THE COULTER PRINCIPLE: FOR THE GOOD OF HUMANKIND

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 made Wallace H. Coulter abruptly comprehend the critical need for rapid and accurate blood-cell counts in providing care for victims of radiation exposure. This thesis documents the unwritten story of his journey from that comprehension through his invention and implementation of the Coulter Principle, its commercialization in the first widely available automated blood-cell counter, and elaboration of that ground-breaking counter into increasingly sophisticated instrumentation for analysis not only of blood cells, but of particles involved in many other scientific disciplines. International cold-war politics and the burgeoning of increasingly powerful nuclear weapons were important motivations for him throughout the period here considered; these are summarized as context for his developmental activities. The Coulter Principle states that if a suspension of blood cells is passed through a small restriction simultaneously with an electric current, the cells will modulate the current, so enabling them to be counted and sized. Today, hematology analyzers based on the Coulter Principle daily process blood samples from many more patients than the number of casualties from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. In closing, significant recognitions of Coulter’s contributions are summarized

Frequency of unsuccessful milkings in automatic milking rotary

Developments in milk production are heading towards fewer but larger herds where the milking process is often fully automated. Automatic milking systems were launched in the 1990’s and in the year 2010 the Automatic Milking Rotary (AMR) was introduced. As a rule there are no supervision personnel present during the milking event in systems with automatic milking. This means that there is a risk that cows can be incompletely milked in one or more udder quarters, for example if the robots fail in attaching the teat cups or if the cow kicks off the milking unit. Incomplete or missed milking can lead to reduced milk yield and/or milk leakage, which can later lead to mastitis. This is important to each dairy farmer’s milk production as well as the udder health of each individual cow. The present study was composed of two experiments. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to investigate the frequency and cause of unsuccessful or incomplete milking in the AMR. Experiment 1 was carried out on a herd of 171 cows and included eight milkings (four days) and one day for recording udder conformation and assessing teat position and condition. The frequency and causes of unsuccessful or incomplete milking were registered in a template. In addition, the possibility of a relationship between milk somatic cell count (SCC) and kick off of the teat cups was investigated. The results of Experiment 1 showed a relationship between udder conformation and failed attachment of teat cups. The results also showed that 82.6% of the milkings in AMR were successful in the 1st milking attempt. A proportions of 37.9% of the failures at cluster/quarter level at 1st milking were repeated at the 2nd milking attempt. The results also showed that 95% of the individual quarters were successfully attached at the 1st milking attempt and that approximately 96% of the milkings, at udder level, were successful when outcome of the 1st and 2nd milking attempts were combined. The primary cause of unsuccessful milkings in the 1st and 2nd milking attempts was failed attachment of the teat cups, mainly on the right back teat. A problem with the automatically recorded data was that 43 milkings were noted as approved by the AMR during the 1st milking attempt even though disturbances, e.g. failed attachment of teat cups, kick off of milking unit, and/or tramp on milking tube, occurred according to the manual monitoring. When these 43 milkings were added to the unsuccessful milkings after the 2nd attempt (60 milkings), the final milking result was 93.1% successful milkings at udder level. Experiment 2 was based on two different treatments, Treatment A and Treatment B, with 11 cows in each treatment group. The cows in the study had SCC ≤ 150 000 cells/ml milk per udder quarter. The purpose of the study was to investigate how one or three purposely omitted milkings on one udder quarter impacted milk yield, lactose content, and milk SCC. The design was a within udder comparison. One udder quarter (right front) was exposed to a treatment, while the adjacent quarter (left front) was the control quarter. Differences between treated and control udder quarter was calculated and tested if the difference differed from zero. Treatment A was carried out for 28 milkings (14 days) and Treatment B for 36 milkings (18 days). Treatment A was based on one purposely omitted milking on right front udder quarter and Treatment B three omitted milkings on right front right udder quarter with three milkings between the omitted milkings. At udder quarter level, a significant difference between front udder quarters were observed in milk yield, lactose content and SCC during the first days after treatment, where milk yield and lactose content decreased while SCC increased in the treated udder quarter. The difference between quarters disappeared at the end of the experimental period. The present study shows the importance for all four udder quarters to be completely milked on every milking occasion. Further development of the AMR and further research on the effects and recovery period of unsuccessful and incomplete milking is needed. Future research should involve a greater number of cows and a wider variation in udder health.Utvecklingen inom mjölkproduktionen går mot färre men större besättningar där mjölkningen ofta är helt automatiserad. Automatiska mjölkningssystem lanserades under 1990-talet och år 2010 lanserades automatisk mjölkningskarusell (AMR). I regel finns inte någon övervakande personal närvarande vid automatisk mjölkning, vilket kan medföra att kon riskerar att bli ofullständigt mjölkad på en eller flera juverdelar om exempelvis maskinen misslyckas med spenkoppspåsättning eller om kon sparkar av mjölkningsorganet. Ofullständig eller missad mjölkning kan leda till minskad mjölkmängd och/eller mjölkläckage som i senare skede kan orsaka mastit. Detta har betydelse för den enskilda mjölkbondens mjölkproduktion och den enskilda kons juverhälsa. Studien bestod av två delstudier. Syftet med delstudie 1 var att undersöka frekvens och anledning till misslyckad eller ofullständig mjölkning i AMR. Delstudie 1 genomfördes på 171 kor och inkluderade 8 mjölkningar (4 dagar) samt en dag för registrering av juverform och spenbedömning. Antal och orsak till misslyckade mjölkningar noterades. Dessutom undersöktes ett eventuellt samband mellan mjölkens celltal (SCC) och avspark av mjölkningskoppar. Resultatet av delstudie 1 visade att ett samband mellan juverform och misslyckad påsättning av mjölkningsorganet kunde noteras. Resultatet visade även att ca 85,5% av mjölkningarna i AMR var lyckade vid första försöket och att 95 % av de individuella spenarna var korrekt påsatta vid första försöket. Den främsta anledningen till misslyckade mjölkningar i första och andra mjölkningsförsöket var misslyckad påsättning av mjölkningsorgan, främst på höger bakspene. Vidare visade studien att 37.9 % av de misslyckade försöken upprepades vid andra försöket. När antalet lyckade mjölkningar vid andra mjölkningsförsöket lades till dem som lyckades vid första försöket blev resultatet ca 96% lyckade mjölkningar på heljuvernivå. Dock noterades 43 mjölkningar som godkända av AMR vid första försöket även då misslyckad påsättning av mjölkningskoppar, avspark av mjölkningsorgan eller tramp på mjölkslang förekom, enligt den manuella övervakningen av mjölkningarna i försöket. När dessa 43 mjölkningar adderas till de misslyckade mjölkningarna efter andra mjölkningstillfället (60 mjölkningar), blev slutresultat 93,1% lyckade mjölkningar. Delstudie 2 bestod av två behandlingar, A och B, med 11 kor i vardera behandlingsgruppen. Korna som ingick i studien hade mjölk SCC på ≤ 150 000 celler/ml i enskild juverdel. Syftet var att undersöka hur en eller tre avsiktligt överhoppade mjölkningar på en juverdel påverkar mjölkmängd, laktoshalt samt mjölkens SCC. Designen på delstudie 2 var en jämförelse mellan juverdelarna. En juverdel (höger fram) utsattes för en behandling och motsvarande juverdel (vänster fram) var kontroll. Differensen mellan den behandlande juverdelen och kontrolljuverdelen testades för att se om den skilde sig från noll. Behandling A pågick över 28 mjölkningar (14 dagar) och för behandling B över 36 mjölkningar (18 dagar). Behandling A bestod av en avsiktligt överhoppad mjölkning och behandling B bestod av tre avsiktligt överhoppade mjölkningar med tre mjölkningar mellan de överhoppade mjölkningarna. Resultat för både behandling A och B visade att när jämförelser gjordes på juverdelsnivå, kunde en signifikant skillnad ses mellan de främre juverdelarna för mjölkmängd, laktoshalt och SCC under de första dagarna efter behandlingen, där mjölkmängd och laktoshalt minskades och SCC ökade i den behandlade juverdelen. Skillnaden mellan juverdelarna försvann vid slutet av försöksperioden. Studien visar betydelsen av att varje juverdel blir fullständigt mjölkade vid varje mjölkningstillfälle. Vidare utveckling av AMR samt vidare forskning på effekterna och återhämtningsperiod vid misslyckad eller ofullständig mjölkning behövs. Framtida forskning bör omfatta fler antal kor samt större variation i juverhälsa

Biomimetic Based Applications

The interaction between cells, tissues and biomaterial surfaces are the highlights of the book "Biomimetic Based Applications". In this regard the effect of nanostructures and nanotopographies and their effect on the development of a new generation of biomaterials including advanced multifunctional scaffolds for tissue engineering are discussed. The 2 volumes contain articles that cover a wide spectrum of subject matter such as different aspects of the development of scaffolds and coatings with enhanced performance and bioactivity, including investigations of material surface-cell interactions