Effect of previous handling experiences on responses of dairy calves to routine husbandry procedures

The nature of human–animal interactions is an important factor contributing to animal welfare and productivity. Reducing stress during routine husbandry procedures is likely to improve animal welfare. We examined how the type of early handling of calves affected responses to two common husbandry procedures, ear-tagging and disbudding. Forty Holstein–Friesian calves (n = 20/treatment) were exposed to one of two handling treatments daily from 1 to 5 weeks of age: (1) positive (n = 20), involving gentle handling (soft voices, slow movements, patting), and (2) negative (n = 20), involving rough handling (rough voices, rapid movements, pushing). Heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR) and behaviour (activity, tail flicking) were measured before and after ear-tagging and disbudding (2 days apart). Cortisol was measured at −20 (baseline), 20 and 40 min relative to disbudding time. There were no significant treatment differences in HR, RR or behaviour in response to either procedure. However, the following changes occurred across both treatment groups. HR increased after disbudding (by 14.7 ± 4.0 and 18.6 ± 3.8 bpm, positive and negative, respectively; mean ± s.e.m.) and ear-tagging (by 8.7 ± 3.1 and 10.3 ± 3.0 bpm, positive and negative, respectively). After disbudding, there was an increase in RR (by 8.2 ± 3.4 and 9.3 ± 3.4 breaths/min, positive and negative, respectively), overall activity (by 9.4 ± 1.2 and 9.9 ± 1.3 frequency/min, positive and negative, respectively) and tail flicking (by 13.2 ± 2.8 and 11.2 ± 3.0 frequency/min, positive and negative, respectively), and cortisol increased from baseline at 20 min post procedure (by 10.3 ± 1.1 and 12.3 ± 1.1 nmol/l positive and negative, respectively). Although we recorded significant changes in calf responses during ear-tagging and disbudding, the type of prior handling had no effect on responses. The effects of handling may have been overridden by the degree of pain and/or stress associated with the procedures. Further research is warranted to understand the welfare impact and interaction between previous handling and responses to husbandry procedures

MHV Rules for Higgs Plus Multi-Gluon Amplitudes

We use tree-level perturbation theory to show how non-supersymmetric one-loop scattering amplitudes for a Higgs boson plus an arbitrary number of partons can be constructed, in the limit of a heavy top quark, from a generalization of the scalar graph approach of Cachazo, Svrcek and Witten. The Higgs boson couples to gluons through a top quark loop which generates, for large top mass, a dimension-5 operator H tr G^2. This effective interaction leads to amplitudes which cannot be described by the standard MHV rules; for example, amplitudes where all of the gluons have positive helicity. We split the effective interaction into the sum of two terms, one holomorphic (selfdual) and one anti-holomorphic (anti-selfdual). The holomorphic interactions give a new set of MHV vertices -- identical in form to those of pure gauge theory, except for momentum conservation -- that can be combined with pure gauge theory MHV vertices to produce a tower of amplitudes with more than two negative helicities. Similarly, the anti-holomorphic interactions give anti-MHV vertices that can be combined with pure gauge theory anti-MHV vertices to produce a tower of amplitudes with more than two positive helicities. A Higgs boson amplitude is the sum of one MHV-tower amplitude and one anti-MHV-tower amplitude. We present all MHV-tower amplitudes with up to four negative-helicity gluons and any number of positive-helicity gluons (NNMHV). These rules reproduce all of the available analytic formulae for Higgs + n-gluon scattering (n<=5) at tree level, in some cases yielding considerably shorter expressions.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures; v2, references correcte

Isolating a light Higgs boson from the di-photon background at the LHC

We compute the QCD corrections to the gluon fusion subprocess gg to gamma gamma, which forms an important component of the background to the search for a light Higgs boson at the LHC. We study the dependence of the improved pp to gamma gamma X background calculation on the factorization and renormalization scales, on various choices for photon isolation cuts, and on the rapidities of the photons. We also investigate ways to enhance the statistical significance of the Higgs signal in the di-photon channel.Comment: Additional reference included, 17 pages, 16 figure files, revte

Changes in cardiorespiratory fitness following exercise training prescribed relative to traditional intensity anchors and to physiological thresholds: a systematic review with meta-analysis of individual participant data.

It is unknown whether there are differences in maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) response when prescribing intensity relative to traditional (TRAD) anchors or to physiological thresholds (THR). The present meta-analysis sought to compare: a) mean change in VO2max; b) proportion of individuals increasing VO2max beyond a minimum important difference (MID); and c) response variability in VO2max between TRAD and THR. Electronic databases were searched, yielding data for 1544 individuals from 42 studies. Two datasets were created, comprising studies with a control group ('controlled' studies), and without a control group ('non-controlled' studies). A Bayesian approach with multi-level distributional models was used to separately analyse VO2max change scores from the two datasets and inferences were made using Bayes factors (BF). The MID was predefined as one metabolic equivalent (MET; 3.5 mL∙kg-1∙min-1). In controlled studies, mean VO2max change was greater in THR compared to TRAD (4.1 vs 1.8 mL∙kg-1∙min-1, BF>100) with 64% of individuals in THR experiencing an increase in VO2max >MID, compared to 16% of individuals taking part in TRAD. Evidence indicated no difference in standard deviation of change between THR and TRAD (1.5 vs 1.7 mL∙kg-1∙min-1, BF=0.55), and greater variation in exercise groups relative to non-exercising controls (1.9 vs 1.3 mL∙kg-1∙min-1, BF=12.4). In non-controlled studies, mean VO2max change was greater in THR vs TRAD (4.4 vs 3.4 mL∙kg-1∙min-1, BF=35.1) with no difference in standard deviation of change (3.0 vs 3.2 mL∙kg-1∙min-1, BF=0.41). Prescribing exercise intensity using THR approaches elicited superior mean changes in VO2max and increased the likelihood of increasing VO2max beyond the MID compared to TRAD. Future exercise training studies should thus consider the use of THR approaches to prescribe exercise intensity where possible. Analysis comparing interventions with controls suggested the existence of intervention response heterogeneity, however, evidence was not obtained for a difference in response variability between THR and TRAD. Future primary research should be conducted with adequate power to investigate the scope of inter-individual differences in VO2max trainability, and if meaningful, the causative factors

Genome-wide association analysis provides insights into the molecular etiology of dilated cardiomyopathy

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a leading cause of heart failure and cardiac transplantation. We report a genome-wide association study and multi-trait analysis of DCM (14,256 cases) and three left ventricular traits (36,203 UK Biobank participants). We identified 80 genomic risk loci and prioritized 62 putative effector genes, including several with rare variant DCM associations (MAP3K7, NEDD4L and SSPN). Using single-nucleus transcriptomics, we identify cellular states, biological pathways, and intracellular communications that drive pathogenesis. We demonstrate that polygenic scores predict DCM in the general population and modify penetrance in carriers of rare DCM variants. Our findings may inform the design of genetic testing strategies that incorporate polygenic background. They also provide insights into the molecular etiology of DCM that may facilitate the development of targeted therapeutics.</p

Roadmap on embodying mechano-intelligence and computing in functional materials and structures

This is a roadmap article with multiple contributors on different aspects of embodying intelligence and computing in the mechanical domain of functional materials and structures. Overall, an IOP roadmap article is a broad, multi-author review with leaders in the field discussing the latest developments, commissioned by the editorial board. The intention here is to cover various topics of adaptive structural and material systems with mechano-intelligence in the overall roadmap, with twelve sections in total. These sections cover topics from materials to devices to systems, such as computational metamaterials, neuromorphic materials, mechanical and material logic, mechanical memory, soft matter computing, physical reservoir computing, wave-based computing, morphological computing, mechanical neural networks, plant-inspired intelligence, pneumatic logic circuits, intelligent robotics, and embodying mechano-intelligence for engineering functionalities via physical computing. In this paper, we view all the 2-page sections with equal contributions to the overall roadmap article and thus list the authorship on the front page via alphabetical order of their last names. On the other hand, for each individual section, the authors decide on their own the order of authorship. &#xD

Genome-wide association analysis provides insights into the molecular etiology of dilated cardiomyopathy

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a leading cause of heart failure and cardiac transplantation. We report a genome-wide association study and multi-trait analysis of DCM (14,256 cases) and three left ventricular traits (36,203 UK Biobank participants). We identified 80 genomic risk loci and prioritized 62 putative effector genes, including several with rare variant DCM associations (MAP3K7, NEDD4L and SSPN). Using single-nucleus transcriptomics, we identify cellular states, biological pathways, and intracellular communications that drive pathogenesis. We demonstrate that polygenic scores predict DCM in the general population and modify penetrance in carriers of rare DCM variants. Our findings may inform the design of genetic testing strategies that incorporate polygenic background. They also provide insights into the molecular etiology of DCM that may facilitate the development of targeted therapeutics