Evidence of a high incidence of subclinically affected calves in a herd of cattle with fatal cases of Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia (BNP).

BACKGROUND: Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia (BNP) is a disease of calves characterised by bone marrow trilineage hypoplasia, mediated by ingestion of alloantibodies in colostrum. Suspected subclinical forms of BNP have been reported, suggesting that observed clinical cases may not represent the full extent of the disease. However to date there are no objective data available on the incidence of subclinical disease or its temporal distribution. This study aimed to 1) ascertain whether subclinical BNP occurs and, if so, to determine the incidence on an affected farm and 2) determine whether there is evidence of temporal clustering of BNP cases on this farm. To achieve these aims, haematological screening of calves born on the farm during one calving season was carried out, utilising blood samples collected at defined ages. These data were then analysed in comparison to data from both known BNP-free control animals and histopathologically confirmed BNP cases. An ordinal logistic regression model was used to create a composite haematology score to predict the probabilities of calves being normal, based on their haematology measurements at 10–14 days old. RESULTS: This study revealed that 15% (21 of 139) of the clinically normal calves on this farm had profoundly abnormal haematology (<5% chance of being normal) and could be defined as affected by subclinical BNP. Together with clinical BNP cases, this gave the study farm a BNP incidence of 18%. Calves with BNP were found to be distributed throughout the calving period, with no clustering, and no significant differences in the date of birth of cases or subclinical cases were found compared to the rest of the calves. This study did not find any evidence of increased mortality or increased time from birth to sale in subclinical BNP calves but, as the study only involved a single farm and adverse effects may be determined by other inter-current diseases it remains possible that subclinical BNP has a detrimental impact on the health and productivity of calves under certain circumstances. CONCLUSIONS: Subclinical BNP was found to occur at a high incidence in a herd of cattle with fatal cases of BNP

The mechanism and kinetics of methyl isobutyl ketone synthesis from acetone over ion-exchanged hydroxyapatite

The synthesis of methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) can be carried out by the condensation of acetone in the presence of hydrogen over a supported metal catalyst. Previous studies have shown that hydroxyapatite is an excellent catalyst for condensation reactions. The present investigation was undertaken in order to elucidate the reaction mechanism and site requirements for acetone coupling to MIBK over a physical mixture of hydroxyapatite and Pd/SiO2. The reaction is found to proceed by consecutive aldol addition to form diacetone alcohol (DAA), dehydration of DAA to mesityl oxide (MO), and hydrogenation of MO to MIBK. The products formed by feeding DAA and MO reveal that aldol addition of acetone is rapid and reversible, and that the subsequent dehydration of DAA is rate-limiting. Pyridine and CO2 titration show that aldol dehydration occurs over basic sites via an E1cB mechanism. A series of cation-substituted hydroxyapatite samples were prepared by ion-exchange to further investigate the role of acid-base strength on catalyst performance. Characterization of these samples by PXRD, BET, ICP-OES, XPS, CO2-TPD, and Raman spectroscopy demonstrated that the exchange procedure used does not affect the bulk properties of hydroxyapatite. DFT calculations reveal that in addition to affecting the Lewis acidity/basicity of the support, the size of the cation plays a significant role in the chemistry: cations that are too large (Ba2+) or too small (Mg2+) adversely affect reaction rates due to excessive stabilization of intermediate species. Strontium-exchanged hydroxyapatite was found to be the most active catalyst because it promoted α-hydrogen abstraction and C–O bond cleavage of DAA efficiently

Zeolite-Catalyzed Isobutene Amination: Mechanism and Kinetics

Amination of isobutene with NH was investigated over Brønsted acidic zeolites at 1 atm and 453-483 K. To compare catalytic activities over different zeolites, the measured reaction rates are normalized by the number of active sites determined by tert-butylamine temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). Small- A nd medium-pore zeolites with one-dimensional channels exhibit low activity because of pore blockage by adsorbed tert-butylammonium ions. However, turnover frequencies and activation energies are not sensitive to framework identity, as long as the active site is accessible to isobutene and tert-butylamine. Kinetic measurements and FTIR spectroscopy reveal that the Brønsted acid sites in MFI are covered predominantly with tert-butylammonium ions under reaction conditions. The desorption of tert-butylamine is assisted by the concurrent adsorption of isobutene. DFT simulations show that at very low tert-butylamine partial pressures, for example, at the inlet to the reactor, tert-butylamine desorption is rate-limiting. However, at sufficiently high tert-butylamine partial pressures (&gt;0.03 kPa), protonation of isobutene to the corresponding carbenium ion limits the rate of amination.

Temporal influence over the Last.fm social network

In a previous result, we showed that the influence of social contacts spreads information about new artists through the Last.fm social network. We successfully decomposed influence from effects of trends, global popularity, and homophily or shared environment of friends. In this paper, we present our new experiments that use a mathematically sound formula for defining and measuring the influence in the network. We provide new baseline and influence models and evaluation measures, both batch and online, for real-time recommendations with very strong temporal aspects. Our experiments are carried over the 2-year “scrobble” history of 70,000 Last.fm users. In our results, we formally define and distil the effect of social influence. In addition, we provide new models and evaluation measures for real-time recommendations with very strong temporal aspects. © 2015, Springer-Verlag Wien

Clavicular stress fracture in a cricket fast bowler: A case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Whilst rare, stress fractures of the clavicle have been described in other sports. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a stress fracture of the clavicle occurring in a cricket fast bowler.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 23-year-old professional cricket fast bowler presented with activity related shoulder pain. Imaging demonstrated a stress fracture of the lateral third of the clavicle. This healed with rest and rehabilitation allowing a full return to professional sport.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This injury is treated with activity modification and technique adaptation. In a professional sportsman, this needs to be recognised early so that return to play can be as quick as possible.</p

Explainable neural networks for trait-based multispecies distribution modelling—A case study with butterflies and moths

Species response traits mediate environmental effects on species distribution. Traits are used in joint and multispecies distribution models (JSDMs and MSDMs) to enable community-wide shared parameters that characterise niche filtering along environmental gradients. Multispecies machine learning SDMs, however, do not use traits as their inclusion requires an additional taxonomic dimension that is incompatible with their usual tabular inputs. This has confined trait mediation in SDMs to hierarchical Bayesian models. Here we provide a novel artificial neural network (ANN) architecture that solves this dimensionality problem. Our ANN includes species traits (via a time distributed layer) and is therefore able to identify not only species-specific responses to the environment, but also shared responses across the community that are mediated by species traits. Model performance evaluated at the species level not only quantifies the reliability of species predictions, but also their departure from an average response dictated by traits only. We apply our model to two unique long-term spatio-temporal of butterfly and moth datasets collected across the United Kingdom between 1990 and 2019. In addition to species traits, predictors include numerous metrics derived from weather, land-cover and topology data. For butterflies and moths we show convincing model performance for classifying species occupancy. We use SHAP (Shapley Additive exPlanations) to explain the ANN and show how trait-mediated and species-specific responses can be approximated, hence yielding ecological insights on the key drivers of species distribution. We highlight a range of drivers of change that determine occupancy, including wind, temperature as well as habitat type. We demonstrate that a trait-based approach can be encoded as an ANN by using a time distributed layer. This brings ANNs unmatched predictive capabilities to the field of MSDMs, at the same time of lifting their reputed drawback of poor explainability

Metabolic variation in natural populations of wild yeast

Ecological diversification depends on the extent of genetic variation and on the pattern of covariation with respect to ecological opportunities. We investigated the pattern of utilization of carbon substrates in wild populations of budding yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus. All isolates grew well on a core diet of about 10 substrates, and most were also able to grow on a much larger ancillary diet comprising most of the 190 substrates we tested. There was substantial genetic variation within each population for some substrates. We found geographical variation of substrate use at continental, regional, and local scales. Isolates from Europe and North America could be distinguished on the basis of the pattern of yield across substrates. Two geographical races at the North American sites also differed in the pattern of substrate utilization. Substrate utilization patterns were also geographically correlated at local spatial scales. Pairwise genetic correlations between substrates were predominantly positive, reflecting overall variation in metabolic performance, but there was a consistent negative correlation between categories of substrates in two cases: between the core diet and the ancillary diet, and between pentose and hexose sugars. Such negative correlations in the utilization of substrate from different categories may indicate either intrinsic physiological trade‐offs for the uptake and utilization of substrates from different categories, or the accumulation of conditionally neutral mutations. Divergence in substrate use accompanies genetic divergence at all spatial scales in S. paradoxus and may contribute to race formation and speciation

Influence of host phylogeny and water physicochemistry on microbial assemblages of the fish skin microbiome

This is the final version. Available on open access from Oxford University Press via the DOI in this recordThe skin of fish contains a diverse microbiota that has symbiotic functions with the host, facilitating pathogen exclusion, immune system priming, and nutrient degradation. The composition of fish skin microbiomes varies across species and in response to a variety of stressors, however, there has been no systematic analysis across these studies to evaluate how these factors shape fish skin microbiomes. Here, we examined 1922 fish skin microbiomes from 36 studies that included 98 species and nine rearing conditions to investigate associations between fish skin microbiome, fish species, and water physiochemical factors. Proteobacteria, particularly the class Gammaproteobacteria, were present in all marine and freshwater fish skin microbiomes. Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, Ralstonia, Sphingomonas and Flavobacterium were the most abundant genera within freshwater fish skin microbiomes, and Alteromonas, Photobacterium, Pseudoalteromonas, Psychrobacter and Vibrio were the most abundant in saltwater fish. Our results show that different culturing (rearing) environments have a small but significant effect on the skin bacterial community compositions. Water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, and salinity significantly correlated with differences in beta-diversity but not necessarily alpha-diversity. To improve study comparability on fish skin microbiomes, we provide recommendations for approaches to the analyses of sequencing data and improve study reproducibility.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC

Why is it difficult to implement e-health initiatives? A qualitative study

&lt;b&gt;Background&lt;/b&gt; The use of information and communication technologies in healthcare is seen as essential for high quality and cost-effective healthcare. However, implementation of e-health initiatives has often been problematic, with many failing to demonstrate predicted benefits. This study aimed to explore and understand the experiences of implementers - the senior managers and other staff charged with implementing e-health initiatives and their assessment of factors which promote or inhibit the successful implementation, embedding, and integration of e-health initiatives.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Methods&lt;/b&gt; We used a case study methodology, using semi-structured interviews with implementers for data collection. Case studies were selected to provide a range of healthcare contexts (primary, secondary, community care), e-health initiatives, and degrees of normalization. The initiatives studied were Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) in secondary care, a Community Nurse Information System (CNIS) in community care, and Choose and Book (C&#38;B) across the primary-secondary care interface. Implementers were selected to provide a range of seniority, including chief executive officers, middle managers, and staff with 'on the ground' experience. Interview data were analyzed using a framework derived from Normalization Process Theory (NPT).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Results&lt;/b&gt; Twenty-three interviews were completed across the three case studies. There were wide differences in experiences of implementation and embedding across these case studies; these differences were well explained by collective action components of NPT. New technology was most likely to 'normalize' where implementers perceived that it had a positive impact on interactions between professionals and patients and between different professional groups, and fit well with the organisational goals and skill sets of existing staff. However, where implementers perceived problems in one or more of these areas, they also perceived a lower level of normalization.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Conclusions&lt;/b&gt; Implementers had rich understandings of barriers and facilitators to successful implementation of e-health initiatives, and their views should continue to be sought in future research. NPT can be used to explain observed variations in implementation processes, and may be useful in drawing planners' attention to potential problems with a view to addressing them during implementation planning