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Increasing litter size has long been a goal of pig breeders and producers, and may have implications for pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) welfare. This paper reviews the scientific evidence on biological factors affecting sow and piglet welfare in relation to large litter size. It is concluded that, in a number of ways, large litter size is a risk factor for decreased animal welfare in pig production. Increased litter size is associated with increased piglet mortality, which is likely to be associated with significant negative animal welfare impacts. In surviving piglets, many of the causes of mortality can also occur in non-lethal forms that cause suffering. Intense teat competition may increase the likelihood that some piglets do not gain adequate access to milk, causing starvation in the short term and possibly long-term detriments to health. Also, increased litter size leads to more piglets with low birth weight which is associated with a variety of negative long-term effects. Finally, increased production pressure placed on sows bearing large litters may produce health and welfare concerns for the sow. However, possible biological approaches to mitigating health and welfare issues associated with large litters are being implemented. An important mitigation strategy is genetic selection encompassing traits that promote piglet survival, vitality and growth. Sow nutrition and the minimisation of stress during gestation could also contribute to improving outcomes in terms of piglet welfare. Awareness of the possible negative welfare consequences of large litter size in pigs should lead to further active measures being taken to mitigate the mentioned effects.
We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band (
${\sim}60\%$
), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability.
The Taipan galaxy survey (hereafter simply ‘Taipan’) is a multi-object spectroscopic survey starting in 2017 that will cover 2π steradians over the southern sky (δ ≲ 10°, |b| ≳ 10°), and obtain optical spectra for about two million galaxies out to z < 0.4. Taipan will use the newly refurbished 1.2-m UK Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory with the new TAIPAN instrument, which includes an innovative ‘Starbugs’ positioning system capable of rapidly and simultaneously deploying up to 150 spectroscopic fibres (and up to 300 with a proposed upgrade) over the 6° diameter focal plane, and a purpose-built spectrograph operating in the range from 370 to 870 nm with resolving power R ≳ 2000. The main scientific goals of Taipan are (i) to measure the distance scale of the Universe (primarily governed by the local expansion rate, H0) to 1% precision, and the growth rate of structure to 5%; (ii) to make the most extensive map yet constructed of the total mass distribution and motions in the local Universe, using peculiar velocities based on improved Fundamental Plane distances, which will enable sensitive tests of gravitational physics; and (iii) to deliver a legacy sample of low-redshift galaxies as a unique laboratory for studying galaxy evolution as a function of dark matter halo and stellar mass and environment. The final survey, which will be completed within 5 yrs, will consist of a complete magnitude-limited sample (i ⩽ 17) of about 1.2 × 106 galaxies supplemented by an extension to higher redshifts and fainter magnitudes (i ⩽ 18.1) of a luminous red galaxy sample of about 0.8 × 106 galaxies. Observations and data processing will be carried out remotely and in a fully automated way, using a purpose-built automated ‘virtual observer’ software and an automated data reduction pipeline. The Taipan survey is deliberately designed to maximise its legacy value by complementing and enhancing current and planned surveys of the southern sky at wavelengths from the optical to the radio; it will become the primary redshift and optical spectroscopic reference catalogue for the local extragalactic Universe in the southern sky for the coming decade.
We computationally investigate coupling of a nonlinear rotational dissipative element to a sprung circular cylinder allowed to undergo transverse vortex-induced vibration (VIV) in an incompressible flow. The dissipative element is a ‘nonlinear energy sink’ (NES), consisting of a mass rotating at fixed radius about the cylinder axis and a linear viscous damper that dissipates energy from the motion of the rotating mass. We consider the Reynolds number range $20\leqslant Re\leqslant 120$, with $Re$ based on cylinder diameter and free-stream velocity, and the cylinder restricted to rectilinear motion transverse to the mean flow. Interaction of this NES with the flow is mediated by the cylinder, whose rectilinear motion is mechanically linked to rotational motion of the NES mass through nonlinear inertial coupling. The rotational NES provides significant ‘passive’ suppression of VIV. Beyond suppression however, the rotational NES gives rise to a range of qualitatively new behaviours not found in transverse VIV of a sprung cylinder without an NES, or one with a ‘rectilinear NES’, considered previously. Specifically, the NES can either stabilize or destabilize the steady, symmetric, motionless-cylinder solution and can induce conditions under which suppression of VIV (and concomitant reduction in lift and drag) is accompanied by a greatly elongated region of attached vorticity in the wake, as well as conditions in which the cylinder motion and flow are temporally chaotic at relatively low $Re$.
Mass-balance quantities at specific points on a glacier as defined in [IHD] (1970) relate either to annual maxima or minima in ice mass at that point (the stratigraphic system), or to values at the beginning and end of a hydrologic year (the annual or fixed-date system). Most quantities measured in the field relate to summer surfaces, which correspond to the annual minima at the measurement points. When stratigraphic system point values are integrated over a whole glacier, the result may be meaningless because annual maxima and minima and summer surfaces may form at different times at different places.
The combined system utilizes several kinds of data to derive meaningful area-average results that can be directly related to other hydrologic and meteorologic information. Measurements to summer surfaces at certain specific times, including the beginning and end of a hydrologic year, are added together with proper recognition of the types of material involved: old firn and ice, snow and superimposed ice of the year under study, new firn formed during that year, and late snow deposited toward the end of the year. Other “balance increment” terms relate values at the beginning and end of a hydrologic year to corresponding area-average balance minima. As a result, two types of “net balance” and many other terms are given precise meaning for a glacier as a whole. The scheme is sufficiently versatile to be used on any glacier, although the terms relating to summer surfaces are not defined on a glacier in which ablation or accumulation is continuous throughout a year.
Freshwater Ostracoda collected in ephemeral pond-waters derived from Tropical Storm Allison (2001, Texas) recorded the unusually low oxygen-isotope values of that storm. Therefore, the potential clearly exists, in locations where tropical cyclones make landfall, to obtain a long-term record of tropical cyclone activity from fossil ostracode calcite.
Resilience is the capacity of individuals to resist mental disorders despite exposure to stress. Little is known about its neural underpinnings. The putative variation of white-matter microstructure with resilience in adolescence, a critical period for brain maturation and onset of high-prevalence mental disorders, has not been assessed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Lower fractional anisotropy (FA) though, has been reported in the corpus callosum (CC), the brain's largest white-matter structure, in psychiatric and stress-related conditions. We hypothesized that higher FA in the CC would characterize stress-resilient adolescents.
Method
Three groups of adolescents recruited from the community were compared: resilient with low risk of mental disorder despite high exposure to lifetime stress (n = 55), at-risk of mental disorder exposed to the same level of stress (n = 68), and controls (n = 123). Personality was assessed by the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Voxelwise statistics of DTI values in CC were obtained using tract-based spatial statistics. Regional projections were identified by probabilistic tractography.
Results
Higher FA values were detected in the anterior CC of resilient compared to both non-resilient and control adolescents. FA values varied according to resilience capacity. Seed regional changes in anterior CC projected onto anterior cingulate and frontal cortex. Neuroticism and three other NEO-FFI factor scores differentiated non-resilient participants from the other two groups.
Conclusion
High FA was detected in resilient adolescents in an anterior CC region projecting to frontal areas subserving cognitive resources. Psychiatric risk was associated with personality characteristics. Resilience in adolescence may be related to white-matter microstructure.
The association between disability and depression is complex, with disability well established as a correlate and consequence of late life depression. Studies in community samples report that greater volumes of cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) seen on brain imaging are linked with functional impairment. These vascular changes are also associated with late life depression, but it is not known if depression is a modifier in the relationship between cerebrovascular changes and functional impairment.
Methods:
The study sample was 237 older adults diagnosed with major depression and 140 never depressed comparison adults, with both groups assessed at study enrollment. The dependent variable was the number of limitations in basic activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADLs, and mobility tasks. The independent variable was the total volume of cerebral white matter lesions or hyperintensities assessed though magnetic resonance imaging.
Results:
In analyses controlling for age, sex, race, high blood pressure, and cognitive status, a greater volume of WMH was positively associated with the total number of functional limitations as well as the number of mobility limitations among those older adults with late life depression but not among those never depressed, suggesting the association between WMH volume and functional status differs in the presence of late life depression.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest older patients with both depression and vascular risk factors may be at an increased risk for functional decline, and may benefit from management of both cerebrovascular risk factors and depression.
Although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), few reliable predictors of treatment outcome have been identified. The present study examined the neural correlates of symptom improvement with CBT among OCD patients with predominantly contamination obsessions and washing compulsions, the most common OCD symptom dimension.
Method
Participants consisted of 12 OCD patients who underwent symptom provocation with contamination-related images during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning prior to 12 weeks of CBT.
Results
Patterns of brain activity during symptom provocation were correlated with a decrease on the Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) after treatment, even when controlling for baseline scores on the YBOCS and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and improvement on the BDI during treatment. Specifically, activation in brain regions involved in emotional processing, such as the anterior temporal pole and amygdala, was most strongly associated with better treatment response. By contrast, activity in areas involved in emotion regulation, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, correlated negatively with treatment response mainly in the later stages within each block of exposure during symptom provocation.
Conclusions
Successful recruitment of limbic regions during exposure to threat cues in patients with contamination-based OCD may facilitate a better response to CBT, whereas excessive activation of dorsolateral prefrontal regions involved in cognitive control may hinder response to treatment. The theoretical implications of the findings and their potential relevance to personalized care approaches are discussed.