SummaryXylazine, ketamine, methohexitone and alphadalone/alphaxalone, were administered intraperitoneally, intramuscularly or intravenously to mice, rats, guineapigs and rabbits. Times for disappearance and reappearance of reflexes were recorded, and duration of loss of reflex. Delivering a predetermined dose gave a varying individual response, ranging from inadequate anaesthesia to death. Using reflexes to assess depth of anaesthesia was of limited value. Reflex movements to noxious stimuli generally persisted even at dose rates that caused prolonged recovery times and death. Conversely, in rats there was no response to a cutaneous stimulus in some animals even though recumbency was almost restored.

The theory of storage, as related to commodities, makes two predictions involving the quantity of the commodity held in inventory. When inventory is low (i.e. a situation of scarcity), spot prices will exceed futures prices, and spot price volatility will exceed futures price volatility.Conversely, during periods of no scarcity, both spot prices and spot price volatility will remain relatively subdued. We test these relationships for the six base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange (aluminium, copper, lead, nickel, tin and zinc), and find strong validation for the theory.Moreover, and in contrast to widespread claims that Chinese inventory data are opaque, we find that including Chinese inventories strengthens the relationship further. We also introduce the concepts of excess volatility, inventory-implied spot price and inventory-implied spot volatility and illustrate some applications.

Our results showed more rapid falls in pulse rate and blood pressure in rats euthanized in a chamber precharged with carbon dioxide (CO2), when compared with rats euthanized more slowly, but death still took over 5 min in the former group. There was no behavioural evidence of pain or distress in either group during euthanasia. Initial ataxia and dyspnoea was punctuated by a lag before death, thus separating euthanasia into three clearly defined phases. All visual signs of death preceded complete vascular collapse by about 1 min in both groups, so we recommend that gas flow be maintained for at least 1 min after apparent death.

All articles available through Birkbeck ePrints are protected by intellectual property law, including copyright law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law.

The authors noticed the Dsc2 siRNA_NT panel in the original version of Fig. 7 E was a duplicate of the Dsc2 shRNA_NT panel in Fig. 7 C. The authors have indicated that this was due to a clerical error during figure revision. A corrected version of Fig. 7 E is shown below.The html and pdf versions of this article have been corrected. The error remains only in the print version. JCB: Correction