Long-term surgical anaesthesia in the domestic fowl

No abstract availabl

The use of filter tops as a short term protective barrier in laboratory animal management

A new quality conventional animal colony has been built at the University of Bergen. The colony was to be opened at the begining of October 1983. Due to delays the colony could not be opened before the begining of December 1983. A researcher had ordered a group of 200 C3H/tifBom SPF quality (LAC**** standard) female mice that were to be at least 360 days old at the time of delivery. The mice were delivered to the colony one month before the expected opening date. As a result of this, the mice had to be housed in an existing conventional colony housing several species and high background contamination. An emergency measure was thus conceived that would allow the mice to remain in the conventional colony and simultaneously be as well protected as possible from the surrounding environment. Pending a low grade of inocuous contamination, the mice would be transferred to the new colony on opening. In this way an attempt would be made to reduce the degree of contamination of the new colony. It was decided that the mice should be transferred from the unopened transport containers into macrolon III cages covered by filter tops. Special routines were introduced to reduce the chance of contamination

Microbiological quality control of a cage washing machine by means of a thin film culture system (PetrifilmTM)

Washing machine effectiveness is dependent on treatment of cage surface with hot water containing detergent. The temperature of the washing chamber will not reflect the degree of treatment of each individual cage. Bacteriological testing ofcage surface will give a true indication of residual contamination. This study describes the use of rehydratable contact films to harvest and culture residual bacteria. The method registers numbers of colonies retrieved from the surface. It does nottype the bacteria and is as such a non-specific method. The study reveals that the machine in question was effective and that no bacteria were found following a normal cycle. A machine breakdown was demonstrated before the mechanicalcause was uncovered

Non-invasive blood pressure measurement in the domestic chicken by the use of the Doppler principle

Non-invasive blood pressure measurement by the use of a technique using the Doppler principle allows estimation of systolic blood pressure and heart rate in the conscious bird without trauma. It permits repeated measurements over a long period with minimal stress to the bird. Blood pressure was measured in hypo-, normo-, and hypertensive birds. Measurement using the Doppler principle technique was compared with invasive catheter measurement simultaneously in the same bird

Molecular Carbon Chains and Rings in TMC-1

We present mapping results in several rotational transitions of HC3N, C6H, both cyclic and linear C3H2 and C3H, towards the cyanopolyyne peak of the filamentary dense cloud TMC-1 using the IRAM 30m and MPIfR 100m telescopes. The spatial distribution of the cumulene carbon chain propadienylidene H2C3 (hereafter l-C3H2) is found to deviate significantly from the distributions of the cyclic isomer c-C3H2, HC3N, and C6H which in turn look very similar. The cyclic over linear abundance ratio of C3H2 increases by a factor of 3 across the filament, with a value of 28 at the cyanopolyyne peak. This abundance ratio is an order of magnitude larger than the range (3 to 5) we observed in the diffuse interstellar medium. The cyclic over linear abundance ratio of C3H also varies by ~2.5 in TMC-1, reaching a maximum value (13) close to the cyanopolyyne peak. These behaviors might be related to competitive processes between ion-neutral and neutral-neutral reactions for cyclic and linear species.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, part I. 24 pages, including 4 tables, 7 figures, and figure caption

Native valve endocarditis due to Micrococcus luteus: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p><it>Micrococcus luteus </it>endocarditis is a rare case of infective endocarditis. A total of 17 cases of infective endocarditis due to <it>M luteus </it>have been reported in the literature to date, all involving prosthetic valves. To the best of our knowledge, we describe the first case of native aortic valve <it>M luteus </it>endocarditis in an immunosuppressed patient in this report.</p> <p>Case report</p> <p>A 74-year-old Greek-Cypriot woman was admitted to our Internal Medicine Clinic due to fever and malaise and the diagnosis of aortic valve <it>M luteus </it>endocarditis was made. She was immunosuppressed due to methotrexate and steroid treatment. Our patient was unsuccessfully treated with vancomycin, gentamicin and rifampicin for four weeks. The aortic valve was replaced and she was discharged in good condition.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Prosthetic infective endocarditis due to <it>M luteus </it>is rare. To the best of our knowledge, we report the first case in the literature involving a native valve.</p

Oxygen gradients affect behaviour of caged Atlantic salmon Salmo salar

Dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions in marine aquaculture cages are heterogeneous and fluctuate rapidly. Here, by temporarily wrapping a tarpaulin around the top 0 to 6 m of a marine cage (~2000 m3), we manipulated DO to evaluate the behavioural response of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar to hypoxia. Videos were recorded before, during and after DO manipulation at 3 m depth while vertical profiles of temperature, salinity, DO and fish density were continuously measured. The trial was repeated 4 times over a 2 wk period. Temperature and salinity profiles varied little across treatment periods; however, DO saturation was reduced at all depths in all replicate trials during the tarpaulin treatment compared to the periods before or after. In 3 out of 4 trials, swim speeds were 1.5 to 2.7 times slower during the tarpaulin treatment than the before or after periods. Significant changes in vertical distribution of fish density and DO were observed between treatment periods in all replicate trials; salmon swam either above or below the most hypoxic depth layer (59 to 62% DO saturation). In a regression tree analysis, the relative influence of DO in determining fish distribution was 17%, while temperature (39%) and salinity (44%) explained the majority of variation. Our results demonstrate that salmon are capable of modifying their distribution and possibly activity levels in response to intermediate DO levels, but that DO is not a primary driver of behaviour at the saturation levels examined in this study

Analysis of chromosome positions in the interphase nucleus of Chinese hamster cells by laser-UV-microirradiation experiments

Unsynchronized cells of an essentially diploid strain of female Chinese hamster cells derived from lung tissue (CHL) were laser-UV-microirradiated (=257 nm) in the nucleus either at its central part or at its periphery. After 7–9 h postincubation with 0.5 mM caffeine, chromosome preparations were made in situ. Twenty-one and 29 metaphase spreads, respectively, with partial chromosome shattering (PCS) obtained after micro-irradiation at these two nuclear sites, were Q-banded and analyzed in detail. A positive correlation was observed between the frequency of damage of chromosomes and both their DNA content and length at metaphase. No significant difference was observed between the frequencies of damage obtained for individual chromosomes at either site of microirradiation. The frequency of joint damage of homologous chromosomes was low as compared to nonhomologous ones. Considerable variation was noted in different cells in the combinations of jointly shattered chromosomes. Evidence which justifies an interpretation of these data in terms of an interphase arrangement of chromosome territories is discussed. Our data strongly argue against somatic pairing as a regular event, and suggest a considerable variability of chromosome positions in different nuclei. However, present data do not exclude the possibility of certain non-random chromosomal arrangements in CHL-nuclei. The interphase chromosome distribution revealed by these experiments is compared with centromere-centromere, centromere-center and angle analyses of metaphase spreads and the relationship between interphase and metaphase arrangements of chromosomes is discussed

Catheter-related bacteremia due to Kocuria rosea in a patient undergoing peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

BACKGROUND: Micrococcus species may cause intracranial abscesses, meningitis, pneumonia, and septic arthritis in immunosuppressed or immunocompetent hosts. In addition, strains identified as Micrococcus spp. have been reported recently in infections associated with indwelling intravenous lines, continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis fluids, ventricular shunts and prosthetic valves. CASE PRESENTATION: We report on the first case of a catheter-related bacteremia caused by Kocuria rosea, a gram-positive microorganism belonging to the family Micrococcaceae, in a 39-year-old man undergoing peripheral blood stem cell transplantation due to relapsed Hodgkin disease. This uncommon pathogen may cause opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients. CONCLUSIONS: This report presents a case of Kocuria rosea catheter related bacteremia after stem cell transplantation successfully treated with vancomycin and by catheter removal