Discovery of hydroxyl radio emission from infrared stars

Radio spectral line emission from hydroxyl radicals has been detected from four infrared stars. The emission from the infrared star NML Cygni at 1612 megahertz is the strongest radio emission line yet detected. Sixteen other stars with infrared excesses showed no detectable hydroxyl radio emission.     

Potential of a national monitoring program for forests to assess change in high-latitude ecosystems

Broad-scale monitoring in Alaska has become of increasing interest due to uncertainty about the potential impacts of changing climate on high-latitude ecosystems. The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program is a national monitoring program for all public and private forestlands in the US, but the program is not currently implemented in the boreal region of Alaska. We provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the FIA system for monitoring the potential impact of climate change on Alaska’s species, communities, and ecosystems. The primary strength of the system is a scientifically rigorous design-based statistical estimation method that produces estimates of forest attributes with known sampling error and quantifiable measurement error. The weaknesses of the system include low power for small area estimates, lack of spatial context and contiguity, and difficulty in inferring causality of factors when changes in monitored attributes are detected.Climate change is expected to impact many components of boreal ecosystems, but for most indicators the direction and magnitude of change are difficult to predict because of complex interactions among system components. Status and trend information provided by FIA monitoring that could be helpful to conservation decisions includes abundance and rarity of vascular plants, invasive species, biomass and carbon content of vegetation, shifting vegetation species distribution, disturbance frequency, type, and impact, and wildlife habitat characteristics. Because of unique factors such as the low level of infrastructure, modifications to the FIA monitoring system used in the conterminous US have been proposed for Alaska. Remote sensing data would play a greater role in meeting monitoring objectives, and sampling intensity of field plots would be reduced. Coordination with other national, regional, and local monitoring efforts provides potential for increased understanding of change in boreal ecosystems at multiple scales.     

IgM responses in chicken serum to live and inactivated infectious bronchitis virus vaccines.

Intramuscular (i.m.) administration of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) oil-emulsion vaccine (OEV) to IBV-primed or unprimed chickens resulted in the production of zero or minimal concentrations of IBV-specific IgM in the serum, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of gel chromatography fractions. Live-attenuated infectious bronchitis (IB) vaccine given i.m. or by eyedrop stimulated the production of IBV-specific IgM in similar amounts following inoculation by both routes. These levels were comparable to those found in earlier studies following intranasal inoculation with a virulent strain of IBV and confirm that the detection of IBV-specific IgM is a valuable aid to the diagnosis of recent infection. As expected, administration of live-attenuated IB vaccines i.m. or by eyedrop protected the respiratory tract against challenge with virulent virus 24 days later; however, OEV given i.m. did not.     

Studies of clomazone mode of action

Intact spinach chloroplasts were used to determine if clomazone, 5-OH clomazone, and/or 5-keto clomazone inhibited the chloroplastic isoprenoid pathway. When isopentenyl pyrophosphate was used as a precursor, neither clomazone nor the clomazone metabolites (5-OH clomazone and 5-keto clomazone) inhibited the formation of products separated by HPLC in the organic phase. However, when pyruvate, a substrate for the first committed step of the pathway, was used as a precursor, both 5-keto clomazone and fosmidomycin reduced the formation of a non-polar product and increased the formation of a polar product in the organic phase. Only 5-keto clomazone, not 5-OH clomazone or clomazone, inhibited the formation of an additional product other than fosmidomycin in the aqueous phase from pyruvate incorporation. In an in vitro assay, 5-keto clomazone inhibited DXP synthase, the enzyme catalyzing the first committed step of the chloroplastic isoprenoid pathway. Therefore, our studies show that neither clomazone nor 5-OH clomazone inhibits the chloroplastic isoprenoid pathway, only 5-keto clomazone does.     

Peste des petits ruminants in Ethiopian goats

Summary An outbreak of disease characterised by fever, ocular and nasal discharge, coughing and sneezing, oral necrosis, diarrhoea, enteritis and pneumonia in goats was shown by the use of specific cDNA probes to have been peste des petits ruminants, confirmed for the first time in Ethiopia. Both morbidity and mortality rates were high in goats but sheep were not affected.

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Peste De Pequeños Rumiantes En Caprinos En Etiopia

Resumen Se presentó por vez primera en Etiopía, un brote de peste de pequeños rumiantes, la que fue detectada mediante el uso de de sondas cADN especificas. La enfermedad se caracterizó por fiebre, descargas ocular y nasal, tos, estornudos necrosis oral, diarrea, enteritis y neumonia. Tanto la morbilidad como la mortalidad fueron altas en caprinos pero no en ovinos.

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Peste Des Petits Ruminants Chez Des Chevres Ethiopiennes

Résumé Une maladie caractérisée par de la fièvre, des écoulements nasal et oculaire, de la toux et des éternuements, une nécrose orale, de la diarrhée, de l'entérite et une pneumonie est apparue chez des chèvres. L'utilisation de sondes à ADNc spécifiques a montré qu'il s'agissait de la peste des petits ruminants, confirmée pour la première fois en Ethiopie. Les taux de morbidité étaient élevés chez les chèvres mais les moutons n'étaient pas affectés.

     

Ovariectomy as treatment for granulosa cell tumor in a heifer

A granulosa cell tumor in a 15-month-old heifer was associated with abnormal udder development, relaxation of the pelvic ligaments, and nymphomanic behavior. After surgical removal of the tumor, the anatomic changes were reversed, and the nymphomanic behavior subsided. The heifer conceived 3 times thereafter and became a productive dairy cow. In previously reported cases of granulosa cell tumor, ovariectomy was unsuccessful in returning the cow to normal breeding.     

Financial analysis of a clinical trial comparing simple estrus detection with estrus detection after prostaglandin-based appointment breeding in a commercial dairy herd in California, USA

An economic analysis of the outcomes from a clinical trial on dairy cow reproduction was performed. The trial compared two prospective cohorts from a California dairy herd of 670 cows: (1) a cohort of 56 cows initially treated with prostaglandin-F2 and appointment inseminated at 72 and 96 h post-treatment, followed in 7 days by estrus detection based breeding (PT); (2) a cohort of 53 cows that was managed strictly for estrus detection based breeding (HD). There were no significant differences between the cohorts for days in milk at conception, services per conception, or time to events. The economic analysis consisted of three parts: (1) a partial budget analysis of the two breeding strategies; (2) a deterministic decision analysis of the two practices; (3) a stochastic evaluation of the strategies. Both the deterministic and stochastic analyses used time value of money calculattions PT insemination cost the farm approximately $32 compared with an HD cost of approximately $17. However, the costs of getting the average animal pregnant were approximately respectively. Expected monetary values were $588 and $707 for PT and HD strategies, respectively. The stochastic decision analysis evaluated risks and return over 1000 simulations. It suggested that in 73% of cases an HD strategy will produce expected monetary values $170 more than the PT strategy, in 10% of cases the two will be within 4% in yield, and in 17% the PT strategy will yield $95 more than an HD program. Sensitivity analysis suggested that conception rates to estrus detection based breedings are not likely to alter the decision. However, conception rates to the appointment breeding program in conjunction with the elapsed time postpartum when the decision to breed is implemented and estrus detection rates can cause the PT strategy to be optimal. Situations where this might occur are discussed.