Remote Recording Research Articles

Notes on pupal behaviour, eclosion, mate attraction, copulation and predation of the New Zealand glowworm Arachnocampa luminosa (Skuse) (Diptera: Keroplatidae), at Waitomo

The behaviour of pupae and adults of the New Zealand glowworm Arachnocampa luminosa was observed in Reserve Cave and in the cave entrance at Waitomo, New Zealand, from remote video recordings made with infra-red light. One female pupa observed in the cave was videotaped for 111 h before the adult emerged and copulated with a male. This female took 13 h 23 min to eclose, during which she glowed intermittently on 17 occasions. The male alighted upon the emerging female 13 h and 8 min after eclosion commenced and 3 min 33 s after she last glowed. Copulation commenced 12 h 55 min later and continued for 12 h 36 min. Two minutes after the pair separated, both adults were caught and eaten by a predatory harvestman (Megalopsalis tumida). Most of the eclosion was recorded for a second female pupa observed, on a rock face in the bush-clad entrance to Reserve Cave after 97 h of videotaping. Prior to eclosion this pupa made flicking movements when small crawling invertebrates contacted it during the daytime; this is the first time this behaviour has been described for A. luminosa. A male pupa in the cave was videotaped for 94 h until the adult emerged. It glowed dimly for 45 min during eclosion and the adult flew off 42 h 39 min after eclosion commenced.

Remote data collection on ice breakup dynamics: Saint John River case study

Abstract Dynamic processes that occur during the breakup of river ice covers have important socio-economic and ecological impacts, but development of predictive capability is hampered by the brevity of the event and the ever-changing flow and ice conditions. The spatial and temporal variation of river water levels reflects the evolution of breakup processes and may be used to quantify their characteristics. However, various practical difficulties in measuring such variations have contributed to a scarcity of relevant data. A recently developed technique for remote recording of river levels involves pre-breakup deployment of portable pressure loggers, which are retrieved weeks or months later. Logger memory can accommodate high sampling frequencies, sufficient to capture very rapid water level changes. Application of this technique to document a highly dynamic breakup in the Saint John River, New Brunswick, resulted in an extensive data set. The processed logger output is described in detail and shown to furnish important insights on the chronology of breakup events. Analysis of the water level records that were obtained at different locations resulted in quantification of the hydrodynamic properties of waves generated by ice jam releases, also known as “javes”. Jave-induced amplification of flow and shear stress decreased with traveled distance, being between 2.5 and 3.0 at a distance of 11 km. Extensive mobilization of the riverbed during the passage of javes in the study reach is likely. Application of a numerical model to the measured WL profile of a major ice jam resulted in default-range calibration coefficients, further corroborating current modeling capability.

Bat calls while preying: A method for reconstructing the signal emitted by a directional sound source.

Understanding and modeling bat biosonar behavior should take into account what the bat actually emitted while exploring the surrounding environment. Recording of the bat calls could be performed by means of a telemetry system small enough to sit on the bat head, though filtering due to bat directivity affects recordings and not all bat species are able to carry such a device. Instead, remote microphone recordings of the bat calls could be processed by means of a mathematical method that estimates bat head orientation as a first step before calculating the amplitudes of each call for each frequency. This approach considers bat position with respect to each microphone, directivity, and head orientation for compensating microphone recordings of bat calls. The method has been tested in a laboratory environment using data from a Polaroid transducer as sound source: results are presented and discussed. A further improvement of the method is necessary as its performance for call reconstruction strongly depends on correct choice of the sample at which the recorded call is thought to start in each microphone data set.

A setup for remote recording of the spectrum of laser-induced fluorescence from crowns of woody plants

A setup intended for remote studies of the chlorophyll content in woody plants is described. Fluorescence spectra from an object under study excited by laser radiation at a wavelength of 532 nm are recorded in the spectral range 600–850 nm. The performance characteristics of the setup allow acquisition of the spectra of short-term fluorescence of nanosecond duration, which are normalized to the maximum value of the signal of the reference channel. An MДP-23 monochromator is used as an element of spectral selection. Examples of recording a return pulse and the fluorescence spectrum from a Scotch pine are presented.

A new method to sample stuttering in preschool children

This study reports a new method for sampling the speech of preschool stuttering children outside the clinic environment. Twenty parents engaged their stuttering children in an everyday play activity in the home with a telephone handset nearby. A remotely located researcher telephoned the parent and recorded the play session with a phone-recording jack attached to a digital audio recorder at the remote location. The parent placed an audio recorder near the child for comparison purposes. Children as young as 2 years complied with the remote method of speech sampling. The quality of the remote recordings was superior to that of the in-home recordings. There was no difference in means or reliability of stutter-count measures made from the remote recordings compared with those made in-home. Advantages of the new method include: (1) cost efficiency of real-time measurement of percent syllables stuttered in naturalistic situations, (2) reduction of bias associated with parent-selected timing of home recordings, (3) standardization of speech sampling procedures, (4) improved parent compliance with sampling procedures, (5) clinician or researcher on-line control of the acoustic and linguistic quality of recordings, and (6) elimination of the need to lend equipment to parents for speech sampling.

Ecological and physiological determinants of dive duration in the freshwater crocodile

Summary 1. Body mass is a key determinant of diving performance in endotherms. In air‐breathing ectotherms however, this paradigm occurs with considerably less force. Here, through remote recordings of dive behaviour over a wide size range (5–42 kg body mass, n = 17) of freshwater crocodiles (Crocodylus johnstoni), we demonstrate why body mass is such a poor determinant of dive duration for ectothermic divers. 2. Crocodiles were released into the wild with a time‐depth‐recorder attached to their dorsal scutes, and a movement activated radio‐tag attached to their tail. Over 15 days, 652·6 ± 58·4 (mean ± SE, n = 17) dives were recorded, with all individuals exhibiting two specific dive‐types. These were, a resting‐dive (62·7 ± 5·4% of total dive no.), where no activity occurred during the dive, and an active‐dive (37·1 ± 6·3% of total no.) associated with swimming. 3. The durations of resting‐dives (∼12 min) were similar for all crocodiles. Smaller crocodiles (6·3 ± 0·7 kg, mean ± SE, n = 9) exhibited a significant correlation between dive duration and post‐dive surface‐interval, whilst larger crocodiles (17·9 ± 3·75 kg, mean ± SE, n = 8) did not. This demonstrated that aerobic dive duration was mass‐specific during resting‐dives, but other mass specific factors, presumably ecological, determined dive duration. 4. The durations of active‐dives were never >1 min, showed no relationship with body mass and no correlation with the post‐dive‐surface interval. In crocodiles, aerobic metabolic scope is independent of body mass but anaerobic capacity is mass dependent, suggesting that active‐dive duration was determined by sustained activity and dives were terminated before anaerobic metabolism became significant. 5. All individuals showed similar diel phase shifts in dive duration, type and depth, illustrating the overwhelming influence of the external environment on dive behaviour. Dive durations which resulted in significant anaerobic debt occurred rarely, but were undertaken in response to a potential threat. 6. Body mass was a poor predictor of diving in C. johnstoni because the external environmental and ecological factors exerted a greater influence on dive duration than oxygen reserves.

Remote monitoring of the behaviour and activity of captive southern hairy-nosed wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons)

The nocturnal nature of wombats makes it difficult to learn about their behavioural ecology and activity rhythms in the wild. A facility was established at Rockhampton Zoo to house 12 adult southern hairy-nosed wombats in order to monitor their behaviour by means of video surveillance and provide detailed information on their activity patterns using movement-sensitive radio-transmitters. After one year of monitoring it was established that the wombats spent, on average, as a proportion of total time 69.9% sleeping, 8.8% lying resting, 5.2% feeding, 5.2% exploring, 4.3% performing stereotyped behaviour, 2.5% sitting resting and 4.1% in other activities. Feeding, lying resting and sleeping varied with season by ~5%. Temporal patterns were bimodal for 8 of the 12 behaviours described, with most ‘active’ behaviours being expressed between 1800 and 2000 hours and 0200 and 0500 hours. The activity pattern was characterised by a strong circadian rhythm, with most activity occurring nocturnally. Within active periods there was an alternating rhythm of active and rest periods and activity peaks at the beginning and end of each night. Comprehensive and reliable information on the behavioural ecology, as well as captive management, of southern hairy-nosed wombats was obtained from the remote video and radio-transmitter recordings.

Seasonal variation in acoustic signals of Pileated Woodpeckers

Abstract We used remote recorders to document temporal variation in acoustic signals of a population of Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) along the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida Panhandle, sampling seven different locations for 24 hrs once a week between mid January and mid April 2006. We found significant seasonal variation in the drumming behavior and vocal behavior of Pileated Woodpeckers. Drumming behavior peaked in mid March, just prior to onset of breeding activities. The three primary long-distance Pileated Woodpecker vocalizations, the cackle call, the wuk series call, and the wok call had similar patterns of seasonal variation. All four acoustic signals declined to low levels by early April when birds were nesting. The seasonal pattern of variation for all four Pileated Woodpecker acoustic signals had a similar pattern to that observed for song in many temperate passerines, and support the hypothesis that woodpecker calls and drumming displays are the functional counterparts to pass...

Images formed by laser metrology of complex substructures: new concept in non-destructive inspection

The present paper presents the results of the remote recording, analysis and study of defect detection with laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) coupled with shockwave excitation. The non-destructive inspection (NDI) procedure employed is based on the vibrational excitation and evaluation of test objects with defects of both known and unknown parameters. Additionally the potential advantages are presented of using whole field laser Doppler vibrometry (WFLDV) being developed. To evaluate the procedure the technique has been applied to a number of different samples that have been tested by this system of NDI. The test samples included multilayer and sandwich composites, ceramic and aluminium structures containing in service occurring or preprogrammed defects. Additionally included is an example of corrosion occurring at second and third layers in an airframe structure together with an example, manufactured to simulate metal loss, by introducing a 'defect' represented by a machined thickness removal of 2% at the central part of the test object.

Determining the velocity of an object in water, using digital speckle-photography

A method of digital speckle photography has been developed for the remote recording and determination of the displacement parameters of objects in an aqueous medium. This method is verified in experiments with a test object under closed-tank conditions. Vector diagrams are obtained that depict the mean velocities of an object. The dependence of the accuracy of the velocity-vector diagrams on the experimental parameters is discussed.

Equipment for remote recording of cracks in materials and welded joints

Equipment for remote recording of cracks in materials and welded joints

Behavioural and glucocorticoid responses of dogs ( Canis familiaris) to kennelling: Investigating mitigation of stress by prior habituation

We have explored the validity of urinary cortisol/creatinine ratios (C/C) and behavioural measures as indicators of acute psychological stress in the domestic dog, by monitoring 1 year old male Labrador Retrievers ( N = 31) prior to and following their introduction to novel kennels in a training establishment. Baseline early morning urine samples were taken in the dogs' original homes and then urine samples and remote recordings of behaviour were taken for ten consecutive days after transfer to the kennels. The impact of this potential stressor was manipulated by previously habituating half of the subjects to confinement in a kennel. We hypothesised that stress levels would increase upon introduction to the training establishment, but that the response would be mitigated by kennel habituation. C/C increased in all dogs when they entered the training establishment, this increase was significantly higher in the non-habituated group, and in this group C/C remained above baseline even 12 weeks after transfer. Despite the homogeneity of the subjects, the behaviour measured showed very little correlation to the C/C ratios, and the changes in behaviour that were observed, such as decreases in whining and time spent at the front of the kennel, could equally be attributed to dogs learning the most effective strategies for gaining human attention in the kennels as to attenuation of stress. We conclude that urinary C/C is a valuable indicator of acute stress and hence welfare status in dogs, but that behavioural measures need to be interpreted with caution due to individuality in coping strategies.

Miniature digital telemetric bioelectric recording

In the research a prototype to record the activity of ensembles of single neurons from the brains of freely moving rats has been developed. The DT4 prototype has 16 inputs, weighs 10 g and is powered for over 4 hours by an 18 g battery. The DT4 digitizes signals at 24-bit resolution, allowing signals as small as 10 mV to be resolved. Each input is initially low-pass filtered (5,5 kHz) and digitized (12 kHz). The digital signals are combined into a single data stream and the serialized data are then transmitted to a remote DSP-based recording system via either an optical fiber or 2.4 GHz radio channel.

Optical lightpipe as a high-bandwidth fusion diagnostic

A recent series of experiments at the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics OMEGA facility studied the feasibility of using radiation-to-light converters and high-bandwidth optical signal transmission to remote recording devices as an alternate nuclear diagnostic method. A prototype system included a radiation-to-light converter, a multiple-section lightpipe consisting of stainless steel tubes with polished interiors and turning mirrors, and a streak camera or photomultiplier/digitizer combination for signal recording. Several different radiation-to-light converters (scintillators, glasses, plastics, and pressurized CO2) performed well and produced predictable optical emissions. The lightpipe transmitted high-bandwidth optical signals to the recording stations. Data were recorded with the streak camera, the photomultiplier/digitizer, and with both recorders simultaneously.

A Low-Cost, High-Quality Method for Remote Recording of Presentations

The purpose of this article was to develop a low-cost method for high-quality remote capturing and recording of multimedia presentations. The method for making high-quality digital recordings of presentations by using the mix of freely available software presented in this article offers great potential for institutions on a budget as well as others seeking viable alternatives to current methods of presentation recording.

Remote capture of human voice acoustical data by telephone: A methods study

In this pilot study we sought to determine the reliability and validity of collecting speech and voice acoustical data via telephone transmission for possible future use in large clinical trials. Simultaneous recordings of each participant's speech and voice were made at the point of participation, the local recording (LR), and over a telephone line using a dedicated in‐line computerized interactive voice recording system, the remote recording (RR). All voice recordings were made from our laboratory telephone located in Groton, Connecticut to the RR system located in Madison, Wisconsin. All data points were compared on a measure‐by‐measure basis between the LR and RR recordings. The results suggest that both measures of frequency excursion and of speech motor timing are reliably captured over the telephone. Results are discussed in terms of specific acoustic measures that may be useful and accurately measured via telephone transmission, for examining disease severity and pharmacological intervention for use in a large‐scale clinical trial.

Implementation of Multichannel Sensors for Remote Biomedical Measurements in a Microsystems Format

A novel microelectronic "pill" has been developed for in situ studies of the gastro-intestinal tract, combining microsensors and integrated circuits with system-level integration technology. The measurement parameters include real-time remote recording of temperature, pH, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen. The unit comprises an outer biocompatible capsule encasing four microsensors, a control chip, a discrete component radio transmitter, and two silver oxide cells (the latter providing an operating time of 40 h at the rated power consumption of 12.1 mW). The sensors were fabricated on two separate silicon chips located at the front end of the capsule. The robust nature of the pill makes it adaptable for use in a variety of environments related to biomedical and industrial applications.

Space Videophotometric System for Recording Optical Radiations in the Earth Atmosphere

This paper describes the VFS-3M videophotometric system designed for automatic remote recording of images and parameters of optical radiations following lightning discharges from aboard the Russian segment of the International space station. The characteristics of the system and the possibilities of recording such types of radiation as “Red Sprites” and “Blue Jets” are given.

Observational studies of student errors in a distance learning environment using a remote recording and replay tool

AESOP is An Electronic Student Observatory Project consisting of a set of tools written in Smalltalk allowing student's activities and progress through an on-line distance education course to be remotely recorded, replayed and analysed. The following paper outlines some initial findings from observations made on a cross-sectional group of 368 volunteers taking the course in 2000. Students observed using low resolution 640 x 480 screens were noted to take significantly longer to complete on-line course work (p=0.018). Differences between genders were also found with females reporting less comfort at using computers and males using a greater variety of central processing units. Some evidence indicates that female students were also more likely to be using lower specification machines than males although the differences noted were found to be just outside significance levels.

Interactive remote recording and playback of multicast videoconferences

One of the most exciting technologies in today's Internet is the MBone. MBone stands for Multicast Backbone; it provides the infrastructure for efficient multipoint packet delivery in the Internet. The most popular scenario is worldwide audio-video conferencing. However, there are no satisfactory methods of archiving multimedia data streams of multicast videoconferences, nor of making them accessible to remote sites (i.e. how to remotely record and remotely play back MBone conferences). In this paper we present the architecture and a prototypical implementation of the MBone Video Conference Recording on Demand (MVoD) service. MVoD is a client–server based architecture for interactive remote recording and playback of MBone sessions. MVoD is implemented based on open standards (e.g. Common Object Request Broker Architecture and Specification (CORBA)), which allows other applications to interface it. Since the MVoD client application is implemented in JAVA, it is possible to access the service from almost any platform.