Duranta erecta poisoning in nine dogs and a cat

Four incidents of Duranta erecta (golden dewdrop, Sheena's Gold, Geisha Girl) poisoning affecting nine dogs and a cat produced drowsiness, hyperaesthesia and tetanic seizures in all affected animals with evidence of alimentary tract irritation (vomiting, gastric and intestinal haemorrhage, diarrhoea, melaena) in five dogs and the cat. Fruits and leaves were seen to be eaten by affected animals. Therapy was successful in three of the dogs. Repeated diazepam doses and, in some cases, additional pentobarbitone or propofol anaesthesia, were successful in controlling seizures.     

The Effect of Post-Ovulatory Artificial Insemination on Sow Reproductive Performance

In order to increase reproductive performance, sows are usually inseminated several times during oestrus. In practice, this results in a significant number of sows receiving one or more post‐ovulatory inseminations. This study was carried out to determine the percentage of sows that receive one or more post‐ovulatory inseminations and the effect of such treatment on reproductive performance. The results were analysed from a total of 1298 sows on two farms. It was observed that more than 70% of the sows received at least one post‐ovulatory insemination and approximately 20% received two or more. There was no observed effect on the rate of return to oestrus, farrowing rate or litter size (p > 0.05).     

Influence of Sperm Cell Dose and Post-insemination Backflow on Reproductive Performance of Intrauterine Inseminated Sows

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of the sperm cell dose and semen backflow on the pregnancy rate and number of embryos of sows inseminated once at 0-24 h before ovulation, using an intrauterine technique. The results were analysed from a total of 211 sows assigned to three groups inseminated with doses of 0.25 x 10(9) (T1), 0.5 x 10(9) (T2) and 1.0 x 10(9) (T3) spermatozoa. Semen backflow was observed in 95% of the females (143/151) evaluated for this purpose. The percentage of semen backflow is close to two-third of the volume and the percentage of sperm is around 15% of the infused sperm dose. Intrauterine insemination can be successfully performed provided that at least 0.5 billion of sperm cell dose is infused at an interval of 0-24 h before ovulation.     

Outlook for soviet oil

Public debate about Soviet oil has become more widespread in the past 5 years, but during this period Soviet petroleum exports have ceased to be made available by volume. Soviet oil consumption has usually been estimated by deducting exports from total production. This article takes the alternative approach, using Soviet statistics from a variety of sources, to build up a sectoral pattern of Soviet oil demand and to consider this in the broader context of total Comecon energy supply and demand. From this focus future prospects for the Comecon energy balance are analyzed.     

Differential Rotation and Dynamics of the Solar Interior

Splitting of the sun's global oscillation frequencies by large-scale flows can be used to investigate how rotation varies with radius and latitude within the solar interior. The nearly uninterrupted observations by the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) yield oscillation power spectra with high duty cycles and high signal-to-noise ratios. Frequency splittings derived from GONG observations confirm that the variation of rotation rate with latitude seen at the surface carries through much of the convection zone, at the base of which is an adjustment layer leading to latitudinally independent rotation at greater depths. A distinctive shear layer just below the surface is discernible at low to mid-latitudes.     

Glacial to Interglacial Fluctuations in Productivity in the Equatorial Pacific as Indicated by Marine Barite

An empirical correlation between marine barite (BaSO4) accumulation rate in core-top sediment samples from two equatorial Pacific transects (at 140°W and 110°W) and the estimated primary productivity of the overlying water column were used to evaluate glacial to interglacial changes in productivity. Fluctuations in barite accumulation rates down-core indicate that during glacial periods of the past 450,000 years, the productivity in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific was about two times that during intervening interglacial periods. This result is consistent with other evidence that productivity was high in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific during the last glacial.