Quantitative assessment of physiological and behavioural parameters in healthy dairy cows evoked by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation of the udder

The pain and distress associated with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) of the udder was evaluated by treating 20 healthy dairy cows with an electrical udder stimulator. This generated a sequence of pulses (frequency: 160+/-10% impulses per second, duration 250 mus) and provided voltage ranges from 0 to 10 volts (+/-10%). Trials took place on three consecutive days, twice daily after morning and evening milking. Daily sessions were divided into two periods: (1) control (sham treatment) and (2) treatment (real treatment). Physiological (heart rate, respiratory rate, and plasma cortisol concentration) as well as ethological parameters (kicking, weight shifting, and looking backwards to udder) were defined as pain-indicating parameters and observed. Evaluation of data showed that only one parameter (kicking) was significantly increased during real treatment compared to sham treatment. It is concluded that the TENS therapy tested in this study can evoke changes in behaviour (increased kicking) consistent with an experience of pain in some cows.

Post-Empire Imaginaries? Anglophone Literature, History, and the Demise of Empires

Empires as political entities may be a thing of the past, but as a concept, empire is alive and kicking. From heritage tourism and costume dramas to theories of the imperial idea(l): empire sells. Post-Empire Imaginaries? Anglophone Literature, History, and the Demise of Empires presents innovative scholarship on the lives and legacies of empires in diverse media such as literature, film, advertising, and the visual arts. Though rooted in real space and history, the post-empire and its twin, the post-imperial, emerge as ungraspable ideational constructs. The volume convincingly establishes empire as welcoming resistance and affirmation, introducing post-empire imaginaries as figurations that connect the archives and repertoires of colonial nostalgia, postcolonial critique, post-imperial dreaming.