Let (∞, π∞) be an incident point-plane pair of PG(3, q). A tetrad with respect to (∞, π∞) is a set {X,Y, Z,W} of points of PG(3, q) \ π∞ such that {∞, X, Y, Z,W} is a cap of PG(3, q), ∞ ∈ 〈X,Y, Z〉 and W 6∈ 〈X,Y, Z〉. A set Θ of ovoids of PG(3, q) is tetradic with respect to (∞, π∞) if each ovoid contains ∞, has tangent plane π∞ and is such that each tetrad with respect to (∞, π∞) is contained in...

Since the 1980s, the prevalence of Salmonella in Belgian poultry layers and broilers has greatly fluctuated with a rise observed in 2003 and a significant decrease in 2005. In order to alleviate the risk at egg consumer level, it is crucial to understand the factors which influence the contamination and the spread of Salmonella in laying hens. To study such determinants we explored the Belgian ...

Cumulative lifetime (five lamb crops) lamb production and wool production of 681 ewes were evaluated in this study. Lamb production and wool production from each ewe at the end of age 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 yr were added to the previous year's production and analyzed within age of ewe. If a ewe failed to lamb, died, or was culled, it received a zero for that year and subsequent years. Main effects i...

With the ubiquitous use of location enabled devices, pattern discovery in trajectories has been receiving increasing interest. Among such patterns, we have queries related to how groups of moving objects behave over time such as discovering flocks. A flock pattern is defined as a set of moving objects that move within a predefined distance to each other for a given continuous period of time. A ...

Footrot causes 70-90% of lameness in sheep in Great Britain. With approximately 5% of 18 million adult sheep lame at any one time, it costs the UK sheep industry £24-84 million per year. The Gram-negative anaerobe Dichelobacter nodosus is the causative agent, with disease severity influenced by bacterial load, virulence, and climate. The aim of the current study was to characterize strains of D...

We show that an elation generalised quadrangle which has p + 1 lines on each point, for some prime p, is classical or arises from a flock of a quadratic cone (i.e., is a flock quadrangle).

BACKGROUND Campylobacter is the most common cause of bacterial enteritis worldwide. Handling and eating of contaminated poultry meat has considered as one of the risk factors for human campylobacteriosis. Campylobacter contamination can occur at all stages of a poultry production cycle. The objective of this study was to determine the occurrence of Campylobacter during a complete turkey product...

Ad hoc teamwork refers to the challenge of designing agents that can influence the behavior of a team, without prior coordination with its teammates. This abstract summarizes a portion of our work on influencing a flock of agents to adopt a desired behavior within the context of ad hoc teamwork. We shortly summarize our work on examining how the ad hoc agents should behave in order to orient a ...

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of time of oviposition, generally representing different positions in the normal egg laying sequence, on egg weight loss during storage and incubation, and on fertility and fertile hatchability of eggs from mid-lay (42 wk) and old (67 wk) broiler breeders. A total of 1,800 eggs (900 eggs per flock age) were collected during 10 consecutive days...