The effect of nutrition and body condition of triplet-bearing ewes during late pregnancy on the behaviour of ewes and lambs

Objective Triplet-born lambs are less likely to survive to weaning than twin-born or single-born lambs. Appropriate ewe-lamb bonding behaviours and lamb vigour behaviours are necessary for survival of lambs. The aim of this experiment was to determine whether maternal nutrition during late pregnancy influenced behaviour of the ewe and her lambs soon after birth, and to determine whether mid-pregnancy body condition score (BCS) influenced any behavioural response. Methods The experiments included ewes that were in BCS 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0 in mid-pregnancy and were fed either ad libitum or to pregnancy-maintenance requirements in late-pregnancy (day 115 until 136 in experiment one, and day 128 until 141 in experiment two). The time taken for lambs to stand, contact dam, suck from dam and follow dam was recorded three to 18 h after birth. The number of high- and low-pitched bleats emitted by the ewe and lambs was recorded, along with maternal behaviour score (MBS) of the ewe. Lambs in experiment two underwent a maternal-recognition test at 12 or 24 h. Results There were significant effects of feeding treatment on bleating behaviour of ewes and lambs, but these were inconsistent among BCS groups and between experiments. Lamb vigour behaviours were not affected by feeding treatment. In experiment one, there was no effect of feeding treatment or BCS on MBS, but in experiment two, ewes in BCS3 in mid-pregnancy had greater MBS than ewes in BCS2 in mid-pregnancy (MBS 3.1/5 vs MBS 2.1/5; p<0.05). Conclusion Given there were no repeatable effects on behaviour of ewes and lambs, ad libitum feeding rather than feeding for pregnancy-maintenance requirements cannot be used to improve behaviours soon after birth of triplet-bearing ewes in BCS 2–3 and their lambs in extensive pastoral conditions

The effect of normal load force and roughness on the dynamic traction developed at the shoe-surface interface in tennis

During tennis-specific movements, such as accelerating and side stepping, the dynamic traction provided by the shoe-surface combination plays an important role in the injury risk and performance of the player. Acrylic hard court tennis surfaces have been reported to have increased injury occurrence, partly caused by increased traction that developed at the shoe-surface interface. Often mechanical test methods used for the testing and categorisation of playing surfaces do not tend to simulate loads occurring during participation on the surface, and thus are unlikely to predict the human response to the surface. A traction testing device, discussed in this paper, has been used to mechanically measure the dynamic traction force between the shoe and the surface under a range of normal loading conditions that are relevant to real-life play. Acrylic hard court tennis surfaces generally have a rough surface topography, due to their sand and acrylic paint mixed top coating. Surface micro-roughness will influence the friction mechanisms present during viscoelastic contacts, as found in footwear-surface interactions. This paper aims to further understand the influence micro-roughness and normal force has on the dynamic traction that develops at the shoe-surface interface on acrylic hard court tennis surfaces. The micro-roughness and traction of a controlled set of acrylic hard court tennis surfaces have been measured. The relationships between micro-roughness, normal force, and traction force are discussed. © 2013 The Author(s)

Is it (Dis)Advantageous to Have Mixed Parentage? Exploring Education & Work Characteristics of Children of Interethnic Unions in Britain

Extant studies commonly claim that mixed ethnic children face difficulties in affiliating with either of the parental ethnic group, which consequently negatively affects their identity development. However, the majority of the existing literature is based on clinical evidence of small highly self-selected samples of those seeking psychological assistance. This paper aims to investigate the socioeconomic outcomes of mixed ethnic children using the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study data (N=35,302) which is a nationally representative 1% sample of the population in England and Wales. We hypothesise that an interethnic union between one immigrant parent and one parent from a majority population could promote integration of an offspring. Here educational attainment and employment status are used as indicators of socioeconomic integration. Logistic regression is employed to estimate the probabilities of having a degree qualification and being in employment of mixed ethnic individuals comparing to children of two ethnic minority parents and native children of two native white parents. Controlling for parental demographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as neighbourhood characteristics, the results suggest that having one native white parent bring children of immigrants closer to the characteristics of the majority population, signalling better integration of children with mixed parentage compared to their counterparts whose both parents are from minority ethnic group

Detecting Elastic pp Scattering by Radiative Photons in CMS at the LHC

Photon bremsstrahlung is studied for identifying elastic proton-proton interactions in the CMS experiment at the LHC. In addition to measurement of the elastic pp cross section (assuming that the elastic slope is known) the bremsstrahlung photons will allow evaluation of the total pp cross section, luminosity and alignment of the Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs).Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; Talk given by H. Gr\"onqvist at XL International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics (ISMD) in Antwerp, Belgium, September 201