Smoothing Splines of Apex Predator Movement: Functional modeling strategies for exploring animal behavior and social interactions

The collection of animal position data via GPS tracking devices has increased in quality and usage in recent years. Animal position and movement, although measured discretely, follows the same principles of kinematic motion, and as such, the process is inherently continuous and differentiable. I demonstrate the functionality and visual elegance of smoothing spline models. I discuss the challenges and benefits of implementing such an approach, and I provide an analysis of movement and social interaction of seven jaguars inhabiting the Taiamã Ecological Station, Pantanal, Brazil. In the analysis, I derive measures for pairwise distance, cooccurence and spatiotemporal associaton between jaguars, borrowing ideas from density estimation and information theory. These measures are feasible as a result of spline model estimation, and they provide a critical tool for a deeper investigation of cooccurence duration, frequency, and localized spatio-temporal relationships between animals.

DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF BOGIE WHEELSET- A REVIEW

The dynamic of railway vehicle wheelsets is influenced by the actions of the conicity of the wheels and the creep forces acting between the wheels and rails. In this review paper, the dynamics analysis of wheelset has investigated, equations of motion have formulated and stability criteria obtained which indicate the effects of varying the various parameters of the system. The nature of the motion at the critical speed is investigated and the mode of energy conversion between the forward motion of the vehicle and the lateral motion of the wheelset is explained. From a dynamic analysis, it is shown how the critical speed of the wheelset slips and suspension stiffness relates to the kinematic motion.

PSI-9 Evaluation of an Electronically-controlled Floor Cooling Pad on Semen Quality in Boars During Moderate Heat Stress

Heat stress (HS) decreases semen quality and production in boars. Therefore, the study objective was to evaluate the use of electronically-controlled cooling pads to reduce the negative effects of HS on semen quality. Boars (n=24) were randomly allotted to two treatment groups: boars housed on a non-functional cooling pad (CON) or pads flushing water every 8 minutes or when the pad reached 28.5°C (FLUSH). For 3 d, boars were subjected to cyclical HS (28 to 32°C; >50% relative humidity). Semen was collected for 7 weeks (2 weeks prior to determine baseline semen parameters, the day after HS, and weekly for 4 weeks post HS), and evaluated for volume, sperm concentration, motility, progressive motility, morphology, viability, and kinematic motion parameters. FLUSH boars had higher semen volumes compared to CON (P=0.011) without a corresponding increase in total sperm produced (P=0.852). Boars in FLUSH had higher motility in all weeks (87.0–90.8%) when compared to CON boars. FLUSH boars had higher motility starting in week 4 after HS compared to CON (P=0.017). No differences in progressive motility or kinematic motion parameters were found. There was a tendency for FLUSH boars to have a higher percent normal morphology compared to CON boars (83.1 vs 77.5%, P=0.083) resulting from decreased proximal and distal droplets in the FLUSH boars (P=0.029 and P=.0014, respectively). During week 2 post HS, there was a tendency for FLUSH boars to have a lower percentage of non-viable cells compared to all other weeks for FLUSH and CON boars (P=0.088). Cooling pads were effective at reducing the negative impacts of HS on semen volume, motility, and morphological abnormalities.

80 Use of an Electronically-controlled Floor Cooling Pad During Heat Stress on Thermoregulatory and Reproductive Performance in Boars

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of electronically-controlled floor cooling pads on thermoregulatory and reproductive parameters in boars during heat stress (HS). Boars (n = 24) were randomly assigned to crates with non-functional pads (CON) or pads that were flushed in either 8-min intervals or when the pad reached 28.5°C (FLUSH). For 3 d, boars were subjected to cyclical HS (28 to 35°C; >65% relative humidity). Boars were fed 2.4 kg/d and daily feed intake was recorded. Respiration rate (RR), rectal temperature (Rtemp) and skin temperature were recorded every 2 h during HS (via IR camera), testicular temperature was recorded twice daily. Semen was collected d7 and d14 before HS, the day following HS and weekly for 6 weeks and evaluated for volume, sperm concentration, motility, progressive motility, morphological abnormalities, and viability. After 2 h of HS, FLUSH boars had reduced RR (P < 0.001) and RTemp (P < 0.001) when compared to control boars, and this difference was maintained throughout HS. Skin and testicular temperature were reduced in FLUSH vs. CON boars after 6 h of HS (P < 0.05). Semen volume was greater in FLUSH vs CON boars (P = 0.01) resulting in a tendency for an increase in total sperm per ejaculate (P = 0.075). From weeks 2 to 5 post-HS, FLUSH boars had increased motility (P = 0.006) and progressive motility (P = 0.001), with corresponding increases in sperm kinematic motion parameters when compared to CON boars. The number of morphologically normal sperm cells were increased (P = 0.006) in FLUSH vs CON boars due to reduced distal droplets (P = 0.033) and proximal droplets (P < 0.001). Abnormal acrosomes were reduced (P < 0.001) in FLUSH vs CON boars at week 3 post-HS. In summary, electronically controlled cooling pads effectively reduced negative thermoregulatory indicators of HS and minimized or removed the negative impacts of HS on semen quality in boars.

Structural-parametric synthesis of the tracking filter based on decomposition by the target functional with adaptation to trajectory disturbances

Traditional Kalman-type tracking filters are based on a kinematic motion model, which leads to the occurrence of dynamic errors, which significantly increase during target maneuvering. One of the solutions to this problem is to develop a model of motion dynamics with the ability to adapt its structure to external influences. It is shown that the use of a dynamic model of motion in the filter, which takes into account the inertia of the target and the forces acting on it, makes it possible to significantly increase the efficiency of the state assessment. Purpose is to development of an algorithm for assessing the position of a maneuvering object, effective in terms of accuracy criterion. The use of an adaptive motion model as part of the filter provides an increase in the estimation accuracy in comparison with the classical Kalman filter, which is confirmed by the performed numerical modeling.

Feasibility of Smartphone Camera Utilization and Power Point-based Video Analyzer on Kinematic Motion Experiment: An Inexpensive Method

This study reports on the use of smartphone camera and power point application to analyze the kinematic motion experiment. This method is intended to make a better understanding of student’s concept using the tools that are commonly owned by students. The experiments performed in this study were one-dimensional (1-D) represented by falling motion and two-dimensional (2-D) using parabolic motion. In evaluating the experimental results, the obtained data were compared to the theoretical values that were calculated using analytical approach. The use of this method shows great measurement results in showing dependency of falling motion to gravitational acceleration and proofing the constant velocity at projectile motion on its horizontal plane in which it is comparable to the theoretical value. The video analyzation method also can be used as an alternative solution to the established software, even better when the higher resolution camera and frame rate was used. Noting that the tools used in the experiment were common tools around, thus, this can be used as a replacement for the advance tools.