Treatment of a femoral fracture with a titanium locking compression plate distal femur (LCP‐DF) in a young donkey

A closed complete mid‐diaphyseal spiral fracture of the left femur in a one‐year‐old donkey was treated with a 4.5 mm titanium locking compression plate distal femur (LCP‐DF)¹. This plate was originally manufactured for human orthopaedics, primarily for femoral osteosynthesis. The LCP‐DF¹ has a distal head plate that was advantageous in this case because the distal fragment was smaller. Post operative radiographs showed optimal femoral reconstruction and a callus was present 3 weeks after surgery. The donkey was sound at the walk and trot 2 months after surgery. Radiographs taken 5 months after surgery showed stable implants and complete healing without complications.     

Potential longevity (Ki) of malting barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) grain lots relates to their degree of pre-germination assessed through different industrial quality parameters

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) grain germination is required to perform the malting process. Maintenance of barley seed viability during storage is crucial for the malt industry; and modern cultivars are bred for rapid grain dormancy release after physiological maturity. Low dormancy level combined with rain close to harvest induces pre-germination/pre-harvest sprouting damage. Pre-germination might not affect viability in the short term after harvest, but it could reduce potential longevity (K_i) of a barley seed lot. K_i value is inherent for each barley lot; however, its determination is time-consuming which precludes its assessment at an industrial scale. In this study we sought quantitative relationships between K_i and the pre-germination degree of barley grain lots, assessed through quality tests routinely performed by malthouses [Falling Number (FN), α-Amylase Activity and Carlsberg]. Field pre-germinated lots from one old barley cultivar (Quilmes Palomar) and artificially pre-germinated lots from major varieties currently grown in Argentina were used. Associations between K_i and values obtained from all quality tests analysed were found for Q. Palomar. However, FN was the parameter that yielded the best and simplest explanation of K_i variability. A significant positive linear K_i -FN relationship was also obtained for each modern barley cultivar.     

Field trial of a staphylococcal mastitis vaccine in dairy herds: clinical, subclinical and microbiological assessments

Objective To assess the efficacy of a new staphylococcal mastitis vaccine under commercial dairying conditions.
Design A field trial involving 1819 cows and heifers conducted on seven dairy herds in Victoria. The trial was done 'blind'; approximately half the animals were vaccinated and the remainder were untreated controls.
Procedure The vaccine was given twice during the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. Effects of vaccination were assessed, during the ensuing lactation, on the basis of clinical and sub-clinical mastitis and microbiological investigations of the milk.
Results A total of 273 cases of clinical mastitis were recorded. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 112 of these, 45 cases in vaccinates and 67 cases in controls; the difference was not statistically significant. One herd was notable in having a high incidence of clinical staphylococcal mastitis. This herd accounted for 15.8% of the animals in the field trial but 54.5% of cases of clinical staphylococcal mastitis. For this herd, vaccinated animals had significantly lower incidence of clinical staphylococcal mastitis and prevalence of subclinical mastitis, relative to controls. An unexpected feature of the trial as a whole was the low incidence of clinical mastitis from which S aureus was isolated in pure culture (26.3% of cases) and the high incidence of clinical Streptococcus uberis mastitis (22.7% of cases).
Conclusions The trial showed that the vaccine was efficacious in reducing the incidence of clinical mastitis and prevalence of subclinical mastitis in a herd that had a serious staphylococcal mastitis problem.     

Amoebic meningoencephalitis caused by Balamuthia mandrillaris in an orang utan

Objective
To describe a case of meningoencephalitis caused by Balamuthia mandrillaris in an orang utan.
Design
A pathological case report.
Animal
A 20 years old male orang utan (Pongo pygmaeus).
Procedure
The disease process was investigated by clinical pathology, necropsy, histopathology and immunofluorescence labelling.
Results
The orang utan developed sudden onset of depression, lethargy, inappetence and apparent head pain. The condition was considered to be related to a 2 year history of upper and lower respiratory disease, and the animal was placed on antibiotics after extensive testing. By the seventh day the animal had become ataxic and disoriented and a brain abscess was suspected. He died on the ninth day of illness. At necropsy, and subsequent sectioning, the brain showed multiple circular, soft, white to grey brown areas of varying size, the largest being in the left temporal (3.5 cm diameter) and right occipital (2.5 cm diameter) regions of the cerebrum. Histological examination of these regions revealed many amoebic trophozoites and occasional cysts associated with areas of haemorrhage and inflammatory necrosis. The trophozoites were packed in perivascular spaces and their nuclei often contained two or more prominent nucleoli. Immunofluorescent labelling of histological sections suggested that the agent was B mandrillaris.
Clinical implications
This report provides further evidence that B mandrillaris , a free living amoeba, can act as a pathogen in animals as well as people, and cause fatal meningoencephalitis. Along with Naegleria and Acanthamoeba spp, B mandrillaris should be considered amongst the causes of acute onset meningoencephalitis in animals.     

Multi‐temporal Digital Photogrammetric Analysis for Quantitative Assessment of Soil Erosion Rates in the Landola Catchment of the Upper Orcia Valley (Tuscany,Italy)

This paper focuses on the analysis of the slope and catchment erosion dynamics in a typical Mediterranean context and its sensitivity to recent climatic and socio‐economic changes. The main objective of the present study is to test the reliability of digital photogrammetric analysis to evaluate the time and space evolution of erosion processes mainly triggered by surface running waters and landslides for about the last 60 years. The selected test area is the Landola catchment, a minor tributary of the Upper Orcia River Valley (Southern Tuscany). The Upper Orcia valley is a key site for the comprehension of denudation processes typically acting in Mediterranean badland areas thanks to the following: (i) the availability of long‐lasting erosion monitoring datasets (20 years' long direct measurements at erosion ‘hot spots’); (ii) its representativeness as a sub‐humid Mediterranean badland area; and (iii) the rapidity of development of erosion processes, which makes it suitable as an open‐air laboratory for the study of badland dynamics. The outputs of this work highlight that the application of high‐resolution digital photogrammetric methodologies can represent a powerful and low‐cost tool to evaluate rates and spatial–temporal distribution of denudation processes, as confirmed by the validation through field point monitoring in areas close to the study area. The results obtained for the study area confirm that high erosion rates are a persistent environmental problem for the Upper Orcia Valley, which is not solved up to now, despite various land conservation interventions. The performed multi‐temporal analysis shows a slight decrease in the average water erosion rate during the last 60 years and a parallel increase in the frequency of mass wasting events. These variations are most likely related to a complex interplay between land use changes that have affected the study area during the studied period, revealing a very delicate equilibrium between farming activities and erosion processes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Chromosome 1B/1R Translocation on the Yield Potential of Certain Spring Wheats (Triticum aestivum L.)

Nearly 50 percent of the 1988 advanced breeding lines of the CIMMYT bread wheat breeding program possess the 1B/1R homozygous translocation. Hence, a trial was conducted to estimate the effect of 1B/1R chromosome translocation on the yield potential of some of our high-yielding spring wheats, where non-limiting levels of fertility, moisture, preventive pest and disease programs were used. In conclusing the 1B/1R lines seemed to have increased their above-ground biomass yield, number of spikes per meter², 1000-grain weight and test weight. They also exhibited a slight advantage over the 1B homozygous lines on grain yield. The observed difference, however, was non-significant, as was the plant height difference observed among the two groups. Varietal comparisons indicated that the 1B/1R group headed later than the 1B group.     

The measurements of acid detergent fibre in rapeseed by visible and near-infrared spectroscopy

Visible and near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) calibrations for acid detergent fibre (ADF) in intact rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) were performed for two different sample volumes (10 ml, 500 seeds approximately; and 1 ml, 50 seeds approximately). The inclusion of brown and yellow‐seeded cultivars in this work has allowed the whole range of ADF currently described in the literature for this character to be covered. Chemometric techniques have been used for developing calibration equations for both procedures when measuring the two different seed sample volumes. On the basis of the coefficient of determination in the cross‐validation (R²cv) obtained for the 10 and 1 ml assays (0.80 and 0.73), and SECV/SEL ratios (2.30 and 2.57), respectively, both equations showed an accuracy sufficient for screening purposes in an ADF range from 6.80 to 13.46% dry wt, which is presented in this work.     

A Fluted Point from the Uptar Site, Northeastern Siberia

Lanceolate bifacial points, including one fluted specimen, have been collected from beneath an early Holocene tephra at the Uptar site, northeastern Siberia. Thus, the technology associated with the well-known Paleoindian tradition was not confined to the Americas. The Uptar collection does not compare readily with other Beringian complexes and demonstrates that there is greater diversity in the archaeological record of northeastern Siberia than traditional colonization models imply.     

Human voice recognition depends on language ability

The ability to recognize people by their voice is an important social behavior. Individuals differ in how they pronounce words, and listeners may take advantage of language-specific knowledge of speech phonology to facilitate recognizing voices. Impaired phonological processing is characteristic of dyslexia and thought to be a basis for difficulty in learning to read. We tested voice-recognition abilities of dyslexic and control listeners for voices speaking listeners' native language or an unfamiliar language. Individuals with dyslexia exhibited impaired voice-recognition abilities compared with controls only for voices speaking their native language. These results demonstrate the importance of linguistic representations for voice recognition. Humans appear to identify voices by making comparisons between talkers' pronunciations of words and listeners' stored abstract representations of the sounds in those words.