Serologic Surveillance of Selected Viral and Bacterial Pathogens in South Carolina’s Feral Swine Population

Feral swine (Sus scrofa) are considered an invasive species that is comprised of the wild descendants of domestic swine, European wild boar, and hybrids of these two species. Feral swine were historically associated with the major river drainages in Coastal South Carolina. However, natural range expansion and human release and relocation of feral swine appear to be sources of their expansion into areas not previously occupied. Although an exact estimate of feral swine population numbers is not available, in 2006 feral swine were reported in 42 of 46 South Carolina counties, compared to 46 of 46 counties reporting feral swine activity in 2011. Feral swine can serve as reservoirs for a number of diseases including pseudorabies, swine brucellosis (Brucella spp.), porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome and porcine circovirus which may be passed to livestock and, in some cases, native wildlife and humans. The National Wildlife Disease Program within the US Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services conducted serologic surveys for pseudorabies virus, brucellosis, porcine circovirus, and porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus in South Carolina feral pig populations from 2007- 2012. During that period, we opportunistically sampled and collected serum from 545 feral pigs. Overall, 111 of 544 (20.40%) animals tested positive for antibodies to pseudorabies, 87 of 545 (15.96%) animals tested positive for antibodies to brucellosis, 171 of 306 (55.88%) animals tested positive for antibodies to porcine circovirus, and seven of 312 (2.24%) animals tested positive for antibodies to porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome. Positive cases of pseudorabies and brucellosis were spatially limited to populations closely associated with the major river drainages in Coastal South Carolina. These positive cases of pseudorabies and brucellosis were found in areas of long established pig populations. The seven positive cases of porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome were limited to one geographic cluster within the Congaree and Wateree river confluence and two clusters along the PeeDee River Drainage. These clusters of seropositive cases indicate a more geographically localized distribution of porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome. Interestingly, positive cases of porcine circovirus appeared to be evenly distributed across all sample locations in South Carolina. A more spatially and temporally consistent sampling strategy is recommended to investigate linear spread of pathogens along river drainages and throughout the feral swine population in South Carolina

Feral swine harming insular sea turtle reproduction: The origin, impacts, behavior and elimination of an invasive species

Feral swine are among the world\u27s most destructive invasive species wherever they are found, with translocations figuring prominently in their range expansions. In contrast, sea turtles are beloved species that are listed as threatened or endangered throughout the world and are the focus of intense conservation efforts. Nest predation by feral swine severely harms sea turtle reproduction in many locations around the world. Here we quantify and economically assess feral swine nest predation at North Island, South Carolina, an important loggerhead sea turtle nesting beach. Feral swine depredation of North Island sea turtle nests was first detected in 2005, with annual nest monitoring initiated in 2010 documenting nearly total losses to feral swine in 2010 and 2011. The cumulative valuation of annual losses for North Island from 2010 to 2016 ranged as high as $1,166,500. To improve nesting success, an integrated approach for eliminating feral swine was implemented in 2010 and greatly intensified in 2013 by adding federal experts. Removal efforts were challenging due to the island\u27s remoteness and impenetrable habitats, weather, hazards in accessing the island, and wariness of the animals, especially as their population diminished. Removal of the final 11 swine required efforts from 2014 to 2016. Nest predation was highly variable and provided another example of the significance of conditioning by feral swine to sea turtle nests on the consequent severity of nest predation. Even the final individual inflicted heavy losses before his removal. Genetic analyses of feral swine removed from North Island and the adjacent mainland revealed that the island\u27s population did not originate from the nearby mainland, meaning they were (illegally) introduced to the island

Understanding packet loss for sound monitoring in a smart stadium IoT testbed

The Smart Stadium for Smarter Living project provides an end-to-end testbed for IoT innovation through a collaboration between Croke Park Stadium in Dublin, Ireland and Dublin City University, Intel and Microsoft. This enables practical evaluations of IoT solutions in a controlled environment that is small enough to conduct trials but large enough to prove and challenge the technologies. An evaluation of sound monitoring capabilities during the 2016 sporting finals was used to test the capture, transfer, storage and analysis of decibel level sound monitoring. The purpose of the evaluation was to use existing sound level microphones to measure crowd response to pre-determined events for display on big screens at half-time and to test the end-to-end performance of the testbed. While this is not the specific original purpose of the sound level microphones, it provided a useful test case and produced engaging content for the project. Analysis of the data streams showed significant packet loss during the events and further investigations were conducted to understand where and how this loss occurred. This paper describes the smart stadium testbed configuration using Intel gateways linking with the Azure cloud platform and analyses the performance of the system during the sound monitoring evaluation

Feral swine harming insular sea turtle reproduction: The origin, impacts, behavior and elimination of an invasive species

Feral swine are among the world\u27s most destructive invasive species wherever they are found, with translocations figuring prominently in their range expansions. In contrast, sea turtles are beloved species that are listed as threatened or endangered throughout the world and are the focus of intense conservation efforts. Nest predation by feral swine severely harms sea turtle reproduction in many locations around the world. Here we quantify and economically assess feral swine nest predation at North Island, South Carolina, an important loggerhead sea turtle nesting beach. Feral swine depredation of North Island sea turtle nests was first detected in 2005, with annual nest monitoring initiated in 2010 documenting nearly total losses to feral swine in 2010 and 2011. The cumulative valuation of annual losses for North Island from 2010 to 2016 ranged as high as $1,166,500. To improve nesting success, an integrated approach for eliminating feral swine was implemented in 2010 and greatly intensified in 2013 by adding federal experts. Removal efforts were challenging due to the island\u27s remoteness and impenetrable habitats, weather, hazards in accessing the island, and wariness of the animals, especially as their population diminished. Removal of the final 11 swine required efforts from 2014 to 2016. Nest predation was highly variable and provided another example of the significance of conditioning by feral swine to sea turtle nests on the consequent severity of nest predation. Even the final individual inflicted heavy losses before his removal. Genetic analyses of feral swine removed from North Island and the adjacent mainland revealed that the island\u27s population did not originate from the nearby mainland, meaning they were (illegally) introduced to the island

Soybean Cyst Nematode Reduces Soybean Yield Without Causing Obvious Aboveground Symptoms

Field experiments were conducted at locations in northern and southern Illinois, central Iowa, and central Missouri from 1997 to 1999 to investigate the effects of Heterodera glycines on soybean growth, development, and yield. A wide range of infestation levels was present at all locations. Two locally adapted cultivars, one resistant to H. glycines, were grown at each location. Cultivars were planted in alternating four-row strips with 76 cm between rows. For each cultivar, 20 1-m-long single-row plots were sampled every 2 weeks starting 4 weeks after planting. Infection by H. glycines reduced plant height and leaf and stem weight on the resistant cultivars in the first 12 weeks after planting, and delayed pod and seed development 12 to 14 weeks after planting. Biomass accumulation was not reduced on the susceptible cultivars until 10 weeks after planting; reduction in pod and seed development occurred throughout the reproductive stages. Susceptible cultivars produced significantly lower yields than resistant cultivars, but the yield reductions were not accompanied by visually detectable symptoms

Can reducing the incoming energy flux over the Southern Ocean in a CGCM improve its simulation of tropical climate?

Atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (CGCMs) show important systematic errors. Simulated precipitation in the tropics is generally overestimated over the oceans south of the equator, and stratocumulus (SCu) clouds are underestimated above too warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs). In the extratropics, SSTs are also too warm over the Southern Ocean. We argue that ameliorating these extratropical errors in a CGCM can result in an improved model's performance in the tropics depending upon the success in simulating the sensitivity of SCu to underlying SST. Our arguments are supported by the very different response obtained with two CGCMs to an idealized reduction of solar radiation flux incident at the top of the atmosphere over the Southern Ocean. It is shown that local perturbation impacts are very similar in the two models but that SST reductions in the SCu regions of the southern subtropics are stronger in the model with the stronger SCu-SST feedbacks.NOAA's Climate Program Office, Climate Variability and Predictability Program Award. Grant Number: NA14OAR4310278. European Union Seventh Framework Programme. Grant Numbers: FP7/2007–2013, 60352Peer reviewe

Breast tumour cell-induced down-regulation of type I collagen mRNA in fibroblasts

This study investigated the modulation of type I collagen gene expression in normal fibroblasts by breast tumour cells. Northern analysis of total RNA extracted from stages I, II and III breast tumour tissue revealed that collagen mRNA levels were elevated in stage I tumours compared to the adjacent normal breast tissues, whereas they were decreased in stages II and III breast tumours. This aberrant collagen gene expression was confirmed by non-radioactive RNA:RNA in situ hybridization analysis of 30 breast carcinomas which localized the production of type I collagen mRNA to the stromal fibroblasts within the vicinity of the tumour cells. In order to determine whether the tumour cells were directly responsible for this altered collagen production by the adjacent fibroblasts, breast tumour cell lines were co-cultured with normal fibroblasts for in vitro assessment of collagen and steady-state collagen RNA levels. Co-culture of tumour cells and normal fibroblasts in the same dish resulted in down-regulation of collagen mRNA and protein. Treatment of the fibroblasts with tumour-cell conditioned medium also resulted in decreased collagen protein levels but the mRNA levels, however, remained unaltered. These results suggested that the tumour cells either secrete a labile ‘factor’, or express a cell surface protein requiring direct contact with the fibroblasts, resulting in down-regulation of collagen gene expression. Modulation of the ECM is a common characteristic of invading tumour cells and usually involves increased production of collagenases by the tumour cells or stromal fibroblasts. This study showed that tumour cells were also able to modulate collagen mRNA production by stromal fibroblasts, which may facilitate tumour cell invasion and metastasis. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

Development and validation of a Surgical Prioritization and Ranking Tool and Navigation Aid for Head and Neck Cancer (SPARTAN‐HN) in a scarce resource setting: Response to the COVID‐19 pandemic

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163412/2/cncr33114_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163412/1/cncr33114.pd

Search for gravitational wave bursts in LIGO's third science run

We report on a search for gravitational wave bursts in data from the three LIGO interferometric detectors during their third science run. The search targets subsecond bursts in the frequency range 100-1100 Hz for which no waveform model is assumed, and has a sensitivity in terms of the root-sum-square (rss) strain amplitude of hrss ~ 10^{-20} / sqrt(Hz). No gravitational wave signals were detected in the 8 days of analyzed data.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Amaldi-6 conference proceedings to be published in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Search for Gravitational Waves from Primordial Black Hole Binary Coalescences in the Galactic Halo

We use data from the second science run of the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors to search for the gravitational waves from primordial black hole (PBH) binary coalescence with component masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$. The analysis requires a signal to be found in the data from both LIGO observatories, according to a set of coincidence criteria. No inspiral signals were found. Assuming a spherical halo with core radius 5 kpc extending to 50 kpc containing non-spinning black holes with masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$, we place an observational upper limit on the rate of PBH coalescence of 63 per year per Milky Way halo (MWH) with 90% confidence.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.