An Examination of US Consumer Pet and Veterinary Expenditures, 1980-1999

The veterinary medical profession touches nearly everyone's life, either directly or indirectly. An estimated 58.3% of US households own pets (AVMA, 2002), and most people consume livestock products in the form of meat, dairy products, wool, or leather. The health and well being of all these animals depend heavily on relationships with veterinarians. Veterinarians also contribute to public health through the FDA, CDC, USDA, and numerous other government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels. Issues of primary concern include food safety, biosecurity, and the numerous emerging (and re-emerging) infectious diseases that are zoonotic in nature. Finally, veterinarians have an additional impact through their research contributions. Virtually all of the laboratory animals used in research are raised, housed, and managed under the care of veterinarians, and veterinary researchers regularly provide valuable contributions to the knowledge base in the biomedical sciences. This study was designed to assess the general trends in pet and veterinary expenditures as well as factors associated with pet ownership and expenditures on veterinary medical services. Providing such key information on the sector of greatest economic importance will enhance the probability of sustained economic viability in the veterinary medical profession as a whole.Health Economics and Policy,

Tests of the efficiency of steam separators

Citation: Whipple, James Halley and Seaton, Roy A. Tests of the efficiency of steam separators. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1904.Morse Department of Special CollectionsIntroduction: Unless steam is passed through a superheater after it leaves the boiler,it will carry with it a certain amount of entrained water. The violent ebulition in the boiler throws more or less water up in the steam space as spray,and some of this is carried along with the steam. Besides this,there is a certain amount of water in the steam caused by condensation in the pipes before it reaches the place where it is to be used. This water increases the initial condensation in the cylinder,and if there is a great deal of it present,may cause the cylinder heads to be blown out. To get rid of,so called "Steam Separators" are used. These depend for their action upon the fact that the water is several hundred times as heavy as the steam,and when the direction of flow of the steam is quickly changed,the inertia of the water carries it on out of the path of the steam into a chamber where it can be drawn off. Ribbed plates called baffles are usually used to collect the water and direct its flow

Competition between Larval Fishes in Reservoirs: The Role of Relative Timing of Appearance

Funding for this project was provided by National Science Foundation grants DEB 9407859 and DEB 9107173 to R.A.S and Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration, project F-69-P, administered jointly by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Ohio Division of Wildlife. A Presidential Fellowship from The Ohio State University supported J.E.G. during part of this research.In small, hypereutrophic reservoirs (100 mg total phosphorus/L), larval gizzard shad Dorosoma cepedianum and threadfin shad D. petenense (henceforth, shad) reach high densities in the limnetic zone, virtually eliminate zooplankton, and perhaps compromise success of other planktivorous larvae, such as bluegill Lepomis macrochirus. Because relative timing of appearance of shad and bluegills probably influences their relative success, we quantified densities of fish larvae and zooplankton during spring through summer in three reservoirs across 8 years (1987–1994), and we conducted three hatchery experiments with varying larval appearance times and gizzard shad densities in plastic bags (1 m3). When shad were abundant in reservoirs, bluegill abundance often peaked either at the same time (36% of reservoirs and years combined) or after (40% of reservoirs and years combined) shad peaks. When gizzard shad were placed in bags 2 weeks before bluegills (N = 1 experiment), they depleted zooplankton, reducing growth (~0.075 g · g-1· d-1) but not survival of bluegills. In experiments (N = 2) in which both species were added simultaneously, zooplankton declined only slightly with gizzard shad, and there was little effect on bluegill growth (~0.21 g · g-1· d-1) and survival; in general, gizzard shad growth declined with time and increasing gizzard shad density. Based on experiments, bluegill success should vary among reservoirs and years as a function of their appearance relative to gizzard shad. In reservoirs, zooplankton availability and bluegill abundances were consistently low during years when gizzard shad dominated reservoir fish assemblages. Because gizzard shad probably reduce bluegill success in hypereutrophic Ohio reservoirs, management strategies that reduce gizzard shad should improve bluegill success

Hawaiian Kalo, Past and Future

The arrival of taro in the Hawaiian Islands, its significance in Hawaiian culture, and the decline in its production since the early to mid-1800s is discussed. The university's role in preserving Hawaiian taro varieties is described, along with recent taro breeding programs conducted by its scientists