Advances in understanding behavioral needs and improving the welfare of calves and heifers

Author(s):  
Emily Miller-Cushon ◽  
◽  
Jennifer Van Os ◽  

Management factors affecting dairy calves have broad impacts on behavioral development and implications for long-term welfare, and research in this area is increasingly focused on understanding the behavioral needs of the calf, to refine management and improve understanding of welfare. In this chapter, we summarize recent research addressing behavioral needs of pre-weaned calves and post-weaned heifers, encompassing aspects of social interactions and feeding, rest and comfort, and opportunities for other behavioral expression. In general, evidence suggests welfare and performance benefits of accommodating more natural behavioral expression, including social contact, higher milk intakes fed via a teat, dietary variety, and space and resources to accommodate preferred activities, such as grooming and play. Throughout these sections, consequences of restricting these behaviors includes development of abnormal oral behaviors. Emerging themes of this area of research include consideration of individual differences and implications and approaches to accommodate broader behavioral expression through increasing environmental complexity.

i-Perception ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 204166951772480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olesya Blazhenkova

Boundary extension is a common false memory error, in which people confidently remember seeing a wider angle view of the scene than was viewed. Previous research found that boundary extension is scene-specific and did not examine this phenomenon in nonscenes. The present research explored boundary extension in cropped face images. Participants completed either a short-term or a long-term condition of the task. During the encoding, they observed photographs of faces, cropped either in a forehead or in a chin area, and subsequently performed face recognition through a forced-choice selection. The recognition options represented different degrees of boundary extension and boundary restriction errors. Eye-tracking and performance data were collected. The results demonstrated boundary extension in both memory conditions. Furthermore, previous literature reported the asymmetry in amounts of expansion at different sides of an image. The present work provides the evidence of asymmetry in boundary extension. In the short-term condition, boundary extension errors were more pronounced for forehead, than for chin face areas. Finally, this research examined the relationships between the measures of boundary extension, imagery, and emotion. The results suggest that individual differences in emotional ability and object, but not spatial, imagery could be associated with boundary extension in face processing.


2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 218-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Rodway ◽  
Karen Gillies ◽  
Astrid Schepman

This study examined whether individual differences in the vividness of visual imagery influenced performance on a novel long-term change detection task. Participants were presented with a sequence of pictures, with each picture and its title displayed for 17  s, and then presented with changed or unchanged versions of those pictures and asked to detect whether the picture had been changed. Cuing the retrieval of the picture's image, by presenting the picture's title before the arrival of the changed picture, facilitated change detection accuracy. This suggests that the retrieval of the picture's representation immunizes it against overwriting by the arrival of the changed picture. The high and low vividness participants did not differ in overall levels of change detection accuracy. However, in replication of Gur and Hilgard (1975) , high vividness participants were significantly more accurate at detecting salient changes to pictures compared to low vividness participants. The results suggest that vivid images are not characterised by a high level of detail and that vivid imagery enhances memory for the salient aspects of a scene but not all of the details of a scene. Possible causes of this difference, and how they may lead to an understanding of individual differences in change detection, are considered.


2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-411
Author(s):  
Elena Ju. Gorbatkova

Introduction. The important factors affecting health and performance of young people are the conditions of education, in particular, a comfortable microclimate in the classrooms of higher educational institutions. Materials and methods. In view of the urgency of this problem, an analysis was made of the microclimate parameters of educational organizations of different profiles (Ufa city, the Republic of Bashkortostan). 294 classrooms were studied in 22 buildings of 4 leading universities in Ufa. A total of 3,822 measurements were taken to determine the parameters of the microclimate. The analysis of ionizing radiation in the aerial environment of classrooms. There was performed determination of radon and its affiliated products content. In order to assess the conditions and lifestyle of students of 4 higher educational institutions of the city of Ufa, we conducted an anonymous survey of 1,820 students of I and IV years of education. Results. The average temperature in the classrooms of all universities studied was 23.9±0.09 C. The average relative humidity in all classrooms was 34.2 ± 0.42%. Analysis of ionizing radiation (radon and its daughter products decay) in the aerial environment of the classrooms and sports halls located in the basement determined that the average annual equivalent equilibrium volumetric activity of the radon daughter products (EROA ± Δ222Rn) ranged from 28 ± 14 to 69 ± 34.5 meter, which meets the requirements established by SanPiN. Conclusion. The hygienic assessment of the microclimate parameters of educational institutions of various profile revealed a number of deviations from the regulated norms. The results indicate the need to control the parameters of the microclimate, both from the administration of universities, and from the professors. According to the results of the study, recommendations were prepared for the management of higher educational institutions in Ufa.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin C. Hayes ◽  
Katherine L Alfred ◽  
Rachel Pizzie ◽  
Joshua S. Cetron ◽  
David J. M. Kraemer

Modality specific encoding habits account for a significant portion of individual differences reflected in functional activation during cognitive processing. Yet, little is known about how these habits of thought influence long-term structural changes in the brain. Traditionally, habits of thought have been assessed using self-report questionnaires such as the visualizer-verbalizer questionnaire. Here, rather than relying on subjective reports, we measured habits of thought using a novel behavioral task assessing attentional biases toward picture and word stimuli. Hypothesizing that verbal habits of thought are reflected in the structural integrity of white matter tracts and cortical regions of interest, we used diffusion tensor imaging and volumetric analyses to assess this prediction. Using a whole-brain approach, we show that word bias is associated with increased volume in several bilateral language regions, in both white and grey matter parcels. Additionally, connectivity within white matter tracts within an a priori speech production network increased as a function of word bias. These results demonstrate long-term structural and morphological differences associated with verbal habits of thought.


Author(s):  
Юлия Владимировна Татаркова ◽  
Татьяна Николаевна Петрова ◽  
Олег Валериевич Судаков ◽  
Александр Юрьевич Гончаров ◽  
Ольга Николаевна Крюкова

В настоящей статье представлен обзор основных решений, доступных сегодня для формирования как краткосрочных, так и долгосрочных проекций заболеваемости болезней глаза и его придаточного аппарата в студенческой среде. С другой стороны, существует ряд проблем, связанных с многообразием факторов, влияющих на заболеваемость, статистической необоснованностью и противоречивостью имеющихся результатов анализа данных. Представлены результаты математического моделирования зависимости показателя заболеваемости от наиболее влиятельных факторов образовательной и социальной среды. Перечислены важнейшие направления разработки математических моделей распространения заболеваемости. С помощью разработанного программного комплекса проведена серия вычислительных экспериментов по оценке и прогнозированию заболеваемости обучающихся в вузах разного профиля. Показана эффективность применения методики многовариантного моделирования и прогнозирования, указаны их ограничения и возможности практического применения. По расположению обобщенной области благоприятного прогноза в факторном пространстве можно определить время воздействия неблагоприятных для зрения факторов, которое должно составлять не более 10 ... 11 часов в сутки, количество профилактических мероприятий должно составлять не менее 3 ... 4. При этом риск развития миопии составит не более 0,4, вероятность усталости глаз за компьютером составит не более 0,4, вероятность дискомфорта глаз на занятиях составит не более 0,15. Исходя из характера прогноза, определяется длительность диспансерного наблюдения, а также потребность профилактических мероприятий по устранению или ослаблению действия неблагоприятно влияющих социально-гигиенических и медико-биологических факторов конкретного больного. Использование прогностической матрицы в практическом здравоохранении позволяет существенно улучшить работу по профилактике офтальмологической заболеваемости и является одним из эффективных мероприятий диспансеризации студенческой молодежи, так как дает возможность выделить из числа обучающихся группу с высоким риском неблагоприятного исхода заболевания This article provides an overview of the main solutions available today for the formation of both short-term and long-term projections of the incidence of eye diseases and its adnexa in the student environment. On the other hand, there are a number of problems associated with a variety of factors affecting the incidence, statistical unreasonability and inconsistency of the available data analysis results. The results of mathematical modeling of the dependence of the incidence rate on the most influential factors of the educational and social environment are presented. The most important areas of developing mathematical models for the spread of morbidity are listed. With the help of the developed software package, a series of computational experiments was carried out to assess and predict the incidence of students in universities of various profiles. The effectiveness of the application of multivariate modeling and forecasting methods is shown, their limitations and practical application possibilities are indicated. By the location of the generalized region of favorable prognosis in the factor space, it is possible to determine the exposure time of factors unfavorable for vision, which should be no more than 10 ... 11 hours a day, the number of preventive measures should be at least 3 ... 4. At the same time, the risk of development myopia will be no more than 0.4, the probability of eye fatigue at the computer will be no more than 0.4, the likelihood of eye discomfort in the classroom will be no more than 0.15. Based on the nature of the forecast, the duration of the follow-up observation is determined, as well as the need for preventive measures to eliminate or weaken the action of adverse social, hygienic and biomedical factors of a particular patient. The use of the prognostic matrix in practical health care can significantly improve the work on the prevention of ophthalmic morbidity and is one of the effective medical examinations for students, since it makes it possible to distinguish among the students a group with a high risk of an unfavorable outcome of the disease


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Poldrugovac ◽  
J E Amuah ◽  
H Wei-Randall ◽  
P Sidhom ◽  
K Morris ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Evidence of the impact of public reporting of healthcare performance on quality improvement is not yet sufficient to draw conclusions with certainty, despite the important policy implications. This study explored the impact of implementing public reporting of performance indicators of long-term care facilities in Canada. The objective was to analyse whether improvements can be observed in performance measures after publication. Methods We considered 16 performance indicators in long-term care in Canada, 8 of which are publicly reported at a facility level, while the other 8 are privately reported. We analysed data from the Continuing Care Reporting System managed by the Canadian Institute for Health Information and based on information collection with RAI-MDS 2.0 © between the fiscal years 2011 and 2018. A multilevel model was developed to analyse time trends, before and after publication, which started in 2015. The analysis was also stratified by key sample characteristics, such as the facilities' jurisdiction, size, urban or rural location and performance prior to publication. Results Data from 1087 long-term care facilities were included. Among the 8 publicly reported indicators, the trend in the period after publication did not change significantly in 5 cases, improved in 2 cases and worsened in 1 case. Among the 8 privately reported indicators, no change was observed in 7, and worsening in 1 indicator. The stratification of the data suggests that for those indicators that were already improving prior to public reporting, there was either no change in trend or there was a decrease in the rate of improvement after publication. For those indicators that showed a worsening trend prior to public reporting, the contrary was observed. Conclusions Our findings suggest public reporting of performance data can support change. The trends of performance indicators prior to publication appear to have an impact on whether further change will occur after publication. Key messages Public reporting is likely one of the factors affecting change in performance in long-term care facilities. Public reporting of performance measures in long-term care facilities may support improvements in particular in cases where improvement was not observed before publication.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document