Sheep predation : characteristics and risk factors

Predation has always been an important problem in extensive sheep farms, causing serious economic losses to the farmers. Official predation reports have recently been decreasing in the District of Pisa, in spite of the presence of two wolf packs in the area. The aim of the present research was to obtain reliable information on the characteristics of predation and to estimate the effectiveness of existing prevention methods in sheep farms of the southern District of Pisa, in order to set up predictive models for an improved and more focused prevention plan and support interventions by public authorities. On-farm surveys were carried out in 73 semi-extensive sheep farms. Predation events were reported by 75.3% of the farmers. Wolves seemed to be responsible for most of those events, although their actual role could be confirmed only in 34% of cases. Most of the events occurred in spring and 85.1% of them were concentrated during night time. The average number of sheep killed during each attack was 7.05. In 22.3% of cases, the number of sheep killed was 65 10. Proximity to protected areas and the presence of thick vegetation cover significantly affected the probability of a farm being subjected to chronic predation. Farm size was significantly higher in those cases. No clear indication about the effectiveness of prevention methods could be obtained from our survey. The results of this investigation highlighted the impact of predation in the Southern District of Pisa and emphasized the need for finding technical and political solutions to this problem. Attention should be focused on large farms, with thick vegetation cover and located close to protected areas. Further investigations should be carried out in order to test the effectiveness of suitable prevention methods in these farms

Comparison of video and direct observation methods for measuring oral behaviour in veal calves

Measuring behaviour, especially oral behaviour, has always been a debated issue: therefore the aim of this paper is to closely examine the study of oral behaviour in calves and the approaching methodology. Behavioural observations were conducted by two media (direct observations by check sheets and indirect observations by videotapes recorded by cam- eras connected to a digital field switcher and a time-lapse video recorder) in order to compare data and assess the reli- ability and validity of the two methods in identifying some oral behavioural patterns in calves. The study was carried out on 54 Polish Friesian calves housed in group pens and in individual crates. The behaviour of the calves was investigated during the fattening period on the 2nd, 7th, 13th, 18th and 23rd week, one hour before and one hour after each of the two meals. Two experienced observers checked the behaviour of the calves, including oral behaviours on structures and buckets and oral stereotypies, by direct observations using a scan sampling every 2 min- utes. The calves' behaviour was also video recorded on the same days in which the direct observations were carried out and analysed by the same two observers. Percentages of time spent on each type of behaviour were calculated and anal- ysed by Chi-square test. Regardless of the housing system, the comparison between direct and indirect observations revealed significant differences in almost every behavioural category. Licking, biting and nibbling structures, nibbling and sucking the bucket, playing with the bucket and the teat, chewing and oral stereotypies were significantly higher in direct observations compared to indirect (P < 0.001), while inactivity was higher in video recorded observations (P < 0.001). In conclusion, regardless of the type of housing, our results revealed an objective difficulty in analysing videotapes with very detailed behavioural categories, like oral behaviours. Although video recording can certainly represent a useful and practical alternative to direct observations in many situations, the video recording system used in this study for investi- gating calves' oral behaviour, in spite of the use of multiple cameras, could not replace direct observations, probably due to the restricted field of view, the low depth of focus, the black and white vision, the lack of audio and the time-lapse feature

A stopped Delta-Matter Source in Heavy Ion Collisions at 10 GeV/n

We predict the formation of highly dense baryon-rich resonance matter in Au+Au collisions at AGS energies. The final pion yields show observable signs for resonance matter. The Delta(1232) resonance is predicted to be the dominant source for pions of small transverse momenta. Rescattering effects -- consecutive excitation and deexcitation of Deltas -- lead to a long apparent lifetime (> 10 fm/c) and rather large volumina (several 100 fm^3) of the Delta-matter state. Heavier baryon resonances prove to be crucial for reaction dynamics and particle production at AGS.Comment: 17 pages, 5 postscript figures, uses psfig.sty and revtex.st

The protoMIRAX Hard X-ray Imaging Balloon Experiment

The protoMIRAX hard X-ray imaging telescope is a balloon-borne experiment developed as a pathfinder for the MIRAX satellite mission. The experiment consists essentially in a coded-aperture hard X-ray (30-200 keV) imager with a square array (13$\times$13) of 2mm-thick planar CZT detectors with a total area of 169 cm$^2$. The total, fully-coded field-of-view is $21^{\circ}\times 21^{\circ}$ and the angular resolution is 1$^{\circ}$43'. In this paper we describe the protoMIRAX instrument and all the subsystems of its balloon gondola, and we show simulated results of the instrument performance. The main objective of protoMIRAX is to carry out imaging spectroscopy of selected bright sources to demonstrate the performance of a prototype of the MIRAX hard X-ray imager. Detailed background and imaging simulations have been performed for protoMIRAX balloon flights. The 3$\sigma$ sensitivity for the 30-200 keV range is ~1.9 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$ photons cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ for an integration time of 8 hs at an atmospheric depth of 2.7 g cm$^{-2}$ and an average zenith angle of 30$^{\circ}$. We have developed an attitude control system for the balloon gondola and new data handling and ground systems that also include prototypes for the MIRAX satellite. We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the camera response at balloon altitudes, showing the expected background level and the detailed sensitivity of protoMIRAX. We also present the results of imaging simulations of the Crab region. The results show that protoMIRAX is capable of making spectral and imaging observations of bright hard X-ray source fields. Furthermore, the balloon observations will carry out very important tests and demonstrations of MIRAX hardware and software in a near space environment.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Charmed Exotics in Heavy Ion Collisions

Based on the color-spin interaction in diquarks, we argue that charmed multiquark hadrons are likely to exist. Because of the appreciable number of charm quarks produced in central nucleus-nucleus collisions at ultrarelativistic energies, production of charmed multiquark hadrons is expected to be enhanced in these collisions. Using both the quark coalescence model and the statistical hadronization model, we estimate the yield of charmed tetraquark meson $T_{cc}$ and pentaquark baryon $\Theta_{cs}$ in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. We further discuss the decay modes of these charmed exotic hadrons in order to facilitate their detections in experiments

Communication with diminutives to young children vs. pets in German, Italian, Lithuanian, Russian, and English

This contribution is dedicated to Steven Gillis with whom we have collaborated since the nineties within the “Crosslinguistic Project on Pre- and Protomorphology in Language Acquisition” on both child speech (CS) and child-directed speech (CDS) and also about the development of diminutives (DIMs). We investigate parallels in the use of DIMs and of hypocoristics (HYPs) between CDS and pet-directed speech (PDS), whereas CS is only marginally dealt with. When relevant, also adult-directed speech (ADS), written or oral (especially from electronic corpora, wherever available) will be compared. The presuppositions of this investigation will be stated at the beginning of the Introduction (§ 1). This involves several innovations (beyond descriptions of new data), when compared with existing literature, relevant to theoretical and typological problem areas. We will show that also in DIMs and HYPs used in CDS and PDS semantics only plays a partial or even marginal role when using more DIMs to communicate with young children and young and/or small pets, because it is more relevant that both younger and smaller pets are emotionally closer to us, which is again a pragmatic factor. In regard to language typology, we will apply our concepts of morphological richness and productivity, as argued for and supported in our previous publications, to CDS and PDS and show that richer and more productive patterns of DIM formation of a language also have a typological impact on more frequent and more productive use both in CDS and PDS. We will also apply our concepts of grading morphosemantic transparency/opacity, as argued for and supported in our previous publications, and we start to show, as al- ready shown for CS, that also in CDS towards young children (and similarly in PDS) more morphosemantically transparent DIMs are used than in ADS. This is also connected to their predominantly pragmatic meanings in CDS and PDS (obviously not exclusively pragmatic as in early CS). The languages and authors were selected according to who among the participants in the Crosslinguistic Project on Pre- and Protomorphology in Language Acquisition had CDS and PDS available, plus Elisa Mattiello who has collected English and Italian PDS data.Dit artikel gaat over het gebruik van verkleinwoorden en koosnamen (hypocoristics) in twee taalregisters: taal gericht tot kinderen (child-directed speech, CDS) en taal gericht tot huisdieren (pet-directed speech, PDS). De semantiek van verkleinwoorden blijkt een minder grote rol te spelen dan de pragmatiek: de emotionele nabijheid van kinderen en huisdieren. De studie, waarin vijf talen worden vergeleken, verkent ook de typolo- gie: de morfologische rijkdom van verkleinwoorden in een taal beïnvloedt de produc- tie.Daarnaast speelt de semantische transparantie van verkleinwoorden crosslinguïs- tisch een rol. In CDS en PDS worden meer transparante verkleinwoorden gebruikt

Dibaryons with Strangeness: their Weak Nonleptonic Decay using SU(3) Symmetry and how to find them in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

Weak SU(3) symmetry is successfully applied to the weak hadronic decay amplitudes of octet hyperons. Weak nonmesonic and mesonic decays of various dibaryons with strangeness, their dominant decay modes, and lifetimes are calculated. Production estimates for BNL's Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider are presented employing wave function coalescence. Signals for detecting strange dibaryon states in heavy-ion collisions and revealing information about the unknown hyperon-hyperon interactions are outlined.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, uses RevTeX, discussion about the model of the weak decay and experimental signals extended, references update

TOPS project: Development of new fast timing plastic scintillators.

In particle physics charged particles are measured exploiting many different detection strategies. The plastic scintillators are cheap, versatile and show good time response, thus are traditionally employed as timing detectors. TOPS (Time Of flight Plastic Scintillators) is an R&amp;D project devoted to the synthesis and characterization of a novel class of plastic scintillators. Liquid and solid sam- ples of tens of new scintillators have been tested and characterized. Some of them (2N, 1N, 2B, P2, T2) have shown a larger light output with respect to antracene, a standard benchmark material, and good timing properties. In order to improve the matching between the scintillators emission and the optimal trasmittive region in the absorption spectra, a doping material has been added as wave-shifter. The use of POPOP as doping improved the performances of a fraction of the scintillator samples. Based on the comparison of the light output values in measurements with cosmic rays, a selection of the most promising scintillators has been investigated also from the timing point of view. The scintillation time characteristics of the TOPS plastic samples have been studied with minimum ionizing particles using a commercial plastic scintillator BC-412 as a reference. The light output and timing properties have been also investigated with proton beams at different energies (70, 120, 170, 220 MeV) and show promising results providing a time of flight measure- ments accuracy of 150–300ps. In this contribution, preliminary results obtained with this new class of scintillators developed in the TOPS project will be presented

Inhomogeneous Nucleation of Quark-Gluon Plasma in High Energy Nuclear Collisions

We estimate the probability that a hard nucleon-nucleon collision is able to nucleate a seed of quark--gluon plasma in the surrounding hot and dense hadronic matter formed during a central collision of two large nuclei at AGS energies. The probability of producing at least one such seed is on the order of 1-100\%. We investigate the influence of quark--gluon plasma formation on the observed multiplicity distribution and find that it may lead to noticable structure in the form of a bump or shoulder.Comment: 16 pages, latex and 12 ps figures available on reques

Efficacia di un antiparassitario convenzionale e un fitoterapico a confronto in un allevamento caprino biologico

Dairy goat organic farming is a rising sector in Italy. The EU regulation on organic production systems (Reg. EU 889/2008) includes measures aimed to maintain and improve animal health and welfare including the access to pasture: therefore gastrointestinal parasites have greater impact in organic farming systems rather than in conventional ones, causing important economic losses. Furthermore, the regulation limits the use of allopathic medicines, recommending implementation of preventive management strategies or, when necessary, the use of alternative veterinary treatments, such as phytotherapy. In an organic farm with 77 dairy goats were carried anthelmintics treatments on the entire lactating group: 15 animals were treated with 5% netobimin (8 primiparous and 7 secondipara) and 62 with an herbal product: among these 62, 15 were selected (8 primiparous and 7 secondipara) to compare the efficacy of the two products. Fecal individual samples were collected before treatment (T0) and monthly, for a total of 3 controls. The feces were analyzed with McMaster technique to evaluate the worm burden (epg). The results of the analyses showed significant differences between categories (primiparous < secondipara) and between treatments (netobimin < phytotherapic) throughout the experimental period, although initial infestation was high in both groups. Grazing is fundamental in the management of the group, since previous infestations have never been controlled and the rotation was applied for the first time only in the last months. The herbal product resulted unsuitable for worm burden control, showing large differences in individual responses within the group of animals which received the product. It is therefore necessary to promote scientific research to find effective herbal products to be recommended to organic farmers and solve this important problem