The Effects of Refilling Additional Rooting Material on Exploration Duration and Tail Damages in Rearing and Fattening Pigs

Pigs housed in commercial barns with slatted floors cannot fully perform their natural behavioral needs such as rooting or exploring. Enrichment materials can stimulate these behaviors in pigs. Here, we investigated whether exploration can be stimulated by offering additional enrichment material, i.e., chopped straw, once compared to four times daily. In two replicates each with four rearing and eight fattening pens, a total of 192 pigs with undocked tails continuously received chopped straw from a dispenser, while a stimulus to explore was given by filling the rooting area of the dispenser either once (R1) or four times (R4) daily with additional chopped straw. The dispensers were equipped with an ultra-high-frequency radio-frequency-identification (UHF-RFID) system in order to record the exploration durations of each individual pig at the dispenser. At four times throughout rearing and fattening, pigs were weighted and tail injuries and length losses were assessed. This resulted in three temporal sections within each replicate, for each of which the difference in tail length to the previous section (Δ-tail length) was calculated. Exploration durations did not change in long-term but increased from rearing throughout fattening. The refillings in which additional chopped straw was offered (R1 vs. R4) did not affect the overall exploration duration during rearing (linear mixed effects model (LME), P = 0.85) or fattening (LME, P = 0.66). However, descriptive evaluations showed that exploration durations decreased within the first 10-min sequences within the hour after refilling the rooting area with additional chopped straw in both treatments (R1 and R4). Exploration durations were affected by week, day, and hour within day during rearing (LME, all factors, P < 0.0001) and fattening (LME, all factors, P < 0.0001). Neither tail injuries nor length losses were affected by the refilling treatment (R1 vs. R4) during rearing (GLMM, both P > 0.1) or fattening (GLMM, both P > 0.1). Offering additional straw four times compared to once a day had no advantage in the present setting with regard to exploration duration and tail damages of pigs. However, refilling the rooting area with additional chopped straw triggered a short-term increase of exploration that decreased within 1 h, thus, exploration was more spread over the day.

Cannabinoids in the rheumatic diseases

Pain is a prevalent symptom for rheumatology patients. Even when inflammatory arthritis is well controlled, remaining pain or comorbid fibromyalgia is a cause of persistent suffering. As current treatments for pain management are suboptimal, patients are increasingly exploring medical cannabis as a treatment option, with interest bolstered by legalization of both medical and recreational cannabis is many jurisdictions. This easier access to cannabis may even prompt some patients to experiment with use and self-medicate. Although the clinical evidence for effect of cannabinoids in rheumatology management is mostly lacking, rheumatologists must be sufficiently knowledgeable to provide patients with evidence-based information about effects and harms. This review will address the pharmacological properties of medical cannabis, products available, and methods of administration and will highlight considerations applicable for use in various rheumatology patient populations. Medical cannabis may provide some symptom relief for some rheumatology patients, but with caution about known short-term risks and largely unknown long-term risks. Medical cannabis may finally emerge as a treatment option for these patients. Even in the present setting of limited evidence, clinicians must understand the popular advocacy for medical cannabis and play an active role to ensure competent and safe patient care. Keywords: Rheumatic pain. Cannabinoids.

Habitat Connectivity for the Conservation of Small Ungulates in A Human-Dominated Landscape

Conserving landscape connections among favorable habitats is a widely used strategy to maintain populations in an increasingly fragmented world. A species can then exist as a metapopulation consisting of several subpopulations connected by dispersal. Our study focuses on the importance of human–wildlife coexistence areas in maintaining connectivity among primary habitats of small ungulates within and outside protected areas in a large landscape in central India. We used geospatial information and species presence data to model the suitable habitats, core habitats, and connectivity corridors for four antelope species in an ~89,000 km2 landscape. We found that about 63% of the core habitats, integrated across the four species, lie outside the protected areas. We then measured connectivity in two scenarios: the present setting, and a hypothetical future setting – where habitats outside protected areas are lost. We also modelled the areas with a high risk of human-influenced antelope mortality using eco-geographical variables and wildlife mortality records. Overall, we found that the habitats in multiple-use forests play a central role in maintaining the connectivity network for antelopes. Sizable expanses of privately held farmlands and plantations also contribute to the essential movement corridors. Some perilous patches with greater mortality risk for species require mitigation measures such as underpasses, overpasses, and fences. Greater conservation efforts are needed in the spaces of human–wildlife coexistence to conserve the habitat network of small ungulates.

Algorithmic correspondence and canonicity for possibility semantics

The present paper develops a unified correspondence treatment of the Sahlqvist theory for possibility semantics, extending the results in the work by Yamamoto (2016, Journal of Logic and Computation, 27, 2411–2430) from Sahlqvist formulas to the strictly larger class of inductive formulas and from the full possibility frames to filter-descriptive possibility frames. Specifically, we define the possibility semantics version of the algorithm Ackermann lemma based algorithm (ALBA) and an adapted interpretation of the expanded modal language used in the algorithm. One notable feature of the adaptation of ALBA to possibility frames setting is that the so-called nominal variables, which are interpreted as complete join-irreducibles in the standard setting, are interpreted as regular open closures of ‘singletons’ in the present setting, which is a novelty of the present paper. We prove the soundness of the algorithm with respect to both (the dual algebras of) full possibility frames and (the dual algebras of) filter-descriptive possibility frames, use the algorithm to give an alternative proof to the one in the work by Holliday (2016, Possibility frames and forcing for modal logic. UC Berkeley Working Paper in Logic and the Methodology of Science. URL. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/9v11r0dq) that the inductive formulas are constructively canonical and show that the algorithm succeeds on inductive formulas. We make some comparisons among different semantic settings in the design of the algorithms and fit possibility semantics into this broader picture.

Medidas de protección en servicios de endoscopia digestiva frente al COVID-19

In the present setting, the Board of Directors defined that the recommendations and guidelines generated by Asociación Argentina de Cirugía during COVID-19 pandemic should be implemented considering the following aspects:

A note on Kazdan–Warner equation on networks

We investigate the Kazdan–Warner equation on a network. In this case, the differential equation is defined on each edge, while appropriate transition conditions of Kirchhoff type are prescribed at the vertices. We show that the whole Kazdan–Warner theory, both for the noncritical and the critical case, extends to the present setting.

Engineering Students’ Human Values as Rhizomatic Lines of Sustainability

The study reports on research carried out at the five major technical higher institutions in Romania. It views the human values students bring with them to the educational setting as rhizomatic lines, in the Deleuzian sense, and aims at identifying the intensity of each value, respectively, at grasping the correlations between the students’ values and their projection concerning postgraduation life, including nomadic (i.e., migration) intentions. Such an approach is novel in educational research. The 1782 valid responses collected after applying an online questionnaire were subjected to multivariate statistical analyses. The results unfold the research stages, from intensity-identification concerning the 18 values included in the questionnaire to the factor extraction and correlation findings that highlight strata beneath the upper layer of responses. The values boil down to three nodes of the rhizome, anchoring the Romanian engineers-to-be in the present setting and allowing them to grow in a sustainable manner, i.e., to become professionals, socially accepted, and belonging to a group. The findings are useful to professors, who need to constantly check their assumptions about the profile of the young generation, to better ground their partnership relation with students in moral realities that are relevant and help learners face disruption, crisis, incertitude.

Managerial Influence and Organizational Performance

ABSTRACT Agents need to be motivated to develop ideas and to share information regarding their potential value. When the agents fail to agree on which alternative to implement, the principal needs to decide how to resolve the disagreement. When the agents’ information is soft, favoring one of the agents in the case of disagreement is always optimal in the present setting. In contrast, if the information is hard, a balanced treatment of the agents is preferred to encourage competition. The reason for the difference is the high cost of sustaining both informative communication and effort in a balanced organization.

Chemotherapy in COVID-19 pandemic: to give or not to give?

COVID-19 is a new pathogen for humans, not much is known how it affects cancer patients, but definitely there is high risk for cancer patients contracting this disease. So to find a solution to this very challenging situation the oncologists need to formulate certain guiding principles for cancer treatment in this pandemic era. Authors have divided this cancer patients into four categories depending upon the urgency of giving chemotherapy. The lowest priority being Priority A where delaying chemotherapy till this pandemic gets over will not harm the patients much and the highest priority being given to Priority D where authors do not want even a delay of days/ week. It is Priority B and C where the decision needs to made by the clinicians. However, in case authors decide to give chemotherapy in present setting there are certain changes that needs to be made both on patient as well as the hospital end. Like higher degree of awareness among patients, rational usage of resources of the hospital etc. It is indeed a very difficult time for cancer patients who are trying to cope up with malignancy and for most of them; the coronavirus is an extra concern and worry. Till the time authors learn how best treat and care to this patients during this pandemic era do what you can do to keep you and your family stay safe and Healthy.

Tracking Database Access Design by Solicitation Programs for Detecting Inconsistency

Database Management Systems (DBMSs) offer get the opportunity to control segments that grant database heads (DBAs) to permit application programs get to advantages to databases. In spite of the way that such instruments are successful, for all intents and purposes better grained get the opportunity to control framework modified to the semantics of the data set away in the DMBS is required as a best in class opposition part against sharp aggressors. Verifying a database alone isn't adequate for such applications, as aggressors going for taking data can misuse vulnerabilities in the unique applications and make these applications to give malevolent database questions. In this paper, we show the structure of an irregularity ID framework that hopes to handle such issue. Our methodology is based the assessment and profiling of the application remembering the ultimate objective to make a short depiction of its relationship with the database. Such a profile keeps an imprint for each submitted inquiry and moreover the relating prerequisites that the application program must satisfy to show the request. Subsequently, in the ID arrange, at whatever point the application gives an inquiry, a module gets the request before it accomplishes the database and affirms the looking at imprint and objectives against the present setting of the application. In case there is a befuddle, the request is separate as exceptional.