Pasteurella hemolytica : a bacteriological and seriological study of its role in bovine respiratory disease in market stressed feeder steers

The role of Pasteurella hemolytica in the bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex was studied in two trials involving feeder steer calves. In Trial I, 54 calves were purchased from two Tennessee producers. The calves were followed through the market-transit chain which terminated at a feedlot at the Highland Rim Experiment Station (HRES) near Springfield, Tennessee. The calves were subjected to one of three infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) vaccination regimes, (1) injection with an IBR vaccine 30 days prior to delivery to the auction barn (AB), (2) injection with vaccine 30 days prior to delivery to the AB followed by a cell mediated immune booster upon arrival at the AB, and (3) nonvaccinated control group. On the day prior to departure from the orderbuyer barn (OBB) the calves were challenged by nasal inoculation with IBR virus. In Trial II, 48 calves purchased from auction barns were transported to a feedlot at the University of Tennessee Blount Farms at Knoxville, Tennessee. Body weights of the calves in both trials were taken at various sampling dates. The weights were used to calculate gains as a measure of feedlot performance. Serum harvested from blood samples obtained at various points during the two trials were used to demonstrate the presence of and changes in antibody titers against Pasteurella hemolytica. An Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbant Assay (ELISA) technique was used to measure antibody titers in serum of calves from both trials. The presence of antibodies in the serum of the Blount Farm calves was also determined by an agglutination technique. A scoring system involving the evaluation of various health parameters was used to monitor clinical signs of disease in the HRES calves. The number of days the calves were judged by the herdsman to require treatment for disease was used as a measure of disease severity in the Blount Farm calves. Chi-square analysis of the frequencies of positive and negative antibody titers indicated that the ELISA and agglutination techniques gave comparable results when ELISA titers greater than or equal to 128 were considered positive and titers less than 128 were considered negative. Pasteurella hemolytica was isolated from 2% of the HRES calves and 47% of the Blount Farm calves which were sampled. Pasteurella hemolytica antibody titers in the HRES calves remained low and consistent throughout the market-transit and feedlot phases. In the Blount Farm calves, a large increase in antibody titers occurred in sera taken upon arrival at the feedlot and sera obtained 38 or 43 days later. These results indicate that Pasteurella hemolytica infection occurred in the Blount Farm calves but not in the HRES calves. Antibody titers of the second serum samples were positively correlated with the number of days sick and negatively correlated with the average daily gains of Blount Farm calves. This suggests that Pasteurella hemolytica infection had an adverse affect on feedlot performance. Clinical signs of disease evident in the HRES calves suggested that the calves were infected with IBR virus. The nonvaccinated calves were more severely affected by the IBR infection than the vaccinated calves. This was evident in greater degrees of respiratory distress, necrotic rhinitis, higher rectal temperatures and higher daily health indexes. No differences in degrees of mucopurulent nasal discharge and percent packed cell volumes were observed. Calves receiving the IBR vaccination followed by the cell mediated immune booster gained more weight from feedlot day 1 to feedlot day 10 than nonvaccinated calves. Weight gain differences due to IBR vaccination had disappeared by feedlot day 22. In conclusion, the results indicate that Pasteurella hemolytica is an important etiological agent of the BRD complex in market stressed calves. Due to the apparent lack of Pasteurella hemolytica infection, a relationship between Pasteurella hemolytica and IBR virus in the BRD complex could not be demonstrated in the HRES calves

An Epidemiological Look at Injuries among High School Athletes Participating in a Variety of Sports for Both Sexes

Physical activity is part of a healthy lifestyle, but participating in athletic activities like team sports can lead to injury. This study was designed to find the differences in types of high school sports injuries and how frequently these injuries occur among different sports and between males and females. A survey was given to members of the football, boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball teams of a central Appalachian high school. The highest rate of injury was found in girls’ basketball at 86.7%, followed by football at 85.2%, boys’ basketball at 70.6%, softball and volleyball each at 69.2%, and baseball at 33.3%. Significant differences were also found between the most prevalent types of injuries in each sport. Differences in types of injuries were reported by male and female athletes who participated in comparable sports such as boys’ and girls’ basketball and softball and baseball. More research into why these differences exist could result in more individualized prevention strategies for high school athletes

PKS 1004+13: A High-Inclination, Highly-Absorbed Radio-Loud QSO -- The First Radio-Loud BAL QSO at Low Redshift?

The existence of BAL outflows in only radio-quiet QSOs was thought to be an important clue to mass ejection and the radio-loud - radio-quiet dichotomy. Recently a few radio-loud BAL QSOs have been discovered at high redshift. We present evidence that PKS 1004+13 is a radio-loud BAL QSO. It would be the first known at low-redshift (z = 0.24), and one of the most radio luminous. For PKS 1004+13, there appear to be broad absorption troughs of O VI, N V, Si IV, and C IV, indicating high-ionization outflows up to about 10,000 km/s. There are also two strong, broad (~500 km/s), high-ionization, associated absorption systems that show partial covering of the continuum source. The strong UV absorption we have detected suggests that the extreme soft-X-ray weakness of PKS 1004+13 is primarily the result of absorption. The large radio-lobe dominance indicates BAL and associated gas at high inclinations to the central engine axis, perhaps in a line-of-sight that passes through an accretion disk wind.Comment: To appear in Ap.J. Letters, 1999 (June or July); 4 pages, 5 figure

Objectively measured physical capability levels and mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To do a quantitative systematic review, including published and unpublished data, examining the associations between individual objective measures of physical capability (grip strength, walking speed, chair rising, and standing balance times) and mortality in community dwelling populations. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources: Relevant studies published by May 2009 identified through literature searches using Embase (from 1980) and Medline (from 1950) and manual searching of reference lists; unpublished results were obtained from study investigators. Study selection: Eligible observational studies were those done in community dwelling people of any age that examined the association of at least one of the specified measures of physical capability (grip strength, walking speed, chair rises, or standing balance) with mortality. Data synthesis: Effect estimates obtained were pooled by using random effects meta-analysis models with heterogeneity between studies investigated. Results: Although heterogeneity was detected, consistent evidence was found of associations between all four measures of physical capability and mortality; those people who performed less well in these tests were found to be at higher risk of all cause mortality. For example, the summary hazard ratio for mortality comparing the weakest with the strongest quarter of grip strength (14 studies, 53 476 participants) was 1.67 (95% confidence interval 1.45 to 1.93) after adjustment for age, sex, and body size (I2=84.0%, 95% confidence interval 74% to 90%; P from Q statistic <0.001). The summary hazard ratio for mortality comparing the slowest with the fastest quarter of walking speed (five studies, 14 692 participants) was 2.87 (2.22 to 3.72) (I2=25.2%, 0% to 70%; P=0.25) after similar adjustments. Whereas studies of the associations of walking speed, chair rising, and standing balance with mortality have only been done in older populations (average age over 70 years), the association of grip strength with mortality was also found in younger populations (five studies had an average age under 60 years). Conclusions: Objective measures of physical capability are predictors of all cause mortality in older community dwelling populations. Such measures may therefore provide useful tools for identifying older people at higher risk of death. With Contributions from Dr P.A. Bath, University of Sheffiel

Solar Coronal Structures and Stray Light in TRACE

Using the 2004 Venus transit of the Sun to constrain a semi-empirical point-spread function for the TRACE EUV solar telescope, we have measured the effect of stray light in that telescope. We find that 43% of 171A EUV light that enters TRACE is scattered, either through diffraction off the entrance filter grid or through other nonspecular effects. We carry this result forward, via known-PSF deconvolution of TRACE images, to identify its effect on analysis of TRACE data. Known-PSF deconvolution by this derived PSF greatly reduces the effect of visible haze in the TRACE 171A images, enhances bright features, and reveals that the smooth background component of the corona is considerably less bright (and hence much more rarefied) than commonly supposed. Deconvolution reveals that some prior conlclusions about the Sun appear to have been based on stray light in the images. In particular, the diffuse background "quiet corona" becomes consistent with hydrostatic support of the coronal plasma; feature contrast is greatly increased, possibly affecting derived parameters such as the form of the coronal heating function; and essentially all existing differential emission measure studies of small features appear to be affected by contamination from nearby features. We speculate on further implications of stray light for interpretation of EUV images from TRACE and similar instruments, and advocate deconvolution as a standard tool for image analysis with future instruments such as SDO/AIA.Comment: Accepted by APJ; v2 reformatted to single-column format for online readabilit

Eine Erweiterung der Croftonschen Formeln für konvexe Körper

§0. Einführung. Durch die bekannten Croftonschen Integrale können bekanntlich die Minkowskischen Quermaβintegrale konvexer Körper dargestellt werden. In der vorliegenden Note betrachten wir gewisse Erweiterungen dieser klassischen integralgeometrischen Formeln, durch die allgemeinere invariante Eikörperfunktionale gegeben sind. Es handelt sich hierbei um kinematische Integrale mit beweglichen unterdimensionalen Teilräumen, wobei passend gewahlte Funktionen ihrer Abstände vom Eikörper eingehe