Breeding and housing wild animals in captive environments can pose challenges for their welfare. In South Africa, thousands of lions (Panthera leo) are bred and raised at commercial captive breeding facilities, so called ‘lion farms’, for use in tourism, trophy hunting and traditional medicine. To gain a better understanding of the potential welfare challenges faced by lions on farms we reviewed 91 peer-reviewed articles relating to lion welfare, identified via a systematic review of the scientific literature. Across these studies, we identified 170 different terms relating to negative behaviours and physical health afflictions. The majority of these terms were associated with disease and injury (124; 73%), followed by negative behaviours (19; 11%), negative mental experiences (15; 9%), nutritional concerns (7; 4%), and environmental challenges or discomfort arising from the animal's surroundings (5; 3%). Of the 91 articles, 32 (35%) focused on data concerning captive lions. Only two studies focused specifically on data obtained from lion farms in South Africa, whilst the remainder reported on data collected from zoos, wildlife parks, sanctuaries, game reserves and private ownership. Our preliminary review of the scientific literature draws attention to some of the challenges associated with caring for lions in captivity, and outlines the potential significance of these welfare challenges for commercial lion farms. Our data highlight the apparent lack of scientific research involving captive lion welfare generally, particularly data collected at commercial breeding facilities in South Africa and the consequences this could have for the welfare of thousands of lions within the industry.

The first demonstration of laser action in ruby was made in 1960 by T. H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Many laboratories worldwide began the search for lasers using different materials, operating at different wavelengths. In the UK, academia, industry and the central laboratories took up the challenge from the earliest days to develop these systems for a broad range of applications. This historical review looks at the contribution the UK has made to the advancement of the technology, the development of systems and components and their exploitation over the last 60 years.

Introduction: The harm that may come to healthcare providers impacted by adverse events has led them to be called “second victims.” Our objective was to characterize the range and context of interventions used to support second victims in acute care settings. Methods: We performed a scoping study using the process described by Arksey and O'Malley. Comprehensive searches of scientific databases and grey literature were conducted in September 2017 and updated in November 2018. A library scientist searched PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE and CENTRAL. We sought unpublished literature (Canadian Electronic Library, Proquest and Scopus) and searched reference lists of included studies. Stakeholder organizations and authors of included studies were contacted through email, requesting information on relevant programs. Two reviewers independently reviewed titles and abstracts using predetermined criteria. Using a structured data abstraction form, two reviewers independently extracted data and appraised methodological quality with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). All discrepancies were resolved through consensus. A qualitative approach was used to categorize the context and characteristics of the identified strategies and interventions. Results: Our search strategy yielded 3883 results. After screening titles and abstracts, 173 studies underwent full text screening. Extracted data reflected 21 interventions categorized as providing peer-support (n = 7), proactive education (n = 7) or both (n = 7). Programs came from Canada (n = 2), Spain (n = 2), and United States (n = 17). Specific traumatic events were described as the trigger for development of five programs. While some programs were confined to a standard definition of second victim as a healthcare provider traumatized by an “unanticipated adverse patient event” (n = 6), other programs had a broader scope (n = 12) including situations such as non-accidental trauma, stressful anticipated patient events and complaints/litigation (3 programs were unclear about the definition). Confidentiality was assured in nine peer support programs. Outcome measures were often not reported and were limited in terms of quality. Conclusion: This is a new area of study with little scientific rigour from which to determine whether these programs are effective. Concerns about protecting healthcare providers from potential legal proceedings hinder documentation and study of program effectiveness.

We are presently using the Chandra X-ray Observatory to conduct the first systematic X-ray survey of planetary nebulae (PNe) in the solar neighborhood. The Chandra Planetary Nebula Survey (ChanPlaNS) is a 570 ks Chandra Cycle 12 Large Program targeting 21 high-excitation PNe within ~1.5 kpc of Earth. When complete, this survey will provide a suite of new X-ray diagnostics that will inform the study of late stellar evolution, binary star astrophysics, and wind interactions. Among the early results of ChanPlaNS (when combined with archival Chandra data) is a surprisingly high detection rate of relatively hard X-ray emission from CSPNe. Specifically, X-ray point sources are clearly detected in roughly half of the ~30 high-excitation PNe observed thus far by Chandra, and all but one of these X-ray-emitting CSPNe display evidence for a hard (few MK) component in their Chandra spectra. Only the central star of the Dumbbell appears to display “pure” hot blackbody emission from a ~200 kK hot white dwarf photosphere in the X-ray band. Potential explanations for the“excess” hard X-ray emission detected from the other CSPNe include late-type companions (heretofore undetected, in most cases) whose coronae have been rejuvenated by recent interactions with the mass-losing WD progenitor, non-LTE effects in hot white dwarf photospheres, self-shocking variable winds from the central star, and slow (re-)accretion of previously ejected red giant envelope mass.

A surgical procedure is described for placing a catheter in the mesenteric vein of sheep, such that blood draining the reticulo-rumen is not sampled. This catheter, together withothers in the mesenteric vein and carotid artery, was used to determine mesenteric blood flow and the net absorption of glucose in five sheep fed both dried grass and ground maize-based diets. The mean (± S.E.) mesenteric blood flow rates were 33 ±0·9 and 37 ± 5·7ml/min/kg live weight when fed the dried grass and maize-based diets respectively. These flow rates, together with the small venousarterial differences in plasma volatile fattyacid concentrations observed, indicated that the mesenteric catheter did not sample blood draining the reticulo-rumen in the conscious, fed animal. Further confirmation was provided by subsequent post-mortem examinations of the catheters. When fed the dried-grass diet, a significant net absorption of glucose could not be detected. However, when fed the maize-based diet a net glucose absorption of 19·3 ± 0·75 mmol/h was observed.

The reconnexion rate of magnetic fields is crucial in understanding the fields found in turbulent flows in the solar photosphere and in the galaxy, and in flare phenomena. This paper examines the behaviour of magnetic fields in the neighbourhood of an X-type neutral point. The treatment is kinematical, specifying the velocity field v and constructing solutions to the hydromagnetic equation for B. The calculations demonstrate that the reconnexion rate is controlled by the diffusion in the near neighbourhood of the neutral point, and is not arbitrarily large, as has been suggested by similarity solutions of the complete field and fluid equations for vanishing diffusion

The Sun serves as the local physics laboratory for studying the suprathermal activity phenomena of stars. Scrutiny of the Sun has led to the discovery of a host of previously unknown physical effects, largely within the classical physics of Newton and Maxwell, but including quantum mechanics and lepton physics as well.

Granular calcined magnesites originating from Spain, China and Greece and magnesium hydroxide powder were evaluated in a series of balance experiments conducted with wether sheep (c. 42 kg liveweight) given a basal ration of dried grass at Glasgow University Veterinary School between 1989 and 1994. Four Spanish ‘Agma’ products and three Spanish ‘Navarras’ products contained less material (0–104 g/kg)>1000 μm diameter than four Chinese and four Greek materials 178–483 g/kg). The Spanish products had lower (18–45 g/kg) losses on ignition compared with the Chinese and Greek materials (53–112 g/kg). A fifth Greek product contained only 4 g/kg>1000 μm diameter. In three experiments comparing supplementation of the basal diet with 2·0 g Mg as either magnesium hydroxide or as one of the three separate purchases of the commercial calcined magnesite sources, the powdered magnesium hydroxide had the highest mean apparent availability coefficient (0·30) (faecal increase method). The corresponding values were 0·24 (Agma and Navarras), 0·20 (Chinese) and 0·15 (Greek) (pooled s.e. 0·014, d.f. 10). Powdered magnesium hydroxide also had the highest (0·18) mean availability coefficient (urinary increase method) compared with 0·12 (Agma), 0·13 (Navarras), 0·14 (Chinese), 0·10 (Greek) (pooled s.e. 0·005, d.f. 10). In two subsequent experiments, Agma had a superior apparent availability coefficient (0·26) (faecal method) than either the Chinese (0·14) or the Greek materials (0·19). A finer grade of Greek calcined magnesite (0·25) was equivalent to Agma. For the 12 calcined magnesites evaluated in the three main experiments, significant (P<0·05) correlations (r) were found between the magnesium availability coefficient (faecal method) and loss on ignition (−0·65); particle size proportions (<250 μm, 0·59; and >1000 μm, −0·65) and tended towards significance for rumen solubility in 24 μm nylon bags in hay-fed cows over two days (r=0·54, P=0·07) and rate of reaction with citric acid (0·57, P=0·055). No correlations were found with magnesium availability coefficients (urinary increase method). This confirms the limitations of both in vitro predictions and in vivo (faecal) estimates of magnesium availability for different calcined magnesites. The mean magnesium availability coefficient (faeces) of the 17 calcined magnesites was 0·21 (s.d. 0·05). If this were to be confirmed by other observations, it would have implications for the amounts of dietary calcined magnesite required to meet recommended dietary magnesium allowances for ruminants.

The quality and composition of ultra-thin 2.0 nm gate dielectrics advocated for the 0.1 μm technology regime is expected to significantly impact gate tunneling currents, P+-gate dopant depletion effects and boron penetration into the substrate in PMOSFETs. This paper presents a comparative assessment of alternative grown and deposited gate dielectrics in sub-micron fabricated devices. High quality rapid-thermal CVD oxides and oxynitrides are examined as alternatives to conventional furnace grown gate oxides. An alternative gate process using in-situ boron doped and RTCVD deposited poly-Si is explored. PMOSFETs with Leff down to 0.06 μm were fabricated using a 0.1 μm technology. Electrical characterization of fabricated devices revealed excellent control of gate-boron depletion with the in-situ gate deposition process in all devices. Boron penetration of 2.0 nm gate oxides was effectively controlled by the use of a lower temperature RTA process. The direct tunneling leakage, although significant at these thicknesses, was less than 1 mA/cm2 at Vd = −1.2 V for all dielectrics. MOSFETs with comparable drive currents and excellent junction and off-state leakages were obtained with each dielectric.

The magnetic field in the gaseous disk of the galaxy is dynamically unstable to undulations with wavelengths of the order of 1 kpc. The elevated portions of the field are subject to rapid inflation (~ 50 km/sec) by the cosmic rays produced within the gaseous disk. The result is a magnetic halo of 1–3 × 10−6 gauss, composed of close packed bipolar lobes of field extending outward from the surface of the disk to distances of several kpc. The inflation is presumably irregular, producing tangential discontinuities (current sheets) throughout the extended bipolar fields. A major portion of the magnetic energy is dissipated by rapid reconnection at these current sheets, heating the tenuous halo gas to temperatures of 106 − 107 °K and producing the X-ray emission observed from the halos of many spiral galaxies.

The magnetic field of the sun is created by a magnetohydrodynamic dynamo under conditions bearing some qualitative similarities to the apparent generation of the galactic field in the gaseous disk of the galaxy. There is a similarity, too, in the extension of bipolar lobes of the solar field above the surface of the sun and the extension of bipolar lobes of the galactic field outward from both sides of the disk. Hence one can learn a lot about the expected origin and activity of the galactic field by studying the behavior of the magnetic field of the sun. In particular, the mysteries associated with the “simple” circumstances of the origin of the solar magnetic field far below the surface are no less than the mysteries in the theoretical origin of the galactic field, where there is so little direct observation of the small scale motions and magnetic fields. There is reason to think that the activity of the magnetic field of the sun, producing prominences, flares and X-ray corona, a solar wind, and coronal mass ejection may all have counter parts in the activity of the galactic field above the surface of the gaseous disk.

This presentation reviews selected ideas on the origin of the magnetic field of the Sun, the dynamical behavior of the azimuthal field in the convective zone, the fibril state of the field at the photosphere, the formation of sunspots, prominences, the spontaneous formation of current sheets in the bipolar field above the surface of the Sun, coronal heating, and flares.

A review of the literature on atypical depression indicated three relatively separate usages for the term: anxiety or phobic symptoms additional to depression, reversed functional shift, and non-endogenous depression. A sample of 160 out-patient depressives was rated on a variety of diagnostic systems measuring these concepts. Inter-relationships between groups selected by the three definitions were found to be low. In addition, although there was moderate consistency within different definitions of endogenous depression and of additional anxiety, reversed functional shift symptoms did not correlate well with each other. These findings suggest that atypical depression may be of limited value as a specific diagnosis within non-psychotic depression.