Effects of burying and removing dead leaves from the ground on the development of scab epidemics in an apple organic orchard.

Ascospores produced on scabbed leaves in the leaf litter constitute the primary inoculum causing scab infections in apple orchards during the year. The trial, carried out in a commercial organic orchard, permitted to evaluate the effects of the removal of dead leaves located on the inter-row supplemented by the ploughing in of the leaves left on the row, on the development of scab epidemics. From the first recorded contamination to harvest time, lesions on leaves and fruits were counted to determine reduction in disease incidence and severity, compared with the untreated plots. Disease severity as a function of the distance from the untreated plot was also observed, to evaluate the spore dispersal gradient within the orchard. The results show that the ploughing in and the removal of the litter reduced disease incidence by 62% on leaves, and by almost 82% on fruits to harvest. Moreover, measurements of the dispersal gradient show that the spores do not disperse, or little, beyond 20m of the untreated zone

High Metallicity Mg II Absorbers in the z < 1 Lyman alpha Forest of PKS 0454+039: Giant LSB Galaxies?

We report the discovery of two iron-group enhanced high-metallicity Mg II absorbers in a search through 28 Lyman Alpha forest clouds along the PKS 0454+039 sight line. Based upon our survey and the measured redshift number densities of W_r(MgII) <= 0.3 A absorbers and Lyman Alpha absorbers at z ~ 1, we suggest that roughly 5% of Lyman Alpha absorbers at z < 1 will exhibit "weak" Mg II absorption to a 5-sigma W_r(2796) detection limit of 0.02 A. The two discovered absorbers, at redshifts z = 0.6248 and z = 0.9315, have W_r(Lya) = 0.33 and 0.15 A, respectively. Based upon photoionization modeling, the H I column densities are inferred to be in the range 15.8 <= log N(HI) <= 16.8 cm^-2. For the z = 0.6428 absorber, if the abundance pattern is solar, then the cloud has [Fe/H] > -1; if its gas-phase abundance follows that of depleted clouds in our Galaxy, then [Fe/H] > 0 is inferred. For the z = 0.9315 absorber, the metallicity is [Fe/H] > 0, whether the abundance pattern is solar or suffers depletion. Imaging and spectroscopic studies of the PKS 0454+039 field reveal no candidate luminous objects at these redshifts. We discuss the possibility that these Mg II absorbers may arise in the class of "giant" low surface brightness galaxies, which have [Fe/H] >= -1, and even [Fe/H] >= 0, in their extended disks. We tentatively suggest that a substantial fraction of these "weak" Mg II absorbers may select low surface brightness galaxies out to z ~ 1.Comment: Accepted The Astrophysical Journal; 25 pages; 6 encapsulated figure

Communication in cross-cultural consultations in primary care in Europe: the case for improvement. The rationale for the RESTORE FP 7 project

The purpose of this paper is to substantiate the importance of research about barriers and levers to the implementation of supports for cross-cultural communication in primary care settings in Europe. After an overview of migrant health issues, with the focus on communication in cross-cultural consultations in primary care and the importance of language barriers, we highlight the fact that there are serious problems in routine practice that persist over time and across different European settings. Language and cultural barriers hamper communication in consultations between doctors and migrants, with a range of negative effects including poorer compliance and a greater propensity to access emergency services. It is well established that there is a need for skilled interpreters and for professionals who are culturally competent to address this problem. A range of professional guidelines and training initiatives exist that support the communication in cross-cultural consultations in primary care. However, these are commonly not implemented in daily practice. It is as yet unknown why professionals do not accept or implement these guidelines and interventions, or under what circumstances they would do so. A new study involving six European countries, RESTORE (REsearch into implementation STrategies to support patients of different ORigins and language background in a variety of European primary care settings), aims to address these gaps in knowledge. It uses a unique combination of a contemporary social theory, normalisation process theory (NPT) and participatory learning and action (PLA) research. This should enhance understanding of the levers and barriers to implementation, as well as providing stakeholders, with the opportunity to generate creative solutions to problems experienced with the implementation of such interventions

The Population of Weak Mg II Absorbers I. A Survey of 26 QSO HIRES/Keck Spectra

We present a search for "weak" MgII absorbers [those with W_r(2796) < 0.3 A in the HIRES/Keck spectra of 26 QSOs. We found 30, of which 23 are newly discovered. The spectra are 80% complete to W_r(2796) = 0.02 A and have a cumulative redshift path of ~17.2 for the redshift range 0.4 < z < 1.4. The number of absorbers per unit redshift, dN/dz, is seen to increase as the equivalent width threshold is decreased; we obtained dN/dz = 1.74+/-0.10 for our 0.02 <= W_r(2796) < 0.3 A sample. The equivalent width distribution follows a power law with slope -1.0; there is no turnover down to W_r(2796) = 0.02 A at = 0.9. Weak absorbers comprise at least 65% of the total MgII absorption population, which outnumbers Lyman limit systems (LLS) by a factor of 3.8+/-1.1; the majority of weak MgII absorbers must arise in sub-LLS environments. Tentatively, we predict that ~5% of the Lyman-alpha forest clouds with W_r(1215) > 0.1 A will have detectable MgII absorption to W_r,min(2796) = 0.02 A and that this is primarily a high-metallicity selection effect (Z/Z_sun] > -1). This implies that MgII absorbing structures figure prominently as tracers of sub-LLS environments where gas has been processed by stars. We compare the number density of W_r(2796) > 0.02 A absorbers with that of both high and low surface brightness galaxies and find a fiducial absorber size of 35h^-1 to 63h^-1 kpc, depending upon the assumed galaxy population and their absorption properties. The individual absorbing "clouds" have W_r(2796) <= 0.15 A and their narrow (often unresolved) line widths imply temperatures of ~25,000 K. We measured W_r(1548) from CIV in FOS/HST archival spectra and, based upon comparisons with FeII, found a range of ionization conditions (low, high, and multi-phase) in absorbers selected by weak MgII.Comment: Accepted Version: 43 pages, PostScript figures embedded; accepted to ApJ; updated version includes analysis of CIV absorptio

The Kinematic Evolution of Strong MgII Absorbers

We consider the evolution of strong (W_r(2796) > 0.3A) MgII absorbers, most of which are closely related to luminous galaxies. Using 20 high resolution quasar spectra from the VLT/UVES public archive, we examine 33 strong MgII absorbers in the redshift range 0.3 < z < 2.5. We compare and supplement this sample with 23 strong MgII absorbers at 0.4 < z < 1.4 observed previously with HIRES/Keck. We find that neither equivalent width nor kinematic spread (the optical depth weighted second moment of velocity) of MgII2796 evolve. However, the kinematic spread is sensitive to the highest velocity component, and therefore not as sensitive to additional weak components at intermediate velocities relative to the profile center. The fraction of absorbing pixels within the full velocity range of the system does show a trend of decreasing with decreasing redshift. Most high redshift systems (14/20) exhibit absorption over the entire system velocity range, which differs from the result for low redshift systems (18/36) at the 95% level. This leads to a smaller number of separate subsystems for high redshift systems because weak absorping components tend to connect the stronger regions of absorption. We hypothesize that low redshift MgII profiles are more likely to represent well formed galaxies, many of which have kinematics consistent with a disk/halo structure. High redshift MgII profiles are more likely to show evidence of complex protogalactic structures, with multiple accretion or outflow events. Although these results are derived from measurements of gas kinematics, they are consistent with hierarchical galaxy formation evidenced by deep galaxy surveys.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journa

Medical students from Parakou (Benin) and West-African traditional beliefs on death and cadavers

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A Study of Lyman-Alpha Quasar Absorbers in the Nearby Universe

Spectroscopy of ten quasars obtained with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is presented. A clustering analysis reveals an excess of nearest neighbor line pairs on velocity scales of 250-750 km/s at a 95-98% confidence level. The hypothesis that the absorbers are randomly distributed in velocity space can be ruled out at the 99.8% confidence level. No two-point correlation power is detected (xi < 1 with 95% confidence). Lyman-alpha absorbers have correlation amplitudes on scales of 250-500 km/s at least 4-5 times smaller than the correlation amplitude of bright galaxies. A detailed comparison between absorbers in nearby galaxies is carried out on a limited subset of 11 Lyman- alpha absorbers where the galaxy sample in a large contiguous volume is complete to M_B = -16. Absorbers lie preferentially in regions of intermediate galaxy density but it is often not possible to uniquely assign a galaxy counterpart to an absorber. This sample provides no explicit support for the hypothesis that absorbers are preferentially associated with the halos of luminous galaxies. We have made a preliminary comparison of the absorption line properties and environments with the results of hydrodynamic simulations. The results suggest that the Lyman-alpha absorbers represent diffuse or shocked gas in the IGM that traces the cosmic web of large scale structure. (abridged)Comment: 36 pages of text, 15 figures, 4 tables, 36 file

Hepatic Expression of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 in Underfed Pregnant Ewes

The liver is one of the most important visceral organs, which represents a large contribution to whole animal energy expenditure and the major synthetic site of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) peptide. Decreased plane of nutrition acts by reducing the metabolic rate and mass of metabolic tissues, such as liver. Also, undernutrition results in the reduced circulating IGF-1 concentrations, due to the uncoupled growth hormone-IGF (GH-IGF) axis. This study investigated whether a 22-day period of undernutrition (half maintenance) could affect liver mass and IGF-1 protein and gene expression. Sixteen pregnant ewes fed all (n = 9) or half (n = 7) of their maintenance energy requirements were slaughtered on day 7 of pregnancy (oestrus = day 0). Body and liver mass, IGF-1 plasmatic concentrations and liver IGF-1 mRNA and protein expression were determined. Liver mass and the proportion of liver mass to empty body weight were lower in underfed animals. While IGF-1 plasmatic concentrations were lower in undernourished ewes, no differences in liver mRNA expression were found. This is the first time that differences in immunohistochemistry intensity and total content are reported in sheep. In summary, the decreased plasma IGF-1 concentrations induced by undernutrition in ewes was not associated with its reduced hepatic mRNA or protein expression, but to a decrease in liver mass

Gastrointestinal tract gene expression in ewes under feed restriction.

The gastrointestinal tract is known to adapt itself to changes in feed conditions and is the source of various signals that regulate feed intake and energy homeostasis. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the effect of a feed restriction period in the mRNA expression of target genes related to feed intake. The study was conducted in a randomized block ..