Donald R. Matthews to Professor Silver, 26 March 1963

Professional correspondenc

Vaccinating to Prevent Pneumonia

Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) is a major problem for cattle and it continues to cause serious economic losses. Pneumonia is its most serious form. BRD causes increased death losses, higher medication and labor costs, and lost production. It occurs most commonly within a few weeks of weaning and is especially troublesome then. BRD is more serious in calves which are shipped long distances right after weaning and is often referred to as shipping fever

Ocean Rossby waves as a triggering mechanism for primary Madden-Julian events

The Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) is sporadic, with episodes of cyclical activity interspersed with inactive periods. However, it remains unclear what may trigger a Madden–Julian (MJ) event which is not immediately preceded by any MJO activity: a ‘primary’ MJ event. A combination of case-studies and composite analysis is used to examine the extent to which the triggering of primary MJ events might occur in response to ocean dynamics. The case-studies show that such events can be triggered by the arrival of a downwelling oceanic equatorial Rossby wave, which is shown to be associated with a deepening of the mixed layer and positive sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies of the order of 0.5–1 °C. These SST anomalies are not attributable to forcing by surface fluxes which are weak for the case-studies analysed. Furthermore, composite analysis suggests that such forcing is consistently important for triggering primary events. The relationship is much weaker for successive events, due to the many other triggering mechanisms which operate during periods of cyclical MJO activity. This oceanic feedback mechanism is a viable explanation for the sporadic and broadband nature of the MJO. Additionally, it provides hope for forecasting MJ events during periods of inactivity, when MJO forecasts generally exhibit low skill

Effects of flavopiridol on Cdk2 activity in cultured cell lines

Flavopiradol reduced cyclin-dependent kinase activity by competititve inhibition with ATP by binding to the ATP-binding pocket of these cell cycle regulators ... it was thought that flavopiradol would be an excllent inhibitor of cell proliferation and effective tumor suppressor ... Although apoptosis was not observed after a 24hr incubation period, the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 was downregulated. Our findings illustrate an alternate mechanism of cdk2 inhibition in vitro, through p21 WAF1/CIP1 upregulation, showing that drugs that were shown to have specific activities when assayed using purified systems may have multiple in vivo activities and these activities differ depending on the cells used. These different effects may contribute to the variable results seen in clinical trials

Suppository formulations as a potential treatment for nephropathic cystinosis.

Nephropathic cystinosis is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterised by raised lysosomal levels of cystine in the cells of all the organs. It is treated by the 6-h oral administration of the aminothiol, cysteamine, which has an offensive taste and smell. In an attempt to reduce this frequency and improve the treatment, cysteamine-containing polyethylene glycol suppositories were prepared and evaluated for dissolution and stability. The results demonstrated that cysteamine release was complete after 30 min, and that there was a uniform drug distribution within the formulations. Twelve-month stability tests highlighted a potential incompatibility among some excipients, although stability was demonstrated for the cysteamine suppositories up to 6 months. These suppositories may provide a useful alternative to the current oral therapy for cystinosis