The objective of this randomized controlled vaccine field trial was to determine the effectiveness of a commercial respiratory bacterin, Ovipast™ Plus, administered to feedlot lambs at weaning, ...approximately 8 wk of age, to improve animal health, growth performance, and carcass traits. Lambs were weaned, weighed, and sorted into groups by sex and the previous Ovipast™ Plus vaccination status of their mother, because this is stage 2 of that ongoing trial (Gardner et al., 2023). Lambs born to vaccinated ewes were vaccinated with the Ovipast™ Plus bacterin and revaccinated 3–5 wk later. Lambs born to unvaccinated ewes were not vaccinated. During the growing and finishing phases of the trial, vaccination did not reduce pneumonia treatment rates, crude or pneumonia specific mortality rates, or improve growth rates. Vaccinated lambs had a lower carcass fat cover (P < 0.001) and a 1.33 times increased odds of yielding a Grade 1 carcass compared to unvaccinated lambs (P = 0.01). Vaccination reduced carcass fat cover and improved yield grades, but it had no beneficial effect on disease rates or growth performance, suggesting a limited economic benefit of vaccinating lambs post-weaning, which were borne from ewes vaccinated with Ovipast™ Plus during gestation.
•Determining the effectiveness of an ovine pneumonia bacterin (Ovipast™ Plus) in reducing pneumonia in weaned lambs.•Vaccination did not reduce pneumonia treatment rates, crude or case specific pneumonia mortality, or improve weight gain.•Timing of vaccination should be further investigated.•Weaning weight is an important predictor of the future health of a lamb.
Ictalurus punctatus (channel catfish) is an economically important farmed fish particularly in the southeastern United States. Aquaculture sustainability is threatened by disease pressure and the ...eutrophic conditions resulted from intensive fish farming. Previous research identified Bacillus velezensis strains that reduced mortality due to bacterial pathogens when used as a feed amendment. This study was conducted to determine the effects of B. velezensis-amended feed on catfish growth performance, pond water quality, and on the microbiomes in fish intestines and pond water. B. velezensis AP193 was evaluated in a ten-week pond trial, with four replicate ponds per probiotic treatment or control group. Feed amended with B. velezensis AP193 induced a 40.4% or 32.6% increase in growth relative to control feed in fingerling catfish that originated from aquaria or raceways, respectively. No significant differences were observed in the catfish intestinal microbiota or the pond microbiota due to probiotic-amended feed. The water quality was improved in ponds in which fish were fed with the probiotic-amended feed, as significant reductions were found in total phosphorus (19%), total nitrogen (43%) and nitrate (75%). These data suggest that B. velezensis AP193 can promote catfish growth and improve pond water quality when used as a feed amendment.
•Bacillus velezensis-amended fish feed enhanced fingerling catfish growth by 32–40% over a ten-week period in ponds.•B. velezensis-amended fish feed stabilized the intestinal bacterial assemblage over ten weeks in aquaria.•Pond water samples had lower nitrogen (−43%) and phosphorus (−19%) levels when fish were fed with B. velezensis AP193 compared to control ponds.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM‐5) criteria for hypersexual disorder (HD) have been proposed to capture symptoms reported by patients seeking help for ...out‐of‐control sexual behavior. The proposed criteria created by the DSM‐5 Work Group on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders require evaluation in a formal field trial.
This DSM‐5 Field Trial was designed to assess the reliability and validity of the criteria for HD in a sample of patients seeking treatment for hypersexual behavior, a general psychiatric condition, or a substance‐related disorder.
Patients (N = 207) were assessed for psychopathology and HD by blinded raters to determine inter‐rater reliability of the HD criteria and following a 2‐week interval by a third rater to evaluate the stability of the HD criteria over time. Patients also completed a number of self‐report measures to assess the validity of the HD criteria.
HD and psychopathology were measured by structured diagnostic interviews, the Hypersexual Behavior Inventory, Sexual Compulsivity Scale, and Hypersexual Behavior Consequences Scale. Emotional dysregulation and stress proneness were measured by facets on the NEO Personality Inventory—Revised.
Inter‐rater reliability was high and the HD criteria showed good stability over time. Sensitivity and specificity indices showed that the criteria for HD accurately reflected the presenting problem among patients. The diagnostic criteria for HD showed good validity with theoretically related measures of hypersexuality, impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, and stress proneness, as well as good internal consistency. Patients assessed for HD also reported a vast array of consequences for hypersexual behavior that were significantly greater than those diagnosed with a general psychiatric condition or substance‐related disorder.
The HD criteria proposed by the DSM‐5 Work Group on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders appear to demonstrate high reliability and validity when applied to patients in a clinical setting among a group of raters with modest training on assessing HD. Reid RC, Carpenter BN, Hook JN, Garos S, Manning JC, Gilliland R, Cooper EB, McKittrick H, Davtian M, and Fong T. Report of findings in a DSM‐5 Field Trial for hypersexual disorder. J Sex Med 2012;9:2868–2877.
•Extensive literature review on local flexibility markets.•Coherent market setup for aggregated flexibility targeting the distribution level.•Large-scale field trial of residential flexibility in a ...local flexibility market.•Method to estimate economic benefits of flexibility options during network planning.•Discussion of desirable characteristics of local flexibility markets and services.
The number of distributed energy resources installed in distribution networks is steadily increasing. Their flexibility can be leveraged by aggregators and used in the wholesale markets. However, the utilization of this flexibility cannot neglect the operating conditions of distribution networks, and thus some form of coordination between distribution and transmission system operators must exist. The idea of operating local flexibility markets has been proposed to address these issues, but experience from real-life demonstrations is still missing. The Danish project EcoGrid 2.0 has designed, implemented and tested a local flexibility market with 800 participating customers, which runs in parallel with the wholesale markets. First, this paper presents a method to identify and quantify the value of possible flexibility services that are beneficial to the distribution system operator. Next, it provides insight from the operation of a real local flexibility market, with a large number of controllable loads. Results show that aggregators are able to reliably shape the load of residential heating units to deliver flexibility services, despite the presence of large uncertainties. Services can act as an insurance policy against rare but consequential network overloadings and outages. In these rare cases flexibility services can increase social welfare significantly. However, such services should be carefully selected to avoid adverse effects. Finally, we provide with guidelines and some general remarks on the nature and the desirable characteristics of those markets and services.
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•The nanocomposite coating is prepared by dual-scale hybrid silicone matrix and ZnO nanorods.•The coating displays superhydrophobic, self-cleaning and fouling release ...properties.•Excellent distribution of ZnO nanorods (0.5 wt%) in the matrix resulted in rough topology and low surface free energy.•The antifouling behavior was assessed by selected microorganisms and a field trial in natural seawater.
The effects of ZnO nanorod (NR) filler distribution and the nano-structured surface on the superhydrophobicity and fouling-release (FR) of silicone nanocoatings were investigated. Incorporation of 0.5 wt% ZnO NR fillers resulted in increasing the non-wettability characteristics and surface roughness and reducing the surface free energy were observed. Thus, an outstanding superhydrophobic nanocomposite coating model was fabricated with stable surface properties, surface innerness toward fouling adhesion, economic savings and prolonging longevity for marine applications. A polydimethylsiloxane/ZnO NR composite was prepared via in-situ technique. ZnO NRs were 30–40 nm wide and 0.5–1 µm long single-crystals with wurtzite structure grown in (0001) direction. Studying the influences of incorporation of different nanofiller concentrations on the surface and FR features was inevitable to achieve surface roughness with minimized free energy. Surface features were considered via water contact angles (WCAs), free energy calculations and atomic force microscopy. Mechanical characteristics were evaluated as a durability factor. Chosen micro-organisms were employed to investigate the nanocomposites' FR and biological characteristics. A tough field trial was performed on the nanocomposites which were immersed (for 6 months) in marine water of a tropical region. The most favorable FR properties with maximum WCA (158°) and minimum free energy (11.25 mN/m) were shown for 0.5 wt% NRs as an excellent distributed surface.
Today's agriculture faces many concerns in maintaining crop yield while adapting to climate change and transitioning to more sustainable cultivation practices. The application of plant biostimulants ...(PBs) is one of the methods that step forward to address these challenges. The advantages of PBs have been reported numerous times. Yet, there is a general lack of quantitative assessment of the overall impact of PBs on crop production. Here we report a comprehensive meta-analysis on biostimulants (focus on non-microbial PBs) of over one thousand pairs of open-field data in a total of 180 qualified studies worldwide. Yield gains in open-field cultivation upon biostimulant application were compared across different parameters: biostimulant category, application method, crop species, climate condition, and soil property. The overall results showed that (1) the add-on yield benefit among all biostimulant categories is on average 17.9% and reached the highest potential via soil treatment; (2) biostimulant applied in arid climates and vegetable cultivation had the highest impact on crop yield; and (3) biostimulants were more efficient in low soil organic matter content, non-neutral, saline, nutrient-insufficient, and sandy soils. This systematic review provides general biostimulant application guidelines and gives consultants and growers insights into achieving an optimal benefit from biostimulant application.
Objectives
The aim of this study was to determine the safety and efficacy of the nucleoside analog GS-441524 for cats suffering from various forms of naturally acquired feline infectious peritonitis ...(FIP).
Methods
Cats ranged from 3.4–73 months of age (mean 13.6 months); 26 had effusive or dry-to-effusive FIP and five had non-effusive disease. Cats with severe neurological and ocular FIP were not recruited. The group was started on GS-441524 at a dosage of 2.0 mg/kg SC q24h for at least 12 weeks and increased when indicated to 4.0 mg/kg SC q24h.
Results
Four of the 31 cats that presented with severe disease died or were euthanized within 2–5 days and a fifth cat after 26 days. The 26 remaining cats completed the planned 12 weeks or more of treatment. Eighteen of these 26 cats remain healthy at the time of publication (OnlineFirst, February 2019) after one round of treatment, while eight others suffered disease relapses within 3–84 days. Six of the relapses were non-neurological and two neurological. Three of the eight relapsing cats were treated again at the same dosage, while five cats had the dosage increased from 2.0 to 4.0 mg/kg q24h. The five cats treated a second time at the higher dosage, including one with neurological disease, responded well and also remain healthy at the time of publication. However, one of the three cats re-treated at the original lower dosage relapsed with neurological disease and was euthanized, while the two remaining cats responded favorably but relapsed a second time. These two cats were successfully treated a third time at the higher dosage, producing 25 long-time survivors. One of the 25 successfully treated cats was subsequently euthanized due to presumably unrelated heart disease, while 24 remain healthy.
Conclusions and relevance
GS-441524 was shown to be a safe and effective treatment for FIP. The optimum dosage was found to be 4.0 mg/kg SC q24h for at least 12 weeks.
•In-situ treatment of site soil using DJM technique and SPC binder is presented.•Solidified/stabilized soil exhibits satisfactory long-term performance after 326 days.•Leached concentrations of heavy ...metals and COD in soil are considerably reduced.•Soil resistance and acid neutralization capacity are remarkably improved.•In-situ field trial coincides well with lab study in strength/leaching properties.
In this study, in-situ treatment using dry jet mixing construction method and SPC (single superphosphate and calcium oxide) new binder are used to solidify/stabilize a heavy metal contaminated site soil with relatively high content of organic matters. Time-dependent field performance of the soils at 41 and 326 days after treatment is evaluated, which includes electrical conductivity (EC), leachability of heavy metals and chemical oxygen demand (COD), soil penetration resistance, acid neutralization capacity (ANC), and chemical speciation of heavy metals. The results indicate that the stabilized soils exhibit satisfactory performance which is comparable with the laboratory study. In-situ SPC treatment significantly decreases EC values and increases penetration resistance values of the soils. Leachability of lead, zinc, cadmium and COD decreases with increasing SPC content or curing time. Large percentages of heave metals in the soils are transformed from exchangeable fractions to residual fractions after treatment. These, coupled with the improved ANC, result in low heavy metal leachability in stabilized soils.
Service diversity is expected in the upcoming fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks, which poses great challenges to the underlying waveforms to accommodate heterogeneous service requirements in a ...flexible way. By dividing the bandwidth into several subbands, each having a different numerology, this paper reports a field trial in time division duplex downlink conducted on a configurable test bed in a real-world environment for the performance evaluations of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-based 5G waveform candidates, i.e., cyclically prefixed OFDM (CP-OFDM), windowing OFDM (W-OFDM), and filtered OFDM (f-OFDM), in the presence of mixed numerologies. Field trial results confirm the feasibility of mixed numerologies and reveal the impact of several important system parameters, e.g., guard bandwidth, data bandwidth, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and transmit power. The results also suggest that f-OFDM outperforms CP-OFDM and W-OFDM in terms of both the spectrum efficiency and robustness in a high SNR regime, and the gain increases with a higher inter-numerology out-of-band interference. In some specific scenarios, ideal spectrum utilization can be realized by f-OFDM which completely removes the guard band.
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