Blastomycosis in the Dog

Blastomycosis is a fungal disease caused by the dimorphic fungal organism, Blastomyces dermatidis. In the tissue or yeast form, the organisms appear as highly refractive, double walled yeast cells which vary from approximately 8-15 microns in diameter. The budding yeast cells show a very characteristic broad attachment. The mold phase is rapid growing and the hyphae branch at right angles

Study of Behavioral Change of Western Corn Rootworm Beetle by Crop and Sex in Maize and Soybean Fields in Northwestern Indiana, USA

WCR adults generally lay their eggs in maize and their larvae feed almost exclusively on maize roots (Smith,1966,Branson and Ortman,1967,1971,Branson and Krysan,1981,Levine and Oloumi- Sadeghi,1991).For this reason,farmers have accepted growing maize in rotation with soybean to manage WCR larval populations without the use of soil insecticides.Recently,in Northwest Indiana and East Central Illinois in the USA,western corn rootworm has adapted to the above management system (Gerber et al., 1997).A portion of WCR eggs is laid in soybean and in other crops like alfalfa.This behavioral change increases the potential for survival of WCR larvae the following year since most soybean fields are rotated to maize.During the summers of 1996,1997,and 1998 field studies related to this behavioral shift were conducted in northwestern Indiana.Eleven pairs of maize/soybean fields were selected for the study.During these sampling periods,WCR beetles were present in both maize and soybean.Empirical observations show that there were higher numbers of females in soybean when compared to maize

Classification of hydrostratigraphic units at the Savannah River Site, South Carolina

A detailed synthesis of the hydrologic, geophysical and core data from wells penetrating the updip Mesozoic-Cenozoic Coastal Plain sequence at and near the Savannah River Site (SRS) was conducted to define and classify the hydrostratigraphic units. The purpose of the study was to give the SRS a single unified hydrostratigraphic classification that defines and addresses the hydrogeologic characteristics of the aquifers underlying the site. The characterization, areal distribution and classification of the aquifer and aquifer systems gives SRS the tools to evaluate ground water movement and contaminant transport in a comprehensive regional context. An alpha-numeric nomenclature has been temporarily adopted in this report for classifying the aquifers and aquifer systems at SRS. Formal geographic names for the aquifers and aquifer systems will be proposed in the near future but must be agreed upon and ratified by the South Carolina Hydrostratigraphic Subcommittee which was in part organized for the purpose. The classification utilizes a hierarchy of terms ranked at three levels: Aquifer Systems that transmit ground water regionally; Aquifer Units which are mappable units > 400 square miles in area; and Aquifer Zones that differentiate aquifers internally on the basis of locally significant characteristics

Rapid and Deep Remission Induced by Blinatumomab for CD19-Positive Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Lymphoid Blast Phase

In summary, we show rapid and deep remission induced by blinatumomab in CD19(+) blast phase CML. Clinicians may consider the use of bispecific T-cell engager therapy as a bridge to transplant. Additional studies are needed before expanding the US Food and Drug Administration indication of blinatumomab to include lymphoid blast phase CML

Fermilab Main Injector Beam Position Monitor Upgrade

An upgrade of the Beam Position Monitor (BPM) signal processing and data acquisition system for the Fermilab Main Injector is described. The Main Injector is a fast cycling synchrotron that accelerates protons or antiprotons from 8 to 150 GeV. Each Main Injector cycle can have a totally different magnet ramp, RF frequency configuration, beam bunch structure, and injection/extraction pattern from the previous cycle. The new BPM system provides the capabilities and flexibility required by the dynamic and complex machine operations. The system offers measurement capability in the 2.5 MHz and 53 MHz channels to detect the range of bunch structures for protons and antiprotons in both wideband (turn-by-turn) and narrowband (closed-orbit) modes. The new BPM read-out system is based on the digital receiver concept and is highly configurable, allowing the signal processing of nearly all Main Injector beam conditions, including the detection of individual batches. An overview of the BPM system in the Main Injector operating environment, some technology details and first beam measurements are presented

Micro-finance, women’s empowerment and fertility decline in Bangladesh: How important was women’s agency?

As Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen has argued “[Bangladesh’s development achievements have] important lessons for other countries across the globe, [in particular a focus on] reducing gender inequality”. A major avenue through which this emphasis has been manifest lies, according to this narrative, in enhancements to women’s agency for instrumental and intrinsic reasons particularly through innovations in family planning and microfinance. The “Bangladesh paradox” of improved wellbeing despite low economic growth over the last four decades is claimed as a paradigmatic case of the spread of both modern family planning programmes and microfinance leading to women’s empowerment and fertility reduction. In this paper we show that the links between microfinance, empowerment and fertility reduction, are fraught with problems, and far from robust; hence the claimed causal links between microfinance and family planning via women’s empowerment needs to be further reconsidered

Dibutyltin Disrupts Glucocorticoid Receptor Function and Impairs Glucocorticoid-Induced Suppression of Cytokine Production

BACKGROUND: Organotins are highly toxic and widely distributed environmental chemicals. Dibutyltin (DBT) is used as stabilizer in the production of polyvinyl chloride plastics, and it is also the major metabolite formed from tributyltin (TBT) in vivo. DBT is immunotoxic, however, the responsible targets remain to be defined. Due to the importance of glucocorticoids in immune-modulation, we investigated whether DBT could interfere with glucocorticoid receptor (GR) function. METHODOLOGY: We used HEK-293 cells transiently transfected with human GR as well as rat H4IIE hepatoma cells and native human macrophages and human THP-1 macrophages expressing endogenous receptor to study organotin effects on GR function. Docking of organotins was used to investigate the binding mechanism. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found that nanomolar concentrations of DBT, but not other organotins tested, inhibit ligand binding to GR and its transcriptional activity. Docking analysis indicated that DBT inhibits GR activation allosterically by inserting into a site close to the steroid-binding pocket, which disrupts a key interaction between the A-ring of the glucocorticoid and the GR. DBT inhibited glucocorticoid-induced expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and tyrosine-aminotransferase (TAT) and abolished the glucocorticoid-mediated transrepression of TNF-alpha-induced NF-kappaB activity. Moreover, DBT abrogated the glucocorticoid-mediated suppression of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and TNF-alpha production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated native human macrophages and human THP-1 macrophages. CONCLUSIONS: DBT inhibits ligand binding to GR and subsequent activation of the receptor. By blocking GR activation, DBT may disturb metabolic functions and modulation of the immune system, providing an explanation for some of the toxic effects of this organotin