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Rabies in Iowa and the Upper Midwest: What a Rural Practitioner Should Know

A thorough history of rabies in the United States has been written by Steele,1 who begins by writing that the first reference to rabies in the United States occurred, in dogs, in Virginia and North Carolina, in 1753 and 1762, respectively. An outbreak that occurred in Boston and other North American towns in 1768 is considered the first major epizootic in North America. Canine madness, as it was called, raged allover colonial North America throughout the late 1700\u27s. Rabies reappeared in the eastern US in 1810 and in Ohio assumed an epizootic character affecting dogs, foxes, and wolves. Steele goes on to report that, following the Civil War, rabies was widespread across most of the USA. Mad dogs were reported in many urban as well as rural areas. Sylvatic rabies was recognized in the eastern US in the 18th century, and in the 19th century the disease was seen in foxes throughout the eastern part of the country

Grazing Management Effects on the Sward and Physical Characteristics Relative to Streams in Cool-Season Grass Pastures

Different grazing management practices in pastures may affect the sward and physical characteristics of riparian areas which affect sediment, phosphorus, and fecal pathogen loading of the pasture streams. To measure these effects, six 30-acre cool-season grass pastures, bisected by a stream, were split into two blocks with three treatments per block. Pastures were grazed by continuous stocking with unrestricted stream access (CSU), continuous stocking with access to the stream restricted to a 16-foot wide stabilized stream crossing (CSR), or rotational stocking (RS). For data and sample collections, pastures were divided into 4 zones: on the streambank (streambanks zone), 0 to 110 feet from the streambanks (110 zone), 110 and 220 feet from the streambank (220 zone), and greater than 220 feet from the streambank (upland zone). Forage heights were measured and forage samples were collected and analyzed for dry matter and mass from areas where cattle did or did not congregate in each zone monthly from May to October. The percentages of bare and fecal-covered ground were also measured monthly at each sampling site. Sward heights were lower in cattle congregation areas than open areas through all months (P \u3c 0.05). In the later months of the grazing season, sward heights and forage mass were less in the streambanks and 110 zones of the CSU pastures than CSR pastures. Pastures with CSU also had higher (P \u3c 0.10) percentages of fecal-covered ground cover in the 110 zone than the other treatments through August. There were few significant differences between treatments for forage sward height, forage mass or bare or fecal-covered ground in the 220 and upland zones in any month

Microclimate Effects on the Temperature/Spatial Distribution of Beef Cows Grazing Cool-Season Grass Pastures by Different Management Practices (A Progress Report)

Congregation of cattle near pasture streams increases fecal cover and decreases forage sward height and mass, thereby, increasing the risks of sediment, nutrients, and fecal pathogens entering the stream and impairing water quality. Restricting access to the streams to stabilized stream crossings or by providing alternative water sources away from the stream may decrease the amount of time that cattle spend near a stream and, thereby, reduce the risk of nonpoint source pollution. Six 30-acre cool-season grass pastures, bisected by a stream, were split into two blocks with three treatments per block. Treatments were: continuous stocking with unrestricted stream access (CSU), continuous stocking with access to the stream restricted to a 16-foot wide stabilized stream crossing (CSR), and rotational stocking (RS). Cattle spent a greater proportion of time in the stream in CSU pastures than other treatments in June (P \u3c 0.05), August (P \u3c 0.05), and September (P \u3c 0.10). During May to July, and in September, cattle in CSU pastures spent a greater (P \u3c 0.05) percentage of time within 110 feet of the stream than in CSR or RS pastures. Offstream water had no effect on cattle distribution near the stream (P \u3e 0.10) in a summer in which there was considerable precipitation resulting in some of natural offstream water sources

Water withdrawals in Illinois, 1984

Cover title

Water withdrawals in Illinois, 1978

Cover title.Includes bibliographical references

Water withdrawals in Illinois, 1986

Cover title."ISWS/CIR-167/87."-- Cover.Bibliography: p. 11

Microclimate Effects on the Temporal/Spatial Distribution of Beef Cows Grazing Cool-Season Grass Pastures by Different Management Practices

Presence of cattle near pasture streams may increase the probability of bare ground and feces on streambanks and increase the risks of sediment, phosphorus, and fecal pathogen loading of water resources through direct deposition or transport in precipitation runoff. Management techniques such as providing off-stream water sources or managing cattle access to pasture streams through rotational stocking or use of stabilized stream access sites may limit the amount of time that the cattle spend near the stream, decreasing the risks of non-point source pollution. Six 30- acre cool-season grass pastures, bisected by a stream, were split into two blocks with three treatments per block. Treatments were: continuous stocking with unrestricted stream access (CSU), continuous stocking with access to the stream restricted to a 16-foot wide stabilized stream crossing (CSR), and rotational stocking (RS). Each pasture was stocked with 15 fall-calving Angus cows. For two weeks in each month from May through September, at least one cow in each pasture was fitted with a GPS collar programmed to record cow position at 10 minute intervals. Off-stream water was made available to cows in pastures with the CSU and CSR treatments for one week of the twoweek position measurement period in each month., Each pasture was divided into four zones to analyze position data; in the stream or on the streambank (stream zone), 0 to 110 feet from the streambank (110 zone), 110 to 220 feet from the streambank (220 zone), and greater than 220 feet from the streambank (upland zone). The combination of the stream and 110 zones were defined as the streamside zone. Cattle in both RS and CSR pastures spent (P \u3c 0.10) less time within the stream and 110 zones than CSU pastures in June and May, and July, respectively. Off-stream water availability had no meaningful effect on cattle distribution in the CSU and CSR pastures. With increasing temperatures, the probability that cattle were present in the streamside zone of CSU pastures increased more rapidly than CSR pastures

Improving Language Model Prompting in Support of Semi-autonomous Task Learning

Language models (LLMs) offer potential as a source of knowledge for agents that need to acquire new task competencies within a performance environment. We describe efforts toward a novel agent capability that can construct cues (or "prompts") that result in useful LLM responses for an agent learning a new task. Importantly, responses must not only be "reasonable" (a measure used commonly in research on knowledge extraction from LLMs) but also specific to the agent's task context and in a form that the agent can interpret given its native language capacities. We summarize a series of empirical investigations of prompting strategies and evaluate responses against the goals of targeted and actionable responses for task learning. Our results demonstrate that actionable task knowledge can be obtained from LLMs in support of online agent task learning.Comment: Submitted to ACS 202