1,012 research outputs found
First report of field outbreaks of ergot-alkaloid toxicity in South Africa
Outbreaks of clinical disease caused by the ingestion of ergotized Lolium rigidum (annual ryegrass),
which resulted in a substantial loss in production, have been reported. A number of outbreaks of a hyperthermia
syndrome in cattle, characterized by severe loss in milk production, loss of body mass and
reduced fertility, are described. In one major outbreak in March to April 1994, a milling company reported
that 2 646 dairy cows on 29 farms had developed clinical signs. In this outbreak, significant levels
of ergotamine, ergosine, ergocornine and ergocryptine were found in the milled dairy rations fed to
the affected cows. Barley screenings containing ergotized annual-ryegrass seed was identified as the
toxic component and probable source of the ergot alkaloids in the ration. The clinical syndrome was
reproduced experimentally by feeding suspected feed to a group of nine high-producing Ayrshire cows.
An outbreak of gangrenous necrosis of the extremities in young cattle in the winter of 1987 was also
suspected of having been caused by ergot alkaloids in grain screenings.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi.
Adobe Acrobat X Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.mn201
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Dark soliton states of Bose-Einstein condensates in anisotropic traps
Dark soliton states of Bose-Einstein condensates in harmonic traps are
studied both analytically and computationally by the direct solution of the
Gross-Pitaevskii equation in three dimensions. The ground and self-consistent
excited states are found numerically by relaxation in imaginary time. The
energy of a stationary soliton in a harmonic trap is shown to be independent of
density and geometry for large numbers of atoms. Large amplitude field
modulation at a frequency resonant with the energy of a dark soliton is found
to give rise to a state with multiple vortices. The Bogoliubov excitation
spectrum of the soliton state contains complex frequencies, which disappear for
sufficiently small numbers of atoms or large transverse confinement. The
relationship between these complex modes and the snake instability is
investigated numerically by propagation in real time.Comment: 11 pages, 8 embedded figures (two in color
Metamorphosis and Taxonomy of Andreev Bound States
We analyze the spatial and energy dependence of the local density of states
in a SNS junction. We model our system as a one-dimensional tight-binding chain
which we solve exactly by numerical diagonalization. We calculate the
dependence of the Andreev bound states on position, phase difference, gate
voltage, and coupling with the superconducting leads. Our results confirm the
physics predicted by certain analytical approximations, but reveal a much
richer set of phenomena beyond the grasp of these approximations, such as the
metamorphosis of the discrete states of the normal link (the normal bound
states) into Andreev bound states as the leads become superconducting.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure
Using the past to constrain the future: how the palaeorecord can improve estimates of global warming
Climate sensitivity is defined as the change in global mean equilibrium
temperature after a doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentration and provides a
simple measure of global warming. An early estimate of climate sensitivity,
1.5-4.5{\deg}C, has changed little subsequently, including the latest
assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The persistence of such large uncertainties in this simple measure casts
doubt on our understanding of the mechanisms of climate change and our ability
to predict the response of the climate system to future perturbations. This has
motivated continued attempts to constrain the range with climate data, alone or
in conjunction with models. The majority of studies use data from the
instrumental period (post-1850) but recent work has made use of information
about the large climate changes experienced in the geological past.
In this review, we first outline approaches that estimate climate sensitivity
using instrumental climate observations and then summarise attempts to use the
record of climate change on geological timescales. We examine the limitations
of these studies and suggest ways in which the power of the palaeoclimate
record could be better used to reduce uncertainties in our predictions of
climate sensitivity.Comment: The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in
Progress in Physical Geography, 31(5), 2007 by SAGE Publications Ltd, All
rights reserved. \c{opyright} 2007 Edwards, Crucifix and Harriso
"Plantar pro gasto": a importância do autoconsumo entre famílias de agricultores do Rio Grande do Sul.
O artigo discute a valoração e importância da produção para o autoconsumo na reprodução social das unidades familiares e caracteriza os alimentos autoconsumidos. Vale-se da pesquisa "Agricultura Familiar, Desenvolvimento Local e Pluriatividade" (UFRGS/UFPel/ CNPq-2003) que propiciou a formação de um banco de dados com informações sobre a dinâmica da agricultura familiar em quatro regiões distintas da geografia gaúcha, suas fontes e tipos de renda, entre estas o autoconsumo. Trazer este debate significa retomar um tema pouco discutido até então, e que, embora marginalizado ou considerado sem importância, desenvolve importante papel como renda não monetária, fortalece a segurança alimentar e adentra esferas da sociabilidade e identidade social. Além da introdução, apresenta-se o papel do autoconsumo na agricultura familiar, o cálculo da produção para o autoconsumo, discussão dos objetivos e resultados, e considerações finais. Os resultados demonstram que a produção para o autoconsumo é uma estratégia recorrente pelas unidades familiares e se diferencia de acordo com a dinâmica da agricultura familiar. Diferença esta expressa em valores relativos (%) e no número de estabelecimentos pertencentes a estratos diferenciados de autoconsumo, e pouco nos tipos de alimentos produzidos para este fim, observando-se uma homogeneidade dos hábitos alimentares
Random line tessellations of the plane: statistical properties of many-sided cells
We consider a family of random line tessellations of the Euclidean plane
introduced in a much more formal context by Hug and Schneider [Geom. Funct.
Anal. 17, 156 (2007)] and described by a parameter \alpha\geq 1. For \alpha=1
the zero-cell (that is, the cell containing the origin) coincides with the
Crofton cell of a Poisson line tessellation, and for \alpha=2 it coincides with
the typical Poisson-Voronoi cell. Let p_n(\alpha) be the probability for the
zero-cell to have n sides. By the methods of statistical mechanics we construct
the asymptotic expansion of \log p_n(\alpha) up to terms that vanish as
n\to\infty. In the large-n limit the cell is shown to become circular. The
circle is centered at the origin when \alpha>1, but gets delocalized for the
Crofton cell, \alpha=1, which is a singular point of the parameter range. The
large-n expansion of \log p_n(1) is therefore different from that of the
general case and we show how to carry it out. As a corollary we obtain the
analogous expansion for the {\it typical} n-sided cell of a Poisson line
tessellation.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figure
A Model for the Development of the Rhizobial and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbioses in Legumes and Its Use to Understand the Roles of Ethylene in the Establishment of these two Symbioses
We propose a model depicting the development of nodulation and arbuscular mycorrhizae. Both processes are dissected into many steps, using Pisum sativum L. nodulation mutants as a guideline. For nodulation, we distinguish two main developmental programs, one epidermal and one cortical. Whereas Nod factors alone affect the cortical program, bacteria are required to trigger the epidermal events. We propose that the two programs of the rhizobial symbiosis evolved separately and that, over time, they came to function together. The distinction between these two programs does not exist for arbuscular mycorrhizae development despite events occurring in both root tissues. Mutations that affect both symbioses are restricted to the epidermal program. We propose here sites of action and potential roles for ethylene during the formation of the two symbioses with a specific hypothesis for nodule organogenesis. Assuming the epidermis does not make ethylene, the microsymbionts probably first encounter a regulatory level of ethylene at the epidermis–outermost cortical cell layer interface. Depending on the hormone concentrations there, infection will either progress or be blocked. In the former case, ethylene affects the cortex cytoskeleton, allowing reorganization that facilitates infection; in the latter case, ethylene acts on several enzymes that interfere with infection thread growth, causing it to abort. Throughout this review, the difficulty of generalizing the roles of ethylene is emphasized and numerous examples are given to demonstrate the diversity that exists in plants
Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV
A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption
that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed
using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV.
The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard
Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of
charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for
m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81
GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the
95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure
Forward pi^0 Production and Associated Transverse Energy Flow in Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA
Deep-inelastic positron-proton interactions at low values of Bjorken-x down
to x \approx 4.10^-5 which give rise to high transverse momentum pi^0 mesons
are studied with the H1 experiment at HERA. The inclusive cross section for
pi^0 mesons produced at small angles with respect to the proton remnant (the
forward region) is presented as a function of the transverse momentum and
energy of the pi^0 and of the four-momentum transfer Q^2 and Bjorken-x.
Measurements are also presented of the transverse energy flow in events
containing a forward pi^0 meson. Hadronic final state calculations based on QCD
models implementing different parton evolution schemes are confronted with the
data.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures and 3 table
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