Publications related to Animal ethics

Predicting the long-term collective behaviour of fish pairs with deep learning

Francesco Mondada, Alexandre Massoud Alahi, Vaios Papaspyros

Modern computing has enhanced our understanding of how social interactions shape collective behaviour in animal societies. Although analytical models dominate in studying collective behaviour, this study introduces a deep learning model to assess social in ...

2024

Beyond undulation! Body morphology and sensing components of elongated animals and robots reveal skills to maintain competent locomotion

Laura Isabel Paez Coy

Locomotion is an essential evolutive innovation of living beings that allows them to colonize and dominate the planet. As diverse as animal morphologies are (living) and were (extinct), their locomotion modalities are also diverse. In particular, animal mo ...

EPFL2023

A biohybrid interaction framework for the integration of robots in animal societies

Francesco Mondada, Daniel Burnier, Vaios Papaspyros, Raphael Cherfan

The collective behavior of animals has been traditionally studied through observation, quantitative models of behavior, and devices of low intelligence. Nowadays, the advancements in the field of robotics allow for closed-loop experiments that occur in rea ...

2023

Perceptual Learning: Policy Insights From Basic Research to Real-World Applications

Michael Herzog

Perceptual learning is the process by which experience alters how incoming sensory information is processed by the brain to give rise to behavior-it is critical for how humans educate children, train experts, treat diseases, and promote health and well-bei ...

Sage Publications Inc2023

Bringing Functional Context to Emerging Proximity-mapping Proteomics Tools

Yimon Aye

If one considers chemical-biology toolsets that have had the greatest impact on numerous fields of life sciences over the most recent years, proximity-labeling tools, such as APEX, and Bio-ID arguably lead the way. This article reflects upon the current st ...

SWISS CHEMICAL SOC2022

Multi-animal pose estimation, identification and tracking with DeepLabCut

Alexander Mathis, Mackenzie Mathis, Steffen Schneider, Shaokai Ye, Tanmay Nath, Jessy Lauer

Estimating the pose of multiple animals is a challenging computer vision problem: frequent interactions cause occlusions and complicate the association of detected keypoints to the correct individuals, as well as having highly similar looking animals that ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2022

Emotional empathy and engineering students’moral reasoning

Roland John Tormey, Nihat Kotluk

Although engineering education is often characterized as a rational activity, research suggests that emotions are vital for learning at all levels of education. In ethics education, there is evidence that including mild emotional information in case studie ...

2022

Organic semiconductors for light-mediated neuromodulation

Diego Ghezzi, Danashi Imani Medagoda

There is growing interest in organic semiconductor devices for light-mediated neuromodulation, such as for retinal stimulation. Here, the key working principles of these devices are discussed, as well as promising applications and outstanding challenges fo ...

SPRINGERNATURE2021

Sensor and the Beast: Generalised Methods to Recognise Animal Behaviour and Quantify Energy Expenditure Using Inertial Sensors, and Applications

Pritish Chakravarty

How an animal allocates time and energy to different activities has repercussions for its survival, fitness, and response to changing environmental conditions. Fine-scale information on animal behaviour and energy expenditure can help develop better inform ...

EPFL2020

Topological principles and developmental algorithms might refine diffusion tractography

Jean-Philippe Thiran, Gabriel Girard, Alessandro Daducci, Maxime Descoteaux, Giorgio Innocenti, Tim Bjørn Dyrby

The identification and reconstruction of axonal pathways in the living brain or “ex-vivo” is promising a revolution in connectivity studies bridging the gap from animal to human neuroanatomy with extensions to brain structural–functional correlates. Unfort ...

2019

Serotonergic Modulation of Walking in Drosophila

Pavan P Ramdya, Chin-Lin Chen

To navigate complex environments, animals must generate highly robust, yet flexible, locomotor behaviors. For example, walking speed must be tailored to the needs of a particular environment. Not only must animals choose the correct speed and gait, they mu ...

CELL PRESS2019

A generalised framework for detailed classification of swimming paths inside the Morris Water Maze

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Eleni Vasilaki

The Morris Water Maze is commonly used in behavioural neuroscience for the study of spatial learning with rodents. Over the years, various methods of analysing rodent data collected during this task have been proposed. These methods span from classical per ...

Nature Research2018

Active apolar doping determines routes to colloidal clusters and gels

Ignacio Pagonabarraga Mora

Collections of interacting active particles, self-propelling or not, have shown remarkable phenomena including the emergence of dynamic patterns across different length scales, from animal groups to vibrated grains, microtubules, bacteria, and chemicalor f ...

National Academy of Sciences2018

Novel probes for the non-invasive bioluminescence imaging of mitochondrial membrane potential and dipeptidylpeptidase-4 activity in living animals

Arkadiy Bazhin

Current thesis summarizes the work on development of novel bioluminescent probes for measurement of activity of dipeptidylpep-tidase-4 (DPP-4) and for quantification of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). DPP-4 enzyme plays critical role in develop-men ...

EPFL2018

Analysis of antibiotic multi-resistant bacteria and resistance genes in the effluent of an intensive shrimp farm (Long An, Vietnam)

Pierre Rossi, Luiz Felippe De Alencastro

In Vietnam, intensive shrimp farms heavily rely on a wide variety of antibiotics (ABs) to treat animals or prevent disease outbreak. Potential for the emergence of multi-resistant bacteria is high, with the concomitant contamination of adjacent natural aqu ...

2018

Framework for the Development of Neuroprostheses: From Basic Understanding by Sciatic and Median Nerves Models to Bionic Legs and Hands

Stanisa Raspopovic, Francesco Maria Petrini, Giacomo Valle, Marek Zelechowski

Neuroprostheses based on electrical stimulation are becoming a therapeutic reality, dramatically improving the life of disabled people. They are based on neural interfaces that are designed to create an intimate contact with neural cells. These devices spe ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2017

Alternative Approaches to Vertebrate Ecotoxicity Tests in the 21st Century: A Review of Developments Over the Last 2 Decades and Current Status

Kristin Schirmer

The need for alternative approaches to the use of vertebrate animals for hazard assessment of chemicals and pollutants has become of increasing importance. It is now the first consideration when initiating a vertebrate ecotoxicity test, to ensure that unne ...

Wiley-Blackwell2016

Learning with Surprise : Theory and Applications

Mohammadjavad Faraji

Everybody knows what it feels to be surprised. Surprise raises our attention and is crucial for learning. It is a ubiquitous concept whose traces have been found in both neuroscience and machine learning. However, a comprehensive theory has not yet been de ...

EPFL2016

MOVING ALONG In biomechanics, rehabilitation engineering, and movement analysis, Italian researchers are making great strides

Silvestro Micera

In Italy, biomechanics research and the analysis of human and animal movement have had a very long history, beginning with the exceptional pioneering work of Leonardo da Vinci. In 1489, da Vinci began investigating human anatomy, including an examination o ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2015

Mechanosensory interactions drive collective behaviour in Drosophila

Dario Floreano, Pavan P Ramdya, Pawel Lichocki, Lukas Frisch, Winnie Wing Yee Tse

Collective behaviour enhances environmental sensing and decision-making in groups of animals. Experimental and theoretical investigations of schooling fish, flocking birds and human crowds have demonstrated that simple interactions between individuals can ...

2015