The rotationally-resolved absorption spectrum of formaldehyde from 6547 to 6804 cm(-1)

The room temperature absorption spectrum of formaldehyde, H2CO, from 6547 to 6804 cm(-1) (1527-1470 nm) is reported with a spectral resolution of 0.001 cm(-1). The spectrum was measured using cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS) and absorption cross-sections were calculated after calibrating the system using known absorption lines of H2O and CO2. Several vibrational combination bands occur in this region and give rise to a congested spectrum with over 8000 lines observed. Pressure broadening coefficients in N-2, O-2, and H2CO are reported for an absorption line at 6780.871 cm(-1) and in N-2 for an absorption line at 6684.053 cm(-1)

Worrying Leads to Reduced Concreteness of Problem Elaborations: Evidence for the Avoidance Theory of Worry

Both lay concept and scientific theory have embraced the view that nonpathological worry may be helpful for defining and analyzing problems. To evaluate the quality of problem elaborations, concreteness is a key variable. Two studies with nonclinical student samples are presented in which participants elaborated topics associated with different degrees of worry. In Study 1, participants' elaborations were assessed using problem elaboration charts; in Study 2, they were assessed using catastrophizing interviews. When participants' problem elaborations were rated for concreteness, both studies showed an inverse relationship between degree of worry and concreteness: The more participants worried about a given topic the less concrete was the content of their elaboration. The results challenge the view that worry may promote better problem analyses. Instead they conform to the view that worry is a cognitive avoidance response

Pilot study on the prevalence of salmonella in slaughter pigs in Germany: IV. Field experiences using the Danish serological method for detection

In an interlaboratory study on the prevalence of Salmonellae in German slaughter pigs a comparison of the traditional bacteriological and the serological technique used in the Danish Salmonella control programme was included. In total, about 12000 animals were investigated using both techniques. Samples were collected from February through June 1996. Seven slaughterhouses distributed over the whole country participated on a voluntary basis. A total of 11,942 animals delivered in 752 lots at ten occasions to the participating slaughterhouses were investigated. The lots often comprised pigs from individual finishing farms. From each lot, a maximum of 50 animals were sampled. A faecal swab, a mesenteric lymph node and a meat sample were collected from each carcass. The results of the microbiological analysis of faeces and lymph nodes of each animal were described in separate presentations

In search of graduate attributes: A survey of six flagship programmes

The focus of this study is the emergence of distinctive graduate attributes in flagship programmes at Universities of Technology in South Africa. The theoretical framework chosen for this study, Legitimation Code Theory (Maton 2014), offers an explanation of the underlying knowledge principles that make different kinds of thinking, doing and being possible. This paper studies how favourable graduate attributes were achieved, identifies similarities across underpinning structures, and highlights the challenges faced by universities of technology in creating environments in which desired graduate attributes might be developed. The paper offers a means of understanding the potential for the emergence of graduate attributes across undergraduate programmes in vocational and professional higher education contexts

Neuronal c-Jun is required for successful axonal regeneration, but the effects of phosphorylation of its N-terminus are moderate.

Although neural c-Jun is essential for successful peripheral nerve regeneration, the cellular basis of this effect and the impact of c-Jun activation are incompletely understood. In the current study, we explored the effects of neuron-selective c-Jun deletion, substitution of serine 63 and 73 phosphoacceptor sites with non-phosphorylatable alanine, and deletion of Jun N-terminal kinases 1, 2 and 3 in mouse facial nerve regeneration. Removal of the floxed c-jun gene in facial motoneurons using cre recombinase under control of a neuron-specific synapsin promoter (junΔS) abolished basal and injury-induced neuronal c-Jun immunoreactivity, as well as most of the molecular responses following facial axotomy. Absence of neuronal Jun reduced the speed of axonal regeneration following crush, and prevented most cut axons from reconnecting to their target, significantly reducing functional recovery. Despite blocking cell death, this was associated with a large number of shrunken neurons. Finally, junΔS mutants also had diminished astrocyte and microglial activation and T-cell influx, suggesting that these non-neuronal responses depend on the release of Jun-dependent signals from neighboring injured motoneurons. The effects of substituting serine 63 and 73 phosphoacceptor sites (junAA), or of global deletion of individual kinases responsible for N-terminal c-Jun phosphorylation were mild. junAA mutants showed decrease in neuronal cell size, a moderate reduction in post-axotomy CD44 levels and slightly increased astrogliosis. Deletion of Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)1 or JNK3 showed delayed functional recovery; deletion of JNK3 also interfered with T-cell influx, and reduced CD44 levels. Deletion of JNK2 had no effect. Thus, neuronal c-Jun is needed in regeneration, but JNK phosphorylation of the N-terminus mostly appears to not be required for its function

Tracking the Feeding Patterns of Tsetse Flies (Glossina Genus) by Analysis of Bloodmeals Using Mitochondrial Cytochromes Genes

Tsetse flies are notoriously difficult to observe in nature, particularly when populations densities are low. It is therefore difficult to observe them on their hosts in nature; hence their vertebrate species can very often only be determined indirectly by analysis of their gut contents. This knowledge is a critical component of the information on which control tactics can be developed. The objective of this study was to determine the sources of tsetse bloodmeals, hence investigate their feeding preferences. We used mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 (COI) and cytochrome b (cytb) gene sequences for identification of tsetse fly blood meals, in order to provide a foundation for rational decisions to guide control of trypanosomiasis, and their vectors. Glossina swynnertoni were sampled from Serengeti (Tanzania) and G. pallidipes from Kenya (Nguruman and Busia), and Uganda. Sequences were used to query public databases, and the percentage identities obtained used to identify hosts. An initial assay showed that the feeds were from single sources. Hosts identified from blood fed flies collected in Serengeti ecosystem, included buffaloes (25/40), giraffes (8/40), warthogs (3/40), elephants (3/40) and one spotted hyena. In Nguruman, where G. pallidipes flies were analyzed, the feeds were from elephants (6/13) and warthogs (5/13), while buffaloes and baboons accounted for one bloodmeal each. Only cattle blood was detected in flies caught in Busia and Uganda. Out of four flies tested in Mbita Point, Suba District in western Kenya, one had fed on cattle, the other three on the Nile monitor lizard. These results demonstrate that cattle will form an integral part of a control strategy for trypanosomiasis in Busia and Uganda, while different approaches are required for Serengeti and Nguruman ecosystems, where wildlife abound and are the major component of the tsetse fly food source

From sleep spindles of natural sleep to spike and wave discharges of typical absence seizures: is the hypothesis still valid?

The temporal coincidence of sleep spindles and spike-and-wave discharges (SWDs) in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsies, together with the transformation of spindles into SWDs following intramuscular injection of the weak GABAA receptor (GABAAR) antagonist, penicillin, in an experimental model, brought about the view that SWDs may represent ‘perverted’ sleep spindles. Over the last 20 years, this hypothesis has received considerable support, in particular by in vitro studies of thalamic oscillations following pharmacological/genetic manipulations of GABAARs. However, from a critical appraisal of the evidence in absence epilepsy patients and well-established models of absence epilepsy it emerges that SWDs can occur as frequently during wakefulness as during sleep, with their preferential occurrence in either one of these behavioural states often being patient dependent. Moreover, whereas the EEG expression of both SWDs and sleep spindles requires the integrity of the entire cortico-thalamo-cortical network, SWDs initiates in cortex while sleep spindles in thalamus. Furthermore, the hypothesis of a reduction in GABAAR function across the entire cortico-thalamo-cortical network as the basis for the transformation of sleep spindles into SWDs is no longer tenable. In fact, while a decreased GABAAR function may be present in some cortical layers and in the reticular thalamic nucleus, both phasic and tonic GABAAR inhibitions of thalamo-cortical neurons are either unchanged or increased in this epileptic phenotype. In summary, these differences between SWDs and sleep spindles question the view that the EEG hallmark of absence seizures results from a transformation of this EEG oscillation of natural sleep

Factors Associated with Acquisition of Human Infective and Animal Infective Trypanosome Infections in Domestic Livestock in Western Kenya

Trypanosomiasis is regarded as a constraint on livestock production in Western Kenya where the responsibility for tsetse and trypanosomiasis control has increasingly shifted from the state to the individual livestock owner. To assess the sustainability of these localised control efforts, this study investigates biological and management risk factors associated with trypanosome infections detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in a range of domestic livestock at the local scale in Busia, Kenya. Busia District also remains endemic for human sleeping sickness with sporadic cases of sleeping sickness reported.In total, trypanosome infections were detected in 11.9% (329) out of the 2773 livestock sampled in Busia District. Multivariable logistic regression revealed that host species and cattle age affected overall trypanosome infection, with significantly increased odds of infection for cattle older than 18 months, and significantly lower odds of infection in pigs and small ruminants. Different grazing and watering management practices did not affect the odds of trypanosome infection, adjusted by host species. Neither anaemia nor condition score significantly affected the odds of trypanosome infection in cattle. Human infective Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense were detected in 21.5% of animals infected with T. brucei s.l. (29/135) amounting to 1% (29/2773) of all sampled livestock, with significantly higher odds of T. brucei rhodesiense infections in T. brucei s.l. infected pigs (OR =  4.3, 95%CI 1.5-12.0) than in T. brucei s.l. infected cattle or small ruminants.Although cattle are the dominant reservoir of trypanosome infection it is unlikely that targeted treatment of only visibly diseased cattle will achieve sustainable interruption of transmission for either animal infective or zoonotic human infective trypanosomiasis, since most infections were detected in cattle that did not exhibit classical clinical signs of trypanosomiasis. Pigs were also found to be reservoirs of infection for T. b. rhodesiense and present a risk to local communities