Identification of factor XI deficiency in Holstein-Friesian cattle in Britain

Blood coagulation tests were performed on dairy cattle in a herd with haemorrhagic problems on a farm in Gloucestershire. The characteristic pattern of prolonged partial thromboplastin time with normal prothrombin time and thrombin time was shown to be associated with a partial factor XI deficiency, a congenital defect previously identified in cattle in North America.     

Haemorrhagic syndrome of cattle associated with the feeding of sweet vernal (Anthoxanthum odoratum) hay containing dicoumarol

An outbreak of a haemorrhagic diathesis in cattle fed home produced hay is described. A similar syndrome was reproduced experimentally in calves by feeding them the hay. The experimental disease was characterised by increased prothrombin and partial thromboplastin times while the leucocyte and erythrocyte counts remained normal until the terminal haemorrhage. The calves ate well and grew well until the rapid onset of progressive weakness, stiff gait, mucosal pallor, tachycardia, tachypnoea and haematomata ending in sudden death. The absence of blood coagulation was seen at necropsy while petechial, ecchymotic and free haemorrhages were found in most organs. Particularly striking were massive ecchymotic haemorrhages on the peritoneal surface of the rumen, a bloody, gelatinous mass enveloping each kidney and extensive bruising, haemorrhage and haematomata in the subcutis of the limbs. In a second feeding trial the effects of various preparations of vitamin K1 and vitamin K3 were investigated. Oral administration of large quantities of vitamin K1 reduced the elevated prothrombin time; vitamin K3 acted less consistently. Analysis of the hay for trichothecene mycotoxins was negative but floral analysis revealed that sweet vernal grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum) comprised about 80 per cent of the hay. Dicoumarol was detected in the hay and in the serum and ruminal contents of the experimental calves. The diagnosis, treatment, control and importance of this syndrome in the United Kingdom are discussed.     

Placing the pieces: Reconstructing the original property mosaic in a warrant and patent watershed

Recent research shows that land use history is an important determinant of current ecosystem function. In the United States, characterization of land use change following European settlement requires reconstruction of the original property mosaic. However, this task is difficult in unsystematically surveyed areas east of the Appalachian Mountains. The Gwynns Falls watershed (Baltimore, MD) was originally surveyed in the 1600-1700s under a system of warrants and patents (commonly known as ‘metes and bounds’). A method for the reconstruction and mapping of warrant and patent properties is presented and used to map the original property mosaic in the Gwynns Falls watershed. Using the mapped mosaic, the persistence of properties and property lines in the current Gwynns Falls landscape is considered. The results of this research indicate that as in agricultural areas, the original property lines in the Gwynns Falls watershed are persistent. At the same time, the results suggest that the property mosaic in heavily urbanized/suburbanized areas is generally ‘reset.’ Further, trends in surveying technique, parcel size, and settlement patterns cause property line density and property shape complexity to increase in the less urbanized upper watershed. The persistence of original patterns may be damping expression of heterogeneity gradients in this urban landscape. This spatial pattern of complexity in the original mosaic is directly opposite of hypothesized patterns of landscape heterogeneity arising from urbanization. The technique reported here and the resulting observations are important for landscape pattern studies in areas settled under unsystematic survey systems, especially the heavily urbanized areas of the eastern United States. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Should the History of Science Be Rated X?: The way scientists behave (according to historians) might not be a good model for students

I suggest that the teacher who wants to indoctrinate his students in the traditional role of the scientist as a neutral fact finder should not use historical materials of the kind now being prepared by historians of science: they will not serve his purposes. He may wish to follow the advice of philosopher J. C. C. Smart, who recently suggested that it is legitimate to use fictionalized history of science to illustrate one's pronouncements on scientific method (56). On the other hand, those teachers who want to counteract the dogmatism of the textbooks and convey some understanding of science as an activity that cannot be divorced from metaphysical or esthetic considerations may find some stimulation in the new history of science. As historian D. S. L. Cardwell has argued (57, p. 120): . . . [I]f the history of science is to be used as an educational discipline, to inculcate an enlightened and critical mind, then the Whig view . . . cannot do this. For it must emphasize the continuities, the smooth and successive developments from one great achievement to the next and so on; and in doing so it must automatically endow the present state of science with all the immense authority of history. He suggests that the critical mind might be inhibited by seeing the present as the inevitable, triumphant product of the past. The history of science could aid the teaching of science by showing that "such puzzling concepts as force, energy, etc., are man-made and were evolved in an understandable sequence in response to acutely felt and very real problems. They were not handed down by some celestial textbook writer to whom they were immediately self-evident" (57, p. 120). The past may give some hints on how to survive the most recent recurrence of public hostility to science. Rather than blaming historians such as Kuhn for encouraging antiscientific attitudes, as one physicist did in a public address in 1972 (58), one might consider this criticism of the older style of science history, published in 1940 by W. James Lyons (59, p. 381): The historians of science are responsible, it would appear, for the unpopularity of science among those most acutely affected by the depression. In their clamor to enhance the scientific tradition, and hoard for science all credit for the remarkable and unprecedented material advances which studded the century and a quarter preceding 1930, these historians have been more enthusiastic than accurate . . . science emerged [in the popular mind] as the most prominent force responsible for making this modern world so startlingly different from all preceding ages. Thus when, for many people, the modern world, in spite of all its resources, began to slip from its role of "best of all imaginable worlds," science came in for a proportionate share of blame. Had a more accurate picture of the part science has played been presented, science would not now be the object of so much suspicion and resentment. In more recent times, hostility to science has been intensified by the image of the "objective," robot-like scientist lacking emotions and moral values. If the new approach to the history of science really does give a more realistic picture of the behavior of scientists, perhaps it has a "redeeming social significance." Then, rather than limiting the conception of science to the strict pattern allowed by traditional local standards, one might try to change those standards in such a way as to reflect the freedom that the boldest natural philosophers have always exercised.