The fecundity and prepotency of Show Yard cattle.

Citation: Worswick, Jay G. The extermination of prairie dogs in Kansas. Senior thesis, Kansas State Agricultural College, 1905.Morse Department of Special CollectionsIntroduction: The interest taken in exhibiting live stock can be observed by comparing the entries at the principal shows of the past season. The number of animals entered for the shows this past season was far in advance of the previous season. Thus we see competition is constantly growing stronger as the number of entries for each class increases, which has a tendency to raise the standard of the breed. In order to win, an animal must possess quality, character, breed type, and be in good show condition, which, at the present time, happens to be, "Carry a great deal of flesh." The judges will invariably place the blue ribbon on ananimal which has been highly finished but lacking somewhat in quality, character and breed type, and turn another animal of superior quality, character and breed type down, because it is not carrying quite enough flesh. We are not condemning the great amount of fat in all cases, but where an animal possesses quality, character and breed type, we see no reason why this animal should not be given the preference, although it does not possess so great an abundance of fat. The old maxim, "Fat covereth a multitude of sins," comes into play just at this time. In a breeding animal which has a great covering of fat, the judge is not able to detect defects. This animal, after the show season, will go back to the breeding pen and transmit these defects to its offspring, leaving the advancement of the breed, so far as this animal is concerned, at a standstill,or, possibly on a decline. The fecundity and prepotency of the show herd has been an obstacle in the way of success to many cattle breeders ever since cattle were first shown. Several instances are on record of animals of superior show-yard merit, which never left any legacy, aside from their show-yard triumphs, to the breed which they represent. Why there should have been so many cattle reported as non-breeders or shy-breeders, is the object of this discussion

An Open Resource for Non-human Primate Imaging

Non-human primate neuroimaging is a rapidly growing area of research that promises to transform and scale translational and cross-species comparative neuroscience. Unfortunately, the technological and methodological advances of the past two decades have outpaced the accrual of data, which is particularly challenging given the relatively few centers that have the necessary facilities and capabilities. The PRIMatE Data Exchange (PRIME-DE) addresses this challenge by aggregating independently acquired non-human primate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets and openly sharing them via the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI). Here, we present the rationale, design, and procedures for the PRIME-DE consortium, as well as the initial release, consisting of 25 independent data collections aggregated across 22 sites (total = 217 non-human primates). We also outline the unique pitfalls and challenges that should be considered in the analysis of non-human primate MRI datasets, including providing automated quality assessment of the contributed datasets

A Multi-Armed Bandit to Smartly Select a Training Set from Big Medical Data

With the availability of big medical image data, the selection of an adequate training set is becoming more important to address the heterogeneity of different datasets. Simply including all the data does not only incur high processing costs but can even harm the prediction. We formulate the smart and efficient selection of a training dataset from big medical image data as a multi-armed bandit problem, solved by Thompson sampling. Our method assumes that image features are not available at the time of the selection of the samples, and therefore relies only on meta information associated with the images. Our strategy simultaneously exploits data sources with high chances of yielding useful samples and explores new data regions. For our evaluation, we focus on the application of estimating the age from a brain MRI. Our results on 7,250 subjects from 10 datasets show that our approach leads to higher accuracy while only requiring a fraction of the training data.Comment: MICCAI 2017 Proceeding

L-Dopa modulates functional connectivity in striatal cognitive and motor networks: A double-blind placebo-controlled study

Functional connectivity (FC) analyses of resting-state fMRI data allow for the mapping of large-scale functional networks, and provide a novel means of examining the impact of dopaminergic challenge. Here, using a double-blind, placebo-controlled design, we examined the effect of L-dopa, a dopamine precursor, on striatal resting-state FC in 19 healthy young adults. We examined the FC of 6 striatal regions of interest (ROIs) previously shown to elicit networks known to be associated with motivational, cognitive and motor subdivisions of the caudate and putamen (Di Martino et al., 2008). In addition to replicating the previously demonstrated patterns of striatal FC, we observed robust effects of L-dopa. Specifically, L-dopa increased FC in motor pathways connecting the putamen ROIs with the cerebellum and brainstem. Although L-dopa also increased FC between the inferior ventral striatum and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, it disrupted ventral striatal and dorsal caudate FC with the default mode network. These alterations in FC are consistent with studies that have demonstrated dopaminergic modulation of cognitive and motor striatal networks in healthy participants. Recent studies have demonstrated altered resting state FC in several conditions believed to be characterized by abnormal dopaminergic neurotransmission. Our findings suggest that the application of similar experimental pharmacological manipulations in such populations may further our understanding of the role of dopaminergic neurotransmission in those conditions

Liquid Phase Hydrodechlorination of Dieldrin and DDT over Pd/C and Raney-Ni

Selectivity and product distribution of hydrodechlorination (HDCl) of dieldrin and DDT are studied in different liquid phase systems, namely in: (1) in ethanol; and (2) in the supported ionic liquid heterogeneous catalytic system (multiphase system), composed by the organic phase and aqueous KOH, a quaternary ammonium ionic liquid promoter (Aliquat 336), and a metal catalyst, e.g. 5% Pd/C, 5% Pt/C, or Raney-Ni. At 50 8C and atmospheric pressure of hydrogen, a quantitative hydrodechlorination of DDT in the biphasic system with ionic liquid layer is achieved in 40 min and in 4 h with Raney-Ni and Pd/C, respectively, while the reaction on Pt/C or on Pd/C without Aliquat 336 is slow. Dieldrin undergoes partial dechlorination, with high selectivity achievable only for its mono- and bi-dechlorination products. Dechlorination pathways and reactivity of different types of organic chlorine atoms versus the catalyst nature and other conditions are discussed

Campus Child Care in Ohio: An Assessment of Characteristics, Quality, and Challenges

This research is an analysis of campus child care centers in Ohio. In order to assess the quality and status of these centers, phone screenings with centers and a questionnaire completed by directors were utilized to learn of the characteristics of campus child care in Ohio. Results of the questionnaire were separated into individual sections for quality, academic mission, support for student parents, and challenges. Through analysis of the results, campus child care centers provided quality programs. They assist in the needs of student parents and promote the academic mission of higher education institutions. Some areas where quality was found included requirements for minimum teacher qualifications, accreditation, participation in statewide rating systems, and parent support. For promoting the academic mission, these centers provided a variety of opportunities for educational advancement (e.g. observations, field experience, research, etc.). It is recommended for studies like this one to be replicated in other states. Since each state has their own specific needs, this will allow insight into the distinct characteristics and needs of campus child care

Higher media multi-tasking activity is associated with smaller gray-matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex

Media multitasking, or the concurrent consumption of multiple media forms, is increasingly prevalent in today’s society and has been associated with negative psychosocial and cognitive impacts. Individuals who engage in heavier media-multitasking are found to perform worse on cognitive control tasks and exhibit more socio-emotional difficulties. However, the neural processes associated with media multi-tasking remain unexplored. The present study investigated relationships between media multitasking activity and brain structure. Research has demonstrated that brain structure can be altered upon prolonged exposure to novel environments and experience. Thus, we expected differential engagements in media multitasking to correlate with brain structure variability. This was confirmed via Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) analyses: Individuals with higher Media Multitasking Index (MMI) scores had smaller gray matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Functional connectivity between this ACC region and the precuneus was negatively associated with MMI. Our findings suggest a possible structural correlate for the observed decreased cognitive control performance and socio-emotional regulation in heavy media-multitaskers. While the cross-sectional nature of our study does not allow us to specify the direction of causality, our results brought to light novel associations between individual media multitasking behaviors and ACC structure differences

Age and sex affect intersubject correlation of EEG throught development

Recent efforts have aimed to characterize clinical pediatric populations by using neurophysiological tests in addition to behavioral assays. Here we report on a data collection effort in which electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded in both juveniles and adults (N=114 participants, ages 6-44 years of age) during various stimulation protocols. The present analysis focuses on how neural responses during passive viewing of naturalistic videos vary with age and sex, and in particular, how similar they are within developmental groups. Similarity of neural responses was measured as the inter-subject correlation of the EEG. Stimulus-evoked neural responses are more similar among children and decrease in similarity with age. Among children, males respond more similarly to each other than females. This was uniformly true for a variety of videos. The decrease in group similarity with age may result from an overall decline in the magnitude of evoked responses, but this cannot explain the sex differences found in the young. We therefore propose that as children mature, neural function may become more variable