•Goat behaviors were classified using 9-axis multi sensor data.•Two machine learning algorithms were used in the classification.•The effect of imbalanced datasets on classification performance was ...assessed.•In addition to acceleration, magnetism was useful in classifying the behaviors.•Data balancing slightly improved the classification of behavior with low prevalence.
Recent developments of small electronic instruments have enabled the classification of animal behavior using simultaneous measurements of various bio-logging data such as acceleration, magnetism, and angular velocity. Following technological progress, studies on the behavioral classification of ruminants combining measurements based on accelerometers, magnetometers, and gyroscopes have received attention. However, while the issue of class imbalance has recently become a serious challenge in classification by machine learning, few behavioral classification studies on livestock animals have focused on the effect of equalizing the prevalence of each behavior to improve the problem caused by the imbalance of data on classification performance. The aims of this study were to classify the behaviors of goats using a back-mounted 9-axis multi sensor (a tri-axial accelerometer, a tri-axial gyroscope, and a tri-axial magnetometer) with machine learning algorithms, and to evaluate changes in the predictive scores by equalizing the prevalence of each behavior. The behaviors of three goats grazing on an experimental pasture were logged for approximately 12 h with the multi sensors. The behaviors were recorded at 1-second intervals with time-lapse cameras throughout the experimental period. Three behaviors were classified: lying, standing, and grazing. Over 100 different variables were extracted from the raw sensor data, and classification was executed by inputting the variables into two supervised machine learning algorithms: K-nearest neighbors (KNN) and decision tree (DT). Moreover, because the prevalence of standing was low compared to that of grazing, the number of observations of each behavior in the training datasets for classification models was equalized by undersampling. As expected, the results indicated that the overall accuracies of both algorithms using all variables derived from the three sensors were higher than those using only variables from the acceleration data. Furthermore, both the algorithms using the variables from the acceleration and magnetism data could classify the behaviors as accurate as the algorithms using variables from all sensor data. Balancing the prevalence of each behavior resulted in a decrease in the F1 scores of the lying and grazing classifications but a slight increase in those of the standing classification by DT. In conclusion, our results suggest that, in addition to tri-axial acceleration, tri-axial magnetism is useful for classifying lying, standing, and grazing activities of ruminants and that equalizing the number of data for each behavior is important to correctly assess the predictive accuracy of behavioral classifications, particularly for the behavior with low prevalence.
•A novel accelerometry approach for evaluating behavior of animals was proposed.•Behavior of cattle under vitamin A (VA) restriction was assessed as a pilot study.•Dynamic body acceleration (DBA) was ...used as an index of physical activity.•Combining behavioral classification and DBA was useful for the behavior assessment.
Evaluation of animal behavior provides information on health and well-being in animals. In this preliminary study, we investigated the effectiveness of an accelerometry approach to evaluate changes in health status of cattle by combining physical activity quantified by dynamic body acceleration (DBA) and qualitative behavioral classification data. Although feeding low vitamin A (VA) diets to fattening cattle is a popular technique to enhance marbling of beef in Japan, the effects of VA restriction on behavior of fattening cattle have been unclear. Therefore, the effect of VA restriction on behavioral change in feedlot steers was assessed by the approach as an example of evaluation of the change in health status. Ten Japanese Black fattening steers were divided into VA restricted (RES) and supplemented (SUP) groups (five in each group). The RES steers were fed lower VA diets than SUP from 11 to 20 months of age. The measurements of blood VA concentrations, accelerations and classified behaviors of the steers were conducted at 18 and 24 months of age. An accelerometer was fitted dorsally to each steer and three axial accelerations were measured at 10 Hz. The raw acceleration data was processed to calculate vectorial DBA (VeDBA) per second. Behavior of the steers was recorded for 8.5 h on one day and visually classified per second as lying, standing, walking or feeding. As the results, the blood VA concentration at 18 months of age was lower in RES than SUP (P < 0.05) (53.2 and 95.6 IU/dL, respectively) but the concentration was similar between the groups at 24 months of age. All VA concentrations were over the recommended minimum value and none of the steers showed clinical manifestations of VA deficiency, indicating that VA restriction was controlled as expected. The durations of classified behaviors and the overall mean VeDBA were similar between the groups. However, the VeDBA for walking was higher in RES than SUP at both ages (P < 0.05). The results suggested that animals under VA restriction might slightly alter their gait as a stress response at 18 months of age and a residual of this might be detected even after the increase of blood VA concentration at 24 months of age; small changes in behavior that could not be detectable by visual classification were quantified via accelerometry. In the future, a combination of automatic behavioral classification and quantified physical activity such as DBA will be useful for feedback on animal health and well-being.
Heart rate variability (HRV), heart beat-to-beat variations, is a measure of cardiac autonomic functions, and HRV monitoring using sensor technology can be a non-invasive way to assess stress of ...animals. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary vitamin A (VA) restriction to enhance beef quality on the physiological status of fattening steers by HRV analysis. Six Japanese Black steers were equally allocated into VA-restricted (RES) and VA-supplemented (SUP) groups. The RES steers were fed VA-restricted diets from 11 to 20 months of age. The inter-beat intervals and blood VA concentration were measured at 18 and 24 months of age. HRV parameters in time, frequency, and non-linear domains were calculated using the inter-beat intervals. Blood VA concentration was significantly lower in RES steers than in SUP steers at 18 months of age (
P
< 0.05) but did not differ between the groups at 24 months of age. The HRV analysis indicated greater sympathetic and lower parasympathetic activities in RES steers than in SUP steers (
P
< 0.05). However, there were significant interactions of the group and age on HRV parameters (
P
< 0.05), indicating that although RES steers at 18 months of age might suffer from slight stress, the response could recover to a level similar to SUP steers at 24 months of age by the increase in blood VA concentration.
In 19th century Bavaria, as in many other German states, legal restrictions on marriage were adopted to prevent population increase among poor families. Setting aside the original aim of the law this ...article considers the influences of the legislation upon farmers and agricultural servants in the area. In the rural area of Upper Bavaria, the main region of the present study, the principle of impartible inheritance was general and therefore there were many agricultural servants who were employed by farmers as laborers and lived in their employer's house. They were single. The farmer needed servants to maintain his large farm, but the servants would not obey the employer. Disobedience among servants was a long standing issue for the government authorities, too. It is clear that the Minister of Home Affairs, Ottingen von Wallerstein, sought to improve the attitude of servants, partly by putting rigorous conditions on marriage, which was the earnest desire of the servants, and partly by giving the right to determine whether servants might marry to the village communities i.e. the farmers. Marriage would bring independence from the farmer who was the object of the servants' disobedience. In addition, the legislation was useful in relieving the shortage of able agricultural servants. The legislation required servants to serve an apprenticeship of at least 15 years. Finaly, I look at the social background that enabled the legislation to function-the low removability of the servants reflecting the closed constitution of the village communities and the tolerant attitude to illegitimate birth among the village communities.
The application of white-rot fungi to pulping and bleaching processes has been studied at the Wood Chemistry Laboratory in Kyushu University, cooperatively with the Biotechnology Laboratory of Kobe ...Steel, Ltd. Some successful results of the studies for a biomechanical pulping process, biobleaching of hardwood and softwood kraft pulp, as well as chlorine free biobleaching of oxygen-prebleached hardwood kraft pulp are dealt with. Biological treatment of the pulp bleaching effluent is also described.
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