Comparison of oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in cautery dehorned calves

Dehorning is a commonly performed husbandry procedure in cattle to limit injury and conform to modern facility design. Prior research provides evidence that dehorning results in increased nociception and stress through changes in behavioral, neuroendocrine, and physiological responses. Alterations in these actions allow investigators to evaluate pain and stress reducing practices. In addition to improved welfare strategies including institution of polled breeding programs and conducting the procedure on young animals, calves may benefit from the administration of analgesics including local anesthetics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and α2-agonists. Reviews of the literature have indicated a multimodal approach including local anesthetics and NSAIDs may be the optimal strategy to mitigate the negative response following dehorning. Since no analgesic products are currently labeled for cattle in the United States, providing an appropriate and effective analgesic remains challenging. As such, we have studied the pharmacokinetics and clinical efficacy of different NSAIDs in calves undergoing cautery dehorning. Initially, we evaluated the pharmacokinetics and clinical efficacy of firocoxib following cautery dehorning in calves. Although this NSAID was well absorbed orally in calves and inhibited prostaglandin for 48 h compared to placebo treated controls, minimal analgesic effects were observed using a study dose of 0.5 mg/kg. Subsequently we evaluated the pharmacokinetics and clinical efficacy of carprofen in a similar cautery dehorning study. Using the approved anti-inflammatory dose of 1.4 mg/kg in the European Union, oral carprofen was well absorbed and moderately inhibited prostaglandin for up to 96 h, however minimal analgesic effects were observed. Following descriptions of the pharmacokinetics and effects of oral carprofen and firocoxib, a comparison of four NSAIDs (carprofen, flunixin meglumine, firocoxib, and meloxicam) orally administered at 2.0 mg/kg was conducted as a field trial. Although responses indicative of pain and stress reduction varied among the treatment groups, evidence from the field trial indicate meloxicam may have superior potency compared to the other evaluated NSAIDs. Moreover, the use of oral meloxicam provides optimal analgesia for 24 h following a one-time dose of 2.0 mg/kg

Skeletal muscle damage, delayed onset muscle soreness and performance after resistance training with leucine and carbohydrate or carbohydrate alone

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of adding leucine to pre and post-exercise carbohydrate beverages on blood markers of muscle damage, muscle soreness, and squat performance. Eighteen resistance-trained subjects performed 6 sets of squats to fatigue using 75% of the 1-RM with 3 minutes rest between sets. Subjects consumed a carbohydrate beverage (.25 g/kg) 30 minutes before and immediately after exercise with or without the addition of leucine (45 mg/kg) in randomized, double-blind fashion. Creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and subjective surveys of muscle soreness, were analyzed before, 24 hrs, 48 hrs, and 72 hrs after exercise. Subjects repeated the squat protocol 72 hrs after the initial bout to test short-term recovery. The addition of leucine did not significantly decrease CK and LDH activity or soreness at 24, 48, or 72 hrs post-exercise. No differences were noted in repetitions performed between groups during the initial bout or 72 hrs post-exercise. This study suggests that the addition of leucine to carbohydrate beverages does not enhance recovery in resistance-trained subjects

BELGIAN TRUMPET CONTEST PIECES OF THE CONSERVATOIRE ROYAL de MUSIQUE LIÈGE 1876 -1960

Although trumpeters speak frequently of the "French school" of playing, few are aware that the etude book considered the epitome of the French School, Théo Charlier's Trente-six Études Transcendantes was written by a Belgian. In spite of the adoption of the Charlier etudes into college curriculula across much of the world, the body of work created for the examinations at Charlier's institution, the Liège Conservatory, remains largely ignored. Although neglected, upon examination these works display both pedagogical and artistic merit. Because of the mixture of compositions by Francophone and Flemish composers, this repertoire is unusually diverse and challenging.This document conducts an analysis of eighteen solos by Belgian composers for trumpet with piano accompaniment used in the annual concours of the Conservatoire Royal de musique de Liège from 1889 to 1959. Analyses will consider musical factors such as rhythmic and harmonic devices employed as well as issues unique to the development of trumpet technique. This document aims to draw attention to this varied and challenging body of literature which has heretofore been neglected in both performance and pedagogy

Using rotor inertia as stored energy in below rated wind farms to provide primary frequency response

The objective of this work is to present a method for providing ancillary services to the grid with minimal reduction in power output from the turbines in a wind farm by utilising the stored energy in the turbine rotors. By first demonstrating an approach of extracting energy from a single turbine's rotor, it can be shown that this could lead to increased energy yields while still being able to provide primary response provision compared to curtailing each turbine by 10%. Following this, when this approach is tested at the wind farm level there is considerable evidence that considering the energy stored in the turbine rotors across a wind farm can lead to increases in energy capture while not significantly increasing damage equivalent loads for either towers or blades

Distributed control of wind farm power set points to minimise fatigue loads

The quantity and size of wind farms continue to grow as countries around the world strive to meet ambitious targets for renewable electricity generation such as the UK government's Net Zero target of increasing offshore wind energy from current levels (circa 6 GW) to circa 75 GW by 2050. With increasing size and quantity of wind farms, there is a growing requirement to use wind farm level control both to help with grid integration and to minimise the loads on the turbines in the farm. In this paper, a methodology of distributing power set points through a wind farm to minimise the loads on the turbines whilst meeting a delta power set point for the farm is presented. The methodology in this paper uses a hierarchical control structure, in which a network wind farm controller calculates the required change in wind farm power and then passes this value on to a distributed controller that defines the change in power required from each wind turbine. The network wind farm controller calculates a delta change in wind farm power that the wind farm holds in reserve. The distributed controller allocates the reductions in power output by first setting a baseline reduction that considers the steady state tower loads. The baseline is then adjusted to meet the required change in power, distributing the additional change in one of two ways; either proportional to the square of each turbines estimated wind speed or proportional to the initial baseline. Performance is assessed using the StrathFarm simulation tool. The wind turbine models incorporated into StrathFarm are sufficiently detailed to provide the tower and blade loads and the wind field model is sufficiently detailed to represent turbulence, wind shear, tower shadow and wakes and their interaction. The performance of the proposed wind farm controllers are assessed for a range of wind conditions for two 4x4 wind farms of 5MW wind turbines, one closely spaced (500m) and one less closely spaced (1000m). Both the accuracy of the change in power output from the wind farm and the change in turbines DELs are discussed. Depending on the wind conditions, the approach is found to reduce the tower and blade loads by about 10% more than the case in which each turbine is simply allocated the same change in power. There is good accuracy in the change in power at higher wind speeds. Below rated wind speed, wake effects reduce the accuracy of the change in power

CLAPA Scotland regional coordinators project: End of year two interim report

During Year Two, the SRC has continued to act as a key contact for people affected by CL/P and their families in the Scotland region.A large number of events aimed at families and young people have been held, in addition to a number of awareness-raising activities and training sessions.Recommendations have been made for an increase in services for adults born with CL/P.There have also been recommendation for more activities aimed more specifically at increasing individuals’ knowledge of CL/P and their ability to cope with any related challenges (e.g. with teachers, health professionals and school children)

Accurate Determination of Phenotypic Information from Historic Thoroughbred Horses by Single Base Extension

Historic DNA have the potential to identify phenotypic information otherwise invisible in the historical, archaeological and palaeontological record. In order to determine whether a single nucleotide polymorphism typing protocol based on single based extension (SNaPshot™) could produce reliable phenotypic data from historic samples, we genotyped three coat colour markers for a sample of historic Thoroughbred horses for which both phenotypic and correct geotypic information were known from pedigree information in the General Stud Book. Experimental results were consistent with the pedigrees in all cases. Thus we demonstrate that historic DNA techniques can produce reliable phenotypic information from museum specimens.© 2010 Campana et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Co-design of controllers in wave energy converters

Co-design has been successfully utilised in wind turbines to improve efficiencies and reduce levelised cost of energy (LCoE). Currently, wave energy converter (WEC) controllers are designed once the physical device is mostly finished. Introducing a co-design philosophy to WEC design could help bring down it’s LCoE to competitive levels