Returning a recently adopted companion animal: adopters' reasons for and reactions to the failed adoption experience

The return of a recently adopted companion animal places the nonhuman animal in jeopardy and may be painful and frustrating to the humans involved. However, if returners learn from the failed adoption experience, future adoptions may be more satisfactory for all concerned. In this study, 78 people who had adopted and returned dogs or cats to an animal shelter in a U.S. Midwestern city were interviewed regarding their reasons for return, reactions to the experience, and plans for future adoptions. Although some returners adjusted their pet ownership plans in potentially beneficial ways, most reacted by counseling greater forethought and planning before adopting. The last, although sound advice, had little to do with reasons for return, which primarily were problems that arose postadoption: pet behavior such as not getting along with other pets or children. Changing expectations about the development of new pet-family relationships and the provision of postadoption services might help adopters tolerate the adjustment period and handle problems without resorting to returning the animal.     

What's in it for the companion animal? Pet attachment and college students' behaviors toward pets

Research on the human-nonhuman animal bond has focused primarily on its advantages to the human. The purpose of this study is to investigate behaviors of caregivers (owners) of companion animals (pets) and to examine the relationship between such behaviors and scores on a pet attachment scale. Participants were 501 largely nontraditional (older, married, employed full-time) college students living with a pet dog or cat. The study categorized owner behaviors as essential, standard, enriched, or luxury care. Almost all participants reported engaging in essential care behaviors, with numbers declining from category to category. Pet attachment scores appeared related to standard and enriched care behaviors but not to essential care. Too few participants reported doing luxury care behaviors to link them to attachment. The results suggest that even pet owners reporting low attachment provide beneficial care and attention to their pets and that pet attachment may be of limited use when looking at the benefit of the human-animal bond to the companion animal.     

Potentials for win-win alliances among animal agriculture and forest products industries: Application of the principles of industrial ecology and sustainable development

Commercial forests in many parts of the world are deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrient-deficient forests often exist in close proximity to large animal feeding operations, meat processing and other food, textile, or other biomass-processing plants, and municipal waste treatment facilities. Many of these facilities produce large surpluses of nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic matter as gaseous ammonia, urea, uric acid, phosphorus compounds, bacterial sludges, and partially treated municipal wastewaters. These co-existing and substantial nutrient deficiencies and surpluses offer ready-made opportunities for discovery, demonstration, and commercial development of science-based, technology-facilitated, environmentally sound, economically viable, and socially acceptable "win-win alliances" among these major industries based on the principles of industrial ecology and sustainable development. The major challenge is to discover practical means to capture the surplus nutrients and put them to work in forest stands from which value-added products can be produced and sold at a profit.     

Application of logistic regression to case-control association studies involving two causative loci

Models in which two susceptibility loci jointly influence the risk of developing disease can be explored using logistic regression analysis. Comparison of likelihoods of models incorporating different sets of disease model parameters allows inferences to be drawn regarding the nature of the joint effect of the loci. We have simulated case-control samples generated assuming different two-locus models and then analysed them using logistic regression. We show that this method is practicable and that, for the models we have used, it can be expected to allow useful inferences to be drawn from sample sizes consisting of hundreds of subjects. Interactions between loci can be explored, but interactive effects do not exactly correspond with classical definitions of epistasis. We have particularly examined the issue of the extent to which it is helpful to utilise information from a previously identified locus when investigating a second, unknown locus. We show that for some models conditional analysis can have substantially greater power while for others unconditional analysis can be more powerful. Hence we conclude that in general both conditional and unconditional analyses should be performed when searching for additional loci.     

Properties of the PriA helicase domain and its role in binding PriA to specific DNA structures

Primosome assembly protein PriA functions in the assembly of the replisome at forked DNA structures. Whereas its N-terminal DNA binding domain (DBD) binds independently to DNA, the affinity of DBD protein for forked structures is relatively weak. Although the PriA helicase domain (HD) is required for high affinity fork binding, HD protein had very low affinity for DNA. It had only low levels of ATPase activity, and it hydrolyzed ATP when DNA was absent whereas PriA did not. HD catalyzed unwinding of a minimal substrate composed of a duplex with a 3' single-stranded tail. Single-strand binding protein (SSB) bound to the tail of this substrate inhibited this reaction by full-length PriA but enhanced the reaction by HD. SSB stabilized binding of PriA but not of DBD or HD to duplexes with a 5' or 3' single-stranded tail. On forked substrates SSB enhanced helicase action on the lagging-strand arm by PriA but not by HD. The results indicate that synergy of the DBD and HD allows stable binding at the interface between duplex and single-stranded DNA bound by SSB. This mode of binding may be analogous to fork binding, which orients the helicase to act on the lagging-strand side of the fork.     

Balanced complex chromosomal rearrangements (BCCR) with at least three chromosomes and three or more breakpoints: report of three new cases

Balanced complex chromosomal rearrangements (BCCR) encompass a heterogeneous group of rare chromosomal aberrations. In this paper, we report three cases of BCCRs. In two the probands were referred for either genetic counseling or prenatal management. One case was ascertained after chromosome analysis performed because of psychiatric manifestations; this was an isolated finding. We also outline the molecular cytogenetic techniques, which were essential in confirming and precisely delineating the BCCRs identified in these patients. In addition the various aspects of genetic counseling for this type of chromosomal rearrangement, highlighting the details particular to each individual case are discussed. We discuss the classification for this type of chromosomal mutation.