Current View of the Buffalo Industry

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Measurement of the Fermi Constant by FAST

An initial measurement of the lifetime of the positive muon to a precision of 16 parts per million (ppm) has been performed with the FAST detector at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The result is tau_mu = 2.197083 (32) (15) microsec, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. The muon lifetime determines the Fermi constant, G_F = 1.166353 (9) x 10^-5 GeV^-2 (8 ppm).Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Synthetic soil crusts against green-desert transitions : a spatial model

Altres ajuts: Botin Foundation (Banco Santander through its Santander Universities Global Division) i CERCA Programme/Generalitat de CatalunyaSemiarid ecosystems are threatened by global warming due to longer dehydration times and increasing soil degradation. Mounting evidence indicates that, given the current trends, drylands are likely to expand and possibly experience catastrophic shifts from vegetated to desert states. Here, we explore a recent suggestion based on the concept of ecosystem terraformation, where a synthetic organism is used to counterbalance some of the nonlinear effects causing the presence of such tipping points. Using an explicit spatial model incorporating facilitation and considering a simplification of states found in semiarid ecosystems including vegetation, fertile and desert soil, we investigate how engineered microorganisms can shape the fate of these ecosystems. Specifically, two different, but complementary, terraformation strategies are proposed: Cooperation -based: C -terraformation; and Dispersion -based: D -terraformation. The first strategy involves the use of soil synthetic microorganisms to introduce cooperative loops (facilitation) with the vegetation. The second one involves the introduction of engineered microorganisms improving their dispersal capacity, thus facilitating the transition from desert to fertile soil. We show that small modifications enhancing cooperative loops can effectively modify the aridity level of the critical transition found at increasing soil degradation rates, also identifying a stronger protection against soil degradation by using the D -terraformation strategy. The same results are found in a mean-field model providing insights into the transitions and dynamics tied to these terraformation strategies. The potential consequences and extensions of these models are discussed

Retinal safety of intravitreal rtPA in healthy rats and under excitotoxic conditions.

Intravitreal recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) is used off-label for the surgical management of submacular hemorrhage, a severe complication of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. rtPA is approved for coronary and cerebral thrombolysis. However, in ischemic stroke rtPA is known to increase excitotoxic neural cell death by interacting with the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. We therefore investigated the retinal toxicity of rtPA in healthy rats and in a model of NMDA-induced retinal excitotoxicity. First, rtPA at three different doses (2.16 µg/5 µl, 0.54 µg/5 µl, and 0.27 µg/5 µl) or vehicle (NaCl 0.9%) was injected intravitreally in healthy rat eyes. Electroretinograms (ERGs) were performed at 24 h or 7 days. Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled apoptotic retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) were counted on flatmounted retinas at 24 h or 7 days. Next, NMDA + vehicle or NMDA + rtPA (0.27 µg/5 µl) was injected intravitreally to generate excitotoxic conditions. Apoptotic annexin V-FITC-labeled RGCs and surviving Brn3a-labeled RGCs were quantified on flatmounted retinas and radial sections, 18 h after treatment. In healthy rat eyes, the number of apoptotic RGCs was statistically significantly increased 24 h after the administration of rtPA at the highest dose (2.16 µg/5 µl; p = 0.0250) but not at the lower doses of 0.54 and 0.27 µg/5 µl (p = 0.36 and p = 0.20), compared to vehicle. At day 7, there was no difference in the apoptotic RGC count between the rtPA- and vehicle-injected eyes (p = 0.70, p = 0.52, p = 0.11). ERG amplitudes and implicit times were not modified at 24 h or 7 days after injection of any tested rtPA doses, compared to the baseline. Intravitreal administration of NMDA induced RGC death, but under these excitotoxic conditions, coadministration of rtPA did not increase the number of dead RGCs (p = 0.70). Similarly, the number of surviving RGCs on the flatmounted retinas and retinal sections did not differ between the eyes injected with NMDA + vehicle and NMDA + rtPA (p = 0.59 and p = 0.67). At low clinical equivalent doses corresponding to 25 µg/0.1 ml in humans, intravitreal rtPA is not toxic for healthy rat retinas and does not enhance NMDA-induced excitotoxicity. Vitreal equivalent doses ≥200 µg/0.1 ml should be avoided in patients, due to potential RGC toxicity

The AMS-02 RICH Imager Prototype - In-Beam Tests with 20 GeV/c per Nucleon Ions -

A prototype of the AMS Cherenkov imager (RICH) has been tested at CERN by means of a low intensity 20 GeV/c per nucleon ion beam obtained by fragmentation of a primary beam of Pb ions. Data have been collected with a single beam setting, over the range of nuclear charges 2<Z<~45 in various beam conditions and using different radiators. The charge Z and velocity beta resolutions have been measured.Comment: 4 pages, contribution to the ICRC 200