Herbs for horses

The aim of this study was to find out how many and which of the herbs used for horses that have been scientifically studied with results to justify the use. In order to find out which herbs that are commonly used by horse-owners a phone interview was performed where six companies selling herbs for horses was contacted and asked to provide information on the most sold herbs for horses in Sweden. Devil's claw (Harpagophytum procumbens), chamomile (Matricaria recutita), dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis), nettle (Urtica dioica) and monk's pepper (Vitex agnus-castus) where the most sold herbs, followed by marshmallow (Althaea officinalis), burdock (Arctium lappa), marigold (Calendula officinalis), purple coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia/purpurea), cleavers (Galium aparine), licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), rose hip (Rosa canina), thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and vervain (Verbena officinalis), in no particular order. Of the most used herbs, research with focus on the use for horses was found for purple coneflower, licorice, devil's claw, monk's pepper, rose hip, thyme, and vervain. These studies did not cover the whole range of traditional use for the mentioned herbs, and more studies are needed to be able to claim that these herbs have, or have not, scientific support for use in equine management

New observational techniques and analysis tools for wide field CCD surveys and high resolution astrometry

(Abridged) In the first part of this thesis, a general methodology for applying image deconvolution to wide-field CCD imagery. Results show that wavelet-based deconvolution can increase limiting magnitude up to 0.6 mag and improve limiting resolution 1 pixel with respect to original image with no astrometric accuracy degradation. In the second part, a new observational technique based on CCD fast drift scanning has been proposed for lunar occultations (LO) and speckle interferometry. This enables all kind of professional and high-end amateur observatories to perform such kind of observations. For LO, 16 new binaries up to 2mas of projected separation were detected and stellar diameters measurements in the 7 mas regime were obtained with that CCD and IR subarray based techniques. A new wavelet-based LO reduction pipeline was implemented. For speckle, CCD fast drift scanning technique was validated with the observation of four binary systems with well determined orbits. The results of separation, position angle and magnitude difference are in accordance with published measurements. A new approach for calibrating speckle transfer function from the binary power spectrum itself has been introduced. It does not require point source observations, which gives a more effective use of observation time.Comment: This is the abstract of my PhD Thesis at University of Barcelona. Abridged and complete summary available from astro-ph. Full thesis (22Mb) in separate chapters and with a summary in Catalan is available from: http://www.tesisenxarxa.net/TDX-0330106-125745/index_an.htm

TFAW: wavelet-based signal reconstruction to reduce photometric noise in time-domain surveys

There have been many efforts to correct systematic effects in astronomical light curves to improve the detection and characterization of planetary transits and astrophysical variability. Algorithms like the Trend Filtering Algorithm (TFA) use simultaneously-observed stars to remove systematic effects, and binning is used to reduce high-frequency random noise. We present TFAW, a wavelet-based modified version of TFA. TFAW aims to increase the periodic signal detection and to return a detrended and denoised signal without modifying its intrinsic characteristics. We modify TFA's frequency analysis step adding a Stationary Wavelet Transform filter to perform an initial noise and outlier removal and increase the detection of variable signals. A wavelet filter is added to TFA's signal reconstruction to perform an adaptive characterization of the noise- and trend-free signal and the noise contribution at each iteration while preserving astrophysical signals. We carried out tests over simulated sinusoidal and transit-like signals to assess the effectiveness of the method and applied TFAW to real light curves from TFRM. We also studied TFAW's application to simulated multiperiodic signals, improving their characterization. TFAW improves the signal detection rate by increasing the signal detection efficiency (SDE) up to a factor ~2.5x for low SNR light curves. For simulated transits, the transit detection rate improves by a factor ~2-5x in the low-SNR regime compared to TFA. TFAW signal approximation performs up to a factor ~2x better than bin averaging for planetary transits. The standard deviations of simulated and real TFAW light curves are ~40x better than TFA. TFAW yields better MCMC posterior distributions and returns lower uncertainties, less biased transit parameters and narrower (~10x) credibility intervals for simulated transits. We present a newly-discovered variable star from TFRM.Comment: Accepted for publication by A&A. 13 pages, 16 figures and 5 table

Optical photometric monitoring of gamma-ray binaries

Four gamma-ray binaries, namely PSR B1259-63, HESS J0632+057, HD 215227 and LS I +61 303, contain compact objects orbiting around massive Be stars. The nature of the compact object is only known in the case of PSR B1259-63, but the other systems could also contain young non-accreting pulsars with relativistic winds. Around periastron passage the compact objects should produce significant changes in the structure of the Be discs due to gravitational forces and eventually by ram pressure from the putative pulsar wind. Indeed, variability in the Halpha emission line has been detected in all these systems, and periodic variability in the optical photometry has been detected in two of them. However, there is lack of a systematic monitoring with accurate photometry, which could be used to constrain the shape of the disc during the periastron passage. This information is important to build accurate physical models to explain the broadband spectral energy distribution of these sources. Here we present an ongoing program to monitor the optical photometry of gamma-ray binaries and we show preliminary results for the case of HD 215227.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Proceedings of the "5th International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy", Heidelberg (Germany), 9-13 July 201

Skolbarn - rörelse - hälsa

The project Schoolchildren Physical Activity Health was initiated by The Stockholm University College of Physical Education and Sports (GIH) and the University of Skövde (HIS) at the Netlearning Conference, 2004. The Swedish Net University contributed with finance of the project, which was carried out January September 2005. The overall aim of the project was to design and distribute the distance course Schoolchildren s Health via Physical Activity C13, Adv.lev.(7.5 ECTS) , jointly managed by the academic institutions mentioned above. The objective was to offer students from various academic cultures and professions a course, where mutual learning objectives, could be reached. Closely related subjects, such as health and physical activity among schoolchildren are matters for school nurses as well as for PE Teachers. If health issues are to be looked upon with a holistic perspective, the possibilities for students to meet and share common questions of interest are of great importance for health development in schools today