An interdisciplinary approach to measurement

This meeting had as its theme the importance of good communications between workers in different disciplines. Papers and demonstrations were presented on a range of topics as apparently unrelated as the intraocular pressure, the tension of nitrogen in blood, and the experimental production of mesothelial tumours. In his introduction Dr J C Gilson showed how these were some recent end-products of research into pneumoconiosis. The work of the Pneumoconiosis Research Unit was centred round the properties of airborne dust and the acute and long-term effects of its inhalation. Studies ranged from the immunological responses of coal workers to surveys of men in some of the world's major asbestos fields; the latter were selected on account of the exposure to dust differing from that of workers in the UK in being confined to a single type of fibre. One link between the different studies was the features of the chest radiographs. For rounded opacities these were now read using the ILO Classification which was largely developed at the Unit; Dr Gilson demonstrated a recent extension to include the irregular opacities which are associated with exposure to asbestos.     

Radioactivity and radiation safety: basic concepts for laboratory animal technologists and technicians

Laboratory animals treated with radioactive compounds are a radiation-safety concern. It is important for technologists and technicians who work with these animals to understand ionizing radiation and radiation-safety practices. The author discusses licensing, contamination control, and how to deal with radioactive waste.     

A user-friendly approach to cost accounting in laboratory animal facilities

Cost accounting is an essential management activity for laboratory animal facility management. In this report, the author describes basic principles of cost accounting and outlines steps for carrying out cost accounting in laboratory animal facilities. Methods of post hoc cost accounting analysis for maximizing the efficiency of facility operations are also described.     

An interdisciplinary approach to the treatment of a hyperfunctional voice disorder

The purpose of this article is to describe the treatment of a 45-year-old male with a hyperfunctional voice disorder by a biofeedback therapist and a speech-language pathologist. The interdisciplinary approach to the treatment of this voice disorder involved the combined use of traditional voice therapy techniques and EMG biofeedback procedures together with cognitive behavioral therapy. Voice therapy was facilitated through the use of a computer-based, speech-monitoring system. The remediation of this voice disorder was attributed to the collaborative efforts of two professionals representing diverse professional training and treatment protocols. The results showed reductions in muscle activity in the infrahyoid and laryngeal areas as well as improved use of proper breathing and voicing onset behaviors. Follow-up at 10 and 15 months posttreatment intervals indicated that the client had retained all target voice skills and the tension reduction/biofeedback skills. Results suggest that interdisciplinary, collaborative efforts using biofeedback and voice therapy can prove beneficial in the treatment of hyperfunctional voice disorders.Note: Neither author has been compensated in any way for the use of the CAFET System nor does either have any financial interest in the company.     

Motivation of animal care technicians through recognition

Keeping employees motivated is a challenge faced by managers in the field of laboratory animal science and in the business world at large. Using Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs' theory as a guide, the authors describe how managers can create a recognition program to keep employees feeling happy and rewarded. They discuss programs used at Bristol-Myers Squibb and share lessons learned from various programs.     

Motivation of animal care technicians through recognition

CRmmie Symonowicz BS, LATG, CMAR, Linda Cfitelli BS ＆ Pamela Straeter BS, RLATG, SRS Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmaceutical Research Institute, 5 Research Parkway, Wallingford, CT 06492. Correspondence should be addressed to Cammie Symonowicz BS, LATG, CMAR lab Animal 35, 1 （2006）
Keeping employees motivated is a challenge faced by managers in the field of laboratory animal science and in the business world at large. Using Maslow＇ s ＇ Hierarchy of Needs＇ theory as a guide, the authors describe how managers can create a recognition program to keep employees feeling happy and rewarded. They discuss programs used at Bristol-Myers Squibb and share lessons learned from various programs.     

Novel training concepts and techniques used to increase safety awareness in the laboratory animal facility

Training makes an important contribution to maintaining a safe working environment, but trainees may have problems achieving maximum information retention if they are not motivated and interested. The authors describe an innovative safety training program that has been well received by employees and associated with a 62% drop in workplace injuries over a two-year period.     

Reducing exposure to laboratory animal allergens

Laboratory animal allergy is a serious health problem. We examined several possible allergen-reducing strategies that might be effective in the working mouse room. Ambient allergen concentrations were measured when mice were maintained under several conditions: conventional housing versus ventilated cage racks operated under negative or positive pressure. We found that housing mice in ventilated cages operated under negative pressure and using ventilated changing tables reduced ambient mouse allergen (Mus m 1) concentrations tenfold, compared with values when mice were housed in conventional caging and using a conventional (non-ventilated) changing table. Housing mice in positively pressurized cages versus conventional cages did not reduce ambient allergen values. Cleaning mouse rooms at an accelerated frequency also did not reduce ambient Mus m 1 concentration. We also quantified ambient allergen values in several areas of The Jackson Laboratory. A facility-wide survey of Mus m 1 concentrations indicated that allergen concentrations were undetectable in control areas, but ranged from a mean (+/- SEM) 0.11 +/- 0.02 ng/m3 to 5.40 +/- 0.30 ng/m3 in mouse rooms with different cage types. The percentage of animal caretakers reporting allergy symptoms correlated significantly with ambient allergen concentrations: 12.9% reported symptoms in the rooms with the lowest allergen concentration (0.14 +/- 0.02 ng/m3), but 45.9% reported symptoms in rooms with the highest concentration (2.3 +/- 0.4 ng/m3). These data indicate that existing technology can significantly reduce exposure to laboratory animal allergens and improve the health of animal caretakers.     

Systems Biology-an interdisciplinary approach

System-level approaches in biology are not new but foundations of “Systems Biology” are achieved only now at the beginning of the 21st century [Kitano, H., 2001. Foundations of Systems Biology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA]. The renewed interest for a system-level approach is linked to the progress in collecting experimental data and to the limits of the “reductionist” approach. System-level understanding of native biological and pathological systems is needed to provide potential therapeutic targets. Examples of interdisciplinary approach in Systems Biology are described in U.S., Japan and Europe. Robustness in biology, metabolic engineering and idiotypic networks are discussed in the framework of Systems Biology.     

Contribution of pathology to laboratory animal welfare

To promote experimental animal welfare, several countries are engaged in establishing local animal research review committees and appointing supervising veterinarians or other experts. However, a number of adverse conditions leading to intercurrent illness or death remains unnoticed or unidentified. Pathological investigation of unexpectedly ill or dead animals proved to be very useful in indicating conditions compromising animal welfare. In addition, such post-mortem findings may be instructive, with respect to welfare, for those involved in experiments with animals.     

Mortality study of pathologists and medical laboratory technicians.

Membership lists of professional bodies were used to establish study populations of British pathologists (1955-73) and medical laboratory technicians (1963-73). The standardised mortality ratio (SMR) for pathologists was 60 and for medical laboratory technicians 67. Twenty-seven of the 310 deaths were due to suicide. These numbers gave SMRs of 250 for pathologists and 243 for medical laboratory technicians. Suicide was the commonest cause of death in female technicians. Access to lethal chemicals at work is a possible factor explaining the high proportion of suicide by poisoning compared with the general population. Suicide rates for pathologists exceed those of all medical practitioners; similary medical laboratory have higher rates than all laboratory technicians. Excess deaths from lymphatic and haemopoietic neoplasms were noted in English male pathologists (observed 8, expected 3-3; P less than 0-01). This difference is not due to Hodgkin''s disease or leukaemia and remains unexplained. No other neoplastic diseases were noted as causing excess mortality in either occupational group but a small, possibly spurious, excess number of deaths was noted for aortic aneurysm in male pathologists (observed 4, expected 1-8).     

A systems approach to animal communication

Why animal communication displays are so complex and how they have evolved are active foci of research with a long and rich history. Progress towards an evolutionary analysis of signal complexity, however, has been constrained by a lack of hypotheses to explain similarities and/or differences in signalling systems across taxa. To address this, we advocate incorporating a systems approach into studies of animal communication—an approach that includes comprehensive experimental designs and data collection in combination with the implementation of systems concepts and tools. A systems approach evaluates overall display architecture, including how components interact to alter function, and how function varies in different states of the system. We provide a brief overview of the current state of the field, including a focus on select studies that highlight the dynamic nature of animal signalling. We then introduce core concepts from systems biology (redundancy, degeneracy, pluripotentiality, and modularity) and discuss their relationships with system properties (e.g. robustness, flexibility, evolvability). We translate systems concepts into an animal communication framework and accentuate their utility through a case study. Finally, we demonstrate how consideration of the system-level organization of animal communication poses new practical research questions that will aid our understanding of how and why animal displays are so complex.     

A computational approach to animal breeding

We propose a computational model of mating strategies for controlled animal breeding programs. A mating strategy in a controlled breeding program is a heuristic with some optimization criteria as a goal. Thus, it is appropriate to use the computational tools available for analysis of optimization heuristics. In this paper, we propose the first discrete model of the controlled animal breeding problem and analyse heuristics for two possible objectives: (1) breeding for maximum diversity and (2) breeding a target individual. These two goals are representative of conservation biology and agricultural livestock management, respectively. We evaluate several mating strategies and provide upper and lower bounds for the expected number of matings. While the population parameters may vary and can change the actual number of matings for a particular strategy, the order of magnitude of the number of expected matings and the relative competitiveness of the mating heuristics remains the same. Thus, our simple discrete model of the animal breeding problem provides a novel viable and robust approach to designing and comparing breeding strategies in captive populations.