Characterization of the adaptive cellular and humoral immune responses to persistent colonization of Brucella abortus strain RB51 in a Jersey cow

Brucella abortus strain RB51 is the commercial cattle vaccine used in the United States (US) and many parts of the world against bovine brucellosis. RB51 was licensed for use in 1996, and it has been shown to be safe and efficacious in cattle, eliciting humoral and cellular responses in calves and adult animals. In 2017, an epidemiological trace-back investigation performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified human cases of brucellosis caused by infection with RB51. These infections resulted from the consumption of unpasteurized dairy products, which were traced back to otherwise healthy animals that were shedding RB51 in their milk. At the current time, six adult Jersey cows have been identified in the U.S. that are shedding RB51 in milk. One of the RB51 shedding cattle was obtained and housed at the National Animal Disease Center (NADC) for further study. Improved understanding of host cellular and humoral immune responses to RB51 in persistently colonized cattle may be achieved by the characterization of responses in shedding animals. We hypothesized, based on the lack of RB51 clearance, that the RB51 shedder animal has a diminished adaptive cellular immune response to RB51. Our data demonstrate that in the presence of persistent RB51 infection, there is a lack of peripheral anti-RB51 CD4+ T cell responses and a concurrently high anti-RB51 IgG humoral response. By understanding the mechanisms that result in RB51 persistence, the development of improved interventions or vaccinations for brucellosis may be facilitated, which would provide public health benefits, including reducing the risks associated with the consumption of non-pasteurized milk products

A memory efficient user interface for CLIPS micro-computer applications

The goal of the Integrated Southern Pine Beetle Expert System (ISPBEX) is to provide expert level knowledge concerning treatment advice that is convenient and easy to use for Forest Service personnel. ISPBEX was developed in CLIPS and delivered on an IBM PC AT class micro-computer, operating with an MS/DOS operating system. This restricted the size of the run time system to 640K. In order to provide a robust expert system, with on-line explanation, help, and alternative actions menus, as well as features that allow the user to back up or execute 'what if' scenarios, a memory efficient menuing system was developed to interface with the CLIPS programs. By robust, we mean an expert system that (1) is user friendly, (2) provides reasonable solutions for a wide variety of domain specific problems, (3) explains why some solutions were suggested but others were not, and (4) provides technical information relating to the problem solution. Several advantages were gained by using this type of user interface (UI). First, by storing the menus on the hard disk (instead of main memory) during program execution, a more robust system could be implemented. Second, since the menus were built rapidly, development time was reduced. Third, the user may try a new scenario by backing up to any of the input screens and revising segments of the original input without having to retype all the information. And fourth, asserting facts from the menus provided for a dynamic and flexible fact base. This UI technology has been applied successfully in expert systems applications in forest management, agriculture, and manufacturing. This paper discusses the architecture of the UI system, human factors considerations, and the menu syntax design

Review: Transport Losses in Market Weight Pigs: I. A Review of Definitions, Incidence, and Economic Impact

Transport losses (dead and nonambulatory pigs) present animal welfare, legal, and economic challenges to the US swine industry. The objectives of this review are to explore 1) the historical perspective of transport losses; 2) the incidence and economic implications of transport losses; and 3) the symptoms and metabolic characteristics of fatigued pigs. In 1933 and 1934, the incidence of dead and nonambulatory pigs was reported to be 0.08 and 0.16%, respectively. More recently, 23 commercial field trials (n = 6,660,569 pigs) were summarized and the frequency of dead pigs, nonambulatory pigs, and total transport losses at the processing plant were 0.25, 0.44, and 0.69% respectively. In 2006, total economic losses associated with these transport losses were estimated to cost the US pork industry approximately $46 million. Furthermore, 0.37 and 0.05% of the nonambulatory pigs were classified as either fatigued (nonambulatory, noninjured) or injured, respectively, in 18 of these trials (n = 4,966,419 pigs). Fatigued pigs display signs of acute stress (open-mouth breathing, skin discoloration, muscle tremors) and are in a metabolic state of acidosis, characterized by low blood pH and high blood lactate concentrations; however, the majority of fatigued pigs will recover with rest. Transport losses are a multifactorial problem consisting of people, pig, facility design, management, transportation, processing plant, and environmental factors, and, because of these multiple factors, continued research efforts are needed to understand how each of the factors and the relationships among factors affect the well-being of the pig during the marketing process

The neglected role of insulin-like growth factors in the maternal circulation regulating fetal growth

Maternal insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) play a pivotal role in modulating fetal growth via their actions on both the mother and the placenta. Circulating IGFs influence maternal tissue growth and metabolism, thereby regulating nutrient availability for the growth of the conceptus. Maternal IGFs also regulate placental morphogenesis, substrate transport and hormone secretion, all of which influence fetal growth either via indirect effects on maternal substrate availability, or through direct effects on the placenta and its capacity to supply nutrients to the fetus. The extent to which IGFs influence the mother and/or placenta are dependent on the species and maternal factors, including age and nutrition. As altered fetal growth is associated with increased perinatal morbidity and mortality and a greater risk of developing degenerative diseases in adult life, understanding the role of maternal IGFs during pregnancy is essential in order to identify mechanisms underlying altered fetal growth and offspring programming

CAMELS-Chem: augmenting CAMELS (Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies) with atmospheric and stream water chemistry data

Large sample datasets are transforming the catchment sciences, but there are few off-the-shelf stream water chemistry datasets with complementary atmospheric deposition, streamflow, meteorology, and catchment physiographic attributes. The existing CAMELS (Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies) dataset includes data on topography, climate, streamflow, land cover, soil, and geology across the continental US. With CAMELS-Chem, we pair these existing attribute data for 516 catchments with atmospheric deposition data from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program and water chemistry and instantaneous discharge data from the US Geological Survey over the period from 1980 through 2018 in a relational database and corresponding dataset. The data include 18 common stream water chemistry constituents: Al, Ca, Cl, dissolved organic carbon, total organic carbon, HCO3, K, Mg, Na, total dissolved N, total organic N, NO3, dissolved oxygen, pH (field and lab), Si, SO4, and water temperature. Annual deposition loads and concentrations include hydrogen, NH4, NO3, total inorganic N, Cl, SO4, Ca, K, Mg, and Na. We demonstrate that CAMELS-Chem water chemistry data are sampled effectively across climates, seasons, and discharges for trend analysis and highlight the coincident sampling of stream constituents for process-based understanding. To motivate their use by the larger scientific community across a variety of disciplines, we show examples of how these publicly available datasets can be applied to trend detection and attribution, biogeochemical process understanding, and new hypothesis generation via data-driven techniques.</p

67202; ‡ ‡ Innovative Livestock Solutions, Blackie, Alberta, Canada T0L0J0; § § Livestock Behavior Research Unit

ABSTRAC

CXCR5⁺ follicular cytotoxic T cells control viral infection in B cell follicles

During unresolved infections, some viruses escape immunological control and establish a persistant reservoir in certain cell types, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which persists in follicular helper T cells (TFH cells), and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which persists in B cells. Here we identified a specialized group of cytotoxic T cells (TC cells) that expressed the chemokine receptor CXCR5, selectively entered B cell follicles and eradicated infected TFH cells and B cells. The differentiation of these cells, which we have called 'follicular cytotoxic T cells' (TFC cells), required the transcription factors Bcl6, E2A and TCF-1 but was inhibited by the transcriptional regulators Blimp1, Id2 and Id3. Blimp1 and E2A directly regulated Cxcr5 expression and, together with Bcl6 and TCF-1, formed a transcriptional circuit that guided TFC cell development. The identification of TFC cells has far-reaching implications for the development of strategies to control infections that target B cells and TFH cells and to treat B cell–derived malignancies