Search for organic compounds in the lunar dust from the sea of tranquiblity

A sample of lunar dust was examined for organic compounds. Carbon detected in concentrations of 157 micrograms per gram had a delta(13)C per mil (PDB) value of + 20. Treatment with hydrochloric acid yielded hydrocarbons of low molecular weight, suggesting the presence of carbides. The gas chromatogram of the acylated and esterified derivatives of the hydrolyzate was similar to that obtained for the Pueblito de Allende meteorite. There were no detectable amounts of extractable high-molecular-weight alkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons, isoprenoid hydrocarbons, normal alkanes, fatty acids, amino acids, sugars, or nucleic acid bases. Traces of porphyrins were found, perhaps arising from rocket exhaust materials.     

Evaluating anthropogenic threats to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

• 1. Every manager must assess and prioritize anthropogenic impacts on their management area from a long list of threats, but data which allow comparison of the relative ecological impacts of threats for decision‐making is often unavailable.
• 2. This study employed a systematic and standardized method to collect and quantitatively synthesize expert opinion on the ecological effects of anthropogenic threats to the world's largest marine protected area: the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (MNM) in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI).
• 3. In contrast to most threat ranking exercises, the method provides detail on the reasons behind a particular ranking of threats to an area and why the ranking may vary across the ecological landscape.
• 4. Survey results from 25 experts allowed the comparison of the vulnerability of eight NWHI ecozones to 24 anthropogenic threats in a quantitative manner.
• 5. Ecozones tended to have distinct top threats: sea‐level rise was identified as the top threat to rocky intertidal, beach and terrestrial ecozones; sea temperature rise was the top threat to the coral reef ecozones; bottom fishing was the top threat to the deep reef/bank ecozone; and pelagic fishing in the wider Pacific was the top threat to the pelagic ecozone owing to impacts on bird, turtle and fish fauna that forage outside the Papahānaumokuākea MNM boundaries.
• 6. Many of these top threats are difficult for local managers to control because they arise from activities outside the Papahānaumokuākea MNM boundaries, indicating that additional work is needed to preserve the NWHI despite its highly protected status. The analysis indicates where inter‐agency cooperation in removing and mitigating threats should be focused.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Environmental genome shotgun sequencing of the Sargasso Sea

We have applied "whole-genome shotgun sequencing" to microbial populations collected en masse on tangential flow and impact filters from seawater samples collected from the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda. A total of 1.045 billion base pairs of nonredundant sequence was generated, annotated, and analyzed to elucidate the gene content, diversity, and relative abundance of the organisms within these environmental samples. These data are estimated to derive from at least 1800 genomic species based on sequence relatedness, including 148 previously unknown bacterial phylotypes. We have identified over 1.2 million previously unknown genes represented in these samples, including more than 782 new rhodopsin-like photoreceptors. Variation in species present and stoichiometry suggests substantial oceanic microbial diversity.     

The pace of shifting climate in marine and terrestrial ecosystems

Climate change challenges organisms to adapt or move to track changes in environments in space and time. We used two measures of thermal shifts from analyses of global temperatures over the past 50 years to describe the pace of climate change that species should track: the velocity of climate change (geographic shifts of isotherms over time) and the shift in seasonal timing of temperatures. Both measures are higher in the ocean than on land at some latitudes, despite slower ocean warming. These indices give a complex mosaic of predicted range shifts and phenology changes that deviate from simple poleward migration and earlier springs or later falls. They also emphasize potential conservation concerns, because areas of high marine biodiversity often have greater velocities of climate change and seasonal shifts.     

Response of terrestrial small mammals to varying amounts and patterns of green-tree retention in Pacific Northwest forests

To sustain native species in managed forests, landowners need silvicultural strategies that retain habitat elements often eliminated during traditional harvests such as clearcut logging. One alternative is green-tree or variable retention. We investigated the response of terrestrial small mammals to experimental harvests that retained large live trees in varying amounts (approximately 100, 75, 40, and 15% of original basal area) and patterns (aggregated versus dispersed) in mature coniferous forests of western Oregon and Washington. Treatments were applied in 36, 13-ha experimental units. We used pitfall traps to sample small mammals for 4 weeks each autumn during 2 years before and 2 years after treatments. We captured 21,351 individuals of 32 species. We analyzed effects of treatments on relative abundance of 12 species. As level of retention declined, we expected species associated with closed-canopy forests to decrease (Sorex trowbridgii, Neurotrichus gibbsii, Peromyscus keeni, Myodes [Clethrionomys] californicus, and M. gapperi); species associated with early successional habitats to increase (S. vagrans, P. maniculatus, Microtus longicaudus, and Microtus oregoni); and habitat generalists to show little response (S. monticolus, S. pacificus, and S. sonomae). As expected, M. californicus declined after harvest, and P. maniculatus and M. longicaudus increased. Sorex sonomae showed an unpredicted decrease. Other species did not show consistent changes. Responses of S. monticolus, S. sonomae, and M. gapperi varied among study areas. For M. gapperi, this variation was not explained by differences in habitat structure among areas. For all species, capture rates were similar in dispersed- and aggregated-retention units. Similarity in species composition between harvested sites and controls decreased with decreasing retention. Future sampling of these treatments is needed to assess long-term responses. Based on our initial results, green-tree retention strategies need to be sensitive to regional variation in environmental characteristics and small mammal community composition.     

Comparison of tiletamine-zolazepam-ketamine and tiletamine-zolazepam-ketamine-xylazine anaesthesia in sheep

Summary The anaesthetic effects of intravenous tiletamine-zolazepam 6.6 mg/kg-ketamine 6.6 mg/kg (TK) and tiletamine-zolazepam 6.6 mg/kg-ketamine 6.6 mg/kg-xylazine 0.11 mg/kg (TKX) were evaluated in six wethers. Heart rate, respiration rate, arterial blood pressure, and the electrocardiogram were monitored during anaesthesia. Analgesia was tested by electrical stimulation in the left flank. Atropine (0.03 mg/kg) was given intramuscularly before induction, but after recording of baseline heart rate and respiratory rate. The duration of analgesia was 28.7 ± 6.9 min with TK and 82.8 ± 26.6 min with TKX. Heart rate increased significantly within 5 min after TK or TKX administration. Respiratory rate remained unchanged after TK administration, but increased significantly from 5 to 45 min after TKX administration. Arterial blood pressure decreased significantly at 15 min with TK and 30 min with TKX. Sheep remained recumbent for 201 min with TK and 166 min with TKX. All recovered uneventfully. We conclude that either TK or TKX may be used for anaesthetising sheep.     

Evaluation of Cheetah and Leopard Spermatozoa Developmental Capability after Interspecific ICSI with Domestic Cat Oocytes

The ICSI procedure is potentially of great value for felids, and it has not been extensively studied in these species. The objectives of this work were to determine the best conditions for ICSI in the domestic cat (DC) to generate interspecific embryos by injecting cheetah (Ch) and leopard (Leo) spermatozoa. Firstly, DC oocytes were matured with insulin–transferrin–selenium (ITS) or without it (MM) and cultured using atmospheric (21%) or low (5%) oxygen tension after ICSI. The group ITS‐5%O₂ showed the highest blastocyst rate (p < 0.05), 20.9% vs 8.7%, 7% and 6.5%, for MM‐21%O₂, MM‐5%O₂ and ITS‐21%O₂, respectively. The best conditions were used to generate the interspecific embryos, together with ionomycin activation (Io) after ICSI. Interspecific embryos resulted in high rates of blastocysts that were not positively affected by Io activation: 32.6% vs 21% for Ch and Ch‐Io, 9.8% vs 21% for Leo and Leo‐Io, and 20% vs 17.4% for DC and DC‐Io. We also evaluated DNA‐fragmented nuclei of experiment 1 and 2 blastocysts, using TUNEL assay. The fragmented nucleus proportion was higher in the ITS‐5%O₂ group, 67.6%. Surprisingly, interspecific blastocysts showed the lowest fragmented nucleus proportion: 27% and 29.9% for Ch and Leo, respectively. We concluded that ITS and 5%O₂ improve blastocyst formation in DC, although with a concomitant increase in DNA fragmentation. Most importantly, cheetah and leopard spermatozoa were able to generate blastocysts without artificial activation, which suggests that developmental capacity of wild felid spermatozoa can be evaluated by interspecific ICSI. This technique should be used to assist wild felid reproduction.     

Vesicles Cytoplasmic Injection: An Efficient Technique to Produce Porcine Transgene‐Expressing Embryos

The use of vesicles co‐incubated with plasmids showed to improve the efficiency of cytoplasmic injection of transgenes in cattle. Here, this technique was tested as a simplified alternative for transgenes delivery in porcine zygotes. To this aim, cytoplasmic injection of the plasmid alone was compared to the injection with plasmids co‐incubated with vesicles both in diploid parthenogenic and IVF zygotes. The plasmid pcx‐egfp was injected circular (CP) at 3, 30 and 300 ng/μl and linear (LP) at 30 ng/μl. The experimental groups using parthenogenetic zygotes were as follows: CP naked at 3 ng/μl (N = 105), 30 ng/μl (N = 95) and 300 ng/μl (N = 65); Sham (N = 105); control not injected (N = 223); LP naked at 30 ng/μl (N = 78); LP vesicles (N = 115) and Sham vesicles (N = 59). For IVF zygotes: LP naked (N = 44) LP vesicles (N = 94), Sham (N = 59) and control (N = 79). Cleavage, blastocyst and GFP+ rates were analysed by Fisher's test (p < 0.05). The parthenogenic CP naked group showed lower cleavage respect to control (p < 0.05). The highest concentration of plasmids to allow development to blastocyst stage was 30 ng/μl. There were no differences in DNA fragmentation between groups. The parthenogenic LP naked group resulted in high GFP rates (46%) and also allowed the production of GFP blastocysts (33%). The cytoplasmic injection with LP vesicles into parthenogenic zygotes allowed 100% GFP blastocysts. Injected IVF showed higher cleavage rates than control (p < 0.05). In IVF zygotes, only the use of vesicles produced GFP blastocysts. The use of vesicles co‐incubated with plasmids improves the transgene expression efficiency for cytoplasmic injection in porcine zygotes and constitutes a simple technique for easy delivery of plasmids.     

Identification of Polymorphisms in the Osteopontin Gene and Their Associations with Certain Semen Production Traits of Water Buffaloes in the Brazilian Amazon

The osteopontin gene may influence the fertility of water buffaloes because it is a protein present in sperm. The aim of this work was to identify polymorphisms in this gene and associate them with fertility parameters of animals kept under extensive grazing. A total of 306 male buffaloes older than 18 months, from two farms, one in the state of Amapá and the other in the state of Pará, Brazil were used in the study. Seven SNPs were identified in the regions studied. The polymorphisms were in gene positions 1478, 1513 and 1611 in the region 5′upstrem and positions 6690, 6737, 6925 and 6952 in the region amplified in intron 5. The SNPs were associated with the traits, namely scrotal circumference, scrotal volume, sperm motility, sperm concentration and sperm pathology. There were significant SNPs (p < 0.05) for all the traits. The SNP 6690 was significant for scrotal circumference, sperm concentration, sperm motility and sperm pathology and the SNP 6737 for scrotal volume. The genotype AA of SNP 6690 presented the highest averages for scrotal circumference, sperm concentration and motility and the lowest total number of sperm pathologies. For the scrotal volume trait, the animals with the largest volume were correlated with the presence of the genotype GG of SNP 6737. These results indicate a significance of the osteopontin gene as it seems to exert a substantial influence on the semen production traits of male buffaloes.     

一起仔猪水肿病的诊疗

2003年10月,我县某养猪专业户自繁自养的9头70日龄仔猪,突然发生一种以头部水肿、共济失调、惊厥和麻痹为特征的疫病,经临床检查、剖检变化、实验室检验确诊为仔猪水肿病.