Vick Johannsen (knotloaf29)
Dogs have developed a social competence tuned to communicate with human and acquire social information from body signals as well as facial expressions. However, less is known regarding how dogs shift attention toward human body signals, specifically hand signs. Comparison among visual attentional patterns of dogs toward whole body of human being, conspecifics, and other species will reveal dogs' basic social competences and those specialized to inter-species communication with humans. The present study investigated dogs' gazing behaviors in three conditions viewing humans with or without hand signs, viewing conspecifics, and viewing cats. Digital color photographs were presented on a liquid crystal display monitor, and subject dogs viewed the images while their eyes were tracked. Results revealed that subjects gazed at human limbs more than limbs within conspecific and cat images, where attention was predominately focused on the head and body. Furthermore, gaze toward hands was greater in the human hand sign photos relative to photos where human hand signs were not present. These results indicate that dogs have an attentional style specialized for human non-verbal communication, with an emphasis placed on human hand gestures.Compton cameras can simultaneously detect multi-isotopes; however, when simultaneous imaging is performed, crosstalk artifacts appear on the images obtained using a low-energy window. In conventional single-photon emission computed tomography, a dual energy window (DEW) subtraction method is used to reduce crosstalk. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of employing the DEW technique to reduce crosstalk artifacts in Compton images obtained using low-energy windows. To this end, in this study, we compared reconstructed images obtained using either a photo-peak window or a scatter window by performing image subtraction based on the differences between the two images. Simulation calculations were performed to obtain the list data for the Compton camera using a 171 and a 511 keV point source. In the images reconstructed using these data, crosstalk artifacts were clearly observed in the images obtained using a 171 keV photo-peak energy window. In the images obtained using a scatter window (176-186 keV), only crosstalk artifacts were visible. The DEW method could eliminate the influence of high-energy sources on the images obtained with a photo-peak window, thereby improving quantitative capability. This was also observed when the DEW method was used on experimentally obtained images.This study was planned to evaluate the impact of different nano-curcumin levels on the growth rate, carcass, blood chemistry and caecal microbes of growing quail. A total of 270 Japanese quails at one-week-old were distributed to six equal groups; each group consisted of 45 unsexed birds with five replications (nine quails each). The 1st group was fed a basal diet, whereas the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th groups were fed diets containing nano-curcumin (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 g/kg diet, respectively). Nano-curcumin levels significantly increased (p ≤ 0.0001) body weight at 3 weeks and 5 weeks of age. Body weight gain during 1-3, 3-5 and 1-5 weeks of age was significantly increased (p less then 0.0001) in groups treated with nano-curcumin levels (except at 0.3 g/kg; 1-3 weeks) compared to control. During 1 to 5 weeks, feed intake was decreased (p less then 0.0001) in birds receiving nano-curcumin (0.1, 0.3 and 0.4 g/kg) diets. Aprotinin The best values of feed conversion ratio were recorded for the 0.4 g nano-curcumin-treated group. Carcass traits were not affected Nano-curcumin levels. The inclusion of nano-curcumin (0.2, 0.3 or 0.5 g/kg) significantly increased serum TP (p = 0.0004), albumin (p = 0.0078) and globulin (p less then 0.0001). Quails fed with nano-curcumin (0.2 g/kg) exhibited the highest SOD and GSH activities, serum IgG and IgM concentrations and complement values compared to control. The addition of an