DISTRIBUTION, DIET, AND PREVALENCE OF AMPHIBIAN CHYTRID FUNGUS IN NON-NATIVE AMERICAN BULLFROGS (LITHOBATES CATESBEIANUS) AT THE VALENTINE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, NEBRASKA, USA

American Bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) have been widely introduced beyond their native range in North America and can negatively affect organisms in wetland environments via a suite of mechanisms including interspecific interactions and disease transmission. Bullfrogs were introduced to the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in the Sandhill Region of Nebraska, USA, yet little is known regarding their distribution, abundance, and potential effects on other vertebrates in the Refuge. Surveys in 1991-1992 documented bullfrogs in only one lake by the Refuge headquarters, and anecdotal historical observations indicated that bullfrogs were present primarily in lakes open to public fishing. In 2012, we determined the distribution of bullfrogs across the Refuge, examined their diets, and sampled them for the occurrence of the pathogenic fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. We documented that bullfrogs were almost ubiquitous across the Refuge lakes and wetlands. From diet analyses, we observed that adult bullfrogs consumed several vertebrate species on the Refuge including: a Blanding’s Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii), small bullfrogs, an unidentifiable frog species, and numerous invertebrates, including crayfish. The amphibian chytrid fungus was prevalent on the refuge with 73.7% of bullfrogs testing positive for the fungus in early June and 6.3% in late June-July. Preliminary data indicate that bullfrogs likely have already affected interspecific interactions with native amphibians via predation, competition, and/or disease transmission. Bullfrogs likely cannot be eradicated from the Refuge, but expanding the season of harvest of bullfrogs might reduce their abundance, which may benefit native amphibians and reptiles

Birth Weights, Weaning Weights, and Average Daily Gain of Romosinuano-Sired Calves from First and Second Calving Angus X Brahman (F-1) Cows

Last updated: 6/12/200

Mechanical support of superconducting coils

Cold iron magnets use the iron yoke and skin for mechanical support of the collared coil assembly. A variety of designs, including horizontally and vertically split yokes, collarless'' magnets and conductor block geometries, have been considered for use with collared coils. This note qualitatively compares the support mechanisms by estimating the amount of coil overcompression'' necessary for the magnet to achieve the same mechanical condition in the cold, powdered state. These designs inspect magnet limitations by suggesting means to reduce the peak coil compressive load, allowing higher central magnetic fields to be reached

Effects of the Fibrolytic Enzyme Cattle-ASE?äó on Growth of Prepuberal Romosinuano Crossbred Heifers

Last updated: 6/12/200

Conversion Matrix Method of Moments for Time-Varying Electromagnetic Analysis

A conversion matrix approach to solving network problems involving time-varying circuit components is applied to the method of moments for electromagnetic scattering analysis. Detailed formulations of this technique's application to the scattering analysis of structures loaded with time-varying circuit networks or constructed from general time-varying media are presented. The computational cost of the method is discussed, along with an analysis of compression techniques capable of significantly reducing computational cost for partially loaded systems. Several numerical examples demonstrate the capabilities of the technique along with its validation against conventional methods of modeling time-varying electromagnetic systems, such as finite difference time domain and transient circuit co-simulation.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Stocker Performance of Romosinuano Crossbred Steers Grazing Bermudagrass and Receiving a Supplement

Last updated: 6/12/200

A Rational Approach to Personalized Anticancer Therapy: Chemoinformatic Analysis Reveals Mechanistic Gene-Drug Associations

Purpose . To predict the response of cells to chemotherapeutic agents based on gene expression profiles, we performed a chemoinformatic study of a set of standard anticancer agents assayed for activity against a panel of 60 human tumor-derived cell lines from the Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41497/1/11095_2004_Article_465512.pd