4,548 research outputs found
Measuring Progress on the Control of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) at a Regional Level: The Minnesota N212 Regional Control Project (Rcp) as a Working Example.
Due to the highly transmissible nature of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), implementation of regional programs to control the disease may be critical. Because PRRS is not reported in the US, numerous voluntary regional control projects (RCPs) have been established. However, the effect of RCPs on PRRS control has not been assessed yet. This study aims to quantify the extent to which RCPs contribute to PRRS control by proposing a methodological framework to evaluate the progress of RCPs. Information collected between July 2012 and June 2015 from the Minnesota Voluntary Regional PRRS Elimination Project (RCP-N212) was used. Demography of premises (e.g. composition of farms with sows = SS and without sows = NSS) was assessed by a repeated analysis of variance. By using general linear mixed-effects models, active participation of farms enrolled in the RCP-N212, defined as the decision to share (or not to share) PRRS status, was evaluated and used as a predictor, along with other variables, to assess the PRRS trend over time. Additionally, spatial and temporal patterns of farmers' participation and the disease dynamics were investigated. The number of farms enrolled in RCP-N212 and its geographical coverage increased, but the proportion of SS and NSS did not vary significantly over time. A significant increasing (p<0.001) trend in farmers' decision to share PRRS status was observed, but with NSS producers less willing to report and a large variability between counties. The incidence of PRRS significantly (p<0.001) decreased, showing a negative correlation between degree of participation and occurrence of PRRS (p<0.001) and a positive correlation with farm density at the county level (p = 0.02). Despite a noted decrease in PRRS, significant spatio-temporal patterns of incidence of the disease over 3-weeks and 3-kms during the entire study period were identified. This study established a systematic approach to quantify the effect of RCPs on PRRS control. Despite an increase in number of farms enrolled in the RCP-N212, active participation is not ensured. By evaluating the effect of participation on the occurrence of PRRS, the value of sharing information among producers may be demonstrated, in turn justifying the existence of RCPs
Time relaxation of interacting single--molecule magnets
We study the relaxation of interacting single--molecule magnets (SMMs) in
both spatially ordered and disordered systems. The tunneling window is assumed
to be, as in Fe8, much narrower than the dipolar field spread. We show that
relaxation in disordered systems differs qualitatively from relaxation in fully
occupied cubic and Fe_8 lattices. We also study how line shapes that develop in
''hole--digging'' experiments evolve with time t in these fully occupied
lattices. We show (1) that the dipolar field h scales as t^p in these hole line
shapes and show (2) how p varies with lattice structure. Line shapes are not,
in general, Lorentzian. More specifically, in the lower portion of the hole,
they behave as (h/t^p)^{(1/p)-1} if h is outside the tunnel window. This is in
agreement with experiment and with our own Monte Carlo results.Comment: 21 LaTeX pages, 6 eps figures. Submitted to PRB on 15 June 2005.
Accepted on 13 August 200
Constraints for quantum logic arising from conservation laws and field fluctuations
We explore the connections between the constraints on the precision of
quantum logical operations that arise from a conservation law, and those
arising from quantum field fluctuations. We show that the conservation-law
based constraints apply in a number of situations of experimental interest,
such as Raman excitations, and atoms in free space interacting with the
multimode vacuum. We also show that for these systems, and for states with a
sufficiently large photon number, the conservation-law based constraint
represents an ultimate limit closely related to the fluctuations in the quantum
field phase.Comment: To appear in J. Opt. B: Quantum Semiclass. Opt., special issue on
quantum contro
Dark Halo and Disk Galaxy Scaling Laws in Hierarchical Universes
We use cosmological N-body/gasdynamical simulations that include star
formation and feedback to examine the proposal that scaling laws between the
total luminosity, rotation speed, and angular momentum of disk galaxies reflect
analogous correlations between the structural parameters of their surrounding
dark matter halos. The numerical experiments follow the formation of
galaxy-sized halos in two Cold Dark Matter dominated universes: the standard
Omega=1 CDM scenario and the currently popular LCDM model. We find that the
slope and scatter of the I-band Tully-Fisher relation are well reproduced in
the simulations, although not, as proposed in recent work, as a result of the
cosmological equivalence between halo mass and circular velocity: large
systematic variations in the fraction of baryons that collapse to form galaxies
and in the ratio between halo and disk circular velocities are observed in our
numerical experiments. The Tully-Fisher slope and scatter are recovered in this
model as a direct result of the dynamical response of the halo to the assembly
of the luminous component of the galaxy. We conclude that models that neglect
the self-gravity of the disk and its influence on the detailed structure of the
halo cannot be used to derive meaningful estimates of the scatter or slope of
the Tully-Fisher relation. Our models fail, however, to match the zero-point of
the Tully-Fisher relation, as well as that of the relation linking disk
rotation speed and angular momentum. These failures can be traced,
respectively, to the excessive central concentration of dark halos formed in
the Cold Dark Matter cosmogonies we explore and to the formation of galaxy
disks as the final outcome of a sequence of merger events. (abridged)Comment: submitted to The Astrophysical Journa
A Dataset of Fact-Checked Images Shared on WhatsApp During the Brazilian and Indian Elections
Recently, messaging applications, such as WhatsApp, have been reportedly
abused by misinformation campaigns, especially in Brazil and India. A notable
form of abuse in WhatsApp relies on several manipulated images and memes
containing all kinds of fake stories. In this work, we performed an extensive
data collection from a large set of WhatsApp publicly accessible groups and
fact-checking agency websites. This paper opens a novel dataset to the research
community containing fact-checked fake images shared through WhatsApp for two
distinct scenarios known for the spread of fake news on the platform: the 2018
Brazilian elections and the 2019 Indian elections.Comment: 7 pages. This is a preprint version of an accepted paper on ICWSM'20.
Please, consider to cite the conference version instead of this on
Tidal Torques and the Orientation of Nearby Disk Galaxies
We use numerical simulations to investigate the orientation of the angular
momentum axis of disk galaxies relative to their surrounding large scale
structure. We find that this is closely related to the spatial configuration at
turnaround of the material destined to form the galaxy, which is often part of
a coherent two-dimensional slab criss-crossed by filaments. The rotation axis
is found to align very well with the intermediate principal axis of the inertia
momentum tensor at this time. This orientation is approximately preserved
during the ensuing collapse, so that the rotation axis of the resulting disk
ends up lying on the plane traced by the protogalactic material at turnaround.
This suggests a tendency for disks to align themselves so that their rotation
axis is perpendicular to the minor axis of the structure defined by surrounding
matter. One example of this trend is provided by our own Galaxy, where the
Galactic plane is almost at right angles with the supergalactic plane (SGP)
drawn by nearby galaxies; indeed, the SGP latitude of the North Galactic Pole
is just 6 degrees. We have searched for a similar signature in catalogs of
nearby disk galaxies, and find a significant excess of edge-on spirals (for
which the orientation of the disk rotation axis may be determined
unambiguously) highly inclined relative to the SGP. This result supports the
view that disk galaxies acquire their angular momentum as a consequence of
early tidal torques acting during the expansion phase of the protogalactic
material.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
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