Occupational Animal Allergy.

Science.gov (United States)

Stave, Gregg M

2018-02-16

This review explores animal allergen exposure in research laboratories and other work settings, focusing on causes and prevention. (1) Consistent with the hygiene hypothesis, there is new evidence that early childhood exposure to pets produces changes in the gut microbiome that likely lead to a lower risk of allergy. (2) Anaphylaxis from laboratory animal bites occurs more frequently than suggested by prior literature. (3) Animal allergens represent an occupational hazard in a wide variety of work settings ranging from fields that work with animals to public settings like schools and public transportation where allergens are brought into or are present in the workplace. Exposure to animal allergens can result in allergy, asthma, and anaphylaxis. Animal allergy has been most studied in the research laboratory setting, where exposure reduction can prevent the development of allergy. Similar prevention approaches need to be considered for other animal work environments and in all settings where animal allergens are present.

Coupler for surgery on small animals

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, J. E., Jr.; Swartz, P. F.

1979-01-01

Minicoupler simplifies exchange of fluids with organs of laboratory animals enabling one person to perform surgery on experimental animals such as rats and mice. Innovation eliminates obstructing hands and instruments from areas of surgery.

A fundamental role for context in instrumental learning and extinction.

Science.gov (United States)

Bouton, Mark E; Todd, Travis P

2014-05-01

The purpose of this article is to review recent research that has investigated the effects of context change on instrumental (operant) learning. The first part of the article discusses instrumental extinction, in which the strength of a reinforced instrumental behavior declines when reinforcers are withdrawn. The results suggest that extinction of either simple or discriminated operant behavior is relatively specific to the context in which it is learned: As in prior studies of Pavlovian extinction, ABA, ABC, and AAB renewal effects can all be observed. Further analysis supports the idea that the organism learns to refrain from making a specific response in a specific context, or in more formal terms, an inhibitory context-response association. The second part of the article then discusses research suggesting that the context also controls instrumental behavior before it is extinguished. Several experiments demonstrate that a context switch after either simple or discriminated operant training causes a decrement in the strength of the response. Over a range of conditions, the animal appears to learn a direct association between the context and the response. Under some conditions, it can also learn a hierarchical representation of context and the response-reinforcer relation. Extinction is still more context-specific than conditioning, as indicated by ABC and AAB renewal. Overall, the results establish that the context can play a significant role in both the acquisition and extinction of operant behavior. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Aversive pavlovian responses affect human instrumental motor performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Rigoli, Francesco; Pavone, Enea Francesco; Pezzulo, Giovanni

2012-01-01

IN NEUROSCIENCE AND PSYCHOLOGY, AN INFLUENTIAL PERSPECTIVE DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN TWO KINDS OF BEHAVIORAL CONTROL: instrumental (habitual and goal-directed) and Pavlovian. Understanding the instrumental-Pavlovian interaction is fundamental for the comprehension of decision-making. Animal studies (as those using the negative auto-maintenance paradigm), have demonstrated that Pavlovian mechanisms can have maladaptive effects on instrumental performance. However, evidence for a similar effect in humans is scarce. In addition, the mechanisms modulating the impact of Pavlovian responses on instrumental performance are largely unknown, both in human and non-human animals. The present paper describes a behavioral experiment investigating the effects of Pavlovian conditioned responses on performance in humans, focusing on the aversive domain. Results showed that Pavlovian responses influenced human performance, and, similar to animal studies, could have maladaptive effects. In particular, Pavlovian responses either impaired or increased performance depending on modulator variables such as threat distance, task controllability, punishment history, amount of training, and explicit punishment expectancy. Overall, these findings help elucidating the computational mechanisms underlying the instrumental-Pavlovian interaction, which might be at the base of apparently irrational phenomena in economics, social behavior, and psychopathology.

Aversive Pavlovian responses affect human instrumental motor performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco eRigoli

2012-10-01

Full Text Available In neuroscience and psychology, an influential perspective distinguishes between two kinds of behavioural control: instrumental (habitual and goal-directed and Pavlovian. Understanding the instrumental-Pavlovian interaction is fundamental for the comprehension of decision-making. Animal studies (as those using the negative auto-maintenance paradigm, have demonstrated that Pavlovian mechanisms can have maladaptive effects on instrumental performance. However, evidence for a similar effect in humans is scarce. In addition, the mechanisms modulating the impact of Pavlovian responses on instrumental performance are largely unknown, both in human and non-human animals. The present paper describes a behavioural experiment investigating the effects of Pavlovian conditioned responses on performance in humans, focusing on the aversive domain. Results showed that Pavlovian responses influenced human performance, and, similar to animal studies, could have maladaptive effects. In particular, Pavlovian responses either impaired or increased performance depending on modulator variables such as threat distance, task controllability, punishment history, amount of training, and explicit punishment expectancy. Overall, these findings help elucidating the computational mechanisms underlying the instrumental-Pavlovian interaction, which might be at the base of apparently irrational phenomena in economics, social behaviour, and psychopathology.

Individual animals and other data collected using visual observations and other instruments from AIRCRAFT in the Arctic Ocean from 02 August 1979 to 18 October 1982 (NODC Accession 8400149)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Individual animals and other data were collected using visual observations and other instruments in the Arctic Ocean by AIRCRAFT. Data were collected from 02 August...

Ethical guidelines, animal profile, various animal models used in periodontal research with alternatives and future perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Pasupuleti, Mohan Kumar; Molahally, Subramanya Shetty; Salwaji, Supraja

2016-01-01

Laboratory animal models serve as a facilitator to investigate the etiopathogenesis of periodontal disease, are used to know the efficacy of reconstructive and regenerative procedures, and are also helpful in evaluation of newer therapeutic techniques including laser and implant therapies prior to application in the human beings. The aim of this review is to know the different animal models used in various specialties of dental research and to know the ethical guidelines prior to the usage of experimental models with main emphasis on how to refine, replace, and reduce the number of animal models usage in the laboratory. An online search for experimental animal models used in dental research was performed using MEDLINE/PubMed database. Publications from 2009 to May 2013 in the specialty of periodontics were included in writing this review. A total of 652 references were published in PubMed/MEDLINE databases based on the search terms used. Out of 245 studies, 241 were related to the periodontal research published in English from 2009 to 2013. Relevant papers were chosen according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. After extensive electronic and hand search on animal models, it has been observed that various animal models were used in dental research. Search on animal models used for dental research purpose revealed that various animals such as rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbit, beagle dogs, goats, and nonhuman primates were extensively used. However, with the new advancement of ex vivo animal models, it has become easy to investigate disease pathogenesis and to test the efficacy of newer therapeutic modalities with the reduced usage of animal models. This review summarized the large amount of literature on animal models used in periodontal research with main emphasis on ethical guidelines and on reducing the animal model usage in future perspective.

Ethical guidelines, animal profile, various animal models used in periodontal research with alternatives and future perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohan Kumar Pasupuleti

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Laboratory animal models serve as a facilitator to investigate the etiopathogenesis of periodontal disease, are used to know the efficacy of reconstructive and regenerative procedures, and are also helpful in evaluation of newer therapeutic techniques including laser and implant therapies prior to application in the human beings. The aim of this review is to know the different animal models used in various specialties of dental research and to know the ethical guidelines prior to the usage of experimental models with main emphasis on how to refine, replace, and reduce the number of animal models usage in the laboratory. An online search for experimental animal models used in dental research was performed using MEDLINE/PubMed database. Publications from 2009 to May 2013 in the specialty of periodontics were included in writing this review. A total of 652 references were published in PubMed/MEDLINE databases based on the search terms used. Out of 245 studies, 241 were related to the periodontal research published in English from 2009 to 2013. Relevant papers were chosen according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. After extensive electronic and hand search on animal models, it has been observed that various animal models were used in dental research. Search on animal models used for dental research purpose revealed that various animals such as rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbit, beagle dogs, goats, and nonhuman primates were extensively used. However, with the new advancement of ex vivo animal models, it has become easy to investigate disease pathogenesis and to test the efficacy of newer therapeutic modalities with the reduced usage of animal models. This review summarized the large amount of literature on animal models used in periodontal research with main emphasis on ethical guidelines and on reducing the animal model usage in future perspective.

Instrument validation project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reynolds, B.A.; Daymo, E.A.; Geeting, J.G.H.; Zhang, J.

1996-06-01

Westinghouse Hanford Company Project W-211 is responsible for providing the system capabilities to remove radioactive waste from ten double-shell tanks used to store radioactive wastes on the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. The project is also responsible for measuring tank waste slurry properties prior to injection into pipeline systems, including the Replacement of Cross-Site Transfer System. This report summarizes studies of the appropriateness of the instrumentation specified for use in Project W-211. The instruments were evaluated in a test loop with simulated slurries that covered the range of properties specified in the functional design criteria. The results of the study indicate that the compact nature of the baseline Project W-211 loop does not result in reduced instrumental accuracy resulting from poor flow profile development. Of the baseline instrumentation, the Micromotion densimeter, the Moore Industries thermocouple, the Fischer and Porter magnetic flow meter, and the Red Valve Pressure transducer meet the desired instrumental accuracy. An alternate magnetic flow meter (Yokagawa) gave nearly identical results as the baseline fischer and Porter. The Micromotion flow meter did not meet the desired instrument accuracy but could potentially be calibrated so that it would meet the criteria. The Nametre on-line viscometer did not meet the desired instrumental accuracy and is not recommended as a quantitative instrument although it does provide qualitative information. The recommended minimum set of instrumentation necessary to ensure the slurry meets the Project W-058 acceptance criteria is the Micromotion mass flow meter and delta pressure cells

Short communication: Alteration of priors for random effects in Gaussian linear mixed model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vandenplas, Jérémie; Christensen, Ole Fredslund; Gengler, Nicholas

2014-01-01

such alterations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to propose a method to alter both the mean and (co)variance of the prior multivariate normal distributions of random effects of linear mixed models while using currently available software packages. The proposed method was tested on simulated examples with 3......, multiple-trait predictions of lactation yields, and Bayesian approaches integrating external information into genetic evaluations) need to alter both the mean and (co)variance of the prior distributions and, to our knowledge, most software packages available in the animal breeding community do not permit...... different software packages available in animal breeding. The examples showed the possibility of the proposed method to alter both the mean and (co)variance of the prior distributions with currently available software packages through the use of an extended data file and a user-supplied (co)variance matrix....

Oxygen and animal evolution: Did a rise of atmospheric oxygen trigger the origin of animals?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mills, Daniel Brady; Canfield, Donald Eugene

2014-01-01

Recent studies challenge the classical view that the origin of animal life was primarily controlled by atmospheric oxygen levels. For example, some modern sponges, representing early-branching animals, can live under 200 times less oxygen than currently present in the atmosphere - levels commonly...... thought to have been maintained prior to their origination. Furthermore, it is increasingly argued that the earliest animals, which likely lived in low oxygen environments, played an active role in constructing the well-oxygenated conditions typical of the modern oceans. Therefore, while oxygen is still...

Advances in Small Animal Imaging Systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loudos, George K.

2007-01-01

The rapid growth in genetics and molecular biology combined with the development of techniques for genetically engineering small animals has led to an increased interest in in vivo laboratory animal imaging during the past few years. For this purpose, new instrumentation, data acquisition strategies, and image processing and reconstruction techniques are being developed, researched and evaluated. The aim of this article is to give a short overview of the state of the art technologies for high resolution and high sensitivity molecular imaging techniques, primarily positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). The basic needs of small animal imaging will be described. The evolution in instrumentation in the past two decades, as well as the commercially available systems will be overviewed. Finally, the new trends in detector technology and preliminary results from challenging applications will be presented. For more details a number of references are provided

Bayesian genomic selection: the effect of haplotype lenghts and priors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Villumsen, Trine Michelle; Janss, Luc

2009-01-01

Breeding values for animals with marker data are estimated using a genomic selection approach where data is analyzed using Bayesian multi-marker association models. Fourteen model scenarios with varying haplotype lengths, hyper parameter and prior distributions were compared to find the scenario ...

The development of a screening questionnaire for childhood cruelty to animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Guymer, E C; Mellor, D; Luk, E S; Pearse, V

2001-11-01

Childhood cruelty to animals may be a marker of poor prognosis amongst conduct disordered children. However, other than semistructured interviews with parents or children, there are no screening instruments for this behavior. The aim of this study was to develop such an instrument. In the first phase of the study, a parent-report questionnaire, Children's Attitudes and Behaviors Towards Animals (CABTA) was designed and piloted on 360 elementary school children, enabling community norms and a factor structure for the instrument to be derived. In the second phase, the questionnaire was completed by the parents of a small sample of children (N = 17) to establish its test-retest reliability. In the third phase of the study, the CABTA was completed by the parents of 19 children who had been diagnosed with either a Disruptive Behavioral Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and the results were compared with the outcome of a semistructured interview with parents regarding their child's behavior toward animals. The results of the various phases of the study indicated that the CABTA consists of two factors. Typical and Malicious Cruelty to animals, and is a reliable and valid tool for detecting childhood cruelty to animals. Possible use and adaptations of the CABTA as a screening instrument in clinical and community samples are discussed.

Nuclear medicine imaging instrumentations for molecular imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, Yong Hyun; Song, Tae Yong; Choi, Yong

2004-01-01

Small animal models are extensively utilized in the study of biomedical sciences. Current animal experiments and analysis are largely restricted to in vitro measurements and need to sacrifice animals to perform tissue or molecular analysis. This prevents researchers from observing in vivo the natural evolution of the process under study. Imaging techniques can provide repeatedly in vivo anatomic and molecular information noninvasively. Small animal imaging systems have been developed to assess biological process in experimental animals and increasingly employed in the field of molecular imaging studies. This review outlines the current developments in nuclear medicine imaging instrumentations including fused multi-modality imaging systems for small animal imaging

Hypothalamic deep brain stimulation reduces weight gain in an obesity-animal model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William P Melega

Full Text Available Prior studies of appetite regulatory networks, primarily in rodents, have established that targeted electrical stimulation of ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH can alter food intake patterns and metabolic homeostasis. Consideration of this method for weight modulation in humans with severe overeating disorders and morbid obesity can be further advanced by modeling procedures and assessing endpoints that can provide preclinical data on efficacy and safety. In this study we adapted human deep brain stimulation (DBS stereotactic methods and instrumentation to demonstrate in a large animal model the modulation of weight gain with VMH-DBS. Female Göttingen minipigs were used because of their dietary habits, physiologic characteristics, and brain structures that resemble those of primates. Further, these animals become obese on extra-feeding regimens. DBS electrodes were first bilaterally implanted into the VMH of the animals (n = 8 which were then maintained on a restricted food regimen for 1 mo following the surgery. The daily amount of food was then doubled for the next 2 mo in all animals to produce obesity associated with extra calorie intake, with half of the animals (n = 4 concurrently receiving continuous low frequency (50 Hz VMH-DBS. Adverse motoric or behavioral effects were not observed subsequent to the surgical procedure or during the DBS period. Throughout this 2 mo DBS period, all animals consumed the doubled amount of daily food. However, the animals that had received VMH-DBS showed a cumulative weight gain (6.1±0.4 kg; mean ± SEM that was lower than the nonstimulated VMH-DBS animals (9.4±1.3 kg; p<0.05, suggestive of a DBS-associated increase in metabolic rate. These results in a porcine obesity model demonstrate the efficacy and behavioral safety of a low frequency VMH-DBS application as a potential clinical strategy for modulation of body weight.

Survey of instruments for micrometeorology

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Monteith, John Lennox

1972-01-01

... have been developed for micrometeorological measurements. Many of these instruments can be used by ecologists to measure and define the environment of plants and animals and to explore the ways in which organisms modify the environment they are exposed...

Musical instrument technology of the 20th century

Science.gov (United States)

Wheeler, Paul

2004-05-01

This paper presents a brief history of the technical development of musical instruments during the 20th century. Starting with early electronic instruments (such as the Theremin-1917) invented prior to the organization of ASA, the history includes the development of electronic organs, synthesizers, and computer music. This paper provides an introduction to the session, giving a framework for the papers which follow in the session.

2017 Marine Hydrokinetic Instrumentation Workshop Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Driscoll, Frederick R [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Mauer, Erik [U.S. Department of Energy; Rieks, Jeff [Allegheny Science and Technologies

2018-03-06

The third Marine Hydrokinetic Instrumentation Workshop was held at Florida Atlantic University's Sea Tech Campus in Dania Beach, Florida, from February 28 to March 1, 2017. The workshop brought together 37 experts in marine energy measurement, testing, and technology development to present and discuss the instrumentation and data-processing needs of the marine energy industry. The workshop was comprised of a plenary session followed by two focused breakout sessions. The half-day plenary session reviewed findings from prior instrumentation workshops, presented research activities that aim to fill previously identified gaps, and had industry experts present the state of the marine energy measurement technologies. This report provides further detail on the workshop, objectives, and findings.

Individual animals and other data collected using visual observations and other instruments from AIRCRAFT in the Bering Sea and other seas from 02 September 1990 to 07 November 1991 (NODC Accession 9200080)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Individual Animal and other data were collected using visual observation and other instruments from AIRCRAFT in the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, and Arctic Ocean. Data...

Imaging performance of a hybrid x-ray computed tomography-fluorescence molecular tomography system using priors.

Science.gov (United States)

Ale, Angelique; Schulz, Ralf B; Sarantopoulos, Athanasios; Ntziachristos, Vasilis

2010-05-01

The performance is studied of two newly introduced and previously suggested methods that incorporate priors into inversion schemes associated with data from a recently developed hybrid x-ray computed tomography and fluorescence molecular tomography system, the latter based on CCD camera photon detection. The unique data set studied attains accurately registered data of high spatially sampled photon fields propagating through tissue along 360 degrees projections. Approaches that incorporate structural prior information were included in the inverse problem by adding a penalty term to the minimization function utilized for image reconstructions. Results were compared as to their performance with simulated and experimental data from a lung inflammation animal model and against the inversions achieved when not using priors. The importance of using priors over stand-alone inversions is also showcased with high spatial sampling simulated and experimental data. The approach of optimal performance in resolving fluorescent biodistribution in small animals is also discussed. Inclusion of prior information from x-ray CT data in the reconstruction of the fluorescence biodistribution leads to improved agreement between the reconstruction and validation images for both simulated and experimental data.

A fundamental role for context in instrumental learning and extinction

OpenAIRE

Bouton, Mark E.; Todd, Travis P.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this article is to review recent research that has investigated the effects of context change on instrumental (operant) learning. The first part of the article discusses instrumental extinction, in which the strength of a reinforced instrumental behavior declines when reinforcers are withdrawn. The results suggest that extinction of either simple or discriminated operant behavior is relatively specific to the context in which it is learned: As in prior studies of Pavlovian exti...

Prior image constrained image reconstruction in emerging computed tomography applications

Science.gov (United States)

Brunner, Stephen T.

Advances have been made in computed tomography (CT), especially in the past five years, by incorporating prior images into the image reconstruction process. In this dissertation, we investigate prior image constrained image reconstruction in three emerging CT applications: dual-energy CT, multi-energy photon-counting CT, and cone-beam CT in image-guided radiation therapy. First, we investigate the application of Prior Image Constrained Compressed Sensing (PICCS) in dual-energy CT, which has been called "one of the hottest research areas in CT." Phantom and animal studies are conducted using a state-of-the-art 64-slice GE Discovery 750 HD CT scanner to investigate the extent to which PICCS can enable radiation dose reduction in material density and virtual monochromatic imaging. Second, we extend the application of PICCS from dual-energy CT to multi-energy photon-counting CT, which has been called "one of the 12 topics in CT to be critical in the next decade." Numerical simulations are conducted to generate multiple energy bin images for a photon-counting CT acquisition and to investigate the extent to which PICCS can enable radiation dose efficiency improvement. Third, we investigate the performance of a newly proposed prior image constrained scatter correction technique to correct scatter-induced shading artifacts in cone-beam CT, which, when used in image-guided radiation therapy procedures, can assist in patient localization, and potentially, dose verification and adaptive radiation therapy. Phantom studies are conducted using a Varian 2100 EX system with an on-board imager to investigate the extent to which the prior image constrained scatter correction technique can mitigate scatter-induced shading artifacts in cone-beam CT. Results show that these prior image constrained image reconstruction techniques can reduce radiation dose in dual-energy CT by 50% in phantom and animal studies in material density and virtual monochromatic imaging, can lead to radiation

The Three Rs of Animal Research: What they Mean for the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and Why.

Science.gov (United States)

Curzer, Howard J; Perry, Gad; Wallace, Mark C; Perry, Dan

2016-04-01

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is entrusted with assessing the ethics of proposed projects prior to approval of animal research. The role of the IACUC is detailed in legislation and binding rules, which are in turn inspired by the Three Rs: the principles of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement. However, these principles are poorly defined. Although this provides the IACUC leeway in assessing a proposed project, it also affords little guidance. Our goal is to provide procedural and philosophical clarity to the IACUC without mandating a particular outcome. To do this, we analyze the underlying logic of the Three Rs and conclude that the Three Rs accord animals moral standing, though not necessarily "rights" in the philosophical sense. We suggest that the Rs are hierarchical, such that Replacement, which can totally eliminate harm, should be considered prior to Reduction, which decreases the number of animals harmed, with Refinement being considered last. We also identify the need for a hitherto implicit fourth R: Reject, which allows the IACUC to refuse permission for a project which does not promise sufficient benefit to offset the pain and distress likely to be caused by the proposed research.

Sets of priors reflecting prior-data conflict and agreement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Walter, G.M.; Coolen, F.P.A.; Carvalho, J.P.; Lesot, M.-J.; Kaymak, U.; Vieira, S.; Bouchon-Meunier, B.; Yager, R.R.

2016-01-01

Bayesian inference enables combination of observations with prior knowledge in the reasoning process. The choice of a particular prior distribution to represent the available prior knowledge is, however, often debatable, especially when prior knowledge is limited or data are scarce, as then

Towards Developing a Quantitative Literacy/Reasoning Assessment Instrument

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Gaze

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This article reports on the development and implementation of a non-proprietary assessment instrument for Quantitative Literacy/Reasoning. This instrument was based on prior work by Bowdoin College, Colby-Sawyer College, and Wellesley College and was piloted in 2012 and 2013. This article presents a discussion of its development as well as the results of the pilot implementation. This work was supported by a TUES Type 1 grant from the National Science Foundation.

A new design of neutron survey instrument

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanner, R.J.; Eakins, J.S.; Hager, L.G.

2010-01-01

A novel design of neutron survey instrument has been developed. The moderator has been modified via the use of 'neutron guides', which help thermal neutrons reach the central proportional counter. This innovation has allowed the variations in the energy dependence of ambient dose equivalent response to be reduced compared to prior single-detector designs, whilst maintaining a relatively light moderator and simple construction. In particular, the design has a relatively small over-response to neutrons with energies around 5 keV, when compared to prior designs. The final optimized design has been verified using MCNP5 calculations to ensure that the response is relatively independent of the energy and direction of the incident neutron. This has required the ends of the guides to be structured so that unidirectional and isotropic neutron fields have closely matched responses, as is necessary in the workplace. The reading of the instrument in workplace fields is calculated via folding and the suitability of the design for use in the workplace discussed.

Fetal microglial in vitro phenotype depends on prior in vivo inflammation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingju eCao

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Objective. Neuroinflammation in utero may result in life-long neurological disabilities. The molecular mechanisms whereby microglia contribute to this response remain incompletely understood. Methods. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS or saline were administered intravenously to non-anesthetized chronically instrumented near-term fetal sheep to model fetal inflammation in vivo. Microglia were then isolated from in vivo LPS and saline (naïve exposed animals. To mimic the second hit of neuroinflammation, these microglia were then re-exposed to LPS in vitro. Cytokine responses were measured in vivo and subsequently in vitro in the primary microglia cultures derived from these animals. We sequenced the whole transcriptome of naïve and second hit microglia and profiled their genetic expression to define molecular pathways disrupted during neuroinflammation.Results. In vivo LPS exposure resulted in IL-6 increase in fetal plasma 3 h post LPS exposure. Even though not histologically apparent, microglia acquired a pro-inflammatory phenotype in vivo that was sustained and amplified in vitro upon second hit LPS exposure as measured by IL-1β response in vitro and RNAseq analyses. While NFKB and Jak-Stat inflammatory pathways were up regulated in naïve microglia, heme oxygenase 1 (HMOX1 and Fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBP genes were uniquely differentially expressed in the second hit microglia. Microglial calreticulin/LRP genes implicated in microglia-neuronal communication relevant for the neuronal development were up regulated in second hit microglia.Discussion. We identified a unique HMOX1down and FBPup phenotype of microglia exposed to the double-hit suggesting interplay of inflammatory and metabolic pathways as a memory of prior inflammatory insult. These findings suggest new therapeutic targets for early postnatal intervention to prevent brain injury.

Association of the Environmental Attitudes "Preservation" and "Utilization" with Pro-Animal Attitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Binngießer, Janine; Randler, Christoph

2015-01-01

The relevance of environmental attitudes is obvious and attitudes towards farm and companion animals and animal welfare in medical research are an important aspect of education. However, both have rarely been linked with each other, and animal attitudes are only sparsely represented within environmental education assessment instruments. Linking…

Prior Elicitation, Assessment and Inference with a Dirichlet Prior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Evans

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Methods are developed for eliciting a Dirichlet prior based upon stating bounds on the individual probabilities that hold with high prior probability. This approach to selecting a prior is applied to a contingency table problem where it is demonstrated how to assess the prior with respect to the bias it induces as well as how to check for prior-data conflict. It is shown that the assessment of a hypothesis via relative belief can easily take into account what it means for the falsity of the hypothesis to correspond to a difference of practical importance and provide evidence in favor of a hypothesis.

Long range radio tracking of sea turtles and polar bear: Instrumentation and preliminary results

Science.gov (United States)

Baldwin, H. A.

1972-01-01

Instrumentation developed for studies of path behavior of the green sea turtle and migration movement of polar bear is described. Preliminary results bearing on navigation ability in these species are presented. Both species operate in difficult environments, and the problems faced in the design of electronic instrumentation for these studies are not completely specified at this time. However, the critical factors yet to be understood are primarily related to the behavior of instrumented animals. The data obtained with these experimental techniques are included, first to illustrate the technique and, second to provide initial preliminary results bearing on animal navigation.

Data analysis using a data base driven graphics animation system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwieder, D.H.; Stewart, H.D.; Curtis, J.N.

1985-01-01

A graphics animation system has been developed at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) to assist engineers in the analysis of large amounts of time series data. Most prior attempts at computer animation of data involve the development of large and expensive problem-specific systems. This paper discusses a generalized interactive computer animation system designed to be used in a wide variety of data analysis applications. By using relational data base storage of graphics and control information, considerable flexibility in design and development of animated displays is achieved

Positive animal welfare states and encouraging environment-focused and animal-to-animal interactive behaviours.

Science.gov (United States)

Mellor, D J

2015-01-01

Affective neuroscience, incorporating neurophysiology and neuropsychology, is providing increasing evidence that certain behaviours of animals may be interpreted in terms of what they are intending to achieve, i.e. their goals. It is also providing evidence that allows inferences to be made about the affective contents of some goal-directed behaviours. These neuroscience-supported inferences are aligned with recommendations based on prior behaviour-based investigations of animals' preferences, aversions and priorities, and these observations together support the cautious use of particular behaviours to infer what the accompanying affects may be. In this review, therefore, some attention is given to negative affects and their relationships to poor animal welfare, but the primary focus is the positive affects animals may experience when they successfully engage in rewarding goal-directed behaviours, encapsulated in the concept of positive affective engagement. The review draws together reports of environment-focused and animal-to-animal interactive behaviours observed in a range of species and under diverse circumstances in order to illustrate the likely widespread occurrence of the positive affects that may accompany them. Particular consideration is given to affects that are potentially associated with some aspects of exploration and food acquisition in stimulus rich or impoverished environments, and to those that may be associated with aspects of the affiliative interactions of bonding or bond affirmation, maternal care, play and sexual activity. It is concluded that animals given the opportunity to engage in such activities may experience some positive affects. However, the intensity of an animal's experience of particular positive affects is likely to range from zero to very high because the associated behaviours occur intermittently, variation may occur during different phases of a goal-directed behaviour, and other positive or negative affects experienced at

Learning Using Dynamic and Static Visualizations: Students' Comprehension, Prior Knowledge and Conceptual Status of a Biotechnological Method

Science.gov (United States)

Yarden, Hagit; Yarden, Anat

2010-05-01

The importance of biotechnology education at the high-school level has been recognized in a number of international curriculum frameworks around the world. One of the most problematic issues in learning biotechnology has been found to be the biotechnological methods involved. Here, we examine the unique contribution of an animation of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in promoting conceptual learning of the biotechnological method among 12th-grade biology majors. All of the students learned about the PCR using still images ( n = 83) or the animation ( n = 90). A significant advantage to the animation treatment was identified following learning. Students’ prior content knowledge was found to be an important factor for students who learned PCR using still images, serving as an obstacle to learning the PCR method in the case of low prior knowledge. Through analysing students’ discourse, using the framework of the conceptual status analysis, we found that students who learned about PCR using still images faced difficulties in understanding some mechanistic aspects of the method. On the other hand, using the animation gave the students an advantage in understanding those aspects.

3D Printed Surgical Instruments Evaluated by a Simulated Crew of a Mars Mission.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Julielynn Y; Pfahnl, Andreas C

2016-09-01

The first space-based fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer became operational in 2014. This study evaluated whether Mars simulation crewmembers of the Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) II mission with no prior surgical experience could utilize acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) thermoplastic surgical instruments FDM 3D printed on Earth to complete simulated surgical tasks. This study sought to examine the feasibility of using 3D printed surgical tools when the primary crew medical officer is incapacitated and the back-up crew medical officer must conduct a surgical procedure during a simulated extended space mission. During a 4 mo duration ground-based analog mission, five simulation crewmembers with no prior surgical experience completed 16 timed sets of simulated prepping, draping, incising, and suturing tasks to evaluate the relative speed of using four ABS thermoplastic instruments printed on Earth compared to conventional instruments. All four simulated surgical tasks were successfully performed using 3D printed instruments by Mars simulation crewmembers with no prior surgical experience. There was no substantial difference in time to completion of simulated tasks with control vs. 3D printed sponge stick, towel clamp, scalpel handle, and toothed forceps. These limited findings support further investigation into the creation of an onboard digital catalog of validated 3D printable surgical instrument design files to support autonomous, crew-administered healthcare on Mars missions. Future work could include addressing sterility, biocompatibility, and having astronaut crew medical officers test a wider range of surgical instruments printed in microgravity during actual surgical procedures. Wong JY, Pfahnl AC. 3D printed surgical instruments evaluated by a simulated crew of a Mars mission. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2016; 87(9):806-810.

Route optimization as an instrument to improve animal welfare and economics in pre-slaughter logistics

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Each year, more than three million animals are transported from farms to abattoirs in Sweden. Animal transport is related to economic and environmental costs and a negative impact on animal welfare. Time and the number of pick-up stops between farms and abattoirs are two key parameters for animal welfare. Both are highly dependent on efficient and qualitative transportation planning, which may be difficult if done manually. We have examined the benefits of using route optimization in cattle transportation planning. To simulate the effects of various planning time windows and transportation time regulations and number of pick-up stops along each route, we have used data that represent one year of cattle transport. Our optimization model is a development of a model used in forestry transport that solves a general pick-up and delivery vehicle routing problem. The objective is to minimize transportation costs. We have shown that the length of the planning time window has a significant impact on the animal transport time, the total driving time and the total distance driven; these parameters that will not only affect animal welfare but also affect the economy and environment in the pre-slaughter logistic chain. In addition, we have shown that changes in animal transportation regulations, such as minimizing the number of allowed pick-up stops on each route or minimizing animal transportation time, will have positive effects on animal welfare measured in transportation hours and number of pick-up stops. However, this leads to an increase in working time and driven distances, leading to higher transportation costs for the transport and negative environmental impact. PMID:29513704

Route optimization as an instrument to improve animal welfare and economics in pre-slaughter logistics.

Science.gov (United States)

Frisk, Mikael; Jonsson, Annie; Sellman, Stefan; Flisberg, Patrik; Rönnqvist, Mikael; Wennergren, Uno

2018-01-01

Each year, more than three million animals are transported from farms to abattoirs in Sweden. Animal transport is related to economic and environmental costs and a negative impact on animal welfare. Time and the number of pick-up stops between farms and abattoirs are two key parameters for animal welfare. Both are highly dependent on efficient and qualitative transportation planning, which may be difficult if done manually. We have examined the benefits of using route optimization in cattle transportation planning. To simulate the effects of various planning time windows and transportation time regulations and number of pick-up stops along each route, we have used data that represent one year of cattle transport. Our optimization model is a development of a model used in forestry transport that solves a general pick-up and delivery vehicle routing problem. The objective is to minimize transportation costs. We have shown that the length of the planning time window has a significant impact on the animal transport time, the total driving time and the total distance driven; these parameters that will not only affect animal welfare but also affect the economy and environment in the pre-slaughter logistic chain. In addition, we have shown that changes in animal transportation regulations, such as minimizing the number of allowed pick-up stops on each route or minimizing animal transportation time, will have positive effects on animal welfare measured in transportation hours and number of pick-up stops. However, this leads to an increase in working time and driven distances, leading to higher transportation costs for the transport and negative environmental impact.

Prior video game exposure does not enhance robotic surgical performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Harper, Jonathan D; Kaiser, Stefan; Ebrahimi, Kamyar; Lamberton, Gregory R; Hadley, H Roger; Ruckle, Herbert C; Baldwin, D Duane

2007-10-01

Prior research has demonstrated that counterintuitive laparoscopic surgical skills are enhanced by experience with video games. A similar relation with robotic surgical skills has not been tested. The purpose of this study was to determine whether prior video-game experience enhances the acquisition of robotic surgical skills. A series of 242 preclinical medical students completed a self-reported video-game questionnaire detailing the frequency, duration, and peak playing time. The 10 students with the highest and lowest video-game exposure completed a follow-up questionnaire further quantifying video game, sports, musical instrument, and craft and hobby exposure. Each subject viewed a training video demonstrating the use of the da Vinci surgical robot in tying knots, followed by 3 minutes of proctored practice time. Subjects then tied knots for 5 minutes while an independent blinded observer recorded the number of knots tied, missed knots, frayed sutures, broken sutures, and mechanical errors. The mean playing time for the 10 game players was 15,136 total hours (range 5,840-30,000 hours). Video-game players tied fewer knots than nonplayers (5.8 v 9.0; P = 0.04). Subjects who had played sports for at least 4 years had fewer mechanical errors (P = 0.04), broke fewer sutures (P = 0.01), and committed fewer total errors (P = 0.01). Similarly, those playing musical instruments longer than 5 years missed fewer knots (P = 0.05). In the extremes of video-game experience tested in this study, game playing was inversely correlated with the ability to learn robotic suturing. This study suggests that advanced surgical skills such as robotic suturing may be learned more quickly by athletes and musicians. Prior extensive video-game exposure had a negative impact on robotic performance.

Evaluation of Religious Animations in the IRIB

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nematoallah Moussa Pour

2008-11-01

Full Text Available Religious education has an elevated status and a great value in Iranian religious society. Using different methods and instruments to realize this goal has been always considered by those involved in education. At the present time, television is an effective means for communicating with social groups. One of those groups is children who can be exposed to messages by animations. The effectiveness of animation is a function of the manner in which it has been produced. Therefore, we can ask whether psychological principles have been observed in the production of religious animations for children. This article, written for evaluating religious animations used in the television, aims at identifying sixteen principles governing the production of animations for children. To do this, the authors referred to authentic sources in psychology and media studies after gathering data and composing them, managed to identify the principles governing the production of animation. The numbers of these principles have been applied to the production of animations, a checklist was prepared and the data were extracted from analyzing two religious animations, two domestic non-religious animations and two foreign non-religious animations. Non-religious animations were analyzed to make possible the suggested that the producers of religious animations pay special attention to do this point.

Improvements in Speech Understanding With Wireless Binaural Broadband Digital Hearing Instruments in Adults With Sensorineural Hearing Loss

OpenAIRE

Kreisman, Brian M.; Mazevski, Annette G.; Schum, Donald J.; Sockalingam, Ravichandran

2010-01-01

This investigation examined whether speech intelligibility in noise can be improved using a new, binaural broadband hearing instrument system. Participants were 36 adults with symmetrical, sensorineural hearing loss (18 experienced hearing instrument users and 18 without prior experience). Participants were fit binaurally in a planned comparison, randomized crossover design study with binaural broadband hearing instruments and advanced digital hearing instruments. Following an adjustment peri...

The use of animal tissues alongside human tissue: Cultural and ethical considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaw, Anu; Jones, D Gareth; Zhang, Ming

2016-01-01

Teaching and research facilities often use cadaveric material alongside animal tissues, although there appear to be differences in the way we handle, treat, and dispose of human cadaveric material compared to animal tissue. This study sought to analyze cultural and ethical considerations and provides policy recommendations on the use of animal tissues alongside human tissue. The status of human and animal remains and the respect because of human and animal tissues were compared and analyzed from ethical, legal, and cultural perspectives. The use of animal organs and tissues is carried out within the context of understanding human anatomy and function. Consequently, the interests of human donors are to be pre-eminent in any policies that are enunciated, so that if any donors find the presence of animal remains unacceptable, the latter should not be employed. The major differences appear to lie in differences in our perceptions of their respective intrinsic and instrumental values. Animals are considered to have lesser intrinsic value and greater instrumental value than humans. These differences stem from the role played by culture and ethical considerations, and are manifested in the resulting legal frameworks. In light of this discussion, six policy recommendations are proposed, encompassing the nature of consent, respect for animal tissues as well as human remains, and appropriate separation of both sets of tissues in preparation and display. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Practical considerations in developing an instrument-maintenance plan--

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guth, M.A.S.

1989-01-01

The author develops a general set of considerations to explain how a consistent, well-organized, prioritized, and adequate time-allowance program plan for routine maintenance can be constructed. The analysis is supplemented with experience from the high flux isotope reactor (HFIR) at US Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). After the preventive maintenance (PM) problem was defined, the instruments on the schedule were selected based on the manufacturer's design specifications, quality-assurance requirements, prior classifications, experiences with the incidence of breakdowns or calibration, and dependencies among instruments. The effects of repair error in PM should be also studied. The HFIR requires three full-time technicians to perform both PM and unscheduled maintenance. A review is presented of concepts from queuing theory to determine anticipated breakdown patterns. In practice, the pneumatic instruments have a much longer lifetime than the electric/electronic instruments on various reactors at ORNL. Some special considerations and risk aversion in choosing a maintenance schedule

Investigating the Effectiveness of Inquiry-Based Instruction on Students with Different Prior Knowledge and Reading Abilities

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jing-Ru; Wang, Yuh-Chao; Tai, Hsin-Jung; Chen, Wen-Ju

2010-01-01

This study examined the differential impacts of an inquiry-based instruction on conceptual changes across levels of prior knowledge and reading ability. The instrument emphasized four simultaneously important components: conceptual knowledge, reading ability, attitude toward science, and learning environment. Although the learning patterns and…

Using robots to understand animal cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Frohnwieser, Anna; Murray, John C; Pike, Thomas W; Wilkinson, Anna

2016-01-01

In recent years, robotic animals and humans have been used to answer a variety of questions related to behavior. In the case of animal behavior, these efforts have largely been in the field of behavioral ecology. They have proved to be a useful tool for this enterprise as they allow the presentation of naturalistic social stimuli whilst providing the experimenter with full control of the stimulus. In interactive experiments, the behavior of robots can be controlled in a manner that is impossible with real animals, making them ideal instruments for the study of social stimuli in animals. This paper provides an overview of the current state of the field and considers the impact that the use of robots could have on fundamental questions related to comparative psychology: namely, perception, spatial cognition, social cognition, and early cognitive development. We make the case that the use of robots to investigate these key areas could have an important impact on the field of animal cognition. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Field results of antifouling techniques for optical instruments

Science.gov (United States)

Strahle, W.J.; Hotchkiss, F.S.; Martini, Marinna A.

1998-01-01

An anti-fouling technique is developed for the protection of optical instruments from biofouling which leaches a bromide compound into a sample chamber and pumps new water into the chamber prior to measurement. The primary advantage of using bromide is that it is less toxic than the metal-based antifoulants. The drawback of the bromide technique is also discussed.

Blocking mineralocorticoid receptors prior to retrieval reduces contextual fear memory in mice.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ming Zhou

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Corticosteroid hormones regulate appraisal and consolidation of information via mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs and glucocorticoid receptors (GRs respectively. How activation of these receptors modulates retrieval of fearful information and the subsequent expression of fear is largely unknown. We tested here whether blockade of MRs or GRs during retrieval also affects subsequent expression of fear memory. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Mice were trained in contextual or tone cue fear conditioning paradigms, by pairing mild foot shocks with a particular context or tone respectively. Twenty-four hours after training, context-conditioned animals were re-exposed to the context for 3 or 30 minutes (day 2; tone-conditioned animals were placed in a different context and re-exposed to one or six tones. Twenty-four hours (day 3 and one month later, freezing behavior to the aversive context/tone was scored again. MR or GR blockade was achieved by giving spironolactone or RU486 subcutaneously one hour before retrieval on day 2. Spironolactone administered prior to brief context re-exposure reduced freezing behavior during retrieval and 24 hours later, but not one month later. Administration of spironolactone without retrieval of the context or immediately after retrieval on day 2 did not reduce freezing on day 3. Re-exposure to the context for 30 minutes on day 2 significantly reduced freezing on day 3 and one month later, but freezing was not further reduced by spironolactone. Administration of spironolactone prior to tone-cue re-exposure on day 2 did not affect freezing behavior. Treatment with RU486 prior to re-exposure did not affect context or tone-cue fear memories at any time point. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We conclude that MR blockade prior to retrieval strongly reduces the expression of contextual fear, implying that MRs, rather than GRs, play an important role in retrieval of emotional information and subsequent fear expression.

External Prior Guided Internal Prior Learning for Real-World Noisy Image Denoising

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Jun; Zhang, Lei; Zhang, David

2018-06-01

Most of existing image denoising methods learn image priors from either external data or the noisy image itself to remove noise. However, priors learned from external data may not be adaptive to the image to be denoised, while priors learned from the given noisy image may not be accurate due to the interference of corrupted noise. Meanwhile, the noise in real-world noisy images is very complex, which is hard to be described by simple distributions such as Gaussian distribution, making real noisy image denoising a very challenging problem. We propose to exploit the information in both external data and the given noisy image, and develop an external prior guided internal prior learning method for real noisy image denoising. We first learn external priors from an independent set of clean natural images. With the aid of learned external priors, we then learn internal priors from the given noisy image to refine the prior model. The external and internal priors are formulated as a set of orthogonal dictionaries to efficiently reconstruct the desired image. Extensive experiments are performed on several real noisy image datasets. The proposed method demonstrates highly competitive denoising performance, outperforming state-of-the-art denoising methods including those designed for real noisy images.

On the use of prior information in modelling metabolic utilization of energy in growing pigs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Strathe, Anders Bjerring; Jørgensen, Henry; Fernández, José Adalberto

2011-01-01

Construction of models that provide a realistic representation of metabolic utilization of energy in growing animals tend to be over-parameterized because data generated from individual metabolic studies are often sparse. In the Bayesian framework prior information can enter the data analysis......, PD and LD) made on a given pig at a given time followed a multivariate normal distribution. Two different equation systems were adopted from Strathe et al. (2010), generating the expected values in the multivariate normal distribution. Non-informative prior distributions were assigned for all model......, kp and kf, respectively. Utilizing both sets of priors showed that the maintenance component was sensitive to the statement of prior belief and, hence, that the estimate of 0.91 MJkg0.60d1 (95% CI: 0.78; 1.09) should be interpreted with caution. It was shown that boars were superior in depositing...

Supporting Multimedia Learning with Visual Signalling and Animated Pedagogical Agent: Moderating Effects of Prior Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, A. M.; Ozogul, G.; Reisslein, M.

2015-01-01

An experiment examined the effects of visual signalling to relevant information in multiple external representations and the visual presence of an animated pedagogical agent (APA). Students learned electric circuit analysis using a computer-based learning environment that included Cartesian graphs, equations and electric circuit diagrams. The…

Validation of Reverse-Engineered and Additive-Manufactured Microsurgical Instrument Prototype.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Ramandeep; Suri, Ashish; Anand, Sneh; Baby, Britty

2016-12-01

With advancements in imaging techniques, neurosurgical procedures are becoming highly precise and minimally invasive, thus demanding development of new ergonomically aesthetic instruments. Conventionally, neurosurgical instruments are manufactured using subtractive manufacturing methods. Such a process is complex, time-consuming, and impractical for prototype development and validation of new designs. Therefore, an alternative design process has been used utilizing blue light scanning, computer-aided designing, and additive manufacturing direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) for microsurgical instrument prototype development. Deviations of DMLS-fabricated instrument were studied by superimposing scan data of fabricated instrument with the computer-aided designing model. Content and concurrent validity of the fabricated prototypes was done by a group of 15 neurosurgeons by performing sciatic nerve anastomosis in small laboratory animals. Comparative scoring was obtained for the control and study instrument. T test was applied to the individual parameters and P values for force (P direct application of these additive-manufactured instruments in the operating room requires further validation. © The Author(s) 2016.

A guinea pig model of acute and chronic asthma using permanently instrumented and unrestrained animals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meurs, Herman; Santing, Ruud E.; Remie, Rene; van der Mark, Thomas W.; Westerhof, Fiona J.; Zuidhof, Annet B.; Bos, I. Sophie T.; Zaagsma, Johan

2006-01-01

To investigate mechanisms underlying allergen-induced asthmatic reactions, airway hyperresponsiveness and remodeling, we have developed a guinea pig model of acute and chronic asthma using unanesthetized, unrestrained animals. To measure airway function, ovalbumin (IgE)-sensitized animals are

Animal Exposure During Burn Tests

Science.gov (United States)

Gaume, J. G.

1978-01-01

An animal exposure test system (AETS) was designed and fabricated for the purpose of collecting physiological and environmental (temperature) data from animal subjects exposed to combustion gases in large scale fire tests. The AETS consisted of an open wire mesh, two-compartment cage, one containing an exercise wheel for small rodents, and the other containing one rat instrumented externally for electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiration. Cage temperature is measured by a thermistor located in the upper portion of the rat compartment. Animal activity is monitored by the ECG and the records indicate an increase in EMG (electromyograph) noise super-imposed by the increased activity of the torso musculature. Examples of the recordings are presented and discussed as to their significance regarding toxicity of fire gases and specific events occurring during the test. The AETS was shown to be a useful tool in screening materials for the relative toxicity of their outgassing products during pyrolysis and combustion.

Teaching animal welfare in the land grant universities.

Science.gov (United States)

Friend, T H

1990-10-01

Colleges and universities have an obligation to teach the basis of animal husbandry and welfare and must prepare students so that they can respond effectively to challenges by proponents of the animal welfare and animal rights movements. Veterinary curricula must now contain formal instruction in professional ethics and humane stewardship of animals for accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association. It is helpful if students have an understanding of farm animal behavior, stress physiology and methods of assessing welfare prior to learning about the animal welfare/rights movement's philosophies and issues. A review of early judicial practices, "classical" Judeo-Christian philosophy, the philosophy of Rene Descartes, Jeremy Bentham, Albert Schweitzer, and current philosophers and the entertainment media places the movements in perspective. Students should be familiar with such concepts as the mind-body controversy, equality of suffering, self-awareness or intelligence, and speciesism. After acquiring an appreciation of the basics, a knowledge of the issues facing animal agriculture and the arguments for and against each issue are necessary. Graduates of colleges of agriculture need to realize the potential effects the movements can have and take the initiative to improve the image of animal agriculture.

Testing of Environmental Satellite Bus-Instrument Interfaces Using Engineering Models

Science.gov (United States)

Gagnier, Donald; Hayner, Rick; Nosek, Thomas; Roza, Michael; Hendershot, James E.; Razzaghi, Andrea I.

2004-01-01

This paper discusses the formulation and execution of a laboratory test of the electrical interfaces between multiple atmospheric scientific instruments and the spacecraft bus that carries them. The testing, performed in 2002, used engineering models of the instruments and the Aura spacecraft bus electronics. Aura is one of NASA s Earth Observatory System missions. The test was designed to evaluate the complex interfaces in the command and data handling subsystems prior to integration of the complete flight instruments on the spacecraft. A problem discovered during the flight integration phase of the observatory can cause significant cost and schedule impacts. The tests successfully revealed problems and led to their resolution before the full-up integration phase, saving significant cost and schedule. This approach could be beneficial for future environmental satellite programs involving the integration of multiple, complex scientific instruments onto a spacecraft bus.

Animal models for testing anti-prion drugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández-Borges, Natalia; Elezgarai, Saioa R; Eraña, Hasier; Castilla, Joaquín

2013-01-01

Prion diseases belong to a group of fatal infectious diseases with no effective therapies available. Throughout the last 35 years, less than 50 different drugs have been tested in different experimental animal models without hopeful results. An important limitation when searching for new drugs is the existence of appropriate models of the disease. The three different possible origins of prion diseases require the existence of different animal models for testing anti-prion compounds. Wild type, over-expressing transgenic mice and other more sophisticated animal models have been used to evaluate a diversity of compounds which some of them were previously tested in different in vitro experimental models. The complexity of prion diseases will require more pre-screening studies, reliable sporadic (or spontaneous) animal models and accurate chemical modifications of the selected compounds before having an effective therapy against human prion diseases. This review is intended to put on display the more relevant animal models that have been used in the search of new antiprion therapies and describe some possible procedures when handling chemical compounds presumed to have anti-prion activity prior to testing them in animal models.

Examination of spectral timbre cues and musical instrument identification in cochlear implant recipients.

Science.gov (United States)

Meister, Hartmut; Landwehr, Markus; Lang-Roth, Ruth; Streicher, Barbara; Walger, Martin

2014-03-01

To investigate the discrimination of two isolated spectral timbre cues, spectral centroid (Fc) and spectral irregularity (spIrr), in cochlear implant (CI) listeners. To examine whether the perception of Fc and spIrr changes is related to the perception of loudness and pitch and the identification of musical instruments. Stimuli were based on French horn recordings which were artificially manipulated with respect to isolated changes in Fc and spIrr. Difference limens for Fc and spIrr were determined and changes in loudness and pitch perception based on these modifications were examined. Identification of musical instruments was additionally assessed. Mean difference limens were 161 Hz for Fc and 0.63 dB for spIrr. Modifications in spectral timbre cues caused changes in loudness and pitch perception. None of the timbre cues examined showed a significant correlation with musical instrument identification. In contrast, instrument identification was significantly related to the frequency of listening to music prior to onset of deafness. CI recipients are able to detect small modifications in spectral timbre cues which are in turn associated with changes in loudness and pitch. Variations of spectral centroid have a larger impact on loudness and pitch perception than variations of spectral irregularity. Music listening behaviour prior to onset of deafness is significantly associated with musical instrument identification.

Treatment of bovine cancer-eye (and other animal tumors) with heat

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doss, J.D.

1980-01-01

Hyperthermia appears to be an excellent technique for the treatment of a variety of animal tumors. While this report has emphasized the application of hyperthermia to bovine cancer-eye, there cannot be serious doubt about the potential for wider applications of the technique. We have collaborated with the Animal Resource Facility at the University of New Mexico in the successful treatment of a variety of tumors in small animals which would not be a particular interest to stockmen, but the program included the successful treatment of a number of sarcoids in horses. This investigation involving heat effects on sarcoids will continue, but early results appear to be promising. Other veterinarians are using the commercial hyperthermia instruments to treat a variety of small-animal tumors; these practitioners are enthusiastic about the results but no data have been published to date. We have treated an equine lid tumor with good results, and others are pursuing investigations in this area. Use of commercial hyperthermia instruments for treatment of any condition other than bovine cancer-eye or similar small tumors on animals cannot be justified. Like other therapeutic techniques, hyperthermia must be applied to appropriate cases and retreatment will be necessary in some instances

Avoidance-based human Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Andrea H.; Niznikiewicz, Michael A.; Delamater, Andrew R.; Delgado, Mauricio R.

2013-01-01

The Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) paradigm probes the influence of Pavlovian cues over instrumentally learned behavior. The paradigm has been used extensively to probe basic cognitive and motivational processes in studies of animal learning but, more recently, PIT and its underlying neural basis have been extended to investigations in humans. These initial neuroimaging studies of PIT have focused on the influence of appetitively conditioned stimuli on instrumental responses maintained by positive reinforcement, and highlight the involvement of the striatum. In the current study, we sought to understand the neural correlates of PIT in an aversive Pavlovian learning situation when instrumental responding was maintained through negative reinforcement. Participants exhibited specific PIT, wherein selective increases in instrumental responding to conditioned stimuli occurred when the stimulus signaled a specific aversive outcome whose omission negatively reinforced the instrumental response. Additionally, a general PIT effect was observed such that when a stimulus was associated with a different aversive outcome than was used to negatively reinforce instrumental behavior, the presence of that stimulus caused a non-selective increase in overall instrumental responding. Both specific and general PIT behavioral effects correlated with increased activation in corticostriatal circuitry, particularly in the striatum, a region involved in cognitive and motivational processes. These results suggest that avoidance-based PIT utilizes a similar neural mechanism to that seen with PIT in an appetitive context, which has implications for understanding mechanisms of drug-seeking behavior during addiction and relapse. PMID:24118624

Animal models for rotator cuff repair.

Science.gov (United States)

Lebaschi, Amir; Deng, Xiang-Hua; Zong, Jianchun; Cong, Guang-Ting; Carballo, Camila B; Album, Zoe M; Camp, Christopher; Rodeo, Scott A

2016-11-01

Rotator cuff (RC) injuries represent a significant source of pain, functional impairment, and morbidity. The large disease burden of RC pathologies necessitates rapid development of research methodologies to treat these conditions. Given their ability to model anatomic, biomechanical, cellular, and molecular aspects of the human RC, animal models have played an indispensable role in reducing injury burden and advancing this field of research for many years. The development of animal models in the musculoskeletal (MSK) research arena is uniquely different from that in other fields in that the similarity of macrostructures and functions is as critical to replicate as cellular and molecular functions. Traditionally, larger animals have been used because of their anatomic similarity to humans and the ease of carrying out realistic surgical procedures. However, refinement of current molecular methods, introduction of novel research tools, and advancements in microsurgical techniques have increased the applicability of small animal models in MSK research. In this paper, we review RC animal models and emphasize a murine model that may serve as a valuable instrument for future RC tendon repair investigations. © 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.

Antibiotic resistance in animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Barton, Mary D; Pratt, Rachael; Hart, Wendy S

2003-01-01

There is currently no systematic surveillance or monitoring of antibiotic resistance in Australian animals. Registration of antibiotics for use in animals is tightly controlled and has been very conservative. Fluoroquinolones have not been registered for use in food producing animals and other products have been removed from the market because of human health concerns. In the late 1970s, the Animal Health Committee coordinated a survey of resistance in Salmonella and Escherichia coli isolates from cattle, pigs and poultry and in bovine Staphylococcus aureus. Some additional information is available from published case reports. In samples collected prior to the withdrawal of avoparcin from the market, no vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium or Enterococcus faecalis were detected in samples collected from pigs, whereas some vanA enterococci, including E. faecium and E. faecalis, were found in chickens. No vanB enterococci were detected in either species. Virginiamycin resistance was common in both pig and poultry isolates. Multiple resistance was common in E. coli and salmonellae isolates. No fluoroquinolone resistance was found in salmonellae, E. coli or Campylobacter. Beta-lactamase production is common in isolates from bovine mastitis, but no methicillin resistance has been detected. However, methicillin resistance has been reported in canine isolates of Staphylococcus intermedius and extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing E. coli has been found in dogs.

Musical Instrument-Associated Health Issues and Their Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Okoshi, Kae; Minami, Taro; Kikuchi, Masahiro; Tomizawa, Yasuko

2017-09-01

Playing musical instruments can bring joy to people, but can also cause a wide variety of health issues that range from mild disorders to potentially fatal conditions. Although sports medicine is an established medical subspecialty, relatively few studies have investigated the health issues associated with musical instruments. Here we present an overview of these health issues. These include infections due to microorganisms, allergic reactions, as well as mechanical injuries from sustained high pressures within the oral, mediastinal, thoracic, and abdominal cavities. For example, wind instruments can potentially harbor thousands of pathogenic organisms. If several players share the same instrument, these instruments present potential hazards in the spread of infections. A fatal case of hypersensitivity pneumonitis in a bagpiper is particularly noteworthy. Similarly, a case of gastrointestinal anthrax in an animal-hide drummer is a reminder of this rare but highly fatal disease. Although not fatal, hearing-related disorders, neuromuscular issues, musculoskeletal problems, and contact dermatitis are also very common among instrumentalists. This review aims to illuminate these under-recognized health issues by highlighting both the common conditions and the rare but fatal cases.

Airflow resistivity instrument for in situ measurement on the earth's ground surface

Science.gov (United States)

Zuckerwar, A. J.

1983-01-01

An airflow resistivity instrument features a novel specimen holder, especially designed for in situ measurement on the earth's ground surface. This capability eliminates the disadvantages of prior intrusive instruments, which necessitate the removal of a test specimen from the ground. A prototype instrument can measure airflow resistivities in the range 10-5000 cgs rayl/cm, at specimen depths up to 15.24 cm (6 in.), and at differential pressures up to 2490.8 dyn sq cm (1 in. H2O) across the specimen. Because of the close relationship between flow resistivity and acoustic impedance, this instrument should prove useful in acoustical studies of the earth's ground surface. Results of airflow resistivity measurements on an uncultivated grass field for varying values of moisture content are presented.

A NEW PORTABLE INSTRUMENT TO EVALUATE SOFT FLOORING MATERIALS IN DAIRY COW HOUSING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paolo Liberati

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The improvement of flooring materials performance on animal health and welfare requires the support of reliable testing techniques. This is particularly relevant with the synthetic soft coverings used for walking areas since the friction coefficient is not only dependent on the surface characteristics, but also on the penetration of the animal hoof into the material. The paper presents the functioning of a new instrument capable of reproducing more closely the real interaction between the floor surface and the animal foot. The instrument is simple and portable and is suitable both for laboratory measurements and real housing conditions. The measurement is made in two steps: first a probe, shaped as a cow hoof and contacting the testing floor surface, is loaded with a vertical force to obtain a pressure similar to that exerted by the animal; then a pushing force parallel to the floor is applied, at a constant speed, producing a displacement along the surface. The values of the vertical and horizontal strengths required for skidding and the angle of the instrument are continuously measured and by them various parameters can be calculated. The results of the tests carried out in the laboratory and in real dairy houses are presented and, through the analysis of various calculated physical parameters, the main floor properties – more suitable for a previous estimate of the effect on animal welfare – are determined and discussed. In particular, the IPF parameter has been the only one able to predict also the foot escape among all the considered parameters.

Constrained noninformative priors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atwood, C.L.

1994-10-01

The Jeffreys noninformative prior distribution for a single unknown parameter is the distribution corresponding to a uniform distribution in the transformed model where the unknown parameter is approximately a location parameter. To obtain a prior distribution with a specified mean but with diffusion reflecting great uncertainty, a natural generalization of the noninformative prior is the distribution corresponding to the constrained maximum entropy distribution in the transformed model. Examples are given

Instrumentation and controls training in TVA: a story of large numbers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Conner, D.L.

1981-01-01

The Tennessee Valley Authority currently has four nuclear units on line with seventeen units planned prior to the year 2000. Providing a permanent instrumentation and controls workforce, projected to be approximately 700 trades and labor craftsmen, is a formidable task requiring the cooperative efforts of many diverse groups: mangement and labor, engineers and craftsmen, students and instructors. In TVA, the primary source of skilled I and C craftsmen is through formal training programs conducted in cooperation with the craft bargaining unit, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The purpose of this paper is to describe and review the progress of two of these programs: the Instrument Mechanic Training Program and the Senior Instrument Mechanic Training Program

Multiple Homicide as a Function of Prisonization and Concurrent Instrumental Violence: Testing an Interactive Model--A Research Note

Science.gov (United States)

DeLisi, Matt; Walters, Glenn D.

2011-01-01

Prisonization (as measured by number of prior incarcerations) and concurrent instrumental offending (as measured by contemporaneous kidnapping, rape, robbery, and burglary offenses) were found to interact in 160 multiple-homicide offenders and 494 single-homicide offenders. Controlling for age, gender, race, criminal history, prior incarcerations,…

Rodent Stereotaxic Surgery and Animal Welfare Outcome Improvements for Behavioral Neuroscience

OpenAIRE

Fornari, Raquel V.; Wichmann, Romy; Atsak, Piray; Atucha, Erika; Barsegyan, Areg; Beldjoud, Hassiba; Messanvi, Fany; Thuring, Catriene M.A.; Roozendaal, Benno

2012-01-01

Stereotaxic surgery for the implantation of cannulae into specific brain regions has for many decades been a very successful experimental technique to investigate the effects of locally manipulated neurotransmitter and signaling pathways in awake, behaving animals. Moreover, the stereotaxic implantation of electrodes for electrophysiological stimulation and recording studies has been instrumental to our current understanding of neuroplasticity and brain networks in behaving animals. Ever-incr...

Satellite Infrared Radiation Measurements Prior to the Major Earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Ouzounov, Dimitar; Pulintes, S.; Bryant, N.; Taylor, Patrick; Freund, F.

2005-01-01

This work describes our search for a relationship between tectonic stresses and increases in mid-infrared (IR) flux as part of a possible ensemble of electromagnetic (EM) phenomena that may be related to earthquake activity. We present and &scuss observed variations in thermal transients and radiation fields prior to the earthquakes of Jan 22, 2003 Colima (M6.7) Mexico, Sept. 28 .2004 near Parkfield (M6.0) in California and Northern Sumatra (M8.5) Dec. 26,2004. Previous analysis of earthquake events has indicated the presence of an IR anomaly, where temperatures increased or did not return to its usual nighttime value. Our procedures analyze nighttime satellite data that records the general condtion of the ground after sunset. We have found from the MODIS instrument data that five days before the Colima earthquake the IR land surface nighttime temperature rose up to +4 degrees C in a 100 km radius around the epicenter. The IR transient field recorded by MODIS in the vicinity of Parkfield, also with a cloud free environment, was around +1 degree C and is significantly smaller than the IR anomaly around the Colima epicenter. Ground surface temperatures near the Parkfield epicenter four days prior to the earthquake show steady increase. However, on the night preceding the quake, a significant drop in relative humidity was indicated, process similar to those register prior to the Colima event. Recent analyses of continuous ongoing long- wavelength Earth radiation (OLR) indicate significant and anomalous variability prior to some earthquakes. The cause of these anomalies is not well understood but could be the result of a triggering by an interaction between the lithosphere-hydrosphere and atmospheric related to changes in the near surface electrical field and/or gas composition prior to the earthquake. The OLR anomaly usually covers large areas surrounding the main epicenter. We have found strong anomalies signal (two sigma) along the epicentral area signals on Dec 21

Machine and plasma diagnostic instrumentation systems for the Tandem Mirror Experiment Upgrade

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coutts, G.W.; Coffield, F.E.; Lang, D.D.; Hornady, R.S.

1981-01-01

To evaluate performance of a second generation Tandem Mirror Machine, an extensive instrumentation system is being designed and installed as part of the major device fabrication. The systems listed will be operational during the start-up phase of the TMX Upgrade machine and provide bench marks for future performance data. In addition to plasma diagnostic instrumentation, machine parameter monitoring systems will be installed prior to machine operation. Simultaneous recording of machine parameters will permit evaluation of plasma parameters sensitive to machine conditions

Design and Validation of an Instrumented Uneven Terrain Treadmill.

Science.gov (United States)

Voloshina, Alexandra S; Ferris, Daniel P

2018-06-01

Studying human and animal locomotion on an uneven terrain can be beneficial to basic science and applied studies for clinical and robotic applications. Traditional biomechanical analysis of human locomotion has often been limited to laboratory environments with flat, smooth runways and treadmills. The authors modified a regular exercise treadmill by attaching wooden blocks to the treadmill belt to yield an uneven locomotion surface. To ensure that these treadmill modifications facilitated biomechanical measurements, the authors compared ground reaction force data collected while a subject ran on the modified instrumented treadmill with a smooth surface with data collected using a conventional instrumented treadmill. Comparisons showed only minor differences. These results suggest that adding an uneven surface to a modified treadmill is a viable option for studying human or animal locomotion on an uneven terrain. Other types of surfaces (eg, compliant blocks) could be affixed in a similar manner for studies on other types of locomotion surfaces.

Study Protocol. IDUS -- Instrumental delivery & ultrasound. A multi-centre randomised controlled trial of ultrasound assessment of the fetal head position versus standard care as an approach to prevent morbidity at instrumental delivery

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Murphy, Deirdre J

2012-09-13

AbstractBackgroundInstrumental deliveries are commonly performed in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with rates of 12 – 17% in most centres. Knowing the exact position of the fetal head is a pre-requisite for safe instrumental delivery. Traditionally, diagnosis of the fetal head position is made on transvaginal digital examination by delineating the suture lines of the fetal skull and the fontanelles. However, the accuracy of transvaginal digital examination can be unreliable and varies between 20% and 75%. Failure to identify the correct fetal head position increases the likelihood of failed instrumental delivery with the additional morbidity of sequential use of instruments or second stage caesarean section. The use of ultrasound in determining the position of the fetal head has been explored but is not part of routine clinical practice.Methods\\/DesignA multi-centre randomised controlled trial is proposed. The study will take place in two large maternity units in Ireland with a combined annual birth rate of 13,500 deliveries. It will involve 450 nulliparous women undergoing instrumental delivery after 37 weeks gestation. The main outcome measure will be incorrect diagnosis of the fetal head position. A study involving 450 women will have 80% power to detect a 10% difference in the incidence of inaccurate diagnosis of the fetal head position with two-sided 5% alpha.DiscussionIt is both important and timely to evaluate the use of ultrasound to diagnose the fetal head position prior to instrumental delivery before routine use can be advocated. The overall aim is to reduce the incidence of incorrect diagnosis of the fetal head position prior to instrumental delivery and improve the safety of instrumental deliveries.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN72230496

Small Animal Models for Evaluating Filovirus Countermeasures.

Science.gov (United States)

Banadyga, Logan; Wong, Gary; Qiu, Xiangguo

2018-05-11

The development of novel therapeutics and vaccines to treat or prevent disease caused by filoviruses, such as Ebola and Marburg viruses, depends on the availability of animal models that faithfully recapitulate clinical hallmarks of disease as it is observed in humans. In particular, small animal models (such as mice and guinea pigs) are historically and frequently used for the primary evaluation of antiviral countermeasures, prior to testing in nonhuman primates, which represent the gold-standard filovirus animal model. In the past several years, however, the filovirus field has witnessed the continued refinement of the mouse and guinea pig models of disease, as well as the introduction of the hamster and ferret models. We now have small animal models for most human-pathogenic filoviruses, many of which are susceptible to wild type virus and demonstrate key features of disease, including robust virus replication, coagulopathy, and immune system dysfunction. Although none of these small animal model systems perfectly recapitulates Ebola virus disease or Marburg virus disease on its own, collectively they offer a nearly complete set of tools in which to carry out the preclinical development of novel antiviral drugs.

The Effectiveness of Worked Examples Associated with Presentation Format and Prior Knowledge: A Web-Based Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Hsiao, E-Ling

2010-01-01

The aim of this study is to explore whether presentation format and prior knowledge affect the effectiveness of worked examples. The experiment was conducted through a specially designed online instrument. A 2X2X3 factorial before-and-after design was conducted. Three-way ANOVA was employed for data analysis. The result showed first, that prior…

Molecular Imaging with Small Animal PET/CT

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Binderup, T.; El-Ali, H.H.; Skovgaard, D.

2011-01-01

is also described. In addition, the non-invasive nature of molecular imaging and the targets of these promising new tracers are attractive for other research areas as well, although these fields are much less explored. We present an example of an interesting research field with the application of small......Small animal positron emission tomography (PET) and computer tomography (CT) is an emerging field in pre-clinical imaging. High quality, state-of-the-art instruments are required for full optimization of the translational value of the small animal studies with PET and CT. However...... in this field of small animal molecular imaging with special emphasis on the targets for tissue characterization in tumor biology such as hypoxia, proliferation and cancer specific over-expression of receptors. The added value of applying CT imaging for anatomical localization and tumor volume measurements...

Is pre-operative imaging essential prior to ureteric stone surgery?

Science.gov (United States)

Youssef, F R; Wilkinson, B A; Hastie, K J; Hall, J

2012-09-01

The aim of this study was to identify patients not requiring ureteric stone surgery based on pre-operative imaging (within 24 hours) prior to embarking on semirigid ureteroscopy (R-URS) for urolithiasis. The imaging of all consecutive patients on whom R-URS for urolithiasis was performed over a 12-month period was reviewed. All patients had undergone a plain x-ray of the kidney, ureters and bladder (KUB), abdominal non-contrast computed tomography (NCCT-KUB) or both on the day of surgery. A total of 96 patients were identified for the study. Stone sizes ranged from 3 mm to 20 mm. Thirteen patients (14%) were cancelled as no stone(s) were identified on pre-operative imaging. Of the patients cancelled, 8 (62%) required NCCT-KUB to confirm spontaneous stone passage. One in seven patients were stone free on the day of surgery. This negates the need for unnecessary anaesthetic and instrumentation of the urinary tract, with the associated morbidity. Up-to-date imaging prior to embarking on elective ureteric stone surgery is highly recommended.

Judging the goring ox: retribution directed toward animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodwin, Geoffrey P; Benforado, Adam

2015-04-01

Prior research on the psychology of retribution is complicated by the difficulty of separating retributive and general deterrence motives when studying human offenders (Study 1). We isolate retribution by investigating judgments about punishing animals, which allows us to remove general deterrence from consideration. Studies 2 and 3 document a "victim identity" effect, such that the greater the perceived loss from a violent animal attack, the greater the belief that the culprit deserves to be killed. Study 3 documents a "targeted punishment" effect, such that the responsive killing of the actual "guilty" culprit is seen as more deserved than the killing of an almost identical yet "innocent" animal from the same species. Studies 4 and 5 extend both effects to participants' acceptance of inflicting pain and suffering on the offending animal at the time of its death, and show that both effects are mediated by measures of retributive sentiment, and not by consequentialist concerns. Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Industrial halal meat production and animal welfare: A review.

Science.gov (United States)

Farouk, M M; Pufpaff, K M; Amir, M

2016-10-01

Islam teaches zero-tolerance to all forms of animal abuse throughout the halal meat production supply chain and demands that when animals are slaughtered, they must be slaughtered in the mindful and attentive way espoused by the Prophet Muhammad. Why then are poor practices and animal welfare abuses still occurring during halal meat production, and how can they be reduced or eliminated? In this review we discuss how improvements might be achieved through: (1) training of staff regarding the religious and regulatory requirements of animal welfare from on-farm to slaughter; (2) empathy and compassion assessment of applicants prior to employment; (3) installation of CCTV cameras around lairage and slaughter sites; (4) regular employee follow-up training to minimise 'compassion fatigue'; (5) incorporating animal welfare requirements in halal certification; (6) using mosque-based sermons by Imams to increase awareness of animal welfare issues; and (7) making portable humane slaughter units available to small cottage operations and home/neighbourhood-kills through mosque-based organizations/structures. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technological Advances in Cardiovascular Safety Assessment Decrease Preclinical Animal Use and Improve Clinical Relevance.

Science.gov (United States)

Berridge, Brian R; Schultze, A Eric; Heyen, Jon R; Searfoss, George H; Sarazan, R Dustan

2016-12-01

Cardiovascular (CV) safety liabilities are significant concerns for drug developers and preclinical animal studies are predominately where those liabilities are characterized before patient exposures. Steady progress in technology and laboratory capabilities is enabling a more refined and informative use of animals in those studies. The application of surgically implantable and telemetered instrumentation in the acute assessment of drug effects on CV function has significantly improved historical approaches that involved anesthetized or restrained animals. More chronically instrumented animals and application of common clinical imaging assessments like echocardiography and MRI extend functional and in-life structural assessments into the repeat-dose setting. A growing portfolio of circulating CV biomarkers is allowing longitudinal and repeated measures of cardiac and vascular injury and dysfunction better informing an understanding of temporal pathogenesis and allowing earlier detection of undesirable effects. In vitro modeling systems of the past were limited by their lack of biological relevance to the in vivo human condition. Advances in stem cell technology and more complex in vitro modeling platforms are quickly creating more opportunity to supplant animals in our earliest assessments for liabilities. Continuing improvement in our capabilities in both animal and nonanimal modeling should support a steady decrease in animal use for primary liability identification and optimize the translational relevance of the animal studies we continue to do. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Study Protocol. IDUS – Instrumental delivery & ultrasound. A multi-centre randomised controlled trial of ultrasound assessment of the fetal head position versus standard care as an approach to prevent morbidity at instrumental delivery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Murphy Deirdre J

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Instrumental deliveries are commonly performed in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with rates of 12 – 17% in most centres. Knowing the exact position of the fetal head is a pre-requisite for safe instrumental delivery. Traditionally, diagnosis of the fetal head position is made on transvaginal digital examination by delineating the suture lines of the fetal skull and the fontanelles. However, the accuracy of transvaginal digital examination can be unreliable and varies between 20% and 75%. Failure to identify the correct fetal head position increases the likelihood of failed instrumental delivery with the additional morbidity of sequential use of instruments or second stage caesarean section. The use of ultrasound in determining the position of the fetal head has been explored but is not part of routine clinical practice. Methods/Design A multi-centre randomised controlled trial is proposed. The study will take place in two large maternity units in Ireland with a combined annual birth rate of 13,500 deliveries. It will involve 450 nulliparous women undergoing instrumental delivery after 37 weeks gestation. The main outcome measure will be incorrect diagnosis of the fetal head position. A study involving 450 women will have 80% power to detect a 10% difference in the incidence of inaccurate diagnosis of the fetal head position with two-sided 5% alpha. Discussion It is both important and timely to evaluate the use of ultrasound to diagnose the fetal head position prior to instrumental delivery before routine use can be advocated. The overall aim is to reduce the incidence of incorrect diagnosis of the fetal head position prior to instrumental delivery and improve the safety of instrumental deliveries. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN72230496

Monte Carlo simulations as a part of the configuration for neutron instruments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, P.; Lefmann, K.; Kuhn, L.T.

2004-01-01

We demonstrate the use of simulations in the process of determiningthe optimal instrument setup by virtual experiments usingthe simulation package McStas. The focus of the analysis is the optimization of the multi-blade analyzer present at the RITA-II spectrometer at PSI for a test experiment...... that in general instrument simulations are approaching a state where they can assist users in selectingthe optimal configuration and possibly demonstrate the feasibility of their experiments prior to allocated beamtime. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved....

Estudo comparativo histológico na prega vocal após incisão com instrumental a frio e com laser de CO2 em modelo animal Comparative histology study of the vocal folds after incision with cold instruments and CO2 laser in an animal model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando C. C. Santos

2003-12-01

Jako and Strong's works in 1972(1,2, when CO2 was first applied in the treatment of papilomatosis and early glottic malign lesions, its indications have risen, most especially in benign lesions, due to new technology developed over the last years as, for example, the reduction of microspot and the super-pulse, reducing the thermal effects on the tissues. METHODS: In this work, incisions with cold steel instruments and 1watt continuous mode and super-pulse CO2 laser were conducted on canine vocal folds. The amount of collagen deposited over the vocal folds was observed through histological exams using the Sirius Red method. RESULTS: The amount of collagen on the vocal folds was greater than the control group and statistically greater in the group of animals submitted to surgical procedures using cold instruments than procedures involving CO2. There was no statistical difference between the control group and the group submitted to incisions with cold steel instruments. CONCLUSIONS: The larynx surgery with CO2 laser, when employed in low potency, with small microspot and super-pulse, is a safe method in relation to the collagen deposit when compared with cold blade instruments.

[Role of vaccination in animal health].

Science.gov (United States)

Pastoret, Paul-Pierre

2012-03-01

According to the IFAH, veterinary vaccines currently account for 26% of the global market in veterinary medicines, reflecting the importance of vaccines in animal health, as well as the number of wild and domesticated target species, and the monospecific nature of most vaccines. Multispecies vaccines include tetanus and rabies. In 2010, the number of food-producing animals was estimated to be roughly 20 billion and is rising gradually. Fowl currently represent the main food species. Veterinary vaccination has allowed the eradication of rinderpest, as officially declared last year (2011), jointly by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). Rinderpest was a real scourge, and was only the second viral disease to be totally eradicated (after human smallpox). One characteristic of veterinary vaccination is the DIVA approach, "differentiating infected from vaccinated animals". The DIVA strategy is especially interesting for regulated control of diseases like foot-and-mouth disease, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, pseudorabies, and classical swine fever. DIVA vaccination requires prior serological testing. Vaccination is also used for wild animals such as foxes (rabies) and wild boars (classical swine fever). "In ovo" vaccination of fowl on day 18 of the incubation period is used to prevent Marek's disease for instance, and double vaccination (vector and insert) to prevent both Marek's disease and Gumboro's disease in fowl. Animal vaccination can also help to protect human health, as illustrated by fowl vaccination against salmonellosis.

Update of Earthquake Strong-Motion Instrumentation at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murray, Robert C. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2013-09-01

Following the January 1980 earthquake that was felt at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), a network of strong-motion accelerographs was installed at LLNL. Prior to the 1980 earthquake, there were no accelerographs installed. The ground motion from the 1980 earthquake was estimated from USGS instruments around the Laboratory to be between 0.2 – 0.3 g horizontal peak ground acceleration. These instruments were located at the Veterans Hospital, 5 miles southwest of LLNL, and in San Ramon, about 12 miles west of LLNL. In 2011, the Department of Energy (DOE) requested to know the status of our seismic instruments. We conducted a survey of our instrumentation systems and responded to DOE in a letter. During this survey, it was found that the recorders in Buildings 111 and 332 were not operational. The instruments on Nova had been removed, and only three of the 10 NIF instruments installed in 2005 were operational (two were damaged and five had been removed from operation at the request of the program). After the survey, it was clear that the site seismic instrumentation had degraded substantially and would benefit from an overhaul and more attention to ongoing maintenance. LLNL management decided to update the LLNL seismic instrumentation system. The updated system is documented in this report.

Application of a model of instrumental conditioning to mobile robot control

Science.gov (United States)

Saksida, Lisa M.; Touretzky, D. S.

1997-09-01

Instrumental conditioning is a psychological process whereby an animal learns to associate its actions with their consequences. This type of learning is exploited in animal training techniques such as 'shaping by successive approximations,' which enables trainers to gradually adjust the animal's behavior by giving strategically timed reinforcements. While this is similar in principle to reinforcement learning, the real phenomenon includes many subtle effects not considered in the machine learning literature. In addition, a good deal of domain information is utilized by an animal learning a new task; it does not start from scratch every time it learns a new behavior. For these reasons, it is not surprising that mobile robot learning algorithms have yet to approach the sophistication and robustness of animal learning. A serious attempt to model instrumental learning could prove fruitful for improving machine learning techniques. In the present paper, we develop a computational theory of shaping at a level appropriate for controlling mobile robots. The theory is based on a series of mechanisms for 'behavior editing,' in which pre-existing behaviors, either innate or previously learned, can be dramatically changed in magnitude, shifted in direction, or otherwise manipulated so as to produce new behavioral routines. We have implemented our theory on Amelia, an RWI B21 mobile robot equipped with a gripper and color video camera. We provide results from training Amelia on several tasks, all of which were constructed as variations of one innate behavior, object-pursuit.

WISM - A Wideband Instrument for Snow Measurement: Past Accomplishments, Current Status, and Path Forward

Science.gov (United States)

Bonds, Quenton; Racette, Paul; Durham, Tim (Principal Investigator)

2016-01-01

Presented are the prior accomplishments, current status and path forward for GSFC's Wideband Instrument for Snow Measurement (WISM). This work is a high level overview of the project, presented via Webinar to the IEEE young professionals.

Improvements in speech understanding with wireless binaural broadband digital hearing instruments in adults with sensorineural hearing loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Kreisman, Brian M; Mazevski, Annette G; Schum, Donald J; Sockalingam, Ravichandran

2010-03-01

This investigation examined whether speech intelligibility in noise can be improved using a new, binaural broadband hearing instrument system. Participants were 36 adults with symmetrical, sensorineural hearing loss (18 experienced hearing instrument users and 18 without prior experience). Participants were fit binaurally in a planned comparison, randomized crossover design study with binaural broadband hearing instruments and advanced digital hearing instruments. Following an adjustment period with each device, participants underwent two speech-in-noise tests: the QuickSIN and the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT). Results suggested significantly better performance on the QuickSIN and the HINT measures with the binaural broadband hearing instruments, when compared with the advanced digital hearing instruments and unaided, across and within all noise conditions.

Life sciences research in space: The requirement for animal models

Science.gov (United States)

Fuller, C. A.; Philips, R. W.; Ballard, R. W.

1987-01-01

Use of animals in NASA space programs is reviewed. Animals are needed because life science experimentation frequently requires long-term controlled exposure to environments, statistical validation, invasive instrumentation or biological tissue sampling, tissue destruction, exposure to dangerous or unknown agents, or sacrifice of the subject. The availability and use of human subjects inflight is complicated by the multiple needs and demands upon crew time. Because only living organisms can sense, integrate and respond to the environment around them, the sole use of tissue culture and computer models is insufficient for understanding the influence of the space environment on intact organisms. Equipment for spaceborne experiments with animals is described.

Animal Cancer Models of Skeletal Metastasis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Catherine Hibberd

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The bony skeleton is one of the most common sites of metastatic spread of cancer and is a significant source of morbidity in cancer patients, causing pain and pathologic fracture, impaired ambulatory ability, and poorer quality of life. Animal cancer models of skeletal metastases are essential for better understanding of the molecular pathways behind metastatic spread and local growth and invasion of bone, to enable analysis of host-tumor cell interactions, identify barriers to the metastatic process, and to provide platforms to develop and test novel therapies prior to clinical application in human patients. Thus, the ideal model should be clinically relevant, reproducible and representative of the human condition. This review summarizes the current in vivo animal models used in the study of cancer metastases of the skeleton.

Human dorsal striatum encodes prediction errors during observational learning of instrumental actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Jeffrey C; Dunne, Simon; Furey, Teresa; O'Doherty, John P

2012-01-01

The dorsal striatum plays a key role in the learning and expression of instrumental reward associations that are acquired through direct experience. However, not all learning about instrumental actions require direct experience. Instead, humans and other animals are also capable of acquiring instrumental actions by observing the experiences of others. In this study, we investigated the extent to which human dorsal striatum is involved in observational as well as experiential instrumental reward learning. Human participants were scanned with fMRI while they observed a confederate over a live video performing an instrumental conditioning task to obtain liquid juice rewards. Participants also performed a similar instrumental task for their own rewards. Using a computational model-based analysis, we found reward prediction errors in the dorsal striatum not only during the experiential learning condition but also during observational learning. These results suggest a key role for the dorsal striatum in learning instrumental associations, even when those associations are acquired purely by observing others.

Practice Makes Perfect: Correlations Between Prior Experience in High-level Athletics and Robotic Surgical Performance Do Not Persist After Task Repetition.

Science.gov (United States)

Shee, Kevin; Ghali, Fady M; Hyams, Elias S

Robotic surgical skill development is central to training in urology as well as in other surgical disciplines. Here, we describe a pilot study assessing the relationships between robotic surgery simulator performance and 3 categories of activities, namely, videogames, musical instruments, and athletics. A questionnaire was administered to preclinical medical students for general demographic information and prior experiences in surgery, videogames, musical instruments, and athletics. For follow-up performance studies, we used the Matchboard Level 1 and 2 modules on the da Vinci Skills Simulator, and recorded overall score, time to complete, economy of motion, workspace range, instrument collisions, instruments out of view, and drops. Task 1 was run once, whereas task 2 was run 3 times. All performance studies on the da Vinci Surgical Skills Simulator took place in the Simulation Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. All participants were medical students at the Geisel School of Medicine. After excluding students with prior hands-on experience in surgery, a total of 30 students completed the study. We found a significant correlation between athletic skill level and performance for both task 1 (p = 0.0002) and task 2 (p = 0.0009). No significant correlations were found for videogame or musical instrument skill level. Students with experience in certain athletics (e.g., volleyball, tennis, and baseball) tended to perform better than students with experience in other athletics (e.g., track and field). For task 2, which was run 3 times, this association did not persist after the third repetition due to significant improvements in students with low-level athletic skill (levels 0-2). Our study suggests that prior experience in high-level athletics, but not videogames or musical instruments, significantly influences surgical proficiency in robot-naive students. Furthermore, our study suggests that practice through task repetition can overcome initial differences

Objectively combining AR5 instrumental period and paleoclimate climate sensitivity evidence

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Nicholas; Grünwald, Peter

2018-03-01

Combining instrumental period evidence regarding equilibrium climate sensitivity with largely independent paleoclimate proxy evidence should enable a more constrained sensitivity estimate to be obtained. Previous, subjective Bayesian approaches involved selection of a prior probability distribution reflecting the investigators' beliefs about climate sensitivity. Here a recently developed approach employing two different statistical methods—objective Bayesian and frequentist likelihood-ratio—is used to combine instrumental period and paleoclimate evidence based on data presented and assessments made in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Probabilistic estimates from each source of evidence are represented by posterior probability density functions (PDFs) of physically-appropriate form that can be uniquely factored into a likelihood function and a noninformative prior distribution. The three-parameter form is shown accurately to fit a wide range of estimated climate sensitivity PDFs. The likelihood functions relating to the probabilistic estimates from the two sources are multiplicatively combined and a prior is derived that is noninformative for inference from the combined evidence. A posterior PDF that incorporates the evidence from both sources is produced using a single-step approach, which avoids the order-dependency that would arise if Bayesian updating were used. Results are compared with an alternative approach using the frequentist signed root likelihood ratio method. Results from these two methods are effectively identical, and provide a 5-95% range for climate sensitivity of 1.1-4.05 K (median 1.87 K).

Radioprotection of salivary glands by S-2-(3-aminopropylamino)-ethylphosphorothioic (amifostine) obtained in a rabbit animal model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bohuslavizki, Karl H.; Klutmann, Susanne; Jenicke, Lars; Brenner, Winfried; Feyerabend, Bernd; Henze, Eberhard; Clausen, Malte

1999-01-01

Background: Impairment of salivary gland function following high-dose radioiodine treatment (HDRIT) is a well-recognized side effect of the treatment. Because differentiated thyroid cancer has an excellent prognosis, reduction of long-term side-effects is mandatory. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the radioprotective effect of amifostine in a rabbit animal model. Methods: Salivary gland scintigraphy was performed in a total of 16 New Zealand White rabbits. Uptake of 99m Tc-pertechnetate was calculated in percentage of injected activity as a quantitative measure of both salivary gland and thyroid function. Reproducibility of salivary gland scintigraphy was evaluated in one rabbit without any intervention. Fifteen rabbits were studied prior to and up to 6 months after high-dose radioiodine treatment applying 2 GBq 131 I. Ten animals received 200 mg/kg amifostine prior to high-dose radioiodine therapy, and 5 served as controls. Salivary glands were examined histopathologically. Results: Variation coefficient of parenchymal function was less than 3.8% in salivary glands. Prior to HDRIT, thyroid uptake was 0.417 ± 0.373% and 0.421 ± 0.241% in control and amifostine-treated rabbits, respectively. Four weeks after HDRIT, complete ablation of the thyroid was achieved in both groups. Prior to HDRIT, uptake of 99m Tc-pertechnetate in salivary glands of five control rabbits was not significantly different from ten amifostine-treated rabbits. In control rabbits 6 months after HDRIT, parenchymal function was reduced significantly (p 0.05) in parotid and submandibular glands, respectively. Histopathologically, marked lipomatosis was observed in control animals but was negligible in amifostine-treated animals. Conclusion: Parenchymal damage in salivary glands induced by high-dose radioiodine treatment can be significantly reduced by amifostine in this rabbit animal model. This corresponds to data obtained in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer

Neural correlates of recognition and naming of musical instruments.

Science.gov (United States)

Belfi, Amy M; Bruss, Joel; Karlan, Brett; Abel, Taylor J; Tranel, Daniel

2016-10-01

Retrieval of lexical (names) and conceptual (semantic) information is frequently impaired in individuals with neurological damage. One category of items that is often affected is musical instruments. However, distinct neuroanatomical correlates underlying lexical and conceptual knowledge for musical instruments have not been identified. We used a neuropsychological approach to explore the neural correlates of knowledge retrieval for musical instruments. A large sample of individuals with focal brain damage (N = 298), viewed pictures of 16 musical instruments and were asked to name and identify each instrument. Neuroanatomical data were analyzed with a proportional MAP-3 method to create voxelwise lesion proportion difference maps. Impaired naming (lexical retrieval) of musical instruments was associated with damage to the left temporal pole and inferior pre- and postcentral gyri. Impaired recognition (conceptual knowledge retrieval) of musical instruments was associated with a more broadly and bilaterally distributed network of regions, including ventromedial prefrontal cortices, occipital cortices, and superior temporal gyrus. The findings extend our understanding of how musical instruments are processed at neural system level, and elucidate factors that may explain why brain damage may or may not produce anomia or agnosia for musical instruments. Our findings also help inform broader understanding of category-related knowledge mapping in the brain, as musical instruments possess several characteristics that are similar to various other categories of items: They are inanimate and highly manipulable (similar to tools), produce characteristic sounds (similar to animals), and require fine-grained visual differentiation between each other (similar to people). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Animal models for microbicide safety and efficacy testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Veazey, Ronald S

2013-07-01

Early studies have cast doubt on the utility of animal models for predicting success or failure of HIV-prevention strategies, but results of multiple human phase 3 microbicide trials, and interrogations into the discrepancies between human and animal model trials, indicate that animal models were, and are, predictive of safety and efficacy of microbicide candidates. Recent studies have shown that topically applied vaginal gels, and oral prophylaxis using single or combination antiretrovirals are indeed effective in preventing sexual HIV transmission in humans, and all of these successes were predicted in animal models. Further, prior discrepancies between animal and human results are finally being deciphered as inadequacies in study design in the model, or quite often, noncompliance in human trials, the latter being increasingly recognized as a major problem in human microbicide trials. Successful microbicide studies in humans have validated results in animal models, and several ongoing studies are further investigating questions of tissue distribution, duration of efficacy, and continued safety with repeated application of these, and other promising microbicide candidates in both murine and nonhuman primate models. Now that we finally have positive correlations with prevention strategies and protection from HIV transmission, we can retrospectively validate animal models for their ability to predict these results, and more importantly, prospectively use these models to select and advance even safer, more effective, and importantly, more durable microbicide candidates into human trials.

Monte Carlo simulations as a part of the configuration for neutron instruments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersen, P.; Lefmann, K.; Theil Kuhn, L.; Willendrup, P.K.; Farhi, E.

2004-01-01

We demonstrate the use of simulations in the process of determining the optimal instrument setup by virtual experiments using the simulation package McStas. The focus of the analysis is the optimization of the multi-blade analyzer present at the RITA-II spectrometer at PSI for a test experiment with powder diffraction. The agreement in resolution and signal-to-background ratio between measurements and simulations shows the validity of the approach. For a sample with broadened Bragg peaks, the optimal instrument configuration could be established only on careful consideration. This shows that in general instrument simulations are approaching a state where they can assist users in selecting the optimal configuration and possibly demonstrate the feasibility of their experiments prior to allocated beamtime

A NOVEL TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE PHOTOMETRY IN CONFUSED IMAGES USING GRAPHS AND BAYESIAN PRIORS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Safarzadeh, Mohammadtaher; Ferguson, Henry C.; Lu, Yu; Inami, Hanae; Somerville, Rachel S.

2015-01-01

We present a new technique for overcoming confusion noise in deep far-infrared Herschel space telescope images making use of prior information from shorter λ < 2 μm wavelengths. For the deepest images obtained by Herschel, the flux limit due to source confusion is about a factor of three brighter than the flux limit due to instrumental noise and (smooth) sky background. We have investigated the possibility of de-confusing simulated Herschel PACS 160 μm images by using strong Bayesian priors on the positions and weak priors on the flux of sources. We find the blended sources and group them together and simultaneously fit their fluxes. We derive the posterior probability distribution function of fluxes subject to these priors through Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) sampling by fitting the image. Assuming we can predict the FIR flux of sources based on the ultraviolet-optical part of their SEDs to within an order of magnitude, the simulations show that we can obtain reliable fluxes and uncertainties at least a factor of three fainter than the confusion noise limit of 3σ c = 2.7 mJy in our simulated PACS-160 image. This technique could in principle be used to mitigate the effects of source confusion in any situation where one has prior information of positions and plausible fluxes of blended sources. For Herschel, application of this technique will improve our ability to constrain the dust content in normal galaxies at high redshift

BIG DATA ANALYTICS AND PRECISION ANIMAL AGRICULTURE SYMPOSIUM: Machine learning and data mining advance predictive big data analysis in precision animal agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Morota, Gota; Ventura, Ricardo V; Silva, Fabyano F; Koyama, Masanori; Fernando, Samodha C

2018-04-14

Precision animal agriculture is poised to rise to prominence in the livestock enterprise in the domains of management, production, welfare, sustainability, health surveillance, and environmental footprint. Considerable progress has been made in the use of tools to routinely monitor and collect information from animals and farms in a less laborious manner than before. These efforts have enabled the animal sciences to embark on information technology-driven discoveries to improve animal agriculture. However, the growing amount and complexity of data generated by fully automated, high-throughput data recording or phenotyping platforms, including digital images, sensor and sound data, unmanned systems, and information obtained from real-time noninvasive computer vision, pose challenges to the successful implementation of precision animal agriculture. The emerging fields of machine learning and data mining are expected to be instrumental in helping meet the daunting challenges facing global agriculture. Yet, their impact and potential in "big data" analysis have not been adequately appreciated in the animal science community, where this recognition has remained only fragmentary. To address such knowledge gaps, this article outlines a framework for machine learning and data mining and offers a glimpse into how they can be applied to solve pressing problems in animal sciences.

A scale-free structure prior for graphical models with applications in functional genomics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Sheridan

-free structure prior as an instrument to aid in the identification of candidate hub genes with the potential to direct the hypotheses of molecular biologists, and thus drive future experiments.

Humane Society International's global campaign to end animal testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Seidle, Troy

2013-12-01

The Research & Toxicology Department of Humane Society International (HSI) operates a multifaceted and science-driven global programme aimed at ending the use of animals in toxicity testing and research. The key strategic objectives include: a) ending cosmetics animal testing worldwide, via the multinational Be Cruelty-Free campaign; b) achieving near-term reductions in animal testing requirements through revision of product sector regulations; and c) advancing humane science by exposing failing animal models of human disease and shifting science funding toward human biology-based research and testing tools fit for the 21st century. HSI was instrumental in ensuring the implementation of the March 2013 European sales ban for newly animal-tested cosmetics, in achieving the June 2013 cosmetics animal testing ban in India as well as major cosmetics regulatory policy shifts in China and South Korea, and in securing precedent-setting reductions in in vivo data requirements for pesticides in the EU through the revision of biocides and plant protection product regulations, among others. HSI is currently working to export these life-saving measures to more than a dozen industrial and emerging economies. 2013 FRAME.

21 CFR 570.13 - Indirect food additives resulting from packaging materials prior sanctioned for animal feed and...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 6 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Indirect food additives resulting from packaging... ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) ANIMAL DRUGS, FEEDS, AND RELATED PRODUCTS FOOD ADDITIVES General Provisions § 570.13 Indirect food additives resulting from packaging materials...

Instrumentation and process control development for in situ coal gasification. Fourth quarterly report, September--November 1975

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Northrop, D.A. (ed.)

1976-01-01

The instrumentation effort for Phases 2 and 3 of the Second Hanna In Situ Coal Gasification Experiment was fielded and background data obtained prior to the initiation of Phase 2 on November 25, 1975. A total of over 600 channels of instrumentation in 15 instrumentation wells and two surface arrays was fielded for the instrumentation techniques under evaluation. The feasibility of the passive acoustic technique to locate the source of process-related noises has been demonstrated; its utility is presently hampered by the inexact definition of signal arrivals and the lack of automated signal monitoring and analysis systems. A revised mathematical model for the electrical techniques has been developed which demonstrates the potential for remote monitoring. (auth)

The Potential of Adaptive Design in Animal Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arshad Majid

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Clinical trials are the backbone of medical research, and are often the last step in the development of new therapies for use in patients. Prior to human testing, however, preclinical studies using animal subjects are usually performed in order to provide initial data on the safety and effectiveness of prospective treatments. These studies can be costly and time consuming, and may also raise concerns about the ethical treatment of animals when potentially harmful procedures are involved. Adaptive design is a process by which the methods used in a study may be altered while it is being conducted in response to preliminary data or other new information. Adaptive design has been shown to be useful in reducing the time and costs associated with clinical trials, and may provide similar benefits in preclinical animal studies. The purpose of this review is to summarize various aspects of adaptive design and evaluate its potential for use in preclinical research.

The Potential of Adaptive Design in Animal Studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Majid, Arshad; Bae, Ok-Nam; Redgrave, Jessica; Teare, Dawn; Ali, Ali; Zemke, Daniel

2015-10-12

Clinical trials are the backbone of medical research, and are often the last step in the development of new therapies for use in patients. Prior to human testing, however, preclinical studies using animal subjects are usually performed in order to provide initial data on the safety and effectiveness of prospective treatments. These studies can be costly and time consuming, and may also raise concerns about the ethical treatment of animals when potentially harmful procedures are involved. Adaptive design is a process by which the methods used in a study may be altered while it is being conducted in response to preliminary data or other new information. Adaptive design has been shown to be useful in reducing the time and costs associated with clinical trials, and may provide similar benefits in preclinical animal studies. The purpose of this review is to summarize various aspects of adaptive design and evaluate its potential for use in preclinical research.

A Simulation of Pell Grant Awards and Costs Using Prior-Prior Year Financial Data

Science.gov (United States)

Kelchen, Robert; Jones, Gigi

2015-01-01

We examine the likely implications of switching from a prior year (PY) financial aid system, the current practice in which students file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) using income data from the previous tax year, to prior-prior year (PPY), in which data from two years before enrollment is used. While PPY allows students to…

Preclinical molecular imaging: development of instrumentation for translational research with small laboratory animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Mejia, Jorge; Miranda, Ana Claudia Camargo; Durante, Ana Claudia Ranucci; Oliveira, Larissa Rolim de; Barboza, Marycel Rosa Felisa Figols de; Rosell, Katerin Taboada; Jardim, Daniele Pereira; Campos, Alexandre Holthausen; Reis, Marilia Alves Dos; Catanoso, Marcela Forli; Galvis-Alonso, Orfa Yineth; Cabral, Francisco Romero

2016-01-01

To present the result of upgrading a clinical gamma-camera to be used to obtain in vivo tomographic images of small animal organs, and its application to register cardiac, renal and neurological images. An updated version of the miniSPECT upgrading device was built, which is composed of mechanical, electronic and software subsystems. The device was attached to a Discovery VH (General Electric Healthcare) gamma-camera, which was retired from the clinical service and installed at the Centro de Imagem Pré-Clínica of the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. The combined system was characterized, determining operational parameters, such as spatial resolution, magnification, maximum acceptable target size, number of projections, and acquisition and reconstruction times. Images were obtained with 0.5mm spatial resolution, with acquisition and reconstruction times between 30 and 45 minutes, using iterative reconstruction with 10 to 20 iterations and 4 projection subsets. The system was validated acquiring in vivo tomographic images of the heart, kidneys and brain of normal animals (mice and adult rats), using the radiopharmaceuticals technetium-labeled hexakis-2-methoxy-isobutyl isonitrile (99mTc-Sestamibi), technetium-labeled dimercaptosuccinic acid (99mTc-DMSA) and technetium-labeled hexamethyl propyleneamine oxime (99mTc-HMPAO). This kind of application, which consists in the adaptation for an alternative objective of already existing instrumentation, resulted in a low-cost infrastructure option, allowing to carry out large scale in vivo studies with enhanced quality in several areas, such as neurology, nephrology, cardiology, among others. Apresentar o resultado da adaptação de uma gama câmara clínica para uso dedicado na obtenção de imagens tomográficas in vivo de órgãos de pequenos animais de experimentação, e de sua aplicação na obtenção de imagens cardíacas, renais e neurológicas. Foi construída uma versão atualizada do dispositivo de adapta

Geographically Apart, Attitudinally Very Close: A Comparison of Attitudes toward Animals between Romania and Mexico City

OpenAIRE

Rusu, Alina Simona; Pop, Denisa; Turner, Dennis C.

2017-01-01

Among other regions, Romania and Mexico (particularly Mexico City) are often cited as problematic areas in surveys and reports on the growing population of stray animals in urban areas. The aim of our study was to adapt for Romanian and Spanish languages usage of an instrument that includes significant psychological and social dimensions of the attitudes toward animals (i.e., Attitudes toward Animals questionnaire [ATA]; Fehlbaum, Waiblinger, & Turner, 2010; Turner, 2010) and compare these at...

Non-animal methodologies within biomedical research and toxicity testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Knight, Andrew

2008-01-01

Laboratory animal models are limited by scientific constraints on human applicability, and increasing regulatory restrictions, driven by social concerns. Reliance on laboratory animals also incurs marked - and in some cases, prohibitive - logistical challenges, within high-throughput chemical testing programmes, such as those currently underway within Europe and the US. However, a range of non-animal methodologies is available within biomedical research and toxicity testing. These include: mechanisms to enhance the sharing and assessment of existing data prior to conducting further studies, and physicochemical evaluation and computerised modelling, including the use of structure-activity relationships and expert systems. Minimally-sentient animals from lower phylogenetic orders or early developmental vertebral stages may be used, as well as microorganisms and higher plants. A variety of tissue cultures, including immortalised cell lines, embryonic and adult stem cells, and organotypic cultures, are also available. In vitro assays utilising bacterial, yeast, protozoal, mammalian or human cell cultures exist for a wide range of toxic and other endpoints. These may be static or perfused, and may be used individually, or combined within test batteries. Human hepatocyte cultures and metabolic activation systems offer potential assessment of metabolite activity and organ-organ interaction. Microarray technology may allow genetic expression profiling, increasing the speed of toxin detection, well prior to more invasive endpoints. Enhanced human clinical trials utilising micro- dosing, staggered dosing, and more representative study populations and durations, as well as surrogate human tissues, advanced imaging modalities and human epidemiological, sociological and psycho- logical studies, may increase our understanding of illness aetiology and pathogenesis, and facilitate the development of safe and effective pharmacologic interventions. Particularly when human tissues

Juvenile animal cruelty and firesetting behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Baglivio, Michael T; Wolff, Kevin T; DeLisi, Matt; Vaughn, Michael G; Piquero, Alex R

2017-12-01

There is a view that young people presenting with an animal cruelty and firesetting combination represent a uniquely risky group, but prior work has relied on samples with insufficient power. What is the prevalence of the co-occurrence of animal cruelty and firesetting behaviour among young delinquents? What other features correlate with this? We measured the prevalence of animal cruelty and firesetting among 292,649 juvenile offenders and used rare events logistic regression to examine demographic, criminal, mental health and family histories as correlates. The prevalence of animal cruelty was 0.59%, accounting for 1732 young people, and of firesetting 1.56% (n = 4553). The co-occurrence of these behaviours was rare: 0.17% (n = 498), but approximately twice that expected by chance based on the prevalence of each behaviour individually (0.59% × 1.56% = 0.009%). Rates were higher in males, older youths and Whites. Among historical variables, criminal history was the strongest correlate, followed by mental health problems, then familial and individual indicators. As only male gender and being a victim of sexual abuse increased the odds of evidencing both animal cruelty and firesetting behaviour substantially above the odds for each behaviour individually, there thus appears to be little that is unique to the co-occurrence. Our findings suggest that sensitivity to the occurrence of each is the best way forward, with rather familiar assessments and interventions offering some hope of reducing these seriously damaging behaviours. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Control device intended for a gamma radiation measuring instrument

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1976-01-01

This invention concerns a monitoring device for a gamma radiation measuring instrument or radiation meter, in which the radiation to be measured brings about, inter alia, the ionisation of a gas and the generation of current pulses. The dial of this meter is generally calibrated in roentgens per hour, i.e. in radiation rate units. This instrument of very simple design is remarkable for its operating reliability. Preferably placed at the inlet to a radioactive area, it enables every user of a ratemeter to check, over the entire measuring range of this instrument, its proper operation prior to entering the area. To this effect, the monitoring device in question has a thick wall lead castle, having an internal cavity in which is mounted a radioactive source delivering a gamma radiation with given constant characteristics, through a measurement window closed by a calibrated plug. Lead doors articulated on the castle can be superimposed on this window to bring about a given attenuation of the radiation coming from the source and delivered to the exterior of the castle [fr

Early detection of emerging zoonotic diseases with animal morbidity and mortality monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

Bisson, Isabelle-Anne; Ssebide, Benard J; Marra, Peter P

2015-03-01

Diseases transmitted between animals and people have made up more than 50% of emerging infectious diseases in humans over the last 60 years and have continued to arise in recent months. Yet, public health and animal disease surveillance programs continue to operate independently. Here, we assessed whether recent emerging zoonotic pathogens (n = 143) are known to cause morbidity or mortality in their animal host and if so, whether they were first detected with an animal morbidity/mortality event. We show that although sick or dead animals are often associated with these pathogens (52%), only 9% were first detected from an animal morbidity or mortality event prior to or concurrent with signs of illness in humans. We propose that an animal morbidity and mortality reporting program will improve detection and should be an essential component of early warning systems for zoonotic diseases. With the use of widespread low-cost technology, such a program could engage both the public and professionals and be easily tested and further incorporated as part of surveillance efforts by public health officials.

The Effects of Collaborative Care of Living Animals in Biology Lessons on Students' Relatedness Toward Their Teacher Across Gender

Science.gov (United States)

Eckes, Alexander; Großmann, Nadine; Wilde, Matthias

2018-01-01

The transition from elementary school to the upper grades can lead to ambiguous feelings toward the new, male teachers. This study investigated whether collaborative animal care in biology lessons affects students' feelings of relatedness toward their biology teachers positively during the first year after the school transition. Four hundred twenty fifth graders (M age = 10.5 years, SD age = 0.6 years) of higher types of tracking participated. We designed one experimental group that involved caring for the living animals to be used in the upcoming lessons, and two control groups. The first control group included lessons with living animals, but did not include prior care of those animals, and the second incorporated neither living animals nor prior care. All groups received biology lessons with the same content. To examine the effects of caretaking, we used an adapted version of the scale "relatedness" (Ryan 1982). In both control groups, boys showed lower relatedness toward female teachers and girls toward male teachers, respectively. Collaborative mice care promoted equal relatedness across all gender combinations among teachers and students.

Radioprotection of salivary glands by S-2-(3-aminopropylamino)-ethylphosphorothioic (amifostine) obtained in a rabbit animal model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bohuslavizki, Karl H; Klutmann, Susanne; Jenicke, Lars; Brenner, Winfried; Feyerabend, Bernd; Henze, Eberhard; Clausen, Malte

1999-08-01

Background: Impairment of salivary gland function following high-dose radioiodine treatment (HDRIT) is a well-recognized side effect of the treatment. Because differentiated thyroid cancer has an excellent prognosis, reduction of long-term side-effects is mandatory. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the radioprotective effect of amifostine in a rabbit animal model. Methods: Salivary gland scintigraphy was performed in a total of 16 New Zealand White rabbits. Uptake of {sup 99m}Tc-pertechnetate was calculated in percentage of injected activity as a quantitative measure of both salivary gland and thyroid function. Reproducibility of salivary gland scintigraphy was evaluated in one rabbit without any intervention. Fifteen rabbits were studied prior to and up to 6 months after high-dose radioiodine treatment applying 2 GBq {sup 131}I. Ten animals received 200 mg/kg amifostine prior to high-dose radioiodine therapy, and 5 served as controls. Salivary glands were examined histopathologically. Results: Variation coefficient of parenchymal function was less than 3.8% in salivary glands. Prior to HDRIT, thyroid uptake was 0.417 {+-} 0.373% and 0.421 {+-} 0.241% in control and amifostine-treated rabbits, respectively. Four weeks after HDRIT, complete ablation of the thyroid was achieved in both groups. Prior to HDRIT, uptake of {sup 99m}Tc-pertechnetate in salivary glands of five control rabbits was not significantly different from ten amifostine-treated rabbits. In control rabbits 6 months after HDRIT, parenchymal function was reduced significantly (p < 0.0001) by 75.3 {+-} 5.3% and 53.6 {+-} 17.4% in parotid and submandibular glands, respectively. In contrast, in amifostine-treated rabbits, parenchymal function was reduced by 10.6 {+-} 3.4% and 6.5 {+-} 4.3% (p > 0.05) in parotid and submandibular glands, respectively. Histopathologically, marked lipomatosis was observed in control animals but was negligible in amifostine-treated animals. Conclusion

Animal and human tungiasis-related knowledge and treatment practices among animal keeping households in Bugiri District, South-Eastern Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Mutebi, Francis; Krücken, Jürgen; von Samson-Himmelstjerna, Georg; Waiswa, Charles; Mencke, Norbert; Eneku, Wilfred; Andrew, Tamale; Feldmeier, Hermann

2018-01-01

Zoonotic tungiasis caused by Tunga penetrans remains a serious public and animal health problem among endemic villages in Uganda and many sub Saharan African countries. Studies on human and animal tungiasis-related knowledge and treatment practices in endemic communities have never been undertaken, a limitation to development of sustainable control measures. A cross sectional study using semi-structured questionnaires (Supplementary file S1) was conducted among 236 animal rearing households in 10 endemic villages in Bugiri District, South-Eastern Uganda. Focus group discussions and observation checklists were used to validate and clarify the findings. Most respondents knew the aetiology (89.4%), clinical signs (98%) and the ecology of T. penetrans as well as the major risk factors of human tungiasis (65.2%). In contrast, very few respondents were aware of animal tungiasis. Only 4.8% of those with infected animals on the compound knew that some of their animals were infected and 13.6% of the respondents had ever seen tungiasis-affected animals. Pigs (13.1%, n=31) and dogs (0.85%, n=2) were the only T. penetrans animal hosts known to animal owners. Affected humans were treated by extraction of embedded sand fleas using non-sterile sharp instruments in all households that reported occurrence of human tungiasis at least once (n=227). Also, affected animals were mainly treated by mechanical removal of embedded sand fleas in households that have ever experienced animal tungiasis (four out of 12; 33.3%). In a few instances, plant and animal pesticides (n=3) and other chemicals such as grease, paraffin and wood preservative (n=3) were also used to treat animal tungiasis. The study revealed a high level of knowledge on human tungiasis but inadequate knowledge on the zoonotic nature of tungiasis. Commonly applied methods for treatment of human and animal tungiasis are a health hazard by themselves. Concerted i.e. One Health-based efforts aiming at promoting appropriate

Laser use in avian and exotic animal medicine

Science.gov (United States)

Parrott, Terri

2000-05-01

The use of lasers in clinical avian and exotic animal practice has increased the types of surgical procedures available to the veterinarian. Tissue injury and blood loss can be minimized with both the CO2 and Diode laser. The physical properties of these lasers give them direct advantages over other types of lasers for small animal and avian surgical patients. Routine salpingohysterectomy, castration and mass removal can be accomplished with the CO2 laser. Power, pulse settings and tip diameters for the various tissues make the CO2 laser a versatile instrument in surgery. Endoscopic surgery in the avian patient has been revolutionized with the use of the Diode laser. The use of the flexible fiber system makes it amendable to both rigid and flexible scopes.

Animal welfare: an animal science approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Koknaroglu, H; Akunal, T

2013-12-01

Increasing world population and demand for animal-derived protein puts pressure on animal production to meet this demand. For this purpose animal breeding efforts were conducted to obtain the maximum yield that the genetic makeup of the animals permits. Under the influence of economics which is the driving force behind animal production, animal farming became more concentrated and controlled which resulted in rearing animals under confinement. Since more attention was given on economics and yield per animal, animal welfare and behavior were neglected. Animal welfare which can be defined as providing environmental conditions in which animals can display all their natural behaviors in nature started gaining importance in recent years. This does not necessarily mean that animals provided with good management practices would have better welfare conditions as some animals may be distressed even though they are in good environmental conditions. Consumers are willing to pay more for welfare-friendly products (e.g.: free range vs caged egg) and this will change the animal production practices in the future. Thus animal scientists will have to adapt themselves for the changing animal welfare rules and regulations that differ for farm animal species and countries. In this review paper, animal welfare is discussed from an animal science standpoint. Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Active instrumental guidance in interventional magnetic resonance imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wildermuth, S.; Erhart, P.; Leung, D.A.; Goehde, S.; Schoenenberger, A.; Debatin, J.F.

1998-01-01

Purpose: An active MR-based guidance system for visualisation of invasive instruments is described. Methods: The principle of MR tracking is based on the integration of a miniaturised coil into the tip of the instrument itself. A phantom experiment was designed to demonstrate the localising accuracy of this technique. In [dition, bicompatibility and warming effects were evaluated. Preliminary intravascular applications that were performed in animal experiments under MR guidance included embolisation, vascular occlusion as well as transjugular intrahepatic punctures. Percutaneous biopsies, cholecystostomies and laparoscopic applications were also evaluated with MR tracking. Results: Phantom experiments confirmed an excellent localisation accuracy of MR tracking compared to conventional r[iography. At a field strength of 0.5 T, the temperature increase remained below 2 C. Results of phantom experiments revealed a potential of significant heating dependent on the sequence parameters employed. MR tracking allowed a robust, simultaneously biplanar visualisation of the instrument tips in real time. Based on MR 'ro[ map' images, various intravascular and percutaneous interventions were successfully performed in vivo under MR guidance. Conclusions: MR tracking is a flexible concept permitting monitoring in the guidance of instruments in an MR environment. Various preliminary in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate safety, localisation accuracy and feasibility of this biplanar localisation technique in real time. (orig.) [de

QUOTE-gene(ca): development of a counselee-centered instrument to measure needs and preferences in genetic counseling for hereditary cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Pieterse, Arwen; van Dulmen, Sandra; Ausems, Margreet; Schoemaker, Angela; Beemer, Frits; Bensing, Jozien

2005-05-01

Counselees' motives for seeking genetic counseling for hereditary cancer have already been investigated, however not using instruments based on counselees' perspective. In addition, expectations regarding the process of counseling have scarcely been assessed. This article describes the construction and psychometric properties of the QUOTE-gene(ca), a counselee-centered instrument intended to measure needs and preferences in genetic counseling for hereditary cancer. Formulation of the items involved input from counselees and the instrument was derived from a conceptual framework for measuring patient satisfaction. Two-hundred new counselees completed a questionnaire containing the instrument and measures of coping style (TMSI), generalized anxiety (STAI) and cancer-related stress reactions (IES), prior to their first consultation. Results showed that the instrument captures relevant issues of concern with high internal consistency, and was associated, as expected, with validated measures of coping style and distress. Responses showed that major concerns prior to counseling relate to: receiving information about risk and preventive strategies; the procedure of counseling; and preferences on how the interaction with the counselor proceeds. Receiving emotional support and discussing emotional aspects were considered relatively less important. Increasing insight into individual needs may help counselors in better addressing these concerns, potentially increasing the likelihood of successful counseling. Copyright (c) 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Participatory evaluation of delivery of animal health care services by community animal health workers in Karamoja region of Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Bugeza, James; Kankya, Clovice; Muleme, James; Akandinda, Ann; Sserugga, Joseph; Nantima, Noelina; Okori, Edward; Odoch, Terence

2017-01-01

An evaluation exercise was carried out to assess the performance of Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs) in the delivery of animal health care services in Karamoja region, identify capacity gaps and recommend remedial measures. Participatory methods were used to design data collection tools. Questionnaires were administered to 204 CAHWs, 215 farmers and 7 District Veterinary Officers (DVOs) to collect quantitative data. Seven DVOs and 1 Non Government Organization (NGO) representative were interviewed as key informants and one focus group discussion was conducted with a farmer group in Nakapiripirit to collect qualitative data. Questionnaire data was analyzed using SPSS version 19. Key messages from interviews and the focus group discussion were recorded in a notebook and reported verbatim. 70% of the farmers revealed that CAHWs are the most readily available animal health care service providers in their respective villages. CAHWs were instrumental in treatment of sick animals, disease surveillance, control of external parasites, animal production, vaccination, reporting, animal identification, and performing minor surgeries. Regarding their overall performance 88.8%(191/215) of the farmers said they were impressed. The main challenges faced by the CAHWs were inadequate facilitation, lack of tools and equipments, unwillingness of government to integrate them into the formal extension system, poor information flow, limited technical capacity to diagnose diseases, unwillingness of farmers to pay for services and sustainability issues. CAHWs remain the main source of animal health care services in Karamoja region and their services are largely satisfactory. The technical deficits identified require continuous capacity building programs, close supervision and technical backstopping. For sustainability of animal health care services in the region continuous training and strategic deployment of paraprofessionals that are formally recognised by the traditional civil

Participatory evaluation of delivery of animal health care services by community animal health workers in Karamoja region of Uganda.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Bugeza

Full Text Available An evaluation exercise was carried out to assess the performance of Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs in the delivery of animal health care services in Karamoja region, identify capacity gaps and recommend remedial measures.Participatory methods were used to design data collection tools. Questionnaires were administered to 204 CAHWs, 215 farmers and 7 District Veterinary Officers (DVOs to collect quantitative data. Seven DVOs and 1 Non Government Organization (NGO representative were interviewed as key informants and one focus group discussion was conducted with a farmer group in Nakapiripirit to collect qualitative data. Questionnaire data was analyzed using SPSS version 19. Key messages from interviews and the focus group discussion were recorded in a notebook and reported verbatim.70% of the farmers revealed that CAHWs are the most readily available animal health care service providers in their respective villages. CAHWs were instrumental in treatment of sick animals, disease surveillance, control of external parasites, animal production, vaccination, reporting, animal identification, and performing minor surgeries. Regarding their overall performance 88.8%(191/215 of the farmers said they were impressed. The main challenges faced by the CAHWs were inadequate facilitation, lack of tools and equipments, unwillingness of government to integrate them into the formal extension system, poor information flow, limited technical capacity to diagnose diseases, unwillingness of farmers to pay for services and sustainability issues.CAHWs remain the main source of animal health care services in Karamoja region and their services are largely satisfactory. The technical deficits identified require continuous capacity building programs, close supervision and technical backstopping. For sustainability of animal health care services in the region continuous training and strategic deployment of paraprofessionals that are formally recognised by the

Chromosomal differences between acute nonlymphocytic leukemia in patients with prior solid tumors and prior hematologic malignancies. A study of 14 cases with prior breast cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mamuris, Z.; Dumont, J.; Dutrillaux, B.; Aurias, A.

1989-01-01

A cytogenetic study of 14 patients with secondary acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (S-ANLL) with prior treatment for breast cancer is reported. The chromosomes recurrently involved in numerical or structural anomalies are chromosomes 7, 5, 17, and 11, in decreasing order of frequency. The distribution of the anomalies detected in this sample of patients is similar to that observed in published cases with prior breast or other solid tumors, though anomalies of chromosome 11 were not pointed out, but it significantly differs from that of the S-ANLL with prior hematologic malignancies. This difference is principally due to a higher involvement of chromosome 7 in patients with prior hematologic malignancies and of chromosomes 11 and 17 in patients with prior solid tumors. A genetic determinism involving abnormal recessive alleles located on chromosomes 5, 7, 11, and 17 uncovered by deletions of the normal homologs may be a cause of S-ANLL. The difference between patients with prior hematologic malignancies or solid tumors may be explained by different constitutional mutations of recessive genes in the two groups of patients

Animal-assisted interventions and quality of life: expectations among

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Javier López-Cepero

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The present study assessed expectations among university students (N= 474, X= 22.7, SD=5.6 years towards the possible benefits of animal-assisted interventions on quality of life. Attitudes were measured with the Improving Quality of Life scale, which is an instrument created ad hoc that demonstrated adequate psychometric properties (four easily interpretable factors, with 49% of explained variance and alphas ranging from .76 to .89. The results showed that the participants (from the departments of Social, Health or Educational Sciences had very positive attitudes (high effect sizes, ES>.80 regardless of training. The experience of sharing households with pets was associated with better expectations. These findings emphasize the high expectations that future professionals in different fields hold regarding animal-assisted interventions, and highlight the current shortcomings in training curricula. The implications of these findings for the development of animal-assisted interventions are discussed.

Implementation and assessment of an animal management system for small-animal micro-CT / micro-SPECT imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Holdsworth, David W.; Detombe, Sarah A.; Chiodo, Chris; Fricke, Stanley T.; Drangova, Maria

2011-03-01

Advances in laboratory imaging systems for CT, SPECT, MRI, and PET facilitate routine micro-imaging during pre-clinical investigations. Challenges still arise when dealing with immune-compromised animals, biohazardous agents, and multi-modality imaging. These challenges can be overcome with an appropriate animal management system (AMS), with the capability for supporting and monitoring a rat or mouse during micro-imaging. We report the implementation and assessment of a new AMS system for mice (PRA-3000 / AHS-2750, ASI Instruments, Warren MI), designed to be compatible with a commercial micro-CT / micro-SPECT imaging system (eXplore speCZT, GE Healthcare, London ON). The AMS was assessed under the following criteria: 1) compatibility with the imaging system (i.e. artifact generation, geometric dimensions); 2) compatibility with live animals (i.e. positioning, temperature regulation, anesthetic supply); 3) monitoring capabilities (i.e. rectal temperature, respiratory and cardiac monitoring); 4) stability of co-registration; and 5) containment. Micro-CT scans performed using a standardized live-animal protocol (90 kVp, 40 mA, 900 views, 16 ms per view) exhibited low noise (+/-19 HU) and acceptable artifact from high-density components within the AMS (e.g. ECG pad contacts). Live mice were imaged repeatedly (with removal and replacement of the AMS) and spatial registration was found to be stable to within +/-0.07 mm. All animals tolerated enclosure within the AMS for extended periods (i.e. > one hour) without distress, based on continuous recordings of rectal temperature, ECG waveform and respiratory rate. A sealed AMS system extends the capability of a conventional micro-imaging system to include immune-compromised and biosafety level 2 mouse-imaging protocols.

A Very High Spatial Resolution Detector for Small Animal PET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kanai Shah, M.S.

2007-01-01

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is an in vivo analog of autoradiography and has the potential to become a powerful new tool in imaging biological processes in small laboratory animals. PET imaging of small animals can provide unique information that can help in advancement of human disease models as well as drug development. Clinical PET scanners used for human imaging are bulky, expensive and do not have adequate spatial resolution for small animal studies. Hence, dedicated, low cost instruments are required for conducting small animal studies with higher spatial resolution than what is currently achieved with clinical as well as dedicated small animal PET scanners. The goal of the proposed project is to investigate a new all solid-state detector design for small animal PET imaging. Exceptionally high spatial resolution, good timing resolution, and excellent energy resolution are expected from the proposed detector design. The Phase I project was aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of producing high performance solid-state detectors that provide high sensitivity, spatial resolution, and timing characteristics. Energy resolution characteristics of the new detector were also investigated. The goal of the Phase II project is to advance the promising solid-state detector technology for small animal PET and determine its full potential. Detectors modules will be built and characterized and finally, a bench-top small animal PET system will be assembled and evaluated

Accommodating Uncertainty in Prior Distributions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Picard, Richard Roy [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Vander Wiel, Scott Alan [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2017-01-19

A fundamental premise of Bayesian methodology is that a priori information is accurately summarized by a single, precisely de ned prior distribution. In many cases, especially involving informative priors, this premise is false, and the (mis)application of Bayes methods produces posterior quantities whose apparent precisions are highly misleading. We examine the implications of uncertainty in prior distributions, and present graphical methods for dealing with them.

Closer to Nature: the Ethics of ‘Green’ Representations in Animal Product Marketing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borkfelt, Sune; Kondrup, Sara Vincentzen; Gjerris, Mickey

2013-01-01

– thus attempting to display a green, eco-, climate-, and animal friendly production. The tension between marketing and the idea of ethical consumerism is apparent as the need for independent information to make value-based choices is challenged by the liberal rules of the market and more specifically......Empirical cases from the Danish food market are examined in order to critically discuss the respective modes of communication in light of the premises of socially responsible consumer marketing. This analysis suggests that specific marketing instruments are used to sell animal products by blurring...... by the lack of a restrictive food labelling policy. The relationship between the ways in which animal welfare is communicated and emphasized through food marketing, and commonly held perceptions of acceptable standards for animal welfare, is discussed and the need for transparency in the area of animal...

Dynamic studies of small animals with a four-color diffuse optical tomography imager

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmitz, Christoph H.; Graber, Harry L.; Pei Yaling; Farber, Mark; Stewart, Mark; Levina, Rita D.; Levin, Mikhail B.; Xu Yong; Barbour, Randall L.

2005-01-01

We present newly developed instrumentation for full-tomographic four-wavelength, continuous wave, diffuse optical tomography (DOT) imaging on small animals. A small-animal imaging stage was constructed, from materials compatible with in-magnet studies, which offers stereotaxic fixation of the animal and precise, stable probe positioning. Instrument performance, based on calibration and phantom studies, demonstrates excellent long-term signal stability. DOT measurements of the functional rat brain response to electric paw stimulation are presented, and these demonstrate high data quality and excellent sensitivity to hemodynamic changes. A general linear model analysis on individual trials is used to localize and quantify the occurrence of functional behavior associated with the different hemoglobin state responses. Statistical evaluation of outcomes of individual trials is employed to identify significant regional response variations for different stimulation sites. Image results reveal a diffuse cortical response and a strong reaction of the thalamus, both indicative of activation of pain pathways by the stimulation. In addition, a weaker lateralized functional component is observed in the brain response, suggesting presence of motor activation. An important outcome of the experiment is that it shows that reactions to individual provocations can be monitored, without having to resort to signal averaging. Thus the described technology may be useful for studies of long-term trends in hemodynamic response, as would occur, for example, in behavioral studies involving freely moving animals

Differential Visual Processing of Animal Images, with and without Conscious Awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Weina; Drewes, Jan; Peatfield, Nicholas A; Melcher, David

2016-01-01

The human visual system can quickly and efficiently extract categorical information from a complex natural scene. The rapid detection of animals in a scene is one compelling example of this phenomenon, and it suggests the automatic processing of at least some types of categories with little or no attentional requirements (Li et al., 2002, 2005). The aim of this study is to investigate whether the remarkable capability to categorize complex natural scenes exist in the absence of awareness, based on recent reports that "invisible" stimuli, which do not reach conscious awareness, can still be processed by the human visual system (Pasley et al., 2004; Williams et al., 2004; Fang and He, 2005; Jiang et al., 2006, 2007; Kaunitz et al., 2011a). In two experiments, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to animal and non-animal/vehicle stimuli in both aware and unaware conditions in a continuous flash suppression (CFS) paradigm. Our results indicate that even in the "unseen" condition, the brain responds differently to animal and non-animal/vehicle images, consistent with rapid activation of animal-selective feature detectors prior to, or outside of, suppression by the CFS mask.

Testing the Solar Probe Cup, an Instrument Designed to Touch the Sun

Science.gov (United States)

Whittlesey, Phyllis L.; Case, Anthony W.; Kasper, Justin Christophe; Wright, Kenneth H., Jr.; Alterman, Ben; Cirtain, Jonathan W.; Bookbinder, Jay; Korreck, Kelly E.; Stevens, Michael Louis

2014-01-01

Solar Probe Plus will be the first, fastest, and closest mission to the sun, providing the first direct sampling of the sub-Alfvenic corona. The Solar Probe Cup (SPC) is a unique re-imagining of the traditional Faraday Cup design and materials for immersion in this high temperature environment. Sending an instrument of this type into a never-seen particle environment requires extensive characterization prior to launch to establish sufficient measurement accuracy and instrument response. To reach this end, a slew of tests for allowing SPC to see ranges of appropriate ions and electrons, as well as a facility that reproduces solar photon spectra and fluxes for this mission. Having already tested the SPC at flight like temperatures with no significant modification of the noise floor, we recently completed a round of particle testing to see if the deviations in Faraday Cup design fundamentally change the operation of the instrument. Results and implications from these tests will be presented, as well as performance comparisons to cousin instruments such as those on the WIND spacecraft.

Effects of Geometry and Kinematics on Animals Leaping Out of Water

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Brian; Myeong, Jihye; Virot, Emmanuel; Kim, Ho-Young; Jung, Sunghwan

2017-11-01

Leaping out of water is a phenomenon exhibited by a variety of aquatic and semi-aquatic animals, such as frogs and whales. In this study, we aim to elucidate the effects of geometric and kinematic conditions on the propulsive and drag force required for an animal to jump through the water interface. A simple mechanism was designed to measure the propulsive thrust produced by a flapping appendage. In a separate experiment to measure the opposing drag, simplified models of animals are 3D printed and fitted with pressure sensors. The model is accelerated from rest and covers a range of Re from 103 to 105. Using a high-speed camera and pressure sensors, we observed a deformation of the free surface prior to water exit, and correlated this to the drag force. Finally, we discuss a scaling law to describe the general physics which allow animals to leap out of water. NSF EAPSI.

Inspector-instrument interface in portable NDA instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halbig, J.K.; Klosterbuer, S.F.

1981-01-01

Recent electronics technology advances make it possible to design sophisticated instruments in small packages for convenient field implementation. An inspector-instrument interface design that allows communication of procedures, responses, and results between the instrument and user is presented. This capability has been incorporated into new spent-fuel instrumentation and a battery-powered multichannel analyzer

Inspector-instrument interface in portable NDA instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halbig, J.K.; Klosterbuer, S.F.

1981-01-01

Recent electronics technology advances make it possible to design sophisticated instruments in small packages for convenient field implementation. This report describes an inspector-instrument interface design which allows communication of procedures, responses, and results between the instrument and user. The interface has been incorporated into new spent-fuel instrumentation and a battery-powered multichannel analyzer

Deconvolving instrumental and intrinsic broadening in core-shell x-ray spectroscopies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fister, T. T.; Seidler, G. T.; Rehr, J. J.; Kas, J. J.; Nagle, K. P.; Elam, W. T.; Cross, J. O.

2007-01-01

Intrinsic and experimental mechanisms frequently lead to broadening of spectral features in core-shell spectroscopies. For example, intrinsic broadening occurs in x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements of heavy elements where the core-hole lifetime is very short. On the other hand, nonresonant x-ray Raman scattering (XRS) and other energy loss measurements are more limited by instrumental resolution. Here, we demonstrate that the Richardson-Lucy (RL) iterative algorithm provides a robust method for deconvolving instrumental and intrinsic resolutions from typical XAS and XRS data. For the K-edge XAS of Ag, we find nearly complete removal of ∼9.3 eV full width at half maximum broadening from the combined effects of the short core-hole lifetime and instrumental resolution. We are also able to remove nearly all instrumental broadening in an XRS measurement of diamond, with the resulting improved spectrum comparing favorably with prior soft x-ray XAS measurements. We present a practical methodology for implementing the RL algorithm in these problems, emphasizing the importance of testing for stability of the deconvolution process against noise amplification, perturbations in the initial spectra, and uncertainties in the core-hole lifetime

Portable Instrument to Measure CDOM Light Absorption in Aquatic Systems: WPI Success Story

Science.gov (United States)

2001-01-01

World Precision Instruments, Inc. (WPI), of Sarasota, FL, in collaboration with NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, has developed an innovative instrument to accurately measure Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) absorption in the field. This successful collaboration has culminated in an exciting new device, called the UltraPath, now commercially available through WPI. Traditional methods of measuring absorption of dissolved materials require special handling and storage prior to measurement. Use of laboratory spectrophotometers as the measuring devices have proven time consuming, cumbersome, and delicate to handle. The UltraPath provides a low-cost, highly sensitive, rugged, portable system that is capable of high sensitivity measurements in widely divergent waters.

Animals in Space From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle

CERN Document Server

Burgess, Colin

2007-01-01

Many readers will doubtless be astonished to learn that animals were being fired aloft in U.S. and Soviet research rockets in the late 1940s. In fact most people not only believe that the Russian space dog Laika was the first canine to be launched into space, but also that the high-profile, precursory Mercury flights of chimps Ham and Enos were the only primate flights conducted by the United States. In fact, both countries had sent literally dozens of animals aloft for many years prior to these events and continued to do so for many years after. Other latter-day space nations, such as France and China, would also begin to use animals in their own space research. Animals in Space will explain why dogs, primates, mice and other rodents were chosen and tested, at a time when dedicated scientists from both space nations were determined to establish the survivability of human subjects on both ballistic and orbital space flights. It will also recount the way this happened; the secrecy involved and the methods empl...

Iterated random walks with shape prior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pujadas, Esmeralda Ruiz; Kjer, Hans Martin; Piella, Gemma

2016-01-01

the parametric probability density function. Then, random walks is performed iteratively aligning the prior with the current segmentation in every iteration. We tested the proposed approach with natural and medical images and compared it with the latest techniques with random walks and shape priors......We propose a new framework for image segmentation using random walks where a distance shape prior is combined with a region term. The shape prior is weighted by a confidence map to reduce the influence of the prior in high gradient areas and the region term is computed with k-means to estimate....... The experiments suggest that this method gives promising results for medical and natural images....

Contemporary Animal Models For Human Gene Therapy Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Gopinath, Chitra; Nathar, Trupti Job; Ghosh, Arkasubhra; Hickstein, Dennis Durand; Nelson, Everette Jacob Remington

2015-01-01

Over the past three decades, gene therapy has been making considerable progress as an alternative strategy in the treatment of many diseases. Since 2009, several studies have been reported in humans on the successful treatment of various diseases. Animal models mimicking human disease conditions are very essential at the preclinical stage before embarking on a clinical trial. In gene therapy, for instance, they are useful in the assessment of variables related to the use of viral vectors such as safety, efficacy, dosage and localization of transgene expression. However, choosing a suitable disease-specific model is of paramount importance for successful clinical translation. This review focuses on the animal models that are most commonly used in gene therapy studies, such as murine, canine, non-human primates, rabbits, porcine, and a more recently developed humanized mice. Though small and large animals both have their own pros and cons as disease-specific models, the choice is made largely based on the type and length of study performed. While small animals with a shorter life span could be well-suited for degenerative/aging studies, large animals with longer life span could suit longitudinal studies and also help with dosage adjustments to maximize therapeutic benefit. Recently, humanized mice or mouse-human chimaeras have gained interest in the study of human tissues or cells, thereby providing a more reliable understanding of therapeutic interventions. Thus, animal models are of great importance with regard to testing new vector technologies in vivo for assessing safety and efficacy prior to a gene therapy clinical trial.

Instrumentation of the ESRF medical imaging facility

CERN Document Server

Elleaume, H; Berkvens, P; Berruyer, G; Brochard, T; Dabin, Y; Domínguez, M C; Draperi, A; Fiedler, S; Goujon, G; Le Duc, G; Mattenet, M; Nemoz, C; Pérez, M; Renier, M; Schulze, C; Spanne, P; Suortti, P; Thomlinson, W; Estève, F; Bertrand, B; Le Bas, J F

1999-01-01

At the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) a beamport has been instrumented for medical research programs. Two facilities have been constructed for alternative operation. The first one is devoted to medical imaging and is focused on intravenous coronary angiography and computed tomography (CT). The second facility is dedicated to pre-clinical microbeam radiotherapy (MRT). This paper describes the instrumentation for the imaging facility. Two monochromators have been designed, both are based on bent silicon crystals in the Laue geometry. A versatile scanning device has been built for pre-alignment and scanning of the patient through the X-ray beam in radiography or CT modes. An intrinsic germanium detector is used together with large dynamic range electronics (16 bits) to acquire the data. The beamline is now at the end of its commissioning phase; intravenous coronary angiography is intended to start in 1999 with patients and the CT pre-clinical program is underway on small animals. The first in viv...

The Prior-project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engerer, Volkmar Paul; Roued-Cunliffe, Henriette; Albretsen, Jørgen

digitisation of Arthur Prior’s Nachlass kept in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The DH infrastructure in question is the Prior Virtual Lab (PVL). PVL was established in 2011 in order to provide researchers in the field of temporal logic easy access to the papers of Arthur Norman Prior (1914-1969), and officially......In this paper, we present a DH research infrastructure which relies heavily on a combination of domain knowledge with information technology. The general goal is to develop tools to aid scholars in their interpretations and understanding of temporal logic. This in turn is based on an extensive...

Non-Invasive in vivo Imaging in Small Animal Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Koo

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Non-invasive real time in vivo molecular imaging in small animal models has become the essential bridge between in vitro data and their translation into clinical applications. The tremendous development and technological progress, such as tumour modelling, monitoring of tumour growth and detection of metastasis, has facilitated translational drug development. This has added to our knowledge on carcinogenesis. The modalities that are commonly used include Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI, Computed Tomography (CT, Positron Emission Tomography (PET, bioluminescence imaging, fluorescence imaging and multi-modality imaging systems. The ability to obtain multiple images longitudinally provides reliable information whilst reducing animal numbers. As yet there is no one modality that is ideal for all experimental studies. This review outlines the instrumentation available together with corresponding applications reported in the literature with particular emphasis on cancer research. Advantages and limitations to current imaging technology are discussed and the issues concerning small animal care during imaging are highlighted.

Language as an instrument of thought

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eran Asoulin

2016-11-01

Full Text Available I show that there are good arguments and evidence to boot that support the language as an instrument of thought hypothesis. The underlying mechanisms of language, comprising of expressions structured hierarchically and recursively, provide a perspective (in the form of a conceptual structure on the world, for it is only via language that certain perspectives are available to us and to our thought processes. These mechanisms provide us with a uniquely human way of thinking and talking about the world that is different to the sort of thinking we share with other animals. If the primary function of language were communication then one would expect that the underlying mechanisms of language will be structured in a way that favours successful communication. I show that not only is this not the case, but that the underlying mechanisms of language are in fact structured in a way to maximise computational efficiency, even if it means causing communicative problems. Moreover, I discuss evidence from comparative, neuropathological, developmental, and neuroscientific evidence that supports the claim that language is an instrument of thought.

Bioethical Problems: Animal Welfare, Animal Rights.

Science.gov (United States)

March, B. E.

1984-01-01

Discusses various bioethical issues and problems related to animal welfare and animal rights. Areas examined include: Aristotelian views; animal welfare legislation; Darwin and evolutionary theory; animal and human behavior; and vegetarianism. A 14-point universal declaration of the rights of animals is included. (JN)

Dimensions of temperament modulate cue-controlled behavior: a study on Pavlovian to instrumental transfer in horses (Equus caballus.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Léa Lansade

Full Text Available Pavlovian to instrumental transfer (PIT is a central factor in how cues influence animal behavior. PIT refers to the capacity of a Pavlovian cue that predicts a reward to elicit or increase a response intended to obtain the same reward. In the present study, using an equine model, we assessed whether PIT occurs in hoofed domestic animals and whether its efficacy can be modulated by temperamental dimensions. To study PIT, horses were submitted to Pavlovian conditioning whereby an auditory-visual stimulus was repeatedly followed by food delivery. Then, horses were submitted to instrumental conditioning during which they learned to touch with their noses an object signaled by the experimenter in order to obtain the same reward. During the PIT test, the Pavlovian conditioned stimulus was presented to the animal in the absence of reward. At the end of the experiment, a battery of behavioral tests was performed on all animals to assess five temperamental dimensions and investigate their relationships with instrumental performance. The results indicate that PIT can be observed in horses and that its efficacy is greatly modulated by individual temperament. Indeed, individuals with a specific pattern of temperamental dimensions (i.e., higher levels of gregariousness, fearfulness, and sensory sensitivity exhibited the strongest PIT. The demonstration of the existence of PIT in domesticated animals (i.e., horses is important for the optimization of its use by humans and the improvement of training methods. Moreover, because PIT may be implicated in psychological phenomena, including addictive behaviors, the observation of relationships between specific temperamental dimensions and PIT efficacy may aid in identifying predisposing temperamental attributes.

Development of a SiPM-based PET imaging system for small animals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, Yanye; Yang, Kun; Zhou, Kedi; Zhang, Qiushi; Pang, Bo; Ren, Qiushi

2014-01-01

Advances in small animal positron emission tomography (PET) imaging have been accelerated by many new technologies such as the successful incorporation of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM). In this paper, we have developed a compact, lightweight PET imaging system that is based on SiPM detectors for small animals imaging, which could be integrated into a multi-modality imaging system. This PET imaging system consists of a stationary detector gantry, a motor-controlled animal bed module, electronics modules, and power supply modules. The PET detector, which was designed as a multi-slice circular ring geometry of 27 discrete block detectors, is composed of a cerium doped lutetium–yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) scintillation crystal and SiPM arrays. The system has a 60 mm transaxial field of view (FOV) and a 26 mm axial FOV. Performance tests (e.g. spatial resolution, energy resolution, and sensitivity) and phantom and animal imaging studies were performed to evaluate the imaging performance of the PET imaging system. The performance tests and animal imaging results demonstrate the feasibility of an animal PET system based on SiPM detectors and indicate that SiPM detectors can be promising photodetectors in animal PET instrumentation development

Development of a SiPM-based PET imaging system for small animals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lu, Yanye [Department of Biomedicine and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Yang, Kun, E-mail: yangkun9999@hotmail.com [Department of Control Technology and Instrumentation, College of Quality and Technical Supervision, Hebei University, Baoding, 071000 (China); Zhou, Kedi; Zhang, Qiushi; Pang, Bo [Department of Biomedicine and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China); Ren, Qiushi, E-mail: renqsh@coe.pku.edu.cn [Department of Biomedicine and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)

2014-04-11

Advances in small animal positron emission tomography (PET) imaging have been accelerated by many new technologies such as the successful incorporation of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM). In this paper, we have developed a compact, lightweight PET imaging system that is based on SiPM detectors for small animals imaging, which could be integrated into a multi-modality imaging system. This PET imaging system consists of a stationary detector gantry, a motor-controlled animal bed module, electronics modules, and power supply modules. The PET detector, which was designed as a multi-slice circular ring geometry of 27 discrete block detectors, is composed of a cerium doped lutetium–yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) scintillation crystal and SiPM arrays. The system has a 60 mm transaxial field of view (FOV) and a 26 mm axial FOV. Performance tests (e.g. spatial resolution, energy resolution, and sensitivity) and phantom and animal imaging studies were performed to evaluate the imaging performance of the PET imaging system. The performance tests and animal imaging results demonstrate the feasibility of an animal PET system based on SiPM detectors and indicate that SiPM detectors can be promising photodetectors in animal PET instrumentation development.

Content validity of governing in Building Information Modelling (BIM) implementation assessment instrument

Science.gov (United States)

Hadzaman, N. A. H.; Takim, R.; Nawawi, A. H.; Mohamad Yusuwan, N.

2018-04-01

BIM governance assessment instrument is a process of analysing the importance in developing BIM governance solution to tackle the existing problems during team collaboration in BIM-based projects. Despite the deployment of integrative technologies in construction industry particularly BIM, it is still insufficient compare to other sectors. Several studies have been established the requirements of BIM implementation concerning all technical and non-technical BIM adoption issues. However, the data are regarded as inadequate to develop a BIM governance framework. Hence, the objective of the paper is to evaluate the content validity of the BIM governance instrument prior to the main data collection. Two methods were employed in the form of literature review and questionnaire survey. Based on the literature review, 273 items with six main constructs are suggested to be incorporated in the BIM governance instrument. The Content Validity Ratio (CVR) scores revealed that 202 out of 273 items are considered as the utmost critical by the content experts. The findings for Item Level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) and Modified Kappa Coefficient however revealed that 257 items in BIM governance instrument are appropriate and excellent. The instrument is highly reliable for future strategies and the development of BIM projects in Malaysia.

Intersecting Spaces and Species: Women´s Bodies and the Domestic Sphere in Animal Rights Activism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudia Alonso Recarte

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The object of this article is to explore how current animal rights activism draws on images of women-animal corporeal hybrids to articulate a plight for animals, and how the domestic setting used in such campaigns is strategically conveyed to either instill sympathy or abhorrence at the ‘miscegenation’ of species within a single bodily space. I begin with a few observations on the matter of animal ontology in accordance with the muchdebated notion of commonness with humans (and in particular women. I then make a comparative analysis between video campaigns by two major animal rights organizations, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA to evaluate how their rhetoric of species hybridism conveys different assumptions regarding womanhood, and how domestic settings serve as instrumental tools through which to strengthen their rhetoric of animal liberation.

Instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prieur, G.; Nadi, M.; Hedjiedj, A.; Weber, S.

1995-01-01

This second chapter on instrumentation gives little general consideration on history and classification of instrumentation, and two specific states of the art. The first one concerns NMR (block diagram of instrumentation chain with details on the magnets, gradients, probes, reception unit). The first one concerns precision instrumentation (optical fiber gyro-meter and scanning electron microscope), and its data processing tools (programmability, VXI standard and its history). The chapter ends with future trends on smart sensors and Field Emission Displays. (D.L.). Refs., figs

Camera Traps Can Be Heard and Seen by Animals

Science.gov (United States)

Meek, Paul D.; Ballard, Guy-Anthony; Fleming, Peter J. S.; Schaefer, Michael; Williams, Warwick; Falzon, Greg

2014-01-01

Camera traps are electrical instruments that emit sounds and light. In recent decades they have become a tool of choice in wildlife research and monitoring. The variability between camera trap models and the methods used are considerable, and little is known about how animals respond to camera trap emissions. It has been reported that some animals show a response to camera traps, and in research this is often undesirable so it is important to understand why the animals are disturbed. We conducted laboratory based investigations to test the audio and infrared optical outputs of 12 camera trap models. Camera traps were measured for audio outputs in an anechoic chamber; we also measured ultrasonic (n = 5) and infrared illumination outputs (n = 7) of a subset of the camera trap models. We then compared the perceptive hearing range (n = 21) and assessed the vision ranges (n = 3) of mammals species (where data existed) to determine if animals can see and hear camera traps. We report that camera traps produce sounds that are well within the perceptive range of most mammals’ hearing and produce illumination that can be seen by many species. PMID:25354356

Camera traps can be heard and seen by animals.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul D Meek

Full Text Available Camera traps are electrical instruments that emit sounds and light. In recent decades they have become a tool of choice in wildlife research and monitoring. The variability between camera trap models and the methods used are considerable, and little is known about how animals respond to camera trap emissions. It has been reported that some animals show a response to camera traps, and in research this is often undesirable so it is important to understand why the animals are disturbed. We conducted laboratory based investigations to test the audio and infrared optical outputs of 12 camera trap models. Camera traps were measured for audio outputs in an anechoic chamber; we also measured ultrasonic (n = 5 and infrared illumination outputs (n = 7 of a subset of the camera trap models. We then compared the perceptive hearing range (n = 21 and assessed the vision ranges (n = 3 of mammals species (where data existed to determine if animals can see and hear camera traps. We report that camera traps produce sounds that are well within the perceptive range of most mammals' hearing and produce illumination that can be seen by many species.

Virtual Character Animation Based on Affordable Motion Capture and Reconfigurable Tangible Interfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamberti, Fabrizio; Paravati, Gianluca; Gatteschi, Valentina; Cannavo, Alberto; Montuschi, Paolo

2018-05-01

Software for computer animation is generally characterized by a steep learning curve, due to the entanglement of both sophisticated techniques and interaction methods required to control 3D geometries. This paper proposes a tool designed to support computer animation production processes by leveraging the affordances offered by articulated tangible user interfaces and motion capture retargeting solutions. To this aim, orientations of an instrumented prop are recorded together with animator's motion in the 3D space and used to quickly pose characters in the virtual environment. High-level functionalities of the animation software are made accessible via a speech interface, thus letting the user control the animation pipeline via voice commands while focusing on his or her hands and body motion. The proposed solution exploits both off-the-shelf hardware components (like the Lego Mindstorms EV3 bricks and the Microsoft Kinect, used for building the tangible device and tracking animator's skeleton) and free open-source software (like the Blender animation tool), thus representing an interesting solution also for beginners approaching the world of digital animation for the first time. Experimental results in different usage scenarios show the benefits offered by the designed interaction strategy with respect to a mouse & keyboard-based interface both for expert and non-expert users.

Instrumentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Decreton, M

2001-04-01

SCK-CEN's research and development programme on instrumentation involves the assessment and the development of sensitive measurement systems used within a radiation environment. Particular emphasis is on the assessment of optical fibre components and their adaptability to radiation environments. The evaluation of ageing processes of instrumentation in fission plants, the development of specific data evaluation strategies to compensate for ageing induced degradation of sensors and cable performance form part of these activities. In 2000, particular emphasis was on in-core reactor instrumentation applied to fusion, accelerator driven and water-cooled fission reactors. This involved the development of high performance instrumentation for irradiation experiments in the BR2 reactor in support of new instrumentation needs for MYRRHA, and for diagnostic systems for the ITER reactor.

Instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Decreton, M.

2001-01-01

SCK-CEN's research and development programme on instrumentation involves the assessment and the development of sensitive measurement systems used within a radiation environment. Particular emphasis is on the assessment of optical fibre components and their adaptability to radiation environments. The evaluation of ageing processes of instrumentation in fission plants, the development of specific data evaluation strategies to compensate for ageing induced degradation of sensors and cable performance form part of these activities. In 2000, particular emphasis was on in-core reactor instrumentation applied to fusion, accelerator driven and water-cooled fission reactors. This involved the development of high performance instrumentation for irradiation experiments in the BR2 reactor in support of new instrumentation needs for MYRRHA, and for diagnostic systems for the ITER reactor

The Influence of Prior Knowledge on the Retrieval-Directed Function of Note Taking in Prior Knowledge Activation

Science.gov (United States)

Wetzels, Sandra A. J.; Kester, Liesbeth; van Merrienboer, Jeroen J. G.; Broers, Nick J.

2011-01-01

Background: Prior knowledge activation facilitates learning. Note taking during prior knowledge activation (i.e., note taking directed at retrieving information from memory) might facilitate the activation process by enabling learners to build an external representation of their prior knowledge. However, taking notes might be less effective in…

Skin allografts in lethally irradiated animals repopulated with syngeneic hemopoietic cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwadron, R.B.

1983-01-01

Total body irradiation and repopulation with syngeneic hemopoietic cells can be used to induce tolerance to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) mismatched heart and kidney grafts in rats and mice. However, this protocol does not work for MHC mismatched skin grafts in rats or mice. Furthermore, LEW rats that accept WF cardiac allografts after irradiation and repopulation reject subsequent WF skin grafts. Treatment of skin allograft donors with methotrexate prior to grafting onto irradiated and reconstituted mice resulted in doubling of the mean survival time. Analysis of which antigens provoked skin graft rejection by irradiation and reconstituted animals revealed the importance of I region antigens. Cardiac allograft acceptance by irradiated and reconstituted animals is mediated by suppressor cells found in the spleen. Adoptively tolerant LEW rats accepted WF skin grafts in 50% of grafted animals. Analysis of this phenomenon revealed that the adoptive transfer procedure itself was important in achieving skin allograft acceptance by these animals. In general, it seems that the lack of ability of irradiated and reconstituted animals to accept fully MHC disparate skin grafts results from the inability of these animals to suppress lymph node effector cells against I region antigen seen on highly immunogenic allogeneic Langerhans cells in the skin

Childhood cruelty to animals in China: the relationship with psychological adjustment and family functioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, J; Mellor, D; Richardson, B; Xu, X

2013-09-01

The current study broadened the general scope of research conducted on childhood cruelty to animals by examining the association between psychological adjustment, family functioning and animal cruelty in an Eastern context, China. The mothers and fathers of 729 children attending primary school in Chengdu, China participated in this study. Each parent completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Chinese Family Assessment Instrument, and the Children's Attitudes and Behaviours towards Animals questionnaire. Findings from an actor partner interdependence model demonstrated that parents' ratings of family functioning and of their child's externalizing coping style predicted only modest amounts of variance in animal cruelty. In particular, parents' ratings of their child's externalizing coping style most consistently predicted animal cruelty. Family functioning, fathers' ratings in particular, played a minor role, more so for boys compared with girls. This study provided the first insight into childhood animal cruelty in China, and suggests that further research may enhance our understanding of these phenomena. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Progress in animal experimentation ethics: a case study from a Brazilian medical school and from the international medical literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramalli, Edvaldo Luiz; Ho, Wanli; Alves, Mônica; Rocha, Eduardo Melani

2012-09-01

This study describes in Brazil and in the global biomedical community the time course of the development of animal research welfare guidelines. The database of the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirao Preto (EC/FMRP-USP), Brazil, was surveyed since its inception in 2002 as the regulations became more stringent to provide better protection of animal research welfare at this institution. Medline database was evaluated to identify the number of publications in the period between 1968 and 2008 that used research animals and were in compliance with established ethics guidelines. The EC/FMRP-USP evaluated 979 projects up until 2009. Most of the applications came from Department of Physiology and the most frequently requested species was the rat. In 2004, national research funding agencies started to request prior approval from institutional review ethics committees prior to application review and this requirement became federal law in Brazil in 2008. The analysis of international publications revealed a relative reduction in studies involving research animals (18% in 1968 to 7.5% in 2008). The present work showed that in the last four decades major changes occurred in the guidelines dictating use of research animals occurred and they are being adopted by developing countries. Moreover, animal welfare concern in the scientific community preceded the introduction of journal guidelines for this purpose. Furthermore, in Brazil it was anticipated that laws were needed to protect animal research welfare from being not upheld.

Evaluation of photon-absorptiometry for determination of bone mineral content in experimental animals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krasznai, I.; Szathmary, M.; Horvath, Cs.; Hollo, G.; Fabu, G.

1994-01-01

Instruments commonly used for determination of bone mineral content in human were evaluated for their use in small laboratory animals. By measuring bone phantoms and rat femurs in vitro, authors found 0.015 and 0.034 g/cm sensitivity for (SPA) and (DEXA) methods, respectively. High reproducibility was obtained, with values of relative standard deviations being <2 and approximately 4% for SPA and DEXA, respectively. Both techniques were found suitable for determination of bone mineral content of laboratory animals, but DEXA is suggested as the preferred method for evaluations under in vivo circumstances. (N.T.)

Determining the safety of enzymes used in animal feed.

Science.gov (United States)

Pariza, Michael W; Cook, Mark

2010-04-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance for evaluating the safety of enzyme preparations used in animal feed. Feed enzymes are typically added to animal feed to increase nutrient bioavailability by acting on feed components prior to or after consumption, i.e., within the gastrointestinal tract. In contrast, food processing enzymes are generally used during processing and then inactivated or removed prior to consumption. The enzymes used in both applications are almost always impure mixtures of active enzyme and other metabolites from the production strain, hence similar safety evaluation procedures for both are warranted. We propose that the primary consideration should be the safety of the production strain and that the decision tree mechanism developed previously for food processing enzymes (Pariza and Johnson, 2001) is appropriate for determining the safety of feed enzymes. Thoroughly characterized non-pathogenic, non-toxigenic microbial strains with a history of safe use in enzyme manufacture are also logical candidates for generating safe strain lineages, from which additional strains may be derived via genetic modification by traditional and non-traditional strategies. For new feed enzyme products derived from a safe strain lineage, it is important to ensure a sufficiently high safety margin for the intended use, and that the product complies with appropriate specifications for chemical and microbial contamination. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Varying prior information in Bayesian inversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Walker, Matthew; Curtis, Andrew

2014-01-01

Bayes' rule is used to combine likelihood and prior probability distributions. The former represents knowledge derived from new data, the latter represents pre-existing knowledge; the Bayesian combination is the so-called posterior distribution, representing the resultant new state of knowledge. While varying the likelihood due to differing data observations is common, there are also situations where the prior distribution must be changed or replaced repeatedly. For example, in mixture density neural network (MDN) inversion, using current methods the neural network employed for inversion needs to be retrained every time prior information changes. We develop a method of prior replacement to vary the prior without re-training the network. Thus the efficiency of MDN inversions can be increased, typically by orders of magnitude when applied to geophysical problems. We demonstrate this for the inversion of seismic attributes in a synthetic subsurface geological reservoir model. We also present results which suggest that prior replacement can be used to control the statistical properties (such as variance) of the final estimate of the posterior in more general (e.g., Monte Carlo based) inverse problem solutions. (paper)

Study of the Levels of Human-Human and Human-Animal Empathy in Veterinary Medical Students from Chile.

Science.gov (United States)

Calderón-Amor, Javiera; Luna-Fernández, Daniela; Tadich, Tamara

Social relationships are based on our ability to put ourselves in the place of others, and from there to react appropriately and logically. This empathic ability can be extended to other species, based on the human ability to develop techniques to understand and communicate with animals. In education, the benefits of training professionals with ethical and empathic tools are known. Gender, diet, past experiences, and other factors can modify a person's levels of empathy toward humans and animals, and a relationship exists between both types of empathy. The aims of this study were to investigate some determinants of the level of empathy and to gain insight into the possible correlation between human-animal and human-human empathy. For this, the Animal Empathy Scale and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index by Davis were applied through an electronic survey system to freshmen and final-year students (n=452) from five schools of veterinary medicine in Chile. The correlation between the empathy scores of both instruments and their association with individual factors were studied using Spearman's correlation, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results suggest that both instruments correlate significantly, and that gender, year of study, diet, and area of interest have a significant association with the score for empathy toward animals. This research shows that individual characteristics and changes that occur during veterinary training can affect students' attitudes toward animals.

Behavioural signatures of backward planning in animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Afsardeir, Arsham; Keramati, Mehdi

2018-03-01

Goal-directed planning in behavioural and neural sciences is theorized to involve a prospective mental simulation that, starting from the animal's current state in the environment, expands a decision tree in a forward fashion. Backward planning in the artificial intelligence literature, however, suggests that agents expand a mental tree in a backward fashion starting from a certain goal state they have in mind. Here, we show that several behavioural patterns observed in animals and humans, namely outcome-specific Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer and differential outcome effect, can be parsimoniously explained by backward planning. Our basic assumption is that the presentation of a cue that has been associated with a certain outcome triggers backward planning from that outcome state. On the basis of evidence pointing to forward and backward planning models, we discuss the possibility of brain using a bidirectional planning mechanism where forward and backward trees are expanded in parallel to achieve higher efficiency. © 2018 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Prior Internet Resources 2017

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engerer, Volkmar Paul; Albretsen, Jørgen

2017-01-01

The Prior Internet Resources (PIR) are presented. Prior’s unpublished scientific manuscripts and his wast letter correspondence with fellow researchers at the time, his Nachlass, is now subject to transcription by Prior-researchers worldwide, and form an integral part of PIR. It is demonstrated...

Penalised Complexity Priors for Stationary Autoregressive Processes

KAUST Repository

Sø rbye, Sigrunn Holbek; Rue, Haavard

2017-01-01

The autoregressive (AR) process of order p(AR(p)) is a central model in time series analysis. A Bayesian approach requires the user to define a prior distribution for the coefficients of the AR(p) model. Although it is easy to write down some prior, it is not at all obvious how to understand and interpret the prior distribution, to ensure that it behaves according to the users' prior knowledge. In this article, we approach this problem using the recently developed ideas of penalised complexity (PC) priors. These prior have important properties like robustness and invariance to reparameterisations, as well as a clear interpretation. A PC prior is computed based on specific principles, where model component complexity is penalised in terms of deviation from simple base model formulations. In the AR(1) case, we discuss two natural base model choices, corresponding to either independence in time or no change in time. The latter case is illustrated in a survival model with possible time-dependent frailty. For higher-order processes, we propose a sequential approach, where the base model for AR(p) is the corresponding AR(p-1) model expressed using the partial autocorrelations. The properties of the new prior distribution are compared with the reference prior in a simulation study.

Penalised Complexity Priors for Stationary Autoregressive Processes

KAUST Repository

Sørbye, Sigrunn Holbek

2017-05-25

The autoregressive (AR) process of order p(AR(p)) is a central model in time series analysis. A Bayesian approach requires the user to define a prior distribution for the coefficients of the AR(p) model. Although it is easy to write down some prior, it is not at all obvious how to understand and interpret the prior distribution, to ensure that it behaves according to the users\\' prior knowledge. In this article, we approach this problem using the recently developed ideas of penalised complexity (PC) priors. These prior have important properties like robustness and invariance to reparameterisations, as well as a clear interpretation. A PC prior is computed based on specific principles, where model component complexity is penalised in terms of deviation from simple base model formulations. In the AR(1) case, we discuss two natural base model choices, corresponding to either independence in time or no change in time. The latter case is illustrated in a survival model with possible time-dependent frailty. For higher-order processes, we propose a sequential approach, where the base model for AR(p) is the corresponding AR(p-1) model expressed using the partial autocorrelations. The properties of the new prior distribution are compared with the reference prior in a simulation study.

Understanding animal fears: a comparison of the cognitive vulnerability and harm-looming models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Armfield Jason M

2007-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The Cognitive Vulnerability Model holds that both clinical and sub-clinical manifestations of animal fears are a result of how an animal is perceived, and can be used to explain both individual differences in fear acquisition and the uneven distribution of fears in the population. This study looked at the association between fear of a number of animals and perceptions of the animals as uncontrollable, unpredictable, dangerous and disgusting. Also assessed were the perceived loomingness, prior familiarity, and negative evaluation of the animals as well as possible conditioning experiences. Methods 162 first-year University students rated their fear and perceptions of four high-fear and four low-fear animals. Results Perceptions of the animals as dangerous, disgusting and uncontrollable were significantly associated with fear of both high- and low-fear animals while perceptions of unpredictability were significantly associated with fear of high-fear animals. Conditioning experiences were unrelated to fear of any animals. In multiple regression analyses, loomingness did not account for a significant amount of the variance in fear beyond that accounted for by the cognitive vulnerability variables. However, the vulnerability variables accounted for between 20% and 51% of the variance in all animals fears beyond that accounted for by perceptions of the animals as looming. Perceptions of dangerousness, uncontrollability and unpredictability were highly predictive of the uneven distribution of animal fears. Conclusion This study provides support for the Cognitive Vulnerability Model of the etiology of specific fears and phobias and brings into question the utility of the harm-looming model in explaining animal fear.

Robots that can adapt like animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Cully, Antoine; Clune, Jeff; Tarapore, Danesh; Mouret, Jean-Baptiste

2015-05-28

Robots have transformed many industries, most notably manufacturing, and have the power to deliver tremendous benefits to society, such as in search and rescue, disaster response, health care and transportation. They are also invaluable tools for scientific exploration in environments inaccessible to humans, from distant planets to deep oceans. A major obstacle to their widespread adoption in more complex environments outside factories is their fragility. Whereas animals can quickly adapt to injuries, current robots cannot 'think outside the box' to find a compensatory behaviour when they are damaged: they are limited to their pre-specified self-sensing abilities, can diagnose only anticipated failure modes, and require a pre-programmed contingency plan for every type of potential damage, an impracticality for complex robots. A promising approach to reducing robot fragility involves having robots learn appropriate behaviours in response to damage, but current techniques are slow even with small, constrained search spaces. Here we introduce an intelligent trial-and-error algorithm that allows robots to adapt to damage in less than two minutes in large search spaces without requiring self-diagnosis or pre-specified contingency plans. Before the robot is deployed, it uses a novel technique to create a detailed map of the space of high-performing behaviours. This map represents the robot's prior knowledge about what behaviours it can perform and their value. When the robot is damaged, it uses this prior knowledge to guide a trial-and-error learning algorithm that conducts intelligent experiments to rapidly discover a behaviour that compensates for the damage. Experiments reveal successful adaptations for a legged robot injured in five different ways, including damaged, broken, and missing legs, and for a robotic arm with joints broken in 14 different ways. This new algorithm will enable more robust, effective, autonomous robots, and may shed light on the principles

Rodent stereotaxic surgery and animal welfare outcome improvements for behavioral neuroscience.

Science.gov (United States)

Fornari, Raquel V; Wichmann, Romy; Atsak, Piray; Atucha, Erika; Barsegyan, Areg; Beldjoud, Hassiba; Messanvi, Fany; Thuring, Catriene M A; Roozendaal, Benno

2012-01-30

Stereotaxic surgery for the implantation of cannulae into specific brain regions has for many decades been a very successful experimental technique to investigate the effects of locally manipulated neurotransmitter and signaling pathways in awake, behaving animals. Moreover, the stereotaxic implantation of electrodes for electrophysiological stimulation and recording studies has been instrumental to our current understanding of neuroplasticity and brain networks in behaving animals. Ever-increasing knowledge about optimizing surgical techniques in rodents(1-4), public awareness concerning animal welfare issues and stringent legislation (e.g., the 2010 European Union Directive on the use of laboratory animals(5)) prompted us to refine these surgical procedures, particularly with respect to implementing new procedures for oxygen supplementation and the continuous monitoring of blood oxygenation and heart rate levels during the surgery as well as introducing a standardized protocol for post-surgical care. Our observations indicate that these modifications resulted in an increased survival rate and an improvement in the general condition of the animals after surgery (e.g. less weight loss and a more active animal). This video presentation will show the general procedures involved in this type of stereotaxic surgery with special attention to our several modifications. We will illustrate these surgical procedures in rats, but it is also possible to perform this type of surgery in mice or other small laboratory animals by using special adaptors for the stereotaxic apparatus(6).

Process instrument monitoring for SNM solution surveillance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Armatys, C.M.; Johnson, C.E.; Wagner, E.P.

1983-02-01

A process monitoring computer system at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP) is being used to evaluate nuclear fuel reprocessing plant data for Safeguards surveillance capabilities. The computer system was installed to collect data from the existing plant instruments and to evaluate what safeguards assurances can be provided to complement conventional accountability and physical protection measures. Movements of solutions containing special nuclear material (SNM) can be observed, activities associated with accountancy measurements (mixing, sampling, and bulk measurement) can be confirmed, and long-term storage of SNM solutions can be monitored to ensure containment. Special precautions must be taken, both in system design and operation to ensure adequate coverage of essential measured parameters and interpretation of process data, which can be comprised by instrument malfunctions or failures, unreliable data collection, or process activities that deviate from readily identified procedures. Experience at ICPP and prior evaluations at the Tokai reprocessing plant show that the use of process data can provide assurances that accountability measurement procedures are followed and SNM solutions are properly contained and can help confirm that SNM controls are in effect within a facility

Seroepidemiological Studies of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus in Domestic and Wild Animals.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jessica R Spengler

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF is a widely distributed, tick-borne viral disease. Humans are the only species known to develop illness after CCHF virus (CCHFV infection, characterized by a nonspecific febrile illness that can progress to severe, often fatal, hemorrhagic disease. A variety of animals may serve as asymptomatic reservoirs of CCHFV in an endemic cycle of transmission. Seroepidemiological studies have been instrumental in elucidating CCHFV reservoirs and in determining endemic foci of viral transmission. Herein, we review over 50 years of CCHFV seroepidemiological studies in domestic and wild animals. This review highlights the role of livestock in the maintenance and transmission of CCHFV, and provides a detailed summary of seroepidemiological studies of wild animal species, reflecting their relative roles in CCHFV ecology.

Generalized Bayesian inference with sets of conjugate priors for dealing with prior-data conflict : course at Lund University

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Walter, G.

2015-01-01

In the Bayesian approach to statistical inference, possibly subjective knowledge on model parameters can be expressed by so-called prior distributions. A prior distribution is updated, via Bayes’ Rule, to the so-called posterior distribution, which combines prior information and information from

The Importance of Prior Knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Cleary, Linda Miller

1989-01-01

Recounts a college English teacher's experience of reading and rereading Noam Chomsky, building up a greater store of prior knowledge. Argues that Frank Smith provides a theory for the importance of prior knowledge and Chomsky's work provided a personal example with which to interpret and integrate that theory. (RS)

Living Animals in the Classroom: A Meta-Analysis on Learning Outcome and a Treatment-Control Study Focusing on Knowledge and Motivation

Science.gov (United States)

Hummel, Eberhard; Randler, Christoph

2012-01-01

Prior research states that the use of living animals in the classroom leads to a higher knowledge but those previous studies have methodological and statistical problems. We applied a meta-analysis and developed a treatment-control study in a middle school classroom. The treatments (film vs. living animal) differed only by the presence of the…

Radioisotope instruments

CERN Document Server

Cameron, J F; Silverleaf, D J

1971-01-01

International Series of Monographs in Nuclear Energy, Volume 107: Radioisotope Instruments, Part 1 focuses on the design and applications of instruments based on the radiation released by radioactive substances. The book first offers information on the physical basis of radioisotope instruments; technical and economic advantages of radioisotope instruments; and radiation hazard. The manuscript then discusses commercial radioisotope instruments, including radiation sources and detectors, computing and control units, and measuring heads. The text describes the applications of radioisotop

Medial prefrontal cortex involvement in the expression of extinction and ABA renewal of instrumental behavior for a food reinforcer.

Science.gov (United States)

Eddy, Meghan C; Todd, Travis P; Bouton, Mark E; Green, John T

2016-02-01

Instrumental renewal, the return of extinguished instrumental responding after removal from the extinction context, is an important model of behavioral relapse that is poorly understood at the neural level. In two experiments, we examined the role of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in extinction and ABA renewal of instrumental responding for a sucrose reinforcer. Previous work, exclusively using drug reinforcers, has suggested that the roles of the dmPFC and vmPFC in expression of extinction and ABA renewal may depend at least in part on the type of drug reinforcer used. The current experiments used a food reinforcer because the behavioral mechanisms underlying the extinction and renewal of instrumental responding are especially well worked out in this paradigm. After instrumental conditioning in context A and extinction in context B, we inactivated dmPFC, vmPFC, or a more ventral medial prefrontal cortex region by infusing baclofen/muscimol (B/M) just prior to testing in both contexts. In rats with inactivated dmPFC, ABA renewal was still present (i.e., responding increased when returned to context A); however responding was lower (less renewal) than controls. Inactivation of vmPFC increased responding in context B (the extinction context) and decreased responding in context A, indicating no renewal in these animals. There was no effect of B/M infusion on rats with cannula placements ventral to the vmPFC. Fluorophore-conjugated muscimol was infused in a subset of rats following test to visualize infusion spread. Imaging suggested that the infusion spread was minimal and mainly constrained to the targeted area. Together, these experiments suggest that there is a region of medial prefrontal cortex encompassing both dmPFC and vmPFC that is important for ABA renewal of extinguished instrumental responding for a food reinforcer. In addition, vmPFC, but not dmPFC, is important for expression of extinction of

[Animal experimentation, animal welfare and scientific research].

Science.gov (United States)

Tal, H

2013-10-01

Hundreds of thousands of laboratory animals are being used every year for scientific experiments held in Israel, mostly mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and a few sheep, cattle, pigs, cats, dogs, and even a few dozen monkeys. In addition to the animals sacrificed to promote scientific research, millions of animals slain every year for other purposes such as meat and fine leather fashion industries. While opening a front against all is an impossible and perhaps an unjustified task, the state of Israel enacted the Animal Welfare (Animal Experimentation) Law (1994). The law aims to regulate scientific animal experiments and to find the appropriate balance between the need to continue to perform animal experiments for the advancement of research and medicine, and at the same time to avoid unnecessary trials and minimize animal suffering. Among other issues the law deals with the phylogenetic scale according to which experimental animals should be selected, experiments for teaching and practicing, and experiments for the cosmetic industry. This article discusses bioethics considerations in animal experiments as well as the criticism on the scientific validity of such experiments. It further deals with the vitality of animal studies and the moral and legal obligation to prevent suffering from laboratory animals.

Instrument Remote Control via the Astronomical Instrument Markup Language

Science.gov (United States)

Sall, Ken; Ames, Troy; Warsaw, Craig; Koons, Lisa; Shafer, Richard

1998-01-01

The Instrument Remote Control (IRC) project ongoing at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC) Information Systems Center (ISC) supports NASA's mission by defining an adaptive intranet-based framework that provides robust interactive and distributed control and monitoring of remote instruments. An astronomical IRC architecture that combines the platform-independent processing capabilities of Java with the power of Extensible Markup Language (XML) to express hierarchical data in an equally platform-independent, as well as human readable manner, has been developed. This architecture is implemented using a variety of XML support tools and Application Programming Interfaces (API) written in Java. IRC will enable trusted astronomers from around the world to easily access infrared instruments (e.g., telescopes, cameras, and spectrometers) located in remote, inhospitable environments, such as the South Pole, a high Chilean mountaintop, or an airborne observatory aboard a Boeing 747. Using IRC's frameworks, an astronomer or other scientist can easily define the type of onboard instrument, control the instrument remotely, and return monitoring data all through the intranet. The Astronomical Instrument Markup Language (AIML) is the first implementation of the more general Instrument Markup Language (IML). The key aspects of our approach to instrument description and control applies to many domains, from medical instruments to machine assembly lines. The concepts behind AIML apply equally well to the description and control of instruments in general. IRC enables us to apply our techniques to several instruments, preferably from different observatories.

Savings for visuomotor adaptation require prior history of error, not prior repetition of successful actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Leow, Li-Ann; de Rugy, Aymar; Marinovic, Welber; Riek, Stephan; Carroll, Timothy J

2016-10-01

When we move, perturbations to our body or the environment can elicit discrepancies between predicted and actual outcomes. We readily adapt movements to compensate for such discrepancies, and the retention of this learning is evident as savings, or faster readaptation to a previously encountered perturbation. The mechanistic processes contributing to savings, or even the necessary conditions for savings, are not fully understood. One theory suggests that savings requires increased sensitivity to previously experienced errors: when perturbations evoke a sequence of correlated errors, we increase our sensitivity to the errors experienced, which subsequently improves error correction (Herzfeld et al. 2014). An alternative theory suggests that a memory of actions is necessary for savings: when an action becomes associated with successful target acquisition through repetition, that action is more rapidly retrieved at subsequent learning (Huang et al. 2011). In the present study, to better understand the necessary conditions for savings, we tested how savings is affected by prior experience of similar errors and prior repetition of the action required to eliminate errors using a factorial design. Prior experience of errors induced by a visuomotor rotation in the savings block was either prevented at initial learning by gradually removing an oppositely signed perturbation or enforced by abruptly removing the perturbation. Prior repetition of the action required to eliminate errors in the savings block was either deprived or enforced by manipulating target location in preceding trials. The data suggest that prior experience of errors is both necessary and sufficient for savings, whereas prior repetition of a successful action is neither necessary nor sufficient for savings. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Dehumanization increases instrumental violence, but not moral violence

Science.gov (United States)

Rai, Tage S.; Valdesolo, Piercarlo; Graham, Jesse

2017-01-01

Across five experiments, we show that dehumanization—the act of perceiving victims as not completely human—increases instrumental, but not moral, violence. In attitude surveys, ascribing reduced capacities for cognitive, experiential, and emotional states to victims predicted support for practices where victims are harmed to achieve instrumental goals, including sweatshop labor, animal experimentation, and drone strikes that result in civilian casualties, but not practices where harm is perceived as morally righteous, including capital punishment, killing in war, and drone strikes that kill terrorists. In vignette experiments, using dehumanizing compared with humanizing language increased participants’ willingness to harm strangers for money, but not participants’ willingness to harm strangers for their immoral behavior. Participants also spontaneously dehumanized strangers when they imagined harming them for money, but not when they imagined harming them for their immoral behavior. Finally, participants humanized strangers who were low in humanity if they imagined harming them for immoral behavior, but not money, suggesting that morally motivated perpetrators may humanize victims to justify violence against them. Our findings indicate that dehumanization enables violence that perpetrators see as unethical, but instrumentally beneficial. In contrast, dehumanization does not contribute to moral violence because morally motivated perpetrators wish to harm complete human beings who are capable of deserving blame, experiencing suffering, and understanding its meaning. PMID:28739935

Dehumanization increases instrumental violence, but not moral violence.

Science.gov (United States)

Rai, Tage S; Valdesolo, Piercarlo; Graham, Jesse

2017-08-08

Across five experiments, we show that dehumanization-the act of perceiving victims as not completely human-increases instrumental, but not moral, violence. In attitude surveys, ascribing reduced capacities for cognitive, experiential, and emotional states to victims predicted support for practices where victims are harmed to achieve instrumental goals, including sweatshop labor, animal experimentation, and drone strikes that result in civilian casualties, but not practices where harm is perceived as morally righteous, including capital punishment, killing in war, and drone strikes that kill terrorists. In vignette experiments, using dehumanizing compared with humanizing language increased participants' willingness to harm strangers for money, but not participants' willingness to harm strangers for their immoral behavior. Participants also spontaneously dehumanized strangers when they imagined harming them for money, but not when they imagined harming them for their immoral behavior. Finally, participants humanized strangers who were low in humanity if they imagined harming them for immoral behavior, but not money, suggesting that morally motivated perpetrators may humanize victims to justify violence against them. Our findings indicate that dehumanization enables violence that perpetrators see as unethical, but instrumentally beneficial. In contrast, dehumanization does not contribute to moral violence because morally motivated perpetrators wish to harm complete human beings who are capable of deserving blame, experiencing suffering, and understanding its meaning.

OBT analysis method using polyethylene beads for limited quantities of animal tissue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, S.B.; Stuart, M.

2015-01-01

This study presents a polyethylene beads method for OBT determination in animal tissues and animal products for cases where the amount of water recovered by combustion is limited by sample size or quantity. In the method, the amount of water recovered after combustion is enhanced by adding tritium-free polyethylene beads to the sample prior to combustion in an oxygen bomb. The method reduces process time by allowing the combustion water to be easily collected with a pipette. Sufficient water recovery was achieved using the polyethylene beads method when 2 g of dry animal tissue or animal product were combusted with 2 g of polyethylene beads. Correction factors, which account for the dilution due to the combustion water of the beads, are provided for beef, chicken, pork, fish and clams, as well as egg, milk and cheese. The method was tested by comparing its OBT results with those of the conventional method using animal samples collected on the Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) site. The results determined that the polyethylene beads method added no more than 25% uncertainty when appropriate correction factors are used. - Highlights: • Polyethylene beads method for OBT determination in animal tissues and animal products were determined. • The method reduces process time. • The polyethylene beads method added no more than 25% uncertainty when appropriate correction factors are used

Divergent Priors and well Behaved Bayes Factors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

R.W. Strachan (Rodney); H.K. van Dijk (Herman)

2011-01-01

textabstractDivergent priors are improper when defined on unbounded supports. Bartlett's paradox has been taken to imply that using improper priors results in ill-defined Bayes factors, preventing model comparison by posterior probabilities. However many improper priors have attractive properties

Instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Umminger, K.

2008-01-01

A proper measurement of the relevant single and two-phase flow parameters is the basis for the understanding of many complex thermal-hydraulic processes. Reliable instrumentation is therefore necessary for the interaction between analysis and experiment especially in the field of nuclear safety research where postulated accident scenarios have to be simulated in experimental facilities and predicted by complex computer code systems. The so-called conventional instrumentation for the measurement of e. g. pressures, temperatures, pressure differences and single phase flow velocities is still a solid basis for the investigation and interpretation of many phenomena and especially for the understanding of the overall system behavior. Measurement data from such instrumentation still serves in many cases as a database for thermal-hydraulic system codes. However some special instrumentation such as online concentration measurement for boric acid in the water phase or for non-condensibles in steam atmosphere as well as flow visualization techniques were further developed and successfully applied during the recent years. Concerning the modeling needs for advanced thermal-hydraulic codes, significant advances have been accomplished in the last few years in the local instrumentation technology for two-phase flow by the application of new sensor techniques, optical or beam methods and electronic technology. This paper will give insight into the current state of instrumentation technology for safety-related thermohydraulic experiments. Advantages and limitations of some measurement processes and systems will be indicated as well as trends and possibilities for further development. Aspects of instrumentation in operating reactors will also be mentioned.

Earth Observing System (EOS) Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A): Instrumentation interface control document

Science.gov (United States)

1994-01-01

This Interface Control Document (ICD) defines the specific details of the complete accomodation information between the Earth Observing System (EOS) PM Spacecraft and the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A)Instrument. This is the first submittal of the ICN: it will be updated periodically throughout the life of the program. The next update is planned prior to Critical Design Review (CDR).

Towards a better preclinical model of PTSD: characterizing animals with weak extinction, maladaptive stress responses and low plasma corticosterone.

Science.gov (United States)

Reznikov, Roman; Diwan, Mustansir; Nobrega, José N; Hamani, Clement

2015-02-01

Most of the available preclinical models of PTSD have focused on isolated behavioural aspects and have not considered individual variations in response to stress. We employed behavioural criteria to identify and characterize a subpopulation of rats that present several features analogous to PTSD-like states after exposure to classical fear conditioning. Outbred Sprague-Dawley rats were segregated into weak- and strong-extinction groups on the basis of behavioural scores during extinction of conditioned fear responses. Animals were subsequently tested for anxiety-like behaviour in the open-field test (OFT), novelty suppressed feeding (NSF) and elevated plus maze (EPM). Baseline plasma corticosterone was measured prior to any behavioural manipulation. In a second experiment, rats underwent OFT, NSF and EPM prior to being subjected to fear conditioning to ascertain whether or not pre-stress levels of anxiety-like behaviours could predict extinction scores. We found that 25% of rats exhibit low extinction rates of conditioned fear, a feature that was associated with increased anxiety-like behaviour across multiple tests in comparison to rats showing strong extinction. In addition, weak-extinction animals showed low levels of corticosterone prior to fear conditioning, a variable that seemed to predict extinction recall scores. In a separate experiment, anxiety measures taken prior to fear conditioning were not predictive of a weak-extinction phenotype, suggesting that weak-extinction animals do not show detectable traits of anxiety in the absence of a stressful experience. These findings suggest that extinction impairment may be used to identify stress-vulnerable rats, thus providing a useful model for elucidating mechanisms and investigating potential treatments for PTSD. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The wild animal as a research animal

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Swart, JAA

2004-01-01

Most discussions on animal experimentation refer to domesticated animals and regulations are tailored to this class of animals. However, wild animals are also used for research, e. g., in biological field research that is often directed to fundamental ecological-evolutionary questions or to

Regression of an atlantoaxial rheumatoid pannus following posterior instrumented fusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Bydon, Mohamad; Macki, Mohamed; Qadi, Mohamud; De la Garza-Ramos, Rafael; Kosztowski, Thomas A; Sciubba, Daniel M; Wolinsky, Jean-Paul; Witham, Timothy F; Gokaslan, Ziya L; Bydon, Ali

2015-10-01

Rheumatoid patients may develop a retrodental lesion (atlantoaxial rheumatoid pannus) that may cause cervical instability and/or neurological compromise. The objective is to characterize clinical and radiographic outcomes after posterior instrumented fusion for atlantoaxial rheumatoid pannus. We retrospectively reviewed all patients who underwent posterior fusions for an atlantoaxial rheumatoid pannus at a single institution. Both preoperative and postoperative imaging was available for all patients. Anterior or circumferential operations, non-atlantoaxial panni, or prior C1-C2 operations were excluded. Primary outcome measures included Nurick score, Ranawat score (neurologic status in patients with rheumatoid arthritis), pannus regression, and reoperation. Pannus volume was determined with axial and sagittal views on both preoperative and postoperative radiological images. Thirty patients surgically managed for an atlantoaxial rheumatoid pannus were followed for a mean of 24.43 months. Nine patients underwent posterior instrumented fusion alone, while 21 patients underwent posterior decompression and instrumented fusion. Following a posterior instrumented fusion in all 30 patients, the pannus statistically significantly regressed by 44.44%, from a mean volume of 1.26cm(3) to 0.70cm(3) (ppannus radiographically regressed by 44.44% over a mean of 8.02 months, and patients clinically improved per the Nurick score. The Ranawat score did not improve, and 20% of patients required reoperation over a mean of 13.18 months. The annualized reoperation rate was approximately 13.62%. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Instrumental interaction

OpenAIRE

Luciani , Annie

2007-01-01

International audience; The expression instrumental interaction as been introduced by Claude Cadoz to identify a human-object interaction during which a human manipulates a physical object - an instrument - in order to perform a manual task. Classical examples of instrumental interaction are all the professional manual tasks: playing violin, cutting fabrics by hand, moulding a paste, etc.... Instrumental interaction differs from other types of interaction (called symbolic or iconic interactio...

Animal rights and animal experimentation. Implications for physicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Gelpi, A. P.

1991-01-01

Practicing physicians are just becoming aware of the animal rights movement, which during the 1980s spawned numerous acts of violence against research facilities throughout the United States. The animal rightists are challenging physicians to show moral justification for the human exploitation of nature and the world of subhuman species. They have aroused public interest in animal welfare, sparked protective legislation for experimental animals, and indirectly encouraged the creation of committees to oversee the conduct of animal experimentation and the conditions of animal confinement. This controversy has necessitated a closer look at the questions of animal experimentation and animal rights against the backdrop of human experimentation and human rights. Physicians and specialists in animal care seek to alleviate suffering and anxiety, and, as moderates, they may be able to bring both sides of the animal rights controversy together in a spirit of mutual tolerance and in the common cause of promoting both human and animal welfare. PMID:1949772

Preferential attention to animals and people is independent of the amygdala

Science.gov (United States)

Tsuchiya, Naotsugu; New, Joshua; Hurlemann, Rene; Adolphs, Ralph

2015-01-01

The amygdala is thought to play a critical role in detecting salient stimuli. Several studies have taken ecological approaches to investigating such saliency, and argue for domain-specific effects for processing certain natural stimulus categories, in particular faces and animals. Linking this to the amygdala, neurons in the human amygdala have been found to respond strongly to faces and also to animals. However, the amygdala’s necessary role for such category-specific effects at the behavioral level remains untested. Here we tested four rare patients with bilateral amygdala lesions on an established change-detection protocol. Consistent with prior published studies, healthy controls showed reliably faster and more accurate detection of people and animals, as compared with artifacts and plants. So did all four amygdala patients: there were no differences in phenomenal change blindness, in behavioral reaction time to detect changes or in eye-tracking measures. The findings provide decisive evidence against a critical participation of the amygdala in rapid initial processing of attention to animate stimuli, suggesting that the necessary neural substrates for this phenomenon arise either in other subcortical structures (such as the pulvinar) or within the cortex itself. PMID:24795434

Cervical shaping in curved root canals: comparison of the efficiency of two endodontic instruments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Busquim Sandra Soares Kühne

2002-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to determine the removal of dentin produced by number 25 (0.08 Flare files (Quantec Flare Series, Analytic Endodontics, Glendora, California, USA and number 1 e 2 Gates-Glidden burs (Dentsply - Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland, in the mesio-buccal and mesio-lingual root canals, respectively, of extracted human permanent inferior molars, by means of measuring the width of dentinal walls prior and after instrumentation. The obtained values were compared. Due to the multiple analyses of data, a nonparametric test was used, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was chosen. There was no significant difference between the instruments as to the removal of dentin in the 1st and 2nd millimeters. However, when comparing the performances of the instruments in the 3rd millimeter, Flare files promoted a greater removal than Gates-Glidden drills (p > 0.05. The analysis revealed no significant differences as to mesial wear, which demonstrates the similar behavior of both instruments. Gates-Glidden drills produced an expressive mesial detour in the 2nd and 3rd millimeters, which was detected trough a statistically significant difference in the wear of this region (p > 0.05. There was no statistically significant difference between mesial and lateral wear when Flare instruments were employed.

Cervical shaping in curved root canals: comparison of the efficiency of two endodontic instruments.

Science.gov (United States)

Busquim, Sandra Soares Kühne; dos Santos, Marcelo

2002-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine the removal of dentin produced by number 25 (0.08) Flare files (Quantec Flare Series, Analytic Endodontics, Glendora, California, USA) and number 1 e 2 Gates-Glidden burs (Dentsply - Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland), in the mesio-buccal and mesio-lingual root canals, respectively, of extracted human permanent inferior molars, by means of measuring the width of dentinal walls prior and after instrumentation. The obtained values were compared. Due to the multiple analyses of data, a nonparametric test was used, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was chosen. There was no significant difference between the instruments as to the removal of dentin in the 1st and 2nd millimeters. However, when comparing the performances of the instruments in the 3rd millimeter, Flare files promoted a greater removal than Gates-Glidden drills (p > 0.05). The analysis revealed no significant differences as to mesial wear, which demonstrates the similar behavior of both instruments. Gates-Glidden drills produced an expressive mesial detour in the 2nd and 3rd millimeters, which was detected trough a statistically significant difference in the wear of this region (p > 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between mesial and lateral wear when Flare instruments were employed.

Instrumentation development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ubbes, W.F.; Yow, J.L. Jr.

1988-01-01

Instrumentation is developed for the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program to meet several different (and sometimes conflicting) objectives. This paper addresses instrumentation development for data needs that are related either directly or indirectly to a repository site, but does not touch on instrumentation for work with waste forms or other materials. Consequently, this implies a relatively large scale for the measurements, and an in situ setting for instrument performance. In this context, instruments are needed for site characterization to define phenomena, develop models, and obtain parameter values, and for later design and performance confirmation testing in the constructed repository. The former set of applications is more immediate, and is driven by the needs of program design and performance assessment activities. A host of general technical and nontechnical issues have arisen to challenge instrumentation development. Instruments can be classed into geomechanical, geohydrologic, or other specialty categories, but these issues cut across artificial classifications. These issues are outlined. Despite this imposing list of issues, several case histories are cited to evaluate progress in the area

Instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Decreton, M.

2002-01-01

SCK-CEN's R and D programme on instrumentation involves the development of advanced instrumentation systems for nuclear applications as well as the assessment of the performance of these instruments in a radiation environment. Particular emphasis is on the use of optical fibres as umbilincal links of a remote handling unit for use during maintanance of a fusion reacor, studies on the radiation hardening of plasma diagnostic systems; investigations on new instrumentation for the future MYRRHA accelerator driven system; space applications related to radiation-hardened lenses; the development of new approaches for dose, temperature and strain measurements; the assessment of radiation-hardened sensors and motors for remote handling tasks and studies of dose measurement systems including the use of optical fibres. Progress and achievements in these areas for 2001 are described

Instrumentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Decreton, M

2002-04-01

SCK-CEN's R and D programme on instrumentation involves the development of advanced instrumentation systems for nuclear applications as well as the assessment of the performance of these instruments in a radiation environment. Particular emphasis is on the use of optical fibres as umbilincal links of a remote handling unit for use during maintanance of a fusion reacor, studies on the radiation hardening of plasma diagnostic systems; investigations on new instrumentation for the future MYRRHA accelerator driven system; space applications related to radiation-hardened lenses; the development of new approaches for dose, temperature and strain measurements; the assessment of radiation-hardened sensors and motors for remote handling tasks and studies of dose measurement systems including the use of optical fibres. Progress and achievements in these areas for 2001 are described.

Public morals in private hands? : a study into the evolving path of farm animal welfare governance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Toschi Maciel, C.

2015-01-01

Executive summary

The advancement of regulatory instruments providing for farm animal welfare measures has been marked by various political and regulatory constraints in both domestic and international settings.In an attempt to overcome some of these constraints, a number of

Implementation of an ultrasonic instrument for simultaneous mixture and flow analysis of binary gas systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alhroob, M.; Boyd, G.; Hasib, A.; Pearson, B.; Srauss, M.; Young, J. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, (United States); Bates, R.; Bitadze, A. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ, (United Kingdom); Battistin, M.; Berry, S.; Bonneau, P.; Botelho-Direito, J.; Bozza, G.; Crespo-Lopez, O.; DiGirolamo, B.; Favre, G.; Godlewski, J.; Lombard, D.; Zwalinski, L. [CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, (Switzerland); Bousson, N.; Hallewell, G.; Mathieu, M.; Rozanov, A. [Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille, 163 Avenue de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, (France); Deterre, C.; O' Rourke, A. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Notkestrasse 85, D-22607 Hamburg, (Germany); Doubek, M.; Vacek, V. [Czech Technical University, Technick 4, 166 07 Prague 6, (Czech Republic); Degeorge, C. [Physics Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, (United States); Katunin, S. [B.P. Konstantinov Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI), 188300 St. Petersburg, (Russian Federation); Langevin, N. [Institut Universitaire de Technologie of Marseille, University of Aix-Marseille, 142 Traverse Charles Susini, 13013 Marseille, (France); McMahon, S. [Rutherford Appleton Laboratory - Science and Technology Facilities Council, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot OX11 OQX, (United Kingdom); Nagai, K. [Department of Physics, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3RH, (United Kingdom); Robinson, D. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Cambridge, (United Kingdom); Rossi, C. [INFN - Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, (Italy)

2015-07-01

Precision ultrasonic measurements in binary gas systems provide continuous real-time monitoring of mixture composition and flow. Using custom micro-controller-based electronics, we have developed an ultrasonic instrument, with numerous potential applications, capable of making continuous high-precision sound velocity measurements. The instrument measures sound transit times along two opposite directions aligned parallel to - or obliquely crossing - the gas flow. The difference between the two measured times yields the gas flow rate while their average gives the sound velocity, which can be compared with a sound velocity vs. molar composition look-up table for the binary mixture at a given temperature and pressure. The look-up table may be generated from prior measurements in known mixtures of the two components, from theoretical calculations, or from a combination of the two. We describe the instrument and its performance within numerous applications in the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The instrument can be of interest in other areas where continuous in-situ binary gas analysis and flowmetry are required. (authors)

Integrating animal health and food safety surveillance data from slaughterhouse control.

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, J A; Silva, P

2013-08-01

Surveillance at the slaughterhouse level for animal health and food safety purposes encompasses examination for the presence of pathology, pathogens, drug residues, chemical contaminants and antimicrobial resistance. Government, industry and academia are the primary proponents of such surveillance. A variety of policies and policy instruments from voluntary to legislative may be applied to promote or obligate participation. Efforts to integrate data across such diverse organisations encounter significant legal, logistical and financial challenges. Enhancement of policies to encourage effective integration of animal health and food safety surveillance data from slaughterhouse control should promote: a long-term approach; collaboration among government, industry and academia; application of a risk-based scheme; and transparent public access to data, with generation of consumer-oriented communications derived from the data. A strong case can be made that the complementary pursuit of both sustainable animal health and food safety can continue to be aided by surveillance at the slaughterhouse level.

Unraveling the disease consequences and mechanisms of modular structure in animal social networks

Science.gov (United States)

Sah, Pratha; Leu, Stephan T.; Cross, Paul C.; Hudson, Peter J.; Bansal, Shweta

2017-01-01

Disease risk is a potential cost of group living. Although modular organization is thought to reduce this cost in animal societies, empirical evidence toward this hypothesis has been conflicting. We analyzed empirical social networks from 43 animal species to motivate our study of the epidemiological consequences of modular structure in animal societies. From these empirical studies, we identified the features of interaction patterns associated with network modularity and developed a theoretical network model to investigate when and how subdivisions in social networks influence disease dynamics. Contrary to prior work, we found that disease risk is largely unaffected by modular structure, although social networks beyond a modular threshold experience smaller disease burden and longer disease duration. Our results illustrate that the lowering of disease burden in highly modular social networks is driven by two mechanisms of modular organization: network fragmentation and subgroup cohesion. Highly fragmented social networks with cohesive subgroups are able to structurally trap infections within a few subgroups and also cause a structural delay to the spread of disease outbreaks. Finally, we show that network models incorporating modular structure are necessary only when prior knowledge suggests that interactions within the population are highly subdivided. Otherwise, null networks based on basic knowledge about group size and local contact heterogeneity may be sufficient when data-limited estimates of epidemic consequences are necessary. Overall, our work does not support the hypothesis that modular structure universally mitigates the disease impact of group living.

A systematic review of instruments to assess organizational readiness for knowledge translation in health care.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-Pierre Gagnon

Full Text Available The translation of research into practices has been incomplete. Organizational readiness for change (ORC is a potential facilitator of effective knowledge translation (KT. However we know little about the best way to assess ORC. Therefore, we sought to systematically review ORC measurement instruments.We searched for published studies in bibliographic databases (Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Web of Science, etc. up to November 1st, 2012. We included publications that developed ORC measures and/or empirically assessed ORC using an instrument at the organizational level in the health care context. We excluded articles if they did not refer specifically to ORC, did not concern the health care domain or were limited to individual-level change readiness. We focused on identifying the psychometric properties of instruments that were developed to assess readiness in an organization prior to implementing KT interventions in health care. We used the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing to assess the psychometric properties of identified ORC measurement instruments.We found 26 eligible instruments described in 39 publications. According to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, 18 (69% of a total of 26 measurement instruments presented both validity and reliability criteria. The Texas Christian University -ORC (TCU-ORC scale reported the highest instrument validity with a score of 4 out of 4. Only one instrument, namely the Modified Texas Christian University - Director version (TCU-ORC-D, reported a reliability score of 2 out of 3. No information was provided regarding the reliability and validity of five (19% instruments.Our findings indicate that there are few valid and reliable ORC measurement instruments that could be applied to KT in the health care sector. The TCU-ORC instrument presents the best evidence in terms of validity testing. Future studies using this instrument could provide more knowledge on its

The cross-cultural equivalence of participation instruments: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevelink, S A M; van Brakel, W H

2013-07-01

be used to ensure comprehensive reporting of the validation (equivalence) testing process and its results. • Participation instruments are often used in a different cultural setting than initial developed for. • The conceptualization of participation may vary across cultures. Therefore, cultural equivalence – the extent to which an instrument is equally suitable for use in two or more cultures – is an important concept to address. • This review showed that the process of cultural equivalence testing of the included participation instruments was often addressed insufficiently. • Clinicians should be aware that application of participations instruments in a different culture than initially developed for needs prior testing of cultural validity in the next context.

ADVANCES IN ANIMAL WELFARE FOR FREE-LIVING ANIMALS.

Science.gov (United States)

2016-04-01

Over several decades, animal welfare has grown into its own free-standing field of scientific study, from its early beginnings in laboratory animal research to eventually include exhibited animals and farm animals. While it has always been present to some degree, consideration of animal welfare for free-ranging animals has lagged behind, developing as a field of study in the last 20 yr or so. Part of that increase was that animal welfare legislation was finally applied to studies being done on free-ranging animals. But it is the appreciation by the biologists and veterinarians working on wild animals, in which the quality of their results is largely controlled by the quality of the animals they use in their studies, which has resulted in increased attention to the well-being or welfare of the animals that they use. Other important influences driving the recognition of wildlife welfare have been changes in the public's expectations of how wild animals are dealt with, a shift in focus of wildlife professionals from managing animals that can be hunted or angled to include nongame species, the decrease in participation in hunting and fishing by members of the public, and the entry of large numbers of women into fish and wildlife agencies and departments and into veterinary medicine. Technical improvements have allowed the safe capture and handling of large or dangerous animals as immobilization drugs and equipment have been developed. The increasing use of sedating drugs allows for handling of animals with reduced stress and other impacts. A number of topics, such as toe-clipping, branding, defining which taxa can or cannot feel pain, catch-and-release fishing, and more, remain controversial within wildlife science. How we treat the wild animals that we deal with defines who we are as wildlife professionals, and animal welfare concerns and techniques for free-ranging animals will continue to develop and evolve.

Multi-modality image reconstruction for dual-head small-animal PET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Chang-Han; Chou, Cheng-Ying

2015-01-01

The hybrid positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) or positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) has become routine practice in clinics. The applications of multi-modality imaging can also benefit research advances. Consequently, dedicated small-imaging system like dual-head small-animal PET (DHAPET) that possesses the advantages of high detection sensitivity and high resolution can exploit the structural information from CT or MRI. It should be noted that the special detector arrangement in DHAPET leads to severe data truncation, thereby degrading the image quality. We proposed to take advantage of anatomical priors and total variation (TV) minimization methods to reconstruct PET activity distribution form incomplete measurement data. The objective is to solve the penalized least-squares function consisted of data fidelity term, TV norm and medium root priors. In this work, we employed the splitting-based fast iterative shrinkage/thresholding algorithm to split smooth and non-smooth functions in the convex optimization problems. Our simulations studies validated that the images reconstructed by use of the proposed method can outperform those obtained by use of conventional expectation maximization algorithms or that without considering the anatomical prior information. Additionally, the convergence rate is also accelerated.

Prior knowledge in recalling arguments in bioethical dilemmas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiemke Katharina Schmidt

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Prior knowledge is known to facilitate learning new information. Normally in studies confirming this outcome the relationship between prior knowledge and the topic to be learned is obvious: the information to be acquired is part of the domain or topic to which the prior knowledge belongs. This raises the question as to whether prior knowledge of various domains facilitates recalling information. In this study 79 eleventh-grade students completed a questionnaire on their prior knowledge of seven different domains related to the bioethical dilemma of prenatal diagnostics. The students read a text containing arguments for and arguments against prenatal diagnostics. After one week and again 12 weeks later they were asked to write down all the arguments they remembered. Prior knowledge helped them recall the arguments one week (r = .350 and 12 weeks (r = .316 later. Prior knowledge of three of the seven domains significantly helped them recall the arguments one week later (correlations between r = .194 to r = .394. Partial correlations with interest as a control item revealed that interest did not explain the relationship between prior knowledge and recall. Prior knowledge of different domains jointly supports the recall of arguments related to bioethical topics.

Phylogenetic detection of numerous gene duplications shared by animals, fungi and plants

OpenAIRE

Zhou, Xiaofan; Lin, Zhenguo; Ma, Hong

2010-01-01

Background Gene duplication is considered a major driving force for evolution of genetic novelty, thereby facilitating functional divergence and organismal diversity, including the process of speciation. Animals, fungi and plants are major eukaryotic kingdoms and the divergences between them are some of the most significant evolutionary events. Although gene duplications in each lineage have been studied extensively in various contexts, the extent of gene duplication prior to the split of pla...

Vision though afocal instruments: generalized magnification and eye-instrument interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, William F.; Evans, Tanya

2018-04-01

In Gaussian optics all observers experience the same magnification, the instrument's angular magnification, when viewing distant objects though a telescope or other afocal instruments. However, analysis in linear optics shows that this is not necessarily so in the presence of astigmatism. Because astigmatism may distort and rotate images it is appropriate to work with generalized angular magnification represented by a 2 × 2 matrix. An expression is derived for the generalized magnification for an arbitrary eye looking through an arbitrary afocal instrument. With afocal instruments containing astigmatic refracting elements not all eyes experience the same generalized magnification; there is interaction between eye and instrument. Eye-instrument interaction may change as the instrument is rotated about its longitudinal axis, there being no interaction in particular orientations. A simple numerical example is given. For sake of completeness, expressions for generalized magnification are also presented in the case of instruments that are not afocal and objects that are not distant.

Testability evaluation using prior information of multiple sources

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Wang Chao; Qiu Jing; Liu Guanjun; Zhang Yong

2014-01-01

Testability plays an important role in improving the readiness and decreasing the life-cycle cost of equipment. Testability demonstration and evaluation is of significance in measuring such testability indexes as fault detection rate (FDR) and fault isolation rate (FIR), which is useful to the producer in mastering the testability level and improving the testability design, and helpful to the consumer in making purchase decisions. Aiming at the problems with a small sample of testabil-ity demonstration test data (TDTD) such as low evaluation confidence and inaccurate result, a test-ability evaluation method is proposed based on the prior information of multiple sources and Bayes theory. Firstly, the types of prior information are analyzed. The maximum entropy method is applied to the prior information with the mean and interval estimate forms on the testability index to obtain the parameters of prior probability density function (PDF), and the empirical Bayesian method is used to get the parameters for the prior information with a success-fail form. Then, a parametrical data consistency check method is used to check the compatibility between all the sources of prior information and TDTD. For the prior information to pass the check, the prior credibility is calculated. A mixed prior distribution is formed based on the prior PDFs and the corresponding credibility. The Bayesian posterior distribution model is acquired with the mixed prior distribution and TDTD, based on which the point and interval estimates are calculated. Finally, examples of a flying control system are used to verify the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method is feasible and effective.

Animal models of papillomavirus pathogenesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Campo, M Saveria

2002-11-01

problematic and understandably research efforts have shifted in focus from animal to human PVs. However, there are still areas in which studies on animal PVs will continue to provide answers to questions pertaining to virus biology. One of these questions is the involvement of HPV in oesophageal and bladder cancer in humans as is the case for BPV in cattle. Another is the site of viral latency. Lymphocytes have been proposed as a site of latency for both BPV and HPV but only experiments performed in animals could clarify this point. Animal PVs have been instrumental in the development of vaccines as cattle, rabbit and more recently dog all provide the opportunity to study vaccination in the natural host. Several anti-HPV vaccines, both prophylactic and therapeutic, based on those developed in animals, are now in clinical trials with encouraging results. In vitro studies with two animal PV early proteins, the transcriptional regulator E2 and the oncoprotein E5, among others, have contributed to the elucidation of viral gene control and cell transformation. BPV E2 was the first viral product to be identified as a transcriptional regulator; more recently, its association with mitotic chromosomes has been suggested as a mechanism for the partition of viral genomes between daughter cells, and its L2-mediated localisation in the sub-nuclear compartments PODs is believed to favour viral DNA encapsidation. E5 is the major transforming protein of several BPVs. Many of the function of E5 proteins have been first established for BPV E5 and later validated for HPV E5. E5 interacts with 16k ductin/subunit c and this interaction is deemed responsible for the down-regulation of gap junction intercellular communication and the inhibition of acidification of endomembranes. E5 activates growth factor receptors and numerous kinases, including cdks, and down-regulates expression of MHC class I. Thus E5 would help the establishment of viral infection by promoting both cell proliferation and

Corticotomy-facilitated orthodontics using piezosurgery versus rotary instruments: an experimental study.

Science.gov (United States)

Farid, Karim A; Mostafa, Yehya A; Kaddah, Mohammed A; El-Sharaby, Fouad Aly

2014-10-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate corticotomy-facilitated orthodontics (CFO) using piezosurgery versus conventional rotary instruments. Ten healthy adult male mongrel dogs of comparable age with a complete set of permanent dentition with average weights between 13-17 kilograms were used. CFO using conventional rotary instruments versus piezosurgery was performed on each dog in a split mouth design. For every dog, mandibular 2nd premolar retraction on each side was attempted after extracting 3rd premolars followed by corticotomy-facilitated orthodontics using conventional rotary surgical burs on the left side and an ultrasonic piezosurgery system on the right side of the same animal. Intraoral measurements of the rate of tooth movement were taken with a sliding caliper. Measurements were performed by the same operator at the time of surgery (appliance delivery) and every month for six months. The dogs were sacrificed after six months from initiation of tooth movement to evaluate the amount of tooth movement for both conventional rotary and piezosurgery corticotomy techniques. A statistically significantly higher mean amount of tooth movement for conventional rotary instrument versus the piezosurgery corticotomy technique was observed at all time intervals. Tooth movement was 1.6 times faster when CFO was done using conventional rotary instruments as compared to a piezosurgery device.

Animals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Skuterud, L.; Strand, P. [Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (Norway); Howard, B.J. [Inst. of Terrestrial Ecology (United Kingdom)

1997-10-01

The radionuclides of most concern with respect to contamination of animals after a nuclear accident are radioiodine, radiocaesium and radiostrontium (ICRP 30, 1979). Of the other significant anthropogenic radionuclides likely to be released in most accidents, only small proportions of that ingested will be absorbed in an animals gut, and the main animal products, milk and meat, will not normally be contaminated to a significant extent. Animal products will mostly be contaminated as a result of ingestion of contaminated feed and possibly, but to a much lesser extent, from inhalation (for radioiodine only). Direct external contamination of animals is of little or no consequence in human food production. Radioiodine and radiostrontium are important with respect to contamination of milk; radiocaesium contaminates both milk and meat. The physical and chemical form of a radionuclide can influence its absorption in the animal gut. For example, following the Chernobyl accident radiocaesium incorporated into vegetation by root uptake was more readily absorbed than that associated with the original deposit. The transfer of radiocaesium and radiostrontium to animals will be presented both as transfer coefficients and aggregated transfer coefficients. For most animal meat products, only radiocaesium is important as other radionuclides do not significantly contaminate muscle. Farm animal products are the most important foodstuff determining radiocaesium intake by the average consumer in the Nordic countries. The major potential source of radioiodine and radiostrontium to humans is milk and milk products. Of the different species, the smaller animals have the highest transfer of radiocaesium from fodder to meat and milk. (EG). 68 refs.

Animals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skuterud, L.; Strand, P.; Howard, B.J.

1997-01-01

The radionuclides of most concern with respect to contamination of animals after a nuclear accident are radioiodine, radiocaesium and radiostrontium (ICRP 30, 1979). Of the other significant anthropogenic radionuclides likely to be released in most accidents, only small proportions of that ingested will be absorbed in an animals gut, and the main animal products, milk and meat, will not normally be contaminated to a significant extent. Animal products will mostly be contaminated as a result of ingestion of contaminated feed and possibly, but to a much lesser extent, from inhalation (for radioiodine only). Direct external contamination of animals is of little or no consequence in human food production. Radioiodine and radiostrontium are important with respect to contamination of milk; radiocaesium contaminates both milk and meat. The physical and chemical form of a radionuclide can influence its absorption in the animal gut. For example, following the Chernobyl accident radiocaesium incorporated into vegetation by root uptake was more readily absorbed than that associated with the original deposit. The transfer of radiocaesium and radiostrontium to animals will be presented both as transfer coefficients and aggregated transfer coefficients. For most animal meat products, only radiocaesium is important as other radionuclides do not significantly contaminate muscle. Farm animal products are the most important foodstuff determining radiocaesium intake by the average consumer in the Nordic countries. The major potential source of radioiodine and radiostrontium to humans is milk and milk products. Of the different species, the smaller animals have the highest transfer of radiocaesium from fodder to meat and milk. (EG)

Evaluation of environmental policy instruments - a case study of the Finnish pulp and paper and chemical industries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hilden, M.; Lepola, J.; Mickwitz, P.; Palosaari, M.; Similae, J.; Sjoeblom, S.; Mulders, A.; Vedung, E.

2002-01-01

This research-based evaluation of environmental policy Instruments in Finland is focussed on regulatory instruments based on the Water Act, the Air Pollution Control Act and the Chemicals Act, on electricity taxation and on voluntary environmental management systems. The examined policy instruments have had several positive effects. They have directed major industrial point source polluters towards solving environmental problems. The transparency has been an important factor ensuring the success of the policy instruments and in avoiding the regulatory capture that could have thrived in a system largely based on negotiations between operators and authorities. The transparency has made it easy for Finnish firms to adopt environmental management systems and an open attitude to environmental reporting. The permit conditions have not directly resulted in innovations, but they have contributed to the diffusion of end-of-pipe technology and have contributed to innovations by expanding the market for environmentally better technical solutions. The permit systems have also indirectly contributed to innovations by creating a demand for environmental experts and environmental education. Networks have clearly developed as a consequence of and in response to regulatory instruments. These networks appear to have had their greatest significance prior to the permit procedures. The trend has been towards a greater emphasis of the communication in the networks prior to the presentation of an application in order to ensure a smoothly functioning permit process. In the networks contributing to innovations and the diffusion of innovations authorities have largely been outsiders, except when an innovation has become a de facto standard for permit conditions. The different kind of effects, the complexity of consequences and the uncertainties with respect to causes and effects mean that studies aiming at evaluating the overall worth and merit of an environmental policy instrument should

Sublingual administration of detomidine to calves prior to disbudding: a comparison with the intravenous route.

OpenAIRE

Hokkanen, Ann-Helena; Raekallio, Marja R.; Salla, Kati; Hänninen, Laura; Viitasaari, Elina Anna Maria; Norring, Marianna; Raussi, Satu; Rinne, Valtteri; Scheinin, Mika; Vainio, Outi M.

2014-01-01

Objective To study the effects of oromucosal detomidine gel administered sublingually to calves prior to disbudding, and to compare its efficacy with intravenously (IV) administered detomidine. Study design Randomised, prospective clinical study. Animals Twenty dairy calves aged 12.4 ± 4.4days (mean ± SD), weight 50.5 ± 9.0 kg. Methods Detomidine at 80 μg kg−1 was administered to ten calves sublingually (GEL) and at 30 μg kg−1 to ten control calves IV (V. jugularis). Meloxicam (0.5 mg kg−1) a...

Can natural selection encode Bayesian priors?

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez, Juan Camilo; Marshall, James A R

2017-08-07

The evolutionary success of many organisms depends on their ability to make decisions based on estimates of the state of their environment (e.g., predation risk) from uncertain information. These decision problems have optimal solutions and individuals in nature are expected to evolve the behavioural mechanisms to make decisions as if using the optimal solutions. Bayesian inference is the optimal method to produce estimates from uncertain data, thus natural selection is expected to favour individuals with the behavioural mechanisms to make decisions as if they were computing Bayesian estimates in typically-experienced environments, although this does not necessarily imply that favoured decision-makers do perform Bayesian computations exactly. Each individual should evolve to behave as if updating a prior estimate of the unknown environment variable to a posterior estimate as it collects evidence. The prior estimate represents the decision-maker's default belief regarding the environment variable, i.e., the individual's default 'worldview' of the environment. This default belief has been hypothesised to be shaped by natural selection and represent the environment experienced by the individual's ancestors. We present an evolutionary model to explore how accurately Bayesian prior estimates can be encoded genetically and shaped by natural selection when decision-makers learn from uncertain information. The model simulates the evolution of a population of individuals that are required to estimate the probability of an event. Every individual has a prior estimate of this probability and collects noisy cues from the environment in order to update its prior belief to a Bayesian posterior estimate with the evidence gained. The prior is inherited and passed on to offspring. Fitness increases with the accuracy of the posterior estimates produced. Simulations show that prior estimates become accurate over evolutionary time. In addition to these 'Bayesian' individuals, we also

Prior fear conditioning does not impede enhanced active avoidance in serotonin transporter knockout rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Schipper, Pieter; Henckens, Marloes J A G; Borghans, Bart; Hiemstra, Marlies; Kozicz, Tamas; Homberg, Judith R

2017-05-30

Stressors can be actively or passively coped with, and adequate adaption of the coping response to environmental conditions can reduce their potential deleterious effects. One major factor influencing stress coping behaviour is serotonin transporter (5-HTT) availability. Abolishment of 5-HTT is known to impair fear extinction but facilitates acquisition of signalled active avoidance (AA), a behavioural task in which an animal learns to avoid an aversive stimulus that is predicted by a cue. Flexibility in adapting coping behaviour to the nature of the stressor shapes resilience to stress-related disorders. Therefore, we investigated the relation between 5-HTT expression and ability to adapt a learned coping response to changing environmental conditions. To this end, we first established and consolidated a cue-conditioned passive fear response in 5-HTT -/- and wildtype rats. Next, we used the conditioned stimulus (CS) to signal oncoming shocks during signalled AA training in 5-HTT -/- and wildtype rats to study their capability to acquire an active coping response to the CS following fear conditioning. Finally, we investigated the behavioural response to the CS in a novel environment and measured freezing, exploration and self-grooming, behaviours reflective of stress coping strategy. We found that fear conditioned and sham conditioned 5-HTT -/- animals acquired the signalled AA response faster than wildtypes, while prior conditioning briefly delayed AA learning similarly in both genotypes. Subsequent exposure to the CS in the novel context reduced freezing and increased locomotion in 5-HTT -/- compared to wildtype rats. This indicates that improved AA performance in 5-HTT -/- rats resulted in a weaker residual passive fear response to the CS in a novel context. Fear conditioning prior to AA training did not affect freezing upon re-encountering the CS, although it did reduce locomotion in 5-HTT -/- rats. We conclude that independent of 5-HTT signalling, prior fear

Expression of c-Fos in the rat retrosplenial cortex during instrumental re-learning of appetitive bar-pressing depends on the number of stages of previous training

Science.gov (United States)

Svarnik, Olga E.; Bulava, Alexandra I.; Alexandrov, Yuri I.

2013-01-01

Learning is known to be accompanied by induction of c-Fos expression in cortical neurons. However, not all neurons are involved in this process. What the c-Fos expression pattern depends on is still unknown. In the present work we studied whether and to what degree previous animal experience about Task 1 (the first phase of an instrumental learning) influenced neuronal c-Fos expression in the retrosplenial cortex during acquisition of Task 2 (the second phase of an instrumental learning). Animals were progressively shaped across days to bar-press for food at the left side of the experimental chamber (Task 1). This appetitive bar-pressing behavior was shaped by nine stages (“9 stages” group), five stages (“5 stages” group) or one intermediate stage (“1 stage” group). After all animals acquired the first skill and practiced it for five days, the bar and feeder on the left, familiar side of the chamber were inactivated, and the animals were allowed to learn a similar instrumental task at the opposite side of the chamber using another pair of a bar and a feeder (Task 2). The highest number of c-Fos positive neurons was found in the retrosplenial cortex of “1 stage” animals as compared to the other groups. The number of c-Fos positive neurons in “5 stages” group animals was significantly lower than in “1 stage” animals and significantly higher than in “9 stages” animals. The number of c-Fos positive neurons in the cortex of “9 stages” animals was significantly higher than in home caged control animals. At the same time, there were no significant differences between groups in such behavioral variables as the number of entrees into the feeder or bar zones during Task 2 learning. Our results suggest that c-Fos expression in the retrosplenial cortex during Task 2 acquisition was influenced by the previous learning history. PMID:23847484

Knowledge of the Animal Welfare Act and Animal Welfare Regulations Influences Attitudes toward Animal Research

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

Recent public-opinion polls indicate that Americans have shown a decline in support for animal experimentation, and several reports suggest a relationship between people's knowledge of animal welfare regulations and their attitudes toward animal research. Therefore, this study was designed to assess respondent's knowledge of several provisions in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and Animal Welfare Regulations (AWR), and determine whether exposure to elements of this legislation would influence an individual's attitudes toward the use of animals in research. A survey was used to assess knowledge of animal research regulations and attitudes toward animal research from a sample of individuals recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing marketplace. Results from study 1 confirmed the hypothesis that respondents had little knowledge of various federal regulations that govern animal research activities. Data from study 2 revealed that exposure to elements of the AWA and AWR influenced participants’ attitudes toward the use of animals in research. These results suggest that providing information to the general public about the AWA and AWR that protect laboratory animals from abuse and neglect may help alleviate concerns about using animals in research settings. PMID:25651094

Example-driven manifold priors for image deconvolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Jie; Turaga, Pavan; Patel, Vishal M; Chellappa, Rama

2011-11-01

Image restoration methods that exploit prior information about images to be estimated have been extensively studied, typically using the Bayesian framework. In this paper, we consider the role of prior knowledge of the object class in the form of a patch manifold to address the deconvolution problem. Specifically, we incorporate unlabeled image data of the object class, say natural images, in the form of a patch-manifold prior for the object class. The manifold prior is implicitly estimated from the given unlabeled data. We show how the patch-manifold prior effectively exploits the available sample class data for regularizing the deblurring problem. Furthermore, we derive a generalized cross-validation (GCV) function to automatically determine the regularization parameter at each iteration without explicitly knowing the noise variance. Extensive experiments show that this method performs better than many competitive image deconvolution methods.

Toxicity testing: the search for an in vitro alternative to animal testing.

Science.gov (United States)

May, J E; Xu, J; Morse, H R; Avent, N D; Donaldson, C

2009-01-01

Prior to introduction to the clinic, pharmaceuticals must undergo rigorous toxicity testing to ensure their safety. Traditionally, this has been achieved using in vivo animal models. However, besides ethical reasons, there is a continual drive to reduce the number of animals used for this purpose due to concerns such as the lack of concordance seen between animal models and toxic effects in humans. Adequate testing to ensure any toxic metabolites are detected can be further complicated if the agent is administered in a prodrug form, requiring a source of cytochrome P450 enzymes for metabolism. A number of sources of metabolic enzymes have been utilised in in vitro models, including cell lines, primary human tissue and liver extracts such as S9. This review examines current and new in vitro models for toxicity testing, including a new model developed within the authors' laboratory utilising HepG2 liver spheroids within a co-culture system to examine the effects of chemotherapeutic agents on other cell types.

Animal research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsson, I.A.S.; Sandøe, Peter

2012-01-01

This article presents the ethical issues in animal research using a combined approach of ethical theory and analysis of scientific findings with bearing on the ethical analysis. The article opens with a general discussion of the moral acceptability of animal use in research. The use of animals...... in research is analyzed from the viewpoint of three distinct ethical approaches: contractarianism, utilitarianism, and animal rights view. On a contractarian view, research on animals is only an ethical issue to the extent that other humans as parties to the social contract care about how research animals...... are faring. From the utilitarian perspective, the use of sentient animals in research that may harm them is an ethical issue, but harm done to animals can be balanced by benefit generated for humans and other animals. The animal rights view, when thoroughgoing, is abolitionist as regards the use of animals...

Testability evaluation using prior information of multiple sources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Chao

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Testability plays an important role in improving the readiness and decreasing the life-cycle cost of equipment. Testability demonstration and evaluation is of significance in measuring such testability indexes as fault detection rate (FDR and fault isolation rate (FIR, which is useful to the producer in mastering the testability level and improving the testability design, and helpful to the consumer in making purchase decisions. Aiming at the problems with a small sample of testability demonstration test data (TDTD such as low evaluation confidence and inaccurate result, a testability evaluation method is proposed based on the prior information of multiple sources and Bayes theory. Firstly, the types of prior information are analyzed. The maximum entropy method is applied to the prior information with the mean and interval estimate forms on the testability index to obtain the parameters of prior probability density function (PDF, and the empirical Bayesian method is used to get the parameters for the prior information with a success-fail form. Then, a parametrical data consistency check method is used to check the compatibility between all the sources of prior information and TDTD. For the prior information to pass the check, the prior credibility is calculated. A mixed prior distribution is formed based on the prior PDFs and the corresponding credibility. The Bayesian posterior distribution model is acquired with the mixed prior distribution and TDTD, based on which the point and interval estimates are calculated. Finally, examples of a flying control system are used to verify the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method is feasible and effective.

NPK NMR Sensor: Online Monitoring of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium in Animal Slurry.

Science.gov (United States)

Sørensen, Morten K; Jensen, Ole; Bakharev, Oleg N; Nyord, Tavs; Nielsen, Niels Chr

2015-07-07

Knowledge of the actual content of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) in animal slurry is highly important to optimize crop production and avoid environmental pollution when slurry is spread on agricultural fields. Here, we present a mobile, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) sensor suitable for online monitoring of the NPK content in animal slurry as an alternative to crude estimates or tedious nonspecific, off-site laboratory analysis. The sensor is based on (14)N, (17)O, (31)P, and (39)K NMR in a digital NMR instrument equipped with a 1.5 T Halbach magnet for direct detection of ammonium N, total P, and K and indirect evaluation of the organic N content, covering all practical components of NPK in animal slurry. In correlation studies, the obtained NMR measurements show good agreement with reference measurements from commercial laboratories.

The impact of mouse passaging of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains prior to virulence testing in the mouse and guinea pig aerosol models.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul J Converse

2010-04-01

Full Text Available It has been hypothesized that the virulence of lab-passaged Mycobacterium tuberculosis and recombinant M. tuberculosis mutants might be reduced due to multiple in vitro passages, and that virulence might be augmented by passage of these strains through mice before quantitative virulence testing in the mouse or guinea pig aerosol models.By testing three M. tuberculosis H37Rv samples, one deletion mutant, and one recent clinical isolate for survival by the quantitative organ CFU counting method in mouse or guinea pig aerosol or intravenous infection models, we could discern no increase in bacterial fitness as a result of passaging of M. tuberculosis strains in mice prior to quantitative virulence testing in two animal models. Surface lipid expression as assessed by neutral red staining and thin-layer chromatography for PDIM analysis also failed to identify virulence correlates.These results indicate that animal passaging of M. tuberculosis strains prior to quantitative virulence testing in mouse or guinea pig models does not enhance or restore potency to strains that may have lost virulence due to in vitro passaging. It is critical to verify virulence of parental strains before genetic manipulations are undertaken and comparisons are made.

Attentional and Contextual Priors in Sound Perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolmetz, Michael; Elhilali, Mounya

2016-01-01

Behavioral and neural studies of selective attention have consistently demonstrated that explicit attentional cues to particular perceptual features profoundly alter perception and performance. The statistics of the sensory environment can also provide cues about what perceptual features to expect, but the extent to which these more implicit contextual cues impact perception and performance, as well as their relationship to explicit attentional cues, is not well understood. In this study, the explicit cues, or attentional prior probabilities, and the implicit cues, or contextual prior probabilities, associated with different acoustic frequencies in a detection task were simultaneously manipulated. Both attentional and contextual priors had similarly large but independent impacts on sound detectability, with evidence that listeners tracked and used contextual priors for a variety of sound classes (pure tones, harmonic complexes, and vowels). Further analyses showed that listeners updated their contextual priors rapidly and optimally, given the changing acoustic frequency statistics inherent in the paradigm. A Bayesian Observer model accounted for both attentional and contextual adaptations found with listeners. These results bolster the interpretation of perception as Bayesian inference, and suggest that some effects attributed to selective attention may be a special case of contextual prior integration along a feature axis.

Differential dependence of Pavlovian incentive motivation and instrumental incentive learning processes on dopamine signaling

Science.gov (United States)

Wassum, Kate M.; Ostlund, Sean B.; Balleine, Bernard W.; Maidment, Nigel T.

2011-01-01

Here we attempted to clarify the role of dopamine signaling in reward seeking. In Experiment 1, we assessed the effects of the dopamine D1/D2 receptor antagonist flupenthixol (0.5 mg/kg i.p.) on Pavlovian incentive motivation and found that flupenthixol blocked the ability of a conditioned stimulus to enhance both goal approach and instrumental performance (Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer). In Experiment 2 we assessed the effects of flupenthixol on reward palatability during post-training noncontingent re-exposure to the sucrose reward in either a control 3-h or novel 23-h food-deprived state. Flupenthixol, although effective in blocking the Pavlovian goal approach, was without effect on palatability or the increase in reward palatability induced by the upshift in motivational state. This noncontingent re-exposure provided an opportunity for instrumental incentive learning, the process by which rats encode the value of a reward for use in updating reward-seeking actions. Flupenthixol administered prior to the instrumental incentive learning opportunity did not affect the increase in subsequent off-drug reward-seeking actions induced by that experience. These data suggest that although dopamine signaling is necessary for Pavlovian incentive motivation, it is not necessary for changes in reward experience, or for the instrumental incentive learning process that translates this experience into the incentive value used to drive reward-seeking actions, and provide further evidence that Pavlovian and instrumental incentive learning processes are dissociable. PMID:21693635

Total Variability Modeling using Source-specific Priors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shepstone, Sven Ewan; Lee, Kong Aik; Li, Haizhou

2016-01-01

sequence of an utterance. In both cases the prior for the latent variable is assumed to be non-informative, since for homogeneous datasets there is no gain in generality in using an informative prior. This work shows in the heterogeneous case, that using informative priors for com- puting the posterior......, can lead to favorable results. We focus on modeling the priors using minimum divergence criterion or fac- tor analysis techniques. Tests on the NIST 2008 and 2010 Speaker Recognition Evaluation (SRE) dataset show that our proposed method beats four baselines: For i-vector extraction using an already...... trained matrix, for the short2-short3 task in SRE’08, five out of eight female and four out of eight male common conditions, were improved. For the core-extended task in SRE’10, four out of nine female and six out of nine male common conditions were improved. When incorporating prior information...

Quantitative Evidence Synthesis with Power Priors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rietbergen, C.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/322847796

2016-01-01

The aim of this thesis is to provide the applied researcher with a practical approach for quantitative evidence synthesis using the conditional power prior that allows for subjective input and thereby provides an alternative tgbgo deal with the difficulties as- sociated with the joint power prior

Large animal and primate models of spinal cord injury for the testing of novel therapies.

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, Brian K; Streijger, Femke; Hill, Caitlin E; Anderson, Aileen J; Bacon, Mark; Beattie, Michael S; Blesch, Armin; Bradbury, Elizabeth J; Brown, Arthur; Bresnahan, Jacqueline C; Case, Casey C; Colburn, Raymond W; David, Samuel; Fawcett, James W; Ferguson, Adam R; Fischer, Itzhak; Floyd, Candace L; Gensel, John C; Houle, John D; Jakeman, Lyn B; Jeffery, Nick D; Jones, Linda Ann Truett; Kleitman, Naomi; Kocsis, Jeffery; Lu, Paul; Magnuson, David S K; Marsala, Martin; Moore, Simon W; Mothe, Andrea J; Oudega, Martin; Plant, Giles W; Rabchevsky, Alexander Sasha; Schwab, Jan M; Silver, Jerry; Steward, Oswald; Xu, Xiao-Ming; Guest, James D; Tetzlaff, Wolfram

2015-07-01

Large animal and primate models of spinal cord injury (SCI) are being increasingly utilized for the testing of novel therapies. While these represent intermediary animal species between rodents and humans and offer the opportunity to pose unique research questions prior to clinical trials, the role that such large animal and primate models should play in the translational pipeline is unclear. In this initiative we engaged members of the SCI research community in a questionnaire and round-table focus group discussion around the use of such models. Forty-one SCI researchers from academia, industry, and granting agencies were asked to complete a questionnaire about their opinion regarding the use of large animal and primate models in the context of testing novel therapeutics. The questions centered around how large animal and primate models of SCI would be best utilized in the spectrum of preclinical testing, and how much testing in rodent models was warranted before employing these models. Further questions were posed at a focus group meeting attended by the respondents. The group generally felt that large animal and primate models of SCI serve a potentially useful role in the translational pipeline for novel therapies, and that the rational use of these models would depend on the type of therapy and specific research question being addressed. While testing within these models should not be mandatory, the detection of beneficial effects using these models lends additional support for translating a therapy to humans. These models provides an opportunity to evaluate and refine surgical procedures prior to use in humans, and safety and bio-distribution in a spinal cord more similar in size and anatomy to that of humans. Our results reveal that while many feel that these models are valuable in the testing of novel therapies, important questions remain unanswered about how they should be used and how data derived from them should be interpreted. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier

An instrument to assess subjective task value beliefs regarding the decision to pursue postgraduate training.

Science.gov (United States)

Hagemeier, Nicholas E; Murawski, Matthew M

2014-02-12

To develop and validate an instrument to assess subjective ratings of the perceived value of various postgraduate training paths followed using expectancy-value as a theoretical framework; and to explore differences in value beliefs across type of postgraduate training pursued and type of pharmacy training completed prior to postgraduate training. A survey instrument was developed to sample 4 theoretical domains of subjective task value: intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, and perceived cost. Retrospective self-report methodology was employed to examine respondents' (N=1,148) subjective task value beliefs specific to their highest level of postgraduate training completed. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques were used to evaluate and validate value belief constructs. Intrinsic, attainment, utility, cost, and financial value constructs resulted from exploratory factor analysis. Cross-validation resulted in a 26-item instrument that demonstrated good model fit. Differences in value beliefs were noted across type of postgraduate training pursued and pharmacy training characteristics. The Postgraduate Training Value Instrument demonstrated evidence of reliability and construct validity. The survey instrument can be used to assess value beliefs regarding multiple postgraduate training options in pharmacy and potentially inform targeted recruiting of individuals to those paths best matching their own value beliefs.

Persistent effects of prior chronic exposure to corticosterone on reward-related learning and motivation in rodents.

Science.gov (United States)

Olausson, Peter; Kiraly, Drew D; Gourley, Shannon L; Taylor, Jane R

2013-02-01

Repeated or prolonged exposure to stress has profound effects on a wide spectrum of behavioral and neurobiological processes and has been associated with the pathophysiology of depression. The multifaceted nature of this disorder includes despair, anhedonia, diminished motivation, and disrupted cognition, and it has been proposed that depression is also associated with reduced reward-motivated learning. We have previously reported that prior chronic corticosterone exposure to mice produces a lasting depressive-like state that can be reversed by chronic antidepressant treatment. In the present study, we tested the effects of prior chronic exposure to corticosterone (50 μg/ml) administered to rats or to mice in drinking water for 14 days followed by dose-tapering over 9 days. The exposure to corticosterone produced lasting deficits in the acquisition of reward-related learning tested on a food-motivated instrumental task conducted 10-20 days after the last day of full dose corticosterone exposure. Rats exposed to corticosterone also displayed reduced responding on a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement when tested on day 21 after exposure. Amitriptyline (200 mg/ml in drinking water) exposure for 14 days to mice produced the opposite effect, enhancing food-motivated instrumental acquisition and performance. Repeated treatment with amitriptyline (5 mg/kg, intraperitoneally; bid) subsequent to corticosterone exposure also prevented the corticosterone-induced deficits in rats. These results are consistent with aberrant reward-related learning and motivational processes in depressive states and provide new evidence that stress-induced neuroadaptive alterations in cortico-limbic-striatal brain circuits involved in learning and motivation may play a critical role in aspects of mood disorders.

Recruiting for Prior Service Market

Science.gov (United States)

2008-06-01

perceptions, expectations and issues for re-enlistment • Develop potential marketing and advertising tactics and strategies targeted to the defined...01 JUN 2008 2. REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED - 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Recruiting for Prior Service Market 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT...Command First Handshake to First Unit of Assignment An Army of One Proud to Be e e to Serve Recruiting for Prior Service Market MAJ Eric Givens / MAJ Brian

Accuracy and reproducibility of tumor positioning during prolonged and multi-modality animal imaging studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Mutian; Huang Minming; Le, Carl; Zanzonico, Pat B; Ling, C Clifton; Koutcher, Jason A; Humm, John L; Claus, Filip; Kolbert, Katherine S; Martin, Kyle

2008-01-01

Dedicated small-animal imaging devices, e.g. positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, are being increasingly used for translational molecular imaging studies. The objective of this work was to determine the positional accuracy and precision with which tumors in situ can be reliably and reproducibly imaged on dedicated small-animal imaging equipment. We designed, fabricated and tested a custom rodent cradle with a stereotactic template to facilitate registration among image sets. To quantify tumor motion during our small-animal imaging protocols, 'gold standard' multi-modality point markers were inserted into tumor masses on the hind limbs of rats. Three types of imaging examination were then performed with the animals continuously anesthetized and immobilized: (i) consecutive microPET and MR images of tumor xenografts in which the animals remained in the same scanner for 2 h duration, (ii) multi-modality imaging studies in which the animals were transported between distant imaging devices and (iii) serial microPET scans in which the animals were repositioned in the same scanner for subsequent images. Our results showed that the animal tumor moved by less than 0.2-0.3 mm over a continuous 2 h microPET or MR imaging session. The process of transporting the animal between instruments introduced additional errors of ∼0.2 mm. In serial animal imaging studies, the positioning reproducibility within ∼0.8 mm could be obtained.

Prior exposure to repeated immobilization or chronic unpredictable stress protects from some negative sequels of an acute immobilization.

Science.gov (United States)

Pastor-Ciurana, Jordi; Rabasa, Cristina; Ortega-Sánchez, Juan A; Sanchís-Ollè, Maria; Gabriel-Salazar, Marina; Ginesta, Marta; Belda, Xavier; Daviu, Núria; Nadal, Roser; Armario, Antonio

2014-05-15

Exposure to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) is gaining acceptance as a putative animal model of depression. However, there is evidence that chronic exposure to stress can offer non-specific stress protection from some effects of acute superimposed stressors. We then compared in adult male rats the protection afforded by prior exposure to CUS with the one offered by repeated immobilization on boards (IMO) regarding some of the negative consequences of an acute exposure to IMO. Repeated exposure to IMO protected from the negative consequences of an acute IMO on activity in an open-field, saccharin intake and body weight gain. Active coping during IMO (struggling) was markedly reduced by repeated exposure to the same stressor, but it was not affected by a prior history of CUS, suggesting that our CUS protocol does not appear to impair active coping responses. CUS exposure itself caused a strong reduction of activity in the open-field but appeared to protect from the hypo-activity induced by acute IMO. Moreover, prior CUS offered partial protection from acute IMO-induced reduction of saccharin intake and body weight gain. It can be concluded that a prior history of CUS protects from some of the negative consequences of exposure to a novel severe stressor, suggesting the development of partial cross-adaptation whose precise mechanisms remain to be studied. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Birth-death prior on phylogeny and speed dating

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sennblad Bengt

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In recent years there has been a trend of leaving the strict molecular clock in order to infer dating of speciations and other evolutionary events. Explicit modeling of substitution rates and divergence times makes formulation of informative prior distributions for branch lengths possible. Models with birth-death priors on tree branching and auto-correlated or iid substitution rates among lineages have been proposed, enabling simultaneous inference of substitution rates and divergence times. This problem has, however, mainly been analysed in the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC framework, an approach requiring computation times of hours or days when applied to large phylogenies. Results We demonstrate that a hill-climbing maximum a posteriori (MAP adaptation of the MCMC scheme results in considerable gain in computational efficiency. We demonstrate also that a novel dynamic programming (DP algorithm for branch length factorization, useful both in the hill-climbing and in the MCMC setting, further reduces computation time. For the problem of inferring rates and times parameters on a fixed tree, we perform simulations, comparisons between hill-climbing and MCMC on a plant rbcL gene dataset, and dating analysis on an animal mtDNA dataset, showing that our methodology enables efficient, highly accurate analysis of very large trees. Datasets requiring a computation time of several days with MCMC can with our MAP algorithm be accurately analysed in less than a minute. From the results of our example analyses, we conclude that our methodology generally avoids getting trapped early in local optima. For the cases where this nevertheless can be a problem, for instance when we in addition to the parameters also infer the tree topology, we show that the problem can be evaded by using a simulated-annealing like (SAL method in which we favour tree swaps early in the inference while biasing our focus towards rate and time parameter changes

Animal rights, animal minds, and human mindreading.

Science.gov (United States)

Mameli, M; Bortolotti, L

2006-02-01

Do non-human animals have rights? The answer to this question depends on whether animals have morally relevant mental properties. Mindreading is the human activity of ascribing mental states to other organisms. Current knowledge about the evolution and cognitive structure of mindreading indicates that human ascriptions of mental states to non-human animals are very inaccurate. The accuracy of human mindreading can be improved with the help of scientific studies of animal minds. However, the scientific studies do not by themselves solve the problem of how to map psychological similarities (and differences) between humans and animals onto a distinction between morally relevant and morally irrelevant mental properties. The current limitations of human mindreading-whether scientifically aided or not-have practical consequences for the rational justification of claims about which rights (if any) non-human animals should be accorded.

Prior stress exposure increases pain behaviors in a rat model of full thickness thermal injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Nyland, Jennifer E; McLean, Samuel A; Averitt, Dayna L

2015-12-01

Thermal burns among individuals working in highly stressful environments, such as firefighters and military Service Members, are common. Evidence suggests that pre-injury stress may exaggerate pain following thermal injury; however current animal models of burn have not evaluated the potential influence of pre-burn stress. This sham-controlled study evaluated the influence of prior stress exposure on post-burn thermal and mechanical sensitivity in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats were exposed to 20 min of inescapable swim stress or sham stress once per day for three days. Exposure to inescapable swim stress (1) increased the intensity and duration of thermal hyperalgesia after subsequent burn and (2) accelerated the onset of thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia after subsequent burn. This stress-induced exacerbation of pain sensitivity was reversed by pretreatment and concurrent treatment with the serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) duloxetine. These data suggest a better understanding of mechanisms by which prior stress augments pain after thermal burn may lead to improved pain treatments for burn survivors. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

PET image reconstruction using multi-parametric anato-functional priors

Science.gov (United States)

Mehranian, Abolfazl; Belzunce, Martin A.; Niccolini, Flavia; Politis, Marios; Prieto, Claudia; Turkheimer, Federico; Hammers, Alexander; Reader, Andrew J.

2017-08-01

In this study, we investigate the application of multi-parametric anato-functional (MR-PET) priors for the maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction of brain PET data in order to address the limitations of the conventional anatomical priors in the presence of PET-MR mismatches. In addition to partial volume correction benefits, the suitability of these priors for reconstruction of low-count PET data is also introduced and demonstrated, comparing to standard maximum-likelihood (ML) reconstruction of high-count data. The conventional local Tikhonov and total variation (TV) priors and current state-of-the-art anatomical priors including the Kaipio, non-local Tikhonov prior with Bowsher and Gaussian similarity kernels are investigated and presented in a unified framework. The Gaussian kernels are calculated using both voxel- and patch-based feature vectors. To cope with PET and MR mismatches, the Bowsher and Gaussian priors are extended to multi-parametric priors. In addition, we propose a modified joint Burg entropy prior that by definition exploits all parametric information in the MAP reconstruction of PET data. The performance of the priors was extensively evaluated using 3D simulations and two clinical brain datasets of [18F]florbetaben and [18F]FDG radiotracers. For simulations, several anato-functional mismatches were intentionally introduced between the PET and MR images, and furthermore, for the FDG clinical dataset, two PET-unique active tumours were embedded in the PET data. Our simulation results showed that the joint Burg entropy prior far outperformed the conventional anatomical priors in terms of preserving PET unique lesions, while still reconstructing functional boundaries with corresponding MR boundaries. In addition, the multi-parametric extension of the Gaussian and Bowsher priors led to enhanced preservation of edge and PET unique features and also an improved bias-variance performance. In agreement with the simulation results, the clinical results

Alexander von Humboldt: galvanism, animal electricity, and self-experimentation part 2: the electric eel, animal electricity, and later years.

Science.gov (United States)

Finger, Stanley; Piccolino, Marco; Stahnisch, Frank W

2013-01-01

After extensive experimentation during the 1790s, Alexander von Humboldt remained skeptical about "animal electricity" (and metallic electricity), writing instead about an ill-defined galvanic force. With his worldview and wishing to learn more, he studied electric eels in South America just as the new century began, again using his body as a scientific instrument in many of his experiments. As had been the case in the past and for many of the same reasons, some of his findings with the electric eel (and soon after, Italian torpedoes) seemed to argue against biological electricity. But he no longer used galvanic terminology when describing his electric fish experiments. The fact that he now wrote about animal electricity rather than a different "galvanic" force owed much to Alessandro Volta, who had come forth with his "pile" (battery) for multipling the physical and perceptable effects of otherwise weak electricity in 1800, while Humboldt was deep in South America. Humboldt probably read about and saw voltaic batteries in the United States in 1804, but the time he spent with Volta in 1805 was probably more significant in his conversion from a galvanic to an electrical framework for understanding nerve and muscle physiology. Although he did not continue his animal electricity research program after this time, Humboldt retained his worldview of a unified nature and continued to believe in intrinsic animal electricity. He also served as a patron to some of the most important figures in the new field of electrophysiology (e.g., Hermann Helmholtz and Emil du Bois-Reymond), helping to take the research that he had participated in to the next level.

Preferential attention to animals and people is independent of the amygdala.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Shuo; Tsuchiya, Naotsugu; New, Joshua; Hurlemann, Rene; Adolphs, Ralph

2015-03-01

The amygdala is thought to play a critical role in detecting salient stimuli. Several studies have taken ecological approaches to investigating such saliency, and argue for domain-specific effects for processing certain natural stimulus categories, in particular faces and animals. Linking this to the amygdala, neurons in the human amygdala have been found to respond strongly to faces and also to animals. However, the amygdala's necessary role for such category-specific effects at the behavioral level remains untested. Here we tested four rare patients with bilateral amygdala lesions on an established change-detection protocol. Consistent with prior published studies, healthy controls showed reliably faster and more accurate detection of people and animals, as compared with artifacts and plants. So did all four amygdala patients: there were no differences in phenomenal change blindness, in behavioral reaction time to detect changes or in eye-tracking measures. The findings provide decisive evidence against a critical participation of the amygdala in rapid initial processing of attention to animate stimuli, suggesting that the necessary neural substrates for this phenomenon arise either in other subcortical structures (such as the pulvinar) or within the cortex itself. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The influence of prior knowledge on the retrieval-directed function of note taking in prior knowledge activation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wetzels, Sandra; Kester, Liesbeth; Van Merriënboer, Jeroen; Broers, Nick

2010-01-01

Wetzels, S. A. J., Kester, L., Van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Broers, N. J. (2011). The influence of prior knowledge on the retrieval-directed function of note taking in prior knowledge activation. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81(2), 274-291. doi: 10.1348/000709910X517425

From Dominators to be Brothers: a dialogue of ecotheologie with J. Riechmann about the Animal Liberation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Afonso Tadeu Murad

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Jorge Riechmann is the author of extensive work devoted to philosophical reflection on ecology and sustainability. Among his significant works, we choose "Todos los animales somos hermanos" (2005. We will present an overview of the author's thinking about the relationship of humans with other animals, especially mammals. Riechmann addresses hot topics such as physio-biological-social continuous process of evolution and uniqueness of the human; the reasons to include the higher animals in the human moral community, and ethical and legal reasons of animal rights. It must be overcome speciesism, which considers only the animals as mere instruments. Although animals are not people, not moral agents, have intrinsic value. Because they feel pain and pleasure, and have a purpose for living, they deserve moral respect. They are "almost people" and have rights granted and recognized by humans. Next, we will do an exercise of ecotheology interlocution with Jorge Riechmann. We will take as reference the Encyclical Laudato Si and the work of Susin and Zampieri, Ethics and Theology of Animal Liberation.

Qualification of Daiichi Units 1, 2, and 3 Data for Severe Accident Evaluations - Process and Illustrative Examples from Prior TMI-2 Evaluations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rempe, Joy Lynn [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Knudson, Darrell Lee [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2014-09-01

The accidents at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) and the Daiichi Units 1, 2, and 3 Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) provide unique opportunities to evaluate instrumentation exposed to severe accident conditions. Conditions associated with the release of coolant and the hydrogen burn that occurred during the TMI-2 accident exposed instrumentation to harsh conditions, including direct radiation, radioactive contamination, and high humidity with elevated temperatures and pressures. As part of a program initiated in 2012 by the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE), a review was completed to gain insights from prior TMI-2 sensor survivability and data qualification efforts. This initial review focused on the set of sensors deemed most important by post-TMI-2 instrumentation evaluation programs. Instrumentation evaluation programs focused on data required by TMI-2 operators to assess the condition of the reactor and containment and the effect of mitigating actions taken by these operators. In addition, prior efforts focused on sensors providing data required for subsequent forensic evaluations and accident simulations. To encourage the potential for similar activities to be completed for qualifying data from Daiichi Units 1, 2, and 3, this report provides additional details related to the formal process used to develop a qualified TMI-2 data base and presents data qualification details for three parameters: primary system pressure; containment building temperature; and containment pressure. As described within this report, sensor evaluations and data qualification required implementation of various processes, including comparisons with data from other sensors, analytical calculations, laboratory testing, and comparisons with sensors subjected to similar conditions in large-scale integral tests and with sensors that were similar in design to instruments easily removed from the TMI-2 plant for evaluations. As documented

Pluripotent cells in farm animals: state of the art and future perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Nowak-Imialek, Monika; Niemann, Heiner

2012-01-01

Pluripotent cells, such as embryonic stem (ES) cells, embryonic germ cells and embryonic carcinoma cells are a unique type of cell because they remain undifferentiated indefinitely in in vitro culture, show self-renewal and possess the ability to differentiate into derivatives of the three germ layers. These capabilities make them a unique in vitro model for studying development, differentiation and for targeted modification of the genome. True pluripotent ESCs have only been described in the laboratory mouse and rat. However, rodent physiology and anatomy differ substantially from that of humans, detracting from the value of the rodent model for studies of human diseases and the development of cellular therapies in regenerative medicine. Recently, progress in the isolation of pluripotent cells in farm animals has been made and new technologies for reprogramming of somatic cells into a pluripotent state have been developed. Prior to clinical application of therapeutic cells differentiated from pluripotent stem cells in human patients, their survival and the absence of tumourigenic potential must be assessed in suitable preclinical large animal models. The establishment of pluripotent cell lines in farm animals may provide new opportunities for the production of transgenic animals, would facilitate development and validation of large animal models for evaluating ESC-based therapies and would thus contribute to the improvement of human and animal health. This review summarises the recent progress in the derivation of pluripotent and reprogrammed cells from farm animals. We refer to our recent review on this area, to which this article is complementary.

Factors determining the potential for onward transmission of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease via surgical instruments

Science.gov (United States)

Garske, Tini; Ward, Hester J.T; Clarke, Paul; Will, Robert G; Ghani, Azra C

2006-01-01

While the number of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) cases continues to decline, concern has been raised that transmission could occur directly from one person to another through routes including the transfer of blood and shared use of surgical instruments. Here we firstly present data on the surgical procedures undertaken on vCJD patients prior to onset of clinical symptoms, which supports the hypothesis that cases via this route are possible. We then apply a mathematical framework to assess the potential for self-sustaining epidemics via surgical procedures. Data from hospital episode statistics on the rates of high- and medium-risk procedures in the UK were used to estimate model parameters, and sensitivity to other unknown parameters about surgically transmitted vCJD was assessed. Our results demonstrate that a key uncertainty determining the scale of an epidemic and whether it is self-sustaining is the number of times a single instrument is re-used, alongside the infectivity of contaminated instruments and the effectiveness of cleaning. A survey into the frequency of re-use of surgical instruments would help reduce these uncertainties. PMID:17015298

Prior Sensitivity Analysis in Default Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

van Erp, Sara; Mulder, Joris; Oberski, Daniel L

2017-11-27

Bayesian structural equation modeling (BSEM) has recently gained popularity because it enables researchers to fit complex models and solve some of the issues often encountered in classical maximum likelihood estimation, such as nonconvergence and inadmissible solutions. An important component of any Bayesian analysis is the prior distribution of the unknown model parameters. Often, researchers rely on default priors, which are constructed in an automatic fashion without requiring substantive prior information. However, the prior can have a serious influence on the estimation of the model parameters, which affects the mean squared error, bias, coverage rates, and quantiles of the estimates. In this article, we investigate the performance of three different default priors: noninformative improper priors, vague proper priors, and empirical Bayes priors-with the latter being novel in the BSEM literature. Based on a simulation study, we find that these three default BSEM methods may perform very differently, especially with small samples. A careful prior sensitivity analysis is therefore needed when performing a default BSEM analysis. For this purpose, we provide a practical step-by-step guide for practitioners to conducting a prior sensitivity analysis in default BSEM. Our recommendations are illustrated using a well-known case study from the structural equation modeling literature, and all code for conducting the prior sensitivity analysis is available in the online supplemental materials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Modifications of animal response to Partial Body Hyperthermia (PBH) as a potent radioprotector: Relationships with animal age and sex

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alya, G.

2002-04-01

Currently available radio protectors are poorly tolerated in man. Thus, the use of the most promising agent, WR 2721 [S-2 (3-aminoprophylamino) ethylphosphoro thioic acid] has been limited due to its poor clinical tolerance. In a search for less toxic and/or without side effects agents, radioprotective effects of partial body hyperthermia (PBH) have been tested on Wistar rats of both sexes at different ages. Groups of male and female rats were irradiated [Total Body Irradiation (TBI)] in a perforated plexi-glass boxes using a 60 Co source. The irradiation dose was 9 Gy which is considered as a lethal dose of 100% of animals (LD 1 00) (the dose rate was = 80-85 rad.min -1 ). Irradiated animals were monitored for 2 weeks at least, and percentage of survival was calculated on the control groups. Partial Body Hyperthermia was carried out 20 hours prior to irradiation of 200-250 gr rats (by immersion of lower parts and legs of rats, in water bath at 43 centigrade for 1 h). Irradiated PBH treated animals were monitored for 30 days after irradiation and the survival percentage was calculated. Our results showed that PBH treatment, can be considered as a radioprotector. Moreover, the results of the undertaken study showed that this response changes as a function of animal age and sex. Thus, PBH was more effective on young rats (males and females), However, after 30 days of irradiation, PBH was more effective on males than females. The conclusion reached by this study is that animal response to PBH decreases with aging. Despite that the precise mechanism by which PBH induces retardation of death and enhance survival of rats is still obscure, Hyperthermia is known to enhance the immune response. Literature reveals that the productions of cytokines such as interferons and interleukins as well as natural killer cell activity are enhanced after hyperthermia. (author)

Dosimetry, instrumentation and exposure chambers for dc magnetic field studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tenforde, T.S.

1979-03-01

The principal objective of this report is to describe in detail an exposure chamber that was developed at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for automated, noninvasive studies of rodent physiology during exposure to high DC magnetic fields. A second objective is to discuss some of the unique instrumentation problems that must be overcome in order to record bioelectric signals from laboratory animals in the presence of a magnetic field. Finally, a description will be given of the various dosimetry techniques that can be employed for quantitation of magnetic field strength

Instrument performance evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swinth, K.L.

1993-03-01

Deficiencies exist in both the performance and the quality of health physics instruments. Recognizing the implications of such deficiencies for the protection of workers and the public, in the early 1980s the DOE and the NRC encouraged the development of a performance standard and established a program to test a series of instruments against criteria in the standard. The purpose of the testing was to establish the practicality of the criteria in the standard, to determine the performance of a cross section of available instruments, and to establish a testing capability. Over 100 instruments were tested, resulting in a practical standard and an understanding of the deficiencies in available instruments. In parallel with the instrument testing, a value-impact study clearly established the benefits of implementing a formal testing program. An ad hoc committee also met several times to establish recommendations for the voluntary implementation of a testing program based on the studies and the performance standard. For several reasons, a formal program did not materialize. Ongoing tests and studies have supported the development of specific instruments and have helped specific clients understand the performance of their instruments. The purpose of this presentation is to trace the history of instrument testing to date and suggest the benefits of a centralized formal program

Combined effect of hormones and radioprotective substances in case of animal exposure to ionizing radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benke, D.; Bodo-Sekejchidinch, K.; Ehanta, A.

1982-01-01

The effect of anabolic and other relative preparations used in the national therapy in combination with radioprotective compounds tested earlier in experiments with animals was studied. The investigations were carried out on albino male mice of CFLP line. X-ray exposure was carried out with the help of a TNH-250 type unit for deep irradiation (630 R and 800 R doses). For gamma irradiation, a 60 Co facility was utilized. AET radioprotective compounds (S 2 -beta-aminoethylisothiouronium-bromide-hydrobromide) and ixeprin (bis-alfa-propinyl-glycyl-sodium disulfide) were used. Nerobolyl (norandrostenolon-phenylpropionate) and retabolyl (norandrostenolon-decanoat) were studied among anabolic hormones. Experiments were also conducted using retandrolom (testosteron-phenylpropionate) which did not belong to anabolics but was used in oncology as a supporting agent. Three days prior to the irradiation, intraperitoneal injections of nerobolyl (10 mg/kg) dissolved in oil for injections, ratabolyl (50 mg/kg) and retandrol (25 mg/kg) began to be made to groups of animals, 15 mice in each. Control groups received intraperitoneally only 0.5 ml of oil. In another series of experiments hormones were used even after the irradiation. Radioprotectors were introduced, as a rule, 20 min. prior to the radiation exposure. Ixeprin, as an effective radioprotector, was introduced 3 hours after the irradiation. When evaluating the results of the experiments, the number of animals which survived during 30 days after the irradiation and the rate of mortality were taken into consideration, gain in weig was also taken into accout. A single introduction of an anabolic in combination with a radioprotector (AET or ixeprin) usually did not contribute to an increase of the survival rate of irradiated animals

Cervical shaping in curved root canals: comparison of the efficiency of two endodontic instruments

OpenAIRE

Busquim Sandra Soares Kühne; Santos Marcelo dos

2002-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine the removal of dentin produced by number 25 (0.08) Flare files (Quantec Flare Series, Analytic Endodontics, Glendora, California, USA) and number 1 e 2 Gates-Glidden burs (Dentsply - Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland), in the mesio-buccal and mesio-lingual root canals, respectively, of extracted human permanent inferior molars, by means of measuring the width of dentinal walls prior and after instrumentation. The obtained values were compared. Due to th...

Instrumentation of the thermal/structural interactions in situ tests at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Munson, D.E. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States). Repository Isolation Systems Div.; Hoag, D.L.; Blankenship, D.A.; DeYonge, W.F.; Schiermeister, D.M. [RE/SPEC, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Jones, R.L.; Baird, G.T. [Tech Reps, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

1997-04-01

The Department of Energy has constructed the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to develop the technology for the disposal of radioactive waste from defense programs. Sandia National Laboratories had the responsibility for the experimental activities at the WIPP and fielded several large-scale Thermal/Structural Interactions (TSI) in situ tests to validate techniques used to predict repository performance. The instrumentation of these tests involved the placement of over 4,200 gages including room closure gages, borehole extensometers, stress gages, borehole inclinometers, fixed reference gages, borehole strain gages, thermocouples, thermal flux meters, heater power gages, environmental gages, and ventilation gages. Most of the gages were remotely read instruments that were monitored by an automated data acquisition system, but manually read instruments were also used to provide early deformation information and to provide a redundancy of measurement for the remote gages. Instruments were selected that could operate in the harsh environment of the test rooms and that could accommodate the ranges of test room responses predicted by pretest calculations. Instruments were tested in the field prior to installation at the WIPP site and were modified to improve their performance. Other modifications were made to gages as the TSI tests progressed using knowledge gained from test maintenance. Quality assurance procedures were developed for all aspects of instrumentation including calibration, installation, and maintenance. The instrumentation performed exceptionally well and has produced a large quantity of quality information.

Instrumentation of the thermal/structural interactions in situ tests at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munson, D.E.; Jones, R.L.; Baird, G.T.

1997-04-01

The Department of Energy has constructed the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to develop the technology for the disposal of radioactive waste from defense programs. Sandia National Laboratories had the responsibility for the experimental activities at the WIPP and fielded several large-scale Thermal/Structural Interactions (TSI) in situ tests to validate techniques used to predict repository performance. The instrumentation of these tests involved the placement of over 4,200 gages including room closure gages, borehole extensometers, stress gages, borehole inclinometers, fixed reference gages, borehole strain gages, thermocouples, thermal flux meters, heater power gages, environmental gages, and ventilation gages. Most of the gages were remotely read instruments that were monitored by an automated data acquisition system, but manually read instruments were also used to provide early deformation information and to provide a redundancy of measurement for the remote gages. Instruments were selected that could operate in the harsh environment of the test rooms and that could accommodate the ranges of test room responses predicted by pretest calculations. Instruments were tested in the field prior to installation at the WIPP site and were modified to improve their performance. Other modifications were made to gages as the TSI tests progressed using knowledge gained from test maintenance. Quality assurance procedures were developed for all aspects of instrumentation including calibration, installation, and maintenance. The instrumentation performed exceptionally well and has produced a large quantity of quality information

A Systematic Review of Instruments to Assess Organizational Readiness for Knowledge Translation in Health Care

Science.gov (United States)

Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Attieh, Randa; Ghandour, El Kebir; Légaré, France; Ouimet, Mathieu; Estabrooks, Carole A.; Grimshaw, Jeremy

2014-01-01

Background The translation of research into practices has been incomplete. Organizational readiness for change (ORC) is a potential facilitator of effective knowledge translation (KT). However we know little about the best way to assess ORC. Therefore, we sought to systematically review ORC measurement instruments. Methods We searched for published studies in bibliographic databases (Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Web of Science, etc.) up to November 1st, 2012. We included publications that developed ORC measures and/or empirically assessed ORC using an instrument at the organizational level in the health care context. We excluded articles if they did not refer specifically to ORC, did not concern the health care domain or were limited to individual-level change readiness. We focused on identifying the psychometric properties of instruments that were developed to assess readiness in an organization prior to implementing KT interventions in health care. We used the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing to assess the psychometric properties of identified ORC measurement instruments. Findings We found 26 eligible instruments described in 39 publications. According to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, 18 (69%) of a total of 26 measurement instruments presented both validity and reliability criteria. The Texas Christian University –ORC (TCU-ORC) scale reported the highest instrument validity with a score of 4 out of 4. Only one instrument, namely the Modified Texas Christian University – Director version (TCU-ORC-D), reported a reliability score of 2 out of 3. No information was provided regarding the reliability and validity of five (19%) instruments. Conclusion Our findings indicate that there are few valid and reliable ORC measurement instruments that could be applied to KT in the health care sector. The TCU-ORC instrument presents the best evidence in terms of validity testing. Future studies using this instrument could

Factors influencing interactions in zoos: animal-keeper relationship, animal-public interactions and solitary animals groups

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Quintavalle Pastorino

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Interactions that animals experience can have a significant influence on their health and welfare. These interactions can occur between animals themselves, but also between animals and keepers, and animals and the public. Human and non-human animals come into contact with each other in a variety of settings, and wherever there is contact there is the opportunity for interaction to take place. Interaction with companion animals are well known, but human–animal interaction (HAR (Hosey, 2008 also occurs in the context of farms (Hemsworth and Gonyou, 1997; Hemsworth, 2003, laboratories (Chang and Hart, 2002, zoos (Kreger and Mench, 1995 and even the wild (e.g. Cassini, 2001. This project proposes a permanent monitoring scheme to record animal-human interactions and animal-animal interactions in zoos. This will be accompanied by a survey of animal personality for welfare, husbandry, breeding programs and reintroduction purposes. The pilot project is currently based on direct monitoring of animal behaviour, use of time lapse cameras and animal personality questionnaires completed by experienced keepers. The goal of this project is to create a network between zoos to explore the aforementioned interactions to produce husbandry protocols and explore personality and behavioural traits in multiple species. We present provisional data regarding polar bear (Fasano Zoosafari, Italy, Sumatran tigers, Amur tigers and Asiatic lion (ZSL London and Whipsnade zoo interactions with humans and conspecifics. This data is collected across a broad range of environmental conditions and outlines the monitoring protocols developed to collect this data. The first year data show the great adaptability of these species to ex situ environments, low or absent negative impact of visitors’ presence and the relevance of individual personality in these interactions.

The ChemCam Instrument Suite on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover: Body Unit and Combined System Tests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wiens, Roger C.; Barraclough, Bruce; Barkley, Walter C.; Bender, Steve; Bernardin, John; Bultman, Nathan; Clanton, Robert C.; Clegg, Samuel; Delapp, Dorothea; Dingler, Robert; Enemark, Don; Flores, Mike; Hale, Thomas; Lanza, Nina; Lasue, Jeremie; Latino, Joseph; Little, Cynthia; Morrison, Leland; Nelson, Tony; Romero, Frank; Salazar, Steven; Stiglich, Ralph; Storms, Steven; Trujillo, Tanner; Ulibarri, Mike; Vaniman, David; Whitaker, Robert; Witt, James; Maurice, Sylvestre; Bouye, Marc; Cousin, Agnes; Cros, Alain; D'Uston, Claude; Forni, Olivier; Gasnault, Olivier; Kouach, Driss; Lasue, Jeremie; Pares, Laurent; Poitrasson, Franck; Striebig, Nicolas; Thocaven, Jean-Jacques; Saccoccio, Muriel; Perez, Rene; Bell, James F. III; Hays, Charles; Blaney, Diana; DeFlores, Lauren; Elliott, Tom; Kan, Ed; Limonadi, Daniel; Lindensmith, Chris; Miller, Ed; Reiter, Joseph W.; Roberts, Tom; Simmonds, John J.; Warner, Noah; Blank, Jennifer; Bridges, Nathan; Cais, Phillippe; Clark, Benton; Cremers, David; Dyar, M. Darby; Fabre, Cecile; Herkenhoff, Ken; Kirkland, Laurel; Landis, David; Langevin, Yves; Lanza, Nina; Newsom, Horton; Ollila, Ann; LaRocca, Frank; Ott, Melanie; Mangold, Nicolas; Manhes, Gerard; Mauchien, Patrick; Blank, Jennifer; McKay, Christopher; Mooney, Joe; Provost, Cheryl; Morris, Richard V.; Sautter, Violaine; Sautter, Violaine; Waterbury, Rob; Wong-Swanson, Belinda; Barraclough, Bruce; Bender, Steve; Vaniman, David

2012-01-01

The ChemCam instrument suite on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity provides remote compositional information using the first laser-induced breakdown spectrometer (LIBS) on a planetary mission, and provides sample texture and morphology data using a remote micro-imager (RMI). Overall, ChemCam supports MSL with five capabilities: remote classification of rock and soil characteristics; quantitative elemental compositions including light elements like hydrogen and some elements to which LIBS is uniquely sensitive (e.g., Li, Be, Rb, Sr, Ba); remote removal of surface dust and depth profiling through surface coatings; context imaging; and passive spectroscopy over the 240-905 nm range. ChemCam is built in two sections: The mast unit, consisting of a laser, telescope, RMI, and associated electronics, resides on the rover's mast, and is described in a companion paper. ChemCam's body unit, which is mounted in the body of the rover, comprises an optical de-multiplexer, three spectrometers, detectors, their coolers, and associated electronics and data handling logic. Additional instrument components include a 6 m optical fiber which transfers the LIBS light from the telescope to the body unit, and a set of onboard calibration targets. ChemCam was integrated and tested at Los Alamos National Laboratory where it also underwent LIBS calibration with 69 geological standards prior to integration with the rover. Post-integration testing used coordinated mast and instrument commands, including LIBS line scans on rock targets during system-level thermal-vacuum tests. In this paper we describe the body unit, optical fiber, and calibration targets, and the assembly, testing, and verification of the instrument prior to launch. (authors)

The Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM) pulling its weight in the field of draught animal research.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearson, R A; Lawrence, P R; Smith, A J

1996-02-01

Draught animal research carried out by scientists at the Centre for Topical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM) in Edinburgh and overseas is reviewed and the major findings are reported. The remit for the work has been to provide basic information on draught animals which can be applied by researchers and extension workers to their own geographic situations. Instrumentation is described which has been designed and manufactured to assist in the measurement of draught animal performance, particularly work output and energy consumption. Energy requirements of cattle, buffaloes and equids for work and ways in which these can be met from feed intake and body reserves reported. Studies on heat stress and diseases, 2 of the constraints to work performance, are also described.

Does size matter? Animal units and animal unit months

Science.gov (United States)

Lamar Smith; Joe Hicks; Scott Lusk; Mike Hemmovich; Shane Green; Sarah McCord; Mike Pellant; John Mitchell; Judith Dyess; Jim Sprinkle; Amanda Gearhart; Sherm Karl; Mike Hannemann; Ken Spaeth; Jason Karl; Matt Reeves; Dave Pyke; Jordan Spaak; Andrew Brischke; Del Despain; Matt Phillippi; Dave Weixelmann; Alan Bass; Jessie Page; Lori Metz; David Toledo; Emily Kachergis

2017-01-01

The concepts of animal units, animal unit months, and animal unit equivalents have long been used as standards for range management planning, estimating stocking rates, reporting actual use, assessing grazing fees, ranch appraisal, and other purposes. Increasing size of cattle on rangelands has led some to suggest that the definition of animal units and animal unit...

A Decade of Progress toward Ending the Intensive Confinement of Farm Animals in the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Shields, Sara; Shapiro, Paul; Rowan, Andrew

2017-05-15

In this paper, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) farm animal protection work over the preceding decade is described from the perspective of the organization. Prior to 2002, there were few legal protections for animals on the farm, and in 2005, a new campaign at the HSUS began to advance state ballot initiatives throughout the country, with a decisive advancement in California (Proposition 2) that paved the way for further progress. Combining legislative work with undercover farm and slaughterhouse investigations, litigation and corporate engagement, the HSUS and fellow animal protection organizations have made substantial progress in transitioning the veal, pork and egg industries away from intensive confinement systems that keep the animals in cages and crates. Investigations have become an important tool for demonstrating widespread inhumane practices, building public support and convincing the retail sector to publish meaningful animal welfare policies. While federal legislation protecting animals on the farm stalled, there has been steady state-by-state progress, and this is complemented by major brands such as McDonald's and Walmart pledging to purchase only from suppliers using cage-free and crate-free animal housing systems. The evolution of societal expectations regarding animals has helped propel the recent wave of progress and may also be driven, in part, by the work of animal protection organizations.

A Decade of Progress toward Ending the Intensive Confinement of Farm Animals in the United States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara Shields

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS farm animal protection work over the preceding decade is described from the perspective of the organization. Prior to 2002, there were few legal protections for animals on the farm, and in 2005, a new campaign at the HSUS began to advance state ballot initiatives throughout the country, with a decisive advancement in California (Proposition 2 that paved the way for further progress. Combining legislative work with undercover farm and slaughterhouse investigations, litigation and corporate engagement, the HSUS and fellow animal protection organizations have made substantial progress in transitioning the veal, pork and egg industries away from intensive confinement systems that keep the animals in cages and crates. Investigations have become an important tool for demonstrating widespread inhumane practices, building public support and convincing the retail sector to publish meaningful animal welfare policies. While federal legislation protecting animals on the farm stalled, there has been steady state-by-state progress, and this is complemented by major brands such as McDonald’s and Walmart pledging to purchase only from suppliers using cage-free and crate-free animal housing systems. The evolution of societal expectations regarding animals has helped propel the recent wave of progress and may also be driven, in part, by the work of animal protection organizations.

Instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Decreton, M.

2000-01-01

SCK-CEN's research and development programme on instrumentation aims at evaluating the potentials of new instrumentation technologies under the severe constraints of a nuclear application. It focuses on the tolerance of sensors to high radiation doses, including optical fibre sensors, and on the related intelligent data processing needed to cope with the nuclear constraints. Main achievements in these domains in 1999 are summarised

Learning Anime Studio

CERN Document Server

Troftgruben, Chad

2014-01-01

Anime Studio is your complete animation program to help you create 2D movies, cartoons, anime, and cut out animations. You can create your own animated shorts and use Anime Studio to produce cartoon animations for film, video, or streaming over the Web, which can be enjoyed on YouTube, Vimeo, and other popular sites. Anime Studio is great for hobbyists and professionals alike, combining tools for both illustration and animation. With Anime Studio's easy-to-use interface, you will be creating an animated masterpiece in no time. This practical, step-by-step guide will provide you with a structur

Standard test method for verifying the alignment of X-Ray diffraction instrumentation for residual stress measurement

CERN Document Server

American Society for Testing and Materials. Philadelphia

2010-01-01

1.1 This test method covers the preparation and use of a flat stress-free test specimen for the purpose of checking the systematic error caused by instrument misalignment or sample positioning in X-ray diffraction residual stress measurement, or both. 1.2 This test method is applicable to apparatus intended for X-ray diffraction macroscopic residual stress measurement in polycrystalline samples employing measurement of a diffraction peak position in the high-back reflection region, and in which the θ, 2θ, and ψ rotation axes can be made to coincide (see Fig. 1). 1.3 This test method describes the use of iron powder which has been investigated in round-robin studies for the purpose of verifying the alignment of instrumentation intended for stress measurement in ferritic or martensitic steels. To verify instrument alignment prior to stress measurement in other metallic alloys and ceramics, powder having the same or lower diffraction angle as the material to be measured should be prepared in similar fashion...

Offending prior to first psychiatric contact

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stevens, H; Agerbo, E; Dean, K

2012-01-01

There is a well-established association between psychotic disorders and subsequent offending but the extent to which those who develop psychosis might have a prior history of offending is less clear. Little is known about whether the association between illness and offending exists in non-psychot......-psychotic disorders. The aim of this study was to determine whether the association between mental disorder and offending is present prior to illness onset in psychotic and non-psychotic disorders.......There is a well-established association between psychotic disorders and subsequent offending but the extent to which those who develop psychosis might have a prior history of offending is less clear. Little is known about whether the association between illness and offending exists in non...

Performing the Super Instrument

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kallionpaa, Maria

2016-01-01

can empower performers by producing super instrument works that allow the concert instrument to become an ensemble controlled by a single player. The existing instrumental skills of the performer can be multiplied and the qualities of regular acoustic instruments extended or modified. Such a situation......The genre of contemporary classical music has seen significant innovation and research related to new super, hyper, and hybrid instruments, which opens up a vast palette of expressive potential. An increasing number of composers, performers, instrument designers, engineers, and computer programmers...... have become interested in different ways of “supersizing” acoustic instruments in order to open up previously-unheard instrumental sounds. Super instruments vary a great deal but each has a transformative effect on the identity and performance practice of the performing musician. Furthermore, composers...

Terminology for pregnancy loss prior to viability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolte, A M; Bernardi, L A; Christiansen, O B

2015-01-01

Pregnancy loss prior to viability is common and research in the field is extensive. Unfortunately, terminology in the literature is inconsistent. The lack of consensus regarding nomenclature and classification of pregnancy loss prior to viability makes it difficult to compare study results from...... different centres. In our opinion, terminology and definitions should be based on clinical findings, and when possible, transvaginal ultrasound. With this Early Pregnancy Consensus Statement, it is our goal to provide clear and consistent terminology for pregnancy loss prior to viability....

Ground Water Chemistry Changes before Major Earthquakes and Possible Effects on Animals

Science.gov (United States)

Grant, Rachel A.; Halliday, Tim; Balderer, Werner P.; Leuenberger, Fanny; Newcomer, Michelle; Cyr, Gary; Freund, Friedemann T.

2011-01-01

Prior to major earthquakes many changes in the environment have been documented. Though often subtle and fleeting, these changes are noticeable at the land surface, in water, in the air, and in the ionosphere. Key to understanding these diverse pre-earthquake phenomena has been the discovery that, when tectonic stresses build up in the Earth’s crust, highly mobile electronic charge carriers are activated. These charge carriers are defect electrons on the oxygen anion sublattice of silicate minerals, known as positive holes, chemically equivalent to O− in a matrix of O2−. They are remarkable inasmuch as they can flow out of the stressed rock volume and spread into the surrounding unstressed rocks. Travelling fast and far the positive holes cause a range of follow-on reactions when they arrive at the Earth’s surface, where they cause air ionization, injecting massive amounts of primarily positive air ions into the lower atmosphere. When they arrive at the rock-water interface, they act as •O radicals, oxidizing water to hydrogen peroxide. Other reactions at the rock-water interface include the oxidation or partial oxidation of dissolved organic compounds, leading to changes of their fluorescence spectra. Some compounds thus formed may be irritants or toxins to certain species of animals. Common toads, Bufo bufo, were observed to exhibit a highly unusual behavior prior to a M6.3 earthquake that hit L’Aquila, Italy, on April 06, 2009: a few days before the seismic event the toads suddenly disappeared from their breeding site in a small lake about 75 km from the epicenter and did not return until after the aftershock series. In this paper we discuss potential changes in groundwater chemistry prior to seismic events and their possible effects on animals. PMID:21776211

Ground Water Chemistry Changes before Major Earthquakes and Possible Effects on Animals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Friedemann T. Freund

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Prior to major earthquakes many changes in the environment have been documented. Though often subtle and fleeting, these changes are noticeable at the land surface, in water, in the air, and in the ionosphere. Key to understanding these diverse pre-earthquake phenomena has been the discovery that, when tectonic stresses build up in the Earth’s crust, highly mobile electronic charge carriers are activated. These charge carriers are defect electrons on the oxygen anion sublattice of silicate minerals, known as positive holes, chemically equivalent to O– in a matrix of O2–. They are remarkable inasmuch as they can flow out of the stressed rock volume and spread into the surrounding unstressed rocks. Travelling fast and far the positive holes cause a range of follow-on reactions when they arrive at the Earth’s surface, where they cause air ionization, injecting massive amounts of primarily positive air ions into the lower atmosphere. When they arrive at the rock-water interface, they act as •O radicals, oxidizing water to hydrogen peroxide. Other reactions at the rock-water interface include the oxidation or partial oxidation of dissolved organic compounds, leading to changes of their fluorescence spectra. Some compounds thus formed may be irritants or toxins to certain species of animals. Common toads, Bufo bufo, were observed to exhibit a highly unusual behavior prior to a M6.3 earthquake that hit L’Aquila, Italy, on April 06, 2009: a few days before the seismic event the toads suddenly disappeared from their breeding site in a small lake about 75 km from the epicenter and did not return until after the aftershock series. In this paper we discuss potential changes in groundwater chemistry prior to seismic events and their possible effects on animals.

Animal movement constraints improve resource selection inference in the presence of telemetry error

Science.gov (United States)

Brost, Brian M.; Hooten, Mevin B.; Hanks, Ephraim M.; Small, Robert J.

2016-01-01

Multiple factors complicate the analysis of animal telemetry location data. Recent advancements address issues such as temporal autocorrelation and telemetry measurement error, but additional challenges remain. Difficulties introduced by complicated error structures or barriers to animal movement can weaken inference. We propose an approach for obtaining resource selection inference from animal location data that accounts for complicated error structures, movement constraints, and temporally autocorrelated observations. We specify a model for telemetry data observed with error conditional on unobserved true locations that reflects prior knowledge about constraints in the animal movement process. The observed telemetry data are modeled using a flexible distribution that accommodates extreme errors and complicated error structures. Although constraints to movement are often viewed as a nuisance, we use constraints to simultaneously estimate and account for telemetry error. We apply the model to simulated data, showing that it outperforms common ad hoc approaches used when confronted with measurement error and movement constraints. We then apply our framework to an Argos satellite telemetry data set on harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) in the Gulf of Alaska, a species that is constrained to move within the marine environment and adjacent coastlines.

Human pavlovian-instrumental transfer.

Science.gov (United States)

Talmi, Deborah; Seymour, Ben; Dayan, Peter; Dolan, Raymond J

2008-01-09

The vigor with which a participant performs actions that produce valuable outcomes is subject to a complex set of motivational influences. Many of these are believed to involve the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, which act as an interface between limbic and motor systems. One prominent class of influences is called pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT), in which the motivational characteristics of a predictor influence the vigor of an action with respect to which it is formally completely independent. We provide a demonstration of behavioral PIT in humans, with an audiovisual predictor of the noncontingent delivery of money inducing participants to perform more avidly an action involving squeezing a handgrip to earn money. Furthermore, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that this enhanced motivation was associated with a trial-by-trial correlation with the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal in the nucleus accumbens and a subject-by-subject correlation with the BOLD signal in the amygdala. Our data dovetails well with the animal literature and sheds light on the neural control of vigor.

Human Pavlovian–Instrumental Transfer

Science.gov (United States)

Talmi, Deborah; Seymour, Ben; Dayan, Peter; Dolan, Raymond J.

2009-01-01

The vigor with which a participant performs actions that produce valuable outcomes is subject to a complex set of motivational influences. Many of these are believed to involve the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, which act as an interface between limbic and motor systems. One prominent class of influences is called pavlovian–instrumental transfer (PIT), in which the motivational characteristics of a predictor influence the vigor of an action with respect to which it is formally completely independent. We provide a demonstration of behavioral PIT in humans, with an audiovisual predictor of the noncontingent delivery of money inducing participants to perform more avidly an action involving squeezing a handgrip to earn money. Furthermore, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that this enhanced motivation was associated with a trial-by-trial correlation with the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal in the nucleus accumbens and a subject-by-subject correlation with the BOLD signal in the amygdala. Our data dovetails well with the animal literature and sheds light on the neural control of vigor. PMID:18184778

Instrumentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Decreton, M

2000-07-01

SCK-CEN's research and development programme on instrumentation aims at evaluating the potentials of new instrumentation technologies under the severe constraints of a nuclear application. It focuses on the tolerance of sensors to high radiation doses, including optical fibre sensors, and on the related intelligent data processing needed to cope with the nuclear constraints. Main achievements in these domains in 1999 are summarised.

VIRUS instrument enclosures

Science.gov (United States)

Prochaska, T.; Allen, R.; Mondrik, N.; Rheault, J. P.; Sauseda, M.; Boster, E.; James, M.; Rodriguez-Patino, M.; Torres, G.; Ham, J.; Cook, E.; Baker, D.; DePoy, Darren L.; Marshall, Jennifer L.; Hill, G. J.; Perry, D.; Savage, R. D.; Good, J. M.; Vattiat, Brian L.

2014-08-01

The Visible Integral-Field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS) instrument will be installed at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope† in the near future. The instrument will be housed in two enclosures that are mounted adjacent to the telescope, via the VIRUS Support Structure (VSS). We have designed the enclosures to support and protect the instrument, to enable servicing of the instrument, and to cool the instrument appropriately while not adversely affecting the dome environment. The system uses simple HVAC air handling techniques in conjunction with thermoelectric and standard glycol heat exchangers to provide efficient heat removal. The enclosures also provide power and data transfer to and from each VIRUS unit, liquid nitrogen cooling to the detectors, and environmental monitoring of the instrument and dome environments. In this paper, we describe the design and fabrication of the VIRUS enclosures and their subsystems.

Spirolit-2 instrument used to test pulmonary ventilation

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuravlev, V. V.

1985-02-01

At the present time, the Spirolit-2 automatic analyzer of main respiratory gases, of the Junkalor Dessau firm, is used to examine parameters of gas exchange, levels of energy expended by man and animals with different degrees of activity. However, the capabilities of this model of the instrument are limited. A method of determining pulmonary ventilation with use of the Spirolit-2 is described. An additional exhalation valve is built into a valve box to which an anesthesia machine rubber bag is attached. Samples are collected into another bag concurrently with the usual tests on the Spirolit-2 instrument. Four to five minutes are sufficient to obtain stable parameters at relative rest of oxygen uptake, determine carbon dioxide output per minute and collect samples in for analysis of exhaled air. The proposed method can furnish information about the dynamics of development of respiratory function of the lungs at virtually any moment with a constant physical load. For this, there must be spare bags to collect samples. Stage-by-stage data can be obtained analogously as to ventilation volume during a step test while determining maximum oxygen uptake.

Animal-Computer Interaction: Animal-Centred, Participatory, and Playful Design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pons, Patricia; Hirskyj-Douglas, Ilyena; Nijholt, Antinus; Cheok, Adrian D.; Spink, Andrew; Riedel, Gernot; Zhou, Liting; Teekens, Lisanne; Albatal, Rami; Gurrin, Cathal

In recent years there has been growing interest in developing technology to improve animal's wellbeing and to support the interaction of animals within the digital world. The field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) considers animals as the end-users of the technology being developed, orienting

Health physics instrument manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupton, E.D.

1978-08-01

The purpose of this manual is to provide apprentice health physics surveyors and other operating groups not directly concerned with radiation detection instruments a working knowledge of the radiation detection and measuring instruments in use at the Laboratory. The characteristics and applications of the instruments are given. Portable instruments, stationary instruments, personnel monitoring instruments, sample counters, and miscellaneous instruments are described. Also, information sheets on calibration sources, procedures, and devices are included. Gamma sources, beta sources, alpha sources, neutron sources, special sources, a gamma calibration device for badge dosimeters, and a calibration device for ionization chambers are described

Field-portable high-resolution EDXRF analysis with HgI2-detector-based instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berry, P.F.; Little, S.R.; Voots, G.R.

1992-01-01

Energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis is well known for its efficient use of x-ray detector technology for simultaneous multielement determination. Low-intensity excitation, such as from a radioisotope source, can thus be employed and has enabled the design of many types of truly portable EDXRF instrumentation. Portable design, however, has not been without significant compromise in analytical performance because of the limited x-ray resolving power of prior detection methods, except by the use of a cryogenically operated detector. The developments we refer to stem from the use of a comparatively new x-ray detection device fabricated from mercuric iodide (HgI 2 ). For this detector, only a modest degree of cooling is required to achieve an energy resolution of > 300 eV. Two field-portable instrument designs of different hand-held measurement probe configurations are available that have applications for industrial quality assurance and environmental screening

Common and emerging infectious diseases in the animal shelter.

Science.gov (United States)

Pesavento, P A; Murphy, B G

2014-03-01

The beneficial role that animal shelters play is unquestionable. An estimated 3 to 4 million animals are cared for or placed in homes each year, and most shelters promote public health and support responsible pet ownership. It is, nonetheless, inevitable that shelters are prime examples of anthropogenic biological instability: even well-run shelters often house transient, displaced, and mixed populations of animals. Many of these animals have received minimal to no prior health care, and some have a history of scavenging or predation to survive. Overcrowding and poor shelter conditions further magnify these inherent risks to create individual, intraspecies, and interspecies stress and provide an environment conducive to exposure to numerous potentially collaborative pathogens. All of these factors can contribute to the evolution and emergence of new pathogens or to alterations in virulence of endemic pathogens. While it is not possible to effectively anticipate the timing or the pathogen type in emergence events, their sites of origin are less enigmatic, and pathologists and diagnosticians who work with sheltered animal populations have recognized several such events in the past decade. This article first considers the contribution of the shelter environment to canine and feline disease. This is followed by summaries of recent research on the pathogenesis of common shelter pathogens, as well as research that has led to the discovery of novel or emerging diseases and the methods that are used for their diagnosis and discovery. For the infectious agents that commonly affect sheltered dogs and cats, including canine distemper virus, canine influenza virus, Streptococcus spp, parvoviruses, feline herpesvirus, feline caliciviruses, and feline infectious peritonitis virus, we present familiar as well as newly recognized lesions associated with infection. Preliminary studies on recently discovered viruses like canine circovirus, canine bocavirus, and feline norovirus

RETHINKING THE ANIMATE, RE-ANIMATING THOUGHT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tim Ingold

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Animism is often described as the imputation of life to inert objects. Such imputation is more typical of people in western societies who dream of finding life on other planets than of indigenous peoples to whom the label of animism has classically been applied. These peoples are united not in their beliefs but in a way of being that is alive and open to a world in continuous birth. In this animic ontology, beings do not propel themselves across a ready-made world but rather issue forth through a world-in-formation, along the lines of their relationships. To its inhabitants this weather-world, embracing both sky and earth, is a source of astonishment but not surprise. Re-animating the ‘western’ tradition of thought means recovering the sense of astonishment banished from offi cial science.

Human-animal chimera: a neuro driven discussion? Comparison of three leading European research countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Cabrera Trujillo, Laura Yenisa; Engel-Glatter, Sabrina

2015-06-01

Research with human-animal chimera raises a number of ethical concerns, especially when neural stem cells are transplanted into the brains of non-human primates (NHPs). Besides animal welfare concerns and ethical issues associated with the use of embryonic stem cells, the research is also regarded as controversial from the standpoint of NHPs developing cognitive or behavioural capabilities that are regarded as "unique" to humans. However, scientists are urging to test new therapeutic approaches for neurological diseases in primate models as they better mimic human physiology than all current animal models. As a response, various countries have issued reports on the topic. Our paper summarizes the ethical issues raised by research with human-animal brain chimeras and compares the relevant regulatory instruments and different recommendations issued in national reports from three important European research nations: Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. We assess and discuss the focus and priorities set by the different reports, review various reasons for and perspectives on the importance of the brain in chimera research, and identify critical points in the reports that warrant further specification and debate.

Animal welfare and use of silkworm as a model animal.

Science.gov (United States)

Sekimizu, N; Paudel, A; Hamamoto, H

2012-08-01

Sacrificing model animals is required for developing effective drugs before being used in human beings. In Japan today, at least 4,210,000 mice and other mammals are sacrificed to a total of 6,140,000 per year for the purpose of medical studies. All the animals treated in Japan, including test animals, are managed under control of "Act on Welfare and Management of Animals". Under the principle of this Act, no person shall kill, injure, or inflict cruelty on animals without due cause. "Animal" addressed in the Act can be defined as a "vertebrate animal". If we can make use of invertebrate animals in testing instead of vertebrate ones, that would be a remarkable solution for the issue of animal welfare. Furthermore, there are numerous advantages of using invertebrate animal models: less space and small equipment are enough for taking care of a large number of animals and thus are cost-effective, they can be easily handled, and many biological processes and genes are conserved between mammals and invertebrates. Today, many invertebrates have been used as animal models, but silkworms have many beneficial traits compared to mammals as well as other insects. In a Genome Pharmaceutical Institute's study, we were able to achieve a lot making use of silkworms as model animals. We would like to suggest that pharmaceutical companies and institutes consider the use of the silkworm as a model animal which is efficacious both for financial value by cost cutting and ethical aspects in animals' welfare.

Current status of animal welfare and animal rights in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Jiaqi; Bayne, Kathryn; Wang, Jianfei

2013-11-01

In the past few years, new social passions have sparked on the Chinese mainland. At the centre of these burgeoning passions is a focus on animal welfare, animal treatment, and even animal rights, by the public and academic sectors. With China's rapid economic changes and greater access to information from around the world, societal awareness of animal issues is rising very fast. Hastening this paradigm shift were several highly public incidents involving animal cruelty, including exposés on bear bile harvesting for traditional Chinese medicine, the thousands of dogs rescued from China's meat trade, and the call to boycott shark fin soup and bird nest soup. This article outlines the current status of campaigning by animal advocates in China (specifically the animal rights movement) from three interlinked perspectives: wildlife conservation, companion animal protection, and laboratory animal protection. By reviewing this campaigning, we attempt to present not only the political and social impact of the concept of animal rights, but also the perceptions of, and challenges to, animal rights activities in China. 2013 FRAME.

Nuclear reactor instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duncombe, E.; McGonigal, G.

1975-01-01

A liquid metal cooled nuclear reactor is described which has an equal number of fuel sub-assemblies and sensing instruments. Each instrument senses temperature and rate of coolant flow of a coolant derived from a group of three sub-assemblies so that an abnormal value for one sub-assembly will be indicated on three instruments thereby providing for redundancy of up to two of the three instruments. The abnormal value may be a precurser to unstable boiling of coolant

Necrophagous diptera associated with wild animal carcasses in southern Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ândrio Z. da Silva

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Necrophagous Diptera associated with wild animal carcasses in southern Brazil. The aim of this study was to acquire a better knowledge concerning the diversity of necrophagous Diptera that develop on wild animal carcasses. For this purpose, the decomposition of six wild animal carcasses was observed in order to collect and identify the main species of necrophagous flies associated with the decomposition process. The carcasses were found on highways near the cities of Pelotas and Capão do Leão in the initial stage of decomposition, with no significant injuries or prior larval activity. Four wild animal models were represented in this study: two specimens of Didelphis albiventris Lund, 1840; two Tupinambis merianae Linnaeus, 1758; one Nothura maculosa Temminck, 1815; and one Cerdocyon thous Linnaeus, 1766. A total of 16,242 flies from 14 species were reared in the laboratory, where Muscidae presented the greatest diversity of necrophagous species. Overall, (i carcasses with larger biomass developed a higher abundance of flies and (ii the necrophagous community was dominated by Calliphoridae, two patterns that were predicted from published literature; and (iii the highest diversity was observed on the smaller carcasses exposed to the lowest temperatures, a pattern that may have been caused by the absence of the generalist predator Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann, 1819. (iv An UPGMA analysis revealed a similar pattern of clusters of fly communities, where the same species were structuring the groupings.

Neutron activation analysis of NBS oyster tissue (SRM 1566) and IAEA animal bone (H-5)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lepel, E.A.; Laul, J.C.

1984-03-01

Instrumental and radiochemical neutron activation analysis (INAA and RNAA) were employed to measure about 37 major, minor, and trace elements in two standard reference materials: oyster tissue (SRM 1566) supplied by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and animal bone (H-5) supplied by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Wherever the comparison exists, our data show excellent agreement with accepted values for each SRM. These SRM's are useful as reference standards for the analysis of biological materials. Additionally, the chondritic normalized rare earth element pattern of animal bone behaves as a smooth function of the ionic radii, as previously observed for biological materials

Reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of Gaussian priors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vaart, van der A.W.; Zanten, van J.H.; Clarke, B.; Ghosal, S.

2008-01-01

We review definitions and properties of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces attached to Gaussian variables and processes, with a view to applications in nonparametric Bayesian statistics using Gaussian priors. The rate of contraction of posterior distributions based on Gaussian priors can be described

Seeing the animal

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Harfeld, Jes Lynning; Cornou, Cecile; Kornum, Anna

2016-01-01

This article discusses the notion that the invisibility of the animalness of the animal constitutes a fundamental obstacle to change within current production systems. It is discussed whether housing animals in environments that resemble natural habitats could lead to a re-animalization...... of the animals, a higher appreciation of their moral significance, and thereby higher standards of animal welfare. The basic claim is that experiencing the animals in their evolutionary and environmental context would make it harder to objectify animals as mere bioreactors and production systems. It is argued...... that the historic objectification of animals within intensive animal production can only be reversed if animals are given the chance to express themselves as they are and not as we see them through the tunnel visions of economy and quantifiable welfare assessment parameters....

Astronomical Instruments in India

Science.gov (United States)

Sarma, Sreeramula Rajeswara

The earliest astronomical instruments used in India were the gnomon and the water clock. In the early seventh century, Brahmagupta described ten types of instruments, which were adopted by all subsequent writers with minor modifications. Contact with Islamic astronomy in the second millennium AD led to a radical change. Sanskrit texts began to lay emphasis on the importance of observational instruments. Exclusive texts on instruments were composed. Islamic instruments like the astrolabe were adopted and some new types of instruments were developed. Production and use of these traditional instruments continued, along with the cultivation of traditional astronomy, up to the end of the nineteenth century.

Fostering Kinship with Animals: Animal Portraiture in Humane Education

Science.gov (United States)

Kalof, Linda; Zammit-Lucia, Joe; Bell, Jessica; Granter, Gina

2016-01-01

Visual depictions of animals can alter human perceptions of, emotional responses to, and attitudes toward animals. Our study addressed the potential of a slideshow designed to activate emotional responses to animals to foster feelings of kinship with them. The personal meaning map measured changes in perceptions of animals. The participants were…

Prior Knowledge Assessment Guide

Science.gov (United States)

2014-12-01

assessment in a reasonable amount of time. Hands-on assessments can be extremely diverse in makeup and administration depending on the subject matter...DEVELOPING AND USING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENTS TO TAILOR TRAINING D-3 ___ Brush and scrub ___ Orchards ___ Rice

Single stage reduction and stabilization of basilar invagination after failed prior fusion surgery in children with Down's syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Hedequist, Daniel; Bekelis, Kimon; Emans, John; Proctor, Mark R

2010-02-15

We describe an innovative single-stage reduction and stabilization technique using modern cervical instrumentation. We hypothesis modern instrumentation has made more aggressive surgical corrections possible and has reduced the need for transoral resection of the odontoid and traction reduction in children with basilar invagination. Craniocervical junction abnormalities, including atlantoaxial instability and progressive basilar invagination, are relatively common phenomenon in Down's syndrome patients, and can lead to chronic progressive neurologic deficits, catastrophic injury, and death. This patient population also can be a difficult one in which to perform successful stabilization and fusion. We reviewed the records and films on 2 children with Down's syndrome and atlantoaxial instability who had undergone prior occipital-cervical fusion and then presented with symptomatic progressive basilar invagination due to atlantoaxial displacement. In both cases, the children had progressive symptoms of spinal cord and brain stem compression. Multiple approaches for surgical correction, including preoperative traction and transoral odontoid resection, were considered, but ultimately it was elected to perform a single stage posterior operation. In both patients, we performed fusion takedown, intraoperative realignment with reduction of the basilar invagination, and stabilization using modern occipito-cervical instrumentation. In both children, excellent cranio-cervical realignment was achieved; along with successful fusion and improvement in clinical symptoms. In this article we will discuss the clinical cases and review the background of craniocervical junction abnormalities in Down's syndrome patients. We hypothesis modern instrumentation has made more aggressive surgical corrections possible and has reduced the need for transoral resection of the odontoid and traction reduction in children with basilar invagination.

In vivo small animal imaging: Current status and future prospects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kagadis, George C.; Loudos, George; Katsanos, Konstantinos; Langer, Steve G.; Nikiforidis, George C.

2010-01-01

The use of small animal models in basic and preclinical sciences constitutes an integral part of testing new pharmaceutical agents prior to commercial translation to clinical practice. Whole-body small animal imaging is a particularly elegant and cost-effective experimental platform for the timely validation and commercialization of novel agents from the bench to the bedside. Biomedical imaging is now listed along with genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics as an integral part of biological and medical sciences. Miniaturized versions of clinical diagnostic modalities, including but not limited to microcomputed tomography, micromagnetic resonance tomography, microsingle-photon-emission tomography, micropositron-emission tomography, optical imaging, digital angiography, and ultrasound, have all greatly improved our investigative abilities to longitudinally study various experimental models of human disease in mice and rodents. After an exhaustive literature search, the authors present a concise and critical review of in vivo small animal imaging, focusing on currently available modalities as well as emerging imaging technologies on one side and molecularly targeted contrast agents on the other. Aforementioned scientific topics are analyzed in the context of cancer angiogenesis and innovative antiangiogenic strategies under-the-way to the clinic. Proposed hybrid approaches for diagnosis and targeted site-specific therapy are highlighted to offer an intriguing glimpse of the future.

Fractional Gaussian noise: Prior specification and model comparison

KAUST Repository

Sørbye, Sigrunn Holbek

2017-07-07

Fractional Gaussian noise (fGn) is a stationary stochastic process used to model antipersistent or persistent dependency structures in observed time series. Properties of the autocovariance function of fGn are characterised by the Hurst exponent (H), which, in Bayesian contexts, typically has been assigned a uniform prior on the unit interval. This paper argues why a uniform prior is unreasonable and introduces the use of a penalised complexity (PC) prior for H. The PC prior is computed to penalise divergence from the special case of white noise and is invariant to reparameterisations. An immediate advantage is that the exact same prior can be used for the autocorrelation coefficient ϕ(symbol) of a first-order autoregressive process AR(1), as this model also reflects a flexible version of white noise. Within the general setting of latent Gaussian models, this allows us to compare an fGn model component with AR(1) using Bayes factors, avoiding the confounding effects of prior choices for the two hyperparameters H and ϕ(symbol). Among others, this is useful in climate regression models where inference for underlying linear or smooth trends depends heavily on the assumed noise model.

Fractional Gaussian noise: Prior specification and model comparison

KAUST Repository

Sø rbye, Sigrunn Holbek; Rue, Haavard

2017-01-01

Fractional Gaussian noise (fGn) is a stationary stochastic process used to model antipersistent or persistent dependency structures in observed time series. Properties of the autocovariance function of fGn are characterised by the Hurst exponent (H), which, in Bayesian contexts, typically has been assigned a uniform prior on the unit interval. This paper argues why a uniform prior is unreasonable and introduces the use of a penalised complexity (PC) prior for H. The PC prior is computed to penalise divergence from the special case of white noise and is invariant to reparameterisations. An immediate advantage is that the exact same prior can be used for the autocorrelation coefficient ϕ(symbol) of a first-order autoregressive process AR(1), as this model also reflects a flexible version of white noise. Within the general setting of latent Gaussian models, this allows us to compare an fGn model component with AR(1) using Bayes factors, avoiding the confounding effects of prior choices for the two hyperparameters H and ϕ(symbol). Among others, this is useful in climate regression models where inference for underlying linear or smooth trends depends heavily on the assumed noise model.

Instrumentation for characterizing materials and composed semiconductors for ionizing radiation detectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paschoal, Arquimedes J.A.; Leite, Adolfo M.B.; Nazzre, Fabio V.B.; Santos, Luiz A.P.

2007-01-01

The purpose of this work is the development of instrumentation for characterizing some type of ionizing radiation detectors. Those detectors are being manufactured by the Nuclear Instrumentation Laboratory at CRCN/Recife and can be used both on photon beam and with particles. Such detectors consist of semiconductor material in the form of films generated by oxide growing or by means of semiconductor material deposition in a substrate. Those materials can be made of metals, semi-metals, composites or semiconductor polymers. Prior to expose those detectors to ionizing radiation, it must be physically and electrically characterized. In this intention it was developed an electromechanical system. An electrical circuit was built to measure the signal from the detector and another circuit to control the movement of four probes (4-points technique) by using a stepper motor and the micro stepping technique avoiding damage to the detector. This system can be of interest to researchers that work with a sort of semiconductor materials in the form of thin film and in nanotechnological processes aiming the design of radiation ionizing detectors. (author)

Instrumentation a reader

CERN Document Server

Pope, P

1990-01-01

This book contains a selection of papers and articles in instrumentation previously pub­ lished in technical periodicals and journals of learned societies. Our selection has been made to illustrate aspects of current practice and applications of instrumentation. The book does not attempt to be encyclopaedic in its coverage of the subject, but to provide some examples of general transduction techniques, of the sensing of particular measurands, of components of instrumentation systems and of instrumentation practice in two very different environments, the food industry and the nuclear power industry. We have made the selection particularly to provide papers appropriate to the study of the Open University course T292 Instrumentation. The papers have been chosen so that the book covers a wide spectrum of instrumentation techniques. Because of this, the book should be of value not only to students of instrumen­ tation, but also to practising engineers and scientists wishing to glean ideas from areas of instrumen...

Gaps in US Animal Welfare Law for Laboratory Animals: Perspectives From an Animal Law Attorney.

Science.gov (United States)

Frasch, Pamela D

2016-05-01

The use of animals in biomedical, toxicological, and basic research has been common practice, and a tool for scientists and researchers, for many years. And yet, serious conflict continues to exist between those who believe that the use of animals in research will yield scientific results that benefit humans and those who believe such practices are unethical regardless of use or outcome. High-profile undercover cases have further raised public awareness and have put the entire industry under pressure to be transparent, accountable, and aggressive in its adoption of reduction, refinement, and replacement (3R) principles. Many animal law attorneys are deeply frustrated by what they see as weak US laws that are unevenly enforced, especially when compared with legal advances in other countries and regions. This article (1) explores those gaps in US animal welfare laws with an emphasis on the Animal Welfare Act, (2) argues in favor of stronger laws and rigorous enforcement, and (3) suggests steps to advance these goals. These steps include (1) expanding the definition of "animal" in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), (2) improving and expanding minimum care requirements in USDA regulations, (3) instituting mandatory reporting requirements, improving Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees, and allowing easier accessibility to laboratory reports and plans, (4) adding a citizen suit provision to the AWA, and (5) continuing education about the emotional and social capacities of animals and a stronger commitment to 3R principles. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Animals Alive! An Ecological Guide to Animal Activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Holley, Dennis

Animals Alive! is designed to help teachers develop an inquiry-oriented program for studying the animal kingdom in which, whenever possible, live animals are collected locally, studied, observed, and then released completely unharmed back into their natural habitats. By careful selection and modification of the chapter questions, activities, and…

Alexander von Humboldt: galvanism, animal electricity, and self-experimentation part 1: formative years, naturphilosophie, and galvanism.

Science.gov (United States)

Finger, Stanley; Piccolino, Marco; Stahnisch, Frank W

2013-01-01

During the 1790s, Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), who showed an early interest in many facets of natural philosophy and natural history, delved into the controversial subject of galvanism and animal electricity, hoping to shed light on the basic nature of the nerve force. He was motivated by his broad worldview, the experiments of Luigi Galvani, who favored animal electricity in more than a few specialized fishes, and the thinking of Alessandro Volta, who accepted specialized fish electricity but was not willing to generalize to other animals, thinking Galvani's frog experiments flawed by his use of metals. Differing from many German Naturphilosophen, who shunned "violent" experiments, the newest instruments, and detailed measurement, Humboldt conducted thousands of galvanic experiments on animals and animal parts, as well as many on his own body, some of which caused him great pain. He interpreted his results as supporting some but not all of the claims made by both Galvani and Volta. Notably, because of certain negative findings and phenomenological differences, he remained skeptical about the intrinsic animal force being qualitatively identical to true electricity. Hence, he referred to a "galvanic force," not animal electricity, in his letters and publications, a theoretical position he would abandon with Volta's help early in the new century.

Concepts of animal welfare in relation to positions in animal ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt, Kirsten

2011-06-01

When animal ethicists deal with welfare they seem to face a dilemma: On the one hand, they recognize the necessity of welfare concepts for their ethical approaches. On the other hand, many animal ethicists do not want to be considered reformist welfarists. Moreover, animal welfare scientists may feel pressed by moral demands for a fundamental change in our attitude towards animals. The analysis of this conflict from the perspective of animal ethics shows that animal welfare science and animal ethics highly depend on each other. Welfare concepts are indispensable in the whole field of animal ethics. Evidence for this can be found by analyzing the structure of theories of animal ethics and the different ways in which these theories employ welfare concepts. Furthermore, the background of values underneath every welfare theory is essential to pursue animal welfare science. Animal ethics can make important contributions to the clarification of underlying normative assumptions with regard to the value of the animal, with regard to ideas about what is valuable for the animal, and with regard to the actions that should follow from the results of animal welfare science.

[Alternatives to animal experimentation v.s. animal rights terrorism].

Science.gov (United States)

Kurosawa, Tsutomu Miki

2008-05-01

Systematic modern animal experimentation was established by Bernard Claude who wrote "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" in 1865. At this point, the public was already asking that the pain and distress of experimental animals be reduced. For this, scientists, William Russell and Rex Burch in 1959 proposed the principles of alternatives to animal experimentation, the "3Rs". Since that time, animal welfare advocates have promoted the 3Rs concept in biomedical research communities. However, cruel animal experiments have continued and there are reports of radical extremists showing their opposition by invasion, arson, theft and even bombing of institutions involved, resulting in killing of the animals. SHAC, one extremist group believed to be animal welfare activitists was recognized as a terrorist group after the 9.11 tragedy in USA and the government viewed their activities very seriously. In 2001, British animal extremists invaded Japanese universities and stole laboratory resources; one individual was arrested and sentenced to prison for three years; Japanese who assisted in the incident were arrested and one was sentenced for one year. In 2006, SHAC USA members were prosecuted and sentenced for up to 6 years for their terrorism activities including arson. We need to consider the background of these activities which are financially supported by animal welfare advocates. The way we, as scientists who conduct such experiments can respond is by promoting alternatives to this experimentation. In Japan, the animal welfare law was revised in 2005 stressing the importance of 3Rs in scientific activities with animals. The promotion of 3Rs should be strengthened in the pharmaceutical community.

Learning priors for Bayesian computations in the nervous system.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Max Berniker

Full Text Available Our nervous system continuously combines new information from our senses with information it has acquired throughout life. Numerous studies have found that human subjects manage this by integrating their observations with their previous experience (priors in a way that is close to the statistical optimum. However, little is known about the way the nervous system acquires or learns priors. Here we present results from experiments where the underlying distribution of target locations in an estimation task was switched, manipulating the prior subjects should use. Our experimental design allowed us to measure a subject's evolving prior while they learned. We confirm that through extensive practice subjects learn the correct prior for the task. We found that subjects can rapidly learn the mean of a new prior while the variance is learned more slowly and with a variable learning rate. In addition, we found that a Bayesian inference model could predict the time course of the observed learning while offering an intuitive explanation for the findings. The evidence suggests the nervous system continuously updates its priors to enable efficient behavior.

Valid MR imaging predictors of prior knee arthroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Discepola, Federico; Le, Huy B.Q.; Park, John S.; Clopton, Paul; Knoll, Andrew N.; Austin, Matthew J.; Resnick, Donald L.

2012-01-01

To determine whether fibrosis of the medial patellar reticulum (MPR), lateral patellar reticulum (LPR), deep medial aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (MDH), or deep lateral aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (LDH) is a valid predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. Institutional review board approval and waiver of informed consent were obtained for this HIPPA-compliant study. Initially, fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH in MR imaging studies of 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 100 patients without was recorded. Subsequently, two additional radiologists, blinded to clinical data, retrospectively and independently recorded the presence of fibrosis of the MPR in 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 50 without. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy for detecting the presence of fibrosis in the MPR were calculated. κ statistics were used to analyze inter-observer agreement. Fibrosis of each of the regions examined during the first portion of the study showed a significant association with prior knee arthroscopy (p < 0.005 for each). A patient with fibrosis of the MPR, LDH, or LPR was 45.5, 9, or 3.7 times more likely, respectively, to have had a prior knee arthroscopy. Logistic regression analysis indicated that fibrosis of the MPR supplanted the diagnostic utility of identifying fibrosis of the LPR, LDH, or MDH, or combinations of these (p ≥ 0.09 for all combinations). In the second portion of the study, fibrosis of the MPR demonstrated a mean sensitivity of 82%, specificity of 72%, PPV of 75%, NPV of 81%, and accuracy of 77% for predicting prior knee arthroscopy. Analysis of MR images can be used to determine if a patient has had prior knee arthroscopy by identifying fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH. Fibrosis of the MPR was the strongest predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. (orig.)

Valid MR imaging predictors of prior knee arthroscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Discepola, Federico; Le, Huy B.Q. [McGill University Health Center, Jewsih General Hospital, Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology, Montreal, Quebec (Canada); Park, John S. [Annapolis Radiology Associates, Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology, Annapolis, MD (United States); Clopton, Paul; Knoll, Andrew N.; Austin, Matthew J.; Resnick, Donald L. [University of California San Diego (UCSD), Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology, San Diego, CA (United States)

2012-01-15

To determine whether fibrosis of the medial patellar reticulum (MPR), lateral patellar reticulum (LPR), deep medial aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (MDH), or deep lateral aspect of Hoffa's fat pad (LDH) is a valid predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. Institutional review board approval and waiver of informed consent were obtained for this HIPPA-compliant study. Initially, fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH in MR imaging studies of 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 100 patients without was recorded. Subsequently, two additional radiologists, blinded to clinical data, retrospectively and independently recorded the presence of fibrosis of the MPR in 50 patients with prior knee arthroscopy and 50 without. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy for detecting the presence of fibrosis in the MPR were calculated. {kappa} statistics were used to analyze inter-observer agreement. Fibrosis of each of the regions examined during the first portion of the study showed a significant association with prior knee arthroscopy (p < 0.005 for each). A patient with fibrosis of the MPR, LDH, or LPR was 45.5, 9, or 3.7 times more likely, respectively, to have had a prior knee arthroscopy. Logistic regression analysis indicated that fibrosis of the MPR supplanted the diagnostic utility of identifying fibrosis of the LPR, LDH, or MDH, or combinations of these (p {>=} 0.09 for all combinations). In the second portion of the study, fibrosis of the MPR demonstrated a mean sensitivity of 82%, specificity of 72%, PPV of 75%, NPV of 81%, and accuracy of 77% for predicting prior knee arthroscopy. Analysis of MR images can be used to determine if a patient has had prior knee arthroscopy by identifying fibrosis of the MPR, LPR, MDH, or LDH. Fibrosis of the MPR was the strongest predictor of prior knee arthroscopy. (orig.)

IOT Overview: IR Instruments

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, E.

In this instrument review chapter the calibration plans of ESO IR instruments are presented and briefly reviewed focusing, in particular, on the case of ISAAC, which has been the first IR instrument at VLT and whose calibration plan served as prototype for the coming instruments.

Performance assessment of diffuse optical spectroscopic imaging instruments in a 2-year multicenter breast cancer trial

Science.gov (United States)

Leproux, Anaïs; O'Sullivan, Thomas D.; Cerussi, Albert; Durkin, Amanda; Hill, Brian; Hylton, Nola; Yodh, Arjun G.; Carp, Stefan A.; Boas, David; Jiang, Shudong; Paulsen, Keith D.; Pogue, Brian; Roblyer, Darren; Yang, Wei; Tromberg, Bruce J.

2017-12-01

We present a framework for characterizing the performance of an experimental imaging technology, diffuse optical spectroscopic imaging (DOSI), in a 2-year multicenter American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) breast cancer study (ACRIN-6691). DOSI instruments combine broadband frequency-domain photon migration with time-independent near-infrared (650 to 1000 nm) spectroscopy to measure tissue absorption and reduced scattering spectra and tissue hemoglobin, water, and lipid composition. The goal of ACRIN-6691 was to test the effectiveness of optically derived imaging endpoints in predicting the final pathologic response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Sixty patients were enrolled over a 2-year period at participating sites and received multiple DOSI scans prior to and during 3- to 6-month NAC. The impact of three sources of error on accuracy and precision, including different operators, instruments, and calibration standards, was evaluated using a broadband reflectance standard and two different solid tissue-simulating optical phantoms. Instruments showed <0.0010 mm-1 (10.3%) and 0.06 mm-1 (4.7%) deviation in broadband absorption and reduced scattering, respectively, over the 2-year duration of ACRIN-6691. These variations establish a useful performance criterion for assessing instrument stability. The proposed procedures and tests are not limited to DOSI; rather, they are intended to provide methods to characterize performance of any instrument used in translational optical imaging.

Troubleshooting in nuclear instruments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1987-06-01

This report on troubleshooting of nuclear instruments is the product of several scientists and engineers, who are closely associated with nuclear instrumentation and with the IAEA activities in the field. The text covers the following topics: Preamplifiers, amplifiers, scalers, timers, ratemeters, multichannel analyzers, dedicated instruments, tools, instruments, accessories, components, skills, interfaces, power supplies, preventive maintenance, troubleshooting in systems, radiation detectors. The troubleshooting and repair of instruments is illustrated by some real examples

Adapting Animal-Assisted Therapy Trials to Prison-Based Animal Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Allison, Molly; Ramaswamy, Megha

2016-09-01

Prison-based animal programs have shown promise when it comes to increased sociability, responsibility, and levels of patience for inmates who participate in these programs. Yet there remains a dearth of scientific research that demonstrates the impact of prison-based animal programs on inmates' physical and mental health. Trials of animal-assisted therapy interventions, a form of human-animal interaction therapy most often used with populations affected by depression/anxiety, mental illness, and trauma, may provide models of how prison-based animal program research can have widespread implementation in jail and prison settings, whose populations have high rates of mental health problems. This paper reviews the components of prison-based animal programs most commonly practiced in prisons today, presents five animal-assisted therapy case studies, evaluates them based on their adaptability to prison-based animal programs, and discusses the institutional constraints that act as barriers for rigorous prison-based animal program research implementation. This paper can serve to inform the development of a research approach to animal-assisted therapy that nurses and other public health researchers can use in working with correctional populations. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Animated Reconstruction of Forensic Animation

OpenAIRE

Hala, Albert; Unver, Ertu

1998-01-01

An animated accident display in court can be significant evidentiary tool. Computer graphics animation reconstructions which can be shown in court are cost effective, save valuable time and illustrate complex and technical issues, are realistic and can prove or disprove arguments or theories with reference to the perplexing newtonian physics involved in many accidents: this technology may well revolutionise accident reconstruction, thus enabling prosecution and defence to be more effective in...

Generalized multiple kernel learning with data-dependent priors.

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Qi; Tsang, Ivor W; Gao, Shenghua; Wang, Li

2015-06-01

Multiple kernel learning (MKL) and classifier ensemble are two mainstream methods for solving learning problems in which some sets of features/views are more informative than others, or the features/views within a given set are inconsistent. In this paper, we first present a novel probabilistic interpretation of MKL such that maximum entropy discrimination with a noninformative prior over multiple views is equivalent to the formulation of MKL. Instead of using the noninformative prior, we introduce a novel data-dependent prior based on an ensemble of kernel predictors, which enhances the prediction performance of MKL by leveraging the merits of the classifier ensemble. With the proposed probabilistic framework of MKL, we propose a hierarchical Bayesian model to learn the proposed data-dependent prior and classification model simultaneously. The resultant problem is convex and other information (e.g., instances with either missing views or missing labels) can be seamlessly incorporated into the data-dependent priors. Furthermore, a variety of existing MKL models can be recovered under the proposed MKL framework and can be readily extended to incorporate these priors. Extensive experiments demonstrate the benefits of our proposed framework in supervised and semisupervised settings, as well as in tasks with partial correspondence among multiple views.

Calibrated birth-death phylogenetic time-tree priors for bayesian inference.

Science.gov (United States)

Heled, Joseph; Drummond, Alexei J

2015-05-01

Here we introduce a general class of multiple calibration birth-death tree priors for use in Bayesian phylogenetic inference. All tree priors in this class separate ancestral node heights into a set of "calibrated nodes" and "uncalibrated nodes" such that the marginal distribution of the calibrated nodes is user-specified whereas the density ratio of the birth-death prior is retained for trees with equal values for the calibrated nodes. We describe two formulations, one in which the calibration information informs the prior on ranked tree topologies, through the (conditional) prior, and the other which factorizes the prior on divergence times and ranked topologies, thus allowing uniform, or any arbitrary prior distribution on ranked topologies. Although the first of these formulations has some attractive properties, the algorithm we present for computing its prior density is computationally intensive. However, the second formulation is always faster and computationally efficient for up to six calibrations. We demonstrate the utility of the new class of multiple-calibration tree priors using both small simulations and a real-world analysis and compare the results to existing schemes. The two new calibrated tree priors described in this article offer greater flexibility and control of prior specification in calibrated time-tree inference and divergence time dating, and will remove the need for indirect approaches to the assessment of the combined effect of calibration densities and tree priors in Bayesian phylogenetic inference. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists.

Insufficient evidence for the use of a physical examination to detect maltreatment in children without prior suspicion: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoytema van Konijnenburg, Eva Mm; Teeuw, Arianne H; Sieswerda-Hoogendoorn, Tessa; Leenders, Arnold G E; van der Lee, Johanna H

2013-12-06

Although it is often performed in clinical practice, the diagnostic value of a screening physical examination to detect maltreatment in children without prior suspicion has not been reviewed. This article aims to evaluate the diagnostic value of a complete physical examination as a screening instrument to detect maltreatment in children without prior suspicion. We systematically searched the databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and ERIC, using a sensitive search strategy. Studies that i) presented medical findings of a complete physical examination for screening purposes in children 0-18 years, ii) specifically recorded the presence or absence of signs of child maltreatment, and iii) recorded child maltreatment confirmed by a reference standard, were included. Two reviewers independently performed study selection, data extraction, and quality appraisal using the QUADAS-2 tool. The search yielded 4,499 titles, of which three studies met the eligibility criteria. The prevalence of confirmed signs of maltreatment during screening physical examination varied between 0.8% and 13.5%. The designs of the studies were inadequate to assess the diagnostic accuracy of a screening physical examination for child maltreatment. Because of the lack of informative studies, we could not draw conclusions about the diagnostic value of a screening physical examination in children without prior suspicion of child maltreatment.

Does the Animal Welfare Act apply to free-ranging animals?

Science.gov (United States)

Mulcahy, Daniel M.

2003-01-01

Despite the long-standing role that institutional animal care and use committees (IACUCs) have played in reviewing and approving studies at academic institutions, compliance with the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is not always complete for government natural resource agencies that use free-ranging animals in research and management studies. Even at universities, IACUCs face uncertainties about what activities are covered and about how to judge proposed research on free-ranging animals. One reason for much of the confusion is the AWA vaguely worded exemption for "field studies." In particular, fish are problematic because of the AWA exclusion of poikilothermic animals. However, most university IACUCs review studies on all animals, and the Interagency Research Animal Committee (IRAC) has published the "IRAC Principles," which extend coverage to all vertebrates used by federal researchers. Despite this extended coverage, many scientists working on wild animals continue to view compliance with the AWA with little enthusiasm. IACUCs, IACUC veterinarians, wildlife veterinarians, and fish and wildlife biologists must learn to work together to comply with the law and to protect the privilege of using free-ranging animals in research.

Regulatory instrument review: Aging management of LWR cables, containment and basemat, reactor coolant pumps, and motor-operated valves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Werry, E.V.; Somasundaram, S.

1995-09-01

The results of Stage 2 of the Regulatory Instrument Review are presented in this volume. Selected regulatory instruments, such as the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Regulatory Guides, and ASME Codes, were investigated to determine the extent to which these regulations apply aging management to selected safety-related components in nuclear power plants. The Regulatory Instrument Review was funded by the NRC under the Nuclear Plant Aging Research (NPAR) program. Stage 2 of the review focused on four safety-related structures and components; namely, cables, containment and basemat, reactor coolant pumps, and motor-operated valves. The review suggests that the primary-emphasis of the regulatory instruments was on the design, construction, start-up, and operation of a nuclear power plant, and that aging issues were primarily addressed after an aging-related problem was recognized. This Stage 2 review confirms the results of the prior review; (see Regulatory Instrument Review: Management of Aging of LWR Major Safety-Related Components NUREG/CR-5490. The observations indicate that the regulations generally address management of age-related degradation indirectly. Specific age-related degradation phenomena frequently are dealt with in bulletins and notices or through generic issues, letters, etc. The major recommendation of this report, therefore, is that the regulatory instruments should more directly and explicitly address the aging phenomenon and the management of the age-related degradation process

The basolateral amygdala determines the effects of fear memory on sleep in an animal model of PTSD.

Science.gov (United States)

Wellman, Laurie L; Fitzpatrick, Mairen E; Machida, Mayumi; Sanford, Larry D

2014-05-01

Fear conditioning [inescapable shock training (ST)] and fearful context re-exposure (CR) alone can produce significant fear indicated by increased freezing and reductions in subsequent rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Damage to or inactivation of the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) prior to or after ST or prior to CR generally has been found to attenuate freezing in the shock training context. However, no one has examined the impact of BLA inactivation on fear-induced changes in sleep. Here, we used the GABAA agonist, muscimol (MUS), to inactivate BLA prior to ST, the period when fear is learned, and assessed sleep after ST and sleep and freezing after two CR sessions. Wistar rats (n = 14) were implanted with electrodes for recording sleep and with cannulae aimed bilaterally into BLA. After recovery, the animals were habituated to the injection procedure (handling) over 2 consecutive days and baseline sleep following handling was recorded. On experimental day 1, the rats were injected (0.5 μl) into BLA with either MUS (1.0 μM; n = 7) or vehicle (distilled water, n = 7) 30 min prior to ST (20 footshocks, 0.8 mA, 0.5-s duration, 60-s interstimulus interval). On experimental days 7 and 21, the animals experienced CR (CR1 and CR2, respectively) alone. Electroencephalogram and electromyogram were recorded for 8 h on each day, and the recording was scored for non-rapid eye movement sleep, REM sleep, and wakefulness. Freezing was examined during CR1 and CR2. MUS microinjections into BLA prior to ST blocked the post-training reduction in REM sleep seen in vehicle-treated rats. Furthermore, in MUS-treated rats, REM sleep after CR1 and CR2 was at baseline levels and freezing was significantly attenuated. Thus, BLA inactivation prior to ST blocks the effects of footshock stress on sleep and reduces fear memory, as indicated by the lack of freezing and changes in sleep after CR. These data indicate that BLA is an important regulator of stress-induced alterations in

Animal Bodies, Colonial Subjects: (ReLocating Animality in Decolonial Thought

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Billy-Ray Belcourt

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, I argue that animal domestication, speciesism, and other modern human-animal interactions in North America are possible because of and through the erasure of Indigenous bodies and the emptying of Indigenous lands for settler-colonial expansion. That is, we cannot address animal oppression or talk about animal liberation without naming and subsequently dismantling settler colonialism and white supremacy as political machinations that require the simultaneous exploitation and/or erasure of animal and Indigenous bodies. I begin by re-framing animality as a politics of space to suggest that animal bodies are made intelligible in the settler imagination on stolen, colonized, and re-settled Indigenous lands. Thinking through Andrea Smith’s logics of white supremacy, I then re-center anthropocentrism as a racialized and speciesist site of settler coloniality to re-orient decolonial thought toward animality. To critique the ways in which Indigenous bodies and epistemologies are at stake in neoliberal re-figurings of animals as settler citizens, I reject the colonial politics of recognition developed in Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka’s recent monograph, Zoopolis: A Political Theory of Animal Rights (Oxford University Press 2011 because it militarizes settler-colonial infrastructures of subjecthood and governmentality. I then propose a decolonized animal ethic that finds legitimacy in Indigenous cosmologies to argue that decolonization can only be reified through a totalizing disruption of those power apparatuses (i.e., settler colonialism, anthropocentrism, white supremacy, and neoliberal pluralism that lend the settler state sovereignty, normalcy, and futurity insofar as animality is a settler-colonial particularity.

In Vivo Respiratory-Gated Micro-CT Imaging in Small-Animal Oncology Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dawn Cavanaugh

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT is becoming an accepted research tool for the noninvasive examination of laboratory animals such as mice and rats, but to date, in vivo scanning has largely been limited to the evaluation of skeletal tissues. We use a commercially available micro-CT device to perform respiratory gated in vivo acquisitions suitable for thoracic imaging. The instrument is described, along with the scan protocol and animal preparation techniques. Preliminary results confirm that lung tumors as small as 1 mm in diameter are visible in vivo with these methods. Radiation dose was evaluated using several approaches, and was found to be approximately 0.15 Gy for this respiratory-gated micro-CT imaging protocol. The combination of high-resolution CT imaging and respiratory-gated acquisitions appears well-suited to serial in vivo scanning.

Animal subjectivity : a study into philosophy and theory of animal experience

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lijmbach, S.

1998-01-01

For many people, laypeople as well as animal scientists and philosophers, animal welfare involves animal feelings. Scientifically, however, animal feelings are problematic. In the concluding remarks of a conference about the welfare of domestic animals in 1994, for example, two questions

Instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muehllehner, G.; Colsher, J.G.

1982-01-01

This chapter reviews the parameters which are important to positron-imaging instruments. It summarizes the options which various groups have explored in designing tomographs and the methods which have been developed to overcome some of the limitations inherent in the technique as well as in present instruments. The chapter is not presented as a defense of positron imaging versus single-photon or other imaging modality, neither does it contain a description of various existing instruments, but rather stresses their common properties and problems. Design parameters which are considered are resolution, sampling requirements, sensitivity, methods of eliminating scattered radiation, random coincidences and attenuation. The implementation of these parameters is considered, with special reference to sampling, choice of detector material, detector ring diameter and shielding and variations in point spread function. Quantitation problems discussed are normalization, and attenuation and random corrections. Present developments mentioned are noise reduction through time-of-flight-assisted tomography and signal to noise improvements through high intrinsic resolution. Extensive bibliography. (U.K.)

animation : An R Package for Creating Animations and Demonstrating Statistical Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yihui Xie

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Animated graphs that demonstrate statistical ideas and methods can both attract interest and assist understanding. In this paper we first discuss how animations can be related to some statistical topics such as iterative algorithms, random simulations, (resampling methods and dynamic trends, then we describe the approaches that may be used to create animations, and give an overview to the R package animation, including its design, usage and the statistical topics in the package. With the animation package, we can export the animations produced by R into a variety of formats, such as a web page, a GIF animation, a Flash movie, a PDF document, or an MP4/AVI video, so that users can publish the animations fairly easily. The design of this package is flexible enough to be readily incorporated into web applications, e.g., we can generate animations online with Rweb, which means we do not even need R to be installed locally to create animations. We will show examples of the use of animations in teaching statistics and in the presentation of statistical reports using Sweave or knitr. In fact, this paper itself was written with the knitr and animation package, and the animations are embedded in the PDF document, so that readers can watch the animations in real time when they read the paper (the Adobe Reader is required.Animations can add insight and interest to traditional static approaches to teaching statistics and reporting, making statistics a more interesting and appealing subject.

Animal models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gøtze, Jens Peter; Krentz, Andrew

2014-01-01

In this issue of Cardiovascular Endocrinology, we are proud to present a broad and dedicated spectrum of reviews on animal models in cardiovascular disease. The reviews cover most aspects of animal models in science from basic differences and similarities between small animals and the human...

AnimalCatcher: a digital camera to capture various reactions of animals

OpenAIRE

Tsukada, Koji; Oki, Maho; Kurihara, Kazutaka; Furudate, Yuko

2015-01-01

People often have difficulty to take pictures of animals, since animals usually do not react with cameras nor understand verbal directions. To solve this problem, we developed a new interaction technique, AnimalCatcher, which can attract animals' attention easily. The AnimalCatcher shoots various sounds using directional speaker to capture various reactions of animals. This paper describes concepts, implementation, and example pictures taken in a zoo.

Animal experimentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolar, Roman

2006-01-01

Millions of animals are used every year in often times extremely painful and distressing scientific procedures. Legislation of animal experimentation in modern societies is based on the supposition that this is ethically acceptable when certain more or less defined formal (e.g. logistical, technical) demands and ethical principles are met. The main parameters in this context correspond to the "3Rs" concept as defined by Russel and Burch in 1959, i.e. that all efforts to replace, reduce and refine experiments must be undertaken. The licensing of animal experiments normally requires an ethical evaluation process, often times undertaken by ethics committees. The serious problems in putting this idea into practice include inter alia unclear conditions and standards for ethical decisions, insufficient management of experiments undertaken for specific (e.g. regulatory) purposes, and conflicts of interest of ethics committees' members. There is an ongoing societal debate about ethical issues of animal use in science. Existing EU legislation on animal experimentation for cosmetics testing is an example of both the public will for setting clear limits to animal experiments and the need to further critically examine other fields and aspects of animal experimentation.

Animal experimentation

OpenAIRE

Laz, Alak; Cholakova, Tanya Stefanova; Vrablova, Sofia; Arshad, Naverawaheed

2016-01-01

Animal experimentation is a crucial part of medical science. One of the ways to define it is any scientific experiment conducted for research purposes that cause any kind of pain or suffering to animals. Over the years, the new discovered drugs or treatments are first applied on animals to test their positive outcomes to be later used by humans. There is a debate about violating ethical considerations by exploiting animals for human benefits. However, different ethical theories have been made...

Evaluation of an internet-based animated preparatory video for children undergoing non-sedated MRI.

Science.gov (United States)

McGlashan, Hannah L; Dineen, Rob A; Szeszak, Sofia; Whitehouse, William P; Chow, Gabriel; Love, Andrew; Langmack, Gill; Wharrad, Heather

2018-05-10

We evaluate the value of an internet-based educational animated video designed to prepare children for MRI scans, and whether this video reduces scan-related anxiety in children with a neurological disorder, and healthy controls. Participants completed a pre- and post-scan questionnaire evaluating participant online viewing behaviour, understanding of the MRI procedure, anxiety regarding the MRI, impact of animation in preparing the child and whether the child's expectation of the MRI scan matched their experience. 21 children were recruited (12 healthy controls) ranging in age from 6.5 to 11.5 years. The animation was successfully accessed by participants on a range of digital devices and had high levels of approval. Children who viewed the animation had a good understanding of the MRI procedure and low anxiety levels prior to the scan, and reported that their expectations broadly matched the real-life MRI experience. Children reported that the animation positively impacted on their preparation with similar ratings before and after the scan, and the impact on preparation was rated greater by younger children. There were no group differences between healthy children and those with the neurological disorder for ratings of anxiety, impact on preparation and expectation of the experience. This evaluation demonstrates accessibility, acceptability and relevance of internet-based educational animation for typically developing children, and children with a neurodisability aged 6 to 11 years, with positive impact on preparation for MRI. Advances in knowledge: The internet-based educational animation provides a widely accessible tool to support preparation of children for non-sedated MRI.

Problems with radiological surveillance instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swinth, K.L.; Tanner, J.E.; Fleming, D.M.

1984-09-01

Many radiological surveillance instruments are in use at DOE facilities throughout the country. These instruments are an essential part of all health physics programs, and poor instrument performance can increase program costs or compromise program effectiveness. Generic data from simple tests on newly purchased instruments shows that many instruments will not meet requirements due to manufacturing defects. In other cases, lack of consideration of instrument use has resulted in poor acceptance of instruments and poor reliability. The performance of instruments is highly variable for electronic and mechanical performance, radiation response, susceptibility to interferences and response to environmental factors. Poor instrument performance in these areas can lead to errors or poor accuracy in measurements

Problems with radiological surveillance instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swinth, K.L.; Tanner, J.E.; Fleming, D.M.

1985-01-01

Many radiological surveillance instruments are in use at DOE facilities throughout the country. These instruments are an essential part of all health physics programs, and poor instrument performance can increase program costs or compromise program effectiveness. Generic data from simple tests on newly purchased instruments shows that many instruments will not meet requirements due to manufacturing defects. In other cases, lack of consideration of instrument use has resulted in poor acceptance of instruments and poor reliability. The performance of instruments is highly variable for electronic and mechanical performance, radiation response, susceptibility to interferences and response to environmental factors. Poor instrument performance in these areas can lead to errors or poor accuracy in measurements

Impact of euthanasia rates, euthanasia practices, and human resource practices on employee turnover in animal shelters.

Science.gov (United States)

Rogelberg, Steven G; Reeve, Charlie L; Spitzmüller, Christiane; DiGiacomo, Natalie; Clark, Olga L; Teeter, Lisa; Walker, Alan G; Starling, Paula G; Carter, Nathan T

2007-03-01

To examine the effects of euthanasia rates, euthanasia practices, and human resource practices on the turnover rate among employees with euthanasia responsibilities at animal shelters. Cross-sectional original study. 36 shelters across the United States that employed at least 5 full-time employees and performed euthanasia on site. By mail, 1 survey was sent to each shelter. Surveys were completed by a senior member of management and were returned by mail. Questions assessed characteristics (eg, euthanasia rates) and practices of the animal shelter, along with employee turnover rates. By use of correlation coefficients and stepwise regression analyses, key predictors of turnover rates among employees with euthanasia responsibilities were investigated. Employee turnover rates were positively related to euthanasia rate. Practices that were associated with decreased turnover rates included provision of a designated euthanasia room, exclusion of other live animals from vicinity during euthanasia, and removal of euthanized animals from a room prior to entry of another animal to be euthanized. Making decisions regarding euthanasia of animals on the basis of factors other than behavior and health reasons was related to increased personnel turnover. With regard to human resources practices, shelters that used a systematic personnel selection procedure (eg, standardized testing) had comparatively lower employee turnover. Data obtained may suggest several specific avenues that can be pursued to mitigate turnover among employees with euthanasia responsibilities at animal shelters and animal control or veterinary medical organizations.

Effect of coronal flaring on apical extrusion of debris during root canal instrumentation using single-file systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Topçuoğlu, H S; Üstün, Y; Akpek, F; Aktı, A; Topçuoğlu, G

2016-09-01

To evaluate the effect of coronal flaring on the amount of debris extruded apically during root canal preparation using the Reciproc, WaveOne (WO) and OneShape (OS) single-file systems. Ninety extracted single-rooted mandibular incisor teeth were randomly assigned to six groups (n = 15 for each group) for canal instrumentation. Endodontic access cavities were prepared in each tooth. In three of the six groups, coronal flaring was not performed; coronal flaring was performed with Gates-Glidden drills on all teeth in the remaining three groups. The canals were then instrumented with one or other of the following single-file instrument systems: Reciproc, WO and OS. Debris extruded apically during instrumentation was collected into pre-weighed Eppendorf tubes. The tubes were then stored in an incubator at 70 °C for 5 days. The weight of the dry extruded debris was established by subtracting the pre-instrumentation and post-instrumentation weight of the Eppendorf tubes for each group. Data were analysed using one-way analysis of variance (anova) and Tukey's post hoc tests (P = 0.05). Reciproc and WO files without coronal flaring produced significantly more debris compared with the other groups (P  0.05). All single-file systems caused apical extrusion of debris. Performing coronal flaring prior to canal preparation reduced the amount of apically extruded debris when using Reciproc or WO systems. © 2015 International Endodontic Journal. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Improving Open Access through Prior Learning Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Shuangxu; Kawachi, Paul

2013-01-01

This paper explores and presents new data on how to improve open access in distance education through using prior learning assessments. Broadly there are three types of prior learning assessment (PLAR): Type-1 for prospective students to be allowed to register for a course; Type-2 for current students to avoid duplicating work-load to gain…

Gastrointestinal Functionality of Aquatic Animal (Oreochromis niloticus) Carcass in Water Allows Estimating Time of Death.

Science.gov (United States)

Hahor, Waraporn; Thongprajukaew, Karun; Yoonram, Krueawan; Rodjaroen, Somrak

2016-11-01

Postmortem changes have been previously studied in some terrestrial animal models, but no prior information is available on aquatic species. Gastrointestinal functionality was investigated in terms of indices, protein concentration, digestive enzyme activity, and scavenging activity, in an aquatic animal model, Nile tilapia, to assess the postmortem changes. Dead fish were floated indoors, and samples were collected within 48 h after death. Stomasomatic index decreased with postmortem time and correlated positively with protein, pepsin-specific activity, and stomach scavenging activity. Also intestosomatic index decreased significantly and correlated positively with protein, specific activity of trypsin, chymotrypsin, amylase, lipase, and intestinal scavenging activity. In their postmortem changes, the digestive enzymes exhibited earlier lipid degradation than carbohydrate or protein. The intestine changed more rapidly than the stomach. The findings suggest that the postmortem changes of gastrointestinal functionality can serve as primary data for the estimation of time of death of an aquatic animal. © 2016 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

A Modular Instrumentation System for NASA's Habitat Demonstration Unit

Science.gov (United States)

Rojdev, Kristina; Kennedy, Kriss; Yim, Hester; Wagner, Raymond S.; Hong, Todd; Studor, George; Delaune, Paul

2010-01-01

NASA's human spaceflight program is focused on developing technologies to expand the reaches of human exploration and science activities beyond low earth orbit. A critical aspect of living in space or on planetary surfaces is habitation, which provides a safe and comfortable space in which humans can live and work. NASA is seeking out the best option for habitation by exploring several different concepts through the Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) project. The purpose of this HDU is to develop a fully autonomous habitation system that enables human exploration of space. One critical feature of the HDU project that helps to accomplish its mission of autonomy is the instrumentation system that monitors key subsystems operating within a Habitat configuration. The following paper will discuss previous instrumentation systems used in analog habitat concepts and how the current instrumentation system being implemented on the HDU1-PEM, or pressurized excursion module, is building upon the lessons learned of those previous systems. Additionally, this paper will discuss the benefits and the limitations of implementing a wireless sensor network (WSN) as the basis for data transport in the instrumentation system. Finally, this paper will address the experiences and lessons learned with integration, testing prior to deployment, and field testing at the JSC rock yard. NASA is developing the HDU1-PEM as a step towards a fully autonomous habitation system that enables human exploration of space. To accomplish this purpose, the HDU project is focusing on development, integration, testing, and evaluation of habitation systems. The HDU will be used as a technology pull, testbed, and integration environment in which to advance NASA's understanding of alternative mission architectures, requirements, and operations concepts definition and validation. This project is a multi-year effort. In 2010, the HDU1-PEM will be in a pressurized excursion module configuration, and in 2011 the

Keeper-Animal Interactions: Differences between the Behaviour of Zoo Animals Affect Stockmanship.

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, Samantha J; Melfi, Vicky

2015-01-01

Stockmanship is a term used to describe the management of animals with a good stockperson someone who does this in a in a safe, effective, and low-stress manner for both the stock-keeper and animals involved. Although impacts of unfamiliar zoo visitors on animal behaviour have been extensively studied, the impact of stockmanship i.e familiar zoo keepers is a new area of research; which could reveal significant ramifications for zoo animal behaviour and welfare. It is likely that different relationships are formed dependant on the unique keeper-animal dyad (human-animal interaction, HAI). The aims of this study were to (1) investigate if unique keeper-animal dyads were formed in zoos, (2) determine whether keepers differed in their interactions towards animals regarding their attitude, animal knowledge and experience and (3) explore what factors affect keeper-animal dyads and ultimately influence animal behaviour and welfare. Eight black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), eleven Chapman's zebra (Equus burchellii), and twelve Sulawesi crested black macaques (Macaca nigra) were studied in 6 zoos across the UK and USA. Subtle cues and commands directed by keepers towards animals were identified. The animals latency to respond and the respective behavioural response (cue-response) was recorded per keeper-animal dyad (n = 93). A questionnaire was constructed following a five-point Likert Scale design to record keeper demographic information and assess the job satisfaction of keepers, their attitude towards the animals and their perceived relationship with them. There was a significant difference in the animals' latency to appropriately respond after cues and commands from different keepers, indicating unique keeper-animal dyads were formed. Stockmanship style was also different between keepers; two main components contributed equally towards this: "attitude towards the animals" and "knowledge and experience of the animals". In this novel study, data demonstrated unique dyads

Isolation of obligate anaerobic bacteria from ulcerative keratitis in domestic animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Ledbetter, Eric C; Scarlett, Janet M

2008-01-01

To determine the frequency of obligate anaerobic bacterial isolation from corneal samples of domestic animals with ulcerative keratitis and to characterize the historical, clinical, cytological, and microbiological features of culture-positive cases. Three hundred and thirty domestic animals with ulcerative keratitis. Anaerobic bacteriologic culture and Gram stain were performed on corneal samples from consecutive animals examined with suspect septic ulcerative keratitis. Additional corneal diagnostics included: aerobic bacteriologic culture for all species; fungal culture for ungulates; Mycoplasma culture and virus isolation or feline herpesvirus-1 (FHV-1) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for cats. Historical, clinical, and cytological findings were correlated with microbiologic data. Anaerobic bacteria were isolated from 13.0% of corneal samples (dogs: 14.0%; horses: 12.9%; cats: 7.9%; alpacas: 18.8%). The most frequent isolates were Clostridium, Peptostreptococcus, Actinomyces, Fusobacterium, and Bacteroides species. The majority of these infections were mixed anaerobic and aerobic bacteria, unless antimicrobial therapy had been administered prior to presentation. The clinical appearance of anaerobic bacterial culture-positive cases was highly variable. Ocular trauma, pre-existing corneal disease, previous corneal surgery, and chronic dermatological disease were significantly (P anaerobic cultures in one or more species. The results of the present study demonstrate that obligate anaerobic bacteria are present within the intralesional flora of ulcerative keratitis in domestic animals. In most species evaluated, these bacteria were identified infrequently. Anaerobic bacterial infection of the cornea most frequently occurs in association with other ocular pathogens and previous corneal abnormalities.

Animal Deliberation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Driessen, C.P.G.

2014-01-01

While much has been written on environmental politics on the one hand, and animal ethics and welfare on the other, animal politics, as the interface of the two, is underexamined. There are key political implications in the increase of animal protection laws, the rights of nature, and political

New methods of magnet-based instrumentation for NOTES.

Science.gov (United States)

Magdeburg, Richard; Hauth, Daniel; Kaehler, Georg

2013-12-01

Laparoscopic surgery has displaced open surgery as the standard of care for many clinical conditions. NOTES has been described as the next surgical frontier with the objective of incision-free abdominal surgery. The principal challenge of NOTES procedures is the loss of triangulation and instrument rigidity, which is one of the fundamental concepts of laparoscopic surgery. To overcome these problems necessitates the development of new instrumentation. material and methods: We aimed to assess the use of a very simple combination of internal and external magnets that might allow the vigorous multiaxial traction/counter-traction required in NOTES procedures. The magnet retraction system consisted of an external magnetic assembly and either small internal magnets attached by endoscopic clips to the designated tissue (magnet-clip-approach) or an endoscopic grasping forceps in a magnetic deflector roll (magnet-trocar-approach). We compared both methods regarding precision, time and efficacy by performing transgastric partial uterus resections with better results for the magnet-trocar-approach. This proof-of-principle animal study showed that the combination of external and internal magnets generates sufficient coupling forces at clinically relevant abdominal wall thicknesses, making them suitable for use and evaluation in NOTES procedures, and provides the vigorous multiaxial traction/counter-traction required by the lack of additional abdominal trocars.

Training shortest-path tractography: Automatic learning of spatial priors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kasenburg, Niklas; Liptrot, Matthew George; Reislev, Nina Linde

2016-01-01

Tractography is the standard tool for automatic delineation of white matter tracts from diffusion weighted images. However, the output of tractography often requires post-processing to remove false positives and ensure a robust delineation of the studied tract, and this demands expert prior...... knowledge. Here we demonstrate how such prior knowledge, or indeed any prior spatial information, can be automatically incorporated into a shortest-path tractography approach to produce more robust results. We describe how such a prior can be automatically generated (learned) from a population, and we...

Acquisition of multiple prior distributions in tactile temporal order judgment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yasuhito eNagai

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The Bayesian estimation theory proposes that the brain acquires the prior distribution of a task and integrates it with sensory signals to minimize the effect of sensory noise. Psychophysical studies have demonstrated that our brain actually implements Bayesian estimation in a variety of sensory-motor tasks. However, these studies only imposed one prior distribution on participants within a task period. In this study, we investigated the conditions that enable the acquisition of multiple prior distributions in temporal order judgment (TOJ of two tactile stimuli across the hands. In Experiment 1, stimulation intervals were randomly selected from one of two prior distributions (biased to right hand earlier and biased to left hand earlier in association with color cues (green and red, respectively. Although the acquisition of the two priors was not enabled by the color cues alone, it was significant when participants shifted their gaze (above or below in response to the color cues. However, the acquisition of multiple priors was not significant when participants moved their mouths (opened or closed. In Experiment 2, the spatial cues (above and below were used to identify which eye position or retinal cue position was crucial for the eye-movement-dependent acquisition of multiple priors in Experiment 1. The acquisition of the two priors was significant when participants moved their gaze to the cues (i.e., the cue positions on the retina were constant across the priors, as well as when participants did not shift their gazes (i.e., the cue positions on the retina changed according to the priors. Thus, both eye and retinal cue positions were effective in acquiring multiple priors. Based on previous neurophysiological reports, we discuss possible neural correlates that contribute to the acquisition of multiple priors.

In vitro vaccine potency testing: a proposal for reducing animal use for requalification testing.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, K; Stokes, W

2012-01-01

This paper proposes a program under which the use of animals for requalification of in vitro potency tests could be eliminated. Standard References (USDA/CVB nomenclature) would be developed, characterized, stored and monitored by selected reference laboratories worldwide. These laboratories would employ scientists skilled in protein and glycoprotein chemistry and equipped with state-of-the-art instruments for required analyses. After Standard References are established, the reference laboratories would provide them to the animal health industry as "gold standards". Companies would then establish and validate a correlation between the Standard Reference and the company Master Reference (USDA/CVB nomenclature) using an internal in vitro assay. After this correlation is established, the company could use the Standard References for qualifying, monitoring and requalifying company Master References without the use of animals. Such a program would eliminate the need for animals for requalification of Master References and the need for each company to develop and validate a battery of Master Reference Monitoring assays. It would also provide advantages in terms of reduced costs and reduced time for requalification testing. As such it would provide a strong incentive for companies to develop and use in vitro assays for potency testing.

Optimizing laboratory animal stress paradigms: The H-H* experimental design.

Science.gov (United States)

McCarty, Richard

2017-01-01

Major advances in behavioral neuroscience have been facilitated by the development of consistent and highly reproducible experimental paradigms that have been widely adopted. In contrast, many different experimental approaches have been employed to expose laboratory mice and rats to acute versus chronic intermittent stress. An argument is advanced in this review that more consistent approaches to the design of chronic intermittent stress experiments would provide greater reproducibility of results across laboratories and greater reliability relating to various neural, endocrine, immune, genetic, and behavioral adaptations. As an example, the H-H* experimental design incorporates control, homotypic (H), and heterotypic (H*) groups and allows for comparisons across groups, where each animal is exposed to the same stressor, but that stressor has vastly different biological and behavioral effects depending upon each animal's prior stress history. Implementation of the H-H* experimental paradigm makes possible a delineation of transcriptional changes and neural, endocrine, and immune pathways that are activated in precisely defined stressor contexts. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Solidarity with Animals: Assessing a Relevant Dimension of Social Identification with Animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Amiot, Catherine E; Bastian, Brock

2017-01-01

Interactions with animals are pervasive in human life, a fact that is reflected in the burgeoning field of human-animal relations research. The goal of the current research was to examine the psychology of our social connection with other animals, by specifically developing a measure of solidarity with animals. In 8 studies using correlational, experimental, and longitudinal designs, solidarity with animals predicted more positive attitudes and behaviors toward animals, over and above existing scales of identification, and even when this implied a loss of resources and privileges for humans relative to animals. Solidarity with animals also displayed predicted relationships with relevant variables (anthropomorphism, empathy). Pet owners and vegetarians displayed higher levels of solidarity with animals. Correlational and experimental evidence confirmed that human-animal similarity heightens solidarity with animals. Our findings provide a useful measure that can facilitate important insights into the nature of our relationships with animals.

[Animal ethics in the 19th century and Swiss animal protection law].

Science.gov (United States)

Bloch, I

2018-01-01

The development of animal ethics and animal rights from the antiquity up to modern times is described. The relationship of humans to animals was primarily based on fear and animal cult, developed by the domestication to a partnership. The philosophers of the early modern age denied the animals the reason, what was disadvantageous to the position of the animals in the society and the behavior of humans to the animals. By the end of the 19th century the animal protection concept developed with numerous postulates for legal regulations. With the Swiss animal protection law, which came into force in 1981, most of the postulates could be realised. It is shown, how animal protection has developed since that time.

Risk assessment instruments in clinical practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Côté, Gilles; Crocker, Anne G; Nicholls, Tonia L; Seto, Michael C

2012-04-01

To determine whether the items in one of the most widely validated instruments of violence risk assessment, the Historical-Clinical-Risk Management-20 (HCR-20), are used in review board hearings to assess the risk of violence by people found Not Criminally Responsible on account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD). This study was conducted from October 2004 to August 2006 in Quebec's sole forensic psychiatric hospital and 2 large civil psychiatric hospitals designated for the care of people declared NCRMD in the Montreal metropolitan area. The risk assessments presented by clinicians at annual review board hearings and the boards' rationale for the release or detention of people found NCRMD were contrasted with the risk assessments conducted by the research team using the HCR-20. The final sample was comprised of 96 men. Very few of the risk factors identified by prior research (HCR-20 items) were mentioned in the hearing process, whether in clinical reports, discussions during the hearing, or in the disposition justification. The findings confirm that there remains a significant gap between research evidence and risk assessment practice.

Core instrumentation and pre-operational procedures for core conversion HEU to LEU

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1984-02-01

This report is intended for the reactor operator, to be used as a manual or checklist for general guidance on pre-startup activities that need to be addressed in preparation for conversion to Low Enriched Fuel (LEU). All nuclear, thermodynamic and safety calculations should have been performed prior to this stage of the core conversion process. During these calculations and certainly before ordering the new LEU fuel elements the reactor operator needs to very carefully consider additional important factors concerning the new fuel: fuel reliability, reliability of fuel fabricator, reprocessing contract or fuel element storage and disposal, economics of the new fuel cycle. At this stage, too, a preoperational experimental programme has to be developed and presented to the regulatory authorities for approval. This experimental programme could lead to additional requirements on: in-core instrumentation, out-of-core instrumentation or additional experimental devices. Detailed instructions on specific tests and measurements are not provided in this report since much information on the subject is available in the open literature

Enhancing human-animal relationships through veterinary medical instruction in animal-assisted therapy and animal-assisted activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Schaffer, Caroline Brunsman

2008-01-01

Instruction in animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and animal-assisted activities (AAAs) teaches veterinary medical students to confidently and assertively maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of this union of animals and people. Instruction in AAT/AAA also addresses requirements by the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education that accredited schools/colleges of veterinary medicine include in their standard curriculum the topics of the human-animal bond, behavior, and the contributions of the veterinarian to the overall public and professional health care teams. Entry-level veterinarians should be prepared to: (1) assure that animals who provide AAT/AAA are healthy enough to visit nursing homes, hospitals, or other institutions; (2) promote behavior testing that selects animals who will feel safe, comfortable, and connected; (3) advise facilities regarding infection control and ways to provide a safe environment where the animals, their handlers, and the people being visited will not be injured or become ill; and (4) advocate for their patients and show compassion for their clients when animals are determined to be inappropriate participants in AAT/AAA programs. This article presents AAT/AAA terminology, ways in which veterinarians can advocate for AAT/AAA, the advantages of being involved in AAT/AAA, a model AAT/AAA practicum from Tuskegee University's School of Veterinary Medicine (TUSVM), and examples of co-curricular activities in AAT/AAA by TUSVM's student volunteers.

Development of an instrumented spinal cord surrogate using optical fibers: A feasibility study.

Science.gov (United States)

Facchinello, Yann; Wagnac, Éric; Ung, Bora; Petit, Yvan; Pradhan, Prabin; Peyrache, Louis-Marie; Mac-Thiong, Jean-Marc

2017-10-01

In vitro replication of traumatic spinal cord injury is necessary to understand its biomechanics and to improve animal models. During a traumatic spinal cord injury, the spinal cord withstands an impaction at high velocity. In order to fully assess the impaction, the use of spinal canal occlusion sensor is necessary. A physical spinal cord surrogate is also often used to simulate the presence of the spinal cord and its surrounding structures. In this study, an instrumented physical spinal cord surrogate is presented and validated. The sensing is based on light transmission loss observed in embedded bare optical fibers subjected to bending. The instrumented surrogate exhibits similar mechanical properties under static compression compared to fresh porcine spinal cords. The instrumented surrogate has a compression sensing threshold of 40% that matches the smallest compression values leading to neurological injuries. The signal obtained from the sensor allows calculating the compression of the spinal cord surrogate with a maximum of 5% deviation. Excellent repeatability was also observed under repetitive loading. The proposed instrumented spinal cord surrogate is promising with satisfying mechanical properties and good sensing capability. It is the first attempt at proposing a method to assess the internal loads sustained by the spinal cord during a traumatic injury. Copyright © 2017 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Animal Transports

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana Ludrovcová

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Purpose and Originality: The research is aimed to the animal transports issue, from two points of view – first is the animal cruelty and second is the policy and economic consideration. The goal is to acquaint the readers with the transports risks and its cruelty and evaluation of the economic, political aspects for he involved countries. The study is oriented on more points of view, what is rare in works with a similar theme. Method: This paper examines many issues and examinations from different authors and subsequently summarized the findings with authors own knowledge to one expanded unit. Results: Results proves, that livestock transports have negative impact on animal´s health, environment. Number of transported animals is rising every year. Society: Research familiarize the society with the animal transports, cruelty against animals during them, and influence of transports on some countries, their economy, policy. People get better informed and can form their own opinion on this topic. They may start acting, undertaking some steps to improve the present situation, what could help a lot to animals and environment. Limitations / further research: Future research could show progress and improvement of transports, quality of food supply and economics.

The Development of an Online Instrument for Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition of Internationally Educated Nurses: A Pilot Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elaine Elizabeth Santa Mina

2011-01-01

Full Text Available A fully online prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR tool for internationally educated nurses (IENs was developed and tested by an inter-professional team at Ryerson University. The tool consisted of two stages: a self-assessment component followed by a multiple-choice examination and narrative (vignette evaluation. The purposes of the study were to describe the demographic profile of the IEN registered nurse (RN, to develop the benchmark responses that demonstrate competency at the entry-to-practice level of the typical IEN RN, and to describe the experience of completing an online PLAR tool. A mixed-method approach was used. Findings demonstrated that IEN RNs who immigrate to Ontario, Canada, are of various ages and come from a wide spectrum of countries. The PLAR process holds promise for an objective assessment of IEN’s eligibility to write the Canadian Registered Nurses Examination (CRNE and to meet a global need. Further testing of the tool across a broader sample is required.

Prior-based artifact correction (PBAC) in computed tomography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heußer, Thorsten; Brehm, Marcus; Ritschl, Ludwig; Sawall, Stefan; Kachelrieß, Marc

2014-01-01

Purpose: Image quality in computed tomography (CT) often suffers from artifacts which may reduce the diagnostic value of the image. In many cases, these artifacts result from missing or corrupt regions in the projection data, e.g., in the case of metal, truncation, and limited angle artifacts. The authors propose a generalized correction method for different kinds of artifacts resulting from missing or corrupt data by making use of available prior knowledge to perform data completion. Methods: The proposed prior-based artifact correction (PBAC) method requires prior knowledge in form of a planning CT of the same patient or in form of a CT scan of a different patient showing the same body region. In both cases, the prior image is registered to the patient image using a deformable transformation. The registered prior is forward projected and data completion of the patient projections is performed using smooth sinogram inpainting. The obtained projection data are used to reconstruct the corrected image. Results: The authors investigate metal and truncation artifacts in patient data sets acquired with a clinical CT and limited angle artifacts in an anthropomorphic head phantom data set acquired with a gantry-based flat detector CT device. In all cases, the corrected images obtained by PBAC are nearly artifact-free. Compared to conventional correction methods, PBAC achieves better artifact suppression while preserving the patient-specific anatomy at the same time. Further, the authors show that prominent anatomical details in the prior image seem to have only minor impact on the correction result. Conclusions: The results show that PBAC has the potential to effectively correct for metal, truncation, and limited angle artifacts if adequate prior data are available. Since the proposed method makes use of a generalized algorithm, PBAC may also be applicable to other artifacts resulting from missing or corrupt data

Status of safeguards instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higinbotham, W.A.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is performing safeguards at some nuclear power reactors, 50 bulk processing facilities, and 170 research facilities. Its verification activities require the use of instruments to measure nuclear materials and of surveillance instruments to maintain continuity of knowledge of the locations of nuclear materials. Instruments that are in use and under development to measure weight, volume, concentration, and isotopic composition of nuclear materials, and the major surveillance instruments, are described in connection with their uses at representative nuclear facilities. The current status of safeguards instrumentation and the needs for future development are discussed

Early modern mathematical instruments.

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, Jim

2011-12-01

In considering the appropriate use of the terms "science" and "scientific instrument," tracing the history of "mathematical instruments" in the early modern period is offered as an illuminating alternative to the historian's natural instinct to follow the guiding lights of originality and innovation, even if the trail transgresses contemporary boundaries. The mathematical instrument was a well-defined category, shared across the academic, artisanal, and commercial aspects of instrumentation, and its narrative from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century was largely independent from other classes of device, in a period when a "scientific" instrument was unheard of.

Instrumental Capital

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriel Valerio

2007-07-01

Full Text Available During the history of human kind, since our first ancestors, tools have represented a mean to reach objectives which might otherwise seemed impossibles. In the called New Economy, where tangibles assets appear to be losing the role as the core element to produce value versus knowledge, tools have kept aside man in his dairy work. In this article, the author's objective is to describe, in a simple manner, the importance of managing the organization's group of tools or instruments (Instrumental Capital. The characteristic conditions of this New Economy, the way Knowledge Management deals with these new conditions and the sub-processes that provide support to the management of Instrumental Capital are described.

Humans (really) are animals: picture-book reading influences 5-year-old urban children's construal of the relation between humans and non-human animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Waxman, Sandra R; Herrmann, Patricia; Woodring, Jennie; Medin, Douglas L

2014-01-01

What is the relation between humans and non-human animals? From a biological perspective, we view humans as one species among many, but in the fables and films we create for children, we often offer an anthropocentric perspective, imbuing non-human animals with human-like characteristics. What are the consequences of these distinctly different perspectives on children's reasoning about the natural world? Some have argued that children universally begin with an anthropocentric perspective and that acquiring a biological perspective requires a basic conceptual change (cf. Carey, 1985). But recent work reveals that this anthropocentric perspective, evidenced in urban 5-year-olds, is not evident in 3-year-olds (Herrmann etal., 2010). This indicates that the anthropocentric perspective is not an obligatory first step in children's reasoning about biological phenomena. In the current paper, we introduced a priming manipulation to assess whether 5-year-olds' reasoning about a novel biological property is influenced by the perspectives they encounter in children's books. Just before participating in a reasoning task, each child read a book about bears with an experimenter. What varied was whether bears were depicted from an anthropomorphic (Berenstain Bears) or biological perspective (Animal Encyclopedia). The priming had a dramatic effect. Children reading the Berenstain Bears showed the standard anthropocentric reasoning pattern, but those reading the Animal Encyclopedia adopted a biological pattern. This offers evidence that urban 5-year-olds can adopt either a biological or a human-centered stance, depending upon the context. Thus, children's books and other media are double-edged swords. Media may (inadvertently) support human-centered reasoning in young children, but may also be instrumental in redirecting children's attention to a biological model.

Estimating Functions with Prior Knowledge, (EFPK) for diffusions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nolsøe, Kim; Kessler, Mathieu; Madsen, Henrik

2003-01-01

In this paper a method is formulated in an estimating function setting for parameter estimation, which allows the use of prior information. The main idea is to use prior knowledge of the parameters, either specified as moments restrictions or as a distribution, and use it in the construction of a...... of an estimating function. It may be useful when the full Bayesian analysis is difficult to carry out for computational reasons. This is almost always the case for diffusions, which is the focus of this paper, though the method applies in other settings.......In this paper a method is formulated in an estimating function setting for parameter estimation, which allows the use of prior information. The main idea is to use prior knowledge of the parameters, either specified as moments restrictions or as a distribution, and use it in the construction...

Mefenamic Acid Induced Nephrotoxicity: An Animal Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Nazrul Somchit

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs are used for the treatment of many joint disorders, inflammation and to control pain. Numerous reports have indicated that NSAIDs are capable of producing nephrotoxicity in human. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate mefenamic acid, a NSAID nephrotoxicity in an animal model. Methods: Mice were dosed intraperitoneally with mefenamic acid either as a single dose (100 or 200 mg/kg in 10% Dimethyl sulfoxide/Palm oil or as single daily doses for 14 days (50 or 100 mg/kg in 10% Dimethyl sulfoxide/Palm oil per day. Venous blood samples from mice during the dosing period were taken prior to and 14 days post-dosing from cardiac puncture into heparinized vials. Plasma blood urea nitrogen (BUN and creatinine activities were measured. Results: Single dose of mefenamic acid induced mild alteration of kidney histology mainly mild glomerular necrosis and tubular atrophy. Interestingly, chronic doses induced a dose dependent glomerular necrosis, massive degeneration, inflammation and tubular atrophy. Plasma blood urea nitrogen was statistically elevated in mice treated with mefenamic acid for 14 days similar to plasma creatinine. Conclusion: Results from this study suggest that mefenamic acid as with other NSAIDs capable of producing nephrotoxicity. Therefore, the study of the exact mechanism of mefenamic acid induced severe nephrotoxicity can be done in this animal model.

Evaluating musical instruments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campbell, D. Murray

2014-01-01

Scientific measurements of sound generation and radiation by musical instruments are surprisingly hard to correlate with the subtle and complex judgments of instrumental quality made by expert musicians

Cryopreservation of human colorectal carcinomas prior to xenografting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Linnebacher, Michael; Maletzki, Claudia; Ostwald, Christiane; Klier, Ulrike; Krohn, Mathias; Klar, Ernst; Prall, Friedrich

2010-01-01

Molecular heterogeneity of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is well recognized, forming the rationale for molecular tests required before administration of some of the novel targeted therapies that now are rapidly entering the clinics. For clinical research at least, but possibly even for future individualized tumor treatment on a routine basis, propagation of patients' CRC tissue may be highly desirable for detailed molecular, biochemical or functional analyses. However, complex logistics requiring close liaison between surgery, pathology, laboratory researchers and animal care facilities are a major drawback in this. We here describe and evaluate a very simple cryopreservation procedure for colorectal carcinoma tissue prior to xenografting that will considerably reduce this logistic complexity. Fourty-eight CRC collected ad hoc were xenografted subcutaneously into immunodeficient mice either fresh from surgery (N = 23) or after cryopreservation (N = 31; up to 643 days). Take rates after cryopreservation were satisfactory (71%) though somewhat lower than with tumor tissues fresh from surgery (74%), but this difference was not statistically significant. Re-transplantation of cryopreserved established xenografts (N = 11) was always successful. Of note, in this series, all of the major molecular types of CRC were xenografted successfully, even after cryopreservation. Our procedure facilitates collection, long-time storage and propagation of clinical CRC specimens (even from different centres) for (pre)clinical studies of novel therapies or for basic research

Arthur Prior and 'Now'

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blackburn, Patrick Rowan; Jørgensen, Klaus Frovin

2016-01-01

’s search led him through the work of Castañeda, and back to his own work on hybrid logic: the first made temporal reference philosophically respectable, the second made it technically feasible in a modal framework. With the aid of hybrid logic, Prior built a bridge from a two-dimensional UT calculus...

Self-prior strategy for organ reconstruction in fluorescence molecular tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Yuan; Chen, Maomao; Su, Han; Luo, Jianwen

2017-10-01

The purpose of this study is to propose a strategy for organ reconstruction in fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) without prior information from other imaging modalities, and to overcome the high cost and ionizing radiation caused by the traditional structural prior strategy. The proposed strategy is designed as an iterative architecture to solve the inverse problem of FMT. In each iteration, a short time Fourier transform (STFT) based algorithm is used to extract the self-prior information in the space-frequency energy spectrum with the assumption that the regions with higher fluorescence concentration have larger energy intensity, then the cost function of the inverse problem is modified by the self-prior information, and lastly an iterative Laplacian regularization algorithm is conducted to solve the updated inverse problem and obtains the reconstruction results. Simulations and in vivo experiments on liver reconstruction are carried out to test the performance of the self-prior strategy on organ reconstruction. The organ reconstruction results obtained by the proposed self-prior strategy are closer to the ground truth than those obtained by the iterative Tikhonov regularization (ITKR) method (traditional non-prior strategy). Significant improvements are shown in the evaluation indexes of relative locational error (RLE), relative error (RE) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). The self-prior strategy improves the organ reconstruction results compared with the non-prior strategy and also overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional structural prior strategy. Various applications such as metabolic imaging and pharmacokinetic study can be aided by this strategy.

Heuristics as Bayesian inference under extreme priors.

Science.gov (United States)

Parpart, Paula; Jones, Matt; Love, Bradley C

2018-05-01

Simple heuristics are often regarded as tractable decision strategies because they ignore a great deal of information in the input data. One puzzle is why heuristics can outperform full-information models, such as linear regression, which make full use of the available information. These "less-is-more" effects, in which a relatively simpler model outperforms a more complex model, are prevalent throughout cognitive science, and are frequently argued to demonstrate an inherent advantage of simplifying computation or ignoring information. In contrast, we show at the computational level (where algorithmic restrictions are set aside) that it is never optimal to discard information. Through a formal Bayesian analysis, we prove that popular heuristics, such as tallying and take-the-best, are formally equivalent to Bayesian inference under the limit of infinitely strong priors. Varying the strength of the prior yields a continuum of Bayesian models with the heuristics at one end and ordinary regression at the other. Critically, intermediate models perform better across all our simulations, suggesting that down-weighting information with the appropriate prior is preferable to entirely ignoring it. Rather than because of their simplicity, our analyses suggest heuristics perform well because they implement strong priors that approximate the actual structure of the environment. We end by considering how new heuristics could be derived by infinitely strengthening the priors of other Bayesian models. These formal results have implications for work in psychology, machine learning and economics. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

9 CFR 51.6 - Destruction of animals; time limit for destruction of animals.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Destruction of animals; time limit for destruction of animals. 51.6 Section 51.6 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION... ANIMALS DESTROYED BECAUSE OF BRUCELLOSIS Indemnity for Cattle, Bison, and Swine § 51.6 Destruction of...

Testing the direct, indirect, and moderated effects of childhood animal cruelty on future aggressive and non-aggressive offending.

Science.gov (United States)

Walters, Glenn D

2014-01-01

The relationship between childhood cruelty toward animals and subsequent aggressive offending was explored in 1,336 (1,154 male, 182 female) participants from the 11-wave Pathways to Desistance study (Mulvey, 2013). Aggressive and income offending at Waves 1 through 10 were regressed onto a dichotomous measure of prior involvement in animal cruelty and four control variables (age, race, sex, early onset behavior problems) assessed at Wave 0 (baseline). Results indicated that childhood animal cruelty was equally predictive of aggressive and non-aggressive (income) offending, a finding inconsistent with the hypothesis that cruelty toward animals desensitizes a person to future interpersonal aggression or in some way prepares the individual for interpersonal violence toward humans. Whereas a significant sex by animal cruelty interaction was predicted, there was no evidence that sex or any of the other demographic variables included in this study (age, race) consistently moderated the animal cruelty-subsequent offending relationship. On the other hand, two cognitive-personality measures (interpersonal hostility, callousness/unemotionality) were found to successfully mediate the animal cruelty-subsequent offending relationship. Outcomes from this study imply that a causal nexus-partially or fully mediated by hostility, callousness/unemotionality, and other cognitive-personality variables-may exist between childhood animal cruelty and subsequent offending, although the effect is not specific to violence. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dissolved Oxygen Sensor in Animal-Borne Instruments: An Innovation for Monitoring the Health of Oceans and Investigating the Functioning of Marine Ecosystems.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederic Bailleul

Full Text Available The current decline in dissolved oxygen concentration within the oceans is a sensitive indicator of the effect of climate change on marine environment. However the impact of its declining on marine life and ecosystems' health is still quite unclear because of the difficulty in obtaining in situ data, especially in remote areas, like the Southern Ocean (SO. Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina proved to be a relevant alternative to the traditional oceanographic platforms to measure physical and biogeochemical structure of oceanic regions rarely observed. In this study, we use a new stage of development in biologging technology to draw a picture of dissolved oxygen concentration in the SO. We present the first results obtained from a dissolved oxygen sensor added to Argos CTD-SRDL tags and deployed on 5 female elephant seals at Kerguelen. From October 2010 and October 2011, 742 oxygen profiles associated with temperature and salinity measurements were recorded. Whether a part of the data must be considered cautiously, especially because of offsets and temporal drifts of the sensors, the range of values recorded was consistent with a concomitant survey conducted from a research vessel (Keops-2 project. Once again, elephant seals reinforced the relationship between marine ecology and oceanography, delivering essential information about the water masses properties and the biological status of the Southern Ocean. But more than the presentation of a new stage of development in animal-borne instrumentation, this pilot study opens a new field of investigation in marine ecology and could be enlarged in a near future to other key marine predators, especially large fish species like swordfish, tuna or sharks, for which dissolved oxygen is expected to play a crucial role in distribution and behaviour.

Dissolved Oxygen Sensor in Animal-Borne Instruments: An Innovation for Monitoring the Health of Oceans and Investigating the Functioning of Marine Ecosystems.

Science.gov (United States)

Bailleul, Frederic; Vacquie-Garcia, Jade; Guinet, Christophe

2015-01-01

The current decline in dissolved oxygen concentration within the oceans is a sensitive indicator of the effect of climate change on marine environment. However the impact of its declining on marine life and ecosystems' health is still quite unclear because of the difficulty in obtaining in situ data, especially in remote areas, like the Southern Ocean (SO). Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) proved to be a relevant alternative to the traditional oceanographic platforms to measure physical and biogeochemical structure of oceanic regions rarely observed. In this study, we use a new stage of development in biologging technology to draw a picture of dissolved oxygen concentration in the SO. We present the first results obtained from a dissolved oxygen sensor added to Argos CTD-SRDL tags and deployed on 5 female elephant seals at Kerguelen. From October 2010 and October 2011, 742 oxygen profiles associated with temperature and salinity measurements were recorded. Whether a part of the data must be considered cautiously, especially because of offsets and temporal drifts of the sensors, the range of values recorded was consistent with a concomitant survey conducted from a research vessel (Keops-2 project). Once again, elephant seals reinforced the relationship between marine ecology and oceanography, delivering essential information about the water masses properties and the biological status of the Southern Ocean. But more than the presentation of a new stage of development in animal-borne instrumentation, this pilot study opens a new field of investigation in marine ecology and could be enlarged in a near future to other key marine predators, especially large fish species like swordfish, tuna or sharks, for which dissolved oxygen is expected to play a crucial role in distribution and behaviour.

Does using the interRAI Palliative Care instrument reduce the needs and symptoms of nursing home residents receiving palliative care?

Science.gov (United States)

Hermans, Kirsten; De Almeida Mello, Johanna; Spruytte, Nele; Cohen, Joachim; Van Audenhove, Chantal; Declercq, Anja

2018-02-01

This study aimed to evaluate whether using the interRAI Palliative Care instrument (the interRAI PC) in nursing homes is associated with reduced needs and symptoms in residents nearing the end of their lives. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study using the Palliative care Outcome Scale (POS) was conducted to compare the needs and symptoms of residents nearing the end of their lives in the control and intervention nursing homes. Care professionals at the intervention nursing homes filled out the interRAI PC over the course of a year for all residents aged 65 years and older who were nearing the end of their lives. This intervention was not implemented in the control nursing homes. At baseline, POS scores in the intervention nursing homes were lower (more favorable) than in the control nursing homes on the items "pain", "other symptoms", "family anxiety", and the total POS score. Posttest POS scores for "wasted time" were higher (less favorable) than pretest scores in the intervention nursing homes. In the intervention nursing homes where care professionals did not have prior experience with the interRAI Long-Term Care Facilities (LTCF) assessment instrument (n = 8/15), total POS scores were lower (more favorable) at posttest. One year after introducing the interRAI PC, no reduction in residents' needs and symptoms were detected in the intervention nursing homes. However, reductions in needs and symptoms were found in the subgroup of intervention nursing homes without prior experience with the interRAI LTCF instrument. This may suggest that the use of an interRAI instrument other than the interRAI PC specifically can improve care. Future research should aim at replicating this research with a long-term design in order to evaluate the effect of integrating the use of the interRAI PC in the day-to-day practices at nursing homes.

THE MEASUREMENT, TREATMENT, AND IMPACT OF SPECTRAL COVARIANCE AND BAYESIAN PRIORS IN INTEGRAL -FIELD SPECTROSCOPY OF EXOPLANETS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Greco, Johnny P. [Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (United States); Brandt, Timothy D. [Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States)

2016-12-20

The recovery of an exoplanet’s atmospheric parameters from its spectrum requires accurate knowledge of the spectral errors and covariances. Unfortunately, the complex image processing used in high-contrast integral-field spectrograph (IFS) observations generally produces spectral covariances that are poorly understood and often ignored. In this work, we show how to measure the spectral errors and covariances and include them self-consistently in parameter retrievals. By combining model exoplanet spectra with a realistic noise model generated from the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) early science data, we show that ignoring spectral covariance in high-contrast IFS data can both bias inferred parameters and lead to unreliable confidence regions on those parameters. This problem is made worse by the common practice of scaling the χ {sup 2} per degree of freedom to unity; the input parameters then fall outside the 95% confidence regions in as many as ∼80% of noise realizations. The biases we observe can approach the typical levels of precision achieved in high-contrast spectroscopy. Accounting for realistic priors in fully Bayesian retrievals can also have a significant impact on the inferred parameters. Plausible priors on effective temperature and surface gravity can vary by an order of magnitude across the confidence regions appropriate for objects with weak age constraints; priors for objects with good age constraints are dominated by modeling uncertainties. Our methods are directly applicable to existing high-contrast IFSs including GPI and SPHERE, as well as upcoming instruments like CHARIS and, ultimately, WFIRST-AFTA.

The administration of hydrogen sulphide prior to ischemic reperfusion has neuroprotective effects in an acute stroke model.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chul-Woong Woo

Full Text Available Emerging evidence has suggested that hydrogen sulfide (H2S may alleviate the cellular damage associated with cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R injury. In this study, we assessed using 1H-magnetic resonance imaging/magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRI/MRS and histologic analysis whether H2S administration prior to reperfusion has neuroprotective effects. We also evaluated for differences in the effects of H2S treatment at 2 time points. 1H-MRI/MRS data were obtained at baseline, and at 3, 9, and 24 h after ischemia from 4 groups: sham, control (I/R injury, sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS-30 and NaHS-1 (NaHS delivery at 30 and 1 min before reperfusion, respectively. The total infarct volume and the midline shift at 24 h post-ischemia were lowest in the NaHS-1, followed by the NaHS-30 and control groups. Peri-infarct volume was significantly lower in the NaHS-1 compared to NaHS-30 and control animals. The relative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC in the peri-infarct region showed that the NaHS-1 group had significantly lower values compared to the NaHS-30 and control animals and that NaHS-1 rats showed significantly higher relative T2 values in the peri-infarct region compared to the controls. The relative ADC value, relative T2 value, levels of N-acetyl-L-aspartate (NAA, and the NAA, glutamate, and taurine combination score (NGT in the ischemic core region at 24 h post-ischemia did not differ significantly between the 2 NaHS groups and the control except that the NAA and NGT values were higher in the peri-infarct region of the NaHS-1 animals at 9 h post-ischemia. In the ischemic core and peri-infarct regions, the apoptosis rate was lowest in the NaHS-1 group, followed by the NaHS-30 and control groups. Our results suggest that H2S treatment has neuroprotective effects on the peri-infarct region during the evolution of I/R injury. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the administration of H2S immediately prior to reperfusion produces the

Prospective regularization design in prior-image-based reconstruction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dang, Hao; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H; Stayman, J Webster

2015-01-01

Prior-image-based reconstruction (PIBR) methods leveraging patient-specific anatomical information from previous imaging studies and/or sequences have demonstrated dramatic improvements in dose utilization and image quality for low-fidelity data. However, a proper balance of information from the prior images and information from the measurements is required (e.g. through careful tuning of regularization parameters). Inappropriate selection of reconstruction parameters can lead to detrimental effects including false structures and failure to improve image quality. Traditional methods based on heuristics are subject to error and sub-optimal solutions, while exhaustive searches require a large number of computationally intensive image reconstructions. In this work, we propose a novel method that prospectively estimates the optimal amount of prior image information for accurate admission of specific anatomical changes in PIBR without performing full image reconstructions. This method leverages an analytical approximation to the implicitly defined PIBR estimator, and introduces a predictive performance metric leveraging this analytical form and knowledge of a particular presumed anatomical change whose accurate reconstruction is sought. Additionally, since model-based PIBR approaches tend to be space-variant, a spatially varying prior image strength map is proposed to optimally admit changes everywhere in the image (eliminating the need to know change locations a priori). Studies were conducted in both an ellipse phantom and a realistic thorax phantom emulating a lung nodule surveillance scenario. The proposed method demonstrated accurate estimation of the optimal prior image strength while achieving a substantial computational speedup (about a factor of 20) compared to traditional exhaustive search. Moreover, the use of the proposed prior strength map in PIBR demonstrated accurate reconstruction of anatomical changes without foreknowledge of change locations in

GENERAL ASPECTS REGARDING THE PRIOR DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ANDRA PURAN (DASCĂLU

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Disciplinary research is the first phase of the disciplinary action. According to art. 251 paragraph 1 of the Labour Code no disciplinary sanction may be ordered before performing the prior disciplinary research.These regulations provide an exception: the sanction of written warning. The current regulations in question, kept from the old regulation, provides a protection for employees against abuses made by employers, since sanctions are affecting the salary or the position held, or even the development of individual employment contract. Thus, prior research of the fact that is a misconduct, before a disciplinary sanction is applied, is an essential condition for the validity of the measure ordered. Through this study we try to highlight some general issues concerning the characteristics, processes and effects of prior disciplinary research.

Bayesian Prior Probability Distributions for Internal Dosimetry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miller, G.; Inkret, W.C.; Little, T.T.; Martz, H.F.; Schillaci, M.E

2001-07-01

The problem of choosing a prior distribution for the Bayesian interpretation of measurements (specifically internal dosimetry measurements) is considered using a theoretical analysis and by examining historical tritium and plutonium urine bioassay data from Los Alamos. Two models for the prior probability distribution are proposed: (1) the log-normal distribution, when there is some additional information to determine the scale of the true result, and (2) the 'alpha' distribution (a simplified variant of the gamma distribution) when there is not. These models have been incorporated into version 3 of the Bayesian internal dosimetric code in use at Los Alamos (downloadable from our web site). Plutonium internal dosimetry at Los Alamos is now being done using prior probability distribution parameters determined self-consistently from population averages of Los Alamos data. (author)

Effects of exposure to cigarette smoke prior to pregnancy in diabetic rats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Damasceno Débora C

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of cigarette smoke exposure before pregnancy on diabetic rats and their offspring development. Methods Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin and cigarette smoke exposure was conducted by mainstream smoke generated by a mechanical smoking device and delivered into a chamber. Diabetic female Wistar rats were randomly distributed in four experimental groups (n minimum = 13/group: nondiabetic (ND and diabetic rats exposed to filtered air (D, diabetic rats exposed to cigarette smoke prior to and into the pregnancy period (DS and diabetic rats exposed to cigarette smoke prior to pregnancy period (DSPP. At day 21 of pregnancy, rats were killed for maternal biochemical determination and reproductive outcomes. Results The association of diabetes and cigarette smoke in DSPP group caused altered glycemia at term, reduced number of implantation and live fetuses, decreased litter and maternal weight, increased pre and postimplantation loss rates, reduced triglyceride and VLDL-c concentrations, increased levels of thiol groups and MDA. Besides, these dams presented increased SOD and GSH-Px activities. However, the increased antioxidant status was not sufficient to prevent the lipid peroxidation observed in these animals. Conclusion Despite the benefits stemming from smoking interruption during the pregnancy of diabetic rats, such improvement was insufficient to avoid metabolic alterations and provide an adequate intrauterine environment for embryofetal development. Therefore, these results suggest that it is necessary to cease smoking extensive time before planning pregnancy, since stopping smoking only when pregnancy is detected may not contribute effectively to fully adequate embryofetal development.

Radiological instrument

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kronenberg, S.; McLaughlin, W.L.; Seibentritt, C.R. Jr.

1986-01-01

An instrument is described for measuring radiation, particularly nuclear radiation, comprising: a radiation sensitive structure pivoted toward one end and including a pair of elongated solid members contiguously joined together along their length dimensions and having a common planar interface therebetween. One of the pairs of members is comprised of radiochromic material whose index of refraction changes due to anomolous dispersion as a result of being exposed to nuclear radiation. The pair of members further has mutually different indices of refraction with the member having the larger index of refraction further being transparent for the passage of light and of energy therethrough; means located toward the other end of the structure for varying the angle of longitudinal elevation of the pair of members; means for generating and projecting a beam of light into one end of the member having the larger index of refraction. The beam of light is projected toward the planar interface where it is reflected out of the other end of the same member as a first output beam; means projecting a portion of the beam of light into one end of the member having the larger index of refraction where it traverses therethrough without reflection and out of the other end of the same member as a second output beam; and means adjacent the structure for receiving the first and second output beams, whereby a calibrated change in the angle of elevation of the structure between positions of equal intensity of the first and second output beams prior to and following exposure provides a measure of the radiation sensed due to a change of refraction of the radiochromic material

All about Animal Adaptations. Animal Life for Children. [Videotape].

Science.gov (United States)

2000

Animals change to better adapt to their environment. Over long periods of time, nature helps the animals adapt by changing their body shape and color as well as adjusting their methods of getting and eating food, defending themselves, and caring for their young. In this videotape, students learn what changes different animals go through in order…

Spectrally Consistent Satellite Image Fusion with Improved Image Priors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg; Aanæs, Henrik; Jensen, Thomas B.S.

2006-01-01

Here an improvement to our previous framework for satellite image fusion is presented. A framework purely based on the sensor physics and on prior assumptions on the fused image. The contributions of this paper are two fold. Firstly, a method for ensuring 100% spectrally consistency is proposed......, even when more sophisticated image priors are applied. Secondly, a better image prior is introduced, via data-dependent image smoothing....

Bayesian Inference for Structured Spike and Slab Priors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Michael Riis; Winther, Ole; Hansen, Lars Kai

2014-01-01

Sparse signal recovery addresses the problem of solving underdetermined linear inverse problems subject to a sparsity constraint. We propose a novel prior formulation, the structured spike and slab prior, which allows to incorporate a priori knowledge of the sparsity pattern by imposing a spatial...

Depressive Symptoms Prior to Pregnancy and Infant Low Birth Weight in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Tomita, Andrew; Labys, Charlotte A; Burns, Jonathan K

2015-10-01

Despite improvements in service delivery and patient management, low birth weight among infants has been a persistent challenge in South Africa. The study aimed to explore the relationship between depression before pregnancy and the low birth weight (LBW) of infants in post-apartheid South Africa. This study utilized data from Waves 1 and 2 of the South African National Income Dynamics Study, the main outcome being a dichotomous measure of child LBW (<2500 g) drawn from the Wave 2 child questionnaire. Depressive symptoms of non-pregnant women was the main predictor drawn from the Wave 1 adult questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were screened using the 10-item four-point Likert version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) instrument. A total score of 10 or greater on the CES-D indicates a positive screen for depressive symptoms. An adjusted logistic regression model was used to examine the relationship between women's depression before pregnancy and infant LBW. A sample size of 651 women in Wave 1 was linked to 672 newborns in Wave 2. The results of the adjusted logistic regression model indicated depressive symptoms (CES-D ≥ 10) prior to pregnancy were associated with infant LBW (adjusted OR 2.84, 95 % CI 1.08-7.46). Another significant covariate in the model was multiple childbirths. Our finding indicates that women's depressive symptoms prior to pregnancy are associated with the low birth weight of newborns and suggests that this association may not be limited to depression present during the ante-natal phase.

Instrument Modeling and Synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Horner, Andrew B.; Beauchamp, James W.

During the 1970s and 1980s, before synthesizers based on direct sampling of musical sounds became popular, replicating musical instruments using frequency modulation (FM) or wavetable synthesis was one of the “holy grails” of music synthesis. Synthesizers such as the Yamaha DX7 allowed users great flexibility in mixing and matching sounds, but were notoriously difficult to coerce into producing sounds like those of a given instrument. Instrument design wizards practiced the mysteries of FM instrument design.

Instrumentation for Nuclear Applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

The objective of this project was to develop and coordinate nuclear instrumentation standards with resulting economies for the nuclear and radiation fields. There was particular emphasis on coordination and management of the Nuclear Instrument Module (NIM) System, U.S. activity involving the CAMAC international standard dataway system, the FASTBUS modular high-speed data acquisition and control system and processing and management of national nuclear instrumentation and detector standards, as well as a modest amount of assistance and consultation services to the Pollutant Characterization and Safety Research Division of the Office of Health and Environmental Research. The principal accomplishments were the development and maintenance of the NIM instrumentation system that is the predominant instrumentation system in the nuclear and radiation fields worldwide, the CAMAC digital interface system in coordination with the ESONE Committee of European Laboratories, the FASTBUS high-speed system and numerous national and international nuclear instrumentation standards

On Representative Spaceflight Instrument and Associated Instrument Sensor Web Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Kizhner, Semion; Patel, Umeshkumar; Vootukuru, Meg

2007-01-01

Sensor Web-based adaptation and sharing of space flight mission resources, including those of the Space-Ground and Control-User communication segment, could greatly benefit from utilization of heritage Internet Protocols and devices applied for Spaceflight (SpaceIP). This had been successfully demonstrated by a few recent spaceflight experiments. However, while terrestrial applications of Internet protocols are well developed and understood (mostly due to billions of dollars in investments by the military and industry), the spaceflight application of Internet protocols is still in its infancy. Progress in the developments of SpaceIP-enabled instrument components will largely determine the SpaceIP utilization of those investments and acceptance in years to come. Likewise SpaceIP, the development of commercial real-time and instrument colocated computational resources, data compression and storage, can be enabled on-board a spacecraft and, in turn, support a powerful application to Sensor Web-based design of a spaceflight instrument. Sensor Web-enabled reconfiguration and adaptation of structures for hardware resources and information systems will commence application of Field Programmable Arrays (FPGA) and other aerospace programmable logic devices for what this technology was intended. These are a few obvious potential benefits of Sensor Web technologies for spaceflight applications. However, they are still waiting to be explored. This is because there is a need for a new approach to spaceflight instrumentation in order to make these mature sensor web technologies applicable for spaceflight. In this paper we present an approach in developing related and enabling spaceflight instrument-level technologies based on the new concept of a representative spaceflight Instrument Sensor Web (ISW).

Animator

Science.gov (United States)

Tech Directions, 2008

2008-01-01

Art and animation work is the most significant part of electronic game development, but is also found in television commercials, computer programs, the Internet, comic books, and in just about every visual media imaginable. It is the part of the project that makes an abstract design idea concrete and visible. Animators create the motion of life in…

Virtual instrumentation: a new approach for control and instrumentation - application in containment studies facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gole, N.V.; Shanware, V.M.; Sebastian, A.; Subramaniam, K.

2001-01-01

PC based data-acquisition has emerged as a rapidly developing area particularly with respect to process instrumentation. Computer based data acquisition in process instrumentation combined with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software has introduced extensive possibilities with respect to formats for presentation of information. The concept of presenting data using any instrument format with the help of software tools to simulate the instrument on screen, needs to be understood, in order to be able to make use of its vast potential. The purpose of this paper is to present the significant features of the Virtual Instrumentation concept and discuss its application in the instrumentation and control system of containment studies facility (CSF). Factors involved in the development of the virtual instrumentation based I and C system for CSF are detailed and a functional overview of the system configuration is given. (author)

LOFT instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bixby, W.W.

1979-01-01

A description of instrumentation used in the Loss-of-Fluid Test (LOFT) large break Loss-of-Coolant Experiments is presented. Emphasis is placed on hydraulic and thermal measurements in the primary system piping and components, reactor vessel, and pressure suppression system. In addition, instrumentation which is being considered for measurement of phenomena during future small break testing is discussed. (orig.) 891 HP/orig. 892 BRE [de

Instrumentation for environmental monitoring: biomedical

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1979-05-01

An update is presented to Volume four of the six-volume series devoted to a survey of instruments useful for measurements in biomedicine related to environmental research and monitoring. Results of the survey are given as descriptions of the physical and operating characteristics of available instruments, critical comparisons among instrumentation methods, and recommendations of promising methodology and development of new instrumentation. Methods of detection and analysis of gaseous organic pollutants and metals, including Ni and As are presented. Instrument techniques and notes are included on atomic spectrometry and uv and visible absorption instrumentation

PET reconstruction via nonlocal means induced prior.

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Qingfeng; Huang, Jing; Bian, Zhaoying; Chen, Wufan; Ma, Jianhua

2015-01-01

The traditional Bayesian priors for maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction methods usually incorporate local neighborhood interactions that penalize large deviations in parameter estimates for adjacent pixels; therefore, only local pixel differences are utilized. This limits their abilities of penalizing the image roughness. To achieve high-quality PET image reconstruction, this study investigates a MAP reconstruction strategy by incorporating a nonlocal means induced (NLMi) prior (NLMi-MAP) which enables utilizing global similarity information of image. The present NLMi prior approximates the derivative of Gibbs energy function by an NLM filtering process. Specially, the NLMi prior is obtained by subtracting the current image estimation from its NLM filtered version and feeding the residual error back to the reconstruction filter to yield the new image estimation. We tested the present NLMi-MAP method with simulated and real PET datasets. Comparison studies with conventional filtered backprojection (FBP) and a few iterative reconstruction methods clearly demonstrate that the present NLMi-MAP method performs better in lowering noise, preserving image edge and in higher signal to noise ratio (SNR). Extensive experimental results show that the NLMi-MAP method outperforms the existing methods in terms of cross profile, noise reduction, SNR, root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (CORR).

When Humans Become Animals: Development of the Animal Category in Early Childhood

Science.gov (United States)

Herrmann, Patricia A.; Medin, Douglas L.; Waxman, Sandra R.

2012-01-01

The current study examines 3- and 5-year-olds' representation of the concept we label "animal" and its two nested concepts--"animal"[subscript contrastive] (including only non-human animals) and "animal"[subscript inclusive] (including both humans and non-human animals). Building upon evidence that naming promotes object categorization, we…

Aeroacoustics of Musical Instruments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fabre, B.; Gilbert, J.; Hirschberg, Abraham; Pelorson, X.

2012-01-01

We are interested in the quality of sound produced by musical instruments and their playability. In wind instruments, a hydrodynamic source of sound is coupled to an acoustic resonator. Linear acoustics can predict the pitch of an instrument. This can significantly reduce the trial-and-error process

Animation & Neurocinematics*

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carpe Pérez, Inmaculada Concepción

2015-01-01

, indeed, can be considered a social/ emotional learning media, which goes beyond the limitations of live action movies. This is due to the diversity of techniques, and its visual plasticity that constructs the impossible. Animators are not real actors but more like the midwife who brings the anima...... into aliveness, which requires knowing how emotions work. Ed Hooks as an expert in training animators and actors, always remarks: “emotions tend to lead to action”. In this paper we want to argue that by producing animated films, as we watch them, cause a stronger effect, not only in our brains, but also in our...... bodies. By using animation as a learning tool we can explore the world of emotions and question beliefs, feelings and actions in order to express our voices and enhance our communication, and well-being, both, internally and with others. Animation can be the visual expression of the emotions in movement...

Isotope-equipped measuring instruments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyagawa, Kazuo; Amano, Hiroshi

1980-01-01

In the steel industry, though the investment in isotope-equipped measuring instruments is small as compared with that in machinery, they play important role in the moisture measurement in sintering and blast furnaces, the thickness measurement in rolling process and others in automatic control systems. The economic aspect of the isotope-equipped measuring instruments is described on the basis of the practices in Kimitsu Works of Nippon Steel Corporation: distribution of such instruments, evaluation of economic effects, usefulness evaluation in view of raising the accuracy, and usefulness evaluation viewed from the failure of the isotope instruments. The evaluation of economic effects was made under the premise that the isotope-equipped measuring instruments are not employed. Then, the effects of raising the accuracy are evaluated for a γ-ray plate thickness gauge and a neutron moisture gauge for coke in a blast furnace. Finally, the usefulness was evaluated, assuming possible failure of the isotope-equipped measuring instruments. (J.P.N.)

Animal experiments in radiotherapy. II. Large animals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Probert, J C; Hughes, D B

1975-03-01

A review has been made of factors of importance when using large animals for organ or partial body irradiation research. The problem has been considered from the viewpoint of the clinician. The rabbit, cat, dog, pig and monkey have been examined in detail for suitability as laboratory animals. Dosimetric and volume features have been reviewed.

Instrumentation reference book

CERN Document Server

Boyes, Walt

2002-01-01

Instrumentation is not a clearly defined subject, having a 'fuzzy' boundary with a number of other disciplines. Often categorized as either 'techniques' or 'applications' this book addresses the various applications that may be needed with reference to the practical techniques that are available for the instrumentation or measurement of a specific physical quantity or quality. This makes it of direct interest to anyone working in the process, control and instrumentation fields where these measurements are essential.* Comprehensive and authoritative collection of technical information* Writte

Jones' instrument technology

CERN Document Server

Jones, Ernest Beachcroft; Kingham, Edward G; Radnai, Rudolf

1985-01-01

Jones' Instrument Technology, Volume 5: Automatic Instruments and Measuring Systems deals with general trends in automatic instruments and measuring systems. Specific examples are provided to illustrate the principles of such devices. A brief review of a considerable number of standards is undertaken, with emphasis on the IEC625 Interface System. Other relevant standards are reviewed, including the interface and backplane bus standards. This volume is comprised of seven chapters and begins with a short introduction to the principles of automatic measurements, classification of measuring system

Commodifying animals: ethical issues in genetic engineering of animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Almond, B

2000-03-01

The genetic modification of living beings raises special ethical concerns which go beyond general discussion of animal rights or welfare. Although the goals may be similar, biotechnology has accelerated the process of modification of types traditionally carried out by cross-breeding. These changes are discussed in relation to two areas: biomedicine, and animal husbandry. Alternative ethical approaches are reviewed, and it is argued that the teleological thesis underlying virtue ethics has special relevance here. The case for and the case against genetic engineering and patenting of life-forms are examined, and conclusions are drawn which favour regulation, caution and respect for animals and animal species.

Bayesian Image Restoration Using a Large-Scale Total Patch Variation Prior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yang Chen

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Edge-preserving Bayesian restorations using nonquadratic priors are often inefficient in restoring continuous variations and tend to produce block artifacts around edges in ill-posed inverse image restorations. To overcome this, we have proposed a spatial adaptive (SA prior with improved performance. However, this SA prior restoration suffers from high computational cost and the unguaranteed convergence problem. Concerning these issues, this paper proposes a Large-scale Total Patch Variation (LS-TPV Prior model for Bayesian image restoration. In this model, the prior for each pixel is defined as a singleton conditional probability, which is in a mixture prior form of one patch similarity prior and one weight entropy prior. A joint MAP estimation is thus built to ensure the iteration monotonicity. The intensive calculation of patch distances is greatly alleviated by the parallelization of Compute Unified Device Architecture(CUDA. Experiments with both simulated and real data validate the good performance of the proposed restoration.

Chapter 7. Radioactivity of animals and animal organs and factors influencing their value

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toelgyessy, J.; Harangozo, M.

2000-01-01

This is a chapter of textbook of radioecology for university students. In this chapter authors deal with radioactivity of animals and animal organs and factors influencing their value. Chapter consist of next parts: (1) Natural radioactivity of animals; (2) Radioactive contamination of animal tissues; (3) Connection of radioactive contamination with species of animals and discriminatingly ability of animal organism; (4) Connection of radioactive contamination with age of animal and with biological half-life T b ; (5) Factors influencing radioactive contamination of biological cycle: food - animal; (6) Possibilities of decreasing of radioactive contamination of foods with animal origin

Neutrino mass priors for cosmology from random matrices

Science.gov (United States)

Long, Andrew J.; Raveri, Marco; Hu, Wayne; Dodelson, Scott

2018-02-01

Cosmological measurements of structure are placing increasingly strong constraints on the sum of the neutrino masses, Σ mν, through Bayesian inference. Because these constraints depend on the choice for the prior probability π (Σ mν), we argue that this prior should be motivated by fundamental physical principles rather than the ad hoc choices that are common in the literature. The first step in this direction is to specify the prior directly at the level of the neutrino mass matrix Mν, since this is the parameter appearing in the Lagrangian of the particle physics theory. Thus by specifying a probability distribution over Mν, and by including the known squared mass splittings, we predict a theoretical probability distribution over Σ mν that we interpret as a Bayesian prior probability π (Σ mν). Assuming a basis-invariant probability distribution on Mν, also known as the anarchy hypothesis, we find that π (Σ mν) peaks close to the smallest Σ mν allowed by the measured mass splittings, roughly 0.06 eV (0.1 eV) for normal (inverted) ordering, due to the phenomenon of eigenvalue repulsion in random matrices. We consider three models for neutrino mass generation: Dirac, Majorana, and Majorana via the seesaw mechanism; differences in the predicted priors π (Σ mν) allow for the possibility of having indications about the physical origin of neutrino masses once sufficient experimental sensitivity is achieved. We present fitting functions for π (Σ mν), which provide a simple means for applying these priors to cosmological constraints on the neutrino masses or marginalizing over their impact on other cosmological parameters.

Estimating security betas using prior information based on firm fundamentals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cosemans, M.; Frehen, R.; Schotman, P.C.; Bauer, R.

2010-01-01

This paper proposes a novel approach for estimating time-varying betas of individual stocks that incorporates prior information based on fundamentals. We shrink the rolling window estimate of beta towards a firm-specific prior that is motivated by asset pricing theory. The prior captures structural

Astronomical Instrumentation System Markup Language

Science.gov (United States)

Goldbaum, Jesse M.

2016-05-01

The Astronomical Instrumentation System Markup Language (AISML) is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) based file format for maintaining and exchanging information about astronomical instrumentation. The factors behind the need for an AISML are first discussed followed by the reasons why XML was chosen as the format. Next it's shown how XML also provides the framework for a more precise definition of an astronomical instrument and how these instruments can be combined to form an Astronomical Instrumentation System (AIS). AISML files for several instruments as well as one for a sample AIS are provided. The files demonstrate how AISML can be utilized for various tasks from web page generation and programming interface to instrument maintenance and quality management. The advantages of widespread adoption of AISML are discussed.

Enclosure for small animals during awake animal imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Goddard, Jr., James S

2013-11-26

An enclosure or burrow restrains an awake animal during an imaging procedure. A tubular body, made from a radiolucent material that does not attenuate x-rays or gamma rays, accepts an awake animal. A proximal end of the body includes an attachment surface that corresponds to an attachment surface of an optically transparent and optically uniform window. An anti-reflective coating may be applied to an inner surface, an outer surface, or both surfaces of the window. Since the window is a separate element of the enclosure and it is not integrally formed as part of the body, it can be made with optically uniform thickness properties for improved motion tracking of markers on the animal with a camera during the imaging procedure. The motion tracking information is then used to compensate for animal movement in the image.

Prognostic Effect of Changes in Physical Function Over Prior Year on Subsequent Mortality and Long-Term Nursing Home Admission.

Science.gov (United States)

Gill, Thomas M; Han, Ling; Gahbauer, Evelyne A; Leo-Summers, Linda; Allore, Heather G

2018-05-02

To evaluate the prognostic effect of changes in physical function at different intervals over the prior year on subsequent outcomes after accounting for present function. Prospective longitudinal study. Greater New Haven, Connecticut, from March 1998 to January 2006. Community-living persons aged 71 and older who completed an 18-month comprehensive assessment (N=658). Disability in 13 activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, and mobility activities was assessed at the 18-month comprehensive assessment and at 12, 6, and 3 months before 18 months. Time to death and long-term nursing home admission, defined as 3 months and longer, were ascertained for up to 5 years after 18 months. In the bivariate models, disability at 18 months and change in disability between 18 months and each of the 3 prior time-points (12, 6, 3 months) were significantly associated with time to death. The risk of death, for example, increased by 24% for each 1-point increase in 18-month disability score (on a scale from 0 to 13) and by 22% for each 1-point change in disability score between 18 months and prior 12 months (on a scale from -13 to 13). In a set of multivariable models with and without covariates, the associations were maintained for 18-month disability but not for change in disability between 18 months and each of the 3 prior time-points. The results were comparable for time to long-term nursing home admission except that 2 of the associations were not statistically significant. When evaluating risk of adverse outcomes, such as death and long-term nursing home admission, an assessment of change in physical function at different intervals over the prior year, although a strong bivariate predictor, did not provide useful prognostic information beyond that available from current level of function. © 2018, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2018, The American Geriatrics Society.

34 CFR 303.403 - Prior notice; native language.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Prior notice; native language. 303.403 Section 303.403... TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards General § 303.403 Prior notice; native language. (a... file a complaint and the timelines under those procedures. (c) Native language. (1) The notice must be...

Accelerated habit formation following amphetamine exposure is reversed by D1, but enhanced by D2, receptor antagonists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew John Dudley Nelson

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Repeated exposure to the psychostimulant amphetamine has been shown to disrupt goal-directed instrumental actions and promote the early and abnormal development of goal-insensitive habitual responding (Nelson and Killcross, 2006. To investigate the neuropharmacological specificity of this effect as well as restore goal-directed responding in animals with pre-training amphetamine exposure, animals were treated with the non-selective dopamine antagonist α-flupenthixol, the selective D1 antagonist SCH 23390 or the selective D2 antagonist eticlopride, prior to instrumental training (3 sessions. Subsequently, the reinforcer was paired with LiCL-induced gastric-malaise and animals were given a test of goal-sensitivity both in extinction and reacquisition. The effect of these dopaminergic antagonists on the sensitivity of lever press performance to outcome devaluation was assessed in animals with pre-training exposure to amphetamine (Experiments 1a-1c or in non-sensitized animals (Experiment 2. Both α-flupenthixol and SCH23390 reversed accelerated habit formation following amphetamine sensitization. However, eticlopride appeared to enhance this effect and render instrumental performance compulsive as these animals were unable to inhibit responding both in extinction and reacquisition, even though a consumption test confirmed they had acquired an aversion to the reinforcer. These findings demonstrate that amphetamine induced-disruption of goal-directed behaviour is mediated by activity at distinct dopamine receptor subtypes and may represent a putative model of the neurochemical processes involved in the loss of voluntary control over behaviour.

Soil monitoring instrumentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Umbarger, C.J.

1981-01-01

The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) has an extensive program for the development of nondestructive assay instrumentation for the quantitative analysis of transuranic (TRU) materials found in bulk solid wastes generated by Department of Energy facilities and by the commercial nuclear power industry. Included are wastes generated in decontamination and decommissioning of outdated nuclear facilities, as well as from old waste-burial-ground exhumation programs. The assay instrumentation is designed to have detection limits below 10 nCi/g wherever practicable. The assay instrumentation that is applied specifically to soil monitoring is discussed

The effectiveness of computer-generated 3D animations in inquiry chemistry laboratory

Science.gov (United States)

Theall, Rachel Morgan

It has been shown that students need a molecular-level understanding of substances in order to comprehend chemistry. For solid structures, atomic-level understanding requires students to learn additional and different concepts than for other states of matter. To aid understanding, animations were created to model unit cell structures and depict the properties of unit cells. In order to determine if these animations are helpful to students, they were tested during a laboratory exercise in which students had previously been using model kits and images from textbooks to learn about solid structures. Students evaluated in this study were from two lecture sections of general chemistry, one that routinely used animations during lecture and one that used a more traditional lecture format that did not include animations or models. Twelve laboratory sections of these lectures, taught by six different instructors each teaching two sections, were chosen for participation. One section for each instructor was given the animations as an optional tool for completing the laboratory assignment, which consisted of questions about unit cells and crystal structures. The results of the study indicate that students who looked at the animations performed significantly better on the assignment. For the control group, students who routinely viewed multiple representations of chemistry in lecture performed significantly better on the lab assignment than students in the lecture section where chemistry concepts were only presented on the chalkboard and overhead projector. Students in the traditional lecture section also had significantly less appreciation for the model kits used in the laboratory than students in the other lecture section. Observations of students in the lab combined with statistical results led to the revision of the solid structures investigation. Additional animations were created and inserted into the module that covered areas where students indicated more help was needed

Instruments to assess integrated care

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lyngsø, Anne Marie; Godtfredsen, Nina Skavlan; Høst, Dorte

2014-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Although several measurement instruments have been developed to measure the level of integrated health care delivery, no standardised, validated instrument exists covering all aspects of integrated care. The purpose of this review is to identify the instruments concerning how to mea...... was prevalent. It is uncertain whether development of a single 'all-inclusive' model for assessing integrated care is desirable. We emphasise the continuing need for validated instruments embedded in theoretical contexts.......INTRODUCTION: Although several measurement instruments have been developed to measure the level of integrated health care delivery, no standardised, validated instrument exists covering all aspects of integrated care. The purpose of this review is to identify the instruments concerning how...... to measure the level of integration across health-care sectors and to assess and evaluate the organisational elements within the instruments identified. METHODS: An extensive, systematic literature review in PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, Web of Science for the years 1980-2011. Selected...

The Protection of Animals in Thailand--An Insight into Animal Protection Legislation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sulaiman Dorloh

2017-09-01

Full Text Available There are many critics of current Thai law concerning the welfare of animals. They argue that the PACPAWA,2014 is inadequate to protect the welfare of animals. The absence of clear guidelines in the legislation concerning animal welfare has resulted in animal welfare receiving inadequate protection. There are other limitations contributing to the inadequacy of existing laws in protecting animals in Thailand. The possible penalties are very low. For the offence of cruelty against an animal, the PACPAWA,2014 sets a maximum fine of TBH 2000. This is considered inadequate and ineffective in preventing cruelty to animals. The study utilises doctrinal legal research or library-based research approach to provide valuable insights in understanding the law and and ascertaining the principles of legal interpretation and analysis. The study also provides possible suggestions to enhance the protection of the welfare of animals in Thailand. The research suggests that education should play an important role in promoting kindness towards animals.

Children's views on research without prior consent in emergency situations: a UK qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Roper, Louise; Sherratt, Frances C; Young, Bridget; McNamara, Paul; Dawson, Angus; Appleton, Richard; Crawley, Esther; Frith, Lucy; Gamble, Carrol; Woolfall, Kerry

2018-06-09

We explored children's views on research without prior consent (RWPC) and sought to identify ways of involving children in research discussions. Qualitative interview study. Participants were recruited through a UK children's hospital and online advertising. 16 children aged 7-15 years with a diagnosis of asthma (n=14) or anaphylaxis (n=2) with recent (<12 months) experience of emergency care. Children were keen to be included in medical research and viewed RWPC as acceptable in emergency situations if trial interventions were judged safe. Children trusted that doctors would know about their trial participation and act in their best interests. All felt that children should be informed about the research following their recovery and involved in discussions with a clinician or their parent(s) about the use of data already collected as well as continued participation in the trial (if applicable). Participants suggested methods to inform children about their trial participation including an animation. Children supported, and were keen to be involved in, clinical trials in emergency situations. We present guidance and an animation that practitioners and parents might use to involve children in trial discussions following their recovery. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Analysis on detection accuracy of binocular photoelectric instrument optical axis parallelism digital calibration instrument

Science.gov (United States)

Ying, Jia-ju; Yin, Jian-ling; Wu, Dong-sheng; Liu, Jie; Chen, Yu-dan

2017-11-01

Low-light level night vision device and thermal infrared imaging binocular photoelectric instrument are used widely. The maladjustment of binocular instrument ocular axises parallelism will cause the observer the symptom such as dizziness, nausea, when use for a long time. Binocular photoelectric equipment digital calibration instrument is developed for detecting ocular axises parallelism. And the quantitative value of optical axis deviation can be quantitatively measured. As a testing instrument, the precision must be much higher than the standard of test instrument. Analyzes the factors that influence the accuracy of detection. Factors exist in each testing process link which affect the precision of the detecting instrument. They can be divided into two categories, one category is factors which directly affect the position of reticle image, the other category is factors which affect the calculation the center of reticle image. And the Synthesize error is calculated out. And further distribute the errors reasonably to ensure the accuracy of calibration instruments.

Recent Developments in Instrumentation for Pre-Clinical Imaging Studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meikle, S.R.

2002-01-01

Full text: Recent advances in imaging instrumentation have led to a variety of tomograph designs for dedicated pre clinical imaging of laboratory animals. These advances make it possible to image and quantify the kinetics of radiolabelled pharmaceuticals in a wide range of animal models from rodents to non-human primates. Applications include evaluation of promising new radiopharmaceuticals, study of the molecular origins of human disease and evaluation of new forms of therapy. These applications and advances in instrumentation are equally applicable to positron emitters and single photon emitters. This paper provides an overview of recent advances which have led to the current state-of-the-art in pre clinical imaging. The common inorganic scintillators that have been used for SPECT and PET, including some of the promising materials recently studied. The current crystal of choice for SPECT imaging is NaI(Tl) because of its high light output and density which make it well suited to imaging photons in the 100-200 keV range. However, NaI(Tl) has the disadvantage that it must be hermetically sealed to prevent absorption of moisture from the environment. Therefore, investigators have explored a number of alternative inorganic crystals, including CsI(Tl) and cerium-doped yttrium aluminium perovskite (YAP), as well as solid state detectors such as cadmium zinc telluride (CZT). Many of the crystals used in SPECT have also been tried for PET, including NaI(Tl) and YAP. However these crystals have lower stopping power than BGO and NaI(Tl) is also relatively slow. A very promising scintillator for PET is cerium-doped lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) (1) which has similar stopping power to BGO and relatively high light output and fast decay. The first PET scanner to use LSO was the UCLA animal scanner, microPET, which also makes use of a number of other new technologies and unique design features. Recently, improvements in multi-anode and crossed wire position sensitive

Intact goal-directed control in treatment-seeking drug users indexed by outcome-devaluation and Pavlovian to instrumental transfer: Critique of habit theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Hogarth, Lee; Lam-Cassettari, Christa; Pacitti, Helena; Currah, Tara; Mahlberg, Justin; Hartley, Lucie; Moustafa, Ahmed

2018-05-22

Animal studies have demonstrated that chronic exposure to drugs of abuse impairs goal-directed control over action selection indexed by the outcome-devaluation and specific Pavlovian to instrumental transfer procedures, suggesting this impairment might underpin addiction. However, there is currently only weak evidence for impaired goal-directed control in human drug users. Two experiments were undertaken in which treatment-seeking drug users and non-matched normative reference samples (controls) completed outcome-devaluation and specific Pavlovian to instrumental transfer procedures notionally translatable to animal procedures (Experiment 2 used a more challenging biconditional schedule). The two experiments found significant outcome-devaluation and specific Pavlovian to instrumental transfer effects overall and there was no significant difference between groups in the magnitude of these effects. Moreover, Bayes factor supported the null hypothesis for these group comparisons. Although limited by non-matched group comparisons and small sample sizes, the two studies suggest that treatment-seeking drug users have intact goal-directed control over action selection, adding uncertainty to already mixed evidence concerning the role of habit learning in human drug dependence. Neuro-interventions might seek to tackle goal-directed drug-seeking rather than habit formation in drug users. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Human-animal relationships: from daily life to animal-assisted therapies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marine Grandgeorge

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Humans have a long history of relationship with domestic animals and nowadays pets often act as "social substitutes" through bonding. There is some evidence that pet presence at home may induce well being in people and the development of social skills in children. Animal assisted therapies aim at developing these skills in patients on the basis of human animal interactions. Experimental data obtained on animal models suggest that this is indeed a promising line. There is however a lack of clear scientific data that would help defines what the most appropriate procedures or species may be. Improvements are observed, but again sound scientific data are mostly missing. Attention must be given to the welfare of the animals being used.

Animal Feeding Operations

Science.gov (United States)

... type=”submit” value=”Submit” /> Healthy Water Home Animal Feeding Operations Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir ... of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) What are Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs)? According to the United States ...

Animation of Antimicrobial Resistance

Science.gov (United States)

... Animal & Veterinary Cosmetics Tobacco Products Animal & Veterinary Home Animal & Veterinary Safety & Health Antimicrobial Resistance Animation of Antimicrobial Resistance Share Tweet Linkedin Pin ...

A multi-instrument non-parametric reconstruction of the electron pressure profile in the galaxy cluster CLJ1226.9+3332

Science.gov (United States)

Romero, C.; McWilliam, M.; Macías-Pérez, J.-F.; Adam, R.; Ade, P.; André, P.; Aussel, H.; Beelen, A.; Benoît, A.; Bideaud, A.; Billot, N.; Bourrion, O.; Calvo, M.; Catalano, A.; Coiffard, G.; Comis, B.; de Petris, M.; Désert, F.-X.; Doyle, S.; Goupy, J.; Kramer, C.; Lagache, G.; Leclercq, S.; Lestrade, J.-F.; Mauskopf, P.; Mayet, F.; Monfardini, A.; Pascale, E.; Perotto, L.; Pisano, G.; Ponthieu, N.; Revéret, V.; Ritacco, A.; Roussel, H.; Ruppin, F.; Schuster, K.; Sievers, A.; Triqueneaux, S.; Tucker, C.; Zylka, R.

2018-04-01

Context. In the past decade, sensitive, resolved Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) studies of galaxy clusters have become common. Whereas many previous SZ studies have parameterized the pressure profiles of galaxy clusters, non-parametric reconstructions will provide insights into the thermodynamic state of the intracluster medium. Aim. We seek to recover the non-parametric pressure profiles of the high redshift (z = 0.89) galaxy cluster CLJ 1226.9+3332 as inferred from SZ data from the MUSTANG, NIKA, Bolocam, and Planck instruments, which all probe different angular scales. Methods: Our non-parametric algorithm makes use of logarithmic interpolation, which under the assumption of ellipsoidal symmetry is analytically integrable. For MUSTANG, NIKA, and Bolocam we derive a non-parametric pressure profile independently and find good agreement among the instruments. In particular, we find that the non-parametric profiles are consistent with a fitted generalized Navaro-Frenk-White (gNFW) profile. Given the ability of Planck to constrain the total signal, we include a prior on the integrated Compton Y parameter as determined by Planck. Results: For a given instrument, constraints on the pressure profile diminish rapidly beyond the field of view. The overlap in spatial scales probed by these four datasets is therefore critical in checking for consistency between instruments. By using multiple instruments, our analysis of CLJ 1226.9+3332 covers a large radial range, from the central regions to the cluster outskirts: 0.05 R500 generation of SZ instruments such as NIKA2 and MUSTANG2.

Comparing the Effect of Animal-Rearing Education in Japan with Conventional Animal-Assisted Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakajima, Yuka

2017-01-01

An increasing number of teachers are introducing animals into their class so that pupils foster cognitive, physiological, and social skills through their interaction with animals. Along with such an educational style termed animal-assisted education (AAE), Japanese formal education has also utilized animals for education. Japanese animal-rearing education is unique regarding the following two points: (1) it takes the form of "education through assisting animals" rather than "animals assisting education" and (2) animal rearing is embedded in formal education. While conventional AAE expects the benefit from the social support of animals, Japanese animal-rearing education expects benefit from nurturing and caring for animals. The present study aims to identify effective methods for using animals for education by highlighting the benefits of Japanese animal-rearing education. An overview of Japanese animal-rearing education is followed by a critical review of empirical studies of conventional AAE and Japanese animal-rearing education. Despite the differences in the educational styles, it was found that both systems commonly help children adapt to school. Additionally, conventional AAE were effective in enhancing cognitive and athletic ability of students and foster social skills, while Japanese animal-rearing education enhanced academic knowledge and skills and cultivated sympathy for animals and other people. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the experience of raising animals affects children's development for a long time even after children stop raising animals. In order to determine the effect of animal presence at school, however, more empirical studies with various viewpoints are necessary for both styles of education. Concerning Japanese animal-rearing education, the effects of the differences such as the amount of exposure to animals, developmental stage or character of individual children, the types of animals need to be controlled for a more sophisticated

Building the Future: Post-transcriptional Regulation of Cell Fate Decisions Prior to the Xenopus Midblastula Transition.

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Sheets, Michael D

2015-01-01

In all animals, a critical period in early development is when embryonic cells switch from relying solely upon maternally deposited RNAs and proteins to relying upon molecules encoded by the zygotic genome. Xenopus embryos have served as a model for examining this switch, as well as the maternally controlled stages that prepare for it. In Xenopus, the robust activation of zygotic transcription occurs at the 12th cleavage division and is referred to as the midblastula transition (MBT). Prior to MBT, gene expression is regulated by post-transcriptional events including mRNA and protein localization, protein post-translational modification, and mRNA translation. After the MBT, appropriate transcriptional regulation of the zygotic genome becomes critical and predominates. However, it is important to realize that the first key cell fate decisions that have profound impacts on development occur prior to the MBT and these are governed by regulating the expression of maternally deposited regulatory mRNAs and proteins. In this chapter, I will discuss post-transcriptional mechanisms that function during the maternal stages of Xenopus development with an emphasis on mechanisms known to directly modulate cell fate decisions. Emerging approaches and technologies that will help better understand this phase of development will also be discussed. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effectiveness of methods for detaching orthodontic implants likely to fracture upon rotational torque – an animal study

Science.gov (United States)

Nakagaki, Susumu; Yasuda, Yoshitaka; Handa, Keisuke; Koike, Toshiyuki; Saito, Takashi; Mizoguchi, Itaru

2016-01-01

Abstract Orthodontic implants may fracture at the cortical bone level upon rotational torque. The impacted fragment can be detached by a range of methods, which are all more or less time‐consuming and injurious to the cortical bone. The aim of this study was to compare three different methods for detaching an orthodontic implant impacted in cortical bone. Health Sciences University of Hokkaido animal ethics committee approved the study protocol. Orthodontic titanium‐alloy (Ti‐6Al‐4 V) implants were placed bilaterally on the buccal side of the mandible of beagle dogs. Subsequently, the implants were detached using either a low‐speed handpiece with a round bur, alternatively by use of a low‐power or a high‐power ultrasonic instrument. In the first experiment, 56 orthodontic implants were placed into the dissected mandible from 7 animals. The methods for detachment were compared with respect to time interval, as well as associated undesirable bone loss as appraised by use of cone‐beam computed tomography. In experiment two, 2x2 implants were placed bilaterally in the mandible of 8 animals and subsequently detached by manual rotational torque, and the described three methods for detachment. The implant socket was investigated histologically as a function of removal method immediately after removal, and after 1, 3 and 8 weeks and contrasted with the healing of the socket of the implant that was detached by manual rotational torque. Statistical significance was appraised by the use of non‐parametric Kruskal‐Wallis one‐way analysis of variance. The method using the low‐power ultrasonic required significantly longer removal time versus the two other methods, i.e. high‐power ultrasonic and low‐speed handpiece with a round bur (p Orthodontic implants likely to fracture upon rotational torque or impacted fractured fragments should be detached preferably with an ultrasonic instrument, because of less associated bone loss and more rapid bone

Concurrent Pilot Instrument Monitoring in the Automated Multi-Crew Airline Cockpit.

Science.gov (United States)

Jarvis, Stephen R

2017-12-01

Pilot instrument monitoring has been described as "inadequate," "ineffective," and "insufficient" after multicrew aircraft accidents. Regulators have called for improved instrument monitoring by flight crews, but scientific knowledge in the area is scarce. Research has tended to investigate the monitoring of individual pilots when in the pilot-flying role; very little research has looked at crew monitoring, or that of the "monitoring-pilot" role despite it being half of the apparent problem. Eye-tracking data were collected from 17 properly constituted and current Boeing 737 crews operating in a full motion simulator. Each crew flew four realistic flight segments, with pilots swapping between the pilot-flying and pilot-monitoring roles, with and without the autopilot engaged. Analysis was performed on the 375 maneuvering-segments prior to localizer intercept. Autopilot engagement led to significantly less visual dwell time on the attitude director indicator (mean 212.8-47.8 s for the flying pilot and 58.5-39.8 s for the monitoring-pilot) and an associated increase on the horizontal situation indicator (18-52.5 s and 36.4-50.5 s). The flying-pilots' withdrawal of attention from the primary flight reference and increased attention to the primary navigational reference was paralleled rather than complemented by the monitoring-pilot, suggesting that monitoring vulnerabilities can be duplicated in the flight deck. Therefore it is possible that accident causes identified as "inadequate" or "insufficient" monitoring, are in fact a result of parallel monitoring.Jarvis SR. Concurrent pilot instrument monitoring in the automated multi-crew airline cockpit. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(12):1100-1106.

JUNGIAN GENDER IN ANIMAL ANIMATION FROM ANTHROPOMORPHISM PERSPECTIVE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yustin Sartika

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Bear is usually depicted as a strong, brawny and blood-curdling animal. On the contrary, Pooh Bear is the fun-loving and caring main character while Masha Bear can handle all house works. Their characteristics can be related to Jungian gender theory which states that man is bisexual having both feminine and masculine sides. A focus on anima animus is established through qualitative research analysis of bear characters' actions and the characters around within the plots of Winnie-the-Pooh and Masha and the Bear. Masha and the Bear is adapted from the real story in Russia. The use of anthropomorphic storytelling in those animations can bridge the conceptual and moral gulf which separate human from animal. By using anthropomorphism perspective, this research is aimed to find the feminine and masculine stereotype of Pooh and Bear characters. Anthropomorphism is divided into the animation of physical and psychological qualities. The result shows that small bright yellow body on a short red t-shirt makes Pooh look more lovable. Another woman stereotype is portrayed from the name given, Winnie, and his most favorite honey. Masha Bear‘s physical qualities are quite identical to a real bear. Beyond his strong and brawny body, he is a spick-and-span bear. He is a merciful bear who becomes a caregiver for Masha, the parentless girl. Anthropomorphism creates great empathy in humans. This empathy can be combined with a simplified narrative to provoke genuine feeling from audiences. It draws attention to feminine and masculine stereotype of human to identify in animal animation.

The effect of ratio and interval training on Pavlovian-instrumental transfer in mice.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian J Wiltgen

Full Text Available Conditional stimuli (CS that are paired with reward can be used to motivate instrumental responses. This process is called Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT. A recent study in rats suggested that habitual responses are particularly sensitive to the motivational effects of reward cues. The current experiments examined this idea using ratio and interval training in mice. Two groups of animals were trained to lever press for food pellets that were delivered on random ratio or random interval schedules. Devaluation tests revealed that interval training led to habitual responding while ratio training produced goal-directed actions. The presentation of CSs paired with reward led to positive transfer in both groups, however, the size of this effect was much larger in mice that were trained on interval schedules. This result suggests that habitual responses are more sensitive to the motivational influence of reward cues than goal-directed actions. The implications for neurobiological models of motivation and drug seeking behaviors are discussed.

Comparing the Effect of Animal-Rearing Education in Japan with Conventional Animal-Assisted Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuka Nakajima

2017-06-01

Full Text Available An increasing number of teachers are introducing animals into their class so that pupils foster cognitive, physiological, and social skills through their interaction with animals. Along with such an educational style termed animal-assisted education (AAE, Japanese formal education has also utilized animals for education. Japanese animal-rearing education is unique regarding the following two points: (1 it takes the form of “education through assisting animals” rather than “animals assisting education” and (2 animal rearing is embedded in formal education. While conventional AAE expects the benefit from the social support of animals, Japanese animal-rearing education expects benefit from nurturing and caring for animals. The present study aims to identify effective methods for using animals for education by highlighting the benefits of Japanese animal-rearing education. An overview of Japanese animal-rearing education is followed by a critical review of empirical studies of conventional AAE and Japanese animal-rearing education. Despite the differences in the educational styles, it was found that both systems commonly help children adapt to school. Additionally, conventional AAE were effective in enhancing cognitive and athletic ability of students and foster social skills, while Japanese animal-rearing education enhanced academic knowledge and skills and cultivated sympathy for animals and other people. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the experience of raising animals affects children’s development for a long time even after children stop raising animals. In order to determine the effect of animal presence at school, however, more empirical studies with various viewpoints are necessary for both styles of education. Concerning Japanese animal-rearing education, the effects of the differences such as the amount of exposure to animals, developmental stage or character of individual children, the types of animals need to be

Animation of Antimicrobial Resistance

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Full Text Available ... Animal & Veterinary Cosmetics Tobacco Products Animal & Veterinary Home Animal & Veterinary Safety & Health Antimicrobial Resistance Animation of Antimicrobial Resistance Share Tweet Linkedin Pin ...

Prior stress promotes the generalization of contextual fear memories: Involvement of the gabaergic signaling within the basolateral amygdala complex.

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Bender, C L; Otamendi, A; Calfa, G D; Molina, V A

2018-04-20

Fear generalization occurs when a response, previously acquired with a threatening stimulus, is transferred to a similar one. However, it could be maladaptive when stimuli that do not represent a real threat are appraised as dangerous, which is a hallmark of several anxiety disorders. Stress exposure is a major risk factor for the occurrence of anxiety disorders and it is well established that it influences different phases of fear memory; nevertheless, its impact on the generalization of contextual fear memories has been less studied. In the present work, we have characterized the impact of acute restraint stress prior to contextual fear conditioning on the generalization of this fear memory, and the role of the GABAergic signaling within the basolateral amygdala complex (BLA) on the stress modulatory effects. We have found that a single stress exposure promoted the generalization of this memory trace to a different context that was well discriminated in unstressed conditioned animals. Moreover, this effect was dependent on the formation of a contextual associative memory and on the testing order (i.e., conditioning context first vs generalization context first). Furthermore, we observed that increasing GABA-A signaling by intra-BLA midazolam administration prior to the stressful session exposure prevented the generalization of fear memory, whereas intra-BLA administration of the GABA-A antagonist (Bicuculline), prior to fear conditioning, induced the generalization of fear memory in unstressed rats. We concluded that stress exposure, prior to contextual fear conditioning, promotes the generalization of fear memory and that the GABAergic transmission within the BLA has a critical role in this phenomenon. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

30 CFR 872.29 - What are prior balance replacement funds?

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2010-07-01