1,136 research outputs found
The productivity and financial impacts of eight types of environmental enrichment for broiler chickens
Reduced mobility in broilers can contribute to leg health problems. Environmental enrichment has been suggested as one approach to combat this through stimulating increased physical activity. Past studies have tested the effect of environmental enrichments on bird behaviour, health and welfare, but few have estimated their financial impacts. This study tested the impact of eight types of environmental enrichment on enterprise net margin, accounting for direct intervention costs plus indirect effects via changes to bird mortality, weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and foot pad dermatitis. The trial used 58 pens each containing approximately 500 broilers (Ross 308) at a stocking density of 40 kg/m2. The environmental enrichments were: roughage, vertical panels, straw bales, elevated platforms (5 and 30 cm), increased distances between feed and water (7 and 3.5 m) and stocking density reduced to 34 kg/m2, plus a control group. Mortality was recorded daily and feed intake and weight weekly. Footpad dermatitis was assessed on day 35. Only one intervention improved financial performance (3.5 m between feed and water) above the control, suggesting that most environmental enrichment would have a negative financial impact due to the additional intervention costs, unless consumers were willing to pay a price premium
Parody in Trademark Law: Dumb Starbucks Makes Trademark Law Look Dumb, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 143 (2015)
Comedian Nathan Fielder opened a coffee shop which looked like a Starbucks, but he put the word “dumb” in front of the Starbucks name. Fielder justified his behavior based on the argument that he had created a parody of Starbucks. This article explores when a parody of a trademark may be entitled to protection under the First Amendment. If so, what are the limits of this protection, especially when a trademark holder argues that the parody is diluting his or her trademark by either blurring or tarnishment? The article analyzes federal statutes and judicial decisions. It concludes with recommendations to improve U.S. trademark law
A Racial Impact Analysis of HB 869/SB 274
Virginia is growing. Between 1990 and 2000, Virginia’s population rose by over 14% - the largest population growth experienced by the state in a single decade (Pollard, 2007). And the state continues to grow. It has been estimated that by 2030, Virginia’s total population may exceed 9.8 million people (Pollard, 2007). Along with population growth, land development has increased which in turn affects transportation, housing and job placement across the Commonwealth. In fact, in many parts of the state, development has outpaced population growth. According to Pollard, “If current patterns continue, Virginia will develop more land in the next 40 years than in the previous 400 years (p.8).”
In an effort to curb sprawling development and decrease transportation expenditure, the Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 3202 in 2007. One major outcome of this multifaceted legislation was the introduction of mandatory Urban Development Areas (UDAs). The goal of UDAs was for localities to concentrate growth and development in order to reduce the cost of transportation and increase opportunities to build multi-use developments and expand affordable housing. In 2012, the General Assembly passed House Bill 869 and Senate Bill 274 which effectively make UDAs no longer mandatory but optional for all localities in the Commonwealth.
In this paper, we analyze the racial impact and explore the political history of HB 869/SB 274 while addressing the larger issue of sprawl across the Commonwealth. Smart Growth policies are known to positively impact the environment but they also positively impact low-income and minority communities by increasing access to housing, transportation and ultimately jobs. The story behind Urban Development Areas in the Commonwealth is one of politics and regulation but issues as critical as housing, transportation and job access should be focused much more on the citizens of the Commonwealth. The friction created by the UDA policy between the localities and the state has the potential to spark a statewide conversation about land use and more importantly - the need for people-centered solutions to a growing problem
Articulating reproductive justice through reparative justice: : case studies of abortion in Great Britain and South Africa
A Hot Uranus Orbiting the Super Metal-rich Star HD77338 and the Metallicity - Mass Connection
We announce the discovery of a low-mass planet orbiting the super metal-rich
K0V star HD77338 as part of our on-going Calan-Hertfordshire Extrasolar Planet
Search. The best fit planet solution has an orbital period of 5.7361\pm0.0015
days and with a radial velocity semi-amplitude of only 5.96\pm1.74 m/s, we find
a minimum mass of 15.9+4.7-5.3 Me. The best fit eccentricity from this solution
is 0.09+0.25-0.09, and we find agreement for this data set using a Bayesian
analysis and a periodogram analysis. We measure a metallicity for the star of
+0.35\pm0.06 dex, whereas another recent work (Trevisan et al. 2011) finds
+0.47\pm0.05 dex. Thus HD77338b is one of the most metal-rich planet host stars
known and the most metal-rich star hosting a sub-Neptune mass planet. We
searched for a transit signature of HD77338b but none was detected. We also
highlight an emerging trend where metallicity and mass seem to correlate at
very low masses, a discovery that would be in agreement with the core accretion
model of planet formation. The trend appears to show that for Neptune-mass
planets and below, higher masses are preferred when the host star is more
metal-rich. Also a lower boundary is apparent in the super metal-rich regime
where there are no very low-mass planets yet discovered in comparison to the
sub-solar metallicity regime. A Monte Carlo analysis shows that this, low-mass
planet desert, is statistically significant with the current sample of 36
planets at around the 4.5\sigma\ level. In addition, results from Kepler
strengthen the claim for this paucity of the lowest-mass planets in super
metal-rich systems. Finally, this discovery adds to the growing population of
low-mass planets around low-mass and metal-rich stars and shows that very
low-mass planets can now be discovered with a relatively small number of data
points using stable instrumentation.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in Ap
Formation and Dynamical Evolution of the Neptune Trojans - the Influence of the Initial Solar System Architecture
In this work, we investigate the dynamical stability of pre-formed Neptune
Trojans under the gravitational influence of the four giant planets in compact
planetary architectures, over 10 Myr. In our modelling, the initial orbital
locations of Uranus and Neptune (aN) were varied to produce systems in which
those planets moved on non-resonant orbits, or in which they lay in their
mutual 1:2, 2:3 and 3:4 mean-motion resonances (MMRs). In total, 420
simulations were carried out, examining 42 different architectures, with a
total of 840000 particles across all runs. In the non-resonant cases, the
Trojans suffered only moderate levels of dynamical erosion, with the most
compact systems (those with aN less than or equal 18 AU) losing around 50% of
their Trojans by the end of the integrations. In the 2:3 and 3:4 MMR scenarios,
however, dynamical erosion was much higher with depletion rates typically
greater than 66% and total depletion in the most compact systems. The 1:2
resonant scenarios featured disruption on levels intermediate between the
non-resonant cases and other resonant scenarios, with depletion rates of the
order of tens of percent. Overall, the great majority of plausible
pre-migration planetary architectures resulted in severe levels of depletion of
the Neptunian Trojan clouds. In particular, if Uranus and Neptune formed near
their mutual 2:3 or 3:4 MMR and at heliocentric distances within 18 AU (as
favoured by recent studies), we found that the great majority of pre-formed
Trojans would have been lost prior to Neptune's migration. This strengthens the
case for the great bulk of the current Neptunian Trojan population having been
captured during that migration.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, MNRAS (in press). Abstract slightly reduced in
size, but in original form in the PDF fil
Ubiquitin, a central component of selective cytoplasmic proteolysis, is linked to proteins residing at the locus of non-selective proteolysis, the vacuole
Ubiquitin, an evolutionary highly conserved protein, is known to be involved in selective proteolysis in the cytoplasm. Here we show that ubiquitin-protein conjugates are also found in the yeast vacuole. Mutants defective in the major vacuolar endopeptidases, proteinase yscA and yscB, lead to accumulation of ubiquitin-protein conjugates in this cellular organelle.
Double-blind test program for astrometric planet detection with Gaia
We use detailed simulations of the Gaia observations of synthetic planetary
systems and develop and utilize independent software codes in double-blind mode
to analyze the data, including statistical tools for planet detection and
different algorithms for single and multiple Keplerian orbit fitting that use
no a priori knowledge of the true orbital parameters of the systems. 1) Planets
with astrometric signatures times the single-measurement error
and period yr can be detected reliably, with a very
small number of false positives. 2) At twice the detection limit, uncertainties
in orbital parameters and masses are typically . 3) Over 70% of
two-planet systems with well-separated periods in the range
yr, , and eccentricity are
correctly identified. 4) Favorable orbital configurations have orbital elements
measured to better than 10% accuracy of the time, and the value of the
mutual inclination angle determined with uncertainties \leq 10^{\degr}. 5)
Finally, uncertainties obtained from the fitting procedures are a good estimate
of the actual errors. Extrapolating from the present-day statistical properties
of the exoplanet sample, the results imply that a Gaia with = 8
as, in its unbiased and complete magnitude-limited census of planetary
systems, will measure several thousand giant planets out to 3-4 AUs from stars
within 200 pc, and will characterize hundreds of multiple-planet systems,
including meaningful coplanarity tests. Finally, we put Gaia into context,
identifying several areas of planetary-system science in which Gaia can be
expected to have a relevant impact, when combined with data coming from other
ongoing and future planet search programs.Comment: 32 pages, 24 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for pubolication in A&
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