Producer and Practitioner Assisted Research: Suckling Beef Calf Pneumonia

In an effort to better define the causes and costs of respiratory disease in suckling beef calves, we need your help! Faculty members at the ISU College of Veterinary Medicine are looking for calves that are showing evidence of respiratory disease prior to weaning. We would like to work with you and your local veterinarian to collect a set of samples from the sick calf and two normal herdmates. We are sampling both sick and normal calves to be able to tell the difference in pathogen load between the two groups

Opening the Door to Efficient Infringement: eBay, Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C.

Before the Supreme Court\u27s decision in eBay, Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., the Federal Circuit\u27s general rule held sway: after a finding of patent infringement, trial courts were expected to issue permanent injunctions to halt any continuing infringement absent exceptional circumstances. That general rule was intended to protect a patentee\u27s right to exclude others from making, using, selling, or offering to sell the invention during the monopoly period enjoyed by the patentee. The Supreme Court in eBay rejected the Federal Circuit\u27s general rule, placing the determination of whether and on what terms, if any, to grant a permanent injunction in the equitable discretion of federal trial court judges

Preventing Perinatal Beef Calf Mortality

Perinatal calf mortality (PCM) refers to death loss from the time of calving through the first month of life. Previous USDA estimates put this loss at over 2.7 million calves ($976 million) annually, with nearly 70 percent coming within four days of calving. Financial estimates from a 1993 Colorado State University study put the cost of sick and dead calves at nearly$12.50 per weaned calf. This includes 35 pounds of lost weaning weight from each sick calf

Detection of Volatile Compounds Emitted from Nasal Secretions and Serum: Towards Non-Invasive Identification of Diseased Cattle Biomarkers

Non-invasive diagnostics and finding biomarkers of disease in humans have been a very active research area. Some of the analytical technologies used for finding biomarkers of human disease are finding their use in livestock. Non-invasive sample collection from diseased cattle using breath and headspace of fecal samples have been reported. In this work, we explore the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from bovine nasal secretions and serum for finding biomarkers for bovine respiratory disease (BRD). One hundred nasal swabs and 100 serum samples (n = 50 for both ‘sick’ and ‘healthy’) were collected at the time of treatment for suspected BRD. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was used to collect headspace samples that were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). It was possible to separate sick cattle using non-invasive analyses of nasal swabs and also serum samples by analyzing and comparing volatiles emitted from each group of samples. Four volatile compounds were found to be statistically significantly different between ‘sick’ and ‘normal’ cattle nasal swabs samples. Five volatile compounds were found to be significantly different between ‘sick’ and ‘normal’ cattle serum samples, with phenol being the common marker. Future studies are warranted to improve the extraction efficiency targeting VOCs preliminarily identified in this study. These findings bring us closer to the long-term goal of real-time, animal-side detection and separation of sick cattle

Functional relevance of a non-synonymous substitution in the CD5 gene (V471A) targeted for positive selection in East Asian populations

1 página.-- Póster presentado en el 5º European Workshop on Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases celebrado en Sitges (Barcelona) del 1 al 3 de Diciembre de 2010.Peer reviewe

Reaction of Titanocene Dichloride with Acetylenedicarboxylate

The reaction of Cp2TiCl2 with either the mono- or dipotassium salt of acetylenedicarboxylic acid (ADC) gives high yields of an insoluble orange product. The insoluble compound shows potential semiconductor behavior, as evidenced by an apparent bandgap in the orange region of the visible spectrum. Under N2 ,the compound decomposes at 238° C, eventually losing approximately 46% total mass up to 1350° C. The exothermic decomposition in air, beginning at 235° C, results in the formation of titanium oxides

High Penetration of Power Electronic Interfaced Power Sources and the Potential Contribution of Grid Forming Converters

The traditional electrical power system and electricity markets have been designed to work with SGs, and so these have traditionally provided various 'inherent' capabilities to the system critical to ensure the stable operation of the power systems during severe faults and even basic system survival during rare system splits. Due to the potential total absence of SGs approaches during periods of high penetration (HP) of PEIPS infeed, the wider industry has engaged in a closer examination of the lack of these system capabilities [4], [17], [31], [32]. Traditionally, the focus in the context of PEIPS has been on steady state and a limited number of dynamic (faster) aspects recently expanded to include PEIPS contributing fast fault current during system faults and extended contribution to frequency management (although this latter capability has been required from RES for more than 10 years in some countries). Demand side contributions in these contexts are emerging and have significant potential

The genome sequencing of an albino Western lowland gorilla reveals inbreeding in the wild

Background The only known albino gorilla, named Snowflake, was a male wild born individual from Equatorial Guinea who lived at the Barcelona Zoo for almost 40 years. He was diagnosed with non-syndromic oculocutaneous albinism, i.e. white hair, light eyes, pink skin, photophobia and reduced visual acuity. Despite previous efforts to explain the genetic cause, this is still unknown. Here, we study the genetic cause of his albinism and making use of whole genome sequencing data we find a higher inbreeding coefficient compared to other gorillas. Results We successfully identified the causal genetic variant for Snowflake¿s albinism, a non-synonymous single nucleotide variant located in a transmembrane region of SLC45A2. This transporter is known to be involved in oculocutaneous albinism type 4 (OCA4) in humans. We provide experimental evidence that shows that this amino acid replacement alters the membrane spanning capability of this transmembrane region. Finally, we provide a comprehensive study of genome-wide patterns of autozygogosity revealing that Snowflake¿s parents were related, being this the first report of inbreeding in a wild born Western lowland gorilla. Conclusions In this study we demonstrate how the use of whole genome sequencing can be extended to link genotype and phenotype in non-model organisms and it can be a powerful tool in conservation genetics (e.g., inbreeding and genetic diversity) with the expected decrease in sequencing cost. Keywords: Gorilla; Albinism; Inbreeding; Genome; Conservatio

Refining the role of laparoscopy and laparoscopic ultrasound in the staging of presumed pancreatic head and ampullary tumours

Laparoscopy and laparoscopic ultrasound have been validated previously as staging tools for pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to identify if assessment of vascular involvement with abdominal computed tomography (CT) would allow refinement of the selection criteria for laparoscopy and laparoscopic ultrasound (LUS). The details of patients staged with LUS and abdominal CT were obtained from the unit's pancreatic cancer database. A CT grade (O, A-F) of vascular involvement was recorded by a single radiologist. Of 152 patients, who underwent a LUS, 56 (37%) had unresectable disease. Three of 26 (12%) patients with CT grade O, 27 of 88 (31%) patients with CT grade A to D, 17 of 29 (59%) patients with CT grade E and all nine patients with CT grade F were found to have unresectable disease. In all, 24% of patients with tumours <3 cm were found to have unresectable disease. In those patients with tumours considered unresectable, local vascular involvement was found in 56% of patients and vascular involvement with metastatic disease in 17%, while 20% of patients had liver metastases alone and 5% had isolated peritoneal metastases. The remaining patient was deemed unfit for resection. Selective use of laparoscopic ultrasound is indicated in the staging of periampullary tumours with CT grades A to D