Prevalence, genetic relationships and pathogenicity of intestinal spirochaetes infecting Australian Poultry

The prevalence of infection with intestinal spirochaetes in chickens in Western Australia was assessed by selective culture of faecal samples. Colonisation was common, with 35.1% of layer flocks and 53.3% of broiler breeder flocks being positive. Spirochaetes were recovered significantly more frequently from flocks with diarrhoea or reduced production than from clinically normal flocks. The genetic identity and diversity of 56 selected isolates from Australia, the USA and Europe were examined using multilocus enzyme electrophoresis: these were divided into six diverse genetic groups. Three groups contained isolates previously shown to be pathogenic for chickens: (i) "Serpulina intermedia ", (ii) an unnamed group (not identified in Australia), and (iii) Serpulina pilosicoli. Most pathogenic isolates from Australia were "S. intermedia ". Day-old broiler chicks were infected orally with Australian isolates either of "S. intermedia" (3), a commonly isolated but unnamed group (3), or S. pilosicoli (1). All spirochaetes induced diarrhoea, but this occurred earlier and more birds were colonised with "S. intermedia" and S. pilosicoli strains than with strains from the unnamed group. Infection of laying hens with an "S. intermedia " strain caused wet faeces and reduced egg production

The Wadi Faynan Project, Southern Jordan: a Preliminary Report on Geomorphology and Landscape Archaeology

Reproduced with permission of the publisher. © 1997 Council for British Research in the Levant. Details of the publication are available at: http://www.cbrl.org.uk/Publications/publications_default.shtmThe Wadi Faynan Project of the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History (BIAAH) has as its principal objective the provision of a detailed case study in the relationship between environmental change and human history in the arid zone, from prehistory to the present day. This report describes the preliminary findings of an initial campaign of fieldwork in geomorphology and landscape archaeology conducted by an inter-disciplinary team in 1996. A preliminary sequence of fluvial events has been established, represented by the Ghuwayr and Shayqar Beds dated to the Late Pleistocene, and the Faynan and Dana Beds dated to the Holocene. Methodologies have been trialed for recording, dating and interpreting the ancient field system assumed to be of Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine date; initial findings confirm its longevity of use and complexity of purpose. There are also indications that floodwater farming began in the Wadi Faynan in the Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Ag

Archaeology and Desertification in the Wadi Faynan: the Fourth (1999) Season of the Wadi Faynan Landscape Survey

Reproduced with permission of the publisher. © 2000 Council for British Research in the Levant. Details of the publication are available at: http://www.cbrl.org.uk/Publications/publications_default.shtmThis report describes the fourth season of fieldwork by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and geographers working together to reconstruct the landscape history of the Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan. The particular focus of the project is the long-term history of inter-relationships between landscape and people, as a contribution to the study of processes of desertification and environmental degradation. The 1999 fieldwork contributed significantly towards the five Objectives defined for the final two field seasons of the project in 1999 and 2000: to map the archaeology outside the ancient field systems flooring the wadi that have formed the principal focus of the archaeological survey in the previous seasons; to use ethnoarchaeological studies both to reconstruct modern and recent land use and also to yield archaeological signatures of land use to inform the analysis of the survey data; to complete the survey of ancient field systems and refine understanding of when and how they functioned; to complete the programme of geomorphological and palaeoecological fieldwork, and in particular to refine the chronology of climatic change and human impacts; and to complete the recording and classification of finds

The Fezzan Project 2001: Preliminary report on the fifth season of work

AbstractThe Fezzan Project completed its five-year fieldwork cycle in 2001. The geographical research team located numerous additional palaeolake sites within the Edeyen Ubari, using a combination of Remote Sensing technology and field visits. Additional samples were taken for analysis and dating from many lake edge locations, relating to both the large Pleistocene lake and to the numerous smaller Holocene lakes that have been identified by the team. The excavations at Old Germa were taken down through Garamantian occupation levels to the natural subsoil below the earliest cultural horizon. The earliest activity, represented by a few mudbrick walls and hearths built directly on the natural soil, is believed to date toc. 400-300 BC. Traces of several phases of Garamantian buildings were uncovered, along with numerous rubbish pits, which yielded a rich assemblage of finds, including, for the first time, examples of Garamantian figurines, small 3-D sculptures of humans and animals. Work on the various classes of finds (pottery, small finds, lithics and other stone artefacts, metallurgical evidence, etc.) complemented the excavation work. In addition, a small amount of further survey work was carried out on sites in the Wadi al-Ajal, along with a contour survey of Old Germa and standing building survey at a number of other sites.</jats:p

Advances in multispectral and hyperspectral imaging for archaeology and art conservation

Multispectral imaging has been applied to the field of art conservation and art history since the early 1990s. It is attractive as a noninvasive imaging technique because it is fast and hence capable of imaging large areas of an object giving both spatial and spectral information. This paper gives an overview of the different instrumental designs, image processing techniques and various applications of multispectral and hyperspectral imaging to art conservation, art history and archaeology. Recent advances in the development of remote and versatile multispectral and hyperspectral imaging as well as techniques in pigment identification will be presented. Future prospects including combination of spectral imaging with other noninvasive imaging and analytical techniques will be discussed

SARS-CoV-2 infection, clinical features and outcome of COVID-19 in United Kingdom nursing homes.

OBJECTIVES: To understand SARS-Co-V-2 infection and transmission in UK nursing homes in order to develop preventive strategies for protecting the frail elderly residents. METHODS: An outbreak investigation involving 394 residents and 70 staff, was carried out in 4 nursing homes affected by COVID-19 outbreaks in central London. Two point-prevalence surveys were performed one week apart where residents underwent SARS-CoV-2 testing and had relevant symptoms documented. Asymptomatic staff from three of the four homes were also offered SARS-CoV-2 testing. RESULTS: Overall, 26% (95% CI 22-31) of residents died over the two-month period. All-cause mortality increased by 203% (95% CI 70-336) compared with previous years. Systematic testing identified 40% (95% CI 35-46) of residents as positive for SARS-CoV-2, and of these 43% (95% CI 34-52) were asymptomatic and 18% (95% CI 11-24) had only atypical symptoms; 4% (95% CI -1 to 9) of asymptomatic staff also tested positive. CONCLUSIONS: The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in four UK nursing homes was associated with very high infection and mortality rates. Many residents developed either atypical or had no discernible symptoms. A number of asymptomatic staff members also tested positive, suggesting a role for regular screening of both residents and staff in mitigating future outbreaks

The Alvarez impact theory of mass extinction; limits to its applicability and the „great expectations syndrome”

For the past three decades, the Alvarez impact theory of mass extinction, causally related to catastrophic meteorite impacts, has been recurrently applied to multiple extinction boundaries. However, these multidisciplinary research efforts across the globe have been largely unsuccessful to date, with one outstanding exception: the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The unicausal impact scenario as a leading explanation, when applied to the complex fossil record, has resulted in force-fitting of data and interpretations ("great expectations syndrome". The misunderstandings can be grouped at three successive levels of the testing process, and involve the unreflective application of the impact paradigm: (i) factual misidentification, i.e., an erroneous or indefinite recognition of the extraterrestrial record in sedimentological, physical and geochemical contexts, (ii) correlative misinterpretation of the adequately documented impact signals due to their incorrect dating, and (iii) causal overestimation when the proved impact characteristics are doubtful as a sufficient trigger of a contemporaneous global cosmic catastrophe. Examples of uncritical belief in the simple cause-effect scenario for the Frasnian-Famennian, Permian-Triassic, and Triassic-Jurassic (and the Eifelian-Givetian and Paleocene-Eocene as well) global events include mostly item-1 pitfalls (factual misidentification), with Ir enrichments and shocked minerals frequently misidentified. Therefore, these mass extinctions are still at the first test level, and only the F-F extinction is potentially seen in the context of item-2, the interpretative step, because of the possible causative link with the Siljan Ring crater (53 km in diameter). The erratically recognized cratering signature is often marked by large timing and size uncertainties, and item-3, the advanced causal inference, is in fact limited to clustered impacts that clearly predate major mass extinctions. The multi-impact lag-time pattern is particularly clear in the Late Triassic, when the largest (100 km diameter) Manicouagan crater was possibly concurrent with the end-Carnian extinction (or with the late Norian tetrapod turnover on an alternative time scale). The relatively small crater sizes and cratonic (crystalline rock basement) setting of these two craters further suggest the strongly insufficient extraterrestrial trigger of worldwide environmental traumas. However, to discuss the kill potential of impact events in a more robust fashion, their location and timing, vulnerability factors, especially target geology and palaeogeography in the context of associated climate-active volatile fluxes, should to be rigorously assessed. The current lack of conclusive impact evidence synchronous with most mass extinctions may still be somewhat misleading due to the predicted large set of undiscovered craters, particularly in light of the obscured record of oceanic impact events

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter