Measuring the Cost of a College Degree: A Case Study of a SUNY Community College

Inspired by a Delta Cost Project White Paper, this study uses different measures of calculating the cost of a college degree at an up‐state community college in New York. Departmental cost per credit hour, direct instructional costs, and full costs are calculated and compared. A transcript analysis of the 2008‐09 graduates highlights excess credit hours taken and cross‐subsidies necessary within degree programs to produce these graduates

Economic Impacts Associated with Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rBST) Use

The article "Economic Impacts Associated with Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rBST) Use," which appeared in AgBioForum 3(2&3), merits somewhat closer scrutiny. The article was based on a pair of regression models which Ott and Rendleman (2000) had developed for herd milk production and for herd "nonmilk productivity." These regression models are quite similar to a series of models that Ott, Wells, and Wagner (1999) and Ott and Novak (2001) had created to examine economic losses associated with Johne's disease and with bulk-tank somatic cell counts, respectively. Either Ott and Novak (2001) need to retract the square root of the percent of rBST use as an explanatory variable for milk production, or Ott and Rendleman (2000) ought to reconsider the quadratic expression for the percent of rBST use in their model for milk production. Both models lead to very different conclusions about the relationship between rBST use and milk production, and both cannot be correct.Includes bibliographical reference

In vivo testing of novel vaccine prototypes against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (A. pleuropneumoniae) is a Gram-negative bacterium that represents the main cause of porcine pleuropneumonia in pigs, causing significant economic losses to the livestock industry worldwide. A. pleuropneumoniae, as the majority of Gram-negative bacteria, excrete vesicles from its outer membrane (OM), accordingly defined as outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). Thanks to their antigenic similarity to the OM, OMVs have emerged as a promising tool in vaccinology. In this study we describe the in vivo testing of several vaccine prototypes for the prevention of infection by all known A. pleuropneumoniae serotypes. Previously identified vaccine candidates, the recombinant proteins ApfA and VacJ, administered individually or in various combinations with the OMVs, were employed as vaccination strategies. Our data show that the addition of the OMVs in the vaccine formulations significantly increased the specific IgG titer against both ApfA and VacJ in the immunized animals, confirming the previously postulated potential of the OMVs as adjuvant. Unfortunately, the antibody response raised did not translate into an effective protection against A. pleuropneumoniae infection, as none of the immunized groups following challenge showed a significantly lower degree of lesions than the controls. Interestingly, quite the opposite was true, as the animals with the highest IgG titers were also the ones bearing the most extensive lesions in their lungs. These results shed new light on A. pleuropneumoniae pathogenicity, suggesting that antibody-mediated cytotoxicity from the host immune response may play a central role in the development of the lesions typically associated with A. pleuropneumoniae infections

Direct and indirect effects of Johne's disease on farm and animal productivity in an Irish dairy herd

Johne's disease (JD) is caused by infection with the organism Mycobacterium avium spp. paratuberculosis, leading to chronic diarrhoea and ill thrift in adult cattle. JD is considered to adversely affect farm performance and profitability. This retrospective case study was undertaken on a single commercial dairy herd in the south west of Ireland. Animal production records were interrogated to assess the effect of JD on milk yield (total kg per lactation), somatic cell count (the geometric mean over the lactation), reasons for culling, cull price and changes in herd parity structure over time. JD groups were defined using clinical signs and test results. One control animal was matched to each case animal on parity number and year. Specific lactations (clinical, pre-clinical and test-positive only) from 1994 to 2004 were compared between JD case and control cows. A significantly lower milk yield (1259.3 kg/lactation) was noted from cows with clinical JD in comparison to their matched control group. Clinical animals had an average cull price of €516 less than animals culled without signs of clinical disease. In contrast, little effect was noted for sub-clinical infections. These direct effects of JD infections, in combination with increased culling for infertility and increasing replacement rates, had a negative impact on farm production. Results from this study provide preliminary information regarding the effects of JD status on both herd and animal-level performance in Ireland

Prospective cohort study to assess rates of contagious disease in pre-weaned UK dairy heifers: management practices, passive transfer of immunity and associated calf health

Dairy calves are vulnerable to infectious diseases, particularly diarrhoea and bovine respiratory disease (BRD), causing mortality and reducing welfare and growth. A prospective cohort study was performed on 11 UK dairy farms to determine the underlying causes for calf disease. This first paper describes the incidence, timing and duration of infectious disease, mortality rates, passive transfer of immunity and key management practices that may contribute to disease incidence. Heifer calves were recruited in the first week of life (n=492) and a blood sample taken to measure IgG and total protein (TP). Each animal was examined weekly for nine weeks using a standardised health scoring system. Recruitment of calves occurred between August and February. Four farms provided supplementary colostrum to more than 75 per cent of calves born, whereas on the remainder only 0 to 19 per cent were supplemented. Mean serum IgG and TP were 19.0±10 and 56.7±10.3mg/ml respectively, with 20.7 per cent (95CI: 17.2 to 24.7 per cent) of all calves classified as having failure of passive transfer (IgG <10mg/ml). The overall preweaning mortality rate was 4.5 per cent. (95 per cent CI: 2.9 to 6.8 per cent). During this period,48.2 per cent of all calves (range 24.1 to 74.4 per cent between farms) were diagnosed with diarrhoea and 45.9 per cent (range 20.4 to 77.8 per cent) with BRD. The incidence rates were 7.8 cases of diarrhoea and 10.1 cases of BRD per 100 calf weeks at risk, respectively. Rates of infectious disease were therefore high despite relatively good passive transfer

Enhancement of protective immune responses by oral vaccination with Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing recombinant Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae ApxIA or ApxIIA in mice

We previously induced protective immune response by oral immunization with yeast expressing the ApxIIA antigen. The ApxI antigen is also an important factor in the protection against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae serotype 5 infection; therefore, the protective immunity in mice following oral immunization with Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing either ApxIA (group C) or ApxIIA (group D) alone or both (group E) was compared with that in two control groups (group A and B). The immunogenicity of the rApxIA antigen derived from the yeast was confirmed by a high survival rate and an ApxIA-specific IgG antibody response (p < 0.01). The highest systemic (IgG) and local (IgA) humoral immune responses to ApxIA and ApxIIA were detected in group E after the third immunization (p < 0.05). The levels of IL-1β and IL-6 after challenge with an A. pleuropneumoniae field isolate did not change significantly in the vaccinated groups. The level of TNF-α increased in a time-dependent manner in group E but was not significantly different after the challenge. After the challenge, the mice in group E had a significantly lower infectious burden and a higher level of protection than the mice in the other groups (p < 0.05). The survival rate in each group was closely correlated to the immune response and histopathological observations in the lung following the challenge. These results suggested that immunity to the ApxIA antigen is required for optimal protection

A validated ultra-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection coupled to electrospray ionization and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry method to simultaneously quantify taurine, homotaurine, hypotaurine and amino acids in macro- and microalgae

A fast and reliable method for the simultaneous quantification of Taurine, Homotaurine, Hypotaurine and 19 amino acids in algae samples by Ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array and tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–DAD-MS/MS) was optimized and validated. Target compounds were chromatographically resolved in less than 15 min. (ESI)-MS/MS electrospray ionization and pure analytical standards were used to confirm the identity of all analytes, while quantitation was carried out with diode array detection. Validation parameters of the method were satisfactory: Resolution of peak pairs was always higher than 1.55; all analytical curves showed R2 > 0.99, with working ranges between 0.04 mg/g to 33.1 mg/g and 9.13 mg/g to 107 mg/g and the Lack-of-fit test was not significant. The intra and inter-day precision of the method (expressed as relative standard deviation) were lower than 6% and recovery values ranged between 95% and 105%. The method was demonstrated to be robust to small deliberate variations of seven variables such sample weight, volume of hydrolysis reagent, hydrolysis time and temperature, derivatization time, column temperature and flow rate. The mean expanded uncertainty for all the target compounds were 0.7 mg/g with a coverage factor of 2. Method Limits of detection and quantification varied from 0.005 * 10−3 mg/g to 0.11 * 10−3 mg/g and 0.01* 10−3 mg/g to 0.22 * 10-3 mg/g respectively, allowing the routine determination of these bioactive compounds in algae extracts. Therefore, the method was successfully applied for the quantitative determination of the 22 target compounds in five seaweed commercial samples. Relevant compounds were quantified for the first time in the five algae species, namely: i) Taurine in Gracilaria longissima and Chlorella spp., ii) Gamma-aminobutyric acid in G. longissima and L. japonica, iii) Hydroxyproline in G. longissima, Ulva lactuca, Porphyra spp., and L. japonica and iv) Homotaurine and Hypotaurine in the five species studied.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Paratuberculosis sero-status and milk production, SCC and calving interval in Irish dairy herds

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of paratuberculosis sero-status on milk yield, fat, protein, somatic cell count and calving interval in Irish dairy herds. Serum from all animals over 12 months of age (n = 2,602) in 34 dairy herds was tested for antibodies to Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis using an ELISA. Herds were categorised by sero-status into positive, non-negative and negative, where a positive herd contained two or more positive cows, a non-negative herd contained only one positive cow and a negative herd contained no positive cows. Data at animal, parity and herd-level were analysed by multiple regression using general linear models. Positive herds (mean herd size = 129 cows) and non-negative herds (81 cows) were larger than negative herds (72 cows) (P < 0.01). Negative herds had the highest economic breeding index (EBI), while positive herds had the highest estimated breeding value (EBV) for milk yield. There was no significant effect of paratuberculosis sero-status at animal, parity or herd-level on milk yield, milk fat or protein production, somatic cell count score (SCCS) or calving interval. Negative herds tended to have a lower SCCS than positive and nonnegative herds (P = 0.087). This study only examined the effects of paratuberculosis sero-status but did not examine the clinical effects of Johne's disease at the farm or dairy industry levels