Mice with Infectious Colitis Exhibit Linear Growth Failure and Subsequent Catch-Up Growth Related to Systemic Inflammation and IGF-1

In developing communities, intestinal infection is associated with poor weight gain and linear-growth failure. Prior translational animal models have focused on weight gain investigations into key contributors to linear growth failure have been lacking. We hypothesized that murine intestinal infection with Citrobacter-rodentium would induce linear-growth failure associated with systemic inflammation and suppressed serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). We evaluated 4 groups of mice infected or sham-infected on day-of-life 28: uninfected-controls, wild-type C.-rodentium-infected, partially-attenuated C. rodentium-infected (with deletion of 3 serine protease genes involved in colonization), and pair-fed (given the amount of daily food consumed by the wild-type C.-rodentium group). Relative to the uninfected group, mice infected with wild-type C.-rodentium exhibited temporal associations of lower food intake, weight loss, linear-growth failure, higher IL-6 and TNF-α and lower IGF-1. However, relative to the pair-fed group, the C.-rodentium-infected group only differed significantly by linear growth and systemic inflammatory cytokines. Between post-infection days 15–20, the infected group exhibited resolution of systemic inflammation. Between days 16–20, both wild-type C.-rodentium and pair-fed groups exhibited rapid linear-growth velocities exceeding the uninfected and mutant C.-rodentium groups; during this time levels of IGF-1 increased to match the uninfected group. We submit this as a model providing important opportunities to study mechanisms of catch-up growth related to intestinal inflammation. We conclude that in addition to known effects of weight loss, infection with C.-rodentium induces linear-growth failure potentially related to systemic inflammation and low levels of IGF-1, with catch-up of linear growth following resolution of inflammation

Information Technologies for Welfare Monitoring in Pigs and Their Relation to Welfare Quality®

The assessment of animal welfare on-farm is important to ensure that current welfare standards are followed. The current manual assessment proposed by Welfare Quality® (WQ), although being an essential tool, is only a point-estimate in time, is very time consuming to perform, only evaluates a subset of the animals, and is performed by the subjective human. Automation of the assessment through information technologies (ITs) could provide a continuous objective assessment in real-time on all animals. The aim of the current systematic review was to identify ITs developed for welfare monitoring within the pig production chain, evaluate the ITs developmental stage and evaluate how these ITs can be related to the WQ assessment protocol. The systematic literature search identified 101 publications investigating the development of ITs for welfare monitoring within the pig production chain. The systematic literature analysis revealed that the research field is still young with 97% being published within the last 20 years, and still growing with 63% being published between 2016 and mid-2020. In addition, most focus is still on the development of ITs (sensors) for the extraction and analysis of variables related to pig welfare; this being the first step in the development of a precision livestock farming system for welfare monitoring. The majority of the studies have used sensor technologies detached from the animals such as cameras and microphones, and most investigated animal biomarkers over environmental biomarkers with a clear focus on behavioural biomarkers over physiological biomarkers. ITs intended for many different welfare issues have been studied, although a high number of publications did not specify a welfare issue and instead studied a general biomarker such as activity, feeding behaviour and drinking behaviour. The ‘good feeding’ principle of the WQ assessment protocol was the best represented with ITs for real-time on-farm welfare assessment, while for the other principles only few of the included WQ measures are so far covered. No ITs have yet been developed for the ‘Comfort around resting’ and the ‘Good human-animal relationship’ criteria. Thus, the potential to develop ITs for welfare assessment within the pig production is high and much work is still needed to end up with a remote solution for welfare assessment on-farm and in real-time

Impacts of commute trip reduction programs, rail station area built environment changes, and ride-hailing services on traveler behavior

Traffic congestion is a recurring problem with temporal and spatial aspects that affect our lives daily. Providing choices such as increasing transit ridership is part of a balanced and diversified approach to addressing the problem. This project is divided into three parts to address how transit can address this multifaceted congestion problem. The first part investigates the successes and failures of transit and transportation network company (TNC) partnerships on ridership. Transit agencies have partnered with TNCs to attract ridership by providing first/last mile access or substituting for low performing fixed route service. TNCs may have induced travel demand by car and reduced public transportation ridership in other areas. The second part examines employer-provided financial incentives on commute behavior. Using an extensive data set from State of Washington’s Commute Trip Reduction program and other sources, the role of fare discounts and parking prices will be analyzed. The third part analyzes changes in ridership due to changes in the built environment, evaluating the impact of transit station area built environment changes (e.g., crosswalks, bicycle lanes) on transit ridership and access mode. We will identify changes in walking and biking infrastructure around rail station across time using longitudinal satellite imagery and compare changes relative to control areas

Impacts of commute trip reduction programs, rail station area built environment changes, and ride-hailing services on traveler behavior

Traffic congestion is a recurring problem with temporal and spatial aspects that affect our lives daily. Providing choices such as increasing transit ridership is part of a balanced and diversified approach to addressing the problem. This project is divided into three parts to address how transit can address this multifaceted congestion problem. The first part investigates the successes and failures of transit and transportation network company (TNC) partnerships on ridership. Transit agencies have partnered with TNCs to attract ridership by providing first/last mile access or substituting for low performing fixed route service. TNCs may have induced travel demand by car and reduced public transportation ridership in other areas. The second part examines employer-provided financial incentives on commute behavior. Using an extensive data set from State of Washington’s Commute Trip Reduction program and other sources, the role of fare discounts and parking prices will be analyzed. The third part analyzes changes in ridership due to changes in the built environment, evaluating the impact of transit station area built environment changes (e.g., crosswalks, bicycle lanes) on transit ridership and access mode. We will identify changes in walking and biking infrastructure around rail station across time using longitudinal satellite imagery and compare changes relative to control areas