Use of vaccines and factors associated with their uptake variability in dogs, cats and rabbits attending a large sentinel network of veterinary practices across Great Britain

Vaccination remains a mainstay of companion animal population health. However, how vaccine use at a population level complies with existing guidelines is unknown. Here we use electronic health records to describe vaccination in dogs, cats and rabbits attending a large sentinel network of UK veterinary practices. In total, 77.9% (95% CI: 77.6-78.1) of animals had recorded vaccinations. The percentage of animals with recorded vaccinations was higher in dogs, neutered animals, in insured dogs and cats and in purebred dogs. Vaccination rates varied in different regions of Great Britain in all species. Dogs and cats belonging to owners living in less deprived areas of England and Scotland were more likely to be recorded as vaccinated. In the vaccinated population, cats received more core vaccines per year of life (0.86) than dogs (0.75), with feline leukaemia vaccines almost as frequent as core vaccines. In dogs, leptospira vaccines were more frequent than core vaccines. This descriptive study suggests a substantial proportion of animals are not benefiting from vaccine protection. For the first time, we identify potential factors associated with variations in recorded vaccination frequency, providing a critical baseline against which to monitor future changes in companion animal vaccination and evidence to inform future targeted health interventions

Calculating rutting of some thin flexible pavements from repeated load triaxial test data

This paper describes parts of a Nordic pavement performance prediction model study (at the project level of the NordFoU project) where a material performance model, developed at VTT research centre in Finland, has been selected as a mean of calculating the permanently accumulated (plastic) deformation (i.e. rutting) of unbound granular materials (UGMs) in flexible pavements subjected to trafficking. The paper aims to assess the suitability of this VTT model application to Swedish roads comprising thin asphalt layers over a thick UGM base. To achieve this, the VTT model has been used to calculate the deformations of two tested road sections in Sweden. These calculations have been compared with another permanent deformation model for UGM (the Gidel model) and with rutting measurements from trafficked pavements. It is shown from this study that the applied rutting prediction method with VTT model is capable of predicting the development of rutting depth despite some overestimations

MSSM Higgs-Boson Production at Hadron Colliders with Explicit CP Violation

Gluon fusion is the main production mechanism for Higgs bosons with masses up to several hundred GeV in $pp$ collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We investigate the effects of the CP-violating phases on the fusion process including both the sfermion-loop contributions and the one-loop induced CP-violating scalar-pseudoscalar mixing in the minimal supersymmetric standard model. With a universal trilinear parameter assumed, every physical observable involves only the sum of the phases of the universal trilinear parameter $A$ and the higgsino mass parameter $\mu$. The phase affects the lightest Higgs-boson production rate significantly through the neutral Higgs-boson mixing and, for the masses around the lightest stop-pair threshold, it also changes the production rate of the heavy Higgs bosons significantly through both the stop and sbottom loops and the neutral Higgs-boson mixing.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures. Some references and comments added. Typos corrected. To appear in Phys. Rev.

The Higgs Boson Production Cross Section as a Precision Observable?

We investigate what can be learned at a linear collider about the sector of electroweak symmetry breaking from a precise measurement of the Higgs boson production cross section through the process e+e- -> hZ. We focus on deviations from the Standard Model arising in its minimal supersymmetric extension. The analysis is performed within two realistic future scenarios, taking into account all prospective experimental errors on supersymmetric particle masses as well as uncertainties from unknown higher order corrections. We find that information on tan beta and M_A could be obtained from a cross section measurement with a precision of 0.5 - 1 %. Alternatively, information could be obtained on the gaugino mass parameters M_2 and mu if they are relatively small, M_2, mu approximately 200 GeV.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Discussion on experimental errors enlarged, references added and updated. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

The Higgs - photon - Z boson coupling revisited

We analyze the coupling of CP-even and CP-odd Higgs bosons to a photon and a Z boson in extensions of the Standard Model. In particular, we study in detail the effect of charged Higgs bosons in two-Higgs doublet models, and the contribution of SUSY particle loops in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. The Higgs-$\gamma Z$ coupling can be measured in the decay $Z \to \gamma$+Higgs at $e^+e^-$ colliders running on the Z resonance, or in the reverse process Higgs $\to Z \gamma$ with the Higgs boson produced at LHC. We show that a measurement of this coupling with a precision at the percent level, which could be the case at future $e^+e^-$ colliders, would allow to distinguish between the lightest SUSY and standard Higgs bosons in large areas of the parameter space.Comment: 18 pages LaTex + 7 figures (ps). Typo corrected in eq.(5

Small animal disease surveillance:Pruritus and Pseudomonas skin infections

Report Summary: • Presentation for investigation and/or treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) disease comprised 3.0 per cent, 2.0 per cent and 1.9 per cent of total dog, cat and rabbit consultations respectively between 1 April 2017 and 31 October 2018 • Diarrhoea and vomiting without blood were the most frequently reported GI disease clinical signs (43.0 and 36.6 per cent in dogs, and 35.9 and 37.7 per cent in cats respectively) • The proportion of GI disease consultations which prescribed antibiotics authorised for systemic administration (including oral and injectable formulations) decreased between April 2014 and October 2018 • The proportion of GI disease consultations which dispensed nutraceutical products advertised as being effective at managing primary GI disease (including prebiotics, probiotics etc.) increased between April 2014 and October 2018 • Between January 2011 and August 2018, 13.5 per cent of 20,194 feline faecal samples submitted to UK-based diagnostic laboratories tested positive for presence of Tritrichomonas foetus • The proportion of feline sample submissions testing positive for T.foetus decreased between 2011 and 201

Top-squark searches at the Tevatron in models of low-energy supersymmetry breaking

We study the production and decays of top squarks (stops) at the Tevatron collider in models of low-energy supersymmetry breaking. We consider the case where the lightest Standard Model (SM) superpartner is a light neutralino that predominantly decays into a photon and a light gravitino. Considering the lighter stop to be the next-to-lightest Standard Model superpartner, we analyze stop signatures associated with jets, photons and missing energy, which lead to signals naturally larger than the associated SM backgrounds. We consider both 2-body and 3-body decays of the top squarks and show that the reach of the Tevatron can be significantly larger than that expected within either the standard supergravity models or models of low-energy supersymmetry breaking in which the stop is the lightest SM superpartner. For a modest projection of the final Tevatron luminosity, L = 4 fb-1, stop masses of order 300 GeV are accessible at the Tevatron collider in both 2-body and 3-body decay modes. We also consider the production and decay of ten degenerate squarks that are the supersymmetric partners of the five light quarks. In this case we find that common squark masses up to 360 GeV are easily accessible at the Tevatron collider, and that the reach increases further if the gluino is light.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures; references adde

Lepton Flavour Violating Leptonic/Semileptonic Decays of Charged Leptons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We consider the leptonic and semileptonic (SL) lepton flavour violating (LFV) decays of the charged leptons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). The formalism for evaluation of branching fractions for the SL LFV charged-lepton decays with one or two pseudoscalar mesons, or one vector meson in the final state, is given. Previous amplitudes for the SL LFV charged-lepton decays in MSSM are improved, for instance the $\gamma$-penguin amplitude is corrected to assure the gauge invariance. The decays are studied not only in the model-independent formulation of the theory in the frame of MSSM, but also within the frame of the minimal supersymmetric SO(10) model within which the parameters of the MSSM are determined. The latter model gives predictions for the neutrino-Dirac Yukawa coupling matrix, once free parameters in the model are appropriately fixed to accommodate the recent neutrino oscillation data. Using this unambiguous neutrino-Dirac Yukawa couplings, we calculate the LFV leptonic and SL decay processes assuming the minimal supergravity scenario. A very detailed numerical analysis is done to constrain the MSSM parameters. Numerical results for SL LFV processes are given, for instance for tau -> e (mu) pi0, tau -> e (mu) eta, tau -> e (mu) eta', tau -> e (mu) rho0, tau -> e (mu) phi, tau -> e (mu) omega, etc.Comment: 36 pages, 3 tables, 5 .eps figure

Importance of exposure route for behavioural responses in Lumbriculus variegatus Müller (Oligochaeta: Lumbriculida) in short-term exposures to Pb

Abstract Goal, Scope and Background Lumbriculus variegatus Müller (Oligochaeta), a common freshwater sediment-dweller, has frequently been used in toxicokinetic studies, although has been less used in ecotoxicity tests. Methods For the first time the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor® (MFB) was applied in a short-term whole-sediment toxicity test. The MFB automatically and quantitatively recorded the spontaneous locomotory behaviour of Lumbriculus variegatus in exposures with two compartments, water and sediment. The study questioned, whether the animals altered their locomotion depending on the compartment which was spiked with lead (Pb). Results and Discussion As in the exposures to Pb-contaminated water/clean sediment, the animals exposed to Pb-contaminated sediment/clean water showed higher activities in intermediate Pb-concentrations. This indicates, that spontaneous locomotory activity is affected by Pb-concentrations at sublethal levels regardless of whether the Pb-concentration is found in the water or in the sediment, because these animals use both environmental compartments simultaneously. However, within the same Pb-levels, the animals showed higher locomotory activity in contaminated water compared with contaminated sediment. This indicates a possible tendency to withdraw from (‘avoidance’) contaminated water into the clean sediment compartment, whereas there was no withdrawal from contaminated sediment into clean water. The latter might be explained by the fact that withdrawal from sediment to water might increase the risk of predation and drift in nature, whereas retracting to sediment might provide shelter. Conclusions The study showed that spontaneous locomotory responses of L. variegatus to Pb depend on whether the water or sediment is contaminated. The study also concluded that the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor® can be applied effectively in sediment toxicity testing. Recommendations and Perspectives More emphasis should be given to the interactions of water/sediment in sediment ecotoxicity tests to better simulate field conditions and increase ecological realism in risk assessment, especially as quantitative recording methods exisit

Search for Charged Higgs Bosons at LEP

A search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons is performed with the L3 detector at LEP using data collected at centre-of-mass energies between 189 and 209GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 629.4/pb. Decays into a charm and a strange quark or into a tau lepton and its neutrino are considered. No significant excess is observed and lower limits on the mass of the charged Higgs boson are derived at the 95% confidence level. They vary from 76.5 to 82.7GeV, as a function of the H->tv branching ratio