Canine collars: an investigation of collar type and the forces applied to a simulated neck model

Background: Dog collars have the potential to cause harm when the dog pulls on the lead. This study aimed to determine the effects of collar type and force applied using the lead on the pressure on a simulated neck model. Methods: Seven collars and a slip lead were tested on a canine neck model. This consisted of a plastic cylinder ‘neck’, with a pressure sensor beneath the collar. A range of forces were applied to the lead representing different interactions: firm pull (40 N), strong pull (70 N) and jerk (mean force 141 N). Contact area of the collar and pressure on the neck were recorded. Results: Collars exerted a pressure of between 83 kPa and 832 kPa on the model neck. There was a significant effect of collar type (F(7)=25.69, P<0.001) and force applied (F(2)=42.60, P<0.001) on the pressure exerted on the neck. Collar type (χ(7)=64.94, P<0.001), but not force applied (χ(2)=3.20, P=0.202), affected the contact area that the pressure was exerted over. Conclusion: Variation in the pressures exerted on the neck may have implications on comfort and the potential to cause injury. No single collar tested provided a pressure considered low enough to mitigate the risk of injury when pulling on the lead

HABIT: Horse Automated Behaviour Identification Tool: a position paper

HABIT (Horse Automated Behaviour Identification Tool) is an Animal Computer Interaction (ACI) project, on the interdisciplinary boundary between equitation science and computer science. HABIT will automate the analysis and recognition of horse-to-horse and horse-to-human behaviours, as observed in unconstrained / ad-hoc video. A horse-to-horse dyad video dataset will be compiled, illustrating exemplar behaviours. Behavioural signatures will be manually identified from video. Next, a system will be developed and trained to recognise these signatures. The tool will then be evaluated, when applied to both horse-to-horse and horse-to-human video clips. In the study of animal behaviour, an ‘ethogram’ is a set of comprehensive descriptions of the characteristic behaviour patterns of a species. HABIT is potentially the first step towards the ‘automated ethogram’. This project provides a welfare-orientated approach to evaluating horse behaviours. When horses are handled, trained or ridden, HABIT will help ensure that these experiences occur within the natural repertoire of equine behaviours. There is also scope to engage and educate the public about horse behaviours; both for general interest and to raise welfare-awareness. Additionally, automation could play an important methodological role in animal-centred design by reducing human biases during the requirements and evaluation processes

HABIT: Horse Automated Behaviour Identification Tool: a position paper

HABIT (Horse Automated Behaviour Identification Tool) is an Animal Computer Interaction (ACI) project, on the interdisciplinary boundary between equitation science and computer science. HABIT will automate the analysis and recognition of horse-to-horse and horse-to-human behaviours, as observed in unconstrained / ad-hoc video. A horse-to-horse dyad video dataset will be compiled, illustrating exemplar behaviours. Behavioural signatures will be manually identified from video. Next, a system will be developed and trained to recognise these signatures. The tool will then be evaluated, when applied to both horse-to-horse and horse-to-human video clips. In the study of animal behaviour, an ‘ethogram’ is a set of comprehensive descriptions of the characteristic behaviour patterns of a species. HABIT is potentially the first step towards the ‘automated ethogram’. This project provides a welfare-orientated approach to evaluating horse behaviours. When horses are handled, trained or ridden, HABIT will help ensure that these experiences occur within the natural repertoire of equine behaviours. There is also scope to engage and educate the public about horse behaviours; both for general interest and to raise welfare-awareness. Additionally, automation could play an important methodological role in animal-centred design by reducing human biases during the requirements and evaluation processes

Observation and quantification of pathological lesions in the musculoskeletal structures of the cervical spine

This thesis describes the study carried out for the `Observation and Quantification of Pathological Lesions in the Musculoskeletal Structures of the Cervical Spine'. In particular, this study has focused on the identification and quantification of pathological lesions of the musculoskeletal complex of the cervical spine, resulting from a whiplash injury. Whiplash was first recognised in the early 1920's, and since this first report there has been a greater number of road users; which has led to an increase in its incidence. Whiplash is an injury of high socioeconomic importance and the ability to understand and assess this injury would benefit from a diagnostic technique. Whiplash injury is the result of a sudden movement of the head typically occurring as a result of a rear-end vehicle collision. Victims typically report varying levels of pain emanating from the neck region, although the exact cause of pain is yet to be established. This unknown pathoanatomy is a possible reason why a suitable diagnostic procedure has not been established. One suggestion is that damage occurring to the soft tissues of the neck, such as muscle and ligament, is responsible for the pain experienced following a whiplash injury. Diagnostic ultrasound is already well established and recognised for its ability to image the musculoskeletal system and identify pathologies, and for this reason is the chosen imaging modality for this study. The effectiveness of diagnostic ultrasound as a diagnostic tool of the soft tissues of the cervical region; and its ability to identify and quantify the pathoanatomy of whiplash is examined. The results of this research enabled the development of a diagnostic procedure that was carried out on whiplash patients. A future study has been suggested based on these findings for the further development of this procedure

Proximate cues to phases of movement in a highly dispersive waterfowl, Anas superciliosa

BACKGROUND: Waterfowl can exploit distant ephemeral wetlands in arid environments and provide valuable insights into the response of birds to rapid environmental change, and behavioural flexibility of avian movements. Currently much of our understanding of behavioural flexibility of avian movement comes from studies of migration in seasonally predictable biomes in the northern hemisphere. We used GPS transmitters to track 20 Pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa) in arid central Australia. We exploited La Ni&ntilde;a conditions that brought extensive flooding, so allowing a rare opportunity to investigate how weather and other environmental factors predict initiation of long distance movement toward freshly flooded habitats. We employed behavioural change point analysis to identify three phases of movement: sedentary, exploratory and long distance oriented movement. We then used random forest models to determine the ability of meteorological and remote sensed landscape variables to predict initiation of these phases. RESULTS: We found that initiation of exploratory movement phases is influenced by fluctuations in local weather conditions and accumulated rainfall in the landscape. Initiation of long distance movement phases was found to be highly individualistic with minor influence from local weather conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals how individuals utilise local conditions to respond to changes in resource distribution at broad scales. Our findings suggest that individual movement decisions of dispersive birds are informed by the integration of multiple weather cues operating at different temporal and spatial scales

Kommen aber alle in die Gänge?: Etude de la relation qu'entretiennent les acteurs du Gängeviertel avec ce lieu et analyse des collaborations et problèmes entre ces acteurs dans la lutte pour la place du squat

Dans ce mémoire, nous nous sommes intéressés au lien entre le tourisme et un squat hambourgeois, à savoir le Gängeviertel. Tout d’abord, nous avons cherché à comprendre les relations qu’entretiennent les différents acteurs (touristes, squatteurs, habitants de Hambourg et institutions) avec le squat et avons utilisé trois concepts pour caractériser cette relation : l’imaginaire géographique, les pratiques et insideness/outsideness. Nous avons ensuite considéré le Gängeviertel comme un enjeu de lutte de place et, en se basant sur nos premiers résultats, avons analysé les collaborations mises en place et les problèmes rencontrés parmi les acteurs dans cette lutte pour place du Gängeviertel. Si les squatteurs possèdent l’imaginaire le plus complexe, des pratiques très spécifiques au lieu et un fort degré d’engagement, ils ne sont pourtant pas les seuls à jouer un rôle dans cette lutte de place. En effet, ils ont mis en place des collaborations avec les habitants de Hambourg ainsi qu’avec les institutions afin de pouvoir conserver la place au centre-ville qu’ils avaient occupée en août 2009. Les touristes, qui ont un imaginaire géographique plus simple, des pratiques moins particulières et qui s’impliquent généralement moins dans le squat participent pourtant eux aussi à la définition de la place du Gängeviertel. Leur simple présence implique que ce lieu possède une dimension touristique, aspect toutefois non désiré par les squatteurs, ce qui mène à plusieurs problèmes entre ceux-ci et les touristes. Il nous semble qu’afin d’éviter ces difficultés, des initiatives devraient être prises pour améliorer l’échange entre ces acteurs, ce qui pourrait permettre de soutenir le droit pour le Gängeviertel d’avoir sa place dans le centre-ville hambourgeois. Ce constat peut aussi être appliqué à d’autres situations du monde social, soulignant ainsi l’importance pour tout projet artistique, culturel ou social de considérer les touristes comme des acteurs potentiels du lieu

Investigating common clinical presentations in first opinion small animal consultations using direct observation

Understanding more about the clinical presentations encountered in veterinary practice is vital in directing research towards areas relevant to practitioners. The aim of this study was to describe all problems discussed during a convenience sample of consultations using a direct observation method. A data collection tool was used to gather data by direct observation during small animal consultations at eight sentinel practices. Data were recorded for all presenting and non-presenting specific health problems discussed. A total of 1901patients were presented with 3206 specific health problems discussed. Clinical presentation varied widely between species and between presenting and non-presenting problems. Skin lump, vomiting and inappetence were the most common clinical signs reported by the owner while overweight/obese, dental tartar and skin lump were the most common clinical examination findings. Skin was the most frequently affected body system overall followed by non-specific problems then the gastrointestinal system. Consultations are complex, with a diverse range of different clinical presentations seen. Considering the presenting problem only may give an inaccurate view of the veterinary caseload, as some common problems are rarely the reason for presentation. Understanding the common diagnoses made is the next step and will help to further focus questions for future research

Observation and quantification of pathological lesions in the musculoskeletal structures of the cervical spine

This thesis describes the study carried out for the `Observation and Quantification of Pathological Lesions in the Musculoskeletal Structures of the Cervical Spine'. In particular, this study has focused on the identification and quantification of pathological lesions of the musculoskeletal complex of the cervical spine, resulting from a whiplash injury. Whiplash was first recognised in the early 1920's, and since this first report there has been a greater number of road users; which has led to an increase in its incidence. Whiplash is an injury of high socioeconomic importance and the ability to understand and assess this injury would benefit from a diagnostic technique. Whiplash injury is the result of a sudden movement of the head typically occurring as a result of a rear-end vehicle collision. Victims typically report varying levels of pain emanating from the neck region, although the exact cause of pain is yet to be established. This unknown pathoanatomy is a possible reason why a suitable diagnostic procedure has not been established. One suggestion is that damage occurring to the soft tissues of the neck, such as muscle and ligament, is responsible for the pain experienced following a whiplash injury. Diagnostic ultrasound is already well established and recognised for its ability to image the musculoskeletal system and identify pathologies, and for this reason is the chosen imaging modality for this study. The effectiveness of diagnostic ultrasound as a diagnostic tool of the soft tissues of the cervical region; and its ability to identify and quantify the pathoanatomy of whiplash is examined. The results of this research enabled the development of a diagnostic procedure that was carried out on whiplash patients. A future study has been suggested based on these findings for the further development of this procedure

Will Wallace's Line save Australia from avian influenza?

Australia is separated from the Asian faunal realm by Wallace’s Line, across which there is relatively little avian migration. Although this does diminish the risk of high pathogenicity avian influenza of Asian origin arriving with migratory birds, the barrier is not complete. Migratory shorebirds, as well as a few landbirds, move through the region on annual migrations to and from Southeast Asia and destinations further north, although the frequency of infection of avian influenza in these groups is low. Nonetheless, high pathogenicity H5N1 has recently been recorded on the island of New Guinea in West Papua in domestic poultry. This event increases interest in the movements of birds between Wallacea in eastern Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia, particularly by waterbirds. There are frequent but irregular movements of ducks, geese, and other waterbirds across Torres Strait between New Guinea and Australia, including movements to regions in which H5N1 has occurred in the recent past. Although the likelihood of avian influenza entering Australia via an avian vector is presumed to be low, the nature and extent of bird movements in this region is poorly known. There have been five recorded outbreaks of high pathogenicity avian influenza in Australian poultry flocks, all of the H7 subtype. To date, Australia is the only inhabited continent not to have recorded high pathogenicity avian influenza since 1997, and H5N1 has never been recorded. The ability to map risk from high pathogenicity avian influenza to Australia is hampered by the lack of quantitative data on the extent of bird movements between Australia and its northern neighbors. Recently developed techniques offer the promise to fill this knowledge gap