Circular, No. 8

LAYING HENS PROVIDE a year-round income, utilize off-season labor, help build a permanent system o f agriculture in Alaska

The Problem of Lame Chickens and Turkeys

Poultry--perhaps because of the fact that evolution resulted in the transformation of their forelimbs into wings, with a resultant greater strain on their remaining two legs-seem much like people in being bothered by bad feet. Frequently the cause lies in a sort of no man\u27s land between nutrition and management, but the fact remains that a host of disorders of the feet and legs of chickens and turkeys continues to plague the veterinarian, the nutritionist and the poultryman

From Information Lost to Knowledge Gained: The Benefits of Analyzing all the Research Evidence

Data analyses should reveal truths about data. To the extent possible analyses should tell a complete picture. Data analyses should not inadvertently ignore phenomena that might be discovered in sample data sets. However, common univariate or multivariate data analysis methods tend to be based on only the means, standard deviations, and Pearson correlations. The result is that many important truths are discovered, but not the whole truth. This article illustrates in a sample data set that (a) data analyses of other properties of variables and groups are feasible and practical, and (b) such analyses may reveal important information not otherwise detectable. These extensions of common statistical methods are applicable to data analysis and interpretation issues in the social and behavioral sciences

Least-Cost Rations for Broilers

Whenever two items substitute for one another in doing the same job, it will often pay to use a little more of one and a little less of the other as costs for the two vary. Take broiler rations, for example

Challenges in creating speech recognition for endangered language CALL: A Chickasaw case study

Speech recognition technology is increasingly becoming an important component of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software, as well as of a language’s digital vitality. CALL software that integrates speech recognition allows learners to practice oral skills without live instruction and receive feedback on pronunciation. This speech recognition technology may be particularly beneficial for endangered or under-resourced languages. Chickasaw is an indigenous language of North America now spoken mainly in the state of Oklahoma. It is estimated that there are fewer than 75 native speakers of the language remaining, though recent years have seen a surge of interest in Chickasaw culture and language revitalization. In 2007, the Chickasaw Nation launched a robust and multifaceted revitalization program, and in 2015 they commissioned CALL software that integrates speech recognition. However, creating a quality automatic speech recognition (ASR) system necessitates a number of resources that are not always readily available for endangered languages like Chickasaw. Modern speech recognition technology is based on large-scale statistical modeling of target language text and hand transcribed audio corpora. Such technology also assumes a single standardized phonetic orthography where speech can be directly mapped to text. Currently, most available resources for building speech recognition technology are based on languages where researchers are able to access a large pool of literate native speakers who are willing and able to record many hours of high quality audio, and where large volumes of accessible text already exist. For many endangered languages, these criteria cannot easily be fulfilled. This paper is focused on identifying the dimensions of resource challenges that affect building corpora for such languages, using Chickasaw as a case study. Furthermore, we identify techniques that we have used to create a corpus of speech data suitable for building an instructional speech recognition module for use in CALL software

A Case Study of the Role of a School in a Community Undergoing Rapid Gentrification

Atlanta, one of the fastest gentrifying cities in the United States, is comprised of neighborhoods near the city center amid urban wealth that suffer from severe poverty and low literacy rates. One neighborhood school has been ranked as one of the lowest in the state. To combat decades of underperformance, Atlanta Public Schools (APS) created an initiative that has helped bring this community together. The purpose of this case study, using interviews and survey data with thematic content analysis, was to understand the role of school district leadership in the creation of a new framework, replacing the original public school with a long record of failure

One is Not Enough: The Need for Multiple Respondents in Survey Research of Organizations

The need for multiple respondents per organization in organizational survey research is supported. Leadership teams’ ratings of their implementations of market orientation are examined, along with learning orientation, entrepreneurial management, and organizational flexibility. Sixty diverse organizations, including not-for-profit organizations in education and healthcare as well as manufacturing and service businesses, were included. The major finding was the large rating variance within the leadership teams of each organization. The results are enlightening and have definite implications for improved design of survey research on organizations

Least-cost rations and optimum marketing weights for broilers: Production functions, gain isoquants, substitution ratios, least-cost rations and optimum marketing weights for broilers fed corn and soybean oilmeal in a fortified ration

The major cost item in broilex production is feed. Previous studies indicate that feed costs generally constitute 65-75 percent of the total cost of producing broilers. Hence, one of the major opportunities for increasing profits from broiler production is to minimize the costs of producing birds of a given weight. Great progress has been made in recent years in developing high energy feeds and feeding formulas which lessen the total pounds of feed required in producing a bird of a given weight. However, even though high energy, rapid gain formulas have been developed, the problem of how major sources or categories of feeds should be combined to minimize costs of gains still remains. Ordinarily, broiler feeds are made up of two major categories of feeds, along with the proper vitamins and minerals. These two categories include feeds high in carbohydrate such as corn and feeds high in protein such as soybean oilmeal. If prices of these feeds did not change, the least-cost ration determined a( one point in time also would be the least-cost ration at all later points in time. However, the prices of these major feed sources do change. In recent years the price of corn has been as low as 1.8 cents per pound with soybean oilmeal as high as 4.5 cents per pound, a SBOM/corn price ratio of 2.5; in other years the price of corn has been as high as 4.5 cents per pound with soybean oilmeal as low as 3.5 cents per pound, a SBOM/corn price ratio of 0.8. The ration or combination of these two feeds which minimizes costs of gains under one of these price ratios will not also minimize costs under the other ratio