Patterns Of Movement Behaviours Research Articles

Spatial patterns of persistence for environmentally transmitted parasites: Effects of regional climate and local landscape

Both regional climatic conditions and local landscape characteristics can affect the ability of environmentally transmitted parasites to persist outside their host. In general, implications of shifting climate conditions on the persistence and spread of parasites have been examined in the absence of interactions with local landscape characteristics (e.g., forest fragmentation). Here, we test the utility of a model that includes regional climate and local landscape characteristics to model environmental persistence of parasites. We used a system with both a well-studied landscape and data-rich host-parasite relationship and investigated how regional and local conditions affected the transmission of a parasitic whipworm (Trichuris spp.) within a population of red colobus monkeys (Procolobus rufomitratus) in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We model persistence of a whipworm deposit in the environment as a function of both regional climate suitability and its sensitivity to the local conditions in which it was deposited. Our simulation suggests that changes to regional climate suitability impacts prevalence patterns in hosts to a larger extent than sensitivity to local landscape characteristics, with no evidence of an interaction effect. However, we find that in landscapes that offer fewer suitable sites for egg persistence (i.e., high sensitivity to local landscape characteristics), our model predicts greater variability in parasite prevalence among host groups, and a shift to source-sink parasite dynamics. Our results suggest that when modeling environmentally-transmitted parasites, explicitly considering spatial patterns of environmental persistence and host movement behaviour provides insight into transmission dynamics of specific landscape-host-parasite systems.

Frequency and time pattern differences in acoustic signals produced by Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) and Sitophilus zeamais (Motschulsky) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in stored maize

Frequency spectra and timing patterns of brief, 1–10 ms broadband sound impulses produced by movement and feeding activities of Prostephanus truncatus and Sitophilus zeamais last instars and adults in maize were investigated to find spectral and temporal pattern information useful for distinguishing among these species and stages. The impulse spectra were categorized into five different types of frequency patterns (profiles), designated Broadband, HighF, MidF1, MidF2 and LowF to indicate differences in their peak energies and broadness of frequency range. Groups (trains) of three or more closely spaced impulses, termed bursts, were observed to occur frequently in all recordings, as has been reported for sounds produced by other insects. Mean rates of bursts, mean counts of impulses per burst, and mean rates of impulses in bursts were calculated and compared among the two species and stages. The counts of broadband and MidF2 impulses per burst and the rates of broadband and MidF2 impulses in bursts were significantly different for adult than for 4th instar S. zeamais and either stage of P. truncatus. These findings can be useful in developing an acoustic sensor system for automated detection of hidden insects including P. truncatus and S. zeamais in bulk storage warehouses. The findings are discussed in relation to different movement and feeding behavior patterns that have been identified in these important pests.

Patterns of movement behaviors and their association with overweight and obesity in youth.

To identify underlying subgroups based on patterns of physical activity, screen-based sedentary behavior, and sleep in a large sample of Canadian youth and to examine the associations between the identified subgroups and overweight and obesity. The study is based on 19,831 youth aged 13-18 years from across Ontario, Canada in the COMPASS study. Participants self-reported their movement behaviors (i.e., physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep), height and weight, and demographics. Latent class analysis and logistic regression models were conducted. Three underlying subgroups were identified in the total sample and male and female subsamples (i.e., unhealthiest movers, active screenies, healthiest movers). In the total sample, the active screenies subgroup was 1.19 (95 % CI 1.09-1.29) times and the unhealthiest movers subgroup was 1.24 (1.14-1.36) times more likely to be classified as overweight/obese compared to the healthiest movers subgroup. Similar associations were observed in the female subsample but not in the male subsample. Public health interventions targeting youth subgroups at increased risk of overweight and obesity through integrated approaches accounting for multiple movement behaviors should be considered, especially for females.

The Comparison of Eye Movements between Chinese Children and Adults When Reading Disappearing Text

Recent studies using the disappearing text paradigm have shown that reading in alphabetic writing systems is not impaired substantially if words remain visible for only a short period when they are fixated(e.g., English: Rayner et al.,2006; Finnish: Blythe et al., 2011).There are, however, important developmental differences in performance on this task,and findings indicate that developing child readers often must fixate more often on words, especially long words,whereas skilled adult readers do not(Blythe et al., 2011). The present study used the disappearing text paradigm in two experiments to investigate if there is a similar developmental difference in performance on the disappearing text paradigm when reading Chinese.These experiments recorded the eye movements of native Chinese developing child readers and skilled adult readers. Participants read sentences formed from regular sequences of two-character words and each sentence was between 7 and 8 words long. These sentences were either presented normally or in a disappearing text paradigm in which, as each word was fixated, the word remained visible only for a short period before disappearing. There were four disappearing text conditions: in Experiment 1, each word remained visible for 20 ms, 40 ms, 60 ms, or 80 ms following fixation onset; and in Experiment 2, each word remained visible for 20 ms, 60 ms, 100 ms, or 140 ms following fixation onset.Both experiments showed that there was no overall cost to reading times for either age group except in the 20 ms display condition, which was longer compared to when sentences were shown normally. This was consistent with the findings from studies in alphabetic languages. However, both the child and adults readers produced different patterns of eye movement behaviour in the disappearing text conditions compared to when sentences were shown normally. First,there was a trade-off between refixation probability and fixation duration, such that both age groups of readers made fewer but longer fixations on words. In addition, both groups of readers were more likely to make regressions back to words in the disappearing text condition compared to when sentences were shown normally, indicating that both age groups were more likely to refixate words, to facilitate word identification, when words were shown only briefly.However, there was also a clear developmental difference in the use of this strategy and the developing child readers made more regressions back to words in the disappearing text paradigm, as compared to when text was shown normally,than did the skilled adult readers. This showed that, as in previous studies using alphabetic languages, developing child readers had more difficulty identifying words when these were visible for only short periods following fixation and often made a regression in order to reinspect words. The indication, therefore, is that developing child readers identify words more slowly than skilled adult readers. Finally, both age groups made initial fixations on words which were closer to the center of the two-character words in disappearing text conditions than when sentences were shown normally, suggesting that the disappearing text manipulation cued readers to the regularity in the construction of the sentences.To conclude, skilled readers of Chinese can identify words extremely quickly during reading. This is consistent with the findings from alphabetic writing systems. For less skilled developing Chinese readers,however, more time is needed to encode words and so these readers often have to reinspect words that are available only very briefly when reading disappearing text. In other words, the findings show that developing child readers' encoding of words is slower than that of skilled adult readers.

QS-STT: QuadSection clustering and spatial-temporal trajectory model for location prediction

Location prediction is a crucial need for location-aware services and applications. Given an object's recent movement and a future time, the goal of location prediction is to predict the location of the object at the future time specified. Different from traditional location prediction using motion function, some research works have elaborated on mining movement behavior from historical trajectories for location prediction. Without loss of generality, given a set of trajectories of an object, prior works on mining movement behaviors will first extract regions of popularity, in which the object frequently appears, and then discover the sequential relationships among regions. However, the quality of the frequent regions extracted affects the accuracy of the location prediction. Furthermore, trajectory data has both spatial and temporal information. To further enhance the accuracy of location prediction, one could utilize not only spatial information but also temporal information to predict the locations of objects. In this paper, we propose a framework QS-STT (standing for QuadSection clustering and Spatial-Temporal Trajectory model) to capture the movement behaviors of objects for location prediction. Specifically, we have developed QuadSection clustering to extract a reasonable and near-optimal set of frequent regions. Then, based on the set of frequent regions, we propose a spatial-temporal trajectory model to explore the object's movement behavior as a probabilistic suffix tree with both spatial and temporal information of movements. Note that STT is not only able to discover sequential relationships among regions but also derives the corresponding probabilities of time, indicating when the object appears in each region. Based on STT, we further propose an algorithm to traverse STT for location prediction. By enhancing the quality of the frequent region extracted and exploring both the spatial and temporal information of STT, the accuracy of location prediction in QS-STT is improved. QS-STT is designed for individual location prediction. For verifying the effectiveness of QS-STT for location prediction under the different spatial density, we have conducted experiments on four types of real trajectory datasets with different speed. The experimental results show that our proposed QS-STT is able to capture both spatial and temporal patterns of movement behaviors and by exploring QS-STT, our proposed prediction algorithm outperforms existing works.

Metastability and emergent performance of dynamic interceptive actions

ObjectivesAdaptive patterning of human movement is context specific and dependent on interacting constraints of the performer–environment relationship. Flexibility of skilled behaviour is predicated on the capacity of performers to move between different states of movement organisation to satisfy dynamic task constraints, previously demonstrated in studies of visual perception, bimanual coordination, and an interceptive combat task. Metastability is a movement system property that helps performers to remain in a state of relative coordination with their performance environments, poised between multiple co-existing states (stable and distinct movement patterns or responses). The aim of this study was to examine whether metastability could be exploited in externally paced interceptive actions in fast ball sports, such as cricket. DesignHere we report data on metastability in performance of multi-articular hitting actions by skilled junior cricket batters (n=5). MethodsParticipants’ batting actions (key movement timings and performance outcomes) were analysed in four distinct performance regions varied by ball pitching (bounce) location. ResultsResults demonstrated that, at a pre-determined distance to the ball, participants were forced into a meta-stable region of performance where rich and varied patterns of functional movement behaviours emerged. Participants adapted the organisation of responses, resulting in higher levels of variability in movement timing in this performance region, without detrimental effects on the quality of interceptive performance outcomes. ConclusionsFindings provide evidence for the emergence of metastability in a dynamic interceptive action in cricket batting. Flexibility and diversity of movement responses were optimised using experiential knowledge and careful manipulation of key task constraints of the specific sport context.

A Biophysical Analysis of Cell and Nucleus Relation

Recently, studies of nuclear motion as well as the identification of the actin cap and the LINC (linker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton) complex have suggested that the cytoskeleton may regulate the position and physical properties of the nucleus. The Rho GTPase family proteins act through separate yet intertwined pathways to govern cytoskeletal remodeling, which affect diverse cell features throughout the cell. Thus, monitored biophysical changes in such features under different conditions may be correlated to their upstream Rho GTPases' signaling. In this study, we analyzed the correlation between nucleus and cell movements of single live cells in an effort to uncover the states of Rho GTPases’ signaling, the underlying contributors to cytoskeletal reorganization. Our novel approach possesses the ability to quantitatively characterize changes in cell movement behavior patterns resulting from Rho GTPase manipulation, and can further distinguish between different cell lines, which should each possess unique Rho GTPase signaling profiles. Cell motility trends predicted by this analysis are in agreement with wound healing assays of the same cells with the advantages of more insight into molecular information and the capability to monitor individual cells. Thus, this analysis can offer a rapid, convenient platform to decipher a cell motility pattern while matching it to its underlying RhoA and Rac1 activities.

Mining User Movement Behavior Patterns in a Mobile Service Environment

Mobile service systems offer users useful information ubiquitously via mobile devices. Based on changeable user movement behavior patterns (UMBPs), mobile service systems have the capability of effectively mining a special request from abundant data. In this paper, UMBPs are studied in terms of the problem of mining matching mobile access patterns based on joining the following four kinds of characteristics, <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">U</i> , <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">L</i> , <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">T</i> , and <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</i> , where <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">U</i> is the mobile user, <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">L</i> is the movement location, <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">T</i> is the dwell time in the timestamp, and <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</i> is the service request. By introducing standard graph-matching algorithms along with the primitives of a database management system, which comprises grouping, sorting, and joining, these joint operations are defined. Moreover, by mining the associated structure via maximum weight bipartite graph matching, a prediction mechanism, based on the model of UMBPs, is utilized to find strong relationships among <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">U</i> , <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">L</i> , <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">T</i> , and <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">S</i> . In addition, a PC-based experimental evaluation under various simulation conditions, using synthetically generated data, is introduced. Finally, performance studies are conducted to show that, in terms of execution efficiency and scalability, the proposed procedures produced excellent performance results.

Das Gespräch zwischen Arzt und Patientin: Die bewegungsanalytische Perspektive

In an analysis of a video-taped 7-minute doctor-patient interview, the body movements and kinetic interactions were coded with movement behaviour scales by two independent raters. For the first time, the kinetic analysis was systematically compared with an independently conducted discourse analysis. The patient's movement behaviour was characterized by a high rate of repetitive trunk movements. Specific kinetic pattern changes co-occurred with verbal utterances that had been identified as therapeutically relevant in the discourse analysis. In his implicit gestural behaviour, the doctor related to the patient by mirroring her and by symbolizing. Repetitive movement activity without self-touching is associated with self-regulatory processes just like continuous self-touching. Changes in movement behaviour patterns help to identify therapeutically relevant processes. Relating to the patient on the gestural level is therapeutically effective, even if the therapist is not aware of his “interventions”.

Linking movement behaviour to dispersal and divergence in plethodontid salamanders

To better understand the evolutionary and ecological effects of dispersal, there is growing emphasis on the need to integrate direct data on movement behaviour into landscape-scale analyses. However, little is known about the general link between movement behaviour and large-scale patterns of dispersal and gene flow. Likewise, although recent studies suggest that nonrandom, directionally biased movement and dispersal can promote evolutionary divergence, the generality of this mechanism is unknown. We test the hypothesis that directionally biased movement and dispersal by plethodontid salamanders interact with the topography of headwater areas to affect genetic and phenotypic divergence. Movements by Gyrinophilus porphyriticus and Eurycea bislineata show contrasting directional biases: upstream bias in G. porphyriticus and downstream bias in E. bislineata. Consistent with predictions of how these biases interact with slope to affect dispersal and gene flow, genetic distance increased with slope in G. porphyriticus and decreased with slope in E. bislineata over a standardized distance of 1 km along six headwater streams. In both species, phenotypic divergence in relative trunk length was positively related to genetic divergence. These results indicate that landscape-scale patterns of dispersal and gene flow are closely related to movement behaviour in G. porphyriticus and E. bislineata, and underscore the value of information on movement behaviour for predicting and interpreting patterns of dispersal and gene flow in complex landscapes. This study also provides new evidence that directionally biased movement and dispersal can be important sources of intra- and interspecific variation in population divergence, and highlights the value of explicit, a priori predictions in landscape genetic studies.

Role of movement, interremnant dispersal and edge effects in determining sensitivity to habitat fragmentation in two forest‐dependent rodents

Abstract Habitat fragmentation and disturbance affect patterns of habitat use, animal movement and spatial behaviour and might have significant effects upon population dynamics and trends, and ultimately population persistence. Previous studies have suggested that the ability to disperse between remnants and a positive or neutral response to edges should be associated with species capable of persisting in remnant habitat. Using both radiotracking and trapping data, movement patterns, dispersal and response to habitat edges of Rattus fuscipes were examined within forests, corridors, remnants and pastures in south‐east Queensland, Australia. Rattus fuscipes has previously been shown to be robust to the effects of habitat fragmentation; however, contrary to expectations, R. fuscipes was found to be sensitive to edges, and no evidence of interremnant dispersal was detected, despite interremnant distances that were substantially smaller than the distances R. fuscipes was found to move in continuous habitat. Using only trapping data, the same factors were examined in relation to Melomys cervinipes, a species sensitive to fragmentation. Melomys cervinipes was found to utilize edge habitat, but no evidence of interremnant dispersal was detected, although the capacity to detect such movement was limited by low abundance in remnants where M. cervinipes was extant, and the species absence from many remnants. Movement patterns, interremnant dispersal capacity, and sensitivity to edges did not prove to be good predictors of these species responses to habitat fragmentation. Alternative explanations, such as population fluctuation and the capacity for rapid population growth in remnants for these two species, and the influence habitat quality has on these parameters should be investigated.

Effects of age and gender on remote pointing performance and their design implications

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of age and sex on remote pointing movements. In addition, an attempt was made to incorporate possible age-related or sex differences into the design of a remote pointing user interface. The subjects were recruited from three age groups (elderly, middle-aged, and young) with equal number of both sexes. The participants were required to perform cursor positioning tasks using a remote pointing device. Their static hand stability and remote positioning time were recorded and analyzed. The remote positioning time was further separated into two components: initial submovement duration and adjustment submovement duration. The results reveal that age-related effects reduced the subjects' ability to perform remote pointing tasks and also maintained hand stability. However, sex differences had no significant effect on either performance. Moreover, the results also reveal that remote positioning movements for the young group were mostly completed in their initial submovement phase, while the elderly subjects spent most of their movement time on the fine adjustment phase. In light of the fact that different age groups exhibit different kinds of movement behavior patterns, suggestions for the design of signal sensitivity, target features, and display/control gain in remote pointing user interface were outlined. Relevance to industry Investigations on the variation in physical and psychomotor capabilities between the sexes and between different age groups which affect remote pointing performance will facilitate the design of remote pointing user interface. This study investigated the effects of age on remote pointing actions and outlined some suggestions for the design of remote pointing user interface.

Fetal heart rate accelerations, fetal movement, and fetal behavior patterns in twin gestations

Previous studies have shown that twins, when monitored simultaneously, show a remarkably high incidence of coincident fetal heart rate accelerations (about 58%). The current study examines synchrony of behavior patterns in twins. We examined 37 fetal monitor strips from 15 sets of twins with simultaneous fetal heart rate and fetal movement recorded by means of Doppler techniques (Toitu MT-430 fetal actocardiograph). The strips were analyzed for coincidence of fetal heart rate accelerations and fetal movement episodes and then conceptually for synchrony of fetal behavior patterns on the basis of descriptions of behavioral states by Prechtl. Thirty-six percent of fetal heart rate accelerations were found to be simultaneous. Forty-three percent of movement epochs were considered simultaneous. We found that twins exhibited synchronous behavior patterns (basically sleep or awake state) 94.7% of the time. Twin-twin interactions are more consistently related than suspected when observation is limited to heart rate alone, and the synchrony and role of fetal behavior states must be considered when twin interactions and behavior are studied.

定置網漁業における魚群行動に関する研究 ＶＩ 定置網周辺における魚群の出現時刻と来遊

Surveys were carried out at several set-net fishing grounds using a scanning sonar to study the appearance times of each species. Flying fish and salmon were observed in the daytime, while mackerel, sardine and other species during the night and day. Their appearance times were different depending on the species. Set-nets were in operation for 24 hours in order to catch all the different species of fish. The movement behaviour of the spotted mackerel and salmon were also analyzed using the fish number and distribution data that had been gathered from the area under observation. Their movement to and from the coast was caused by their repeated movement behaviour around the set-nets. These movement behaviour patterns were regarded as being attributed to the passive capturing process of the set-nets in relation to diurnal periodicity.

Observations on a small group of mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei).

On the basis of a 5-month field study, data are presented on home range, patterns of daily movement and social behaviour in a small free-living gorilla group. Changes in group composition that occurred during the study are analysed with special reference to their effect on inter-individual distance. The relationships with other groups and lone individuals whose home ranges overlapped with that of the group studied are examined on the basis of intergroup contacts.