scholarly journals A Perspective on Strategic Enrichment for Brain Development: Is This the Key to Animal Happiness?

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana L. M. Campbell ◽  
Caroline Lee
Keyword(s):  
Brain Development ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Enrichment Programs ◽  
Animal Development ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Sentient Beings

Livestock animals are sentient beings with cognitive and emotional capacities and their brain development, similar to humans and other animal species, is affected by their surrounding environmental conditions. Current intensive production systems, through the restrictions of safely managing large numbers of animals, may not facilitate optimal neurological development which can contribute to negative affective states, abnormal behaviors, and reduce experiences of positive welfare states. Enrichment provision is likely necessary to enable animals to reach toward their neurological potential, optimizing their cognitive capacity and emotional intelligence, improving their ability to cope with stressors as well as experience positive affect. However, greater understanding of the neurological impacts of specific types of enrichment strategies is needed to ensure enrichment programs are effectively improving the individual's welfare. Enrichment programs during animal development that target key neurological pathways that may be most utilized by the individual within specific types of housing or management situations is proposed to result in the greatest positive impacts on animal welfare. Research within livestock animals is needed in this regard to ensure future deployment of enrichment for livestock animals is widespread and effective in enhancing their neurological capacities.

scholarly journals Humane Slaughter of Edible Decapod Crustaceans

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1089
Author(s):  
Francesca Conte ◽  
Eva Voslarova ◽  
Vladimir Vecerek ◽  
Robert William Elwood ◽  
Paolo Coluccio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Decapod Crustaceans ◽  
The Public ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Increasing Demand

Vast numbers of crustaceans are produced by aquaculture and caught in fisheries to meet the increasing demand for seafood and freshwater crustaceans. Simultaneously, the public is increasingly concerned about current methods employed in their handling and killing. Recent evidence has shown that decapod crustaceans probably have the capacity to suffer because they show responses consistent with pain and have a relatively complex cognitive capacity. For these reasons, they should receive protection. Despite the large numbers of crustaceans transported and slaughtered, legislation protecting their welfare, by using agreed, standardized methods, is lacking. We review various stunning and killing systems proposed for crustaceans, and assess welfare concerns. We suggest the use of methods least likely to cause suffering and call for the implementation of welfare guidelines covering the slaughter of these economically important animals.

Autonomy and non-autonomy in Drosophila mesoderm determination and morphogenesis

Development ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 120 (4) ◽  
pp. 853-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Leptin ◽  
S. Roth
Keyword(s):  
Cell Shape ◽  
Shape Change ◽  
Developmental Program ◽  
Cell Shape Change ◽  
Ventral Furrow ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Mutant Cells ◽  
Transplantation Experiments ◽  
Shape Changes

The mesoderm in Drosophila invaginates by a series of characteristic cell shape changes. Mosaics of wild-type cells in an environment of mutant cells incapable of making mesodermal invaginations show that this morphogenetic behaviour does not require interactions between large numbers of cells but that small patches of cells can invaginate independent of their neighbours' behaviour. While the initiation of cell shape change is locally autonomous, the shapes the cells assume are partly determined by the individual cell's environment. Cytoplasmic transplantation experiments show that areas of cells expressing mesodermal genes ectopically at any position in the egg form an invagination. We propose that ventral furrow formation is the consequence of all prospective mesodermal cells independently following their developmental program. Gene expression at the border of the mesoderm is induced by the apposition of mesodermal and non-mesodermal cells.

Evolution of mutation rate and virulence among human retroviruses

1994 ◽  
Vol 346 (1317) ◽  
pp. 333-343 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Hiv Infections ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Mutation Rates ◽  
Rapid Progression ◽  
Human T Cell ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Multicellular Organisms

High mutation rates are generally considered to be detrimental to the fitness of multicellular organisms because mutations untune finely tuned biological machinery. However, high mutation rates may be favoured by a need to evade an immune system that has been strongly stimulated to recognize those variants that reproduced earlier during the infection, hiv infections conform to this situation because they are characterized by large numbers of viruses that are continually breaking latency and large numbers that are actively replicating throughout a long period of infection. To be transmitted, HIVS are thus generally exposed to an immune system that has been activated to destroy them in response to prior viral replication in the individual. Increases in sexual contact should contribute to this predicament by favouring evolution toward relatively high rates of replication early during infection. Because rapid replication and high mutation rate probably contribute to rapid progression of infections to aids, the interplay of sexual activity, replication rate, and mutation rate helps explain why HIV-1 has only recently caused a lethal pandemic, even though molecular data suggest that it may have been present in humans for more than a century. This interplay also offers an explanation for geographic differences in progression to cancer found among infections due to the other major group of human retroviruses, human T-cell lymphotropic viruses (HTLV). Finally, it suggests ways in which we can use natural selection as a tool to control the aids pandemic and prevent similar pandemics from arising in the future.

scholarly journals The Political Economy of Crisis Recovery

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ferdosi
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
The Political ◽  
Crisis Recovery ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

The aftermath of the global financial crisis marked another stress test for welfare states and varieties of capitalism. More than ever before, governments were forced to consider substantial reforms to welfare provision and enact flexibility-enhancing measures in order to improve financial solvency and economic performance. The crash, however, was not only a regionally uneven process in its origins but also led to makeshift or uneven policy responses. As a result, the socio-economic effects of the downturn and political reactions to it varied considerably among countries. Nevertheless, there have been some common trends in outcome measures. These have served to blur the dividing lines between different welfare states and production systems, so vividly captured in the mainstream political economy literature.

Anticipated and experienced positive affect shape sustainable action in everyday life

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Doell ◽  
Beatrice Conte ◽  
Tobias Brosch
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Trait Affect ◽  
Environmental Actions ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Behavioral Impact ◽  
Sustainable Action

Emotions are powerful drivers of human behavior that may make people aware of the urgency to act to mitigate climate change and provide a motivational basis to engage in sustainable action. However, attempts to leverage emotions via climate communications have yielded unsatisfactory results, with many interventions failing to produce the desired behaviors. Considering emotions as simple behavioral levers without considering differences in the underlying affective mechanisms may not optimally exploit their potential to promote sustainable action. Across two field experiments, here we show that individual predispositions to experience positive emotions in an environmental context (trait affect) predict pro-environmental actions and corresponding shifts in affective states (towards personal as well as witnessed pro-environmental actions). Moreover, trait affect predicts the individual behavioral impact of emotion-based intervention strategies from positive environmental messages. These findings have important implications for the targeted design of affect-based interventions aiming to promote sustainable behavior.

Epilepsy

2013 ◽  
pp. 155-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Brown ◽  
Martin C. Prevett
Keyword(s):  
Epileptic Seizures ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Common Condition ◽  
Insurance Cover ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Working People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Education And Employment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Available Information

Epilepsy is a common condition that affects large numbers of working people. In about one-third, epilepsy is the only condition, and in others there are additional neurological, intellectual, or psychological problems. Uncontrolled epileptic seizures can lead to injury and may impact on education and employment, but antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment is effective in approximately 70 per cent of people with epilepsy. Many people do not disclose a history of epileptic seizures when applying for a job or during a routine examination at the workplace. This may cause major problems for the individual and the employer and, on occasions, inadvertently contravene the HSW Act or invalidate insurance cover. However, the disability provisions of the Equality Act 2010 now confer some protection on those with epilepsy. The unenlightened attitudes of some employers have led to secrecy or denial by those affected. The possibility of dangerous situations arising at work, or dismissal without recourse to appeal, may be the consequence. A competent occupational health service, trusted by both shop-floor and management, can be invaluable in resolving conflicts and giving advice. Responsibility for the employment and placement of a person with epilepsy rests with the employer and they should take appropriate medical advice. Each case must be judged on its merits in light of the available information, which must include a sound and complete understanding of the requirements of the job. Employees with epilepsy must be regularly reviewed. The development of good rapport and mutual trust will encourage employees to report any changes in their condition or treatment that have arisen.

scholarly journals A neurodevelopmental origin of behavioral individuality in the Drosophila visual system

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 367 (6482) ◽  
pp. 1112-1119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerit Arne Linneweber ◽  
Maheva Andriatsilavo ◽  
Suchetana Bias Dutta ◽  
Mercedes Bengochea ◽  
Liz Hellbruegge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Interindividual Variation ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Stochastic Variation ◽  
Behavioral Variation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior

The genome versus experience dichotomy has dominated understanding of behavioral individuality. By contrast, the role of nonheritable noise during brain development in behavioral variation is understudied. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we demonstrate a link between stochastic variation in brain wiring and behavioral individuality. A visual system circuit called the dorsal cluster neurons (DCN) shows nonheritable, interindividual variation in right/left wiring asymmetry and controls object orientation in freely walking flies. We show that DCN wiring asymmetry instructs an individual’s object responses: The greater the asymmetry, the better the individual orients toward a visual object. Silencing DCNs abolishes correlations between anatomy and behavior, whereas inducing DCN asymmetry suffices to improve object responses.

Introduction

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Father Involvement ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Policy Regimes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Structural Context ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Workplace Cultures

After outlining the key aspects of the changing social, cultural, and policy context of parenting in Western societies, the introduction clarifies terminology and key concepts used throughout the book, such as the distinction among fatherhood, fathering, and types of fathers. It also presents the theoretical framework used to examine father involvement with young children in six countries. This includes the fatherhood regime, fathers’ agency gap and capability to care for children, and gendered care and workplace cultures. In addition, the structural context of welfare states and policy regimes is reviewed to frame the institutional support for father involvement, such as compensated paternity and parental leave. At the individual level father involvement is conceptualized as encompassing engagement, accessibility and responsibility as expressed in the type and quantity of time of fathers’ activities with their young children. Finally, the chapter briefly outlines the structure of the book.

Employment and the Working Poor

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Gautié ◽  
Sophie Ponthieux
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Working Poor ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Working Poverty ◽  
The Individual

This article examines the phenomenon of working poverty and issues relating to employment and the working poor. It first provides an overview of the problems of definition and measurement regarding the working poor, along with the consequences of the diversity of definitions. In particular, it considers different current definitions of the statistical category “working poor” and how definitions affect the assessment of the in-work poverty phenomenon. It also provides a “statistical” portrait of the working poor and explores how the risk of working poverty has evolved in the 2000s. Finally, it discusses the causes of working poverty, including low income at the individual level and the role of welfare states, and outlines potential remedies in terms of public policies.

Common feline problem behaviors: Aggression in multi-cat households

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Problem Behaviors ◽  
Behavioral Interventions ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Practical Relevance ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Clinical Behavior ◽  
The People ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Behavior

Practical relevance: Being able to understand and intervene in cases of cat–cat aggression in multi-cat households is important for all veterinarians and behavior counsellors dealing with feline behavior cases. Clincal challenges: Feline conflicts are common, perhaps not helped by many owners’ assumption that this is the norm. Interventions can be complex in multi-cat households with large numbers of cats as there are more interactions to evaluate and monitor, and care needs to be taken not to negatively affect the other cats. There may be limitations due to the environment or the people involved and so behavior guidelines should always be tailored to the individual situation. Aims: This article reviews the main forms of aggression in multi-cat households and the appropriate behavioral interventions, considering both the typical scenarios and emotions/motivations most likely involved. It details essential environmental management for multi-cat homes, as well as an approach to friendly cat introductions. Audience: This article is aimed at veterinarians dealing with feline behavior cases as well as behavior counsellors, as both professionals are likely to experience cases of aggression in multi-cat households. Evidence base: The author draws on the published literature where available and, where there is a lack of research, on hypotheses derived from her own clinical behavior experience.

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