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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

The Impact Of Tickling Rats On Human-Animal Interactions And Rat Welfare, Megan Renee Lafollette Dec 2016

The Impact Of Tickling Rats On Human-Animal Interactions And Rat Welfare, Megan Renee Lafollette

Open Access Theses

Rats initially fear humans which can lead to negative affect, poor welfare, and difficult handling. Also, modeling and measuring positive affect states in rats can pose an additional challenge. Heterospecific play, or “tickling,” is a handling habituation technique that mimics rat rough-and-tumble play that is being used to study positive affect. It can also be used to reduce fear of human, improve welfare, and elicit a positive affect state. However, current studies implementing the technique in laboratory rats use a wide variety of protocols to achieve differential results. Unlike in laboratory environment, pet store rats experience high levels of novelty …


The Impact Of Sleep Disruption On Mouse Physiology, Behavior, And Welfare, Amanda L. Robinson-Junker Dec 2016

The Impact Of Sleep Disruption On Mouse Physiology, Behavior, And Welfare, Amanda L. Robinson-Junker

Open Access Theses

Laboratory mice are nocturnal, spending most of their daylight hours asleep. But they live in the diurnal world of human investigators and husbandry staff, who primarily work during this rest period. In humans, lack of sleep or sleep that occurs outside the normal circadian sleep period (as in shift work) has adverse effects. These include increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, metabolic disorder, mood disorders, type II diabetes, and obesity. However, it is unknown if mice experience sleep disruption due to these human activities, and, if so, what the adverse effects may be. This is an important question, not only …


A Unique Perspective On The Demand For Livestock Product Attributes, Elizabeth S. Byrd Dec 2016

A Unique Perspective On The Demand For Livestock Product Attributes, Elizabeth S. Byrd

Open Access Dissertations

Consumers are increasingly concerned about the social and environmental impacts of the foods they purchase. Both choice experiments and best-worst scaling (BWS) methodology have been used to elicit consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for food attributes and the relative importance of food attributes to consumers. The dissertation consists of four essays. Chapter 2 presents a formal law review article exploring the laws associated with wild game harvest, consumption, and inspections. The remaining three essays (Chapters 3-5) each address an extension or application of choice experiment and/or BWS methodology focused on credence attributes of meat products. Two online surveys were used …