215 research outputs found
Toxoplasma gondii in beef consumed in France: Regional variation in seroprevalence and parasite isolation
In France, the consumption of cattle and sheep meat appears to be a risk factor for infection of pregnant women with Toxoplasma gondii. Several nation-wide surveys in France have investigated the prevalence of T. gondii in sheep and pig meat, but little is known at present about the prevalence of the parasite in beef. The main objective of the present cross-sectional survey was to estimate the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in beef consumed in France. A secondary objective was to attempt to isolate T. gondii from cattle tissues and to study the geographical and age variations of this seroprevalence. The overall estimate of seroprevalence of T. gondii in bovine carcasses (n = 2912), for a threshold of 1:6 was 17.38%. A strong age effect was observed (p lt 0.0001) with a seroprevalence of 5.34% for calves ( lt 8 months) and 23.12% for adults ( gt 8 months). Seroprevalence estimates given by area of birth and area of slaughtering for adults showed that the areas with the highest seroprevalence were not the same between these two variables. Only two strains, corresponding to genotype II, were isolated from heart samples, indicating that there is a limited risk of human infection with T. gondii, which needs to be correlated with the food habit of consuming raw or undercook (bleu or saignant) beef. However, new questions have emerged, especially concerning the isolation of parasites from beef and the precise role of bovines, generally described as poor hosts for T. gondii, in human infection
Irreducible holonomy algebras of Riemannian supermanifolds
Possible irreducible holonomy algebras \g\subset\osp(p,q|2m) of Riemannian
supermanifolds under the assumption that \g is a direct sum of simple Lie
superalgebras of classical type and possibly of a one-dimensional center are
classified. This generalizes the classical result of Marcel Berger about the
classification of irreducible holonomy algebras of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds.Comment: 27 pages, the final versio
Algebraic structure of gravity in Ashtekar variables
The BRST transformations for gravity in Ashtekar variables are obtained by
using the Maurer-Cartan horizontality conditions. The BRST cohomology in
Ashtekar variables is calculated with the help of an operator
introduced by S.P. Sorella, which allows to decompose the exterior derivative
as a BRST commutator. This BRST cohomology leads to the differential invariants
for four-dimensional manifolds.Comment: 19 pages, report REF. TUW 94-1
On Some Geometric Structures Associated to a k-Symplectic Manifold
A canonical connection is attached to any k-symplectic manifold. We study the
properties of this connection and its geometric applications to k-symplectic
manifolds. In particular we prove that, under some natural assumption, any
ksymplectic manifold admits an Ehresmann connection, discussing some
corollaries of this result, and we find vanishing theorems for characteristic
classes on a k-symplectic manifold.Comment: To appear on J. Phys. A: Math. Theo
Nonlinear stability analysis of the Emden-Fowler equation
In this paper we qualitatively study radial solutions of the semilinear
elliptic equation with and on the
positive real line, called the Emden-Fowler or Lane-Emden equation. This
equation is of great importance in Newtonian astrophysics and the constant
is called the polytropic index. By introducing a set of new variables, the
Emden-Fowler equation can be written as an autonomous system of two ordinary
differential equations which can be analyzed using linear and nonlinear
stability analysis. We perform the study of stability by using linear stability
analysis, the Jacobi stability analysis (Kosambi-Cartan-Chern theory) and the
Lyapunov function method. Depending on the values of these different
methods yield different results. We identify a parameter range for where
all three methods imply stability.Comment: 12 pages; new reference added; 3 new references added; fully revised
versio
Ultraintense X-Ray Induced Ionization, Dissociation, and Frustrated Absorption in Molecular Nitrogen
Sequential multiple photoionization of the prototypical molecule N_2 is studied with femtosecond time resolution using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). A detailed picture of intense x-ray induced ionization and dissociation dynamics is revealed, including a molecular mechanism of frustrated absorption that suppresses the formation of high charge states at short pulse durations. The inverse scaling of the average target charge state with x-ray peak brightness has possible implications for single-pulse imaging applications
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