Import procedures for timber to the European Union : options for streamlining procedures for legal timber

This report provides a description of the institutions involved in timber import and an overview of import procedures and related documents in the Netherlands in the framework of the European Union Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT). FLEGT aims at establishing Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) between the EU and timber producing countries. The report includes recommendations with respect to streamlining import procedures and electronic document handling

Global HI profiles of spiral galaxies

In this paper we present short HI synthesis observations of 57 galaxies without HI information in the RC3. These are a by-product of a large survey with the WSRT of the neutral hydrogen gas in spiral and irregular galaxies. Global profiles and related quantities are given for the 42 detected galaxies and upper limits for the remaining 15. A number of galaxies have low values of HI mass-to-blue luminosity ratio.Comment: A LATEX file without figures. The postscript version including all the figures can be retrieved from http://www.astro.rug.nl:80/~secr/ Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics Suppl. Serie

Extended HI spiral structure and the figure rotation of triaxial dark halos

The HI disk of the blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy NGC 2915 extends to 22 optical scalelengths and shows spiral arms reaching far beyond the optical component. None of the previous theories for spiral structure provide likely explanations for these very extended spiral arms. Our numerical simulations first demonstrate that such large spiral arms can form in an extended gas disk embedded in a massive triaxial dark matter halo with slow figure rotation, through the strong gravitational torque of the rotating halo. We then show that the detailed morphological properties of the developed spirals and rings depend strongly on the pattern speed of the figure rotation, the shape of the triaxial halo, and the inclination of the disk with respect to the plane including the triaxial halo's long and middle axes. These results strongly suggest that the dark matter halo of NGC 2915 is triaxial and has figure rotation. Based on these results, we also suggest that dynamical effects of triaxial halos with figure rotation are important in various aspect of galaxy formation and evolution, such as formation of polar ring galaxies, excitation of non-axisymmetric structures in low surface-brightness galaxies, and gas fueling to the central starburst regions of BCDs.Comment: 13 pages 2 figures (fig.2 = jpg format), accepted by ApJ

Gas-Rich Companions of Isolated Galaxies

We have used the VLA to search for gaseous remnants of the galaxy formation process around six extremely isolated galaxies. We found two distinct HI clouds around each of two galaxies in our sample (UGC 9762 & UGC 11124). These clouds are rotating and appear to have optical counterparts, strongly implying that they are typical dwarf galaxies. The companions are currently weakly interacting with the primary galaxy, but have short dynamical friction timescales (~1 Gyr) suggesting that these triple galaxy systems will shortly collapse into one massive galaxy. Given that the companions are consistent with being in circular rotation about the primary galaxy, and that they have small relative masses, the resulting merger will be a minor one. The companions do, however, contain enough gas that the merger will represent a significant infusion of fuel to drive future star formation, bar formation, or central activity, while building up the mass of the disk thus making these systems important pieces of the galaxy formation and evolution process.Comment: Corrected dynamical friction calculation error. Revised discussion & conclusions. 7 pages, 4 tables, 6 figures, to appear in May 1999 Astronomical Journa

Heat-dried sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum myceliogenically germinate in water and are able to infect Brassica napus

The phytopathogenic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum forms dormant structures (termed sclerotia) that germinate myceliogenically under certain environmental conditions. During myceliogenic germination, sclerotia produce hyphae, which can infect leaves or stems of host plants directly from the ground; this is termed basal infection. This study determined which abiotic conditions were most important for promoting myceliogenic germination of sclerotia in vitro. A high sclerotium hydration level and low incubation temperature (158C) improved mycelial growth in the presence of a nutrient source. Sclerotia incubated without a nutrient source on moist sand, vigorously myceliogenically germinated most frequently (63%) when they had been previously imbibed and then conditioned at -20°C. By far the most consistent amount of vigorous myceliogenic germination (>75%) was produced when sclerotia were heat-dried before being submerged in water. The hyphae of these sclerotia were shown to infect and proliferate on leaves of intact Brassica napus plants. This research provides a better understanding of the abiotic conditions that are likely to increase the risk of basal infection by S. sclerotiorum

High-Velocity Clouds in the Nearby Spiral Galaxy M 83

We present deep HI 21-cm and optical observations of the face-on spiral galaxy M 83 obtained as part of a project to search for high-velocity clouds (HVCs) in nearby galaxies. Anomalous-velocity neutral gas is detected toward M 83, with 5.6x10^7 Msolar of HI contained in a disk rotating 40-50 km/s more slowly in projection than the bulk of the gas. We interpret this as a vertically extended thick disk of neutral material, containing 5.5% of the total HI within the central 8 kpc. Using an automated source detection algorithm to search for small-scale HI emission features, we find eight distinct, anomalous-velocity HI clouds with masses ranging from 7x10^5 to 1.5x10^7 Msolar and velocities differing by up to 200 km/s compared to the HI disk. Large on-disk structures are coincident with the optical spiral arms, while unresolved off-disk clouds contain no diffuse optical emission down to a limit of 27 r' mag per square arcsec. The diversity of the thick HI disk and larger clouds suggests the influence of multiple formation mechanisms, with a galactic fountain responsible for the slowly-rotating disk and on-disk discrete clouds, and tidal effects responsible for off-disk cloud production. The mass and kinetic energy of the HI clouds are consistent with the mass exchange rate predicted by the galactic fountain model. If the HVC population in M 83 is similar to that in our own Galaxy, then the Galactic HVCs must be distributed within a radius of less than 25 kpc.Comment: 30 pages, 23 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ. Some figures have been altered to reduce their siz

Using Data Lake Stack in Animal Sciences

Big Data is a theme that receives a lot of attention, and is often characterised as managing and analysing large datasets to reveal new valuable patterns. In the livestock domain, big data is also becoming more common and is being anchored into the mind-set of researchers, due to, for example, sensors generating ..

Simple Models for Turbulent Self-Regulation in Galaxy Disks

We propose that turbulent heating, wave pressure and gas exchanges between different regions of disks play a dominant role in determining the preferred, quasi-equilibrium, self-similar states of gas disks on large-scales. We present simple families of analytic, thermohydrodynamic models for these global states, which include terms for turbulent pressure and Reynolds stresses. Star formation rates, phase balances, and hydrodynamic forces are all tightly coupled and balanced. The models have stratified radial flows, with the cold gas slowly flowing inward in the midplane of the disk, and with the warm/hot phases that surround the midplane flowing outward. The models suggest a number of results that are in accord with observation, as well as some novel predictions, including the following. 1) The large-scale gas density and thermal phase distributions in galaxy disks can be explained as the result of turbulent heating and spatial couplings. 2) The turbulent pressures and stresses that drive radial outflows in the warm gas also allow a reduced circular velocity there. This effect was observed by Swaters, Sancisi and van der Hulst in NGC 891, a particularly turbulent edge-on disk. The models predict that the effect should be universal in such disks. 3) They suggest that a star formation rate like the phenomenological Schmidt Law is the natural result of global thermohydrodynamical balance, and may not obtain in disks far from equilibrium. (Abridged)Comment: 37 pages, 1 gif figure, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Do We Hold Males and Females to the Same Standard? A Measurement Invariance Study on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised

ABSTRACT Psychopathy in females has been understudied. Extant data on gender comparisons using the predominant measure of assessment in clinical practice, the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), points to a potential lack of measurement invariance (MI). If indeed the instrument does not perform equally (well) in both genders, straightforward comparison of psychopathy scores in males and females is unwarranted. Using a sample of female and male forensic patients (N ¼ 110 and N ¼ 147 respectively), we formally tested for MI in a structural equation modeling framework. We found that the PCL-R in its current form does not attain full MI. Four items showed threshold biases and particularly Factor 2 (the Social Deviance Factor) is gender biased. Based on our findings, it seems reasonable to expect that specific scoring adjustments might go a long way in bringing about more equivalent assessment of psychopathic features in men and women. Only then can we begin to meaningfully compare the genders on the prevalence, structure, and external correlates of psychopath

HI power spectrum of the spiral galaxy NGC628

We have measured the HI power spectrum of the nearly face-on spiral galaxy NGC628 (M74) using a visibility based estimator. The power spectrum is well fitted by a power law $P(U)=AU^{\alpha}$, with $\alpha =- 1.6\pm0.2$ over the length scale $800 {\rm pc} {\rm to} 8 {\rm kpc}$. The slope is found to be independent of the width of the velocity channel. This value of the slope is a little more than one in excess of what has been seen at considerably smaller length scales in the Milky-Way, Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Large Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the dwarf galaxy DDO210. We interpret this difference as indicating a transition from three dimensional turbulence at small scales to two dimensional turbulence in the plane of the galaxy's disk at length scales larger than galaxy's HI scale height. The slope measured here is similar to that found at large scales in the LMC. Our analysis also places an upper limit to the galaxy's scale height at $800\ {\rm pc}$ .Comment: 4 Pages, 2 Figures, 1 Table. Accepted for Publication in MNRAS LETTER