<p>In this study, any change in fingerprint performance, image quality and minutiae count for infants in three different age groups was evaluated (0-6, 7-12, and >12 months). This was done to determine whether there is a difference in performance between infant age groups for a fingerprint recognition system.</p> <p>The purpose of this research was to determine whether there is a difference in infant fingerprint performance and image quality metrics, between three different age groups (0-6, 7-12, and >12 months old), using the same optical sensor? The data used for this secondary analysis was collected as part of a longitudinal multimodal infant study, using the Digital Persona U.are.U 4500. DET curves, zoo analysis, and image quality metrics were used to evaluate performance and quality factored by infant age group.</p><p>This study found that there was a difference in image quality and minutiae count, genuine and impostor match scores, and performance error rates (EER) between the three age groups. Therefore, quality and performance were dependent on age. While there was a difference in performance between age groups, there was generally stability for subjects who overlapped between multiple age groups. Difference in performance was most likely due to the difference in physical characteristics between subjects in each age group, rather than individual instability. The results showed that it could potentially be feasible to use fingerprint recognition for children over the age of 12 months.</p>

La maladie d'Alzheimer (MA) est une maladie cérébrale dégénérative qui entraîne une perte progressive de la mémoire, un déclin cognitif et une détérioration graduelle de la capacité d'une personne à faire face à la complexité et à l'exigence des tâches quotidiennes nécessaires pour vivre en autonomie dans notre société actuelle. Les traitements pharmacologiques actuels peuvent ralentir le processus de dégradation attribué à la maladie, mais ces traitements peuvent également provoquer certains effets secondaires indésirables. L'un des traitements non pharmacologiques qui peut soulager efficacement les symptômes est la thérapie assistée par l'animal (T.A.A.). Mais en raison de certaines limitations telles que le prix des animaux et des problèmes d'hygiène, des animaux virtuels sont utilisés dans ce domaine. Cependant, les animaux virtuels animés, la qualité d'image approximative et le mode d'interaction unidirectionnel des animaux qui attendent passivement les instructions de l’utilisateur, peuvent difficilement stimuler le retour émotionnel entre l'utilisateur et les animaux virtuels, ce qui affaiblit considérablement l'effet thérapeutique. Cette étude vise à explorer l'efficacité de l'utilisation d'animaux virtuels à la place d’animaux vivants et leur impact sur la réduction des émotions négatives chez le patient. Cet objectif a été gardé à l'esprit lors de la conception du projet Zoo Therapy, qui présente un environnement immersif d'animaux virtuels en 3D, où l'impact sur l'émotion du patient est mesuré en temps réel par électroencéphalographie (EEG). Les objets statiques et les animaux virtuels de Zoo Therapy sont tous présentés à l'aide de modèles 3D réels. Les mouvements des animaux, les sons et les systèmes de repérage spécialement développés prennent en charge le comportement interactif simulé des animaux virtuels. De plus, pour que l'expérience d'interaction de l'utilisateur soit plus réelle, Zoo Therapy propose un mécanisme de communication novateur qui met en œuvre une interaction bidirectionnelle homme-machine soutenue par 3 méthodes d'interaction : le menu sur les panneaux, les instructions vocales et le Neurofeedback. La manière la plus directe d'interagir avec l'environnement de réalité virtuelle (RV) est le menu sur les panneaux, c'est-à-dire une interaction en cliquant sur les boutons des panneaux par le contrôleur de RV. Cependant, il était difficile pour certains utilisateurs ayant la MA d'utiliser le contrôleur de RV. Pour accommoder ceux qui ne sont pas bien adaptés ou compatibles avec le contrôleur de RV, un système d'instructions vocales peut être utilisé comme interface. Ce système a été reçu positivement par les 5 participants qui l'ont essayé. Même si l'utilisateur choisit de ne pas interagir activement avec l'animal virtuel dans les deux méthodes ci-dessus, le système de Neurofeedback guidera l'animal pour qu'il interagisse activement avec l'utilisateur en fonction des émotions de ce dernier. Le système de Neurofeedback classique utilise un système de règles pour donner des instructions. Les limites de cette méthode sont la rigidité et l'impossibilité de prendre en compte la relation entre les différentes émotions du participant. Pour résoudre ces problèmes, ce mémoire présente une méthode basée sur l'apprentissage par renforcement (AR) qui donne des instructions à différentes personnes en fonction des différentes émotions. Dans l'expérience de simulation des données émotionnelles synthétiques de la MD, la méthode basée sur l’AR est plus sensible aux changements émotionnels que la méthode basée sur les règles et peut apprendre automatiquement des règles potentielles pour maximiser les émotions positives de l'utilisateur. En raison de l'épidémie de Covid-19, nous n'avons pas été en mesure de mener des expériences à grande échelle. Cependant, un projet de suivi a combiné la thérapie de RV Zoo avec la reconnaissance des gestes et a prouvé son efficacité en évaluant les valeurs d'émotion EEG des participants. / Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a degenerative brain disease that causes progressive memory loss, cognitive decline, and gradually impairs one’s ability to cope with the complexity and requirement of the daily routine tasks necessary to live in autonomy in our current society. Actual pharmacological treatments can slow down the degradation process attributed to the disease, but such treatments may also cause some undesirable side effects. One of the non-pharmacological treatments that can effectively relieve symptoms is animal-assisted treatment (AAT). But due to some limitations such as animal cost and hygiene issues, virtual animals are used in this field. However, the animated virtual animals, the rough picture quality presentation, and the one-direction interaction mode of animals passively waiting for the user's instructions can hardly stimulate the emotional feedback background between the user and the virtual animals, which greatly weakens the therapeutic effect. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of using virtual animals in place of their living counterpart and their impact on the reduction of negative emotions in the patient. This approach has been implemented in the Zoo Therapy project, which presents an immersive 3D virtual reality animal environment, where the impact on the patient’s emotion is measured in real-time by using electroencephalography (EEG). The static objects and virtual animals in Zoo Therapy are all presented using real 3D models. The specially developed animal movements, sounds, and pathfinding systems support the simulated interactive behavior of virtual animals. In addition, for the user's interaction experience to be more real, the innovation of this approach is also in its communication mechanism as it implements a bidirectional human-computer interaction supported by 3 interaction methods: Menu panel, Speech instruction, and Neurofeedback. The most straightforward way to interact with the VR environment is through Menu panel, i.e., interaction by clicking buttons on panels by the VR controller. However, it was difficult for some AD users to use the VR controller. To accommodate those who are not well suited or compatible with VR controllers, a speech instruction system can be used as an interface, which was received positively by the 5 participants who tried it. Even if the user chooses not to actively interact with the virtual animal in the above two methods, the Neurofeedback system will guide the animal to actively interact with the user according to the user's emotions. The mainstream Neurofeedback system has been using artificial rules to give instructions. The limitation of this method is inflexibility and cannot take into account the relationship between the various emotions of the participant. To solve these problems, this thesis presents a reinforcement learning (RL)-based method that gives instructions to different people based on multiple emotions accordingly. In the synthetic AD emotional data simulation experiment, the RL-based method is more sensitive to emotional changes than the rule-based method and can automatically learn potential rules to maximize the user's positive emotions. Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, we were unable to conduct large-scale experiments. However, a follow-up project combined VR Zoo Therapy with gesture recognition and proved the effectiveness by evaluating participant's EEG emotion values.

The diploid amphibian Xenopus tropicalis represents a significant model organism for studies of early development, genes function and evolution. Such techniques as gynogenesis, injection of morpholino antisense oligonucleotide into fertilized eggs or transgenesis were established. In the recent ten years, many efforts have been made to complete the sequence information. X. tropicalis genome has been sequenced but the completion of its assembly only on the basis of sequence data has been impossible. Therefore, our first work was focused on one of approaches for a genome completing- genetic mapping. First of all, the genetic map of Xenopus tropicalis was established pursuant linkage and physical positions of markers. Since the map contained gaps, we developed a new method for genetic mapping based on the next generation sequencing of laser microdissected arm. Using Illumina next generation sequencing of fifteen copies of a short arm of chromosome 7, we obtained new insights into its genome by localizing previously unmapped genes and scaffolds as well as recognizing mislocalized portions of the genome assembly. This was the first time laser microdissection and sequencing of specific chromosomal regions has been used for the purpose of genome mapping. These data were also used in the evolution study of...

Este trabalho trata de estudo acerca da relação contemporânea entre humanos e animais no contexto das Terapias Assistidas por Animais – TAA, prática terapêutica crescente na promoção da saúde humana. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada através da observação participante de diferentes projetos de TAA, desenvolvidos em hospitais públicos e casas geriátricas, nas cidades de Porto Alegre, São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Metodologicamente esta pesquisa apoiase, fundamentalmente, na etnografia das sessões terapêuticas, com o objetivo de perceber alguns dos princípios que estruturam a prática, sobretudo no que tange à relação humanoanimal e à interação entre os seres que participam do processo terapêutico. Como horizonte teórico, debruceime sobre o pensamento de Tim Ingold, cuja base analítica assentase na consideração de que as ligações que estabelecemos com a natureza, seres e coisas fazem emergir práticas e estilos de vida, como uma chave pragmática para pensar o afloramento de sensibilidades e mundos. Essa proposição tem um caráter prático servindome como suporte junto aos trabalhos de Andrés Georges Haudricourt, Carole Ferret e Perig Pitrou, para tentar entender alguns meandros dessa relação, tomando como base as ações trocadas entre os humanos e os animais, durante a sessão terapêutica. Exploramos, igualmente, alguns discursos relacionados às ações trocadas entre os participantes da sessão, nos aproximando do que se poderia chamar de uma racionalidade terapêutica, de acordo com o pensamento de Madel Luz (2005), que seria própria da atividade, ligandoa ao sistema de saúde convencional, mas também oferecendo inúmeros novos modos de relação e com a ampliação das maneiras de expressão. A terapia em questão, enquanto tecnologia de cuidado, se adapta aos preceitos da Reforma Sanitária e da Reforma Psiquiátrica (Amarante, 1992), pois abrange processos de mudanças em nível legislativo, político, teórico e prático. Este trabalho aponta para uma forma diversificada de técnica terapêutica cujo dispositivo terapêutico está associado à interação do paciente com um animal permitindo, com isso, a crítica aos processos de medicalização da vida (Illich, 1975; Gaudenzi e Ortega, 2012) em acordo apelo para que outros atores sociais entrem em contato com os “doentes”, além dos médicos e enfermeiros (Palombini, 2012). Os animais, sob o amparo de movimentos em defesa dos animais e dos benefícios (fisiológicos e afetivos) advindos da interação interespecífica na TAA, ocupam o prestigiado estatuto de “terapeutas”. / This work deals with a study about the contemporary relationship between humans and animals in the context of Animal Assisted Therapies TAA, a growing therapeutic practice in the promotion of human health. The field research was carried out through participant observation of different TAA projects, developed in public hospitals and geriatric homes, in the cities of Porto Alegre, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Methodologically, this research is based essentially on the ethnography of the therapeutic sessions, in order to perceive some of the principles that structure the practice, especially regarding the humananimal relationship and the interaction between the beings that participate in the therapeutic process. As a theoretical horizon, I focused on the thinking of Tim Ingold, whose analytical basis rests on the consideration that the bonds we establish with nature, beings and things, emerge practices and lifestyles, as a pragmatic key to thinking the outcrop of sensibilities and worlds. This proposition has a practical character serving as a support with the works of Andres Georges Haudricourt, Carole Ferret and Perig Pitrou, to try to understand some meanders of this relationship, based on the actions exchanged between humans and animals, during the therapeutic session. We also explored some discourses related to the actions exchanged between the participants of the session, approaching what could be called a therapeutic rationality, according to the thought of Madel Luz (2005), which would be characteristic of the activity, linking it to the Conventional health system, but also offering innumerable new ways of relating and expanding the ways of expression. The therapy in question, as a care technology, adapts to the precepts of Sanitary Reform and Psychiatric Reform (Amarante, 1992), since it encompasses processes of changes at the legislative, political, theoretical and practical levels. This work points to a diversified form of therapeutic technique whose therapeutic device is associated with the patient's interaction with an animal, thus allowing criticism of the medicalization of life processes (Illich, 1975; Gaudenzi and Ortega, 2012). that other social actors come in contact with the "patients", besides doctors and nurses (Palombini, 2012). The animals, under the protection of movements in defense of the animals and the benefits (physiological and affective) arising from interspecific interaction in the TAA, occupy the prestigious status of “therapists”.

Large carnivores in human care have been reported to engage in stereotypic behaviors. Such behavior is thought to be correlated with high stress levels, in part, due to captive environments limiting opportunities for functional consequences and environmental stimuli. Moreover, there are several arguments stating that stereotypic behaviors can be indicative of poor welfare, as they can often have severe negative emotional and physical effects on the animal. The first portion of this study included a five-phase treatment analysis which evaluated whether environmental manipulations decrease the frequency of stereotypic behaviors including pacing, over-grooming and tail-sucking exhibited by a single male jaguar housed at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. The aim of the present study was to evaluate possible environmental variables that were reported by staff as likely variables maintaining or promoting stereotypic behavior. Data collection occurred during a 10-week evaluation and followed an ABCAD reversal design. Both behavioral data and fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels were analyzed. The second portion of this analysis included a multi-institutional survey to assess the prevalence of the stereotypic behaviors exhibited by zoo-housed jaguars in North American AZA-accredited institutions. Results from the behavioral assessment revealed a decrease in stereotypic behaviors with the implementation of treatment conditions. Hormone analyses revealed that stereotypic pacing is not presently correlated with higher stress levels for this animal. Finally, survey results revealed that a significant portion of the North American jaguar population engages in stereotypic behaviors. Further analyses are necessary to identify potential patterns or environmental predictors for the development of stereotypic behaviors.

No description available.

The work is focused on creating a set of teaching materials on the theme "Birds", which are designed for work groups of pupils aged 8-11 years old elementary school under the guidance of a teacher without the presence of the trainer Zoo Hluboká nad Vltavou. File ("teaching package") will provide information and tools used to help demonstrate the approach of the topics dealt directly with exhibitions focusing on birds, guidance and information for teachers and worksheets for children, including solutions. Individual locations are related with biogeography and apply to the specific environment selected birds groups.

This study investigates a dominance hierarchy in a male group of ruffed lemurs (Varecia spp.). I introduce a new method of data processing in unstable and inconsistent dominance hierarchy. Data were collected in the Ostrava ZOO during 30 days in the summer of 2009 and 28 days in the of winter 2010. The results demonstrate unusual structure in the sequences of agonistic interactions. The lemur group exhibited unstable and inconsistent dominance hierarchy with a low level of linearity. It appears that dominance hierarchy in ruffed lemurs is based on their social role in the family group and not on agonistic interactions.

Este trabalho trata de estudo acerca da relação contemporânea entre humanos e animais no contexto das Terapias Assistidas por Animais – TAA, prática terapêutica crescente na promoção da saúde humana. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada através da observação participante de diferentes projetos de TAA, desenvolvidos em hospitais públicos e casas geriátricas, nas cidades de Porto Alegre, São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Metodologicamente esta pesquisa apoiase, fundamentalmente, na etnografia das sessões terapêuticas, com o objetivo de perceber alguns dos princípios que estruturam a prática, sobretudo no que tange à relação humanoanimal e à interação entre os seres que participam do processo terapêutico. Como horizonte teórico, debruceime sobre o pensamento de Tim Ingold, cuja base analítica assentase na consideração de que as ligações que estabelecemos com a natureza, seres e coisas fazem emergir práticas e estilos de vida, como uma chave pragmática para pensar o afloramento de sensibilidades e mundos. Essa proposição tem um caráter prático servindome como suporte junto aos trabalhos de Andrés Georges Haudricourt, Carole Ferret e Perig Pitrou, para tentar entender alguns meandros dessa relação, tomando como base as ações trocadas entre os humanos e os animais, durante a sessão terapêutica. Exploramos, igualmente, alguns discursos relacionados às ações trocadas entre os participantes da sessão, nos aproximando do que se poderia chamar de uma racionalidade terapêutica, de acordo com o pensamento de Madel Luz (2005), que seria própria da atividade, ligandoa ao sistema de saúde convencional, mas também oferecendo inúmeros novos modos de relação e com a ampliação das maneiras de expressão. A terapia em questão, enquanto tecnologia de cuidado, se adapta aos preceitos da Reforma Sanitária e da Reforma Psiquiátrica (Amarante, 1992), pois abrange processos de mudanças em nível legislativo, político, teórico e prático. Este trabalho aponta para uma forma diversificada de técnica terapêutica cujo dispositivo terapêutico está associado à interação do paciente com um animal permitindo, com isso, a crítica aos processos de medicalização da vida (Illich, 1975; Gaudenzi e Ortega, 2012) em acordo apelo para que outros atores sociais entrem em contato com os “doentes”, além dos médicos e enfermeiros (Palombini, 2012). Os animais, sob o amparo de movimentos em defesa dos animais e dos benefícios (fisiológicos e afetivos) advindos da interação interespecífica na TAA, ocupam o prestigiado estatuto de “terapeutas”. / This work deals with a study about the contemporary relationship between humans and animals in the context of Animal Assisted Therapies TAA, a growing therapeutic practice in the promotion of human health. The field research was carried out through participant observation of different TAA projects, developed in public hospitals and geriatric homes, in the cities of Porto Alegre, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Methodologically, this research is based essentially on the ethnography of the therapeutic sessions, in order to perceive some of the principles that structure the practice, especially regarding the humananimal relationship and the interaction between the beings that participate in the therapeutic process. As a theoretical horizon, I focused on the thinking of Tim Ingold, whose analytical basis rests on the consideration that the bonds we establish with nature, beings and things, emerge practices and lifestyles, as a pragmatic key to thinking the outcrop of sensibilities and worlds. This proposition has a practical character serving as a support with the works of Andres Georges Haudricourt, Carole Ferret and Perig Pitrou, to try to understand some meanders of this relationship, based on the actions exchanged between humans and animals, during the therapeutic session. We also explored some discourses related to the actions exchanged between the participants of the session, approaching what could be called a therapeutic rationality, according to the thought of Madel Luz (2005), which would be characteristic of the activity, linking it to the Conventional health system, but also offering innumerable new ways of relating and expanding the ways of expression. The therapy in question, as a care technology, adapts to the precepts of Sanitary Reform and Psychiatric Reform (Amarante, 1992), since it encompasses processes of changes at the legislative, political, theoretical and practical levels. This work points to a diversified form of therapeutic technique whose therapeutic device is associated with the patient's interaction with an animal, thus allowing criticism of the medicalization of life processes (Illich, 1975; Gaudenzi and Ortega, 2012). that other social actors come in contact with the "patients", besides doctors and nurses (Palombini, 2012). The animals, under the protection of movements in defense of the animals and the benefits (physiological and affective) arising from interspecific interaction in the TAA, occupy the prestigious status of “therapists”.

This study investigates a dominance hierarchy in a male group of ruffed lemurs (Varecia spp.). I introduce a new method of data processing in unstable and inconsistent dominance hierarchy. Data were collected in the Ostrava ZOO during 30 days in the summer of 2009 and 28 days in the of winter 2010. The results demonstrate unusual structure in the sequences of agonistic interactions. The lemur group exhibited unstable and inconsistent dominance hierarchy with a low level of linearity. It appears that dominance hierarchy in ruffed lemurs is based on their social role in the family group and not on agonistic interactions.