teficsa.com

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Giving a cow a name and treating her as an individual with “more personal touch” can increase milk production, so says a scientific research published in the online “Anthrozoos,” which is described as a “multidisciplinary journal of the interactions of people and animals”.

The Newcastle University‘s School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development’s (of the Newcastle University Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering) researchers have found that farmers who named their dairy cattle Ermintrude, Daisy, La vache qui rit, Buttercup, Betsy, or Gertrude, improved their overall milk yield by almost 500 pints (284 liters) annually. It means therefore, an average-sized dairy farm’s production increases by an extra 6,800 gallons a year.

“Just as people respond better to the personal touch, cows also feel happier and more relaxed if they are given a bit more one-to-one attention,” said Dr Catherine Douglas, lead researcher of the university’s School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. “By placing more importance on the individual, such as calling a cow by her name or interacting with the animal more as it grows up, we can not only improve the animal’s welfare and her perception of humans, but also increase milk production,” she added.

Drs Douglas and Peter Rowlinson have submitted the paper’s conclusion: “What our study shows is what many good, caring farmers have long since believed. Our data suggests that, on the whole, UK dairy farmers regard their cows as intelligent beings capable of experiencing a range of emotions.” The scientific paper also finds that “if cows are slightly fearful of humans, they could produce [the hormone] cortisol, which suppresses milk production,” Douglas noted. “Farmers who have named their cows, probably have a better relationship with them. They’re less fearful, more relaxed and less stressed, so that could have an effect on milk yield,” she added.

South Norfolk goldtop-milk producer Su Mahon, one of the country’s top breeder of Jersey dairy herds, agreed with Newcastle’s findings. “We treat all our cows like one of the family and maybe that’s why we produce more milk,” said Mrs Mahon. “The Jersey has got a mind of its own and is very intelligent. We had a cow called Florence who opened all the gates and we had to get the welder to put catches on to stop her. One of our customers asked me the other day: ‘Do your cows really know their names?’ I said: I really haven’t a clue. We always call them by their names – Florence or whatever. But whether they really do, goodness knows,” she added.

The researchers’ comparative study of production from the country’s National Milk Records reveals that “dairy farmers who reported calling their cows by name got 2,105 gallons (7,938 liters) out of their cows, compared with 2,029 gallons (7,680 liters) per 10-month lactation cycle, and regardless of the farm size or how much the cows were fed. (Some 46 percent of the farmers named their cows.)”

The Newcastle University team which has interviewed 516 UK dairy farmers, has discovered that almost half – 48% – called the cows by name, thereby cutting stress levels and reported a higher milk yield, than the 54% that did not give their cattle names and treated as just one of a herd. The study also reveals cows were made more docile while being milked.

“We love our cows here at Eachwick, and every one of them has a name,” said Dennis Gibb, with his brother Richard who co-owns Eachwick Red House Farm outside of Newcastle. “Collectively, we refer to them as ‘our ladies,’ but we know every one of them and each one has her own personality. They aren’t just our livelihood, they’re part of the family,” Gibb explained.

“My brother-in-law Bobby milks the cows and nearly all of them have their own name, which is quite something when there are about 200 of them. He would be quite happy to talk about every one of them. I think this research is great but I am not at all surprised by it. When you are working with cows on a daily basis you do get to know them individually and give then names.” Jackie Maxwell noted. Jackie and her husband Neill jointly operate the award-winning Doddington Dairy at Wooler, Doddington, Northumberland, which makes organic ice cream and cheeses with milk from its own Friesian cows.

But Marcia Endres, a University of Minnesota associate professor of dairy science, has criticized the Newcastle finding. “Individual care is important and could make a difference in health and productivity. But I would not necessarily say that just giving cows a name would be a foolproof indicator of better care,” she noted. According to a 2007 The Scientist article, named or otherwise, dairy cattle make six times more milk today than they did in the 1990s. “One reason is growth hormone that many U.S. farmers now inject their cows with to increase their milk output; another is milking practices that extend farther into cows’ pregnancies, according to the article; selective breeding also makes for lots of lactation,” it states.

Critics claimed the research was flawed and confused a correlation with causation. “Basically they asked farmers how to get more milk and whatever half the farmers said was the conclusion,” said Hank Campbell, author of Scientific Blogging. In 1996, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs provided for a complex new cattle passport system where farmers were issued with passport identities. The first calf born under the new regime were given names like “UK121216100001.”

Dr Douglas, however, counters that England doesn’t permit dairy cattle to be injected hormones. The European Union and Canada have banned recombinant bovine growth hormone (rGBH), which increases mastitis infection, requiring antibiotics treatment of infected animals. According to the Center for Food Safety, rGBH-treated cows also have higher levels of the hormone insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), which may be associated with cancer.

In August 2008, Live Science published a study which revealed that cows have strange sixth sense of magnetic direction and are not as prone to cow-tipping. It cited a study of Google Earth satellite images which shows that “herds of cattle tend to face in the north-south direction of Earth’s magnetic lines while grazing or resting.”

Newcastle University is a research intensive university in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north-east of England. It was established as a School of Medicine and Surgery in 1834 and became the “University of Newcastle upon Tyne” by an Act of Parliament in August 1963.

The School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development is a school of the Newcastle University Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering, a faculty of Newcastle University. It was established in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne as the College of Physical Science in 1871 for the teaching of physical sciences, and was part of Durham University. It existed until 1937 when it joined the College of Medicine to form King’s College, Durham.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Ireland’s National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) has posted a 2.4% return for the first quarter (9.6% annualized). On March 31, the funds value stood at €12.3bn, a rise of €290m (excluding state contributions) since December 31.

Donal Geaney, the fund’s chairman, told the press that growth in the past quarter had been driven by the Fund’s European equity investments.

Mr Geaney, former Élan CEO, has pursued a policy of diversification since February of this year, with the stated aim of placing a larger amount of the funds assets in companies with small market capitalizations and in property funds.

The fund was set up by the National Pensions Reserve Fund Act, 2000 to partially meet the expected rise in Irish pension costs from 2025 onwards.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Yesterday, French capital football club Paris Saint-Germain triggered a €222 million (about US$263m, £198m) buyout clause of Brazilian winger Neymar to sign him from FC Barcelona, making him the most expensive footballer of all time by breaking the previous fee record of Paul Pogba’s transfer from Juventus FC to Manchester United. Neymar signed a five year contract with Paris SG which runs until June 2022.

25-year-old Neymar made his professional debut for Santos FC in January 2009, netting 138 goals in 229 matches. He was signed by FC Barcelona in 2013. Since then, Neymar has scored 105 goals and provided 80 assists in 186 games for Barça. In four seasons at Camp Nou, Neymar won two LaLiga titles, three Copa del Rey trophies, and one each of Champions League trophy Supercopa de España. Neymar was part of Barcelona’s treble winning squad in 2014–15, and finished third in 2015’s FIFA Ballon d’Or. Neymar made an international debut at the age of eighteen. He has scored 52 goals in 77 games for Brazil.

Paris SG’s Qatari president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said, “Today, with the arrival of Neymar Jr, I am convinced that we will come even closer, with the support of our faithful fans, to realizing our greatest dreams”.

After penning a five-year contract, Neymar said, “I am extremely happy to join Paris Saint-Germain. Since I arrived in Europe, the club has always been one of the most competitive and most ambitious. And the biggest challenge, what most motivated me to join my new teammates, is to help the club to conquer the titles that their fans want.”

Neymar’s lawyer submitted a check of €222m to deposit Neymar’s buy-out clause at LaLiga’s headquarters, but it was rejected. LaLiga officials issued an official statement, which read, “We can confirm that the player’s lawyers came to the La Liga offices this morning to deposit the clause and that it has been rejected.[…] That’s all the information we are giving out at this moment.”

Later, Neymar’s legal representative delivered the check to FC Barcelona. A statement from Barcelona confirmed they received the payment and Neymar was no longer contracted to the club. The statement read, “On Thursday afternoon Neymar Jr’s legal representatives visited in person the Club’s offices and made the payment of 222 million euros in the player’s name with regards to the unilateral termination of the contract that united both parties.” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Esta tarde, representantes legales de Neymar Jr. se han personado en las oficinas del Club y han hecho efectivo, en nombre del jugador, el pago de 222 millones de euros, en concepto de indemnización por la rescisión unilateral y sin causa del contrato que unía a ambas partes.} It also said, “the Club will pass on to UEFA the details of the above operation so that they can determine the disciplinary responsibilities that may arise from this case.” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?el Club trasladará a la UEFA los detalles de esta operación para que depuren las responsabilidades disciplinarias que puedan derivarse de este caso.} Financial fair play rules prevents European clubs from spending more than €30 million from their earnings. Paris SG was fined by UEFA in 2014 for violating financial fair play rules.

Manchester United’s manager José Mourinho, who spent about €105 million last season to sign Paul Pogba, and a reported fee of €75 million to sign Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton FC this season, said, “Expensive are the ones who get into a certain level without a certain quality. For £200m, I don’t think [Neymar] is expensive. […] I think he’s expensive in the fact that now you are going to have more players at £100m, you are going have more players at £80m and more players at £60m. And I think that’s the problem. […] So I think the problem is not Neymar, I think the problem is the consequences of Neymar.”

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said, “I thought Fair Play was made so that situations like that can’t happen. That’s more of a suggestion than a real rule.”

French club Lille director general Marc Ingla, who had once served as Barça’s vice-president said, “It’s a blow for Barcelona. Neymar is an accelerator to this bright future of Ligue 1. The young talent pool we have here is the best in Europe. For sure we can still compete with PSG. Once you get on the pitch it’s 11 v 11 and all the transfer fees and salaries narrow a bit.”

Before the official announcement of the agreement, yesterday, Arsenal’s manager Arsène Wenger also remarked about the financial fair play and said, “Once a country owns a club, everything is possible. It becomes very difficult to respect the financial fair play because you can have different ways or different interests for a country to have such a big player to represent [that] country. It can’t justify the investments and looks unusual for the game. That’s why I always [support] football living with its own resources. You don’t look at the numbers in their absolute value anymore. Football has been for a long time out of normal society and the numbers are like the NBA in basketball, so it’s not comparable to normal life anymore. Those are the numbers. It was already out of context of society, so after it just becomes a bit extra. You cannot calculate what it brings in anymore, it’s just a number.”

On Wednesday, Neymar’s Lionel Messi posted on Instagram: “It was a great pleasure to have shared all these years with you, friend @neymarjr [Neymar]. I wish you good luck in this new stage of your life. See you tomorrow” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Fue un placer enorme haber compartido todos estos años con vos, amigo @neymarjr [Neymar]. Te deseo mucha suerte en esta nueva etapa de tu vida. Nos vemos Tkm}.

Barcelona’s striker Luis Suárez dedicated an Instagram post for Neymar after Lionel Messi, and said, ” My friend i wish you the best in everything that comes!!! Also thank you for your support, for everything that i learned with you and for the unique moments that we spent together!!!! Keep like this and never change love you little bro” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Amigo desearte todo lo mejor en lo que viene!!! También agradecerte todo el cariño que me diste, por lo que aprendí contigo y por los momentos únicos que pasamos!!!! Seguí así y no cambies nunca te quiero hermanito}.

Neymar has been assigned number 10 jersey.

Friday, May 2, 2014

The presenter of BBC’s Newsnight show, Jeremy Paxman, said on Wednesday he is to leave after 25 years. The BBC said Paxman had postponed his departure, after deciding upon it last summer, because Newsnight was going through “a difficult period”.

Paxman became a notorious political interviewer after tearing a great number of political leaders apart: In an interview with Michael Howard regarding the 1995 dismissal of the director of the prison service, Derek Lewis, when Howard didn’t directly answer a question, Paxman asked again — eleven more times. In an interview with Tony Blair, he asked Blair whether he prayed with US president George W. Bush. More recently, when Conservative MP and junior minister Chloe Smith appeared on the show to defend a change in fuel duty policy, Paxman showed she was apparently too too junior to have any knowledge of the decision making process.

Paxman is not leaving his twenty-year role as presenter of University Challenge.

Thursday, July 9, 2020

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Research teams from the universities of Georgia and Glasgow discovered the mechanism the Trypanosome parasite evolved for “sleeping sickness” disease to circumvent the human immune system. Their study follows a recent African outbreak of the disease this parasite causes. The discovery is expected to help develop a cure preventing future deaths.

The 1998–2001 sleeping sickness epidemics in South Sudan, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda caused tens of thousands of deaths. The parasites are spread by tsetse flies. It is considered one of the worst epidemics in the last five decades. As WHO reported, subsequent recent introduction of population screening in rural areas and distribution of more effective drugs had potentially reduced the number of death incidents. However, the main effect of these measures being a decrease in spreading of the parasite and not in decrease of the death rate, the researchers decided to tackle the puzzle.

The scientists studied the molecules the human immune system activates in response to the attack. They were looking for the way the parasites inhibit it and lead to the death of the victim. Of the several known parasite species, the two that can infect humans were chosen to study, called Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and Trypanosoma brucei rhodensiense. Several others also exist, but they affect only animals.

Researchers knew that the Trypanosoma attacks typically are repelled by an HDL, more specifically trypanosome lytic factor-1 (TLF-1). It is generated in the humans’ immune system and is toxic to the parasites but not to humans. It was known that one of the parasites, T. b. rhodensiense, has evolved an inhibitor of the toxic chemical, called Serum Resistance Associated (SRA) protein. However the other one, T. b. gambiense, was responsible for over 95% of human deaths, and it had been previously unknown why.

The study showed that a gene mutation has lead to a change in the parasite’s surface protein receptor. It doesn’t bind to TLF-1 as well as for other species, leading to a substantial decrease in TLF-1 uptake by the parasite. The receptor is more strict, causing a lower nutrient intake as well, but it suffices, and the parasite defends against the human immune system.

As professor and head of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at UGA (and one of the leaders of the research) Stephen Hajduk explained, “Humans have evolved TLF-1 as a highly specific toxin against African trypanosomes by tricking the parasite into taking up this HDL because it resembles a nutrient the parasite needs for survival. But T. b. gambiense has evolved a counter measure to these human ‘Trojan horses’ simply by barring the door and not allowing TLF-1 to enter the cell, effectively blocking human innate immunity and leading to infection and ultimately disease.”

Based on the results of the research, humans could possibly develop a defense mechanism to keep the parasites from evading the human defense system. Stephen Hajduk commented, “We believe this research represents a paradigm shift and causes us to think more broadly about how pathogens avoid host defense mechanisms. It turns out that African trypanosomes have evolved a diversity of ways to avoid human innate and acquired immune systems.”

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Alberto Granado Jiménez, the Argentinian biochemist who was Che Guevara’s companion on his transformative motorcycle trip through South America, died in Havana on Saturday, reported Cuban state television. He was 88 and died of natural causes.

The politically active Jiménez met Ernesto “Che” Guevara, then a medical student, in Hernando, Argentina where Guevara had gone to play rugby. Both were intellectually curious and interested in exploration. In 1951 they set out on an eight-month motorcycle trip through South American that exposed them to the poverty in which most South Americans lived. The pair worked in a leprosy colony and met wtih destitute miners and indigenous people. Both men kept diaries which served as the basis for the 2004 film, The Motorcycle Diaries, produced by Robert Redford and directed by Walter Salles.

According to the Guardian, “Their road trip awoke in Guevara a social consciousness and political convictions that would turn him into one of the iconic revolutionaries of the 20th century.” The trip is widely believed to have inspired Guevara to go to Cuba and join Fidel Castro in his 1959 revolt against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

By the time the two men met again eight years later, Guevara was a revolutionary hero and chief of Cuba’s central bank. Jiménez, who had remained in Argentina working in a clinic, accepted Guevara’s invitation to move to Cuba in 1961 and founded a medical facility in Santiago. Later he moved to Havana where he continued his medical work. The two remained friends although they did not always agree. Jiménez rejected Guevara’s belief that social reform in Latin America had to be accomplished through guerrilla warfare.

The book The Motorcycle Diaries was published in the 1990’s. Jiménez said of the book that it inspired the image of the young Che as a romantic figure.

Jiménez authored the book Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary, published in 2003.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Internet has already brought great things to the world, but has also brought spam, phishing, scamming, etc. We all have seen them across the Internet. They promise money, weight loss, or other things a person may strive for, but they usually amount to only a lighter pocket. Online advertising has become something that the increasingly Internet-reliant society has become used to, as well as more aware of. As this is true, online ads have become more intricate and deceptive in recent years.

However, a certain type of advertisement has arisen recently, and has become more deceptive than any other Internet ad, and has tricked many users into credit card charges. These sites claim to be news websites that preach a “miracle product”, and they offer a free trial, and then charge the user’s credit card a large amount of money without informing them after the trial ends. These sites appear to be operating under one venture and have caught ad pages of high-traffic websites by storm. In this report, Wikinews’ Tjc6 investigates news advertisement sites.

These Internet ads work in different ways:

Hypothetically speaking, a reader is browsing the web, and then happens to come across something that they believe is too good to be true. A link on one of these high-traffic pages promises white teeth, weight loss, or huge profits from working at home part-time. Out of curiosity, they click on the link.

This is the way that people are attracted to these fake news sites on the internet. The domain owners draw in customers by purchasing advertising on some of the World Wide Web’s most visited pages. Curious users click and are led to what they believe is a news article. From anti-aging to shedding weight, these “articles” from non-existant newspapers and television stations depict a skeptical news reporter trying a product because they were instructed to by a superior.

As the user reads on, they find that the “reporter” miraculously achieves significant weight loss, teeth whitening, or other general health and beauty improvement. The reporter states that the reader can get the same results as they did by using a “free trial” of the product.

Next, the user looks to the bottom of the page, where there seems to be a set of user comments, all of them praising the product or products that are advertised — this is where we first see something suspicious. Across several of these false articles, the comments appear to show the exact same text, sometimes with even the same usernames as other sites.

There is obviously some kind of correlation. Although this appears to be true, most users who purchase these products do not look at multiple versions of these similar pages of what appears to be a fast-growing network of interconnected fake news sites.

Once customers have convinced themselves into buying the product, they are led to a product (or products) website which promises a free trial for a very low price. What they do not know about this, however, is that they are giving their credit card data to a company that will charge it automatically after the trial ends. In about 14 days, the user receives a charge on their credit card for an excessive amount of money, usually from about $80 to $100 (USD). All attempts to contact these companies and cancel their shipments usually prove to be futile.

What these sites have is a large amount of legal copy located at the bottom of each site, stating their right to charge the user. This site, a fake news article claiming to offer teeth-whitening benefits, has several paragraphs of fine print, including this: “…Upon signing up for the 10 day trial membership you will be charged up to $4.97 depending on various shipping and initial offer promotions at that time but not more than $4.97 upon signing. If not cancelled, you will be charged $89.97 upon completion of the 10 day trial period. Monthly thereafter or 30 days from the original order date, the charge will reoccur monthly at a total of $89.97 until cancelled…,” the site says.

Practices like this have alerted the Better Business Bureau, an American organization that studies and reports on the reliability and practices of US businesses. In a press release, a spokesman from the BBB spoke out against sites like this. “Many businesses across the country are using the same selling model for their products: They lure customers in with claimed celebrity endorsements and free trial offers, and then lock them in by making it extremely difficult to cancel the automatic delivery of more products every month…,” said the report that denounced the websites.

When a user looks at several of these sites, they notice that all of them have the same exact structure. Because of this, Wikinews decided to look into where some of the domains were owned, and if they were all in fact part of one company.

However, the results that Wikinews found were ones that were not expected. Out of the three random websites that were found in Internet ads, all using similar designs and methods to attract the customers, came from three different locations in three countries and two separate continents. The first came from Scottsdale, in the United States, while the next two came from Vancouver and Hamburg. There is no location correlation, but surely, there has to be something that connected these sites together. We had to look even further to try to find a connection.

There is some correlation within the product’s contact information. A large amount of the teeth-whitening products analyzed actually shared the same phone number, which lead to a distribution center located in St. Petersburg, Florida, and several other similar distribution centers located across the Southern United States. But, that explains only one of the categories of products that these websites cover, teeth whitening.

What about the other products? The other products such as weight loss and work-at-home kits all trace back to similar distribution centers in similar places. So, what do we make of all of this?

There is obviously some company that promotes these products through the fake news advertisements, but that company is nowhere to be found on the websites. All contact information is given on the product pages, and websites are copyrighted under the name of the domain, not a company. Whatever company has been the setup for these pages has been very good at hiding themselves from the Internet, as there is no information across the web about that mysterious large advertiser.

As a result of customers buying the products and having unauthorized charges on their credit cards, a large volume of complaints are currently present on awareness sites, complaint sites, and even the Better Business Bureau. Several customers point out that they were not informed of the steep charges and the company made it extremely difficult to cancel their subscription, usually resulting in the loss of several hundred dollars.

• “The trial offer was to pay for $3.95 for the cost of the shipping for one bottle. I noticed shortly after placing the order I had a charge on my credit card for $149.95. Unknown to myself the company charges for a membership if you don’t cancel within 14 days, I cancelled within 18 days…When I called the customer service number they told me the decision has been made and my refund request was denied. When I questioned the person on the other line about what I was getting for my $149.95 she told me I was not getting anything because I cancelled the membership.“

?“Tamara”, in a post to the Ripoff Report

• “This is a “free sample” scam: Pay only postage and handling and get a free sample of a tooth whitening system, they say. I looked for the “catch,” something that would indicate that there’d be hidden or recurring charges, but didn’t see anything, and ordered. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, I see a charge for $88.97 on my bank statement…When I called, the guy answering the phone had obviously answered the same angry question many, many times: “Why has your company charged $88.97 to my card?” “Because you didn’t cancel your subscription in time,” he said tiredly.“

?“Elenor”, in a post to the Ripoff Report

One notable lawsuit has occurred as a result of these articles. Some of the articles about work at home kits specifically advertise things like “work for Google”, or “job openings at Google”. However, Google asserts these claims as false and has taken the case to court, as it is a copyright violation. “Thousands of people have been tricked into sending payment information and being charged hidden fees by questionable operations,” said Google in a statement.

The BBB has received over 3,000 complaints about products such as the ones that Google took offense to. The lawsuit has yet to begin in court, and no date has been set.