Severe feather pecking (SFP) is a behavioral disorder, for which there are multifactorial reasons. Various aspects of pullet and laying-hen husbandry—including housing conditions, management, feeding, genetics—must be considered, to prevent negative outcomes, such as severe plumage damage, skin injuries, high mortality rates due SFP. The aim this study was identify management factors in the occ...

Pigeons responded to intermittently reinforced classical conditioning trials with erratic bouts of responding to the conditioned stimulus. Responding depended on whether the prior trial contained a peck, food, or both. A linear persistence-learning model moved pigeons into and out of a response state, and a Weibull distribution for number of within-trial responses governed in-state pecking. Var...

Proactive rodents show a larger behavioral response to apomorphine (APO) than reactive copers, suggesting a more sensitive DA system in proactive individuals. Previously, chicks from a high feather pecking (HFP) and low feather pecking line (LFP) have been suggested to display a proactive and reactive coping strategy, respectively. Therefore, at approximately 4 weeks of age, the behavior of 48 ...

The pecking order theory of capital structure is one of the most influential theories of corporate finance. The purpose of this study is to explore the most important factors on a firm’s capital structure by pecking-order theory. Hierarchical regression is used as the analysis model. This study examines the determinants of debt decisions for 305 Taiwan electronic companies that are quoted on th...

Frugivorous birds in the Mediterranean basin may disperse seeds using two different feeding behaviours: swallowing the fruit whole or pecking pieces of pulp. Swallowing is the common behaviour of frugivorous seed dispersers in the Mediterranean basin (Herrera 1984a) and most of the fleshy-fruited plants in the region rely on this bird feeding behaviour to disperse their seeds (Herrera 1984b, 19...

Open and closed economies have been assumed to produce opposite relations between responding and the programmed density of reward (the amount of reward divided by its cost). Experimental procedures that are treated as open economies typically dissociate responding and total reward by providing supplemental income outside the experimental session; procedures construed as closed economies do not....

Head injury is a leading cause of morbidity and death in both industrialized and developing countries. It is estimated that brain injuries account for 15% of the burden of fatalities and disabilities, and represent the leading cause of death in young adults. Brain injury may be caused by an impact or a sudden change in the linear and/or angular velocity of the head. However, the woodpecker does...