Livestock Epigenetics


Book Description

Livestock Epigenetics reviews advances in the understanding of the molecular basis of epigenetic mechanisms in gene expression in livestock species. Epigenetics impact many economically important traits from growth and development to more efficient reproduction and breeding strategies. The book opens with a broad introductory chapter that discusses the importance of an understanding of epigenetics to efficient and sustainable livestock production. In subsequent chapters the role of epigenetics in specific aspects of animal production are reviewed. The final chapter provides researchers with a valuable basis for the use of comparative epigenetics research to allow research to apply advances across organisms. Livestock Epigenetics provides detailed information on this rapidly expanding field of research with contributions from a global team of experts.




Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics


Book Description

This open access book provides both a broad perspective and a focused examination of cow care as a subject of widespread ethical concern in India, and increasingly in other parts of the world. In the face of what has persisted as a highly charged political issue over cow protection in India, intellectual space must be made to bring the wealth of Indian traditional ethical discourse to bear on the realities of current human-animal relationships, particularly those of humans with cows. Dharma, yoga, and bhakti paradigms serve as starting points for bringing Hindu—particularly Vaishnava Hindu—animal ethics into conversation with contemporary Western animal ethics. The author argues that a culture of bhakti—the inclusive, empathetic practice of spirituality centered in Krishna as the beloved cowherd of Vraja—can complement recently developed ethics-of-care thinking to create a solid basis for sustaining all kinds of cow care communities.




Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock


Book Description

Greenhouse gas emissions by the livestock sector could be cut by as much as 30 percent through the wider use of existing best practices and technologies. FAO conducted a detailed analysis of GHG emissions at multiple stages of various livestock supply chains, including the production and transport of animal feed, on-farm energy use, emissions from animal digestion and manure decay, as well as the post-slaughter transport, refrigeration and packaging of animal products. This report represents the most comprehensive estimate made to-date of livestocks contribution to global warming as well as the sectors potential to help tackle the problem. This publication is aimed at professionals in food and agriculture as well as policy makers.




The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century


Book Description

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.




Sustainable Food Production


Book Description

Gathering some 90 entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, this book covers animal breeding and genetics for food, crop science and technology, ocean farming and sustainable aquaculture, transgenic livestock for food and more.




An Introduction to Survival Analysis Using Stata, Second Edition


Book Description

"[This book] provides new researchers with the foundation for understanding the various approaches for analyzing time-to-event data. This book serves not only as a tutorial for those wishing to learn survival analysis but as a ... reference for experienced researchers ..."--Book jacket.




Fundamental and Applied Scientific Research in the Development of Agriculture in the Far East (AFE-2021)


Book Description

This book contains new ideas on farming processes, describes new analytical methods that are applicable to a broad range of agricultural systems, and presents new technologies and solutions, which help agricultural systems to function in the modern conditions of digitalization and a changing climate. The results of scientific research presented within the framework of the conference “Fundamental and Applied Scientific Research in the Development of Agriculture in the Far East (AFE-2021)”, which took place in Ussuriysk, Russia are covering the following topics: precision livestock farming, farm management platforms, yield monitoring and estimation, IoTs in farming, water management, smart agriculture machines. These new ideas outlined in the book are future-oriented and are expected to stimulate community debate on determining future directions for advancing agricultural research worldwide. The book is focused on the study of interactions between the components of agricultural systems, between their hierarchical levels, between different types of land use systems, and between agricultural systems and the economic environment. The methods and tools for agricultural systems design, estimation and monitoring are proposed in this book. Studies presented here allow improving the environmental and economic performance of agricultural systems. This book is of particular importance for professionals, scholars, and researchers in the field of agriculture and livestock farming, as well as for the heads and top managers of agricultural enterprises, since materials described in the book will help them in making right decisions.




Frailty Models in Survival Analysis


Book Description

The concept of frailty offers a convenient way to introduce unobserved heterogeneity and associations into models for survival data. In its simplest form, frailty is an unobserved random proportionality factor that modifies the hazard function of an individual or a group of related individuals. Frailty Models in Survival Analysis presents a comprehensive overview of the fundamental approaches in the area of frailty models. The book extensively explores how univariate frailty models can represent unobserved heterogeneity. It also emphasizes correlated frailty models as extensions of univariate and shared frailty models. The author analyzes similarities and differences between frailty and copula models; discusses problems related to frailty models, such as tests for homogeneity; and describes parametric and semiparametric models using both frequentist and Bayesian approaches. He also shows how to apply the models to real data using the statistical packages of R, SAS, and Stata. The appendix provides the technical mathematical results used throughout. Written in nontechnical terms accessible to nonspecialists, this book explains the basic ideas in frailty modeling and statistical techniques, with a focus on real-world data application and interpretation of the results. By applying several models to the same data, it allows for the comparison of their advantages and limitations under varying model assumptions. The book also employs simulations to analyze the finite sample size performance of the models.