Milk quality parameters were recorded for United States dairy farms utilizing automatic milking (AM) from August 2000 to June 2003. Additional farms were admitted to the study as they began operation, so that the full data set includes 12 AM farms. Somatic cell count (SCC) and total bacterial count (TBC) data was analyzed and compared to corresponding data from a cohort of conventional farms in...

Rab GTPases are frequent targets of vacuole-living bacterial pathogens for appropriate trafficking of the vacuole. Here we discover that bacterial effectors including VirA from nonvacuole Shigella flexneri and EspG from extracellular Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) harbor TBC-like dual-finger motifs and exhibits potent RabGAP activities. Specific inactivation of Rab1 by VirA/EspG disru...

A full compensating system for distribution networks which is able to eliminate harmonics, correct unbalanced loads and generate or absorb reactive power is presented. The system is based on a combination of a Thyristor Binary Compensator (TBC), and a PWM-IGBT Active Power Filter (APF) connected in cascade. The TBC compensates the fundamental reactive power and balances the load connected to th...

BACKGROUND Endothelin-1 is a potent endogenous vasoconstrictor that contributes to renal microcirculatory impairment during endotoxemia and sepsis. Here we investigated if the renal circulatory and metabolic effects of endothelin during endotoxemia are mediated through activation of endothelin-A receptors. METHODS AND FINDINGS A randomized experimental study was performed with anesthetized an...

The thermal barrier coating (TBC) of jet engine turbines permits operation at what otherwise would be prohibitively high temperatures. Ideally, a jet engine should operate at very high temperatures to maximize fuel efficiency and power. Combustion gases are often held at temperatures above 1370° C, while engine metal superalloys have melting points that range between 1230° and 1315° C. As a res...

Tuberculosis (TBC) is characterized by a complex immune response which parallels the clinical course of the disease. In this respect, acquired resistance, delayed hypersensitivity reaction and anergy are the main types of immune reactivity to mycobacterial antigens. In view of the presence of nonspecific and specific immune deficits in TBC patients, a clinical trial was carried out in a group o...