Dairy Cattle Handling Extension Programs: Training Workers and Cattle

Cattle handling Extension program educators often overlook the animal training component of efficient handling. The objectives of the study described in this article were to measure young dairy heifer behavioral responses toward handlers who received different types of training and to document whether repeated handling or time of day of handling affected heifer behavioral responses to handlers. Six handlers received training through a lecture, hands-on workshop, or video. An observer recorded heifer behavior during handling tests. The day and time of heifer training were most influential on heifer behavior, but heifer handling ease was improved when handlers had participated in the hands-on training

Economic and livestock health impacts of birds on dairies: Evidence from a survey of Washington dairy operators

The survey described in this research paper aimed to investigate the economic and health impacts of birds on dairies. Birds are common pests on dairies, consuming and contaminating feed intended for cattle. As a result, dairy operators experience increased feed costs and increased pathogen and disease risk. We surveyed dairy operators attending the 2017 Washington Dairy Conference to examine the impact of birds on dairies in Washington State. Dairy operators reported feed losses valued at $55 per cow resulting in annual losses totaling$5.5 million in the Western region of the state and $9.2 million in the Eastern region of the state. Shooting was the most commonly used bird management method and European starlings (Sternus vulgaris) were the most frequently implicated species statewide. Bird abundance greater than 10,000 birds per day was associated with larger herd size and with self-reported presence of Johne’s disease and Salmonella

Casein Kinase II Phosphorylation of Spt6 Enforces Transcriptional Fidelity by Maintaining Spn1-Spt6 Interaction

Spt6 is a histone chaperone that associates with RNA polymerase II and deposits nucleosomes in the wake of transcription. Although Spt6 has an essential function in nucleosome deposition, it is not known whether this function is influenced by post-translational modification. Here, we report that casein kinase II (CKII) phosphorylation of Spt6 is required for nucleosome occupancy at the 5' ends of genes to prevent aberrant antisense transcription and enforce transcriptional directionality. Mechanistically, we show that CKII phosphorylation of Spt6 promotes the interaction of Spt6 with Spn1, a binding partner required for chromatin reassembly and full recruitment of Spt6 to genes. Our study defines a function for CKII phosphorylation in transcription and highlights the importance of post-translational modification in histone chaperone function

Exposing the myths of household water insecurity in the global north: A critical review

Safe and secure water is a cornerstone of modern life in the global North. This article critically examines a set of prevalent myths about household water in high-income countries, with a focus on Canada and the United States. Taking a relational approach, we argue that household water insecurity is a product of institutionalized structures and power, manifests unevenly through space and time, and is reproduced in places we tend to assume are the most water-secure in the world. We first briefly introduce “modern water” and the modern infrastructural ideal, a highly influential set of ideas that have shaped household water provision and infrastructure development over the past two centuries. Against this backdrop, we consolidate evidence to disrupt a set of narratives about water in high-income countries: the notion that water access is universal, clean, affordable, trustworthy, and uniformly or equitably governed. We identify five thematic areas of future research to delineate an agenda for advancing scholarship and action—including challenges of legal and regulatory regimes, the housing-water nexus, water affordability, and water quality and contamination. Data gaps underpin the experiences of household water insecurity. Taken together, our review of water security for households in high-income countries provides a conceptual map to direct critical research in this area for the coming years. This article is categorized under: Human Water \u3e Human Water

CRLF3 plays a key role in the final stage of platelet genesis and is a potential therapeutic target for thrombocythemia.

The process of platelet production has so far been understood to be a 2-stage process: megakaryocyte maturation from hematopoietic stem cells followed by proplatelet formation, with each phase regulating the peripheral blood platelet count. Proplatelet formation releases into the bloodstream beads-on-a-string preplatelets, which undergo fission into mature platelets. For the first time, we show that preplatelet maturation is a third, tightly regulated, critical process akin to cytokinesis that regulates platelet count. We show that deficiency in cytokine receptor-like factor 3 (CRLF3) in mice leads to an isolated and sustained 25% to 48% reduction in the platelet count without any effect on other blood cell lineages. We show that Crlf3-/- preplatelets have increased microtubule stability, possibly because of increased microtubule glutamylation via the interaction of CRLF3 with key members of the Hippo pathway. Using a mouse model of JAK2 V617F essential thrombocythemia, we show that a lack of CRLF3 leads to long-term lineage-specific normalization of the platelet count. We thereby postulate that targeting CRLF3 has therapeutic potential for treatment of thrombocythemia

Risk factors for household food insecurity in the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network cohort study

BackgroundGlobally, 1.3 billion people were considered food insecure as of 2022. In the Caribbean region, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was 71.3% as of 2020, the highest of all subregions in Latin America. Experienced based measurement scales, like the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale, are efficient measurement tools of food insecurity used globally. The Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network (ECHORN) Cohort Study is a population-based longitudinal cohort study in the two Caribbean U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as in Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago. The purpose of this research was to examine the demographic, psychosocial, behavioral, and environmental risk factors associated with household food insecurity (HFI) among adults ≥40 years of age in the ECHORN cohort.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis of baseline ECHORN cohort study data was conducted. The primary outcome was household food insecurity (none, mild, moderate/severe). A total of 16 known and potential risk factors were examined for their association with HFI. The ANOVA and chi-square statistics were used in bivariate analysis. Ordinal logistic regression was used for the multivariable and sex stratified analyses.ResultsMore than one-quarter of the sample (27.3%) experienced HFI. In bivariate analyses, all risk factors examined except for sex, were significantly associated with HFI status. In the multivariable analysis, all variables except sex, education, marital status, smoking status, and residing in Puerto Rico were significant predictors of HFI in the adjusted model. In sex stratified analysis, depression, food availability, self-rated physical health, and island site were significantly associated with increased odds of worsening HFI for women, but not for men. Source of potable water was an important risk factor for both men and women.DiscussionThe prevalence of HFI in the ECHORN cohort study is comparable to other studies conducted in the region. While women did not have an increased risk of HFI compared to men, a different set of risk factors affected their vulnerability to HFI. More research is needed to understand how water and food security are interrelated in the ECHORN cohort

The Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale: Comparison scores from 27 sites in 22 countries

Household survey data from 27 sites in 22 countries were collected in 2017–2018 in order to construct and validate a cross-cultural household-level water insecurity scale. The resultant Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) scale presents a useful tool for monitoring and evaluating water interventions as a complement to traditional metrics used by the development community. It can also help track progress toward achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6 ‘clean water and sanitation for all’. We present HWISE scale scores from 27 sites as comparative data for future studies using the HWISE scale in low-and middle-income contexts. Site-level mean scores for HWISE-12 (scored 0–36) ranged from 1.64 (SD 4.22) in Pune, India, to 20.90 (7.50) in Cartagena, Colombia, while site-level mean scores for HWISE-4 (scored 0–12) ranged from 0.51 (1.50) in Pune, India, to 8.21 (2.55) in Punjab, Pakistan. Scores tended to be higher in the dry season as expected. Data from this first implementation of the HWISE scale demonstrate the diversity of water insecurity within and across communities and can help to situate findings from future applications of this tool

GA4GH: International policies and standards for data sharing across genomic research and healthcare.

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) aims to accelerate biomedical advances by enabling the responsible sharing of clinical and genomic data through both harmonized data aggregation and federated approaches. The decreasing cost of genomic sequencing (along with other genome-wide molecular assays) and increasing evidence of its clinical utility will soon drive the generation of sequence data from tens of millions of humans, with increasing levels of diversity. In this perspective, we present the GA4GH strategies for addressing the major challenges of this data revolution. We describe the GA4GH organization, which is fueled by the development efforts of eight Work Streams and informed by the needs of 24 Driver Projects and other key stakeholders. We present the GA4GH suite of secure, interoperable technical standards and policy frameworks and review the current status of standards, their relevance to key domains of research and clinical care, and future plans of GA4GH. Broad international participation in building, adopting, and deploying GA4GH standards and frameworks will catalyze an unprecedented effort in data sharing that will be critical to advancing genomic medicine and ensuring that all populations can access its benefits

Combined Forward-Backward Asymmetry Measurements in Top-Antitop Quark Production at the Tevatron

The CDF and D0 experiments at the Fermilab Tevatron have measured the asymmetry between yields of forward- and backward-produced top and antitop quarks based on their rapidity difference and the asymmetry between their decay leptons. These measurements use the full data sets collected in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt s =1.96$ TeV. We report the results of combinations of the inclusive asymmetries and their differential dependencies on relevant kinematic quantities. The combined inclusive asymmetry is $A_{\mathrm{FB}}^{t\bar{t}} = 0.128 \pm 0.025$. The combined inclusive and differential asymmetries are consistent with recent standard model predictions