55 research outputs found
Modifying the Response of Male Broiler Chickens to Heat Stress Through Early Age Feed Restriction and Thermal Conditioning
Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of early age feed
restriction and heat conditioning on tolerance to acute and chronic heat stress in
male broiler chickens. In both experiments, equal numbers of chickens were
subjected to (i) 60% feed restriction on day 4, 5, and 6 (FR), (ii) exposure to
36±IoC and 50-60% relative humidity for 1 hour from day 1 to 21 (HT), (iii)
60% feed restriction on day 4, 5, and 6 and exposure to 36± l oC and 50-60%
relative humidity for 1 hour from day 1 to 21 (FRHT). (iv) ad libitum feeding
and no heat treatment (control). In experiment I, on day 35, all birds were
exposed to 39± l oC for 6 hours and 50% relative humidity. Subjecting chicks to
FR, HT and FRHT reduced HLR response to the heat challenge. Following heat
exposure, the FR and FRHT chick had greater heat shock protein (hsp) 70
density than those of controls. The hsp 70 response of HT birds was not
significantly different from the other three groups. The FRHT birds were more
hyperthermic than controls during heat challenge. In experiment II, from day 36- 50, all birds were exposed to 38± l oC and 80 % relative humidity for 2
hours/day. One day following heat exposure (day 37), all birds were
administrated intranasally with infectious bursal disease (IBD) vaccine virus.
The dosage used was l Ox of the recommended level. Subjecting chicks to FRHT
improved relative weight gain and resistance to IBD infection and reduced HLR
in response to the heat treatment as compared with the control birds. Although
there is evidence that FR and HT can improve heat tolerance, the FRHT
combination may further enhance the ability of birds to withstand chronic heat
stress. The acquired improved heat tolerance resulting from FRHT, FR, and HT
could be attributed to enhanced hsp 70 response. The trend of hsp 70 response
correlated well with IBD lesion scores, suggesting hsp 70 may play a role in
resistance against viral infection. Based on experiment I and II, it can be
concluded that the present findings confirmed earlier studies that FR is effective
in alleviating the adverse effects of heat stress. Subjecting birds to FRHT can
further improve tolerance to chronic but not acute heat stress
Speciesistic Veganism: An Anthropocentric Argument
The paper proposes an anthropocentric argument for veganism based on a speciesistic premise that most carnists likely affirm: human flourishing should be promoted. I highlight four areas of human suffering promoted by a carnistic diet: (1) health dangers to workers (both physical and psychological), (2) economic dangers to workers, (3) physical dangers to communities around slaughterhouses, and (4) environmental dangers to communities-at-large. Consequently, one could ignore the well-being of non-human animals and nevertheless recognize significant moral failings in the current standard system of meat production
Survival and major neurodevelopmental impairment in extremely low gestational age newborns born 1990–2000: a retrospective cohort study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is important to determine if rates of survival and major neurodevelopmental impairment in extremely low gestational age newborns (ELGANs; infants born at 23–27 weeks gestation) are changing over time.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Study infants were born at 23 to 27 weeks of gestation without congenital anomalies at a tertiary medical center between July 1, 1990 and June 30, 2000, to mothers residing in a thirteen-county region in North Carolina. Outcomes at one year adjusted age were compared for two epochs of birth: epoch 1, July 1, 1990 to June 30, 1995; epoch 2, July 1, 1995 to June 30, 2000. Major neurodevelopmental impairment was defined as cerebral palsy, Bayley Scales of Infant Development Mental Developmental Index more than two standard deviations below the mean, or blindness.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Survival of ELGANs, as a percentage of live births, was 67% [95% confidence interval: (61, 72)] in epoch 1 and 71% (65, 75) in epoch 2. Major neurodevelopmental impairment was present in 20% (15, 27) of survivors in epoch 1 and 14% (10, 20) in epoch 2. When adjusted for gestational age, survival increased [odds ratio 1.5 (1.0, 2.2), p = .03] and major neurodevelopmental impairment decreased [odds ratio 0.54 (0.31, 0.93), p = .02] from epoch 1 to epoch 2.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The probability of survival increased while that of major neurodevelopmental impairment decreased during the 1990's in this regionally based sample of ELGANs.</p
The Role of Information Provision in Economic Evaluations of Newborn Bloodspot Screening: A Systematic Review
Characteristics of communication guidelines that facilitate or impede guideline use: a focus group study
Incremental and Predictive Validity of the Antisocial Process Screening Device in a Community Sample of Male and Female Ethnic Minority and Caucasian Youth
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Topology-guided tessellation of quadratic elements
Topology-based methods have been successfully used for the analysis and visualization of piecewise-linear functions defined on triangle meshes. This paper describes a mechanism for extending these methods to piecewise-quadratic functions defined on triangulations of surfaces. Each triangular patch is tessellated into monotone regions, so that existing algorithms for computing topological representations of piecewise-linear functions may be applied directly to the piecewise-quadratic function. In particular, the tessellation is used for computing the Reeb graph, a topological data structure that provides a succinct representation of level sets of the function. © 2009 World Scientific Publishing Company
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