An Analysis of Quality of Non-Traditional Beef Grind Material versus Traditional Beef Grind Material for Ground Beef Products

An experiment was conducted to evaluate quality differences between traditional and non-traditional grind materials. Three traditional grind sources (T) were compared with seven non-traditional grind sources (N): 7% fat (T1), 11% fat (T2), 16% fat (T3), and 6% fat (N1), 8% fat, (N2), 11% fat (N3), 20% fat (N4), 21% fat (N5), 28% fat (N6) and 29% fat (N7). Additionally, these grind materials were then classified into one of four grind types: Traditional (TR), Quality Grade (QG), Niche (NI) or Breed Specific (BS) for further anaylsis.. All grinds were then packaged in overwrapped foam trays (OW), clear chubs (CH), or overwrapped foam trays in a low oxygen modified atmosphere bag (MAP). Retail display was immediately conducted for 5 d on OW, CH was stored in dark storage for 3 d and MAP was stored in dark storage for 11 d and then placed in retail display for 5 d to simulate industry practices for each respective packaging treatment. Starting on the day packages were placed on display (d 0), 3 packages from each grind/package treatment were removed and frozen for further lab analysis. Also starting on d 0, 5 packages from each package/grind treatment were selected at random and color was evaluated daily with a Hunter Miniscan XE Plus. After completion of the retail display period, the frozen packages were thawed and samples were taken from each for evaluation of oxidative rancidity using TBARS and for Sensory evaluation of initial juiciness (IJ), sustained juiciness (SJ), cohesiveness (CO), beef flavor (BF), off flavor (OF), and cook loss (CL). Data were analyzed using the PROC GLM procedure of SAS. Between grinds, L* tended to increase with fat percentage and a* tended to decrease with the increase in fat percentage. No trends were seen in a* values relating to grinds. Between packaging, all treatments were different for L*, a* and b* (P0.05) until d 3 of retail display. For days on display, a* values were different (P0.05). Days 4 and 5 had the greatest values for TBARS (1.7 and 1.5 TBARS value, respectively), but were not different (P>0.05). Day 3 (1.3 TBARS value) was not different than d 5 (P=0.33), and d 0 to d 3 were not different (P>0.05). Between grinds, differences were seen (P0.05). All BF values were different (P0.05) from d 4. D 0 and 3 were different (P<0.05) but neither were different than d 2, 3, and 4 for CO. BF was lessened from d 0 to d 5 with d 5 being less (P<0.05) than d 0, 2, and 3. Additionally, OF was greater (P<0.05) at d 5 than d 0 and 2. Data indicates that factors in each grind beyond fat content as well as package and display time play roles in ground beef color stability, lipid oxidation and sensory characteristics. Differences are also shown when comparing grind types. For Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARS) BS had the greatest value followed by QG then NI and finally TR, all of which were different (P0.05), but all others were significantly different (P0.05), which were greater (P0.05). Additionally there were significant (P0.05) and juiciest, followed by NI which was not different (P>0.05) than QG and BS. TR, QG, and BS were also not different (P>0.05) and greatest for SJ. These were again followed by NI, which was not different than BS (P>0.05). BS and NI (P>0.05) were most cohesive, followed by QG which was not different (P>0.05) than NI. Finally TR was least cohesive, but not different (P>0.05) than QG. Beef flavor and off flavor were inverses. BS, QG, and TR had greatest beef flavor and least off flavor and not different from one another (P>0.05). NI has the greatest off flavor and least beef flavor. This shows differences do exist between traditional and non-traditional grind types

Post-weaning, Feedyard, and Carcass Performance of Alabama Feeder Cattle: The Current State of Alabama Cattle and the Effect of Backgrounding Diet

Understanding the effect of post-weaning management strategies on feedyard performance, health, and carcass characteristics of Southeastern beef calves can help cattle producers add value to their operations. However, due to the segmentation of the beef industry in the U.S., feedback from processing facilities and feedyards is rarely received by cow-calf producers that make many management decisions that impact the performance of cattle during those later stages. In an attempt to help producers receive that feedback in the form of performance, health, and carcass data, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System operates the Alabama Pasture to Rail Program (P2R). P2R is a retained ownership program in which cattlemen across Alabama can feed small groups of cattle in a southern plains feedyard and receive all data back on each of their animals, allowing them to make changes to their management programs to improve cattle health and performance. In total, 2,188 calves from 73 farms were consigned and shipped from October 2016 through March 2020. Performance data, carcass characteristics, and profitability metrics were compared by year, by sex, and by health outcome using the PROC GLIMMIX feature of SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Additionally, a stepwise regression was conducted to determine which factors had the greatest impact on profitability. This was conducted using PROC REG feature of SAS 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Additionally, Pearson Correlation Coefficients were used to confirm relationships seen this stepwise regression. Differences in carcass characteristics, growth performance, and profitability were observed (P < 0.05) by year and sex. To understand the effect of backgrounding diet on transportation stress, feedyard adaptation, feedyard performance, and carcass merit, two studies were conducted over the course of two years. Steers and heifers from the E.V. Smith Research Center (Shorter, AL) were subjected to a 60 d backgrounding trial. In year 1, calves were assigned to one of four dietary treatments: cool-season baleage with supplemental dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS), bermudagrass hay with supplemental DDGS, grazing crabgrass/signalgrass pastures with supplemental DDGS, and grazing crabgrass/signalgrass pastures with no supplemental feed. In year 2, calves were assigned to one of four dietary treatments: cool-season baleage with supplemental DDGS, cool-season baleage with supplemental commercial commodity feed, cool-season baleage with no supplemental feed, and bermudagrass hay with supplemental DDGS. In both years, differences between supplemented groups were minimal during the backgrounding period and in the feedyard. Groups that did not receive supplemental feed had reduced performance during backgrounding, but differences between supplemented groups and non-supplemented groups during the feedyard period and at harvest were minimal

Social Worker Perspectives of Social Determinants of Health Related to Hospital Readmission for Chronic Illness

Unplanned or early hospital readmission have become factors used to measure standard of care in acute care settings. Because unplanned or early hospital readmission are costly, the Medicaid Hospital Readmission Reduction Program applies fines to hospitals that have early or unplanned readmissions. Though research has been conducted to identify causes and develop interventions, recent studies have not incorporated social determinants of health (SDOH). The objective of this qualitative study was to examine the impact of SDOH on unplanned and early readmission through the lived experience and perspective of the social worker. This qualitative study used phenomenological methodology and face to face interviews with social workers. Data were gathered from interviews with six social workers and analyzed through open coding. Four themes emerged to answer the research questions in this study: (a) language barrier, (b) family support, (c) education/health literacy, and (d) role definition/collecting SDOH. Findings showed that by incorporating SDOH into the patient care and discharge plan may have a significant impact on reducing unplanned and early hospital readmission generating positive social change to both patient outcomes and experience, and costly early readmissions. Implications for positive social change include gathering and utilizing SDOH into care plans, defining and clarifying the role and duties of the social worker, and unilaterizing health care information such as SDOH for all community care partners to access

Do red deer stags (Cervus elaphus) use roar fundamental frequency (F0) to assess rivals?

It is well established that in humans, male voices are disproportionately lower pitched than female voices, and recent studies suggest that this dimorphism in fundamental frequency (F0) results from both intrasexual (male competition) and intersexual (female mate choice) selection for lower pitched voices in men. However, comparative investigations indicate that sexual dimorphism in F0 is not universal in terrestrial mammals. In the highly polygynous and sexually dimorphic Scottish red deer Cervus elaphus scoticus, more successful males give sexually-selected calls (roars) with higher minimum F0s, suggesting that high, rather than low F0s advertise quality in this subspecies. While playback experiments demonstrated that oestrous females prefer higher pitched roars, the potential role of roar F0 in male competition remains untested. Here we examined the response of rutting red deer stags to playbacks of re-synthesized male roars with different median F0s. Our results show that stags’ responses (latencies and durations of attention, vocal and approach responses) were not affected by the F0 of the roar. This suggests that intrasexual selection is unlikely to strongly influence the evolution of roar F0 in Scottish red deer stags, and illustrates how the F0 of terrestrial mammal vocal sexual signals may be subject to different selection pressures across species. Further investigations on species characterized by different F0 profiles are needed to provide a comparative background for evolutionary interpretations of sex differences in mammalian vocalizations

The Influence of Human Facial and Vocal Features on Social Perceptions of Attractiveness, Dominance, and Leadership Ability

Research shows that human facial and vocal features influence social perceptions of attractiveness and dominance. In general, more feminine facial and vocal features are perceived as more attractive in women and more masculine facial and vocal features are perceived as more attractive in men. More masculine facial and vocal features are generally perceived as more dominant in both women and men. Given that attractiveness and dominance closely relate to inter- and intra-sexual selection, respectively, and that leaders can influence an individual’s fitness, humans likely possess evolved mechanisms for assessing leadership ability. Thus, in prior work, facial and vocal features have been related to perceptions of leadership ability. In this dissertation, I address three previously unanswered questions. First, how do vocal acoustics influence perceptions of leaders and voting preferences? Second, how do vocal acoustics influence perceptions of leaders in different social contexts? Third, how do different methods of stimuli presentation influence the results of studies on face and voice perception? Herein, I demonstrate that participants prefer to vote for lower pitched men’s voices, and that it is unclear precisely how women’s voice pitch influences voting preferences. I also show that the influence of voice pitch on perceptions of leaders depends on the social context. Third, I establish that several methods of stimuli presentation are equally valid to use in studies on face and voice perception. Overall, the studies in this dissertation demonstrate that facial and vocal features influence perceptions of attractiveness, dominance, and leadership ability in a potentially adaptive manner.ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD