Dually noted: the effects of a pressure headcollar on compliance, discomfort and stress in horses during handling

Horse handlers often encounter problem behaviour resulting from a lack of stimulus control. Handlers are often only 15% of the weight of horses, which evolved strong flight responses. Therefore, many riders and handlers resort to the use of "aids" to maintain control of their animals. However, there are increasing concerns about the efficacy and welfare implication of such devices, particularly when applied to sensitive facial structures. One such device is a Dually® headcollar which aims to increase compliance. Despite its popularity, little is known about the effects of this aid on behaviour or stress. The aim of the current study was to determine whether the use of a Dually headcollar improves compliance during handling and, if so, whether this might be achieved with concomitant increases in stress or discomfort. Subjects completed two novel handling tests, one wearing a Dually with a line attached to the pressure mechanism and one attached to the standard ring as a Control. Crossing time and proactive behaviour were recorded as indicators of compliance. Core temperature and the discrepancy between eye temperatures were measured using IRT before and after testing as an indicator of stress. The Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) was used to measure discomfort caused by each configuration of the device. The Dually did not result in more compliant behaviour, compared to the Control (p=0.935; p=0.538). However, the Dually configuration did result in a significantly higher HGS scores (p=0.034). This may indicate that there is an impact on animal welfare by using this device that is not justified by improved behaviour. However, IRT readings of core temperature (p=0.186) and discrepancy between the eyes (p=0.972) did not indicate the Dually increased stress in subjects. Taken together, this suggests the Dually is ineffective in naïve horses but causes increased discomfort

Zylkéne to load? The effects of alpha-casozepine on compliance and coping in horses during loading

Horses are routinely transported for access to safe off-road riding, veterinary care, breeding, sale or moving to a new home environment. However, transport is a known stressor in horses. For this reason, problem behavior when loading is a commonly reported issue which presents risks to handlers and horse welfare. Existing literature and manufacturers recommendations suggests that alpha-casozepine may be effective in improving the behavior and welfare of horses during loading onto a vehicle for transport. The current paper aims to assess the behavioral and physiological effects of a commercially available alpha-casozepine feed supplement (Zylkéne Equine) in horses during loading and confinement on a transport lorry. Subjects (n = 10) were loaded once with the supplement and once without, in a balanced random order with each subject acted as their own control. The handler was blind to treatment. Time to load onto the lorry, and movement of feet, licking and chewing, and vocalising within the lorry, were recorded as behavioral indicators of compliance and coping. Heart rate, heart rate variability, salivary cortisol, and infrared thermography of both core temperature and the discrepancy between eyes, were measured as indicators of arousal. There were no significant differences in physiology between Treatment and Control (P > 0.05). Treatment resulted in a significantly shorter Loading Time than control (P = 0.04), however, the actual difference in median time was only 0.45 seconds. No other behavioral indicator differed between Treatment and Control (P > 0.05). Power analysis revealed the sample was sufficient to detect a significant effect. Where modest effects were observed for a small number of variables, Treatment effect contradicted predictions. Taken together, this indicates that alpha-casozepine does not affect a horse’s ability to cope with loading and confinement in a horse lorry. Further work is required to ascertain whether the maximum dosage – twice that used here – might affect coping and behavior in horses

Extreme Ultraviolet Wave Packet Interferometry of the Autoionizing HeNe Dimer

Femtosecond extreme ultraviolet wave packet interferometry (XUV-WPI) was applied to study resonant interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) in the HeNe dimer. The high demands on phase stability and sensitivity for vibronic XUV-WPI of molecular-beam targets are met using an XUV phase-cycling scheme. The detected quantum interferences exhibit vibronic dephasing and rephasing signatures along with an ultrafast decoherence assigned to the ICD process. A Fourier analysis reveals the molecular absorption spectrum with high resolution. The demonstrated experiment shows a promising route for the real-time analysis of ultrafast ICD processes with both high temporal and high spectral resolution

Dynamics of hollow atom formation in intense x-ray pulses probed by partial covariance mapping

When exposed to ultraintense x-radiation sources such as free electron lasers (FELs) the innermost electronic shell can efficiently be emptied, creating a transient hollow atom or molecule. Understanding the femtosecond dynamics of such systems is fundamental to achieving atomic resolution in flash diffraction imaging of noncrystallized complex biological samples. We demonstrate the capacity of a correlation method called "partial covariance mapping'' to probe the electron dynamics of neon atoms exposed to intense 8 fs pulses of 1062 eV photons. A complete picture of ionization processes competing in hollow atom formation and decay is visualized with unprecedented ease and the map reveals hitherto unobserved nonlinear sequences of photoionization and Auger events. The technique is particularly well suited to the high counting rate inherent in FEL experiments

Analysis of two-color photoelectron spectroscopy for attosecond metrology at seeded free-electron lasers

The generation of attosecond pulse trains at free-electron lasers opens new opportunities in ultrafast science, as it gives access, for the first time, to reproducible, programmable, extreme ultraviolet (XUV) waveforms with high intensity. In this work, we present a detailed analysis of the theoretical model underlying the temporal characterization of the attosecond pulse trains recently generated at the free-electron laser FERMI. In particular, the validity of the approximations used for the correlated analysis of the photoelectron spectra generated in the two-color photoionization experiments are thoroughly discussed. The ranges of validity of the assumptions, in connection with the main experimental parameters, are derived