Duration of the persistent activity of moxidectin against Haemonchus contortus in sheep

SUMMARY Weaned lambs were infected with Haemonchus contortus 35,28,21,14 and 7 days after treatment with moxidectin at 0.2 mg/kg and 35 and 14 days after treatment with ivermectin at the same dose rate. Worm counts 14 days after infection showed that moxidectin prevented the establishment of over 99% of infective larvae for 28 days and reduced the establishment rate at 35 days by 96%, relative to ivermectin. There was no difference in the protective efficacy of ivermectin at 14 or 35 days. The persistence of moxidectin is likely to provide advantages in nematode control, particularly when used as a strategic early summer treatment or as a pre-lambing treatment to ewes. Implications of the persistent activity of moxidectin for the development of resistance during the decay phase are discussed.     

Evaluation of an Immunochromatographic Test to the Diagnosis of Canine Brucellosis Caused by Brucella canis

This study evaluated the performance of an immunochromatographic test (ICT) for the diagnosis of canine brucellosis caused by Brucella canis, comparing its results with that of the rapid slide agglutination test with and without the use of 2‐mercaptoethanol and the agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGID). The microbiological culture, PCR and clinical examination were used as reference. According to the results obtained in clinical examination, blood culture, culture of semen and vaginal swab and PCR in blood, semen and vaginal swab, a total of 102 dogs were divided into three groups: B. canis‐infected dogs (Group 1), B. canis‐non‐infected dogs (Group 2) and dogs with suspected brucellosis (Group 3). The diagnostic sensitivity of RSAT, 2ME‐RSAT, AGID and ICT in Group 1 was, respectively, 75%, 37.5%, 27.8% and 89.58%. The diagnostic specificity of RSAT, 2ME‐RSAT, AGID and ICT in Group 2 was, respectively, 91%, 100%, 100%, and 100%. In dogs with suspected brucellosis, 9.67% were RSAT positive, none was positive by 2ME‐RSAT, 3.22% were AGID positive and 6.45% were ICT positive. The main drawback concerning canine brucellosis diagnosis is the lack of a highly sensitive serological assay to be used as a screening test to the rapid identification of infected animals. The ICT showed a high diagnostic specificity and a diagnostic sensitivity value greater than that observed in the RSAT, 2ME‐RSAT and AGID. However, 10.41% of infected dogs had negative results by ICT. These dogs were positive by microbiological culture and/or PCR, indicating active infection and consequently a higher potential of spreading Brucella. Although rapid and simple to perform, the ICT lacked sensitivity to be used as a screening test.     

Effect of Insemination–Ovulation Interval and Addition of Seminal Plasma on Sow Fertility to Insemination of Cryopreserved Sperm

In swine, the use of frozen-thawed (FT) sperm for artificial insemination (AI) is limited because of poor sow fertility, possibly associated with a post-thaw capacitation-like status resulting in fewer fully viable sperm. Sow fertility to AI with FT sperm may improve with deeper deposition of sperm within the female tract, insemination very close to ovulation, or reversal of cryocapacitation by seminal plasma (SP). We performed two experiments to examine these suggestions. In experiment 1, 122 multiparous Yorkshire sows received 600 IU equine chorionic gonadotrophin at weaning and 5 mg pLH 80 h later to control time of ovulation. The predicted time of ovulation (PTO) was 38 h after pLH injection. Thereafter, sows were assigned on the basis of parity to a single AI of FT sperm at 2 h before PTO, or at 12 h before PTO, or FT sperm supplemented with 10% SP at 12 h before PTO. Control sows received fresh semen at 12 h before PTO. All semen doses were adjusted to 3 x 10(9) live cells and deposited into the cervix. Experiment 2 employed 99 multiparous crossbred sows and repeated the treatments of experiment 1 except that all FT inseminations were intrauterine. In both experiments, farrowing rates were lower (p < 0.01) following FT inseminations with no effect of time of insemination or of supplemental SP. In experiment 1, litter size was smaller following FT insemination (p < 0.05), but no effect on litter size was evident in experiment 2. Supplemental SP had no effect on litter size in either experiment. The lack of effect of either SP or timing of FT insemination on sow fertility suggests that the non-lethal sperm cryoinjury affecting fertility involves more than just cryocapacitation.     

Solid substrate for production of Alternaria alternata conidia: a potential mycoherbicide for the control of Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth)

Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth), a major aquatic weed in India, is one of the targets in a biological weed control research programme in India. A fungal pathogen, Alternaria alternata, is being evaluated as a biological control agent for this weed. The feasibility of solid substrate for the mass production of A. alternata has been examined. Conidia production and virulence of A. alternata were affected by temperature, light and incubation period. The highest number of conidia were produced on rice seed followed by wheat, sorghum, maize seeds and cornmeal at 20°C when exposed to near‐ultraviolet than on the other substrates, while the least conidia were observed on these substrates under light conditions. At 20°C, large numbers of virulent conidia were produced on rice seeds after 4 weeks of incubation under constant dark conditions. Henceforth, the use of rice seeds as a solid substrate for production of A. alternata could be a feasible method to produce conidia in a village co‐operative scenario in India.     

Polymorphs of Alumina Predicted by First Principles: Putting Pressure on the Ruby Pressure Scale

Fully optimized quantum mechanical calculations indicate that Al2O3 transforms from the corundum structure to the as yet unobserved Rh2O3 (II) structure at about 78 gigapascals, and it further transforms to Pbnm-perovskite structure at 223 gigapascals. The predicted x-ray spectrum of the Rh2O3 (II) structure is similar to that of the corundum structure, suggesting that the Rh2O3 (II) structure could go undetected in high-pressure x-ray measurements. It is therefore possible that the ruby (Cr3+-doped corundum) fluorescence pressure scale is sensitive to the thermal history of the ruby chips in a given experiment.     

An Economics Approach to Hard Computational Problems

A general method for combining existing algorithms into new programs that are unequivocally preferable to any of the component algorithms is presented. This method, based on notions of risk in economics, offers a computational portfolio design procedure that can be used for a wide range of problems. Tested by solving a canonical NP-complete problem, the method can be used for problems ranging from the combinatorics of DNA sequencing to the completion of tasks in environments with resource contention, such as the World Wide Web.     

Strong regularities in world wide web surfing

One of the most common modes of accessing information in the World Wide Web is surfing from one document to another along hyperlinks. Several large empirical studies have revealed common patterns of surfing behavior. A model that assumes that users make a sequence of decisions to proceed to another page, continuing as long as the value of the current page exceeds some threshold, yields the probability distribution for the number of pages that a user visits within a given Web site. This model was verified by comparing its predictions with detailed measurements of surfing patterns. The model also explains the observed Zipf-like distributions in page hits observed at Web sites.