Oral Immunization of Wildlife Against Rabies: Concept and First Field Experiments

The possibility of immunizing carnivores against rabies with live attenuated vaccine administered by the oral route was raised by North American scientists in the 1960s. Subsequently, several American and European teams tested different vaccine strains in the laboratory for efficacy and safety and studied vaccine stabilization, vaccine delivery systems, baIt acceptance by wl1d ammals, and bait distribution schemes. The first field trial of a cloned SAD (Street Alabama Dufferin) strain in baits designed to immunize foxes orally ~as conducted in an Alpine valley in Switzerland in 1978. A population containing ∼60% immune foxes at the valley entrance stopped the spread of the disease into untreated upper parts of the valley. T~e strategic use of oral vaccination of foxes in additional regions of SWItzerland resulted m freedom from the zoonosis in four-fifths of the countr

Oral Immunization of Wildlife Against Rabies: Concept and First Field Experiments

The possibility of immunizing carnivores against rabies with live attenuated vaccine administered by the oral route was raised by North American scientists in the 1960s. Subsequently, several American and European teams tested different vaccine strains in the laboratory for efficacy and safety and studied vaccine stabilization, vaccine delivery systems, baIt acceptance by wl1d ammals, and bait distribution schemes. The first field trial of a cloned SAD (Street Alabama Dufferin) strain in baits designed to immunize foxes orally ~as conducted in an Alpine valley in Switzerland in 1978. A population containing ∼60% immune foxes at the valley entrance stopped the spread of the disease into untreated upper parts of the valley. T~e strategic use of oral vaccination of foxes in additional regions of SWItzerland resulted m freedom from the zoonosis in four-fifths of the country

Nekhoroshev theorem for the periodic Toda lattice

The periodic Toda lattice with $N$ sites is globally symplectomorphic to a two parameter family of $N-1$ coupled harmonic oscillators. The action variables fill out the whole positive quadrant of $\R^{N-1}$. We prove that in the interior of the positive quadrant as well as in a neighborhood of the origin, the Toda Hamiltonian is strictly convex and therefore Nekhoroshev's theorem applies on (almost) all parts of phase space.Comment: 28 page

128Xe and 130Xe: Testing He-shell burning in AGB stars

The s-process branching at 128I has been investigated on the basis of new, precise experimental (n,g) cross sections for the s-only isotopes 128Xe and 130Xe. This branching is unique, since it is essentially determined by the temperature- and density-sensitive stellar decay rates of 128I and only marginally affected by the specific stellar neutron flux. For this reason it represents an important test for He-shell burning in AGB stars. The description of the branching by means of the complex stellar scenario reveals a significant sensitivity to the time scales for convection during He shell flashes, thus providing constraints for this phenomenon. The s-process ratio 128Xe/130Xe deduced from stellar models allows for a (9+-3)% p-process contribution to solar 128Xe, in agreement with the Xe-S component found in meteoritic presolar SiC grains.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astophysical Journa

Asymptotic Giant Branch models at very low metallicity

In this paper we present the evolution of a low mass model (initial mass M=1.5 Msun) with a very low metal content (Z=5x10^{-5}, equivalent to [Fe/H]=-2.44). We find that, at the beginning of the AGB phase, protons are ingested from the envelope in the underlying convective shell generated by the first fully developed thermal pulse. This peculiar phase is followed by a deep third dredge up episode, which carries to the surface the freshly synthesized 13C, 14N and 7Li. A standard TP-AGB evolution, then, follows. During the proton ingestion phase, a very high neutron density is attained and the s-process is efficiently activated. We therefore adopt a nuclear network of about 700 isotopes, linked by more than 1200 reactions, and we couple it with the physical evolution of the model. We discuss in detail the evolution of the surface chemical composition, starting from the proton ingestion up to the end of the TP-AGB phase.Comment: Accepted for Publication on PAS

The effect of 12C + 12C rate uncertainties on s-process yields

The slow neutron capture process in massive stars (the weak s-process) produces most of the s-only isotopes in the mass region 60 < A < 90. The nuclear reaction rates used in simulations of this process have a profound effect on the final s-process yields. We generated 1D stellar models of a 25 solar mass star varying the 12C + 12C rate by a factor of 10 and calculated full nucleosynthesis using the post-processing code PPN. Increasing or decreasing the rate by a factor of 10 affects the convective history and nucleosynthesis, and consequently the final yields.Comment: Conference proceedings for the Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics IV conference, 8-12 June 2009. 4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication to the Journal of Physics: Conference Serie

Spatial and temporal arrival patterns of Madagascar's vertebrate fauna explained by distance, ocean currents, and ancestor type

How, when, and from where Madagascar's vertebrates arrived on the island is poorly known, and a comprehensive explanation for the distribution of its organisms has yet to emerge. We begin to break that impasse by analyzing vertebrate arrival patterns implied by currently existing taxa. For each of 81 clades, we compiled arrival date, source, and ancestor type (obligate freshwater, terrestrial, facultative swimmer, or volant). We analyzed changes in arrival rates, with and without adjusting for clade extinction. Probability of successful transoceanic dispersal is negatively correlated with distance traveled and influenced by ocean currents and ancestor type. Obligate rafters show a decrease in probability of successful transoceanic dispersal fromthe Paleocene onward, reaching the lowest levels after the mid- Miocene. This finding is consistent with a paleoceanographic model [Ali JR, HuberM(2010) Nature 463:653-656] that predicts Early Cenozoic surface currents periodically conducive to rafting or swimming fromAfrica, followed by a reconfiguration to present-day flow15-20 million years ago that significantly diminished the ability for transoceanic dispersal to Madagascar from the adjacent mainland

Inverse spectral problems for energy-dependent Sturm-Liouville equations

We study the inverse spectral problem of reconstructing energy-dependent Sturm-Liouville equations from their Dirichlet spectra and sequences of the norming constants. For the class of problems under consideration, we give a complete description of the corresponding spectral data, suggest a reconstruction algorithm, and establish uniqueness of reconstruction. The approach is based on connection between spectral problems for energy-dependent Sturm-Liouville equations and for Dirac operators of special form.Comment: AMS-LaTeX, 28 page

Long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Stroke remains the second cause of death worldwide. The mechanisms underlying the adverse association of exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) with overall cardiovascular disease may also apply to stroke. Our objective was to systematically evaluate the epidemiological evidence regarding the associations of long-term exposure to TRAP with stroke. Methods PubMed and LUDOK electronic databases were searched systematically for observational epidemiological studies from 1980 through 2019 on long-term exposure to TRAP and stroke with an update in January 2022. TRAP was defined according to a comprehensive protocol based on pollutant and exposure assessment methods or proximity metrics. Study selection, data extraction, risk of bias (RoB) and confidence assessments were conducted according to standardized protocols. We performed meta-analyses using random effects models; sensitivity analyses were assessed by geographic area, RoB, fatality, traffic specificity and new studies. Results Nineteen studies were included. The meta-analytic relative risks (and 95% confidence intervals) were: 1.03 (0.98-1.09) per 1 μg/m3 EC, 1.09 (0.96-1.23) per 10 μg/m3 PM10, 1.08 (0.89-1.32) per 5 μg/m3 PM2.5, 0.98 (0.92; 1.05) per 10 μg/m3 NO2 and 0.99 (0.94; 1.04) per 20 μg/m3 NOx with little to moderate heterogeneity based on 6, 5, 4, 7 and 8 studies, respectively. The confidence assessments regarding the quality of the body of evidence and separately regarding the presence of an association of TRAP with stroke considering all available evidence were rated low and moderate, respectively. Conclusion The available literature provides low to moderate evidence for an association of TRAP with stroke

Analytic and Reidemeister torsion for representations in finite type Hilbert modules

For a closed Riemannian manifold we extend the definition of analytic and Reidemeister torsion associated to an orthogonal representation of fundamental group on a Hilbert module of finite type over a finite von Neumann algebra. If the representation is of determinant class we prove, generalizing the Cheeger-M\"uller theorem, that the analytic and Reidemeister torsion are equal. In particular, this proves the conjecture that for closed Riemannian manifolds with positive Novikov-Shubin invariants, the L2 analytic and Reidemeister torsions are equal.Comment: 78 pages, AMSTe