Frequency and Use of Medications in Horses Racing at Prairie Meadows

An analysis was made of the horses racing at Prairie Meadows race track in Altoona, Iowa during 1993 to determine the number of entries designated as racing under the influence of phenylbutazone (Bute(RX)), furosemide (Lasix(Rx)) or both medications. In a total of 1379 Quarter Horse entries, 5.7 % raced with no medication, 74.9 % raced on phenylbutazone, 0.5 % raced on furosemide, and 18.9 % raced on both phenylbutazone and furosemide. In a total of 3424 Thoroughbred entries, 2.1 % raced under no medication, 43.6 % raced on phenylbutazone, 0.4 % raced on furosemide, and 53.9 % raced on both phenylbutazone and furosemide. Overall, of the 4803 entries, 3.2 % raced with no medication, 52.6 % raced on phenylbutazone, 0.4 % raced on furosemide, and 43.9 % raced on both phenylbutazone and furosemide

The Effect of Furosemide on Arterial Blood Gases and Performance in Quarter Horses Performing a Fatigue Test on a Treadmill

Four Quarter Horses (1 filly age 2, 1 mare age 5 and 2 geldings ages 3 and 4; average weight 539 kg) were used in a 2 x 2 crossover design. The effects of furosemide (Lasix(Rx)) on arterial blood packed ceii voiume (PCV), hemogiobin (Hb), pH, pO2, pCO2, HCO-3 and base excess (BE) were measured. Plasma lactate, heart rate, and fatigue time were determined as indicators of perlormance while the horses performed a fatigue test on a high-speed treadmill. The left carotid artery was surgically elevated subcutaneously to facilitate collection of arterial blood samples. Horses were conditioned for 13 weeks with increasing intensity then randomly assigned furosemide (F) or physiological saline (C) as treatments. Treatments were administered 4 hours prior to the fatigue test in accordance with racing regulations. Arterial blood samples were collected prior to treatment dose, prior to exercise, at the 2nd, 4th, and 6th minute during the fatigue test, at fatigue, and at the 5th, 15th, 30th, and 45th minute post-exercise. Arterial blood samples were analyzed for blood gases, Hb, PCV, and plasma lactate. Heart rate and fatigue time were recorded. No difference between treatments (P \u3e 0.05) was observed for blood gases except for pCO2 at rest, and HCO-3 and BE at the 2 minute collection period. No difference between treatments (P \u3e 0.05) was observed for Hb, PCV, lactate and heart rate except at 15 minutes post-exercise for Hb and PCV, and 45 minutes postexercise for Hb. Fatigue times were 11 min 56 sec ± 5 min 30 sec for F horses and 11 min 35 sec--± 2 min 6 sec for C horses. No difference (P \u3e 0.05) was observed in fatigue time. Based on our data, the trend indicated that all parameters measured returned to pre-exercise levels more rapidly for furosemide treated horses. However, furosemide did not enhance performance

Antarctic Ice Sheet Elevation Impacts on Water Isotope Records During the Last Interglacial

Changes of the topography of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) can complicate the interpretation of ice core water stable isotope measurements in terms of temperature. Here, we use a set of idealised AIS elevation change scenarios to investigate this for the warm Last Interglacial (LIG). We show that LIG δ 18 O against elevation relationships are not uniform across Antarctica, and that the LIG response to elevation is lower than the preindustrial response. The effect of LIG elevation‐induced sea ice changes on δ 18 O is small, allowing us to isolate the effect of elevation change alone. Our results help to define the effect of AIS changes on the LIG δ 18 O signals, and should be invaluable to those seeking to use AIS ice core measurements for these purposes. Especially, our simulations strengthen the conclusion that ice core measurements from the Talos Dome core exclude the loss of the Wilkes Basin at around 128 ky

The role of tourist guides in interpretation: a survey of secondary school teachers at Maropeng and the Sterkfontein caves, South Africa.

Interpretation, either explicitly or implicitly, aims to stimulate, facilitate and extend people’s understanding of the place or attraction so that empathy towards heritage, conservation, culture and landscape can be developed. However, in tourism research, interpretation in tour guiding has previously not received the attention it deserves. The main aim of this paper is to explore the role of tourist guides in interpretation as perceived by secondary school teachers. In general, respondents perceived tourist guides’ interpretation to be important, and they were satisfied with the way in which guides applied the principles of interpretation throughout their tours. Understanding visitor satisfaction presents information related to how well the attributes of the tourist attraction match the visitors’ preferences, which may help tourist attraction marketers in improving the quality of their products and services in order to meet visitors’ preferences. In addition, marketers should attract a number of visitors that can be managed in order to protect the natural and cultural resources of the attraction. The results of this study will hopefully inform Maropeng á Afrika marketers about secondary school teachers’ satisfaction on tourist guides’ interpretation and how important interpretation is to the respondents. In addition, the results will help the attractions to improve guided school tours and enhance offerings to Maropeng and the Sterkfontein caves in South Africa

Importance Of Recruitment To Accurately Predict The Impacts Of Human-Caused Mortality On Wolf Populations

Reliable analyses can help wildlife managers make good decisions, which are particularly critical for controversial decisions such as wolf (Canis lupus) harvest. Creel and Rotella (2010) recently predicted substantial population declines in Montana wolf populations due to harvest, in contrast to predictions made by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP). Here we replicate their analyses considering only those years in which field monitoring was consistent, and we consider the effect of annual variation in recruitment on wolf population growth. We also use model selection to evaluate models of recruitment and human-caused mortality rates in wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Using data from 27 area-years of intensive wolf monitoring, we show that variation in both recruitment and human-caused mortality affect annual wolf population growth rates and that human-caused mortality rates have increased with the sizes of wolf populations. We also show that either recruitment rates have decreased with population sizes or that the ability of current field resources to document recruitment rates has recently become less successful as the number of wolves in the region has increased. Predictions of wolf population growth in Montana from our top models are consistent with field observations and estimates previously made by MFWP. Familiarity with limitations of raw data helps generate more reliable inferences and conclusions in analyses of publicly-available datasets. Additionally, development of efficient monitoring methods for wolves is a pressing need, so that analyses such as ours will be possible in future years when fewer resources will be available for monitoring

Investigating the 8.2 ka event in northwestern Madagascar: Insight from data–model comparisons

The 8.2 ka event is a well-known cooling event in the Northern Hemisphere, but is poorly understood in Madagascar. Here, we compare paleoclimate data and outputs from paleoclimate simulations to better understand it. Records from Madagascar suggest two distinct sub-events (8.3 ka and 8.2 ka), that seem to correlate with records from northern high latitude. This could indicate causal relationships via changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) with changes in moisture source's δ18O, and changes in the mean position of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), as climate modelling suggests. These two sub-events are also apparent in other terrestrial records, but the climatic signals are different. The prominent 8.2 ka sub-event records a clear antiphase relationship between the northern and southern hemisphere monsoons, whereas such relationship is less evident during the first 8.3 ka sub-event. Data–model comparison have also shown a mismatch between the paleoclimate data and the model outputs, the causes of which are more or less understood and may lie in the proxies, in the model, or in both data and model. Knowing that paleoclimate proxies and climate models produce different sets of variables, further research is needed to improve the data–model comparison approach, so that both paleoclimate data and paleoclimate models will better predict the likely climate status of a region during a specified time in the past with minimal uncertainties

Temporal and spatial structure of multi‐millennial temperature changes at high latitudes during the Last Interglacial

The Last Interglacial (LIG, 129–116 thousand of years BP, ka) represents a test bed for climate model feedbacks in warmer-than-present high latitude regions. However, mainly because aligning different palaeoclimatic archives and from different parts of the world is not trivial, a spatio-temporal picture of LIG temperature changes is difficult to obtain. Here, we have selected 47 polar ice core and sub-polar marine sediment records and developed a strategy to align them onto the recent AICC2012 ice core chronology. We provide the first compilation of high-latitude temperature changes across the LIG associated with a coherent temporal framework built between ice core and marine sediment records. Our new data synthesis highlights non-synchronous maximum temperature changes between the two hemispheres with the Southern Ocean and Antarctica records showing an early warming compared to North Atlantic records. We also observe warmer than present-day conditions that occur for a longer time period in southern high latitudes than in northern high latitudes. Finally, the amplitude of temperature changes at high northern latitudes is larger compared to high southern latitude temperature changes recorded at the onset and the demise of the LIG. We have also compiled four data-based time slices with temperature anomalies (compared to present-day conditions) at 115 ka, 120 ka, 125 ka and 130 ka and quantitatively estimated temperature uncertainties that include relative dating errors. This provides an improved benchmark for performing more robust model-data comparison. The surface temperature simulated by two General Circulation Models (CCSM3 and HadCM3) for 130 ka and 125 ka is compared to the corresponding time slice data synthesis. This comparison shows that the models predict warmer than present conditions earlier than documented in the North Atlantic, while neither model is able to produce the reconstructed early Southern Ocean and Antarctic warming. Our results highlight the importance of producing a sequence of time slices rather than one single time slice averaging the LIG climate conditions

The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial

The Hadley Centre Global Environment Model version 3 (HadGEM3) is the first coupled climate model to simulate an ice-free Arctic during the Last Interglacial (LIG), 127 000 years ago. This simulation appears to yield accurate Arctic surface temperatures during the summer season. Here, we investigate the causes and impacts of this extreme simulated ice loss. We find that the summer ice melt was predominantly driven by thermodynamic processes: atmospheric and ocean circulation changes did not significantly contribute to the ice loss. We demonstrate these thermodynamic processes were significantly impacted by melt ponds, which formed on average 8 d earlier during the LIG than during the pre-industrial control (PI) simulation. This relatively small difference significantly changed the LIG surface energy balance and impacted the albedo feedback. Compared to the PI simulation: in mid-June, of the absorbed flux at the surface over ice-covered cells (sea-ice concentration > 0.15), ponds accounted for 45 %–50 %, open water 35 %–45 %, and bare ice and snow 5 %–10 %. We show that the simulated ice loss led to large Arctic sea surface salinity and temperature changes. The sea surface temperature and salinity signals we identify here provide a means to verify, in marine observations, if and when an ice-free Arctic occurred during the LIG. Strong LIG correlations between spring melt pond and summer ice area indicate that, as Arctic ice continues to thin in future, the spring melt pond area will likely become an increasingly reliable predictor of the September sea-ice area. Finally, we note that models with explicitly modelled melt ponds seem to simulate particularly low LIG sea-ice area. These results show that models with explicit (as opposed to parameterised) melt ponds can simulate very different sea-ice behaviour under forcings other than the present day. This is of concern for future projections of sea-ice loss