Prospects for a European Animal Welfare Label from the German Perspective: Supply Chain Barriers

The Federal Government of Germany as well as the European Commission are discussing the establishment of an animal welfare label. This label should enable consumers to make a conscious purchasing decision on animal welfare products. Various studies show that many consumers (in Germany around 20 %) prefer products produced under animal friendly conditions. However, the supply of such products is limited. The following study examines the source of this discrepancy by way of an action‐based analytical approach and identifies different barriers within the supply chain that prevent the establishment of a market segment for animal welfare products. Although consumer demand will be decisive for long‐term success, first of all the stakeholders of the supply chain must be convinced. If the stakeholders are not prepared to participate in an animal welfare program the diffusion phase can take a very long time or even fail. This study presents such supply chain barriers and interprets them in the light of neoinstitutionalism.animal welfare, label, supply chain, neo‐institutionalism., Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Industrial Organization, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Risk and Uncertainty,

EXAMINING BRAIN NETWORK MODULARITY IN U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL WITH BLAST VS. NON-BLAST RELATED MILD TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

Problem: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major health concern to the public, accounting for alarming numbers of hospitalizations and emergency department visits per year. mTBI is of particular concern because of the injury’s ‘invisible’ nature. There are a lack of clinical findings on current evidence-based diagnostic protocols, and sufferers of this “silent” injury persistently complain of changes in functioning compared to their baseline abilities. Methods: 103 active duty service members from the SCORE study comprised 3 groups: mTBI resulting from blast (bmTBI; n=32), mTBI not resulting from blast (e.g. falls, motor vehicle accidents) (mTBI; n=29), and orthopedic controls (OC; n=42). Participants completed an fMRI task assessing effort and a standardized neuropsychological battery. Whole-brain network modularity analysis was completed to determine the pathophysiology secondary to TBI, whether the pathophysiology differs based on the nature of injury, and whether altered modularity relates to cognition. Results: Analysis of variance tests (ANOVA) revealed greater modularity in bmTBI than mTBI and OC at increased effort levels. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that increasing modularity values (Q) in bmTBI corresponded with increased effort level demands, while the Q in mTBI and OC was consistent across effort levels. Pearson correlations revealed minimal associations between Q and measures of processing speed. No significant correlations between Q and neuropsychological measures were observed in the OC group. Conclusions: This study suggests that the pathophysiology of blast injury alters the modular structure of the brain in TBI to a greater extent than in TBI from other etiologies

On the Locality of Grammatical Evolution

It is well known that using high-locality representations is important for efficient evolutionary search. This paper investigates the locality of the genotype-phenotype mapping (representation) used in grammatical evolution (GE). The results show that the representation used in GE has problems with locality as many neighboring genotypes do not correspond to neighboring phenotypes. Experiments with a simple local search strategy reveal that the GE representation leads to lower performance for mutationbased search approaches in comparison to standard GP representations. The results suggest that locality issues should be considered for further development of the representation used in GE

Joan of Arc in Shakespeare, twain and shaw

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 1983

Prospects for a European Animal Welfare Label from the German Perspective: Supply Chain Barriers

The Federal Government of Germany as well as the European Commission are discussing the establishment of an animal welfare label. This label should enable consumers to make a conscious purchasing decision on animal welfare products. Various studies show that many consumers (in Germany around 20 %) prefer products produced under animal friendly conditions. However, the supply of such products is limited. The following study examines the source of this discrepancy by way of an action-based analytical approach and identifies different barriers within the supply chain that prevent the establishment of a market segment for animal welfare products. Although consumer demand will be decisive for long-term success, first of all the stakeholders of the supply chain must be convinced. If the stakeholders are not prepared to participate in an animal welfare program the diffusion phase can take a very long time or even fail. This study presents such supply chain barriers and interprets them in the light of neo-institutionalism

Evaluation de la virulence d'une souche néo-calédonienne de Beauveria bassiana vis à vis du Scolyte de la graine du caféier Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari, Coleoptera Scolytidae

Des lots de 50 à 100 drupes de caféier ont été plongés, avec autant de femelles infestantes du Scolyte de la graine du caféier (#Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari), dans des solutions aqueuses de concentrations croissantes de conidiospores d'une souche néo-calédonienne de #Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill. récoltée dans la nature (souche "Sarraméa"). La baisse de fécondité, la mortalité et le comportement du scolyte atteint par le champignon ont été observés. (Résumé d'auteur

Stem Cell Therapy: a Novel Approach for Vision Restoration in Retinitis Pigmentosa

Unfortunately, at present, degenerative retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa remains untreatable. Patients with these conditions suffer progressive visual decline resulting from continuing loss of photoreceptor cells and outer nuclear layers. However, stem cell therapy is a promising approach to restore visual function in eyes with degenerative retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa. Animal studies have established that pluripotent stem cells when placed in the mouse retinitis pigmentosa models have the potential not only to survive, but also to differentiate, organize into and function as photoreceptor cells. Furthermore, there is early evidence that these transplanted cells provide improved visual function. These groundbreaking studies provide proof of concept that stem cell therapy is a viable method of visual rehabilitation among eyes with retinitis pigmentosa. Further studies are required to optimize these techniques in human application. This review focuses on stem cell therapy as a new approach for vision restitution in retinitis pigmentosa

Informal Earth Education : Significant Shifts for Environmental Attitude and Knowledge

Environmental education aims to affect environmental knowledge and attitude to ultimately induce pro-environmental behavior. Based on 247 upper elementary school students, we tested the impact of an outdoor-based earth education program on environmental knowledge and attitude with a pre-post design. Both outcome measures were Rasch scales. Environmental knowledge is a composite of 27 system, action, and effectiveness knowledge items, and environmental attitude is a composite of 13 evaluative statements and 11 self-reported behaviors about nature preservation. Our analysis revealed gains in environmental knowledge and attitude. The convergence between knowledge and attitude increased significantly from pre- to post-program, and attitude played a significant role in knowledge acquisition

Assessing Environmental Attitudes and Cognitive Achievement within 9 Years of Informal Earth Education

Given the multitude of attitude scales, we examined the relationship between the 2-Major Environmental Values model (2-MEV) and the New Environmental Paradigm scale (NEP) based on a 6585 child sample over a 9-year period. The students participated in a three-day outdoor earth education program at field centers in three different US states (Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana). We further investigated the scales’ sensitivity to program effects, relating cognitive achievement and attitude with respect to a pro-environmental indicator of behavior (Y key). NEP and Preservation correlated highly, while the subscales Utilization and Preservation showed a strong inverse relationship. Based on further reliability and validity scores, and in line with the literature, this pointed to a unidimensional Preservation of Nature scale as a concise attitude measurement. In structural equation modelling, Preservation related to knowledge gains and the Y key, and effects from Preservation on knowledge held true for all three states. This suggests Preservation as one factor influencing cognitive achievement and environmentally conscious performance. Regarding program effects, the Earthkeepers program seemed to induce pro-environmental shifts based on knowledge gains and attitude changes (Preservation increasing and Utilization decreasing). Pro-environmental shifts were most prominent for those who received the Y key. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]