Neutrophils employ both oxidative and non oxidative mechanisms to destroy pathogens. Function of neutrophils coming in milk during mammary invasion is not clearly understood in dairy animals. Therefore, the present study was designed in 36 Sahiwal cows to see the changes occurring in the neutrophil activity of cows suffering from subclinical (SCM) and clinical mastitis (CM). Cows were divided into three groups as healthy (n = 12), SCM (n = 12) and CM (n = 12) groups on the basis of CMT scoring, gross morphological changes in milk, bacteriological examination of milk and by counting milk SCC. Significantly (P < 0.05) higher milk SCC, neutrophil percent and significantly (P < 0.05) lower viability of both blood and milk neutrophils were observed in CM group of cows as compared to SCM and control group of cows. Phagocytic activity (PA) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in milk neutrophils of SCM and CM cows as compared to control cows. Toll like receptors 2 and 4 in blood and milk neutrophils were found to be significantly (P < 0.05) higher, whereas, apoptosis in terms of altered mitochondrial transmembrane potential, Caspase 3 and 7 activities were found to be significantly (P < 0.05) lower in CM cows. Alterations in surface architecture of neutrophils in terms of formation of pseudopods was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and found to be higher in CM cows. Blood neutrophils were found to be spherical as compared to milk neutrophils. Formation of neutrophil extracellular trap (NETs) were found milk neutrophils of CM cows, whereas, SCM and healthy cows did not exhibit NET formation. The study indicated a positive correlation between lower neutrophil apoptosis and higher expression of TLR2 and TLR4 with the formation of NETs and change in surface architecture. Formation of NET like structures seemed to be an effective mode of defense employed by neutrophils of cows suffering from clinical mastitis.

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The relationship between gaze and speech is explored for the simple task of moving an object from one location to another on a computer screen. The subject moves a designated object from a group of objects to a new location on the screen by stating, "Move it there." Gaze and speech data are captured to determine if we can robustly predict the selected object and destination position. We have found that the source fixation closest to the desired object begins, with high probability, before the beginning of the word "Move". An analysis of all fixations before and after speech onset time shows that the fixation that best identifies the object to be moved occurs, on average, 630 milliseconds before speech onset with a range of 150 to 1200 milliseconds for individual subjects. The variance in these times for individuals is relatively small although the variance across subjects is large. Selecting a fixation closest to the onset of the word "Move" as the designator of the object to be moved gives a system accuracy close to 95% for all subjects. Thus, although significant differences exist between subjects, we believe that the speech and gaze integration patterns can be modeled reliably for individual users and therefore be used to improve the performance of multimodal systems.

Aim:The present study was aimed to study the use of cell counts as an early indicator of mammary health.Materials and Methods:Milk and blood cell counts were estimated from 8 healthy, 8 subclinical (SCM), and 8 clinically mastitis (CM) groups of Karan Fries (KF) cows.Results:Total leucocyte counts and neutrophil percent in blood and milk somatic cells and milk neutrophil percent of healthy cows increased significantly (p<0.05) in SCM cows and CM cows. Viability of blood and milk neutrophils was more in healthy cows, but decreased significantly (p<0.05) in SCM and CM cows. Significant (p<0.05) decrease were also observed in both the blood and milk lymphocytes and monocytes of SCM and CM cows. Phagocytic activity (PA) of blood neutrophils also decreased significantly (p<0.05) in SCM cows. There was no difference between the PA of SCM and CM cows. Milk neutrophil percent was more in the SCM and clinically infected milk than in the blood of these cows. About 96-97% of the neutrophils had segmented nucleus in both healthy and subclinical milk, whereas, 2-3% were having band shaped or immature nuclei. There was a significant decrease in the segmented neutrophils, whereas, band neutrophils increase significantly to about 5% in the infected milk of mastitic cows. Viability of the milk neutrophils decreased more in case of subclinical and clinical milk as compared to that of blood. PA was found to be highest in the milk of healthy group of cows, but decreased significantly (p<0.05) in subclinically infected cows. However, there was no difference between the PA of milk neutrophils of SCM and CM cows. PA of milk was also found to be significantly lower in the milk of healthy cows when compared to that of blood neutrophils.Conclusion:This study indicated that percent neutrophils and their type in conjunction with milk somatic cell counts can be used as a more reliable indicator of mammary health in cows.

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