Combining Ethological Thinking and Epidemiological Knowledge to Enhance the Naturalness of Organic Livestock Systems

Organic livestock farming places strong emphasis on conditions that allow animals to exhibit behavioural needs. This involves the provision of a natural environment and, in particular, outdoor conditions and a reliance on natural forages. Such environments also allow animals to be effectively integrated into crop production. However, there are potential disease risks associated with these conditions, with control options being partly limited by restrictions on chemoprophylactic measures. Examples from dairy and poultry production demonstrate how a basic understanding of ethology and a knowledge of disease epidemiology can enhance the welfare of animals whilst satisfying the ecological objectives of organic farming. Existing epidemiological models and published data can be used to examine the potential ensuing health hazards and control possibilities and to suggest alternatives

One-dimensional in-plane edge domain walls in ultrathin ferromagnetic films

We study existence and properties of one-dimensional edge domain walls in ultrathin ferromagnetic films with uniaxial in-plane magnetic anisotropy. In these materials, the magnetization vector is constrained to lie entirely in the film plane, with the preferred directions dictated by the magnetocrystalline easy axis. We consider magnetization profiles in the vicinity of a straight film edge oriented at an arbitrary angle with respect to the easy axis. To minimize the micromagnetic energy, these profiles form transition layers in which the magnetization vector rotates away from the direction of the easy axis to align with the film edge. We prove existence of edge domain walls as minimizers of the appropriate one-dimensional micromagnetic energy functional and show that they are classical solutions of the associated Euler-Lagrange equation with Dirichlet boundary condition at the edge. We also perform a numerical study of these one-dimensional domain walls and uncover further properties of these domain wall profiles

The INTEGRAL Core Observing Programme

The Core Programme of the INTEGRAL mission is defined as the portion of the scientific programme covering the guaranteed time observations for the INTEGRAL Science Working Team. This paper describes the current status of the Core Programme preparations and summarizes the key elements of the observing programme.Comment: Contributed paper, 3rd INTEGRAL Workshop, Taormina/Sicily, Sep 1998, to be published in Astrophys. Letters & Communications, 199

Scattering of second sound waves by quantum vorticity

A new method of detection and measurement of quantum vorticity by scattering second sound off quantized vortices in superfluid Helium is suggested. Theoretical calculations of the relative amplitude of the scattered second sound waves from a single quantum vortex, a vortex ring, and bulk vorticity are presented. The relevant estimates show that an experimental verification of the method is feasible. Moreover, it can even be used for the detection of a single quantum vortex.Comment: Latex file, 9 page

GRANAT/WATCH catalogue of cosmic gamma-ray bursts: December 1989 to September 1994

We present the catalogue of gamma-ray bursts observed with the WATCH all-sky monitor on board the GRANAT satellite during the period December 1989 to September 1994. The cosmic origin of 95 bursts comprising the catalogue is confirmed either by their localization with WATCH or by their detection with other GRB experiments. For each burst its time history and information on its intensity in the two energy ranges 8-20 keV and 20-60 keV are presented. Most events show hardening of the energy spectrum near the burst peak. In part of the bursts an X-ray precursor or a tail is seen at 8-20 keV. We have determined the celestial positions of the sources of 47 bursts. Their localization regions (at 3-sigma confidence level) are equivalent in area to circles with radii ranging from 0.2 to 1.6 deg. The burst sources appear isotropically distributed on the sky on large angular scales.Comment: 18 pages (including 3 tables and 7 figures), LaTeX, l-aa style. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics Suppl. Serie

Scattering of dislocated wavefronts by vertical vorticity and the Aharonov-Bohm effect II: Dispersive waves

Previous results on the scattering of surface waves by vertical vorticity on shallow water are generalized to the case of dispersive water waves. Dispersion effects are treated perturbatively around the shallow water limit, to first order in the ratio of depth to wavelength. The dislocation of the incident wavefront, analogous to the Aharonov-Bohm effect, is still observed. At short wavelengths the scattering is qualitatively similar to the nondispersive case. At moderate wavelengths, however, there are two markedly different scattering regimes according to wether the capillary length is smaller or larger than $\sqrt{3}$ times depth. The dislocation is characterized by a parameter that depends both on phase and group velocity. The validity range of the calculation is the same as in the shallow water case: wavelengths small compared to vortex radius, and low Mach number. The implications of these limitations are carefully considered.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figure

Elevated cerebral spinal fluid biomarkers in children with mucopolysaccharidosis I-H.

Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) type-IH is a lysosomal storage disease that results from mutations in the IDUA gene causing the accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Historically, children with the severe phenotype, MPS-IH (Hurler syndrome) develop progressive neurodegeneration with death in the first decade due to cardio-pulmonary complications. New data suggest that inflammation may play a role in MPS pathophysiology. To date there is almost no information on the pathophysiologic changes within the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) of these patients. We evaluated the CSF of 25 consecutive patients with MPS-IH. While CSF glucose and total protein were within the normal range, we found a significantly mean elevated CSF opening pressure at 24 cm H2O (range 14-37 cm H2O). We observed a 3-fold elevation in CSF heparan sulfate and a 3-8 fold increase in MPS-IH specific non-reducing ends, I0S0 and I0S6. Cytokine analyses in CSF of children with MPS-IH showed significantly elevated inflammatory markers including: MCP-1 SDF-1a, IL-Ra, MIP-1b, IL-8, and VEGF in comparison to unaffected children. This is the largest report of CSF characteristics in children with MPS-IH. Identification of key biomarkers may provide further insight into the inflammatory-mediated mechanisms related to MPS diseases and perhaps lead to improved targeted therapies