Medieval DNA from Soqotra points to Eurasian origins of an isolated population at the crossroads of Africa and Arabia.

Soqotra, an island situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden in the northwest Indian Ocean between Africa and Arabia, is home to ~60,000 people subsisting through fishing and semi-nomadic pastoralism who speak a Modern South Arabian language. Most of what is known about Soqotri history derives from writings of foreign travellers who provided little detail about local people, and the geographic origins and genetic affinities of early Soqotri people has not yet been investigated directly. Here we report genome-wide data from 39 individuals who lived between ~650 and 1750 CE at six locations across the island and document strong genetic connections between Soqotra and the similarly isolated Hadramawt region of coastal South Arabia that likely reflects a source for the peopling of Soqotra. Medieval Soqotri can be modelled as deriving ~86% of their ancestry from a population such as that found in the Hadramawt today, with the remaining ~14% best proxied by an Iranian-related source with up to 2% ancestry from the Indian sub-continent, possibly reflecting genetic exchanges that occurred along with archaeologically documented trade from these regions. In contrast to all other genotyped populations of the Arabian Peninsula, genome-level analysis of the medieval Soqotri is consistent with no sub-Saharan African admixture dating to the Holocene. The deep ancestry of people from medieval Soqotra and the Hadramawt is also unique in deriving less from early Holocene Levantine farmers and more from groups such as Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers from the Levant (Natufians) than other mainland Arabians. This attests to migrations by early farmers having less impact in southernmost Arabia and Soqotra and provides compelling evidence that there has not been complete population replacement between the Pleistocene and Holocene throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Medieval Soqotra harboured a small population that showed qualitatively different marriage practices from modern Soqotri, with first-cousin unions occurring significantly less frequently than today.

Genetic continuity and change among the Indigenous peoples of California.

Before the colonial period, California harboured more language variation than all of Europe, and linguistic and archaeological analyses have led to many hypotheses to explain this diversity1. We report genome-wide data from 79 ancient individuals from California and 40 ancient individuals from Northern Mexico dating to 7,400-200 years before present (BP). Our analyses document long-term genetic continuity between people living on the Northern Channel Islands of California and the adjacent Santa Barbara mainland coast from 7,400 years BP to modern Chumash groups represented by individuals who lived around 200 years BP. The distinctive genetic lineages that characterize present-day and ancient people from Northwest Mexico increased in frequency in Southern and Central California by 5,200 years BP, providing evidence for northward migrations that are candidates for spreading Uto-Aztecan languages before the dispersal of maize agriculture from Mexico2-4. Individuals from Baja California share more alleles with the earliest individual from Central California in the dataset than with later individuals from Central California, potentially reflecting an earlier linguistic substrate, whose impact on local ancestry was diluted by later migrations from inland regions1,5. After 1,600 years BP, ancient individuals from the Channel Islands lived in communities with effective sizes similar to those in pre-agricultural Caribbean and Patagonia, and smaller than those on the California mainland and in sampled regions of Mexico.

The genetic legacy of African Americans from Catoctin Furnace.

Few African Americans have been able to trace family lineages back to ancestors who died before the 1870 United States Census, the first in which all Black people were listed by name. We analyzed 27 individuals from Maryland's Catoctin Furnace African American Cemetery (1774-1850), identifying 41,799 genetic relatives among consenting research participants in 23andMe, Inc.'s genetic database. One of the highest concentrations of close relatives is in Maryland, suggesting that descendants of the Catoctin individuals remain in the area. We find that many of the Catoctin individuals derived African ancestry from the Wolof or Kongo groups and European ancestry from Great Britain and Ireland. This study demonstrates the power of joint analysis of historical DNA and large datasets generated through direct-to-consumer ancestry testing.

Entwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval peoples of the Swahili coast.

The urban peoples of the Swahili coast traded across eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean and were among the first practitioners of Islam among sub-Saharan people1,2. The extent to which these early interactions between Africans and non-Africans were accompanied by genetic exchange remains unknown. Here we report ancient DNA data for 80 individuals from 6 medieval and early modern (AD 1250-1800) coastal towns and an inland town after AD 1650. More than half of the DNA of many of the individuals from coastal towns originates from primarily female ancestors from Africa, with a large proportion-and occasionally more than half-of the DNA coming from Asian ancestors. The Asian ancestry includes components associated with Persia and India, with 80-90% of the Asian DNA originating from Persian men. Peoples of African and Asian origins began to mix by about AD 1000, coinciding with the large-scale adoption of Islam. Before about AD 1500, the Southwest Asian ancestry was mainly Persian-related, consistent with the narrative of the Kilwa Chronicle, the oldest history told by people of the Swahili coast3. After this time, the sources of DNA became increasingly Arabian, consistent with evidence of growing interactions with southern Arabia4. Subsequent interactions with Asian and African people further changed the ancestry of present-day people of the Swahili coast in relation to the medieval individuals whose DNA we sequenced.

Dynamic load response of human dura mater at different velocities.

Despite of its assumed role to mitigate brain tissue response under dynamic loading conditions, the human dura mater is frequently neglected in computational and physical human head models. A reason for this is the lack of load-deformation data when the dura mater is loaded dynamically. To date, the biomechanical characterization of the human dura mater predominantly involved quasi-static testing setups. This study aimed to investigate the strain rate-dependent mechanical properties of the human dura mater comparing three different velocities of 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 m/s. Samples were chosen in a perpendicular orientation to the visible main fiber direction on the samples' surface, which was mostly neglected in previous studies. The elastic modulus of dura mater significantly increased at higher velocities (5.16 [3.38; 7.27] MPa at 0.3 m/s versus 44.38 [35.30; 74.94] MPa at 0.7 m/s). Both the stretch at yield point λf (1.148 [1.137; 1.188] for 0.3 m/s, 1.062 [1.054; 1.066] for 0.5 m/s and 1.015 [1.012; 1.021] for 0.7 m/s) and stress at yield point σf of dura mater (519.14 [366.74; 707.99] kPa for 0.3 m/s versus 300.52 [245.31; 354.89] kPa at 0.7 m/s) significantly decreased with increasing velocities. Conclusively, increasing the load application velocity increases stiffness and decreases tensile strength as well as straining potential of human dura mater between 0.3 and 0.7 m/s. The elastic modulus of human dura mater should be adapted to the respective velocities in computational head impact simulations.

The diverse genetic origins of a Classical period Greek army.

Trade and colonization caused an unprecedented increase in Mediterranean human mobility in the first millennium BCE. Often seen as a dividing force, warfare is in fact another catalyst of culture contact. We provide insight into the demographic dynamics of ancient warfare by reporting genome-wide data from fifth-century soldiers who fought for the army of the Greek Sicilian colony of Himera, along with representatives of the civilian population, nearby indigenous settlements, and 96 present-day individuals from Italy and Greece. Unlike the rest of the sample, many soldiers had ancestral origins in northern Europe, the Steppe, and the Caucasus. Integrating genetic, archaeological, isotopic, and historical data, these results illustrate the significant role mercenaries played in ancient Greek armies and highlight how participation in war contributed to continental-scale human mobility in the Classical world.

Detection of subtle cartilage and bone tissue degeneration in the equine joint using polarisation-sensitive optical coherence tomography.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the ability of polarisation-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) to rapidly identify subtle signs of tissue degeneration in the equine joint. METHOD: Polarisation-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) images were systematically acquired in four locations along the medial and lateral condyles of the third metacarpal bone in five dissected equine specimens. Intensity and retardation PS-OCT images, and anomalies observed therein, were then compared and validated with high resolution images of the tissue sections obtained using Differential Interference contrast (DIC) optical light microscopy. RESULTS: The PS-OCT system was capable of imaging the entire equine osteochondral unit, and allowed delineation of the three structurally differentiated zones of the joint, that is, the articular cartilage matrix, zone of calcified cartilage and underlying subchondral bone. Importantly, PS-OCT imaging was able to detect underlying matrix and bone changes not visible without dissection and/or microscopy. CONCLUSION: PS-OCT has substantial potential to detect, non-invasively, sub-surface microstructural changes that are known to be associated with the early stages of joint tissue degeneration.

Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age.

Present-day people from England and Wales have more ancestry derived from early European farmers (EEF) than did people of the Early Bronze Age1. To understand this, here we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and western and central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 BC, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of people of England and Wales from the Iron Age, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to the Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange2-6. There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and the independent genetic trajectory in Britain is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to approximately 50% by this time compared to approximately 7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period.

Challenges in recruiting children to a multidrug-resistant TB prevention trial.

BACKGROUND: Recruitment to randomised clinical trials can be challenging and slow recruitment has serious consequences. This study aimed to summarise and reflect on the challenges in enrolling young children to a multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) prevention trial in South Africa.METHODS: Recruitment to the Tuberculosis Child Multidrug-resistant Preventive Therapy Trial (TB-CHAMP) was tracked using an electronic recruiting platform, which was used to generate a recruiting flow diagram. Structured personnel questionnaires, meeting minutes and workshop notes were thematically analysed to elucidate barriers and solutions.RESULT: Of 3,682 (85.3%) adult rifampicin (RIF) resistant index cases with pre-screening outcomes, 1597 (43.4%) reported having no children under 5 years in the household and 562 (15.3%) were RIF-monoresistant. More than nine index cases were pre-screened for each child enrolled. Numerous barriers to recruitment were identified. Thorough recruitment planning, customised tracking data systems, a dedicated recruiting team with strong leadership, adequate resources to recruit across large geographic areas, and excellent relationships with routine TB services emerged as key factors to ensure successful recruitment.CONCLUSION: Recruitment of children into MDR-TB prevention trials can be difficult. Several MDR-TB prevention trials are underway, and lessons learnt from TB-CHAMP will be relevant to these and other TB prevention studies.

Rapid Detection of Raffaelea lauricola Directly from Host Plant and Beetle Vector Tissues Using Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification.

Since its introduction in 2002, laurel wilt disease has devastated indigenous lauraceous species in the southeastern United States. The causal agent is a fungal pathogen, Raffaelea lauricola, which, after being introduced into the xylem of trees by its vector beetle, Xyleborus glabratus, results in a fatal vascular wilt. Rapid detection and accurate diagnosis of infections is paramount to the successful implementation of disease management strategies. Current management operations to prevent the spread of laurel wilt disease are largely delayed by time-consuming laboratory procedures to confirm the diagnosis. In order to greatly speed up the operations, we developed a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) species-specific assay that targets the ß-tubulin gene region of R. lauricola, and allows for the rapid detection of the pathogen directly from host plant and beetle tissues. The assay is capable of amplifying as little as 0.5 pg of fungal DNA and as few as 50 conidia. The assay is also capable of detecting R. lauricola directly from wood tissue of artificially inoculated redbay saplings as early as 10 and 12 days postinoculation, when testing high-quality and crude DNA extracts, respectively. Finally, crude DNA extracts of individual adult female X. glabratus beetles were assayed and the pathogen was detected from all specimens. This assay greatly reduces the time required to confirm a laurel wilt diagnosis and, because LAMP technology is well suited to provide point-of-care testing, it has the potential to expedite and facilitate implementation of management operations in response to disease outbreaks.

Macroscopically healthy articular cartilage with fibrillar-scale early tissue degeneration subject to impact loading results in greater extent of cell-death.

From previous investigations it has been shown that there exists healthy-appearing articular cartilage that contains collagen fibril network destructuring. It is hypothesised that such sub-micron scale destructuring not only presents an increased vulnerability to tissue scale damage following impact loading, but an increase in cell death as well. Cartilage-on-bone blocks from 12 patellae, six healthy (G0) and the other six with sub-micron fibrillar destructuring (G1), were obtained and subject to 2.3 J impact loading. Two sets of sub-samples were obtained for each block tested. One set was used to examine for the live/dead cell response using calcein-AM and propidium iodide staining, imaged with confocal microscopy. The tissue microstructural matrix was imaged from the other matched set, unstained and in its fully hydrated state, using differential interference contrast optical light microscopy. High speed imaging of the impact was used to calculate the velocity changes or coefficient of restitution (COR) and used as a proxy of energy that the tissue absorbed. A previously defined tissue matrix damage score was used to quantify the extent of fracturing and cracking in the matrix. The cell death (PCD) was counted and presented as a percentage against all cells live plus dead. The energy absorbed was 36.5% higher in G1 than in G0 (p = 0.034). However, the damage score and PCD of samples in the G1 group was much larger than the G0 group, ~300% and 161% respectively. Microscopy showed that cell death is associated to both matrix compaction and further fibrillar destructuring from the ECM to the territorial matrix regions of the chondron. Following impact loading, cartilage tissue that appears normal but contains sub-micron fibrillar matrix destructuring responds with significantly increased cell death.

Acceptability of a first-line anti-tuberculosis formulation for children: qualitative data from the SHINE trial.

SETTING: We conducted a qualitative exploration into the palatability and acceptability of a novel fixed-dose combination (FDC) anti-tuberculosis drug. This study was nested in the SHINE (Shorter treatment for minimal TB in children) trial, which compares the safety and efficacy of treating non-severe drug-susceptible tuberculosis (TB) with a 6 vs. 4 months anti-tuberculosis regimen in children aged 0-16 years. Participants were recruited in Cape Town, South Africa.OBJECTIVE: To describe the palatability and acceptability of a FDC of rifampicin, isoniazid and pyrazinamide among South African children and their caregivers in the SHINE trial.METHODS: We conducted 20 clinic observations of treatment administration, during which we conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with children and their caregivers. Data were organised thematically to report on experiences with administering and ingesting the FDC.RESULTS: Children and caregivers' experiences varied from delight to disgust. In general, participants said that the FDC compared favourably to other formulations. Pragmatic challenges such as dissolving the FDC and the time required to administer the FDC impeded caregivers' ability to integrate treatment into their daily routines. Drug manipulation was common among caregivers to improve TB treatment administration.CONCLUSION: This novel FDC appears acceptable for children, albeit with practical challenges to administration. Scale-up of FDC use should include supplementary intervention components to support caregivers.

Interobserver Variation in the Diagnosis of Neurologic Abnormalities in the Horse.

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) relies heavily on the clinical examination. The accurate identification of neurologic signs during a clinical examination is critical to the interpretation of laboratory results. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the level of agreement between board-certified veterinary internists when performing neurologic examinations in horses. ANIMALS: Ninety-seven horses admitted to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at The Ohio State University from December 1997 to June 1998. METHODS: A prospective epidemiologic research design was used. Horses enrolled in the study were examined by the internist responsible for care of the horse, and later by an internist who was not aware of the presenting complaint or other patient history. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, and kappa (K) statistics were calculated to assess interobserver agreement. RESULTS: Ninety-seven horses were enrolled in the study. Overall, examiners, also referred to as observers, agreed that 60/97 (61.9%) were clinically abnormal, 21/97 (21.6%) were clinically normal, and the status of 16/97 (16.5%) of horses was contested. There was complete agreement among the examiners with regard to cranial nerve signs and involuntary movements. Disagreement involving severity of clinical signs occurred in 31 horses, and 25 of those horses (80.6%) were considered either normal or mildly affected by the primary observer. When examining the results of all paired clinical examinations for 11 different categories, there was wide variability in the results. When examiners rated the presence or absence of any neurologic abnormalities, lameness, or ataxia, the agreement among observers was either good or excellent for 80% of horses. When assessing truncal sway, the agreement among observers was good or excellent for 60% of the horses. When examining the horses for asymmetry of deficits, agreement was either good or excellent for 40% of the horses. Agreement among observers was excellent or good for only 20% of the horses when assessing muscle atrophy, spasticity (hypermetria), and overall assessment of the severity of neurologic abnormalities. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: This study underscores the subjectivity of the neurologic examination and demonstrates a reasonable level of agreement that may be achieved when different clinicians examine the same horse.

A cosmopolitan late Ediacaran biotic assemblage: new fossils from Nevada and Namibia support a global biostratigraphic link.

Owing to the lack of temporally well-constrained Ediacaran fossil localities containing overlapping biotic assemblages, it has remained uncertain if the latest Ediacaran (ca 550-541 Ma) assemblages reflect systematic biological turnover or environmental, taphonomic or biogeographic biases. Here, we report new latest Ediacaran fossil discoveries from the lower member of the Wood Canyon Formation in Nye County, Nevada, including the first figured reports of erniettomorphs, Gaojiashania, Conotubus and other problematic fossils. The fossils are spectacularly preserved in three taphonomic windows and occur in greater than 11 stratigraphic horizons, all of which are below the first appearance of Treptichnus pedum and the nadir of a large negative δ13C excursion that is a chemostratigraphic marker of the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary. The co-occurrence of morphologically diverse tubular fossils and erniettomorphs in Nevada provides a biostratigraphic link among latest Ediacaran fossil localities globally. Integrated with a new report of Gaojiashania from Namibia, previous fossil reports and existing age constraints, these finds demonstrate a distinctive late Ediacaran fossil assemblage comprising at least two groups of macroscopic organisms with dissimilar body plans that ecologically and temporally overlapped for at least 6 Myr at the close of the Ediacaran Period. This cosmopolitan biotic assemblage disappeared from the fossil record at the end of the Ediacaran Period, prior to the Cambrian radiation.

Assessment of an application for touchscreen devices to record calving-related events in dairy herds and monitor personnel performance.

The objectives of the present study were to assess (1) the effectiveness of a calving training workshop and an application (app) for touchscreen devices to capture calving-related events, and (2) personnel compliance with calving protocols (time from birth to feeding of first colostrum and time that cows spent in labor). Calving personnel (n=23) from 5 large dairy farms (range: 800-10,000 cows) participated in the study. Participants received training through an on-farm workshop regarding calving management practices and functioning of the app before recording calving-related events. Pre- and posttest evaluations were administered to each participant to measure their knowledge gain and satisfaction with the workshop. Calving personnel recorded calving-related events (n=323) using the app for 7 d following training. Furthermore, the records collected with the app were used to assess missing and incorrect data and calving personnel compliance with calving management protocols (recording time that cows spent in labor and timing of feeding first colostrum to calves). Calving personnel reported that the information provided during the training was relevant (agree=14.3% and strongly agree=85.7%) and of great immediate use (agree=33.3% and strongly agree=66.7%). The presented materials and hands-on demonstrations substantially increased the knowledge level of the attendees (by 23.7 percentage points from pre- to posttest scores). The follow-up assessment with participants revealed that the app was easy to use (91.3%) and that they would continue to use it (100%). Frequency of incorrect (r=0.77) or missing (r=0.76) data was positively correlated with calving:personnel ratio. Furthermore, calving personnel compliance with calving protocols was significantly different within and between herds. These results substantiated the great variation in compliance with calving management protocols within and between dairy farms. Furthermore, the app may serve as a tool to monitor personnel compliance with first feeding of colostrum to calves and their awareness and recognition of amount of time that each cow spent in labor. This would allow decision-makers to adjust, reassign tasks, or plan the management according to actual calving rate to improve the overall quality of data (frequency of incorrect and missing data) and calf welfare (survival and performance).

The Inability to Screen Exhibition Swine for Influenza A Virus Using Body Temperature.

Agricultural fairs create an unconventional animal-human interface that has been associated with swine-to-human transmission of influenza A virus (IAV) in recent years. Early detection of IAV-infected pigs at agricultural fairs would allow veterinarians to better protect swine and human health during these swine exhibitions. This study assessed the use of swine body temperature measurement, recorded by infrared and rectal thermometers, as a practical method to detect IAV-infected swine at agricultural fairs. In our first objective, infrared thermometers were used to record the body surface temperature of 1,092 pigs at the time of IAV nasal swab collection at the end of the exhibition period of 55 agricultural fairs. IAV was recovered from 212 (19.4%) pigs, and the difference in mean infrared body temperature measurement of IAV-positive and IAV-negative pigs was 0.83°C. In a second objective, snout wipes were collected from 1,948 pigs immediately prior to the unloading of the animals at a single large swine exhibition. Concurrent to the snout wipe collection, owners took the rectal temperatures of his/her pigs. In this case, 47 (2.4%) pigs tested positive for IAV before they entered the swine barn. The mean rectal temperatures differed by only 0.19°C between IAV-positive and IAV-negative pigs. The low prevalence of IAV among the pigs upon entry to the fair in the second objective provides evidence that limiting intraspecies spread of IAV during the fairs will likely have significant impacts on the zoonotic transmission. However, in both objectives, the high degree of similarity in the body temperature measurements between the IAV-positive and IAV-negative pigs made it impossible to set a diagnostically meaningful cut point to differentiate IAV status of the individual animals. Unfortunately, body temperature measurement cannot be used to accurately screen exhibition swine for IAV.

Continuous adductor canal blocks are superior to continuous femoral nerve blocks in promoting early ambulation after TKA.

BACKGROUND: Femoral continuous peripheral nerve blocks (CPNBs) provide effective analgesia after TKA but have been associated with quadriceps weakness and delayed ambulation. A promising alternative is adductor canal CPNB that delivers a primarily sensory blockade; however, the differential effects of these two techniques on functional outcomes after TKA are not well established. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: We determined whether, after TKA, patients with adductor canal CPNB versus patients with femoral CPNB demonstrated (1) greater total ambulation distance on Postoperative Day (POD) 1 and 2 and (2) decreased daily opioid consumption, pain scores, and hospital length of stay. METHODS: Between October 2011 and October 2012, 180 patients underwent primary TKA at our practice site, of whom 93% (n = 168) had CPNBs. In this sequential series, the first 102 patients had femoral CPNBs, and the next 66 had adductor canal CPNBs. The change resulted from a modification to our clinical pathway, which involved only a change to the block. An evaluator not involved in the patients' care reviewed their medical records to record the parameters noted above. RESULTS: Ambulation distances were higher in the adductor canal group than in the femoral group on POD 1 (median [10(th)-90(th) percentiles]: 37 m [0-90 m] versus 6 m [0-51 m]; p < 0.001) and POD 2 (60 m [0-120 m] versus 21 m [0-78 m]; p = 0.003). Adjusted linear regression confirmed the association between adductor canal catheter use and ambulation distance on POD 1 (B = 23; 95% CI = 14-33; p < 0.001) and POD 2 (B = 19; 95% CI = 5-33; p = 0.008). Pain scores, daily opioid consumption, and hospital length of stay were similar between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Adductor canal CPNB may promote greater early postoperative ambulation compared to femoral CPNB after TKA without a reduction in analgesia. Future randomized studies are needed to validate our major findings. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, therapeutic study. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Dairy calving management: description and assessment of a training program for dairy personnel.

The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a comprehensive calving management program designed to enhance the flow of applied, research-based, calving information to dairy personnel. Calving personnel (n=70), serving an estimated 18,100 cows from 18 Ohio dairies, attended the calving management program (∼1h of training and ∼2h of demonstration). Description of the birth canal, behavioral signs of normal parturition (stages I to III), dystocia (presentations, positions, and postures), hygiene practices during the assistance procedure, strategies for intervention (when and how to intervene), record-keeping, communication (when to call for help), and newborn care were discussed. Posttraining follow-ups (2/yr) were available for participating personnel. Educational materials were delivered through lectures followed by group discussions and hands-on demonstrations. Attendees were assessed using pre- and posttests of knowledge to determine the level of knowledge gained during the training program. Participants evaluated the program and provided feedback at the conclusion of the program. Dairy personnel reported that the overall program, presentations, and discussions were useful. The presented materials and demonstrations substantially increased the knowledge level of the attendees by 20.9 percentage points from pre- to posttest scores. Importance of open communication within the farm team, recognizing the landmarks for parturition, signs of calving progress, reference times for intervention, hygiene practices at calving, and strategies to correct abnormal presentation, position, or posture were listed as learned concepts with immediate field application. The follow-up assessment with participant personnel revealed that they were able to implement and apply their learned skills, communicate calving records with the farm team, and follow written calving protocols. Results indicated that the workshop was relevant and effective, offering information with immediate field application.

Postpartum corticosterone administration reduces dendritic complexity and increases the density of mushroom spines of hippocampal CA3 arbours in dams.

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects approximately 15% of mothers after giving birth. A complete understanding of depression during the postpartum period has yet to be established, although disruptions in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and stress during the postpartum may be involved. To model these components in rats, we administered high corticosterone (CORT) postpartum, which increases immobility in the forced swim test (FST), and reduces maternal care, body weight and hippocampal cell proliferation in dams. The hippocampus is altered in response to chronic stress, exposure to high glucocorticoids and in major depression in humans. In the present study, we examined whether high CORT reduced dendritic complexity and spines in the CA3 region of the hippocampus. Additionally, housing complexity was manipulated so that dams and litters were housed either with tubes (complex) or without tubes (impoverished) to investigate the consequences of new animal care regulations. Dams received 40 mg/kg/day of CORT or oil starting on day 2 postpartum for 23 days. Maternal behaviours were assessed on postpartum days 2-8 and dams were tested using the FST on days 21 and 22. Dams were killed on day 24 and brains were processed for Golgi impregnation. Pyramidal cells in the CA3 subfield were traced using a camera lucida and analysed for branch points and dendritic complexity, as well as spine density and type on both basal and apical arbours. As previously established, high CORT postpartum reduced maternal care and increased immobility in the FST, which is a measure of depressive-like behaviour. High CORT postpartum reduced the complexity of basal arbours and increased mushroom spines on both apical and basal dendrites. Housing complexity had no effect on spines of CA3 pyramidal cells but modest effects on cell morphology. These data show that chronic high CORT in postpartum females alters hippocampal morphology and may provide insight regarding the neurobiological consequences of high stress or CORT during the postpartum period, as well as be relevant for postpartum stress or depression.

A soft x-ray transmission grating imaging-spectrometer for the National Ignition Facility.

A soft x-ray transmission grating spectrometer has been designed for use on high energy-density physics experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF); coupled to one of the NIF gated x-ray detectors it records 16 time-gated spectra between 250 and 1000 eV with 100 ps temporal resolution. The trade-off between spectral and spatial resolution leads to an optimized design for measurement of emission around the peak of a 100-300 eV blackbody spectrum. Performance qualification results from the NIF, the Trident Laser Facility and vacuum ultraviolet beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source, evidence a <100 µm spatial resolution in combination with a source-size limited spectral resolution that is <10 eV at photon energies of 300 eV.