Cow evaluation in North America

International audienc

Constraining the provenance of the Stonehenge 'Altar Stone': Evidence from automated mineralogy and U–Pb zircon age dating

The Altar Stone at Stonehenge is a greenish sandstone thought to be of Late Silurian-Devonian (‘Old Red Sandstone’) age. It is classed as one of the bluestone lithologies which are considered to be exotic to the Salisbury Plain environ, most of which are derived from the Mynydd Preseli, in west Wales. However, no Old Red Sandstone rocks crop out in the Preseli; instead a source in the Lower Old Red Sandstone Cosheston Subgroup at Mill Bay to the south of the Preseli, has been proposed. More recently, on the basis of detailed petrography, a source for the Altar Stone much further to the east, towards the Wales-England border, has been suggested. Quantitative analyses presented here compare mineralogical data from proposed Stonehenge Altar Stone debris with samples from Milford Haven at Mill Bay, as well as with a second sandstone type found at Stonehenge which is Lower Palaeozoic in age. The Altar Stone samples have contrasting modal mineralogies to the other two sandstone types, especially in relation to the percentages of its calcite, kaolinite and barite cements. Further differences between the Altar Stone sandstone and the Cosheston Subgroup sandstone are seen when their contained zircons are compared, showing differing morphologies and U-Pb age dates having contrasting populations. These data confirm that Mill Bay is not the source of the Altar Stone with the abundance of kaolinite in the Altar Stone sample suggesting a source further east, towards the Wales-England border. The disassociation of the Altar Stone and Milford Haven undermines the hypothesis that the bluestones, including the Altar Stone, were transported from west Wales by sea up the Bristol Channel and adds further credence to a totally land-based route, possibly along a natural routeway leading from west Wales to the Severn estuary and beyond. This route may well have been significant in prehistory, raising the possibility that the Altar Stone was added en route to the assemblage of Preseli bluestones taken to Stonehenge around or shortly before 3000 BC. Recent strontium isotope analysis of human and animal bones from Stonehenge, dating to the beginning of its first construction stage around 3000 BC, are consistent with the suggestion of connectivity between this western region of Britain and Salisbury Plain.This study appears to be the first application of quantitative automated mineralogy in the provenancing of archaeological lithic material and highlights the potential value of automated mineralogy in archaeological provenancing investigations, especially when combined with complementary techniques, in the present case zircon age dating

Analysis of five-year trends in self-reported language preference and issues of item non-response among Hispanic persons in a large cross-sectional health survey: implications for the measurement of an ethnic minority population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Significant differences in health outcomes have been documented among Hispanic persons, the fastest-growing demographic segment of the United States. The objective of this study was to examine trends in population growth and the collection of health data among Hispanic persons, including issues of language preference and survey completion using a national health survey to highlight issues of measurement of an increasingly important demographic segment of the United States.</p> <p>Design</p> <p>Data from the 2003-2007 United States Census and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were used to compare trends in population growth and survey sample size as well as differences in survey response based on language preference among a Hispanic population. Percentages of item non-response on selected survey questions were compared for Hispanic respondents choosing to complete the survey in Spanish and those choosing to complete the survey in English. The mean number of attempts to complete the survey was also compared based on language preference among Hispanic respondents.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The sample size of Hispanic persons in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System saw little growth compared to the actual growth of the Hispanic population in the United States. Significant differences in survey item non-response for nine of 15 survey questions were seen based on language preference. Hispanic respondents choosing to complete the survey in Spanish had a significantly fewer number of call attempts for survey completion compared to their Hispanic counterparts choosing to communicate in English.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Including additional measures of acculturation and increasing the sample size of Hispanic persons in a national health survey such as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System may result in more precise findings that could be used to better target prevention and health care needs for an ethnic minority population.</p

Forecasting the combined effects of climate and land use change on Mexican bats

Aim: Climate and land use change are among the most important threatening processes driving biodiversity loss, especially in the tropics. Although the potential impacts of each threat have been widely studied in isolation, few studies have assessed the impacts of climate and land cover change in combination. Here, we evaluate the exposure of a large mammalian clade, bats, to multiple scenarios of environmental change and dispersal to understand potential consequences for biodiversity conservation. / Location: Mexico. / Methods: We used ensemble species distribution models to forecast changes in environmental suitability for 130 bat species that occur in Mexico by 2050s under four dispersal assumptions and four combined climate and land use change scenarios. We identified regions with the strongest projected impacts for each scenario and assessed the overlap across scenarios. / Results: The combined effects of climate and land use change will cause an average reduction in environmental suitability for 51% of the species across their range, regardless of scenario. Overall, species show a mean decrease in environmental suitability in at least 46% of their current range in all scenarios of change and dispersal. Climate scenarios had a higher impact on species environmental suitability than land use scenarios. There was a spatial overlap of 43% across the four environmental change scenarios for the regions projected to have the strongest impacts. / Main conclusions: Combined effects of future environmental change may result in substantial declines in environmental suitability for Mexican bats even under optimistic scenarios. This study highlights the vulnerability of megadiverse regions and an indicator taxon to human disturbance. The consideration of combined threats can make an important difference in how we react to changes to conserve our biodiversity as they pose different challenges

p70 S6 kinase and actin dynamics: A perspective

p70 S6 kinase (p70S6K), a member of the AGC serine/threonine kinase family, was initially identified as a key player, together with its downstream effector S6, in the regulation of cellular growth and survival. The p70S6K protein has emerged in recent years as a multifunctional protein which also regulates the actin cytoskeleton and thus plays a role in cell migration. This new function is through two important activities of p70S6K, namely actin cross-linking and Rac1 and Cdc42 activation. The testis is critically dependent on an intricate balance of fundamental cellular processes such as adhesion, migration, and differentiation. It is increasingly evident that Rho GTPases and actin binding proteins play fundamental roles in regulating spermatogenesis within the testis. In this review, we will discuss current findings of p70S6K in the control of actin cytoskeleton dynamics. In addition, the potential role of p70S6K in spermatogenesis and testicular function will be highlighted

Staff experiences of Providing Maternity Services in Rural Southern Tanzania -- A Focus on Equipment, Drug and Supply Issues.

The poor maintenance of equipment and inadequate supplies of drugs and other items contribute to the low quality of maternity services often found in rural settings in low- and middle-income countries, and raise the risk of adverse maternal outcomes through delaying care provision. We aim to describe staff experiences of providing maternal care in rural health facilities in Southern Tanzania, focusing on issues related to equipment, drugs and supplies. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted with different staff cadres from all facility levels in order to explore experiences and views of providing maternity care in the context of poorly maintained equipment, and insufficient drugs and other supplies. A facility survey quantified the availability of relevant items. The facility survey, which found many missing or broken items and frequent stock outs, corroborated staff reports of providing care in the context of missing or broken care items. Staff reported increased workloads, reduced morale, difficulties in providing optimal maternity care, and carrying out procedures that carried potential health risks to themselves as a result. Inadequately stocked and equipped facilities compromise the health system's ability to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity by affecting staff personally and professionally, which hinders the provision of timely and appropriate interventions. Improving stock control and maintaining equipment could benefit mothers and babies, not only through removing restrictions to the availability of care, but also through improving staff working conditions

Efficacious, effective, and embedded interventions: Implementation research in infectious disease control

Background: Research in infectious disease control is heavily skewed towards high end technology; development of new drugs, vaccines and clinical interventions. Oft ignored, is the evidence to inform the best strategies that ensure the embedding of interventions into health systems and amongst populations. In this paper we undertake an analysis of the challenge in the development of research for the sustainable implementation of disease control interventions. Results: We highlight the fundamental differences between the research paradigms associated with the development of technologies and interventions for disease control on the one hand and the research paradigms required for enhancing the sustainable uptake of those very same interventions within the communities on the other. We provide a definition for implementation research in an attempt to underscore its critical role and explore the multidisciplinary science needed to address the challenges in disease control. Conclusion: The greatest value for money in health research lies in the sustainable and effective implementation of already proven, efficacious solutions. The development of implementation research that can help provide some solutions on how this can be achieved is sorely needed

Fluoromycobacteriophages for rapid, specific, and sensitive antibiotic susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is of paramount importance as multiple- and extensively- drug resistant strains of M. tuberculosis emerge and spread. We describe here a virus-based assay in which fluoromycobacteriophages are used to deliver a GFP or ZsYellow fluorescent marker gene to M. tuberculosis, which can then be monitored by fluorescent detection approaches including fluorescent microscopy and flow cytometry. Pre-clinical evaluations show that addition of either Rifampicin or Streptomycin at the time of phage addition obliterates fluorescence in susceptible cells but not in isogenic resistant bacteria enabling drug sensitivity determination in less than 24 hours. Detection requires no substrate addition, fewer than 100 cells can be identified, and resistant bacteria can be detected within mixed populations. Fluorescence withstands fixation by paraformaldehyde providing enhanced biosafety for testing MDR-TB and XDR-TB infections. © 2009 Piuri et al

Value of eight-amino-acid matches in predicting the allergenicity status of proteins: an empirical bioinformatic investigation

The use of biotechnological techniques to introduce novel proteins into food crops (transgenic or GM crops) has motivated investigation into the properties of proteins that favor their potential to elicit allergic reactions. As part of the allergenicity assessment, bioinformatic approaches are used to compare the amino-acid sequence of candidate proteins with sequences in a database of known allergens to predict potential cross reactivity between novel food proteins and proteins to which people have become sensitized. Two criteria commonly used for these queries are searches over 80-amino-acid stretches for >35% identity, and searches for 8-amino-acid contiguous matches. We investigated the added value provided by the 8-amino-acid criterion over that provided by the >35%-identity-over-80-amino-acid criterion, by identifying allergens pairs that only met the former criterion, but not the latter criterion. We found that the allergen-sequence pairs only sharing 8-amino-acid identity, but not >35% identity over 80 amino acids, were unlikely to be cross reactive allergens. Thus, the common search for 8-amino-acid identity between novel proteins and known allergens appears to be of little additional value in assessing the potential allergenicity of novel proteins

Severe postpartum sepsis with prolonged myocardial dysfunction: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Severe sepsis during pregnancy or in the postpartum period is a rare clinical event. In non obstetric surviving patients, the cardiovascular changes seen in sepsis and septic shock are fully reversible five to ten days after their onset. We report a case of septic myocardial dysfunction lasting longer than ten days. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of prolonged septic myocardial dysfunction in a parturient.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 24 year old Hispanic woman with no previous medical history developed pyelonephritis and severe sepsis with prolonged myocardial dysfunction after a normal spontaneous vaginal delivery.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Septic myocardial dysfunction may be prolonged in parturients requiring longer term follow up and pharmacologic treatment.</p