Societal concern for animals under human care has influenced our approaches to advance animal welfare in a variety of contexts. The Animal Programs Department at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium sought partnership with the Center for Human-Animal Interactions Research & Education (CHAIRE) at The Ohio State University to develop a holistic welfare approach for the animals within their department using a focal species, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). A one-year project using the Five Domains Animal Welfare Model collected data over six 60-day periods to evaluate long-term cortisol production and behavioural observations of cheetahs under changing environmental factors. Species and individual histories were incorporated with behavioural observations and hair cortisol production, giving a holistic view of welfare. Cortisol and behavioural data were analysed using linear models to compare cheetahs at population and individual levels. Participation in a cheetah run activity, housing occupancy, and 60-day period were found to influence all behaviours within the population and stereotypic behaviour also differed within individual cheetahs. No differences in hair cortisol concentrations were found for the group, but further analysis revealed differences within individuals throughout the study. No correlation of stereotypic behaviour and cortisol levels were found. This study created a welfare assessment protocol that can be used within zoological institutes and was the first to measure cortisol concentrations in hair in cheetahs.

For parasites in natural systems, the most common pattern of spatial distribution is aggregation among hosts. The main causes of such aggregation are variable exposure of hosts to parasites and heterogeneity in host susceptibility. The objective of this study was to determine if there are differences in the aggregation pattern of two species of ectoparasitic flies between the Pantanal and Cerrado regions of Brazil on the bat Artibeus planirostris. We collected the ectoparasites from bats captured between 2002 and 2017 with mist nets in 21 sites in the Pantanal and 15 sites in the surrounding plateaus. The results showed that the aggregation of ectoparasitic flies in Pantanal was more pronounced than in Cerrado. The discrepancy aggregation index (D) of the bat fly Megistopoda aranea was 0.877 in Pantanal and 0.724 in Cerrado. The D values of Aspidoptera phyllostomatis was even higher, with 0.916 and 0.848 in the Pantanal and Cerrado, respectively. Differences in the shelters used may be the main factor shaping variation in aggregation, since the Pantanal does not have rock formations, with only foliage, crowns and hollow tree trunks. These differences likely affect host exposure to the parasites, leading to an increase in parasite aggregation.

We report a novel concept for the direct integration of capacitors in printed circuit boards using ultra-small BaTiO3 and ZrO2 nanoparticles prepared by a chemical method. Electrical properties comparable to surface mount ceramic capacitors were achieved by proper processing of the nanoparticles, achieving a device-yield of >90% under research environment. The loss factor of the presented integrated capacitors does not exceed 0.05 independent of frequency, capacitor’s electrode area or applied bias voltage.

American wartime policy regarding Russia continues to be disputed heatedly. In these controversies the genesis of Soviet-American relations in World War II, although it obviously played a key role in shaping both the victorious anti-Axis alliance and the uneasy peace that followed, has so far been neglected. To throw light on the initial rapprochement, this paper is presented as a survey of the half-year period in 1941 between the German attack on Russia and the Japanese attack on the United States.

Sumner Welles, Under Secretary of State in 1941, records that “the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, particularly during the period of the German-Soviet agreement, had been practically non-existent.” The Soviet invasion of Finland, sharply resented by American public opinion, served to exacerbate relations further. Only after the German attack of June 22, 1941, did the two great powers draw together.

PLANET-B is an ISAS spacecraft which will investigate the upper atmosphere and the surroundings of Mars between 1999 and 2001 To clarify the presence and characteristics of the Martian dust ring/torus, an impact ionization dust detector will be on board PLANET-B The detector (PLANET B Mars Dust Counter), which is an improved version of the Munich Dust Counters of HITEN and BREMSAT, will weigh only 630g with an aperture area 140cm2. The detectable mass range will be between 10-16g and more than 10-6g and the velocity range will be from 1km/s to more than 70km/s. Since PLANET-B executes retrograde elliptic orbits close to the zodiacal plane, our detector can investigate the spatial distribution of prograde dust particles from Phobos and Deimos with relative encounter velocity as large as or higher than 1km/s. PLANET-B MDC shall also measure the dust environment around the Earth and interplanetary and possibly interstellar dust particles.

The double quasar 0957+561 was the first discovered instance of multiple imaging via gravitational lensing. The galaxy cluster is an important deflector as well as the first ranked galaxy. This has so far precluded construction of a unique model of the lens, reducing the accuracy of the derived H0 value. We have obtained deep images of the system at CFHT. The cluster is sufficiently massive to cause distortions on distant background galaxy images. We have used a mass map derived from lensing distortions to improve the accuracy of the cluster center location and place new limits on H0.