Long Term Comparison of Alternative Range Livestock Management Strategies Across Extended Droughts and Cyclical Prices

Variable precipitation, more importantly drought, impacts profitability for livestock management. Financial outcomes from management decisions related to forage shortages can be exacerbated by price variability. This research examines alternative management strategies to determine the potential profitability and riskiness over a long-term horizon and across various drought event scenarios. Results indicate that late calving can be a promising strategy, but it also can result in higher variability in profits as compared to some of the other strategies analyzed. Retaining ownership of steer calves over the winter, with the option to sell if forage supplies become scarce, outperforms both partial liquidation and summer feeding, and it results in less profit variability than late calving or early weaning.Production Economics, Productivity Analysis,

Ewing sarcoma in a child with neurofibromatosis type 1.

We report here on a case of Ewing sarcoma (ES) occurring in a child with neurofibromatosis type 1. The sarcoma had an EWSR1-ERG translocation as well as loss of the remaining wild-type allele of NF1. Loss of the NF1 wild-type allele in the tumor suggests that activation of the Ras pathway contributed to its evolution. Review of available public data suggests that secondary mutations in the Ras pathway are found in ∼3% of ESs. This case suggests that Ras pathway activation may play a role in tumor progression in a subset of ESs

Oral health policy: International implications for Australia

The worlds of researchers and of policy makers are completely different. With apologies to John Gray, it could be said that “researchers are from Venus and policymakers are from Mars.” It summarises in one sentence what has been called the two communities theory which posits that the producers and users of knowledge live in separate worlds with different and often conflicting values, different reward systems, and different languages. Researchers all too often produce high quality research which is simply not used by policy makers. Policy making has traditionally been conducted by professional organisations, the private sector and government. One way APHCRI has gone about breaking down these different world views is by establishing Centres of Research Excellence, one of which is the Centre of Research Excellence in Primary Oral Health Care. Analysis of how policy is formed is a very small research area within oral health. Only a small set of papers have analysed the problem of evidence translation and largely focus on evidence-practice translation: Improving the translation of evidence from clinical trials, clinical guidelines and for specific challenges, such as women’s oral health. Until this research, no studies existed on whether oral health evidence influenced policy. Between 2000 and 2012, at least 127,193 unique papers with abstracts were published in oral health, but it had not been systematically analysed for its content relevance to oral health policy priorities. A Health Policy research indicates that the relevance of research content to policy may be more important than research methodology in policy take-up of research than using the quality hierarchy dominated by the ‘blue chip’ standard of randomised controlled trials. This study described the conceptual content of the entire corpus of oral health research abstracts 2000-2012 and compared it to the content of national oral health policy documents so as to build understandings of the nature of the evidence-policy divide so that research can better serve policy efforts to address oral health inequity.The worlds of researchers and of policy makers are completely different. With apologies to John Gray, it could be said that “researchers are from Venus and policymakers are from Mars.” It summarises in one sentence what has been called the two communities theory which posits that the producers and users of knowledge live in separate worlds with different and often conflicting values, different reward systems, and different languages. Researchers all too often produce high quality research which is simply not used by policy makers. Policy making has traditionally been conducted by professional organisations, the private sector and government. One way APHCRI has gone about breaking down these different world views is by establishing Centres of Research Excellence, one of which is the Centre of Research Excellence in Primary Oral Health Care. Analysis of how policy is formed is a very small research area within oral health. Only a small set of papers have analysed the problem of evidence translation and largely focus on evidence-practice translation: Improving the translation of evidence from clinical trials, clinical guidelines and for specific challenges, such as women’s oral health. Until this research, no studies existed on whether oral health evidence influenced policy. Between 2000 and 2012, at least 127,193 unique papers with abstracts were published in oral health, but it had not been systematically analysed for its content relevance to oral health policy priorities. A Health Policy research indicates that the relevance of research content to policy may be more important than research methodology in policy take-up of research than using the quality hierarchy dominated by the ‘blue chip’ standard of randomised controlled trials. This study described the conceptual content of the entire corpus of oral health research abstracts 2000-2012 and compared it to the content of national oral health policy documents so as to build understandings of the nature of the evidence-policy divide so that research can better serve policy efforts to address oral health inequity. Aims The aim of the study was to answer the following research questions, How well matched is the content of research to national oral health policy? What are the implications of this for developing oral health research that is more policy relevant, particularly for the challenge of addressing unequal oral health outcomes?The research reported in this paper is a project of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute which is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development Strategy

Can Carbon Find a Home on the Range?

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Ranchers Diverse in Their Drought Management Strategies

Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries,

A randomized trial of balloon kyphoplasty and nonsurgical management for treating acute vertebral compression fractures: vertebral body kyphosis correction and surgical parameters.

Objective. To compare the efficacy and safety of balloon kyphoplasty (BKP) with nonsurgical management (NSM) during 24 months in patients with painful vertebral compression fractures (VCFs). Summary of Background Data. Recently, several large randomized controlled trials have been conducted and reported how vertebral augmentation compares with NSM for patients with acute VCFs. Few of these trials report on the surgical aspects and radiographical vertebral deformity results. Methods. Adults with 1 to 3 VCFs were randomized within 3 months of pain to undergo bilateral BKP (n = 149) or NSM (n = 151). Surgical parameters, subjective quality of life assessments and objective functional (timed up and go) and radiographical assessments were collected. Results. Compared with NSM, the BKP group had greater improvements in SF-36 physical component summary (PCS) scores at 1 month (5.35 points; 95% CI, 3.41 - 7.30; P < 0.0001) and when averaged across the 24 months (overall treatment effect 2.71 points; 95% CI, 1.34-4.09; P = 0.0001). The kyphoplasty group also had greater functionality by assessing timed up and go (overall treatment effect - 2.49 s; 95% CI, - 0.82 to - 4.15; P = 0.0036). At 24 months, the change in index fracture kyphotic angulation was statistically significantly improved in the kyphoplasty group (average 3.13° of correction for kyphoplasty compared with 0.82° in the control, P = 0.003). Number of baseline prevalent fractures (P = 0.0003) and treatment assignment (P = 0.004) are the most predictive variables for PCS improvement; however, in patients who underwent BKP, there may also be a link with kyphotic angulation. In BKP, the highest quart for kyphotic angulation correction had higher PCS improvement (13.4 points) than the quart having lowest correction of angulation (7.40 points, P = 0.0146 for difference). The most common adverse events temporally related to surgery (i.e., within 30 d) were back pain (20 BKP, 11 NSM) new VCF (11 BKP, 7 NSM), nausea/vomiting (12 BKP, 4 NSM), and urinary tract infection (10 BKP, 3 NSM). Several other adverse events were possibly related to patient positioning in the operating room. Conclusion. Compared with NSM, BKP improves patient quality of life and pain averaged during 24 months and results in better improvement of index vertebral body kyphotic angulation. Perioperative complications may be reduced with more care in patient positioning

Phylogenetics of Trachylina (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) with new insights on the evolution of some problematical taxa

Some of the most interesting and enigmatic cnidarians are classified within the hydrozoan subclass Trachylina. Despite being relatively depauperate in species richness, the clade contains four taxa typically accorded ordinal status: Actinulida, Limnomedusae, Narcomedusae and Trachymedusae. We bring molecular data (mitochondrial 16S and nuclear small and large subunit ribosomal genes) to bear on the question of phylogenetic relationships within Trachylina. Surprisingly, we find that a diminutive polyp form, Microhydrula limopsicola (classified within Limnomedusae) is actually a previously unknown life stage of a species of Stauromedusae. Our data confirm that the interstitial form Halammohydra sp. (Actinulida) is derived from holopelagic direct developing ancestors, likely within the trachymedusan family Rhopalonematidae. Trachymedusae is shown to be diphyletic, suggesting that the polyp stage has been lost independently at least two times within trachyline evolution. Narcomedusae is supported as a monophyletic group likely also arising from trachymedusan ancestors. Finally, some data, albeit limited, suggest that some trachyline species names refer to cryptic species that have yet to be sorted taxonomicall

Deciphering the trophic interaction between Akkermansia muciniphila and the butyrogenic gut commensal Anaerostipes caccae using a metatranscriptomic approach

Host glycans are paramount in regulating the symbiotic relationship between humans and their gut bacteria. The constant flux of host-secreted mucin at the mucosal layer creates a steady niche for bacterial colonization. Mucin degradation by keystone species subsequently shapes the microbial community. This study investigated the transcriptional response during mucin-driven trophic interaction between the specialised mucin-degrader Akkermansia muciniphila and a butyrogenic gut commensal Anaerostipes caccae. A. muciniphila monocultures and co-cultures with non-mucolytic A. caccae from the Lachnospiraceae family were grown anaerobically in minimal media supplemented with mucin. We analysed for growth, metabolites (HPLC analysis), microbial composition (quantitative reverse transcription PCR), and transcriptional response (RNA-seq). Mucin degradation by A. muciniphila supported the growth of A. caccae and concomitant butyrate production predominantly via the acetyl-CoA pathway. Differential expression analysis (DESeq 2) showed the presence of A. caccae induced changes in the A. muciniphila transcriptional response with increased expression of mucin degradation genes and reduced expression of ribosomal genes. Two putative operons that encode for uncharacterised proteins and an efflux system, and several two-component systems were also differentially regulated. This indicated A. muciniphila changed its transcriptional regulation in response to A. caccae. This study provides insight to understand the mucin-driven microbial ecology using metatranscriptomics. Our findings show that the expression of mucolytic enzymes by A. muciniphila increases upon the presence of a community member. This could indicate its role as a keystone species that supports the microbial community in the mucosal environment by increasing the availability of mucin sugars.Peer reviewe

X-rays from the Power Sources of the Cepheus A Star-Forming Region

We report an observation of X-ray emission from the exciting region of Cepheus A with the Chandra/ACIS instrument. What had been an unresolved X-ray source comprising the putative power sources is now resolved into at least 3 point-like sources, each with similar X-ray properties and differing radio and submillimeter properties. The sources are HW9, HW3c, and a new source that is undetected at other wavelengths "h10." They each have inferred X-ray luminosities >= 10^31 erg s^-1 with hard spectra, T >= 10^7 K, and high low-energy absorption equivalent to tens to as much as a hundred magnitudes of visual absorption. The star usually assumed to be the most massive and energetic, HW2, is not detected with an upper limit about 7 times lower than the detections. The X-rays may arise via thermal bremsstrahlung in diffuse emission regions associated with a gyrosynchrotron source for the radio emission, or they could arise from powerful stellar winds. We also analyzed the Spitzer/IRAC mid-IR observation from this star-formation region and present the X-ray results and mid-IR classifications of the nearby stars. HH 168 is not as underluminous in X-rays as previously reported.Comment: Accepted in the ApJ, 30 pages, 11 figures, in one .pdf fil

Phylogenetics of Trachylina (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) with new insights on the evolution of some problematical taxa

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0025315408001732.Some of the most interesting and enigmatic cnidarians are classified within the hydrozoan subclass Trachylina. Despite being relatively depauperate in species richness, the clade contains four taxa typically accorded ordinal status: Actinulida, Limnomedusae, Narcomedusae and Trachymedusae. We bring molecular data (mitochondrial 16S and nuclear small and large subunit ribosomal genes) to bear on the question of phylogenetic relationships within Trachylina. Surprisingly, we find that a diminutive polyp form, Microhydrula limopsicola (classified within Limnomedusae) is actually a previously unknown life stage of a species of Stauromedusae. Our data confirm that the interstitial form Halammohydra sp. (Actinulida) is derived from holopelagic direct developing ancestors, likely within the trachymedusan family Rhopalonematidae. Trachymedusae is shown to be diphyletic, suggesting that the polyp stage has been lost independently at least two times within trachyline evolution. Narcomedusae is supported as a monophyletic group likely also arising from trachymedusan ancestors. Finally, some data, albeit limited, suggest that some trachyline species names refer to cryptic species that have yet to be sorted taxonomically