Every year, thousands of purebred domestic dogs are bred by registered dog breeders. Yet, little is known about the rearing environment of these dogs, or the attitudes and priorities surrounding breeding practices of these dog breeders. The objective of this study was to explore some of the factors that dog breeders consider important for stock selection, with a particular emphasis on issues re...

Animal societies composed of breeders and non-breeders present a challenge to evolutionary theory because it is not immediately apparent how natural selection can preserve the genes that underlie non-breeding strategies. The clownfish Amphiprion percula forms groups composed of a breeding pair and 0-4 non-breeders. Non-breeders gain neither present direct, nor present indirect benefits from the...

As central place foragers, breeding penguins are restricted in foraging range by the need to return to the colony to feed chicks. Furthermore, breeding birds must balance energetic gain from self-feeding with the costs of returning to provision young. Non-breeding birds, however, are likely to be less restricted in foraging range and lack the high energy demands of provisioning, therefore may c...

While the demand for organic wheat products in U.S. is strong and continues to grow, supply actually decreasing part due grower challenges related declining yields quality. This study examines perceptions, requirements, needs of millers, distributors, bakers surrounding quality supply. We also use ordered logit models examine which factors indicators influence ratings alone when compared conven...

This paper (1) appraises The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s widely disseminated and reported indices ranking states on their relative level of charitable giving, and (2) presents a different set of rankings based on a more valid research methodology, what we call the CWP (Center on Wealth and Philanthropy) Index. Our more precise methods raise important questions for the community of nonprofit sch...

Computing with Words (CW) methodology has been used in several different environments to narrow the differences between human reasoning and computing. As Decision Making is a typical human mental process, it seems natural to apply the CW methodology in order to create and enrich decision models in which the information that is provided and manipulated has a qualitative nature. In this paper we ...

Birds are one of the animals most widely used by humans and are highly valued as pets. The present work reports the use of wild birds as pets in the city of Campina Grande, Paraíba State (PB), Brazil. The owners' choice and perceptions of the species ecology was assessed as well. The methodology employed included unstructured and semi-structured interviews, guided tours and direct observations....

The smell of marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) is of interest to users, growers, plant breeders, law enforcement and, increasingly, to state-licensed retail businesses. The numerous varieties and strains of Cannabis produce strikingly different scents but to date there have been few, if any, attempts to quantify these olfactory profiles directly. Using standard sensory evaluation techniques with u...