Reduced Medication in Organic Farming with Emphasis on Organic Dairy Production

Medication is an important focus area in organic animal husbandry. The combination of goals relating to improved animal welfare and reduced use of chemicals in general creates a common wish to reduce medication. Based on data from current Danish research projects in organic dairy farming, one specific organic medication pattern or policy cannot be described. The disease treatment pattern is influenced by many factors, e.g. the interaction with colleagues, veterinarians and agricultural advisors. No significant difference could be found with regard to incidence of mastitis treatments or somatic cell counts in 27 organic and 57 conventional herds. A marked tendency to shorter treatment periods in relation to mastitis treatments was described for organic farms in comparison with conventional farms (1.9 days versus 3.2 days (5 organic and 7 conventional herds)). In a study of development of health advisory service in organic herds, the dialogue between farmer, veterinarian and agricultural cattle advisor changed the treatment pattern markedly during a period of 6 months. Among important future challenges for veterinarians in organic farming is pointed at the constructive, open, and critical interaction with the single organic farmer as well as the organic animal husbandry system in general.     

A Novel Electrochemically Active and Fe(III)-reducing Bacterium Phylogenetically Related to Clostridium butyricum Isolated from a Microbial Fuel Cell

An obligatory anaerobic bacterium was isolated from a mediator-less microbial fuel cell using starch processing wastewater as the fuel and designated as EG3. The isolate was Gram-positive, motile and rod (2.8–3.0 μm long, 0.5–0.6 μm wide). The partial 16S rRNA gene sequence and analysis of the cellular fatty acids profile suggested that EG3 clusters with Clostridium sub-phylum and exhibited the highest similarity (98%) with Clostridium butyricum. The temperature and pH optimum for growth were 37°C and 7.0, respectively. The major products of glucose and glucose/Fe(O)OH metabolism were lactate, formate, butyrate, acetate, CO₂and H₂. Growth was faster at the initial phase and the cell yield was higher when the medium was supplemented with Fe(O)OH than without Fe(O)OH. These results suggest that Fe(III) ion is utilised as an electron sink. Cyclic voltammetry showed that Clostridium butyricum EG3 cells were electrochemically active. It is a novel characteristic of strict anaerobic Gram-positive bacteria.     

Complex phylogenetic distribution of a non-canonical genetic code in green algae

Background  

A non-canonical nuclear genetic code, in which TAG and TAA have been reassigned from stop codons to glutamine, has evolved independently in several eukaryotic lineages, including the ulvophycean green algal orders Dasycladales and Cladophorales. To study the phylogenetic distribution of the standard and non-canonical genetic codes, we generated sequence data of a representative set of ulvophycean green algae and used a robust green algal phylogeny to evaluate different evolutionary scenarios that may account for the origin of the non-canonical code.     

Cyclic AMP increases the Adhesion of Fibroblasts to Substratum

THE interaction between the cell surface and the substratum is very important in determining several characteristics of cells growing in tissue culture. Transformed cells are less adherent to the substratum than untransformed cells¹ and this reduced interaction with the substratum may be responsible for abnormal properties such as the loss of contact or density dependent inhibition of growth² and the ability to form colonies in agar and to grow in suspension culture.     

Computational Study on Subdural Cortical Stimulation - The Influence of the Head Geometry,Anisotropic Conductivity,and Electrode Configuration

Subdural cortical stimulation (SuCS) is a method used to inject electrical current through electrodes beneath the dura mater, and is known to be useful in treating brain disorders. However, precisely how SuCS must be applied to yield the most effective results has rarely been investigated. For this purpose, we developed a three-dimensional computational model that represents an anatomically realistic brain model including an upper chest. With this computational model, we investigated the influence of stimulation amplitudes, electrode configurations (single or paddle-array), and white matter conductivities (isotropy or anisotropy). Further, the effects of stimulation were compared with two other computational models, including an anatomically realistic brain-only model and the simplified extruded slab model representing the precentral gyrus area. The results of voltage stimulation suggested that there was a synergistic effect with the paddle-array due to the use of multiple electrodes; however, a single electrode was more efficient with current stimulation. The conventional model (simplified extruded slab) far overestimated the effects of stimulation with both voltage and current by comparison to our proposed realistic upper body model. However, the realistic upper body and full brain-only models demonstrated similar stimulation effects. In our investigation of the influence of anisotropic conductivity, model with a fixed ratio (1∶10) anisotropic conductivity yielded deeper penetration depths and larger extents of stimulation than others. However, isotropic and anisotropic models with fixed ratios (1∶2, 1∶5) yielded similar stimulation effects. Lastly, whether the reference electrode was located on the right or left chest had no substantial effects on stimulation.     

Pulmonary phospholipied biosynthesis and the ability of the fetal rabbit lung to reduce cortisone to cortisol during the final ten days of gestation

Incubation of fetal lung tissue with 0.2 μM ¹⁴C-cortisone revealed a 12-fold increase in the rate of reduction of cortisone to cortisol between day 22 and day 30 of gestation in the rabbit. This increase correlated closely with the increase in the rate of incorporation of ¹⁴C-choline into total lung lipids during the same period. In light of these findings it would seem inadequate to attempt to relate the plasma cortisol concentration alone with the rate of lung maturation. In addition, one would need consider both the plasma concentration of cortisone and the activity of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11β-HSD) in the lung.     

Smelling Danger – Alarm Cue Responses in the Polychaete Nereis (Hediste) diversicolor (Müller, 1776) to Potential Fish Predation

The harbour ragworm, Nereis (Hediste) diversicolor is a common intertidal marine polychaete that lives in burrows from which it has to partially emerge in order to forage. In doing so, it is exposed to a variety of predators. One way in which predation risk can be minimised is through chemical detection from within the relative safety of the burrows. Using CCTV and motion capture software, we show that H. diversicolor is able to detect chemical cues associated with the presence of juvenile flounder (Platichthys flesus). Number of emergences, emergence duration and distance from burrow entrance are all significantly reduced during exposure to flounder conditioned seawater and flounder mucous spiked seawater above a threshold with no evidence of behavioural habituation. Mucous from bottom-dwelling juvenile plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) and pelagic adult herring (Clupea harengus) elicit similar responses, suggesting that the behavioural reactions are species independent. The data implies that H. diversicolor must have well developed chemosensory mechanisms for predator detection and is consequently able to effectively minimize risk.     

Interrogating the neo-pluralist orthodoxy in American anthropology

For most of the twentieth century the state was not a major part of the anthropological toolkit. Despite significant archaeologically driven work on evolution and state formation, most socio-cultural anthropologists have viewed the state with empiricist scepticism, populist hostility, or ethnographic indifference. Typically, state-theory has been left to other disciplines, such as political science and sociology. Since the end of the cold war there has been a greatly increased interest in the state among anthropologists. Philip Abrams, Michael Herzfeld, and Akhil Gupta, who coined the phrase “ethnography of the state”, have been particularly important to this development. However, there remains no serious engagement with the body of state-theory generated, over the last century, by political activists, scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists. It will be argued that this has allowed for the growth of an unproblematised orthodoxy around an ethnographically informed variant of classic American pluralist state-theory. This orthodoxy has hobbled the understanding and explanation of complex political phenomena, led to confusion between hypotheses and conclusions, and tied parts of the discipline to a partisan political project that remains largely un-interrogated. This essay seeks to provide context and clarification on state-theory as a step towards discussion of anthropology’s contemporary engagement with the state and broader questions of political action and social change.