Use of a multifenestrated indwelling lavage system for treatment of septic digital teno-synovitis in cattle

Septic tenosynovitis was diagnosed in seven cattle on the basis of history, physical examination, radiographs, cytological examination of tendon sheath fluids, and microbial culture. A commercially available indwelling multifenestrated silicone rubber drain was used to perform frequent lavage of the flexor tendon sheaths. The sepsis resolved in all cattle. Five of six cattle for which long-term (> 1 year) follow-up information was available were clinically sound on the affected limb and had remained productive members of the herd.     

Offshore Financial Services and the Internet: Creating Confidence in the Use of Cyberspace?

Abstract The use of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) as a distributive medium is seen by many businesses as a legitimate way to cut costs of operation. Confidence is growing in the use of this medium to transact business because of the increasing sophistication of firewalls, encryption software, and digital key technology. This paper presents empirical evidence from one offshore financial center where the process of legislative and regulatory reform put in place to establish confidence in the traditional provision of offshore financial services is now being used to regulate and legitimize the online distribution of such services. The results show that all firms surveyed for this study use the Internet for routine brochure‐ware purposes and the larger firms (particularly in the offshore life insurance sector) are developing more sophisticated customized transactional functions via extranet platforms. Tensions exist though with respect to “regulatory grasp” via the Internet, as offshore places are being put under increased pressure by supranational organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to require greater transparency in offshore financial transactions.     

Ozone pollution modifies the response of sugarbeet to the herbicide phenmedipham

Experiments were conducted in which sugarbeet plants (Beta vulgaris L. cv. Saxon) with 2 to 3 leaves were exposed to a simulated 2 day ozone episode (100 nl l^?1, 7 h d^?1). Three days later, the plants were sprayed with field rate phenmedipham (1.14 kg a.i. ha^?1) and growth analysis conducted 7 days later indicated an antagonistic interaction was occurring. Physiological and biochemical studies were undertaken to determine the nature of this antagonism. Treatment with phenmedipham increased the ratio of transpiration to photosynthetic rates within 2 days of spraying, whilst exposure to ozone had no effect. When the two treatments were combined, water use efficiency was not significantly different from that when phenmedipham was applied alone. In contrast, trends in the membrane permeability after treatment, indicated that the response of plants exposed to ozone followed by treatment with the herbicide, was intermediate between that of the herbicide (high permeability) and ozone (low permeability). Furthermore, when the two treatments were combined the results of antioxidant enzyme assays indicated greater than expected activities of enzymes which are mainly cytosolic, eg. guaiacol peroxidase, as well as a similar increase in the activity of the mainly chloroplastic superoxide dismutase. Treatment with ozone alone and phenmedipham alone only slightly increased superoxide dismutase. Ozone may therefore induce the activities of these protective enzymes. Thus, when another oxidative stress, such as the photosystem II inhibitor phenmedipham, was applied the plants could then respond more quickly and showed less herbicide visible damage.     

Changes to relative stand composition after almost 50 years of Heterobasidion root disease in California true fir and pine forests

The Agaricomycete Heterobasidion annosum sensu lato (s.l.), a species complex of fungal pathogens, causes root and butt rot on conifers throughout the northern hemisphere, thereby shaping structure, composition, and evolution of vast and diverse forest ecosystems. We analyze forest change 48–49 years following Heterobasidion root disease emergence in 63 permanent plots first established in 1970–1972 and measured at least once every decade through 2020. We use this dataset to infer the long-term consequences of Heterobasidion root disease in a set of common forest types that reflect some of the most important hosts for this set of diseases in western North America. We contrasted three host–pathogen systems located within the Sierra Nevada, southern Cascades Mountain Range and the Modoc Plateau: (1) H. irregulare in host communities dominated by several Pinus (pine) species and Calocedrus decurrens (incense cedar) in Yosemite Valley, on the Sierra Nevada Range western slope; (2) H. irregulare in a largely single species (Pinus jeffreyi) host disease system on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades as well as the Modoc Plateau; and (3) H. occidentale—also on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada—in stands with a mixture of susceptible Abies (true fir) and a diversity of non-hosts for this Heterobasidion species. Approximately 50 years after disease emergence, relative basal area and stem density were significantly reduced within disease centres in all three pathosystems, but changes to forest composition and relative species dominance were determined by pre-disease host and non-host diversity. In the western-slope H. occidentale system, the disease increased the dominance of non-susceptible species, Pinus species and C. decurrens. In the multi-genus Yosemite pathosystem, H. irregulare did not significantly shift species dominance, and as expected, species shifts did not occur in the largely single-genus eastern-slope forests. In these widespread California forest ecosystems, two factors appeared to determine forest conditions almost 50 years after Heterobasidion root disease monitoring: the size of the disease centre and the initial diversity of non-hosts. Along with pathogen species, these factors appear to affect the local severity of disease as well as the degree of species shifts relative to initial plot compositions, reaffirming host susceptibility classifications associated with these forest types.