Pleistocene Bats (Late Irvingtonian and Late Rancholabrean) from Nuckolls and Sherman Counties, Nebraska

We document rare finds of fossil bats from two localities representing the Pleistocene epoch in southern and central Nebraska, Albert Ahrens locality (No-104, late Irvingtonian age, Middle Pleistocene), Nuckolls County, and Litchfield (Sm-102, late Rancholabrean age, latest Pleistocene), Sherman County. The Albert Ahrens local fauna with strong boreal influence has produced two bats, Lasiurus cf. borealis and Cf. Myotis sp. The Litchfield local fauna, also showing a strong boreal influence, has yielded two bats, Eptesicus fuscus and Cf. Myotis, among a diverse Pleistocene fauna of small vertebrates and a pollen record indicating a boreal mixed conifer and deciduous woodland, contrasting with the grassland and mixed grass prairie of the area in historic times prior to anthropogenic conversion. The vertebrate fauna from the Litchfield site can be assigned to the Rancholabrean land mammal age based on the presence of Bison, on faunal correlation, and on several extralimital taxa of small mammals. The fossil bat taxa are widespread in North America and still extant in Nebraska today; their glacial stage occurrences in a nonkarstic (caveless) region is consistent with previous interpretations of the Albert Ahrens and Litchfield local faunas as indicating cool equable climates and wooded parkland environments. These are the first bats to be reported from each of the respective paleofaunas

‘Salesmen of the Will to Want’: Advertising and its Critics in Britain 1951–1967

Through the 1950s and 1960s, a sustained public debate about advertising's economic and social role occurred. This was a debate dominated by the critics of advertising. Across a swathe of educated opinion, an almost obsessive fascination with and scrutiny of advertising flourished. The arrival of commercial television in 1955 and with it television advertising stirred new popular, as well as elite, anxieties. For its critics amongst the viewing public, 'commercials' spoilt their enjoyment of television: there were too many adverts, they interrupted programmes and they were repetitive. These negative feelings towards their practice were the cause of considerable concern for the representatives of the advertising industry. They had good grounds to be concerned. In a period in which advertising was subject to criticism from both an increasingly influential consumer's movement and with politicians prepared to use the law to tax and regulate commercial practices, the representatives of advertising saw themselves in a constant struggle to resist and limit the effects of government intervention in the operation of their business. How they did this and the nature of both the charges made against them and their defence of advertising form the focus of this article. © 2010 Taylor & Francis

Energy Efficient Industrialized Housing Research Program: Summary FY 1992 Research Activities

90 pagesThis report summarizes research results from tasks conducted from March 1992 to February 1993, the fourth year of the Energy Efficient Industrialized Housing Research Program. Detailed descriptions of tasks, methods, and results are available in the reports listed in section 13 of this document.U.S. Department of Energy Contract No. DE-FC01-89CE2205

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination reduces the severity and progression of tuberculosis in badgers

Control of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in cattle has proven particularly challenging where reservoirs of infection exist in wildlife populations. In Britain and Ireland, control is hampered by a reservoir of infection in Eurasian badgers (Meles meles). Badger culling has positive and negative effects on bovine TB in cattle and is difficult, costly and controversial. Here we show that Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination of captive badgers reduced the progression, severity and excretion of Mycobacterium bovis infection after experimental challenge. In a clinical field study, BCG vaccination of free-living badgers reduced the incidence of positive serological test results by 73.8 per cent. In common with other species, BCG did not appear to prevent infection of badgers subjected to experimental challenge, but did significantly reduce the overall disease burden. BCG vaccination of badgers could comprise an important component of a comprehensive programme of measures to control bovine TB in cattle

How widespread and important is N2 fixation in the North Atlantic Ocean?

The spatial extent of N2 fixation in the Atlantic Ocean is examined by determining the isotopic composition of N in suspended particulate organic nitrogen (?15N PONsusp). The samples were collected from zonal and meridional transects of the Atlantic Ocean during a 3-year period. There is a consistent depleted ?15N PONsusp signal extending over the center of the northern subtropical gyre, which partly coincides with a region where the tracer N* increases westward following the gyre circulation. This nonconservative behavior of N* implies that N2 fixation is responsible for the depleted ?15N PONsusp. A mixing model suggests that N2 fixation over parts of the northern gyre provides up to 74% of the N utilized by phytoplankton. However, since the PONsusp represents only a small fraction of the total N pool, N2 fixation probably only plays a minor role in supplying new N to the euphotic zone in the surface waters of the northern subtropical gyre