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Ammonia (NH3) emissions from broiler houses have been monitored almost exclusively while the house is populated with live birds. Many American growers utilize litter for more than one flock. Between flocks, various litter management practices are used to prepare this "built-up" litter for the next flock, including some degree of house ventilation to keep the indoor ammonia concentration low. Ammonia volatilized from the litter is emitted to the environment during the downtime. This ammonia emission should be accounted for in the determination of a facility's annual ammonia emission inventory. In the study reported here, ammonia emissions were monitored from two recently depopulated broiler houses in Pennsylvania using built-up litter managed for five consecutive flocks. Average house air temperature during the monitoring period was 10.2 °C, well below the typical temperature during flock production. Emission was calculated whenever a house exhaust fan was running. The results revealed ammonia emissions from the houses ranging from 212 to 1107 g h-1. The daily emission rate (ER) was highest on day 2, coinciding with the first harrowing of the litter, and then decreased over subsequent days. These average values during downtime were about one-quarter of the ER values for market-size birds observed during flock grow-out in the same houses over the previous year. The reduced ER during the cleanout period was anticipated, since the built-up litter was at a lower temperature than during grow-out and there was no further fresh manure addition contributing to potential ammonia volatilization. Observed variation between these two houses with identical management and construction showed that monitoring a single house may not accurately predict empty house emissions, with unidentified factors other than management being responsible for this variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particulate matter (PM) from hay and bedding contributes to respiratory disease in horses, but horses and handlers are also exposed to irritating levels of dust arising from the footing material used as the arena riding surface. Airborne total and respirable PM in two indoor equine riding arenas was quantitatively studied using gravimetric methods daring 5 to 10 h when the arenas were occupied by horse activity and over three sessions each to coincide with footing dust suppression management. Samplers were positioned approximately, 0.5 m above the arena surface, which consisted of inorganic, low-moisture, sand-soil footing in one arena and organic stall waste material footing in the second arena. Footing materials were characterized in terms of moisture content, elemental analysis, and particle size distribution. Qualitative evaluations of captured dust particle size and shape were performed using scanning electron microscopy, which determined that spherical fine particles dominated. Both total dust (0.600 mg m-3 with organic footing; 0.706 mg m-3 with inorganic footing) and respirable dust (0.327 mg m-3 with organic footing; 0.429 mg m-3 with inorganic footing) levels were lower than expected compared to data from stable dust studies. Dust detection did not vary systematically with dust suppression but rather was associated with the overall quality of the footing present in the arena. Dust detection in the arenas was best calculated according to the level of horse activity daring sampling. Total dust levels were O. 778 mg m-3 and 3.395 mg m-3 (organic and inorganic footing, respectively) when calculated based on time the arena was occupied by horses. Total dust levels were 2.5 to 3 times higher during times of horse activity faster than a walk than daring more sedentary, activity. Respirable particles were about half of the total dust during riding activity. When observing horses moving in an arena, it is readily apparent that dust is suspended in the air behind the tread of the horse's hooves, and its suspension is transient in nature. Horses in this study were apparently not exposed to a quantity of respirable dust particles in the riding arena comparable to that found in their stall environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve commercial broiler houses in the U.S. were each monitored for at least thirteen 48 h periods over the course of one year to obtain ammonia emission data. Paired repetition of houses on four farms represents current construction with variety in litter management (built-up or new litter each flock) and climate conditions (cold or mixed-humid). Ammonia concentration was determined using portable electrochemical sensors incorporating a fresh air purge cycle. Ventilation rate was determined via in-situ measurement of fan capacity, fan on-off times, and house static pressure difference. There were seasonal trends in exhaust ammonia concentration (highest in cold weather) and ventilation rates (highest in warm weather) but not for emission rate. Flocks with at least three monitoring periods (13 of 22 flocks) demonstrated similar emission rates at a given bird age among the four study farms and across the seasons. An analysis of emissions from all houses on the three farms using built-up litter resulted in predicted regression slopes of 0.028, 0.034, and 0.038 g NH3 bird-1 d-1 per day of age; the fourth farm, managed with new litter, had the lowest emission rate at 0.024 g NH3 bird- 1 d-1. The intercept of these composite relationships was influenced by litter conditions, with flocks on new litter having essentially no emissions for about six days while built-up litter flocks had emissions starting at flock placement. Data from all four farms and all flocks provided a regression slope of 0.031 (±0.001 std error) g NH3 bird-1 d-1 per day of age. Emission rate per animal unit for built-up litter flocks indicated very high emissions for the youngest birds (under 14 days of age), after which time the emissions decreased exponentially and were then relatively steady for the balance of the flock cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We set out to determine the direct costs of hospitalizations of patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis admitted to a university-affiliated tertiary care hospital and to contrast the costs of medical versus surgical inpatient care, Crohn's disease versus ulcerative colitis, and to identify dominant components of inpatient costs., Methods: We used a patient-specific case costing system at Saint Boniface General Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba, for fiscal years 1994 and 1995. We extracted all inpatients whose hospital discharge abstracts included ICD-9-CM codes 555 (Crohn's disease) and 556 (ulcerative colitis) among the top eight discharge diagnoses, and performed a chart review on all cases to ensure that the hospitalization was for inflammatory bowel disease and the diagnoses were accurate. We analyzed cases based on their disease diagnosis, primary mode of therapy associated with the hospitalization (medical vs surgical), and their major diagnosis-related group (DRG). This study evaluated direct patient care costs only and costs are expressed in Canadian dollars., Results: Of 362 hospital admissions, 325 were eligible and of these admissions 275 belonged to the digestive system DRGs. Seventy-one (37%) were admitted more than once during the 2 yr of the study, accounting for 202 (62%) of the total number of admissions. The mean cost per admission of all cases of Crohn's disease was $3,149 (95% confidence interval [CI], $2,665-$3,634) and for ulcerative colitis was $3,726 (95% CI $3,008-$4,445). Surgical therapy cases accounted for 49.8% of all admissions, 57.8% of all hospital days, and 60.5% of all costs. Patients treated surgically had more costly hospitalizations than those treated medically, particularly when analyzing only nontotal parenteral nutrition (TPN) cases. Surgical treatment admissions were significantly more costly for ulcerative colitis digestive DRG admissions than Crohn's disease. The nondigestive DRG admissions were more costly than the digestive DRGs in all categories although this was only statistically different among medically treated Crohn's disease. Patients treated medically were similarly costly whether they had Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. There was no significant difference in cost per admission among cases admitted multiple times, compared with those admitted only once. TPN cases accounted for 9.5% of cases but 27.1% of costs. TPN-associated hospitalizations were more costly than non-TPN-use hospitalizations but these costs were primarily driven by duration of stay rather than TPN use itself. For all cases, the top five cost categories in descending order were nursing unit bed-days, drugs and pharmacy, diagnostic lab tests, operating room, and diagnostic imaging and endoscopy., Conclusions: Using our system we could determine direct costs for inpatients with inflammatory bowel disease and the factors that determined increased costs. Medical therapy admissions were similarly costly between Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis; however, surgical therapy admissions were costlier among ulcerative colitis patients. Admissions for nondigestive DRGs were more costly than those for digestive DRGs. TPN use identified a sicker group of patients who remained in the hospital longer than nonusers and, not surprisingly, these were the costliest patients.

In sixty children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Hodgkin's disease or lymphosarcoma 121 determinations of the NBT test were performed in various periods of disease. All the children studied were free of infectious complications. In acute lymphoblastic leukemia the NBT test values were low during relapses of the disease and increased above normal values in the period of remission. In the group with Hodgkin's disease an increase of the NBT test values was always associated with the active stage of the disease. No significant differences between the relapse and the remission period were found in children with lymphosarcoma.

14 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 6 with lymphosarcoma were treated in 13 cures with 300-500 IU/kg bodyweight/day of L-asparaginase and in 11 cures with 501-760 IU/kg/day. An increase of all fractions of immunoglobulins with maximal values at the end of the cures was observed in the group treated with low doses. In the children receiving the high doses of this drug, an increase was observed only in the first 3 or 4 days of therapy and a decrease occurred at the end of the cure. Decreased IgM levels at the end of therapy were noted in children with acute leukemia. Anti-asparaginase antibodies occurred only in 3 children with anaphylactic shock.