1,720,983 research outputs found
Qualitative behaviour assessment of dairy buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis)
Full text linkThis study applies qualitative behaviour assessment (QBA) for the first time to dairy buffaloes,
using three groups of observers with different cultural backgrounds and different
levels of experience in animal behaviour observation and buffalo farming. Eight buffalo
heifers aged 16–18 months were subjected to two isolation tests, one performed in the
indoor part of their home environment, and one in a novel outdoor paddock. Animals
were filmed individually for 2.5 min, and the resulting 16 video clips were shown to
three observer panels, consisting of 11 applied animal behaviour scientists from 6 European
countries, 11 Italian animal scientists with a background in buffalo farming but no
experience in behavioural observation, and 14 Italian undergraduate animal science students
with no particular experience. A free choice profiling method was used to instruct
observers in QBA, and data for the three panels were analysed separately using Generalised
Procrustes Analysis. All three panels showed significant inter-observer agreement
(p < 0.001) and generated two main consensus dimensions characterised as ‘calm-agitated’
and ‘curious-shy’. There were significant correlations between buffalo scores provided by
each of the three observer panels on both these dimensions (dim1: Kendall W = 0.96, n = 3,
2 = 43.28, p < 0.001; dim2: W = 0.68, n = 3, 2 = 30.73, p < 0.01). Buffaloes viewed in the familiar
indoor pen were assessed by all three panels as more calm and less agitated (dimension
1) than animals viewed in the novel outdoor pen (Wilcoxon z =
−2.52, p < 0.01, z =
−2.52,
p < 0.01, z =
−2.38, p < 0.01 for Panels 1, 2, and 3, respectively). Scores on dimension 1 for the
same animals viewed in either indoor or outdoor pen were correlated at r = 0.60 (p < 0.10),
0.74 (p < 0.05) and 0.71 (p < 0.05) for Panels 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Quantitatively, buffalo
in the outdoor pen displayed longer bouts of running and higher frequencies of sniffing
(both p < 0.05) than those in the indoor pen. Principal component analysis showed meaningful
associations between qualitative and quantitative assessments, allowing qualitative
dimensions to play a valuable role in interpreting the animals’ state. The main outcomes of
this study are that QBA can be usefully applied to scientific studies of dairy buffalo, and that
substantial differences in observer background do not appear to diminish the reliability of
QBA
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Preliminary results on a sequenzial approach to qualitative behaviour assessment in buffaloes
No full textWe aimed to verify whether the qualitative behaviour assessment (QBA) is able to detect the behavioural fluctuations occurring in animals during the observation period. An 8-member panel with a varied experience in animal behaviour was used. The panel was briefly trained on the temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) procedure and subsequently observed the behaviour of 4 buffalo heifers in 4 videos lasting 2 min each following this pro- cedure. Each video was obtained by assembling two clips portray- ing the same animal in two different conditions: home indoor pen (1 min) and novel outdoor paddock (1 min). Two videos started with the animal in the outdoor environment and two oth- ers in the opposite order. Six behavioural descriptors were cho- sen from a previous work conducted on the same animals: calm, active, curious, nervous, shy and apathetic. TDS consists in pre- senting to the panellist the list of behavioural descriptors on a computer screen along with each clip. Each assessor was asked to select the dominant descriptor, which was considered as dom- inant when it gained most of the attention of the observer. Each time the observer felt the behaviour changed, he/she scored the new dominant descriptor until the behaviour ended. Each clip was observed 4 times by each observer (4 replications) in a ranomised order at 24-h intervals. For each point of time, the pro- portion of runs (subject x replication) for which a given descrip- tor was assessed as dominant (dominance rate >30%) was com- puted. Results showed a satisfactory agreement among observers and replications. The observers clearly discriminated the first from the second half of each video. Calm and apathetic were dominant indoors, nervous and active were dominant out- doors, whereas curious was used in both conditions (Figure 1). In addition, the combination QBA-TDS showed how the behav- iour changed in time (e.g. habituation to the novel environment) in outdoor conditions (the dominance of nervous and active at the start switched to calm at the end in 3 out of 4 videos), where- as indoor animals showed reduced behavioural variations, possi- bly because they were already habituated to those conditions, thus they did not have to change their way to interact with the environment
The development of qualitative behaviour assessment as an on-farm inspection tool Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level. 10-13 September, Ghent, Belgium, 52.
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