Tillandsia recurvata is an epiphyte that grows on the canopy of many trees in tropical and subtropical areas of America. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of partial or complete ...substitution of sorghum stubble with T. recurvata on liveweight change, metabolic profile, and complete blood count of goats fed increasing levels (0, 30, and 60%, dry matter basis) of T. recurvata. Thirty non-pregnant three-year-old, non-lactating, healthy mixed-breed goats, ten animals per treatment (T0, T30, and T60), were adapted to diets and facilities for 14 days (d-14). Blood samples were collected at d-15, 28, and 56. At the last phase of the trial (from days 67 on), control goats tended to gain more (p = 0.09) weight than their counterparts consuming T. recurvata. Plasma protein, glucose, triglycerides, calcium, and phosphorus concentrations did not differ among dietary treatments (p > 0.05). Dietary treatment influenced red blood cells (higher for T60; p < 0.01), white blood cells (higher for T30; p < 0.05), mean corpuscular volume (higher for T0; p < 0.001), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (higher for T0; p < 0.01), although not the rest of the blood variables (p > 0.05). The hematocrit percentage tended to be higher (p = 0.06) in T30 than T0 and T60. It was concluded that replacing sorghum stubble with T. recurvata did not modify the metabolic status and maintained live weight of goats. Nevertheless, the use of T. recurvata as feed for goats would improve the nutrition of these animals in the dry season compared to the current diet obtained from an arid rangeland, reducing production costs, and would alleviate the damage caused by this aggressive epiphyte to host trees.
The Gulf of California is unique because of its geographical location and conformation. It hosts diverse ecosystems and important fisheries that support industry and provide livelihood to coastal ...settlements. It is also the site of interests and problems, and an intense interaction among managers, producers, and conservationists. In this report, we scrutinize the abiotic (hydrography, climate, ocean circulation, and chemistry) and biotic (phyto- and zooplankton, fish, invertebrates, marine mammals, birds, and turtles) components of the marine ecosystem, and some particular aspects of climate variability, endemisms, harmful algal blooms, oxygen minimum layer, and pollution. We also review the current conditions and conflicts around the main fisheries (shrimp, small and large pelagic fishes, squid, artisanal and sportfishing), the most important human activity in the Gulf of California. We cover some aspects of management and conservation of fisheries, especially the claimed overexploitation of fish resources and the ecosystems, and review proposals for creating networks of marine protected areas. We conclude by identifying main needs for information and research, particularly the integration of data bases, the implementation of models and paleoreconstructions, establishment of monitoring programs, and the evaluation of fishing impacts and management actions.
We present a search for a neutrino signal from dark matter self-annihilations in the Milky Way using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (IceCube). In 1005 days of data we found no significant excess of ...neutrinos over the background of neutrinos produced in atmospheric air showers from cosmic ray interactions. We derive upper limits on the velocity averaged product of the dark matter self-annihilation cross section and the relative velocity of the dark matter particles
⟨
σ
A
v
⟩
. Upper limits are set for dark matter particle candidate masses ranging from 10 GeV up to 1 TeV while considering annihilation through multiple channels. This work sets the most stringent limit on a neutrino signal from dark matter with mass between 10 and 100 GeV, with a limit of
1.18
·
10
-
23
cm
3
s
-
1
for 100 GeV dark matter particles self-annihilating via
τ
+
τ
-
to neutrinos (assuming the Navarro–Frenk–White dark matter halo profile).
Psoriatic lesions affecting the scalp, nails, palms, and the soles of the feet are described as difficult-to-treat psoriasis and require specific management. Involvement of these sites often has a ...significant physical and emotional impact on the patient and the lesions are difficult to control with topical treatments owing to inadequate penetration of active ingredients and the poor cosmetic characteristics of the vehicles used. Consequently, when difficult-to-treat sites are involved, psoriasis can be considered severe even though the lesions are not extensive. Scant information is available about the use of biologic therapy in this setting, and published data generally comes from clinical trials of patients who also had moderate to severe extensive lesions or from small case series and isolated case reports. In this article we review the quality of the scientific evidence for the 4 biologic agents currently available in Spain (infliximab, etanercept, adalimumab, and ustekinumab) and report level i evidence for the use of biologics to treat nail psoriasis (level of recommendation A) and a somewhat lower level of evidence in the case of scalp involvement and palmoplantar psoriasis.
We present the results of the first IceCube search for dark matter annihilation in the center of the Earth. Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), candidates for dark matter, can scatter off ...nuclei inside the Earth and fall below its escape velocity. Over time the captured WIMPs will be accumulated and may eventually self-annihilate. Among the annihilation products only neutrinos can escape from the center of the Earth. Large-scale neutrino telescopes, such as the cubic kilometer IceCube Neutrino Observatory located at the South Pole, can be used to search for such neutrino fluxes. Data from 327 days of detector livetime during 2011/2012 were analyzed. No excess beyond the expected background from atmospheric neutrinos was detected. The derived upper limits on the annihilation rate of WIMPs in the Earth and the resulting muon flux are an order of magnitude stronger than the limits of the last analysis performed with data from IceCube's predecessor AMANDA. The limits can be translated in terms of a spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section. For a WIMP mass of 50 GeV this analysis results in the most restrictive limits achieved with IceCube data.
This Letter presents the results from pointlike neutrino source searches using ten years of IceCube data collected between April 6, 2008 and July 10, 2018. We evaluate the significance of an ...astrophysical signal from a pointlike source looking for an excess of clustered neutrino events with energies typically above ~1 TeV among the background of atmospheric muons and neutrinos. We perform a full-sky scan, a search within a selected source catalog, a catalog population study, and three stacked Galactic catalog searches. The most significant point in the northern hemisphere from scanning the sky is coincident with the Seyfert II galaxy NGC 1068, which was included in the source catalog search. The excess at the coordinates of NGC 1068 is inconsistent with background expectations at the level of 2.9σ after accounting for statistical trials from the entire catalog. The combination of this result along with excesses observed at the coordinates of three other sources, including TXS 0506+056, suggests that, collectively, correlations with sources in the northern catalog are inconsistent with background at 3.3σ significance. The southern catalog is consistent with background. Finally these results, all based on searches for a cumulative neutrino signal integrated over the 10 years of available data, motivate further study of these and similar sources, including time-dependent analyses, multimessenger correlations, and the possibility of stronger evidence with coming upgrades to the detector.