Search

OBJECTIVE American bison (Bison bison) quarantine protocols were established to prevent transmission of brucellosis outside the Greater Yellowstone Area, while allowing for distribution of wild bison for conservation and cultural purposes. Quarantine standards require rigorous testing over 900 days which has led to the release of over 200 bison to Native American tribes. Standards were evaluated using 15 years of laboratory and management data to minimize the burden of testing and increase the number of brucellosis-free bison available for distribution. ANIMALS All bison (n = 578) from Yellowstone National Park were corralled by the National Park Service and United States Department of Agriculture. PROCEDURES A statistical and management evaluation of the bison quarantine program was performed. Bayesian latent-class modeling was used to predict the probability of nondetection of a seroreactor at various time points, as well as the probability of seroconversion by days in quarantine. RESULTS At 300 days, 1 in 1,000 infected bison (0.0014 probability) would not be detected but could potentially seroconvert; the seroconversion model predicted 99.9% would seroconvert by day 294, and 12.8% of bison enrolled in quarantine would seroconvert over time. Using a 300-day quarantine period, it would take 30 years to potentially miss 1 seroreactor out of over 8,000 bison enrolled in the quarantine program. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Reducing the quarantine program requirements from over 900 days to 300 days would allow management of quarantined bison in coordination with seasonal movement of bison herds and triple the number of brucellosis-free bison available for distribution.

Background: Attentional deficits may be pathophysiologically relevant in MS-associated fatigue. Patients and Methods: Thirty MS patients with fatigue and attentional deficits in neuropsychological testing participated in this randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. The intervention group (IG; n = 14) was treated with 10 h of computerized, specific neuropsychological training performing simple reaction time tasks, whereas the control group (CG; n = 16) also runs through computerized, but unspecific neuropsychological training using tasks without time components. The subjective feeling of fatigue was assessed with the Würzburg Fatigue Inventory for Multiple Sclerosis (WEIMuS) questionnaire, and testing of alertness was used as an objective measure at baseline and after the 2-week study period. Results: Reaction times of alertness were significantly decreased in IG but not CG after 2 weeks. The subjective feeling of fatigue was ameliorated in both groups but more pronounced in IG. Effect sizes were below 0.7 for alertness and WEIMuS scores in CG but large and clinically meaningful in IG for both measures. Conclusions: Our pilot study suggests that neuropsychological training of attention may improve both measures of fatigue. The parallel improvement of attentional deficits and subjective fatigue after specific neuropsychological training support previous findings that fatigue may be at least partially caused by impaired intensity of attention.

This paper provides an evaluation of 90 coarse particle mass distributions taken over a 15-month period during 1983–1984 at an urban and a nearby non-urban site located in the midwestern United States. The coarse particles (> 5μm diameter) were sampled in four mass fractions (6–11, 11–20, 20–29, > 29 μm diameter) with the Noll Rotary Impactor. Diurnal and seasonal differences were measured. Samples were collected when the ground was dry, wet and frozen. The shape of the mass distribution was similar for most samples and was well represented by a log-normal distribution. The mass median diameter varied between 15 and 30 μm with an average near 20 μm diameter. The geometric standard deviation average was 2.0. Urban samples had 75 percent more total mass than nonurban samples. At the urban site, concentrations were 50 percent higher during mid-day than at night. Dry ground samples were 30 percent higher than wet ground and 90 percent higher than frozen ground samples. The mass median diameter (MMD) was dependent on friction velocity ( U ∗ , cm s−1), where MMD = 0.212 U ∗ + 15.7. The correlation coefficient between the two variables was 0.69.