982 research outputs found
Effects of condensed tannins on goats experimentally infected with Haemonchus contortus.
Although the use of tanniferous plants or condensed tannins as an alternative to anthelmintics to
control gastrointestinal nematodes has been largely documented in sheep, studies remain scarce in
goats. The objective of this study was therefore to assess the possible impact of condensed tannins
in goats infected with adult Haemonchus contortus. Two groups of cull goats were experimentally
infected with 10.000 L3 of H. contortus. After 4 weeks, quebracho extracts, representing 5%
of the diet DM, were administered for 8 days to one of the two groups. Goats of the second
group remained as controls. One week after the end of quebracho administration, the goats were
euthanised. Individual egg excretion and pathophysiological parameters were measured weekly
during the study. At the end of the study, worm counts were assessed and histological samples
from the abomasa were taken to count the numbers of mucosal mast cells, globule leukocytes
and eosinophils. The administration of tannins was associated with a significant decrease in egg
excretion, which persisted until the end of experiment. This reduction was not associated with
any difference in worm number but with a significant decrease in female fecundity. No significant
changes in the mucosal density of the three inflammatory cell types were detected between the
two groups. These results indicate that the major consequence of tannin consumption in goats is a
reduction in worm fecundity and egg output, which does not seem related to significant changes in
the local mucosal response
Log-Harnack Inequality for Stochastic Differential Equations in Hilbert Spaces and its Consequences
A logarithmic type Harnack inequality is established for the semigroup of
solutions to a stochastic differential equation in Hilbert spaces with
non-additive noise. As applications, the strong Feller property as well as the
entropy-cost inequality for the semigroup are derived with respect to the
corresponding distance (cost function)
A Comprehensive Emission Inventory of Bbiogenic Volatile Organic Compounds in Europe: Improved Seasonality and Land-cover
Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) emitted from vegetation are important for the formation of secondary pollutants such as ozone and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in the atmosphere. Therefore, BVOC emission are an important input for air quality models. To model these emissions with high spatial resolution, the accuracy of the underlying vegetation inventory is crucial. We present a BVOC emission model that accommodates different vegetation inventories and uses satellite-based measurements of greenness instead of pre-defined vegetation periods. This approach to seasonality implicitly treats effects caused by water or nutrient availability, altitude and latitude on a plant stand. Additionally, we test the influence of proposed seasonal variability in enzyme activity on BVOC emissions. In its present setup, the emission model calculates hourly emissions of isoprene, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and the oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOC) methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid, ethanol, acetaldehyde, acetone and acetic acid. In this study, emissions based on three different vegetation inventories are compared with each other and diurnal and seasonal variations in Europe are investigated for the year 2006. Two of these vegetation inventories require information on tree-cover as an input. We compare three different land-cover inventories (USGS GLCC, GLC2000 and Globcover 2.2) with respect to tree-cover. The often-used USGS GLCC land-cover inventory leads to a severe reduction of BVOC emissions due to a potential miss-attribution of broad-leaved trees and reduced tree-cover compared to the two other land-cover inventories. To account for uncertainties in the land-cover classification, we introduce land-cover correction factors for each relevant land-use category to adjust the tree-cover. The results are very sensitive to these factors within the plausible range. For June 2006, total monthly BVOC emissions decreased up to â27% with minimal and increased up to +71% with maximal factors, while in January 2006, the changes in monthly BVOC emissions were â54 and +56% with minimal and maximal factors, respectively. The new seasonality approach leads to a reduction in the annual emissions compared with non-adjusted data. The strongest reduction occurs in OVOC (up to â32 %), the weakest in isoprene (as little as â19 %). If also enzyme seasonality is taken into account, however, isoprene reacts with the steepest decrease of annual emissions, which are reduced by â44% to â49 %, annual emissions of monoterpenes reduce between â30 and â35 %. The sensitivity of the model to changes in temperature depends on the climatic zone but not on the vegetation inventory. The sensitivity is higher for temperature increases of 3K (+31% to +64 %) than decreases by the same amount (â20 to â35 %). The climatic zones âCold except summerâ and âaridâ are most sensitive to temperature changes in January for isoprene and monoterpenes, respectively, while in June, âpolarâ is most sensitive to temperature for both isoprene and monoterpenes. Our model predicts the oxygenated volatile organic compounds to be the most abundant fraction of the annual European emissions (3571â5328 Gg yrâ1), followed by monoterpenes (2964â4124 Gg yrâ1), isoprene (1450â2650 Gg yrâ1) and sesquiterpenes (150â257 Gg yrâ1). We find regions with high isoprene emissions (most notably the Iberian Peninsula), but overall, oxygenated VOC dominate with 43â45% (depending on the vegetation inventory) contribution to the total annual BVOC emissions in Europe. Isoprene contributes between 18â21 %, monoterpenes 33â36% and sesquiterpenes contribute 1â2 %.We compare the concentrations of biogenic species simulated by an air quality model with measurements of isoprene and monoterpenes in Hohenpeissenberg (Germany) for both summer and winter. The agreement between observed and modelled concentrations is better in summer than in winter. This can partly be explained with the difficulty to model weather conditions in winter accurately, but also with the increased anthropogenic influence on the concentrations of BVOC compounds in winter. Our results suggest that land-cover inventories used to derive tree-cover must be chosen with care. Also, uncertainties in the classification of land-cover pixels must be taken into account and remain high. This problem must be addressed together with the remote sensing community. Our new approach using a greenness index for addressing seasonality of vegetation can be implemented easily in existing models. The importance of OVOC for air quality should be more deeply addressed by future studies, especially in smog chambers. Also, the fate of BVOC from the dominant region of the Iberian Peninsula should be studied more in detail
Ătude comparĂ©e des communautĂ©s benthiques et ripicoles endogĂ©es d'un rĂ©seau mĂ©diterranĂ©en perturbĂ©Â : l'Arc (Bouches-du-RhĂŽne, France)
L'utilisation des mĂ©thodes biologiques et plus particuliĂšrement l'Ă©tude des communautĂ©s benthiques pour l'apprĂ©ciation de la qualitĂ© des eaux est actuellement d'un usage gĂ©nĂ©ral. L'impact des perturbations des milieux peut ĂȘtre dĂ©duit de la composition et de la structure des peuplements qu'ils hĂ©bergent. En est-il de mĂȘme pour les peuplements d'invertĂ©brĂ©s ripicoles endogĂ©s humides, soumis moins directement Ă t'influence du milieu aquatique? Pour rĂ©pondre Ă cette question une Ă©tude comparĂ©e (par analyse factorielle des correspondances) a Ă©tĂ© entreprise sur le rĂ©seau hydrographique d'une riviĂšre de la rĂ©gion mĂ©diterranĂ©enne, l'Arc, prĂ©sentant des situations hydrochimiques variĂ©es.L'A.F.C., Ă partir de l'axe I, sĂ©pare les prĂ©lĂšvements d'invertĂ©brĂ©s benthiques des prĂ©lĂšvements d'invertĂ©brĂ©s ripicoles. Sur l'axe II les couples, prĂ©lĂšvement benthique - prĂ©lĂšvement ripicole de chaque station, possĂšdent sensiblement la mĂȘme valeur sur l'axe et s'ordonnent selon un gradient de trophie croissant de l'amont vers l'aval. Les communautĂ©s ripicoles endogĂ©es humides peuvent donc ĂȘtre considĂ©rĂ©es comme des bio-indicateurs de la chimie de l'eau de la mĂȘme maniĂšre que les communautĂ©s benthiques. Par contre le facteur temporaritĂ© (axe III) a une influence plus importante sur les communautĂ©s benthiques que sur les communautĂ©s ripicoles.L'examen de la rĂ©partition des taxons sur les axes factoriels a permis de dĂ©terminer un certain nombre d'espĂšces qui, tout en Ă©tant reprĂ©sentĂ©es dans les 2 milieux, sont caractĂ©ristiques de l'habitat rivulaire endogĂ© humide. La prise en compte des peuplements ripicoles, malgrĂ© des difficultĂ©s d'ordre taxonomique, pourrait ĂȘtre envisagĂ©e lors de la dĂ©termination de la qualitĂ© des eaux.Utilization of biological methods and particularly through the study of benthic communities in order to estimate the quality of the water is for the present time very common. The impact of the disturbances of the medium may be deducted from the composition and the structure of the populations living there. But is it altogether the same for endogenous riparian wet invertebrate populations less directly submitted to the influence of the aquatic medium?To answer to this question, a comparative study (Factorial Analysis of Correspondences) has been carried out on the hydrographic network of the Arc River (Mediterranean region) which exhibits diversified hydrochemical situations. From and after axis I, the F.A.C. separates the benthic invertebrate samples from the riparian invertebrate ones. On axis II, the couples "benthic samples-riparian samples" of each station appreciably posses the same value on the axis and are arranged according to a trophic gradient ascending from upstream to downstream. The wet endogenous riparian communities can therefore be considered as bioindicators of the chemistry of the water in the same way as benthic communities. In contrast, the temporality factor (axis III) has a more important influence on the benthic communities than on the riparian ones.Examination of the distribution of the taxons on the factorial axis leads to identify a certain number of species which, although present in both mediums are characteristic of the wet endogenous riverside habitat. Taking into account of the riparian populations, in spite of taxonomic difficulties, should be considered as a valuable method for the determination of the quality of the waters
Differences in receptivity to gastrointestinal infections with nematodes in dairy ewes: Influence of age and of the level of milk production
Resistance to anthelmintics in populations of gastrointestinal nematodes is a major concern in small ruminants. One solution
to limit the spread of anthelmintic resistance is to apply treatments selectively by targeting the most susceptible animals within
a flock. In dairy goats, previous studies have shown that, within a flock, goats in first lactation and those with high level of milk
production were highly receptive to nematode infections. These results provided the rationale for targeted treatments. In dairy
ewes, such epidemiological information on possible factors modulating the susceptibility to parasitism were still lacking. The
objective of the current study was therefore to examine differences in the level of parasite infection and in the pathophysiological
consequences in dairy ewes, depending on the age or on the level of milk production. In three farms, parasite egg excretion, and the
serum concentrations of pepsinogen and inorganic phosphate were compared on one hand between primiparous and multiparous
ewes; on the other hand, between ewes with the highest and the lowest level of milk production, within a cohort of 3â5-year
old animals. Overall, the results did not indicate significant differences for both either the parasitological or pathophysiological
measurements depending on the level of milk production. In contrast, significant differences were found according to age,
indicating higher levels of infections in the primiparous ewes than in the multiparous ones and suggesting that this category of
animals represents a particular parasitic risk within a flock
Geometric shape of invariant manifolds for a class of stochastic partial differential equations
Invariant manifolds play an important role in the study of the qualitative
dynamical behaviors for nonlinear stochastic partial differential equations.
However, the geometric shape of these manifolds is largely unclear. The purpose
of the present paper is to try to describe the geometric shape of invariant
manifolds for a class of stochastic partial differential equations with
multiplicative white noises. The local geometric shape of invariant manifolds
is approximated, which holds with significant likelihood. Furthermore, the
result is compared with that for the corresponding deterministic partial
differential equations
Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Survey of Magellanic Cloud Supernova Remnants
We report the progress to date from an ongoing unbiased ultraviolet survey of
supernova remnants in the Magellanic Clouds using the Far Ultraviolet
Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite. This survey is obtaining spectra of a
random large sample of Magellanic Cloud supernova remnants with a broad range
of radio, optical, and X-ray properties. To date, 39 objects have been observed
in the survey (38 in the LMC and one in the SMC) and 15 have been detected, a
detection rate of nearly 40%. Our survey has nearly tripled the number of
UV-detected SNRs in the Magellanic Clouds (from 8 to 22). Because of the
diffuse source sensitivity of FUSE, upper limits on non-detected objects are
quite sensitive in many cases. Estimated total luminosities in O~VI span a
broad range from considerably brighter to many times fainter than the inferred
soft X-ray luminosities, indicating that O~VI can be an important and largely
unrecognized coolant in certain objects. We compare the optical and X-ray
properties of the detected and non-detected objects but do not find a simple
indicator for ultraviolet detectability. Non-detections may be due to
clumpiness of the emission, high foreground extinction, slow shocks whose
emission gets attenuated by the Magellanic interstellar medium, or a
combination of these effects.Comment: 34 pages, 26 figures in 8 separate JPG figure files; the
characteristics of individual detected supernova remnants are summarized in
an Appendi
Self-Lensing Models of the LMC
All of the proposed explanations for the microlensing events observed towards
the LMC have difficulties. One of these proposed explanations, LMC
self-lensing, which invokes ordinary LMC stars as the long sought-after lenses,
has recently gained considerable popularity as a possible solution to the
microlensing conundrum. In this paper, we carefully examine the set of LMC
self-lensing models. In particular, we review the pertinent observations made
of the LMC, and show how these observations place limits on such self-lensing
models. We find that, given current observational constraints, no purely LMC
disk models are capable of producing optical depths as large as that reported
in the MACHO collaboration 2-year analysis. Besides pure disk, we also consider
alternate geometries, and present a framework which encompasses the previous
studies of LMC self-lensing. We discuss which model parameters need to be
pushed in order for such models to succeed. For example, like previous workers,
we find that an LMC halo geometry may be able to explain the observed events.
However, since all known LMC tracer stellar populations exhibit disk-like
kinematics, such models will have difficulty being reconciled with
observations. For SMC self-lensing, we find predicted optical depths differing
from previous results, but more than sufficient to explain all observed SMC
microlensing. In contrast, for the LMC we find a self-lensing optical depth
contribution between 0.47e-8 and 7.84e-8, with 2.44e-8 being the value for the
set of LMC parameters most consistent with current observations.Comment: 20 pages, Latex, 14 figures, submitted to Ap
Probing the ISM Near Star Forming Regions with GRB Afterglow Spectroscopy: Gas, Metals, and Dust
We study the chemical abundances of the interstellar medium surrounding high
z gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) through analysis of the damped Lya systems (DLAs)
identified in afterglow spectra. These GRB-DLAs are characterized by large HI
column densities N(HI) and metallicities [M/H] spanning 1/100 to nearly solar,
with median [M/H]>-1. The majority of GRB-DLAs have [M/H] values exceeding the
cosmic mean metallicity of atomic gas at z>2, i.e. if anything, the GRB-DLAs
are biased to larger metallicity. We also observe (i) large [Zn/Fe] values
(>+0.6) and sub-solar Ti/Fe ratios which imply substantial differential
depletion, (ii) large a/Fe ratios suggesting nucleosynthetic enrichment by
massive stars, and (iii) low C^0/C^+ ratios (<10^{-4}). Quantitatively, the
observed depletion levels and C^0/C^+ ratios of the gas are not characteristic
of cold, dense HI clouds in the Galactic ISM. We argue that the GRB-DLAs
represent the ISM near the GRB but not gas directly local to the GRB (e.g. its
molecular cloud or circumstellar material). We compare these observations with
DLAs intervening background quasars (QSO-DLAs). The GRB-DLAs exhibit larger
N(HI) values, higher a/Fe and Zn/Fe ratios, and have higher metallicity than
the QSO-DLAs. We argue that the differences primarily result from
galactocentric radius-dependent differences in the ISM: GRB-DLAs preferentially
probe denser, more depleted, higher metallicity gaslocated in the inner few kpc
whereas QSO-DLAs are more likely to intersect the less dense, less enriched,
outer regions of the galaxy. Finally, we investigate whether dust obscuration
may exclude GRB-DLA sightlines from QSO-DLA samples; we find that the majority
of GRB-DLAs would be recovered which implies little observational bias against
large N(HI) systems.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Ap
Evidence for TP-AGB stars in high redshift galaxies, and their effect on deriving stellar population parameters
We explore the effects of stellar population models on estimating star
formation histories, ages and masses of high redshift galaxies. The focus is on
the Thermally-Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) phase of stellar
evolution, whose treatment is a source of major discrepancy among different
evolutionary population synthesis. In particular, besides the models usually
adopted in the literature, we use models (by Maraston 2005), in which the
contribution of the TP-AGB phase is observationally calibrated and is the
dominant source of near-IR energy for stellar populations in the age range 0.2
to 2 Gyr. We use a sample of high-z galaxies in the HUDF, with spectroscopic
redshifts, and Spitzer IRAC and MIPS photometry from GOODS. We find that the
TP-AGB phase plays a key role in the interpretation of Spitzer data for high-z
galaxies, when the rest-frame near-IR is sampled. When fitting without dust
reddening, the models with the empirically-calibrated TP-AGB phase always
reproduce better the observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Allowing
for dust reddening improves the fits with literature models in some cases. In
both cases, the results from Maraston models imply younger ages by factors up
to 6 and lower stellar masses (by ~60 % on average). The observed strengths of
the MgUV spectral feature compare better to the predicted ones in the case of
the Maraston models, implying a better overall consistency of SED fitting.
Finally, we find that photometric redshifts improve significantly using these
models on the SEDs extending over the IRAC bands. This work provides the first
direct evidence of TP-AGB stars in the primeval Universe.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, submitted to the Astrophysical
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