A note on the results of an attempt to fertilise native goat-ewes with sheep-rams

(1) Ten female native goats were mated to, or artificially inseminated with semen from a number of highly fertile sheep-rams during four breeding seasons. (2) There was great difficulty in obtaining fertilisation, but four of the ewes became pregnant; of these three aborted, while the foetus of the other died and underwent maceration. The pregnancy in each case terminated before the end of the normal gestation period. (3) The possibility of fertilisation occurring, followed by embryonic death and abortion, is not excluded. In fact it is supported by the irregular and long dioestrous periods experienced by the ewes. (4) Sexual activity was usually confined to the months January to August, but in a few cases oestrus appeared at irregular intervals throughout the year. (5) At death or slaughter, during the usual anoestrous season, seven of the ewes showed ovarian inactivity, two showed hydrometra and one showed foetal maceration.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 300dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.ab201

Researches into sterility of cows in South Africa. The influence of dry rations, lack of exercise, and lack of sunlight on reproduction of beef heifers and cows

1. The effects of a dry ration, high condition, and the restriction of sunlight, and exercise upon sexual activity and reproduction of beef females have been studied. The observations were conducted on 30 grade (mostly half-bred) Sussex-Afrikander females. The experiment was commenced when the heifers were 15 months old and its duration extended over a continuous period of approximately 13 years. A small number of the animals was eliminated soon after the commencement of the experiment, but 60 per cent. remained under observations for 9 to 13 years. The period of the experiment includes 12 calvings. 2. When a dry ration consisting of maize, wheaten bran and teff hay was fed for nine months of each year and maize silage of good quality was added during the remaining three months of each year, very satisfactory results of growth and reproduction were obtained. Beef heifers from the age of 15 months attained a satisfactory mean weight of approximately 900 lb. at maturity or when about 24 months of age. Mature animals maintained good condition on the ration and they were able to acquire considerable weight during the pregnancy periods in most cases resulting in very high condition. Sexual maturity was reached before the age of 24 mouths and sexual activity and reproduction cannot be said to have been affected adversely by the treatment. 3. High condition caused no ill-effects upon general health or the reproduction processes. 30 per cent. of the cows lived to the age of 14.4 years. The total pregnancies were 206, 191 calves were born, 15 abortions occurred. The mean calf production of all groups was 6.4 per cow. 4. The restriction of sunlight and exercise in no way detrimentally affected the health, growth and vigour of heifers and cows; being fed dry rations. There was no significant difference in the body weights of the comparative Groups A and C which attained 957.8 and 995.9 lb. at the age of 31 months respectively. The onset of maturity was not delayed. Up to the age of 31 months, or prior to being bred, a large number of dioestrous cycles were seen to have been experienced by the heifers receiving restricted sunlight and exercise. The mean number of dioestrous cycles experienced by the restricted groups was 15.5 as opposed to 12.2 in the unrestricted group. Considering all groups, the mode of the period of dioestrus was 20 days, and, although cycles as short as 10 days and as long as 123 days were experienced, approximately 75 per cent. of the dioestrous cycles fell between 18 and 23 days. It appears that as the age of the animals advanced under the treatment enforced the percentage of dioestrous cycles between 18 to 23 days decreased. Considering all groups for all periods, during which time 881 dioestrous cycles were observed, the mode was 20 days, 21.1 per cent. being of that duration. In 69.5 per cent. of cases the periodicity of oestrus was 18 to 24 days. 5. A restriction of sunlight and exercise did not affect the period between calvings. In all groups for the entire experimental period in 44.5 per cent. of cases, the period between calvings was 12 months. In the restricted exercise group in 51.1 per cent. of eases the period exceeded 12 months whereas in the group receiving exercise the equivalent figure is 50 per cent. Generally oestrus was observed to occur 15 to 21 days after calving. Although, in the majority of cases the period of absence of oestrus was in the vicinity of 60 days, many cases of over 100 days occurred and cases of even over 200 days were encountered. 6. Restricted sunlight and exercise had no effect upon conception rate. In the restricted group, 72.1 per cent. of cows were impregnated by one service, and the equivalent figure for the unrestricted group was 81.1 per cent. The percentages impregnated by 1 and 2 services is 80.9 per cent. and 90.5 per cent. respectively. Considering all groups only 5.8 per cent. required more than four services to establish pregnancy. 7. The lengths of gestation was unaffected by limiting sunlight and exercise. The mean gestation period up to the age of 6 years was 280.5 days; gestation periods during later periods or in older cows was 277.4 days, the difference being significant. 8. Unrestricted exercise and sunlight did not reflect any advantage upon the weight of calves produced. A suspicion exists that the use of different bulls during the course of the experiment influenced the birth weight of the calves during different periods. Considering all groups, few calves born weighed under the 60 lb. at birth, while weights up to 99 lb. were recorded. There is a tendency for lighter calves to be horn with advancing age of cows. 9. High-conditioned heifers, under conditions of restricted sunlight and exercise, showed no tendency towards abnormal sexual activity when breeding was delayed until the heifers were 35 months of age, that is, they calved down at 44 months of age. The reproductive functions and regularity of calving were unaffected by such delayed breeding. The disadvantage was that, over the lifetime of the cows, only 59 calves were obtained as compared to 66 in each of the groups bred six months earlier. 10. The environment enforced appears to improve the expectation of life and reproduction of beef cattle on the high veld of the Transvaal. This is, no doubt, due to protection from cold and ticks, as well as from diseases, such as contagious abortion and trichomoniasis, affecting the genital tract. 11. There is a predisposition to the development of cystic degeneration of the Graafian follicle during advancing age in cattle maintained under the environmental conditions enforced even when they are protected from genital infection by suitable hygiene.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 300dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format

Chorioamnionitis induces hepatic inflammation and time-dependent changes of the enterohepatic circulation in the ovine fetus

Chorioamnionitis, inflammation of fetal membranes, is an important cause of preterm birth and a risk factor for the development of adverse neonatal outcomes including sepsis and intestinal pathologies. Intestinal bile acids (BAs) accumulation and hepatic cytokine production are involved in adverse intestinal outcomes. These findings triggered us to study the liver and enterohepatic circulation (EHC) following intra-amniotic (IA) lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure. An ovine chorioamnionitis model was used in which circulatory cytokines and outcomes of the liver and EHC of preterm lambs were longitudinally assessed following IA administration of 10 mg LPS at 5, 12 or 24h or 2, 4, 8 or 15d before preterm birth. Hepatic inflammation was observed, characterized by increased hepatic cytokine mRNA levels (5h – 2d post IA LPS exposure) and increased erythropoietic clusters (at 8 and 15 days post IA LPS exposure). Besides, 12h after IA LPS exposure, plasma BA levels were increased, whereas gene expression levels of several hepatic BA transporters were decreased. Initial EHC alterations normalized over time. Concluding, IA LPS exposure induces significant time-dependent changes in the fetal liver and EHC. These chorioamnionitis induced changes have potential postnatal consequences and the duration of IA LPS exposure might be essential herein

Chorioamnionitis induces enteric nervous system injury: Effects of timing and inflammation in the ovine fetus

Background Chorioamnionitis, inflammation of the chorion and amnion, which often results from intrauterine infection, is associated with premature birth and contributes to significant neonatal morbidity and mortality, including necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Recently, we have shown that chronic chorioamnionitis is associated with significant structural enteric nervous system (ENS) abnormalities that may predispose to later NEC development. Understanding time point specific effects of an intra-amniotic (IA) infection on the ENS is important for further understanding the pathophysiological processes and for finding a window for optimal therapeutic strategies for an individual patient. The aim of this study was therefore to gain insight in the longitudinal effects of intrauterine LPS exposure (ranging from 5 h to 15 days before premature delivery) on the intestinal mucosa, submucosa, and ENS in fetal lambs by use of a well-established translational ovine chorioamnionitis model. Methods We used an ovine chorioamnionitis model to assess outcomes of the fetal ileal mucosa, submucosa and ENS following IA exposure to one dose of 10 mg LPS for 5, 12 or 24 h or 2, 4, 8 or 15 days. Results Four days of IA LPS exposure causes a decreased PGP9.5- and S100β-positive surface area in the myenteric plexus along with submucosal and mucosal intestinal inflammation that coincided with systemic inflammation. These changes were preceded by a glial cell reaction with early systemic and local gut inflammation. ENS changes and inflammation recovered 15 days after the IA LPS exposure. Conclusions The pattern of mucosal and submucosal inflammation, and ENS alterations in the fetus changed over time following IA LPS exposure. Although ENS damage seemed to recover after prolonged IA LPS exposure, additional postnatal inflammatory exposure, which a premature is likely to encounter, may further harm the ENS and influence functional outcome. In this context, 4 to 8 days of IA LPS exposure may form a period of increased ENS vulnerability and a potential window for optimal therapeutic strategies

SN1A data and the CMB of Modified Curvature at short and long distances

The SN1a data, although inconclusive, when combined with other observations makes a strong case that our universe is presently dominated by dark energy. We investigate the possibility that large distance modifications of the curvature of the universe would perhaps offer an alternative explanation of the observation. Our calculations indicate that a universe made up of no dark energy but instead, with a modified curvature at large scales, is not scale-invariant, therefore quite likely it is ruled out by the CMB observations. The sensitivity of the CMB spectrum is checked for the whole range of mode modifications of large or short distance physics. The spectrum is robust against modifications of short-distance physics and the UV cutoff when: the initial state is the adiabatic vacuum, and the inflationary background space is de Sitter.Comment: 13 pages, 2 eps figures, typos corrected, references added; to appear in Phys. Rev.

Corrigendum: Chronic Intra-Uterine Ureaplasma parvum infection induces injury of the enteric Nervous System in Ovine Fetuses

Michael L. Beeton was not included as an author in the published article. The corrected Author Contributions Statement appears below

A Brane World Perspective on the Cosmological Constant and the Hierarchy Problems

We elaborate on the recently proposed static brane world scenario, where the effective 4-D cosmological constant is exponentially small when parallel 3-branes are far apart. We extend this result to a compactified model with two positive tension branes. Besides an exponentially small effective 4-D cosmological constant, this model incorporates a Randall-Sundrum-like solution to the hierarchy problem. Furthermore, the exponential factors for the hierarchy problem and the cosmological constant problem obey an inequality that is satisfied in nature. This inequality implies that the cosmological constant problem can be explained if the hierarchy problem is understood. The basic idea generalizes to the multibrane world scenario. We discuss models with piecewise adjustable bulk cosmological constants (to be determined by the 5-dimensional Einstein equation), a key element of the scenario. We also discuss the global structure of this scenario and clarify the physical properties of the particle (Rindler) horizons that are present. Finally, we derive a 4-D effective theory in which all observers on all branes not separated by particle horizons measure the same Newton's constant and 4-D cosmological constant.Comment: revtex, 63 pages, 8 figures, one table, revised version, more discussions on the global structure, references adde

Conservative treatment versus elective repair of umbilical hernia in patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites: results of a randomized controlled trial (CRUCIAL trial)

Purpose: To establish optimal management of patients with an umbilical hernia complicated by liver cirrhosis and ascites. Methods: Patients with a

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results