Basic husbandry and clinical assessment of the amphibian patient.

The veterinarian presented with an amphibian patient must be prepared to assess both the animal's medical condition and its husbandry record; good health is inextricably linked to proper care and diet. This article provides the clinician with guidelines for maintaining amphibians in captivity, including information on climate control and lighting, housing and cage enrichment, and nutrition. The article also covers questions to ask when taking a history, methods of restraint, and practical advice on the equipment and techniques used to conduct a complete physical examination of the amphibian patient.     

Dilution errors in aflatoxin determinations caused by compounds extracted from peanuts

Several methods have been developed to analyze peanuts for aflatoxin by using thin layer chromatography (TLC). These methods depend on solvent extraction of aflatoxin from a sample of the product. Unfortunately, solvent solutions used to extract aflatoxin from peanuts also extract measurable quantities of other compounds such as oils, fats, sugars, and protein. The volume of these extracted compounds causes error in measuring the proportion of the solvent solution analyzed for aflatoxin. Also, because the cleanup procedures for some methods are inadequate, the volume of some of these extracted compounds also causes error in measuring the proportion of the extracted aflatoxin placed on TLC plates. These 2 errors cause underestimation of aflatoxin concentrations by approximately 11, 14, and 5% for the CB method, the modified version of the BF method generally used for raw peanuts, and a water slurry method, respectively. The correction specified by the CB method for fats in the extraction solvent reduces the approximate error for the CB method from 11 to 1%.     

Genotype by environment interactions and combining ability for strawberry families grown in diverse environments

Ten seedlings from 36 crosses representing eastern and western North American short day and remontant genotypes were evaluated in 2011 and 2012 in California, Michigan, New Hampshire and Oregon, for phenology, flower related traits, plant characteristics, fruit characteristics and fruit chemistry traits. There was significant variability among genotypes, locations and evaluation year for most of the characteristics; however, few genotype × location and genotype × year interactions were detected. General combining ability variance components were significant for all traits and greater than SCA variance components for peduncle length, total flowering weeks, flowering cycles, truss size, growing degree days for harvest data, remontancy, achene position, ease of capping, fruit weight, percent soluble solids, titratable acidity and soluble solids/titratable acidity. ‘Sarian’ was identified as the best contributing parent for remontancy. Narrow-sense heritability estimates were moderate to high (0.33–0.78) for total flowering weeks, flowering cycle, truss size, remontancy, number of runners, fruit weight, pH, and titratable acidity. Having a better understanding of these attributes will provide breeders guidance on the most effective breeding strategies for incorporating superior traits from this germplasm into their programs.     

Mesothelioma in horses

Pleural mesothelioma and pericardial mesothelioma with spread to the pleural cavity were diagnosed in 2 horses. Clinical signs included respiratory distress, depression and pleural pain. The affected body cavities contained copious, serous effusions containing very large neoplastic mesothelial cells with densely-staining cytoplasm, hyperchromic nuclei and prominent, often multiple, nucleoli. Ultrastructurally, the neoplastic cells appeared as solid aggregates, with profuse microvillous borders and neolumen formation. Cytological examination, together with confirmative ancillary diagnostic tests, including electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry, may be used to obtain an ante-mortem diagnosis of mesothelioma.     

Materials: tribology experiment in zero gravity

A tribology experiment in zero gravity was performed during the orbital flight of Spacelab 1 to study the motion of liquid lubricants over solid surfaces. The absence of a significant gravitational force facilitates studies of the motion of liquid lubricants over solid surfaces as controlled by interfacial and capillary forces. Observations were made of phenomena associated with the liquid on one solid surface and also with the liquid between a pair of closely spaced surfaces. Typical photographic records obtained on Spacelab 1 are described.