535 research outputs found
Ecological Aspects of Selenosis on Rangelands
Plants containing high concentrations of selenium (Se)
have long been recognized for their toxic effects on
animals. Marco Polo, traveling in China in 1295, was
probably describing signs of Se poisoning when he wrote that
the hooves of his livestock became swollen and dropped off
when they grazed plants growing in certain areas (Rosenfeld
and Beath 1964). Loss of hair and nails in humans,
presumably suffering from chronic Se ingestion was described
in Colombia by Father Simon Pedro in 1560 [National Research
Council (NRC) 1976, 1983]. Guang-Qi (1987) has also
described and illustrated chronic selenium toxicosis in some
Chinese peopl
Chapter G: Selenium poisoning in livestock
Selenium in certain soils may be taken up by plants in
amounts sufficient to make forage toxic to animals. Seleniterous
forage can be found in semiarid areas on soils typically
derived from Cretaceous geologic material in the Western
United States and Canada. Intoxication of livestock by seleniterous
plants has been classified as acute or chronic. Acute
poisoning results from consuming plants containing high
selenium concentrations. Chronic selenium poisoning has
been described in two forms: alkali disease and blind staggers.
Alkali disease results from prolonged ingestion of plants
containing, 5-40 ppm selenium in inorganic or organic forms.
Alkali disease causes loss or hair, lameness, weight loss and
probably reduces reproductive efficiency . Blind staggers is said
to result from the consumption or selenium indicator plants.
These plants, in contrast to the nonaccumulators, contain
selenium in water soluble, nonprotein forms. Blind staggers
causes animals to wander, walk in circles, and to have
difficulty in swallowing; in addition, it may cause blindness.
Information is presented that questions the attribution of blind
staggers to selenium toxicosis
Reproductive response of ewes fed alfalfa pellets containing sodium selenate or astragalus bisulcatus as a selenium source
Selenium fed to open cycling ewes in the form of sodium selenate or Astragalus bisulcatus (a selenium
accumulator plant) at 24 or 29 ppm selenium, respectively, in alfalfa hay pellets did not alter the
estrous cycle length, estrus behavior, progesterone or estrogen profiles, pregnancy rate or outcome of parturition
(P>0.05). There was wool loss in some ewes fed seleniferous pellets and the mean whole blood selenium
levels were 0.45, 1.3 and 2.4 ppm, respectively, for control, A bisulcatus and sodium selenate; however,
ewe condition and appearance remained good. All lambs appeared normal and the number of lambs born and
the individual and total lamb weight averages were not significantly (P>0.05) different between treatment
groups and control group
Elementary operations for quantum logic with a single trapped two-level cold ion beyond Lamb-Dicke limit
A simple alternative scheme for implementing quantum gates with a single
trapped cold two-level ion beyond the Lamb-Dicke (LD) limit is proposed. Basing
on the quantum dynamics for the laser-ion interaction described by a
generalized Jaynes-Cummings model, one can introduce two kinds of elementary
quantum operations i.e., the simple rotation on the bare atomic state,
generated by applying a resonant pulse, and the joint operation on the internal
and external degrees of the ion, performed by using an off-resonant pulse.
Several typical quantum gates, including Hadamard gate, controlled-Z and
controlled-NOT gates , can thus be implemented exactly by using these
elementary operations. The experimental parameters including the LD parameter
and the durations of the applied laser pulses, for these implementation are
derived analytically and numerically. Neither the LD approximation for the
laser-ion interaction nor the auxiliary atomic level is needed in the present
scheme.Comment: 5 pages, no figure, to appear in Opt. Com
Selenium in seleniferous environments
Selenium is biologically important because (i) it is essential in animal and possibly
plant metabolism, (ii) in many areas diets do not contain sufficient Se to meet
animals' needs, and (iii) in other areas it is toxic to animals when it occurrs in high
concentrations in soil, water, plants, fly ash, or in aerosols. Animals require 0.05
to 0.1 mg Se/kg in their diets to prevent Se deficiency but suffer Se toxicosis when
dietary levels exceed 5 to 15 mg Se/kg. The earth's crustal materials generally contain
<0.1 mg Se/kg. Higher concentrations are found in Cretaceous shales. The Se-accumulator
plants growing on the seleniferous soils may contain hundreds or even
thousands of mg Se/kg. However, the nonaccumulator grasses and forbs seldom accumulate
>50 mg Se/kg and more often contain <5 mg Se/kg. Soils and plants may
discharge volatile forms of Se into the atmosphere. However, plants may also absorb
measurable amounts of gaseous Se from the atmosphere. Anthropogenic activities
impact the amount of Se entering our nation's lakes, rivers, and the atmosphere.
Combustion of coal and incineration of municipal waste exhaust Se into the environment.
In addition, crop-fallow and irrigation practices that allow leaching waters to
pass through seleniferous strata prior to intersecting with surface flow, augment the
Se levels encountered by plant and animal life
Selenium poisoning in livestock: a review and progress
Selenium in certain soils may be taken up by plants in amounts to render them
toxic. Seleniferous forage can be found in most of the western states. Intoxication
of livestock by seleniferous plants has been classified as acute and chronic. Acute
poisoning results from consumption of plants having high levels of Se; chronic Se
poisoning has been described in two forms— alkali disease and blind staggers. Alkali
disease is said to result from the consumption of seleniferous grains and grasses,
and is manifest by loss of hair, lameness, and loss of weight. Blind staggers is slid
to result from the consumption of Se indicator plants and is manifest by wandering,
circling, loss of ability to swallow, and blindness. Some research casts doubt on the
above classification of Se poisoning. Research using pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) indicates
that the source of Se does not alter the type of lesion or signs of poisoning
observed. There are data available that suggest that blind staggers is not related to
Se poisoning
Holography from Conformal Field Theory
The locality of bulk physics at distances below the AdS length is one of the
remarkable aspects of AdS/CFT duality, and one of the least tested. It requires
that the AdS radius be large compared to the Planck length and the string
length. In the CFT this implies a large-N expansion and a gap in the spectum of
anomalous dimensions. We conjecture that the implication also runs in the other
direction, so that any CFT with a planar expansion and a large gap has a local
bulk dual. For an abstract CFT we formulate the consistency conditions, most
notably crossing symmetry, and show that the conjecture is true in a broad
range of CFT's, to first nontrivial order in 1/N^2: any CFT with a gap and a
planar expansion is generated via the AdS/CFT dictionary from a local bulk
interaction. We establish this result by a counting argument on each side, and
also investigate various properties of some explicit solutions.Comment: 49 pages. Minor corrections. Figure and references adde
Yangian symmetry of scattering amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory
Tree-level scattering amplitudes in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory have recently
been shown to transform covariantly with respect to a 'dual' superconformal
symmetry algebra, thus extending the conventional superconformal symmetry
algebra psu(2,2|4) of the theory. In this paper we derive the action of the
dual superconformal generators in on-shell superspace and extend the dual
generators suitably to leave scattering amplitudes invariant. We then study the
algebra of standard and dual symmetry generators and show that the inclusion of
the dual superconformal generators lifts the psu(2,2|4) symmetry algebra to a
Yangian. The non-local Yangian generators acting on amplitudes turn out to be
cyclically invariant due to special properties of psu(2,2|4). The
representation of the Yangian generators takes the same form as in the case of
local operators, suggesting that the Yangian symmetry is an intrinsic property
of planar N=4 super Yang-Mills, at least at tree level.Comment: 23 pages, no figures; v2: typos corrected, references added; v3:
minor changes, references adde
Comparative toxicity of selenium from seleno-DL-methionine, sodium selenate, and Astragalus bisulcatus in pigs
Selenium is an essential micronutrient, although ingestion in
excess in pigs can cause disease conditions including neurological
dysfunction and chronic skin and hoof lesions. Controlled
feeding trials in growing swine, using the same Se content in
feed sources, resulted in higher concentrations (p 0.05) of Se
in blood and organs of pigs fed seleno-DL-methionine compared
with those receiving Astragalus bisulcatus or sodium selenate.
Clinical signs of Se toxicity including neurological signs of paralysis
were more severe and occurred sooner in the A. bisulcatus
group than in the sodium selenate or seleno-DL-methionine
groups. All five pigs fed A. bisulcatus developed neurological
signs of paralysis, and in four the signs occurred within 5 days
of the start of treatment. Four of five pigs fed sodium selenate
also developed paralysis, but this occurred 4 to 21 days after
treatment began. The fifth pig in the group developed signs of
chronic selenosis. Two of five pigs fed seleno-DL-methionine
developed paralysis on 9 and 24 days, respectively, and the
remaining three developed chronic selenosis. Selenium fed to
pigs in three forms [plant (A. bisulcatus), sodium selenate, or
seleno-DL-methionine] resulted in neurological dysfunction and
lesions of symmetrical poliomyelomalacia. These were most severe
in the A. bisulcatus group, which also had polioencephalomalacia.
Although seleno-m-methionine caused the greater increase
in tissue and blood Se concentrations, this did not correlate
with severity of pathological changes, since animals fed A.
bisulcatus developed more severe and disseminated lesions
Review of AdS/CFT Integrability: An Overview
This is the introductory chapter of a review collection on integrability in
the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In the collection we present an
overview of the achievements and the status of this subject as of the year
2010.Comment: 31 pages, v2: reference added, references to other chapters updated,
v3: footnote 1 on location of references added, v4: minor changes, references
added, accepted for publication in Lett. Math. Phys, v5: minor corrections,
links to chapters updated, attached IntAdS.pdf with all chapters in one file,
see http://arxiv.org/src/1012.3982/anc/IntAdS.pdf or
http://www.phys.ethz.ch/~nbeisert/IntAdS.pd
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