A cohort study of the associations between udder conformation, milk somatic cell count, and lamb weight in suckler ewes

A cohort study of 67 suckler ewes from 1 farm was carried out from January to May 2010 to investigate associations between udder conformation, udder half milk somatic cell count (SCC), and lamb weight. Ewes and lambs were observed at lambing. Ewe health and teat condition and lamb health and weight were recorded on 4 to 5 further occasions at 14-d intervals. At each observation, a milk sample was collected from each udder half for somatic cell counting. Two weeks after lambing, ewe udder conformation and teat placement were scored. Low lamb weight was associated with ewe SCC >400,000 cells/mL (−0.73kg), a new teat lesion 14 d previously (−0.91kg), suboptimal teat position (−1.38kg), rearing in a multiple litter (−1.45kg), presence of diarrhea at the examination (−1.19kg), and rearing by a 9-yr-old ewe compared with a 6-yr-old ewe (−2.36kg). High lamb weight was associated with increasing lamb age (0.21kg/d), increasing birth weight (1.65kg/kg at birth), and increasing number of days the ewe was given supplementary feed before lambing (0.06kg/d). High udder half SCC was associated with pendulous udders (9.6% increase in SCC/cm of drop) and greater total cross-sectional area of the teats (7.2% increase of SCC/cm2). Low SCC were associated with a heavier mean litter weight (6.7% decrease in SCC/kg). Linear, quadratic, and cubic terms for days in lactation were also significant. We conclude that poor udder and teat conformation are associated with high levels of intramammary infection, as indicated by increased SCC and that both physical attributes of the udder and SCC are linked to lamb growth, suggesting that selection of suckler ewes with better udder and teat conformation would reduce intramammary infection and increase lamb growth rate

Development, characterization and dissolution behavior of calcium-aluminoborate glass wasteforms to immobilize rare-earth oxides

Calcium-aluminoborate (CAB) glasses were developed to sequester new waste compositions made of several rare-earth oxides generated from the pyrochemical reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Several important wasteform properties such as waste loading, processability and chemical durability were evaluated. The maximum waste loading of the CAB compositions was determined to be ~56.8 wt%. Viscosity and the electrical conductivity of the CAB melt at 1300 °C were 7.817 Pa·s and 0.4603 S/cm, respectively, which satisfies the conditions for commercial cold-crucible induction melting (CCIM) process. Addition of rare-earth oxides to CAB glasses resulted in dramatic decreases in the elemental releases of B and Ca in aqueous dissolution experiments. Normalized elemental releases from product consistency standard chemical durability test were <3.62·10-5 g·m-2for Nd, 0.009 g·m-2for Al, 0.067 g·m-2for B and 0.073 g·m-2for Ca (at 90, after 7 days, for SA/V = 2000m-1); all meet European and US regulation limits. After 20 d of dissolution, a hydrated alteration layer of ~ 200-nm-thick, Ca-depleted and Nd-rich, was formed at the surface of CAB glasses with 20 mol% Nd2O3whereas boehmite [AlO(OH)] secondary crystalline phases were formed in pure CAB glass that contained no Nd2O3

Revealing the role of local stress on the depolarization of BNT-BT-based relaxors

Canonical relaxors exhibit an electric-field-induced phase transition between a macroscopically nonpolar and polar phase that can be tuned from being stable at low temperature to being reversible at high temperature. The reversibility of this phase change determines the electromechanical performance and large strains can be achieved if the polar phase is intrinsically unstable. This paper is on the thermal depolarization characteristics of a BNT-BT-based multiphase relaxor ceramic observed through the transition temperature from field-induced polar to nonpolar state. It is shown that the progress of detexturization strongly depends on the crystallographic phase. In the more susceptible phase, it becomes significant about 40 °C below the macroscopically observed transition temperature. Additionally, the surface domain structure vanishes at lower temperatures than expected from both dielectric and structural measurements. The development of strong interfacial stresses aiding depolarization, and a mismatch in chemical pressure between surface and bulk, are discussed as the origins for the observed effects. Tailoring of interfacial stresses through chemical adaption of crystallographic phase fractions opens up a pathway to optimize the strain performance of actuator materials and can become a useful tool to stabilize metastable crystallographic phases as well as for property tuning in piezotronics, Mott insulators and multiferroics

Dirty Black Holes and Hairy Black Holes

An approach based on considerations of the non-classical energy momentum tensor outside the event horizon of a black hole provides additional physical insight into the nature of discrete quantum hair on black holes and its effect on black hole temperature. Our analysis both extends previous work based on the Euclidean action techniques, and corrects an omission in that work. We also raise several issues related to the effects of instantons on black hole thermodynamics and the relation between these effects and results in two dimensional quantum field theory.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Surface Passivation of CdSe Quantum Dots in All Inorganic Amorphous Solid by Forming Cd1-xZnx Se Shell

CdSe quantum dots (QDs) doped glasses have been widely investigated for optical filters, LED color converter and other optical emitters. Unlike CdSe QDs in solution, it is difficult to passivate the surface defects of CdSe QDs in glass matrix, which strongly suppress its intrinsic emission. In this study, surface passivation of CdSe quantum dots (QDs) by Cd1-xZnx Se shell in silicate glass was reported. An increase in the Se/Cd ratio can lead to the partial passivation of the surface states and appearance of the intrinsic emission of CdSe QDs. Optimizing the heat-treatment condition promotes the incorporation of Zn into CdSe QDs and results in the quenching of the defect emission. Formation of CdSe/ Cd1-xZnx Se core/graded shell QDs is evidenced by the experimental results of TEM and Raman spectroscopy. Realization of the surface passivation and intrinsic emission of II-VI QDs may facilitate the wide applications of QDs doped all inorganic amorphous materials. ? The Author(s) 2017.114Ysciescopu

Macro- to Microscale Strain Transfer in Fibrous Tissues is Heterogeneous and Tissue-Specific

AbstractMechanical deformation applied at the joint or tissue level is transmitted through the macroscale extracellular matrix to the microscale local matrix, where it is transduced to cells within these tissues and modulates tissue growth, maintenance, and repair. The objective of this study was to investigate how applied tissue strain is transferred through the local matrix to the cell and nucleus in meniscus, tendon, and the annulus fibrosus, as well as in stem cell-seeded scaffolds engineered to reproduce the organized microstructure of these native tissues. To carry out this study, we developed a custom confocal microscope-mounted tensile testing device and simultaneously monitored strain across multiple length scales. Results showed that mean strain was heterogeneous and significantly attenuated, but coordinated, at the local matrix level in native tissues (35–70% strain attenuation). Conversely, freshly seeded scaffolds exhibited very direct and uniform strain transfer from the tissue to the local matrix level (15–25% strain attenuation). In addition, strain transfer from local matrix to cells and nuclei was dependent on fiber orientation and tissue type. Histological analysis suggested that different domains exist within these fibrous tissues, with most of the tissue being fibrous, characterized by an aligned collagen structure and elongated cells, and other regions being proteoglycan (PG)-rich, characterized by a dense accumulation of PGs and rounder cells. In meniscus, the observed heterogeneity in strain transfer correlated strongly with cellular morphology, where rounder cells located in PG-rich microdomains were shielded from deformation, while elongated cells in fibrous microdomains deformed readily. Collectively, these findings suggest that different tissues utilize distinct strain-attenuating mechanisms according to their unique structure and cellular phenotype, and these differences likely alter the local biologic response of such tissues and constructs in response to mechanical perturbation