State of Art of meat inspection of pigs in the EU

The current meat inspection in the European Union (EU) is based on principles that are around 100 years old. However, the zoonotic hazards have shifted and the production systems for livestock are changing. This makes it necessary to look at whether the present way of conducting meat inspection is efficient or not

Control methods for Dermanyssus gallinae in systems for laying hens: results of an international seminar

This paper reports the results of a seminar on poultry red mite (PRM), Dermanyssus gallinae. Eighteen researchers from eight European countries discussed life cycle issues of the mite, effects of mites on hens and egg production, and monitoring and control methods for PRM in poultry facilities. It was determined that PRM probably causes more damage than envisaged, with the cost in The Netherlands alone reaching 11 million euro per annum. However a great deal is still unknown about PRM (e.g. reproduction, survival methods, etc.) and that PRM monitoring is an important instrument in recognising and admitting the problem and in taking timely measures. Currently, the most promising control method combines heating the hen house in combination with chemical treatments. Future areas of development which show promise include the use of entomopathogenic fungi, vaccination and predatory mites. The final aim is to solve the problem of D. gallinae in housing systems for laying hens

OVI Absorption in the Milky Way Disk, and Future Prospects for Studying Absorption at the Galaxy-IGM Interface

We present a brief summary of results from our FUSE program designed to study OVI absorption in the disk of the Milky Way. As a full analysis of our data has now been published, we focus on the improvements that FUSE afforded us compared to Copernicus data published thirty years ago. We discuss FUSE's limitations in studying OVI absorption from nearby galaxies using background QSOs, but present FUSE spectra of two probes which indicate the absence of OVI (but the presence of Lyman-beta) absorption 8 and 63 kpc from a foreground galaxy. Finally, we discuss the need for a more sensitive UV spectrograph to map out the physical conditions of baryons around galaxies.Comment: Invited review to appear in the proceedings of "Future Directions in Ultraviolet Spectroscopy" meeting, held Oct 20-22, 2008, Annapolis, MD. To appear as an AIP Conference Proceedin

Distributed Computing Grid Experiences in CMS

The CMS experiment is currently developing a computing system capable of serving, processing and archiving the large number of events that will be generated when the CMS detector starts taking data. During 2004 CMS undertook a large scale data challenge to demonstrate the ability of the CMS computing system to cope with a sustained data-taking rate equivalent to 25% of startup rate. Its goals were: to run CMS event reconstruction at CERN for a sustained period at 25 Hz input rate; to distribute the data to several regional centers; and enable data access at those centers for analysis. Grid middleware was utilized to help complete all aspects of the challenge. To continue to provide scalable access from anywhere in the world to the data, CMS is developing a layer of software that uses Grid tools to gain access to data and resources, and that aims to provide physicists with a user friendly interface for submitting their analysis jobs. This paper describes the data challenge experience with Grid infrastructure and the current development of the CMS analysis system

Multiethnic Societies of Central Asia and Siberia Represented in Indigenous Oral and Written Literature

Central Asia and Siberia are characterized by multiethnic societies formed by a patchwork of often small ethnic groups. At the same time large parts of them have been dominated by state languages, especially Russian and Chinese. On a local level the languages of the autochthonous people often play a role parallel to the central national language. The contributions of this conference proceeding follow up on topics such as: What was or is collected and how can it be used under changed conditions in the research landscape, how does it help local ethnic communities to understand and preserve their own culture and language? Do the spatially dispersed but often networked collections support research on the ground? What contribution do these collections make to the local languages and cultures against the backdrop of dwindling attention to endangered groups? These and other questions are discussed against the background of the important role libraries and private collections play for multiethnic societies in often remote regions that are difficult to reach

Multiethnic Societies of Central Asia and Siberia Represented in Indigenous Oral and Written Literature

Central Asia and Siberia are characterized by multiethnic societies formed by a patchwork of often small ethnic groups. At the same time large parts of them have been dominated by state languages, especially Russian and Chinese. On a local level the languages of the autochthonous people often play a role parallel to the central national language. The contributions of this conference proceeding follow up on topics such as: What was or is collected and how can it be used under changed conditions in the research landscape, how does it help local ethnic communities to understand and preserve their own culture and language? Do the spatially dispersed but often networked collections support research on the ground? What contribution do these collections make to the local languages and cultures against the backdrop of dwindling attention to endangered groups? These and other questions are discussed against the background of the important role libraries and private collections play for multiethnic societies in often remote regions that are difficult to reach

The Interstellar Environment of our Galaxy

We review the current knowledge and understanding of the interstellar medium of our galaxy. We first present each of the three basic constituents - ordinary matter, cosmic rays, and magnetic fields - of the interstellar medium, laying emphasis on their physical and chemical properties inferred from a broad range of observations. We then position the different interstellar constituents, both with respect to each other and with respect to stars, within the general galactic ecosystem.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures (including 3 figures in 2 parts

Lambda Station: On-Demand Flow Based Routing for Data Intensive Grid Applications Over Multitopology Networks

Lambda Station is an ongoing project of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. The goal of this project is to design, develop and deploy network services for path selection, admission control and flow based forwarding of traffic among data-intensive Grid applications such as are used in High Energy Physics and other communities. Lambda Station deals with the last-mile problem in local area networks, connecting production clusters through a rich array of wide area networks. Selective forwarding of traffic is controlled dynamically at the demand of applications. This paper introduces the motivation of this project, design principles and current status. Integration of Lambda Station client API with the essential Grid middleware such as the dCache/SRM Storage Resource Manager is also described. Finally, the results of applying Lambda Station services to development and production clusters at Fermilab and Caltech over advanced networks such as DOE's UltraScience Net and NSF's UltraLight is covered