Response of soil health indicators to dung, urine and mineral fertilizer application in temperate pastures.

Healthy soils are key to sustainability and food security. In temperate grasslands, not many studies have focused on soil health comparisons between contrasting pasture systems under different management strategies and treatment applications (e.g.

A Previously Undescribed Helotialean Fungus That Is Superabundant in Soil Under Maritime Antarctic Higher Plants.

We report a previously undescribed member of the Helotiales that is superabundant in soils at two maritime Antarctic islands under Antarctic Hairgrass ( Desv.). High throughput sequencing showed that up to 92% of DNA reads, and 68% of RNA reads, in soils from the islands were accounted for by the fungus.

Elucidating three-way interactions between soil, pasture and animals that regulate nitrous oxide emissions from temperate grazing systems.

Pasture-based livestock farming contributes considerably to global emissions of nitrous oxide (NO), a powerful greenhouse gas approximately 265 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Traditionally, the estimation of NO emissions from grasslands is carried out by means of plot-scale experiments, where externally sourced animal excreta are applied to soils to simulate grazing conditions. This approach, however, fails to account for the impact of different sward types on the composition of excreta and thus the functionality of soil microbiomes, creating unrealistic situations that are seldom observed under commercial agriculture.

Application of monoclonal antibodies in quantifying fungal growth dynamics during aerobic spoilage of silage.

Proliferation of filamentous fungi following ingress of oxygen to silage is an important cause of dry matter losses, resulting in significant waste. In addition, the production of mycotoxins by some filamentous fungi poses a risk to animal health through mycotoxicosis. Quantitative assessment of fungal growth in silage, through measurement of ergosterol content, colony-forming units or temperature increase is limiting in representing fungal growth dynamics during aerobic spoilage due to being deficient in either representing fungal biomass or being able to identify specific genera.

Meta-analysis of global livestock urine-derived nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils.

Nitrous oxide (N O) is an air pollutant of major environmental concern, with agriculture representing 60% of anthropogenic global N O emissions. Much of the N O emissions from livestock production systems result from transformation of N deposited to soil within animal excreta. There exists a substantial body of literature on urine patch N O dynamics, we aimed to identify key controlling factors influencing N O emissions and to aid understanding of knowledge gaps to improve GHG reporting and prioritize future research.

Smart forage selection could significantly improve soil health in the tropics.

The use of tropical grasslands to graze livestock is of high economic importance. Declining grassland soil health leads to reduced sustainability of livestock systems. There are high levels of phenotypic diversity amongst tropical forage grasses.

Metrics of biomass, live-weight gain and nitrogen loss of ryegrass sheep pasture in the 21st century.

This study argues that several metrics are necessary to build up a picture of yield gain and nitrogen losses for ryegrass sheep pastures. Metrics of resource use efficiency, nitrous oxide emission factor, leached and emitted nitrogen per unit product are used to encompass yield gain and losses relating to nitrogen. These metrics are calculated from field system simulations using the DAYCENT model, validated from field sensor measurements and observations relating to crop yield, fertilizer applied, ammonium in soil and nitrate in soil and water, nitrous oxide and soil moisture.

A rare and life-threatening cause of epistaxis.

Epistaxis is a potentially life-threatening condition that can compromise a patient's airway, breathing and circulation. Early recognition of underlying bleeding diatheses that are amenable to medical therapy is imperative in order for timely treatment and to reduce morbidity. We present a case in which acquired haemophilia was diagnosed in an 83-year-old man presenting with seemingly uncomplicated epistaxis.

Use of in situ hybridization for HPV in head and neck tumors: experience from a national reference laboratory.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) status of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) is a frequent request for Anatomic Pathology labs. However, prognostic value of HPV status is limited to identification of high risk HPV in oropharyngeal SCCs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ordering practices of in situ hybridization (ISH) for HPV in head and neck tissues at our national reference laboratory.

A socially situated approach to inform ways to improve health and wellbeing.

Mainstream health psychology supports neoliberal notions of health promotion in which self-management is central. The emphasis is on models that explain behaviour as individually driven and cognitively motivated, with health beliefs framed as the favoured mechanisms to target in order to bring about change to improve health. Utilising understandings exemplified in critical health psychology, we take a more socially situated approach, focusing on practicing health, the rhetoric of modernisation in UK health care and moves toward democratisation.

A pilot study investigating the effects of remote ischemic preconditioning in high-risk cardiac surgery using a randomised controlled double-blind protocol.

The efficacy of remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) in high-risk cardiac surgery is uncertain. In this study, 96 adults undergoing high-risk cardiac surgery were randomised to RIPC (3 cycles of 5 min of upper-limb ischemia induced by inflating a blood pressure cuff to 200 mmHg with 5 min of reperfusion) or control. Main endpoints were plasma high-sensitivity troponin T (hsTNT) levels at 6 and 12 h, worst post-operative acute kidney injury (AKI) based on RIFLE criteria, and noradrenaline duration.

Different prion disease phenotypes result from inoculation of cattle with two temporally separated sources of sheep scrapie from Great Britain.

Background: Given the theoretical proposal that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) could have originated from sheep scrapie, this study investigated the pathogenicity for cattle, by intracerebral (i.c.) inoculation, of two pools of scrapie agents sourced in Great Britain before and during the BSE epidemic.

Primary isolation of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent in mice: agent definition based on a review of 150 transmissions.

In the epizootic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Great Britain, the cattle in which a positive diagnosis was made numbered almost 180 000, but strain characterization was performed on only a very small sample of these cases. This report describes the results of BSE transmission to Prnp(a) mice from 150 transmission experiments at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) over the last decade. These data, derived from a large sample of BSE-affected cattle, confirmed previous reports that show no evidence for diversity in BSE isolates.

Human cell systems for drug discovery.

In the current drug discovery paradigm, validated recombinant targets form the basis of in vitro high-throughput screening (HTS) assays. Isolated proteins cannot, however, be regarded as representative of complex biological systems; hence, cell-based systems can be employed to complement in vitro data, providing greater confidence in compound activity in an intact biological system. The scarcity of human material and the lack of proliferative capacity of primary cell cultures, combined with problems associated with the use of stem cells, mean that immortalized cell lines are generally used as a source of cells for HTS.

Cell separation improves the sensitivity of detecting rare human normal and leukemic hematopoietic cells in vivo in NOD/SCID mice.

Background: This report describes a novel cell-separation procedure developed to improve detection and analysis of rare human hematopoietic populations, obtained from NOD/SCID mice engrafted with normal and/or leukemic stem cells.

Methods: In preliminary experiments, artificial mixtures of murine and human BM cells were labeled with a combination of Abs specific for murine hematopoietic cells, prior to immunomagnetic negative selection using StemSep. In subsequent experiments, BM was harvested from individual NOD/SCID mice transplanted 6-12 weeks earlier with either human cord blood or primary CML cells and a similar immunomagnetic selection procedure was applied to enrich human cells present.

The effects of repeated dosing with 7.5% sodium chloride/6% dextran following uncontrolled intra-abdominal hemorrhage.

The use of hypertonic saline Dextran (HSD) for resuscitation following trauma has many potential benefits, especially for the treatment of military casualties, but there is very limited data on the responses following multiple dosing with this fluid. The effects of a second dose of hypertonic saline dextran for resuscitation of uncontrolled intra-abdominal haemorrhage were studied in an experimental model. Under general anaesthesia, 17 large white pigs (weight range, 48-67 kg) were subjected to uncontrolled hemorrhage produced by a tear in the common iliac artery.

Antigen-independent expansion of T cells from psoriatic skin lesions: phenotypic characterization and antigen reactivity.

The pathogenesis of psoriasis appears to depend on T cells, which have been proposed to mediate the disease through an autoimmune process. To test this hypothesis we have propagated four T-cell lines from biopsies of psoriatic skin lesions by antigen-independent methods. Flow cytometric immunophenotyping showed the lines to be composed mainly of CD4-positive, alpha beta T-cell receptor (TCR)-positive cells, which secreted a cytokine profile suggestive of predominant T-helper type 1 (Th1) status.

Selective amplification of T-cell receptor variable region species is demonstrable but not essential in early lesions of psoriasis vulgaris: analysis by anchored polymerase chain reaction and hypervariable region size spectratyping.

Several groups have investigated the role of T cells in the pathogenesis of psoriasis by determination of T-cell receptor (TCR) B-chain variable (V) region usage, both in chronic plaque (psoriasis vulgaris) and guttate forms, with various results. Because there are no data on TCR expression in early psoriasis vulgaris, when specific cellular immune events may be expected to be most pronounced, we have analyzed early lesions (less than 3 wk old) of ten patients, with highly reproducible results. We have developed a highly controlled anchored polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method in which TCR beta chain species are all amplified with the same primer pair and products are quantified by dot blot hybridization with BV family-specific oligonucleotide probes.

Validation of the combined olfactory test.

A new test of olfactory function, the combined olfactory test, has been designed to assess odours easily recognizable by the test population. The test consists of an odour recognition test of nine odours, where an odour in a bottle is chosen from a list of four possible odours in a forced choice manner. This is followed by a threshold test using a series of three-fold dilutions of 1-butanol.

Hazards of microwave cooking: direct thermal damage to the pharynx and larynx.

A case of a direct burn to the pharynx and larynx is described. This occurred after a patient swallowed a microwaved treacle tart. The potential danger of excessive heating of food in microwave ovens is discussed.