Meeting report: Emerging respiratory viral infections and nonhuman primate case reports.

A workshop on Emerging Respiratory Viral Infections and Spontaneous Diseases in nonhuman primates was sponsored by the concurrent Annual Meetings of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology, held December 1-5, 2012, in Seattle, Washington. The session had platform presentations from Drs Karen Terio, Thijs Kuiken, Guy Boivin, and Robert Palermo that focused on naturally occurring influenza, human respiratory syncytial virus, and metapneumovirus in wild and zoo-housed great apes; the molecular biology and pathology of these viral respiratory diseases in nonhuman primate (NHP) models; and the therapeutic and vaccine approaches to prevention and control of these emerging respiratory viral infections. These formal presentations were followed by presentations of 14 unique case studies of rare or newly observed spontaneous lesions in NHPs (see online files for access to digital whole-slide images corresponding to each case report at http://scanscope.com/ACVP%20Slide%20Seminars/2012/Primate%20Pathology/view.apml). The session was attended by meeting participants that included students, pathology trainees, and experienced pathologists from academia and industry with an interest in respiratory and spontaneous diseases of NHPs.

Meeting report: Spontaneous lesions and diseases in wild, captive-bred, and zoo-housed nonhuman primates and in nonhuman primate species used in drug safety studies.

The combination of loss of habitat, human population encroachment, and increased demand of select nonhuman primates for biomedical research has significantly affected populations. There remains a need for knowledge and expertise in understanding background findings as related to the age, source, strain, and disease status of nonhuman primates. In particular, for safety/biomedical studies, a broader understanding and documentation of lesions would help clarify background from drug-related findings. A workshop and a minisymposium on spontaneous lesions and diseases in nonhuman primates were sponsored by the concurrent Annual Meetings of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology held December 3-4, 2011, in Nashville, Tennessee. The first session had presentations from Drs Lowenstine and Montali, pathologists with extensive experience in wild and zoo populations of nonhuman primates, which was followed by presentations of 20 unique case reports of rare or newly observed spontaneous lesions in nonhuman primates (see online files for access to digital whole-slide images corresponding to each case report at http://www.scanscope.com/ACVP%20Slide%20Seminars/2011/Primate%20Pathology/view.apml). The minisymposium was composed of 5 nonhuman-primate researchers (Drs Bradley, Cline, Sasseville, Miller, Hutto) who concentrated on background and spontaneous lesions in nonhuman primates used in drug safety studies. Cynomolgus and rhesus macaques were emphasized, with some material presented on common marmosets. Congenital, acquired, inflammatory, and neoplastic changes were highlighed with a focus on clinical, macroscopic, and histopathologic findings that could confound the interpretation of drug safety studies.

Renewable hydrogen from nonvolatile fuels by reactive flash volatilization.

Droplets of nonvolatile fuels such as soy oil and glucose-water solutions can be flash evaporated by catalytic partial oxidation to produce hydrogen in high yields with a total time in the reactor of less than 50 milliseconds. Pyrolysis, coupled with catalytic oxidation of the fuels and their fragments upon impact with a hot rhodium-cerium catalyst surface, avoids the formation of deactivating carbon layers on the catalyst. The catalytic reactions of these products generate approximately 1 megawatt of heat per square meter, which maintains the catalyst surface above 800 degrees C at high drop impact rates. At these temperatures, heavy fuels can be catalytically transformed directly into hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and other small molecules in very short contact times without the formation of carbon.

Renewable hydrogen from ethanol by autothermal reforming.

Ethanol and ethanol-water mixtures were converted directly into H2 with approximately 100% selectivity and >95% conversion by catalytic partial oxidation, with a residence time on rhodium-ceria catalysts of <10 milliseconds. Rapid vaporization and mixing with air with an automotive fuel injector were performed at temperatures sufficiently low and times sufficiently fast that homogeneous reactions producing carbon, acetaldehyde, ethylene, and total combustion products can be minimized. This process has great potential for low-cost H2 generation in fuel cells for small portable applications where liquid fuel storage is essential and where systems must be small, simple, and robust.

Catalysis research of relevance to carbon management: progress, challenges, and opportunities.

The goal of the "Opportunities for Catalysis Research in Carbon Management" workshop was to review within the context of greenhouse gas/carbon issues the current state of knowledge, barriers to further scientific and technological progress, and basic scientific research needs in the areas of H2 generation and utilization, light hydrocarbon activation and utilization, carbon dioxide activation, utilization, and sequestration, emerging techniques and research directions in relevant catalysis research, and in catalysis for more efficient transportation engines. Several overarching themes emerge from this review. First and foremost, there is a pressing need to better understand in detail the catalytic mechanisms involved in almost every process area mentioned above. This includes the structures, energetics, lifetimes, and reactivities of the species thought to be important in the key catalytic cycles. As much of this type of information as is possible to acquire would also greatly aid in better understanding perplexing, incomplete/inefficient catalytic cycles and in inventing new, efficient ones. The most productive way to attack such problems must include long-term, in-depth fundamental studies of both commercial and model processes, by conventional research techniques and, importantly, by applying various promising new physicochemical and computational approaches which would allow incisive, in situ elucidation of reaction pathways. There is also a consensus that more exploratory experiments, especially high-risk, unconventional catalytic and model studies, should be undertaken. Such an effort will likely require specialized equipment, instrumentation, and computational facilities. The most expeditious and cost-effective means to carry out this research would be by close coupling of academic, industrial, and national laboratory catalysis efforts worldwide. Completely new research approaches should be vigorously explored, ranging from novel compositions, fabrication techniques, reactors, and reaction conditions for heterogeneous catalysts, to novel ligands and ligation geometries (e.g., biomimetic), reaction media, and activation methods for homogeneous ones. The interplay between these two areas involving various hybrid and single-site supported catalyst systems should also be productive. Finally, new combinatorial and semicombinatorial means to rapidly create and screen catalyst systems are now available. As a complement to the approaches noted above, these techniques promise to greatly accelerate catalyst discovery, evaluation, and understanding. They should be incorporated in the vigorous international research effort needed in this field.

Production of syngas by direct catalytic oxidation of methane.

The reaction between methane and oxygen over platinum and rhodium surfaces in metalcoated ceramic monoliths can be made to produce mostly hydrogen and carbon monoxide (greater than 90% selectivity for both) with almost complete conversion of methane and oxygen at reaction times as short as 10(-3) seconds. This process has great promise for conversion of abundant natural gas into liquid products such as methanol and hydrocarbons, which can be easily transported from remote locations. Rhodium was considerably superior to platinum in producing more H(2) and less H(2)O, which can be explained by the known chemistry and kinetics of reactants, intermediates, and products on these surfaces.

Roughage sources in beef cattle finishing diets.

In four feeding trials with beef steers, corn silage (CS), alfalfa hay (AH), and alfalfa silage (AS) were compared as roughage sources in dry-rolled (DRC); dry whole (DWC); ground, high-moisture (GHMC); and whole, high-moisture corn (WHMC) fattening diets. In processed corn diets (DRC and GHMC), steers fed CS had lower DMI (P less than .05) and feed:gain ratios (P less than .10) than steers fed AS as the roughage source. In a separate trial, greater gains (P less than .10) and lower feed:gain ratios (P less than .05) were found during the initial feeding period, which included the adaptation phase, for steers fed CS vs steers fed AH as the roughage source. Over the entire feeding period, lower (corn type x roughage source interaction, P less than .05) feed:gain ratios were found in GHMC diets when CS was fed as the roughage source; feed:gain ratios were similar in steers fed DRC diets containing either CS or AH. Over the entire feeding period, similar performance was found among steers fed the various roughage sources in DWC diets; however, with WHMC diets, steers fed AS as the roughage source had lower feed:gain ratios than did steers fed AH (P less than .05) or CS (P greater than .10). In the processed corn diets, high correlations were found between diet NDF digestibility and gain (r = .80), intake (r = .68), and feed:gain ratios (r = -.66); similar trends were found in WHMC diets but not in DWC diets. These results suggest that the ideal roughage source to complement finishing diets may depend on corn processing method and feeding period (adaptation vs finishing).