Chore labour study in relation to dairy cattle management systems

　乳牛の飼育管理が，放し飼い方式と繋ぎ飼い方式で行なわれる2つの乳牛舎で，飼育管理作業を検討する目的で， 1964年12 月から1965 年1月の間lこ作業時間と作業動線を調査研究した. その結果を要約すると次の通りである. 1) この時期には１日１ 頭当りの作業時間は，放し飼い方式40.3分，繋き飼い方式35.0 分であった 2) 放し飼い方式と繋ぎ飼い方式における搾乳，給飼，敷わら交換と清掃のそれぞれの作業時聞は，21. 7分と20.6分， 5.8分と5. 7分， 8.5分と5.0分であった. 3) 放し飼い方式における搾乳作業のうち幾つかの要素作業は，頭数が増加しでも殆んど変動しない性質のものである.したがって搾乳頭数が20頭以上になれば，繋ぎ飼い牛舎の搾乳作業時間程度になる. 4) 放し飼い方式と繋ぎ飼い方式の作業動線を比較すると1日1頭当り489m と402m で放し飼い方式が多かった.搾乳作業の時間と動線は1頭1回当り10.9分と83m，10.3分と12mであった. 5) 敷わら交換および清掃作業は，この作業の反覆回数と作業面積から延面積で比較すると， どちらの管理方式でも1000m2当り約100 分の時間と約1900mの動線を必要とした. 6) 以上2つの管理方式を比較して，必ずしも放し飼い方式が省力的であるとはいえなかった. その原因は放し飼い方式としては飼育頭数が少なくないこと，管理作業の体系が充分確立されていなかったことによるものであろう.Although the labour-saving problem has been recognized as a key point m dairy farming in Japan, chore labour was studied by seldom investigators. The present research was projected to bring out the possible labour saving for or against loose housing free barn to stanchion stall barn. In each trial the time required in milking, feeding, bedding cleaning and others was recorded by 2-3 observers with their stop-watch, and at the same time dairy chore routes were traced by them in section papers, and subsequently measured in meters by kilvimeter (a sort of range finder). Loose housing free barn of Hiroshima University Farm had been keeping 20 cows and heifers under the management of 2 mens, and 10 heads had been milked in the parlor equipped with elevated tandem stall and pipe line milker. The others stanchion stall barn was one m Nanatsukahara Breeding Farm of Hiroshima Prefecture. In the barn, 31 cows had been under the management of 1-6 mens, and milked with two bucket type milkers. Observations were conducted for five days during the winter of 1964-1965 in the loose housing, and in succession three days during the winter of 1965 in stanchion barn. Milking time, feeding time, bedding and cleaning time required in the loose housing vs. m the stancion barn averaged in 21.7 min. vs. 20.6 min., 5.8 min. vs. 5.7 min., 8.5 vs. 5.0 min. per cow per day, respectively. Loose housing dairy chore time averaged for 40.3 min. per cow per day against 35.0 mm. m the stanchion barn. Over the last decade of years, one has often heard it said by many investigators that labour-saving is an advantage in loose housing, and especially feeding requires less time in loose housing. In U. S. A., however, head-level in loose housing is normally over 30-50 cows, and it is pointed out that labour time in some element works will be unvariable to some extent following with head-level of 10-30 cows. Accordingly, element works in milking and feeding were discussed, and if head-level would be larger than 20 cows, it could be that milking time in the loose housing would be required only to half per cow per day. Obviously, loose housing could save labour in chore with front loader. Chore routes in the loose housing compared with the stanchion barn were in average in 489 m vs. 402 m per cow per days, and 10.9 min-- 83 m, vs. 10.3 min- 72 m per cow per one time from the measure· ment of time-travel method. It is interesting to say that in handling of bedding and cleaning of barn labour requirements are calculated as 100 min. --- 1900 m per 1000 m 2 alike in the two systems

Dynamic stability during level walking and obstacle crossing in children aged 2–5 years estimated by marker-less motion capture

In the present study, dynamic stability during level walking and obstacle crossing in typically developing children aged 2–5 years (n = 13) and healthy young adults (n = 19) was investigated. The participants were asked to walk along unobstructed and obstructed walkways. The height of the obstacle was set at 10% of the leg length. Gait motion was captured by three RGB cameras. 2D body landmarks were estimated using OpenPose, a marker-less motion capture algorithm, and converted to 3D using direct linear transformation (DLT). Dynamic stability was evaluated using the margin of stability (MoS) in the forward and lateral directions. All the participants successfully crossed the obstacles. Younger children crossed the obstacle more carefully to avoid falls, as evidenced by obviously decreased gait speed just before the obstacle in 2-year-olds and the increased in maximum toe height with younger age. There was no significant difference in the MoS at the instant of heel contact between children and adults during level walking and obstacle crossing in the forward direction, although children increased the step length of the lead leg to a greater extent than the adults to ensure base of support (BoS)-center of mass (CoM) distance. In the lateral direction, children exhibited a greater MoS than adults during level walking [children: 9.5%, adults: 6.5%, median, W = 39.000, p < .001, rank-biserial correlation = −0.684]; however, some children exhibited a smaller MoS during obstacle crossing [lead leg: −5.9% to 3.6% (min–max) for 4 children, 4.7%–6.4% [95% confidence interval (CI)] for adults, p < 0.05; trail leg: 0.1%–4.4% (min–max) for 4 children, 4.7%–6.4% (95% CI) for adults, p < 0.05]]. These results indicate that in early childhood, locomotor adjustment needed to avoid contact with obstacles can be observed, whereas lateral dynamic stability is frangible

No Different Sensitivity in Terms of Whole-Body Irradiation between Normal and Acatalasemic Mice

To elucidate the radiosensitivity of an acatalasemic mouse, we examined the time and dose-dependency in the survival rates, the lymphocytes and the intestinal epithelial cells, and the antioxidant function after 3.0 to 12.0 Gy whole body irradiation. Results showed that no significant differences between acatalasemic mice and normal mice were observed in the survival rates and the histological changes in spleens and small intestine after each irradiation. The catalase activities in livers and spleens of acatalasemic mice were significantly lower than those of normal mice and the glutathione peroxidase activity in livers of acatalasemic mice was significantly higher than that of normal mice. At 10 days after 6.0 Gy irradiation, the catalase activities in livers of acatalasemic and normal mice and that in spleens of normal mice significantly decreased compared with no-irradiation control, and there were no differences between those catalase activities. The total glutathione content in acatalasemic mice was significantly higher than that in normal mice at 10 days after 6.0 Gy irradiation. These findings suggested that the radiosensitivity of acatalasemic mice in terms of whole body irradiation doesn’t significantly differ from that of normal mice, probably due to compensated sufficient contents of glutathione peroxidase and total glutathione in acatalasemic mice

Laparoscopic repair of an abdominal incisional hernia above the pubis

　　Laparoscopic repair of a suprapubic hernia typically carries a high risk of recurrence, because fixation of the mesh in the peripubic area is difficult. We herein report a patient undergoing laparoscopic repair of a suprapubic hernia, along with a description of the surgical techniques employed. 　A 78-year-old woman visited our hospital with a chief complaint of swelling at the median hypogastric incision site after surgery for an ovarian cyst performed at age 25 years. Laparoscopic examination revealed the hernia orifice to be 3.5×3.0 cm in size and that the distance between the caudal margin of the hernia orifice and the pubis was 2.5 cm. Parietex composite mesh was used for fixation through all layers of the abdominal wall with non-absorbable sutures and tack fixation. On the pubic side, after the pubis had been exposed by separating it from the bladder, we performed mesh fixation through all layers of the abdominal wall immediately above the pubis with the sutures placed inside the mesh, combined with tack mesh fixation directly to the pubis. This procedure enabled definite fixation of the mesh. Six days after surgery, she was discharged without complications. To date, two years and five months after surgery, no recurrence has been observed

Germline mutation of HRPT2 in patients with HPT

Background A subset of familial isolated primary hyperparathyroidism (FIHP) is a variant of hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumor syndrome (HPT-JT). Aim/Patients and Methods We investigated the involvement of the HRPT2, MEN1, and CASR genes in provisional 11 FIHP families and 2 HPT-JT families. Results Germline mutations of HRPT2 were found in 2 of 11 FIHP families and 1 of 2 HPT-JT families. One FIHP family with parathyroid carcinoma and atypical adenomas, and another FIHP family with cystic parathyroid adenoma had novel frameshift mutations of 518-521del and 62-66del, respectively. In a patient with HPT-JT, a de novo germline mutation of 39delC was detected. Novel somatic HRPT2 mutations of 70-73del and 95-102del were found in 2 of 5 parathyroid tumors in a family with 518-521del mutation. Biallelic inactivation of HRPT2 by a combination of germline mutation and somatic mutation was confirmed in parathyroid tumors. The finding that 2 families diagnosed with FIHP carried HRPT2 mutations suggests that they have occult HPT-JT. In the remaining 10 families, one family had a missense MEN1 mutation. No mutations of CASR were detected. Conclusion Our results confirm the need to test for HRPT2 in FIHP families, especially in those with parathyroid carcinomas, atypical adenomas, or adenomas with cystic change

Thaumatin-like proteins and a cysteine protease inhibitor secreted by the pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus induce cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana.

Pine wilt disease (PWD) is an infectious disease of pines that typically kills affected trees. The causal pathogen of PWD is the pine wood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. Understanding of the disease has advanced in recent years through the use of a highly sensitive proteomics procedure and whole genome sequence analysis; in combination, these approaches have enabled identification of proteins secreted by PWNs. However, the roles of these proteins during the onset of parasitism have not yet been elucidated. In this study, we used a leaf-disk assay based on transient overexpression in Nicotiana benthamiana to allow functional screening of 10 candidate pathogenic proteins secreted by PWNs. These proteins were selected based on previous secretome and RNA-seq analyses. We found that five molecules induced significant cell death in tobacco plants relative to a GFP-only control. Three of these proteins (Bx-TH1, Bx-TH2, and Bx-CPI) may have a role in molecular mimicry and likely make important contributions to inducing hypersensitive responses in host plants

Basic Study on Active Changes in Biological Function of Mouse Liver Graft in Cold Storage after Low-Dose X-Irradiation

We previously reported that low-dose X-irradiation alleviates ischemia-reperfusion injury such as mouse paw edema. In this study, we examined active changes in the biological function of mouse liver grafts in cold storage after low-dose X-irradiation. Mouse livers were sham-irradiated or were irradiated with 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, or 5.0 Gy of X-ray and stored for 4, 8, 24, or 48 h in preservation or saline solution. The results show that storage for 24 h in saline solution after 0.5 Gy irradiation significantly increased the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. Following storage for 4, 8, or 48 h in preservation solution, lipid peroxide levels of the 0.5 Gy irradiated group were significantly lower than those of the sham irradiated group. Following storage for 24 h in preservation solution, the activity of SOD and catalase of the 1.0 Gy irradiated group were significantly higher than those of the sham irradiated group. Hepatocytes stored in saline solution were vacuolated. However, no vacuole formation was observed in hepatocytes stored in preservation solution. These findings suggest that low-dose irradiation significantly activates antioxidative functions of liver grafts. Moreover, the dose at which enhancement of antioxidative function occurs in livers stored in preservation solution, which contains glutathione, is significantly higher than that in saline solution

Radiocarbon ages and widespread tephra geochemistry for borehole core KA-1 from Lake Kawaguchi, Japan

Lake Kawaguchi is the second largest lake (area = 5.7 km²) in the Mount Fuji volcanic region and is located at the northern foot of Mount Fuji at 830.5 m above sea level. A borehole core of 88 m length (KA-1; 35°30.427'N, 138°43.701'E) was recovered from the western part of the lake between 1998 and 2000. The upper 15 m of the core mainly consists of silty sediments with intercalated scoria fallout deposits from Mount Fuji over the last ca. 18 kyr. The core also includes a fine-grained white pumice layer at 399.0 cm depth, which correlates with the Amagi Kawagodaira tephra (Kg), based on its geochemical composition and refractive index. We performed compound-specific radiocarbon analyses of fatty acids, as well as conventional ¹⁴C analyses of terrestrial macrofossils from core KA-1 to determine the depositional age of sediments based on ¹⁴C age of fatty acids and evaluate their potential as a dating tool for lake sediments. The dataset includes radiocarbon ages of fatty acids and plant leaves and geochemical composition of Kg from core KA-1