Studies on transmission of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2)

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the causative agent of a variety of disease manifestations in swine that has a major impact on the swine industry. This thesis contains an introduction, a literature review, two scientific studies, and a general conclusions section. The objectives of the studies were to determine the transmission of PCV2 and the efficacy of two vaccines, an inactivated chimeric vaccine and a live-attenuated chimeric vaccine, in either pregnant sows or growing pigs in a challenge model. The results from this thesis indicate that vaccination of both sows and growing pigs with the inactivated-chimeric vaccine induced higher levels of PCV2-specific antibodies sooner than vaccination with the live-attenuated chimeric vaccine. Vaccination of both sows and growing pigs led to a reduction in viremia regardless of vaccine type used, however. In addition, these studies showed that vaccination of sows does not prevent in-utero spread of PCV2, and closure of a pig herd for 140 days could provide stabilization of herd immunity

An effective method to read out large scintillator areas with precise timing

Using scintillator tile technology several square meters of plastic scintillator are read out by only two photomultiplier with a time precision of about 1.5 nsec. Two examples are discussed to build a detector based on this technology to search for cosmic muons and neutrinos.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Contributed to Workshop on Scintillating Fiber Detectors (SCIFI97), Notre Dame, IN, 2-6 Nov 199

Analoges Recht in der digitalen Welt: Braucht das BGB ein Update? Eine Untersuchung am Beispiel digitaler Inhalte

Die Frage, ob das BGB den Herausforderungen der Digitalisierung noch gerecht werden kann, steht im Mittelpunkt dieser Publikation. Um dem auf den Grund zu gehen, untersucht der Autor den Begriff »digitale Inhalte«, der seit Umsetzung der Verbraucherrechterichtlinie im BGB zu finden ist. Mithilfe einer Kategorisierung der Erscheinungsformen digitaler Inhalte ordnet er diese vertragstypologisch zu. Mit dem so gefundenen Ergebnis macht der Autor legislative Vorschläge für eine alternative rechtliche Handhabbarkeit. Dabei nimmt er auch den von der Europäischen Kommission vorgelegten Vorschlag für eine spezielle Richtlinie für digitale Inhalte in den Blick und verbindet mit ihm die Zuversicht, dass es sich dabei um ein sinnvolles Update für das BGB handeln könnte

A New Neutrino Cross Section Database

We describe a new web based data resource being developed to provide access to accurate and validated cross sections of low energy neutrino and antineutrino interactions. The proposed content of this database are outlined which cover total and differential cross from inclusive, quasi-elastic and exclusive pion production processes from charged and neutral current interactions. Efforts to obtain these data, which come mainly from old bubble chamber experiments, are described as well as the implementation of an embryonic web site to make the resource generally accessible.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, To appear in the proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Neutrino Nucleus Interactions in the few GeV region (NuInt04), Gran Sasso, Assergi, Italy, 17-21 Mar 200

Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions

The study of neutrino oscillations has necessitated a new generation of neutrino experiments that are exploring neutrino-nuclear scattering processes. We focus in particular on charged-current quasi-elastic scattering, a particularly important channel that has been extensively investigated both in the bubble-chamber era and by current experiments. Recent results have led to theoretical reexamination of this process. We review the standard picture of quasi-elastic scattering as developed in electron scattering, review and discuss experimental results, and discuss additional nuclear effects such as exchange currents and short-range correlations that may play a significant role in neutrino-nucleus scattering