Feeding the Dry Cow to Avoid Parturient Paresis

In the past, dairy producers have regarded the non-lactating or dry period as a time when the dairy cow recuperates from the stresses of her previous lactation and prepares herself for parturition. This kind of thinking usually results in mismanagement of the dry cow since she is seen as an economic drain on the farm. Today this image is changing and through years of research and education the dry period is now considered a vital stage of preparation for the next lactation period. The dry cow should be managed and fed to prepare her for the transition from the low metabolic demand needed during the dry period to the higher metabolic demand of early lactation. If cows are not prepared properly for this transition, periparturient diseases, primarily in the form of metabolic problems, are inevitably going to occur. These problems include: milk fever, retained placenta, dystocia, uterine prolapse, ketosis, fatty liver syndrome, and displaced abomasum

The Oombulgurri Project Clancy Committee report

In early August the Oombulgurri community requested assistance in the following terms. On behalf of the Oombulgurri Community, we invite assistance in developing the grain and pasture cropping at Oombulgurri. We have experimented with peanuts, sorghum, and many varieties of vegetables. This has tested the reality of hopes to expand acreage and varieties to become self-sufficient in stock feed. The Farm and Garden Guild now needs the expertise of your services to plan a four-year programme. vie need assistance in choosing from the many options, opinions and advices available from Australia and elsewhere, for grain production, pastures, methods appropriate to our geography, and machinery, to minimise expenditure and produce food for the stock expansion necessary to be self-sufficient in locally produced food for the town. Our concerns so far have been to start poultry, pigs, goats and horses stocking to provide useful work for everyone and food „ ually increase production and decrease imports with the appropriate use of manpower, water and other resources. We believe we can produce stock feed locally and grad- We attach our initial estimates of need which includes an estimate of projected stocking and machinery needs as well as a list of what is on hand

Exact solution of a two-type branching process: Clone size distribution in cell division kinetics

We study a two-type branching process which provides excellent description of experimental data on cell dynamics in skin tissue (Clayton et al., 2007). The model involves only a single type of progenitor cell, and does not require support from a self-renewed population of stem cells. The progenitor cells divide and may differentiate into post-mitotic cells. We derive an exact solution of this model in terms of generating functions for the total number of cells, and for the number of cells of different types. We also deduce large time asymptotic behaviors drawing on our exact results, and on an independent diffusion approximation.Comment: 16 page

Segmentation of British Sign Language (BSL): Mind the gap!

This study asks how users of British Sign Language (BSL) recognize individual signs in connected sign sequences. We examined whether this is achieved through modality-specific or modality-general segmentation procedures. A modality-specific feature of signed languages is that, during continuous signing, there are salient transitions between sign locations. We used the sign-spotting task to ask if and how BSL signers use these transitions in segmentation. A total of 96 real BSL signs were preceded by nonsense signs which were produced in either the target location or another location (with a small or large transition). Half of the transitions were within the same major body area (e.g., head) and half were across body areas (e.g., chest to hand). Deaf adult BSL users (a group of natives and early learners, and a group of late learners) spotted target signs best when there was a minimal transition and worst when there was a large transition. When location changes were present, both groups performed better when transitions were to a different body area than when they were within the same area. These findings suggest that transitions do not provide explicit sign-boundary cues in a modality-specific fashion. Instead, we argue that smaller transitions help recognition in a modality-general way by limiting lexical search to signs within location neighbourhoods, and that transitions across body areas also aid segmentation in a modality-general way, by providing a phonotactic cue to a sign boundary. We propose that sign segmentation is based on modality-general procedures which are core language-processing mechanisms

Family unity objectives of parents who teach their children: Ideological and pedagogical orientations to home schooling

This article examines parents who teach their children at home. Using the results from two qualitative studies the article suggests, while families have complex motives for teaching their children at home, an important commonality underlies their decision. Regardless of their orientation to home schooling the parents in these two studies felt that establishing a home school would allow them to maintain or further develop unity within the family. The article suggests a family's decision to home school is often made in an attempt to resist the effects on the family unit of urbanization and modernization. The policy implications of this finding are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43875/1/11256_2005_Article_BF01112403.pd

Patient and public involvement in health literacy interventions: a mapping review

Background: Health literacy is a critical mediating factor that impacts on the health of older adults. Patient and public involvement in health and social care research, policy and design of care delivery is one mechanism that can promote production of better health literacy. This mapping review looks for and describes practices, concepts and methods that have been reported involving patients, public and (non-researcher) professionals in the development and design of health literacy interventions for older people. Methods: Studies that aimed to improve health literacy were identified within a previously created compatible inventory of health behaviour studies for older people. Articles were screened for whether they addressed health literacy and featured involvement of stakeholders other than investigators and patients. Two reviewers independently read each study to identify any patient, public and professional involvement in the research process. We also noted some aspects of outcomes. Results: Twenty-two studies included patient, public and/or professional involvement in at least one research domain: design, management or evaluation. Involvement included volunteers, older people, professionals, patients, and community representatives. All studies were driven by an organisational or biomedical agenda. Conclusions: Patient, public and professional involvement wasrarely reported in studies on health literacy interventions for older people. This could help explain why some interventions fail to improve health literacy in older people. Key words – health literacy intervention research, older people, patient and public involvement, mapping revie