Review: From human-animal relation practice research to the development of the livestock farmer's activity: an ergonomics-applied ethology interaction.

Animal husbandry and working conditions for livestock farmers have changed significantly in recent years as agriculture has been exposed to economic as well as health, environmental and ethical challenges. The idea of interdependent welfare between humans and animals is more relevant now than ever. Here, we innovatively bridge two disciplines-ergonomics and applied ethology-to achieve an in-depth observational understanding of real husbandry practice (by farmers, inseminators, vets) at work. Ergonomics aims to gain a detailed understanding of human activity in its physical, sensitive and cognitive dimensions in relation to a task. It also aims to transform work situations through a systemic approach drawing on multiple levers for change. Here, we examine how this analysis holds up to the inclusion of animals as an integral component of the livestock farmer's work situation. Applied ethology studies behaviours in animals managed by humans. It aims to understand how these animals perceive their environment, including how they construct their relationship with the livestock farmer. This paper proposes an original conception of the human-animal relationship in animal husbandry that employs core structural concepts from both disciplines. From an ergonomic point of view, we address the human-animal relations by examining the relationship between 'prescribed' and real work practices, between work and personal life situation, between professional task and human activity. On the applied ethology side of the equation, the human-animal relationship is a process built through communication and regular interactions between two 'partners' who know each other. The goal is to understand how each partner perceives the other according to their multimodal sensory world and their cognitive and emotional capacities, and to predict the outcome of future interactions. We cross-analyse these scientific views to show, based on examples, how and in what way they can intersect to bring better analysis of these human-animal relationships. We reflect on common working hypotheses and situated observational approaches based on indicators (behaviour and animal and human welfare/health). This analysis prompts us to clarify what human-animal relational practice means in animal husbandry work, i.e. a strategy employed by the livestock farmer to work safely and efficiently in a healthy environment, where the animal is treated as a partner in the relationship. In this perspective, the challenge is for the livestock farmer's activity to co-build a positive relationship and avoid being subject to this one.

Hidden variable analysis of transcription factor cooperativity from microarray time courses.

Gene expression is regulated by transcription factor activity, which can be extremely difficult to measure directly. Previous work has established a method to extract the 'hidden' transcription factor activity profile from microarray data and use it to effectively identify genes that are targets of a single transcription factor. However, most genes are regulated by two or more transcription factors, and so may not be recognised by this method. Here, the authors present a model-based analysis technique which is able to extract two separate 'hidden' transcription factor profiles using microarray data from wild-type and gene knock-down samples. The algorithm can predict targets of each of the transcription factors as well as the amount of cooperative regulation of genes which occurs because of the interaction between the two transcription factors. The authors evaluate this method using simulated data, and show that it is highly effective at classifying genes into categories based on their relative regulation by each of the transcription factors. The authors also show that our method can accurately measure the effectiveness of a gene knock-down when including of a reasonable amount of measurement error.

Scanner technology for data-based decision making.

Scanner systems offer several benefits to nurse executives. Clinical, educational, and administrative data can guide the nurse executive's decisions providing greater control over patient care outcomes. Information from large patient care data sets provides a powerful tool for persuading executives in other departments. Additionally, the nurse executive who can eliminate the need for personnel to conduct time consuming and costly manual data entry, may be able to justify financial support for continued development of the nursing department's information system and technological training for the staff. In this way, scanner technology meets the immediate need for information and serves as an entry to more advanced communications systems.

Use of a rapid thermal annealing system to initiate indiffusion for fabrication of Ti:LiNbO(3) optical channel waveguides.

A rapid thermal annealing (RTA) system has been used to initiate indiffusion of Ti into LiNbO(3) for fabrication of optical channel waveguides. Four separate processes are investigated, each with different RTA temperature vs time variations followed by furnace heating. The sample processed with a fast initial ramp of temperature vs time to 875 degrees C yielded the lowest waveguide propagation loss of 1 dB/cm at a wavelength of 632.8 nm, compared with samples processed with other RTA variations and with a sample undergoing only furnace processing. Use of a dry O(2) ambient during RTA resulted in a smoother waveguide surface with no outdiffusion, when compared with use of a wet O(2) ambient.