Assessment of cardiac troponin I and C-reactive protein concentrations associated with anesthetic protocols using sevoflurane or a combination of fentanyl, midazolam, and sevoflurane in dogs

ObjectiveTo report serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations in dogs anesthetized for elective surgery using two anesthetic protocols.Study designProspective, randomized clinical study.AnimalsTwenty client-owned dogs presenting for elective ovariohysterectomy or castration.MethodsThe dogs were randomized into two groups. All dogs were premedicated with glycopyrrolate (0.011 mg kg^?1) and hydromorphone (0.1 mg kg^?1) IM approximately 30 minutes prior to induction of anesthesia. Anesthesia in dogs in group 1 was induced with propofol (6 mg kg^?1) IV to effect and in dogs in group 2 with diazepam (0.2 mg kg^?1) IV followed by etomidate (2 mg kg^?1) IV to effect. For maintenance of anesthesia, group 1 received sevoflurane (adjustable vaporizer setting 0.5–4%) and group 2 received a combination of fentanyl (0.8 μg kg^?1 minute^?1) and midazolam (8.0 μg kg^?1 minute^?1) IV plus sevoflurane (adjustable vaporizer setting 0.5–4%) to maintain anesthesia. Serum cTnI and CRP concentrations were measured at baseline and 6, 18, and 24 hours post-anesthetic induction. Biochemical analysis was performed at baseline. Lactate was obtained at baseline and 6 hours post-anesthetic induction. Heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure were measured intra-operatively.ResultsBaseline serum cTnI and CRP concentrations were comparable between groups. A significant difference in serum cTnI or CRP concentrations was not detected post-operatively between groups at any time point. Serum CRP concentrations were significantly increased post-anesthetic induction in both groups, which was attributed to surgical trauma.Conclusions and clinical relevanceThere was no significant difference in serum cTnI and CRP concentrations between anesthetic protocols. Further investigation in a larger number of dogs is necessary to confirm the current findings.     

Racing Performance in 72 Racehorses Treated with Prosthetic Laryngoplasty for Laryngeal Hemiplegia

The purpose of this study was to compare racing performance before and after prosthetic laryngoplasty for treatment of laryngeal hemiplegia in inexperienced (horses without at least one start before surgery) and experienced (horses with at least one start before surgery) Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racehorses. Medical records of 54 Thoroughbred and 18 Quarter Horse racehorses or horses intended for racing treated with prosthetic laryngoplasty and unilateral ventriculectomy for laryngeal hemiplegia were reviewed. Signalment, age at the time of surgery, resting endoscopic grade of laryngeal function, surgical procedure, and type of suture were recorded. Median performance index (PI), earnings, distance, and Beyer speed figure (BSF) per start for three races before and after surgery were compared, and factors associated with improved postsurgical performance were evaluated. Seventy-three percent of horses that had not raced before surgery and 84% of horses that competed in at least one race before surgery were able to return to racing after surgery. Fifty-nine percent and 27% of Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, respectively, were able to improve their PI after surgery. Sixty-two percent and 20% of Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, respectively, significantly increased their distance after surgery. Additionally, 61% and 66% of racehorses were able to increase their earnings and BSF after surgery, respectively. Horses treated with laryngoplasty and unilateral ventriculectomy have a good prognosis for return to racing. Inexperienced racehorses have a better prognosis for improvement after surgery than do experienced racehorses. Thoroughbred racehorses have a better success rate than Quarter Horse racehorses.     

Prevalence of serum antibodies against Bartonella species in the serum of cats with or without uveitis

Bartonella henselae has been implicated as a causative agent of chronic uveitis in people and in some cats. The objective of this study was to determine whether Bartonella species seroprevalence or titer magnitude varies among cats with uveitis, cats without ocular diseases recorded and healthy cats, while controlling for age and risk of flea exposure based on state of residence. There was no difference in seroprevalence rates or titer magnitude between cats with uveitis and cats with non-ocular diseases. Healthy cats were more likely to be seropositive for Bartonella species than cats with uveitis. The median Bartonella species titer was 1:64 for all groups, although healthy cats were more likely to have higher titers than cats with uveitis and cats with non-ocular disease. The results suggest that serum antibody tests alone cannot be used to document clinical uveitis associated with Bartonella species infection.     

对你的家一见倾心

玄关是一个家距离外界最近的地方,也是打开房门后视线的第一个落点。如果玄关设计得体,既能为返家时刻增添愉悦心情,也能让客人对你的家一见倾心。     

Characteristics of canopy interception and its simulation with a revised Gash model for a larch plantation in the Liupan Mountains,China

Canopy interception is a significant proportion of incident rainfall and evapotranspiration of forest ecosystems. Hence, identifying its magnitude is vital for studies of eco-hydrological processes and hydrological impact evaluation. In this study, throughfall, stemflow and interception were measured in a pure Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr.(larch) plantation in the Liupan Mountains of northwestern China during the growing season(May–October) of 2015, and simulated using a revised Gash model. During the study period, the total precipitation was499.0 mm; corresponding total throughfall, stemflow and canopy interception were 410.3, 2.0 and 86.7 mm,accounting for 82.2, 0.4 and 17.4% of the total precipitation, respectively. With increasing rainfall, the canopy interception ratio of individual rainfall events decreased initially and then tended to stabilize. Within the study period, the simulated total canopy interception, throughfall and stemflow were 2.2 mm lower, 2.5 mm higher and0.3 mm lower than their measured values, with a relative error of 2.5, 0.6 and 15.0%, respectively. As quantified by the model, canopy interception loss(79%) mainly consisted of interception caused by canopy adsorption, while the proportions of additional interception and trunk interception were small. The revised Gash model was highly sensitive to the parameter of canopy storage capacity,followed by the parameters of canopy density and mean rainfall intensity, but less sensitive to the parameters of mean evaporation rate, trunk storage capacity, and stemflow ratio. The revised Gash model satisfactorily simulated the total canopy interception of the larch plantation within the growing season but was less accurate for some individual rainfall events, indicating that some flaws exist in the model structure. Further measures to improve the model's ability in simulating the interception of individual rainfall events were suggested.     

A Hierarchical Perspective to Woody Plant Encroachment for Conservation of Prairie-Chickens

Encroachment of Great Plains grasslands by fire-sensitive woody plants is a large-scale, regional process that fragments grassland landscapes. Using prairie grouse (Tympanuchus spp.) of conservation concern, we apply hierarchy theory to demonstrate how regional processes constrain lower-level processes and reduce the success of local management. For example, fire and grazing management may be locally important to conservation, but the application of fire and grazing disturbances rarely cause irreversible fragmentation of grasslands in the Great Plains. These disturbance processes cause short-term alterations in vegetation conditions that can be positive or negative, but from a long-term perspective fire maintains large tracts of continuous rangelands by limiting woody plant encroachment. Conservation efforts for prairie grouse should be focused on landscape processes that contribute to landscape fragmentation, such as increased dominance of trees or conversion to other land uses. In fact, reliance on local management (e.g., maintaining vegetation structure) to alter prairie grouse vital rates is less important to grouse population persistence given contemporary landscape level changes. Changing grass height, litter depth, or increasing the cover of forbs may impact a few remaining prairie-chickens, but it will not create useable space at a scale relevant to the historic conditions that existed before land conversion and fire suppression.     

Analysis of Multiple Binary Responses Using a Threshold Model

Several discrete responses, such as health status, reproduction performance and meat quality, are routinely collected for several livestock species. These traits are often of binary or discrete nature. Genetic evaluation for these traits is frequently conducted using a single-trait threshold model, or they are considered continuous responses either in univariate or in multivariate context. Implementation of threshold models in the presence of several binary responses or a mixture of binary and continuous responses is far from simple. The complexity of such implementation is primarily due to the incomplete randomness of the residual (co)variance matrix. In the current study, a multiple binary trait simulation was carried out in order to implement and validate a new procedure for dealing with the consequences of the restrictions imposed to the residual variance using threshold models. Using three and eight binary responses, the proposed method was able to estimate all unknown parameters without any noticeable bias. In fact, for simulated residual correlations ranging from ?0.8 to 0.8, the resulting HPD 95% intervals included the true values in all cases. The proposed procedure involved limited additional computational cost and is straightforward to implement independent of the number of binary responses involved in the analysis. Monitoring of the convergence of the procedure must be conducted at the identifiable scale, and special care must be placed on the selection of the prior of the non-identifiable model. The latter could have serious consequences on the final results due to potential truncation of the parameter space.     

Challenges for beef production in smallholder communities with low reproductive management skills: a case study from Northern Lao PDR

Improved large ruminant productivity is increasingly acknowledged as a pathway for the alleviation of rural poverty and food insecurity in smallholder communities in Southeast Asia; yet, in much of Laos, bovine reproductive management is practically absent. Large ruminant reproduction skills were studied, using face-to-face surveys (n=60) of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of farmers, plus an extension of an examination of parameters of reproductive efficiency (n?=?1786 cattle and 434 buffalo) in the northern provinces of Luang Prabang and Xieng Khouang. The surveys particularly involved female farmers to provide gender-disaggregated data, with females making up 38.3 % of participants. Results confirmed that KAPs of smallholder farmers on bovine reproductive management were low (34–46 %) with trends toward higher KAP scores in male survey respondents. Poor reproductive parameters were identified in both provinces, with low calving percentages of 54–75 and 45–54 % in cattle and buffalo groups, respectively, and prolonged inter-calving intervals of 14.1–19.8 and 26.0 months for the cattle and buffalo groups, respectively. Improving the reproductive efficiency of large ruminants in the northern upland regions would enable smallholder farmers to be more effectively engaged in the dramatic economic growth of the Southeast Asia region, although these findings indicate that intensive training and supportive interventions are required to improve large ruminant reproductive outcomes in communities that have low-level large ruminant husbandry skills.     

Hydrogeomorphic controls of early post-logging successional pathways in a southern floodplain forest

Successful management or restoration of southern floodplain forest ecosystems requires an understanding of how subtle changes in environmental conditions such as site hydroperiod affect species suitability as well as the importance of recruitment limitation. In this research, we examined the effects of elevation, modeled flood regime, soil conditions and forest proximity on early, post-logging succession in clearcuts on the Congaree River floodplain near Columbia, South Carolina. Analyses of community composition clearly demonstrated that regeneration was structured along environmental gradients associated with site hydroperiod, with obligate wetland species dominating sites with the lowest elevations and deepest projected flood inundation depths. The effects of soil characteristics on site composition were in some cases inter-correlated with site hydroperiod, reflecting the influence of flood regime on soil drainage, aeration, and soil redox potential. In other cases, though, site composition was distinguished along a second, but equally important, orthogonal axis that was more reflective of the effects of geomorphic history on edaphic conditions. There was no evidence that fine-scale dispersal limitation affected succession, in part because of the effects of resprouting, but it is possible that past human activities have altered landscape-scale patterns of commercially valuable species such that seed and sprout sources for advance regeneration may have been absent at the time of the most recent clearcutting. Our examination of regeneration patterns, processes and controls clarified the relationships between current conditions and community composition, but, because patterns of elevation, flooding and soil characteristics across a floodplain have their roots in geomorphic processes, they are also ultimately a reflection of past hydrogeomorphic events.