Black Hole Masses of High-Redshift Quasars

Black-hole masses of distant quasars cannot be measured directly, but can be estimated to within a factor 3 to 5 using scaling relationships involving the quasar luminosity and broad-line width. Why such relationships are reasonable is summarized. The results of applying scaling relationships to data of quasars at a range of redshifts (z <= 6.3) are presented. Luminous quasars typically have masses of order 1 billion solar masses even at the highest redshifts. The fact that such massive black holes appear as early as at z ~ 6 indicate that black holes form very early or build up mass very fast.Comment: 4 pages with 2 figures, to appear in proceedings of Multiwavelength AGN Surveys, ed. R. Mujica and R. Maiolino (Singapore: World Scientific), 200

Black-Hole Mass Measurements

The applicability and apparent uncertainties of the techniques currently available for measuring or estimating black-hole masses in AGNs are briefly summarized.Comment: 6 pages. Invited review at `AGN Physics with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey' conference (July 2003), eds. G. Richards and P. Hall (ASP Conf. Series, 2004

Eating quality of Holstein bull calves fed only grass or purely herbs matches that of concentrate-fed veal calves

Organic meat production from Holstein calves born in dairy herds require that the bull calves are raised outdoor at least 6 months a year, and on large quantities of roughage in the diet. This study aimed at elucidating if Holstein bull calves fed either purely grass or purely herbs prior to slaughter would differ in meat quality traits, fatty acid composition and sensory profile and if they differed in quality aspects from concentrate-fed veal calves

Meat quality of hull calves fed only grass or only herbs for 8 weeks prior to slaughter matches that of concentrate-fed bull calves

The organic rules require that bull calves are raised outdoor at least 6 months a year in Denmark and are fed at least 60% roughage of the total diet. These rules are a constraint for an organic production of beef based on the bull calves born in the organic dairy herds because of extra labor costs, expected lower growth rate, difficulties in raising bull calves outdoor, possibly lower meat quality and lack of sufficiently high organic premium payment for the carcass. Thus, the bull calves are sold for conventional fattening. The supply of organic beef from young cattle is concomitantly very limited. However, in order to obtain the necessary higher payment for beef from organic-raised young cattle, it is important that consumers like the beef from grass- and herb-fed young cattle

An Empirical Ultraviolet Iron Spectrum Template Applicable to Active Galaxies

Iron emission is often a severe contaminant in optical-ultraviolet spectra of active galaxies. Its presence complicates emission line studies. A viable solution, already successfully applied at optical wavelengths, is to use an empirical iron emission template. We have generated FeII and FeIII templates for ultraviolet active galaxy spectra based on HST archival 1100 - 3100 A spectra of IZw1. Their application allows fitting and subtraction of the iron emission in active galaxy spectra. This work has shown that in particular CIII] lambda 1909 can be heavily contaminated by other line emission, including iron transitions. Details of the data processing, generation, and use of the templates, are given by Vestergaard & Wilkes (2001).Comment: 4 pages, including 1 figure, to appear in "Spectroscopic Challenges of Photoionized Plasmas", ASP Conf. Series, Eds. Gary Ferland and Daniel Wolf Savi

Green veal is not dark red

Among many farmers, butchers and consumers, the expectation is that meat arising from grazing cattle generally is darker than meat from cattle primarily fed cereals. Without necessarily being the truth, this dogma is a constraint to the marketing of ‘green’ meat. In an attempt to increase the supply of organic meat from young cattle, we need to know which quality parameters are the characteristics for this type of meat, including colour characteristics

A Sample of Quasars with Strong Nitrogen Emission Lines from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We report on 293 quasars with strong NIV] lambda 1486 or NIII] lambda 1750 emission lines (rest-frame equivalent width > 3 \AA) at 1.7 < z < 4.0 selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Fifth Data Release. These nitrogen-rich (N-rich) objects comprise ~1.1% of the SDSS quasars. The comparison between the N-rich quasars and other quasars shows that the two quasar subsets share many common properties. We also confirm previous results that N-rich quasars have much stronger Lya and NV lambda 1240 emission lines. Strong nitrogen emission in all ionization states indicates high overall nitrogen abundances in these objects. We find evidence that the nitrogen abundance is closely related to quasar radio properties. The radio-loud fraction in the NIII]-rich quasars is 26% and in the NIV]-rich quasars is 69%, significantly higher than ~8% measured in other quasars with similar redshift and luminosity. Therefore, the high nitrogen abundance in N-rich quasars could be an indicator of a special quasar evolution stage, in which the radio activity is also strong.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; accepted by ApJ (ApJ June 10, 2008, v680 n1 issue

Effect of starch level and roughage intake on animal perfomance, rumen wall characteristics and liver abscesses in intensively fed Frisian bulls

Organic dairy cows in Denmark has a higher frequency of liver abscesses, which is probably due to higher starch levels in the feed rations to high yielding cows compaired to conventional cows. Following abstract is based on experiments on young bulls and demonstrates whether replacing high-starch feeds with low-starch feed, such as dried grass pellets and sugar beet pulp, can reduce the problems with liver abscessation without reducing the performance level. The low-starch feed would be relevant to organic dairy production. In total, 41 Danish Friesian bulls (154±20 kg LW) were allocated into four treatment groups in a 2x2 factorial design fed either a high starch (N) or a high fibrous concentrate (F) and either chopped barley straw (S) or a mixture of 75% chopped barley straw and 25% sugar beet molasses (Sm). In the F ration, 25% of the wheat from N was replaced by dried sugar beet pulp and grass pellets giving a starch level of 24.3% and 39.1% (wt) and an energy content of 0.99 and 1.04 Scandinavian Feed Units/kg feed, respectively. The ad libitum fed bulls were slaughtered at 11.5±0.2 mo. weighing 429±41 kg LW on average. Feed intake was higher for F than N (p=0.005) (7.1 vs. 6.4 kg/d), whereas the addition of molasses increased straw intake from 0.5 to 0.9 kg/d (p<0.001). The higher intake of Sm compared with S reduced concentrate intake (p<0.05), but did not affect total net energy intake. The average daily gain (1370 g/d) did not differ between groups. The rumen wall was more severely damaged with N compared with F (p<0.05) and with S compared with Sm (p<0.003). The higher straw intake prevented rumen wall damage, but did not reduce the number of animals with liver abscesses, like the lower starch level did (1 vs. 9 animals, p<0.005)

Fodringen kan påvirke fedtsyremønsteret i oksekød – og måske gøre kødet sundere

En undersøgelse af fedtsyresammensætning, CLA og andre fedtsyrer med specielle positive eller negative egenskaber i stude- og ungtyrekø