12,806 research outputs found
Dynamics of African swine fever virus shedding and excretion in domestic pigs infected by intramuscular inoculation and contact transmission
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a highly virulent swine pathogen that has spread across Eastern Europe since 2007 and for which there is no effective vaccine or treatment available. The dynamics of shedding and excretion is not well known for this currently circulating ASFV strain. Therefore, susceptible pigs were exposed to pigs intramuscularly infected with the Georgia 2007/1 ASFV strain to measure those dynamics through within- and between-pen transmission scenarios. Blood, oral, nasal and rectal fluid samples were tested for the presence of ASFV by virus titration (VT) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Serum was tested for the presence of ASFV-specific antibodies. Both intramuscular inoculation and contact transmission resulted in development of acute disease in all pigs although the experiments indicated that the pathogenesis of the disease might be different, depending on the route of infection. Infectious ASFV was first isolated in blood among the inoculated pigs by day 3, and then chronologically among the direct and indirect contact pigs, by day 10 and 13, respectively. Close to the onset of clinical signs, higher ASFV titres were found in blood compared with nasal and rectal fluid samples among all pigs. No infectious ASFV was isolated in oral fluid samples although ASFV genome copies were detected. Only one animal developed antibodies starting after 12 days post-inoculation. The results provide quantitative data on shedding and excretion of the Georgia 2007/1 ASFV strain among domestic pigs and suggest a limited potential of this isolate to cause persistent infection
A spin foam model for pure gauge theory coupled to quantum gravity
We propose a spin foam model for pure gauge fields coupled to Riemannian
quantum gravity in four dimensions. The model is formulated for the
triangulation of a four-manifold which is given merely combinatorially. The
Riemannian Barrett--Crane model provides the gravity sector of our model and
dynamically assigns geometric data to the given combinatorial triangulation.
The gauge theory sector is a lattice gauge theory living on the same
triangulation and obtains from the gravity sector the geometric information
which is required to calculate the Yang--Mills action. The model is designed so
that one obtains a continuum approximation of the gauge theory sector at an
effective level, similarly to the continuum limit of lattice gauge theory, when
the typical length scale of gravity is much smaller than the Yang--Mills scale.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure, v2: details clarified, references adde
Possible observation of phase coexistence of the fractional quantum Hall liquid and a solid
We have measured the magnetoresistance of a very low density and an extremely
high quality two-dimensional hole system. With increasing magnetic field
applied perpendicularly to the sample we observe the sequence of insulating,
fractional quantum Hall liquid, and insulating phases. In both of the
insulating phases in the vicinity of the filling the
magnetoresistance has an unexpected oscillatory behavior with the magnetic
field. These oscillations are not of the Shubnikov-de Haas type and cannot be
explained by spin effects. They are most likely the consequence of the
formation of a new electronic phase which is intermediate between the
correlated Hall liquid and a disorder pinned solid.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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