This article puts forward love, care, and reverence for all people and our nonhuman kin as the center of posthumanist education. Opening our spiritual eye and building intimate relationships with nature and with all elements of the universe is envisioned as part of a schooling or post-schooling experience; our body, heart and spirit, along with our mind, is an essential part of learning. The article describes the experiences of students taking a graduate level course focusing on global climate change and education at a university in the United States. We use the course as an example to explore what posthumanist education entails. In this qualitative study, students taking the course, along with the faculty designing and teaching the course, describe the course curriculum and pedagogies and reflect on the course's impact on them. Data sources include the syllabus, students' reflection papers, nature contact journals, final projects, art works, and group conversations. Although situated in North America, the article is rich with international perspectives as student authors came from six different countries. The article posits that posthumanist education must be eco-centric and love-based, engaging students' whole being to feel for and love Mother Nature.

RESUMO Infecção com o vírus Hepatite E (HEV) é uma importante questão de saúde pública global. Infecções HEV são reconhecidas como doença zoológica. Acredita-se que suínos são o principal reservatório de HEV. Recentemente iaques, vacas, e gado amarelo foram reportados como novos reservatórios do HEV. Porém, não se sabe se outras espécies de gado e búfalo são sensíveis a infecção HEV. Para investigar a prevalência de infecção HEV em búfalos, foram realizados prova de imunoabsorção enzimática e polimerização em cadeia inversa ancorada em transcrição. Apenas um búfalo foi positivo para o anticorpo anti-HEV IgM (1/106, 0,94%), e nenhum foi positivo para o anticorpo anti-HEV IgG. Para nossa surpresa cinco (5/106, 4,72%) e três amostras de leite (3/40, 7,50%) de búfalos foram positivos para HEV RNA. Todas as estirpes de HEV isoladas de búfalos pertencem ao genótipo 4. Resultados indicam que búfalos podem ser um reservatório de HEV.

ABSTRACT Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is an important global public health issue. HEV infections are recognized as a zoonotic disease. Swine are believed to be the main reservoir of HEV. Recently, yaks, cows, and yellow cattle have been reported as new reservoirs of HEV. However, whether other species of cattle and buffaloes are sensitive to HEV infection is unknown. To investigate the prevalence of HEV infection in buffaloes, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcription-nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR) were performed. Only one buffalo was positive to anti-HEV IgM antibody (1/106, 0.94%), and none were positive for anti-HEV IgG antibody. To our surprise, five serum (5/106, 4.72%) and three milk samples (3/40, 7.50%) from buffaloes were positive to HEV RNA. All strains of HEV isolated from buffaloes belong to genotype 4. Results indicate that buffaloes may be a new reservoir of HEV.

ABSTRACT Recently the use of antibiotic growth promoter (AGPs) in poultry feed is banned in China, leading to the increasing demand for AGPs substitutes. Probiotics have been considered as a potential substitute. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of probiotic on serum biochemistry, and growth promotion of body weight and visceral organs and in Lohmann Brown chicks aged 0 to 9 weeks. Five hundred and forty 1-day-old male chicks were randomly divided into three groups, with six replicates and 30 chicks in each replicate. The experiment was carried out over 70 days. Dietary treatments were: (1) basal diet alone (control group); (2) basal diet containing 0.1% probiotics (probiotic group); and (3) basal diet containing 0.01% zinc bacitracin in the feed (antibiotic group). The body weight (BW) of probiotic group was significantly higher than that of the control group during the whole trial period (p<0.05). ADG (0~70 d) in the probiotic group and the antibiotic group was higher than that in the control group (p<0.05). The Oliver weight and serum total protein (TP) in the probiotic group was higher than that in the control group on the 63rd day (p<0.05). The length of the duodenum, the weight of the spleen, duodenum and Jejunum in both the probiotic and antibiotic groups were higher than those in the control group (p<0.05). The ileum weight in the probiotic group was significantly higher than those in the control group (p<0.05). The ileum length in the probiotic group was significantly longer than that in both the antibiotic and control groups (p<0.05). Probiotic mix with Bacillus subtilis and Pediococcus acidilactici play a similar role in promoting growth of body and visceral organs, and it is a promising growth promoter for Lohmann Brown chicks (0 to 9 weeks).

Abstract The formation and characteristics of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) under different operational conditions in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), designed to treat Mustard tuber wastewater (MTW, characterized as saline wastewater), had been investigated in this study. Morphology and structure during granulation were determined using a microscope with a digital camera and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Granules formed in the reactors could be classified as zoogloea granules with a clear boundary outline and filamentous granules with mycelia bestrewing boundary. Zoogloea granules, cultivated in reactor R1 and R2, was with higher density than filamentous granules, cultivated in reactor R3, and consequently had a higher settling velocity. Results showed that divalent metal ions such as Ca2+ and Mg2+ with phosphate in inflow could transform into precipitates, serving as crystal nucleus and carriers for granulation. Moreover, appropriate organic loading, hydrodynamic shear and salt-stress selection can induce moderate growth of filamentous bacteria to act as granulation backbone and consequently granulation process under salt stress was a result together with crystal nucleus, filamentous bacteria, and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), which could be affected by salinity-shifting strategies and dosage of aluminum salt coagulant.

In this study, poultry manure compost and organic fertilizer were added to soils derived from basalt, granite, and river alluvial deposits for use as soil parent materials. Following incubation periods of 30 or 60 days at 25 °C, the physical and chemical properties and adsorption characteristics of the soils were studied. The results indicated that the application of poultry manure compost or organic fertilizer increased the available phosphorus (P) and organic matter content in all soils; however, the quantity of P and organic matter decreased with an increase in incubation time. The organic materials added via the treatments reduced the strength of P adsorption by the soil derived from basalt. For soils derived from granite and river alluvial deposits, the strength of P adsorption declined after poultry manure compost was added, but increased after the application of organic fertilizer. All soil treatments derived from basalt fitted well with the three adsorption isotherm equations. For soils derived from granite and alluvial deposit as parent materials, the data conformed to the three adsorption models in the order: Langmuir > Freundlich > Temkin. The maximum phosphate buffering capacity (MPBC) and standard P retention (SPR) of soil derived from basalt decreased following the application of poultry manure or organic fertilizer, whereas changes in MPBC and SPR for soils derived from granite and alluvial deposits were dependent on the organic content and incubation time.

Satellite-based quantitative precipitation estimates (QPE) offer the potential for global, near real-time monitoring of precipitation. Provided their accuracy, in terms of frequency and intensity structures, can be verified, such products would prove to be highly valuable for constraining uncertainty in land data assimilation, hydrological simulation and short-term prediction applications. Two gauge-corrected and three uncorrected satellite-based QPE products are assessed over México against a new composite gauge dataset developed from data collected during the 2004 North American Monsoon season. Analysis of daily averaged rain rates, rain-rate conditional biases, and frequency maps each show a tendency for uncorrected satellite QPE products to overestimate the frequency of moderate to heavy precipitation events (>25 mm/d) with respect to gauge-only analyses. While all products reasonably captured the large-scale distribution of rainfall, some uncorrected products, particularly those emphasizing infra-red based retrieval of rain rates, possessed comparatively low pattern correlation scores with the gauge composite. Although gauge-corrected products tended to somewhat underestimate rainfall at heavy event thresholds, significant value, in terms of overall bias correction, appears to be added to gauge-corrected QPE products versus uncorrected products. This added value, however, highlights ongoing challenges with regards to collecting and integrating surface gauge data in an operational QPE framework.

Las estimaciones cuantitativas de precipitación basadas en satélite (QPE - por sus siglas in inglés), ofrecen la posibilidad de monitorear la precipitación global casi en tiempo real. Asumiendo que su exactitud (en términos de su frecuencia e intensidad) puede ser comprobada; tales productos resultarían muy valiosos para reducir la incertidumbre en la asimilación de datos en superficie, así como en las aplicaciones en simulaciones hidrológicas y de predicción a corto plazo. Durante el experimento del Monzón Norteamericano llevado a cabo sobre partes de México en 2004, se colectaron datos de lluvia para integrar una base de datos y que sirvieron para evaluar cinco productos QPE, 2 calibrados con pluviómetros y 3 más sin calibrar. El análisis de la estimación de lluvia diaria promedio y de su desviación condicional, así como los mapas de frecuencia, muestran que los productos QPE no calibrados tienden a sobreestimar la frecuencia, de los eventos de magnitud moderada a intensa (>25 mm/d), comparado con las mediciones basadas únicamente con pluviómetros. Todos los productos capturaron razonablemente la distribución de la precipitación a larga escala, pero algunos de los productos que no fueron corregidos, particularmente los que se enfocaban en las razones de lluvia basada en mediciones por infrarrojo, mostraron valores de patrones de correlación comparativamente bajos con los obtenidos de pluviómetros. Aunque los productos calibrados normalmente tienden a subestimar la precipitación incluso a valores umbrales altos, se determinó un valor significativo de corrección de sesgo que se sumó a los productos QPE calibrados con pluviómetros, a diferencia de los no calibrados. Sin embargo, este valor resalta los retos a futuro en relación a colectar e integrar datos de pluviómetros en superficie en conjunto con los productos QPE en operación.