Experimental study of the effect of preen oil against feather bacteria in passerine birds.

Avian plumage harbors various pathogens such as feather-degrading bacteria, which have the potential to reduce host fitness. A growing body of evidence suggests that the secretion of the uropygial gland of birds-preen oil-acts as one of the first lines of defence against harmful bacteria. However, previous studies on the antimicrobial impact of preen oil have yielded controversial results.

Associations of daily levels of PM10 and NO₂ with emergency hospital admissions and mortality in Switzerland: Trends and missed prevention potential over the last decade.

Background: In most regions of the world, levels and constituents of the air pollution mixture have substantially changed over the last decades.

Aims: To evaluate if the effects of PM10 and NO2 on daily emergency hospital admissions and mortality have changed during a ~10 year period in Switzerland; to retrospectively estimate prevention potential of different policy choices.

Methods: Thirteen Poisson-regression models across Switzerland were developed using daily PM10 and NO2 levels from central monitors and accounting for several temporal and seasonal confounders.

Manipulation of parental effort affects plumage bacterial load in a wild passerine.

It has been suggested that plumage microorganisms play an important role in shaping the life histories of wild birds. Some bacteria may act as pathogens or cause damage to feathers, and thereby reduce individual fitness. Intense parental care in birds can result in a reduction of self-maintenance and preening behavior in parents and therefore might affect the dynamics of microbiota living on their feathers.

Profiling of oligosaccharide-mediated microheterogeneity of a monoclonal antibody by capillary electrophoresis.

Based on complex formation of borate with carbohydrates in alkaline solutions, the oligosaccharide microheterogeneity of a monoclonal antibody was studied using capillary zone electrophoresis. In borate buffers characteristic separation patterns were found that could be attributed to the same antibody by their UV spectra, while in a phosphate buffer, under otherwise the same conditions, only a single peak was observed. N- and O-glycans were chemically hydrolyzed by trifluoromethane sulfonic acid, resulting in a completely deglycosylated protein; alternatively, N-glycans were enzymatically cleaved by incubation with peptide N-glycosidase F (PNGase F).

Nutrition and growth of suckling black bears (Ursus americanus) during their mothers' winter fast.

In black bears the last 6-8 weeks of gestation and the first 10-12 weeks of lactation occur in winter while the mother is in a dormant state, and reportedly does not eat, drink, urinate or defaecate. Measurements were made of the body composition and organ weights of cubs, of the composition of milk, and of milk intake (by dilution of 2H2O), in the first 3 months after birth. Additional milk samples were collected until 10 months postpartum.