Sustainability assessment of organic dairy farms in mountainous areas of Austria

Dairy farming plays a major role in mountainous regions of Austria, mostly due to high proportion of grasslands. In general, Austria’s dairy farming faces challenges regarding sustainability, e.g. environmental impacts, but specifically for alpine areas low productivity and dependency on direct payments are lowering sustainability. Organic farming is considered as a strategy to overcome these challenges. Considering this general background, we analysed the sustainability performance and its main drivers of organic dairy farms in mountainous regions of Austria

Einsatz eines alkoholischen Mehrpflanzenansatzes bei Waldschafen im Hinblick auf das Parasitengeschehen

Zwar gibt es wissenschaftliche Studien über anthelmintische Wirkungen verschiedener Pflanzenextrakte vor allem aus Südamerika und Afrika, aber nur wenige über europäische Pflanzen. Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit den Auswirkungen einer Mischung von alkoholischen Ansätzen zehn verschiedener Pflanzen in Bezug auf gastrointestinale Nematoden von Schafen (EPG), Lebendgewicht und Farbe der Augenschleimhäute (FAMACHA) sowie die Kotbeurteilung (Kotscoring). 27 Schafe (Waldschafe) wurden eine Behandlungs- (n = 12) und einer Kontrollgruppe (n = 15) zugeordnet. Vier Schafe jeder Gruppe waren frühträchtig. Der Behandlungsgruppe wurde 2 Mal täglich je 1 ml der Kräutermischung (gemischt mit 9 ml Wasser) von Montag bis Freitag über einen Zeitraum von zwei Monaten verabreicht. Die Kontrollgruppe erhielt 10 ml Wasser. Wiegungen und Kotuntersuchungen (Epg) wurden wöchentlich durchgeführt. Am Anfang und am Ende der Studie wurde FAMACHA und Kot Scoring durchgeführt. Am Ende wurden Larvenkulturen angefertigt, die Larven differenziert und gezählt. Die Herstellung der alkoholischen Kräuteransätze wurde von einer kräuterkundigen Frau durchgeführt. Es konnten keine statistisch signifikanten Unterschiede zwischen den Gruppen festgestellt werden. Die Larvenzählungen zeigten etwa 20% mehr LIII von Haemonchus contortus in der Behandlungsgruppe. Die Mischung der alkoholischen Pflanzenansätze hatte keine reduzierende Wirkung auf die Eiausscheidung bei Schafen. Es zeigte sich aber eine Verschiebung in der Häufigkeit der Parasitenarten

Temperature dependence of ultrafast phonon dynamics in graphite

Nonequilibrium optical phonons are generated in graphite following the excitation of electron-hole pairs with a femtosecond laser pulse. Their energy relaxation is probed by means of terahertz pulses. We find that the hot-phonon lifetime increases by a factor of 2 when the sample temperature decreases from 300 to 5 K. These results suggest that the energy relaxation in graphite at room temperature and above is dominated by the anharmonic decay of hot A′1phonons at the K point into acoustic phonons with energies of about 10 meV

Isolation and characterization of phenanthrene degrading bacteria from diesel fuel-contaminated Antarctic soils

Indexación: Scopus.Antarctica is an attractive target for human exploration and scientific investigation, however the negative effects of human activity on this continent are long lasting and can have serious consequences on the native ecosystem. Various areas of Antarctica have been contaminated with diesel fuel, which contains harmful compounds such as heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Bioremediation of PAHs by the activity of microorganisms is an ecological, economical, and safe decontamination approach. Since the introduction of foreign organisms into the Antarctica is prohibited, it is key to discover native bacteria that can be used for diesel bioremediation. By following the degradation of the PAH phenanthrene, we isolated 53 PAH metabolizing bacteria from diesel contaminated Antarctic soil samples, with three of these isolates exhibiting a high phenanthrene degrading capacity. In particular, the Sphingobium xenophagum D43FB isolate showed the highest phenanthrene degradation ability, generating up to 95% degradation of initial phenanthrene. D43FB can also degrade phenanthrene in the presence of its usual co-pollutant, the heavy metal cadmium, and showed the ability to grow using diesel-fuel as a sole carbon source. Microtiter plate assays and SEM analysis revealed that S. xenophagum D43FB exhibits the ability to form biofilms and can directly adhere to phenanthrene crystals. Genome sequencing analysis also revealed the presence of several genes involved in PAH degradation and heavy metal resistance in the D43FB genome. Altogether, these results demonstrate that S. xenophagum D43FB shows promising potential for its application in the bioremediation of diesel fuel contaminated-Antarctic ecosystems.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01634/ful

Standard PK/PD concepts can be applied to determine a dosage regimen for a macrolide: the case of tulathromycin in the calf

The pharmacokinetic (PK) profile of tulathromycin, administered to calves subcutaneously at the dosage of 2.5 mg/kg, was established in serum, inflamed (exudate), and noninflamed (transudate) fluids in a tissue cage model. The PK profile of tulathromycin was also established in pneumonic calves. For Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida, tulathromycin minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were approximately 50 times lower in calf serum than in Mueller–Hinton broth. The breakpoint value of the PK/pharmacodynamic (PD) index (AUC(0–24 h)/MIC) to achieve a bactericidal effect was estimated from in vitro time‐kill studies to be approximately 24 h for M. haemolytica and P. multocida. A population model was developed from healthy and pneumonic calves and, using Monte Carlo simulations, PK/PD cutoffs required for the development of antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) were determined. The population distributions of tulathromycin doses were established by Monte Carlo computation (MCC). The computation predicted a target attainment rate (TAR) for a tulathromycin dosage of 2.5 mg/kg of 66% for M. haemolytica and 87% for P. multocida. The findings indicate that free tulathromycin concentrations in serum suffice to explain the efficacy of single‐dose tulathromycin in clinical use, and that a dosage regimen can be computed for tulathromycin using classical PK/PD concepts

Determining physiological reaction probabilities to noise events during sleep

Some of the activations that occur during sleep, e.g. awakening reactions, can be considered adverse effects of noise events (e.g., airplane overflights or train passings) during the night. The occurrence of such reactions is an important indicator of the sleep disturbing potential of the particular noise stimulus and it is often desired to exactly quantify that potential in terms of a probability. Awakenings are considered the strongest form of reaction to noise stimuli during sleep and are one of the most often adopted criteria in night time noise protection concepts. However, the correct determination of noise induced awakening probability has given rise to debate in the scientific community in recent years. Because during every night's sleep, spontaneous awakenings can occur at any time, it remains unknown in principle, whether a particular awakening observed during the presence of a noise stimulus was induced by that stimulus or emerged spontaneously. Nevertheless, correctly determining the awakening probability in question is key when it comes to forecasting noise effects during the night. This article introduces two definitions of reaction probability, discusses their advantages and disadvantages, and develops a model of the influence of the time window duration in which reactions of sleepers are screened on the calculated reaction probabilit