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The global population of older adults has increased, leading to a rising number of older adults in nursing homes without adequate care. This study proposes a smart wearable device for detecting and classifying abnormal behaviour in older adults in nursing homes. The device utilizes artificial intelligence technology to detect abnormal movements through behavioural data collection and target positioning. The intelligent recognition system and hardware sensors were tested using cloud computing and wireless sensor networks (WSNs), comparing their performance with other technologies through simulations. A triple-axis acceleration sensor collected motion behaviour data, and Zigbee enabled the wireless transfer of the sensor data. The Backpropagation (BP) neural network detected and classified abnormal behaviour based on simulated sensor data. The proposed smart wearable device offers indoor positioning, detection, and classification of abnormal behaviour. The embedded intelligent system detects routine motions like walking and abnormal behaviours such as falls. In emergencies, the system alerts healthcare workers for immediate safety measures. This study lays the groundwork for future AI-based technology implementation in nursing homes, advancing care for older adults., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

Laboratory mice are typically housed in "shoebox" cages with limited opportunities to engage in natural behaviour. Temporary access to environments with increased space and complexity (playpens) may improve mouse welfare. Previous work by our group has shown that mice are motivated to access and use these environments, but it is unknown how other aspects of welfare are impacted. Female C57BL/6J, BALB/cJ, and DBA/2J mice (n = 21; 7 mice per strain) were housed in mixed-strain trios and given temporary access to a large playpen with their cage mates three times per week. Control mice (n = 21; 7 mice per strain) remained in their home cages. Home cage behaviour (development of stereotypic behaviour over time, aggression following cage-changing) and anxiety tests were used to assess how playpen access impacted welfare. Contrary to our predictions, we found increased time spent performing stereotypies in playpen mice; this difference may be related to negative emotional states, increased motivation to escape the home cage, or active coping strategies. Playpen access resulted in strain-dependent improvements in aggression and some measures of anxiety. Aggression was lower for C57BL/6J mice in the playpen treatment following cage changing than it was for C57BL/6J control mice, while playpen mice, and particularly the C57BL/6J strain, spent more time in the center of the open field test and produced fewer fecal boli during anxiety testing, supporting other research showing that strain differences play an important role in behaviour and stress resiliency., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Abnormal behaviours are common in captive animals, and despite a lot of research, the development, maintenance and alleviation of these behaviours are not fully understood. Here, we suggest that conditioned reinforcement can induce sequential dependencies in behaviour that are difficult to infer from direct observation. We develop this hypothesis using recent models of associative learning that include conditioned reinforcement and inborn facets of behaviour, such as predisposed responses and motivational systems. We explore three scenarios in which abnormal behaviour emerges from a combination of associative learning and a mismatch between the captive environment and inborn predispositions. The first model considers how abnormal behaviours, such as locomotor stereotypies, may arise from certain spatial locations acquiring conditioned reinforcement value. The second model shows that conditioned reinforcement can give rise to abnormal behaviour in response to stimuli that regularly precede food or other reinforcers. The third model shows that abnormal behaviour can result from motivational systems being adapted to natural environments that have different temporal structures than the captive environment. We conclude that models including conditioned reinforcement offer an important theoretical insight regarding the complex relationships between captive environments, inborn predispositions, and learning. In the future, this general framework could allow us to further understand and possibly alleviate abnormal behaviours., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Tail biting is a multifactorial problem. As the health status is one of the factors commonly linked to tail biting, this study focuses on the health of identified biters. 30 (obsessive) biters are compared to 30 control animals by clinical and pathological examination as well as blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples. In that way, altogether 174 variables are compared between the groups. Moreover, connections between the variables are analysed., Results: In the clinical examination, 6 biters, but only 2 controls (P = 0.019) were noticeably agitated in the evaluation of general behaviour, while 8 controls were noticeably calmer (2 biters, P = 0.02). Biters had a lower body weight (P = 0.0007) and 13 biters had overlong bristles (4 controls, P = 0.008). In the pathological examination, 5 biters, but none of the controls had a hyperceratosis or inflammation of the pars proventricularis of the stomach (P = 0.018). However, 7 controls and only 3 biters were affected by gut inflammation (P = 0.03). In the blood sample, protein and albumin levels were below normal range for biters (protein: 51.6 g/l, albumin: 25.4 g/l), but not for controls (protein: 53.7 g/l, albumin: 27.4 g/l), (protein: P = 0.05, albumin: P = 0.02). Moreover, 14 biters, but only 8 controls had poikilocytosis (P = 0.05). Although not statistically different between groups, many animals (36/60) were affected by hypoproteinemia and hyponatremia as well as by hypokalemia (53/60) and almost all animals (58/60) had hypomagnesemia. For hypomagnesemia, significant connections with variables linked to tail damage and ear necrosis were detected (r s /V/ρ ≥ 0.4, P ≤ 0.05)., Conclusion: The results suggest that behavioural tests might be helpful in identifying biters. Moreover, cornification and inflammation of the pars proventricularis is linked to becoming a biter. Furthermore, the results highlight the need for appropriate and adjusted nutrient and mineral supply, especially with regard to magnesium., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background : The human immunodeficiency virus infection has manifestations causing behavioural and cognitive abnormalities among children. The aim of this study was to assess the magnitude and correlates of behavioural abnormalities among school-age children living with HIV attending follow-up at the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Clinic of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods : A sample of 251 children and their primary caregivers were included in this study. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to assess behavioural abnormalities. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis using logistic regression were done to assess the determinants of abnormal behaviour scores. Results : The overall prevalence of any form of behavioural abnormalities was 49%. The prevalence of emotional symptoms was 31.5%, peer problems 21.5% and hyperactivity deficit was 13.1%. Children residing out of Addis Ababa, the capital city (AOR 0.18; 95% CI 0.03-0.94), children having both parents (AOR 0.29; 95% CI 0.12-0.70) and children having either of their parents (AOR 0.39; 95% CI 0.18-0.83) were less likely to have behavioural abnormalities. Moreover, children whose primary caregivers had elementary education or lower were more likely to have any form of behavioural abnormalities (AOR 2.44; 95% CI 1.05-5.69) Conclusions : The magnitude of behavioural abnormalities among children living with HIV is substantial. We recommend that children living with HIV, particularly those with parental losses and those having less-educated primary caregivers, be closely monitored for behavioural problems.

Understanding why some species thrive in captivity, while others struggle to adjust, can suggest new ways to improve animal care. Approximately half of all Psittaciformes, a highly threatened order, live in zoos, breeding centres and private homes. Here, some species are prone to behavioural and reproductive problems that raise conservation and ethical concerns. To identify risk factors, we analysed data on hatching rates in breeding centres (115 species, 10 255 pairs) and stereotypic behaviour (SB) in private homes (50 species, 1378 individuals), using phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs). Small captive population sizes predicted low hatch rates, potentially due to genetic bottlenecks, inbreeding and low availability of compatible mates. Species naturally reliant on diets requiring substantial handling were most prone to feather-damaging behaviours (e.g. self-plucking), indicating inadequacies in the composition or presentation of feed (often highly processed). Parrot species with relatively large brains were most prone to oral and whole-body SB: the first empirical evidence that intelligence can confer poor captive welfare. Together, results suggest that more naturalistic diets would improve welfare, and that intelligent psittacines need increased cognitive stimulation. These findings should help improve captive parrot care and inspire further PCM research to understand species differences in responses to captivity.

Every animal species has particular environmental requirements that are essential for its welfare, and when these so-called "basic needs" are not fulfilled, the animals suffer. The basic needs of horses have been claimed to be social contact, social companionship, free movement and access to roughage. To assess whether horses suffer when one or more of the four proposed basic needs are restricted, we examined several studies ( n = 38) that reported behavioural and physiological reactions to these restrictions. We assigned the studies according to the four types of responses investigated: (a) Stress, (b) Active, (c) Passive, and (d) Abnormal Behaviour. Furthermore, the number of studies indicating that horses reacted to the restrictions were compared with the number of studies reporting no reaction. The limited number of studies available on single management restrictions did not allow conclusions to be drawn on the effect of each restriction separately, especially in the case of social companionship. However, when combinations of social contact, free movement and access to roughage were restricted, many of the horses had developed responses consistent with suffering. Passive Responses, indicating acute suffering, and Abnormal Behaviour, indicating suffering currently or at some time in the past, were especially clearly demonstrated. This provides further evidence of the usefulness of assessing behavioural parameters in combination with physiological measurements when evaluating horse welfare. This meta-analysis of the literature confirms that it is justified to claim that social contact, free movement and access to roughage are basic needs in horses.

Laboratory monkey ethograms currently include subcategories of abnormal behaviours that are based on superficial morphological similarity. Yet, such ethograms may be misclassifying behaviour, with potential welfare implications as different abnormal behaviours are likely to have distinct risk factors and treatments. We therefore investigated the convergent validity of four hypothesized subcategories of abnormal behaviours ('motor', e.g., pacing; 'self-stimulation', e.g., self-sucking; 'postural', e.g., hanging; and 'self-abuse', e.g., self-biting). This hypothesis predicts positive relationships between the behaviours within each subcategory. Rhesus macaque ( Macaca mulatta ) data on 19 abnormal behaviours were obtained from indoor-housed animals ( n = 1183). Logistic regression models, controlling for sex, age, and the number of observations, revealed that only 1/6 'motor' behaviours positively predicted pacing, while 2/3 'self-abuse' behaviours positively predicted self-biting (one-tailed p -value < 0.05). Furthermore, 'self-stimulation' behaviours did not predict self-sucking, and none of the 'postural' behaviours predicted hanging. Thus, none of the subcategories fully met convergent validity. Subsequently, we created four new valid subcategories formed of comorbid behaviours. The first consisted of self-biting, self-hitting, self-injurious behaviour, floating limb, leg-lifting, and self-clasping. The second comprised twirling, bouncing, rocking, swinging, and hanging. The third comprised pacing and head-twisting, while the final subcategory consisted of flipping and eye-poking. Self-sucking, hair-plucking, threat-biting, and withdrawn remained as individual behaviours. We encourage laboratories to replicate the validation of these subcategories first, and for scientists working with other species to validate their ethograms before using them in welfare assessments.

The rapid growth in virtualization solutions has driven the widespread adoption of cloud computing paradigms among various industries and applications. This has led to a growing need for XaaS solutions and equipment to enable teleworking. To meet this need, cloud operators and datacenters have to overtake several challenges related to continuity, the quality of services provided, data security, and anomaly detection issues. Mainly, anomaly detection methods play a critical role in detecting virtual machines' abnormal behaviours that can potentially violate service level agreements established with users. Unsupervised machine learning techniques are among the most commonly used technologies for implementing anomaly detection systems. This paper introduces a novel clustering approach for analyzing virtual machine behaviour while running workloads in a system based on resource usage details (such as CPU utilization and downtime events). The proposed algorithm is inspired by the intuitive mechanism of flocking birds in nature to form reasonable clusters. Each starling movement's direction depends on self-information and information provided by other close starlings during the flight. Analogically, after associating a weight with each data sample to guide the formation of meaningful groups, each data element determines its next position in the feature space based on its current position and surroundings. Based on a realistic dataset and clustering validity indices, the experimental evaluation shows that the new weighted fuzzy c-means algorithm provides interesting results and outperforms the corresponding standard algorithm (weighted fuzzy c-means)., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors of this paper declare that they have no significant competing financial, professional, or personal interests that might have influenced the performance or presentation of this work., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021.)

Abnormal behaviours such as ear and tail biting of pigs is of significant welfare and economic concern. Currently, pig welfare legislation is under renewed focus by the EU commission and is likely to be enforced more thoroughly. The legislation prohibits routine tail docking and requires adequate enrichment to be provided. In Ireland, tail-docking is still the most utilised control mechanism to combat tail biting, but biting is still widespread even in tail-docked pigs. In addition, as pig farms are almost all fully slatted, bedding type material cannot be provided. Thus, the opinions, and practices of farmers in countries like Ireland, which may need to make significant adaptations to typical pig management systems soon, need to be considered and addressed. We carried out a survey of pig farmers during 2015 in order to gain a greater understanding of the extent of biting on Irish farms, perception on the most important preventive measures, current enrichment use and actions following outbreaks. Fifty-eight farmers from 21 Counties responded with an average herd size of 710 ± 597 sows (range 90-3000 sows). Only two farms had experienced no biting in the last year. Of the farms that had experienced tail biting (88%), 86% had also experienced ear biting. The most common concerns relating to biting were condemnation and reduced productivity of bitten pigs with both receiving an average score of 4 (most serious). Ear biting occurred most commonly in the 2nd stage (approximately 47-81 days from weaning) weaner and tail biting in the finishing stage. The most important preventive measures were felt to be taking care of animal health, restricting density, maintaining an even quality of feed/content and maintaining good air movement. Sixty-five percent of respondents added additional enrichment following an outbreak. Chains were the most common form of enrichment currently used (83%). Those not using chains favoured wood, toys and rope (17%). Identification of the most effective and accessible control and prevention measures both for the animals and for the farming community is thus essential. Improved understanding of the concerns and practices of producers, which this survey contributes to, is a first step towards this aim., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interest., (© The Author(s). 2019.)

Oseltamivir is contraindicated for people aged 10-19 in principle in Japan, due to concern about abnormal behaviours. Sudden death is another concern. This review examines growing evidence of their association and discusses underlying mechanisms of these sudden-onset type reactions to oseltamivir. First, the importance of animal models and the concept of human equivalent dose (HED) is summarized. Second, the specific condition for oseltamivir use, influenza infection, is reviewed. Third, findings from toxicity studies conducted prior to and after the marketing of oseltamivir are reported on to provide context on the observation of a possible causal association. Fourth, similarity and consistency of toxicity in humans with that in other animals is described. Finally, coherence of toxicokinetic and molecular level of evidence (channels, receptors and enzymes), including differences from the toxicity of other neuraminidase inhibitors, is reviewed. It is concluded that unchanged oseltamivir has various effects on the central nervous system (CNS) that may be related to clinical findings including hypothermia, abnormal behaviours including with fatal outcome, and sudden death. Among receptors and enzymes related to CNS action, it is known that oseltamivir inhibits nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which are closely related to hypothermia, as well as human monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), which is closely related to abnormal or excitatory behaviours. Receptors such as GABA A , GABA B and NMDA and their related receptors/channels including Na + and Ca 2+ channels are thought to be other candidates for investigation related to respiratory suppression followed by sudden death and psychotic reactions (both acute and chronic), respectively., Competing Interests: Rokuro Hama was a co-recipient of a UK National Institute for Health Research grant (HTA 10/80/01, Update and amalgamation of two Cochrane reviews: neuraminidase inhibitors for preventing and treating influenza in healthy adults and children (www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/projects/hta/108001). RH wrote two books published in 2008 about the harm of oseltamivir and antipyretics. He provided scientific opinions and expert testimony on 14 adverse reaction cases related to oseltamivir for the applications by their families for adverse reaction relief by PMDA (Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency) and in the lawsuits for revocation of the PMDA's decision concerning with these reactions. Most of the cases were reported in: IJRSM 2008:20: 5-36., (© 2016 The Authors. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether early socialising of piglets influences the later behaviour and the risk of tail biting in growing and finishing pigs., Material and Methods: The behaviour of 183 animals (divided in three successive runs) was recorded from birth until the end of the fattening period. Furthermore, the condition of the teats of the sows as well as the integument and tails of the growing and finishing pigs were evaluated. To socialize the piglets, four litters of the experimental group (V) were provided with additional space (walkway) by opening "piglet-doors" (day 10 postpartum of the youngest litter). The piglets of the control group (K) were reared in conventional farrowing crates located in the same compartment of the stable. Post-weaning, the piglets were assigned to three groups: the experimental group (V/V, two litters of group V), the control group (K/K, two litters of group K) and the mixed group (V/K, one litter of group V and one litter of group K)., Results: After opening the "piglet-doors", piglets of group V displayed significantly more playing behaviour than piglets of group K. Additionally, the agonistic behaviour increased in group V. Post-weaning, at allocation and mixing, animals of group V/V showed significantly less agonistic behaviour than pigs of group K/K. Tail-biting behaviour occurred in all three groups, but only in runs two and three. On the 100th day of the fattening period, 58.7% of the pigs of group V/V, 51.7% of group V/K and 43.3% of group K/K still had intact tails. In pigs of group K/K, the tails were significantly shorter compared to the other two groups., Conclusion and Clinical Relevance: Early socialization enhances piglet welfare in farrowing pens by encouraging playing behaviour. Less agonistic behaviour at allocation could furthermore reduce stress at mixing and allocation. The aim to reduce the incidence of tail-biting could not be achieved. However, socializing piglets in lactation could contribute, in accordance with other measures, to an influence on biting behaviour.

The welfare of an individual depends on its capacity to overcome suboptimal conditions in its environment; otherwise, its physical and psychological health becomes compromised. A situation that clearly indicates lack of control of the environment is the expression of abnormal behaviours, such as stereotypies. This study aimed to verify the well-being of police horses using a new rapid form of welfare assessment: an archaeological approach. To this end, we sampled and quantified marks found on the stables, deposited as a result of abnormal behaviour. We cross-referenced these physical marks with veterinary records of diseases, such as colic, known to be associated with stress. A total of 46 horses were sampled and the results showed a significant medium-strength, positive correlation between bite mark frequency on stable doors and the incidence of colic. A weak significant positive correlation was found between length of scratch marks (from pawing) and the incidence of lameness. We conclude that these marks reflect the accumulated expression of abnormal behaviour and can provide rapid insight into the welfare of individual animals., (© 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.)

A 15-month-old female Greater Swiss Mountain Dog was presented after an epileptic episode. In addition, the owner had noticed a recent marked change in the animal's behaviour. Because of the progressive nature of the neurological signs, a magnetic resonance imaging scan of the brain was performed and porencephaly in the parietal lobe of the right hemisphere was diagnosed. The dog was euthanized and submitted for pathology. Because of the histopathological findings and the history of a craniocerebral injury whilst a puppy, a traumatic genesis of this rare cystic lesion is discussed.

We present an autopsied case of a senile Japanese woman with sporadic frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) presenting as frontotemporal dementia. Disease onset was at the age of 70 and presented as a behaviour disorder, particularly involving wasteful habits. The patient had repeated incidents of making expensive purchases and then had difficulty making payments. Following these symptoms, she showed other changes of character such as lethargy and apathy. She gradually showed signs of parkinsonism including rigidity and bradykinesia, and in the terminal stage, an akinetic mutism state with quadriplegia in flexion was observed. Head magnetic resonance imaging revealed severe frontotemporal lobe atrophy with severe lateral ventricular dilatation and frontal white matter degeneration. At autopsy, the brain weighed 930 g and the frontotemporal cerebral cortex showed neuron loss with gliosis, tissue rarefaction and spongiform change, particularly in the superficial layers. Pathologic degeneration was more severe in the anterior portion of the frontal lobe with extensive white matter degeneration. Immunostaining for phosphorylated TAR-DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) revealed numerous neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions and extensive short dystrophic neuritis, particularly in the frontotemporal cortex. Many TDP-43-positive cytoplasmic inclusions were also observed in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. The patient was pathologically diagnosed with FTLD with TDP-43-positive inclusions (FTLD-TDP) without motor neuron disease. The immunohistochemical findings corresponded to type A of the FTLD-TDP pathology classification system., (© 2013 The Authors. Psychogeriatrics © 2013 Japanese Psychogeriatric Society.)

Some laboratory mice gnaw food pellets without ingesting much of the gnawed material, resulting in the production of waste material called 'orts'. The fact that this food grinding behavior is not seen in all individuals of a particular strain suggests that it might be abnormal, and thus indicate a welfare concern. Furthermore, the increased rate of feed consumption and cage soiling is undesirable from a husbandry perspective. To try to determine possible motivations for the behavior, and identify potential treatments, outbred Crl:CD1(Icr) mice exhibiting food grinding were selected for one of three treatments placed in the feeder: no enrichment, a chewing device, or sunflower seeds. Both enrichment groups showed a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in ort production when compared with baseline measurements, but only mice provided with sunflower seeds maintained the decreased rate of food wastage after the treatment was withdrawn. A relationship between body weight and ort production was also found, in that cages with greater average body weights had lower levels of ort production. This suggests that a simple need to gnaw cannot alone explain food grinding, and that a nutritional motivation may also be involved.

This study examined the prevalence and incidence of abnormal behaviour in sheep housed individually indoors. Ninety-six castrated Merino sheep were observed using 15-min instantaneous sampling between 08:15 and 18:15 h for two consecutive days over a 3-week period. Sheep on average spent 62% of their time idle, 17% feeding, 1% drinking, 5% pacing, 10% chewing pen fixtures and 4% nosing pen fixtures. Pacing behaviour was predominantly seen in the morning with sheep on average spending 14% of their time pacing. Sheep on average spent 4% of their time in the morning and 13% of their time in the afternoon chewing pen fixtures. In the afternoon, the predominant behaviour was idle with sheep on average spending 71% of their time idle. Seventy-one percent of the sheep displayed one or more of the behaviours of pacing, and chewing and nosing pen fixtures for more than 10% of the day and 47% displayed one or more of these behaviours for more than 20% of the day. The prevalence and incidence of these 'abnormal' behaviours appears high, especially in relation to that of sheep grazed outdoors on pasture, and raises the question of the welfare risk to these animals. However, without a more comprehensive appreciation of other aspects of the animal's biology, such as stress physiology and fitness characteristics, it is difficult to understand the welfare implications of these behaviours.