Biosecurity and exotic disease surveillance in the New Zealand pig industry : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, New Zealand

Chapter 1 removed due to copyright reasons. Published as: Neumann, E. J.(2012). Disease transmission and biosecurity. In J.J. Zimmerman, L.A. Karriker, A. Ramirez, K.J. Schwartz, & G.W. Stevenson (Eds.), Diseases of swine (pp. 141-164). Chichester, England: Wiley-Blackwell.The New Zealand commercial pig industry is modern and highly productive. The industry is free from many of the important infectious diseases present in much of the rest of the world. However, alongside the commercial industry are a large number of non-commercial pig holdings operated with minimal attention to biosecurity. The extent to which the activities in the non-commercial sector might negatively impact the commercial sector was unknown therefore a series of projects was undertaken to explore the likelihood of an exotic disease occurring. A risk assessment was undertaken to determine the likelihood porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus would be introduced into New Zealand through imported fresh pork. The study estimated that at least 4.3 pig herds per year were likely to become infected with PRRS and that 36% of these incursions would spread to additional herds. It was recognized that the data describing the interactions between commercial and non-commercial pigs could be improved so a prospective study was undertaken to collect information about the movements of pigs and genetic material between farms. To assist in development of a national surveillance programme, two additional studies were then initiated. First, a study was conducted to determine the effect of blood sample mishandling on the performance of ELISA assays and second, a retrospective analysis of data from a national abattoir-based lesion recording system (PigCheck) was conducted. These studies were done with the realization that future surveillance activities would need to incorporate creative means of generating high-quality surveillance data, from various surveillance components, using both laboratory- and field-based staff. Investment Logic Mapping was then used to assist the industry in establishing a biosecurity and surveillance strategy. A single strategy ‘improve surveillance’ was identified as the key area for biosecurity investment. In response to this finding, modelling of potential surveillance activities was completed and a surveillance programme was proposed costing approximately $0.50 per pig annually. The work presented in this thesis demonstrates the New Zealand pig industry is susceptible to introduction of an exotic disease and that the population of non-commercial pigs must be considered when developing biosecurity, and disease readiness or response plans for the commercial industry. The described studies show that a cost effective national disease surveillance programme can be implemented through use of a combination of existing and newly developed sources of surveillance information

An Analysis of available unsharp masking techniques used with mid-range PMT/drum scanners

Unsharp masking (USM), also known as detail enhancement, is a process of combining an unsharp representation of an original image with the original image to obtain the effect of greater detail. USM can be performed photomechanically with additional exposures, electronically with the color scanner, and digitally with the aid of a post-processing program. Electronic methods of USM per formed during the scanning process offer productivity benefits over both the photomechanical and post-processing methods. Mid-range PMT/drum scanners offer several methods of unsharp masking from which to choose. These meth ods, optical USM, digital USM, and hybrid USM each have advantages and dis advantages which are identified in this study. The study also offers an extensive reference of the available USM techniques for identification by the mid-range scanner operator. Three different midrange scanner/ interface applications are evaluated to identify their unique USM methods and each is evaluated for ease-of- use as well as the effectiveness of it\u27s unsharp masking function. Multiple scans from each scanner/interface combination were completed and analyzed at high magnification. It was expected that more directional limitations would have been evident in the optical method, however it is shown that it\u27s effectiveness does not suffer. Each of the USM techniques used on midrange PMT/Drum scanners has its own merits

Capabilities and constraints of NASA's ground-based reduced gravity facilities

The ground-based reduced gravity facilities of NASA have been utilized to support numerous investigations addressing various processes and phenomina in several disciplines for the past 30 years. These facilities, which include drop towers, drop tubes, aircraft, and sounding rockets are able to provide a low gravity environment (gravitational levels that range from 10(exp -2)g to 10(exp -6)g) by creating a free fall or semi-free fall condition where the force of gravity on an experiment is offset by its linear acceleration during the 'fall' (drop or parabola). The low gravity condition obtained on the ground is the same as that of an orbiting spacecraft which is in a state of perpetual free fall. The gravitational levels and associated duration times associated with the full spectrum of reduced gravity facilities including spaced-based facilities are summarized. Even though ground-based facilities offer a relatively short experiment time, this available test time has been found to be sufficient to advance the scientific understanding of many phenomena and to provide meaningful hardware tests during the flight experiment development process. Also, since experiments can be quickly repeated in these facilities, multistep phenomena that have longer characteristic times associated with them can sometimes be examined in a step-by-step process. There is a large body of literature which has reported the study results achieved through using reduced-gravity data obtained from the facilities

Algebraic invariants, mutation, and commensurability of link complements

We construct a family of hyperbolic link complements by gluing tangles along totally geodesic four-punctured spheres, then investigate the commensurability relation among its members. Those with different volume are incommensurable, distinguished by their scissors congruence classes. Mutation produces arbitrarily large finite subfamilies of nonisometric manifolds with the same volume and scissors congruence class. Depending on the choice of mutation, these manifolds may be commensurable or incommensurable, distinguished in the latter case by cusp parameters. All have trace field Q(i,\sqrt{2}), but some have integral traces while others do not.Comment: Minor changes following referee's suggestion

INDICATEURS FINANCIERS ET INDICATEURS NON FINANCIERS. IMPORTANCE DES INDICATEURS FINANCIERS, ET ORDRE DE PRESENTATION DES INDICATEURS : EFFETS SUR L'EVALUATION DE LA PERFORMANCE DES MANAGERS

International audienceDebate on the weight of financial vs. non financial indicators in performance measurement process is still going on. The purpose of this research is to examine, experimentally, factors that influence whether corporate managers exhibit bias toward financial versus nonfinancial corporate performance measures. First, we manipulated presentation order of financial and nonfinancial measures to test whether cognitive processing limits result in decision makers placing more weight on the first few items presented. Second, we manipulated the strength of the financial performance measures (the perceived relative importance based on rankings by an independent sample) to examine whether prior mixed results of financial measures bias among corporate managers can be explained by differences in the relative strength or importance of the particular set of financial and nonfinancial measures.Le débat sur l'importance des indicateurs non financiers et financiers dans le processus d'évaluation des performances est loin d'être clos. L'objectif de notre recherche est d'examiner, de façon expérimentale, les facteurs qui influencent le choix des évaluateurs en faveur des indicateurs financiers ou non financiers dans l'évaluation des performances d'une entreprise. Nous avons ainsi d'une part manipulé l'ordre de présentation des indicateurs financiers et non financiers dans le but de tester si les limitations cognitives conduisaient les évaluateurs à considérer seulement les premiers indicateurs qui leur étaient présentés. D'autre part, nous avons manipulé l'importance relative perçue des indicateurs financiers afin d'examiner si le biais en faveur des indicateurs financiers, souvent démontré, pouvait être expliqué par la nature même de ces indicateurs. L'importance relative perçue des indicateurs financiers se fondait sur les résultats d'une autre étude que nous avons conduite sur un échantillon indépendant

Two-phase flow research using the learjet apparatus

Low-gravity, gas-liquid flow research can be conducted aboard the NASA Lewis Learjet, the Lewis DC-9, or the Johnson Space Center KC-135. Air and water solutions serve as the test liquids in cylindrical test sections with an inner diameter of 1.27 cm and lengths up to 1.5 m. Superficial velocities range from 0.1 to 1.1 m/sec for liquids and from 0.1 to 25 m/sec for air. Flow rate, differential pressure, void fraction, film thickness, wall-shear stress, and acceleration data are measured and recorded throughout the 20 sec duration of the experiment. Flow is visualized by photographing at 400 frames with a high-speed, 16-mm camera

INDICATEURS FINANCIERS ET INDICATEURS NON FINANCIERS. IMPORTANCE DES INDICATEURS FINANCIERS, ET ORDRE DE PRESENTATION DES INDICATEURS : EFFETS SUR L'EVALUATION DE LA PERFORMANCE DES MANAGERS

Le débat sur l'importance des indicateurs non financiers et financiers dans le processus d'évaluation des performances est loin d'être clos. L'objectif de notre recherche est d'examiner, de façon expérimentale, les facteurs qui influencent le choix des évaluateurs en faveur des indicateurs financiers ou non financiers dans l'évaluation des performances d'une entreprise. Nous avons ainsi d'une part manipulé l'ordre de présentation des indicateurs financiers et non financiers dans le but de tester si les limitations cognitives conduisaient les évaluateurs à considérer seulement les premiers indicateurs qui leur étaient présentés. D'autre part, nous avons manipulé l'importance relative perçue des indicateurs financiers afin d'examiner si le biais en faveur des indicateurs financiers, souvent démontré, pouvait être expliqué par la nature même de ces indicateurs. L'importance relative perçue des indicateurs financiers se fondait sur les résultats d'une autre étude que nous avons conduite sur un échantillon indépendant.Evaluation des performances; Indicateurs financiers vs.Non financiers; Biais cognitif; Ordre de présentation des informations