EARLY POSTOPERATIVE MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING FINDINGS IN FIVE DOGS WITH CONFIRMED AND SUSPECTED BRAIN TUMORS

Early postoperative neuroimaging has been performed in people for over 20 years to detect residual brain tumor tissue and surgical complications. The purpose of this retrospective study was to describe characteristics observed using early postoperative magnetic resonance imaging in a group of dogs undergoing craniotomy for brain tumor removal. Two independent observers came to a consensus opinion for presence/absence of the following MRI characteristics: residual tumor tissue; hemorrhage and ischemic lesions; abnormal enhancement (including the margins of the resection cavity, choroid plexus, meninges) and signal intensity changes on diffusion‐weighted imaging. Five dogs were included in the study, having had preoperative and early postoperative MRI acquired within four days after surgery. The most commonly observed characteristics were abnormal meningeal enhancement, linear enhancement at margins of the resection cavity, hemorrhage, and a thin rim of hyperintensity surrounding the resection cavity on diffusion‐weighted imaging. Residual tumor tissue was detected in one case of an enhancing tumor and in one case of a tumor containing areas of hemorrhage preoperatively. Residual tumor tissue was suspected but could not be confirmed when tumors were nonenhancing. Findings supported the use of early postoperative MRI as a method for detecting residual brain tumor tissue in dogs.     

Effects of environmental factors on plant functional traits across different plant life forms in a temperate forest ecosystem

New Forests - Plant functional traits have been shown to vary with environmental conditions. However, we lack empirical data on how plant functional traits of different plant life forms respond to...     

Applying forest restoration principles to coral reef rehabilitation

• 1. Forest restoration through silviculture (gardening) programs revives productivity, biodiversity, and stability. As in silviculture approaches, the coral ‘gardening’ strategy is based on a two‐step protocol.
• 2. The first step deals with the establishment of in situ and/or ex situ coral nurseries in which corals are farmed (originating from two types of source material: asexual [ramets, nubbins], and sexual [planula larvae, spat] recruits).
• 3. The second is the reef rehabilitation step, where maricultured colonies are transplanted into degraded sites.
• 4. We compare here the rationale of forest restoration to coral reef ecosystem restoration by evaluating major key criteria. As in silviculture programs, a sustainable mariculture operation that focuses on the prime structural component of the reef (‘gardening’ with corals) may promote the persistence of threatened coral populations, as well as that of other reef taxa, thus maintaining genetic diversity. In chronically degrading reef sites this may facilitate a halt in biodiversity depletion.
• 5. Within the current theoretical framework of ecosystem restoration, the recovery of biodiversity indices is considered a core element since a rich species diversity provides higher ecosystem resilience to disturbances.
• 6. The gardening measure may also be implemented worldwide, eliminating the need to extract existing colonies for transplantation operations. At degraded reef sites, the coral gardening strategy can assist in managing human and non‐human stakeholders' requirements as is done in forest management.

Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

IMAGING DIAGNOSIS—USE OF MULTIPHASIC CONTRAST‐ENHANCED COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY FOR DIAGNOSIS OF MESENTERIC VOLVULUS IN A DOG

A 4‐year‐old German shorthaired pointer presented with collapse and hematochezia. Radiographs showed gas and fluid‐distended small intestines and loss of serosal detail. Ultrasound examination showed hypomotile, fluid‐distended small intestines, and thrombosed jejunal veins. Multiphasic contrast‐enhanced computed tomography was performed and showed a CT “whirl sign,” an important but nonspecific sign of intestinal volvulus in human patients. At surgery, the majority of the small intestine was entangled in the volvulus and showed black discoloration. The patient was euthanized. Postmortem evaluation yielded a diagnosis of jejunoileal mesenteric volvulus secondary to a congenital omphalomesenteric duct remnant.     

Two Cycles of Recurrent Maternal Half-Sib Selection Reduce Foliar Late Blight in a Diploid Hybrid Solanum phureja-S. stenotomum Population by Two-thirds

Foliar late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, is an important disease problem worldwide. Foliar resistance to late blight was found in a hybrid population of the cultivated diploid species Solanum phureja-S. stenotomum (phu-stn). The objective of this study was to determine if resistance to late blight could be improved by recurrent maternal half-sib selection in the phu-stn population. Four clones from each of 72 maternal half-sib families plus the check cultivar ‘Atlantic’ were evaluated for late blight resistance in replicated field trials in Pennsylvania. The most late blight resistant clone from each of the 72 families was randomly intermated to advance the population. The cycle 1, 2, and 3 populations were evaluated in 1996–1997, 2003–2004, and 2009–2010, respectively. Percent infected foliage was recorded several times towards the end of the growing season and used to compute area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC). Mean AUDPC was 652 (cycle 1), 556 (cycle 2), and 276 (cycle 3), whereas the mean AUDPC of ‘Atlantic’ ranged from 775 to 863 each cycle. Narrow-sense heritability for resistance was estimated as 0.78, 0.77, and 0.80 in cycles 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Recurrent maternal half-sib selection continues to improve the levels of resistance to late blight in this diploid population with no adverse effect on the amount of additive genetic variance. Additional improvements for late blight resistance are likely to occur if this approach is continued.     

Assessment of plastic ingestion by pole-caught pelagic predatory fish from O'ahu,Hawai'i

1. Although the frequency of occurrence of plastic ingestion in the large-sized dolphinfish and tunas taken by the Hawai'i longline fishery is very low (frequency of occurrence < 5% of sampled individuals), the ingestion of plastic in smaller-sized specimens caught with pole-and-line gear by commercial and recreational fishers has not been investigated.
2. This study examined ingestion of >0.25 mm marine plastic debris (MPD) by four predatory fish species caught by commercial fishers around the Main Hawaiian Islands, and documented ingestion in three species: 85.7% of albacore tuna (n = 7), 40.0% of skipjack tuna (n = 10) and 12.5% of dolphinfish (n = 8).
3. Yellowfin tuna (n = 10) did not contain any MPD, probably owing to the high proportion of empty stomachs (60%).
4. For skipjack tuna, the frequency of occurrence of MPD ingestion was significantly higher for the smaller-sized specimens caught with pole-and-line (40%), compared with the larger-sized specimens caught with longlines (0%).
5. For dolphinfish, the frequency of occurrence of MPD ingestion was similar for the similar-sized specimens caught with pole-and-line and with longlines.
6. The ingested MPD items were micro–meso plastics, between 1 and 25 mm. While most ingested items were fragments, albacore also ingested line and skipjack also ingested sheets.
7. The predatory fishes ingested light MPD items that float in sea water, but there were species-specific differences in their polymer composition: albacore contained more polypropylene and polyethylene, and skipjack contained more elastomers, characterized by a high percentage of ester plasticizers.
8. Altogether, these results suggest that albacore and skipjack tunas ingest plastic of different types and polymers. Yet more research is needed to understand how differences in vertical distribution, foraging ecology and diet influence the MPD sampled by these predatory fish species.

     

Intra-varietal variation for in vitro plant regeneration in the genus Trifolium

Summary Seedlings of Trifolium repens showed considerable variation with regard to the morphology and growth of their calli, and their ability for in vitro differentiation of shoots. One of the lines selected for regeneration in primary callus cultures also showed shoot formation from protoplasts. Somatic embryogenesis in callus cultures of T. pratense and T. arvense occurred only in selected seedling lines. This paper highlights the importance of screening a large number of plants within a cultivar of outbreeding species to achieve reproducible plant regeneration from tissue culture.