Is Snow a sufficient Source of Water for Horses kept Outdoors in Winter? A Case Report

Due to extreme weather conditions, a flock of outwintered Icelandic horses had to manage for several days on snow as the source of free water. They were fed grass silage ad lib, and any change in feed consumption was not observed. After nine days, blood samples were taken and analysed for plasma osmolality, they were subjected to a simple clinical examination, and offered drinking water. Osmolality levels were within normal limits and mean value did not differ significantly from samples which previously were taken of the same individuals. The general condition of the horses was normal, with no signs of clinical dehydration or disease. The horses showed very little interest for the offered drinking water. This suggests that in cold winter weather, horses being fed grass silage and adjusted to eat snow, can manage for several days with snow substituting liquid water without their physiology and welfare being challenged

Pneumonia Caused by Klebsiella spp. in 46 Horses.

BackgroundKlebsiella spp. are implicated as a common cause of bacterial pneumonia in horses, but few reports describe clinical presentation and disease progression.Hypothesis/objectivesTo describe the signalment, clinicopathologic data, radiographic and ultrasonographic findings, antimicrobial susceptibility, outcome, and pathologic lesions associated with Klebsiella spp. pneumonia in horses.AnimalsForty-six horses from which Klebsiella spp. was isolated from the lower respiratory tract.MethodsRetrospective study. Medical records from 1993 to 2013 at the William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, University of California, Davis were reviewed. Exact logistic regression was performed to determine if any variables were associated with survival to hospital discharge.ResultsSurvival in horses <1 year old was 73%. Overall survival in adults was 63%. For adults in which Klebsiella pneumoniae was the primary isolate, survival was 52%. Mechanical ventilation preceded development of pneumonia in 11 horses. Complications occurred in 25/46 horses, with thrombophlebitis and laminitis occurring most frequently. Multi-drug resistance was found in 47% of bacterial isolates. Variables that significantly impacted survival included hemorrhagic nasal discharge, laminitis, and thoracic radiographs with a sharp demarcation between marked caudal pulmonary alveolar infiltration and more normal-appearing caudodorsal lung.Conclusions and clinical importanceKlebsiella spp. should be considered as a differential diagnosis for horses presenting with hemorrhagic pneumonia and for horses developing pneumonia after mechanical ventilation. Multi-drug resistance is common. Prognosis for survival generally is fair, but is guarded for adult horses in which K. pneumoniae is isolated as the primary organism

In Silico Determination of Gas Permeabilities by Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics: CO2 and He through PIM-1.

© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.We study the permeation dynamics of helium and carbon dioxide through an atomistically detailed model of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity, PIM-1, via non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations. This work presents the first explicit molecular modeling of gas permeation through a high free-volume polymer sample, and it demonstrates how permeability and solubility can be obtained coherently from a single simulation. Solubilities in particular can be obtained to a very high degree of confidence and within experimental inaccuracies. Furthermore, the simulations make it possible to obtain very specific information on the diffusion dynamics of penetrant molecules and yield detailed maps of gas occupancy, which are akin to a digital tomographic scan of the polymer network. In addition to determining permeability and solubility directly from NEMD simulations, the results shed light on the permeation mechanism of the penetrant gases, suggesting that the relative openness of the microporous topology promotes the anomalous diffusion of penetrant gases, which entails a deviation from the pore hopping mechanism usually observed in gas diffusion in polymers

Simplicial gauge theory on spacetime

We define a discrete gauge-invariant Yang-Mills-Higgs action on spacetime simplicial meshes. The formulation is a generalization of classical lattice gauge theory, and we prove consistency of the action in the sense of approximation theory. In addition, we perform numerical tests of convergence towards exact continuum results for several choices of gauge fields in pure gauge theory.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure

Radio variability of 1st 3-months Fermi blazars at 5 GHz: affected by interstellar scintillation?

Blazars from the first-three-months Fermi-AGN list were observed with the Urumqi 25m radio telescope at 5GHz in IDV (Intra-Day Variability) mode and inter-month observation mode. A significant correlation between the flux density at 5GHz and the gamma-ray intensity for the Fermi-LAT detected blazars is seen. There is a higher IDV detection rate in Fermi detected blazars than those reported for other samples. Stronger variability appears at lower Galactic latitudes; IDV appears to be stronger in weaker sources, indicating that the variability is affected by interstellar scintillation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, in proceedings of 'Multiwavelength Variability of Blazars' in Guangzhou Uni. of China, 22-24, Sep. 2010, to appear in JA

Egg shape changes at the theropod–bird transition, and a morphometric study of amniote eggs

The eggs of amniotes exhibit a remarkable variety of shapes, from spherical to elongate and from symmetrical to asymmetrical. We examine eggshell geometry in a diverse sample of fossil and living amniotes using geometric morphometrics and linear measurements. Our goal is to quantify patterns of morphospace occupation and shape variation in the eggs of recent through to Mesozoic birds (neornithe plus non-neornithe avialans), as well as in eggs attributed to non-avialan theropods. In most amniotes, eggs show significant deviation from sphericity, but departure from symmetry around the equatorial axis is mostly confined to theropods and birds. Mesozoic bird eggs differ significantly from extant bird eggs, but extinct Cenozoic bird eggs do not. This suggests that the range of egg shapes in extant birds had already been attained in the Cenozoic. We conclude with a discussion of possible biological factors imparting variation to egg shapes during their formation in the oviduct

Mapping the methylation status of the miR-145 promoter in saphenous vein smooth muscle cells from individuals with type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes mellitus prevalence is growing globally, and the leading cause of mortality in these patients is cardiovascular disease. Epigenetic mechanisms such as microRNAs (miRs) and DNA methylation may contribute to complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus. We discovered an aberrant type 2 diabetes mellitus–smooth muscle cell phenotype driven by persistent up-regulation of miR-145. This study aimed to determine whether elevated expression was due to changes in methylation at the miR-145 promoter. Smooth muscle cells were cultured from saphenous veins of 22 non-diabetic and 22 type 2 diabetes mellitus donors. DNA was extracted, bisulphite treated and pyrosequencing used to interrogate methylation at 11 CpG sites within the miR-145 promoter. Inter-patient variation was high irrespective of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Differential methylation trends were apparent between non-diabetic and type 2 diabetes mellitus–smooth muscle cells at most sites but were not statistically significant. Methylation at CpGs −112 and −106 was consistently lower than all other sites explored in non-diabetic and type 2 diabetes mellitus–smooth muscle cells. Finally, miR-145 expression per se was not correlated with methylation levels observed at any site. The persistent up-regulation of miR-145 observed in type 2 diabetes mellitus–smooth muscle cells is not related to methylation at the miR-145 promoter. Crucially, miR-145 methylation is highly variable between patients, serving as a cautionary note for future studies of this region in primary human cell types

The liminality of trajectory shifts in institutional entrepreneurship

In this paper, we develop a process model of trajectory shifts in institutional entrepreneurship. We focus on the liminal periods experienced by institutional entrepreneurs when they, unlike the rest of the organization, recognize limits in the present and seek to shift a familiar past into an unfamiliar and uncertain future. Such periods involve a situation where the new possible future, not yet fully formed, exists side-by-side with established innovation trajectories. Trajectory shifts are moments of truth for institutional entrepreneurs, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms of how entrepreneurs reflectively deal with liminality to conceive and bring forth new innovation trajectories. Our in-depth case study research at CarCorp traces three such mechanisms (reflective dissension, imaginative projection, and eliminatory exploration) and builds the basis for understanding the liminality of trajectory shifts. The paper offers theoretical implications for the institutional entrepreneurship literature

Reflected Light from Sand Grains in the Terrestrial Zone of a Protoplanetary Disk

We show that grains have grown to ~mm size (sand sized) or larger in the terrestrial zone (within ~3 AU) of the protoplanetary disk surrounding the 3 Myr old binary star KH 15D. We also argue that the reflected light in the system reaches us by back scattering off the far side of the same ring whose near side causes the obscuration.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures. To be published in Nature, March 13, 2008. Contains a Supplemen