IMPACTS FROM CAPTIVE SUPPLIES ON FED CATTLE TRANSACTION PRICES

Increased use of noncash-price procurement methods has concerned cattlemen for the past several years. This research estimated impacts of captive supplies on transaction prices for fed cattle. Negative relationships were found between transaction prices and percentage deliveries from the inventory of forward contracted and marketing agreement cattle. However, impacts from the absolute size of the total captive supply inventory were not significant. Price differences were found among procurement methods with forward contract prices being much lower. On balance, captive supplies had small but often negative effects on fed cattle transaction prices.Demand and Price Analysis,

Early Prevention of Severe Neurodevelopmental Behavior Disorders: An Integration

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities on 1/1/2012, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/19315864.2011.593697.There is a very substantial literature over the past 50 years on the advantages of early detection and intervention on the cognitive, communicative, and social-emotional development of infants and toddlers at risk for developmental delay due to premature birth or social disadvantage. Most of these studies excluded children with severe delays or other predisposing conditions, such as genetic or brain disorders. Many studies of children with biological or socio-developmental risk suggest that behavior disorders appear as early as three years and persist into adulthood if not effectively treated. By contrast, little is known about the infants and toddlers with established risk for severe delays, who make up a significant proportion of the population with dual diagnoses later in life. In the past decade, there has been a growing interest in early detection and intervention with children aged birth to three years, e.g. the P.L.99-457, Part C Birth-Three population, who may have disabilities and severe behavior problems, e.g. aggression, self-injury, and repetitive stereotyped behaviors. The available research is scattered in the behavior analytic literature, in the child development literature, as well as in the child mental health and psychiatry literature, the developmental disability literature, the animal modeling literature, and the genetics literature. The goal of this introductory overview is to integrate these literatures, by cross-referencing members of these various groups who have worked in this field, in order to provide the reader with an integrated picture of what is known and of future directions that need more research

Aspiration before and after Supraglottoplasty regardless of Technique

Objective. To determine the incidence of preoperative and postoperative aspiration in infants who undergo supraglottoplasty. To determine the effect of cold steel and CO2 laser supraglottoplasty on aspiration in infants with severe laryngomalacia. Design. Retrospective study. Setting. Tertiary pediatric hospital. Patients. Thirty-nine patients who underwent CO2 laser-assisted supraglottoplasty (CLS) or cold steel supraglottoplasty (CSS) for severe laryngomalacia. Main Outcome Measures. Aspiration and upper-airway obstruction. Results. Thirty-nine patients met inclusion criteria (18 males, 21 females). Eighteen patients underwent CSS and 21 patients underwent CLS. 10/39 (25.6%) of the patients had preoperative aspiration, and 2/10 (20%) resolved after supraglottoplasty. New onset aspiration was found in 4/13 (30.8%) in the CSS group and 9/16 (56.3%) in the CLS group. Conclusions. There is no significant difference in the rate of postoperative new-onset aspiration or relief of upper-airway obstruction in the CLS or CSS, is temporary and can be managed with thickened diet or temporary tube feedings. The rate of persistent postoperative aspiration was statistically similar regardless of the method of surgery

Two-Photon-Excited Green Emission and Its Dichroic Shift of Oriented Thin-Film CdS on Glass Formed by Laser Deposition

The photoluminescence of oriented thin-film CdS on glass formed by laser deposition was investigated employing 200 fs, 1.54 eV laser pulses at room temperature. The ultrafast excitation caused a two-photon absorption process, which results in purely green emission at the band gap. The spectra are fitted very well by the application of the van Roosbroeck-Shockley relation, density of states, and Urbach\u27s rule demonstrating the intrinsic character of the radiative recombination. It is further shown that the energy position of the emission peak depends on the polarization of the impinging laser beam due to the dichroism of the highly oriented films. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics

Pediatric surgical extracorporeal membrane oxygenation - a case series

Objective. To review demographic and procedural factors and their association with weaning rate and survival from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in pediatric patients undergoing repair of cardiac malformations. Methods. The hospital records of children requiring ECMO during cardiac operation due to failure to wean from cardio-pulmonary by pass (CPB) were retrospectively reviewed, and an analysis of variables affecting survival was performed. Results. Thirty-five pediatric patients between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2006 required ECMO for cardiopulmonary support during cardiac operations. ECMO survival was 54.3% and was comparable across all age groups. The lowest pH during ECMO treatment was the only predictor of mortality (P = 0.006). No other patient, surgical or anesthetic, factor was associated with either weaning from ECMO or hospital survival. Conclusions. No clear risk factor could be identified for survival from ECMO in our pediatric patients who underwent cardiac surgery and failed weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass

The Parental Concerns Questionnaire: A Brief Screening Instrument for Potentially Severe Behavior Problems in Infants and Toddlers At-Risk for Developmental Delays

The Parental Concerns Questionnaire (PCQ) was designed as a parent-interview screening instrument for young children with developmental concerns at risk for potentially severe behavior problems (SBDs). Parents of 262 young children (4 to 48 months) answered to the 15 dichotomous PCQ items interviewed by trained staff. Cluster analysis for items revealed three item clusters, which we labeled Developmental/Social (8 items), Biomedical (3 items), and Behavior Problems (3 items). This paper discussed primarily the Behavior Problems cluster, with items referring to self-injurious, aggressive, and destructive behaviors. Parents' concerns about behavior problems were high, with item-endorsements of the Behavior Problems cluster ranging from 41.8 % to 68.8 %. The Behavior Problems cluster was significantly correlated with all three subscales of the Behavior Problems Inventory (BPI-01), with select subscales of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), and with the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R) providing some evidence for concurrent validity. Sensitivity and specificity data were computed for the three PCQ items as well as for the cluster score in comparison with the BPI-01, ABC, and RBS-R showing strong sensitivity. The PCQ Behavior Problems cluster is a useful screening checklist with high sensitivity for potential SBDs in young children at-risk for developmental delays

Soil Application Effects of Metarhizium anisopliae on Japanese Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) Behavior and Survival in Turfgrass Microcosms

The effect of mycelial and conidial formulations of the insect pathogenic fungi, M. anisopliae, on the survival and behavior Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica Newman, larvae and ovipositing adults in turfgrass-soil microcosms was explored. Changes in Japanese beetle grub feeding site selection on sod roots, movement patterns, and survival in Metarhizium anisopliae inoculated soil were examined in greenhouse studies and through the use of radiographic analysis in the laboratory. Our studies indicate that the application of mycelial particles in soil affected the behavior of both larval and adult Japanese beetles. Japanese beetle grubs avoided soil that contained high concentrations of pathogen for up to 20 d after application. Conversely, the incorporation of mycelial particles increased oviposition in both choice and no choice studies. Our findings on scarab response to inundative applications of M. anisopliae mycelium may help explain some of the inconsistency in results that often occur when fungal pathogens are used to control insects in the fiel

A comparison of deformed wing virus in deformed and asymptomatic honey bees

Deformed wing virus (DWV) in association with Varroa destructor is currently attributed to being responsible for colony collapse in the western honey bee (Apis mellifera). The appearance of deformed individuals within an infested colony has long been associated with colony losses. However, it is unknown why only a fraction of DWV positive bees develop deformed wings. This study concerns two small studies comparing deformed and non-deformed bees. In Brazil, asymptomatic bees (no wing deformity) that had been parasitised by Varroa as pupae had higher DWV loads than non-parasitised bees. However, we found no greater bilateral asymmetry in wing morphology due to DWV titres or parasitisation. As expected, using RT-qPCR, deformed bees were found to contain the highest viral loads. In a separate study, next generation sequencing (NGS) was applied to compare the entire DWV genomes from paired symptomatic and asymptomatic bees from three colonies on two different Hawaiian islands. This revealed no consistent differences between DWV genomes from deformed or asymptomatic bees, with the greatest variation seen between locations, not phenotypes. All samples, except one, were dominated by DWV type A. This small-scale study suggests that there is no unique genetic variant associated with wing deformity; but that many DWV variants have the potential to cause deformit

Gas emissions, minerals, and tars associated with three coal fires, Powder River Basin, USA.

Ground-based surveys of three coal fires and airborne surveys of two of the fires were conducted near Sheridan, Wyoming. The fires occur in natural outcrops and in abandoned mines, all containing Paleocene-age subbituminous coals. Diffuse (carbon dioxide (CO(2)) only) and vent (CO(2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane, hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S), and elemental mercury) emission estimates were made for each of the fires. Additionally, gas samples were collected for volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis and showed a large range in variation between vents. The fires produce locally dangerous levels of CO, CO(2), H(2)S, and benzene, among other gases. At one fire in an abandoned coal mine, trends in gas and tar composition followed a change in topography. Total CO(2) fluxes for the fires from airborne, ground-based, and rate of fire advancement estimates ranged from 0.9 to 780mg/s/m(2) and are comparable to other coal fires worldwide. Samples of tar and coal-fire minerals collected from the mouth of vents provided insight into the behavior and formation of the coal fires