Transits and starspots in the WASP-6 planetary system Tregloan-Reed, Jeremy; Southworth, John; Burgdorf, M ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
06/2015, Letnik:
450, Številka:
2
Journal Article, Web Resource
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We present updates to prism, a photometric transit-starspot model, and gemc, a hybrid optimization code combining MCMC and a genetic algorithm. We then present high-precision photometry of four ...transits in the WASP-6 planetary system, two of which contain a starspot anomaly. All four transits were modelled using prism and gemc, and the physical properties of the system calculated. We find the mass and radius of the host star to be 0.836 ± 0.063 M⊙ and 0.864 ± 0.024 R⊙, respectively. For the planet, we find a mass of 0.485 ± 0.027 M
Jup, a radius of 1.230 ± 0.035 R
Jup and a density of 0.244 ± 0.014 ρJup. These values are consistent with those found in the literature. In the likely hypothesis that the two spot anomalies are caused by the same starspot or starspot complex, we measure the stars rotation period and velocity to be 23.80 ± 0.15 d and 1.78 ± 0.20 km s−1, respectively, at a colatitude of 75.8°. We find that the sky-projected angle between the stellar spin axis and the planetary orbital axis is λ = 7.2° ± 3.7°, indicating axial alignment. Our results are consistent with and more precise than published spectroscopic measurements of the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect. These results suggest that WASP-6 b formed at a much greater distance from its host star and suffered orbital decay through tidal interactions with the protoplanetary disc.
We present high-precision photometry of five consecutive transits of WASP-18, an extrasolar planetary system with one of the shortest orbital periods known. Through the use of telescope defocusing we ...achieve a photometric precision of 0.47-0.83 mmag per observation over complete transit events. The data are analyzed using the JKTEBOP code and three different sets of stellar evolutionary models. We find the mass and radius of the planet to be M b = 10.43 +/- 0.30 +/- 0.24 M Jup and R b = 1.165 +/- 0.055 +/- 0.014 R Jup (statistical and systematic errors), respectively. The systematic errors in the orbital separation and the stellar and planetary masses, arising from the use of theoretical predictions, are of a similar size to the statistical errors and set a limit on our understanding of the WASP-18 system. We point out that seven of the nine known massive transiting planets (M b > 3 M Jup) have eccentric orbits, whereas significant orbital eccentricity has been detected for only four of the 46 less-massive planets. This may indicate that there are two different populations of transiting planets, but could also be explained by observational biases. Further radial velocity observations of low-mass planets will make it possible to choose between these two scenarios.
The objective of this cross-sectional study was to estimate the prevalence of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in California preweaned dairy calves and identify management practices that are ...associated with BRD. A convenience sample of 100 dairies in the 3 distinct dairy regions of California was surveyed. Regions evaluated were Northern California (NCA), northern San Joaquin Valley (NSJV), and greater Southern California (GSCA). A questionnaire on calf management practices and demographic information was administered via in-person interviews at each dairy and a random sample of preweaned calves was evaluated using the California BRD scoring system on the same day. Prevalence of BRD varied between the 3 dairy regions: 9.30% in NCA, 4.51% in NSJV, and 7.35% in GSCA. Breed was not associated with BRD prevalence at the statewide level, but differences in prevalence were observed between breeds across the regions with a higher prevalence in NCA for Jerseys and in GSCA for Holsteins, compared with NSJV. Prevalence of BRD was not different between organic and conventional dairies. Colostrum management practices, including heat treatment and feeding colostrum from multiparous cows, varied by region and were associated with lower BRD prevalence. Calves housed in group pens, a practice observed primarily in NCA, had a higher BRD prevalence than those in individual housing. Feeding salable milk was also more common in NCA and was associated with lower BRD prevalence. Ground and road surfaces adjacent to the calf raising area were also variable by region, and paved surfaces were associated with lower BRD prevalence. Management practices associated with BRD varied across the state and may be addressed to inform the adoption and implementation of potentially protective management decisions on California dairies and other regions with similar dairy systems.
Although incidence of clinical hypocalcemia in postpartum dairy cows is low in US dairies, subclinical hypocalcemia after calving is common and has been associated with metabolic and infectious ...disease. It is widespread farm practice to feed a diet rich in anions to prepartum dairy cattle to support calcium homeostasis. However, this diet is typically discontinued at parturition, when calcium needs are still high. The objective of this trial was to determine the effects of extending metabolic acidification into the first 3 d of lactation in multiparous Holstein cows with the use of magnesium chloride (MgCl2) hexahydrate drenches on blood ionized calcium concentrations. Adult Holstein cows at a commercial dairy in their second or higher lactation, with a urine pH of 6.8 or less on the day of calving, were randomly assigned to either treatment or control groups, resulting in 13 cows in the treatment group and 14 cows in the control group. Treatment cows received 480 g of oral MgCl2 hexahydrate once daily for 3 d for continued acidification starting on the day of calving, whereas cows in the control group received no treatment. Urine pH was measured daily for 5 d, starting on the day of calving (0 DIM), to assess acidification status; blood was collected on day of calving (0 DIM), 2 DIM, and 4 DIM and analyzed for ionized calcium concentrations. Differences in blood ionized calcium and urine pH over time were compared using longitudinal data analysis. Urine pH was lower in treatment cows compared with control cows at 1, 2, and 3 DIM. Blood ionized calcium concentrations were different from baseline, taken at enrollment (0 DIM) and at 2 and 4 DIM in both treatment and control cows. However, no difference was detectable between treatment and control cows at 2 or 4 DIM with respect to blood ionized calcium concentrations. Oral supplementation with MgCl2 hexahydrate resulted in the desired acidification of urine pH in the treatment group, similar to feeding of an anionic close-up diet. Continued acidification of dairy cows until 2 DIM did not result in clinically meaningful higher blood calcium concentrations compared with controls, and further research is needed, to identify physiological reasons for this finding.
The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine how management practices on California dairies may be associated with bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in preweaned calves. A convenience ...sample of 100 dairies throughout California, providing a study population of 4,636 calves, were visited between May 2014 and April 2016. During each farm visit, in-person interviews with the herd manager or calf caretaker were conducted to collect information about herd demographics, maternity pen, colostrum and calf management, herd vaccinations, and dust abatement. A random sample of preweaned calves was identified and evaluated for the presence of BRD using a standardized tool. A survey-adjusted generalized linear mixed model with a logit link function was fitted with calf as the unit of analysis and dairy as the random effect. Mean study herd size (±SE) was 1,718 (±189.9) cows. Survey-adjusted estimates of breed types in the sample were 81.6% (±0.6) Holstein, 13.1% (±0.4) Jersey, and 5.3% (±0.5) crossbred or other purebred breeds, and calf sex proportions were 73.8% (±1.0) female and 26.2% (±1.0) male. Overall survey-adjusted BRD prevalence in the study herds was 6.91% (±0.69). Housing factors positively associated with BRD were metal hutches compared with wood hutches odds ratio (OR) = 11.19; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.80–44.78, calf-to-calf contact in calves >75 d of age (OR = 9.95, 95% CI = 1.50–65.86), feeding Holstein calves <2.84 L of milk or replacer per day (OR = 7.16, 95% CI = 1.23–41.68), and lagoon water used for flushing manure under hutches compared with no flush (OR = 12.06, 95% CI = 1.93–75.47). Providing extra shade over hutches (OR = 0.08; 95% CI = 0.02–0.37), feeding calves at least 90% saleable milk (OR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.13–0.54) or pasteurized milk (OR = 0.10; 95% CI = 0.03–0.36), and feeding >5.68 L of milk or replacer per day to Jersey calves (OR = 0.04; 95% CI = 0.01–0.28) were negatively associated with BRD. Our study identified management practices on California dairies with variability and that may contribute to differences in BRD prevalence, which will be incorporated into a risk-assessment tool to control and prevent BRD in preweaned dairy calves.
The diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum harbors a plastid that is surrounded by four membranes and evolved by way of secondary endosymbiosis. Like land plants, most of its plastid proteins are encoded ...as preproteins on the nuclear genome of the host cell and are resultantly redirected into the organelle. Because two more membranes are present in diatoms than the one pair surrounding primary plastids, the targeting situation is obviously different and more complex. In this work, we focus on preprotein transport across the second outermost plastid membrane-an issue that was experimentally inaccessible until now. We provide first indications that our hypothesis of an ERAD (ER-associated degradation)-derived preprotein transport system might be correct. Our data demonstrate that the symbiont-specific Der1 proteins, sDer1-1 and sDer1-2, form an oligomeric complex within the second outermost membrane of the complex plastid. Moreover, we present first evidence that the complex interacts with transit peptides of preproteins being transported across this membrane into the periplastidal compartment but not with transit peptides of stromal-targeted proteins. Thus, the sDer1 complex might have an additional role in discriminating preproteins that are transported across the two outermost membranes from preproteins directed across all four membranes of the complex plastid. Altogether, our studies of the symbiont-specific ERAD-like machinery of diatoms suggest that a preexisting cellular machinery was recycled to fulfill a novel function during the transition of a former free-living eukaryote into a secondary endosymbiont.
Secondary endosymbiosis—the merging of two eukaryotic cells into one photosynthetic cellular unit—led to the evolution of ecologically and medically very important organisms. We review the biology of ...these organisms, starting from the first proposal of secondary endosymbiosis up to recent phylogenetic models on the origin of secondarily evolved protists. In addition, we discuss the organelle character of the symbionts based on morphological features, gene transfers from the symbiont into the host and re-import of nucleus-encoded plastid proteins. Finally, we hypothesize that secondary endosymbiosis is more than enslaving a eukaryotic, phototrophic cell, but reflects a complex interplay between host and symbiont, leading to the inseparability of the two symbiotic partners generating a cellular entity.
Due to the increased morbidity and mortality of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in dairy calves, as well as an increasing urgency for the judicious use of antimicrobials in farm animals, a ...comprehensive risk assessment tool for BRD in preweaned dairy calves has been designed based on a longitudinal and a cross-sectional study. As a multifactorial disease complex in which immune function stressors increase susceptibility to respiratory pathology, risk management programs for environmental and husbandry practices may be an effective approach for BRD control. Practices of known or suspected effect on BRD in preweaned calves have been explored in 2 large studies correlating management factors to BRD prevalence (BRD 100 study) and incidence (BRD 10K study) and forming the scores presented here. Priority was given to results from multivariable over univariable model estimates. However, when used, univariable model estimates were adjusted for confounders or stratified by effect modifiers if necessary. Regression coefficients were translated into scores, which are presented in a field-ready tool consisting of (1) a risk assessment questionnaire, which identifies the herd-specific risk factors and the risk scores associated with each; (2) the California BRD scoring system to estimate the BRD prevalence at the time of risk assessment for future comparison with the prevalence after interventions; and (3) the BRD control and prevention herd management plan, which can be used to plan and track the interventions identified. Scores for 100 dairies across California were used to benchmark a dairy's risk on a spectrum. With the help of the risk assessment tool, dairy producers, calf managers, and veterinarians may be able to adjust management factors that affect BRD risk on a farm and objectively monitor BRD prevalence before and after management interventions. As a result, the BRD risk assessment tool described here is the first comprehensive effort for herd-specific BRD control and prevention.
Chromophyte algae differ fundamentally from plants in possessing chloroplasts that contain chlorophyll c and that have a more complex bounding-membrane topology. Although chromophytes are known to be ...evolutionary chimaeras of a red alga and a non-photosynthetic host, which gave rise to their exceptional membrane complexity, their cell biology is poorly understood. Cryptomonads are the only chromophytes that still retain the enslaved red algal nucleus as a minute nucleomorph. Here we report complete sequences for all three nucleomorph chromosomes from the cryptomonad Guillardia theta. This tiny 551-kilobase eukaryotic genome is the most gene-dense known, with only 17 diminutive spliceosomal introns and 44 overlapping genes. Marked evolutionary compaction hundreds of millions of years ago eliminated nearly all the nucleomorph genes for metabolic functions, but left 30 for chloroplast-located proteins. To allow expression of these proteins, nucleomorphs retain hundreds of genetic-housekeeping genes. Nucleomorph DNA replication and periplastid protein synthesis require the import of many nuclear gene products across endoplasmic reticulum and periplastid membranes. The chromosomes have centromeres, but possibly only one loop domain, offering a means for studying eukaryotic chromosome replication, segregation and evolution.
We present high-precision photometry of three transits of the extrasolar planetary system WASP-2, obtained by defocusing the telescopes, and achieving scatters of between 0.42 and 0.73 mmag versus ...the best-fitting model. These data are modelled using the jktebop code, and taking into account the light from the recently discovered faint star close to the system. The physical properties of the WASP-2 system are derived using tabulated predictions from five different sets of stellar evolutionary models, allowing both statistical and systematic error bars to be specified. We find the mass and radius of the planet to be Mb= 0.846 ± 0.055 ± 0.023 MJup and Rb= 1.043 ± 0.029 ± 0.015RJup. It has a low equilibrium temperature of 1281 ± 21 K, in agreement with a recent finding that it does not have an atmospheric temperature inversion. The first of our transit data sets has a scatter of only 0.42 mmag with respect to the best-fitting light-curve model, which to our knowledge is a record for ground-based observations of a transiting extrasolar planetary system.
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