West Nile Virus in Farmed Alligators

Seven alligators were submitted to the Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory for necropsy during two epizootics in the fall of 2001 and 2002. The alligators were raised in temperature-controlled buildings and fed a diet of horsemeat supplemented with vitamins and minerals. Histologic findings in the juvenile alligators were multiorgan necrosis, heterophilic granulomas, and heterophilic perivasculitis and were most indicative of septicemia or bacteremia. Histologic findings in a hatchling alligator were random foci of necrosis in multiple organs and mononuclear perivascular encephalitis, indicative of a viral cause. West Nile virus was isolated from submissions in 2002. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results on all submitted case samples were positive for West Nile virus for one of four cases associated with the 2001 epizootic and three of three cases associated with the 2002 epizootic. RT-PCR analysis was positive for West Nile virus in the horsemeat collected during the 2002 outbreak but negative in the horsemeat collected after the outbreak

Diversity of Lactase Persistence Alleles in Ethiopia:Signature of a Soft Selective Sweep

The persistent expression of lactase into adulthood in humans is a recent genetic adaptation that allows the consumption of milk from other mammals after weaning. In Europe, a single allele (-13910(∗)T, rs4988235) in an upstream region that acts as an enhancer to the expression of the lactase gene LCT is responsible for lactase persistence and appears to have been under strong directional selection in the last 5,000 years, evidenced by the widespread occurrence of this allele on an extended haplotype. In Africa and the Middle East, the situation is more complicated and at least three other alleles (-13907(∗)G, rs41525747; -13915(∗)G, rs41380347; -14010(∗)C, rs145946881) in the same LCT enhancer region can cause continued lactase expression. Here we examine the LCT enhancer sequence in a large lactose-tolerance-tested Ethiopian cohort of more than 350 individuals. We show that a further SNP, -14009T>G (ss 820486563), is significantly associated with lactose-digester status, and in vitro functional tests confirm that the -14009(∗)G allele also increases expression of an LCT promoter construct. The derived alleles in the LCT enhancer region are spread through several ethnic groups, and we report a greater genetic diversity in lactose digesters than in nondigesters. By examining flanking markers to control for the effects of mutation and demography, we further describe, from empirical evidence, the signature of a soft selective sweep

Электропривод переменного тока насоса Д200/36 подачи питьевой воды

Цель выпускной квалификационной работы - проектирование асинхронного электропривода центробежного насоса. Выпускная квалификационная работа выполнена с помощью программ MATLAB, Mathcad 14, MS Excel в текстовом редакторе MS Word и представлена на компакт - диске (в конверте на обороте обложки).The purpose of final qualifying work is the design of the asynchronous electric drive of centrifugal pump.Final qualifying work is done using MATLAB software, Mathcad 14, MS Excel to MS Word text editor and presented on the CD - ROM (in an envelope on the back cover)

World-wide distributions of lactase persistence alleles and the complex effects of recombination and selection

The genetic trait of lactase persistence (LP) is associated with at least five independent functional single nucleotide variants in a regulatory region about 14 kb upstream of the lactase gene [-13910*T (rs4988235), -13907*G (rs41525747), -13915*G (rs41380347), -14009*G (rs869051967) and -14010*C (rs145946881)]. These alleles have been inferred to have spread recently and present-day frequencies have been attributed to positive selection for the ability of adult humans to digest lactose without risk of symptoms of lactose intolerance. One of the inferential approaches used to estimate the level of past selection has been to determine the extent of haplotype homozygosity (EHH) of the sequence surrounding the SNP of interest. We report here new data on the frequencies of the known LP alleles in the 'Old World' and their haplotype lineages. We examine and confirm EHH of each of the LP alleles in relation to their distinct lineages, but also show marked EHH for one of the older haplotypes that does not carry any of the five LP alleles. The region of EHH of this (B) haplotype exactly coincides with a region of suppressed recombination that is detectable in families as well as in population data, and the results show how such suppression may have exaggerated haplotype-based measures of past selection

[Two Newspaper Clippings on NTIVEA and Nebraska Teleconference]

Two newspaper clippings, one from the Dallas Morning News and the other from the Plano Star Courier. They feature articles on the North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts and the Prairie Visions: Nebraska Consortium for Discipline-Based Art Education nation-wide teleconference "Schools, Museums, Art and Children: A Dialogue of States." The teleconference will discuss art and art education implementation in the school curriculum

Common Principles Embedded in Effective Adolescent HIV Prevention Programs

Each interpersonally delivered, evidence-based (EB) program for HIV prevention shares common features that aim to shift HIV risk behaviors. We used qualitative research methods to examine manuals from five EB programs for adolescents and identified 10 core principles embedded in each program’s activities. Principles reflect the stated goals and anticipated lessons in an activity. The principles were: Believe in your own worth and your right to a happy future; Commit to change; Distinguish fact from myth; Plan ahead and be prepared; Practice self-control; Know pleasurable alternatives to high risk activities; Negotiate verbally, not nonverbally; Evaluate options and consequences; Show concern for others; Choose to limit your own freedom; and Act to help others protect themselves. Focusing on common features rather than the unique properties of each EB program may allow community providers to have more flexibility and ownership in adapting EB programs, and may also facilitate development of new EB program

Common Principles Embedded in Effective Adolescent HIV Prevention Programs

Each interpersonally delivered, evidence-based (EB) program for HIV prevention shares common features that aim to shift HIV risk behaviors. We used qualitative research methods to examine manuals from five EB programs for adolescents and identified 10 core principles embedded in each program’s activities. Principles reflect the stated goals and anticipated lessons in an activity. The principles were: Believe in your own worth and your right to a happy future; Commit to change; Distinguish fact from myth; Plan ahead and be prepared; Practice self-control; Know pleasurable alternatives to high risk activities; Negotiate verbally, not nonverbally; Evaluate options and consequences; Show concern for others; Choose to limit your own freedom; and Act to help others protect themselves. Focusing on common features rather than the unique properties of each EB program may allow community providers to have more flexibility and ownership in adapting EB programs, and may also facilitate development of new EB program

The development of a convolutional neural network for the automatic detection of Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus covey calls

Abstract Passive acoustic monitoring using Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) is becoming a significant research tool for collecting large amounts of ecological data. Northern bobwhite Colinus virginianus is an economically important game bird whose declining populations are of conservation concern, so efforts to monitor bobwhite abundance using ARUs are being intensified. Yet, manual processing of ARU data is time consuming and often expensive, so developing automatic call detection methods is a key step in acoustic monitoring. We present here the first single species convolutional neural network (CNN) developed purely for automatic bobwhite covey call identification and classification. We demonstrate the value of meaningful data augmentation by including non‐target calls and background noise into our training dataset, as well as evaluating alternative CNN score thresholds and model extrapolation performance. We trained our CNN on 6,682 manually labeled covey calls across three groups of sites within the southeastern USA. Precision and AUC from both CNN classification and individual call detection was high (0.80–0.99), and our model showed strong extrapolation ability across site groups. However, extrapolation performance significantly decreased for sites that were more dissimilar to the training data set if our meaningful data augmentation process was omitted. Our CNN detected significantly more covey calls than manual labeling using Raven Pro software, and processing time was greatly reduced: a single one hour wav file can be now analyzed by the CNN in roughly eight seconds. We also demonstrate using a simple case study that extremely high variability in estimates of bobwhite site occupancy and detection are obtained depending on the method of acoustic data processing (manual versus CNN). Our results suggest that our CNN provides robust and time‐saving analysis of bobwhite covey call acoustic data and can be applied to future research and monitoring projects with high confidence in the performance of the model