There is little information known about the energy requirements of cats in temperature climates. Energy requirement of domestic short-haired cats was determined using three groups of mixed gender - old kept outside (approximately 9.9 years of age; 4.8 kg; n = 9), young kept outside (approximately 3.1 years of age; 3.9 kg; n = 8) or young kept inside (approximately 3.1 years of age; 3.9 kg; n = 8). Cats were housed individually for 5 weeks during summer (18.5 ± 0.5 °C) and winter (8.5 ± 0.4 °C) and were fed a commercially available maintenance diet ad libitum. In both periods, energy expenditure was determined from the rates of (2) H and (18) O elimination for blood H2 O over a 12 day period, from a doubly labelled water bolus (2) H2 O (0.7 g/kg BW) and H2 (18) O (0.13 g/kg BW) administered intravenously. During the summer period, macronutrient digestibility was determined. Older cats had a reduction (p < 0.05) in apparent digestibility of dry matter (approximately 9%), energy (approximately 8%) and protein (6%). There was a significant effect of age and season on energy intake and energy expenditure. While lean mass was affected by age and season, there was no effect of age or season on energy expenditure when expressed as a proportion of lean mass. Possible seasonal differences in nutrient digestibility may explain these results.

A cohort of first-year biology students was surveyed regarding their opinions and viewing habits for live and recorded lectures. Most respondents (87%) attended live lectures as a rule (attenders), with 66% attending more than two-thirds of the lectures. In contrast, only 52% accessed recordings and only 13% viewed more than two-thirds of the available recordings. Respondents regarded lectures as efficient for information delivery (75%), and 89% enjoyed live lectures because they were useful for learning (89%), understanding coursework (94%), and keeping up with the subject (93%). Lecture enjoyment was driven less by entertainment (34%) or interaction with the lecturers (47%), although most students preferred an entertaining lecturer to a factual expert (72%). Exam marks were positively correlated with the number of lectures attended (P < 0.001) and negatively correlated with the number of recordings viewed (P < 0.05), although marks were similar for lecture attenders and nonattenders (P > 0.05). Lecture attenders mostly missed lectures to complete assessments during the same week (68%), whereas nonattenders were more likely to miss lectures due to outside commitments or preference for study from books or recorded lectures (P < 0.001). Recordings were used to replace missed lectures (64%), rather than for revision, and were viewed mostly alone (96%) in one sitting (65%). Only 22% of respondents agreed that some lectures could be replaced by recordings, but 59% agreed with having some videoconference lectures from experts on another campus. Overall, this cohort showed a clear preference for live lectures over recordings, with limited support for synchronous videoconference lectures.

a b s t r a c tCarbon dioxide (CO 2 ) thermal lasers have previously been validated for the assessment of nociception in cats. This experiment sought to assess the potential impact of factors associated with age, sex, body weight and sterilisation upon nociceptive threshold as measured by latency to display a behavioural response. Cats (N = 113) were exposed to a CO2 thermal laser three times during a 45-60 min test period depending upon the interval between tests. A minimum of 15 min elapsed between consecutive tests on any one individual. Time to display either a skin twitch or withdrawal was measured. Intra-class correlations showed the three measurements to be repeatable across tests for any given cat (ICC = 0.482; P < 0.001). Males had a significantly longer mean latency to respond than females (14.83 s and 12.59 s respectively; P = 0.028). Analyses of co-variance established that the body weight of females significantly affected response threshold (P = 0.013) but for males this effect was marginal (P = 0.058). All other factors included in the analyses were non-significant. A post hoc ttest for males and females with overlapping body weights found no significant differences between the sexes (P = 0.721). The precise reason for the effect of body weight on latency to respond is unknown and further exploration is needed particularly as it relates to subcutaneous fat deposition and skin temperature. It is concluded that, for cats, the body weight of the subject should be standardised or included in any analyses for assessment of nociception. Inclusion of body weight data in analyses may also prove useful when using a CO2 laser protocol in other species.

The CO2 laser technique may have utility in the assessment of thermal nociceptive thresholds in pain-free cats after analgesic administration and may provide a simpler alternative to existing systems. Further exploration is required to examine its sensitivity and comparative utility.

The high protein requirement of cats combined with a low rate of whole-body protein synthesis ensures that an obligate demand of AAs for energy or glucose (or both) can be met in an animal that evolved with a diet high in protein with very little or no carbohydrate.