Treatment of Postpartum Metritis in Dairy Cows

Bovine postparturient metritis is an economically significant problem in most dairy herds. Although mortality is low, morbidity is often high, and systemic illness may result in lowered feed consumption and decreased milk production, as well as losses incurred because of milk dumping due to antibiotic residues in milk from treated cows. Metritis significantly increases days to conception and services per conception, leading to losses \u27from reduced milk production associated with longer calving intervals and higher insemination costs. Fertility may be permanently impaired in some cows, causing higher culling rates and the associated increase in replacement costs. Culling because of decreased fertility often results in a loss of freedom to cull for other factors such as low production, and may result in the culling of genetically superior animals

Urogentital Infections in Sows and Gilts; Differential Diagnosis, Diagnostic Techniques and Control

Urogenital infections and vaginal discharge are common complaints of swine producers and breeding herd managers. This is an area of great concern, not only for producers but also for swine veterinarians. This syndrome has been on the increase in recent years and is associated with intensive management of swine. Some of the manifestations of this syndrome are reproductive failure, poor performance, inappetence, and underconditioned sows. This is a source of great economic loss to the producer as reproductive efficiency is one of the most accurate predictors of swine enterprise profitability. Even so published information on this syndrome has only been available in recent years and is anything but plentiful

Reproductive Management of the Dairy Goat Doe

With the slow but steady increase in interest in dairy goats, our profession finds itself facing the problems of this unique species with increasing frequency. This creates a special challenge for us in two respects. First, our medical knowledge about the goat is still sparse and is just now beginning to expand due to an increased interest within the veterinary profession

Insights into Adolescent Online Conflict through Qualitative Analysis of Online Messages

Given adolescents’ widespread use of online messaging and social media, as well as the prevalence of cyberbullying, analyzing adolescents’ online message-based communication topics and patterns is relevant to public health. To better describe conflict in adolescent online communication, this paper analyzes patterns of conflict in a dataset of adolescent online messages. We describe a qualitative methodology for analyzing these complex data, to expand understanding of adolescents’ online conversations, and to identify how best to categorize conflict within online media datasets. In this study, 14,239 messages from 20 adolescents in the Northeast United States (of which 1,911 were coded) were analyzed using thematic analysis. Several distinct kinds of conflict and responses were identified. Conflict was either direct or indirect, serious or non-serious; it most often was indirect and serious, referenced either insults or romantic contacts, and was frequently related to in-person fights. Coding relied on understanding both textual contexts and referents

Essential Role for Cathepsin S in MHC Class II–Associated Invariant Chain Processing and Peptide Loading

AbstractDestruction of Ii by proteolysis is required for MHC class II molecules to bind antigenic peptides, and for transport of the resulting complexes to the cell surface. The cysteine protease cathepsin S is highly expressed in spleen, lymphocytes, monocytes, and other class II–positive cells, and is inducible with interferon-γ. Specific inhibition of cathepsin S in B lymphoblastoid cells prevented complete proteolysis of Ii, resulting in accumulation of a class II–associated 13 kDa Ii fragment in vivo. Consequently, the formation of SDS-stable complexes was markedly reduced. Purified cathepsin S, but not cathepsin B, H, or D, specifically digested Ii from αβIi trimers, generating αβ–CLIP complexes capable of binding exogenously added peptide in vitro. Thus, cathepsin S is essential in B cells for effective Ii proteolysis necessary to render class II molecules competent for binding peptides

Response of stratospheric water vapor and ozone to the unusual timing of El Niño and the QBO disruption in 2015–2016

The stratospheric circulation determines the transport and lifetime of key trace gases in a changing climate, including water vapor and ozone, which radiatively impact surface climate. The unusually warm El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event aligned with a disrupted Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) caused an unprecedented perturbation to this circulation in 2015–2016. Here, we quantify the impact of the alignment of these two phenomena in 2015–2016 on lower stratospheric water vapor and ozone from satellite observations. We show that the warm ENSO event substantially increased water vapor and decreased ozone in the tropical lower stratosphere. The QBO disruption significantly decreased global lower stratospheric water vapor and tropical ozone from early spring to late autumn. Thus, this QBO disruption reversed the lower stratosphere moistening triggered by the alignment of the warm ENSO event with westerly QBO in early boreal winter. Our results suggest that the interplay of ENSO events and QBO phases will be crucial for the distributions of radiatively active trace gases in a changing future climate, when increasing El Niño-like conditions and a decreasing lower stratospheric QBO amplitude are expected

Contribution of mixing to the upward transport across the TTL

International audienceDuring the second part of the TROCCINOX campaign that took place in Brazil in early 2005, chemical species were measured on-board of the high altitude research aircraft Geophysica (ozone, water vapor, NO, NOy, CH4 and CO) in the altitude range up to 20 km (or up to 450 K potential temperature), i.e. spanning the TTL region roughly extending between 350 and 420 K. Analysis of transport across TTL is performed using a new version of the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS). In this new version, the stratospheric model has been extended to the earth surface. Above the tropopause, the isentropic and cross-isentropic advection in CLaMS is driven by ECMWF winds and heating/cooling rates derived from a radiation calculation. Below the tropopause the model smoothly transforms from the isentropic to hybrid-pressure coordinate and, in this way, takes into account the effect of large-scale convective transport as implemented in the ECMWF vertical wind. As with other CLaMS simulations, the irreversible transport, i.e. mixing, is controlled by the local horizontal strain and vertical shear rates. Stratospheric and tropospheric signatures in the TTL can be seen both in the observation and in the model. The composition of air above ?350 K is mainly controlled by mixing on a time scale of weeks or even months. Based on CLaMS transport studies where mixing can be completely switched off, we deduce that vertical mixing, mainly driven by the vertical shear in the outflow regions of the large-scale convection and in the vicinity of the subtropical jets, is necessary to understand the upward transport of the tropospheric air from the main convective outflow around 350 K up to the tropical tropopause around 380 K. This mechanism is most effective if the outflow of the mesoscale convective systems interacts with the subtropical jets

Bivariate genetic modelling of the response to an oral glucose tolerance challenge: A gene x environment interaction approach

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Twin and family studies have shown the importance of genetic factors influencing fasting and 2 h glucose and insulin levels. However, the genetics of the physiological response to a glucose load has not been thoroughly investigated. METHODS: We studied 580 monozygotic and 1,937 dizygotic British female twins from the Twins UK Registry. The effects of genetic and environmental factors on fasting and 2 h glucose and insulin levels were estimated using univariate genetic modelling. Bivariate model fitting was used to investigate the glucose and insulin responses to a glucose load, i.e. an OGTT. RESULTS: The genetic effect on fasting and 2 h glucose and insulin levels ranged between 40% and 56% after adjustment for age and BMI. Exposure to a glucose load resulted in the emergence of novel genetic effects on 2 h glucose independent of the fasting level, accounting for about 55% of its heritability. For 2 h insulin, the effect of the same genes that already influenced fasting insulin was amplified by about 30%. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Exposure to a glucose challenge uncovers new genetic variance for glucose and amplifies the effects of genes that already influence the fasting insulin level. Finding the genes acting on 2 h glucose independently of fasting glucose may offer new aetiological insight into the risk of cardiovascular events and death from all causes

Betacellulin Induces Increased Retinal Vascular Permeability in Mice

BACKGROUND: Diabetic maculopathy, the leading cause of vision loss in patients with type 2 diabetes, is characterized by hyper-permeability of retinal blood vessels with subsequent formation of macular edema and hard exudates. The degree of hyperglycemia and duration of diabetes have been suggested to be good predictors of retinal complications. Intervention studies have determined that while intensive treatment of diabetes reduced the development of proliferative diabetic retinopathy it was associated with a two to three-fold increased risk of severe hypoglycemia. Thus we hypothesized the need to identify downstream glycemic targets, which induce retinal vascular permeability that could be targeted therapeutically without the additional risks associated with intensive treatment of the hyperglycemia. Betacellulin is a 32 kD member of the epidermal growth factor family with mitogenic properties for the retinal pigment epithelial cells. This led us to hypothesize a role for betacellulin in the retinal vascular complications associated with diabetes. METHODS AND FINDINGS: In this study, using a mouse model of diabetes, we demonstrate that diabetic mice have accentuated retinal vascular permeability with a concomitant increased expression of a cleaved soluble form of betacellulin (s-Btc) in the retina. Intravitreal injection of soluble betacellulin induced retinal vascular permeability in normoglycemic and hyperglycemic mice. Western blot analysis of retinas from patients with diabetic retinopathy showed an increase in the active soluble form of betacellulin. In addition, an increase in the levels of A disintegrin and metalloproteinase (ADAM)-10 which plays a role in the cleavage of betacellulin was seen in the retinas of diabetic mice and humans. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that excessive amounts of betacellulin in the retina may contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic macular edema