Circular 101

This study was made possible by the financial support of the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation

Growth Performance of Holstein Dairy Calves Supplemented with a Probiotic

Administration of antibiotics in both therapeutic and sub-therapeutic doses has been the standard practice for dealing with pathogenic bacteria problems in farm animals since the 1940s. Several types of antibiotics are currently used to promote weight gain and feed efficiency in domestic livestock. There is growing concern that the use of antibiotics as growth promoters may result in the development of resistant populations of pathogenic bacteria and, in turn, influence the therapeutic use of antibiotics. The indiscriminate and improper use of antibiotics in food-producing animals could result in the presence of residues in milk, meat, and other animal food products consumed by humans. One possible alternative to antibiotics is the use of probiotics. Probiotics can be defined as “live microbial feed supplements which beneficially affect the host animal by improving its intestinal microbial balance” (Fuller, 1989). Probiotics introduce beneficial microorganisms into the gut which act to maintain optimal conditions within the gastrointestinal tract and inhibit the growth of pathogenic or other undesirable bacteria

Mergers and Acquisitions in Latin America: Industrial Productivity and Corporate Governance

This paper examines the impact of industrial productivity on transnationals M&As from OECD countries towards Latin American countries in the period 1996 to 2010. It also analyzes the relationship between external mechanism of corporate governance and transnational M&As. For this purpose we use a gravitational model at the industry level. We find that industry productivity and higher standards of corporate governance in the country of origin promote transnational M&As activity. However, it is also found that higher levels of capital and technological productivity decreases transnational M&As activity

Seeing faces as objects: no face inversion effect with geometrical discrimination

Inversion dramatically impairs face perception, recognition, and discrimination. Yet it does not interfere with the ability to make precise estimates of facial feature distances. To investigate this discontinuity between facial feature distance estimation and general perception and recognition, we assessed the effect of inversion on the discrimination of differences in facial compression and elongation or expansion using geometrically distorted faces. The results clearly showed that geometrical face discrimination is not subject to the traditional face inversion effect and did not show a benefit for natural faces. Although discrimination thresholds were not affected by inversion, response times to the distance judgments were faster with inversion, especially when the inverted faces contained natural configurations. Based on these counterintuitive results, we suggest that participants used analytical processing to do the discrimination task. Moreover, we suggest that the depth with which a face is holistically encoded depends on the nature of the task, face orientation, and similarity between a face and the prototypical face template

Research Progress Report, No. 35

This report presents results from the third and final trial of a three-year study by the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (AFES) investigating the use of Alaska-grown whole-seed canola in dairy cattle diets.This research was made possible by funding from the Alaska Science & Technology Foundation; the cooperation of Delta Junction producers Dennis Green and Paul Knopp; C.W. Knight of AFES; Don Quarberg of ACE; Ron Kincaid of Washington State Univ; Paul Windschitl of GTA Feeds; and the AFES dairy barn crew and laboratory personnel

Infant Industry Protection Revisited

In 1791, Alexander Hamilton suggested that assuring protection to domestic entrants Could pre-empt entry-degterrence by foreign firms. This paper reformulates his Argument in game-theoretic terms with asymmetric cost information, imposing the Requirement that both the foreign firm's threat and the home governments's promise of Protection should be credible. It derives a simple optimal tariff formula that depends Only on the expectation of foreign costs. It then shows that this tariff can lead to Welfare-decreasing entry, but only if thee foreign is relatively inefficient. However, If the formula is applied with dynamic consistency, and is rationally anticipated by both foreign and domestic firms, it prevents foreign entry-deterrence and improves deomestic welfare. [F13, 019]