The transport of relativistic electron beam in compressed cylindrical targets was studied from a numerical and experimental point of view. In the experiment, cylindrical targets were imploded using the Gekko XII laser facility of the Institute of Laser Engineering. Then the fast electron beam was created by shooting the LFEX laser beam. The penetration of fast electrons was studied by observing Kα emission from tracer layers in the target.

The objective of this study was to determine the genetic parameters of methane (CH4) emissions and their genetic correlations with key production traits. The trial measured the CH4 emissions, at 5-min intervals, from 1225 sheep placed in respiration chambers for 2 days, with repeat measurements 2 weeks later for another 2 days. They were fed in the chambers, based on live weight, a pelleted lucerne ration at 2.0 times estimated maintenance requirements. Methane outputs were calculated for g CH4/day and g CH4/kg dry matter intake (DMI) for each of the 4 days. Single trait models were used to obtain estimates of heritability and repeatability. Heritability of g CH4/day was 0.29 ± 0.05, and for g CH4/kg DMI 0.13 ± 0.03. Repeatability between measurements 14 days apart were 0.55 ± 0.02 and 0.26 ± 0.02, for the two traits. The genetic and phenotypic correlations of CH4 outputs with various production traits (weaning weight, live weight at 8 months of age, dag score, muscle depth and fleece weight at 12 months of age) measured in the first year of life, were estimated using bivariate models. With the exception of fleece weight, correlations were weak and not significantly different from zero for the g CH4/kg DMI trait. For fleece weight the phenotypic and genetic correlation estimates were −0.08 ± 0.03 and −0.32 ± 0.11 suggesting a low economically favourable relationship. These results indicate that there is genetic variation between animals for CH4 emission traits even after adjustment for feed intake and that these traits are repeatable. Current work includes the establishment of selection lines from these animals to investigate the physiological, microbial and anatomical changes, coupled with investigations into shorter and alternative CH4 emission measurement and breeding value estimation techniques; including genomic selection.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, July 29 – August 2, 2012.

A case of acute schizophrenic psychosis developing during the treatment of hyper-thyroidism with carbimazole is described. The patient was clinically and biochemically euthyroid at the time the psychosis developed. It is suggested that an acute alteration in thyroid status, without necessarily producing hyper- or hypothyroidism, may be sufficient to induce a psychotic reaction.

The erythrokinetics of three baboons were studied over a twelve week period after infection with 3 000 cercariae of S. mansoni and compared with three uninfected control animals. In addition to monitoring changes in haematological and parasitological parameters several radioisotopic techniques were used concurrently to measure alterations in red cell kinetics. In particular 51Cr-labelled red cells and 59Fe-ferric citrate were used to measure red cell production, circulating volume, survival time and routes of loss.

All the animals remained in good condition despite heavy infection and the pathophysiological changes were in general mild and transient in nature. The principle alterations were associated with patency and consisted of a modest fall in haematocrit, some inappetence and the appearance of blood-stained mucus in the faeces. Red cell survival was reduced in the infected animals and this was correlated with an increase in faecal blood loss and haemodilution. There was no evidence of haemolytic factors or depressed erythropoiesis having any aetiological role in the anaemia.

The results confirmed the complexities of schistosomal anaemia as well as the ability of primates to withstand heavy parasitic burdens for short periods with minimal pathophysiological disturbance.

Mongolian gerbils were infected with either a benzimidazole-susceptible or a benzimidazole-resistant strain of Trichostrongylus colubriformis larvae. The comparative pathogensis of both strains of T. colubriformis was investigated for 50 days post-infection. The gerbils infected with the drug-susceptible strain of the parasite showed lower survival rates, reduced body weights, higher parasite egg output and higher worm burdens than animals intected with the drug-resistant stram of parasite. There was also evidence of an enhanced hypoalbuminaemia and a more marked gastrointestinal plasma leak in the gerbils infected with the drug-susceptible strain of patasite. Scanning electron microscope examination of the small intestine showed signs of villus atriphy in both groups of ingected grebils.

Groups of 10 Mongolian gerbils. Meriones unguiculatus, were vaccinated with 1,500 gamma-irradiated Trichostrongylus colubriformis infective larvae (L3) or with non-irradiated larvae. 25 days later five gerbils from each group were necropised and the remaining gerbils challenged with 1,500 non-irradiated T. colubriformis infective larvae. Systemic, local intestinal and coproantibody levels were compared in each group of gerbils 25 days after vaccination and 26 days after challenge. Strong local intestinal and faecal antibody responses were detected. Coproantibodies reflected antibody levels in the intestinal contents and in mucosal extracts. The results gave further support to the view that coproantibody measurements provide a sensitive index of immunity at mucosal surfaces to intestinal parasites.

Intestinal and faecal IgA responses against different developmental stages of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis were studied in Hooded Lister rats vaccinated subcutaneously with infective larvae or intragastrically with 4th-stage larvae, adult nematodes, adult worm somatic and metabolic antigens. It was found that intragastric administration of L4 or adult worms produced as high resistance to challenge as normal infection. Oral vaccination with adult nematode excretory–secretory (ES) and somatic antigens produced 69 and 17% protection respectively. All vaccination regimes induced a considerable IgA response against somatic and metabolic antigens of the intestinal stages. However, no correlation could be seen between the IgA levels and degree of protection. Analysis of intestinal mucosal, intestinal contents and faecal IgA specific to larval or adult antigens suggests that the IgA is probably induced by antigen(s) common to all intestinal stages. Also secretory IgA responses against surface antigens of intestinal L4 did not show stage specificity, although this was detected in sera.

The history of marine navigation in the area to the north of Hudson Straits and west of Greenland dates back to Martin Frobisher in 1567, John Davis in 1585 (who reached N. 72° 15′), and William Baffin, who got as far as Smith Sound (N. 77° 45′) in 1616. All of them were searching for a short route to the East. There was little exploration in the area for the next two-hundred years, until, in 1818, the British Government recommended explorations for the Northwest Passage: This activity continued throughout the Franklin era up to 1875, when Captain George Nares proceeded to N. 82° 25′ on the northern end of Ellesmere Island. After this, the role of exploration gradually passed to American hands, largely culminating in 1909 with Robert E. Peary's attainment of the North Pole.

In the year of 1657, a Shropshire clergyman, George Lawson by name, followed a prevailing fashion among English moralists and political writers of the day in publishing a formal refutation of Hobbes' then notorious Leviathan. Three years later, he further provided a positive and complete enunciation of his principles of civil and ecclesiastical polity in a work which he entitled Politica Sacra et Civilis. While it is perfectly evident that neither of these works attracted anything like that degree of contemporary attention which was aroused by the Leviathan of Hobbes or the Oceana of Harrington, it is no less evident, on the other hand, that they did not fall stillborn from the press. Not only are they to be found listed, with a fair measure of frequency, in extant catalogues of private libraries of the period, but in the critical year 1689—eleven years after the death of Lawson—Politica Sacra et Civilis was well recognized by certain ardent supporters of the revolution then in progress in England to be sufficiently timely to warrant its republication, and was palpably considered by at least one Whig pamphleteer to be well worth the trouble of plagiarizing. The popularity of the work was, however, of the most transient nature. The truth would seem to be that those principles of civil government which were maintained by Lawson were some three decades in advance of the age for which he wrote them; and that when, at length, the circumstances attending the English Revolution rendered them particularly appropriate, a greater political thinker, John Locke, was at hand to give them full expression in a form which, for clarity and fidelity to the spirit of the audience to which they were addressed, has rarely been equalled, and never surpassed. In all probability it is chiefly owing to this fact that the name of Lawson has been almost completely forgotten even by students of the history of English political philosophy, while Locke, for more than two centuries, has been regarded as one of the greatest political philosophers of all time.