109 research outputs found
THE ANIMAL WELFARE ACT IS LACKING: HOW TO UPDATE THE FEDERAL STATUTE TO IMPROVE ZOO ANIMAL WELFARE
Visiting the zoo is a beloved national pastime — American zoos attract 183 million people annually. For many Americans, zoos provide the first, and sometimes only, opportunity for individuals to be in the presence of animals outside of domesticated cats and dogs. However, for the animals themselves, zoos can cause suffering.
Two philosophies support the protection of wild animals in captivity: an anthropocentric and ecocentric view. According to the former, anthropocentric view, wild animals hold an extrinsic value and when they cease to be valuable to humans, or conflict with our other values, their interests can be sacrificed. The latter, ecocentric view, holds that wild animals have intrinsic value, can be morally harmed, and how we treat them should not be judged solely by the benefit to humans of a particular course of action. This article is written from the philosophy that animals have an intrinsic value. It examines how zoos operate under the Animal Welfare Act and how it must be improved to better zoo animal welfare under the ecocentric view.
Part II provides an overview of the Animal Welfare Act, under which all zoos must adhere and are licensed. Part III discusses issues with the Animal Welfare Act, focusing on the lack of enforcement, bare minimum care standards, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (“USDA”) failure to shut down non-compliant zoos, and the USDA’s secrecy regarding Animal Welfare Act violator documentation. Part IV discusses two zoo accreditation organizations that provide additional animal welfare guidance to zoos and offer membership status. Part V examines the problems with zoos, including individual animal psychological suffering in captivity and breeding programs, animal susceptibility to human diseases, exploitation of zoo animals for human entertainment, and potential harm to humans. Part VI examines suggestions for improvement to the Animal Welfare Act and the viability of these recommendations, assessing their practicality and sufficiency. This article concludes that the Animal Welfare Act should be amended with species specific guidelines, a prohibition on public contact with animals, a stricter licensing procedure, and a provision for the creation of USDA facilities to treat and house confiscated animals from non-compliant zoos. Without meaningful changes to the Animal Welfare Act, the animals will continue to suffer in sub-par conditions
Reconciling dark matter and solar neutrinos
We present a simple model for neutrino dark matter in which neutrino masses arise radiatively and the solar neutrino data are explained via the MSW effect. The dark matter scale arises at the one-loop level with the MSW scale arises only in two loops. The model is compatible with all observational facts and allows observable νeντ or νμντ oscillation rates in the laboratory if the limits from primordial big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) are taken conservatively. In addition, it can be probed by searching for muon number violating processes such as μ→ e+ γ, and μ→3 e. These rates can well lie within the sensitivities of present experiments. Finally, if we ignore BBN limits we can have also a common explanation for the atmospheric neutrino deficit via νμ oscillations to a sterile neutrino νs with maximal mixing and 10 -2-10 -3 eV 2
Decay of polarized muon at rest as a source of polarized neutrino beam
In this paper, we indicate the theoretical possibility of using the decay of
polarized muons at rest as a source of the transversely polarized electron
antineutrino beam. Such a beam can be used to probe new effects beyond standard
model. We mean here new tests concerning CP violation, Lorentz structure and
chirality structure of the charged current weak interactions. The main goal is
to show how the energy and angular distribution of the electron antineutrinos
in the muon rest frame depends on the transverse components of the antineutrino
beam polarization. Our analysis is model-independent and consistent with the
current upper limits on the non-standard couplings. The results are presented
in a limit of infinitesimally small mass for all particles produced in the
decay.Comment: elsart style, 11 pages, 2 eps figures, submitted do publicatio
Right Handed Weak Currents in Sum Rules for Axialvector Constant Renormalization
The recent experimental results on deep inelastic polarized lepton scattering
off proton, deuteron and He together with polari% zed neutron
-decay data are analyzed. It is shown that the problem of Ellis-Jaffe
and Bjorken sum rules deficiency and the neutron paradox could be solved
simultaneously by assuming the small right handed current (RHC) admixture in
the weak interaction Lagrangian. The possible RHC impact on pion-nucleon
-term and Gamow-Teller sum rule for nuclear reactions is
pointed out.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett. LaTeX, 8 pages, 21 k
Spontaneous R-parity violation and the origin of neutrino mass
We study the phenomenology of supersymmetric models that explain neutrino
masses through the spontaneous breaking of R-parity, finding strong
correlations between the decays of the lightest neutralino and the neutrino
mixing angles. In addition, the existence of a Goldstone boson, usually called
Majoron (), completely modifies the phenomenology with respect to the
standard picture, inducing large invisible branching ratios and charged lepton
decays, like , interesting signals that can be used to constrain
the model.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. To appear in the DISCRETE'08 proceeding
Apparatus for a Search for T-violating Muon Polarization in Stopped-Kaon Decays
The detector built at KEK to search for T-violating transverse muon
polarization in K+ --> pi0 mu+ nu (Kmu3) decay of stopped kaons is described.
Sensitivity to the transverse polarization component is obtained from
reconstruction of the decay plane by tracking the mu+ through a toroidal
spectrometer and detecting the pi0 in a segmented CsI(Tl) photon calorimeter.
The muon polarization was obtained from the decay positron asymmetry of muons
stopped in a polarimeter. The detector included features which minimized
systematic errors while maintaining high acceptance.Comment: 56 pages, 30 figures, submitted to NI
Third Generation Familons, B Factories, and Neutrino Cosmology
We study the physics of spontaneously broken family symmetries acting on the
third generation. Massless familons (or Majorons) associated with such
broken symmetries are motivated especially by cosmological scenarios with
decaying tau neutrinos. We first note that, in marked contrast with the case
for the first two generations, constraints on third generation familon
couplings are poor, and are, in fact, non-existent at present in the hadronic
sector. We derive new bounds from -- mixing, , , and astrophysics. The resulting constraints on
familon decay constants are still much weaker than those for the first and
second generation. We then discuss the promising prospects for significant
improvements from searches for , , and with the current CLEO, ARGUS, and LEP data. Finally, we note that
future constraints from CLEO III and the factories will probe decay
constants beyond 10^8 GeV, well within regions of parameter space favored by
proposed scenarios in neutrino cosmology.Comment: ReVTeX, 33 pages, 6 figures, notation improved, references added,
revised to conform to pubished versio
Left-handed neutrino disappearance probe of neutrino mass and character
We explore the sensitivity to a non vanishing neutrino mass offered by
dynamical observables, i.e., branching ratios and polarizations. The
longitudinal polarization in the C.M. frame decreases by a 4% for and MeV. Taking advantage of the
fact that the polarization is a Lorentz variant quantity, we study the
polarization effects in a boosted frame. By means of a neutrino beam, produced
by a high velocity boosted parent able to flip the neutrino helicity, we find
that an enhanced left-handed neutrino deficit, induced by a Wigner rotation,
appears.Comment: 8 pages and 2 figures. Last version accepted in PRL, new references
and better analysis of experimental possibilitie
Constraints from Precision Electroweak Data on Leptoquarks and Bileptons
Explicit expressions are derived for the oblique parameters and in
certain extensions of the standard model. In particular, we consider
leptoquarks and bileptons, and find phenomenological constraints on their
allowed masses. Leptoquarks suggested by the neutral and charged current
anomalies at HERA can give improved agreement with both and . If
bileptons are the only new states, the singly-charged one must be heavier than
the directly-established lower limit. Finally, we study SU(15) grand
unification and show that there are regions of parameter space where the theory
is compatible with experimental data.Comment: 25 pages LaTeX including 7 figures. With improved comparison to
experimental data and other update
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