Effects of excess potassium by bolus and pasture fertilization on mineral metabolism in lactating beef cows

The objectives of this research were to compare potassium (K) fertilization and oral administration of KCl as sources of excess K and to determine the effects of K sources on plasma, milk, fecal and urine minerals. Four pasture trials two weeks in length, using beef cows with suckling calves were conducted in February, March and April of 1984 and 1985. Cows were placed on one of two adjacent tall fescue pastures. Both pastures were fertilized with 39 kg/ha of nitrogen (N). One pasture received no fertilization of K and the other 112 kg/ha. One half the cows on each pasture received an oral dose of KCl on days 0, 2, 4, 7, 9, and 11 of each trial. Plasma, milk, fecal and urine samples were collected over a 160 minute period on the days cows were dosed. The KCl dose on days 0 and 2 of trial 1 consisted of 28Dg of KCl administered by stomach tube. On day 4 the KCl dose was changed to 280g of KCl given via gelatin capsule, due to the death of one cow on day 2. The death of the cow appeared to be the result of K toxicity. On day 4 two cows were treated with 30% magnesium chloride enema for K toxicity. As a result of this toxicity the KCl dose was changed to 220g given by gelatin capsule, where it remained throughout the rest of the study. The levels of K given during trial 1 were below the levels of K listed in the literature as necessary to cause K toxicity. Cows grazing the K fertilized pasture had depressed plasma and urine concentrations of magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca), indicating a reduction in absorption of Mg and Ca. Plasma sodium (Na) and K and urine K concentrations were not affected by pasture fertilization. Effects of pasture fertilization on milk minerals were inconsistent. Cows receiving KCl had reduced plasma Mg and increased plasma K and Na concentrations. Effects of KCl treatment on plasma Ca were variable. During the trials conducted in 1985, KCl dosed cows had reduced concentrations of Mg and Ca in their urine. Administration of KCl resulted in an increase in urine K concentration. KCl dosed animals had elevated concentration of milk Mg. Milk K and Ca concentrations tended to be higher for KCl bolused animals than for their control counterparts. Effects of KCl bolusing on milk Na were inconsistent. These results suggest that dietary K may be more toxic when administered to cattle grazing early spring pasture. It also appears that oral administration of K and K fertilization interfere with the metabolism of Mg and that the incidence of grass tetany may be increased by both

Antimatter interferometry for gravity measurements

We describe a light-pulse atom interferometer that is suitable for any species of atom and even for electrons and protons as well as their antiparticles, in particular for testing the Einstein equivalence principle with antihydrogen. The design obviates the need for resonant lasers through far-off resonant Bragg beam splitters and makes efficient use of scarce atoms by magnetic confinement and atom recycling. We expect to reach an initial accuracy of better than 1% for the acceleration of free fall of antihydrogen, which can be improved to the part-per million level.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Minor changes, accepted for PR

Dr. C. F. W. Walther as Theologian

This is to say that in order to preserve the doctrine of justification in its purity. there must be added to it the Scripture teaching that God imparts and communicates to men the forgiveness of sins procured by Christ for the entire world in no other way than by the Gospel and the Sacraments. Therefore the Biblical doctrine of justification stands and falls with the Biblical doctrine of the means of grace

Dr. C. F. W. Walther as Theologian

When we try to depict Dr. Walther as theologian, we must, above all, discuss his doctrine of justification, for his attitude toward this doctrine supplies the clue to his whole line of action in his life so full of controversy

Likelihood-based surrogate dimension reduction

We consider the problem of surrogate sufficient dimension reduction, that is, estimating the central subspace of a regression model, when the covariates are contaminated by measurement error. When no measurement error is present, a likelihood-based dimension reduction method that relies on maximizing the likelihood of a Gaussian inverse regression model on the Grassmann manifold is well-known to have superior performance to traditional inverse moment methods. We propose two likelihood-based estimators for the central subspace in measurement error settings, which make different adjustments to the observed surrogates. Both estimators are computed based on maximizing objective functions on the Grassmann manifold and are shown to consistently recover the true central subspace. When the central subspace is assumed to depend on only a few covariates, we further propose to augment the likelihood function with a penalty term that induces sparsity on the Grassmann manifold to obtain sparse estimators. The resulting objective function has a closed-form Riemann gradient which facilitates efficient computation of the penalized estimator. We leverage the state-of-the-art trust region algorithm on the Grassmann manifold to compute the proposed estimators efficiently. Simulation studies and a data application demonstrate the proposed likelihood-based estimators perform better than inverse moment-based estimators in terms of both estimation and variable selection accuracy

Polygenic risk associated with post-traumatic stress disorder onset and severity.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric illness with a highly polygenic architecture without large effect-size common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Thus, to capture a substantial portion of the genetic contribution, effects from many variants need to be aggregated. We investigated various aspects of one such approach that has been successfully applied to many traits, polygenic risk score (PRS) for PTSD. Theoretical analyses indicate the potential prediction ability of PRS. We used the latest summary statistics from the largest published genome-wide association study (GWAS) conducted by Psychiatric Genomics Consortium for PTSD (PGC-PTSD). We found that the PRS constructed for a cohort comprising veterans of recent wars (n = 244) explains a considerable proportion of PTSD onset (Nagelkerke R2 = 4.68%, P = 0.003) and severity (R2 = 4.35%, P = 0.0008) variances. However, the performance on an African ancestry sub-cohort was minimal. A PRS constructed with schizophrenia GWAS also explained a significant fraction of PTSD diagnosis variance (Nagelkerke R2 = 2.96%, P = 0.0175), confirming previously reported genetic correlation between the two psychiatric ailments. Overall, these findings demonstrate the important role polygenic analyses of PTSD will play in risk prediction models as well as in elucidating the biology of the disorder

Rapid Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Activation Occurs in the Draining Lymph Nodes After Cutaneous Herpes Simplex Virus Infection as a Result of Early Antigen Presentation and Not the Presence of Virus

Localized cutaneous herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection leads to arming and initial expansion of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in the draining popliteal lymph nodes (PLNs) followed by migration and further proliferation in the spleen. To accurately characterize the sequence of events involved in the activation and generation of anti-HSV CTLs, we used T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic mice specific for the immunodominant epitope from HSV glycoprotein B (gB498–505). We describe the detection of the initiation of antigen presentation in the draining lymph nodes by 4–6 h after infection with HSV-1. Analysis of CD69 up-regulation revealed activation of gB-specific CD8+ T cells by 6–8 h after infection. Furthermore, we show that T cell proliferation begins no sooner than 24 h after activation and is marked by the concurrent appearance of CTL activity in the PLNs. These events are not dependent on the presence of virus in the draining lymph nodes, and suggest a requirement for recruitment of professional antigen-presenting cells to the site of T cell activation. Consequently, we have defined the initiation of the CD8+ T cell–mediated response to cutaneous HSV-1 infection, demonstrating that the immune response to localized viral infection depends only on the appearance of cells presenting virus-derived antigen and commences with remarkable swiftness

Victims as moral beacons of humanitarianism in post-conflict societies.

This paper reports on interview data amongst victims of conflict and organised violence. Despite their victimhood, they evince a level of forgivingness, civility and tolerance that constructs in the very acts of atrocity that portend its demise, a form of humanitarianism which enables victims to be moral beacons in post-conflict societies that otherwise are largely devoid of any a moral or sacred canopy. Data cover victims in Sri Lanka, South Africa and Northern Ireland. The theoretical contribution of the paper is to proffer a view that humanitarianism in societies emerging out of conflict is best understood as a social practice constituted by victims' practices for tolerance and civility. This makes humanitarianism pro-social, having the potential to affect social consciousness and social understandings in post-conflict societies and to assist in the remaking of society after conflict

Participatory Patterns in an International Air Quality Monitoring Initiative

The issue of sustainability is at the top of the political and societal agenda, being considered of extreme importance and urgency. Human individual action impacts the environment both locally (e.g., local air/water quality, noise disturbance) and globally (e.g., climate change, resource use). Urban environments represent a crucial example, with an increasing realization that the most effective way of producing a change is involving the citizens themselves in monitoring campaigns (a citizen science bottom-up approach). This is possible by developing novel technologies and IT infrastructures enabling large citizen participation. Here, in the wider framework of one of the first such projects, we show results from an international competition where citizens were involved in mobile air pollution monitoring using low cost sensing devices, combined with a web-based game to monitor perceived levels of pollution. Measures of shift in perceptions over the course of the campaign are provided, together with insights into participatory patterns emerging from this study. Interesting effects related to inertia and to direct involvement in measurement activities rather than indirect information exposure are also highlighted, indicating that direct involvement can enhance learning and environmental awareness. In the future, this could result in better adoption of policies towards decreasing pollution.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, 1 supplementary fil