Origin and assessment of bruises in beef cattle at slaughter

Studies of bruises, as detected on carcasses at the slaughterhouse, may provide useful information about the traumatic situations the animals endure during the pre-slaughter period. In this paper, we review scientific data on the prevalence, risk factors and estimation of the age of bruises in beef cattle. Risk factors such as animal characteristics, transport conditions, stocking density, livestock auction and handling of the animals are discussed. Investigation of the age of bruises could provide information on when in the meat chain bruises occur and, could help to pinpoint where preventive measures should be taken, from the stage of collecting the animals on the farm until slaughter. We review the methods available to assess the age of the bruises; data on human forensic research are also included. The feasibility to identify traumatic episodes during the pre-slaughter period, in order to improve animal welfare is discusse

Dairy cow behaviour around calving: Its relationship with management practices and environmental conditions

Calving is one of the most challenging and painful experiences for dairy cattle and a process that involves coping with physical and physiological changes, as well as environmental and management-related stressors. In recent years, it has been argued that the application of cow behaviour knowledge might facilitate their efficacious management during calving. This review aims to summarise and discuss current knowledge regarding the behavioural changes that occur around calving time. The relationship between calving behaviour, management practices, and environmental conditions in dairy cattle raised in intensive indoor production systems, as well as pasture-based systems, is also discussed. First, we briefly outline the process of parturition and the concept of maternal behaviour. We then describe behavioural changes that occur around parturition in normal and dystocic births and how variations in these behaviours can be used to predict normal or assisted calving in dairy cattle; particular emphasis is placed on the role of feeding, rumination, and lying behaviour. Finally, we review how management practices and environmental conditions can influence cow’s behaviour at calving and discuss the importance of providing an environment that accommodates the behaviour they are motivated to perform. This review presents evidence that the time a cow is moved to the calving area, the type of group housing and the provision of a secluded area to calve, can impact the behavioral responses of dairy cows at calving. Evidence regarding the effects of exposure to environmental conditions such as heat during summer, and/or cold, wet and mud during winter can also have a negative impact on behaviour, suggesting potential benefits of providing cows with a protected area to calve. We conclude that a better understanding of the behaviour of parturient cows may help producers improve the care and management around calving time

Eye position modulates retinotopic responses in early visual areas: a bias for the straight-ahead direction

Even though the eyes constantly change position, the location of a stimulus can be accurately represented by a population of neurons with retinotopic receptive fields modulated by eye position gain fields. Recent electrophysiological studies, however, indicate that eye position gain fields may serve an additional function since they have a non-uniform spatial distribution that increases the neural response to stimuli in the straight-ahead direction. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a wide-field stimulus display to determine whether gaze modulations in early human visual cortex enhance the blood-oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) response to stimuli that are straight-ahead. Subjects viewed rotating polar angle wedge stimuli centered straight-ahead or vertically displaced by ±20° eccentricity. Gaze position did not affect the topography of polar phase-angle maps, confirming that coding was retinotopic, but did affect the amplitude of the BOLD response, consistent with a gain field. In agreement with recent electrophysiological studies, BOLD responses in V1 and V2 to a wedge stimulus at a fixed retinal locus decreased when the wedge location in head-centered coordinates was farther from the straight-ahead direction. We conclude that stimulus-evoked BOLD signals are modulated by a systematic, non-uniform distribution of eye-position gain fields

II caso Pinocchio

In questo articolo si discutono i motivi della straordinaria attrattiva esercitata dall'invenzione di Cario Collodi, anche fuori dei confini nazionali.Neste artigo se analisam as razões do extraordinário poder de atração exercido pelo livro de Carlo Collodi, dentro e fora da Itália

Due Novelle del Decameron

La lettura del Decameron che propongo è concentrata specificamente su due novelle, la prima e la decima della quarta giornata (IV, 1 e IV, 10), che presentano molte ragioni di interesse nella trama, nella caratterizzazione dei personaggi e nei motivi di fondo della narrativa, fondata sulla congiunzione di tragico e di comico in quanto tratto massimamente significante della vicenda umana sotto tutti i profiliA leitura aqui proposta do Decameron concentra-se especificamente em duas novelas: a primeira e a décima da quarta jornada (IV, 1 e IV, 10), que apresentam muitos pontos de interesse pela trama, pela caracterização dos personagens e pelos temas centrais da narrativa, fundada na conjunção e complementaridade de trágico e cômico como traços máximos e significantes da aventura humana sob todos os aspectosThe proposed interpretation of The Decameron is specifically based on two stories, the first and the tenth day of the fourth story (IV 1 and IV, 10), presenting many points of interest to the plot, to create the characters and the central theme of the narrative, founded on the tragic and comic conjunction, as the most significant traces of the human adventure in all aspect

Agnosic vision is like peripheral vision, which is limited by crowding

Abstract Visual agnosia is a neuropsychological impairment of visual object recognition despite near-normal acuity and visual fields. A century of research has provided only a rudimentary account of the functional damage underlying this deficit. We find that the object-recognition ability of agnosic patients viewing an object directly is like that of normally-sighted observers viewing it indirectly, with peripheral vision. Thus, agnosic vision is like peripheral vision. We obtained 14 visual-object-recognition tests that are commonly used for diagnosis of visual agnosia. Our "standard" normal observer took these tests at various eccentricities in his periphery. Analyzing the published data of 32 apperceptive agnosia patients and a group of 14 posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) patients on these tests, we find that each patient's pattern of object recognition deficits is well characterized by one number, the equivalent eccentricity at which our standard observer's peripheral vision is like the central vision of the agnosic patient. In other words, each agnosic patient's equivalent eccentricity is conserved across tests. Across patients, equivalent eccentricity ranges from 4 to 40 deg, which rates severity of the visual deficit. In normal peripheral vision, the required size to perceive a simple image (e.g., an isolated letter) is limited by acuity, and that for a complex image (e.g., a face or a word) is limited by crowding. In crowding, adjacent simple objects appear unrecognizably jumbled unless their spacing exceeds the crowding distance, which grows linearly with eccentricity. Besides conservation of equivalent eccentricity across object-recognition tests, we also find conservation, from eccentricity to agnosia, of the relative susceptibility of recognition of ten visual tests. These findings show that agnosic vision is like eccentric vision. Whence crowding? Peripheral vision, strabismic amblyopia, and possibly apperceptive agnosia are all limited by crowding, making it urgent to know what drives crowding. Acuity does not (Song et al., 2014), but neural density might: neurons per deg2 in the crowding-relevant cortical area

Bruises in Chilean cattle: their characterization, occurrence and relation with pre-slaughter conditions

Bruises on cattle carcass affect the quality of the meat and are indicators of poor welfare conditions. According to the literature the occurrence of bruises is related to pre- slaughter conditions, however their contribution is not clear for Chilean cattle. The aim of this thesis was to provide a better understanding of the relationship between pre-slaughter factors and the occurrence of bruises -from loading until slaughter- under Chilean conditions. Therefore in the first study slaughter records of two Chilean slaughterhouses were analysed.It showed that cows and oxen had higher risk to present bruises compared to steers and heifers. Moreover, animals that passed through a livestock market were more prone to present bruises than animals that came directly from the farm. A large difference in carcass bruise prevalence was found between slaughterhouses and this discrepancy was attributed to differences in the use of the Chilean scoring system and to several constraints of the system itself. Thus a new scoring system was developed and its reliability was assessed showing a highagreement when only one observer performs the scoring. An inventory of the gross characteristics of bruises, based on the refined bruising protocol, was carried out. Animals passing through a livestock market have more bruises than animals transported directly from the farm to the slaughterhouse. This thesis presents evidences of rough handling and animals beaten by sticks at markets.In the last study the causal event of bruises during the pre-slaughter periodwas assessed. It showed that rough handling due to inappropriate use of aids to drive animals during loading and unloading, and inadequate stunning facilities at the slaughterhouse were the areas of most risk for bruising. It was concluded that improvements in the design and maintenance of appropriate structures and training of stock people will reduce the occurrence of bruises and in consequence will lead to better welfare conditions of cattle for slaughter. </p

Duas Novelas do DeCameron

La lettura del Decameron che propongo è concentrata specificamente su due novelle, la prima e la decima della quarta giornata (IV, 1 e IV, 10), che presentano molte ragioni di interesse nella trama, nella caratterizzazione dei personaggi e nei motivi di fondo della narrativa, fondata sulla congiunzione di tragico e di comico in quanto tratto massimamente significante della vicenda umana sotto tutti i profiliA leitura aqui proposta do Decameron concentra-se especificamente em duas novelas: a primeira e a décima da quarta jornada (IV, 1 e IV, 10), que apresentam muitos pontos de interesse pela trama, pela caracterização dos personagens e pelos temas centrais da narrativa, fundada na conjunção e complementaridade de trágico e cômico como traços máximos e significantes da aventura humana sob todos os aspectosThe proposed interpretation of The Decameron is specifically based on two stories, the first and the tenth day of the fourth story (IV 1 and IV, 10), presenting many points of interest to the plot, to create the characters and the central theme of the narrative, founded on the tragic and comic conjunction, as the most significant traces of the human adventure in all aspect

tragico e comico in due novelle del decameron

Si propongono alcune osservazione su due novelle: la prima della giornata IV (Tancredi e Ghismonda) e la decima della X giornata (Il marchese di Sanluzzo e Griselda), che sono tra le più studiate dell'intero Decameron e che pure presentano aspetti sui quali conviene richiamare l'attenzione