The effect of abrupt weaning of suckler calves on the plasma concentrations of cortisol, catecholamines, leukocyte, acute-phase proteins and in vitro interferon-gamma production

End of project reportThe objective of this study was to examine the effect of abrupt weaning (inclusive of social group disruption and maternal separation) on the physiological mediators of stress and measures of immune function. Thirty-eight male and 38 female continental calves were habituated to handling for two weeks prior to bleeding. Calves were blocked on sex, weight and breed of dam and randomly assigned, within block, to either a control (cows remain with calves) or abruptly weaned group (calves removed from cows). Animals were separated into the respective treatment groups at weaning (0 h). Calves were bled at – 168 h, 6 h (males only), 24 h, 48 h and 168 h post weaning. At each sampling time an observer scored the behavioural reaction of calves to sampling. Blood samples were analysed for cortisol, catecholamine concentrations (not sampled at –168 h) and in vitro interferon-gamma production, neutrophil :lymphocyte ratio and acute phase protein concentrations. All continuous data were analysed using a split-plot ANOVA, except that collected at 6 h, which was analysed using a single factor ANOVA model. The effects of weaning, calf sex and time and respective interactions were described. Disruption of the established social groups at 0 h, increased (p<0.001) the plasma cortisol concentration and neutrophil: lymphocyte ratio and reduced the leukocyte concentration (p<0.001) and the in vitro interferon-gamma response to the mitogen concanavalin-A (p<0.001) and keyhole limpet haemocyanin (p<0.001) for weaned and control animals, when compared with –168h. Plasma adrenaline and noradrenaline concentrations were not affected by group disruption. There was no effect of weaning or sex on calf behavioural reaction to handling during blood sampling. Plasma cortisol and adrenaline concentrations were not affected by weaning or sex. Plasma noradrenaline concentration was influenced by weaning x sex (p<0.05) and time x sex (p<0.05). The response increased for male calves with weaning and increased with each sampling time post weaning. For heifers the response was not affected by weaning and plasma concentrations decreased at 168 h post weaning. There was no effect of weaning or sex on leukocyte concentration. The neutrophils : lymphocyte ration increased post weaning (p<0.01) and was affected by sex (p<0.05). Weaning decreased (p<0.05) the in vitro interferon-gamma response to the antigen KLH. There was a time x weaning x sex (p<0.05) interaction for fibrinogen concentration but no effect of treatment on haptoglobin concentration. Abrupt weaning increased plasma cortisol and nor-adrenaline concentrations, which was accompanied by attenuation of in vitro interferon gamma production to novel mitogen and antigen complexes up to 7 days post weaning.European Union Structural Funds (EAGGF

Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Imaging of Bacteria within Fresh Produce In Situ

The growth curves for E. coli O157:H7 (#043888) are reported. We make the case that the onset of stationary growth is the optimal point at which a bacteria culture is considered suitable for quantitative Raman analyses. The optimal conditions for 3-mercaptophenylboronic acid coating of bacteria cells is also reported. Fundamental drawbacks of the status-quo approach have been elucidated and overcome, based on measurable improvements to the experimental methodology. This approach is shown to be suitable for the evaluation of bacterial rinse-washing efficacy by means of Raman light-scattering. The data were compared to label-free applications and the measurable differences between each approach were defined. Future use of 3-mercaptophenylboronic acid labelling for SERS analyses of bacteria should strictly follow the methods that we outlined within this paper. A real-time method to surveil mass bacterial communities directly in situ is also reported. The approach was successfully employed to indiscriminately monitor mass bacteria populations directly among plant tissue

Unmanned Aerial Systems: Research, Development, Education & Training at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

With technological breakthroughs in miniaturized aircraft-related components, including but not limited to communications, computer systems and sensors, state-of-the-art unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have become a reality. This fast-growing industry is anticipating and responding to a myriad of societal applications that will provide new and more cost-effective solutions that previous technologies could not, or will replace activities that involved humans in flight with associated risks. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has a long history of aviation-related research and education, and is heavily engaged in UAS activities. This document provides a summary of these activities, and is divided into two parts. The first part provides a brief summary of each of the various activities, while the second part lists the faculty associated with those activities. Within the first part of this document we have separated UAS activities into two broad areas: Engineering and Applications. Each of these broad areas is then further broken down into six sub-areas, which are listed in the Table of Contents. The second part lists the faculty, sorted by campus (Daytona Beach-D, Prescott-P and Worldwide-W) associated with the UAS activities. The UAS activities and the corresponding faculty are cross-referenced. We have chosen to provide very short summaries of the UAS activities rather than lengthy descriptions. If more information is desired, please contact me directly, or visit our research website (https://erau.edu/research), or contact the appropriate faculty member using their e-mail address provided at the end of this document

Reflection of a Long-period Gravity Wave Observed in the Nightglow over Arecibo on May 8–9, 1989?

During the Arecibo Initiative for Dynamics of the Atmosphere (AIDA) campaign in 1989 a characteristic of gravity wave perturbations observed in mesopause region airglow emissions was that airglow brightness fluctuations and airglow-derived temperature fluctuations often occurred either in phase or in antiphase. This stimulated the development of a theory suggesting that such in-phase fluctuations were most probably the result of strong reflections occurring in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region. Recent examination of a particular wave event and application of simple WKB-type theory has appeared to support this hypothesis. Here we use a full-wave model and a WKB-type model, each coupled with a chemical-airglow fluctuation model describing O2 atmospheric and OH Meinel airglow fluctuations, to assess the strength of wave reflection and also to explicitly calculate the phase difference between the airglow brightness and the temperature fluctuations. Our results suggest that reflection is not strong for the particular wave event, and the model produces fairly large phase differences between the airglow brightness and the temperature fluctuations (∼35° and ∼134°–165° for the O2 atmospheric and OH airglow emissions, respectively). These results are not particularly sensitive to the nominal mean winds used in the simulations. There is an instance when a region of minimum refractive index occurs directly above a region in which reflection is strongest, suggesting that the two are related. However, the reflection does not appear to be strong. Our results suggest that chemical effects can account for the inferred phases of the observed airglow fluctuations and that effects associated with wave reflection appear to play a relatively minor role in the airglow fluctuations

Unmanned Aerial Systems Research, Development, Education and Training at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

With technological breakthroughs in miniaturized aircraft-related components, including but not limited to communications, computer systems and sensors and, state-of-the-art unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have become a reality. This fast growing industry is anticipating and responding to a myriad of societal applications that will provide either new or more cost effective solutions that previous technologies could not, or will replace activities that involved humans in flight with associated risks. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has a long history of aviation related research and education, and is heavily engaged in UAS activities. This document provides a summary of these activities. The document is divided into two parts. The first part provides a brief summary of each of the various activities while the second part lists the faculty associated with those activities. Within the first part of this document we have separated the UAS activities into two broad areas: Engineering and Applications. Each of these broad areas is then further broken down into six sub-areas, which are listed in the Table of Contents. The second part lists the faculty, sorted by campus (Daytona Beach---D, Prescott---P and Worldwide--W) associated with the UAS activities. The UAS activities and the corresponding faculty are cross-referenced. We have chosen to provide very short summaries of the UAS activities rather than lengthy descriptions. Should more information be desired, please contact me directly or alternatively visit our research web pages (http://research.erau.edu) and contact the appropriate faculty member directly

Effects of Eddy Viscosity and Thermal Conduction and Coriolis Force in the Dynamics of Gravity Wave Driven Fluctuations in the OH Nightglow

Recently, Walterscheid et al. (1987) have described a dynamical-chemical model of wave-driven fluctuations in the OH nightglow which incorporated a five-reaction photochemical scheme and the dynamics of linearized acoustic-gravity waves in an isothermal, motionless atmosphere. The intensity oscillation (δI) about the time-averaged intensity (I0) and the temperature oscillation (δT) about the time-averaged temperature (T0) were related by means of the complex ratio η ≡ (δI/I0)/(δT/T0). One of the main conclusions of their work was that the inclusion of dynamical effects is absolutely essential for a valid assessment of η at any wave period. In this paper the model of Walterscheid et al. (1987) is modified to include in the gravity wave dynamics the effects of eddy viscosity, eddy thermal conduction, and Coriolis force (with the shallow atmosphere approximation), and calculations are performed for the same nominal case as used by these previous authors (i.e., λx = 100 km and atmospheric conditions pertinent to 83 km altitude), but only gravity wave periods are considered. It is found that for wave periods greater than some 2 or 3 hours the value of η is greatly modified by the inclusion of eddy thermal conduction. Although when acting alone the eddy viscosity is relatively unimportant, it significantly modifies the results when acting in conjunction with the eddy thermal conduction. The inclusion of the Coriolis force is found to be insignificant at any wave period. Although it is for the longest-period waves that the values of η are most modified by the inclusion of dissipation, this dissipation may be severe enough to place an observational constraint on such waves. Results of Walterscheid et al. (1987) suggest that η is virtually independent of horizontal wavelength (λx), but it is indicated here that the inclusion of dissipation is likely to make η highly dependent on λx and to complicate comparisons which have been made between observation and theory. The effects of varying the Prandtl number are also discussed

Modeling Mountain Gravity Waves in the Martian Upper Atmosphere

Mountain waves (also known as orographic gravity waves) are atmospheric gravity waves generated when winds blow across mountains. It is known that gravity waves have a significant impact on the upper atmosphere. A relatively small amount of energy and momentum transported from tropospheric altitudes to the upper atmosphere can have a profound effect. Recent developments have indicated that upper atmospheric winds on Mars are directly related to the mountains below. The mountains on Mars are extremely high, much higher those on Earth. Hence, we expect mountain waves to be more significant on Mars than possibly anywhere else in the Solar System. In spite of this, no modeling of mountain waves has occurred in recent times! Dr. Michael Hickey has developed a spectral version of his full-wave gravity wave model that has allowed him to model the generation, propagation and dissipation of mountain waves in the Venus atmosphere. This is on-going research. For this project, the Venus model is applied to the Mars data. The calculations are ran through a Fortran script and then used for plotting in Matlab. The model will be predominately analyzed according to the following parameters: mean temperature and winds; viscosity; thermal conductivity

Airglow Variations Associated with Nonideal Ducting of Gravity Waves in the Lower Thermosphere Region

A numerical full-wave model is used to study the response of the O2 atmospheric airglow to ducted gravity waves in the mesopause region. For an isothermal, quasi-adiabatic, and motionless background atmosphere the calculated phase differences between airglow brightness fluctuations and fluctuations of temperatures derived from the airglow, as given by Krassovsky\u27s ratio, are in good agreement with the predictions of published theory. Significant departures from the predictions of the basic theory are obtained when we consider ducting in the presence of the eddy and molecular diffusion of heat and momentum in a nonisothermal background atmosphere. Wind shears also affect the phase difference between airglow brightness fluctuations and temperatures derived therefrom. Nonisothermal effects and the effects of diffusion and winds are largest for the slower waves we consider. Only the fastest of the ducted waves considered conform to the basic theory, while the airglow signatures associated with slower, more weakly ducted waves may be easily misinterpreted as being due to propagating waves. We conclude that for the short horizontal wavelength waves observed in the airglow, the phase of Krassovsky\u27s ratio may be useful to identify wave ducting only for the shortest period, fastest waves. Therefore identification of ducted waves using Krassovsky\u27s ratio will be difficult even if the required high temporal resolution measurements become available