Life Sciences Commons^™

Alternatives To Laboratory Animals: Definition And Discussion, Andrew N. Rowan

Andrew N. Rowan, DPhil

The origins of the concept of "alternatives" to the use of animals in research may be traced back to the 1800's and the furore about using live animals in surgical and other experiments. Some of the animal protection societies in England were prepared to accept animal experimentation provided it was performed under anesthesia. Even Dr. Marshall Hall, who championed the spread of experimental medicine in 19th century England, considered it necessary to control and prevent unwarranted, inept and cruel experimentation (French, 1975). The concept of alternatives has developed in the 20th century to encompass not only the reduction (prevention) of …

Ethical Foundations For The Lethal Management Of Double-Crested Cormorants (Phalocrocorax Auritus) In The Eastern United States: An Argument Analysis, Chelsea Batavia, Michael Paul Nelson

Chelsea Batavia, PhD

Lethal management of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalocrocorax auritus) has been implemented in many areas of the United States. In this paper, the philosophical method of argument analysis is used to assess ethical premises underlying the proposition that Double-crested Cormorant populations should be culled to reduce pressures on wild fisheries in the Great Lakes region of the eastern USA. This influential argument has been used to justify the destruction of more than half a million Double-crested Cormorants and hundreds of thousands of their nests and eggs. Three versions of the argument are formulated and assessed. It is shown that each of the …

Organizational Culture Change In A Texas Hospital, Alberto Coustasse-Hencke M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H.

Alberto Coustasse, DrPH, MD, MBA, MPH

Coustasse-Hencke, Alberto, MD, MBA, MPH, Organizational Culture Change in a Texas Hospital. Doctor of Public Health (Health Behavior), June 2004, 329 pp., 11 tables, 8 illustrations, bibliography, 198 titles. The purpose of this research was to analyze a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach in a Texas hospital with a main focus in Patient Satisfaction (PS), and to measure organizational change and its impact on PS. This dissertation also applied a "Shared Vision" of the organization as the central process in bringing forth the knowledge shared by members of the community hospital who were both subjects and research participants. The development of …

Highest And Best Use Determinations In Agricultural Land Assessments, Matthew Elliott, Lisa Elliott, Tong Wang

Matthew Elliott

Are Different Actions Mediated By Distinct Systems Of Knowledge In Infancy?, Peter Vishton

Peter Vishton

D_Luftig_Data_Management_Slides.Pdf, David Luftig

David Luftig

Role Competency Scale On Shared Decision-Making Nurses: Development And Psychometric Properties, Joseph D. Tariman Phd, Pamela Katz, Jessica Bishop-Royse Phd, Lisa Hartle Ms, Cns, Rn, Katharine Szubski Bsn, Rn, Toreend Enecio, Ima Garcia, Nadia Spawn Msn, Katherine Jones Masterton

Joseph D Tariman PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAAN

Biosimilars: Exploring The History, Science And Proogress, Joseph D. Tariman Phd

Joseph D Tariman PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAAN

Correlation Between Investment In Sexual Traits And Valve Sexual Dimorphism In Cyprideis Species (Ostracoda), Maria Joao Fernandes Martins, Gene Hunt, Rowan Lockwood, John P. Swaddle, David J. Horne

John Swaddle

Assessing the long-term macroevolutionary consequences of sexual selection has been hampered by the difficulty of studying this process in the fossil record. Cytheroid ostracodes offer an excellent system to explore sexual selection in the fossil record because their readily fossilized carapaces are sexually dimorphic. Specifically, males are relatively more elongate than females in this superfamily. This sexual shape difference is thought to arise so that males carapaces can accommodate their very large copulatory apparatus, which can account for up to one-third of body volume. Here we test this widely held explanation for sexual dimorphism in cytheroid ostracodes by correlating investment …

Gratitude Intervention Modulates P3 Amplitude In A Temporal Discounting Task, Andrea L. Patalano, Sydney L. Lolli, Charles A. Sanislow

Charles A. Sanislow, Ph.D.

An Ethogram For Benthic Octopods (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae), Jennifer Mather, Jean S. Alupay

Jennifer Mather, PhD

The present paper constructs a general ethogram for the actions of the flexible body as well as the skin displays of octopuses in the family Octopodidae. The actions of 6 sets of structures (mantle–funnel, arms, sucker–stalk, skin–web, head, and mouth) combine to produce behavioral units that involve positioning of parts leading to postures such as the flamboyant, movements of parts of the animal with relation to itself including head bob and grooming, and movements of the whole animal by both jetting in the water and crawling along the substrate. Muscular actions result in 4 key changes in skin display: (a) …

Cephalopod Complex Cognition, Jennifer Mather

Jennifer Mather, PhD

Cephalopods, especially octopuses, offer a different model for the development of complex cognitive operations. They are phylogenetically distant from the mammals and birds that we normally think of as ‘intelligent’ and without the pervasive social interactions and long lives that we associate with this capacity. Additionally, they have a distributed nervous system — central brain, peripheral coordination of arm actions and a completely separate skin appearance system based on muscle-controlled chromatophores. Recent research has begun to show how these apparently separate systems are coordinated. Learning and cognition are used toward prey, in antipredator actions and in courtship. These examples show …

Mating Games Squid Play: Reproductive Behaviour And Sexual Skin Displays In Caribbean Reef Squid Sepioteuthis Sepioidea, Jennifer Mather

Jennifer Mather, PhD

Observation of the sexual interactions of Sepioteuthis sepioidea squid during the short reproductive stage of their lives showed a scramble competition system, with both male and female polygyny. Mature females were faithful to a specific location in the daytime, whereas males moved from group to group and formed short-term consortships with females. Males defended females from other males, particularly with an agonistic Zebra display. Male–female pairs exchanged Saddle-Stripe displays, after which males might display an on–off Flicker. There was considerable female choice. Only if a female responded to this display with a parallel Rocking action would she pair and would …

Support For The Precautionary Principle, Jennifer Mather

Jennifer Mather, PhD

The precautionary principle gives the animal the benefit of the doubt when its sentient status is not known. This is necessary for advanced invertebrates such as cephalopods because research and evidence concerning the criteria for sentience are scattered and often insufficient to give us the background for the decision.

Cephalopods Are Best Candidates For Invertebrate Consciousness, Jennifer A. Mather, Claudio Carere

Jennifer Mather, PhD

Insects might have been the first invertebrates to evolve sentience, but cephalopods were the first invertebrates to gain scientific recognition for it.

An Invertebrate Perspective On Pain, Jennifer A. Mather

Jennifer Mather, PhD

Although Key (2016) argues that mammals feel pain and fish do not, from an invertebrate perspective, it is obvious that the pain experience is shared by animals from a number of different animal groups.

Integration Of Behavioral Health For The Treatment Of Depression In Primary Care: A Practice Improvement Project, Diane Block, Eileen Stuart-Shor, Jeanne Marston, Sarah Ludlow

Diane Block

Explaining China’S Wildlife Crisis: Cultural Tradition Or Politics Of Development, Peter J. Li

Peter J. Li, PhD

This chapter is about China’s wildlife crisis. As the following sections attempt to demonstrate, abuse of and assault on wildlife in captivity and in the wild have reached an unprecedented level on the Chinese mainland in the reform era (1978–present). Shocking brutality against wildlife animals has been frequently exposed by Chinese and international media. To readers outside East Asia, they ask if the Chinese are culturally indifferent to animal suffering. Indeed, does the Chinese culture sanction cruelty to animals? Or is it the contemporary politics of economic development that is more directly responsible for the crisis?

The Shellfish Corner: Shellfish Aquaculture In The Commons, Michael A. Rice

Michael A Rice

History Of The 3rs In Toxicity Testing: From Russell And Burch To 21st Century Toxicology, Martin L. Stephens, Nina S. Mak

Martin Stephens, PhD

Toxicity testing is a key part of the process of assessing the hazards, safety, or risk that chemicals and other substances pose to humans, animals, or the environment. Standardized methods for such testing, typically involving animals, began to emerge during the first half of the 20th century. In 1959, British scientists William Russell and Rex Burch proposed a framework for reducing, refining, or replacing animal use in toxicology and other forms of biomedical experimentation. This “3Rs” or “alternatives” approach emerged at a time of growing sensitivity to the use of animals in experimentation, and progress in its implementation has been …

Climate Change, Cattle, And The Challenge Of Sustainability In A Telecoupled System In Africa, Tara S. Easter, Alexander K. Killion, Neil H. Carter

Neil H. Carter

Information, energy, and materials are flowing over greater distances than in the past, changing the structure and feedbacks within and across coupled human and natural systems worldwide. The telecoupling framework was recently developed to understand the feedbacks and multidirectional flows characterizing social and environmental interactions between distant systems. We extend the application of the telecoupling framework to illustrate how flows in beef affect and are affected by social-ecological processes occurring between distant systems in Africa, and how those dynamics will likely change over the next few decades because of climate-induced shifts in a major bovine disease, trypanosomosis. The disease is …

Addressing The Challenges Of Conducting Observational Studies In Sheep Abattoirs, Elyssa Payne, Melissa Starling, Paul Mcgreevy

Paul McGreevy, PhD

The competing needs of maintaining productivity within abattoirs, and maintaining high standards of animal welfare, provide fertile grounds for applied research in animal behavior. However, there are challenges involved in capturing useful behavioral data from the supply chain (from paddock to processing plant). The challenges identified in this report are based on a review of the scientific literature as well as field study observations. This article describes those challenges as they relate to collecting behavioral data on livestock-herding dogs, humans and livestock as they interact in abattoirs, and provides insights and recommendations for others embarking on animal studies in confined …

Dog Behavior Co-Varies With Height, Bodyweight And Skull Shape, Paul D. Mcgreevy, Dana Georgevsky, Johanna Carrasco, Michael Valenzuela, Deborah L. Duffy, James A. Serpell

Paul McGreevy, PhD

Dogs offer unique opportunities to study correlations between morphology and behavior because skull shapes and body shape are so diverse among breeds. Several studies have shown relationships between canine cephalic index (CI: the ratio of skull width to skull length) and neural architecture. Data on the CI of adult, show-quality dogs (six males and six females) were sourced in Australia along with existing data on the breeds’ height, bodyweight and related to data on 36 behavioral traits of companion dogs (n = 8,301) of various common breeds (n = 49) collected internationally using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire …

De-Identified Interviews For The Study: Data Challenges Of Biomedical Researchers In The Age Of Omics, Rolando Garcia-Milian, Denise Hersey, Milica Vukmirovic

Rolando Garcia-Milian

African Penguins Follow The Gaze Direction Of Conspecifics, Christian Nawroth, Egle Trincas, Livio Favaro

Christian Nawroth, PhD

Gaze following is widespread among animals. However, the corresponding ultimate functions may vary substantially. Thus, it is important to study previously understudied (or less studied) species to develop a better understanding of the ecological contexts that foster certain cognitive traits. Penguins (Family Spheniscidae), despite their wide interspecies ecological variation, have previously not been considered for cross-species comparisons. Penguin behaviour and communication have been investigated over the last decades, but less is known on how groups are structured, social hierarchies are established, and coordination for hunting and predator avoidance may occur. In this article, we investigated how African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) …

A Note On Pigs’ Knowledge Of Hidden Objects, Christian Nawroth, Mirjam Ebersbach, Eberhard Von Borell

Christian Nawroth, PhD

Object permanence is the notion that objects continue to exist even when they are out of observer’s sight. This ability is adaptive for free ranging animals who have to cope with a dangerous and highly changeable environment and allows them to be aware of predators sneaking in their proximity or to keep track of conspecifics or food sources, even when out of sight. Farm animals might also benefit from object permanence because the ability to follow the trajectory of hidden food or objects may lead to a higher predictability of subjects’ environment, which in turn might affect the level of …

Individual Personality Differences In Goats Predict Their Performance In Visual Learning And Non-Associative Cognitive Tasks, Christian Nawroth, Pamela M. Prentice, Alan G. Mcelligott

Christian Nawroth, PhD

Variation in common personality traits, such as boldness or exploration, is often associated with risk–reward trade–offs and behavioural flexibility. To date, only a few studies have examined the effects of consistent behavioural traits on both learning and cognition. We investigated whether certain personality traits (‘exploration’ and ‘sociability’) of individuals were related to cognitive performance, learning flexibility and learning style in a social ungulate species, the goat (Capra hircus). We also investigated whether a preference for feature cues rather than impaired learning abilities can explain performance variation in a visual discrimination task. We found that personality scores were consistent …

Individual Personality Differences In Goats Predict Their Performance In Visual Learning And Non-Associative Cognitive Tasks, Christian Nawroth, Pamela M. Prentice, Alan G. Mcelligott

Alan G. McElligott, PhD

Variation in common personality traits, such as boldness or exploration, is often associated with risk–reward trade–offs and behavioural flexibility. To date, only a few studies have examined the effects of consistent behavioural traits on both learning and cognition. We investigated whether certain personality traits (‘exploration’ and ‘sociability’) of individuals were related to cognitive performance, learning flexibility and learning style in a social ungulate species, the goat (Capra hircus). We also investigated whether a preference for feature cues rather than impaired learning abilities can explain performance variation in a visual discrimination task. We found that personality scores were consistent …

The Shellfish Corner: Cap And Trade Systems With Shellfish May Be Good For The Economic Bottom Line, Michael A. Rice

Michael A Rice

Heat, Disparities, And Health Outcomes In San Diego County’S Diverse Climate Zones, Kirsten Guirguis, Rupa Basu, Wael K. Al-Delaimy, Tarik Benmarhnia, Rachel Es Clemesha, Isabel Corcos, Janin Guzman-Morales, Brittany Hailey, Ivory Small, Alexander Tardy, Devesh Vashishtha, Joshua Graff Zivin, Alexander Gershunov

Joshua Graff Zivin