Spatiotemporal understanding of behaviors of laying hens using wearable inertial sensors.

Automatic detection of behaviors and locations has been increasingly needed in the management of noncage systems where hen behaviors are highly diverse and active. Here we show a technology to spatiotemporally understand behaviors using a wearable inertial sensor, containing a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis angular velocity sensor (i.e.

Evaluating Behavior Recognition Pipeline of Laying Hens Using Wearable Inertial Sensors.

Recently, animal welfare has gained worldwide attention. The concept of animal welfare encompasses the physical and mental well-being of animals. Rearing layers in battery cages (conventional cages) may violate their instinctive behaviors and health, resulting in increased animal welfare concerns.

New Position Candidate Identification via Clustering toward an Extensible On-Body Smartphone Localization System.

On-body device position awareness plays an important role in providing smartphone-based services with high levels of usability and quality. Traditionally, the problem assumed that the positions that were supported by the system were fixed at the time of design. Thus, if a user stores his/her terminal into an unsupported position, the system forcibly classifies it into one of the supported positions.

Estimating Visibility of Annotations for View Management in Spatial Augmented Reality Based on Machine-Learning Techniques.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a class of "mediated reality" that artificially modifies the human perception by superimposing virtual objects on the real world, which is expected to supplement reality. In visual-based augmentation, text and graphics, i.e.

Ascending contraction and descending relaxation in the distal colon of mice lacking interstitial cells of Cajal.

Recently an essential role of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) within myenteric plexus (ICC-MY) was suggested in ascending contraction and descending relaxation in the mouse ileum. The role of ICC in these neural reflexes was examined in the distal colonic segments prepared from the wild type and c-kit mutant, W/W(V) mice, in the present study. Localized distension of the segments from the wild type mice by using a small balloon resulted in ascending contraction and descending relaxation.

Examination of the role of cholinergic myenteric neurons with the impairment of neural reflexes in the ileum of c-kit mutant mice.

Our previous study showed that impairment of ascending and descending neural reflexes in the ileum of the c-kit mutant, W/W(V), mice is due to a loss of interstitial cells of Cajal present at the myenteric plexus region (ICC-MY) in the mutant. In the present study, cholinergic interneurons were thought to be involved in these pathways, since hexamethonium, an antagonist of the nicotinic ACh receptor, significantly inhibited both neural reflexes in wild type mice. Therefore, we examined whether the loss of ICC-MY affects cholinergic interneurons involved in these pathways.

Role of the interstitial cells distributed in the myenteric plexus in neural reflexes in the mouse ileum.

We examined the role of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) in the ascending and descending neural reflexes in the ileal segments prepared from wild type mice and c-kit mutant W/WV mice. Localized distension of the ileal segments from wild type mice with a small balloon caused contraction or relaxation of the circular muscle on the oral or anal side of the distended region, respectively. However, these intestinal reflexes were not induced in the ileal segments from the mutant mice.

Roles of M2 and M4 muscarinic receptors in regulating acetylcholine release from myenteric neurons of mouse ileum.

We investigated the subtype of presynaptic muscarinic receptors associated with inhibition of acetylcholine (ACh) release in the mouse small intestine. We measured endogenous ACh released from longitudinal muscle with myenteric plexus (LMMP) preparations obtained from M1-M5 receptor knockout (KO) mice. Electrical field stimulation (EFS) increased ACh release in all LMMP preparations obtained from M1-M5 receptor single KO mice.

Essential role of the interstitial cells of Cajal in nitric oxide-mediated relaxation of longitudinal muscle of the mouse ileum.

The role of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) in electrical field stimulation (EFS)-induced neurogenic responses in ileum was studied by using the ICC-deficient mutant (SLC-W/W(V)) mouse and its wild type. In the immunohistochemical study with anti-c-Kit antibody, ICC was observed in the myenteric plexus (MY) and deep muscular plexus (DMP) region in the wild type. In the mutant, ICC-MY were lost, only ICC-DMP were present.

Changes in mechanism of PACAP-induced relaxation in longitudinal muscle of the distal colon of Wistar rats with age.

Mechanisms of relaxation of longitudinal muscle of the distal colon induced by exogenously added pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide (PACAP) were studied in 2- to 30-week-old Wistar rats. Exogenous PACAP induced very significant relaxation of the longitudinal muscle in 2-week-old rats, but this effect decreased significantly with age. The cyclic AMP-cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) pathway and the tyrosine kinase-small conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channel (SK channel) pathway were found to be involved in the mechanism of PACAP-induced relaxation.

A possible role of neurotensin in NANC relaxation of longitudinal muscle of the jejunum and ileum of Wistar rats.

The mediators of nonadrenergic, noncholinergic (NANC) relaxation in longitudinal muscle of the jejunum and ileum of Wistar rats were examined in vitro. Treatment of the jejunal and ileal segments with alpha-chymotrypsin resulted in decreases in the NANC relaxations induced by electrical field stimulation (EFS) by about one half. The NANC relaxations were also decreased by about one half after the segments had been desensitized to neurotensin.