Rabbit neutering in primary-care education: insights from a surgical clinic

Involvement in canine and feline surgical neutering clinics is generally considered to be a key element of primary-care veterinary education, yet opportunities for veterinary students to develop their surgical skills with rabbit patients are uncommon. This is despite the fact that rabbits are currently estimated to be the third-most popular companion animal species and the fact that the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) recommends that all non-breeding rabbits be neutered soon after they attain sexual maturity. We describe a pilot rabbit-neutering clinic designed to provide high-quality care for rabbit patients while offering opportunities for undergraduate surgical and case-management skills development. We report on the clinical outcomes for patients. Rates of morbidity (n=18) and mortality (n=1) were low. Of complications reported, the majority (n=16) were considered minor. Challenges included ensuring that staff and students were trained in the specific features of rabbit anesthesia and recovery behavior. We conclude that rabbit surgical clinics offer excellent learning opportunities for undergraduate veterinary students. With prior training in handling and close individual supervision, it is possible to achieve good clinical outcomes and to have a positive impact on the welfare of companion animal populations

Investigation Into Fracture Network Permeability Evolution And Geothermal Reservoir Deformation In Response To Hydraulic Stimulation, Utilizing Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Modeling

A series of hydraulic stimulations aimed at enhancing reservoir fracture-permeability were carried out in Desert Peak geothermal well 27-15 from September 2010 to March 2013. Fracturepermeability is controlled by the combined influence of induced thermal (T), hydrologic (H), and mechanical (M) processes, also known as THM. A hydro-mechanical (FLAC3D) model first, and a dual-porosity thermo-hydro-mechanical (TFReact) model second, are implemented to test if the proposed conceptual model is generally able to reproduce observations from the stimulation treatment. Numerical simulations are performed to determine: a) pore pressure diffusion and stress field modifications, b) development of mechanical deformation, and, above all c) relative impact of thermo-mechanical vs. shear deformation on reservoir permeability evolution. Both FLAC3D and TFReact coupled models display an evident cause-effect relation between stimulation of either the shallow or the extended intervals and shear deformation on a deep known structural feature, the STF (“Shearing Target Fault” – where most of the induced microseismicity is observed). Injection-induced thermo-mechanical and hydro-mechanical processes are found to govern permeability enhancement during stimulation of the shallow interval in well 27-15. Conversely, induced shear failure processes developing on a larger structural feature (STF) seem to control most of the permeability gain produced during the well 27-15 extended interval stimulation. Distinctive signatures at the well-head (pressure curve) are shown by the different permeability-change processes, and this is confirmed and matched by coupled THM simulation results

Search for heavy lepton partners of neutrinos in the context of type-III Seesaw Mechanism at CMS

The Seesaw Mechanism was introduced to explain why the masses of neutrinos are many orders of magnitude smaller than the other lepton masses. Considering neutrinos as Majorana particles, “natural” Yukawa couplings yield neutrinos with very small masses, along with heavy partners. Such particles may be observable at the LHC experiments. CMS searched for a fermionic triplet (CMS Collaboration, http://cds.cern.ch/record/2000982?ln=en; Phys. Lett. B, 718(2012) 348) (type-III Seesaw Mechanism) by selecting events with three isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse energy in the final state. Backgrounds are due to events with leptons from electroweak processes either leptons coming from secondary vertices or “fake leptons”. The estimate of fake leptons is a crucial point of the analysis. Results obtained with data collected in 2012, corresponding to 19.7 fb−1 and √s = 8TeV, show no evidence of signal, and so we have set lower limits on the masses of the fermionic triplet

Study of double-beta decay with germanium detectors

The neutrinoless double-beta decay is widely considered to be the easiest way to discriminate between the Dirac and the Majorana nature of neutrinos. The study of such process is being carried out with different isotopes and methods for more than two decades, but no result is yet univocally accepted by the Physics community. One of the most developed technologies makes use of germanium crystals, in which the radioactive source and the detector coincide. A brief review will be given about the characteristics of germanium experiments, the expected signal, the past and the present experiments. A more accurate study will be dedicated to the GERDA experiment, which is presently at the beginning of its data taking

Characterization of light production and transport in tellurium dioxide crystals

Simultaneous measurement of phonon and light signatures is an effective way to reduce the backgrounds and increase the sensitivity of CUPID, a next-generation bolometric neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) experiment. Light emission in tellurium dioxide (TeO2) crystals, one of the candidate materials for CUPID, is dominated by faint Cherenkov radiation, and the high refractive index of TeO2 complicates light collection. Positive identification of 0νββ events therefore requires high-sensitivity light detectors and careful optimization of light transport. A detailed microphysical understanding of the optical properties of TeO2 crystals is essential for such optimization. We present a set of quantitative measurements of light production and transport in a cubic TeO2 crystal, verified with a complete optical model and calibrated against a UVT acrylic standard. We measure the optical surface properties of the crystal, and set stringent limits on the amount of room-temperature scintillation in TeO2 for β and α particles of 5.3 and 8 photons/MeV, respectively, at 90% confidence. The techniques described here can be used to optimize and verify the particle identification capabilities of CUPID

Prediction of penetration per revolution in TBM tunneling as a function of intact rock and rock mass characteristics

A new empirical formulation is presented which can be used to estimate the penetration-per-revolution for TBM tunneling, derived from TBM monitoring data of alpine tunnels in the North-West of Italy. This formulation is easy to use and allows the contribution of both the intact rock and of the rock mass characteristics to be taken into account. The contribution of the intact rock is taken into consideration through the use of the uniaxial compression strength, while the influence of the rock mass is considered through the use of the GSI. A statistical interpretation procedure of numerous operative data from TBMs used for the excavation of tunnels in rock, and of the characterization of intact rock and of the rock mass, has been developed to determine the proposed formulation. In particular, the penetration-per-revolution (p) recorded during excavation, the forces applied to each disk (FN), the Geological Strength Index (GSI) and uniaxial compression strength of the intact rock (σc) along the stretch have been compared.The set-up formulation is simple to use and reliable for tunnels excavated in metamorphic rock, as it has successfully been compared with the TBM net advancement speed data of a well-known case history taken from the literature (the Maen tunnel in Italy). Comparisons with results obtained with the Norwegian School method (NTNU) and Barton[U+05F3]s calculation model have also led to positive results

Non-Binary in Higher Education Survey Findings Report and Recommendations

This report contains the findings from the Non-Binary in Higher Education: Lived Experiences, Imagined Futures project survey conducted in 2019. It also makes recommendations based on the findings

An Experimental Investigation of a Novel Low-Cost Photovoltaic Panel Active Cooling System

Renewable energy sources are the most useful way to generate clean energy and guide the transition toward green power generation and a low-carbon economy. Among renewables, the best alternative to electricity generation from fossil fuels is solar energy because it is the most abundant and does not release pollutants during conversion processes. Despite the photovoltaic (PV) module ability to produce electricity in an eco-friendly way, PV cells are extremely sensitive to temperature increments. This can result in efficiency drop of 0.25%/ ∘ C to 0.5%/ ∘ C. To overcome this issue, manufacturers and researchers are devoted to the improvement of PV cell efficiency by decreasing operating temperature. For this purpose, the authors have developed a low-cost and high-performance PV cooling system that can drastically reduce module operating temperature. In the present work, the authors present a set of experimental measurements devoted to selecting the PV cooling arrangement that guarantees the best compromise of water-film uniformity, module temperature reduction, water-consumption minimization, and module power production maximization. Results show that a cooling system equipped with 3 nozzles characterized by a spraying angle of 90 ∘ , working with an inlet pressure of 1.5 bar, and which remains active for 30 s and is switched off for 120 s, can reduce module temperature by 28 ∘ C and improve the module efficiency by about 14%. In addition, cost per single module of the cooling system is only 15 €