• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.682-692
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• 2007

This study presents an automatic system to predict parturition time in the crated sows. The system relies on ultrasonic transducers mounted from above along the length of the crate. Using a 40 kHz time of flight (TOF) single envelope wave, the momentary distances between the sensors are measured. Therefore, the local momentary height of the sow and the momentary posture, i.e. standing posture (SDP), kneeling posture (KP), sitting posture (STP) and lateral lying posture (LLP) are determined. Crated sows change their postures from standing to lying and vice versa which follows a characteristic pattern. As parturition approaches, sows exhibit uneasiness, restlessness and the stand up sequence (SUS, the posture transition from LLP to SDP) rate increases because of labor pains. In time series, the SUS rate demonstrates a peak and it happens approximately 0-12 h before parturition. In this paper, the basic parturition threshold value method (BPTVM) and the same hour method (SHM) are proposed for predicting parturition, both of which are based on the SUS rate. The BPTVM mainly detects the peak of the SUS rate. As the SUS rate exceeds the threshold value, the parturition becomes predictable. Moreover, the SHM calculates the difference in the SUS rates between a particular time of day and the corresponding time of the preceding day. Compared to the BPTVM, the SHM can eliminate the circadian rhythm of the SUS rate influenced by feeding behavior. Using the SHM the parturition can be approximately predicted within hours. In an attempt to define the threshold parameters of predicting parturition, a data set with 32 sows of the SUS rate are used to estimate assumable predicting probability. The results show the assumable probability of the parturition prediction within 9 h is 96.9% for the SHM and 84.4% for the BPTVM. Moreover, the SHM can even reach a 75% probability of prediction within three hours of parturition. We conclude that the SHM is more accurate and is more useful for parturition time prediction. When parturition is detected, the proposed algorithm generates a warning signal which can inform human personnel to protect the mother and newborn piglets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.232-236
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• 2008

This experiment was performed to investigate the effects of two energy levels and four lysine:digestible energy (DE) ratios on the apparent digestibility of nutrients in finishing pigs. The experiment was conducted using a $2{\times}4$ randomized complete block (RCB) design with three replicates. Twenty-four cross-bred finishing barrows ((Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire)${\times}$Duroc) with an average body weight of $64.2{\pm}0.69kg$ were assigned to one of eight treatments. Each barrow was placed in an individual metabolism crate and dietary treatment and water was provided ad libitum. Diets were designed to contain lysine:ME ratios of 1.5, 1.8, 2.1 and 2.4 g/Mcal at 3.35 and 3.6 Mcal/kg of diet in a $4{\times}2$ factorial arrangement. Dry matter (DM), ash, Ca and P digestibility were not affected by energy density or lysine:DE ratios. Crude fat digestibility increased as the energy density increased from 3.35 to 3.6 Mcal of DE/kg. Increasing the lysine:DE ratio also increased crude protein digestibility. There were no interactions between energy density and lysine:DE ratio in terms of nutrient digestibility. Nitrogen excretion via feces was not affected by energy density and lysine:DE ratio, while nitrogen excretion via urine was significantly affected by energy density and lysine:DE ratio. The apparent digestibility of all amino acids except for isoluecine, arginine and aspartic acid as well as average values of essential amino (EAA), non-essential amino acids (NEAA) and total amino acid digestibility (p>0.05) were not affected by energy density. The apparent digestibility of all amino acids except for leucine, proline, alanine and tyrosine, NEAA and total amino acid digestibility were significantly affected by lysine: DE ratio (p<0.05). Interactive effects of energy and lysine:DE ratio also significantly affected amino acid digestibility except for isoleucine, alanine, cystine, leucine, phenylalanine, glutamine and proline (p<0.05). In conclusion, these results suggest that maintaining the appropriate lysine:DE ratio becomes more important as the energy density of the diet increases. Consequently, increasing the lysine:DE ratio can result in increased crude protein digestibility and urinary nitrogen excretion, although apparent protein digestibility and nitrogen excretion were not affected by energy density Furthermore, increasing the lysine:DE ratio also increased the apparent digestibility of essential amino acids, except for leucine, regardless of energy density. The optimum lysine:DE ratio for maximum essential amino acid digestibility of the $64.2{\pm}0.69kg$ pig is approximately 2.4 g of lysine/Mcal of DE.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.243-249
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• 2001

Thirty six barrows with an initial body weight of 28 kg were used to determine the effect of two dietary Se sources and a wide range of Se levels encompassing 0.3, 1.0, 3.0, 5.0, 7.0, and 10.0 mg/kg Se. The organic Se form was a Se-enriched yeast product, whereas the inorganic Se source was sodium selenite. The experiment was a $2{\times}6$ RCB design conducted in three replicates. Each barrow was placed in an individual metabolism crate and provided their dietary treatment and water on an ad libitum basis for a minimum 2 wk period, whereupon feed intake was adjusted to a constant intake within replicate at approximately 90% of intake for a 4 d adjustment period. Urine and feces were subsequently collected for a 7 d period and analyzed for Se and minerals. The results demonstrated that urinary Se was approximately 25% higher when pigs were fed sodium selenite (p<0.01), whereas fecal Se was lower by 25% (p<0.01). Se retention tended to be higher when organic Se was provided (p>0.15). Urinary Se increased as dietary Se level increased for both Se sources but increased more and at a high rate when sodium selenite was fed resulting in an interaction response (p<0.01). Fecal Se increased linearly as the dietary level of both Se sources increased, but the fecal Se from organic Se increased at a faster rate resulting in an interaction response (p<0.01). Se retention increased linearly (p<0.01) as dietary Se increased for both Se sources. The apparent digestibility of Se increased by Se level when pigs were fed sodium selenite, but not when the organic Se source was provided resulting in an interaction response (p<0.05). Retention of consumed Ca, Zn increased when pigs were fed organic Se (p<0.05) whereas P and Na retention were higher when the inorganic Se was provided. Mineral retention was not affected by dietary Se level except P. These results suggest that Se excretion by urine was the main route of excretion when pigs were fed sodium selenite but the fecal route when Se-enriched yeast was provided. The excretion of Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu via urine and feces was not affected by high dietary Se level or dietary Se sources.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.662-670
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• 2015

The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of feeding barley naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins on growth performance, vulva swelling, and digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, and crude protein of gilts and the recovery of gilts fed normal diets immediately after the exposure to contaminated diets by measuring growth performance and vulva swelling. In Exp. 1, four diets were prepared to contain 0%, 15%, 30%, or 45% contaminated barley containing 25.7 mg/kg deoxynivalenol and $26.0{\mu}g/kg$ zearalenone. Sixteen gilts with an initial body weight (BW) of 33.3 kg (standard deviation = 3.0) were individually housed in a metabolism crate and assigned to 4 diets with 4 replicates in a randomized complete block design based on BW. During the 14-d feeding trial, individual BW and feed consumption were measured weekly and the vertical and horizontal lengths of vulva were measured every 3 d. From d 10, feces were collected by the maker-to-marker method for 4 d. Blood samples were collected on d 14. During the overall period, the average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and gain:feed of pigs linearly decreased (p<0.01) as the dietary concentration of contaminated barley increased. However, the digestibility of crude protein was linearly increased (p = 0.011) with the increasing amounts of contaminated barley. Increasing dietary Fusarium mycotoxin concentrations did not influence vulva size, blood characteristic as well as immunoglobulin level of pigs. In the Exp. 2, a corn-soybean meal-based diet was formulated as a recovery diet. Pigs were fed the recovery diet immediately after completion of the Exp. 1. During the 14-d of recovery period, the individual BW and feed consumption were measured weekly and the vertical and horizontal length of vulva were measured every 3 d from d 0. On d 7, the feed intake of pigs previously fed contaminated diets already reached that of pigs fed a diet with 0% contaminated barley and no significant difference in growth performance among treatments was observed during d 7 to 14 of the recovery period. In conclusion, increasing levels of mycotoxins in diets linearly decreased the growth performance of pigs, and these damages can be recovered in 7 d after the diet was replaced with a normal diet. The vulva size, blood characteristic, immune responses were not affected by increasing level of contaminated barley in the diets fed to pigs.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.1790-1798
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• 2006

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of feeding cyanidin 3-glucoside (C3G) high black rice bran on nutrient digestibility, blood measurements, growth performance and pork quality of pigs. In Exp. I, a total of fifteen pigs (19.91${\pm}$1.80 kg, average initial body weight) were used in assay of nutrient digestibility and blood measurements. All pigs were allotted to 5 treatments with 3 replicates according to a completely randomized design (CRD) in an individual metabolic crate. Treatments included 1) CON: basal diet, 2) BRB-2: basal+brown rice bran 2%, 3) BRB-4: basal+brown rice bran 4%, 4) CRB-2: basal+C3G high black rice bran 2% and 5) CRB-4: basal+C3G high black rice bran 4%. The digestibility of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fat (CF), crude ash (CA) and crude fiber (CF) was not affected by dietary treatments. Serum triglyceride (TG) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations were not affected by addition of C3G high black rice bran. However, at the end of experiment, pigs fed rice bran showed decreased tendency in total cholesterol concentration. Especially pigs fed C3G high black rice bran showed significantly lower total cholesterol concentration compared to pigs fed brown rice bran (p<0.03). There was numerically lower total cholesterol concentration with increasing levels of black rice bran in the diet. In terms of serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) and glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT), there were no significant differences among treatments, even though pigs fed CRB-4 showed the lowest GOT concentration compared to other pigs. In Exp. II, sixteen finishing pigs (average initial body weight 89.96${\pm}$0.35 kg) were divided into 4 treatments to investigate the effect of feeding C3G high black rice bran on growth performance and pork quality. There were no significant differences in average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) among the treatments. Pigs fed C3G high black rice bran showed numerical decrease in ADG and increase in FCR while not effecting feed intake. There was no significant difference in live weight, carcass weight, carcass rate, backfat thickness and carcass grade. However, pigs fed C3G high black rice bran tended to show lower backfat thickness than pigs fed basal diet. Pigs fed C3G high black rice bran showed a tendency of decreased TBA value than pigs fed basal diet, although there was no overall significant difference among treatments. In conclusion, nutrient digestibility, blood measurements, growth performance and pork quality were not significantly affected by feeding C3G high black rice bran to pigs. However, C3G high black rice bran might have an effect on lowering serum total cholesterol and decrease the TBA value in pork compared to control group and these effects might be due to high concentration of antioxidative compounds in C3G high black rice bran.

• The Journal of the Petrological Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2003

The Paekrogdam summit crater area, Mt. Halla, Jeju Island, Korea, composed of Paekrogdam trachyte, Paekrogdam trachybasalt, and Manseidongsan conglomerate in ascending order. Joint systems show concentric and radial patterns around the summit crate wall. The Paekrogdam crater is a summit crater lake which erupted the tuffs, scorias and lava flows of Paekrogdam trachybasalt after the emplaceent of Paekrogdam trachyte dome. SiO$_2$ contents of mafic and felsic lavas are respectively, 48.0∼53.7 wt.％ and 60.7∼67.4 wt.%, reflecting bimodal volcanism. And lavas with SiO$_2$ between 53.7 wt.% and 60.7 wt.％ are not found. According to TAS diagram and K$_2$O-Na$_2$O diagram, the volcanic rocks belong to the normal alkaline rock series of alkali basalt-trachybasalt-basaltic trachyandesite and trachyte association. Oxide vs. MgO diagrams represent that the mafic lavas fractionated with crystallization of olivine, clinopyroxene, magnetite and ilmenite and felsic trachyte of plagioclase and apatite. The characteristics of trace elements and REEs shows that primary magma for the trachybasalt magma would have been derived from partial melting of garnet peridotite mantle. In the discrimination diagrams, the volcanic rocks are plotted at the region of within plate basalt (WPB).

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2019

The extant research literature is scant in telling us how organizations actually implement lifelong learning practices and policies. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to describe how lifelong learning is grounded in practice. We do this by introducing a new conceptual framework that was developed on the basis of interviews with a number of leading edge corporations from Canada, the USA, India and Korea. At the heart of our model, and any effective lifelong learning system, is a performance management system. The performance management system allows for an ongoing interaction between managers and employees whereby challenging performance and learning goals are set, and concrete plans are made to achieve them. Those plans involve three types of learning activities. First, employees may be encouraged to engage in formal learning. This could be provided in-house, or the employee may take a leave of absence and return to school. Second, managers may deploy their subordinates to different departments or teams, so that they can take part in new work-based learning opportunities. Finally, employees may be encouraged to learn on their own time. By this we mean learning after organizational hours through firm-sponsored 5 programs, such as e-learning courses. Fueled by the performance management system, we posit that these three learning outlets lead to effective lifelong learning in organizations.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.574-587
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• 2022

This study was performed to development the alternative farrowing pen (AFP) and to investigate performance and behavior of lactating sows and their litter. A total of 64 multiparous sows were randomly divided into two groups and were allocated to farrowing crates (FCs) and AFPs. The AFPs contained a crate and support bars that could be folded to provide the sows with extra space on day 5 postpartum. Behavior was recorded by charge-coupled device cameras and digital video recorders, and the data were scanned every 2 min to obtain an instantaneous behavioral sample. Farrowing systems did not affect feed intake, back-fat thickness, litter size and piglet weight at birth and weaning (p > 0.05). In addition, there were no differences in the number of crushed piglets between the two farrowing systems (p > 0.05). However, the weaning-to-estrus interval was shorter in the sows of the AFPs than in thous of the FCs (p < 0.05). The sows spent most of their time lying down during the lactating period, at about 80% lateral recumbency and 10%-15% ventral recumbency. The only significant differences were in the feeding and drinking behavior between sows in the two farrowing systems (p < 0.05). The FC sows displayed more feeding and drinking behavior than the AFP sows, especially in the late lactating period (p < 0.05). Piglets in the FCs tended to spend more time walking than piglets in the AFPs (p < 0.05), whereas there were no differences in suckling and lying behavior between piglets in the two farrowing systems (p > 0.05). It is concluded that the AFPs with temporary crating until day 4 postpartum did not negatively affect performance and crushed piglet compared with the FCs. It also may improve animal welfare by allowing sows to move and turn around during the lactating period. Further research is needed to find suitable housing designs to enhance productivity and animal welfare.