Performance and Nutrient Digestibility of West African Dwarf Goats Fed Different Dietary Levels of Cattle and Goat Rumen Contents

Hundreds of cattle and goats are slaughtered on daily basis in abattoirs and rumen contents are disposed in large amount as wastes, which could possibly serve as an alternative non-conventional feed source to ruminants. This study was carried out to investigate the utilization of cattle and goat rumen contents in the diets of West African dwarf goats.  Twenty five West African Dwarf goats were fed five treatment diets containing Cattle Rumen Content (CRC) and Goat Rumen Content (GRC) at 0%, 20% and 40% inclusion levels, respectively, using a completely randomized design. Daily feed intake and weekly weight gain were measured. Metabolism cages were used for total collection of faeces and urine. Dry Matter Intake, Organic Matter Intake and weight gain were similar (P>0.05) for all the treatments, although goats on diet 5 (40% GRC) had the least Dry Matter and Organic Matter digestibility. And OM digestibility of 58.58% observed in this study is still capable of supporting productivity in goats. Also, there was a gradual reduction in cost of feed from N26.45 at 0% RC to N18.53 at 20% CRC and GRC. In like manner, cost/kg live weight gain decreased from N33.86 at 0% RC to N16.93 for 40% CRC. The only exception was Diet 5 (40% GRC) which increased to N36.85 for cost/kg live weight gain. Cattle and goat rumen contents can therefore be incorporated in the diets of goats up to 40% inclusion level without any deleterious effect on their health, thereby minimizing cost of production

Using Motor Tempi to Understand Rhythm and Grammatical Skills in Developmental Language Disorder and Typical Language Development

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) show relative weaknesses on rhythm tasks beyond their characteristic linguistic impairments. The current study compares preferred tempo and the width of an entrainment region for 5- to 7-year-old typically developing (TD) children and children with DLD and considers the associations with rhythm aptitude and expressive grammar skills in the two populations. Preferred tempo was measured with a spontaneous motor tempo task (tapping tempo at a comfortable speed), and the width (range) of an entrainment region was measured by the difference between the upper (slow) and lower (fast) limits of tapping a rhythm normalized by an individual’s spontaneous motor tempo. Data from N = 16 children with DLD and N = 114 TD children showed that whereas entrainment-region width did not differ across the two groups, slowest motor tempo, the determinant of the upper (slow) limit of the entrainment region, was at a faster tempo in children with DLD vs. TD. In other words, the DLD group could not pace their slow tapping as slowly as the TD group. Entrainment-region width was positively associated with rhythm aptitude and receptive grammar even after taking into account potential confounding factors, whereas expressive grammar did not show an association with any of the tapping measures. Preferred tempo was not associated with any study variables after including covariates in the analyses. These results motivate future neuroscientific studies of low-frequency neural oscillatory mechanisms as the potential neural correlates of entrainment-region width and their associations with musical rhythm and spoken language processing in children with typical and atypical language development

The psychological science accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data

A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges

The Psychological Science Accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data

Converting Bush to Meat: A Case of Chromolaena odorata Feeding to Rabbits

Abstract: The feasibility of using Chromolaena odorata leaf meal (COLM) in the feed of rabbit was investigated in a study that lasted for twelve weeks. Chromolaena odorata leaves were harvested, dried, crumbled and incorporated into five iso-nitrogenous and iso-calorific diets at 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 % levels of inclusion. Feed intake, weight gain and digestibility of the rabbits were monitored using a completely randomized design. Results showed that DM intake (g/d) of 41.42, 32.86, 32.66, 24.65 and 26.72 for 0 (control), 10, 20, 30, and 40 % COLM diets respectively were not significantly different among diets that contained COLM, while only those of 10 and 20 % COLM diets compared favourably with that of the control diet. Weight gain (g/d) of the rabbits were not significantly different in the control (7.73), 10 % (6.30), 20% (6.64) and 30 % (4.12) COLM diets, while the least weight gain (3.0g/d) from 40 % COLM diet did not show any significant difference from those of other COLM diets. Feed conversion efficiency of the rabbits were found similar in all the diets (range = 0.11 in 40 % to 0.19 in 0 % COLM). Digestibility values were generally good, and were not significantly affected by diets in DM (58.57- 74.00%) and NFE (74.77- 81.94%) digestibilities. It is concluded that COLM can be incorporated into the feed of rabbits up to the level of 30% of the DM fed and still obtain good performance especially weight gain comparable to those fed on standard concentrate. Key words: Chromolaena odorata, digestibility, feed intake, rabbit, weight gai

Concentration of selected heavy metals in the hair, kidneys and livers of cattle and goats raised on in the oil and non – oil producing areas of Delta State

This study evaluated the levels of selected heavy metals namely: lead cadmium, mercury and chromium in the hair, kidneys and livers of cattle and goats reared on oil producing and non oil producing areas of Delta state, Nigeria. Samples of hair, kidneys and livers were collected from four purposively selected local government areas in four replicates, oven dried and digested with 20 mL of a 1:3 mixture of concentrated perchloric acid (HClO4) and trioxonitrate (v) acid (HNO3). A completely randomized design was used for the the study. Results showed that mean concentration (mg/kg) of lead in the hair (0.049) of cattle from the oil producing areas varied significantly from those of kidney (0.033) and liver (0.021). While mean lead concentration values showed non - significant variations in the organs obtained from cattle and goats in non oil-producing areas. Cadmium values (mg/kg) ranged from 0.010 to 0.045 in cattle and from 0.000 to 0.029 in goats with significant variations between the organs. Mean values of mercury concentration (mg/kg) in cattle were between 0.053 to 0.078 and 0.052 to 0.056 in goats from theoil producing areas. Mercury concentration in the organs of cattle in the non- oil producing areas varied significantly. Chromium concentration (mg/kg) of organs in cattle from the oil producing areas varied from 0.019 to 0.024 and 0.010 to 0.030 in the non -oil producing areas. Mean concentration in the hair, kidney and liver (0.010 - 0.046 mg/kg) of goats in both the oil producing areas and non - oil producing areas did not vary significantly. Also, in cattle, the effect of oil exploration was significant in the concentration of cadmium (0.016 vs 0.043) and chromium (0.016 vs 0.022) in the kidney as well as cadmium (0.010 vs 0.045), Hg (0.031 vs 0.053) and chromium (0.010 vs 0.019) in the liver. In goats, it was significant in the concentration of cadmium in the hair (0.000 vs 0.056) likewise mercury in the kidney (0.031 vs 0.055) of cattle as well as in the hair and liver of goats. Generally, the heavy metals were below or within the tolerable limits set by some regulatory bodies.Keywords: Heavy metals, hair, organs, maximum tolerant