Ultrasonic determination of fetal gender in horses and cattle under farm conditions

Accuracy of transrectal ultrasonic diagnosis of fetal gender by identifying and locating the genital tubercle was assessed in 85 horses and 102 dairy heifers and cows. Examinations were made once (horses and cattle) under farm conditions (cattle) on approximately Days 50 to 100. Definite diagnosis was made by removal of fetuses (horses) or after calving or abortion (cattle). In both species and both parities, accuracy was 100% (109 109 totaled over both species) when the certainty level recorded at the time of examination was 95 or 99%. At the lower levels of certainty (65 to 80%, 85 to 90%), the accuracy was 89% (57 64 totaled over both species). A diagnosis was not obtainable in 10 horses (12%) and 5 cattle (5%); this was especially due to inadequate viewing of the fetus when the fetus was beyond Day 64. The time from completion of evacuation of the rectum to diagnosis of gender averaged 1 minute 17 seconds in horses (range, 15 seconds to 3 minutes 55 seconds). The corresponding figure in cattle was 1 minute 53 seconds (range, 16 seconds to 8 minutes 30 seconds).     

Correlation between Possession of a Respiration-Dependent Na Pump and Na Requirement for Growth of Marine Bacteria

The possession of a respiration-dependent primary sodium pump and the requirement of Na for growth were investigated in bacterial isolates from marine environments. The bacteria in which NADH oxidase specifically required Na for maximum activity were believed to possess a primary sodium pump. All bacteria that failed to grow without the addition of NaCl possessed a primary Na pump. All bacteria that had no primary Na pump grew without additional NaCl. The primary Na pump seems to be involved in the Na requirement of marine bacteria, and this can be regarded as a criterion for the definition of marine bacteria.     

Endotoxin and cytokines in patients with gastrointestinal tract perforation

Plasma levels of endotoxin and various cytokines were assessed in 70 patients with gastrointestinal tract perforation. Sepsis developed in 29 of them, and eight of these (27.6%) had on admission endotoxin levels higher than 9.8 pg ml(-1). The clinical outcome correlated with the level of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), rather than with the endotoxin level. The high interleukin 6 (IL-6) level was shown in septic patients and no correlation was observed between the IL-6 level and the clinical outcome. Plasma TNFalpha levels tended to change independently from endotoxin levels, suggesting that TNFalpha may have been locally produced in inflammatory lesions.     

单相动作电位技术在猫在体心脏触发性活动研究中的应用

应用接触电极记录心脏单相动作电位(MAP)是80年代发展起来的新技术。MAP是心肌局部细胞群的电活动,它与单细胞跨膜动作电位(TAP)具有基本相同的形态、间期和复极化过程。自1985年开始,很多研究者将其用于在体心脏触发性活动的研究。触发性活动是近年来提出的心律失常发生机制的新概念,包括早期后去极化(EAD)、延时性     

The molecular analyses of an antimorphic mutation of Drosophila melanogaster, Scutoid

A dominant mutation of Drosophila melanogaster, Scutoid (Sco), acts as an antimorphic allele of the no-ocelli (noc) gene. In Sco the noc region has been transposed from 35B to 35D on chromosome arm 2L and the noc gene is now adjacent to snail (sna). Induced revertants of Sco are frequently mutant for sna or are aberrations broken very close to sna. A molecular analysis of the Sco chromosome has confirmed that noc is transposed and fused to the sna region. However, only part of the noc region is included within the transposition. The breakpoints of 19 chromosomally aberrant Sco revertants have been mapped at the molecular level. Fourteen of these breakpoints map to the noc region, spread over about 80 kb of DNA. The breakpoints of the remaining five are not within the DNA of the noc region and appear to map within sequences from the sna region. This has been shown directly for three of these, those associated with T(2;3)ScoR+13, In(2L)ScoR+24 and In(2L)ScoR+26. Thus mutation of either noc or sna, genes which are apparently unrelated in their wild-type functions, can revert the antimorphic phenotype of Sco.     

Improved pseudoanalytical solution for steady-state biofilm kinetics

Simple algebraic expressions for the flux of substrate into a steady-state biofilm are developed. This pseudoanalytical solution, which eliminates the need for repetitiously solving numerically a set of nonlinear differential equations, is based on an analysis of the numerical results from the numerical solution of the differential equations. The critical advantage of this new pseudoanalytical solution is that it is highly accurate for the entire range of substrate concentrations and kinetic parameters. The article also illustrates that previous pseudoanalytical solutions for steady-state biofilm kinetics are seriously inaccurate for certain ranges of substrate concentration and kinetic parameters.     

Optimization of microalgal production in a shallow outdoor flume

The marine diatom Cyclotella cryptica was grown over a period of 13 months in a 48-m(2) shallow outdoor flume. The use of foil arrays at intervals of 1.2 m to effect systematic vertical mixing in the flume was found to significantly enhance microalgal production (p = 0.006). Average photosynthetic efficiencies (based on visible irradiance) with and without the foil arrays in place were 9.6 +/- 0.8 and 7.5 +/- 0.5% (+/-95% confidence intervals), respectively. A cost-benefit analysis indicated that the foil arrays were cost-effective if the value of the algae exceeded about $2.28 kg(1) of ash-free dry weight (AFDW). Parallel experiments performed in four 9.2-m(2) flumes showed that production was maximized when the cells were grown on a 2-day batch cycle between harvests rather than on a 1- or 3-day batch cycle. The optimum initial concentration (immediately after harvesting) of the algae was negatively correlated with the time interval between harvests and ranged from approximately 39 g AFDW/m(3) on a 3-day cycle to 213 g AFDW/m(3) on a 1-day cycle. The increase in production resulting from growth on a 2-day rather than a 1-day batch cycle was about 19% and was statistically significant at p = 0.0003. Growth of C. cryptica over a total period of 122 days during the 13-month study in the 48-m(2) flume under near-optimal conditions (2-day batch cycle, initial concentration 155 g AFDW/m(3)) resulted in an average production rate (+/-95% confidence interval) of 29.7 +/- 2.7 g AFDW/m(2) d.     

Organosolv pretreatment for enzymatic hydrolysis of poplars: I. Enzyme hydrolysis of cellulosic residues

Aspen (Populus tremuloides) and black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) organosolv pulps produced in a wide range of solvent composition (between 30 and 70% by volume of methanol) and catalysts (H(2)SO(4) and H(3)PO(4)) such that the cooking liquor pH 相似文献