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Effects of ultraviolet light supplementation on hen behaviour and welfare during early lay
No full textPoultry can see in the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum and supplementation of UVA has been shown to reduce laying hens’ fear and stress. The shorter wavelengths (UVB) also facilitate vitamin D3 production. However, UV spectrums are typically not included in indoor commercial poultry lighting which may result in less than optimum welfare of laying hens. This study predicted that UVA and UVA/B supplementation would increase desirable behaviours such as foraging and exploratory pecking and reduce measures of fear and stress. The effects of UV light supplementation were assessed on 252 ISA Brown hens during the period from 16 to 27 weeks of age. Birds were housed in eighteen pens (14 hens/pen) under three different light treatment groups each with six replications: (i) UV0: standard control lighting with LED white light, (ii) UVA: control lighting plus a supplemental ‘daylight’ avian bulb providing UVA, and (iii) UVA/B: control lighting plus a supplemental full spectrum reptile bulb containing both UVA and UVB wavelengths. Behavioural time budgets were assessed in the home pens at 18 and 24 weeks. At 20, 23, and 26 weeks, assessments included: individual behavioural tests of tonic immobility and open field, pen-level novel object tests and blood heterophil/lymphocyte (H/L) ratios. At 27 weeks the UV supplemental lights were turned off for 3 days as a ‘stressor’ with bird locations in the pen measured before and during the stressor, along with H/L ratio and attention bias test assessments. Results showed limited effects of the supplemental lights. At 26 weeks both UV light treatments reduced tonic immobility duration (P = 0.006) and vocalisations across time in the open field test (P = 0.0003), while the UVA/B hens had lower H/L ratios than the UV0 hens (P = 0.01). However, removing the treatment lights did not result in greater stress and anxiety and there were few differences observed in the home pen time budgets. Overall, these results align with complementary findings in the same birds showing minimal impact of the UV treatments on measures of egg production, egg quality, bone health, and circulating plasma P and Ca but with an increase in serum vitamin D (25(OH)D3) for the UVA/B hens. The supplemental UV lights in this study were only on one side of the pens which could have minimised their impacts. Similarly, effects may vary at different points in the production cycle than included in this study
Hybrid flow shop scheduling with continuous processing and resource threshold constraints: A case of steel plant
No full textMany scenarios in the process manufacturing industry, such as production in steel plants, can be modeled through hybrid flow shop scheduling problems. Continuous processing is a crucial constraint in this type of production, playing a vital role in maintaining the continuity of operations. Meanwhile, limited processing resources create threshold constraints that affect the conditions for starting production and lead to new bottlenecks. Therefore, we introduce and study the hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with continuous processing and resource threshold constraints (HFSSP-CPRT). To solve this problem, a population-based iterative greedy algorithm with bidirectional decoding (PBIGA-BD) is proposed. To improve encoding accuracy and decoding efficiency, stages with continuous processing and resource threshold constraints are encoded separately, and bidirectional decoding is applied. Subsequently, six initialization solutions are designed to improve the quality of the initial population. To enhance the diversity of the superior population, an improved destruction-construction method is designed. Then, a hyper-heuristic local search is developed to reduce the blindness of local search. It consists of six neighborhood search actions by considering the characteristics of HFSSP-CPRT. We tested the effectiveness of PBIGA-BD by applying it to an HFSSP-CPRT case of steel plant in China. Comprehensive experimental results showed that the proposed PBIGA-BD is able to outperform several heuristic rules and stateof-the-art algorithms being compared
Record labels are suing tech companies for copying classic songs – and the results could shape the legal future of generative AI
No full textLast week, several major record labels filed copyright infringement lawsuits in US courts against the makers of two generative AI music apps, Suno and Udio. The labels allege the AI companies have engaged in copyright infringement by copying many sound recordings belonging to the record labels, and producing outputs very similar to those recordings. The labels are seeking damages of US225,000) for each of the thousands of tracks of which copyright has allegedly been infringed. The lawsuits allege Udio produced output with “striking resemblances” to songs including Dancing Queen by ABBA and All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, while Suno allegedly turned out songs similar to I Got You (I Feel Good) by James Brown and Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry, among others
From Noir to Neo-Noir
No full textThough the ‘official’ film noir period ended more than 60 years ago, the enigmatic allure of noir endures, lingering like the smoke from a femme fatale’s cigarette. IMDB defines the classic film noir period of American cinema as beginning with the film Underworld (1927) and ending with Touch of Evil (1958), while many consider that John Houston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941), an adaptation of Dasheill Hammett’s hard-boiled detective novel, as launching the classic noir cycle. Classic noir is immediately recognisable for its characters: the brooding detective and sultry femme fatale; its themes of crime, corruption, and the seedy side of the big city; and its distinctive visual style, including a high-contrast black and white palette. With its categorisation – as genre/cycle/style – contested and argued over the ensuing years, noir nevertheless remains an essential part of our screen lexicon. Neo-noir, a perceptible set of screen texts emerging after the classic noir era, has undergone its own rigorous contestation and evolution, with another distinct iteration, neon-noir, also emerging. Hybridisation of noir with other genres and styles has arguably always been around, and the range of texts that emerged beyond the classic era blend noir with everything from horror in Psycho (1960), science fiction in Blade Runner (1982), dark comedy in Fargo (1996), to the Western in Mystery Road (2013). Whilst the visual features of noir are an integral part of its appeal, we must not forget that its literary roots run deep and have continued to proliferate; classic film noir arose from the novels of Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Nordic Noir had its literary roots in books from Henning Mankell and Stieg Larssen, and Australian (or ‘Outback’) Noir has emerged as a crime fiction juggernaut, with several adaptations making their way to big and small screens
Fast non-destructive measurement of intramuscular fat in Australian beef and lamb using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technologies
No full textNuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an excellent technique for non-destructive analysis of meat because it has high accuracy, a linear response, and insignificant drift over time, which removes the need for recalibration. Furthermore, single-side NMR devices have open geometries that enable measurements of subsections of larger samples without taking sub-samples. Here we demonstrated long-term reproducibility in a benchtop device and the utility of a single-sided NMR device. We validated long-term reproducibility of NMR measurements of lamb intramuscular fat (IMF%) in a commercial processor boning room years after the original model was created. It was hypothesised that the NMR IMF% model would retain precision and accuracy on independent validation. The root mean squared (RMS) error of prediction of lamb IMF was 0.79 %. The R2 between reference measurements, predicted IMF% was 0.74, the slope of the chemical IMF% vs NMR predictions was 0.989, and the bias was 0.53 % IMF%. In the second example, we showed that IMF% measurements of high value beef striploins could be measured off a commercial processing belt and returned without damaging the product. It was hypothesised that a commercial prototype single-sided NMR system would predict IMF% in beef M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum. Here the RMS error of the correlation was 1.58 % IMF% and R2 was 0.97. The long-term stability, high accuracy, and nondestructive nature make unilateral NMR devices ideal for applications in the red meat industry where IMF% contributes to product value
Improvement in the desorption of H2 from the MgH2 (110) surface by means of doping and mechanical strain
No full textIn this letter, density functional theory has been employed to investigate the release or desorption of hydrogen from the MgH2 (1 1 0) surface. To improve upon the energetics for hydrogen desorption from this system, the effects of strain and doping by Al, Si, Ti have been explored. Both of these two effects have been found to be effective. The strain applied along the X direction induces more prominent effects than along the Y direction. Regarding the doping, the system doped with Al gives the most noticeable effect. The Si doped system shows the least improvement while the Ti doped system lies in between as compared to the other two. The combination of doping and strain effects is found to be more efficacious
Analysis of Visual and Textual Metaphors of Pre-service Teachers at an English Teacher Education Program: Towards an Understanding of Teacher Identity
No full textThe impact of multimodality and global communications is more pervasive in language teacher education programs due to its effects on the uses of language. In an increasingly changing socio-semiotic landscape of discourse communities, we report on an exploratory research study that describes its effects on the formation of teacher identity through the analysis of textual and visual metaphorical representations. Informed by a qualitative paradigm, we examine the ways in which teacher identity is constructed, represented and metaphorically conceptualized in texts and pictorial images produced by a group of pre-service teachers at an English teacher education program. Despite individual differences in the metaphorical representations, multimodality and globalization are common themes in the construction of teacher identity
Defining culture, heritage and identity in Fijian Context
No full textCulture and tradition form an individual’s identity, the values instilled by the culture is a reflection of how people tend to live their lives. In Fiji, the value of tradition has passed through stages of change from the pre-colonial era to the post-colonial era and the present. The main aim of the research is to highlight the views of 6 individuals on culture, heritage and identity. The opinion expressed by them on the topics was achieved by a questionnaire (Appendix B), oral interview and informal discussions. The 6 participants are highly qualified professionals from Fiji who work in a firm operated by the United Kingdom (UK). The participants are a mixture of ethnicities, marital status and gender. The questionnaire has been analyzed with the use of subtopics and the views and thoughts are elaborated with relevant examples. The article concludes by giving recommendations expressed by the individuals
A snapshot of placement activities and learning outcomes assessed through logbook submission for clinical exercise physiology students
No full textIntroduction: Student professional placement is integral to authentic student learning. A common requirement of the professional placement experience is for students to log details of their day-to-day activities, including a description of the clients and the knowledge and skills applied. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research investigating the specific activities that students undertake during clinical exercise physiology placement and whether completing logbooks provides assurance that learning outcomes have been achieved. Methods: The purpose of this research project was to capture the skills and experiences that students report (via logbooks) being exposed to during their clinical professional placement for clinical exercise physiology and to compare these to the intended learning outcomes. Results: Students tended to undertake 1-hour client sessions with clients 60–69 years of age. Osteoarthritis, general pain, hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, mood affective disorders and post-traumatic stress disorders were the most common conditions seen during placement. Student skills involved predominately resistance and cardio prescription and assessment. Conclusions: The snapshot analysis of experiences logged by students, although time consuming, provided an evaluation of student learning during placement. Now, with online, real-time data collection available, this type of analysis will be efficient and will provide evidence for learning outcome curriculum improvements
Awino Okech. Widow Inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya. New York: Routledge, 2021. 78 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $23.19. Paper. ISBN: 9780367788049.
No full textIn Widow Inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya, Awino Okech examines the practice among Luo communities in Kenya, focusing on its reception among widows and the wider Luo community. Okech argues that widow inheritance, like so many cultural rites that focus on women’s bodies and sexuality, is understood and mobilized in the face of repeated experiences of structural and physical political violence, and other threats to Luo cultural integrity.The book presents five succinct chapters with an introduction and conclusion, and is based on a case study of a specific set of villages just outside Kisumu city in 2008–09. Okech conducted interviews and focus groups with women who had experienced widow inheritance, as well as men who held roles within the rite, and cultural leaders. The roles of women and the centrality of their bodies in preserving Luo cultural practice and identity in the face of the postcolonial Kenyan national project are explored through an examination and assessment of their performances of culturally appropriate femininity—gendered performances that have the capacity to reinforce and reconstitute Luo identity