Coral community reproductive patterns: red sea versus the great barrier reef

In contrast to many corals of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, which are synchronous multispecific spawners, the abundant coral species in the northern Red Sea, Israel, exhibit temporal reproductive isolation. Spawning dates of 12 of the 13 Red Sea species followed lunar periodicity and were consistent throughout 3 years of study. Spawning periods of all species occurred in different seasons, different months, or different lunar phases within the same month. The high abundance of the corals studied at Eilat may be due in part to the advantages gained through not having overlapping spawning periods and settlement times.     

Experimental transmission of intestinal coccidiosis to piglets: clinical, parasitological and pathological findings.

Twenty-eight piglets coming from a "specific pathogen free" herd were inoculated at three days of age with 50 000 or 100 000 sporulated oocysts of Isospora suis. Fecal samples were examined for oocyst shedding daily and several clinical parameters were recorded. Ten piglets were used as normal controls. Groups of piglets were euthanized from three days to 12 days postinoculation and routine necropsies were performed. Bacteriological, virological, parasitological and histopathological examinations were made on the intestinal tracts. The incubation period was four to five days. Clinical signs and microscopic intestinal lesions observed in the experimentally infected animals were similar to those reported in spontaneous cases of porcine neonatal coccidiosis. Lesions of villous atrophy in the small intestine seemed to result from the destruction of villous epithelial cells mainly during the peak of asexual reproduction which occurred around four to five days postinoculation. Intracellular coccidial organisms were difficult to find during the late atrophic and villous regrowth stages of the intestinal lesions. The prepatent period varied from four to seven days and the most common was five days. Eighty percent of the piglets kept alive more than four days postinoculation have shed oocysts. Piglets dosed with old sporulated oocysts (ten months old) shed many more oocysts than those infected with a fresh inoculum (less than two months old). The patent period was not determined precisely with the design of the experiment but some of the infected piglets shed oocysts for at least five days.     

EFFECT OF PYRAZON ON PHOTOSYNTHESIS OF VARIOUS PLANT SPECIES

Summary. Studies were conducted to determine the influence of pyrazon (5-amino-4-chloio-2-phenyl-3(2H)-pyridazinone) on photosynthesis. A strong inhibiting effect on O₂ evolution from leaf discs of several species was recorded. For most species a concentration of 5 × 10⁻⁵ M caused a reduction of about 50% in the rate of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis of sugar beet, highly resbtant to pyrazon, was reduced to 50% by a concentration of 7–5 × 10⁻⁵ M. Since these differences cannot account for the great divergence in susceptibility to pyrazon, it is suggested that the selectivity of this herbicide results from degradation and differential accumulation in the foliage.
Pyrazon was phytotoxic to plants of tomato and pigweed (Amaranthus retrofiexus L.) kept in the light but not when kept in the dark, after foliage application. The conclusion that pyrazon inhibits the mechanism of photosynthesis and causes starvation for carbohydrates, was strengthened by the fact that external feeding of glucose overcame the toxicity of the compound in tomato plants. These results and a possible mode of selectivity are discussed.     

中国水稻三化螟防治研究的进展

在中国为害水稻較重的螟虫已知有6种,以三化螟 Tryporyza incertulas (Wlk.)最为重要,分布于我国中南部稻区。本文阐述了气候、食料、水稻栽培制度和生物等因素对三化螟种群数量变动的影响,并指出作为螟虫食料的水稻及其栽培制度的作用更为明显。研究証明,三化螟的产卵、侵入、成活、繁殖和为害都与水稻的生育期有密切关系,水稻的分蘖期及孕穗期,都是水稻最易受害的生育期,在这两个时期被害,会造成枯心或白穗;而秧田期、移植至回青期、圓稈期和成熟期都对螟虫不利。螟虫的发生基数和生活环境条件,密切影响种群数量的变动,而这些都受水稻栽培制度的影响。发生基数决定于春季螟虫的有效虫源,其数量的大小对当年的螟虫,尤其对第一、二代的发生量有密切关系。螟害程度主要决定于:(1)种群数量和(2)水稻最易受害的生育期与螟虫盛发期配合程度的综合作用。为了加強防治,各地区必须因地制宜,利用耕作栽培措施,一方面尽可能消灭虫源、压低发生基数、控制以后各代螟虫的发生;另一方面力求改进栽培技术、調节水稻生育期,恶化螟虫的生活条件,避免或減輕螟害。化学防治也是治螟的一項重要措施。目前广泛应用的药剂是6％丙体六六六,每亩用量在防治枯心时为1.5斤,防治白穗为2斤。主要的施药方法为泼浇和撒毒土,两者对防治枯心的效果都很好;撒毒土防治白穗的效果虽稍差,但操作簡便易行。在螟虫发生期內,适值分蘖和孕穗的水稻田一般都要施药;但預测螟害低于1％的田块,可不防治。防治枯心的施药适期一般在孵化高峯前1—2天天开始,如虫量很大,要提前到盛孵始期用药。防治白穗的施药适期是:在蚁螟盛孵前孕穗的水稻,普通在盛孵始期开始施药;蚁螟盛孵后孕穗的水稻,在孕穗始期开始用药。稻螟是我国长期以来的一种严重害虫,解放前因螟害常年損失稻谷10％以上。解放后,在党和政府的領导下,科学技术有了显著的进展,治螟工作貫彻了“防治并举、以防为主”的方針,“以农业防治为基础,重点使用药剂綜合防治”的策略;采用了准确的預测預报;开展了群众性的防治活动,基本上控制了螟虫的危害,1663年的螟害率已压低到2％左右,不少地区已降低到1％以下。这都是在总路线、大跃进、人民公社三面紅旗光輝照耀下,領导、技术人員、群众三結合所取得的成果的     

Magnetic flux transport on the sun

Although most of the magnetic flux observed on the sun originates in the low-latitude sunspot belts, this flux is gradually dispersed over a much wider range of latitudes by supergranular convective motions and meridional circulation. Numerical simulations show how these transport processes interact over the 11-year sunspot cycle to produce a strong "topknot" polar field, whose existence near sunspot minimum is suggested by the observed strength of the interplanetary magnetic field and by the observed areal extent of polar coronal holes. The required rates of diffusion and flow are consistent with the decay rates of active regions and with the rotational properties of the large-scale solar magnetic field.     

Morphological study of bacterial pneumonia of feedlot cattle: Determination of age of lesions

Lungs from 48 feedlot cattle that had died from bacterial pneumonia were examined grossly and microscopically. Criteria based on microscopic lesions were adopted to age these pneumonias. In 38 cases, pneumonic lesions were of relatively uniform age throughout the affected tissue. In eight other cases, the presence of older lesions confined to one or two lobes suggested a previous episode of pneumonia. The aging criteria adopted were in agreement with the duration of the observed clinical signs in 26 cases. In 13 other cases, the pneumonia was estimated to be of longer duration than suggested by the history, whereas in the remaining nine cases, it was estimated to be more recent. Areas of tan discoloration of the parenchyma surrounded by white or yellow borders were considered the best areas to examine microscopically since they offered the best chances of revealing necrosis and fibrosis, the main lesions used to age the pneumonia.     

Purification and characterisation of chicken liver monomeric glutathione peroxidase

1. A novel glutathione peroxidase, which is distinct from tetrameric glutathione peroxidase, was purified to homogeneity from a broiler chick liver cytosolic fraction using 5 different column chromatographic methods.

2. The enzyme in cytosol was separated from ‘classic’ tetrameric glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S‐transferases by DEAE‐Sephacel and Sephadex G‐100 chromatographies and further purified by Mono Q, hydroxylapatite and sulphobro‐mophthalein‐S‐glutathione‐agarose chromatographies.

3. The molecular weight of the purified enzyme determined by sodium dodecyl sulphate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was 19,500 and that found by gel filtration chromatography was comparable. This indicates that the enzyme protein is a single polypeptide. The isoelectric point of the enzyme was determined as 7.0 by polyacrylamide gel isoelectric focusing.

4. The purified enzyme catalysed the reduction of hydrogen peroxide, cumene hydroperoxide, tert‐butyl hydroperoxide and linoleic acid hydroperoxide. Furthermore, it reduced phosphatidylcholine hydroperoxide in the absence of phospholi‐pase A2. The optimum pH for the enzyme reaction was 7.0. The antiserum against the purified enzyme reacted with the 19.5 kDa polypeptide in the liver cytosol of duck and quail.     

Soluble matrix of hen's eggshell extracts changes in vitro the rate of calcium carbonate precipitation and crystal morphology

1. Extra and intramineral eggshell matrix proteins were solubilised before and after demineralisation by sequential extractions using guanidine hydrochloride and EDTA.

2. The intramineral electrophoretic profile of SDS‐PAGE showed the presence of 80, 66, 43, 36 and 15 kDa bands with a predominance of a 17 kDa band. In the extramineral part, the major protein was the 15 kDa band.

3. The introduction of intramineral extract to a metastable solution of calcium carbonate delayed the rate of crystal growth. The delay in the rate of precipitation was elicited by a single fraction (MW 50–80 kDa), isolated by gel filtration chromatography, of eggshell extracts. Extramineral extracts had no effect.

4. Addition in vitro of intramineral eggshell extracts modified the morphology of calcite; the crystals aggregated and showed irregular surfaces.

5. These observations suggest that constituents of the eggshell matrix are involved in the control of calcite growth and crytallographic structure of the hen's eggshell.     

Inhibitory effect of penicillin on caecal urease activity in chickens fed on a low protein diet plus urea

1. The effects of dietary penicillin on the urease activities of small intestine, large intestine, caecum and their contents, liver and kidney in chickens fed a diet containing 5 g/kg protein plus urea were examined.

2. About 0.88 of the total urease activity determined was observed in intestinal contents, of which 0.95 of the activity was accounted for by caecal contents, 0.05 by colo‐rectal contents and none by small intestinal contents. Intestinal tissues (caecum included), liver and kidney accounted for 0.03, 0.06 and 0.02, respectively, of the total urease activity.

3. Dietary penicillin decreased urease activity to 0.17 in caecal contents and to 0.05 in colo‐rectal contents of the corresponding control values (P< 0.01). The urease activity of caecal tissue was lowered by penicillin to half that of control activity (P < 0.05) but none of the activities of other tissues were affected.

4. It is concluded that, even when the urease activity is stimulated by dietary urea, 20 mg/kg dietary penicillin can strikingly lower it in the caecum, where most of the urease activity in the chicken body is to be found.