Puerperal Metritis in Crossbreed (Tarentaise X Baladi) Cows: Metabolism-Related Biochemical and Haematological changes

Breeding of crossbreed cow is of great significance in tropical and subtropical countries in order to maintain both high productivity and high ability to accommodate. To understand the haematological and biochemical changes related with puerperal metritis in crossbred cows as well as the effect of puerperal metritis on the fertility, the current study evaluated the relations of some metabolic, and biochemical changes to the puerperal metritis. After thorough clinical and gynaecological examination, blood and urine samples were collected from both the control cows (n=20) and metritis cows (n=19). Haemoglobin (Hb) concentrations and leukocytes count was determined. The concentrations of glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, albumin, total protein, urea and progesterone hormone (P4) in blood, and ketone bodies were detected in urine at the following time-points (prepartum, partum, 1-week postpartum, and 2-weeks postpartum). Cows in the metritis group showed low Hb and high leukocytes count in the postpartum period. The metritis cows showed low glucose, low cholesterol, high NEFA, and low calcium levels. Blood NEFA, glucose, triglycerides, and calcium levels change significantly in puerperal metritis in crossbreed cows

Dry Matter Accumulation in Maize as Influenced by Row Arrangement, Nitrogen and Phosphorus Levels in Maize (Zea Mays L)/ Castor (Ricinus Commumis L.) Mixture

Field experiment was conducted at the Institute for Agricultural Research farm Samaru, Zaria in the Northern Guinea Savanna zone of Nigeria during the 2007, 2008 and 2009 rainy seasons to evaluate the effect of row arrangements, nitrogen and phosphorus levels on maize dry matter  accumulation. The treatments consisted of factorial combinations of three alternate row arrangements of maize: castor in 1:1, 1:2 and 2:1, four levels of nitrogen (0, 40, 80 and 120 kg N ha-1) and three levels of phosphorus (13, 26 and 39 kg P ha-1), laid out in a split plot design and replicated three times.  Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer were assigned to the main plots while row arrangements were assigned to the sub-plots. The result showed that row arrangement significantly increased plant height and LAI only at 10 WAS in 2007and 2008. Where 1:2 recorded higher measured parameters than the other patterns. Increase in nitrogen up to 120 kg N ha-1 resulted in significantly taller plants and higher LAI in 2007 and at 10 WAS in 2009. TDM was also observed to increase throughout the years of study except at 10 WAS. The response was observed up to 120 kg N ha-1 for most of the parameters. Application of phosphorus significantly increased plant height only in 2009, LAI in 2007 and 2009, and TDM at 6 WAS in 2007 only. These parameters showed no response beyond applied 26 kg P ha-1. Based on the finding of this study, maize can be intercropped with castor with 1:2 planting pattern with application of 80 kg N ha –l plus 26 kg P ha –l. Key words; nitrogen, phosphorus, leaf area index, total dry matte

Assessment of animal hosts of pathogenic Leptospira in northern Tanzania

Funding: This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (grant number 096400/Z/11/Z; https://wellcome.ac.uk/). JEBH, VPM, JAC, and SC received support from the Research Councils UK, UK Department for International Development, and UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (grant numbers BB/J010367/1, BB/L018926, BB/L017679, BB/L018845; http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/). JAC and VPM also received support from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH)-National Science Foundation (NSF) Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease program (R01TW009237; https://www.fic.nih.gov/programs/pages/ecology-infectious-diseases.aspx). MM received support from the BBSRC East of Scotland Bioscience Doctoral Training Partnership (http://www.eastscotbiodtp.ac.uk/). MJM received support from a University of Otago Frances G. Cotter Scholarship and a University of Otago MacGibbon PhD Travel Fellowship (http://www.otago.ac.nz/). VPM and JAC received support from the US National Institutes of Health National Institute for Allergy and Infectious (grant number R01 AI121378; https://www.niaid.nih.gov/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Data Availability: Datasets supporting this manuscript are available through: http://dx.doi.org/10.5525/gla.researchdata.582. Unique sequences generated through this study are available through GenBank (accession numbers MF955862 to MF955882).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Time evolution of in vivo articular cartilage repair induced by bone marrow stimulation and scaffold implantation in rabbits

Purpose: Tissue engineering techniques were used to study cartilage repair over a 12-month period in a rabbit model. Methods: A full-depth chondral defect along with subchondral bone injury were originated in the knee joint, where a biostable porous scaffold was implanted, synthesized of poly(ethyl acrylate-co-hydroxyethyl acrylate) copolymer. Morphological evolution of cartilage repair was studied 1 and 2 weeks, and 1, 3, and 12 months after implantation by histological techniques. The 3-month group was chosen to compare cartilage repair to an additional group where scaffolds were preseeded with allogeneic chondrocytes before implantation, and also to controls, who underwent the same surgery procedure, with no scaffold implantation. Results: Neotissue growth was first observed in the deepest scaffold pores 1 week after implantation, which spread thereafter; 3 months later scaffold pores were filled mostly with cartilaginous tissue in superficial and middle zones, and with bone tissue adjacent to subchondral bone. Simultaneously, native chondrocytes at the edges of the defect started to proliferate 1 week after implantation; within a month those edges had grown centripetally and seemed to embed the scaffold, and after 3 months, hyaline-like cartilage was observed on the condylar surface. Preseeded scaffolds slightly improved tissue growth, although the quality of repair tissue was similar to non-preseeded scaffolds. Controls showed that fibrous cartilage was mainly filling the repair area 3 months after surgery. In the 12-month group, articular cartilage resembled the untreated surface. Conclusions: Scaffolds guided cartilaginous tissue growth in vivo, suggesting their importance in stress transmission to the cells for cartilage repair.This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through MAT2010-21611-C03-00 project (including the FEDER financial support), by Conselleria de Educacion (Generalitat Valenciana, Spain) PROMETEO/2011/084 grant, and by CIBER-BBN en Bioingenieria, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina. The work of JLGR was partially supported by funds from the Generalitat Valenciana, ACOMP/2012/075 project. CIBER-BBN is an initiative funded by the VI National R&D&i Plan 2008-2011, Iniciativa Ingenio 2010, Consolider Program, CIBER Actions and financed by the - Instituto de Salud Carlos III with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund.Sancho-Tello Valls, M.; Forriol, F.; Gastaldi, P.; Ruiz Sauri, A.; Martín De Llano, JJ.; Novella-Maestre, E.; Antolinos Turpín, CM.... (2015). 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Polarized Parton Distributions in the Nucleon

The distribution of the spin of the nucleon among its constituents can be parametrized in the form of polarized parton distribution functions for quarks and gluons. Using all available data on the polarized structure function $g_1(x,Q^2)$, we determine these distributions both at leading and next-to-leading order in perturbation theory. We suggest three different, equally possible scenarios for the polarized gluon distribution, which is found to be only loosely constrained by current experimental data. We examine various possibilities of measuring polarized parton distributions at future experiments.Comment: 18 pages, LATEX, 6 figures available as .uu fil

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters