Parturition is a critical period for the ewe and lamb, and the incidence of dystocia has known impacts on lamb and ewe welfare and productivity. Current methods of dystocia monitoring are mostly conducted through visual observation. Novel approaches for monitoring have also been suggested, including the application of on-animal sensor technologies for remote surveillance of parturition success. This short communication explores how the use of sensor-based parturition detection models can be applied for detection of adverse and successful parturition events, respectively, in pasture-based sheep (Ovis aries). Specifically, the alert profile of a single ewe that experienced vaginal prolapse is reported and compared with the alert profiles of 13 ewes that experienced typical birth events. Although the ewe that experienced vaginal prolapse exhibited some common precursor alerts similar to ewes that progressed through a typical birth event, the overall alert profile was markedly different for the prolapsed animal, with an increased number of alerts occurring from five days prior to the prolapse event. As successful parturition has significant welfare and productivity outcomes, application and validation of these research findings in a commercial system could greatly improve current methods of welfare monitoring at lambing.

Evidence on whether nutritional supplementation affects physical activity (PA) during early childhood is limited. We examined the long-term effects of lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) on total PA, moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) of children at 4–6 years using an accelerometer for 1 week. Their mothers were enrolled in the International Lipid-based Nutrient Supplement-DYAD randomised controlled trial in Ghana, assigned to daily LNS or multiple micronutrients (MMN) during pregnancy through 6 months postpartum or Fe and folic acid (IFA) during pregnancy and placebo for 6 months postpartum. From 6 to 18 months, children in the LNS group received LNS; the other two groups received no supplements. Analysis was done with intention to treat comparing two groups: LNS v. non-LNS (MMN+ IFA). Of the sub-sample of 375 children fitted with accelerometers, 353 provided sufficient data. Median vector magnitude (VM) count was 1374 (interquartile range (IQR) 309), and percentages of time in MVPA and SB were 4·8 (IQR 2) and 31 (IQR 8) %, respectively. The LNS group (n 129) had lower VM (difference in mean −73 (95 % CI −20, −126), P = 0·007) and spent more time in SB (LNS v. non-LNS: 32·3 v. 30·5 %, P = 0·020) than the non-LNS group (n 224) but did not differ in MVPA (4·4 v. 4·7 %, P = 0·198). Contrary to expectations, provision of LNS in early life slightly reduced the total PA and increased the time in SB but did not affect time in MVPA. Given reduced social-emotional difficulties in the LNS group previously reported, including hyperactivity, one possible explanation is less restless movement in the LNS group.

Purpose: Use accelerometers to examine the physical activity behaviours of individuals following TBI undergoing inpatient rehabilitation.

Method: Twenty-one individuals with Traumatic brain injury (TBI) undergoing inpatient rehabilitation (9 females, 12 males; M age = 43.8 ± 14.7 years; M GCS = 9.1 ± 4.3; M time since injury = 40.8 ± 22.1 days; M length of stay (LOS) = 30 ± 14 days) wore accelerometers for an average of 8.4 ± 2.0 consecutive days (1440 minutes/day). Activity counts (AC) were collected at 1 minute epochs and descriptive statistics were calculated to assess intensity of activity and time spent being active and sedentary.

Results: During scheduled therapy, time individuals completed an average of 161.4 ± 65.5 AC/minute, which decreased to 114.5 ± 51.3 during non-therapy time and 22.2 ± 10 when sleeping. Using population level cut points, individuals were on average considered inactive during therapy, inactive or sedentary during non-therapy time, and only one participant spent >1 minute in moderate intensity activity. The mean length of active and sedentary bouts was 9 minutes.

Discussion: Findings indicate that the amount and intensity of activity completed is low amongst individuals completing inpatient rehabilitation after TBI, with the majority considered sedentary or inactive. While the sample is small, it is important to develop and implement safe and effective strategies to increase activity levels during rehabilitation.

Examining the characteristics of an animal’s lying behaviour, such as frequency and duration of lying bouts, has become increasingly relevant for animal welfare research. Triaxial accelerometers have the advantage of being able to continuously monitor an animal’s standing and lying behaviour without relying on live observations or video recordings. Multiple models of accelerometers have been validated for use in monitoring dairy cattle; however, no units have been validated for use in equines. This study tested Onset Pendant G data loggers attached to the hind limb of each of two mature Standardbred horses for a period of 5 days. Data loggers were set to record their position every 20 s. Horses were monitored via live observations during the day and by video recordings during the night to compare activity against accelerometer data. All lying events occurred overnight (three to five lying bouts per horse per night). Data collected from the loggers was converted and edited using a macro program to calculate the number of bouts and the length of time each animal spent lying down by hour and by day. A paired t-test showed no significant difference between the video observations and the output from the data loggers (P=0.301). The data loggers did not distinguish standing hipshot from standing square. Predictability, sensitivity, and specificity were all >99%. This study has validated the use of Onset Pendant G data loggers to determine the frequency and duration of standing and lying bouts in adult horses when set to sample and register readings at 20 s intervals.

High accuracy is usually difficult to obtain with a robotic arm installed on a mobile base, since the errors of the base are transferred to the manipulator. This paper proposes a method to address this problem through integration of a self-calibration algorithm and low-cost sensors. The self-calibration algorithm might be repeated several times during execution of a mission by the robot and is only based on the internal sensors of the robot, meaning that external observers or reference point transceivers (e.g., ultrasonic transceivers) are not used. The proposed self-calibration system was implemented on a pole climbing robot and effectively improved the positioning accuracy of the climbing arm.

Measurement of energy expenditure in humans is required to assess metabolic needs, fuel utilisation, and the relative thermic effect of different food, drink, drug and emotional components. Indirect and direct calorimetric and non-calorimetric methods for measuring energy expenditure are reviewed, and their relative value for measurement in the laboratory and field settings is assessed. Where high accuracy is required and sufficient resources are available, an open-circuit indirect calorimeter can be used. Open-circuit indirect calorimeters can employ a mask, hood, canopy or room/chamber for collection of expired air. For short-term measurements, mask, hood or canopy systems suffice. Chamber-based systems are more accurate for the long-term measurement of specified activity patterns but behaviour constraints mean they do not reflect real life. Where resources are limited and/or optimum precision can be sacrificed, flexible total collection systems and non-calorimetric methods are potentially useful if the limitations of these methods are appreciated. The use of the stable isotope technique, doubly labelled water, enables total daily energy expenditure to be measured accurately in free-living subjects. The factorial method for combining activity logs and data on the energy costs of activities can also provide detailed information on free-living subjects.

Alcohol forms a significant component of many diets and it supplements rather than displaces daily energy intake. Surprisingly, alcohol intake does not systematically increase body weight. The present study assessed whether a higher level of habitual physical activity in the daily environment is associated with a higher alcohol intake. Alcohol intake as part of total food intake was measured with a 7 d dietary record while at the same time physical activity was monitored with a tri-axial accelerometer for movement registration. Subjects were twenty women and twenty-four men, aged 61±5 years, of BMI 27·1±4·6 kg/m2. Between subjects, there was a positive association between the level of habitual physical activity and alcohol intake (r 0·41; P<0·01). The subjects with higher alcohol intake had a higher activity level. On days with and days without alcohol consumption there was no difference in physical activity within subjects. In conclusion, it was shown that subjects with higher alcohol consumption are habitually more active. This may explain the lack of increasing body weight through additional energy intake from alcohol.

In this paper we propose a set of techniques for a real-time motion capture of a human body. The proposed motion capture system is based on low cost accelerometers, and is capable of identifying the body configuration by extracting gravity-related terms from the sensor data. One sensor unit is composed of 3 accelerometers arranged orthogonally to each other, and is capable of identifying 2 rotating angles of joints with 2 degrees of freedom. A geometric fusion technique is applied to cope with the uncertainty of sensor data. A practical calibration technique is also proposed to handle errors in aligning the sensing axis to the coordination axis. In the case where motion acceleration is not negligible compared with gravity acceleration, a compensation technique to extract gravity acceleration from the sensor data is proposed. Experimental results not only for individual techniques but also for human motion capturing with graphics are included.