Currently, much attention is paid to magnetoreception, a sense which allows an organism to detect a magnetic field of the earth. Now, this discovery is related to positional behaviour of animals (magnetic alignment) in the magnetic field and the world phenomenon of "magnetic cows". The magnetic alignment is a spontaneous (congenital) behaviour, when the animal puts its body axis into the positions of north - south or east - west. Most studies have demonstrated the north - south direction preference. This work contributes to clarify positional behaviour of cattle during the daily cycle. This study is based on a different data collection and is targeted at individuals in the herd. Individuals were photographed in a given direction, at hourly intervals. The magnetic alignment was determined in 26 individuals from three different cattle herds, mainly east or west. Statistically significant results during daily cycles in individual intervals also confirmed the north - south direction preference. There were also discussed the environmental conditions that may affect the final result. For inconclusive results, the individuals were probably motivated by temporarily more important local incentives.

abstract: Soft polymer composites with improved thermal conductivity are needed for the thermal management of electronics. Interfacial thermal boundary resistance, however, prevents the efficient use of many high thermal conductivity fill materials. Magnetic alignment of ferrous fill material enforces percolation of the high thermal conductivity fill, thereby shifting the governing boundary resistance to the particle- particle interfaces and increasing the directional thermal conductivity of the polymer composite. Magnetic alignment maximizes the thermal conductivity while minimizing composite stiffening at a fill fraction of half the maximum packing factor. The directional thermal conductivity of the composite is improved by more than 2-fold. Particle-particle contact engineering is then introduced to decrease the particle- particle boundary resistance and further improve the thermal conductivity of the composite. The interface between rigid fill particles is a point contact with very little interfacial area connecting them. Silver and gallium-based liquid metal (LM) coatings provide soft interfaces that, under pressure, increase the interfacial area between particles and decrease the particle-particle boundary resistance. These engineered contacts are investigated both in and out of the polymer matrix and with and without magnetic alignment of the fill. Magnetically aligned in the polymer matrix, 350nm- thick silver coatings on nickel particles produce a 1.8-fold increase in composite thermal conductivity over the aligned bare-nickel composites. The LM coatings provide similar enhancements, but require higher volumes of LM to do so. This is due to the rapid formation of gallium oxide, which introduces additional thermal boundaries and decreases the benefit of the LM coatings. The oxide shell of LM droplets (LMDs) can be ruptured using pressure. The pressure needed to rupture LMDs matches closely to thin-walled pressure vessel theory. Furthermore, the addition of tungsten particles stabilizes the mixture for use at higher pressures. Finally, thiols and hydrochloric acid weaken the oxide shell and boost the thermal performance of the beds of LMDs by 50% at pressures much lower than 1 megapascal (MPa) to make them more suitable for use in TIMs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Mechanical Engineering 2019

Thesis is monitoring body orientation during the day cycle, with a special focus on the body orientation during resting and grazing cattle. Environmental conditions including the Earth's magnetic field which affect the animal orientation have been evaluated. Body orientation of the selected individuals was determined by compass, directly every half hour at the site. In total 24 cows in 2 herds were monitored. In every herd were chosen 12 easily recognizable individuals. Monitoring took place 7 days in September 2016. About weather conditions (wind, rain, sun, temperature) and resting of the individuals was kept an account, which would affect the cattle orientation. This study could not confirm the theory of the N-S cattle orientation by magnetic field and therefore can not confirm or disprove the influence of the power line to the cattle orientation. Even at rest or grazing cattle the theory of the N-S orientation could not be confirmed.

This thesis was focused on determining the orientation of the body of domestic sheep while grazing or resting. Attention was also paid to the assessment of environmental conditions that may affect the position of animal behaviour. Data were collected through the direct observation compared to the previous studies, which have been based on satellite images from Google Earth. In this experiment, only selected designated individuals were evaluated. The direct observation detected the individual preferences of animals, not only the direction but also the location. The evaluating of photos of the animals found out, according to the time of day,north and west facing position of the body. The more significant directional preference was documented in resting individuals.

This study was focused on cattle body orientation in a new pasture environment. Environmental conditions that could affect orientation were also evaluated. Data were collected by direct observation of three groups of cattle for three days from 7:00 to 19:00 each hour. Photographs of individuals were taken and the direction to north was determined using a compass. Simultaneously, meteorological data (temperature, relative humidity, wind direction and velocity, precipitation) were also recorded each hour.

The focus of this research was the spontaneous magnetic alignment responses of animals. We show that snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) and crayfish (Cambarus sciotensis) spontaneously align their body axes relative to the magnetic field. In snapping turtles, this response is sensitive to low-level radio frequency fields, consistent with a mechanism involving a light-dependent radical pair mechanism. Findings from the turtle experiments also suggest that the Earth's magnetic field plays an important role in encoding spatial information in novel surroundings, and may help to organize multiple locales into a 'mental map' of familiar space. Given the importance of magnetic input in many aspects of spatial behavior, another important finding was that magnetic alignment of yearling turtles was disrupted by high levels of maternally transferred mercury, an industrial waste product found at high levels in some fresh water ecosystems. In crayfish, we investigated the effects of ectosymbionts (Annelida: Branchiobdellida) on magnetic alignment responses. Interestingly, the response of crayfish to magnetic cues parallels the complex symbiotic interaction between crayfish and their ectosymbiotic worms, which changes from mutualistic to parasitic with increasing worm density. Our working hypothesis was that these changes in spatial behavior may increase or decrease contact to other crayfish, and therefore increase or decrease transmission rates. Next, to address the ontogeny of the SMA, we attempted to replicate an earlier study showing a possible magnetic alignment response in chicken embryos. Although chicken embryos did show non-random alignment, we were not able to find a magnetic effect. Alignment is also an important feature of animal constructions and is very likely to have fitness consequences, which we explored in woodpecker cavity alignments in a meta-analysis of available global data. The latitudinal and continental pattern in 23 species of woodpeckers suggests that an alignment response can have the proximate function to regulate microclimate in the cavity and therefore, presumably, optimize incubation temperatures and increase hatching success. Overall, the presented findings show how experimental and observational studies of spontaneous alignment behavior can provide insight into the ecology and sensory biology of a wide range of animals. / Ph. D.