100,305 research outputs found
Sheep predation : characteristics and risk factors
No full textPredation has always been an important problem in extensive sheep farms, causing serious economic losses to the farmers. Official predation reports have recently been decreasing in the District of Pisa, in spite of the presence of two wolf packs in the area. The aim of the present research was to obtain reliable information on the characteristics of predation and to estimate the effectiveness of existing prevention methods in sheep farms of the southern District of Pisa, in order to set up predictive models for an improved and more focused prevention plan and support interventions by public authorities. On-farm surveys were carried out in 73 semi-extensive sheep farms. Predation events were reported by 75.3% of the farmers. Wolves seemed to be responsible for most of those events, although their actual role could be confirmed only in 34% of cases. Most of the events occurred in spring and 85.1% of them were concentrated during night time. The average number of sheep killed during each attack was 7.05. In 22.3% of cases, the number of sheep killed was ≥ 10. Proximity to protected areas and the presence of thick vegetation cover significantly affected the probability of a farm being subjected to chronic predation. Farm size was significantly higher in those cases. No clear indication about the effectiveness of prevention methods could be obtained from our survey. The results of this investigation highlighted the impact of predation in the Southern District of Pisa and emphasized the need for finding technical and political solutions to this problem. Attention should be focused on large farms, with thick vegetation cover and located close to protected areas. Further investigations should be carried out in order to test the effectiveness of suitable prevention methods in these farms
Le pecore e il lupo: indagine sul punto di vista degli allevatori nella provincia di Pisa (Sheep and wolf: a survey on the farmer's point of view in the province of Pisa)
No full textLa presente indagine ha come obiettivo quello di mettere a fuoco la percezione del lupo da parte degli allevatori della Val di Cecina, raccogliere suggerimenti riguardo alle possibili soluzioni, valutare il livello di conoscenza e il giudizio degli allevatori sulla normativa vigente. Il lupo è percepito come un problema dall’86,3% dei soggetti intervistati, che gli attribuiscono la responsabilità degli eventi di predazione nel 91% degli episodi riportati, nonostante che questa sia stata accertata solo nel 31% dei casi. Il 72,6% degli intervistati ha dichiarato di non conoscere l’attuale legge regionale sulla tutela del patrimonio zootecnico soggetto a predazione; tuttavia, il 61,9% di essi ritiene opportuno rivederla. Solo il 28,6% degli intervistati ritiene opportuno sostenere finanziariamente la messa in opera di misure difensive antilupo. Il 42,9% dei soggetti ritiene necessario catturare i lupi presenti e traslocarli in aree non interessate da attività zootecniche, mentre il 49,2% si è espresso a favore dell’abbattimento del lupo, ritenuto frutto di interventi di immissione. La denuncia degli attacchi, laddove non solo non comporta un risarcimento adeguato ma addirittura una perdita economica per l’allevatore, non viene più effettuata, con conseguente difficoltà di monitoraggio del reale impatto del fenomeno. La partecipazione attiva, l’informazione sui metodi di prevenzione e la sensibilizzazione delle popolazioni locali, unitamente ad una maggior attenzione da parte del legislatore, rappresentano presupposti fondamentali per garantire la tolleranza e l’accettazione del predatore e per l’attenuazione del conflitto tra lupo e zootecnia. La figura del medico veterinario gioca un ruolo essenziale per la divulgazione delle informazioni necessarie.Aim of the present survey is to focus on the perception of wolf by sheep farmers in the Province of Pisa (Val di Cecina) and to collect their impressions about its presence and suggestions about possible solutions. Furthermore, we tried to evaluate the level of knowledge and the judgment of the farmers about the current regional law. The wolf is perceived as a problem by 86.3% of the farmers, who give him the responsibility for 91% of the reported predation events, in spite of the fact that this was really assessed only in 31% of cases. 72.6% of the farmers do not know the present regional law; however, 61.9% of them state that it should be reviewed. Only 28.6% of the farmers is in favour of a financial support for preventive measures; 42.9% think that wolves should be captured and transolcated far from sheep farms and 49.2% wish that wolves, that are believed to derive from transolcations, are culled. Wolf attacks are seldom officially reported, as compensations are not considered adequate and farmers are obliged to sustain additional costs for carcass destruction; therefore, there is a scarce control of this phenomenon. Active participation, information on prevention methods, awakening of local populations, together with more attention from lawmakers, are essential tools for improving the tolerance and acceptation of the predator and for attenuating the conflict with zootechnical activities. Veterinarians play a key role for spreading these informations
Prevalenza di HBsAg in donne gravide afferenti al Centro di Ginecologia Preventiva dell’A.S.L. n.4 di Matera nel periodo 1994-2001
No full textOsservatorio Epidemiologico Regione Basilicata. OER-B, 1: 23-25, 2003
Letter, [Author unclear] to Paulina T. Merritt
No full textHandwritten letter to Paulina Merritt from an unknown author, October 1, 1876.
Handwritten biographical information on Paulina T. McClung Merritt
No full textA handwritten biography of Paulina T. McClung Merritt by an unknown author, 1892.
Heterogeneous and tissue-specific regulation of effector T cell responses by IFN-gamma during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection.
No full textIFN-γ and T cells are both required for the development of experimental cerebral malaria during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection. Surprisingly, however, the role of IFN-γ in shaping the effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell response during this infection has not been examined in detail. To address this, we have compared the effector T cell responses in wild-type and IFN-γ(-/-) mice during P. berghei ANKA infection. The expansion of splenic CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells during P. berghei ANKA infection was unaffected by the absence of IFN-γ, but the contraction phase of the T cell response was significantly attenuated. Splenic T cell activation and effector function were essentially normal in IFN-γ(-/-) mice; however, the migration to, and accumulation of, effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in the lung, liver, and brain was altered in IFN-γ(-/-) mice. Interestingly, activation and accumulation of T cells in various nonlymphoid organs was differently affected by lack of IFN-γ, suggesting that IFN-γ influences T cell effector function to varying levels in different anatomical locations. Importantly, control of splenic T cell numbers during P. berghei ANKA infection depended on active IFN-γ-dependent environmental signals--leading to T cell apoptosis--rather than upon intrinsic alterations in T cell programming. To our knowledge, this is the first study to fully investigate the role of IFN-γ in modulating T cell function during P. berghei ANKA infection and reveals that IFN-γ is required for efficient contraction of the pool of activated T cells
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Pelevin’s Trinity in the novel “t”: author – protagonist – reader
No full textThe article attempts to interpret Pelevin's artistic strategy in the novel "T" by exploring its subject organization and addressing the key problems of the author, the protagonist, and the reader as they are seen by the researcher. The article analyzes the peculiarities of constructing the narrative reality in the novel "T", and goes on to discuss Pelevin's philosophic models of the development of the humankind, and the emergence of his new anthropology
Measuring industry-science links through inventor-author relations: A profiling method
No full textIn this pilot study we examine the performance of text-based profiling in recovering a set of validated inventor-author links. In a first step we match patents and publications solely based on their similarity in content. Next, we compare inventor and author names on the highest ranked matches for the occurrence of name matches. Finally, we compare these candidate matches with the names listed in a validated set of inventor-author names. Our text-based profile methodology performs significantly better than a random matching of patents and publications, suggesting that text-based profiling is a valuable complementary tool to the name searches used in previous studies.innovation; industry-science links; text-based profiling;
Wave turbulence of a rotating array of quantized vortices in the T → 0 temperature limit
No full textThe dynamics of quantized vortices in the zero temperature limit is currently of great interest, particularly in the case of the Fermi superfluid He-B. Here we study wave turbulence, generated by the librating motion of a rotating cylindrical container filled with He-B, in the limit of vanishing viscous forces at temperatures . The polarization of the quantized vortices with respect to the axis of rotation is measured using non-invasive NMR techniques. We observe a decrease of the polarization when the librating motion is started, and a two-stage relaxation process when the modulation of the rotation velocity is stopped. The first relaxation process is associated with the dissipation of large-scale flow stored in inertial waves and the solid body rotation of the vortex array. From the decay of these energy reservoirs we determine the rate of energy dissipation of large-scale flow. The later second process is related to the relaxation of Kelvin waves on individual vortices. This process is monitored by the recovery of the polarization. The existence of a Kelvin wave cascade at the lowest temperatures is currently a central open question. We supply some evidence for the cascade
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