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In commercial dairy cows, the conditions in which they are kept may lead to negative emotional states associated with the development of chronic physiological and behavioural abnormalities that may compromise their health, welfare and productivity. Such states include fear, stress or anxiety. Behavioural rather than physiological tests are more likely to be used to indicate these states but can be limited by their subjectivity, need for specialised infrastructure and training (of the operator and sometimes the animal) and the time-consuming nature of data collection. Popularly used physiological measures such as blood cortisol may be more appropriate for acute rather than chronic assessments but are easily confounded, for example by a response to the act of measurement per se. More sophisticated physiological measures such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) may be impractical due to cost and time and, like blood cortisol, have the confounding associated with the act of measurement. By contrast, infrared thermography of external body surfaces is remote, non-invasive, easily repeated and follows an objective methodology, allowing longitudinal data acquisition for the inference of changes in chronic emotional state over time. The objective of this review was to investigate the potential of infrared thermography to measure cow emotions. In lactating dairy cows, maximum IRT of the eyes and coronary band of the limbs seem to be most representative of thermoregulatory changes, which are repeatable and correlate with behavioural and physiological indicators of emotional state. IRT methodologies have the potential to become a fundamental tool for the objective assessment of welfare state in dairy cows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to rank potential drivers of cow productivity and welfare in tropical smallholder dairy farms (SDFs) in Vietnam. Forty-one variables were collected from 32 SDFs located in four geographically diverse dairy regions, with eight SDFs per region. Twelve variables, including milk yield (MILK), percentages of milk fat (mFA), protein (mPR), dry matter (mDM), energy-corrected milk yield (ECM), heart girth (HG), body weight (BW), ECM per 100 kg BW (ECMbw), body condition score (BCS), panting score (PS), inseminations per conception (tAI), and milk electrical resistance (mRE) of cows, were fitted as outcome variables in the models. Twenty-one other variables describing farm altitude, housing condition, and diet for the cows, cow genotypes, and cow physiological stage were fitted as explanatory variables. Increased farm altitude was associated with increases in ECM and mRE and with decreases in PS and tAI (P < 0.05). Increases in roof heights and percentage of shed side open were associated with increases in ECM, mFA, and mDM (P < 0.05). Increased dry matter intake and dietary densities of dry matter and fat were associated with increased MILK, ECM, and ECMbw and decreased tAI (P < 0.05). Increased dietary lignin density was associated with increased PS. Increased genetic proportion of Brown Swiss in the herd was associated with increased MILK, ECM, and ECMbw (P < 0.05). Thus, to improve cow productivity and welfare in Vietnamese SDFs, the following interventions were identified for testing in future cause-effect experiments: increasing floor area per cow, roof heights, shed sides open, dry matter intake, dietary fat density, and the genetic proportion of Brown Swiss and decreasing dietary lignin density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used spontaneous behaviours to assess response to dry-off involving abrupt dietary and milking frequency changes, followed by regrouping, after the last milking in 15 clinically healthy Holstein-Frisian cows kept outdoors. Moreover, we explored the potential of infrared thermography to detect eye temperature variations possibly induced by dry-off. On days − 1, 0, 1 and 2 relative to dry-off, we recorded whether cows vocalised during feed delivery; ate fresh feed within 5 min; and mean maximum eye temperature at approximately 1 h after feed delivery. On days 1 and 2, cows were more likely to eat fresh feed compared to days − 1 and 0. No difference in likelihood of vocalising was found. Compared to day − 1, eye temperature was substantially higher on days 0 and 2. Collectively, the results suggest that cows responded, both behaviourally and physiologically, to the abrupt dry-off management. The interpretation of the current findings deserves further investigation using larger sample sizes, more controlled environments and further behavioural, physiological, cognitive and clinical measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrared thermography is a tool to investigate the welfare of cattle. This study aimed to identify a sampling strategy for recording infrared thermograms in dairy cows, in order to most efficiently determine biologically relevant changes in the maximum infrared temperature (IRT) of the eyes and coronary band of forelimbs. Thirty-one dairy cows were used for the study. They were assessed with four replicates of thermograms for each of the head and lower forelimb per cow for 6 mostly consecutive days (sessions). The data obtained were subjected to random effects Analysis of Variance which was used to estimate the variance components for this sampling model, using maximum IRT of both eyes; (left + right eye)/2 and both limbs; (left + right coronary band of forelimb)/2 as dependant variables. The variance components were used to calculate least significant differences (LSD) between two theoretical treatment groups under different sampling scenarios. Analysis showed that there was minimal improvement in precision beyond 2 thermograms within a session but there was improvement with increasing the number of sessions from 2 to 3. The LSD of both eyes and both limbs reached a biologically relevant difference (0.4 and 0.9 °C, respectively) at a minimum number of 14 - 16 cows monitored for 2 consecutive thermography sessions, or 10 – 12 cows for 3 sessions. We conclude that no more than 2 replicate IRT measures are required per session but that measuring on 3 consecutive days should be considered, depending on whether time or number of cows used is the primary limitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endowment inspired by US Ivy League model must be accompanied by other reforms, critics say. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government’s university endowment scheme is a ‘big moment’ for Japanese science, says Takahiro Ueyama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Body weight-supported treadmill training using positive air pressure has become increasingly popular, but little is known about the metabolic adaptations to these treadmills. This study aimed to evaluate the existence and length of a metabolic accommodation period to running on a lower body positive pressure (LBPP) treadmill. Methods: A total of eight recreational runners (5 males and 3 females) ran 15 min trials (5 min at 50, 70, and 90 % body weight) on the AlterG Anti-gravity P200 treadmill. No verbal instruction was given on how to run on the device. Their trial pace corresponded to 70-80 % of their velocity measured at $$\dot{V}$$ Omax on a standard treadmill. Trials were continued until no significant metabolic change was observed. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was used to analyze changes in $$\dot{V}$$ O across trials and levels of unloading. Results: Participants completed 7 trials. Comparing trial 1 to the average of trials 5, 6, and 7, $$\dot{V}$$ O decreased from 29.6 ± 3.8 to 23.6 ± 4.4 ml/kg/min at 50 % body weight (~20 % reduction), from 33.7 ± 4.5 to 29.2 ± 5.1 ml/kg/min at 70 % body weight (~13 % reduction), and from 41.0 ± 7.7 to 36.6 ± 5.6 ml/kg/min at 90 % body weight (~11 % reduction). No significant reduction occurred after trial 4 at any level of support. Conclusions: An accommodation effect of running on a treadmill with LBPP was observed and reached after 60 min of running (4 trials of 15 min). The accommodation effect was the largest at the greatest level of body weight support. These data suggest the importance of an accommodation period for reliable measures of metabolic cost to be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our research aims to identify children's communicative strategies when faced with the task of solving a geometric puzzle in CSCL contexts. We investigated how to identify and trace distributed cognition in problem-solving interactions based on discursive cohesion to objects, participants, and prior discursive content, and geometric and cooperative concepts. We report on the development of a method of coding and representation of verbal and gestural content for multimodal interactional data and initial application of this framework to a microethnographic case study of two small groups of 7 and 8-year-old learners solving tangram manipulatives in physical and virtual desktop settings. We characterize the establishment of shared reference points as 'coreferences' which cohere on object, para, and meta-levels through both gesture and speech. Our analysis foregrounds how participants establish common referential ground to facilitate collaborative problem solving with either computer-supported or physical puzzles. Using multimodal analysis and a theoretical framework we developed to study interactional dynamics, we identified patterns of focus, dominance, and coalition formation as they relate to coreferentiality on multiple levels. Initial findings indicate increased communication and cohesion to higher-level principles in the virtual tangram puzzle-solving setting. This work contributes to available models of multimodal analysis of distributed cognition using current manipulative technologies for early childhood mathematics education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve simple sequence repeat (SSRs) loci were used to evaluate genetic diversity of 109 isolates of Macrophomina phaseolina collected from different geographical regions and host species throughout the United States (US). Genetic diversity was assessed using Nei’s minimum genetic distance, and the usefulness of each locus was determined by calculating the polymorphism information content (PIC). A total of 98 alleles were detected and of these 31 were unique to individual genotypes. Eight of twelve loci were highly informative with PIC values greater than 0.50. The majority of pairwise comparisons of genetic distance were greater than 0.60 indicating moderate to high genetic diversity. Dendrograms based on the genetic dissimilarities were created for the 109 isolates of which 79 were from soybean. Some clustering by host and geography was noted, but, the dendrograms generally grouped isolates independent of host or geography. Additionally, sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) for 10 isolates revealed that all of these isolates were 99% similar. Three SSR loci from M. phaseolina were cross amplified in other genera in the Botryosphaeriaceae. This was the first study of genotyping and assessing genetic diversity of M. phaseolina isolates collected from a widespread host and geographic range across the US with SSRs . With an additional 34 loci publically available for M. phaseolina, the results indicate that previously developed SSRs from one species can be used in future population, ecological, and genetic studies of M. phaseolina and other genera within the Botryosphaeriaceae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies of gesture in a subject who has lost proprioception and the sense of touch from the neck down show that specific aspects of gesture remain normal despite abnormal motor processes for instrumental movement. The experiments suggest that gesture, as a linguistic phenomenon, is not reducible to instrumental movement. They also support and extend claims made by Merleau-Ponty concerning the relationship between language and cognition. Gesture, as language, contributes to the accomplishment of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To apply a simple and flexible manufacturing technique, two-photon polymerisation (2PP), to the fabrication of microneedle (MN) array templates with high precision and low cost in a short time. Methods: Seven different MN array templates were produced by 2PP 3D printing, varying needle height (900–1300 μm), shape (conical, pyramidal, cross-shaped and with pedestal), base width (300–500 μm) and interspacing (100–500 μm). Silicone MN array moulds were fabricated from these templates and used to produce dissolving and hydrogel-forming MN arrays. These polymeric MN arrays were evaluated for their insertion in skin models and their ability to deliver model drugs (cabotegravir sodium and ibuprofen sodium) to viable layers of the skin (ex vivo and in vitro) for subsequent controlled release and/or absorption. Results: The various templates obtained with 2PP 3D printing allowed the reproducible fabrication of multiple MN array moulds. The polymeric MN arrays produced were efficiently inserted into two different skin models, with sharp conical and pyramidal needles showing the highest insertion depth values (64–90% of needle height). These results correlated generally with ex vivo and in vitro drug delivery results, where the same designs showed higher drug delivery rates after 24 h of application. Conclusion: This work highlights the benefits of using 2PP 3D printing to prototype variable MN array designs in a simple and reproducible manner, for their application in drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]