Evaluation of the anticoccidial efficacy of Cycostat (R) in experimentally infected breeding rabbits housed under conventional conditions

The present study was designed in order to evaluate the effi cacy and safety of Cycostat (R) 66G in the prevention and control of coccidiosis in breeding does after experimentally induced infection with common Eimeria spp. at the age of 18 wk. The inoculum was prepared based on faecal samples collected on farms in the Czech Republic. A total of 94 young and pregnant does were divided into 4 groups and enrolled in the study. The zootechnical, clinical and parasitological results of 2 control groups were compared, a non-infected non-treated (NI-NT) and an infected non-treated (I-NT), and 2 infected and dietary supplemented groups, with 50 (I-50) and 66 mg/kg (I-66) robenidine, respectively. Does in the I-NT group showed a significant drop in weight gain and feed intake during the fi rst 14 d after inoculation. No treatment related effects on the weight development of the does were observed, although does in the I-NT group always had approximately ± 200 g lower body weight. Litter size (live born) was not signifi cantly different at either the fi rst or second parturition and amounted to 9.0, 8.2, 10.1 and 9.8 (1st litter) and 11.3, 10.4, 10.1 and 11.0 (2nd litter) in NI-NT, I-NT, I-50 and I-66 does, respectively. At weaning, both in the 1st and 2nd cycle, the highest litter weight was obtained in the I-50 and I-66 groups. Litter weaning weight values for I-66 (litter 2) were higher but not significant (P=0.069) compared to the NI-NT litters. The lowest young mortality was also observed in the I-66 litters, both in the first and second cycles. Between 6 to 11 d after inoculation, the oocyst excretion of both supplemented groups was reduced by more than 90% in comparison to the I-NT. Supplementation with Cycostat (R) 66G diminished the excretion of E. flavescens and E. intestinalis, the most pathogenic species, by 100%. The excretion of E. magna was reduced by >90 and 100% for the I-50 and I-66 groups, respectively. The reduction in oocyst excretion of E. media was less pronounced. It was concluded that Cycostat (R) 66G supplemented in the feed at a concentration of 50 or 66mg/kg was able to prevent coccidiosis in breeding does after experimental inoculation.Maertens, L.; Van Gaver, D. (2010). Evaluation of the anticoccidial efficacy of Cycostat (R) in experimentally infected breeding rabbits housed under conventional conditions. World Rabbit Science. 18(2). doi:10.4995/WRS.2010.18.0918

Designing electronic collaborative learning environments

Electronic collaborative learning environments for learning and working are in vogue. Designers design them according to their own constructivist interpretations of what collaborative learning is and what it should achieve. Educators employ them with different educational approaches and in diverse situations to achieve different ends. Students use them, sometimes very enthusiastically, but often in a perfunctory way. Finally, researchers study them and—as is usually the case when apples and oranges are compared—find no conclusive evidence as to whether or not they work, where they do or do not work, when they do or do not work and, most importantly, why, they do or do not work. This contribution presents an affordance framework for such collaborative learning environments; an interaction design procedure for designing, developing, and implementing them; and an educational affordance approach to the use of tasks in those environments. It also presents the results of three projects dealing with these three issues

Affordances, constraints and information flows as ‘leverage points’ in design for sustainable behaviour

Copyright @ 2012 Social Science Electronic PublishingTwo of Donella Meadows' 'leverage points' for intervening in systems (1999) seem particularly pertinent to design for sustainable behaviour, in the sense that designers may have the scope to implement them in (re-)designing everyday products and services. The 'rules of the system' -- interpreted here to refer to affordances and constraints -- and the structure of information flows both offer a range of opportunities for design interventions to in fluence behaviour change, and in this paper, some of the implications and possibilities are discussed with reference to parallel concepts from within design, HCI and relevant areas of psychology

Using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire to teach medical students developmental assessment: a descriptive analysis

BACKGROUND: After a survey of medical graduates' skills found a lack of confidence in developmental assessment, a program was introduced with the broad aims of increasing medical student confidence and respect for the parents' role in childhood developmental assessment. Research has shown that parents' concerns are as accurate as quality screening tests in assessing development, so the program utilised the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, a parent completed, child development assessment tool. METHOD: To evaluate the program, an interpretative analysis was completed on the students' reports written during the program and a questionnaire was administered to the parents to gain their perception of the experience. As well, student confidence levels in assessing growth and development were measured at the end of the paediatric term. RESULTS: Although there was an increase in student confidence in developmental assessment at the end of the term, it was not statistically significant. However the findings indicated that students gained increased understanding of the process and enhanced recognition of the parental role, and the study suggested there was increased confidence in some students. Parents indicated that they thought they should be involved in the teaching of students. CONCLUSION: The ASQ was shown to have been useful in an education program at the level of advanced beginners in developmental assessment

Gut Feelings as a Third Track in General Practitioners’ Diagnostic Reasoning

BACKGROUND: General practitioners (GPs) are often faced with complicated, vague problems in situations of uncertainty that they have to solve at short notice. In such situations, gut feelings seem to play a substantial role in their diagnostic process. Qualitative research distinguished a sense of alarm and a sense of reassurance. However, not every GP trusted their gut feelings, since a scientific explanation is lacking. OBJECTIVE: This paper explains how gut feelings arise and function in GPs' diagnostic reasoning. APPROACH: The paper reviews literature from medical, psychological and neuroscientific perspectives. CONCLUSIONS: Gut feelings in general practice are based on the interaction between patient information and a GP's knowledge and experience. This is visualized in a knowledge-based model of GPs' diagnostic reasoning emphasizing that this complex task combines analytical and non-analytical cognitive processes. The model integrates the two well-known diagnostic reasoning tracks of medical decision-making and medical problem-solving, and adds gut feelings as a third track. Analytical and non-analytical diagnostic reasoning interacts continuously, and GPs use elements of all three tracks, depending on the task and the situation. In this dual process theory, gut feelings emerge as a consequence of non-analytical processing of the available information and knowledge, either reassuring GPs or alerting them that something is wrong and action is required. The role of affect as a heuristic within the physician's knowledge network explains how gut feelings may help GPs to navigate in a mostly efficient way in the often complex and uncertain diagnostic situations of general practice. Emotion research and neuroscientific data support the unmistakable role of affect in the process of making decisions and explain the bodily sensation of gut feelings.The implications for health care practice and medical education are discussed

Timbre from Sound Synthesis and High-level Control Perspectives

International audienceExploring the many surprising facets of timbre through sound manipulations has been a common practice among composers and instrument makers of all times. The digital era radically changed the approach to sounds thanks to the unlimited possibilities offered by computers that made it possible to investigate sounds without physical constraints. In this chapter we describe investigations on timbre based on the analysis by synthesis approach that consists in using digital synthesis algorithms to reproduce sounds and further modify the parameters of the algorithms to investigate their perceptual relevance. In the first part of the chapter timbre is investigated in a musical context. An examination of the sound quality of different wood species for xylophone making is first presented. Then the influence of instrumental control on timbre is described in the case of clarinet and cello performances. In the second part of the chapter, we mainly focus on the identification of sound morphologies, so called invariant sound structures responsible for the evocations induced by environmental sounds by relating basic signal descriptors and timbre descriptors to evocations in the case of car door noises, motor noises, solid objects, and their interactions