Inter-observer agreement for clinical examinations of foot lesions of sheep

In sheep, the diagnosis of foot lesions is routinely based on physical examination of the hoof. Correct diagnosis is important for the effective treatment, prevention and control of both infectious and non-infectious causes of lameness. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the level of inter-observer agreement for clinical examination of ovine foot lesions. Eight observers of varying experience, training and occupation performed foot examinations on a total of 1158 sheep from 38 farms across North England and Wales. On each farm, a group of two to four observers independently examined a sample of 24 to 30 sheep to diagnose the presence or absence of specific foot lesions including white line lesions (WL), contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD), footrot (FR), inter-digital dermatitis (ID) and toe granuloma (TG). The inter-observer agreement of foot lesion assessments was examined using Fleiss kappa (κ), and Cohen's κ examined the paired agreement between the test standard observer (TSO) and each observer. Scoring differences with the TSO were examined as the percentage of scoring errors and assessed for evidence of systematic scoring bias. With the exception of WL (maximum error rate 33.3%), few scoring differences with the TSO occurred (maximum error rate 3.3%). This suggests that observers can achieve good levels of reliability when diagnosing most of the commonly observed foot conditions associated with lameness in sheep

The effect of farming system on dairy cow cleanliness in the UK and implications to udder health

The cleanliness of dairy cows was assessed using a 20 point hygiene score system at different times in the year on 14 organic and 14 conventional farms in the UK. Overall, cows were dirtier during winter housing compared to summer grazing. Farming system had no effect on cow cleanliness when cows were at grass, but when housed in the winter, organic cows were more likely to be cleaner. There was a link between cow hygiene scores and milk hygiene, with herds having lower bulk tank somatic cell counts (BTSCC) tending to have cleaner cows. This relationship was strongest for the organic herds. There was no significant link between hygiene score and Bactoscan (BS) count or mastitis incidence

Monitoring the CMS strip tracker readout system

The CMS Silicon Strip Tracker at the LHC comprises a sensitive area of approximately 200 m2 and 10 million readout channels. Its data acquisition system is based around a custom analogue front-end chip. Both the control and the readout of the front-end electronics are performed by off-detector VME boards in the counting room, which digitise the raw event data and perform zero-suppression and formatting. The data acquisition system uses the CMS online software framework to configure, control and monitor the hardware components and steer the data acquisition. The first data analysis is performed online within the official CMS reconstruction framework, which provides many services, such as distributed analysis, access to geometry and conditions data, and a Data Quality Monitoring tool based on the online physics reconstruction. The data acquisition monitoring of the Strip Tracker uses both the data acquisition and the reconstruction software frameworks in order to provide real-time feedback to shifters on the operational state of the detector, archiving for later analysis and possibly trigger automatic recovery actions in case of errors. Here we review the proposed architecture of the monitoring system and we describe its software components, which are already in place, the various monitoring streams available, and our experiences of operating and monitoring a large-scale system

Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf: Contemporary Budget and Future Influences

A carbon budget for the northwest European continental shelf seas (NWES) was synthesized using available estimates for coastal, pelagic and benthic carbon stocks and flows. Key uncertainties were identified and the effect of future impacts on the carbon budget were assessed. The water of the shelf seas contains between 210 and 230 Tmol of carbon and absorbs between 1.3 and 3.3 Tmol from the atmosphere annually. Off-shelf transport and burial in the sediments account for 60–100 and 0–40% of carbon outputs from the NWES, respectively. Both of these fluxes remain poorly constrained by observations and resolving their magnitudes and relative importance is a key research priority. Pelagic and benthic carbon stocks are dominated by inorganic carbon. Shelf sediments contain the largest stock of carbon, with between 520 and 1600 Tmol stored in the top 0.1 m of the sea bed. Coastal habitats such as salt marshes and mud flats contain large amounts of carbon per unit area but their total carbon stocks are small compared to pelagic and benthic stocks due to their smaller spatial extent. The large pelagic stock of carbon will continue to increase due to the rising concentration of atmospheric CO2, with associated pH decrease. Pelagic carbon stocks and flows are also likely to be significantly affected by increasing acidity and temperature, and circulation changes but the net impact is uncertain. Benthic carbon stocks will be affected by increasing temperature and acidity, and decreasing oxygen concentrations, although the net impact of these interrelated changes on carbon stocks is uncertain and a major knowledge gap. The impact of bottom trawling on benthic carbon stocks is unique amongst the impacts we consider in that it is widespread and also directly manageable, although its net effect on the carbon budget is uncertain. Coastal habitats are vulnerable to sea level rise and are strongly impacted by management decisions. Local, national and regional actions have the potential to protect or enhance carbon storage, but ultimately global governance, via controls on emissions, has the greatest potential to influence the long-term fate of carbon stocks in the northwestern European continental shelf

Immune and acute phase markers in exercising adults

Many reports have documented the anti-inflammatory effects of regular exercise in adults. However clinicians and researchers remain uncertain on selecting specific biomarkers that are useful for predicting or monitoring chronic inflammatory states and/or disease. Clearer identification of markers (or clusters of markers) in physically active individuals that vary from established references ranges will indicate the extent of the purported anti-inflammatory effect of regular exercise. Physically active adults were recruited from the community to participate in a prospective study comparing self-reported health outcomes and exercise activity across 150 days of dietary intervention. Of the 450 participants recruited, 64 males (mean age 37.4 y, mean BMI = 25.3) and 59 females (mean age 40.4y, mean BMI= 23.4) agreed to supply a baseline blood sample taken at rest. A total of 187 analytes were measured by standard techniques on these pre-intervention samples including 11 immune markers (cell-types and immunoglobulins) and 11 acute phase reactants (WCC, albumin, haptoglobin, CRP, C3, C4, IGF-1, transferrin, iron, ferritin & ceruloplasmin). We compared baseline values with relevent hospital reference range (RR) values where these are assumed to be more reflective of a much less physically-active community population. A total of 5 out of 11 of the acute phase reactants (Hapt, C3, Fer, Trf (for females), and ceruloplasmin (for males)) had \u3e10% of values below the low ‘cut-off end’ of the relevant RR. Three immune cell-types (CD19, CD8 & CD16/56) had \u3e10% of values below the ‘low-cut-off end’ of the relevant RR. In contrast 25% of subjects had an IgE value that exceeded the RR. Collectively our results support the notion that regular exercise or physical activity exerts an anti-inflammatory affect. The results suggest putative roles for a host of exercise associated adaptive mechanisms beyond the generally accepted role for IL-6 derived from skeletal muscle and\or visceral fat. We conclude that across a host of measures, exercising adults have values for immune and acute phase reactants largely within, but at the non-inflammatory ‘end’ of clinical reference ranges

Accelerated swell testing of artificial sulfate bearing lime stabilised cohesive soils

This paper reports on the physico-chemical response of two lime stabilised sulfate bearing artificial soils subject to the European Accelerated Volumetric Swell Test (EN13286-49). At various intervals during the test, a specimen was removed and subject to compositional and microstructural analysis. Ettringite was formed by both soils types, but with significant differences in crystal morphology. Ettringite crystals formed from kaolin based soils were very small, colloidal in size and tended to form on the surface of other particles. Conversely, those formed from montmorillonite were relatively large and typically formed away from the surface in the pore solution. It was concluded that the mechanism by which ettringite forms is determined by the hydroxide ion concentration in the pore solution and the fundamental structure of the bulk clay. In the kaolin soil, ettringite forms by a topochemical mechanism and expands by crystal swelling. In the montmorillonite soil, it forms by a through-solution mechanism and crystal growth

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation

Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO