1,609 research outputs found

    Exploring the hidden welfare problem of gastric ulceration in sows: behaviour and saliva composition as possible methods of diagnosis

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    Gastric ulcers are highly prevalent in the pig industry and evidence suggests probably affect pigs in all productive stages. Gastric ulcers affect pig welfare as they cause some degree of discomfort or pain (observed by a change in behaviour) as well as impacting performance. Gastric ulceration is a hidden problem as it is difficult to identify in living pigs and there is no method of diagnosis that is both non-invasive and affordable. In this thesis, I hypothesised that re-directed oral behaviours (e.g. sham chewing, biting bars) and changes in saliva characteristics may be of use for the diagnosis of gastric ulceration in pigs. Re-directed oral behaviours have been largely related with chronic hunger in sows which appear as a way to cope with a diet and environment that does not fulfil sows’ nutritional and behavioural needs. However, these behaviours have also been observed in finishing pigs as well as in gilts and sows fed ad libitum. Furthermore, there is some evidence that the behaviour of finishing pigs changes with the presence of gastric ulcers. Saliva composition has been reported to change with various illnesses or conditions but also, recently, with the presence of gastric ulcers in finishing pigs. Chapter 2 describes oral behaviours present in finishing pigs and compares them to the behaviour of sows. All oral behaviours studied were observed in finishing pigs, and the rate was the same as compared to sows. The behaviours which were least frequent and performed by the least number of animals in both finishing pigs and gestating sows were self-directed oral behaviours. Self-directed oral behaviours are much more difficult to explain in finishing pigs as opposed to oral behaviours that involve the interaction with an object or conspecific. Chapter 3 explored the relationship between self-directed oral behaviours (chewing movements, wind sucking, tongue playing and jaw stretching) and the presence of gastric ulcers in finishing pigs. All self-directed oral behaviours, but jaw stretching, were observed in both pigs with healthy and ulcerated stomachs (video observations). All observed behaviours were the same between both groups. Chapter 4 explores the relationship between re-directed oral behaviours (live observations) as well as salivary composition and pH with gastric ulceration in gestating and lactating sows. All sows were found to have some level of ulceration and the prevalence of gastric ulcers was 67.57%. The rate of re-directed oral behaviours was not affected by overall stomach score or lesion score during either gestation or lactation. Salivary pH was not affected by stomach integrity. Saliva composition changed with the overall stomach score and lesion score in gestating and lactating sows. Lipoxin A4, Succinic acid and L-Histidine were identified as possible biomarkers of gastric ulceration. Chapter 5 is a systematic literature review of the variation of re-directed oral behaviours according to housing system, diet and feeding practices, and environmental enrichment in gestating gilts and sows. All of the results of the included studies can be explained by ‘chronic hunger’ theory or their housing environment. Although the design of these studies was to test factors which relate to hunger and re-directed foraging, rather than the health of the upper digestive system. This thesis shows that oral behaviours do not have a clear link with gastric ulceration in finishing pigs, or in gestating and lactating sows. However, oral behaviours were observed in finishing pigs and some of these remain unexplained (e.g. self-directed oral behaviours). Also, all re-directed oral behaviours in gestating gilts and sows can be explained by chronic hunger or housing environment as shown by the systematic literature review. Possibly, the remaining unexplained oral behaviours may be a response to an environment that is still insufficient for the pig to fulfill its behavioural needs and/or other conditions affecting the upper digestive system. Saliva composition is linked to gastric ulceration in gestating and lactating sows, and possible biomarkers were identified in this thesis. More studies are needed to identify and validate biomarkers for gastric ulceration in pigs

    The Craft Hub Journey:Project Catalogue

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    Introducing the Craft Hub project and the International Exhibition ‘Investigating Craft Practices across Europe’, including its journey across Europe, the artistic curation and set-up methodology for a replicable, accessible and sustainable design, adapting to seven unique exhibition spaces and content. The recurring themes, Heritage, Sustainability, Experimentation, Technological Innovation, Empowerment and Social Inclusion create common threads running through the activities and research carried out by each Craft Hub partner

    A literary music: joyce's use and development of leitmotifs

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    This thesis examines James Joyce’s use and development of leitmotifs across Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake. In doing so, not only does it rectify a gap in the literature —a gap recognised by both Clive Hart and Zack Bowen—but it also demonstrates that a device and technique which becomes prominent in Ulysses and pivotal in Finnegans Wake was anticipated in Joyce’s earlier works as well, giving a much fuller account of this technical aspect of Joyce’s œuvre. This sustained reading of leitmotifs, as it were, aims to highlight the role and functions of leitmotifs and their effects in Joyce’s different texts where others have simply underlined their presence. As such, this thesis also engages with previous scholarship on related subjects. Moreover, in analysing Joyce’s use of leitmotifs, this thesis also engages with the idea that the leitmotif, in a literary context, is derived from its musical counterpart and therefore explores these implications. It questions the definitions and assumptions attached to the leitmotif in literary discourse to challenge accepted notions and demonstrate its full potential in a literary context. Therefore, this thesis proposes that under Joyce’s pen the leitmotif evolves from a device which adorns the surface of the texts to a metaphor through which to think about repetition and, as a result, into a modus operandi, a guiding principal which influenced the composition and orchestration of his texts. Ultimately, it attempts to show Joyce’s literary use of music

    An examination of the verbal behaviour of intergroup discrimination

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    This thesis examined relationships between psychological flexibility, psychological inflexibility, prejudicial attitudes, and dehumanization across three cross-sectional studies with an additional proposed experimental study. Psychological flexibility refers to mindful attention to the present moment, willing acceptance of private experiences, and engaging in behaviours congruent with one’s freely chosen values. Inflexibility, on the other hand, indicates a tendency to suppress unwanted thoughts and emotions, entanglement with one’s thoughts, and rigid behavioural patterns. Study 1 found limited correlations between inflexibility and sexism, racism, homonegativity, and dehumanization. Study 2 demonstrated more consistent positive associations between inflexibility and prejudice. And Study 3 controlled for right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, finding inflexibility predicted hostile sexism and racism beyond these factors. While showing some relationships, particularly with sexism and racism, psychological inflexibility did not consistently correlate with varied prejudices across studies. The proposed randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention to reduce sexism through enhanced psychological flexibility. Overall, findings provide mixed support for the utility of flexibility-based skills in addressing complex societal prejudices. Research should continue examining flexibility integrated with socio-cultural approaches to promote equity

    Posthuman Creative Styling can a creative writer’s style of writing be described as procedural?

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    This thesis is about creative styling — the styling a creative writer might use to make their writing unique. It addresses the question as to whether such styling can be described as procedural. Creative styling is part of the technique a creative writer uses when writing. It is how they make the text more ‘lively’ by use of tips and tricks they have either learned or discovered. In essence these are rules, ones the writer accrues over time by their practice. The thesis argues that the use and invention of these rules can be set as procedures. and so describe creative styling as procedural. The thesis follows from questioning why it is that machines or algorithms have, so far, been incapable of producing creative writing which has value. Machine-written novels do not abound on the bookshelves and writing styled by computers is, on the whole, dull in comparison to human-crafted literature. It came about by thinking how it would be possible to reach a point where writing by people and procedural writing are considered to have equal value. For this reason the thesis is set in a posthuman context, where the differences between machines and people are erased. The thesis uses practice to inform an original conceptual space model, based on quality dimensions and dynamic-inter operation of spaces. This model gives an example of the procedures which a posthuman creative writer uses when engaged in creative styling. It suggests an original formulation for the conceptual blending of conceptual spaces, based on the casting of qualities from one space to another. In support of and informing its arguments are ninety-nine examples of creative writing practice which show the procedures by which style has been applied, created and assessed. It provides a route forward for further joint research into both computational and human-coded creative writing

    Rather Than to Seem: Black and Indigenous Narratives in a Stormy, Swampy South

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    I examine the narratives of the South that have been historically overlooked, ignored, or hidden in order to establish a dominant narrative of the region. The narratives examined here are by southern Black and Indigenous authors who restore lost knowledge and offer histories that help complete the South culturally and ecologically. The conceptual methodology develops from LeAnne Howe’s tribalography which explains that Indigenous people create stories and histories that transform the space around them and offer an understanding of the world around us. Another methodology used is Anthony Wilson’s ecocritical swamp studies; each chapter analyzes a narrative centered around a swamp, a low-lying area, or a hurricane. I also use the concept of ecotones or spaces of transition, necessary spaces of invisible work as each author supplies a space created by knowledge, history, and story to do the necessary work of leading their readers through the middle of a dominant narrative to the unburied truth. The selected texts offer perspectives of a violent past and how this violence affected the ecology of their home as well as how the natural world was seen and cared for. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is an example used in one chapter that illuminates what has been lost due to colonization and white supremacy. I examine Black and Indigenous authors as these two people groups have suffered the most under colonization in the South and have witnessed the most violence. Their voices offer the South a way to confront its past and renew both land and human relations with access to hidden stories and forgotten knowledge

    Revolution Beyond the Event

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    Revolution Beyond the Event brings together leading international anthropologists alongside emerging scholars to examine revolutionary legacies from the MENA region, Latin America and the Caribbean. It explores the idea that revolutions have varied afterlives that complicate the assumptions about their duration, pace and progression, and argues that a renewed focus on the temporality of radical politics is essential to our understanding of revolution. Approaching revolution through its relationship to time, the book is a critical intervention into attempts to define revolutions as bounded events that act as sequential transitions from one political system to another. It pursues an ethnographically driven rethinking of the temporal horizons that are at stake in revolutionary processes, arguing that linear views of revolution are inextricably tied to notions of progress and modernity. Through a careful selection of case studies, the book provides a critical perspective on the lived realities of revolutionary afterlives, challenging the liberal humanist assumptions implicit in the ‘modern’ idea of revolution, and reappraising the political agency of people caught up in revolutionary situations across a variety of ethnographic contexts

    Blank : a ghostly story

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    This work is the first seven chapters of a middle grade or young adult novel in the urban fantasy genre. These chapters introduce the two main characters and some supporting characters. Foremost among these supporting characters are an aunt, a grandfather, and a ghost. The grandfather and the ghost have peripheral roles in the contained chapters, but become more involved in the plot as the novel continues. The events in the chapters first provide necessary interactions between the main characters. Starting in the first chapter, their interactions cause these characters to bond and begin a friendship. The friendship will be the driving force of the main plot. These chapters also contain incidents and information that will become relevant later on

    Zoothérapie ou zoo-animation? Favoriser le développement des élèves du secondaire ayant une déficience intellectuelle de moyenne à sévère

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    Les élèves ayant une déficience intellectuelle moyenne à sévère présentent des difficultés dans plusieurs sphères de leur vie dont la motivation, les habiletés sociales, les habiletés de travail et l’autodétermination (Martin-Roy, 2019; Pelletier et Joussemet, 2014; McConkey et Mezza, 2001). L’école joue un rôle important pour travailler ces difficultés qui sont déterminantes dans le développement de la participation sociale. En effet, les programmes d’éducation pour les élèves ayant une déficience intellectuelle moyenne à sévère mettent l’accent sur les conditions favorables à la participation sociale (Gouvernement du Québec, 2019; Gouvernement du Québec, 1996). En plus de mettre l’accent sur le développement de la participation sociale, il est aussi important de développer l’intérêt et la motivation de ces jeunes. Cependant, le matériel disponible pour cette clientèle reste infantile et se fait rare. C’est donc pour cette raison que ce projet de recherche prend forme; pour tenter de combiner la passion pour l’enseignement d’élèves ayant une déficience intellectuelle et la passion pour les animaux de la personne chercheuse. Ce projet s’oriente pour répondre aux questions générales de recherche suivante : 1- Comment apporter un meilleur accompagnement en vue de susciter l’intérêt des élèves ayant une déficience intellectuelle moyenne à sévère à la réussite en créant du matériel réutilisable sur le thème de la zoo-animation? 2- Quels types de matériel pédagogique sous le thème de la zoo-animation peut être pertinents pour la réussite des élèves ayant une déficience intellectuelle moyenne à sévère? Afin de répondre à ces questions, des objectifs ont été mis en place. Le premier objectif est de développer du matériel pédagogique réutilisable sous le thème de la zoo-animation à l’intention d’enseignants en adaptation scolaire pour les élèves ayant une déficience intellectuelle moyenne à sévère afin de mettre en place un climat de classe favorable pour susciter leur intérêt. Le deuxième objectif est de faire valider le matériel pédagogique par des collègues et le troisième objectif est de mettre à l’essai le matériel pédagogique avec des jeunes ayant une déficience intellectuelle moyenne à sévère fréquentant une école secondaire. Pour recueillir les données, des entrevues semi-dirigées sont utilisées

    Writing Facts: Interdisciplinary Discussions of a Key Concept in Modernity

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    "Fact" is one of the most crucial inventions of modern times. Susanne Knaller discusses the functions of this powerful notion in the arts and the sciences, its impact on aesthetic models and systems of knowledge. The practice of writing provides an effective procedure to realize and to understand facts. This concerns preparatory procedures, formal choices, models of argumentation, and narrative patterns. By considering "writing facts" and "writing facts", the volume shows why and how "facts" are a result of knowledge, rules, and norms as well as of description, argumentation, and narration. This approach allows new perspectives on »fact« and its impact on modernity
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