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Effetto di differenti arricchimenti ambientali sul benessere di suini nella fase di ingrasso
No full textNegli allevamenti intensivi suinicoli, l’impossibilità di soddisfare i comportamenti esplorativi propri della specie è un’importante
problematica di benessere animale sulla quale vertono le nuove normative. Il presente studio ha lo scopo di valutare
l’effetto di diverse tipologie di arricchimento sul comportamento di suini nella fase d’ingrasso. La prova sperimentale, condotta
presso un allevamento suinicolo in provincia di Mantova, ha coinvolto 560 soggetti ibridi: cinque gruppi sperimentali
(n=80) con arricchimento (trottola, cilindro, mattone, palla, tronchetto) e un gruppo di controllo (n=160; nessun arricchimento).
I rilievi comportamentali sono stati realizzati tre giorni a settimana in tre periodi (inizio ciclo, dopo un mese e prima
della macellazione), mediante instantaneous and scan sampling method (due fasce giornaliere di 60 minuti ciascuna, intervalli
campione di 10 minuti). Inoltre, sono state contate e classificate le lesioni cutanee. I risultati evidenziano sia un interesse
differente nel tempo (p<0,001) verso gli arricchimenti sia un diverso utilizzo (p<0,001): i suini prediligono trottola e
cilindro, senza diminuirne l’utilizzo. Pur soddisfacendo un comportamento di tipo esplorativo non manipolativo, è probabile
che la natura metallica di tali oggetti sia stata preferita dai suini per la minor contaminazione fecale, riscontrata invece negli
altri arricchimenti. Nei box con gli arricchimenti più utilizzati, i suini hanno riportato un numero inferiore, seppur non
significativamente differente, di lesioni, avendo probabilmente rivolto la loro attenzione più all’arricchimento che ai conspecifici.
In conclusione, si sottolinea l’importanza di scegliere con attenzione l’arricchimento più idoneo per ottenere un effetto
positivo sul comportamento.Introduction - The intention of the new European legislation
on rooting materials for pigs is to improve the welfare of
pigs, supporting their need to express exploratory behaviours
(i.e. rooting, sniffing, and chewing), reducing the risk
of the pigs performing abnormal behavioural patterns that
may be harmful to their pen mates.
Aim - The aim of this study is to gather information about
the effect of different types of environmental enrichments
on fattening pigs behaviour.
Materials and methods - The study was conducted in a
commercial farm in the Province of Mantua. From 560 pigs,
6 experimental groups were created: 5 enriched groups
(spinning top, cylinder, brick, ball, stub), 1 control group
(with no enrichment). Behavioural observations were
performed using instantaneous and scan sampling method
(60 min/10 min scan; twice/day; 3 times/week; 3 months).
The number of body lesions was collected and divided into 4
classes (from abscence of lesions to severe presence of lesions).
Animals were observed at the beginning of the fattening
period (enrichments introduction), after a month, and
at the end of the fattening period, before slaughtering. Behavioural
data were analysed by GLM repeated measures to
evaluate the effect of enrichment, time, and their interactions;
data related to the number of pigs with lesions (expressed
as percentage of event occurred) were analysed by a
non-parametric analysis of variance (Kruskall-Wallis test).
Results and discussion - The results show both different interest
over time towards the enrichments and different use of
them: data suggest that pigs significantly prefer the spinning
top and the cylinder (p<0.001), probably due to the material
of the object (metal) that can avoid the faecal soiling, although
these enrichments only satisfy an exploratory behaviour,
but not a manipulative behaviour. The use of spinning top
and cylinder does not decrease during the whole observation
period, compared to the other enrichments (p<0.001). As
expected, the control group presents lower frequencies for all
the expressed behaviours, except for inactive behaviours,
probably due to a “rebound” effect. The groups enriched
with spinning top and cylinder present the lowest percentages
of pigs with lesions, whereas the control group and also
the stub group present a severe percentages of pigs with lesions.
For control group, the result is quite expected, while
for stub group, it may indicate that inadequate enrichments
have no effect on pigs.
Conclusions - Although pigs prefer objects with manipulative
characteristics (i.e. easy to root, chewable, changeable,
and destructible), such as the brick and the stub, we can conclude
that if the enrichment object is placed on the ground,
the pigs will focus the attention to objects with particular
materials (such as metal) that can reduce the faecal soiling.
This is probably the reason why they significantly chose the
spinning top and the cylinder. Choosing the right environmental
enrichment can improve the welfare of pigs housed
in barren pen and reduce undesirable behaviours (e.g. aggressive
behaviour towards the pen mates)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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