Journal articles on the topic 'New Zealand pigeon'

In the present study, a total of 90 cutaneous lesions samples were collected from chickens, pigeons, and turkeys farms in Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt during summer 2016. These farms suspected to be infected with Avipoxviruses (APVs).Thirty pooled samples were created (10 from chickens, 10 from pigeons and 10 from turkeys). Hyperimmune serum was prepared against standard fowlpox virus in adult white New Zealand rabbits. APV were identified in the collected samples using agar gel precipitation test (AGPT), indirect immunoperoxidase, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on 4b gene of APVs. The results revealed that out of 30 tested samples there were 16 samples (53.3%) tested positive via AGPT including, 6 chicken samples (60%) , 5 pigeon samples (50%) and 5 turkey samples (50%). while using indirect immunoperoxidase, positive results were detected in 23 samples (76.7%) including, 8 chicken samples (80%), 8 pigeon samples (80%) and 7 turkey samples (70%).The 4b gene of APVs was detected using PCR in all tested samples (100%). In conclusion, Indirect immunoperoxidase is superior over AGPT in APVs detection in collected samples from chickens, pigeons and turkeys. PCR could be efficiently used in molecular diagnosis of the virus.

Adult lampreys, Geotria australis, began to enter Pigeon Bay Stream just before 7 August 1992. Lampreys moved upstream more or less en masse, because adults were found immediately above the tidal limit in August but at the mouths of headwater streams in late October. Capture rates of adult lampreys in fyke-nets were irregular and appeared to reflect the movement of the fish through stream sections as upstream migration occurred. The daily distance travelled by lampreys individually equipped with radio transmitters declined from a high of 87.8 m to 0 m between August and November. Lampreys typically selected the spaces formed under boulders, usually 25 cm in diameter, at the bottom of riffles and at the upstream ends of pools. With only one exception, lampreys were never seen above the surface of the substratum. Movement occurred only at night and at the onset of freshes. Even though upstream movement had ceased for some two to four weeks, lampreys had not spawned and gonads remained far from mature by 30 November 1992.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) plants showing witches'-broom symptoms typical of phytoplasmas were observed from Al-Batinah, Al-Sharqiya, Al-Bureimi, and interior regions of the Sultanate of Oman. Phytoplasmas were detected from all symptomatic samples by the specific amplification of their 16S–23S rRNA gene. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), utilizing phytoplasma-specific universal primer pairs, consistently amplified a product of expected lengths when DNA extract from symptomatic samples was used as template. Asymptomatic plant samples and the negative control yielded no amplification. Restriction fragment length polymorphism profiles of PCR-amplified 16S–23S rDNA of alfalfa using the P1/P7 primer pair identified phytoplasmas belonging to peanut witches'-broom group (16SrII or faba bean phyllody). Restriction enzyme profiles showed that the phytoplasmas detected in all 300 samples belonged to the same ribosomal group. Extensive comparative analyses on P1/P7 amplimers of 20 phytoplasmas with Tru9I, Tsp509I, HpaII, TaqI, and RsaI clearly indicated that this phytoplasma is different from all the other phytoplasmas employed belonging to subgroup 16SrII, except tomato big bud phytoplasma from Australia, and could be therefore classified in subgroup 16SrII-D. The alfalfa witches'-broom (AlfWB) phytoplasma P1/P7 PCR product was sequenced directly after cloning and yielded a 1,690-bp product. The homology search showed 99% similarity (1,667 of 1,690 base identity) with papaya yellow crinkle (PapayaYC) phytoplasma from New Zealand. A phylogenetic tree based on 16S plus spacer regions sequences of 35 phytoplasmas, mainly from the Southern Hemisphere, showed that AlfWB is a new phytoplasma species, with closest relationships to PapayaYC phytoplasmas from New Zealand and Chinese pigeon pea witches'-broom phytoplasmas from Taiwan but distinguishable from them considering the different associated plant hosts and the extreme geographical isolation.

Birds using their sun compass must compensate for the apparent movement of the sun with the help of their internal clock. The movement of the sun is not uniform, being much faster around noon than near sunrise and sunset. If the sun-compass mechanisms are not adjusted to these variations, considerable errors might arise. To learn whether birds are able to take the different rates of sun azimuth change into account, we subjected homing pigeons to a 4 h fast clock-shift. The experiments were performed near Auckland, New Zealand, at a latitude of 37 degrees S, where the expected deflections for a 4 h shift in summer vary from less than 40 degrees to more than 120 degrees, depending on time of day. One group of birds was released just after sunrise or during the corresponding period in the afternoon when the expected deflections were minimal, the other group during late morning when they were maximal. The different sizes of the observed deflections - between 26 degrees and 51 degrees in the first group, and between 107 degrees and 153 degrees in the second group - clearly show that the birds' compensation mechanisms are closely tuned to the varying rates of change in sun azimuth. The results suggest that pigeons have a rather precise internal representation of the sun curve, which makes the avian sun compass a highly accurate mechanism of direction finding.

<span>The action research project described in this paper was part of an initiative to bring about change in the way courses are delivered in the vocational trades area at UNITEC New Zealand. We decided to focus on students' writing on a new Level 3 course - the Certificate in Automotive and Mechanical Engineering (C.A.M.E.) in which all participants had netbooks or laptops for the first time. We selected blogging because it introduces new possibilities in a field where one would not expect to see much written work by students. Using the </span><em>Problem Resolving Action Research</em><span> (PRAR) model (Piggot-Irvine, 2009), we approached the project in three stages. At the reconnaissance stage it was clear that writing skills did not enjoy a position of priority. We gauged the C.A.M.E. students' attitudes to writing in general, and to digital technology via the use of a questionnaire and a focus group. We then implemented new approaches to teaching using digital technology in response to perceived needs. At the evaluation stage, we collected further responses via a questionnaire and a focus group on the students' attitudes to blogging and digital technology. Key findings included that the students were not discouraged by writing tasks, nor by digital technology, and that vocational tutors may need to play a more active role in embedding writing in courses.</span>

Abstract: Dyslipidemia is an abnormal lipid metabolism, marked by the alteration of lipid fractions within the blood plasma. World Health Organization reported that dyslipidemia was associated with heart diseases in general with 4 million deaths each year. Dyslipidemia is mostly caused by unhealthy lifestyle. The change of lifestyle can be initiated by the modification of diet. Black rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a type of local rice which contains a different pigment than the regular or any other colored rice. This study aimed to identify the histological changes of rabbit aorta induced with lard and black rice extract diet. This was an experimental study with a post-test design. Subjects were three rabbits New Zealand white divided into 3 groups (A. B. And C) of 1 rabbit each. Group A was fed with standard diet (Vitamax), group B with high fat diet, meanwhile group C was fed with high fat diet added with black rice extracts. This study was carried out for 28 days, after that all the rabbits were terminated to obtain their aortas. The results showed that there were reductions of LDL and total cholesterol levels of group C. Foam cells were found in the tunica intima and tunica media in group A, B and C. However, the foam cells in group C were less than the other groups. Conclusion: Black rice diet could reduce the LDL and total cholesterol levels as well as the number of foam cells in the aorta tunica of rabbits. Keywords: aorta, rabbits, foam cells, black rice extracts, lard Abstrak: Dislipidemia adalah kelainan metabolisme lipid yang ditandai dengan peningkatan maupun penurunan fraksi lipid dalam plasma. WHO memperkirakan dislipidemia berhubungan dengan kasus penyakit jantung secara luas, serta menyebabkan empat juta kematian per tahun. Dislipidemia umumnya disebabkan karena gaya hidup. Perubahan gaya hidup dapat dilakukan mulai dari memodifikasi pola diet. Beras hitam (Oryza sativa L.) merupakan varietas lokal yang mengandung pigmen berbeda dengan beras putih atau beras berwarna lain. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendapatkan gambaran histologik aorta kelinci yang diinduksi dengan lemak babi dan diberi pakan beras hitam. Jenis penelitian ini eksperimental dengan rancangan post test. Subyek penelitian kelinci New Zealand white dibagi menjadi tiga kelompok (A, B, dan C), masing-masing kelompok terdiri dari 1 kelinci. Kelompok A diberikan pakan standar (Vitamax), kelompok B diberikan diet tinggi lemak, dan kelompok C diberikan diet tinggi lemak serta ekstrak beras hitam. Perlakuan diberikan selama 28 hari dan selanjutnya dilakukan terminasi untuk mengambil aorta kelinci dan kemudian dianalisis. Hasil penelitian memperlihatkan penurunan kadar kolesterol LDL dan total pada kelompok C. Gambaran histologik aorta kelompok A, B dan C menunjukkan adanya sel-sel busa di lapisan tunika intima dan tunika media, namun jumlah sel busa di kelompok C lebih sedikit dari kelompok yang lain. Simpulan: Ekstrak beras hitam dapat menurunkan kadar kolesterol LDL dan total, serta jumlah sel busa di lapisan aorta pada kelinci.Kata kunci: aorta, kelinci, sel busa, ekstrak beras hitam, lemak babi

Abstract: Dyslipidemia is a disorder of fat metabolism which is marked by increase of one or more fractions of fat in the blood. Due to the high rate of dyslipidemia cases, people begin to improve their lifestyle, such as consuming black rice. Black rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a local variety of rice that contains pigments which are different from other types of rice. Black rice extract is beneficial for lowering LDL cholesterol level and significantly increasing HDL cholesterol level besides its antioxidant effect against reactive oxygen species. This was an experimental posttest-only control group design. Subjects were three New Zealand White rabbits, divided into three groups. Group A was fed with standard food for rabbit; group B was fed with standard food for rabbit and fat; group C was fed with standard foot for rabbit, fat, and black rice extract for 28 days. Blood total and LDL cholesterol were examined on the first day and after 28 days of treatment. The three groups were terminated and their liver tissues were processed for histological examination. The histological results were as follows: Group one showed small fat vacuoles around the hepatocyte nuclei; group two showed large fat vacuoles around the hepatocyte nuclei, signet rings, and coalescence of fat vacuoles; group three showed fat vacuoles around the hepatocyte nuclei, a few signet rings without coalescence of fat vacuoles. Conclusion: Black rice extract could reduce fat vacuoles in liver tissue.Keywords: fat, black rice extract, dyslipidemia, fatty liverAbstrak: Dislipidemia adalah kelainan metabolisme lemak yang ditandai peningkatan salah satu atau lebih dari fraksi lemak di dalam darah. Meningkatnya kasus dislipidemia menyebabkan banyak orang beralih ke gaya hidup sehat, antara lain mengonsumsi beras hitam. Beras hitam (Oryza sativa L.) merupakan beras varietas lokal dengan pigmen yang berbeda dari beras lain oleh karena kandungan antosianin. Ekstrak beras hitam bermanfaat untuk menurunkan kadar kolesterol total dan LDL secara bermakna, meningkatkan kadar kolesterol HDL, serta memiliki efek antioksidan terhadap reactive oxygen species. Jenis penelitian ini ialah experimental posttest-only control group design. Sampel penelitian ini ialah kelinci New Zealand White sebanyak 3 ekor yang dibagi menjadi 3 kelompok. Kelompok A diberi pakan standar; kelompok B diberi pakan standar dan lemak; dan kelompok C diberi pakan standar dengan lemak dan ekstrak beras hitam selama 28 hari. Pemeriksaan kkolesterol total dan LDL dilakukan pada awal penelitian dan 28 hari setelah perlakuan 28 hari. Kelinci diterminasi untuk pengambilan jaringan hati yang kemudian dibuat sediaan histologik. Hasil pemeriksaan histologik ialah sebagai berikut: Kelompok 1 menunjukkan adanya vakuola lemak kecil-kecil disekitar nukleus; kelompok 2 menunjukkan adanya vakuola lemak yang luas di sekitar nukleus, gambaran signet ring, dan penggabungan vakuola lemak; kelompok 3 menunjukkan adanya vakuola lemak disekitar nukleus dengan beberapa gambaran signet ring tanpa penggabungan vakuola lemak. Simpulan: Ekstrak beras hitam dapat mengurangi vakuola lemak pada jaringan hatiKata kunci: lemak, ekstrak beras hitam, dislipidemia, perlemakan hati

My father killed the boar when he was 16. He’d dreamed of killing the boar for some time. My father’s brother had killed a boar when he was only fifteen. My father’s brother was five years older than him. Like most big brothers, he treated his little brother with intolerant contempt. He’d been saying for months that my father would never kill a boar. He was too weak. He was a girl. He was useless. And, just the day before, he told him he was so worthless he better finish the fence on the bottom paddock before dusk or he could expect a kicking. The family farm was gradually being cleared from the bush and the fencing slow and arduous. My father finished the fence. My father was very good with his hands and in truth a much better fencer than his brother, which didn’t help matters between them. That night my father didn’t go to sleep in the room he shared with his brother. Instead he went out into the bush past the bottom paddock, where the boars roamed, his rifle strapped over his shoulder and a knife in his ankle scabbard. The cleared ground was rough and uneven, a broken landscape created by the eruptions and outpourings of the volcanoes Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. In the bush, the terrain was even rougher, jagged rises and deep gullies, all ripe with the verdant vegetation flourishing on the rich volcanic soil. My father found himself a niche in a cliff on the edge of the bush above a small clearing near the creek. He huddled there in his woollen coat and dungarees and waited. He’d brought the dogs with him and they drove the boar out of the bush and into the clearing among the tree ferns just before dawn. By then my father was hunched on a rock, out of the way. The dogs worried the boar. They grabbed its tail, snapped at its balls, sank their teeth into its legs. The boar fought back. It lashed at them with its tusks. It caught one and tossed it into a tree fern, the dog yelping from the pain of its ripped rib cage. The boar roared, stomping and rooting. The dogs continued to circle. My father had waited all night in the cold, his rifle loaded and the safety catch off. My father was a very good shot. Better than his brother. That was why his parents had splurged on his birthday gift and bought him a .303 rifle. His brother had a .22, but he couldn’t shoot pigeons or ducks. My father, though, could use his brother’s gun to bring down a brace of ducks. Another reason his brother treated him like a piece of dirt. But out in the bush he couldn’t shoot the boar for fear of killing one of the dogs. He slipped the catch on and laid the gun down beside him. He took a knife from the scabbard on his belt. He waited until the boar was facing away from him, dogs in front and behind it. He jumped from the rock, and kicked the boar’s right hind leg out. The boar went down. My father threw himself on its back and plunged the knife in between the shoulders. Deep, to cut the spine and throat. The boar squealed, thrashed and subsided. My father thrust himself upright, knife still in blood-soaked hand, and stood away from the boar. The boar rolled over, the dogs still nipping at it. My father used the knife again, slashing deep across the boar’s throat. It screamed and lunged at him with head and tusks. He leapt away, falling over one of the dogs. The boar didn’t die straight away. It thrashed about on the ground, snorting and sighing at first, then whimpering as blood gushed out, steamed on the cold ground and coagulated in the crushed ferns. Eventually it was just panting, and slowly at that. Finally it was dead. My father shooed the dogs away. He cut off the boar’s balls and pizzle and tossed them to the dogs. He slit the boar from arse to belly and began the process of removing its warm innards, first working with the bladder to attempt to keep its contents from having too much contact with his game. His hands reached right inside to disentangle the intestines. His shirt and jacket were soaked with its blood. His hands were greasy with blood and shit. He washed himself as best as he could in the freezing water of the creek. He manoeuvred the boar so that it was half sitting on the ground then he lowered himself down and backed between the boar’s front legs, his head under its chin. Taking the weight of the beast on his shoulders, he slowly stood and began to trudge out of the bush and through the rough paddocks towards his family home on the top of the rise. The dogs kept him company for a bit, but the lure of home was too much for them and they took off up the hill in a barking frenzy. All except the one that had been tossed by the boar. It slunk at his heels, blood on its flank where the tusk had ripped through. His father and brother were waiting for him on the veranda. His brother glared and yelled at him because he had missed the morning milking of the cows, but his father told him to take the boar to the meat shack. This was behind the house. It was a rough weatherboard structure on the cool, south-side. It was secure against dogs and vermin and big enough to hang several carcases. A sheep and legs of ham were already there. The shack had a smooth stone floor with drainage channels grooved into it. My father laid the boar on the floor of the shack. He cut the hock of each hind leg just behind the tendon to make a space for the gambrel hook. He inserted the hook then used the hoist in the shack to raise the boar up to the rail that ran down the centre of the room and from which the meat hung. My father then began to skin the boar, stripping back the black bristled outer flesh as much as possible in one piece. Once it was scrubbed of the bristles and tanned, the skin would be soft and supple, suitable for a purse or for covering a saddle. He washed the carcass. Later, when the day’s farm work was over, the whole family would work on preparing and preserving the boar. His mother had already fired up the copper to boil water for the cleaning and salting. Lastly, he sawed off the boar’s head. He placed it on the butcher’s block in the shack and worked at the tusks. On this big beast the tusks were almost five inches long, curved and very sharp. They were much larger than the tusks from his brother’s boar. Once he had the tusks out of the boar’s mouth, he stripped of all but his underpants and washed himself as best as he could at the tap of the water tank at the back of the house. The water was icy and there was a stiff breeze from the snow on the mountains. It was still winter. But my father hardly noticed. He was still warm from the blood of the boar and the sight of his brother’s face when he had seen the size of it. Two months later, he took the tusks into the town of Taumaranui. He sought advice from the jeweller in the main street, who had made a speciality of working with tusks. The jeweller was known all over the King Country. The jeweller talked about how the tusks might be mounted. He suggested a band of gold, edges engraved with delicate leaves, to join the tusks base to base, so that the points formed a semicircle. Just below the points, he suggested two gold bands joined with a delicate gold chain, from which the tusks could be hung. And that is what my father agreed to. The jeweller took one month then my father claimed his tusks and took them home to mount on his bedroom wall, where his brother was forced to see them every day. My father signed up for the Air Force when he was 18. He wanted to fly away from his brother and the cows and the fencing and digging the rocks out of the paddock and that is exactly what he did. He learned to fly, something he’d dreamed of doing, same as he had dreamed of killing a boar. My father was a great dreamer. He left the tusks at home with his mother. She took them out of the bedroom them and placed them on the wall of the family room to remind her of him. His brother would turn them back to front. My father sent home photographs of himself: one from Cairo with him in tropical gear, sparkling eyes and a jaunty smile under his new moustache; another from Waddingham in his Sergeant pilot’s uniform standing with his crew in front of their Lancaster as it is loaded with bombs; a last one from an unknown place but he is wearing his Flying Officer’s uniform for he had been promoted and there are ribbons on his chest, too, but his eyes do not shine and he does not smile. As they arrived from the other side of the world in the slow mail his mother placed these photographs on the sideboard in the family room under my father’s tusks. In a mood after the Sunday roast his brother would turn them face down, saying my father wouldn’t be coming back so why did he have to be reminded of him. But he did come back, which even his brother had to acknowledge. He was 23. He was a shell of the boy who had killed the boar. He had been gutted by the war, though he showed no outward signs of the mutilation. It was all within, deep within, embedded in him like tusks in the jaw of a boar. My father began studying to be a veterinarian when he was 25. As part of his repatriation package, he was paid to study at the University of Sydney. He took the tusks down from his mother’s wall and packed them into one of the suitcases he and my mother took with them on the flying boat to Sydney. The tusks hung on the wall of the semi in Enmore they lived in for the five years he studied. Then after he had graduated they went back across the Tasman and my father began his work with animals. The animals received his ministrations with passive indifference and helped resolve the horror in his head, an unremitting memory of the perilous flights under attack across black skies and terrain, the fires unleashed by the phosphorous bombs released from his plane’s bomb bay let alone the destruction from other ordnance, the morning briefings after what was left of the squadron had returned and he learned which of his mates was no longer. He drank a bit. Maybe too much, but nobody ever sat down with him and talk about what he had been through. He had some medals and his old flying jacket and it was expected that he just get on with life. Which he did, overall. Once my parents were back in New Zealand, he set up practice in Waikato, with dairy cattle his most frequent patients. The Waikato district lies to the north of the King Country where my father had killed the boar. His family were not so far away, but he didn’t visit them that often. His brother was running things down there. His brother held vets in contempt and made that clear on the rare occasions my father did visit. Then his father, my grandfather, died. The farm went to his older brother as was the custom of those times. His widowed mother moved up to Auckland, so my father had no reason to visit the farm or his brother any more. Maybe it was only a matter of moving away from his brother but he lost and found himself in Australia. Maybe it was also the fact that a few years after he had made the move, the phone rang one night and he found he was talking to his brother’s wife. His brother had shot himself down in the bottom paddock that morning. It seems my father’s brother was never a very good farmer. From that time on my father mellowed, relaxed and began to enjoy himself. The tusks, though, were always on his bedside table, reminding him of that night he spent out in the bush and killed the boar. My father died three weeks before he was to turn 80. His death was long and painful to those of us who had to watch it, though for him it was ameliorated by painkillers and palliative care given him. It was my job to arrange the details of his funeral. Since his death was no surprise, all of his family, his three sons and his two daughters, grandsons and grand-daughters and his great grand children as well, had already gathered to say goodbye to him. But everybody was now under pressure to get back to jobs and other commitments. I spoke to the undertakers. They arranged the funeral the day following my father’s death in their own chapel. My mother wanted an open casket so my father had to be dressed in his best clothes. My mother and I selected the clothes and I took them to the undertakers. The next morning, before the ceremony, the undertakers called me and asked me to come to their rooms behind the chapel. They asked me to check that my father looked as much as we wanted him to look. He lay in the coffin, only his head and hands showing, the rest of him expertly trussed and dressed for this last display. His hair was neatly brushed and there was a bristle or two of whiskers on his cheek and chin. His eyes were closed and the skin on his face waxy, but cold from wherever he had been stored. I kissed him on his forehead. Then I placed the tusks on his chest, just under his neck and over the tie and jacket my mother had decided he should wear. My father was ready. I drove my mother down to the chapel just before 2 pm. She and I were the last people to be seated. We were both to sit in the front row. She walked straight up the aisle past the other mourners to my father’s coffin and she stood there for a moment looking at her husband of nearly sixty years. She stretched out her arm and stroked the tusks on his chest. Then she turned and I reached out and guided her to her seat. “He’ll like having them,” she whispered to me. Then we sang “There’s a hole in the bucket”. My father always liked that song. The crematorium was miles away. My father travelled there alone. Just as he had faced the boar. References De Hek, Danny. “Hunting regions—King Country: The home of wild pig hunting in New Zealand.” New Zealand’s Information Network 16 Aug. 2010 . Dick, Tim. “The boar wars.” WAtoday.com.au 13 Nov. 2008. 16 Aug. 2010 . Rushmer, Miles. “Bush surfing: That’s a New Zealand pig hunt.” ESPN Outdoors 28 Apr. 2005. 16 Aug. 2010 . Walrond, Carl. “Pig hunting.” Te Ara: The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1 Mar. 2009. 16 Aug. 2010 .