The preparation of laboratory specimens as an aid to the diagnosis of animal diseases

Many problems in connection with animal diseases require for their solution the application of methods which can only be undertaken in properly equipped laboratories. This ordinarily involves the collection, packing, and shipping of samples of specimens. The manner in which this is done is a most important factor and to a very large extent is responsible either for the success or for the failure of the undertaking. The discussion of the subject to which the following pages are devoted is taken in hand in the hope that it may provide guidance to the veterinarians and others who may have occasion to require the assistance of a laboratory in the solution of disease problems

Theoretical Framework for Spatial Planning and Forest Management in Indonesia: Securing the Basic Rights for Adat People

Limited transparency, accountability, and participation in policy formulation as well as implementation mainly based on economic considerations, all lead to failure to attain sustainable forest management (SFM). Along with the reluctance of policy makers and lacking stakeholder capacity, less accurate data bases has also indicated a constraint in the development of appropriate action. The issues have been more complicated where they were correlated with economic imperatives, vested interest, ownership issues and the basic rights of indigenous communities living inside or adjacent the forest. Forest destruction will be no end without securing customary land and territorial rights. To cope with these issues, the concept of fair governance has been promoted as an alternative to the traditional pattern of administration. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework for policy development in order to attain SFM while respecting the rights of the adat people. We show that adaptive governance, adaptive management, and participatory learning are strategic approaches in governance reform to achieve sustainable forest management securing the customary rights and traditional land use of forest dependent people

Comparison of the scintillation noise above different observatories measured with MASS instruments

Scintillation noise is a major limitation of ground base photometric precision. An extensive dataset of stellar scintillation collected at 11 astronomical sites world-wide with MASS instruments was used to estimate the scintillation noise of large telescopes in the case of fast photometry and traditional long-exposure regime. Statistical distributions of the corresponding parameters are given. The scintillation noise is mostly determined by turbulence and wind in the upper atmosphere and comparable at all sites, with slightly smaller values at Mauna Kea and largest noise at Tolonchar in Chile. We show that the classical Young's formula under-estimates the scintillation noise.The temporal variations of the scintillation noise are also similar at all sites, showing short-term variability at time scales of 1 -- 2 hours and slower variations, including marked seasonal trends (stronger scintillation and less clear sky during local winter). Some correlation was found between nearby observatories.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 14 pages, 11 figure

On the mass transfer in AE Aquarii

The observed properties of the close binary AE Aqr indicate that the mass transfer in this system operates via the Roche lobe overflow mechanism, but the material transferred from the normal companion is neither accreted onto the surface of the white dwarf nor stored in a disk around its magnetosphere. As previously shown, such a situation can be realized if the white dwarf operates as a propeller. At the same time, the efficiency of the propeller action by the white dwarf is insufficient to explain the rapid braking of the white dwarf, which implies that the spin-down power is in excess of the bolometric luminosity of the system. To avoid this problem we have simulated the mass-transfer process in AE Aqr assuming that the observed braking of the white dwarf is governed by a pulsar-like spin-down mechanism. We show that the expected H_alpha Doppler tomogram in this case resembles the tomogram observed from the system. We find that the agreement between the simulated and the observed tomograms is rather good provided the mean value of the mass-transfer rate ~5x10^16 g/s. Three spatially separated sources of H_alpha emission can be distinguished within this approach. The structure of the tomogram depends on the relative contributions of these sources to the H_alpha emission and is expected to vary from night to night.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures (6 eps files). Published in A&A. The paper with high resolution images can be downloaded from http://urania.it.nuigalway.ie/papers/ae_aqr.ps.g

Testing the Standard Model with CP asymmetries in flavor-specific nonleptonic decays

Motivated by recent indications that the rates of color-allowed nonleptonic channels are not in agreement with their Standard Model expectations based on QCD factorization, we investigate the potential to study CP asymmetries with these decays. In the Standard Model, these flavor-specific decays are sensitive to CP violation in B0 ðsÞ –B¯ 0 ðsÞ mixing, which is predicted with low uncertainties and can be measured precisely with semileptonic decays. Allowing beyond Standard Model (BSM) contributions to the nonleptonic decay amplitudes, we derive explicit expressions for the flavor-specific CP asymmetries in a model-independent way. We find that BSM contributions could lead to significant enhancements to the CP asymmetries. Therefore measurements of these quantities and subsequent comparison with the CP asymmetries measured with semileptonic decays have potential to identify BSM effects without relying on Standard Model predictions that might be affected by hadronic effects. In addition, we discuss the experimental prospects, and note the excellent potential for a precise determination of the CP asymmetry in B¯ s → Dþ s π− decays by the LHCb experiment

First results of site testing program at Mt. Shatdzhatmaz in 2007 - 2009

We present the first results of the site testing performed at Mt.~Shatdzhatmaz at Northern Caucasus, where the new Sternberg astronomical institute 2.5-m telescope will be installed. An automatic site monitor instrumentation and functionality are described together with the methods of measurement of the basic astroclimate and weather parameters. The clear night sky time derived on the basis of 2006 -- 2009 data amounts to 1340 hours per year. Principle attention is given to the measurement of the optical turbulence altitude distribution which is the most important characteristic affecting optical telescopes performance. For the period from November 2007 to October 2009 more than 85\,000 turbulence profiles were collected using the combined MASS/DIMM instrument. The statistical properties of turbulent atmosphere above the summit are derived and the median values for seeing $\beta_0 = 0.93$~arcsec and free-atmosphere seeing $\beta_{free} = 0.51$~arcsec are determined. Together with the estimations of isoplanatic angle $\theta_0 = 2.07$~arcsec and time constant \tau_0 = 2.58 \mbox{ ms}, these are the first representative results obtained for Russian sites which are necessary for development of modern astronomical observation techniques like adaptive optics.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 17 pages, 15 figure