Characterization of Swine Production Using Measurements Collected via Indoor Positioning System

Legislative and market initiatives are requiring that gestating sows move from individual housing to group settings. Little information is known about coping styles of individual sows in these more socially complex environments and thus the impact of different behavioral strategies on sow reproductive success and efficiency was investigated. The movements of 70 sows during periods of reintroduction into large pen gestational housing following insemination was measured with a commercially available system that tracked animal location and accelerations. Principle component analysis (PCA) was used to establish composite variables characterizing each animal’s behavioral response to social reintroduction and revealed the presence of two new variables accounting for over 60% of the variance in behaviors: one pertaining to total movement and the other pertaining to social dominance/rapid movements. Component scores of total movement predicted measures of reproductive successes whereas social dominance/rapid movements predicted piglet birthweight. These findings suggest that different coping styles as measured by an automated, non-invasive, real time tracking system are correlated with the productivity of sows housing in socially complex settings

Spatiotemporal trends in bacterial diversity across three watersheds within the Platte River Basin, Nebraska

River bacteria are understudied despite being critical components of river ecosystems. There are even fewer studies considering bacteria communities at large spatiotemporal scales, which may provide insight into drivers of community assembly. We investigated differences in bacterial diversity across environmental gradients within three sub-basins nested in the Platte River Basin, Nebraska. Surface water samples were collected weekly at 36 sites from May to September by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE) in 2019. Bacterial communities were sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Sub-basins had similar counts of unique amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) but different community structures. These structural differences were partially driven by environmental factors influenced by climate, land-use, and geomorphology. Two sub-basins exhibited shifts in community structure between early and late summer, but the third exhibited no clear temporal pattern. Relative abundances of typical and common freshwater genera like Flavobacterium contributed the most to structural differences between sub-basins. The most abundant genera across all sub-basins included copiotrophs, suggesting that our study systems are nutrient-enriched. The trend in bacterial diversity observed in our study demonstrates the ecological relevance of considering bacterial diversity at large spatial and temporal scales. Advisors: Mark A. Pegg and Samodha C. Fernand

Russell’s Coherentism: Theoretically Impossible

In this paper, I argue that purely Coherentist justifications (or refutations) of theories must rely upon a ‘theory-neutral’ set of sense data with which we are immediately acquainted. First, I explain the function of Russell’s theory of Definite Description and his theory of Acquaintance in his Coherentist epistemology. I take my counter-examples from the natural sciences and ultimately play off the fact that our brains ‘over-correct’ colors we see according to their color contexts in order to question the very idea of an ‘I,’ ‘this,’ and ‘now,’ which Russell uses to define acquaintance (as well as what I call a ‘theory-neutral’ set of sense data). The argument is that our data and theories are mutually dependent, which undermines the project of comparing theories, since distinct ultimate theories cannot have any common ground.Note: Minor typographical corrections made and new version of article uploaded 8.29.2011

Here I Fall

The Atla listserv ATLANTIS handles a lot of reference “stumpers.” One such, posted on behalf of a research librarian writing from the Polish National Library in late 2014, sparked the historico-textual investigations out of which these findings emerged. Flagged is a serious blunder in one of the most famous biographies of Martin Luther ever written: Roland Bainton’s reproduction of what he should have known was an established forgery as “‘A Mighty Fortress’ in Luther’s Hand.” But there is more to the story than just this response to the question first posed by Dr. Tomasz Ososi?ski. Uncovered is not just the eighty years of debate over authenticity that Bainton overlooked, but a statement (and no less than four reproductions) to the contrary in the very authority he cites. Why did his colleagues in Germany, who may have been the only ones to catch the gaffe, do so very little to set the record straight, despite the extensive experience that they and their predecessors (including the duped scholar-librarians of the late 19th century) had had with Luther forgeries? The paper concludes with a comment on the present impact of this (as yet still uncorrected) “fake news” in print and online

Restoration : people and place : conceptual plan for the Hughes Nature Preserve in Muncie, Indiana

There is no abstract available for this thesis.Thesis (B.L.A.)College of Architecture and Plannin

Characterization of Swine Behavior and Production Using Measurements Collected Via Indoor Positioning System

© 2020 Legislative and market initiatives are requiring that gestating sows move from individual housing to group settings. Little information is known about coping of individual sows in these more socially complex environments and thus the impact of different behaviors on sow reproductive success was investigated. The movements of 70 sows during periods of reintroduction into large pen gestational housing following insemination was measured using Smartbow indoor positioning technology (Smartbow, Smartbow GmbH, Weibern, Austria) that tracked animal location and accelerations. Principle component analysis (PCA) was used to establish composite variables characterizing each animal\u27s behavioral response to social reintroduction and revealed the presence of two new variables accounting for over 60 % of the variance in behaviors: one pertaining to total movement and the other pertaining to social dominance/rapid movements. Component scores of total movement predicted measures of reproductive success whereas social dominance/rapid movements predicted piglet birth weight. These findings suggest that differences in behavioral variables as measured by Smartbow\u27s automated, non-invasive, real time tracking system are correlated with productivity of sows housing in socially complex settings