Occasional Publications on Northern Life, No. 04

The need to exchange information on research in reindeer and caribou diseases became apparent to investigators attending the Second International Reindeer/Caribou Symposium in Roros, Norway, in 1979. Initially, bibliographies were to be exchanged by being submitted to and subsequently distributed by workers at the University of Alaska. When the bibliographies were submitted, it seemed sensible to computerize the lists to facilitate searches for specific information in the future. An apparently simple task became amazingly complex. This is the resultant collection of publications by reindeer/caribou disease researchers. Because researchers in wildlife diseases tend to work on more than one species or topic, out of interest or necessity, a decision was made to include all of a person's references rather than to limit them to strictly reindeer/caribou diseases. The authors hope this will provide a good basis for exchange of information among all those interested in reindeer/caribou diseases

Circular 72

Orphan reindeer fawns are often observed at summer handlings. Sometimes an abandoned fawn is found on the range. These fawns can be saved and raised for pets or for sale as live animals. There is an increasing demand for live reindeer to be shipped to locations outside Alaska. Tame reindeer adapted to a commercial diet can be a potential source of income for the herder as well as a rewarding project for the family. The following information is intended for reindeer herders in Alaska who do not have ready access to modem veterinary facilities or care

Effects of live Brucella abortus strain 19 vaccine on reindeer later challenge exposed with Brucella suis type 4

Twelve reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) were vaccinated with Brucella abortus strain 19 vaccine and challenge exposed with B. suis type 4 two and one-half months later during mid-gestation. An additional 10 reindeer served as non-vaccinated controls. A sharp serologic titer response was observed in both vaccinates and controls. Brucella suis type 4 was isolated from tissues and blood from most controls (8 of 10, and 7 of 10 respectively). Seven of 11 vaccinated cows aborted, gave birth to weak fawns that died, or were not pregnant at the completion of the experiment. Brucella suis type 4 was isolated from the tissue of 4 of 12 vaccinates at necropsy. It was concluded that, under the conditions of this experiment, B. abortus strain 19 vaccine in reindeer did not provide adequate protection against challenge exposure with virulent B. suis type 4 organisms

Effects of live Brucella abortus strain 19 vaccine on reindeer

Twenty female and seven male reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) were vaccinated subcutaneously in the right shoulder with a 1-ml dose of approximately 1.2 x 108 colony forming units of Brucella abortus strain 19, the standard reduced dose for cattle. An additional three females and one male served as non-vaccinated sentinels. Brucella abortus strain 19 was isolated from two of three fetuses aborted by vaccinated females during the first of two fawning seasons. Serologic titers to brucellosis in the vaccinates peaked by 46 days post-vaccination. Shedding of B. abortus strain 19 by vaccinated animals was indicated by seroconversion of all four sentinels. Titers in the sentinels were low and sporadic. Brucella abortus strain 19 was isolated from the tissues and fetus of a pregnant female 51 days post-vaccination and from the carpal joint of another female 7 months post-vaccination. Based on these results and a previous challenge experiment, it was concluded that Brucella abortus strain 19 is not a suitable vaccine to use in a brucellosis control program in reindeer

Seasonal variation in the major cation (Na, K, Mg, and Ca) content of the water of Lago Camaleão, an Amazonian floodplain- lake near Manaus, Brazil

Changes in the major cation content (Na, K, Mg and Ca) of the Lago Camaleão, one of the várzea lakes on an island in the Rio Solimões/Amazonas near Manaus were followed during one year. Comparative changes were also followed in the Rio Solimões. Changes in the electrolyte content of the lake water, presented as total maior cation content, are extremely great during the period of investigation. Nov. 1980 to Nov. 1981, and show a pronounced annual periodicity. During the low water period (Oct. 1981) the ion concentration reached its maximum and was more than 15 times higher than in the river at the same time. With rising water level, in flow of comparatively electrolyte poor water from the river and simultaneously increasing rain fall dilute the water in the lake. In the following months there is a relatively sudden reduction of the electrolyte content of the lake water. By the time of high water the levels have fallen almost to those of the river. With falling water level concentrations of major cations at first increase very slowly followed by an abrupt change within one month, from approx. 20 mg major cations/l to approx. 230 mg/l. Investigation of different lake sections showed that the electrolyte content is not uniform throughout the lake. Concentrations rise from the lake entrance to the inner part of the lake, so that the lake sections distant from the river are up to fifteen times as rich in electrolytes as the river itself. The changes in total ion content are accompanied by marked changes in the chemical composition of the lake water during the year, i. e. in the relative proportions of each of the four elements (Na, K, Mg and Ca). Greatest changes are shown by the element K. The deeper water of the lake during the high water period is richer in K probably due to the release of elements from the decomposition of K-rich terrestrial and aquatic macrophytes. The uptake of large quantities of nutrients from the system for the growth of macrophytic vegetation, the accumulation of nutrients in macrophytes and sediment, and the release of these nutrients during decomposition and resuspension are among the most important factors contributing to the electrolyte budget in the Lago Camaleão

On the Backbending Mechanism of 48^{48}Cr

The mechanism of backbending in $^{48}$Cr is investigated in terms of the Projected Shell Model and the Generator Coordinate Method. It is shown that both methods are reasonable shell model truncation schemes. These two quite different quantum mechanical approaches lead to a similar conclusion that the backbending is due to a band crossing involving an excited band which is built on simultaneously broken neutron and proton pairs in the ``intruder'' subshell $f_{7/2}$. It is pointed out that this type of band crossing is usually known to cause the second backbending in rare-earth nuclei.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Kinetics in one-dimensional lattice gas and Ising models from time-dependent density functional theory

Time-dependent density functional theory, proposed recently in the context of atomic diffusion and non-equilibrium processes in solids, is tested against Monte Carlo simulation. In order to assess the basic approximation of that theory, the representation of non-equilibrium states by a local equilibrium distribution function, we focus on one-dimensional lattice models, where all equilibrium properties can be worked exactly from the known free energy as a functional of the density. This functional determines the thermodynamic driving forces away from equilibrium. In our studies of the interfacial kinetics of atomic hopping and spin relaxation, we find excellent agreement with simulations, suggesting that the method is useful also for treating more complex problems.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Charge-density Waves Survive the Pauli Paramagnetic Limit

Measurements of the resistance of single crystals of (Per)$_2$Au(mnt)$_2$ have been made at magnetic fields $B$ of up to 45 T, exceeding the Pauli paramagnetic limit of $B_{\rm P}\approx 37$ T. The continued presence of non-linear charge-density wave electrodynamics at $B \geq 37$ T unambiguously establishes the survival of the charge-density wave state above the Pauli paramagnetic limit, and the likely emergence of an inhomogeneous phase analogous to that anticipated to occur in superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, three figure

Boundary lubrication with a glassy interface

Recently introduced constitutive equations for the rheology of dense, disordered materials are investigated in the context of stick-slip experiments in boundary lubrication. The model is based on a generalization of the shear transformation zone (STZ) theory, in which plastic deformation is represented by a population of mesoscopic regions which may undergo non affine deformations in response to stress. The generalization we study phenomenologically incorporates the effects of aging and glassy relaxation. Under experimental conditions associated with typical transitions from stick-slip to steady sliding and stop start tests, these effects can be dominant, although the full STZ description is necessary to account for more complex, chaotic transitions

CORG: a database for COmparative Regulatory Genomics

Sequence conservation in non-coding, upstream regions of orthologous genes from man and mouse is likely to reflect common regulatory DNA sites. Motivated by this assumption we have delineated a catalogue of conserved non-coding sequence blocks and provide the CORG-'COmparative Regulatory Genomics'-database. The data were computed based on statistically significant local suboptimal alignments of 15 kb regions upstream of the translation start sites of, currently, 10 793 pairs of orthologous genes. The resulting conserved non-coding blocks were annotated with EST matches for easier detection of non-coding mRNA and with hits to known transcription factor binding sites. CORG data are accessible from the ENSEMBL web site via a DAS service as well as a specially developed web service (http://corg.molgen.mpg.de) for query and interactive visualization of the conserved blocks and their annotation