of 21 km/s. O VI associated with the thick disk moves both toward and away from the plane with roughly equal frequency. A combination of models involving the radiative cooling of hot fountain gas, the cooling of supernova bubbles in the halo, and the turbulent mixing of warm and hot halo gases is required to explain the presence of O VI and other highly ionized atoms found in the halo. (abbreviated)Comment: 70 pages, single-spaced, PDF format. Bound copies of this manuscript and two accompanying articles are available upon request. Submitted to ApJ

Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations of Markarian 421: The Missing Piece of its Spectral Energy Distribution

We report on the γ-ray activity of the high-synchrotron-peaked BL Lacertae object Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) during the first 1.5 years of Fermi operation, from 2008 August 5 to 2010 March 12. We find that the Large Area Telescope (LAT) γ-ray spectrum above 0.3 GeV can be well described by a power-law function with photon index Γ = 1.78 ± 0.02 and average photon flux F(\u3e 0.3 GeV) = (7.23 ± 0.16) × 10-8 ph cm-2 s-1. Over this time period, the Fermi-LAT spectrum above 0.3 GeV was evaluated on seven-day-long time intervals, showing significant variations in the photon flux (up to a factor ~3 from the minimum to the maximum flux) but mild spectral variations. The variability amplitude at X-ray frequencies measured by RXTE/ASM and Swift/BAT is substantially larger than that in γ-rays measured by Fermi-LAT, and these two energy ranges are not significantly correlated. We also present the first results from the 4.5 month long multifrequency campaign on Mrk 421, which included the VLBA, Swift, RXTE, MAGIC, the F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, and other collaborations and instruments that provided excellent temporal and energy coverage of the source throughout the entire campaign (2009 January 19 to 2009 June 1). During this campaign, Mrk 421 showed a low activity at all wavebands. The extensive multi-instrument (radio to TeV) data set provides an unprecedented, complete look at the quiescent spectral energy distribution (SED) for this source. The broadband SED was reproduced with a leptonic (one-zone synchrotron self-Compton) and a hadronic model (synchrotron proton blazar). Both frameworks are able to describe the average SED reasonably well, implying comparable jet powers but very different characteristics for the blazar emission site

The first XMM-Newton spectrum of a high redshift quasar - PKS 0537-286

We present XMM-Newton observations of the high redshift z=3.104, radio-loud quasar PKS 0537-286. The EPIC CCD cameras provide the highest signal-to-noise spectrum of a high-z quasar to date. The EPIC observations show that PKS 0537-286 is extremely X-ray luminous (Lx=2x10^47 erg/s), with an unusually hard X-ray spectrum (Gamma=1.27+/-0.02). The flat power-law emission extends over the whole observed energy range; there is no evidence of intrinsic absorption, which has been claimed in PKS 0537-286 and other high z quasars. However, there is evidence for weak Compton reflection. A redshifted iron K line, observed at 1.5 keV - corresponding to 6.15 keV in the quasar rest frame - is detected at 95% confidence. If confirmed, this is the most distant iron K line known. The line equivalent width is small (33eV), consistent with the `X-ray Baldwin effect' observed in other luminous quasars. The reflected continuum is also weak (R=0.25). We find the overall spectral energy distribution of PKS 0537-286 is dominated by the X-ray emission, which, together with the flat power-law and weak reflection features, suggests that the X-radiation from PKS 0537-286 is dominated by inverse Compton emission associated with a face-on relativistic jet.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letter

Insights into the High-energy γ-ray Emission of Markarian 501 from Extensive Multifrequency Observations in the Fermi Era

We report on the γ-ray activity of the blazar Mrk 501 during the first 480 days of Fermi operation. We find that the average Large Area Telescope (LAT) γ-ray spectrum of Mrk 501 can be well described by a single power-law function with a photon index of 1.78 ± 0.03. While we observe relatively mild flux variations with the Fermi-LAT (within less than a factor of two), we detect remarkable spectral variability where the hardest observed spectral index within the LAT energy range is 1.52 ± 0.14, and the softest one is 2.51 ± 0.20. These unexpected spectral changes do not correlate with the measured flux variations above 0.3 GeV. In this paper, we also present the first results from the 4.5 month long multifrequency campaign (2009 March 15—August 1) on Mrk 501, which included the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), Swift, RXTE, MAGIC, and VERITAS, the F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, and other collaborations and instruments which provided excellent temporal and energy coverage of the source throughout the entire campaign. The extensive radio to TeV data set from this campaign provides us with the most detailed spectral energy distribution yet collected for this source during its relatively low activity. The average spectral energy distribution of Mrk 501 is well described by the standard one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. In the framework of this model, we find that the dominant emission region is characterized by a size lsim0.1 pc (comparable within a factor of few to the size of the partially resolved VLBA core at 15-43 GHz), and that the total jet power (sim1044 erg s-1) constitutes only a small fraction (~10-3) of the Eddington luminosity. The energy distribution of the freshly accelerated radiating electrons required to fit the time-averaged data has a broken power-law form in the energy range 0.3 GeV-10 TeV, with spectral indices 2.2 and 2.7 below and above the break energy of 20 GeV. We argue that such a form is consistent with a scenario in which the bulk of the energy dissipation within the dominant emission zone of Mrk 501 is due to relativistic, proton-mediated shocks. We find that the ultrarelativistic electrons and mildly relativistic protons within the blazar zone, if comparable in number, are in approximate energy equipartition, with their energy dominating the jet magnetic field energy by about two orders of magnitude