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In the Japanese macaque, semen has been collected by electro-ejaculation (EE), using the higher voltage stimuli compared to other species including genus Macaca. Semen coagulates immediately after ejaculation, which makes difficult to produce high-quality semen for artificial insemination. Recently, semen collection using urethral catheterization (UC) has been reported in carnivore and this technique may allow semen collection without coagulation in a less invasive manner. Further, the temporal preservation temperature and cooling rate of semen during cryopreservation affect post thawing sperm quality. In this study, to improve semen quality and quantity, as well as the animal welfare, semen collection was performed by EE with high (5-15 V) or low (3-6 V) voltage, UC and a combination of the two (EE-UC). It has been suggested that a high voltage is necessary for semen collection, but 10 V stimulation was effective enough and 15 V is for additional sperm collection. Also, liquid semen was collected by EE-UC and this could increase the total number of sperm. Further, to improve the post thawing sperm motility, semen was kept at four temperatures (4, 15, 25 and 37 degrees C) for 60 min, and processed with two cooling procedures (slow cooling before second dilution and fast cooling after second dilution). Holding semen at 25 degrees C and fast cooling after the second dilution maintained progressive motile sperm rate. The present results will contribute to the improvement of semen collection and animal welfare of Japanese macaques.

A dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma actuator (DBD-PA) is an active flow-control device that uses ionic wind generated by electrohydrodynamic forces. A DBD-PA controls fluid motion and offers quick response without the need for moving parts. Previous studies have proposed methods for generating various flow patterns with a DBD-PA for fluid control. This paper presents a method for generating multiple flow patterns using a multi-electrode DBD-PA that is driven by a single-channel high-voltage power supply with a relay circuit. In contrast, conventional methods of realizing multiple flow patterns involve the use of a multi-channel power supply. Hence, they have the disadvantage of requiring a complicated power supply system. The proposed method succeeded in realizing several induced-flow modes involving the generation of a directionally controllable wall jet, various sizes of vortices, and an upward jet by altering the switching frequency and switching ratio. In addition, our experimental results indicate that the proposed method can control the flow pattern with a significantly short response time. The direction of the wall jet can be switched within tens to hundreds of milliseconds. Therefore, the proposed method combines simplicity and versatility and is expected to facilitate the realization of multifunctional active flow control in various flow fields, such as flow turbulent boundary layer control, thermal diffusion control, gas mixing, and flame-stability enhancement.