An exploratory analysis of reinforcer competition and novelty in domestic dogs

The pathologies caused by microbial groups generate health risks in domestic dogs and cats; showing a zoonotic potential and producing affections in humans. According to that background, the purpose of this study was to establish the main microorganisms causing clinical pathologies in domestic dogs and cats by reviewing medical records in a veterinary clinic in Valledupar, Colombia. In order to do that, a retrospective study was conducted with clinical histories of dogs and cats admitted during 2017 and 2018 to the veterinary clinic “Mis Mejores Amigos”. Based on the information, a descriptive, explanatory and statistical analysis was applied, the latter by means of a Sperman correlation to evaluate the relationship between race, sex, age, microbial group and pathology-pathogen. From a total of 462 reports of canines and felines admitted to the clinic, a total of 273 diagnoses were obtained. 4% of the felines and 24% of the canines were affected by some microbial group. The most prevalent microorganisms in canines were Ancylostoma spp. (9 %) Entamoeba histolytica (5%) Ehrlichia spp. (5%), and Isospora sp. (5%) while in felines were Haemobartonella felis (20%) and Haemobartonella spp. (17%). It was determined that there is only correlation between the age of felines and the microbial group that affects them, in addition to the pathology presented with the pathogen. It was observed a high percentage of Ancylostoma sp. (9%) in canines of mongrel and French Poodle breeds whilst in felines was found the bacterium Haemobartonella felis in 20% of the mongrel breeds.

We sought to investigate whether SARS‐CoV‐2 was present, and to perform full‐length genomic sequencing, in a 5‐year‐old male crossbreed dog from Gaborone, Botswana that presented overt clinical signs (flu‐like symptoms, dry hacking cough and mild dyspnoea). It was only sampled a posteriori, because three adult owners were diagnosed with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection.Next‐generation sequencing based on Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) was performed on amplicons that were generated using a reverse transcriptase real‐time polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR) of confirmed positive SARS‐CoV‐2 nasopharyngeal and buccal swabs, as well as a bronchoalveolar lavage with mean real cycle threshold (qCt) value of 36 based on the Nucleocapsid (N) gene. Descriptive comparisons to known sequences in Botswana and internationally were made using mutation profiling analysis and phylogenetic inferences. Human samples were not available.A near‐full length SARS‐CoV‐2 genome (∼90% coverage) was successfully genotyped and classified under clade 20 O and Pango‐Lineage AY.43 (Pango v.4.0.6 PLEARN‐v1.3; 2022‐04‐21), which is a sublineage of the Delta variant of concern (VOC) (formerly called B.1.617.2, first detected in India). We did not identify novel mutations that may be used to distinguish SARS‐CoV‐2 isolates from the dog and humans. In addition to Spike (S) region mutation profiling, we performed phylogenetic analysis including 30 Delta sequences publicly available reference also isolated from dogs. In addition, we performed another exploratory analysis to investigate the phylogenetic relatedness of sequence isolated from dog with those from humans in Botswana (n = 1303) as of 31 March 2022 and of same sublineage. Expectedly, the sequence formed a cluster with Delta sublineages – AY.43, AY.116 and B.1.617.2 – circulating in same time frame.This is the first documented report of human‐associated SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in a dog in Botswana. Although the direction of transmission remains unknown, this study further affirms the need for monitoring pets during different COVID‐19 waves for possible clinically relevant SARS‐CoV‐2 transmissions between species.

Selective breeding of the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) rigidly retains desirable features, and could inadvertently fix disease-causing variants within a breed. We combine phenotypic data from > 72,000 dogs with a large genotypic dataset to search for genes associated with cancer mortality and longevity in pedigree dog breeds. We validated previous findings that breeds with higher average body weight have higher cancer mortality rates and lower life expectancy. We identified a significant positive correlation between life span and cancer mortality residuals corrected for body weight, implying that long-lived breeds die more frequently from cancer compared to short-lived breeds. We replicated a number of known genetic associations with body weight (IGF1, GHR, CD36, SMAD2 and IGF2BP2). Subsequently, we identified five genetic variants in known cancer-related genes (located within SIPA1, ADCY7 and ARNT2) that could be associated with cancer mortality residuals corrected for confounding factors. One putative genetic variant was marginally significantly associated with longevity residuals that had been corrected for the effects of body weight; this genetic variant is located within PRDX1, a peroxiredoxin that belongs to an emerging class of pro-longevity associated genes. This research should be considered as an exploratory analysis to uncover associations between genes and longevity/cancer mortality.

Gastrointestinal parasitism by helminths and protozoa poses risks to animal and human health owing to clinical changes and transmission of potentially zoonotic agents. Thus, the present study aimed to verify the occurrence of gastrointestinal parasites in dogs from the municipality of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil, using coproparasitological tests. From June 2021 to April 2022, faecal samples were collected from domestic dogs at the Veterinary Hospital and Animal Protection Shelters in the Cuiabá municipality. A semi-structured questionnaire was applied to the owners and those responsible for the shelters to analyse the factors associated with gastrointestinal parasitism. A total of 353 faecal samples were collected and subjected to parasitological flotation and sedimentation techniques. Data were analysed using the chi-squared test and exploratory factorial analysis. The occurrence of gastrointestinal parasitism was 22.66% and the parasites found alone or in mixed infections were Ancylostoma spp., Trichuris vulpis, Toxocara spp., Dipylidium caninum, Cystoisospora spp., Giardia duodenalis, and coccidia. It was concluded that the occurrence of gastrointestinal parasites in dogs is frequent, and the variables associated with these infections were source origin, breed, age, coexistence with other animals, and dull fur.

This study aims to understand urban animal welfare policy development and implementation for four species in public spaces: cats (Felis catus), dogs (Canis familiaris), pigeons (Columbia livia domestica), and foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Our exploratory research offers an overview of the perspectives of all involved municipal and police officers and their challenges in a metropolitan urban context, the Brussels Capital Region in Belgium. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 35 participants from 19 municipalities and six police zones of the region. Additionally, we organized two focus groups consisting of representatives from municipalities, police zones, and nongovernmental organizations. Afterward, we analyzed the data thematically, leading to the identification of six policy and six practice recommendations. These recommendations can help advance the notion of urban animal welfare for the four species from a multispecies perspective.

Separation-related behaviours (SRBs) in dogs (Canis familiaris) often indicate poor welfare. Understanding SRB risk factors can aid prevention strategies. We investigated whether early-life experiences and dog-owner interactions affect SRB development. Using a longitudinal study, we conducted exploratory analyses of associations between potential risk factors and SRB occurrence in six month old puppies (n = 145). Dogs were less likely to develop SRBs if owners reported that, at ≤ 16 weeks old, puppies were restricted to crates/rooms overnight and had ≥ 9 h of sleep per night. Puppies with poor house-training at ≤ 16 weeks were more likely to show SRBs, as were those trained using dog treats or novel kibble versus other rewards. Puppies whose owners used more punishment/aversive techniques when responding to 'bad' behaviour had increased odds of SRBs at six months versus other puppies. Puppies whose owners reported 'fussing' over their dogs at six months in response to 'bad' behaviour upon their return, versus those whose owners responded in other ways, were six times more likely to display SRBs. Other factors, including dog breed, sex and source, showed no significant association with SRB occurrence. Thus, SRB development might be prevented by enabling sleep for ≥ 9 h in early life, providing enclosed space overnight, refraining from aversive training of puppies generally, and avoiding fussing over puppies in response to unwanted behaviour following separation. These recommendations derive from correlational longitudinal study results, so analysis of interventional data is required for confirmation regarding effective prevention strategies.

Background: Primary hosts of Helicobacter heilmannii are domestic animals-cats, dogs and pigs, but rarely is it detected in gastric biopsies from humans. We found H. heilmannii in gastric biopsies obtained from patients living in a predominantly rural area. Methods: We evaluated geographic and demographic data from the area and calculated both the total prevalence and the prevalence in each community in this area. Chi-squared test and exploratory data analysis were used for statistical evaluation. Histologic and clinical data were recorded. Results: Forty-three communities, mostly rural, were identified in the area, the size of which is about 200 km2. H. heilmannii was detected in 33 patients (prevalence 2%) living in 20 communities. The prevalence of H. heilmannii statistically significantly varied in those communities from 0.06%-1.1%. It was possible to infer that there is a negative correlation between prevalence and community size. Chronic active gastritis was diagnosed in all patients. The active inflammation became inactive after eradication of H. heilmannii via common anti-Helicobacter therapy. Conclusion: A high prevalence of H. heilmannii-associated gastritis in a small, predominantly rural area and statistically significant differences in prevalence from one community to the next, i.e. highest in the smallest village and lowest in a small town with a rather urban lifestyle, were found. In our opinion, these prevalence rates may be a consequence of transmission of the infection from domestic animals, because animal-human contact is generally more common in villages than in towns.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to help airlines gain a better understanding of passengers’ service concerns, identify opportunities for continuous service improvement, and then develop service benchmarking standards that can be a yardstick for the airline’s competitiveness.Design/methodology/approach– This paper develops a set of target performance standards that helps airlines monitor their service delivery process, identify relative weaknesses, and take corrective actions for continuous service improvements using exploratory data analysis and competitive gap analysis.Findings– This study reveals that a service attribute considered most important to the airline customers’ impressions of service quality are air safety. This result reflects a growing concern over potential terrorism against airlines in the wake of the September 11 incident. The authors also found that proper baggage handling, competitive airfare, and on-time arrival/departure were next most important service attributes, whereas frequent flier and code-sharing programs were least important. Furthermore, the authors discovered that airline passengers’ perceived service quality influenced their choice of airlines. That is to say, airline service quality can be an important gauge of airline market share and revenue.Research limitations/implications– The current study is limited to the evaluation of comparative service quality of airlines in the USA. Thus, this study cannot be generalized to the airline passengers’ perceived service quality in other countries or different cultural settings. Also, this paper focuses on the performance aspect of benchmarking rather than the strategic aspect of benchmarking.Practical implications– With rising costs of fuel, labor, maintenance, and security, many airlines are at a crossroads where they have to decide between succumbing to restructuring pressures in a form of mergers/acquisitions and reinventing their service offerings. One viable means of reinventing airline service offerings is to learn more about what airline passengers truly value and appreciate in terms of service offerings and then figure out what it takes to win the hearts of customers and then how the airline can differentiate its service offering from those of its competitors. With this in mind, this paper develops viable service improvement strategies for the airline that can enhance its competitiveness in the struggling airline industry.Originality/value– This paper is one of a few attempts to identify a list of service attributes most important to airline service quality based on the actual survey of airline passengers, and then develop a benchmark standard of airlines in the USA from a customer (passenger) perspective.

Canine companions or competitors? A multi-proxy analysis of dog-human competition

Data competitions rely on real‐time leaderboards to rank competitor entries and stimulate algorithm improvement. While such competitions have become quite popular and prevalent, particularly in supervised learning formats, their implementations by the host are highly variable. Without careful planning, a supervised learning competition is vulnerable to overfitting, where the winning solutions are so closely tuned to the particular set of provided data that they cannot generalize to the underlying problem of interest to the host. This paper outlines some important considerations for strategically designing relevant and informative data sets to maximize the learning outcome from hosting a competition based on our experience. It also describes a postcompetition analysis that enables robust and efficient assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of solutions from different competitors, as well as greater understanding of the regions of the input space that are well‐solved. The postcompetition analysis, which complements the leaderboard, uses exploratory data analysis and generalized linear models (GLMs). The GLMs not only expand the range of results we can explore, they also provide more detailed analysis of individual subquestions including similarities and differences between algorithms across different types of scenarios, universally easy or hard regions of the input space, and different learning objectives. When coupled with a strategically planned data generation approach, the methods provide richer and more informative summaries to enhance the interpretation of results beyond just the rankings on the leaderboard. The methods are illustrated with a recently completed competition to evaluate algorithms capable of detecting, identifying, and locating radioactive materials in an urban environment.

Impacts of truck platooning on the multimodal freight transport market: An exploratory assessment on a case study in Italy

In this paper we concentrate on a neglected process in the restructuring of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the formation of spatial divisions of labor. Existing conceptions of interlocality competition for mobile investment and spatial divisions of labor center on the dynamics of new greenfield investment. We provide instead an exploratory analysis of interlocality competition centered on intracorpo-rate competition for repeat investment, broadly defined. We draw together diverse strands of literature to develop a simple taxonomy of types of intracorporate competition, exploring some of the implications of competition for successful MNE affiliates and their host localities. We go on to illustrate these ideas with reference to case studies of manufacturing affiliates of MNEs in an older industrial region of Wales. Although many of the repeat investments of MNEs are in principle contestable, the discussion and the case studies stress the difficulties faced by affiliates and localities at the periphery of spatial divisions of labor in winning, retaining, and benefiting from such investments.

The article provides an overview of the results of the adaptation of a psychodiagnostic tool for measuring attachment styles into Ukrainian language. The OCП-22 (ukr) Attachment Style Questionnaire was adapted from the English version of the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ) by Van Oudenhoven, Hofstra, and Bakker (2003), which was originally published in German. The new psychodiagnostic tool allows to determine the dominant attachment style among the main four domains: secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized. During the adaptation, all the necessary stages of the procedure were carried out, including the following: descriptive analysis of the distribution, reliability testing of the scales (Cronbach's α and Macdonald's Ω), exploratory analysis of the factor structure with its correlations between factors, and the confirmatory stage of checking the quality and fit of the model with the construction of its path diagram. It was not possible to conduct a competitive validity analysis due to the lack of adapted and available Ukrainian-language psychodiagnostic instruments for measuring attachment styles. We evaluated the test norms, described the features of the methodology's structure and work with some items for further research. The Appendix presents the methodology itself, keys, and formulas for calculating the results. The internal consistency assessment of the scales showed a reliable level of coefficients. The survey sample consisted of 467 respondents. The OSP-22 questionnaire consists of 22 questions.

Mars Petcare introduced the first direct-to-consumer domestic dog genetic test in 2009 and Basepaws introduced the first direct-to-consumer cat genetic test in 2016. Social science research has evaluated numerous aspects of the human direct-to-consumer market, yet no such exploration has evaluated the occurrence of pet owners pursuing pet genetic tests. Using a mixed methods approach, we conducted an exploratory content analysis of direct-to-consumer pet genetic company webpages and consumer reviews shared on Amazon. Initial data reviews indicated some companies may be key industry players, relative to others. Our results present content frequency for each group (key industry players, all other companies), though the primary themes for each remained the same. Analysis showed genetic companies are primarily sharing product and purchasing information, along with trustworthiness to establish the merit of the company and their products. Companies also used statements directed towards pet owners that are suggestive of both pets and “pet parents” benefiting from the test results. The primary themes identified in consumer reviews involved consumers sharing their perception about the tests (e.g., accuracy), what aspects of the test results they focused on (e.g., breed information), and experiences with using the test (e.g., ease of use). Amazon reviews were primarily positive, though the companies with smaller review numbers had higher percentages of negative and ambiguous sentiments. Of interest, reviews most often indicated tests were being used to determine a pet’s breed identity, while companies most frequently promoted the health advantages of using their products. Reviews revealed some consumers respond to tests by sharing their pet’s results with someone or by altering their pet’s care. Considering these results in addition to the growing popularity of this industry and the advancements of genomic technology, further research is needed to determine the role pet genetic testing may have in society and on human-animal relationships.

This article examines video-recorded naturally occurring human–pet interactions during which the animal’s gaze is treated by the human as a turn-allocation device. Gaze exchange has been extensively studied as the social phenomenon par excellence, especially by scientific paradigms interested in defining sociality as mutual orientation. Recently, studies in ethology have shown the relevance of doing sequential analyses of gaze exchanges in animal interactions, providing important information on the “monitoring function” of gaze. Less is known about the “regulatory function” (i.e., the effect of animal gaze on the sequential organization of action) in human–animal interspecies interactions. This article aims to fill this gap, by investigating the role of domestic dogs’, cats’, and horses’ gazes on human conversation and courses of action. Findings demonstrate a systematic format: an animal-initiated gaze followed by a verbal turn of the human participant, which evidences the turn-allocational function of the animal’s gaze on human participation. Data are in French.