The primary goals of this research were to: (1) determine how amateur users of images in web environments self-categorize their interactions with images according to four proposed categories---information seeking, illustrative activity, social activity, or leisure, and; (2) identify which search strategies users rely on to find images online according to motivation. / The sample consisted of 28 volunteers drawn from the School of Information Sciences. The study was conducted in a research lab in the University of Pittsburgh's Information Sciences building, where subjects were asked to complete a pre-questionnaire, five tasks using a web browser to locate and view images, and a post-questionnaire. They were also subsequently asked to complete a blog diary of their image retrieval activities over a period of three days. The data collected included pre- and post-questionnaires, video log transcripts, and diary data. The data was analyzed using quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics and probability values. / Findings of the study show that: (1) information as a motivation is the overriding reason amateur users engage in image retrieval; (2) the other motivations vary in importance and are not always clearly delineated categories unto themselves, illuminating more about the various contexts of each motivation, and; (3) search strategy is relatively even across motivation. The research indicates that the context of the motivation may be shaped by whether an image is being sought purposefully (information and illustration) or less purposefully (social purposes and leisure) and whether it is being used as data or as an object, especially for information and illustration as motivations and to a lesser degree for social purposes and leisure. A spectrum of search strategy was uncovered ranging from illustration with the most directed, focused search strategy to leisure, the most undirected of motivations in terms of search strategy. / A schematic was developed to illustrate the dynamic relationship between the motivations and their contexts. It offers a way of conceiving how the motivations appear on axes of purposeful versus less-than-purposeful image retrieval and data versus object. The schema will make an important contribution by charting what is an otherwise completely unknown area of image retrieval.

The purpose of this research was to contribute to an important research and practice issue, how users use evaluative metadata (i.e., end-user ratings, annotations, opinions, usage, and experts' recommendations) when searching for documents in educational digital libraries. The dissertation built a model of the predictive judgment process to develop design principles for digital library systems with evaluative metadata. / Multiple methods were employed in the research design: (1) a questionnaire gathered demographic information, the subjects' computer/Internet/web knowledge, information needs (tasks), search keywords, and topic knowledge; (2) a think-aloud protocol was used to collect data about cognitive processes, in this case document selection; (3) semi-structured interviews gathered information about subjects' thoughts about their behavior; (4) the researcher wrote field notes (observation); and (5) Camtasia software was used to record the trace of each subject's metadata usage. / The participants were 14 graduate students from School of Library and Information Studies in Florida State University. Four tasks were given to them in a laboratory setting. Tasks were two types 1) for finding teaching materials as an instructor, and 2) study materials as a student. The analyses were based on data from surveys, searching experiments, and post interviews. The data included 366 reviewed items in the search results of 60 searches. The results showed the user's positive inclination toward the evaluative metadata during searching in MERLOT. The research identified the reasons for scanning and examining evaluative metadata elements in the predictive judgment process. In addition, three ways to use evaluative metadata in the predictive judgment process were showed. The research also found the factors which influence the usage of the evaluative metadata: Users' cognitive, Function of the Digital Libraries, Situational, and Task. Finally, the revised predictive process model was presented including three stages of the predictive judgment (Scanning/Examining, Judgment, and Decision), the factors which affect the usage of evaluative metadata, and relevance criteria when the participants searched documents in MERLOT. The findings of the research provide implications for advancing empirical research for evaluative metadata and user-centered relevance study, and improving the design of the educational digital libraries.

Contemporary young people are engaged in a variety of information behaviors, such as information seeking, using, sharing, and creating. The ways youth interact with information have transformed in the shifting digital information environment; however, relatively little empirical research exists and no theoretical framework adequately explains digital age youth information behaviors from a holistic perspective. In order to bridge the empirical and theoretical gaps in the field of Information Behavior, this study seeks to create a theoretical framework of digital age youth information behavior by applying and further developing the theory of Radical Change. / Adopting the Theory to Research to Theory strategy, Radical Change Theory guided development of the research questions and the research design incorporated the theory to provide structure to the systematic data collection and analysis; finally, the theory was informed and modified by the study results. The two-phase qualitative research design included Phase I: content analysis of research literature and Phase II: Sense-Making Methodology (SMM) group and individual interviews with youth. / In Phase I, the researcher conducted Directed Qualitative Content Analysis using Radical Change Theory, a technique that attempts to minimize potential bias by the pre-selected theoretical framework. Phase I results identified key patterns of contemporary youth information behavior reported in 40 cross-disciplinary research literature that covers a range of contexts. Phase II was implemented to test the findings from Phase I and to add new insights from the perspectives of youth. In Phase II, 12 young adults who engage in active digital media practices using Scratch, a graphical programming language, participated in either group or individual interviews. The SMM interview technique elicited innovative information behaviors embedded in the participants' collaborative information creation practices in the digital environment, such as interactive magazine production and youth initiated development of both an online media library and a Wiki website. / The study findings deepen current knowledge on the ways contemporary youth who have grown up immersed in digital media culture interact with information. The primary result of the study is the development of a typology of digital age youth information behavior that refines and further develops the original Radical Change Theory. The typology suggests a holistic perspective for observing youth information behavior as an interplay between various factors, including young people's (1) intrapersonal processes, (2) identity formation and value negotiation, and (3) social interactions. It also presents 14 specific characteristics related to these factors that operationalize key concepts of Radical Change Theory. / The exploratory study provides theoretical, empirical, and practical contributions to the field. It suggests that the enhanced Radical Change Theory with the newly added typology serves as a holistic framework that explains dynamic digital age information behaviors that are embedded in young people's activities at home, schools, public places, and online. The typology created in this study will become an instrument that can be utilized in future research further investigating digital age youth information behavior. Also, by expanding knowledge about the changing nature of youth information behavior, the potential impacts of the study include developments of relevant library and information services, information policies, and other educational approaches that better match digital age young people's unique patterns and approaches to information.

Providing a single access point to an information system from multiple sources is helpful in many fields. As a case study, this research investigates the potential of applying information fusion techniques in biodiversity area since researchers in this domain desperately need information from different sources to support decision making on tasks like biological identification. Furthermore, there are massive collections in this area and the descriptive materials on the same species (object) are scattered in different places. It is not easy to manually collect information to form a broader and integrated one. / As one of the most important descriptive materials in this field, floras are selected as the target of this research. This research tests a hypothesis concerning the organization of text and the constancy of fact-based information in text. It is observed that individual descriptions may not contain sufficient information to differentiate the target species from others, and different information sources might contain not only overlap information but also complementary information that is helpful. We also observe non-trivial complementary information could also be from different-level descriptions [family, genus, or species level] from the same source. By using the sample dataset from Flora of North America (FNA) and Flora of China (FOC), we found that about 50% information could only be found in single source and another 25% complementary information could be identified by fusion. And the most importantly, confliction information could only be detected by direct comparison. / The question is how could we fuse the records in an automatic or semi-automatic manner, so that each resulting record provides a broader while non-redundant description of each species? The proposed system demonstrates the feasibility with currently available techniques. The prototype system contains 4 modules: Text segmentation and Taxonomic Name Identification, Organ-level and Sub-organ level Information Extraction, Relationship Identification, and Information fusion. By using the sample descriptions from Flora of North America and Flora of China, we demonstrate that the method gain promising fusion result based on Cross-Description Relationships. With the evaluation results, we identified the key factors contribute to the performance of fusion. Some methods that might lead to further improvement on fusion performances are discussed. / This study also demonstrates that to a certain extent, this fusion approach is generalizable. The generalizability of this fusion approach is a challenging problem due to the typical domain- and task-oriented nature of the fusion methods. We identified the challenges while applying the approach to different data set.

This study is about the information-seeking behavior that bilingual users---specifically, native Chinese speakers whose second language is English---exhibit when performing an online search. Bilingual online searching occurs when bilingual users submit queries to search for information in two languages. This study seeks to explore the information-seeking behavior of bilingual users in an attempt to discover possible ways of improving bilingual users' online searching experience. The study focuses on defining the characteristics of bilingual users' information-seeking behavior on the web. / This research employed questionnaire and interview methods to determine (1) The information-seeking behavior of bilingual users; (2) Language's influence on online searching; (3) Bilingual users' opinions on the online searching support they need. The sample was recruited from Chinese native-speaking students in Pittsburgh. / The researcher found that bilingual users tend to select the language that best fits their information needs rather than doing multilingual online searching and that they used search engines as multilingual tools. The researcher also identified five types of search strategies preferred for bilingual online searching. They include: directly linking, keyword searching, browsing, comparison, and externally linking. Directly linking means that the participant has a specific website in mind so he/she just go to the website directly or search for the website in the search engine. Browsing means that they retrieved a list of resources first and browse through them. Comparison means that they obtained several search results first and compare them. Externally linking strategy means that participants link from the website they accessed originally. This is a descriptive study of users completing four specific tasks and it only emphasizes on users' opinions about the search support given by the bilingual online searching interface.

Three experiments were conducted to study the impact of growth-promoting levels of various antimicrobials on performance and the development of antibiotic-resistant commensal bacteria in swine. In experiment one, feeding subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics, or high levels of zinc and copper did not improve growth performance of nursery pigs housed in a biosecure facility that were farrowed from sows not previously exposed to antibiotics. In experiment two, feeding nursery pigs obtained from a commercial source high levels of zinc resulted in increased ADG and ADFI compared to pigs fed a diet containing no antimicrobials or high levels of copper. In experiment three, subtherapeutic levels of chlortetracycline improved ADG, ADFI, and G:F for only the first week after weaning. Performance improvements were not observed for finishing pigs fed subtherapeutic levels of virginiamycin compared to pigs fed no antibiotics. High levels of zinc may be as effective as subtherapeutic antibiotics at improving nursery pig performance. The use of antimicrobial growth-promoters in clean, well-managed facilities with high labor inputs will not improve growth performance of swine. Feeding various antimicrobials were ineffective at reducing the total number of commensal bacteria isolated from pigs in any study. Although pigs in experiment one were farrowed from sows not exposed to antibiotics for over 33 years, commensal bacteria isolated from these pigs exhibited resistance to multiple antibiotics. E. coli resistant to neomycin were isolated only from pigs fed diets containing subtherapeutic antibiotics in experiment one. In experiment two, feeding pigs diets containing growth-promoting levels of antibiotics, zinc, or copper resulted in increased percent of E. coli resistant to tylosin, erythromycin, and copper. Feeding a diet with subtherapeutic levels of tylosin and sulfamethazine also increased the percent of Enterococcus resistant to tylosin, sulfamethazine, and erythromycin compared to pigs fed no antimicrobials or high levels of zinc. While fluctuations in antibiotic resistance were observed between treatments in experiment two, there were no differences between treatments in percent of bacteria resistant to any antibiotics at the conclusion of the trial. In experiment three, percent of E. coli and Enterococcus isolated from pigs that were resistant to chlortetracycline and virginiamycin fluctuated when monitored for a 19 week grow/finish study, however no differences in percent of resistant bacteria were observed between pigs fed diets containing no antibiotics or growth-promoting levels of antibiotics at the conclusion of the trial. In the fourth experiment, manure from pigs receiving growth-promoting antibiotics was spread on soil boxes and subjected to a simulated rainfall event to measure antibiotic resistance in water runoff. A greater amount of antibiotic resistant bacteria were recovered from water runoff at the initial sampling period compared to sampling 30 min after runoff began. Percent of antibiotic resistance isolated from swine can fluctuate over time. Development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria may be increased by the use of antimicrobial growth-promoters, however, resistant bacteria are present in swine facilities regardless of the use of their use. These resistant bacteria can potentially enter the environment through land application of manure. Antibiotic resistance will not be easily reversed by removal of antibiotics from livestock feeds.

Poultry-related salmonellosis is an on-going problem that the poultry industry must continue to address. To address these challenges, Salmonella populations present on litter and fecal samples of brooder and grow-out turkey farms were assessed using a quantitative procedure. Furthermore, serotyping, genotyping by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and antibiotic resistance-susceptibility analyses were used to investigate the diversity of the Salmonella serotypes present on these farms. Additionally, alternative on-farm pathogen intervention strategies including feeding whole or coarsely ground grains, increasing insoluble fiber content of the diet and use of an alternative non-litter cage-based housing design (Broilermatic System) were evaluated. Salmonella litter populations averaged 2 logs higher in 3-wk turkey samples compared to samples from 19-wk birds. Turkey age also influenced Salmonella serotypes, genotypes and antibiotic resistance profiles. Only serovars Javiana and Mbandaka were common between 3 and 19-wk old turkeys. A higher frequency of multidrug resistance was observed in Salmonella isolates recovered from samples of 3-wk birds, on average isolates were resistant to >4 antibiotics tested. Supplementing coarse ground corn and increased insoluble fiber (wood fiber) content into the turkey diet did not adversely impact body weights. However, the treatments did not influence Salmonella colonization or fecal shedding of turkeys. To examine the impact of housing design and addition of whole or coarsely ground grains on performance, intestinal microbial diversity and Salmonella colonization, broilers were reared on four diets consisting of finely or coarsely ground corn and finely ground or whole triticale to market age and Salmonella populations measured. Whole grain supplementation decreased Salmonella cecal populations while rearing broilers on litter floor as opposed to the Broilermatic System resulted in significant reductions in Salmonella cecal populations. Moreover, feeding whole triticale presumably encouraged the proliferation of bacterial populations which may have competitively excluded Salmonella in the ceca of broilers. In conclusion, highly variable Salmonella populations and serotypes were detected across all commercial turkey farms and the use of alternative feed ingredients such as triticale may help to reduce Salmonella colonization in poultry. Moreover, diet composition and grain coarseness as well as housing design can influence the diversity of the commensal intestinal microflora which may help in the control of Salmonella colonization in broiler intestines.

Studies were conducted to develop and analyze gilt estrous behavior traits. Variance components, genetic correlations, and genetic line differences were estimated for gilt estrus, puberty, growth, composition, structural conformation, and first litter sow reproductive measures. Four groups of Landrace-Large White gilts (n=1,225, GIS of NC) from 59 sires and 330 dams were utilized. Heritability (h2) estimates for estrous traits; estrus length, maximum strength of standing reflex with a boar, total strength of standing reflex with a boar, maximum strength of standing reflex without a boar, total strength of standing reflex without a boar, vulva redness, strength of vulva reddening and swelling (VISUAL VULVA), and vulva width were 0.21, 0.13, 0.26, 0.42, 0.42, 0.26, 0.45, and 0.58, respectively. For puberty traits; age at puberty, puberty weight, puberty backfat, and puberty longissimus muscle, h2 estimates were 0.29, 0.39, 0.41, and 0.38, respectfully. The h2 of whether or not a gilt farrowed a litter (STAY1) was 0.14. Age at puberty had favorable genetic associations with estrus length, maximum strength of standing reflex with a boar, vulva redness, STAY1, and age at first farrowing (AFF) (-0.23, -0.32, 0.20, -0.27, and 0.76, respectively). Genetic correlations between estrus length and the standing reflex traits with STAY1 (0.34 to 0.74) and AFF (-0.04 to -0.41) were positive and negative, respectively. Growth rate had unfavorable genetic correlations with estrus length, the standing reflex traits, vulva redness, STAY1, and AFF (0.30, 0.14 to 0.34, -0.19, 0.52, and -0.25, respectfully). Backfat had unfavorable genetic associations with estrus length, age at puberty, and first litter total number born (TNB1) (0.29, -0.26, and 0.47, respectively). Vulva redness and TNB1 had favorable phenotypic and genetic correlations (-0.14 and -0.53, respectively). For estrous traits, crossbred performance was superior to the pure-line average for estrus length, total strength of standing reflex with a boar, vulva redness, VISUAL VULVA, and vulva width. These findings imply the use of F1 females would increase estrus length and improve vulva traits. The unfavorable genetic associations between production and reproduction traits further strengthen the need for a balanced selection objective. Based on these results it was concluded that selection for a younger age at puberty would have correlated responses of improved gilt estrous behavior and sow reproductive lifetime.

The objective of this study was to determine if dairy cow families could be used to select for superior pregnancy rate. Holstein cow records in 13 southern states were obtained from Animal Improvement Laboratory of USDA. Cows were included from historical records dating back to birth year of 1981 or 1982 as the foundation cows. Historical records included cows calving and completing lactations through August, 2005. Cows from various generations were then put in maternal family groups using dam identification within herd. Standardized milk production and pregnancy rate (based on days open) deviations were obtained within herd-year-season. A family value was calculated by averaging the first and second lactations across parity by degree of relationship to the individual (free of progeny information) for generation one though four. Each family entered into one of three groups based on average deviations milk production, pregnancy rate, and combining pregnancy rate and milk into a selection index. Analysis was performed on fifth generation members to determine if milk production and pregnancy rates in the fifth generation were significantly associated with historical performance of the respective cow families. Average of the standardized values for milk production has improved (8,542 to 10,275 kg) from generation one to five while pregnancy rate decreased from (26.91 to 18.28) in the same period for cow families having daughters represented in the fifth generation. After adjustments for sire predicted transmitting ability (PTA), maternal-grandsire PTA, and family group for milk or pregnancy rate in the model the effect of maternal cow family remained highly significant for pregnancy rate (P < 0.05, R2=0.0759) and milk production (P < 0.05, R2=0.1192) when single trait selection was utilized. Utilizing a selection index with equal weights for milk and pregnancy rate the effect of the maternal cow family remained significant (P < 0.05, R2=0.0208) but pregnancy rate was not significant (P > 0.05, R2=0.0106). The findings provide evidence that pregnancy rate and milk production are inherited through the maternal lineage. Thus, there may be potential economic value in considering maternal family history for pregnancy rate when selecting future bull dams.

Four studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of different feeding programs during rearing and production on broiler breeder male growth, fertility, and progeny performance. In Experiment I, the effects of two levels (High and Low) of cumulative nutrient intake during the rearing period to photostimulation at 21 wk of age through different dietary formulations or feeding programs were evaluated. The High cumulative nutrition program supplied 33.5 Mcal ME and 1,730 g CP, while the Low cumulative nutrition program supplied 29.6 Mcal ME and 1,470 g CP. At 21 wk of age in Experiment I-2, males were classified into Heavy or Light BW groups. A cumulative nutrient intake during the rearing period of 29.6 Mcal ME and 1,470 g CP, regardless of diet or feeding program resulted in a male of adequate BW that was able to maintain good fertility throughout the production period and produce broilers with increased 42-d BW. In Experiment III, two levels of dietary CP (12% and 17%) and two feeding programs (Concave and Sigmoid) were evaluated during the rearing period to 26 wk of age. The Concave or 17% CP treatments were unable to sustain fertility after 40 wk of age without an increased allocation of feed. In Experiments II, two antioxidant levels and different source of selenium were evaluated during the production period. In Experiment IV different feeding programs from 16 to 26 wk of age and during the production period were evaluated. The data showed that feed allocation relative to BW affected fertility more than did antioxidant inclusion. Furthermore, slow and consistently increasing feed increments from 16 to 26 wk of age and during the production period improved fertility and favorably impacted progeny performance. In conclusion, when males failed in accumulate adequate nutrients during the rearing period or gain adequate BW, as an indication of ME allocation, after photostimulation fertility declined and significant negative effects were observed in progeny performance.