Effects of handling procedure during unloading on welfare and meat quality of market-weight pigs

This study aimed to examine the effects of handling procedure during unloading on blood glucose level, carcass lesions and meat quality of market-weight pigs. Rough handling during unloading was related to higher blood glucose level and frequency of slipping and falling. In contrast, gentle handling during unloading was related to the lower blood glucose level and frequency of slipping and falling, but the higher frequency of reluctance to move and turning back. Rough handling during unloading resulted in a higher carcass lesion score, and the higher tendency towards lesions on the middle part of the carcass and handling-type carcass lesions. Pigs subjected to rough handling during unloading had a higher meat temperature 45 minutes after slaughter, lower meat pH value 45 minutes and 24 hours postmortem, higher drip and cooking loss, higher L* and b* values and lower sensory colour score, and consequently, produced a higher prevalence of pale, soft and exudative meat. In contrast, pigs exposed to gentle handling during unloading produced a lower percentage of pale, soft and exudative meat, but a higher percentage of pale, firm, and nonexudative. In conclusion, gentle handling during unloading resulted in improved animal welfare, decreased stress intensity, and increased pork quality.

Common Backswimmer Notonecta glauca (Linnaeus 1758) (Hemiptera: Notonectidae)

Notonecta glauca, the common backswimmer, is an aquatic insect most easily recognizable by their long hind legs. Insects in the family Notonectidae are commonly referred to as backswimmers or greater water boatman. They propel themselves through the water on their dorsal side with their abdomen facing upwards, this is how they acquired their common name. Insects commonly referred to as lesser water boatman are in the family Corixidae, not Notonectidae, like common backswimmers. They can inflict wounds to humans with their proboscis (mouthpart), but this is very rare and often is a result of rough handling.

Bruises of the face – two verry different tales

Bruises of the face, sometimes extending to the neck and upper torso, differ from bruising in systemic disease. Two case histories illustrate their main etiologies: bruising induced by coughing or straining which usually is an innocent occurrence, and bruising caused by rough handling the patient or elder abuse which need to be prevented.

Accidents, Injuries, Escapes and Suicides

This chapter aims to bring together components of asylum life—the law, the leadership, staff, patients and public—to create a broad picture about what happened when things went wrong: accidents, injuries, escapes and suicides. There are drawbacks, in that much of the material is necessarily anecdotal with inconsistencies and contradictions. However, cases provide enough evidence to identify repeated patterns of attitudes, behaviours and decision making, from which conclusions can be drawn. The Board of Control indicated that it knew about asylum rough handling, but it did little to try to remedy the situation. Despite their rhetoric of good intentions, the asylum leadership frequently rationalised or denied maltreatment, thus failing to secure the most humane conditions for patients.

Correcting Decalibration of Stereo Cameras in Self-Driving Vehicles

Camera systems in autonomous vehicles are subject to various sources of anticipated and unanticipated mechanical stress (vibration, rough handling, collisions) in real-world conditions. Even moderate changes in camera geometry due to mechanical stress decalibrate multi-camera systems and corrupt downstream applications like depth perception. We propose an on-the-fly stereo recalibration method applicable in real-world autonomous vehicles. The method is comprised of two parts. First, in optimization step, external camera parameters are optimized with the goal to maximise the amount of recovered depth pixels. In the second step, external sensor is used to adjust the scaling of the optimized camera model. The method is lightweight and fast enough to run in parallel with stereo estimation, thus allowing an on-the-fly recalibration. Our extensive experimental analysis shows that our method achieves stereo reconstruction better or on par with manual calibration. If our method is used on a sequence of images, the quality of calibration can be improved even further.

Adverse caregiving in infancy blunts neural processing of the mother: Translating across species

The roots of psychopathology frequently take shape during infancy in the context of parent-infant interactions and adversity. Yet, neurobiological mechanisms linking these processes during infancy remain elusive. Here, using responses to attachment figures among infants who experienced adversity as a benchmark, we assessed rat pup cortical Local Field Potentials (LFP) and behaviors exposed to adversity in response to maternal rough and nurturing handling by examining its impact on pup separation-reunion with the mother. We show that during adversity, pup cortical LFP dynamic range decreased during nurturing maternal behaviors, but was minimally impacted by rough handling. During reunion, adversity-experiencing pups showed aberrant interactions with mother and blunted cortical LFP. Blocking pup stress hormone during either adversity or reunion restored typical behavior, LFP power, and cross-frequency coupling. This translational approach suggests adversity-rearing produces a stress-induced aberrant neurobehavioral processing of the mother, which can be used as an early biomarker of later-life pathology.

Post-harvest quality loss of small indigenous fish species in Sylhet region: ensure quality up to consumer level

The present study was designed to investigate the post-harvest quality loss of locally captured Small Indigenous Species (SIS) based on existing marketing system in Sylhet region. A total of 20 fish harvesters, 30 fish handlers (involve in sorting, loading and unloading, transporting, receiving at market), 10 depot owners, 10 auctioneers, 5 aratders was interviewed and 10 markets were visited to collect data about post-harvest activities and marketing of SIS from some areas of Sylhet and Sunamgonj district from July 2015 to December 2015. At harvesting places (100%) fish were the best quality (defect point <2). Fish sold in early market (7am – 9 am) were also acceptable (defect point <2 to <3) in terms of quality. After harvesting rough handling (15%), compactness (3%), delay icing (10%), no icing (45%), marketing process (15%) and transportation (7%) lead to loss of a major proportion of total quality. On the basis of defect point average freshness quality of SIS were found <2 at harvesting places, <2 to <3 in landing center, during sorting, <2 to <3 during transportation and <2 to< 4 at market which were results from different activities associated with SIS handling and marketing.J. Asiat. Soc. Bangladesh, Sci. 42(1): 115-125, June 2016