An examination of liability, duty, and disclaimers for the pleasure horse industry in West Virginia and other states

In an effort to protect equine professionals, horse owners, and equestrian participants from liability associated with injury, 45 of 50 states have enacted Equine Activity Statutes. Many of these statutes vary widely with regard to the individuals and types of activities that are afforded protection. Under most state laws there are many requirements for horse owners and equine professionals regarding disclosure of dangerous behaviors in the horse, past medical problems, soundness issues, and other types of risks to potential buyers and handlers. Facility operators and owners are also required to make reasonable efforts to repair dangerous equipment and/or warn visitors of potential hazards on or around the facility grounds. Most people involved in equestrian activities are familiar with waivers and liability release forms; however some are not viewed favorably by the courts. This paper compares and contrasts WV equine laws to similar laws in other states that address liability, duties of horse owners and professionals, and the use of waivers as a means of liability protection. Recommendations for the WV Equine Activity Statute and educational curriculum are made based on the findings of this research and on the input of WV horse owners through a survey

The matching law

This article introduces the quantitative analysis of choice behavior by describing a number of equations developed over the years to describe the relation between the allocation of behavior under concurrent schedules of reinforcement and the consequences received for alternative responses. Direct proportionality between rate of responding and rate of reinforcement was observed in early studies, suggesting that behavioral output matched environmental input in a mathematical sense. This relation is termed "strict matching," and the equation that describes it is referred to as "the matching law." Later data showed systematic departures from strict matching, and a generalized version of the matching equation is now used to describe such data. This equation, referred to as "the generalized matching equation," also describes data that follow strict matching. It has become convention to refer to either of these equations as "the matching law." Empirical support for the matching law is briefly summarized, as is the applied and practical significance of matching analyses

Gender of Authors in the Brazilian Journal of Behavior Analysis [Gênero dos autores na Revista Brasileira de Análise do Comportamento]

We examined publication records in the Brazilian Journal of Behavior Analysis from 2005 through 2020 to determine the participation of women and men as contributing authors. We assessed the following variables: authorship (in general), first authors, articles with at least one woman, articles with at least one man, articles with both men and women, single-author articles, and authors with more than 10 publications. We identified 281 articles, with a total of 732 listed authors. Women and men were listed as authors 361 (49%) and 368 (50%) times, respectively. Women accounted for 43% of articles as first authors, and 69% of articles listed at least one woman as an author. These data are discussed and compared to data from other behavior-analytic journals. - Examinamos o registro de publicação, de 2005 a 2020, do Revista Brasileira de Análise do Comportamento para determinar a participação de mulheres e homens como autores colaboradores. Foram avaliadas as seguintes variáveis: autoria (em geral), primeiros autores, artigos com pelo menos uma mulher, artigos com pelo menos um homem, artigos de ambos os sexos, artigos de autoria única e autores com mais de 10 publicações. Identificamos 281 artigos, com um total de 732 autores listados. Mulheres e homens foram listados como autores 361 (49%) e 368 (50%) vezes, respectivamente. As mulheres representaram 43% dos artigos como primeiros autores e 69% dos artigos listaram pelo menos uma mulher como autora. Esses dados são discutidos e comparados com dados de outros periódicos analíticos comportamentais

Gender of authors in the Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis: changes over time [GÉNERO DE LOS AUTORES DE LA REVISTA MEXICANA DE ANÁLISIS DE LA CONDUCTA: CAMBIOS A TRAVÉS DEL TIEMPO]

The Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis was examined from 1975 to 2018 to determine the proportion of authorship by women and men. Data were compiled and assessed for the percentage of authorship, percentage of first-authored publications, percentage of publications with at least one woman, and percentage of publications with at least one man. From the journal’s inception to 2018, women and men accounted for 33% and 67% of authorship, respectively. The data suggest that women’s participation, based on percentages of total authorship, has increased across time. - Con el propósito de determinar la proporción de autores mujeres y hombres, se analizaron los artículos publicados en la Revista Mexicana de Análisis de la Conducta de 1975 a 2018. Con base en los datos recopilados, se evaluó el porcentaje de artículos publicados, el porcentaje de artículos publicados como primer autor, el porcentaje de publicaciones con al menos una mujer como autora y el porcentaje de publicaciones con al menos un hombre como autor. Desde la creación de la revista hasta 2018, las mujeres y los hombres conformaron el 33% y el 67% de los autores, respectivamente. Con base en los porcentajes del total de publicaciones, los datos sugieren que la participación de las mujeres de hecho ha aumentado a través del tiempo

The colonization of land by animals: molecular phylogeny and divergence times among arthropods

BACKGROUND: The earliest fossil evidence of terrestrial animal activity is from the Ordovician, ~450 million years ago (Ma). However, there are earlier animal fossils, and most molecular clocks suggest a deep origin of animal phyla in the Precambrian, leaving open the possibility that animals colonized land much earlier than the Ordovician. To further investigate the time of colonization of land by animals, we sequenced two nuclear genes, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and enolase, in representative arthropods and conducted phylogenetic and molecular clock analyses of those and other available DNA and protein sequence data. To assess the robustness of animal molecular clocks, we estimated the deuterostome-arthropod divergence using the arthropod fossil record for calibration and tunicate instead of vertebrate sequences to represent Deuterostomia. Nine nuclear and 15 mitochondrial genes were used in phylogenetic analyses and 61 genes were used in molecular clock analyses. RESULTS: Significant support was found for the unconventional pairing of myriapods (millipedes and centipedes) with chelicerates (spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, etc.) using nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Our estimated time for the divergence of millipedes (Diplopoda) and centipedes (Chilopoda) was 442 ± 50 Ma, and the divergence of insects and crustaceans was estimated as 666 ± 58 Ma. Our results also agree with previous studies suggesting a deep divergence (~1100 – 900 Ma) for arthropods and deuterostomes, considerably predating the Cambrian Explosion seen in the animal fossil record. CONCLUSIONS: The consistent support for a close relationship between myriapods and chelicerates, using mitochondrial and nuclear genes and different methods of analysis, suggests that this unexpected result is not an artefact of analysis. We propose the name Myriochelata for this group of animals, which includes many that immobilize prey with venom. Our molecular clock analyses using arthropod fossil calibrations support earlier studies using vertebrate calibrations in finding that deuterostomes and arthropods diverged hundreds of millions of years before the Cambrian explosion. However, our molecular time estimate for the divergence of millipedes and centipedes is close to the divergence time inferred from fossils. This suggests that arthropods may have adapted to the terrestrial environment relatively late in their evolutionary history

Financial Security in Later Life: A National Initiative and Model for eXtension

A national Extension initiative on Financial Security in Later Life was established to strengthen the Cooperative Extension System\u27s capacity to deliver personal finance education leading to financial security in later life. The initiative articulates the research that provides the foundation for Extension programs and models the use of the Internet for program design, delivery, and evaluation. The contributions of the initiative are enhanced capacity of Extension educators, shared resources, and aggregated evaluations. The development of the initiative provides insights for eXtension

Advancing Clinical Practice through Integration of Congenital Cytomegalovirus (cCMV) Testing with Newborn Hearing Screening at Mayo Clinic

Although cCMV is the leading non-genetic cause of childhood hearing loss in the United States, neither targeted nor universal screening protocols have been well established to identify cCMV in newborns. Moreover, until cCMV testing is universal, clinical protocols need to account for the complexities of individualized care in partnership with interprofessional care teams. This work addressed an immediate clinical practice need to identify cCMV with subsequent hearing monitoring of babies who test positive for cCMV. This effort focused on three primary objectives to: 1) define interprofessional, team-based approach to facilitate care pathways; 2) develop a clinical workflow for all babies who refer on inpatient hearing screening to be tested for cCMV by 21 days of age; 3) develop a hearing monitoring plan for all babies who test positive for cCMV. The development and integration of our interprofessional, team-based approach to institute cCMV testing by 21 days of age on all babies who refer inpatient newborn hearing screening and subsequent monitoring is described. Our observed referral rate was lower than predicted (2.7%) from existing literature with only one positive cCMV outcome noted in the two-year span. This study demonstrates the feasibility of a hearing-targeted cCMV testing paradigm in our clinic practice

On the B and J/Psi Cross Section Measurements at Ua1 and CDF

We analise the implications of the measurement of $B$ and $J/\psi$ inclusive \pt\ distributions performed in $p\bar p$ collisions by the UA1 and CDF experiments.Comment: 16 pages + 8 topdrawer figs included at the end, Latex, IFUP-TH 2/9

Real-Gas Effects and Phase Separation in Underexpanded Jets at Engine-Relevant Conditions

A numerical framework implemented in the open-source tool OpenFOAM is presented in this work combining a hybrid, pressure-based solver with a vapor-liquid equilibrium model based on the cubic equation of state. This framework is used in the present work to investigate underexpanded jets at engine-relevant conditions where real-gas effects and mixture induced phase separation are probable to occur. A thorough validation and discussion of the applied vapor-liquid equilibrium model is conducted by means of general thermodynamic relations and measurement data available in the literature. Engine-relevant simulation cases for two different fuels were defined. Analyses of the flow field show that the used fuel has a first order effect on the occurrence of phase separation. In the case of phase separation two different effects could be revealed causing the single-phase instability, namely the strong expansion and the mixing of the fuel with the chamber gas. A comparison of single-phase and two-phase jets disclosed that the phase separation leads to a completely different penetration depth in contrast to single-phase injection and therefore commonly used analytical approaches fail to predict the penetration depth.Comment: Preprint submitted to AIAA Scitech 2018, Kissimmee, Florid

Gender of Authors in the Brazilian Journal of Behavior Analysis

Examinamos o registro de publicação, de 2005 a 2020, do Revista Brasileira de Análise do Comportamento para determinar a participação de mulheres e homens como autores colaboradores. Foram avaliadas as seguintes variáveis: autoria (em geral), primeiros autores, artigos com pelo menos uma mulher, artigos com pelo menos um homem, artigos de ambos os sexos, artigos de autoria única e autores com mais de 10 publicações. Identificamos 281 artigos, com um total de 732 autores listados. Mulheres e homens foram listados como autores 361 (49%) e 368 (50%) vezes, respectivamente. As mulheres representaram 43% dos artigos como primeiros autores e 69% dos artigos listaram pelo menos uma mulher como autora. Esses dados são discutidos e comparados com dados de outros periódicos analíticos comportamentais.Palavras-chave: Análise de gênero, autoria, Revista Brasileira de Análise do Comportamento.We examined publication records in the Brazilian Journal of Behavior Analysis from 2005 through 2020 to determine the participation of women and men as contributing authors. We assessed the following variables: authorship (in general), first authors, articles with at least one woman, articles with at least one man, articles with both men and women, single-author articles, and authors with more than 10 publications. We identified 281 articles, with a total of 732 listed authors. Women and men were listed as authors 361 (49%) and 368 (50%) times, respectively. Women accounted for 43% of articles as first authors, and 69% of articles listed at least one woman as an author. These data are discussed and compared to data from other behavior-analytic journals.Keywords: Gender analysis, authorship, Brazilian Journal of Behavior Analysis