Effect of catching method and lighting intensity on the prevalence of broken bones and on the ease of handling of end-of-lay hens

Five catching methods were compared in terms of their effect on the proportion of battery hens which had bones broken when they were removed from battery cages. In addition the effect of tier, lighting intensity during lay and lighting intensity during handling on the prevalence of fractures at catching and on old fractures which occurred during lay was evaluated. Catching and removing hens by one leg from the cages resulted in 11 to 14 per cent of the birds acquiring a broken bone, whereas catching and removing each bird by two legs resulted in 5 per cent of the birds acquiring a freshly broken bone. Removing more than one bird at a time from the cage tended to cause more skeletal damage than removing them individually, and incorporating a wooden breast support slide over the feed trough had no effect on the prevalence of broken bones. Catching birds in the top tier of a three-tiered battery unit was more difficult than for the middle or bottom tiers. When the light intensity at catching was the same as that during lay birds were more difficult to catch than when the light intensity was changed, but the effects were insufficient to affect the prevalence of damage to the skeleton.     

GEOLOGY AND EXPLORATION IN THE TAKUTU GRABEN OF GUYANA BRAZIL

The Takutu basin is a Mesozoic graben 280 km long and 40 km wide in northern Brazil and adjoining Guyana. It occupies an ancient Pre Cambrian shear zone within the heart of the Archean Guyana shield. Metavolcanic rocks and thick Proterozoic quartzites crop out north of the basin. Granitic rocks border the graben on the south and east. Mesozoic basalt forms a band of outcrop along the southern and eastern margins of the modern-day valley. The basin is filled with up to 5,400m (18,000 ft) of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, underlain by more than 1,700m (5,600 ft) of mafic volcanics of Jurassic and possibly older (i.e, Proterozoic) ages. Six regional unconformities were recognized within the basin fill. The geologic history of the graben is characterized by one volcanicphase and three depositional phases. Rifting began in Late Triassic to Early Jurassic time with the extrusion of thick Apoteri flow basalts. Lower Jurassic non-marine clastics of the Manari Formation overlie the eroded basalt. They are overlain by the thick Lower and Middle Jurassic non-marine salt and gray shale of the Pirara Formation. These sediments were deposited over most of the basin and contain good oil source-rocks. Middle and Upper Jurassic non-marine clastics of the Takutu Formation overlie the evaporites. They were deposited in lacustrine and deltaic environments, as interpreted from seismic and well data. There are two contrasting structural styles, of Late Triassic to Early Jurassic, and Cretaceous to Tertiary ages. Block-faults are common in the pre-salt section, and non-piercement halokinetic structures in thepost-salt rocks. The graben contains a cross-basin arch, evidence of wrench faults and minor salt solution. Four exploratory wells have been drilled to date. Home Karanambo No. 1 discovered highquality crude oil in the fractured volcanic basement. Seismic stratigraphic interpretations indicate that alluvial fan and deltaic reservoirs may overlie undrilled structures elsewhere in the basin.     

Recruitment and proliferative responses of osteoblasts after mechanical loading in vivo determined using sustained-release bromodeoxyuridine

The regulation of cell proliferation or cell death by extracellular factors are the most intensely studied subjects in cell biology. Many conceptual problems remain to be clarified concerning the mechanisms that regulate the programmed cell death. In this work, we focus our attention on the possible role of protein kinase C activation during dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)-induced cell death. The present results suggest that the frequency of DMSO-dependent apoptosis of RPMI 8402 thymic lymphoma cells is increased by phorbol ester acetate supplementation. Enhancement of apoptosis can be abolished by cotreatment with the bisindolylmaleimide, a specific PKC inhibitor. The association between PMA and DMSO treatment provokes an early activation of an intracellular signaling mechanism that results, via sustained diacylglycerol elevation, in a possible long-term PKC activation.     

Selectivity of the epoxide phenol reaction

A method for determining the relative amount of alcohol side reaction which occurs in reactions of epoxy compounds with active hydrogen compounds has been investigated. It involves determining the ratio of rates of the successive reaction, epoxide-active hydrogen compound and epoxide-generated secondary alcohol, in the reaction of epoxide and active hydrogen compound at respectively a 2:1 mole ratio. Rate ratios are reported for the bulk reaction of bisphenol-A and the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A under different reaction conditions. The data correlated with the properties of high molecular weight polymers. Amines with β-hydroxyl groups were very selective catalysts.     

A rapid method for identification of S-phase cells in transmission electron microscopy of monolayer cultures

A rapid technique has been developed for identifying cells in S-phase in transmission electron microscopy of monolayer cultures. Autoradiography is performed on the embedded monolayer which is then re-embedded. The cells and the adjacent layer of developed emulsion are sectioned together, and when subsequently viewed in the electron microscope the cells in S-phase appear with a zone of silver grains in the emulsion which is opposite their nuclei. They are thus readily identified and can be selected for detailed study. The advantages of this technique over conventional TEM autoradiography are the very much shorter exposure times and a reduced workload when preparing serial sections.     

A security-constrained bid-clearing system for the New Zealandwholesale electricity market

This paper reports upon the mathematical models and implementation of the Scheduling, Pricing and Dispatch (SPD) application for the New Zealand Electricity Market (NZEM). SPD analyzes bids for energy offers, reserve offers and energy demands, and recognizes explicitly the effects on bid clearing due to transmission congestion, network losses, reserve requirements, and ramp rate limits. Advanced LP solution methods are utilized to solve the large-scale constrained optimization problem. Results on a 67-bus test system and the NZEM are included