Endophytes and heat tolerance in lambs grazing perennial ryegrass

Paper presented at the 56th New Zealand Grassland Association Conference, 17-20 October 1994, Hanmer Springs.Endophytes in perennial ryegrass protect their hosts against attack by Argentine stem weevil but cause adverse affects, including heat stress, in grazing animals. Ten lambs were grazed on Grasslands Nui ryegrass without endophyte or with its wildtype or a high ergovaline-producing endophyte (196). Five lambs from the 196 treatment were swapped for 5 on the endophyte-free treatment after 20 days. Rectal temperatures and respiration rates were measured daily; on one day they were measured every 2-4 hours. There was a significant difference in respiration rate and body temperature between lambs grazing endophyte and endophyte free treatments but not between the two endophyte treatments. There was no interaction with ambient temperature within the range 12-30°C. When lambs where transferred from toxic to non-toxic treatments there was no significant decrease in body temperature or respiration rate witbin 14 days. Ergovaline, even at low concentrations, affects thermo-regulation in lambs and is undesirable in perennial ryegrass endophyte associations.Meat Research and Development Council

Work-related psychological health among clergywomen in Australia

Drawing on the classic model of balanced affect, the Francis Burnout Inventory conceptualises good work-related psychological health among clergy in terms of negative affect being balanced by positive affect. This paper sets out to explore the relationship between work-related psychological health and psychological type (as assessed by the Francis Psychological-Type Scales) among a sample of 212 Australian clergywomen who completed the National Church Life Survey Form L in 2006. The data supported the internal consistency reliability of the Francis Burnout Inventory and Francis Psychological-Type Scales and found that work-related psychological health was positively related to extraversion and sensing

A multi-term boltzmann equation analysis of charged particle transport properties in electric and magnetic fields in gases

[Extract] Since the mid to late 1990s the theoretical analysis of charged particle transport processes in neutral gases in the presence of electric and magnetic fields has advanced considerably. For electron swarms in crossed electric and magnetic fields, the advancement was motivated by the desire to overcome the limitations of the two-term approximation for solving the Boltzmann equation and various types of equivalent/effective field approximations often employed to describe the impact of a magnetic field on the transport. The first systematic multi-term analysis for electron swarms under hydrodynamic conditions in the presence of uniform dc electric and magnetic fields was given by Ness [1] and since then a considerable number of papers has been published in a relatively short time. The situation up to 2002 was reviewed by White et al. [2] where a unified multi-term theory for solving the Boltzmann equation valid for both electrons and ions in the presence of time-dependent electric and magnetic fields was presented. This theory was recently employed to study the influence of an orthogonal magnetic field on the transient behavior of the diagonal diffusion tensor elements for swarms undergoing conservative collisions only [3]. Since ionization plays a vital role in plasma maintenance any transport theory must include rate coefficients, and correctly account for the effects of non-conservative collisions on drift and diffusion. With these remarks as background, we extend the previous theory [4] and in this work we present a theoretical and numerical investigation of hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic charged particle swarms in neutral gases under the influence of dc and ac electric and magnetic fields when non-conservative collisions are operative with applications of non-equilibrium magnetized plasma discharges to plasma processing, gas laser discharges and drift chambers for detection particles in mind

Palliative care training in undergraduate medical, nursing and allied health: a survey

OBJECTIVES: Impending death is poorly recognised. Many undergraduate healthcare professionals will not have experience of meeting or caring for someone who is dying. As death can occur in any setting, at any time, it is vital that all healthcare students, regardless of the setting they go on to work in, have end-of-life care (EOLC) training. The aim was to determine current palliative care training at the undergraduate level, in multiple professions, in recognising and communicating dying. METHODS: Current UK undergraduate courses in medicine, adult nursing, occupational therapy, social work and physiotherapy were included. All courses received an email asking what training is currently offered in the recognition and communication of dying, and what time was dedicated to this. RESULTS: A total of 73/198 (37%) courses responded to the request for information. 18/20 medical courses provided training in recognising when patients were dying (median 2 hours), and 17/20 provided training in the communication of dying (median 3 hours). 80% (43/54) of nursing and allied health professional courses provided some training in EOLC. Many of the course organisers expressed frustration at the lack of resources, funding and time to include more training. Those courses with more palliative care provision often had a 'champion' to advocate for it. CONCLUSIONS: Training in EOLC was inconsistent across courses and professions. Further research is needed to understand how to remove the barriers identified and to improve the consistency of current training

Adaptation of the carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase (CPS) enzyme in an extremophile fish

Tetrapods and fish have adapted distinct carbamoyl-phosphate synthase (CPS) enzymes to initiate the ornithine urea cycle during the detoxification of nitrogenous wastes. We report evidence that in the ureotelic subgenus of extremophile fish Oreochromis Alcolapia, CPS III has undergone convergent evolution and adapted its substrate affinity to ammonia which is typical of terrestrial vertebrate CPS I. Unusually, unlike in other vertebrates, the expression of CPS III in Alcolapia is localised to the skeletal muscle and is activated in the myogenic lineage during early embryonic development with expression remaining in mature fish. We propose that adaptation in Alcolapia included both convergent evolution of CPS function to that of terrestrial vertebrates, as well as changes in development mechanisms redirecting CPS III gene expression to the skeletal muscle

Which patients are assessed by lung cancer nurse specialists? A national lung cancer audit study of over 128,000 patients across England

Background: Lung cancer nurse specialists (LCNS) are integral to the multidisciplinary clinical team, providing personalised physical and psycho-social interventions, and care management for people with lung cancer. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommend that all patients have access to a LCNS. We conducted a national study assessing whether there is variation in access to and timing of LCNS assessment. Methods: The National Cancer Action Team’s LCNS workforce census in England was linked with patient and hospital Trust data from the English National Lung Cancer Audit. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess features associated with LCNS assessment. Results: 128,124 lung cancer patients were seen from 2007 to 2011. LCNS assessment confirmation was ‘yes’ in 62%, ‘no’ in 6% and ‘missing’ in 32%. Where (in clinic versus ward) and when (before versus after diagnosis) patients were assessed by a LCNS also varied. Older patients with poor performance status, early cancer stage, and comorbidities were less likely to be assessed; there was no difference with sex or socioeconomic group. Patients receiving any anti-cancer treatment were more likely to be assessed. Assessment was lower in Trusts with high annual patient numbers (odds ratio = 0.58, 95% confidence interval 0.37–0.91) and where LCNS caseload > 250 (0.69, 0.41–1.16, although not statistically significant), but increased where workload was conducted mostly by band 8 nurses (2.22, 1.22–4.02). Conclusion: LCNS assessment varied by patient and Trust features, which may indicate unmet need for some patients. The current workforce needs to expand as well as retain experienced LCNSs