73,775 research outputs found
Smart Computing and Sensing Technologies for Animal Welfare: A Systematic Review
Animals play a profoundly important and intricate role in our lives today.
Dogs have been human companions for thousands of years, but they now work
closely with us to assist the disabled, and in combat and search and rescue
situations. Farm animals are a critical part of the global food supply chain,
and there is increasing consumer interest in organically fed and humanely
raised livestock, and how it impacts our health and environmental footprint.
Wild animals are threatened with extinction by human induced factors, and
shrinking and compromised habitat. This review sets the goal to systematically
survey the existing literature in smart computing and sensing technologies for
domestic, farm and wild animal welfare. We use the notion of \emph{animal
welfare} in broad terms, to review the technologies for assessing whether
animals are healthy, free of pain and suffering, and also positively stimulated
in their environment. Also the notion of \emph{smart computing and sensing} is
used in broad terms, to refer to computing and sensing systems that are not
isolated but interconnected with communication networks, and capable of remote
data collection, processing, exchange and analysis. We review smart
technologies for domestic animals, indoor and outdoor animal farming, as well
as animals in the wild and zoos. The findings of this review are expected to
motivate future research and contribute to data, information and communication
management as well as policy for animal welfare
The microeconomic determinants of emigration and return migration of the best and brightest: evidence from the Pacific
A unique survey which tracks worldwide the best and brightest academic performers from three Pacific countries is used to assess the extent of emigration and return migration among the very highly skilled, and to analyze, at the microeconomic level, the determinants of these migration choices. Although we estimate that the income gains from migration are very large, not everyone migrates and many return. Within this group of highly skilled individuals the emigration decision is found to be most strongly associated with preference variables such as risk aversion, patience, and choice of subjects in secondary school, and not strongly linked to either liquidity constraints or to the gain in income to be had from migrating. Likewise, the decision to return is strongly linked to family and lifestyle reasons,
rather than to the income opportunities in different countries. Overall the data show a relatively limited role for income maximization in distinguishing migration propensities among the very highly skilled, and a need to pay more attention to other components of the utility maximization decision
Correlated random walks of human embryonic stem cells in vitro
We perform a detailed analysis of the migratory motion of human embryonic stem cells in two-dimensions, both when isolated and in close proximity to another cell, recorded with time-lapse microscopic imaging. We show that isolated cells tend to perform an unusual locally anisotropic walk, moving backwards and forwards along a preferred local direction correlated over a timescale of around 50 min and aligned with the axis of the cell elongation. Increasing elongation of the cell shape is associated with increased instantaneous migration speed. We also show that two cells in close proximity tend to move in the same direction, with the average separation of m or less and the correlation length of around 25 ÎĽm, a typical cell diameter. These results can be used as a basis for the mathematical modelling of the formation of clonal hESC colonies
Online news audiences: the challenges of web metrics
Online audience tracking technologies create an unprecedented opportunity for the media to collect natural, real-time data on what users do, and do not do, with news products. These user metrics have begun to shape editorial decisions and development strategies in newsrooms around the world. This chapter reviews this industrial trend and the challenges that web metrics present to journalism. It argues that these challenges, if not calmly addressed, could deepen an already critical crisis – the dumbing down of news – and bring newsroom tensions and conflicts to a new height. Journalists need to foster a stronger professional culture that helps them to take confidence and pride in their autonomous news judgement and to resist, wherever necessary, the sentiment of the crowd
The Spaces Between Numbers: Getting International Data on Higher Education Straight
Argues that the participation and attainment data used in international comparisons do not reflect the performance objectives of higher education systems. Suggests economic and demographic frameworks for interpreting data and changes in data collection
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