Reduced heat flow in light water (H2O) due to heavy water (D2O)

The flow of heat, from top to bottom, in a column of light water can be decreased by over 1000% with the addition of heavy water. A column of light water cools from 25 C to 0 C in 11 hours, however, with the addition of heavy water it takes more than 100 hours. There is a concentration dependence where the cooling time increases as the concentration of added (D2O) increases, with a near maximum being reached with as little as 2% of (D2O) added. This phenomenon will not occur if the water is mixed after the heavy water is added.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figures, PD

BEEF IN JAPAN: THE CHALLENGE FOR UNITED STATES EXPORTS

International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries,

Surveys of New Mexico Alfalfa Producers and Dairy Hay Users: Will Growth of the State's Dairy Industry be Limited by Alfalfa Availability?

Production Economics,

COHORT ANALYSIS OF FOOD CONSUMPTION: A CASE OF RAPIDLY CHANGING JAPANESE CONSUMPTION

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Advancing the Sea Ice Hypothesis: Trophic Interactions Among Breeding Pygoscelis Penguins With Divergent Population Trends Throughout the Western Antarctic Peninsula

We evaluated annual and regional variation in the dietary niche of Pygoscelis penguins including the sea ice-obligate Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), and sea ice-intolerant chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarcticus) and gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) penguins, three species that nest throughout the western Antarctic Peninsula (AP) to test the sea ice trophic interaction hypothesis, which posits that penguin breeding populations with divergent trends, i.e., declining or increasing, are reliant on differing food webs. Our study relies on values of naturally occurring carbon (13C/12C, δ13C) and nitrogen (15N/14N, δ15N) stable isotopes as integrated proxies of penguin food webs measuredover three years at three different breeding colonies. At Anvers Island in the north, where reductions in sea ice and changes in breeding population trends among sympatric sea ice-obligate (Adélie) and sea ice-intolerant (chinstrap and gentoo) penguins have been most notable, our analyses show that all three species of Pygoscelis penguins became more similar isotopically over the reproductive period

Potential fresh market outlets for Oregon vegetables and small fruits

Published November 1963. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Analysis of Abrupt Transitions in Ecological Systems

The occurrence and causes of abrupt transitions, thresholds, or regime shifts between ecosystem states are of great concern and the likelihood of such transitions is increasing for many ecological systems. General understanding of abrupt transitions has been advanced by theory, but hindered by the lack of a common, accessible, and data-driven approach to characterizing them. We apply such an approach to 30–60 years of data on environmental drivers, biological responses, and associated evidence from pelagic ocean, coastal benthic, polar marine, and semi-arid grassland ecosystems. Our analyses revealed one case in which the response (krill abundance) linearly tracked abrupt changes in the driver (Pacific Decadal Oscillation), but abrupt transitions detected in the three other cases (sea cucumber abundance, penguin abundance, and black grama grass production) exhibited hysteretic relationships with drivers (wave intensity, sea-ice duration, and amounts of monsoonal rainfall, respectively) through a variety of response mechanisms. The use of a common approach across these case studies illustrates that: the utility of leading indicators is often limited and can depend on the abruptness of a transition relative to the lifespan of responsive organisms and observation intervals; information on spatiotemporal context is useful for comparing transitions; and ancillary information from associated experiments and observations aids interpretation of response-driver relationships. The understanding of abrupt transitions offered by this approach provides information that can be used to manage state changes and underscores the utility of long-term observations in multiple sentinel sites across a variety of ecosystems.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Selenium Supplementation Restores Innate and Humoral Immune Responses in Footrot-Affected Sheep

Dietary selenium (Se) alters whole-blood Se concentrations in sheep, dependent upon Se source and dosage administered, but little is known about effects on immune function. We used footrot (FR) as a disease model to test the effects of supranutritional Se supplementation on immune function. To determine the effect of Se-source (organic Se-yeast, inorganic Na-selenite or Na-selenate) and Se-dosage (1, 3, 5 times FDA-permitted level) on FR severity, 120 ewes with and 120 ewes without FR were drenched weekly for 62 weeks with different Se sources and dosages (30 ewes/treatment group). Innate immunity was evaluated after 62 weeks of supplementation by measuring neutrophil bacterial killing ability. Adaptive immune function was evaluated by immunizing sheep with keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH). The antibody titer and delayed-type hypersensitivity skin test to KLH were used to assess humoral immunity and cell-mediated immunity, respectively. At baseline, FR-affected ewes had lower whole-blood and serum-Se concentrations; this difference was not observed after Se supplementation. Se supplementation increased neutrophil bacterial killing percentages in FR-affected sheep to percentages observed in supplemented and non-supplemented healthy sheep. Similarly, Se supplementation increased KLH antibody titers in FR-affected sheep to titers observed in healthy sheep. FR-affected sheep demonstrated suppressed cell-mediated immunity at 24 hours after intradermal KLH challenge, although there was no improvement with Se supplementation. We did not consistently prevent nor improve recovery from FR over the 62 week Se-treatment period. In conclusion, Se supplementation does not prevent FR, but does restore innate and humoral immune functions negatively affected by FR