Gill morphometry of the facultative air-breathing loricariid fish,Hypostomus plecostomus (Walbaum) with,special emphasis on aquatic respiration

Gill respiratory surface area and oxygen consumption during aquatic respiration were measured in the facultative air-breathing loricariid fish,Hypostomus plecostomus. The fish did not surface to breathe atmospheric air in normoxic water; air-breathing was evoked by environmental hypoxia (water oxygen tension=35±2, mmHg) and did not show size-related threshold differences for air breathing.During gradual hypoxia, without access to atmospheric, air,H. plecostomus was found to be an oxyregulator and showed a reduced range of water oxygen tension in which the oxygen consumption remained constant in smaller fish. The critical oxygen tensions were 55 and 33 mmHg at 25°C for fish of 14–30 g and 31–80g body weight, respectively.The gill respiratory surface area (total lamellae area) is reduced, however, the lamellar frequency per mm of gill filament is high which facilitates the gas exchange. Moreover, the increase of gill respiratory surface area (b=0.666) is higher than the increase in routine VO₂ (b=0.338) showing a positive relationship between the gill respiratory surface area /VO₂ ratio and body mass (b=0.328); this indicates that the fish have greater gill respiratory surface area per unit of routine VO₂ as they grow.     

Atomistic mechanisms and dynamics of adhesion, nanoindentation, and fracture

Molecular dynamics simulations and atomic force microscopy are used to investigate the atomistic mechanisms of adhesion, contact formation, nanoindentation, separation, and fracture that occur when a nickel tip interacts with a gold surface. The theoretically predicted and experimentally measured hysteresis in the force versus tip-to-sample distance relationship, found upon approach and subsequent separation of the tip from the sample, is related to inelastic deformation of the sample surface characterized by adhesion of gold atoms to the nickel tip and formation of a connective neck of atoms. At small tipsample distances, mechanical instability causes the tip and surface to jump-to-contact, which in turn leads to adhesion-induced wetting of the nickel tip by gold atoms. Subsequent indentation of the substrate results in the onset of plastic deformation of the gold surface. The atomic-scale mechanisms underlying the formation and elongation of a connective neck, which forms upon separation, consist of structural transformations involving elastic and yielding stages.     

A two-year experience on 15N-urea fertilization of a corn field amended with fly ash

Soybean seedlings (Glycine max) were exposed to simulated acid rain containing sulfate ion only or a mixture of sulfate, nitrate and chloride anions, using a continuous rain generating system in a side opened glasshouse. Plants were subjected to acid rain treatment twice a week, for a 1 or 3 hr period at a rate of 2.2 or 5.0 mm hr^?1, respectively. Dry seed yield in plants treated with simulated acid rain at pH 2.0, in the three of 4 experiments conducted over a 3 yr period, was significantly less than that at pH 3.0 or higher. Simulated acid rain treatment at pH 3.0 or higher did not significantly affect yield compared to pH 5.6; however, plants exposed to simulated acid rain at pH 4.0 tended to yield more than those treated with pH 5.6 rain. Based on the current 3 years of research in which results from 4 experiments were combined, rain acidity at current levels in Japan would not directly affect seed production of selected cultivars of soybean.     

Cecocolic intussusception in a horse

A 10-month-old 160 kg bilateral cryptorchid Quarter Horse was presented for acute colic and profuse diarrhea. The horse was a bottle-raised orphan with stunted growth, a pot belly and a rough hair coat. The colt had been on a good deworming program and had a hearty appetite until the onset of colic. Economic considerations prohibited a thorough laboratory evaluation and surgical intervention.     

Jack bean urease inhibition by substituted ureas

The increased use of urea fertilizer and substituted ureas herbicides, the implication of soil urease in the effectiveness of urea applied as fertilizer, makes necessary to investigate their relationship.All herbicides investigated, fenuron, monuron, diuron, linuron, siduron and neburon are urease inhibitors. The inhibition constant value depends on molecular groups on the urea skeleton. There is a linear relationship between the Hammett sigma values and log Ki for fenuron, monuron and diuron.The presence of a large hydrophobic group and of one or two chlorine—an electron withdrawing group—on the phenyl ring of the herbicides molecule influences the Ki value.The hypothesis is proposed that the enzyme molecule reacts with inhibitors by means of the oxygen atom of the carboxyl group in the substituted ureas.