Reference charts for fetal cerebellar vermis height: A prospective cross-sectional study of 10605 fetuses

A prospective cross-sectional study between September 2009 and December 2014 was carried out at ALTAMEDICA Fetal–Maternal Medical Centre, Rome, Italy. Of 25203 fetal biometric measurements, 12167 (48%) measurements of the cerebellar vermis were available. After excluding 1562 (12.8%) measurements, a total of 10605 (87.2%) fetuses were considered and analyzed once only. Parametric and nonparametric quantile regression models were used for the statistical analysis. In order to evaluate the robustness of the proposed reference charts regarding various distributional assumptions on the ultrasound measurements at hand, we compared the gestational age-specific reference curves we produced through the statistical methods used. Normal mean height based on parametric and nonparametric methods were defined for each week of gestation and the regression equation expressing the height of the cerebellar vermis as a function of gestational age was calculated. Finally the correlation between dimension/gestation was measured

Reaching the Oldest Stars beyond the Local Group: Ancient Star Formation in UGC 4483

We present new WFC3/UVIS observations of UGC 4483, the closest example of a metal-poor blue compact dwarf galaxy, with a metallicity of Z ≃ 1/15 Z⊙ and located at a distance of D ≃ 3.4 Mpc. The extremely high quality of our new data allows us to clearly resolve the multiple stellar evolutionary phases populating the color-magnitude diagram (CMD), to reach more than 4 mag deeper than the tip of the red giant branch, and to detect for the first time core He-burning stars with masses ≲2 M⊙, populating the red clump and possibly the horizontal branch (HB) of the galaxy. By applying the synthetic CMD method to our observations, we determine an average star formation rate over the whole Hubble time of at least $(7.01\pm 0.44)\times {10}^{-4}$ ${M}_{\odot }\,{{yr}}^{-1}$ , corresponding to a total astrated stellar mass of $(9.60\pm 0.61)\times {10}^{6}$ M⊙, 87% of which went into stars at epochs earlier than 1 Gyr ago. With our star formation history recovery method we find the best fit with a distance modulus of DM = 27.45 ± 0.10, slightly lower than previous estimates. Finally, we find strong evidence of an old (≳10 Gyr) stellar population in UGC 4483 thanks to the detection of an HB phase and the identification of six candidate RR Lyrae variable stars. * Based on observations obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under NASA Contract NAS 5-26555

Effetto del benessere degli animali sulla qualita del latte ovino

Con il presente lavoro si vuole valutare come le strategie aziendali dal punto di vista del livello di gestione del sistema di allevamento possano influire sullo stato di benessere degli animali e quindi sulla qualità del latte. Lo studio ha interessato tre aziende caratterizzate da tre diverse strategie di allevamento. Nello specifico sono stati presi in considerazione due aspetti uno relativo alla qualità nutrizionale valutando l’effetto dell’integrazione del lino nella dieta delle pecore ed uno relativo alla qualità legata al benessere animale. I campionamenti di latte sono stati effettuati per latte individuale ripetuti sulle tre aziende in differenti periodi dell’anno quali inverno, primavera ed estate. Sono stati determinati i parametri chimici (grasso, proteine, lattosio, caseina, urea), tecnologici (r, A30, K20), fisiosanitari (cellule somatiche, carica batterica) e gli acidi grassi. I risultati hanno messo in evidenza che la presenza del lino e quindi degli omega 3 esalta sicuramente le performance qualitative delle pecore, accrescendo il profilo nutraceutico del latte. Quello che ne deriva, è un’esaltazione dell’aspetto nutrizionale della qualità del prodotto. Purtroppo, la mancata cura del benessere animale, pregiudica altre importanti sfaccettature della qualità, come lo stato fisiologico, sanitario e tecnologico, caratterizzati da un minor livello di proteine, da una scarsa risposta alla coagulazione e da un elevato livello di cellule somatiche

Shape-constrained quantile regression (QR).

<p>Estimates for a range of levels of interest and approximate confidence bands (point-wise bands in dark gray, uniform bands in light gray) compared with the standard normal-based fit.</p

GAMLSS diagnostic plots.

<p>GAMLSS diagnostic plots.</p

Measurement of the cerebellar vermis height.

<p>Measurement of the cerebellar vermis height.</p

Normal-based mean curve.

<p>95^th and 5^th centile curves across gestational age.</p