498 research outputs found

    Advances in Animal Welfare Science 1984/85

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    This book, the first in an annual series, written by academicians--scientists, philosopher and other--is not intended exclusively for animal welfarists and conservationists. Since it is written by scholars, it will appeal to a wide range of academic and professional readers who are involved with animals for scientific, economic, altruistic, and other reasons. While this first volume cannot cover the entire spectrum of animal welfare science-related topics, it does, in its diversity of contributions, demonstrate the multi-faceted and interdisciplinary nature of the subject of this new series.https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/ebooks/1019/thumbnail.jp

    Load Carriage Distance Run and Pushups Tests: No Body Mass Bias and Occupationally Relevant

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    Recent research has demonstrated body mass (M) bias in military physical fi tness tests favoring lighter, not just leaner, service members. Mathematical modeling predicts that a distance run carrying a backpack of 30 lbs would eliminate M-bias. The purpose of this study was to empirically test this prediction for the U.S. Army push-ups and 2-mile run tests. Two tests were performed for both events for each of 56 university Reserve Offi cer Training Corps male cadets: with (loaded) and without backpack (unloaded). Results indicated signifi cant M-bias in the unloaded and no M-bias in the loaded condition for both events. Allometrically scaled scores for both events were worse in the loaded vs. unloaded conditions, supporting a hypothesis not previously tested. The loaded push-ups and 2-mile run appear to remove M-bias and are probably more occupationally relevant as military personnel are often expected to carry external loads

    Climatic effects of 1950-2050 changes in US anthropogenic aerosols - Part 2: Climate response

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    We investigate the climate response to changing US anthropogenic aerosol sources over the 1950–2050 period by using the NASA GISS general circulation model (GCM) and comparing to observed US temperature trends. Time-dependent aerosol distributions are generated from the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model applied to historical emission inventories and future projections. Radiative forcing from US anthropogenic aerosols peaked in 1970–1990 and has strongly declined since due to air quality regulations. We find that the regional radiative forcing from US anthropogenic aerosols elicits a strong regional climate response, cooling the central and eastern US by 0.5–1.0 °C on average during 1970–1990, with the strongest effects on maximum daytime temperatures in summer and autumn. Aerosol cooling reflects comparable contributions from direct and indirect (cloud-mediated) radiative effects. Absorbing aerosol (mainly black carbon) has negligible warming effect. Aerosol cooling reduces surface evaporation and thus decreases precipitation along the US east coast, but also increases the southerly flow of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico resulting in increased cloud cover and precipitation in the central US. Observations over the eastern US show a lack of warming in 1960–1980 followed by very rapid warming since, which we reproduce in the GCM and attribute to trends in US anthropogenic aerosol sources. Present US aerosol concentrations are sufficiently low that future air quality improvements are projected to cause little further warming in the US (0.1 °C over 2010–2050). We find that most of the warming from aerosol source controls in the US has already been realized over the 1980–2010 period

    Tetratrichomonas and Trichomonas spp.-Associated Disease in Free-Ranging Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) from Wellfleet Bay, MA and Description of ITS1 Region Genotypes

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    During an outbreak of Wellfleet Bay virus (WFBV) in common eiders (Somateria mollissima) from the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts, several birds were diagnosed with trichomonosis consisting of multiple trichomonad species. Six birds were examined, with trichomonads found in ceca in four birds and associated typhlitis in three of these four birds. PCR and DNA sequencing utilizing trichomonad-specific primers targeting the ITS1 region of the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) revealed the presence of Tetratrichomonas gallinarum in the gastrointestinal tracts of five birds and Trichomonas spp. in the livers of two birds, one of which had a dual Te. gallinarum-Trichomonas gallinae infection. Sequence analysis revealed no variation between Te. gallinarum sequences whereas the ITS1 sequences obtained from the other Trichomonas spp. demonstrated the presence of multiple genotypes. One sequence had 100% identity to a Trichomonas sp. previously isolated from a Cooper\u27s hawk (Accipiter cooperii) and the other sequence was 100% identical to a previously described Tr. gallinae isolate obtained from a Pacific Coast band-tailed pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata monilis). These findings suggest Te. gallinarum and other Trichomonas spp. possibly contributed to morbidity and mortality in this species. Furthermore, to the authors\u27 knowledge, this is the first report of trichomonad-associated disease in a free-ranging sea duck

    Regional Warming from Aerosol Removal over the United States: Results from a Transient 2010-2050 Climate Simulation

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    We use a general circulation model (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies GCM 3) to investigate the regional climate response to removal of aerosols over the United States. We perform a pair of transient 2010e2050 climate simulations following a scenario of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, with and without aerosols over the United States and with present-day aerosols elsewhere. We find that removing U.S. aerosol significantly enhances the warming from greenhouse gases in a spatial pattern that strongly correlates with that of the aerosol. Warming is nearly negligible outside the United States, but annual mean surface temperatures increase by 0.4e0.6 K in the eastern United States. Temperatures during summer heat waves in the Northeast rise by as much as 1e2 K due to aerosol removal, driven in part by positive feedbacks involving soil moisture and low cloud cover. Reducing U.S. aerosol sources to achieve air quality objectives could thus have significant unintended regional warming consequences

    Factors controlling variability in the oxidative capacity of the troposphere since the Last Glacial Maximum

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    The oxidative capacity of past atmospheres is highly uncertain. We present here a new climate–biosphere–chemistry modeling framework to determine oxidant levels in the present and past troposphere. We use the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model driven by meteorological fields from the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) ModelE, with land cover and fire emissions from dynamic global vegetation models. We present time-slice simulations for the present day, late preindustrial era (AD 1770), and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 19–23 ka), and we test the sensitivity of model results to uncertainty in lightning and fire emissions. We find that most preindustrial and paleo climate simulations yield reduced oxidant levels relative to the present day. Contrary to prior studies, tropospheric mean OH in our ensemble shows little change at the LGM relative to the preindustrial era (0.5 ± 12 %), despite large reductions in methane concentrations. We find a simple linear relationship between tropospheric mean ozone photolysis rates, water vapor, and total emissions of NO<sub>x</sub> and reactive carbon that explains 72 % of the variability in global mean OH in 11 different simulations across the last glacial–interglacial time interval and the industrial era. Key parameters controlling the tropospheric oxidative capacity over glacial–interglacial periods include overhead stratospheric ozone, tropospheric water vapor, and lightning NO<sub>x</sub> emissions. Variability in global mean OH since the LGM is insensitive to fire emissions. Our simulations are broadly consistent with ice-core records of Δ<sup>17</sup>O in sulfate and nitrate at the LGM, and CO, HCHO, and H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> in the preindustrial era. Our results imply that the glacial–interglacial changes in atmospheric methane observed in ice cores are predominantly driven by changes in its sources as opposed to its sink with OH

    Eastern Asian emissions of anthropogenic halocarbons deduced from aircraft concentration data

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    The Montreal Protocol restricts production of ozone-depleting halocarbons worldwide. Enforcement of the protocol has relied mainly on annual government statistics of production and consumption of these compounds (bottom-up approach). We show here that aircraft observations of halocarbon:CO enhancement ratios on regional to continental scales can be used to infer halocarbon emissions, providing independent verification of the bottom-up approach. We apply this top-down approach to aircraft observations of Asian outflow from the TRACE-P mission over the western Pacific (March April 2001) and derive emissions from eastern Asia (China, Japan, and Korea). We derive an eastern Asian carbon tetrachloride (CCl ) source of 21.5 Gg yr , several-fold larger than previous estimates and amounting to 30% of the global budget for this gas. Our emission estimate for CFC-11 from eastern Asia is 50% higher than inventories derived from manufacturing records. Our emission estimates for methyl chloroform (CH ) and CFC-12 are in agreement with existing inventories. For halon 1211 we find only a strong local source originating from the Shanghai area. Our emission estimates for the above gases result in a 40% increase in the ozone depletion potential (ODP) of Asian emissions relative to previous estimates, corresponding to a 10% global increase in ODP

    Radiative forcing in the 21st century due to ozone changes in the troposphere and the lower stratosphere

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    Radiative forcing due to changes in ozone is expected for the 21st century. An assessment on changes in the tropospheric oxidative state through a model intercomparison ("OxComp'') was conducted for the IPCC Third Assessment Report (IPCC-TAR). OxComp estimated tropospheric changes in ozone and other oxidants during the 21st century based on the "SRES'' A2p emission scenario. In this study we analyze the results of 11 chemical transport models (CTMs) that participated in OxComp and use them as input for detailed radiative forcing calculations. We also address future ozone recovery in the lower stratosphere and its impact on radiative forcing by applying two models that calculate both tropospheric and stratospheric changes. The results of OxComp suggest an increase in global-mean tropospheric ozone between 11.4 and 20.5 DU for the 21st century, representing the model uncertainty range for the A2p scenario. As the A2p scenario constitutes the worst case proposed in IPCC-TAR we consider these results as an upper estimate. The radiative transfer model yields a positive radiative forcing ranging from 0.40 to 0.78 W m(-2) on a global and annual average. The lower stratosphere contributes an additional 7.5-9.3 DU to the calculated increase in the ozone column, increasing radiative forcing by 0.15-0.17 W m(-2). The modeled radiative forcing depends on the height distribution and geographical pattern of predicted ozone changes and shows a distinct seasonal variation. Despite the large variations between the 11 participating models, the calculated range for normalized radiative forcing is within 25%, indicating the ability to scale radiative forcing to global-mean ozone column change

    Influenza A Virus H5–specific Antibodies in Mute Swans (\u3ci\u3eCygnus olor\u3c/i\u3e) in the USA

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    The use of serologic assays for influenza A virus (IAV) surveillance in wild birds has increased because of the availability of commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Recently, an H5-specific blocking ELISA (bELISA) was shown to reliably detect H5-specific antibodies to low- and highpathogenic H5 viruses in experimentally infected waterfowl. Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) were frequently associated with highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreaks in Europe and may have a similar role if highly pathogenic H5N1 is introduced into North America. We measured the prevalence of antibodies to the nucleoprotein and H5 protein in Mute Swans using three serologic assays. We collected 340 serum samples from Mute Swans in Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, US. We detected antibodies to the IAV nucleoprotein in 66.2% (225/340) of the samples. We detected H5-specific antibodies in 62.9% (214/340) and 18.8% (64/340) using a modified H5 bELISA protocol and hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay, respectively. The modified H5 bELISA protocol detected significantly more positive samples than did the manufacturer’s protocol. We also tested 46 samples using virus neutralization. Neutralization results had high agreement with the modified H5 bELISA protocol and detected a higher prevalence than did the HI assay. These results indicate that North American Mute Swans have high nucleoprotein and H5 antibody prevalences
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