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Fish Pain: Would It Change Current Best Practice In The Real World?, B. K. Diggles

Animal Sentience

Much of the “fish pain debate” relates to how high the bar for pain should be set. The close phylogenetic affinities of teleosts with cartilaginous fishes which appear to lack nociceptors suggests caution should be applied by those who seek to lower the bar, especially given the equivocal and conflicting nature of the experimental data currently available for teleosts. Nevertheless, even if we assume fish “feel pain,” it is difficult to see how current best practice in aquaculture would change. This is because of the need to avoid stress at all stages of the rearing process to optimize health, growth …

Pain-Capable Neural Substrates May Be Widely Available In The Animal Kingdom, Edgar T. Walters

Animal Sentience

Neural and behavioral evidence from diverse species indicates that some forms of pain may be generated by coordinated activity in networks far smaller than the cortical pain matrix in mammals. Studies on responses to injury in squid suggest that simplification of the circuitry necessary for conscious pain might be achieved by restricting awareness to very limited information about a noxious event, possibly only to the fact that injury has occurred, ignoring information that is much less important for survival, such as the location of the injury. Some of the neural properties proposed to be critical for conscious pain in mammals …

Going Beyond Just-So Stories, Brian Key

Animal Sentience

Colloquial arguments for fish feeling pain are deeply rooted in anthropometric tendencies that confuse escape responses to noxious stimuli with evidence for consciousness. More developed arguments often rely on just-so stories of fish displaying complex behaviours as proof of consciousness. In response to commentaries on the idea that fish do not feel pain, I raise the need to go beyond just-so stories and to rigorously analyse the neural circuitry responsible for specific behaviours using new and emerging technologies in neuroscience. By deciphering the causal relationship between neural information processing and conscious behaviour, it should be possible to assess cogently the …

Falsifying The Null Hypothesis That “Fish Do Not Feel Pain", Brian Key

Animal Sentience

The reader of Animal Sentience may surmise that because the weight of the commentaries on my target article, “Why fish do not feel pain,” is leaning towards not supporting my argument, it follows that the premise "fish do not feel pain" is incorrect. However, science does not prevail by popular opinion. History is plagued with numerous (and often widely accepted) examples of biological phenomena being explained by mysterious forces. In the absence of a mechanistic understanding, the many different guises of vitalism (the principle that life involves a vital energy) are often invoked to explain the unknown. Spurious …

How Not To Move The Line Drawn On Pain, Bjorn H. Merker

Animal Sentience

In this second commentary I outline the inadequacy of Key's responses to the many peer critiques of his thesis that have so far appeared in Animal Sentience. I illustrate with examples drawn from his response to my first commentary.

Non-Point Sources And Point Sources For Nutrient And Fecal Microbe Contamination In A Typical Upland Stream: Tates Creek, Madison County, Kentucky, Walter S. Borowski, Malcolm P. Frisbie

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Tates Creek (Madison County, Kentucky) is characterized by an oversupply of nutrients and fecal microbe contamination. Its watershed is dominated by pastureland and immature woodlands with scattered settlements served by septic systems, whereas, 5% of the watershed drains urban areas of Richmond, Kentucky. Creek waters are eutrophic and commonly display levels of Escherichia coli deemed unfit for human contact by United States Environmental Protection Agency standards. Both point and non-point sources existed for stream contaminants. A secondary sewage treatment plant (STP) discharged effluent into the creek until mid-2011 and was a point source for nitrate and phosphate. Pastureland likely contributes …

Quorum Quenching: Signal Jamming In Dental Plaque Biofilms, Mounika Basavaraju, Vidya Sagar Sisnity, Rajababu Palaparthy, Pavan Kumar Addanki

Journal of Dental Sciences

Abstract Quorum sensing helps bacteria to communicate with each other and in coordinating their behavior. Many diseases of humans, plants, and animals are mediated by communication called quorum sensing. Various approaches are being investigated to inhibit this communication to control the diseases caused by bacteria. Periodontal pathogens also communicate through quorum sensing and new approaches to treat periodontal disease using quorum sensing inhibition need to be explored.

Breaking The Silence: The Veterinarian’S Duty To Report, Martine Lachance

Animal Sentience

Animals, like children and disabled elders, are not only the subjects of abuse, but they are unable to report and protect themselves from it. Veterinarians, like human physicians, are often the ones to become aware of the abuse and the only ones in a position to report it when their human clients are unwilling to do so. This creates a conflict between professional confidentiality to the client and the duty to protect the victim and facilitate prosecution when the law has been broken. I accordingly recommend that veterinarian associations make reporting of abuse mandatory.

Perceptions Of Tennessee School-Based Agricultural Education Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Globalizing The Agricultural Curriculum, Nathan W. Conner, Katelyn Butcher

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

The agriculture industry is part of an interconnected world that is continually navigating complex trade regulations and cultural barriers. Graduates of School-Based Agricultural Education programs need to be prepared to positively communicate with people from all over the world and to have an understanding of international agricultural practices. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of Tennessee School-Based Agricultural Educators towards globalizing the secondary agricultural curriculum. Twenty-six School-Based Agricultural Educators were interviewed for this study. The interviewees represented the entire state of Tennessee, including both urban and rural programs. The use of thematic analysis allowed the following …

Pointing A Way Toward A Brighter Future For Public Education: A Comment On Lynch V. Alabama, William R. Weaver

Vanderbilt Law Review

No abstract provided.

Coyote America: A Natural And Supernatural History, David D. Vail

Human–Wildlife Interactions

No abstract provided.

A Rose By Any Other Name: How The United States Charges Its Service Members For Violating The Laws Of War, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This chapter examines the US practice of not charging its service members with war crimes. The chapter briefly explains how the United States asserts criminal jurisdiction over its service members before turning to how the US military reports violations of the laws of war. It then sets out the US methodology for charging such violations as applied to its service members, and compares this methodology to that applied to those tried by military commissions. The chapter then discusses the varied meanings of the term ‘war crimes’ and the way in which the 1949 Geneva Conventions can provide a benchmark against …

Expanding The Core: Pregnancy Discrimination Law As It Approaches Full Term, Joanna L. Grossman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The advocates behind the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978 had one very specific mission: to override the Supreme Court’s 1976 decision in General Electric v. Gilbert, in which it had curiously held that pregnancy discrimination had nothing to do with gender and was thus not a form of actionable sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Court was not acting on a blank slate; it had used the same reasoning two years earlier to hold, in Geduldig v. Aiello, that pregnancy discrimination was not sex discrimination for equal protection purposes and therefore was …

Characterization Of The Interaction Between Basigin And The Pattern Recognition Receptor Tlr4, Josephine Michelle Brown

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a major group of pattern recognition receptors expressed on the surface of immune cells that recognize molecular patterns associated with all classes of pathogenic microorganisms. TLR4 recognizes the lipopolysaccharide component of Gram-negative bacterial cell walls and is the only TLR known to induce signaling through both the MyD88 and TRIF pathways. Basigin, a ubiquitous cell adhesion molecule, is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily that has the ability to influence cell signaling mediated by the MyD88 and TRIF pathways, the same signaling pathways induced by the TLR4 receptor protein. Analysis of the Basigin protein sequence indicates …

Potential Wave Impacts On Shorelines In Intertidal Waterways, Collin Ries

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal erosion is caused by a deficit in the sediment balance along coastal shorelines. Within the intertidal waterway of Jacksonville, Florida, the primary processes acting on the shoreline are tidal currents and waves generated by winds and passing vessels. This study focuses on the analysis of vessel-generated waves and their possible effects on different shoreline types. The experiment conducted herein examines variations in turbidity related to passing boats at a specifically selected site location, at which different tidal stages expose three different shoreline types, a non-vegetated scarp, a vegetated scarp and a vegetated area with no scarp in the breaking …

Show Me Your Glory: A Narrative Theology Of Exodus 33:12–34:10 From A Biblical-Historical Perspective, John C. Peckham

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

People Interpret Robotic Non-Linguistic Utterances Categorically, R Read, T Belpaeme

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

A Review Of The Dominican Cocoa Industry: Determining Advantages And Factors To Improve, Glorianni Viviana Estrella

LSU Master's Theses

Cocoa is one of the commodities with great tradition and consumption around the world. The cocoa industry produces billions of dollars at the global level and contributes significantly to the employment of thousands of people in the countries that have acquired relevant consumption habits as well as in developing countries that produce cocoa. The Dominican Republic has been blessed and belongs to the latter group. It is the top ninth producing country worldwide and the second of the Americas. The DR has been exporting over 50,000 metric tons of cocoa per year for the past twelve years, which is destined …

Leading Behavior, Positioning, And Group Spacing As Indicators Of Dominance In Hapalemur Griseus, Kimberly Foreit

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Female dominance is a rarely occurring behavioral trait across mammals but a trait that is commonly observed in Malagasy lemurs. On the other hand, intersexual dominance dynamics are only known for 36% of all lemur species, being best documented in species with high rates of agonism, such as ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). Other social cues such as leadership during group movements and positioning within the social group can be used to determine dominance, but few lemur studies have utilized these behaviors to test for dominance. In this study, I quantified intersexual relations in bamboo lemurs, Hapalemur griseus griseus, an herbivorous …

The Impact Of Anterior Gradient 2 (Agr2) Expression In Models Of Arsenite And Cadmium Induced Breast And Bladder Cancers, Jamie Lynn Van Gieson

Theses and Dissertations

Bladder cancer constitutes one of the most prevalent cancers and is among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the United States. This work sought to better characterize and understand the role of the proto-oncogene anterior gradient 2 (AGR2) in bladder cancers. Immunohistochemical analysis of AGR2 expression in a range of bladder cancer specimens indicated that the expression of AGR2 decreases with an increase in the stage and grade of bladder cancers. The environmental carcinogens arsenic and cadmium (Cd2+) have been implicated in various cancers. This laboratory has demonstrated that arsenite (As3+) and Cd2+ can malignantly transform the bladder epithelium …

The Genre Of The Linguistics Article Within Studies Of Language Variation And Change : A Diachronic Perspective, 1891-2015, David Durian

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

I analyze the rhetorical and structural elements of the genre of the linguistics article, specifically within the subfield of studies of language variation and change, also known as "American sociolinguistics." As my analysis demonstrates, the genre of the linguistics article in studies of language variation and change can most profitably be analyzed as having been shaped by intellectual movements occurring during three distinct eras. During the first era (1891--1954), the variationist linguistics article was primarily a "discovery text." That is, many of the topics discussed are first studies of those topics or first studies of the communities in which particular …

Avian Haemosporidian Parasites From The Brazilian Amazon, Jeffrey Andrew Bell

Theses and Dissertations

Birds possess the most diverse assemblage of haemosporidian parasites, including three genera, Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, and Leucocytozoon. Currently there are over 200 morphologically identified avian haemosporidian species, although the true diversity is unknown, due to high genetic diversity and insufficient sampling in highly diverse regions, such as the Neotropics. Brazil, specifically the Brazilian Amazon supports the world’s highest avian diversity and expected equally diverse yet undescribed community of avian haemosporidians. This study includes the largest sampling of avian haemosporidians in Brazil, and the first large scale survey of the Brazilian Amazon. A total of 4521 blood samples were collected from 447 …

Integration Of Multispectral Camera Systems For Enhanced Visualization Biological Studies Using Uas, Subin Shahukhal

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to enhance visualization of warm-blooded animals and analyze the vegetation in which they are located using a camera system mounted on Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The results are coherently displayed in a single image at the same spatial location so that biologists will have accurate animal counts along with vegetation conditions. Application of aerial imagery has been used to analyze the vegetation health and determining the number of the animals by the wildlife service. However, a major obstacle of the research is to combine the two imaging systems to obtain the same spatial image …

The Evolution Of Institutional Mission In Social And Historical Contexts At The University Of North Dakota: 1883 – 2016, Stacey Leigh Borboa-Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

The University of North Dakota, a liberal arts institution founded in 1883, has a mission statement that speaks directly to present-day societal needs and norms. While staying true to its founding object, the mission has specific focus on science, technology, health and diversity. These areas speak directly to national and global economic and societal needs. In order for public institutions to secure funding, they have to respond to legislators and taxpayers; they must respond to current trends. This research looks at the University of North Dakota’s evolving mission, from founding in 1883, to present-day 2016. The research focuses on institutional …

Political Ideology, Beliefs And Values As A Framework For Analysis Of School Nutrition Preferences, Jacquelyn R. Nyenhuis

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple studies have documented the growing controversies in school nutrition public policy. Less is known about the political ideologies, beliefs and diverse perspectives coming from conflicting values and their influence on policy acceptance. Key issues examined are: Does the average US citizen filter their impressions of policies through their core beliefs, values and politics? And, in general, what policies, interventions, and regulations do conservatives and liberals favor?

Utilizing a sequential mixed methods design, Phase I included a survey given to 201 people with both a multi-item closed ended section and an open-ended section. Statistical analysis was performed on the quantitative …

Use Of The Green Microalga Monoraphidium Sp. Dek19 To Remediate Wastewater : Salinity Stress And Scaling To Mesocosm Cultures, Anthony Robert Kephart

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the growth of the green microalga Monoraphidium sp. Dek19 in the context of phycoremediation under conditions representative of wastewater media of a Midwest wastewater treatment facility. Microalgae were grown in effluent collected from four different wastewater streams at the DeKalb Sanitary District (DSD), DeKalb, Illinois, USA in volumes from 1 L to 380 L. It was determined through preliminary modeling of public data that Monoraphidium sp. Dek19 will likely outcompete local heterospecifics in final effluent wastewaters at the DSD 51.8% of the year. It was also determined that neither nitrogen nor phosphorus …

Using Lidar To Measure The Urban Forest In Dekalb, Il, Dustin Bergman

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Urban and metropolitan areas have grown significantly during the 21st century. With more than 50% of the global population living in cities, they are uniquely susceptible to high temperatures, poor air quality, and increases in peak storm water runoff during inclement weather; however, urban and metropolitan areas often have significant forest resources that can greatly ameliorate these factors. To maintain urban forests and maximize their benefits, tree surveys are often performed requiring extensive fieldwork. However, automatable techniques using LiDAR data and aerial orthoimagery have the potential to provide similar metrics over larger areas, more rapidly, and at lower cost. This …

Distribution And Characterization Of The Soybean Cyst Nematode, Heterodera Glycines (Hg) Types In South Dakota, Krishna Acharya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines Ichinohe, is an endoparasitic nematode and one of the major pests of soybean (Glycine max L.) in the United State and all over the world where soybean is grown. SCN is ranked first among the biological factors that cause yield loss in soybean. The estimated yield loss by this nematode is $1b annually in the United States alone. SCN is thought to have been first found in China. It was first identified in the United States in 1954 in North Carolina and in South Dakota in 1995. To date, SCN continues to spread …

Ice Concentration Linked With Extractive Stirrer (Icecles), Nujud Omar Maslamani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Clean water is very important for human health. Therefore, drinking water contamination is a significant research concern, especially with the increasing global population. Some contaminants, such as pesticides, can cause health effects even at low levels. Therefore, trace and ultratrace analysis of contaminants in drinking water is essential. Ultratrace analysis typically requires highly effective sample preparation methods and/or highly sensitive instruments. There are currently advanced sample preparations techniques available to analytical chemists that may allow trace analysis of certain analytes. These include liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), solid phase extraction (SPE), solid phase micro extraction (SPME), and stir bar sorpitive extraction (SBSE). …

Effects Of Visitors And Enrichments On Behavior Of Captive Red Wolves’ (Canis Rufus) At The Great Plains Zoo, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Kylee S. Shotkoski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Red wolves (Canis rufus) are the first animals to maintain a wild population from captive, released individuals. A captive breeding program for red wolves was started before complete extirpation, and 4 breeding pairs were released in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (North Carolina) in 1987 and a small wild population still exists there. Currently, there are several captive breeding facilities for red wolves within the Species Survival Plan (SSP) program. The Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota participates in the SSP program. My study was initiated to create a natural history background and evaluate interaction between …