1654 research outputs found
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Research Note: Irritating flashing light or poultry-friendly lighting—are flicker frequencies of LED luminaires a potential stress factor in the husbandry of male fattening turkeys?
Get PDFConventional fluorescent tubes are increasingly being replaced with innovative light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for lighting poultry houses. However, little is known about whether the flicker frequencies of LED luminaires are potential stressors in poultry husbandry. The term “light flicker” describes the fluctuations in the brightness of an electrically operated light source caused by the design and/or control of the light source. In this context, the critical flicker frequency (CFF) characterizes the frequency at which a sequence of light flashes is perceived as continuous light. It is known that CFF in birds is higher than that in humans and that light flicker can affect behavioral patterns and stress levels in several bird species. As there is a lack of knowledge about the impact of flicker frequency on fattening turkeys, this study aimed to investigate the effects of flicker frequency on the behavior, performance, and stress response in male turkeys. In 3 trials, a total of 1,646 male day-old turkey poults of the strain B.U.T. 6 with intact beaks were reared for 20 wk in 12 barn compartments of 18 m² each. Each barn compartment was illuminated using 2 full-spectrum LED lamps. Flicker frequencies of 165 Hz, 500 Hz, and 16 kHz were set in the luminaires to illuminate the compartments. Analyses of feather corticosterone concentration were performed on fully grown third-generation primaries (P 3) of 5 turkeys from each compartment. No significant differences were found in the development of live weight, feed consumption, or prevalence of injured or killed turkeys by conspecifics reared under the above flicker frequencies. The flicker frequencies also did not significantly influence feather corticosterone concentrations in the primaries of the turkeys. In conclusion, the present results indicate that flicker frequencies of 165 Hz or higher have no detrimental effect on growth performance, injurious pecking, or endocrine stress response in male turkeys and, thus, may be suitable for use as animal-friendly lighting
Suitability and user acceptance of the eResearch system “Prospective Monitoring and Management App (PIA)” — The example of an epidemiological study on infectious diseases
Get PDFBackground
The eResearch system “Prospective Monitoring and Management App (PIA)” allows researchers to implement questionnaires on any topic and to manage biosamples. Currently, we use PIA in the longitudinal study ZIFCO (Integrated DZIF Infection Cohort within the German National Cohort) in Hannover (Germany) to investigate e.g. associations of risk factors and infectious diseases. Our aim was to assess user acceptance and compliance to determine suitability of PIA for epidemiological research on transient infectious diseases.
Methods
ZIFCO participants used PIA to answer weekly questionnaires on health status and report spontaneous onset of symptoms. In case of symptoms of a respiratory infection, the app requested participants to self-sample a nasal swab for viral analysis. To assess user acceptance, we implemented the System Usability Scale (SUS) and fitted a linear regression model on the resulting score. For investigation of compliance with submitting the weekly health questionnaires, we used a logistic regression model with binomial response.
Results
We analyzed data of 313 participants (median age 52.5 years, 52.4% women). An average SUS of 72.0 reveals good acceptance of PIA. Participants with a higher technology readiness score at the beginning of study participation also reported higher user acceptance. Overall compliance with submitting the weekly health questionnaires showed a median of 55.7%. Being female, of younger age and being enrolled for a longer time decreased the odds to respond. However, women over 60 had a higher chance to respond than women under 60, while men under 40 had the highest chance to respond. Compliance with nasal swab self-sampling was 77.2%.
Discussion
Our findings show that PIA is suitable for the use in epidemiologic studies with regular short questionnaires. Still, we will focus on user engagement and gamification for the further development of PIA to help incentivize regular and long-term participation
Proceedings of the 2nd OPU-HsH Japanese-German Symposium 2023 : Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 for Smart Society
Get PDFProceedings of the OPU-HsH symposium on Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0. The symposium was held on February 15th 2023 in Okayama, Japan with members of the Okayama Prefectual University and the Hochschule Hannover. It was sponsored by the Sakura Science Program of Japan
Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien in öffentlichen und wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken - Eine Handlungsempfehlung
Get PDFDas Thema Nachhaltigkeit hat in den letzten Jahren auch dank der Fridays For Future Bewegung zunehmend an Bedeutung gewonnen. Bibliotheken sind per Definition nachhaltig durch die Bereitstellung und Ausleihe von Medien. Zusätzlich präsentieren sie ihrer Kundschaft Aktionen und Projekte wie „Saatgutbibliotheken“, welche inspirieren sollen, sich mit Nachhaltigkeit und den 17 Nachhaltigkeitszielen (SDGs) zu beschäftigen. Doch welche Strategie verfolgen Bibliotheken, um dieses Thema intern zu integrieren? Diese literaturbasierte Arbeit gibt einen Überblick über Nachhaltigkeit und im Besonderen über Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien. Dazu wird kurz ein Überblick über die historische Entwicklung der Nachhaltigkeit und der nachhaltigen Aktivitäten des Weltverbandes der Bibliotheken (IFLA), des Deutschen Bibliotheksverbandes (dbv) und des Netzwerks Grüne Bibliothek gegeben. Vervollständigt wird dies durch ein Kapitel zur Strategieentwicklung. Der erhaltene Überblick wird mit praxisnahen Fallbeispielen von öffentlichen und wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken aus Deutschland, Hong Kong und Oulu (Finnland) abgeglichen, mit dem Ziel eine Handlungsempfehlung für eine erfolgreiche Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie für Bibliotheken zu erhalten. Diese Handlungsempfehlung möchte Bibliotheken dazu anregen, eine solche Strategie, gestützt mit den drei Aspekten Sichtbarkeit, Vernetzung & Kooperation und Engagement der Mitarbeitenden für die eigene Bibliothek zu entwerfen
“We Need To Talk About ChatGPT”: The Future of AI and Higher Education
No full textOn November 30th, 2022, OpenAI released the large language model ChatGPT, an extension of GPT-3. The AI chatbot provides real-time communication in response to users’ requests. The quality of ChatGPT’s natural speaking answers marks a major shift in how we will use AI-generated information in our day-to-day lives. For a software engineering student, the use cases for ChatGPT are manifold: assessment preparation, translation, and creation of specified source code, to name a few. It can even handle more complex aspects of scientific writing, such as summarizing literature and paraphrasing text. Hence, this position paper addresses the need for discussion of potential approaches for integrating ChatGPT into higher education. Therefore, we focus on articles that address the effects of ChatGPT on higher education in the areas of software engineering and scientific writing. As ChatGPT was only recently released, there have been no peer-reviewed articles on the subject. Thus, we performed a structured grey literature review using Google Scholar to identify preprints of primary studies. In total, five out of 55 preprints are used for our analysis. Furthermore, we held informal discussions and talks with other lecturers and researchers and took into account the authors’ test results from using ChatGPT. We present five challenges and three opportunities for the higher education context that emerge from the release of ChatGPT. The main contribution of this paper is a proposal for how to integrate ChatGPT into higher education in four main areas
Multimodality in Technical Communication: Bibliography
Get PDFAs a result of a research semester in the summer of 2022, a bibliography on multimodality in technical communication (TC) is presented. Given that TC primarily involves the development of instructional information, this bibliography holds relevance for anyone interested in the use of multimodality in the communication of procedural knowledge. The bibliography is publicly accessible as Zotero group library (https://bit.ly/multimodality_in_tc) and can be used and expanded.
After a description of the objectives and target group, the five disciplines from which the publications in the bibliography originate are presented. This is followed by information on the structure and search options of the Zotero group library, which are intended to support the search for publications on the respective research interest. The article concludes with some suggestions for collaborative efforts aimed at further enhancing and expanding the bibliography.
The author actively maintains the group library. Individuals seeking to contribute publications to the group library will receive the appropriate access rights from the author ([email protected]). The author aspires to foster collaboration among researchers from diverse fields through this bibliography
The impact of mobile health applications on the outcomes of patients with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Get PDFChronic kidney disease is one of the main causes of mortality worldwide. It affects more than 800 million patients globally, accounting for approximately 10% of the general population. The significant burden of the disease prompts healthcare systems to implement adequate preventive and therapeutic measures. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to provide a concise summary of the findings published in the existing body of research about the influence that mobile health technology has on the outcomes of patients with the disease. A comprehensive systematic literature review was conducted from inception until March 1st, 2023. This systematic review and meta-analysis included all clinical trials that compared the efficacy of mobile app-based educational programs to that of more conventional educational treatment for the patients. Eleven papers were included in the current analysis, representing 759 CKD patients. 381 patients were randomly assigned to use the mobile apps, while 378 individuals were assigned to the control group. The mean systolic blood pressure was considerably lower in the mobile app group (MD -4.86; 95%-9.60, -0.13; p=0.04). Meanwhile, the mean level of satisfaction among patients who used the mobile app was considerably greater (MD 0.75; 95% CI 0.03, 1.46; p=0.04). Additionally, the mean self-management scores in the mobile app groups were significantly higher (SMD 0.534; 95% CI 0.201, 0.867; p=0.002). Mobile health applications are potentially valuable interventions for patients. This technology improved the self-management of the disease, reducing the mean levels of systolic blood pressure with a high degree of patient satisfaction
On the Importance of the Fun Factor in Research Projects – A Field Report
Get PDFDer Bericht bezieht sich auf ein Forschungssemester, das die Relevanz und Zukunft der Inhaltserschließung zum Gegenstand hatte. Er beschreibt den Verlauf des Semesters zwischen Wunsch und Wirklichkeit und erörtert Fehler, die in den verschiedenen Phasen des Projekts gemacht wurden. Aus der Beschreibung wird deutlich, dass Motivation, Leidenschaft und vor allem Spaß wichtige Voraussetzungen dafür sind, dass Forschung gelingt bzw. als gelungen erlebt werden kann.The report refers to a research semester that focused on the relevance and future of indexing and abstracting. It describes the course of the semester between desire and reality and discusses mistakes made in the different phases of the project. From the description it becomes clear that motivation, passion, and above all fun are important conditions for research to succeed or to be experienced as successful
Lactational treatment of bovine mastitis—Development over time and factors influencing cytological cure
Get PDFLactational treatment of bovine mastitis is a major contributor to antibiotic consumption in dairy cattle and is, therefore, important to address in light of the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance. In this large-scale database-based retrospective observational study, we combined electronic health records and routinely measured somatic cell counts from individual cows to create an overview of lactational mastitis treatment in Danish dairy herds from 2010 to 2019. Furthermore, posttreatment somatic cell count was used to approximate treatment success in terms of cytological cure. A generalized logistic regression with mixed effects was performed to combine knowledge on cow-level factors (treatment-, pathogen-, and cow-related) with the new infection risk at the herd level, and to explore the relative effect on cytological cure. The investigation revealed that the total number of lactational treatments appears to have decreased steadily over the study period, whereas treatment duration increased slightly. The proportion of cases treated with penicillin-based protocols and the proportion of milk samples sent for pathogen analysis also decreased. Meanwhile, results from the statistical analysis confirm the importance of cow-related factors, such as parity and lactation stage, for the probability of cytological cure following lactational treatment of mastitis. However, they also disclose that factors that are easier to adjust, such as optimizing treatment duration, including knowledge on causative pathogens and improving the herd-level new infection risk that can be used to positively influence the outcome. Application of this knowledge could potentially assist in promoting a more prudent use of antibiotics for dairy cattle in the future
Treatment of mild to moderate clinical bovine mastitis caused by gram-positive bacteria: A noninferiority randomized trial of local penicillin treatment alone or combined with systemic treatment
Get PDFBovine mastitis is one of the most important diseases in modern dairy farming, as it leads to reduced welfare and milk production and increased need for antibiotic use. Clinical mastitis in Denmark is most often treated with a combination of local and systemic treatment with penicillin. The objective of this randomized clinical trial was to assess whether worse results could be expected with local intramammary treatment with penicillin compared with a combination of local and systemic treatment with penicillin in terms of the bacteriological cure of mild and moderate clinical mastitis cases caused by gram-positive bacteria. We carried out a noninferiority trial with a noninferiority margin set to a relative reduction in bacteriological cure of 15% between these 2 treatment groups to assess the effect of reducing the total antibiotic use by a factor of 16 for each treated case. Clinical mastitis cases from 12 Danish dairy farms were considered for enrollment. On-farm selection of gram-positive cases was carried out by the farm personnel within the first 24 h after a clinical mastitis case was detected. A single farm used bacterial culture results from the on-farm veterinarian, whereas the other 11 farms were provided with an on-farm test to distinguish gram-positive bacteria from gram-negative or samples without bacterial growth. Cases with suspected gram-positive bacteria were allocated to a treatment group: either local or combination. Bacteriological cure was assessed based on the bacterial species identified in the milk sample from the clinical mastitis case and 2 follow-up samples collected approximately 2 and 3 wk after ended treatment. Identification of bacteria was carried out using MALDI-TOF on bacterial culture growth. Noninferiority was assessed using unadjusted cure rates and adjusted cure rates from a multivariable mixed logistic regression model. Of the 1,972 clinical mastitis cases registered, 345 (18%) met all criteria for inclusion (full data). The data set was further reduced to 265 cases for the multivariable analysis to include only complete registrations. Streptococcus uberis was the most commonly isolated pathogen. Noninferiority was demonstrated for both unadjusted and adjusted cure rates. The unadjusted cure rates were 76.8% and 83.1% for the local and combined treatments, respectively (full data). The pathogen and somatic cell count before the clinical case had an effect on the efficacy of treatment; thus efficient treatment protocols should be herd- and case-specific. The effect of pathogen and somatic cell count on treatment efficacy was similar irrespective of the treatment protocol. We conclude that bacteriological cure of local penicillin treatment for mild and moderate clinical mastitis cases was noninferior to the combination of local and systemic treatment using a 15% noninferiority margin. This suggests that a potential 16-fold reduction in antimicrobial use per mastitis treatment can be achieved with no adverse effect on cure rate