Cerebral ischaemia is considered to be an important cause of central nervous system dysfunction in heat stress. We hypothesized that heat stress would alter the reactivity of isolated carotid artery to vasoactive agents. Carotid arteries were isolated from broiler chickens maintained either at 23-24 degrees C with 55-65% humidity (control conditions) or exposed to 40 +/- 1 degrees C with 35% hu...

A re-evaluation of the temperature humidity index (THI) confirmed that current THI values underestimate the severity of heat stress levels. Previously, a THI equal to or greater than 72 has been used to define onset of heat stress, but our research demonstrated that a THI greater than or equal to 68 is low enough to cause adverse affects when cows suffer from heat stress. Furthermore, we were a...

The purpose of the investigation was to establish how the pineal-adrenal axis plays an important role in thermoregulation in female goats under short-term heat stress. The study was conducted to observe the influence of glucocorticoids on pineal function in goats and its influence on stress alleviation capability. Melatonin and glucocorticoid secretions and several other endocrine and biochemic...

Heat waves can cause severe thermal environmental stress leading to higher hospital admission rates, health complications, and increased mortality. These effects arise because of one or more meteorology-related factors such as higher effective temperatures, sunshine, more consecutive hot days and nights, stagnation, increased humidity, increased pollutant emissions, and accelerated photochemica...

Heat stress negatively affects milk quality altering its nutritive value and cheese making properties. This study aimed at assessing the impact of seasonal microclimatic conditions on milk quality of Friesian cows. The study was carried out in a dairy farm from June 2013 to May 2014 at Beni-Suef province, Egypt. Inside the barn daily ambient temperature and relative humidity were recorded and u...

Grasslands and riparian forests in southeastern South Dakota have been greatly reduced since historical times, primarily due to conversion to row-crop agriculture. Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) nesting habitat includes grasslands, open woodlands and urban rooftops, but nesting sites in southeastern South Dakota are confined to rooftops, as natural nesting habitat is limited. Nighthawks ne...

Thermotolerance is important particularly for poikilotherms such as insects. Understanding the mechanisms by which insects respond to high temperatures can provide insights into their adaptation to the environment. Therefore, in this study, we performed a transcriptome analysis of two silkworm strains with significantly different resistance to heat as well as humidity; the thermo-resistant stra...

Seasonally varying populations of ectothermic insect taxa from a given locality are expected to cope with simultaneous changes in temperature and humidity through phenotypic plasticity. Accordingly, we investigated the effect of saturation deficit on resistance to desiccation in wild-caught flies from four seasons (spring, summer, rainy and autumn) and corresponding flies reared in the laborato...

An annular shear cell has been used to investigate a number of factors known to influence stick-slip motion in an assembly of near monosized, spherical glass beads. In this paper, both the sample shear stress and volumetric strain were recorded, allowing new insights into the possible mechanics of stick-slip motion in a granular body. Rather than the commonly presented mechanism of sample dilat...