Effects of Ergot Alkaloids from Claviceps purpurea on Sperm Characteristics and Prolactin Concentration in Yearling and Mature Angus Bulls

Ergot alkaloid contamination of livestock feed is a growing concern in western Canada. There are reports on ergot alkaloid contamination from tall fescue in the United States, but few studies of effects of ergot alkaloid contamination from cereal crops, grains, and grasses. The overall objective of this dissertation was to examine effects of ergot alkaloid-contaminated feed on reproduction in Canadian bulls and to ascertain whether current limits for ergot alkaloids in Canadian national feed regulations are adequate. In the first study, our objective was to determine whether feeding yearling Aberdeen Angus bulls with the highest permissible Canadian limit of ergot alkaloids (~3 mg/kg of daily dry matter intake, DMI; 60µg ergot alkaloid/kg body weight, daily) for 9 weeks would affect sperm characteristics and plasma prolactin concentrations. Plasma prolactin concentrations decreased markedly (mean ± SEM, 16.74 ± 3.70 in Exposure and 33.42 ± 3.08 ng/mL in Post-Exposure periods; P<0.01; n=7) compared to Control (67.54 ± 21.47 and 42.59 ± 15.06 ng/mL; n=7). Ergot treatment did not affect (P0.17) body weight gain, sperm concentration, sperm count/ejaculate, motility or percent live sperm. However, averaged over the exposure and post-exposure durations, scrotal circumference was 2.7% smaller (P=0.02) in the Ergot group. Progressive motility remained unchanged from 59.92 ± 2.31% in Exposure to 59.61 ± 2.59% in Post-Exposure periods, compared to a marked increase in Control (61.42 ± 1.60% to 67.52 ± 1.47%; P=0.02). Straight-line sperm velocity decreased (-3.15 ± 1.53 µm/s) from exposure to post-exposure periods in Ergot group (P=0.04) versus an increase (2.96 ± 2.17 µm/s) in Control. Midpiece defects decreased from Exposure to Post-exposure periods in the Control group, but remained unchanged in the Ergot group (trt*age, P<0.01). Ergot feeding reduced proportion of sperm with medium mitochondrial potential (Ergot: 22.65 ± 0.98%, Control: 24.35 ± 1.05%, P=0.04). In conclusion, Ergot fed at the Canadian permissible limit for 9-wk resulted in a 4-fold decrease in plasma prolactin concentrations. Semen end points were not significantly affected, although there were subtle effects on progressive motility, midpiece defects and mitochondrial membrane potential. Results supported our hypothesis that prolonged low-level ergot will adversely affect plasma prolactin concentrations, and semen end points were partially affected, consistent with similar work on fescue toxicosis. In the second study, our objectives were to determine if feeding mature and yearling Angus bulls ergot alkaloids (from Claviceps purpurea) within the Canadian permissible limit (~3 mg/kg) affect post-thaw sperm quality. In Experiment 1, mature Angus bulls consumed ergot alkaloids (~1 and ~2 mg/kg of daily dry matter intake (DMI); n=8 and n=6 bulls, respectively) for 61 d, with semen collected and cryopreserved bi-weekly. In Experiment 2, yearling Angus bulls (n=7/group) were fed placebo or ergot alkaloids (3.4 mg/kg of DMI) daily for 9 wk, with semen collected and cryopreserved weekly. All frozen semen was assessed 0 and 2 h post-thaw. In Experiment 1, post-thaw total and progressive sperm motilities decreased (P<0.05) from pre-exposure to exposure periods, then rebounded. During exposure, average path velocity (VAP) and straight-line velocity (VSL) decreased (P≤0.01) at 0 h compared to pre-exposure and subsequently rebounded. Live sperm with intact acrosomes at 2 h post-thaw was affected by ergot (P=0.01). Medium mitochondrial membrane potential increased (P≤0.01) during exposure compared to pre-exposure and subsequently decreased. In Experiment 2 on yearling bulls, total and progressive sperm motilities at 0 and 2 h increased (P≤0.01) steadily throughout the study. During post-exposure, curvilinear velocity (VCL), VAP and VSL at 0 h increased (P≤0.01), whereas VSL at 2 h increased (P≤0.01) from pre-exposure to exposure to post-exposure. Live sperm with an intact acrosome increased (P≤0.01) at both 0 and 2 h during post-exposure. Medium mitochondrial membrane potential increased (P≤0.01) from pre-exposure to exposure, followed by a slight decrease in post-exposure. Our hypothesis is partially supported in mature Angus bulls , with only transient effects of ergot on sperm motilities and velocities after cryopreservation. Post-thaw sperm characteristics in yearling bulls underwent expected age-related improvements, with any effects of ergot alkaloids potentially masked by sexual maturation. Overall, in both studies, results partially supported our hypotheses that ergot has no detectable long-term adverse effect on fresh or post-thaw sperm characteristics in yearling or mature bulls. This work will provide important evidence for producers working with ergot-contaminated grain or ergot-exposed cattle

Chronic HIV-1 Infection Frequently Fails to Protect against Superinfection

Reports of HIV-1 superinfection (re-infection) have demonstrated that the immune response generated against one strain of HIV-1 does not always protect against other strains. However, studies to determine the incidence of HIV-1 superinfection have yielded conflicting results. Furthermore, few studies have attempted to identify superinfection cases occurring more than a year after initial infection, a time when HIV-1-specific immune responses would be most likely to have developed. We screened a cohort of high-risk Kenyan women for HIV-1 superinfection by comparing partial gag and envelope sequences over a 5-y period beginning at primary infection. Among 36 individuals, we detected seven cases of superinfection, including cases in which both viruses belonged to the same HIV-1 subtype, subtype A. In five of these cases, the superinfecting strain was detected in only one of the two genome regions examined, suggesting that recombination frequently occurs following HIV-1 superinfection. In addition, we found that superinfection occurred throughout the course of the first infection: during acute infection in two cases, between 1–2 y after infection in three cases, and as late as 5 y after infection in two cases. Our results indicate that superinfection commonly occurs after the immune response against the initial infection has had time to develop and mature. Implications from HIV-1 superinfection cases, in which natural re-exposure leads to re-infection, will need to be considered in developing strategies for eliciting protective immunity to HIV-1

A Critical Analysis Of Collaborative And Disruptive Digital-Driven Built Environment Education

The Covid-19 pandemic has driven the teaching and learning provisions more towards virtual platforms, exposing lack of resilience and technology preparedness. This study aims to provide a critical appraisal of existing pedagogical studies on built environment (e.g., Building Information Modelling or BIM) challenging the opportunism and agency theories in response towards remote education provision provoked by the pandemic. The study consists of critical review of two literature samples, namely how the education sector as a whole has been responding to the pandemic, and the digitalisation-based pedagogy in built environment especially how the pedagogy addresses the pandemic. The review of the second literature sample evaluates longitudinally how BIM-based built environment education had evolved. A conceptual framework incorporating multiple factors from the review of the two literature samples is finally proposed. These factors include educational theories (e.g., Bloom’s Taxonomy), curriculum development addressing assessment, student experience, collaborative learning, delivery approaches, and teaching methods. This review-based study not only provides an overview of the digital built environment pedagogical work in higher education, but also contests the opportunism response to remote or blended learning and how the post-pandemic era could embrace the remote delivery-platforms to engender a variety of pedagogical principles, for example, cross-disciplinary team-based information sharing, experiential learning, and project-based learning. The findings of this study represent a barometer and roadmap for measuring the resilience of higher education and built environment programmes towards pandemic and technological disruptions

An Investigation into the Critical Factors of on-site Waste Segregation in the UK Construction and Demolition Sector.

This paper provides an in-depth exploration into critical factors affecting the use of on-site waste segregation strategies in the UK C&D market. Utilising data from two separate survey questionnaires; this study confirms usage of on-site segregation strategies by many UK contractors where physical site space and project budgets allow. However, through assessment of stakeholder perceptions, this paper also identifies several key barriers that are impeding overall effectiveness. Amongst many factors, this study indicates how issues such as poor attitude and a lack of knowledge of the benefits amongst workers, could be having a profound effect on successful adaptation of ground level recycling initiatives. This research project then finishes by ranking existent barriers by importance, with the goal of suggesting proposals for overcoming these challenges. Ultimately, weighing the critical factors and prospective barriers to on-site segregation in the UK C&D sector, this study makes recommendation of multiple incentives, but suggests that enhanced training initiatives could be a crucial element for instigating long-term industry improvement in respect of recycling and on-site waste segregation strategies

From Burnout to Wellness: Using Appreciative Inquiry to Shift MidMichigan Health towards a Strengths-based Perspective

Over half of providers in the healthcare field experience burnout. Burnout syndrome is defined by the prolonged psychological and physiological response to chronic and interpersonal job stressors, and can result in a number of symptoms that negatively affect workplace morale and performance, including physical exhaustion, job dissatisfaction, and feelings of hopelessness. MidMichigan Health (MMH), a division of the University of Michigan Health system that serves nearly 1 million people in Michigan, has created the Provider Wellness and Burnout Council (PWBC) to address issues of burnout within the organization. To build on their initial work, we propose a long-term intervention based on the science of physician well-being, appreciative inquiry, goal-setting, and employee engagement. This intervention is intended to promote well-being among MMH providers through the creation of a clear, robust positive vision for provider well-being that involves all organization stakeholders throughout the development and execution of this vision. In light of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent strain on our nation’s healthcare resources, we have also proposed a short-term intervention for addressing provider well-being by sharing with providers easy, evidence-based resilience interventions

Non-invasive single-bunch matching and emittance monitor

On-line monitoring of beam quality for high brightness beams is only possible using non-invasive instruments. For matching measurements, very few such instruments are available. One candidate is a quadrupole pick-up. Therefore, a new type of quadrupole pick-up has been developed for the 26 GeV Proton Synchrotron (PS) at CERN, and a measurement system consisting of two such pick-ups is now installed in this accelerator. Using the information from these pick-ups, it is possible to determine both injection matching and emittance in the horizontal and vertical planes, for each bunch separately. This paper presents the measurement method and some of the results from the first year of use, as well as comparisons with other measurement methods.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures; added figure, minor textual additions; To be resubmitted to Phys. Rev. ST-A

Reliable Self-Deployment of Cloud Applications

International audienceCloud applications consist of a set of interconnected software elements distributed over several virtual machines, themselves hosted on remote physical servers. Most existing solutions for deploying such applications require human intervention to configure parts of the system, do not respect functional dependencies among elements that must be respected when starting them, and do not handle virtual machine failures that can occur when deploying an application. This paper presents a self-deployment protocol that was designed to automatically configure a set of software elements to be deployed on different virtual machines. This protocol works in a decentralized way, i.e., there is no need for a centralized server. It also starts the software elements in a certain order, respecting important architectural invariants. This protocol supports virtual machine and network failures, and always succeeds in deploying an application when faced with a finite number of failures. Designing such highly parallel management protocols is difficult, therefore formal modeling techniques and verification tools were used for validation purposes. The protocol was implemented in Java and was used to deploy industrial applications

Do people who consciously attend to their movements have more self-reported knee pain? An exploratory cross-sectional study

Objectives: This study explored the relationship between propensity for conscious control of movement (assessed by the Movement-Specific Reinvestment Scale) and self-reported knee pain. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: General population. Subjects: Adults aged 18 to 55 years of age. Measures: Participants completed the movement-specific reinvestment scale and a self-report questionnaire on knee pain at the same time on one occasion. Results: Data was collected on 101 adults of whom 34 (33.7%) self-reported knee pain. Mean scores on the conscious motor processing subscale of the movement-specific reinvestment scale, but not the movement self-consciousness subscale, were significantly higher for participants who reported knee pain within the previous year compared with those who did not (mean difference 3.03; t-test 2.66, df = 97, P = 0.009; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77 to 5.30). The association between self-reported knee pain and propensity for conscious motor processing was still observed, even after controlling for movement self-consciousness subscale scores, age, gender and body mass index (adjusted odds ratio 1.16, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.30)

Screening of systemic fungicides and biochemicals against seed borne mycoflora associated with Momordica charantia

Study of seed borne fungi associated with bitter gourd seeds were conducted under in vitro condition in Department of Plant Pathology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. Two hundred (200) seed samples of Momordica charantia (bitter gourd) were collected from southern regions of Punjab province (Multan, Khanewal and Bahawalpur). Six fungal species were isolated out of which Aspergillus flavus showed highest percentage that is, 27.3% followed by Rhizopus stolonifer 17.98%, Alternaria alternata 13.34%, Aspergillus niger 5.23%, Myrothecium roridum 7.37% and Fusarium solani 6.69%. More number of fungi was observed by using blotter paper technique when compared with agar plate method. Of the three systemic fungicides used include ridomil gold MZ, bavistin, and score; and two low cost chemicals such as salicylic acid and boric acid. Ridomil gold MZ gave good results at all concentrations (20, 30 and 40 mg/10 ml) against all the isolated fungi compared with other fungicides. Salicyclic acid gave the best results against isolated fungi compared to boric acid.Key words: Myrothecium roridum, bitter gourd, salicyclic acid, southern Punjab, bavistin, Pakistan