Agricultural Research at the Antelope Range Field Station: A Progress Report

South Dakota State College research workers, with the help of the Field Station Advisory Council and the cooperation of the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks, began planning and establishing experimental projects at the Antelope Range Field Station in 1947. The Range Station consists of 7,920 acres of range Janel in east-central Harding County. A large part of this tract, 6,680 acres, is under the control of the state office of School and Public Lands; 1,120 acres are owned by the Department of Game, Fish and Parks; and 120 acres are privately owned by a neighbor. Prior to 1946 the preserve area was leased for grazing to private interests. The 1957 Legislature authorized the exchange of the 1,120 acres owned by the Game, Fish and Parks Department for School and Public Lands located elsewhere in the state. Negotiations to accomplish the land exchange are in progress at the time of this writing. The station lies 2 miles south of Highway No. 8 on the west side of the Slim Buttes. The land is rolling prairie, deeply cut in some places by intermittent streams, and unsuitable for most agricultural purposes except grazing. This area was originally organized as an antelope preserve and for many years was operated as such under the control of the Game, Fish and Parks Department. In the fall of 1946, at the request of livestock men of western South Dakota, representing the Western South Dakota Sheep Growers\u27 Association, the Cooperative wool Growers\u27 of South Dakota, the Black Hills\u27 Protective Association, Harding County Livestock Improvement Association, South Dakota Purebred Sheep Breeders Association, and the South Dakota Stockgrowers\u27 Association, the Game, Fish and Parks Commission entered into an agreement to permit the South Dakota State College Agricultural Experiment Station to use the Antelope Range Preserve as a livestock experiment field station for range research in problems dealing with beef cattle, sheep, and antelope. Representatives of the organizations formed an advisory council to assist in developing the station and suggesting problems that needed research study. The orginal advisory committee and the animal husbandry department research men compiled a list of 21 major problems that would be suitable for development at the Antelope Range Field Station, although not all of these could be handled at once. Actual research work was started in 1947. The first experimental livestock with which the ranch was stocked were sheep, but within the first year a cow herd was added. Of the 21 problems suggested, parasitism in sheep, stocking rate and rotational grazing studies with sheep, supplements for wintering pregnant ewes, and beef cattle breeding research were the ones undertaken and upon which sufficient data have been collected to warrant publication of the results. Many of these studies are still underway. One of the early goals was to discover basic information on compatibility of sheep and antelope grazing on the same range in respect to carrying capacity of the range, parasites common to both species, and the host parasite interrelationships. Unfortunately this work has yielded little information because of difficulties in handling antelope either in captivity or under controlled conditions on range pastures. The other experiments have been carried forward and the results to date are reported in this bulletin

Antifungal activities of selected Venda medicinal plants against Candida albicans, Candida krusei and Cryptococcus neoformans isolated from South African AIDS patients

Infection with HIV leads to immunosuppression and up to 90% of HIV infected individuals contract fungal infections of which 10 - 20% die as a direct consequence of these infections. In the present study, 76extracts from 30 plants used by Venda traditional healers for the treatment of fungal related ailments, were tested for their antifungal activities against clinical isolates of Candida albicans, Candida krusei andCryptococcus neoformans using the agar diffusion and the microdilution methods. The minimum fungicidal concentrations as well as the time kill curves of the thee most active plants were also determined. Extracts from 25 plants (83.3%) were active against C. albicans, C. krusei or C. neoformans. Thirty two extracts were active against C. neoformans, while 15 were active against C. albicans and 12 were active against C. krusei. Warburgia salutaris, Cassine transvaalensis, Piper capense, Maerua edulis,Pseudolachnostylis maprouneifolia, Berchemia discolor and Lippia javanica were not only inhibitory to fungal growth but also had fungicidal effects against one or all the 3 fungi tested (MIC/MFC between 0.11 and 7.5 mg/ml). Hexane extracts were also active indicating that many of the antifungal components of these plants are non-polar compounds. Time-to- kill experiments indicated an intense time-dependent fungicidal effect against C. albicans, achieving over a 5 h-period a 6 log10-unit decrease in CFU/ml at a concentration of 0.4 mg/ml for W. salutaris. The present study justifies the traditional use of these plants for the treatment of opportunistic infections in the region

The Epidemiology of Multimorbidity in Primary Care

Background: Multimorbidity places a substantial burden on patients and the healthcare system but few contemporary data are available. Aim: To describe the epidemiology of multimorbidity in adults in England and quantify associations between multimorbidity and health service utilisation. Design: Retrospective cohort study Setting: A random sample of 403,985 adult patients (≥18 years) in England who were registered with a general practice on 1 January 2012 and included in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. Methods: We defined multimorbidity as having two or more of 36 long-term conditions recorded in patients’ medical records and quantified associations between multimorbidity and health service utilisation (GP consultations, prescriptions, and hospitalisations) over four years. Results: 27.2% of patients were multimorbid. The most prevalent conditions were hypertension (18.2%), depression or anxiety (10.3%), and chronic pain (10.1%). Prevalence of multimorbidity was higher in females than males (30% vs. 24.4% respectively) and among those with lower socioeconomic status (33.8% in the most deprived quintile vs. 24.2% in the least deprived quintile). Physical-mental comorbidity contributed a much greater proportion of overall morbidity in both younger patients and those patients with lower socioeconomic status. Multimorbidity was strongly associated with health service utilisation. Multimorbid patients accounted for 53% of GP consultations, 79% of prescriptions, and 56% percent of hospital admissions. Conclusion: Multimorbidity is common, socially patterned, and associated with increased health service utilisation. These findings support the need to improve the quality and efficiency of health services providing care to multimorbid patients at the practice and national-level.This study received no specific funding. Kirsty Rhodes was supported by the UK Medical Research Council (grant number: U105260558)

Observations on Parasitism in Sheep in Northwestern South Dakota

The 1944 figure was 766,600 sheep for that area, showing more than 100 percent increase in a 20-year period. Between 1944 and 1950 sheep numbers declined in these six counties to 299,000. At least three factors accounted for the decrease after 1944: (1) the difficulty in obtaining labor; (2) favorable prices for cattle which could be raised with less labor; and (3) the prevalence of losses of lambs on range from dysentery, a condition that had existed for 5 to 7 years. It was the seriousness of the lamb losses that prompted the work reported here

Correction: External validation of risk prediction models for incident colorectal cancer using UK Biobank.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

A Genome-Wide Methylation Study of Severe Vitamin D Deficiency in African American Adolescents

To test the hypothesis that changes in DNA methylation are involved in vitamin D deficiency–related immune cell regulation using an unbiased genome-wide approach combined with a genomic and epigenomic integrative approach