1,720,976 research outputs found
Nursery pig behavior evaluation pre- and post injection using digital-image methodology
Get PDFObjectives: To determine if nursery pigs display different behaviors and postures pre- and post injection during the human-approach paradigm using a digital photographic image. Materials and methods: A digital camera captured an image of nursery pigs in a pen during a human-approach paradigm at two time points, pre- and post injection, with three different treatments. A total of 149 pens containing crossbred, mixed-sexed nursery pigs 42 days of age were used. Each pen of pigs was randomly assigned to one of three injection treatments: Vaccine A (saline administered on day 28 and Vaccine A on day 43); Vaccine B (vaccine administered days 28 and 43); and saline (VSAL; saline administered on days 28 and 43). All pigs were classified as Touched, Oriented, or Not Oriented. Pigs classified as Not-Oriented were further delineated into four postures and two behaviors. Within behavioral categories, snout and tail-base distances from the human were measured. Results: There were no pre-injection pen behavioral differences. Fewer Vaccine B-treated pens were classified as Touched compared to Vaccine A- and VSAL-treated pens. Regardless of treatment, more pigs were Not Oriented post injection than pre-injection. Fewer Vaccine B-treated pigs stood than did other treatments. Vaccine B-treated pigs had the greatest snout and tail-base distances from the human. Implication: It is important to establish the age of the nursery pigs and the vaccine with which they are treated when conducting an on-farm assessment using a human-approach paradigm.This article is published as Weimer, Shawna L., Thomas J. Fangman, Locke A. Karriker, Kenneth J. Stalder, and Anna K. Johnson. "Nursery pig behavior evaluation pre-and post injection using digital-image methodology." Journal of Swine Health and Production 26, no. 1 (2018): 25-33. Posted with permission.</p
Comparison of nursery pig behavior assessed using human observation and digital-image evaluation methodologies
Get PDFObjectives: To design and implement a digital photograph system to document the pig response to a human observer in the home pen and then compare these results to a human observation in an approach-assessment paradigm.
Materials and methods: An observer entered the nursery pen and crouched down with an outstretched arm for 15 seconds. A digital image was recorded, and the observer counted all pigs touching, oriented, and not oriented to the human. Each digital image was used to determine the snout and tail-base proximity to the index finger of the observer for pigs classified as Touch, Oriented, and Not Oriented when pens were divided into thirds and quarters. Postures and behaviors of pigs classified as Not Oriented were further delineated. Human observation and digital image were compared.
Results: Most Not Oriented pigs in the digital image were standing, followed by sitting, with 2.5% piling. Both snout and tail-base proximities were closer for Touch pigs than for the other categories (P P > .05) between human observation and digital-image evaluation for pigs classified as Touch. More pigs were classified as Oriented and fewer as Not Oriented for digital-image evaluation (P
Implication: Human observation is a faster and practical application, but digital-image evaluation allows for more information to be collected.This is an article from Weimer, Shawna L., Anna K. Johnson, Thomas J. Fangman, Locke A. Karriker, Howard D. Tyler, and Kenneth J. Stalder. "Comparison of nursery pig behavior assessed using human observation and digital-image evaluation methodologies." Journal of Swine Health and Production 22, no. 3 (2014): 116-124. Posted with permission.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Evaluation of platform enrichments in a commercial broiler house
Get PDFConsumer demand regarding standards of care, welfare, and production methods are increasingly important for livestock producers. To meet consumer demands, the United States (US) is on a path to increase levels of welfare. Structures added to the environment act as welfare enrichments but establishing scientific understanding of their impact is critical. Therefore, study into platform parameters as they relate to frequency of use is warranted. To understand the platform usage of birds in a conventional (average automated barn where majority of broilers are raised in) broiler house, three replicates of wooden platform prototypes were examined with the following designs: 1) slatted ramps with a vertical angle of 10°, 20°, and 30° (ramp), 2) 0.91 m x 0.3048 m rectangles raised to a height of 7 cm, 10 cm, 13 cm, and 18 cm (height), and 3) 1.22 m x 1.22 m pyramids with one, two, and three levels of steps raised 5cm per step (pyramid). Platforms were placed alternately and centrally in the house at equal distances from the water and feed line. Broiler usage was recorded with cameras positioned above the platforms in a commercial broiler house. Conventional broilers had unrestricted access to the platforms from the entire grow out cycle of two flocks. Platform usage was recorded daily as five second interval recordings at five time points on d2 to d44 at: 330, 930, 1330, 1730 and 2130. Birds were considered to be using the platform if observed to be physically on the platform. The platform usage frequency was calculated as (number of birds using the platform) / (the calculated maximum number of birds that could occupy the platform). Adjusted frequencies were analyzed as the percentage of bird usage based on the available surface area of the platform. Usage amongst platform types were analyzed across days using an ANOVA in JMP v.11. Significance was evaluated at P ≤ 0.05. Interestingly, while the pyramid platform designs had the highest frequency of use when considering raw counts, they had the lowest frequency of use when using adjusted counts (P 0.05). Height platforms had the highest usage frequency compared to all other platforms (P 0.05). Considering design variables and platform surface area are critical when developing enrichments for conventional broiler facilities
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Animal-human interaction comparing live human observation and digital image evaluation methodologies
Get PDFThe expectation from retailers and the public for food animal producers to continually evaluate and improve on-farm animal welfare practices will continue. The U.S. swine industry has the Pork Quality Plus education and assessment program and starting in 2011 began on-farm third party verification. However, the lack of an animal-human based measure in the current program has drawn criticism from some activist groups. Therefore, investigating the feasibility of collecting on-farm animal-human based measures that are repeatable, objective and meaningful is critical. The objective of the first study in this thesis was to build a nursery pen image capturing device that could produce a digital image concurrently with live human pig observation to allow comparisons between the live observation and digital image evaluation methodologies for pigs classified into "touch", "look", and "not" behavioral categories. The overall conclusion for pigs housed in small nursery pens was that a device could be built and used on farm. In addition, there were no differences between these two methodologies. The objective of the second study in this thesis was to compare live human observation with digital image evaluation methodologies for pigs classified into "touch", "look", and "not" behavioral categories in commercial nursery pens. The digital image evaluation resulted in the inclusion of more "look" and less "not" classified pigs compared to live human observation. The majority of pigs classified as "not" were standing and only 2.5% of pigs were classified as piling. The behavioral differences between the two methodologies may have included (1) live observer field of vision limitations (2) data collection time points for the methods differed and (3) pig and observer anatomy obstructions at the time of the count. The objective of the third study from this thesis was to compare live human observation and digital image evaluation for the same pig behavioral categories as well as to determine behavioral injection effects in commercial nursery pens. There was no difference between the live and digital methodologies for pigs classified as "touch", "look", "not", and "approach." There was no difference pre-injection for postures and behaviors. Post-injection, less Circumvent-PCVM treated pigs were classified as "touch" and "look" with more "not" compared to CircoFLEX/MycoFLEX and saline control treated pigs. When "not" pigs were broken down into behaviors and postures, fewer Circumvent-PCVM pigs were standing but more were sitting and lying compared to CircoFLEX/MycoFLEX and saline control pigs post-injection.
In conclusion, the live human observation methodology of classifying nursery pig behavior was the quicker on-farm method compared to digital image evaluation. The digital image allowed for more animal-human interaction measures to be collected i.e. behaviors, postures, location, and proximity from the human in the pen. Determining what activities the pigs are engaged in if not considered "approaching" would provide information to a producer, veterinarian, and/or assessor with respect to their overall comfort level. It would be erroneous to conclude that all pigs classified as "not" are fearful of humans in their home pen and therefore in a compromised welfare state. As a caveat, classifying pigs in the "not" category is time consuming and therefore the digital image evaluation methodology would likely not be accepted within an industry on-farm assessment program. Therefore, if "negative" behavior(s) (i.e. piling or escape) were counted instead of behaviors and postures considered to not negatively affect welfare, then only a few pigs in a pen would likely need to be counted and the remainder would be counted as "acceptable" or "not fearful." Therefore, when deciding upon which methodology (live human observation and digital image evaluation) to use for an animal-human interaction test, the decision will be based on it being practical, repeatable, meaningful, and fast.</p
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe 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
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