Characteristics of ex-racing greyhounds in New Zealand and their impact on re-homing

A small proportion of greyhounds surplus to the racing industry are entered into specialist rehoming organisations to be re-purposed as pets. Records of 835 greyhounds, from New Zealand Greyhounds as Pets (GAP), were used to investigate whether pre-adoption characteristics (age, sex, racing record, reason entered) and management factors (temperament test result, foster and trainer effects) had a bearing on rehoming success, and comparisons were made with shelter studies. Rehoming greyhounds as pets is very successful with 85.5% ultimately successfully rehomed. Only 2.9% fail as a result of failed adoptions, 11.6% fail the initial temperament test. Greyhounds were more likely than shelter dogs to pass an initial temperament test and be adopted, and less likely to be returned after 1 month. However, adopted greyhounds were just as likely as shelter dogs to be returned after 6 months. Logistic regression revealed the youngest age group (< 24 months old) were more likely to pass the initial temperament test than older greyhounds. This age effect was not detectable when the adoption success of dogs subsequently available for rehoming was considered, but a sex effect was evident with females more likely to be successfully adopted than males. Whether or not a dog had raced had no significant effect on the likelihood of successful rehoming. Greyhounds passing the temperament test with a basic pass, were less likely to be successfully rehomed than greyhounds scoring a higher pass indicative of lower prey drive. Further investigation of the validity and reliablity of the temperament test is warranted

Superpixel Convolutional Networks using Bilateral Inceptions

In this paper we propose a CNN architecture for semantic image segmentation. We introduce a new 'bilateral inception' module that can be inserted in existing CNN architectures and performs bilateral filtering, at multiple feature-scales, between superpixels in an image. The feature spaces for bilateral filtering and other parameters of the module are learned end-to-end using standard backpropagation techniques. The bilateral inception module addresses two issues that arise with general CNN segmentation architectures. First, this module propagates information between (super) pixels while respecting image edges, thus using the structured information of the problem for improved results. Second, the layer recovers a full resolution segmentation result from the lower resolution solution of a CNN. In the experiments, we modify several existing CNN architectures by inserting our inception module between the last CNN (1x1 convolution) layers. Empirical results on three different datasets show reliable improvements not only in comparison to the baseline networks, but also in comparison to several dense-pixel prediction techniques such as CRFs, while being competitive in time.Comment: European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), 201

Country differences in the diagnosis and management of coronary heart disease : a comparison between the US, the UK and Germany

Background The way patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) are treated is partly determined by non-medical factors. There is a solid body of evidence that patient and physician characteristics influence doctors' management decisions. Relatively little is known about the role of structural issues in the decision making process. This study focuses on the question whether doctors' diagnostic and therapeutic decisions are influenced by the health care system in which they take place. This non-medical determinant of medical decision-making was investigated in an international research project in the US, the UK and Germany. Methods Videotaped patients within an experimental study design were used. Experienced actors played the role of patients with symptoms of CHD. Several alternative versions were taped featuring the same script with patients of different sex, age and social status. The videotapes were shown to 384 randomly selected primary care physicians in the three countries under study. The sample was stratified on gender and duration of professional experience. Physicians were asked how they would diagnose and manage the patient after watching the video vignette using a questionnaire with standardised and open-ended questions. Results Results show only small differences in decision making between British and American physicians in essential aspects of care. About 90% of the UK and US doctors identified CHD as one of the possible diagnoses. Further similarities were found in test ordering and lifestyle advice. Some differences between the US and UK were found in the certainty of the diagnoses, prescribed medications and referral behaviour. There are numerous significant differences between Germany and the other two countries. German physicians would ask fewer questions, they would order fewer tests, prescribe fewer medications and give less lifestyle advice. Conclusion Although all physicians in the three countries under study were presented exactly the same patient, some disparities in the diagnostic and patient management decisions were evident. Since other possible influences on doctors treatment decisions are controlled within the experimental design, characteristics of the health care system seem to be a crucial factor within the decision making process

Anomaly and a QCD-like phase diagram with massive bosonic baryons

We study a strongly coupled $Z_2$ lattice gauge theory with two flavors of quarks, invariant under an exact $\mathrm{SU}(2)\times \mathrm{SU}(2) \times \mathrm{U}_A(1) \times \mathrm{U}_B(1)$ symmetry which is the same as QCD with two flavors of quarks without an anomaly. The model also contains a coupling that can be used to break the $\mathrm{U}_A(1)$ symmetry and thus mimic the QCD anomaly. At low temperatures $T$ and small baryon chemical potential $\mu_B$ the model contains massless pions and massive bosonic baryons similar to QCD with an even number of colors. In this work we study the $T-\mu_B$ phase diagram of the model and show that it contains three phases : (1) A chirally broken phase at low $T$ and $\mu_B$, (2) a chirally symmetric baryon superfluid phase at low $T$ and high $\mu_B$, and (3) a symmetric phase at high $T$. We find that the nature of the finite temperature chiral phase transition and in particular the location of the tricritical point that seperates the first order line from the second order line is affected significantly by the anomaly.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures, 5 tables, references adde

Index Theorem and Overlap Formalism with Naive and Minimally Doubled Fermions

We present a theoretical foundation for the Index theorem in naive and minimally doubled lattice fermions by studying the spectral flow of a Hermitean version of Dirac operators. We utilize the point splitting method to implement flavored mass terms, which play an important role in constructing proper Hermitean operators. We show the spectral flow correctly detects the index of the would-be zero modes which is determined by gauge field topology. Using the flavored mass terms, we present new types of overlap fermions from the naive fermion kernels, with a number of flavors that depends on the choice of the mass terms. We succeed to obtain a single-flavor naive overlap fermion which maintains hypercubic symmetry.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures; references added, version accepted in JHE

Schr\"odinger Deformations of AdS_3 x S^3

We study Schr\"odinger invariant deformations of the AdS_3 x S^3 x T^4 (or K3) solution of IIB supergravity and find a large class of solutions with integer and half-integer dynamical exponents. We analyze the supersymmetries preserved by our solutions and find an infinite number of solutions with four supersymmetries. We study the solutions holographically and find that the dual D1-D5 (or F1-NS5) CFT is deformed by irrelevant operators of spin one and two.Comment: 23 page

Clinical-pathological study on β-APP, IL-1β, GFAP, NFL, Spectrin II, 8OHdG, TUNEL, miR-21, miR-16, miR-92 expressions to verify DAI-diagnosis, grade and prognosis

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most important death and disability cause, involving substantial costs, also in economic terms, when considering the young age of the involved subject. Aim of this paper is to report a series of patients treated at our institutions, to verify neurological results at six months or survival; in fatal cases we searched for βAPP, GFAP, IL-1β, NFL, Spectrin II, TUNEL and miR-21, miR-16, and miR-92 expressions in brain samples, to verify DAI diagnosis and grade as strong predictor of survival and inflammatory response. Concentrations of 8OHdG as measurement of oxidative stress was performed. Immunoreaction of β-APP, IL-1β, GFAP, NFL, Spectrin II and 8OHdG were significantly increased in the TBI group with respect to control group subjects. Cell apoptosis, measured by TUNEL assay, were significantly higher in the study group than control cases. Results indicated that miR-21, miR-92 and miR-16 have a high predictive power in discriminating trauma brain cases from controls and could represent promising biomarkers as strong predictor of survival, and for the diagnosis of postmortem traumatic brain injury

Not so pristine – characterising the physico-chemical conditions of an undescribed temporarily open/closed estuary

rapid ecological water requirement study of the Department of Water Affairs in 2009 classified the Goukamma Estuary as largely natural with few modifications, i.e., in an A/B state. However this detailed 13-month study showed that the estuary is impacted. Salinity stratification and hypoxic conditions (dissolved oxygen (DO) &lt; 3 mg·l-1) were measured during both open and closed mouth states. The Goukamma Estuary is a blackwater system and in its natural state is expected to be nutrient poor. However high nutrient concentrations were measured in the middle and upper reaches of the estuary, adjacent to cattle farms. Nutrient concentrations represented mesotrophic (DIN &gt; 500 µg·l-1) to eutrophic conditions (DIP &gt; 25 µg·l-1). Nutrient input stimulated microalgae to attain a high biomass, ranging between 0.3 and 112 µg·l-1 (average 7.7 ± 1.3 µg·l-1) and 0.8 and 289 µg·l-1 (average 21.1 ± 4.4 µg·l-1) during the open and closed mouth states, respectively. Exacerbated by natural salinity stratification which effectively limits oxygenation of the water column, unnaturally high nutrient concentrations, microalgal blooms and coinciding organic loads all indicate poor water quality of the Goukamma Estuary. This research showed that detailed studies involving field measurements of water quality are required before the present health status of an estuary can be assessed.Keywords: Temporarily open/closed estuaries, blackwater system, water quality, stratification, hypoxia, DIN, DIP, microalgae biomas

Response of micro-algae in the Kromme Estuary to managed freshwater inputs

The Kromme is a permanently open estuary that receives little freshwater input because the capacity of the dams is equivalent to the mean annual runoff from the catchment. The estuary is marine dominated and phytoplankton chlorophyll a is low because of the low freshwater pulses that introduce nutrient-rich freshwater. Water released (2 x 106 m3) from the Mpofu Dam in 1998 produced little micro-algal response in the estuary. The study reported here addresses further runoff scenarios to see which might be beneficial in stimulating microalgal production. Recent surveys together with past research were used to describe the present state and reference condition of the estuary. Average intertidal chlorophyll a was 12.9 ± 2.5 &#956;g·g-1 of sediment and 4.9 ± 0.4 &#956;g·g-1 of sediment during November 2003 and July 2004. These concentrations are relatively low but comparable to those found in intertidal sediments in other South African estuaries and might indicate that intertidal microalgal biomass is not severely limited by low freshwater inputs. Average water column chlorophyll a concentrations have ranged from 0.6 ± 0.1 to 5.6 ± 0.3 &#956;g·&#8467;-1. Present state conditions can thus be described as those where water column chlorophyll a seldom exceeds 5 &#956;g·&#8467;-1 and small flagellates (3.5 &#956;m x 2.8 &#956;m) dominate the phytoplankton. The diatoms introduced via freshwater have been lost. Under reference conditions before the Mpofu Dam was built, baseflow would have been greater than 1 m3·s-1 for approximately 8 months of the year. The flocculation of fine particles associated with the mixing of fresh and saline waters would have resulted in phytoplankton peaks (chl a >10 &#956;g·&#8467;-1) in the middle reaches of the estuary. A more suitable habitat might also have been present for the epipelic (mud associated) benthic microalgae. An assessment of the future runoff scenarios indicated that the most beneficial for the microalgae would be a flow release from the Mpofu Dam of 5 x 106 m3 in October and then again in January. This would stimulate a 25 to 33% increase in phytoplankton chlorophyll a and a doubling in intertidal benthic chlorophyll a for a period of two months following the releases. Water SA Vol 32(1)pp:71-8