Studies on the Prevalence and Control of Parasitic Helminths in Natural Laying Hens

One societal trend that has been gaining much traction and popularity since the 21st century began is “organic” and/or “natural” food products. In 1999, the global market accounted for $15.2 billion dollars worth of organic food and drink, compared to the market in 2014 where we consumed$80 billion dollars worth (Willer et. al, 2016). With “natural” production of food animals however, “natural” parasite transmission may be a consequence. To that end, this experiment examines the prevalence of helminths in 110 “natural” laying hens from three regional farms and the efficacies of fenbendazole, piperazine, and levamisole on what should be naive helminths. The 3 regional farms were: Vital Farms in Evansville, Arkansas; Vital Farms in Westville, Oklahoma; and Arkansas Egg Company in Summers, Arkansas. Birds from each location were administered fenbendazole, levamisole, or piperazine and one additional group served as control. After 1 week the hens were sacrificed and processed for helminth qualification and quantification. The helminths that we collected and identified from the intestinal tracts were Ascaridia galli, Heterakis gallinarum, and Raillietina cesticillus. The results show that there were far more helminths in the control group than the other treatment groups. The results also show that there were far more H. gallinarum than A. galli in the intestines of these chickens. Overall these anthelmintics used could be successful in controlling “naïve” A. galli but could not be nearly successful in controlling “naïve” H. gallinarum in these “natural” laying hens

Temporal and spectral features of an intense auroral zone X-ray event in the 4-5 second period range

Temporal and spectral features of intense auroral zone X-ray event in 4 to 5 second period range - electron precipitatio

Learning from Analysis of Japanese EFL Texts

Japan has a long tradition of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). A common feature of EFL courses is reliance on specific textbooks as a basis for graded teaching, and periods in Japanese EFL history are marked by the introduction of different textbook series. These sets of textbooks share the common goal of taking students from beginners through to able English language users, so one would expect to find common characteristics across such series. As part of an on-going research programme in which Japanese EFL textbooks from different historical periods are compared and contrasted, we have recently focussed our efforts on using textual analysis tools to highlight distinctive characteristics of such textbooks. The present paper introduces one such analysis tool and describes some of the results from its application to three textbook series from distinct periods in Japanese EFL history. In so doing, we aim to encourage the use of textual analysis and seek to expose salient features of EFL texts which would likely remain hidden without such analytical techniques

Second language user support

Computer users rarely experience entirely trouble-free interaction. The natural variety ofindividuals ensures that no software systems yield constantly fluent interaction for allusers. In consequence, software designers often strive to ameliorate this situation bybuilding 'user support' into their systems. User support can take different forms but,conventionally, each aims to assist the needy end-user by means of facilities directly supporting the performance of certain operations, or through supply of information thatadvises the user on available system functionality.The present paper briefly characterises a range of user support facilities before describingone requirement in greater detail. This aspect considers the needs of users whose mother-tongue is not English, but who are obliged to use English-based information systems. Inthis context, 'helping the user' must reasonably extend beyond mere advice on systemoperation to selective elucidation of information content. We regard this move as alogical extension of the user support concept, by seeking to address specific interactionneeds in a target user population. An example of this approach is described through aninformation system, in the domain of civil engineering, for native Chinese speakers ofEnglish

Widowhood, Divorce, and Loss of Health Insurance Among Near Elderly Women: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

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Professional Development On-line

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is making increased use of the Web to develop and support communities of professionals. This paper outlines the factors driving the adoption of CPD and highlights areas where the Web can aid in the development of successful professional communities. Current work to provide on-line support for approximately 500 teachers of computing is then presented, highlighting those aspects of the Web site designed to foster and engage participants in the professional development activity

Content enrichment through dynamic annotation

This paper describes a technique for interceding between users and the information that they browse. This facility, that we term 'dynamic annotation', affords a means of editing Web page content 'on-the-fly' between the source Web server and the requesting client. Thereby, we have a generic way of modifying the content displayed to local users by addition, removal or reorganising any information sourced from the World-Wide Web, whether this derives from local or remote pages. For some time, we have been exploring the scope for this device and we believe that it affords many potential worthwhile applications. Here, we describe two varieties of use. The first variety focuses on support for individual users in two contexts (second-language support and second language learning). The second variety of use focuses on support for groups of users. These differing applications have a common goal which is content enrichment of the materials placed before the user. Dynamic annotation provides a potent and flexible means to this end

Personality, Lifetime Earnings, and Retirement Wealth

Studies of adolescents and young adults have shown that schooling impacts economic outcomes beyond its impact on cognitive ability. Research has also shown that the personality trait of conscientiousness predicts health outcomes, academic outcomes, and divorce. Using the Big Five taxonomy of personality traits, this study examines whether non-cognitive traits are related to economic success over the life course. Examining Health and Retirement Study survey data linked to Social Security records on over 10,000 adults age 50 and over, we investigate the relationship of personality traits to economic outcomes. Controlling for cognitive ability and background variables, do more conscientious and emotionally stable adults have higher lifetime earnings, and is this due to higher annual earnings, longer work lives, or both? Do more conscientious adults save a higher proportion of their earnings for retirement, and does conscientiousness of each partner in a married couple matter? Do conscientiousness and emotional stability interact such that the effects of conscientiousness are greater among less emotionally stable adults?

Studying a relativistic field theory at finite chemical potential with the density matrix renormalization group

The density matrix renormalization group is applied to a relativistic complex scalar field at finite chemical potential. The two-point function and various bulk quantities are studied. It is seen that bulk quantities do not change with the chemical potential until it is larger than the minimum excitation energy. The technical limitations of the density matrix renormalization group for treating bosons in relativistic field theories are discussed. Applications to other relativistic models and to nontopological solitons are also suggested.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures; v2: title changed; references added, conclusions expanded, to be published in PR