Entwicklung einer Behandlungsmethode zur Stressminderung als Vorbereitung für Rinder auf Transport und Schlachtung und die Auswirkung auf Verhalten, Blutparameter und Fleischqualität

Ziel dieser Arbeit war es, eine Methode zu entwickeln, den Stress, der für Rinder auf dem Transport und auf dem Schlachthof anfällt, zu reduzieren. Eines der Grundprobleme für die Stressentstehung ist der geringe Mensch-Tier-Kontakt im Vorfeld, insbesondere in der Bullenmast und in der Mutterkuhhaltung. Deshalb wurde eine Methode entwickelt, um in relativ kurzer Zeit eine gute Mensch-Tier-Beziehung entstehen zu lassen. Die Tiere sollten dadurch lernen, zum Menschen Vertrauen zu fassen und ihn nicht als aversiven Stimulus wahrzunehmen

Use of IV contrast media in radiotherapy planning CT scans: A UK audit

Aim: This article reports on a UK survey of radiotherapy centres. The primary aim was to define the extent and range of practice for which intravenous (IV) contrast is used within radiotherapy planning (RTP) Computerised Tomography (CT) scans, including how well centres adhere to RCR guidelines (2004, 2010). The secondary aim was to identify whether current guidelines are adequate or should be redefined to reflect new evidence based practice. Materials and method: A UK wide survey was undertaken, questionnaires were sent electronically via survey monkey to all 80 UK cancer centres obtained from the Society and College of Radiographers (SCoR) website. Questionnaires included closed, open and Likert Scale questions to allow complete analysis of protocols and opinions relating to IV contrast use and implementation. Data was collected within a four-week period during October 2014. Results: Eighty three percent of centres responded, 98% of responding centres now routinely deliver IV contrast. However, only 6% of centres deliver IV contrast to all 8 of the RCR 2004 recommended tumour sites. RCR 2010 compliance was also poor with the most common response to method of eGFR calculation stated as unknown. Fifteen percent of centres also did not have extravasation policies. Conclusion: The results suggest that it is perhaps time to reconsider a revision to the existing guidelines based on new evidence regarding good practice. There are many areas such as flow rates, timings, dosimetric corrections and advanced techniques which require further research to enable standardised guidelines to be identified. Keywords: Radiotherapy, IV contrast, Pre-treatment, Plannin

Reduction of slaughterhouse stress in beef cattle by facilitating animal tameness

The relationship between animals and humans is important for animal husbandry and welfare. Loosehousing and grazing systems with low management input often result in frail relationships between humans and animals. This study investigated whether a positive handling, applied during the first days of the animals’ life, had a calming and stress reducing effect on suckler beef calves at slaughter

Protease inhibitors prevent plasminogen-mediated, but not pemphigus vulgaris-induced, acantholysis in human epidermis

Pemphigus is an autoimmune blistering disease of the skin and mucous membranes. It is caused by autoantibodies directed against desmosomes, which are the principal adhesion structures between epidermal keratinocytes. Binding of autoantibodies leads to the destruction of desmosomes resulting in the loss of cell-cell adhesion (acantholysis) and epidermal blisters. The plasminogen activator system has been implicated as a proteolytic effector in pemphigus. We have tested inhibitors of the plasminogen activator system with regard to their potential to prevent pemphigus-induced cutaneous pathology. In a human split skin culture system, IgG preparations of sera from pemphigus vulgaris patients caused histopathologic changes (acantholysis) similar to those observed in the original pemphigus disease. All inhibitors that were tested (active site inhibitors directed against uPA, tPA, and/or plasmin; antibodies neutralizing the enzymatic activity of uPA or tPA; substances interfering with the binding of uPA to its specific cell surface receptor uPAR) failed to prevent pemphigus vulgaris IgG-mediated acantholysis. Plasminogen-mediated acantholysis, however, was effectively antagonized by the synthetic active site serine protease inhibitor WX-UK1 or by p-aminomethylbenzoic acid. Our data argue against applying anti-plasminogen activator/anti-plasmin strategies in the management of pemphigus

Harvesting Entities from the Web Using Unique Identifiers -- IBEX

In this paper we study the prevalence of unique entity identifiers on the Web. These are, e.g., ISBNs (for books), GTINs (for commercial products), DOIs (for documents), email addresses, and others. We show how these identifiers can be harvested systematically from Web pages, and how they can be associated with human-readable names for the entities at large scale. Starting with a simple extraction of identifiers and names from Web pages, we show how we can use the properties of unique identifiers to filter out noise and clean up the extraction result on the entire corpus. The end result is a database of millions of uniquely identified entities of different types, with an accuracy of 73--96% and a very high coverage compared to existing knowledge bases. We use this database to compute novel statistics on the presence of products, people, and other entities on the Web.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, 9 tables. Complete technical report for A. Talaika, J. A. Biega, A. Amarilli, and F. M. Suchanek. IBEX: Harvesting Entities from the Web Using Unique Identifiers. WebDB workshop, 201

Exploiting altruism in social networks for friend-to-friend malware detection

pre-printWe propose a novel malware detection application- SocialScan-which enables friend-to-friend (f2f) malware scanning services among social peers, with scanning resource sharing governed by levels of social altruism. We show that with f2f sharing of resources, SocialScan achieves a 65% increase in the detection rate of 0- to 1-day-old malware among social peers as compared to the the detection rates of individual scanners. We also show that SocialScan provides greatly enhanced malware protection to social hubs

Das Pilotprojekt „Kugelschuss auf der Weide“ in der Schweiz

Das System der sogenannten Weideschlachtung/Kugelschuss auf der Weide ist bis dato einmalig in der Schweiz. In Deutschland wird die stressvermeidende Weideschlachtung schon auf mehreren Betrieben durchgeführt. Die Schlachtrinder werden nicht mehr dem Stress bedeutenden Verlust der vertrauten Umgebung ausgesetzt und können ohne Lebendtiertransport und den damit verbundenen Stressfaktoren auf dem heimischen Betrieb betäubt und getötet werden. Nach dem Entbluten wird der Schlachtkörper dann in einem eigens dafür angefertigten PKW-Anhänger, der sämtliche hygienetechnischen Anforderungen erfüllt, in ein nahegelegenes Schlachtlokal verbracht und dort fachgerecht und im konventionellen Sinne weiterverarbeitet. Damit das System der Weideschlachtung einwandfrei funktioniert, die zu schlachtenden Tiere korrekt betäubt und anschließend getötet werden und sämtliche Punkte hinsichtlich Tierschutz, Arbeitssicherheit und Hygiene eingehalten werden können, gilt es Richtlinien einzuhalten. Diese, sowie die einzelnen Schritte einer einwandfreien Weideschlachtung werden in diesem Artikel dargestellt

Auswirkungen von Stressoren vor der Schlachtung auf Rinder bei zwei verschiedenen Schlachtmethoden (Bolzenschuss im kleinen Schlachthof und Kugelschuss auf der Weide)

During the pre-slaughter period cattle experience novel environment and procedures causing reduced welfare and stress. This period involves a number of critical situations: loading, transport, unloading, meeting unfamiliar animals, fixation. Therefore, stress is an inevitable consequence of transporting animals from a farm to the abattoir. In Switzerland, the first farmer recently started with a stress reducing cattle slaughter method within a pilot project: the slaughtering via gunshot on farm. Only the carcass has to be transported. Usually direct marketing farmers are transporting single animals to the next small-scale slaughterhouse. Therefore those two slaughter methods were compared regarding stress related parameters. Slaughtering always took place during the same daytime and with animals of the same breed and similar ages. Behavioral observations took place right before slaughter. Exsanguination blood samples were analyzed for cortisol. Animals slaughtered on farm had a mean cortisol concentration of 0.75 μg/dl, animals transported to a small slaughter house differed significantly with a mean cortisol concentration of 4.77 μg/dl. Differences in behavior could as well be observed

Enthornung verformt den Schädel

Eine neue Studie zeigt, dass sich durch die Enthornung von Kälbern deren Schädelform verändert. Behornte Tiere haben einen grösseren Augenabstand und die Stirnhöhe ist geringer. Die physiologischen Ursachen sind unklar. Möglicherweise sind Rinder auf Hörner angewiesen und versuchen deren Fehlen mit einer Verformung des Stirnbeins zu kompensieren