Diagnóstico de prenhez em vacas sob terapia progestogênica.

Resumo

Secreção de norgestoment através de implantes de silicone.

Resumo

Efeito do estádio do ciclo estral na fertilidade de vacas em estro sincronizado.

Resumo

Efeito do período pós-parto na fertilidade de vacas de corte submetidas à re-sincronização do estro.

Um grupo de 118 vacas dividido segundo o período pós-parto em G1 (<42 dias pós-parto) e G2 (3 42 dias) foi submetido a sincronização do estro e inseminação artificial em momento pre-estabelecido (IAME). Doze dias depois procedeu-se a re-sincronização com um implante de 6 mg de norgestomet, que foi retirado nove dias depois. Uma segunda IAME foi feita 48 horas depois, apenas nas vacas nao-prenhes a 1 IAME. As vacas do G2 tiveram taxa de prenhez maior na IAME inicial. As taxas de prenhez a 2 IA e cumulativa não deferiram entre grupos

Contraceptive Efficacy of a Novel Intrauterine Device (IUD) in White-Tailed Deer

Overabundant white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) pose risks to property, health, and safety of human beings. Public concerns about lethal management can impair efforts to address these issues, particularly in urban settings. Several techniques developed for reducing reproductive output of deer have limited utility because they require repeated dosing to achieve permanent effect and face uncertain regulatory approval for use beyond experimentation. From 10 August 2006 through 30 December 2007, we evaluated the contraceptive efficacy of copper-containing intrauterine devices (IUDs) implanted trans-cervically in white-tailed deer at the E.S. George Reserve in Pinckney, Michigan. Intrauterine devices were implanted before (n = 9) and shortly after (n = 10) the breeding season. Post-breeding season IUD treatment was in conjunction with a 5 cm3 dose of 5 mg/ml prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α), delivered subcutaneously. Intrauterine devices reduced pregnancy rates when administered prior to breeding (P \u3c 0.001) and prevented pregnancy for up to 2 years (the duration of the study). Two of 8 does that received IUDs prior to the breeding season and survived to the end of the study became pregnant (due to loss of the implant) during the second year while all (n = 16) does without implants conceived. Cervical changes associated with early pregnancy made trans-cervical implantation after the breeding season challenging, and resulted in improperly placed IUDs in 2 treated does. The apparent expulsion of IUDs by pregnant does that received the combined treatment after breeding suggests IUD treatment should be limited to the pre-breeding season. Intrauterine devices show potential as a tool for small-scale deer population management via non-steroidal reproductive inhibition

Functional visual sensitivity to ultraviolet wavelengths in the Pileated Woodpecker (\u3ci\u3eDryocopus pileatus\u3c/i\u3e), and its influence on foraging substrate selection

Most diurnal birds are presumed visually sensitive to near ultraviolet (UV)wavelengths, however, controlled behavioral studies investigating UV sensitivity remain few. Although woodpeckers are important as primary cavity excavators and nuisance animals, published work on their visual systems is limited. We developed a novel foraging-based behavioral assay designed to test UV sensitivity in the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus). We acclimated 21 wild-caught woodpeckers to foraging for frozen mealworms within 1.2 m sections of peeled cedar (Thuja spp.) poles.We then tested the functional significance of UV cues by placing frozen mealworms behind UV-reflective covers, UV-absorptive covers, or decayed red pine substrates within the same 1.2 m poles in independent experiments. Behavioral responses were greater toward both UV-reflective and UV-absorptive substrates in three experiments. Study subjects therefore reliably differentiated and attended to two distinct UV conditions of a foraging substrate. Cue-naïve subjects showed a preference for UV-absorptive substrates, suggesting that woodpeckers may be pre-disposed to foraging from such substrates. Behavioral responses were greater toward decayed pine substrates (UV-reflective) than sound pine substrates suggesting that decayed pine can be a useful foraging cue. The finding that cue-naïve subjects selected UV-absorbing foraging substrates has implications for ecological interactions of woodpeckers with fungi.Woodpeckers transport fungal spores, and communication methods analogous to those of plant-pollinator mutualisms (i.e. UV-absorbing patterns) may have evolved to support woodpecker-fungus mutualisms

Visual cues for woodpeckers: light reflectance of decayed wood varies by decay fungus

The appearance of wood substrates is likely relevant to bird species with life histories that require regular interactions with wood for food and shelter. Woodpeckers detect decayed wood for cavity placement or foraging, and some species may be capable of detecting trees decayed by specific fungi; however, a mechanism allowing for such specificity remains unidentified.We hypothesized that decay fungi associated with woodpecker cavity sites alter the substrate reflectance in a species-specific manner that is visually discriminable by woodpeckers. We grew 10 species of wood decay fungi from pure cultures on sterile wood substrates of 3 tree species. We then measured the relative reflectance spectra of decayed and control wood wafers and compared them using the receptor noise-limited (RNL) color discrimination model. The RNL model has been used in studies of feather coloration, egg shells, flowers, and fruit to model how the colors of objects appear to birds. Our analyses indicated 6 of 10 decayed substrate/control comparisons were above the threshold of discrimination (i.e., indicating differences discriminable by avian viewers), and 12 of 13 decayed substrate comparisons were also above threshold for a hypothetical woodpecker. We conclude that woodpeckers should be capable of visually detecting decayed wood on trees where bark is absent, and they should also be able to detect visually species-specific differences in wood substrates decayed by fungi used in this study. Our results provide evidence for a visual mechanism by which woodpeckers could identify and select substrates decayed by specific fungi, which has implications for understanding ecologically important woodpecker–fungus interactions. El aspecto de los sustratos de madera posiblemente sea relevante para especies de aves que tienen historias de vida que dependen de interacciones regulares con la madera para alimentaci´on y resguardo. Los pa´jaros carpinteros detectan la madera degradada para establecer sus cavidades o para forrajear, y algunas especies podr´ıan ser capaces de detectar a´rboles que son degradadas por alg´un hongo en particular. Sin embargo, a´un no se identifica un mecanismo que permita identificar tal especificidad. Nuestra hip´otesis es que los hongos xil ´ofagos asociados a sitios con cavidades para carpinteros alteran la reflectancia del sustrato en una manera espec´ıfica a especie que es visualmente discernible para los carpinteros. Cultivamos 10 especies de hongos xil ´ofagos a partir de cultivos puros en sustratos est´eriles de madera de tres especies de a´rboles. A continuaci´on, medimos el espectro de reflectancia de la madera de la madera degradada y trozos de madera control, y las comparamos entre s´ı usando el modelo de discriminaci´on de color del receptor de ruido limitado (RNL, por sus siglas en ingl´es). El modelo RNL ha sido utilizado en estudios de coloraci´on de plumas, cascar´on de huevo, flores y frutos para modelar c´omo perciben las aves el color de los objetos. Nuestros ana´lisis indican que 6 de 10 comparaciones sustrato/control estuvieron por encima del umbral de discriminaci´on (e.g., indicando diferencias discernibles por observadores aviares) y que las comparaciones de 12 de los 13 sustratos degradados estuvieron por encima del umbral para un carpintero hipot´etico. Concluimos que los carpinteros deben ser capaces de detectar visualmente la madera degradada en a´rboles donde la corteza esta´ ausente y tambi´en deben detectar visualmente diferencias espec´ıficas a especie en los sustratos de madera degradada por los hongos utilizados en este estudio. Nuestros resultados proveen evidencia de un mecanismo visual por medio del cual los pa´jaros carpinteros pueden identificar y seleccionar los sustratos degradados por hongos espec´ıficos, lo cual tiene implicaciones en nuestro entendimiento de las importantes interacciones entre carpinteros y hongos

Application of gas analysis of jasperoid inclusion fluids to exploration for micron gold deposits

Quadrupole mass spectrometric analyses of inclusion gases in jasperoid from the Carlin and Standard sediment-hosted micron gold deposits in Nevada show that mineralized areas exhibit better correlations between H2O---CO2 and H2O---N2, higher H2S/CO2 and higher O2 ratios than do jasperoids from unmineralized areas. N2 and Ar in all jasperoids are strongly correlated, with an average ratio near that of air-saturated meteoric water. Speciation and reaction progress calculations show that fluids with high H2S/CO2 ratios, such as are associated with mineralization in these deposits, would carry more gold than fluid with lower H2S/CO2 ratios. These calculations confirm that boiling would be a more efficient depositional mechanism than cooling or mixing of the ore fluid with groundwater. Although poor optical resolution makes it impossible to determine whether the jasperoids contain distinct liquid-rich and gas-rich fluid inclusions, the strong H2O---CO2 and H2O---N2 correlations in mineralized areas could be of that origin. Thus, jasperoids associated with mineralization could be recognized by high H2S:CO2 ratios, which reflect a strong gold-carrying capacity for the fluid, and strong H2O---CO2 and H2O---N2 correlations, which probably reflect gold deposition by boiling.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/28992/1/0000020.pd

HyPLC: Hybrid Programmable Logic Controller Program Translation for Verification

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) provide a prominent choice of implementation platform for safety-critical industrial control systems. Formal verification provides ways of establishing correctness guarantees, which can be quite important for such safety-critical applications. But since PLC code does not include an analytic model of the system plant, their verification is limited to discrete properties. In this paper, we, thus, start the other way around with hybrid programs that include continuous plant models in addition to discrete control algorithms. Even deep correctness properties of hybrid programs can be formally verified in the theorem prover KeYmaera X that implements differential dynamic logic, dL, for hybrid programs. After verifying the hybrid program, we now present an approach for translating hybrid programs into PLC code. The new tool, HyPLC, implements this translation of discrete control code of verified hybrid program models to PLC controller code and, vice versa, the translation of existing PLC code into the discrete control actions for a hybrid program given an additional input of the continuous dynamics of the system to be verified. This approach allows for the generation of real controller code while preserving, by compilation, the correctness of a valid and verified hybrid program. PLCs are common cyber-physical interfaces for safety-critical industrial control applications, and HyPLC serves as a pragmatic tool for bridging formal verification of complex cyber-physical systems at the algorithmic level of hybrid programs with the execution layer of concrete PLC implementations.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. ICCPS 201