Application of a subjective health and safety rating system to Iowa farm operations.

A rapid, subjective health and safety assessment tool was developed and applied to 121 farm operations visited during a cross-sectional, on-farm industrial hygiene (IH) study of the Iowa Farm Family Health and Hazard Surveillance Project (IFFHHSP). The study utilized a single field investigator who conducted visits of farm operations from August 1995 to July 1996. The farm operations visited were randomly selected from a stratified, two-stage cluster sample of Iowa farm operations.

Discrimination among cultivars of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) using DNA polymorphisms amplified from arbitrary primers.

RAPDs (Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNAs) were used to discriminate among 23 cultivars of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) selected from several breeding programs. A set of 100 random sequence 10-mer primers were tested, of which 70 produced bands and 22 showed evidence of polymorphism. A selection of six primers produced 23 polymorphic bands of between 300 to 2200 base pairs in size, sufficient to distinguish between the cultivars.

Influence of mare uterine tubal fluids on the metabolism of stallion sperm.

Three experiments were conducted on the metabolism of stallion sperm. In experiment 1, whole and washed sperm were incubated under aerobic and anaerobic enviroments and analyzed before and after controlled incubation for motility, pH, lactic acid, glucose, fructose, and O2 comsumption. In experiment 2, whole and washed sperm were incubated aerobically and anaerobically with and without uterine tubal fluids.