Investigation of the poisoning of cattle consuming fescue grass

Experimental results and field observations in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia indicate that fescue contains a toxic agent that is detrimental to cattle of both beef and dairy breeds. Tall fescue grass (Festuca arundinacea) has been recommended and used extensively as permanent pasture in Tennessee, Kentucky, and other states for the past several years. The acreage of fescue grass, in spite of the possible detrimental effects, is still increasing. Observations at the Middle Tennessee Experiment Station, at Alcoa, and possibly at Calderwood, as well as correspondence with other stations, indicate that the disease now known as fescue poisoning may be a serious problem to some Tennessee cattlemen and dairy farmers. Tha fescue problem in livestock feeding is one of increasing importance. Fescue poisoning could develop into a problem of major importance. It is significant that fescue lameness has been noted on farms where there is a heavy soil or a soil heavily fertilized. Symptoms of fescue poisoning in cattle area: loss of condition, rough or unshed hair coat, humped back, loss of coordination of tha hind limbs, and loss of hair on the hind limbs on an area extending from the Coronary band about one-half of the way to the hook joint. ln this same area, inflammation of the skin and a general swelling of the tissues are sometimes noted. In advanced stages of the disease, there may or may not be severe lesions about the hoof, which makes it very difficult for the animal to stand. Symptoms of this condition are not consistent. In view of these facts, and experiment was set up in an attempt to experimentally reproduce the disease and to study the clinical and hematological pictures in this disease

[The poets and poems...]

Editorial note by guest editor Allen De Loac

Systems of Support: The Educators with Disabilities Caucus and Its Mentoring Program

In the field of education, critics have described the experiences of beginning teaching as “sink or swim, trial by fire, or boot camp experiences.

Least squares splines with free knots: global optimization approach

Splines with free knots have been extensively studied in regard to calculating the optimal knot positions. The dependence of the accuracy of approximation on the knot distribution is highly nonlinear, and optimisation techniques face a difficult problem of multiple local minima. The domain of the problem is a simplex, which adds to the complexity. We have applied a recently developed cutting angle method of deterministic global optimisation, which allows one to solve a wide class of optimisation problems on a simplex. The results of the cutting angle method are subsequently improved by local discrete gradient method. The resulting algorithm is sufficiently fast and guarantees that the global minimum has been reached. The results of numerical experiments are presented.<br /

A Search for Neutrinos from the Solar hep Reaction and the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

A search has been made for neutrinos from the hep reaction in the Sun and from the diffus

Quantifying K, U, and Th contents of marine sediments using shipboard natural gamma radiation spectra measured on DV JOIDES Resolution

During International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) expeditions, shipboard-generated data provide the first insights into the cored sequences. The natural gamma radiation (NGR) of the recovered material, for example, is routinely measured on the ocean drilling research vessel DV JOIDES Resolution. At present, only total NGR counts are readily available as shipboard data, although full NGR spectra (counts as a function of gamma-ray energy level) are produced and archived. These spectra contain unexploited information, as one can estimate the sedimentary contents of potassium (K), thorium (Th), and uranium (U) from the characteristic gamma-ray energies of isotopes in the ^(40)K, ^(232)Th, and ^(238)U radioactive decay series. Dunlea et al. [2013] quantified K, Th and U contents in sediment from the South Pacific Gyre by integrating counts over specific energy levels of the NGR spectrum. However, the algorithm used in their study is unavailable to the wider scientific community due to commercial proprietary reasons. Here, we present a new MATLAB algorithm for the quantification of NGR spectra that is transparent and accessible to future NGR users. We demonstrate the algorithm's performance by comparing its results to shore-based inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), inductively coupled plasma-emission spectrometry (ICP-ES), and quantitative wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses. Samples for these comparisons come from eleven sites (U1341, U1343, U1366-U1369, U1414, U1428-U1430, U1463) cored in two oceans during five expeditions. In short, our algorithm rapidly produces detailed high-quality information on sediment properties during IODP expeditions at no extra cost