Sincronização da onda folicular com hCG prévia à indução da luteólise com cloprostenol em bovinos

O efeito da aplicação de diferentes doses de hCG sobre a emergência de nova onda de crescimento folicular e o número de folículos recrutados dessa onda, a formação de corpo lúteo acessório, o diâmetro do folículo dominante e do corpo lúteo espontâneo no dia da aplicação do luteolítico, a subseqüente taxa de sincronização e o intervalo da aplicação de PGF2α à manifestação do estro foram avaliados. Vinte fêmeas bovinas mestiças em diestro, divididas em quatro tratamentos, contendo cinco animais cada, foram usadas. No tratamento 1, os animais receberam 500 UI I.M. hCG no dia 0, dia em que se iniciou o tratamento, e 150 μg D(+) cloprostenol no dia 6; já nos tratamentos 2, 3 e 4, receberam, respectivamente, 1000, 2000 e 3000 UI hCG, pela mesma via de aplicação, e 150 μg D(+) cloprostenol no dia 6. A atividade ovariana foi monitorada diariamente, com auxílio do aparelho de ultra-sonografia, do dia 0 ao estro, ou até o dia 11 após o tratamento, nos animais que não responderam à prostaglandina. Não houve diferença entre os efeitos de 500, 1000, 2000 e 3000 UI hCG sobre a dinâmica folicular, a taxa de sincronização e o intervalo da aplicação de PGF2α ao estro. Houve, no entanto, tendência de as dosagens de 2000 e 3000 UI induzirem à emergência de nova onda de crescimento folicular mais rapidamente que 500 ou 1000 UI destes hormônios.The effect of different doses of hCG administration on the emergence of a new follicular growth wave and the number of recruited follicles from this wave, the accessory corpus luteum formation, the diameter of the dominant follicle and of the spontaneous corpus luteum on the day of a luteolitic administration and subsequent synchronization rate and the interval between the PGF2α administration and the estrus manifestation were evaluated. Twenty crossbred female cattle in diestrus, divided in four treatments containing five animals each were used. In treatment 1, the animals received 500 IU IM of hCG on day 0 (day which started the treatment) and 150 μg of D(+) Cloprostenol on day 6. In treatments 2, 3 and 4, the animals received 1000, 2000 and 3000 IU, respectively, on day 0 and 150 μg of D(+) Cloprostenol on day 6. The ovarian activity was monitored daily, with the help of an ultra-sound apparatus, from day 0 to the estrus, or up to day 11 after the treatment on those animals which did not response to prostaglandin. There were no significant differences among the effects of 500, 1000, 2000 and 3000 IU of hCG on the follicular dynamic, synchronization rate and the interval between the PGF2α and the estrus manifestation. There was, however, a tendency of 2000 and 3000 IU doses to induce an emergence of a new follicular growth wave faster than 500 or 1000 IU of these hormones

A muon-track reconstruction exploiting stochastic losses for large-scale Cherenkov detectors

IceCube is a cubic-kilometer Cherenkov telescope operating at the South Pole. The main goal of IceCube is the detection of astrophysical neutrinos and the identification of their sources. High-energy muon neutrinos are observed via the secondary muons produced in charge current interactions with nuclei in the ice. Currently, the best performing muon track directional reconstruction is based on a maximum likelihood method using the arrival time distribution of Cherenkov photons registered by the experiment\u27s photomultipliers. A known systematic shortcoming of the prevailing method is to assume a continuous energy loss along the muon track. However at energies >1 TeV the light yield from muons is dominated by stochastic showers. This paper discusses a generalized ansatz where the expected arrival time distribution is parametrized by a stochastic muon energy loss pattern. This more realistic parametrization of the loss profile leads to an improvement of the muon angular resolution of up to 20% for through-going tracks and up to a factor 2 for starting tracks over existing algorithms. Additionally, the procedure to estimate the directional reconstruction uncertainty has been improved to be more robust against numerical errors