Reposition of prolapsed uterus in the cow

Extract

The dismay which is evoked by the sight of a totally prolapsed and swollen uterus is familiar to all large-animal practitioners. The prolapsed horn (simultaneous individual prolapse of both horns is not possible because of the intercornuate ligament) is frequently 8 to 10 in. in diameter and its reposition requires Herculean efforts. If, as often happens, the animal is unable to rise, owing to concurrent hypocalcaemia or other causes, the difficulties and discomforts associated with reposition are greatly increased. Facilities for raising the cow's hindquarters are commonly not available and, even where they are, this manoeuvre can be very time-consuming.     

A national scale inventory of resource provision for biodiversity within domestic gardens

The human population is increasingly disconnected from nature due to urbanisation. To counteract this phenomenon, the UK government has been actively promoting wildlife gardening. However, the extent to which such activities are conducted and the level of resource provision for biodiversity (e.g., food and nesting sites) within domestic gardens remains poorly documented. Here we generate estimates for a selection of key resources provided within gardens at a national scale, using 12 survey datasets gathered across the UK. We estimate that 22.7 million households (87% of homes) have access to a garden. Average garden size is 190 m², extrapolating to a total area of 432,924 ha. Although substantial, this coverage is still an order of magnitude less than that of statutory protected areas. Approximately 12.6 million (48%) households provide supplementary food for birds, 7.4 million of which specifically use bird feeders. Similarly, there are a minimum of 4.7 million nest boxes within gardens. These figures equate to one bird feeder for every nine potentially feeder-using birds in the UK, and at least one nest box for every six breeding pairs of cavity nesting birds. Gardens also contain 2.5-3.5 million ponds and 28.7 million trees, which is just under a quarter of all trees occurring outside woodlands. Ongoing urbanisation, characterised by increased housing densities, is inevitable throughout the UK and elsewhere. The important contribution domestic gardens make to the green space infrastructure in residential areas must be acknowledged, as their reduction will impact biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and the well-being of the human population.     

Spin Hall effect transistor

The field of semiconductor spintronics explores spin-related quantum relativistic phenomena in solid-state systems. Spin transistors and spin Hall effects have been two separate leading directions of research in this field. We have combined the two directions by realizing an all-semiconductor spin Hall effect transistor. The device uses diffusive transport and operates without electrical current in the active part of the transistor. We demonstrate a spin AND logic function in a semiconductor channel with two gates. Our study shows the utility of the spin Hall effect in a microelectronic device geometry, realizes the spin transistor with electrical detection directly along the gated semiconductor channel, and provides an experimental tool for exploring spin Hall and spin precession phenomena in an electrically tunable semiconductor layer.     

The magnetic stability of spin-dependent tunneling devices

The tunneling resistance between two ferromagnetic metal layers that are separated by a thin insulator depends on the relative orientation of the magnetization M of each layer. In a memory device, independent switching of the magnetically soft layer is achieved by making the other layer either exchange-biased or magnetically hard. The repeated reversal of M of the soft layer by field cycling can demagnetize the other magnetically hard layer and thus erase the tunnel junction's memory. The M of exchange-biased structures was stable at least to 10(7) cycles, whereas in hard structures, M generally decayed logarithmically with the number of field cycles. The decay was very sensitive to the thickness of the hard layer and the composition of the soft layer. However, no decay was observed when the moment reversal was accomplished by coherent rotation, establishing that demagnetization results from the formation and motion of domain walls in the soft layer during field cycling.     

The distribution of pepsinogen within the abomasa of cattle and sheep infected with Ostertagia spp. and sheep infected with Haemonchus contortus.

The effect of nematode infections on the production of pepsinogen by ruminants was investigated immunohistochemically and biochemically. Abomasal tissues were collected from parasite-naive cattle and sheep, from sheep infected with predominantly Ostertagia circumcincta, sheep infected experimentally with Haemonchus contortus and cattle infected with Ostertagia ostertagi. Pepsinogen was also assayed biochemically in homogenates of fundic mucosae from sheep infected with predominantly O. circumcincta. Infection with Ostertagia spp. parasites was associated mainly with nodular hyperplasia, resulting in increased numbers of cells that produce both pepsinogen and mucus. Measured biochemically, nodules contained more pepsinogen than adjacent more normal mucosa (p < 0.05), and this effect was largely attributable to the greater mass of nodules. Infection of sheep with H. contortus was associated with generalised hyperplasia, characterised by increased numbers of mucopeptic cells and in at least one animal with reductions in parietal cell numbers. At the same time, the zymogen granule content of chief cells was reduced. Similar changes were occasionally seen in sheep infected predominantly with O. circumcincta. Generalised hyperplasia is likely to be indicative of the presence of ambulatory parasitic stages as opposed to those confined to nodules. The potential for the enhanced production of pepsinogen by increased numbers of cells with a joint mucous cell and zymogenic cell phenotype may offset decreases in the numbers of chief cells or reductions in chief cell activity.