One of the major challenges in lameness management is prompt detection, especially before visible gait disturbance. This scoping review describes the potential biomarkers for lameness in dairy cows reported in the literature, their relevance in lameness diagnosis, identifying cows at risk of developing claw lesions and monitoring recovery after treatment. Using specific keywords, a comprehensive literature search was performed in three databases: PubMed, Google Scholar and ScienceDirect to retrieve relevant articles published between 2010 and 2022. A total of 31 articles fulfilling the inclusion criteria were analysed. The categories of potential markers for lameness reported in the literature included acute phase proteins (APPs), nociceptive neuropeptides, stress hormones, proteomes, inflammatory cytokines and metabolites in serum, urine and milk. Cortisol, APPs (serum amyloid A and haptoglobin) and serum, urinary and milk metabolites were the most studied biomarkers for lameness in dairy cows. While APPs, nociceptive neuropeptides and blood cortisol analyses assisted in elucidating the pain and stress experienced by lame cows during diagnosis and after treatment, evidence-based data are lacking to support their use in identifying susceptible animals. Meanwhile, metabolomic techniques revealed promising results in assessing metabolic alterations occurring before, during and after lameness onset. Several metabolites in serum, urinary and milk were reported that could be used to identify susceptible cows even before the onset of clinical signs. Nevertheless, further research is required employing metabolomic techniques to advance our knowledge of claw horn lesions and the discovery of novel biomarkers for identifying susceptible cows. The applicability of these biomarkers is challenging, particularly in the field, as they often require invasive procedures.

We address the hypothesis that at early and late lactation milk presents low ethanol stability due to high acidity and ionic calcium values. Our aim was to evaluate the functional traits of milk (milk ethanol stability: MES, acidity and ionic calcium: iCa) according to lactation stage in different genetic groups. Raw milk samples were collected from Jersey (n = 271), Holstein (n = 248) and Jersey × Holstein crossbred cows (n = 82), raised on five commercial farms located in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Milk composition, somatic cell count (SCC), milk urea nitrogen (MUN), MES, pH, acidity and iCa were determined. Days in milk (DIM) were categorized into four classes: 1–60, 61–150, 151–305 and over 305 DIM. Data were submitted to analysis of variance. Fixed and random effects were incorporated into the model, in a repeated measures in time arrangement using the mixed models methodology. Significant interactions between DIM class and genetic groups were detected. The comparison between each combination of genetic group and DIM class showed that at the beginning of lactation, Holsteins produced milk with higher MES than Jersey and crossbreds. At 105–305 DIM Holstein milk presented higher MES than Jersey, while beyond 305 DIM Holstein milk showed higher MES than crossbred cows. At the beginning of lactation acidity was higher in Holstein milk and crossbreds compared with Jersey, while acidity was lower in Holstein milk compared with Jersey and crossbreds in the other lactation stages. Ionic calcium was highest after lactation peak for Holstein, but did not vary between lactation stages for Jersey and crossbreds. Functional characteristics of bovine raw milk such as MES, iCa and acidity varied between lactation stages in a distinct manner according to genetic groups. Early and end lactation stages are challenging in terms of low stability, especially for Jersey and crossbreds.

This Grade 1-listed mediaeval church had a substantial Georgian reredos. It dominated the east end of the church, hiding three-quarters of the plain-glazed east window. In 2012 a faculty permitted its temporary removal to another location in the church while essential works were done to the chancel. Following this, the consequent increase in light coming from the windows was welcomed by petitioners, and fragments of medieval wall painting were discovered behind plasterwork which the reredos had previously protected. The petitioners now wished to make the temporary removal of the reredos permanent, relocating it to hang above the west door.

The petitioners sought permission to carry out major re-ordering works including the erection of a new thatched pavilion building. Many aspects of the works, including the creation of the single storey thatched building, had also been the subject of a successful planning application to the local planning authority.

This article explores trajectories in the politics of water patronage in N’Djamena, Chad. Water appears as a malleable and elusive commodity, at once ubiquitous and somewhat overlooked. Drawing on ethnographic field research in peripheral N’Djamena, I argue that relational distance is skilfully handled by water patrons for monetary rewards and influence. Such handling swings the making of water value in contradictory directions unaccounted for in much of the existing literature on water patronage. Present or absent, hidden or on display, funders or profit makers, patrons may leverage water supply through material, symbolic or entrepreneurial labour that places them in conflicting spaces. Ultimately, these leveraging processes based on the manipulation of relational distance create a multifaceted water valuation. The various positionalities of the water patrons and their use of relational distance point to the existence of multiple water values, rather than a single one. Therefore, I argue that water may have either a ‘distant value’ or an ‘anchored value’, depending on the relational distance strategy implemented by the patron who provides it.

Notes on the text and interpretation of passages in Plutarch's Life of Alexander.

This article examines a brief mention of the Egyptian gods Apis and Serapis in the Aduersus nationes by Arnobius of Sicca. This reference is situated within the context of several traditions dealing with the origin and connections of both of these mythical figures transmitted with some variations until Late Antiquity. It is proposed that the Peloponnesian Apis is identified with the Egyptian Serapis through a tradition already attested in Classical Greek authors, though without it being possible to determine which author is the specific reference for the Arnobian text.

This article examines the development, early operation and subsequent failure of the Tot-Kolowa Red Cross irrigation scheme in Kenya’s Kerio Valley. Initially conceived as a technical solution to address regional food insecurity, the scheme aimed to scale up food production through the implementation of a fixed pipe irrigation system and the provision of agricultural inputs for cash cropping. A series of unfolding circumstances, however, necessitated numerous modifications to the original design as the project became increasingly entangled with deep and complex histories of land use patterns, resource allocation and conflict. Failure to understand the complexity of these dynamics ultimately led to the project’s collapse as the region spiralled into a period of significant unrest. In tracing these events, we aim to foreground the lived realities of imposed development, including both positive and negative responses to the scheme’s participatory obligations and its wider impact on community resilience.

This article uses the early records of the Old Bailey to examine how the court handled cases involving children and juveniles, whether as offenders, victims or witnesses. It argues that though juvenile courts belong to a later age, the early modern court was already applying different criteria in trying young offenders. It demonstrates how juries used age, gender and related considerations to justify the ‘pious perjury’ that sheltered many from the full rigour of the law. Previous work on children as victims has focused on child-rape and infanticide. This article explores other categories. It argues that in cases of death following a severe beating the court's sympathies lay firmly with the defendants, determined to uphold the authority of employers and parents. Lastly, the article explores cases involving children as witnesses, which raised difficult questions about the admissibility of evidence. Judges had to decide if the youngster was sufficiently mature to give evidence on oath.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between body weight (BW) and hip width (HW) in dairy buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis). HW was measured in 215 Murrah buffaloes with a BW of 341 ± 161.6 kg, aged between three months and five years, and raised in southeastern Mexico. Linear and non-linear regressions were used to construct the prediction models. The goodness of fit of the models was evaluated using the Akaike information criterion (AIC), Bayesian information criterion (BIC), coefficient of determination (R2), mean squared error (MSE), and root MSE (RMSE). Additionally, the developed models were evaluated through internal and external cross-validation (k-folds) using independent data. The ability of the fitted models to predict the observed values was assessed based on the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP), R2, and mean absolute error (MAE). The relationship between BW and HW showed a high correlation coefficient (r = 0.96, P < 0.001). The chosen fitted model to predict BW was: −176.33 (± 40.83***) + 8.74 (± 1.79***) × HW + 0.04 (± 0.01*) × HW2, because it presented the lowest MSE, RMSE, and AIC values, which were 1228.64, 35.05 and 1532.41, respectively. Therefore, with reasonable accuracy, the quadratic model using hip width may be suitable for predicting body weight in buffaloes.

This article argues for an emendation to Ovid, Amores 3.9, Ovid's lament for Tibullus. The transmitted text of line 59 would seem to present a contradiction: Ovid speculates about aliquid nisi nomen et umbra surviving death, and then proceeds in the next few lines to identify that aliquid as, precisely, Tibullus’ umbra. Ovid's original text was most likely aliquid nisi nomen et ossa, referring to a burial site and funerary inscription; with this text, Ovid reproduces details from Tibullus 1.3, a poem which he reworks throughout his elegy.

This article explores the practice of the sport of tiger hunting among the Wodeyars, the maharajas of Mysore, through an examination of art, archival records, state gazetteers, and a tour diary of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. It argues that the Wodeyars only adopted the sport as an expression of kingship in the late nineteenth century, under British influence. This, I posit, was part of their larger attempt to align their kingship to more popular Indian modes, specifically the Rajputs. By reading accounts of the sport in Krishnaraja Wodeyar’s tour diary, along with examining the Wodeyars’ attempts at forging kinship relations with the Rajputs, the article demonstrates how the sport became crucial to the Wodeyars’ assertion of a Rajput identity and to attempts to obtain a higher position in the princely hierarchy of the colonial period. The recognition that the success of tiger hunts was significant to Rajput kingship and identity, along with rising concern over the diminishing tiger population, led the Wodeyars to enclose forests, establish private hunting preserves and a shikar department, and classify tiger as game in an attempt to improve the sport and make it exclusive.