Open Source Tracking and Analysis of Adult Drosophila Locomotion in Buridan's Paradigm with and without Visual Targets

Rivers worldwide are now acting as major transport pathways for plastic pollution and discharge large quantities of waste into the ocean. Previous oceanographic modelling and current drifter data have been used to predict the movement and accumulation of plastic pollution in the marine environment, but our understanding of the transport and fate through riparian systems is still largely unknown. Here we undertook a proof of concept study by applying open source tracking technology (both GPS (Global Positing System) cellular networks and satellite technology), which have been successfully used in many animal movement studies, to track the movements of individual plastic litter items (500 ml PET (polyethylene terephthalate) drinks bottles) through the Ganges River system (known as the Ganga in India and the Padma and Meghna in Bangladesh, hereafter known as the Ganges) and the Bay of Bengal. Deployed tags were successfully tracked through the Ganges river system and into the Bay of Bengal marine system. The “bottle tags” were designed and built (e.g. shape, size, buoyancy) to replicate true movement patterns of a plastic bottle. The maximum distance tracked to date is 2845 km over a period of 94 days. We discuss lessons learnt from the development of these plastic litter tags, and outline how the potential widespread use of this open source technology has the ability to significantly increase understanding of the location of accumulation areas and the timing of large inputs of plastic pollution into the aquatic system. Furthermore, “bottle tags” may act as a powerful tool for stimulating social behaviour change, informing science-based policy, and as valuable educational outreach tools for public awareness.

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Python-Based Supercell Tracking for Coarse Temporal and Spatial Resolution Numerical Model Simulations

Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology ◽

10.1175/jtech-d-20-0122.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew E. Gropp ◽

Casey E. Davenport

Keyword(s):

Open Source ◽

Spatial Resolution ◽

Climate Model ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Model Verification ◽

Tracking Algorithm ◽

Data Availability ◽

Source Tracking ◽

Temporal And Spatial

AbstractDeep convective thunderstorm tracking methodologies and software have become useful and necessary tools across many applications, from nowcasting to model verification. Despite many available options, many of these pre-existing methods lack a customizable, fast, and flexible methodology that can track supercell thunderstorms within convective-allowing climate datasets with coarse temporal and spatial resolution. This project serves as one option to solve this issue via an all-in-one tracking methodology, built upon several open-source Python libraries, and designed to work with various temporal resolutions, including hourly. Unique to this approach is accounting for varying data availability of different model variables, while still sufficiently and accurately tracking specific convective features; in this case, supercells were the focus. To help distinguish supercells from ordinary cells, updraft helicity and other three-dimensional atmospheric data were incorporated into the tracking algorithm to confirm its supercellular status. Deviant motion from the mean wind was also used identify supercells. The tracking algorithm was tested and performed on a dynamically-downscaled regional climate model dataset with 4 km horizontal grid spacing. Each supercell was tracked for its entire lifetime over the course of 26 years of model output, resulting in a supercell climatology over the central United States. Due to the tracking configuration and dataset used, the tracking performs most consistently for long-lived and strong supercells compared to weak and short-lived supercells. This tracking methodology allows for customizable open-source tracking of supercells in any downscaled convective-allowing dataset, even with coarse temporal resolution.

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SwisTrack - A Flexible Open Source Tracking Software for Multi-Agent Systems

2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems ◽

10.1109/iros.2008.4650937 ◽

2008 ◽

Cited By ~ 79

Author(s):

Thomas Lochmatter ◽

Pierre Roduit ◽

Chris Cianci ◽

Nikolaus Correll ◽

Jacques Jacot ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Open Source ◽

Source Tracking ◽

Multi Agent Systems ◽

Agent Systems ◽

Multi Agent

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Open Source

10.1017/cbo9780511619526 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Fadi P. Deek ◽

James A. M. McHugh

Keyword(s):

Open Source

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A Quick Visual Mind Can be a Slow Auditory Mind

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.56.1.33 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 56 (1) ◽

pp. 33-40 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Sander Martens ◽

Addie Johnson ◽

Martje Bolle ◽

Jelmer Borst

Keyword(s):

Attentional Blink ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Human Mind ◽

Visual Modality ◽

Present Evidence ◽

Conscious Level ◽

Visual Targets ◽

Concurrent Information

The human mind is severely limited in processing concurrent information at a conscious level of awareness. These temporal restrictions are clearly reflected in the attentional blink (AB), a deficit in reporting the second of two targets when it occurs 200–500 ms after the first. However, we recently reported that some individuals do not show a visual AB, and presented psychophysiological evidence that target processing differs between “blinkers” and “nonblinkers”. Here, we present evidence that visual nonblinkers do show an auditory AB, which suggests that a major source of attentional restriction as reflected in the AB is likely to be modality-specific. In Experiment 3, we show that when the difficulty in identifying visual targets is increased, nonblinkers continue to show little or no visual AB, suggesting that the presence of an AB in the auditory but not in the visual modality is not due to a difference in task difficulty.

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