Early and non-intrusive lameness detection in dairy cows using 3-dimensional video

ABSTRACTLameness is a major issue in dairy herds and its early and automated detection offers animal welfare benefits together with high potential commercial savings for farmers. Current advancements in automated detection have not achieved a sensitive measure for classifying early lameness. A novel proxy for lameness using 3-dimensional (3D) depth video data to analyse the animal’s gait asymmetry is introduced. This dynamic proxy is derived from the height variations in the hip joint during walking. The video capture setup is completely covert and it facilitates an automated process. The animals are recorded using an overhead 3D depth camera as they walk freely in single file after the milking session. A 3D depth image of the cow’s body is used to automatically track key regions such as the hooks and the spine. The height movements are calculated from these regions to form the locomotion signals of this study, which are analysed using a Hilbert transform. Our results using a 1-5 locomotion scoring (LS) system on 22 Holstein Friesian dairy cows, a threshold could be identified between LS 1 and 2 (and above). This boundary is important as it represents the earliest point in time at which a cow is considered lame, and its early detection could improve intervention outcome thereby minimising losses and reducing animal suffering. Using a linear Support Vector Machine (SVM) binary classification model, the threshold achieved an accuracy of 95.7% with a 100% sensitivity (detecting lame cows) and 75% specificity (detecting non-lame cows)

The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey : pairwise-inverse probability and angular correction for fibre collisions in clustering measurements

HJS is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics under Award Number DE-SC0014329. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 693024).The completed extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) catalogues contain redshifts of 344 080 quasars at 0.8 < z < 2.2, 174 816 luminous red galaxies between 0.6 < z < 1.0, and 173 736 emission-line galaxies over 0.6 < z < 1.1 in order to constrain the expansion history of the Universe and the growth rate of structure through clustering measurements. Mechanical limitations of the fibre-fed spectrograph on the Sloan telescope prevent two fibres being placed closer than 62 arcsec in a single pass of the instrument. These ‘fibre collisions’ strongly correlate with the intrinsic clustering of targets and can bias measurements of the two-point correlation function resulting in a systematic error on the inferred values of the cosmological parameters. We combine the new techniques of pairwise-inverse probability and the angular upweighting (PIP+ANG) to correct the clustering measurements for the effect of fibre collisions. Using mock catalogues, we show that our corrections provide unbiased measurements, within data precision, of both the projected wp(rp) and the redshift-space multipole ξ(ℓ = 0, 2, 4)(s) correlation functions down to 0.1h−1Mpc⁠, regardless of the tracer type. We apply the corrections to the eBOSS DR16 catalogues. We find that, on scales s≳20h−1Mpcs≳20h−1Mpc for ξℓ, as used to make baryon acoustic oscillation and large-scale redshift-space distortion measurements, approximate methods such as nearest-neighbour upweighting are sufficiently accurate given the statistical errors of the data. Using the PIP method, for the first time for a spectroscopic program of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we are able to successfully access the one-halo term in the clustering measurements down to ∼0.1h−1Mpc scales. Our results will therefore allow studies that use the small-scale clustering to strengthen the constraints on both cosmological parameters and the halo occupation distribution models.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Potential controls of isoprene in the surface ocean

Isoprene surface ocean concentrations and vertical distribution, atmospheric mixing ratios, and calculated sea-to-air fluxes spanning approximately 125° of latitude (80°N–45°S) over the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans are reported. Oceanic isoprene concentrations were associated with a number of concurrently monitored biological variables including chlorophyll a (Chl a), photoprotective pigments, integrated primary production (intPP), and cyanobacterial cell counts, with higher isoprene concentrations relative to all respective variables found at sea surface temperatures greater than 20°C. The correlation between isoprene and the sum of photoprotective carotenoids, which is reported here for the first time, was the most consistent across all cruises. Parameterizations based on linear regression analyses of these relationships perform well for Arctic and Atlantic data, producing a better fit to observations than an existing Chl a-based parameterization. Global extrapolation of isoprene surface water concentrations using satellite-derived Chl a and intPP reproduced general trends in the in situ data and absolute values within a factor of 2 between 60% and 85%, depending on the data set and algorithm used

Exome-wide association study to identify rare variants influencing COVID-19 outcomes : Results from the Host Genetics Initiative

Publisher Copyright: Copyright: © 2022 Butler-Laporte et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Host genetics is a key determinant of COVID-19 outcomes. Previously, the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative genome-wide association study used common variants to identify multiple loci associated with COVID-19 outcomes. However, variants with the largest impact on COVID-19 outcomes are expected to be rare in the population. Hence, studying rare variants may provide additional insights into disease susceptibility and pathogenesis, thereby informing therapeutics development. Here, we combined whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing from 21 cohorts across 12 countries and performed rare variant exome-wide burden analyses for COVID-19 outcomes. In an analysis of 5,085 severe disease cases and 571,737 controls, we observed that carrying a rare deleterious variant in the SARS-CoV-2 sensor toll-like receptor TLR7 (on chromosome X) was associated with a 5.3-fold increase in severe disease (95% CI: 2.75–10.05, p = 5.41x10-7). This association was consistent across sexes. These results further support TLR7 as a genetic determinant of severe disease and suggest that larger studies on rare variants influencing COVID-19 outcomes could provide additional insights.Peer reviewe

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

Pigments of some symbiotic cyanobacteria

This investigation contribute to our knowledge of the pigment content of certain previously described Cyanophycea found in symbiotic association with sponges and ascidians (Duclaux, 1977; Lafargue and Duclaux, 1979). It is opportunity to test the hypothesis of a single symbiont Synechocystis trididemni Lafargue and Duclaux associated both with Trididemnum cyanophorum Lafargue and Duclaux and T. tegulum. Phycoerythrin characteristics suggest that T. cyanophorum contains a cyanophyte symbiont which is different from the cyanophyte symbiont of T. tegulum

Experimental simulation of chemomechanical processes during deep burial diagenesis of carbonate rocks

International audienceChemomechanical processes involved in the deep burial diagenesis of carbonate petroleum reservoirs are still poorly understood. To better understand these processes and explain how porosity and permeability can be preserved at the great depth of DBRs (deeply buried reservoirs), we developed an experimental device allowing both the simulation of high-pressure/stresses/temperature conditions (80 degrees C, 60MPa of confining pressure, and differential stress up to 40MPa) of DBR and the circulation of different fluids in rock samples. We tested (triaxial multistep creep tests) four core samples of a cemented limestone and analyzed creep deformations, fluids chemistry, and petrographical and petrophysical properties of samples. Different flow conditions (no flow and flow through) and chemical compositions (natural meteoric water with and without phosphate ions) were considered. Our study showed that the precipitation of calcite on free pore walls of micrites blocks the microporosity between micrite crystals, thus rendering the microporosity inaccessible to fluids. Hence, the connected porosity decreased strongly after experimentation. This is due to the PSC (pressure solution creep) which is the main process implied in the porosity reduction of a carbonate rock during deep burial. The preservation of macropores during PSC allows the preservation of permeability. In addition, calcite solubility is positively dependent on mechanical parameters (axial compaction and axial stress), thus suggesting that calcite can precipitate during decompression of deep basinal fluids, resulting in changes in porosity. A comparison of experimental results with theoretical calculations showed that the integration of the PSC process into calculation databases would greatly improve the modeling of DBR