An Evaluation of a Behaviour Assessment to Determine the Suitability of Shelter Dogs for Rehoming

We evaluated a scheme for assessing shelter dog behaviour, which used 28 tests and rated responses from 0 (positive response) to 5 (fear, tonic immobility, or escape attempts). The assessment was evaluated for 236 dogs, and was repeated by a different assessor for 39 dogs approximately 80 days after rehoming to determine relevance of individual test components. A new owner survey evaluated satisfaction with the dog. A total of 130 of 236 dogs passed (score ≤ 70), 24 scored 71–80 (referred for behavioural modification), and 82 (score > 80) failed. Scores were mainly unaffected by dog type and environmental variables, but decreased if dog faeces from a previous test was present in the arena during a test. Shelter tests only correlated with repeat tests if there was no direct contact with assessors. Adopters were satisfied with their dogs, despite reporting some behaviour problems. The shelter assessment was therefore robust against most outside influences but did not predict responses to people well

Penrose Diagram for a Transient Black Hole

A Penrose diagram is constructed for a spatially coherent black hole that smoothly begins an accretion, then excretes symmetrically as measured by a distant observer, with the initial and final states described by a metric of Minkowski form. Coordinate curves on the diagram are computationally derived. Causal relationships between space-time regions are briefly discussed. The life cycle of the black hole demonstrably leaves asymptotic observers in an unaltered Minkowski space-time of uniform conformal scale.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, spelling correction

Lubiprostone ameliorates the cystic fibrosis mouse intestinal phenotype

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the <it>CFTR </it>gene that impair the function of CFTR, a cAMP-regulated anion channel. In the small intestine loss of CFTR function creates a dehydrated, acidic luminal environment which is believed to cause an accumulation of mucus, a phenotype characteristic of CF. CF mice have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, an altered innate immune response, and impaired intestinal transit. We investigated whether lubiprostone, which can activate the CLC2 Cl^-channel, would improve the intestinal phenotype in CF mice.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>Cftr^tm1UNC</it>(CF) and wildtype (WT) littermate mice on the C57BL/6J background were used. Lubiprostone (10 μg/kg-day) was administered by gavage for two weeks. Mucus accumulation was estimated from crypt lumen widths in periodic acid-Schiff base, Alcian blue stained sections. Luminal bacterial load was measured by qPCR for the bacterial 16<it>S </it>gene. Gastric emptying and small intestinal transit in fasted mice were assessed using gavaged rhodamine dextran. Gene expression was evaluated by Affymetrix Mouse430 2.0 microarray and qRT-PCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Crypt width in control CF mice was 700% that of WT mice (<it>P </it>< 0.001). Lubiprostone did not affect WT crypt width but, unexpectedly, increased CF crypt width 22% (<it>P </it>= 0.001). Lubiprostone increased bacterial load in WT mice to 490% of WT control levels (<it>P </it>= 0.008). Conversely, lubiprostone decreased bacterial overgrowth in CF mice by 60% (<it>P </it>= 0.005). Lubiprostone increased gastric emptying at 20 min postgavage in both WT (<it>P </it>< 0.001) and CF mice (<it>P </it>< 0.001). Lubiprostone enhanced small intestinal transit in WT mice (<it>P </it>= 0.024) but not in CF mice (<it>P </it>= 0.377). Among other innate immune markers, expression of mast cell genes was elevated 4-to 40-fold in the CF intestine as compared to WT, and lubiprostone treatment of CF mice decreased expression to WT control levels.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results indicate that lubiprostone has some benefits for the CF intestinal phenotype, especially on bacterial overgrowth and the innate immune response. The unexpected observation of increased mucus accumulation in the crypts of lubiprostone-treated CF mice suggests the possibility that lubiprostone increases mucus secretion.</p

Work-Related Mental Health and Job Performance: Can Mindfulness Help?

Work-related mental health issues such as work-related stress and addiction to work impose a significant health and economic burden to the employee, the employing organization, and the country of work more generally. Interventions that can be empirically shown to improve levels of work-related mental health – especially those with the potential to concurrently improve employee levels of work performance – are of particular interest to occupational stakeholders. One such broad-application interventional approach currently of interest to occupational stakeholders in this respect is mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). Following a brief explication of the mindfulness construct, this paper critically discusses current research directions in the utilization of mindfulness in workplace settings and assesses its suitability for operationalization as an organization-level work-related mental health intervention. By effecting a perceptual-shift in the mode of responding and relating to sensory and cognitive-affective stimuli, employees that undergo mindfulness training may be able to transfer the locus of control for stress from external work conditions to internal metacognitive and attentional resources. Therefore, MBIs may constitute cost-effective organization-level interventions due to not actually requiring any modifications to human resource management systems and practises. Based on preliminary empirical findings and on the outcomes of MBI studies with clinical populations, it is concluded that MBIs appear to be viable interventional options for organizations wishing to improve the mental health of their employees

Auditory laterality in a nocturnal, fossorial marsupial (Lasiorhinus latifrons) in response to bilateral stimuli

Behavioural lateralisation is evident across most animal taxa, although few marsupial and no fossorial species have been studied. Twelve wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons) were bilaterally presented with eight sounds from different contexts (threat, neutral, food) to test for auditory laterality. Head turns were recorded prior to and immediately following sound presentation. Behaviour was recorded for 150 seconds after presentation. Although sound differentiation was evident by the amount of exploration, vigilance and grooming performed after different sound types, this did not result in different patterns of head turn direction. Similarly, left-right proportions of head turns, walking events and food approaches in the post-sound period were comparable across sound types. A comparison of head turns performed before and after sound showed a significant change in turn direction (&chi;2 1 = 10.65, P = 0.001) from a left preference during the pre-sound period (mean 58% left head turns, CI 49-66%) to a right preference in the post-sound (mean 43% left head turns, CI 40-45%). This provides evidence of a right auditory bias in response to the presentation of the sound. This study therefore demonstrates that laterality is evident in southern hairy-nosed wombats in response to a sound stimulus, although side biases were not altered by sounds of varying context

Vortex geometry for the equatorial slice of the Kerr black hole

The spacetime geometry on the equatorial slice through a Kerr black hole is formally equivalent to the geometry felt by phonons entrained in a rotating fluid vortex. We analyse this situation in some detail: First, we find the most general ``acoustic geometry'' compatible with the fluid dynamic equations in a collapsing/expanding perfect-fluid line vortex. Second, we demonstrate that there is a suitable choice of coordinates on the equatorial slice through a Kerr black hole that puts it into this vortex form; though it is not possible to put the entire Kerr spacetime into perfect-fluid ``acoustic'' form. Finally, we briefly discuss the implications of this formal equivalence; both with respect to gaining insight into the Kerr spacetime and with respect to possible vortex-inspired experiments.Comment: V1: 24 pages, 5 figures (some use of colour); V2: 21 pages, 5 figures, uses iopart.cls Changes of style and emphasis, no major changes in physics conclusions. This version accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Student evaluation of an OSCE in paediatrics at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica

BACKGROUND: The Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies first implemented the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in the final MB Examination in Medicine and Therapeutics during the 2000–2001 academic year. Simultaneously, the Child Health Department initiated faculty and student training, and instituted the OSCE as an assessment instrument during the Child Health (Paediatric) clerkship in year 5. The study set out to explore student acceptance of the OSCE as part of an evaluation of the Child Health clerkship. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was completed by successive groups of students immediately after the OSCE at the end of each clerkship rotation. Main outcome measures were student perception of examination attributes, which included the quality of instructions and organisation, the quality of performance, authenticity and transparency of the process, and usefulness of the OSCE as an assessment instrument compared to other formats. RESULTS: There was overwhelming acceptance of the OSCE in Child Health with respect to the comprehensiveness (90%), transparency (87%), fairness (70%) and authenticity of the required tasks (58–78%). However, students felt that it was a strong anxiety-producing experience. And concerns were expressed regarding the ambiguity of some questions and inadequacy of time for expected tasks. CONCLUSION: Student feedback was invaluable in influencing faculty teaching, curriculum direction and appreciation of student opinion. Further psychometric evaluation will strengthen the development of the OSCE

Note on analysis of quartz grain dimensions in foliated greywackes

Quarzkorn-Abmessungen aus Grauwacken wurden auf ein internes Referenzsystem (reference aspect ratio, RAR) bezogen und mit Hilfe der linearen Regressionsanalyse der reduzierten Hauptachse (reduced major axis, RMA) ausgewertet. Das verwendete statistische Verfahren unterscheidet im Gegensatz zur Methode der kleinsten Quadrate nicht zwischen abhängigen und unabhängigen Variablen. Die Anwendung der RMX-Methode in Verbindung mit den RAR-Meßwerten kann sehr hilfreich für Vergleiche innerhalb geschieferter Grauwacken sein, bei denen unterschiedliche Prozesse in Korngrößenbereich wirksam waren wie etwa Drucklösung und Festkörper-Rotation. Die RAR/RMA-Analyse erfaßt Kornregelungen und ist daher auch einsetzbar für die Klassifikation von Schieferungen. Darüber hinaus wird die Anwendung der RAR/RMA-Analyse für die Bestimmung der Deformation diskutiert. Robin strain-Werte werden mit arithmetischen und harmonischen Mittelwerten der RAR-Analyse verglichen. Es zeigt sich, daß das arithmetische Mittel des RAR ein vernünftiges Maß für die longitudinale Deformation darstellt. Quartz grain dimensions, measured parallel to an internal reference system (reference aspect ratio, RAR), were analyzed using the »reduced major axis« (RMA) linear regression analysis. In contrast to least-squares analysis, this statistical technique does not distinguish between dependent and independent variables. Application of the RMA analysis in conjunction with RAR values can be most useful for comparisons between foliated greywackes in which different grain scale processes, such as pressure solution and rigid-body rotation, were active. The RAR/RMA analysis reflects grain alignment and is therefore also useful for cleavage classification. In addition to the above, the application of RAR/RMA analysis for the determination of strain is discussed. Robin strains are compared with the arithmetic and harmonic means from RAR's and it is concluded that the arithmetic mean RAR produces a reasonable estimate of longitudinal strain in these rocks. Les dimensions des grains de quartz, mesurés parallèlement à un système de référence interne (»reference aspect ratio«: RAR) ont été traitées par la méthode de la régression linéaire (»reduced major axis«: RMA). Contrairement à la méthode des moindres carrés, cette technique statistique ne fait pas de distinction entre les variables dépendantes et indépendantes. L'application de ce type de méthode s'avère très utile à la comparaison de grauwackes schisteuses dans lesquelles les dimensions des grains peuvent être la conséquence de processus différents, tels que la dissolution (pressure solution) et la rotation. L'analyse RAR/RMA traduit l'alignement des grains et peut, de ce fait, être utilisée aussi à l'appréciation du type de schistosité. D'autre part, l'auteur discute l'application de l'analyse RAR/RMA à la détermination de la déformation finie. Si on compare les déformations »Robin« aux moyennes arithmétique et harmonique des RAR, on peut conclure que les moyennes RAR arithmétiques fournissent une estimation raisonnable de la déformation longitudinale. Помимо интернациона льной системы RAR, разме ры зерен кварца анализи ровали с помощью регр ессивного анализа «Изменение о сновных осей» — RMA. В отличие от анализа ме тодом наименьшего кв адратов, при названном статис тическом методе разл ичия между зависимыми и не зависимыми переменн ыми не учитываются. Компл ексное применение RAR иPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47848/1/531_2005_Article_BF01821068.pd