A Report of Pseudohermaphroditism in a Goat

According to Phillips, Brief, Sutton and Mills animals having gonads of one sex and the remaining genitalia resembling the other sex are called pseudohermaphrodites. If the gonads are testes, Young classifies the animal as a male pseudohermaphrodite. Crew reported hermaphroditism in a number of Toggenberg goats

Information for Operation of Water Supply Systems

Introduction: Water requirements increase as more people use more water for domestic purposes. The increase is augmented as technological advances add to the water needs of agriculture and industry. Additional urban landscaping adds further to the demand. Simultaneously, the same forces increase demands for flood control, hydrelectric power, and navigation; and a more urbanized population want more flows preserved for productive natural environments, recreational use, and aesthetic enjoyment. The response over the years to these growing demands on water resources has been to supply increasing amounts of water and greater levels of development for other purposes by building more projects, larger projects, multipurpose projects, and multiproject systems. The construction and operation of these facilities have changed the flow and water quality regimes of our rivers. Some majore river basins are now approaching full utilization of their runoff (U.S. Water Resources Council 1978). As the opportunities for water project construction are exhausted, the name of the game shifts to systems operation for more precise water delivery when and where it is needed. More rapid and reliable data collection can provide a better information base for determing need. Greater benefits can then be achieved by applying optimization models on a real time basis and promtly using the results in automated control systems. Fortunately, the needs for more carefully controlled water resources systems operation come at a time when advances in electronics are offering a new surveillance and control technologies. Greater efficiency can be achieved by more rapid measurement and thorough analysis for application of the informatino that has been used in the past as a basis for systems operation. However, full advantage of the capabilities of the electronic age can only be achieved by gathering information that has previously been impossible or impractical to obtain, developing more comprehensive analytic models, and applying the results with more precise automated control systems. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate thinking about what can be done. As a starting point, we will gather ideas by diagraming the natural cycle that supplies our water, identifying losses and inefficiencies within it that might be reduced through more effective use of information for operating purposes, and examining existing reservoir operation procedures. The resulting list of potential applications for information and control systems provide direction for refining current automated operating systems. We can end by dreaming about a fully automated system for irrigation water delivery

Winter Wheat Seed Size and Plantic Depth

Because of the drought, winter wheat growers need to be especially watchful of the seed they plant this fall. Seed size influences seedling emergence, vigor, and ultimately yield potential. Varieties differ in average seed size. Within a variety, planting larger sized seed usually results in higher yields. But most seed wheat kernels are small this year

Reproduction and Dispersal of Biological Soil Crust Organisms

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) consist of a diverse and highly integrated community of organisms that effectively colonize and collectively stabilize soil surfaces. BSCs vary in terms of soil chemistry and texture as well as the environmental parameters that combine to support unique combinations of organisms—including cyanobacteria dominated, lichen-dominated, and bryophyte-dominated crusts. The list of organismal groups that make up BSC communities in various and unique combinations include—free living, lichenized, and mycorrhizal fungi, chemoheterotrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria, diazotrophic bacteria and archaea, eukaryotic algae, and bryophytes. The various BSC organismal groups demonstrate several common characteristics including—desiccation and extreme temperature tolerance, production of various soil binding chemistries, a near exclusive dependency on asexual reproduction, a pattern of aerial dispersal over impressive distances, and a universal vulnerability to a wide range of human-related perturbations. With this publication, we provide literature-based insights as to how each organismal group contributes to the formation and maintenance of the structural and functional attributes of BSCs, how they reproduce, and how they are dispersed. We also emphasize the importance of effective application of molecular and microenvironment sampling and assessment tools in order to provide cogent and essential answers that will allow scientists and land managers to better understand and manage the biodiversity and functional relationships of soil crust communities

Four Years of Airborne Measurements of Wildfire Emissions in California, with a Focus on the Evolution of Emissions During the Soberanes Megafire

Biomass burning is an important source of trace gases and particles which can influence air quality on local, regional, and global scales. With wildfire events increasing due to changes in land use, increasing population, and climate change, characterizing wildfire emissions and their evolution is vital. In this work we report in situ airborne measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), water vapor (H2O), ozone (O3), and formaldehyde (HCHO) from nine wildfire events in California between 2013 and 2016, which were sampled as part of the Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) based at NASA Ames Research Center. One of those fires, the Soberanes Megafire, began on 22 July 2016 and burned for three months. During that time, five flights were executed to sample emissions near and downwind of the Soberanes wildfire. In situ data are used to determine enhancement ratios (ERs), or excess mixing ratio relative to CO2, as well as assess O3 production from the fire. Changes in the emissions as a function of fire evolution are explored. Air quality impacts downwind of the fire are addressed using ground-based monitoring site data, satellite smoke products, and the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) photochemical grid model

Grapevine yellows: Comparison of different procedures for DNA extraction and amplification with PCR for routine diagnosis of phytoplasmas in grapevine

In order to devise a procedure to be used as reference for detection of grapevine phytoplasmas and monitoring of Flavescence dorée, 12 combinations comprising three methods of plant DNA extraction and 4 procedures for amplification in polymerase chain reaction of phytoplasma DNA were examined in parallel using the same plant tissues infected with phytoplasmas. In a first series tissues of periwinkles (Catharanthus roseus) infected with phytoplasma isolates of the Elm yellows group (16SrV) and maintained in the greenhouse, were used. In a second series tissues of grapevines (Vitis vinifera) naturally infected with Flavescence dorée or Palatinate grapevine yellows phytoplasma were used. The DNA preparations obtained with each of the three extraction procedures were used undiluted or serially diluted, as target DNA in the 4 nested-polymerase chain reactions. The results showed differences in the efficiency among different methods of extraction as well as in the sensitivity among the DNA amplification procedures, which improved when DNA extracted from field grapevines was diluted. After additional comparative validation on numerous field-collected samples of GY-affected grapevines, the quickest extraction procedure was selected for use in routine diagnosis, with nested-PCR amplification either of ribosomal DNA or of the FD9 DNA fragment specific for Flavescence dorée and other 16SrV group phytoplasmas

Global and regional effects of the photochemistry of CH_3O_2NO_2: evidence from ARCTAS

Using measurements from the NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) experiment, we show that methyl peroxy nitrate (CH_3O_2NO_2) is present in concentrations of ~5–15 pptv in the springtime arctic upper troposphere. We investigate the regional and global effects of CH_3O_2NO_2 by including its chemistry in the GEOS-Chem 3-D global chemical transport model. We find that at temperatures below 240 K inclusion of CH_3O_2NO_2 chemistry results in decreases of up to ~20 % in NO_x, ~20 % in N_2O_5, ~5 % in HNO3, ~2 % in ozone, and increases in methyl hydrogen peroxide of up to ~14 %. Larger changes are observed in biomass burning plumes lofted to high altitude. Additionally, by sequestering NO_x at low temperatures, CH_3O_2NO_2 decreases the cycling of HO_2 to OH, resulting in a larger upper tropospheric HO_2 to OH ratio. These results may impact some estimates of lightning NO_x sources as well as help explain differences between models and measurements of upper tropospheric composition

Fiber Optic Sensor Response to High Levels of Fat in Cream

A light backscatter technique using optical fibers to deliver and receive light was investigated for measuring the milkfat content of unhomogenized cream. Light backscatter through cream at wavelengths of 450 to 900 nm was measured for fiber separation distances from 2 to 6.5 mm and for cream containing 10 to ~40 weight percent (wt%) milkfat. Unhomogenized cream (~40 wt% milkfat) was mixed with skim milk (~0.05 wt% milkfat) to yield samples with five different milkfat levels. Three optical response models were tested for correlation with milkfat content: one using the light intensity measurement at a single separation distance, the second using the ratio of the light intensity at two distances, and a third using the light intensity as a function of separation distance based on the backscatter of light in a particulate solution. The calibration equations from all three methods were used to predict milkfat content in the evaluation samples with root mean square errors (RMSEs) of 1.5 to 2.0 wt%. Statistical analysis did not find a significant difference between the three methods. For simplicity, using the ratio of the intensities measured and two different separation distances is attractive for further sensor design

Tumor Recurrence Incidence Following Hand-Assisted Laparoscopic Nephroureterectomy

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the incidence of tumor recurrence following hand-assisted laparoscopic nephroureterectomy (HALNU) for the treatment of upper tract urothelial carcinoma. METHODS: The medical records of consecutive patients who underwent HALNU by a single surgeon (CW) between October 2001 and May 2005 were reviewed. The ureter was clipped before kidney dissection to prevent distal migration of tumor. Following liberation of the kidney, the bladder cuff and intramural ureter were excised by using a Collings knife under cystoscopic guidance. RESULTS: Ten patients were identified. The primary location of disease was confined to the intrarenal collecting system. Eight high-grade (HG) and 2 low-grade (LG) tumors were removed, with pT3 (6), pT2 (1), pT1 (1), and pTa (2) disease. The patient having a LG pTa urothelial carcinoma developed pulmonary metastasis 20 months following surgery and survived an additional 26 months. Two patients, each having a HG pT3 tumor, developed a urothelial carcinoma in the bladder contralateral to the site of ureteral excision. At a mean follow-up of 41 months, there has been no evidence of tumor recurrence in the pelvis. CONCLUSION: Our technique of HALNU does not appear to harbor an increased risk for urothelial carcinoma recurrence

Production of Aflatoxin on Damaged Corn Under Controlled Environmental Conditions

Aflatoxin B1 production by Aspergillus flavus (NRRL 6432) was determined on physically damaged corn stored at 35,25 and 20°C and at relative humidities of 97 and 92%. Production at lower relative humidities of 80 and 85% were also tested at 25°C. Production lag times were significantly different for all test conditions. Lag times ranged from 46 h at 97% relative humidity and 35°C to 173. 8 h at 20°C and 92% relative humidity. Aflatoxin B, concentration doubled every 6 to 10 hours after a level of 10 ppb had been reached. Production rate constants were not significantly different between temperatures at 97% relative humidity; however, significant differences in the production rate constant were observed between 97 and 92% relative humidities evaluated at 25°C and between 25 and 35 °C evaluated at 92% relative humidity