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Reflective Practice in Veterinary Professional Development

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Reflective Practice in Veterinary Professional Development

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Business models: the toolkit to design a disruptive company

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Today countless innovative business models are emerging. As traditional industries struggle to reinvent themselves, new industries that dare to think differently arise. Learn about the Business Model Canvas and more

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Handbook for BMC in Sustainable Precision Ag

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We’ve prepared two course outlines based on all of our free content based on the Business Model Canvas and the Value Proposition Canvas.

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Using the Business Model Canvas to Refine Your Farm Business Idea

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Writing out a complete business plan is a time-consuming feat. Before you spend your time and energy writing a multi-page narrative, explore your ideas with a simple tool – the Lean Canvas. Adapted for use by startups, this simple one-page matrix can be a valuable tool to help farm entrepreneurs test a business idea in the context of nine key areas.

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About the site

Welcome to the Reflection Toolkit.

This is a place where you can find information and support whether you are looking to reflect yourself or facilitate reflection in others.

Before you move on, you might want to take a second and ask yourself:

Why am I on this site?

What/who brought me here?

What do I want to take away from this site?

How will I know I have gotten what I needed?

You might really like answering this kind of question, or you maybe you don't. In either case, if you took the time to think about the questions you will have started a reflection. Self-questioning like this, to better understand ourselves, our motivations, and our experiences, is at the heart of reflection.

You may very well know the process of reflection under different names, for example 'reviewing', 'analysing' or 'processing'.

Below you can find the different sections that together make the Reflection Toolkit.

This section is for people who want to reflect. You will find resources, models and questions that can help start your reflections and structure them.

Considerations and information about implementing reflection in courses, workshops and other initiatives.

This section contains a review of literature on reflection and a list of helpful literature to explore the area further.

Definition of reflection

For the purpose of this site, reflection or critical reflection is defined as:
the conscious examination of past experiences, thoughts, and ways of doing things. Its goal is to surface learning about oneself and the situation, and to bring meaning to it in order to inform the present and the future. It challenges the status quo of practice, thoughts, and assumptions and may therefore inform our decisions, actions, attitudes, beliefs, and understanding about ourselves.
Reflection can be used for many things including:

Allowing us to improve our own practice to gain better outcomes in the future

Increasing/improving our performance and skills

Increasing our awareness of our abilities and attributes and our evidence for these

Developing and expanding our employability

Evaluating the quality and success of our action plans

Applying theoretical knowledge/frameworks to real experiences and using this to expand our understanding of the underlying theory.

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In the Reflection Toolkit you can find support whether you a looking to reflect yourself or successfully facilitate it.

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Examples of Self-Assessment

Reflection Journals: Instructors might consider capturing a few details of their teaching in a journal to create an ongoing narrative of their teaching across terms and years. Scheduling a dedicated time during the 5 or so minutes after class to write their entries will ensure continual engagement, rather than hoping to find a moment throughout the day. The instructor writes general thoughts about the day's lesson and might reflect on the following questions: What went well today? What could I have done differently? How will I modify my instruction in the future?

Teaching Inventories: A number of inventories, like the Teaching Practices Inventory (Wieman and Gilbert, 2014), have been developed to help instructors assess and think more broadly about their teaching approaches. Inventories are typically designed to assess the extent to which particular pedagogies are employed (e.g. student- versus teacher-centered practices).

Video-Recorded Teaching Practices: Instructors may request the Poorvu Center to video record their lessons while conducting a classroom observation, or instructors can video record themselves while teaching and use a classroom observation protocol to self-assess their own practices. Some Yale classrooms have video cameras installed for lecture capture, which instructors can then use for their self assessment.

Teaching Portfolio: A more time-intensive practice, the teaching portfolio invites instructors to integrate the various components of their teaching into a cohesive whole, typically starting with a teaching philosophy or statement, moving through sample syllabi and assignments, and ending with evaluations from colleagues and students.Though less focused on classroom practices, a portfolio is an opportunity to reflect on teaching overall. The Poorvu Center offers an opportunity for faculty new to Yale to complete a teaching intensive and reflective program, the Faculty Teaching Academy, which includes a culminating portfolio. Faculty who complete the program will receive a contribution to their research or professional development budgets. The University of Washington CTL offers best practices for creating a teaching portfolio.

Examples of External Assessment

Student Evaluations (Midterm and End-of-Term): In many courses, instructors obtain feedback from students in the form of mid-semester feedback and/or end-of-term student evaluations. Because of potential bias, instructors should consider student evaluations as one data source in their instruction and take note of any prevailing themes (Basow, 1995; Watchel, 1998; Huston, 2005; Reid, L. (2010); Basow, S.A. & Martin, J.L. (2012) ). They can seek out other ways to assess their practices to accompany student evaluation data before taking steps to modify instruction. The Poorvu Center offers consultations regarding mid-semester feedback data collected. They will also conduct small group feedback sessions with an instructor's students to provide non-evaluative, anonymous conversation notes from students in addition to the traditional survey format. If instructors are interested in sustained feedback over time from a student perspective, then they can also participate in the Pedagogical Partners program.

Peer Review of Teaching: Instructors can ask a trusted colleague to observe their classroom and give them feedback on their teaching. Colleagues can agree on an observation protocol or a list of effective teaching principles to focus on from a teaching practices inventory.

Classroom Observations: Any instructor at Yale may request an observation with feedback from a member of the Poorvu Center staff. Observations are meant to be non-evaluative and promote reflection. They begin with a discussion in which the instructor describes course goals and format as well as any issues or teaching practices that are of primary concern. This initial discussion provides useful context for the observation and the post-observation conversation.

References

Basow, S.A. (1995). Student evaluations of college professors: When gender matters. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(4): 656-665.

Basow, S.A. & Martin, J.L. (2012). Bias in student evaluations. In M.E. Kite (Ed.), Effective evaluation of teaching: A guide for faculty and administrators. Society for the Teaching of Psychology.

Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Huston, T. (2005). Report: Empirical Research on the Impact of Race and Gender in the Evaluation of Teaching. Retrieved 3/10/17 from Seattle University, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning website.

Reid, L. (2010). The Role of Perceived Race and Gender in the Evaluation of College Teaching on RateMyProfessors.com. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 3 (3): 137-152.

Wachtel, H.K. (1998). Student Evaluation of College Teaching Effectiveness: A Brief Review. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 23(2): 191-212.

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Reflection Journals: Instructors might consider capturing a few details of their teaching in a journal to create an ongoing narrative of their teaching across terms and years. Scheduling a dedicated time during the 5 or so minutes after class to write their entries will ensure continual engagement, rather than hoping to find a moment throughout the day.

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One Of The World’s Largest Indoor Farms Is Using Advanced Tech To Build A More Resilient Food System

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The decline of supermarkets- A sector in crisis - Documentary movie, Documentary film, Documentaries

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An ecological challenge in Europe has prompted the resurrection of a heavyweight herbivore.

written by Tim Ozkurt

Aurochs, the extinct ancestor of modern cattle, are being brought back to life to engineer and rewild our landscapes. This mega cow from the past roamed across Europe, Asia, and North Africa for 2 millions years shaping ecosystems. Ecologists believe their comeback is vitally needed to protect biodiversity in parts of Europe.

Awe-inspiring aurochs that advanced humanity

The auroch (Bos primigenius), pronounced aw-rok (UK) or au-raak (US), played a leading role in our history. Etched into our past: from depictions in Pleistocene cave paintings in France to representing Zeus the Greek god in the story of Europe's beginnings. Across past cultures aurochs symbolised strength and therefore, became synonymous with hunting honour. Julius Caesar's showed admiration for those 'who have slain the greatest number of them' saying they deserve 'great praise', as he mentions their extraordinary speed and strength in Commentarii de Bello Gallico.

However, it was some 10,000 years ago when aurochs notably helped humanity. The domestication of wild aurochs was central to the development of agriculture, and ultimately civilization. Cradles of civilization in India and the Fertile Crescent (Turkey and Egypt) both depended on aurochs to produce their own resources. They provided meat, leather, dairy, and transported people and goods. We became less dependent on foraging and hunting to survive, and human populations began to flourish.

The traits of this magnificent mammal of grand stature

The auroch was the continent's heaviest land mammal, by Julius Caesar's account were 'little below the elephant in size'. Besides historical accounts, we are able to rely on a wealth of sources from archaeology to cattle genetics to build a picture of aurochs.

Bulls were notably larger than cows, weighing up to 1000kg with average heights between 1.55 cm and 1.80 cm (cows 135-155 cm). They had a light-coloured muzzle (nose, mouth and jaws) and long legs fit for walking long-distances. Face an auroch head-on and you would have been struck by its large skull with impressive long and thick curved horns (up to 107cm long/18cm thick). Despite their size, aurochs were agile, athletic animals capable of defending themselves against predators such as wolves.

Aurochs were able to adapt and live in various ecosystems across Europe including swamps, forests, steppes and mountains, although not in boreal forests like modern cattle. Their diet consisted of grasses, herbs, leaves, foliage, and acorns in winter. They lived in herds of up to 30 animals and had a lifespan of 25 to 30 years.

How did aurochs compare to other cattle?

Aurochs are hailed as the ancestors of all modern cattle. One study narrows this lineage down to the domestication of 80 wild female aurochs in the Near East some 10,500 years ago. Three subspecies of wild aurochs have been identified: the Eurasian aurochs, the North African aurochs, and the Indian aurochs.

The modern domesticated taurine cattle breeds or European cattle are said to have come from the Eurasian aurochs. The North African aurochs were structurally similar to the Eurasian aurochs. The Indian aurochs were the first subspecies to exist and were domesticated as the zebu cattle.

Bison paving the path

A fellow member of the Bovidae family, bison are often confused with aurochs. There is a reason for this, they share similarities in behaviour as natural grazers and in size (up to 920 kg), but morphologically they clearly differ. Their stories are familiar though - both suffered at the hands of humans - only two populations of European bison survived up to the 20th century. Rewilding efforts to reintroduce bison have thankfully helped build populations, around 7,000 wild or semi-wild bison roam areas in Poland, Germany, France, and Spain.

Find out what it's like to see bison up close as Mossy Earth co-founder Duarte, has an encounter with a herd of bison on a Baltic Sea island or learn more about the return of the European bison and how, here at Mossy Earth, we are helping by monitoring reintroduced bison.

The extinction of aurochs

Sadly, the familiar pattern of harmful human impact played out for aurochs too. Disease passed from domesticated livestock, over-hunting, and habitat degradation had already led to a decline of the species by the 13th century. With time, their range was further restricted, leaving only a small population in a royal hunting reserve in Poland's Forest of Jacktorów, which became extinct in 1627. It is said aurochs in Britain died out way before, during the Bronze Age.

Do you want to have a direct impact on climate change? Sir David Attenborough said the best thing we can do is to rewild the planet. So we run reforestation and rewilding programs across the globe to restore wild ecosystems and capture carbon.
Get involved

Why bring aurochs back from the dead?

They were extremely important for our progression as a species, but with modern cattle supporting today's agricultural needs, why are we trying to resurrect aurochs? And what are the associated risks of their de-extinction?

In this chapter of our history, when a climate catastrophe beckons, we are turning to aurochs to play a leading role in protecting and restoring nature.

How aurochs can save ecosystems: a keystone species

The research teams behind this bold move to revive this extinct bovine believe aurochs can prevent the loss of habitats and positively affect biodiversity in Europe. They have a profound and defining impact on their environment in various ways, this is why they are known as a 'keystone species' in ecology.

For many thousands of years, large wild herbivores grazed and browsed Europe's lands which created open spaces for other life to prosper. Aurochs, a heavyweight grazer of vegetation, prevented landscapes from becoming intensely forested. Maintaining diverse landscapes from open soil to grasslands was deemed possible thanks to the daily grind of such herbivores. Bison and wild horses are other examples of herbivores who importantly shape ecosystems providing open and semi-open habitats for various flora and fauna. Therefore, reviving aurochs and reinstating them to this role in these habitats is vital for biodiversity - an impact of significance in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Other ecological benefits of reviving aurochs

Besides grazing, these " ecological engineers " help species of animals, plants, and insects thrive in many other ways, such as:

The disturbed soil after auroch's grazing and trampling makes space for pioneer plants to sprout.

Smaller herbivores such as deer can find protection from predators in auroch herds.

Birds can feed on cattle insects or use the fur to build nests.

Why resort to an extinct species?

Since the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic period large, wild herbivores like aurochs had been slowly replaced by domesticated livestock herds. Occupying much of Europe's landscape, the domesticated cattle continued a similar pattern of large-scale grazing until recently. Now, a range of factors, including increased urbanization and poor agricultural viability, has led to high levels of rural land abandonment in Europe. This increasing trend runs the risk of leaving land under-grazed or not at all, transforming it into a barren landscape. If this is an eventuality, it poses a great threat to the survival of biodiversity in these areas.

This concern has spurred ecologists into finding a solution, and the return of the auroch is one avenue they are pursuing.

We thought we needed a grazer that is fully self-sufficient in case of big predators...and could do the job of grazing big wild areas [...] We reasoned that this animal would have to resemble an auroch.
Ecologist Ronald Goderie, Tauros programme

Return of the aurochs

The aurochs filled an important role in Europe's ecosystems and, though they have gone extinct, their genes are still present in modern cattle. Scientists have been trying to bring them back to life via a process known as back-breeding: crossbreeding domestic cattle with similar characteristics to their auroch ancestors. These include large stature, long legs, a slender and athletic build, horns curving forward, black coats in the males and reddish brown ones in females. Not forgetting, researchers are seeking to replicate the auroch's behaviours and genetics. The DNA analysis of a 6,700 year old auroch fossil is aiding the search.

The first attempt to bring back the auroch was made in the 1920s by German biologists Heinz and Lutz Heck. The result was a breed called the Heck cattle, with some resemblance to the original species. Today, rewilding projects are using a variety of domestic cattle breeds to fulfill the role of the auroch, like Heck cattle and Highland cattle. More recently attempts have been made to achieve a breed that is closer to the auroch.

Tauros Programme by the Taurus Foundation in collaboration with Rewilding Europe and European Wildlife

Taurus Project by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Biologischer Umweltschutz in Germany

Uruz Project by the Nature Foundation, in Spain and Portugal

Wetlands project by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus, GEF and UNDP

Tauros Programme

The dutch-based Tauros Programme is the largest initiative so far with their modern auroch named 'Tauros'. The programme's aim is to selectively breed the Tauros so they serve the niche function of natural grazing and therefore, sustaining 'a rich mosaic of open landscapes'.

Breeding of Tauros is happening in six different countries: Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic, Romania and the Netherlands and in 2017 there were over 600 animals, 400 of these are part of the European Wildlife Bank.

A free roaming bovine

Though a domesticated breed of cattle, the Tauros will act very much like its wild ancestors. The programme envisages having these free-roaming, self-sufficient herbivores grazing in large herds (more than 150) across various rewilding sites in Europe in the next 20 years. They have the ability to defend themselves from predation by carnivores such as wolves and bears, but some will inevitably be preyed upon by wild carnivores thereby restoring natural food chains.

What could go wrong with resurrecting and releasing aurochs?

Valid concerns of de-extinction processes have been raised to foresee complications and avoid negative consequences. The associated risks of reintroducing species such as aurochs have been presented in an article that applies the framework generated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN): Guidelines on Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations. Some of the key considerations raised in the article include,

Diseases: unknown rare diseases could be accidentally selected for breeding and passed onto the recreated species. De-extinct species are also at risk if they don't have resistance to new pathogens.

Suitable release site: successful reintroductions require the correct habitat and range to be available now and in the future.

Social feasibility and human concerns: the former relates to potential issues in policy and legislation, for instance if there are national veterinary requirements for new animals. The latter, questions the level of support from communities, and to what extent there will be impacts on local culture, economy and health. Fears of predatory attacks on people are common, while opportunities exist for local businesses through nature-based tourism.

Ecological risk: although the primary goal of bringing back aurochs is ecological enrichment, caution is needed to avoid negative impacts on existing ecosystems. One area to monitor is inter-specific hybridization that can lead to genetic-based extinction of current animals.

Others points of discussion have also risen from the following areas of concern.

Bio-objectification: where life is made into an object by humans. An ethical debate exists on whether organisms born out of extinction reversal procedures classify as bio-objects, used and controlled for human purposes.

Identification of de-extinct species: As remade species may not possess the exact characteristics of extinct ones, the procedure of determining identity is open to discussion.

De-extinction techniques could stifle the will to protect existing species.

Some hold moral views against the notion of de-extinction itself, believing in a 'finality', where only new human-made species can derive from de-extinction projects.

Conclusion

The idea of bringing an extinct species back to life automatically stirs excitement in many of us. To witness a beast from ancient times, when our planet was vastly different from today, roam our lands once again is a romantic vision. However, does it justify the possible risks of de-extinction backfiring on us?

The rapid rate of land abandonment in Europe spells disaster for many species. Researchers have been proactively exploring solutions through back-breeding and reintroductions of other large herbivores. By drawing on the expertise of a wide range of scientific fields, teams pioneering back-breeding have converged to progress towards their goals in the quickest time possible. Being very aware of the cost of inaction, leading programmes have already gone some way in addressing the major concerns of de-extinction. Breeds are selected to best suit and adapt to local food, climate, and predators in initiatives such as the Tauros programme.

That's not to say the path is clear of challenges, far from it. Success depends multiple factors, of which some could be unforeseen. More research will undoubtedly help success rates by providing new information, and lessons can be learnt from reintroductions of other large grazers like European bison.

What can be ascertained though is the auroch is a strong candidate for the role of a super species in this circumstance. To come to our aid once more, but this time to restore ecosystems that will build resilience against climate change.

Glossary of terms

Animal Husbandry: The study and science of breeding domesticated farm animals.

Biodiversity: Standing for biological diversity - it refers to all plant and animal species in an area and their abundance. A high level of species diversity is important, the more abundant and diverse, the better.

Domestication: A process humans have created that leads to the taming of animals or plants, which can result in their complete dependence on humans for their survival. It is engendered by breeding methods which will see the most human friendly animals chosen to breed.

Ecosystem: A community of biological organisms such as animals, plants, fungi and how they interact with one other and the environment they live in. Ecosystems have biological, physical and chemical components and come in endless forms.

Food Chains: The link of animals that depend on one another for food sources. Animals at the bottom will feed on grasses and plants (which serves its own ecological function), they in turn will be eaten by mesopredators who are in the middle of the food chain. These in turn will be predated upon by apex predators who have no natural predators.

Keystone Species: Coming in many forms, they are organisms whose relationship with its environment can shape the entire ecosystem. If they were removed, it could lead to an ecosystem becoming severely altered or collapsing. Examples of keystone species are birds of prey, wolves, beavers and bees.

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Aurochs: back from extinction to rewild Europe

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An ecological challenge in Europe has prompted the resurrection of a heavyweight herbivore. written by Tim Ozkurt Aurochs, the extinct ancestor of modern cattle, are being brought back to life to engineer and rewild our landscapes.

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Why you should make useless things | Simone Giertz

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As science and health communicators, our main goal is to share our institutions' wealth of science and health knowledge. We strive to make the information accessible to a broad range of people - from scientists and health professionals to health educators to patients and the general public. By pooling the experience and advice from experts in our community, we've started a list of strategies for communicating science and health research to the public.

As a growing community effort, we welcome your comments, advice, and additions to the list. We hope to hear from you, whether you're new or an experienced communications professional. Please share your thoughts with us by sending an email to sciencehealthandpublictrust@mail.nih.gov.

Setting the stage

Explain why the research is important. When choosing a scientific or health study to highlight, consider what's being contributed to the research field. Does it represent a major advance? Does it change the way people think about a problem?

Provide perspective for the study. Explain the context of the research and how it fits into what we already know.

Take care to not overstate the importance or statistical significance of a study, finding, or emerging situation when relaying what's interesting or exciting about a scientific development.

Use clear language to describe the science. Use nontechnical words when possible, and define jargon when needed. Use as few words as possible to describe health messages or scientific concepts.

Use conditional language when appropriate (language that hedges or highlights the potential gaps or unknowns). Researchers often use such language to convey their best educated explanation of the data, while noting what still needs to be addressed.

Choose quotes from scientific experts that explain the significance of the research in nontechnical terms. If a quote reaches beyond the study's data itself, place it in more context with a balanced explanation.

Convey information in a respectful tone that doesn't stigmatize or assign blame to individuals or groups involved or affected by the study or disease/disorder.

Carefully review the chosen language. Some words and phrases - such as miracle, hope, breakthrough, game-changer, and paradigm shift - may give false hope. Others - like victim, affliction, or suffer - make assumptions about how people are affected. These are unhelpful and potentially offensive.

Match images to your text with care. Empower the intended audience by using accurate, informative, and engaging visuals.

Provide resources for additional education on complex topics. Include links to credible health information webpages.

Provide information for locating the original study. Consider linking to paper citations on PubMed, which includes abstracts and links where people can access the studies, if available to the public.

Note funding sources and potential conflicts of interest to help maintain transparency: patent applications, start-up companies, potential royalty payments, or associations/funding from biotech/pharmaceutical companies.

Describing the science

Identify whether the study involved human or other model systems. If an animal model, clearly identify the type of animal at the top of the story - in the headline, the lede, or in bullet point summaries when applicable.

Explicitly state whether the study shows an association or causation. An association is a relationship, or correlation. A positive association means as one goes up, so does the other. A negative association means as one goes up, the other goes down. Causation is when an event or variable is shown to cause a specific outcome. Whether a study shows association or causation depends on the study design.

If a human study, describe the type of study:

Observational studies - studies in which researchers do not carry out any interventions. Observational studies can find associations. The causes might not be clear and could only be a coincidence.

Randomized controlled trials - controlled experiments designed to test the effects of an intervention or treatment. A well-designed randomized controlled trial is the best way to establish causation.

For clinical trials:

Describe the clinical trial phase (I, II, III, or IV). Even if you don't explicitly state the phase, be clear about how far along the drug or treatment is in development.

Give a breakdown of the study participants' demographics, e.g. sex, gender, age range, race, and/or ethnicity when applicable.

Identify and explain the limitations of the study's endpoint - the outcome that is used to measure the effect of a drug or treatment. Be alert to:

Surrogate endpoints - indicators or signs used in place of another to tell more quickly if a treatment works. For example, a study may measure a biomarker previously linked to death rates, rather than directly measure rates of death.

Composite endpoints - individual endpoints that are combined together (e.g. hospitalization + death). These may be used to increase the statistical power of a study, but be careful when describing exactly what they show.

Check the study's sample size and address potential limitations. Given the study design, was the sample size large enough to draw firm conclusions? Were the results preliminary, necessitating a larger follow-up study? Ideally, the peer reviewers will ensure this is stated in the paper.

Were there any confounding factors and how were they addressed?

Clearly explain risk, or the estimated likelihood of a certain outcome. Put new risks in perspective. Include the values for both absolute risk and relative risk.

Absolute risk - the measure of the risk of a certain event happening. This is usually expressed as the number of cases within a specific group in a certain time period.

Relative risk/risk ratio - the measure of the risk of a certain event happening in one group compared to the risk of the same event happening in another group. Relative risk numbers can be misleading in certain situations. For example, if one group has a 0.2% chance of getting a disease and the other has a 0.3% chance, group two has 50% greater risk than group one (or group one a 33% lower risk), but the difference is still not very meaningful.

Discuss both the benefits and drawbacks of any potential treatment, as health care decisions must take many different factors into account, e.g. treatment effectiveness, side effects, and overall risk of the intervention.

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A Checklist for Communicating Science and Health Research to the Public

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As science and health communicators, our main goal is to share our institutions' wealth of science and health knowledge. We strive to make the information accessible to a broad range of people - from scientists and health professionals to health educators to patients and the general public.

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Education

Higher education needs to address the problems it faces by moving towards active learning, and teaching skills that will endure in a changing world. Image: Vasily Koloda for Unsplash

Senior Director, Strategic Communications and Thought Leadership, Minerva Project

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Higher education is beginning to accept that traditional methods of teaching are ineffective - as demonstrated by the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

Many people gain admission to higher education based on standardized tests that skew to a certain socio-economic class Image: Fairtest, College Board

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4 trends that will shape the future of higher education

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Higher education needs to reform by moving towards active learning, teaching skills that will endure in a changing world, and adopting formative assessment. Here are 4 higher education trends to watch out.

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Megatrends - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

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Being attuned to some of the trends now sweeping across the world we can learn – and help our children learn – to adapt to, thrive in and even shape whatever the future holds.

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Our world is changing fast. The pace of change, particularly when it comes to new technologies, means the half-life of skills is shrinking fast. The days of a "job for life" are gone forever.

The education sector must adapt in line with this shift and reflect the fact that the essential, in-demand skills of the future will be very different from what has been taught in the past. In other words, what we teach has to change. Furthermore, howwe teach must also change to reflect the rapid digitization that is taking place across all industries, not just education.

Let's explore these two major themes in a little more detail to see how what we teach and how we teach it is likely to be transformed over the next few years.
Rethinking what we teach
Education - at all levels - must evolve to teach children the skills they need to thrive in our changing world. Many of the jobs today's schoolchildren will work in don't even exist yet. LinkedIn predicts 150 million new technology jobs in the next five years, and almost all of the roles in LinkedIn's "Jobs on the Rise" report for 2022 can already be done remotely.

So, what sort of skills will be essential for success? In its Schools of the Future paper, the World Economic Forum outlined essential characteristics that will define high-quality learning in the future. Skills such as:

· Global citizenship skills (including awareness of the wider world, and sustainability).

· Innovation and creativity skills (including problem-solving and analytical thinking).

· Technology skills (including data science and programming, which I believe should be offered as a language option as standard).

· Interpersonal skills (including emotional intelligence, empathy, cooperation and social awareness).

I was pleased to see "soft" skills like creativity and interpersonal communication make it onto the list. As machines are able to automate more and more workplace tasks, our inherently human social and emotional skills will become hard currency in the workplaces of the future. With that in mind, I would add the following to the list of essential skills:

· Ethics - as an example, AI ethicist is a job title that's beginning to gain traction as more companies look to deploy AI in an ethical way.

· Diversity (cultural diversity and diversity of thinking) - did you know the number of people being hired as workplace diversity experts increased 64 percent in 2020? This could be a significant career path for the future.
Rethinking how we teach it
Formal education originated around the time of the first industrial revolution, and it's telling that our general approach to education has changed little since then. In classrooms and lecture halls around the world, students still mostly sit facing the front, listening to the teacher deliver content that they're expected to memorize.

This isn't to criticize teachers and lecturers, far from it. I'm married to a teacher and am filled with admiration and respect for the work that educators do. But in order to teach the skills that are necessary to thrive in the 21 st century, and create the leaders that our world needs, the way in which education is delivered must adapt.

In particular, I believe the teachers of the future will become facilitators rather than content deliverers. Some of the key enablers of this change are:

· More digitized content and online learning - a trend that has drastically been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

· More personalized, self-paced, and self-directed learning - in which learning becomes much more flexible and is paced to suit the needs of each student.

· More collaborative, project-based and problem-based learning - which better reflects the 21 st century workplace.

· More bite-sized learning - because, according to a study by Microsoft, humans now have an attention span of around eight seconds. (That's less than a goldfish!) In the future, more education will have to be delivered as bite-sized, snackable content.

· More immersive learning - harnessing technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality to bring topics to life and immerse students in a subject.
South Tapiola High School, Finland
If you're wondering what these shifts will look like in practice, look no further than South Tapiola High School (also known as ETIS). This school is ranked as one of the best schools in Finland, a country that consistently ranks as one of the best-performing education systems in the world.

ETIS offers a curriculum that seeks to develop skills such as collaboration, entrepreneurship, active citizenship, and social awareness through real-world application. For example, the school has a Young Entrepreneurship Program, where students work in groups to design and create their own business and then compete in national competitions against other young entrepreneurs. Or there's the school's European Parliament for Young People Program, which provides a hands-on experience for learning civic duty. Here, students participate in national and regional sessions with students of different backgrounds to discuss current challenges in the European Union. The school also partners with tech companies such as Microsoft and Dell to integrate technology into the curriculum.

In case you're wondering whether "traditional" subjects suffer at the expense of these 21 st-century skills, rest assured that ETIS is no slouch when it comes to core curriculum subjects. ETIS students outperform national averages in math and chemistry by more than double!

There's no doubt that rethinking what we teach and how we teach it is a huge task. But I believe it's essential if our education systems are to meet the needs of 21 st-century students and to prepare young people for success in our rapidly changing world. Read more about these and other future trends in my new book, Business Trends in Practice: The 25+ Trends That are Redefining Organizations. Packed with real-world examples, it cuts through the hype to present the key trends that will shape the businesses of the future.

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The 2 Biggest Future Trends In Education

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Our world is changing fast. The pace of change, particularly when it comes to new technologies, means the half-life of skills is shrinking fast. The days of a "job for life" are gone forever.

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University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

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University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

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15 Top Strategies for Teaching Adult Learners [+ FAQs] – University of San Diego - Professional & Continuing Education

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15 Top Strategies for Teaching Adult Learners [+ FAQs]. Advance your career with professional and continuing education from the University of San Diego.

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Nanotechnology and Reproductive Management of Farm Animals: Challenges and Advances

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The emergence of nanotechnology paves the way for innovating countless applications in the agricultural and livestock production sector. In the field of reproductive management of farm animals, nanotechnology offers unconventional and innovative solutions…

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The livestock sector is a pillar of the global food system and a contributor to poverty reduction, food security and agricultural development. According to the FAO, livestock contributes 40% of the global value of agricultural output and supports the livelihoods and food and nutrition security of almost 1.3 billion people. At the same time, there is wide scope to improve livestock sector practices so that they are more sustainable, more equitable, and pose less risk to animal and human health.

Livestock play a major role in sustainable food systems-for example, manure is a critical source of natural fertilizer, while livestock used as draft animals can help boost productivity in regions where there is low mechanization. Livestock are important assets for vulnerable communities. Globally, around 500 million pastoralists rely on livestock herding for food, income, and as a store of wealth, collateral or safety net in times of need. Locally, livestock production systems have the potential to contribute to the preservation of biodiversity and to carbon sequestration in soils and biomass. In harsh environments, such as mountains and drylands, livestock is often the only way to sustainably convert natural resources into food, fiber, and work power for local communities.

Increasing incomes, changing diets, and population growth have led to increased demand and made the livestock sector one of the fastest growing agricultural sub-sectors in middle- and low-income countries. This represents a major opportunity for smallholders, agribusiness, and job creators throughout the livestock supply chain. However, if not properly managed, this growth risks accentuating sustainability issues that span equity, environmental impacts, and public health.

The transformations that accompany growth are an opportunity to move the livestock sector toward more sustainable development and improved contribution to human diets. Productivity levels and practices can be managed in ways that address adverse impacts on land, water, and the environment, as well as the risks posed to animal and human health.

Currently, the livestock sector emits an estimated 7.1 GT of CO2-equivalent per year, representing 14.5% of human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Increasing the efficiency of livestock supply chains is key to limiting the growth of GHG emissions in the future.

Moving towards environmental sustainability in the livestock sector
The World Bank is committed to improving the livestock sector's contribution to sustainable development. The Bank supports countries to manage and respond to growing demand for animal protein in ways that are significantly less harmful for the environment and contribute significantly less to climate change.

Investing in veterinary services and animal disease surveillance is also crucial to improve animal health and welfare, reduce economic impact of animal diseases, improve food safety, and reduce risks of antimicrobial resistance. The prevention of animal diseases can limit transfer of animal pathogens to humans and control the emergence of deadly zoonotic diseases at the animal source, where action is most cost-effective. Improved livestock management is an integral part of the " One Health " approach, which seeks to optimize human, animal, and planetary health.

Requests for World Bank support to livestock operations have increased from an average of US$150 million in annual lending commitments at the beginning of the decade, to about US$700 million in new lending per year in the last three years. Most of the growth has been in Africa, South Asia, and Central Asia. Currently, the World Bank has US$1.9 billion in active investments in livestock.

As part of its commitment to helping countries build sustainable, nutritious food systems, the World Bank is moving its livestock investments towards greater sustainability and climate-smart outcomes. All investments are designed with mitigation and adaptation in mind, and an average of 61% of livestock financing over the last three years is directly tied to climate co-benefits (up from 55% in the previous period).

Bank-supported projects seek to improve various dimensions of livestock systems and value chains, using levers such as efficiency gains, balancing of animal rations and sustainable sourcing of feeds, carbon sequestration in agricultural landscapes, energy-efficient technologies and renewable energy sources, animal health and welfare, and better manure management.

For example, the Sustainable Livestock Development Program in Kazakhstan, approved in 2020, includes ambitious environmental objectives to develop a sustainable beef sector and contribute to diversifying the economy away from oil and mineral resources. The program aims to increase beef production while pursuing an absolute reduction of GHG emissions. This will be achieved in three ways: by increasing productivity and decreasing GHG emissions per unit of product through improved livestock management practices; by increasing soil carbon sequestration through improved grazing management practices; and by adopting energy-efficient equipment and renewable energy to reduce and displace fossil fuel use.

Similarly, ongoing projects in Ethiopia and in Bangladesh are anticipated to dedicate US$108.8 million and US$259 million, respectively to climate co-benefits. They promote the use a climate-smart practices among farmers and processors, enhance GHG emission monitoring and reporting capacities, and address the particular issue of clean cooling technology along the value chain.

Through ongoing studies and the development of blueprints, the World Bank seeks to improve financial incentives for livestock producers who reduce GHG emissions in their operations, by providing easier access to climate finance (such as mitigation offsets or conditional lines of credit).

The Bank is working to share knowledge and guidance in a format that is relevant to the need of investment teams. With partners, the Bank has prepared a guide to investment in sustainable livestock. The first section of the guide addresses environmental issues and climate change. The second section addresses health-related issues. A third section, under development, will address the equity dimension of sustainability.
Results
In Patagones, a semi-arid area of Argentina, switching from growing cereal to improved and natural pasture for grazing livestock is one of several strategies used by farmers to combat desertification and adapt to climate change. The switch to more resilient land and water management practices was piloted by a World Bank project financed by the United Nation's Adaptation Fund and implemented by Argentina's Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development.

In the Sahel, the Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project (PRAPS) supports the countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. In a region too dry to allow for sedentary livestock, pastoralists move their herds according to the availability of water and pasture - an early form of climate adaptation. The project helps to protect pastoral systems by improving resource management and animal health, facilitating access to markets, diversifying sources of income for pastoral households, and managing conflicts. The project established infrastructure around water points, pasture for livestock, vaccination stations, livestock markets, and fodder storage. Between 2015 and 2020, the project helped establish and improve the management of more than 5 million hectares of pastureland, 181 water points, and 66 cattle markets. It also supported the economic activity of 20,700 people, 88% of whom were women.

In Armenia, the Bank is helping to improve the productivity and sustainability of livestock and pasture systems in 109 communities managing 207,000 hectares of community pasture areas.

In Mexico in 2016, 1,165 small and medium agribusinesses, including businesses focused on livestock production, adopted environmentally sustainable energy technologies such as bio-digesters, reducing C02 emissions by 3,388,670 tons.

In Uruguay, the Bank is supporting government efforts to help farmers adopt climate-smart livestock practices. To date, on-farm investments have improved carbon sequestration in grasslands and energy efficiency of beef and dairy supply chains. The project has also helped minimize and collect waste, and promote sustainable and organic soil management by reducing fertilizer use and conserving water on dairy farms. All dairy producers in the Santa Lucia watershed (which covers clean water needs for half the country) must now supply Sustainable Dairy Plans that are mapped and tracked in an integrated information system known as SNIA, as part of a broader national effort to better manage natural resources and improve decision-making using digital technology. About 500 out of 1,200 dairy farms in the Santa Lucia watershed have also been equipped with improved effluent management systems.

In Vietnam, a Bank-supported project benefited over 151,000 livestock farmers. A key feature of the project has been the implementation of good animal husbandry practices (GAHP). Twenty-three thousand one hundred seven household-based producers received technology and learned techniques to reduce negative environmental impacts, 362 meat-processing plants improved their waste-treatment systems and 489 wet markets upgraded their facilities to improve hygiene and food safety.

In Colombia, the World Bank has engaged with local partners to pilot innovative approaches to sustainable cattle ranching production. The Colombia Mainstreaming Sustainable Cattle Ranching Project, co-funded by the UK government and the Global Environmental Facility, has allowed nearly 32,000 hectares of degraded land to be converted to silvopastoral systems (combining livestock and trees) allowing for the capture of 1.05 million tons of CO2 equivalent and the conservation of biodiversity, including 50 native species, since it started as a pilot project in 2011. Individual ranchers received training, technical assistance, key inputs such as planting materials at low costs, and financial incentives. The adoption of silvopastoral systems has achieved a 17% increase in milk production, 18.5% reduction in production costs, and a 23% increase in average number of cows per hectare between 2011 and 2018.

Last Updated: Feb 22, 2022

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Moving Towards Sustainability: The Livestock Sector and the World Bank

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The livestock sector is a pillar of the global food system and a contributor to poverty reduction, food security and agricultural development. According to the FAO, livestock contributes 40% of the global value of agricultural output and supports the livelihoods and food and nutrition security of almost 1.3 billion people.

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June 23, 2022

This story originally appeared on Biofuels Digest.

Well known for advancements in crop sciences and biofuels, Iowa's leadership in the bioindustry extends beyond these pillars into the field of animal health. The state boasts the second highest concentration of animal scientists in the United States, many of whom hail from Ames, Iowa (which has the highest concentration of animal scientists of any metro area in the country). Ames is an animal health epicenter in its own right as home to Iowa State University's (ISU) College of Veterinary Medicine and to one of Merck's Animal Health vaccine manufacturing facilities. Each entity's credentials are impressive on their own merits, but a new four-year strategic alliance between the two organizations now aims to combine Merck Animal Health's resources and industry leadership with Iowa State's research capabilities to expedite the delivery of advanced animal health solutions to the marketplace.

"It's like one plus one is now three," said Mike Roof, chief technology officer of vaccines and immunotherapeutics at Iowa State University. "A project might start by looking at the vector of a vaccine, which evolves into the development of a computer system to track emerging diseases, which evolves into Merck hiring a post-doctoral fellow working on a project. The alliance is in its infancy now, but the potential opportunities are endless."

With an emphasis on new treatments for companion, equine and livestock animals, the first phase of this joint research project explores innovations in drug and vaccine delivery and encompasses research and development, manufacturing, business development and more.

New Path Toward Collaboration
This strategic alliance represents the continuation of a long-standing relationship. The two organizations previously joined forces on projects such as the development of SEQUIVITY®, Merck Animal Heath's revolutionary RNA particle technology platform designed to combat new and evolving disease pathogens, including the company's recently announced vaccine for sapovirus which causes diarrhea in young pigs. Now supported through a formalized structure and dedicated funding, the new alliance fully integrates both parties' capabilities and leverages resources and expertise beyond the scope of prior projects. First launched in February 2022, the alliance has quickly expanded beyond its initial scope into a fully integrated portfolio yielding immediate benefits for both organizations: ISU has taken advantage of Merck's global research infrastructure, animal health industry insights, and expertise across various business units, while Merck has benefitted from closer access to in-state talent, broader customer access, and the opportunity to run pilot test studies and small clinical trials at the university or through associated contract research organizations.

Investing in Emerging Technologies
Among the many advancements and investments borne out of ISU's research facilities are three that offer long-term promise for continued improvements in animal (and human) health:

Nanovaccine development using nanoparticles. Nearly all companies specializing in animal health and human health have an interest in nanoparticles given the potential applications for developing nanovaccines that are needle-free, remain stable at room temperature, and take far less time to manufacture. ISU's Nanovaccine Institute is on the leading edge of this research that promises to offer an effective method of delivery for livestock and other animals.

Investments in future vaccine development. Located in ISU's Research Park, CYVAX is ISU's Vaccine Development Laboratory focused on USDA-compliant master seeds, manufacturing scale up and commercial development of materials used for clinical trials. The lab supports startups in a critical phase of company maturation with the goal of providing participating early-stage companies with an avenue for long-term commercial success.

Production of RNA vaccines using extracellular vesicles. RNA vaccines have received plenty of headlines in recent years, but current applications of RNA technology can be expensive and complicated. ISU is working toward improvements on this technology that could make human vaccines cheaper and allow RNA vaccines to come into the animal health space.

Scaling Into a Portfolio
Thanks to these advancements, Merck Animal Health has been able to plan for projects beyond a pathogen-specific scope. Under this partnership, Merck and ISU have built a portfolio of projects focused not only on research and development, but data management, immunostimulants to improve the immune system, and streamlining vaccine dosing and delivery as well. This advanced portfolio of platform technologies can be applied across Merck's ecosystem, allowing greater interface between complex interdisciplinary teams.
As the relationship between ISU and Merck Animal Health continues, it's bolstered by Iowa's pro-business environment that incentivizes innovation and collaboration - a key factor in solidifying the state's standing as an epicenter for animal health and bioscience excellence.

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An epicenter of animal health: How Iowa's public-private partnerships advance vaccine innovation

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June 23, 2022 This story originally appeared on Biofuels Digest. Well known for advancements in crop sciences and biofuels, Iowa's leadership in the bioindustry extends beyond these pillars into the field of animal health.

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The Department of Animal Science is excited to share a new hands-on learning experience for students interested in beef cattle management and marketing. This unique experience for undergraduate students, the heifer development program, was developed by beef farms manager, David Bruene, along with Associate Professor Brad Skaar and Professor Dan Loy who teach the beef production and management/marketing classes in the Department of Animal Science.

Pictured from left to right: Dave Bruene, Robert Sorensen, and Bruce Sorensen
"This program was created to give students the opportunity to have a real industry experience with hands-on activities that help them learn how to manage and market commercial breeding stock," said Skaar, associate professor of animal science. "And it allows the beef teaching farm to create a closer connection with their bull customers."

These customers purchase bulls raised by Iowa State University for their superior genetics and conformation. The buyers then introduce the bulls to their breeding herds in an effort to produce feeder calves and replacement heifers, the latter of which the department purchased for this program for the first time.

The program spans three different semesters, giving students in each semester a unique experience. The first class starts with preparation for the arrival of the replacement heifers. Students from the capstone Beef Systems Management class develop a feed ration plan, budget and business plan. The students learned these are some of the most important factors in successfully managing a beef enterprise.

The class also had input in selecting the 20 heifers that would be purchased for this program over a virtual meeting during 2020. During this meeting, Bruce Sorensen and his son Robert, both Iowa State alums, who together have purchased many bulls from Iowa State over the years, talked about a few of the management practices they implement in their business located in Lawton, Iowa.

Jordyn Delzer and Ethan Hornbuckle, two students who took the Beef Systems Management class, agree the new heifer buyback program has allowed them to gain hands on experience in various aspects of the beef industry. Jordyn enjoyed learning about the financial side of the cattle industry, pointing out that it is one of the most important aspects but only observed behind the scenes. While Ethan also enjoyed the experience with financials, he found the nutrition and ration formulation to be extremely important and interesting. He appreciates they are getting first-hand experience with the same cattle nutrition programs being used by producers across Iowa to create rations for their own herds.

The Department of Animal Science is please to share that the heifers purchased from the Sorensens last fall for the heifer development program were sold as bred heifers at the Tama Livestock Auction in January 2022, and the sale of the heifers generated a net profit as would be the case for a commercial producer in Iowa.
Pictured: Brad Skaar speaking to buyers at the Tama Livestock Auction while selling the bred heifers from the heifer development program
"We will plan to continue this hands-on, real life learning experience and beef cattle enterprise, and plan to engage our students in our seedstock merchandizing classes in the development and marketing of the heifers, along with the existing efforts to market our bulls and conduct the biennial purebred seedstock female sale," Skaar said. "We also appreciate the helpful input of Charlie and Jenny Peters and their family for their advice as well. They are one of the most well-known heifer development operations in the state of Iowa." The entire family spoke to the ANS 426 class, and provided valuable guidelines and advice for success.

This heifer development program is just one example of how Iowa State's Department of Animal Science is using innovative ideas to prepare students for a successful future in the animal agriculture industry.

For more information on animal science courses with hands-on learning in the beef industry, please visit: https://www.ans.iastate.edu/students.

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Hands-on experience for students drives innovative new heifer development program at Iowa State University

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The Department of Animal Science is excited to share a new hands-on learning experience for students interested in beef cattle management and marketing. This unique experience for undergraduate students, the heifer development program, was developed by beef farms manager, David Bruene, along with Associate Professor Brad Skaar and Professor Dan Loy who teach the beef production and management/marketing classes in the Department of Animal Science.

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by *, and

Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

1. Introduction

The future of animal farming will be guided by the principles of precision, sustainability, and intelligence. Accurate cattle production can only be attained with the rapid spread of intelligent technology for early warning of illnesses, feeding precision, and remote diagnosis [ 1]. In recent years, the dairy sector has developed and deployed a number of different technologies in order to automatically monitor a variety of behavioral and physiological indicators [ 2, 3]. Collecting large amounts of data is made possible by the use of sensors and technology, and these data must be analyzed with sophisticated statistical methods before any conclusions can be drawn about the animals' behavior, health, or welfare. Innovations and information technologies (ITs) are essential for achieving sustainable operations because they enable early and rapid disease detection, help measure environmental emissions, and optimize production [ 4].

Traditional diagnostic procedures are notoriously labor-intensive, time-consuming, and technical, necessitating the expertise of skilled specialists using specialized equipment. To overcome these obstacles and create quick-response, low-cost, and highly reliable biosensor devices, new technologies are being employed [ 5]. The use of automated remote monitoring and detection of animal well-being, suggesting factors for body and body weight problems, might enhance biological metrics in cattle. This might be performed by analyzing sounds, photographs, videos, and other data in real time. Data from remote sensors such as microphones, cameras, accelerometers, and thermometers can be used to gather reliable information when combined with animal IDs and other observations and put into algorithms [ 6]. Different sensors, such as radio frequency identification (RFID), accelerometers, load cells, and webcams, can be used to detect sudden changes in the activity, eating and drinking, physical condition, and health of animals [ 7]. Devices with the potential to measure physiological, immunological, and behavioral responses in livestock and various animal species are referred to as biosensors [ 8]. Biosensors are compact, portable, highly sensitive, fast, and can be extremely specific with a low chance of a false positive. They function in a variety of ways, including detecting changes in pH, ion concentrations, mass through particular hybridization, enzymatic reaction, functional loss, electrical potential change, color change, temperature, and so on. Novel biosensors have considerable advantages and uses in the management of livestock, including disease isolation and detection, reproductive cycle detection, health monitoring, and monitoring an animal's physiological wellness through the examination of its surroundings [ 8].

The application of biosensors and wearable technology in animal health management is becoming increasingly important. These instruments can facilitate the early detection of diseases in animals, decreasing economic losses. A variety of sensors for animal health management are in various stages of commercialization across the world. Some approaches for properly detecting health status and illness diagnosis are solely relevant to humans, with only minor alterations or testing in animal models [ 9]. The current state of medical technology makes early illness detection difficult and laboratory testing for animals expensive [ 8]. There is a need for detection technologies that can anticipate when and in what group an incident is likely to occur, inform diagnosis and treatment options, and forecast potential repercussions on a specific community [ 8]. These tools can speed up the monitoring process and are not only accurate and sensitive for the parameters being analyzed, but they also can be dependable and simple to use. General farm monitoring may be made easier and more reliable by employing portable devices instead of conventional techniques such as taking notes, keeping a farm diary, or using simple equipment without data-sharing features. Many solutions have been developed for portable devices to reduce the labor associated with manually recording data [ 9].

Every year, new diseases that endanger the health of animals appear in the modern world. There are currently no viable, cost-effective diagnostic techniques for early disease identification in farmed livestock animals. Biosensing technologies have the ability to address these issues by providing novel diagnostic tools for the early detection of major health hazards in the agri-food animal sector [ 8]. Breeding is an essential component of animal husbandry. The ovulation cycle in cattle must be monitored in order to estimate the temporal frame for artificial insemination. Mastitis (both clinical and subclinical), metabolic disorders such as ketosis and acidosis, the animal's reproductive status, and projected calving may all now be diagnosed using various technologies. As is known, automated milking systems (AMSs) pose various issues and possibilities for dairy producers. AMSs allow for the monitoring of milking frequency at the cow level, as well as quarter-level production and milk quality, which can contribute to the development of disease detection systems. Biomarkers such as plasma-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and body condition score (BCS) might be beneficial not only in diagnosing illnesses, but also in evaluating cow pregnancy and re-production success [ 10]. BCS is a valuable approach for monitoring the relationships between nutritional management, reproduction, and metabolic diseases, and it facilitates farm management decisions [ 11]. BHB is one of the most useful indicators to diagnose ketosis [ 12]. It was found that BHB can be useful not only as an indicator for metabolic disorders, but also that the concentration of BHB in the blood has a negative phenotypic connection with the pregnancy rate at the first service [ 13]. Elevated BHB levels have been associated with uterine problems and delayed luteal activity [ 14]. Because it is simple, inexpensive, and has acceptable sensitivity and specificity, measuring inline lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in milk in robots is a reliable indicator for the detection of subclinical mastitis [ 15]. As an inflammatory indication of mastitis, the milk enzyme LDH performed similarly to acute-phase proteins and somatic cell count, according to studies [ 16]. Using accurate diagnostic technology can enhance our understanding of the elements influencing the reproductive physiology of dairy cows [ 17]. In addition to assisting with reproductive control, the method enables the evaluation of luteal activity and its association with fertility through the analysis of frequent progesterone (mP4) data [ 10].

The focus of this review is to analyze emerging biosensing technologies that have the potential to impact livestock early disease diagnostics, management, and relevant procedures.

2. Importance of Early Diagnostic in Dairy Farming

Animal health management with biosensors is a new field that is gaining traction worldwide. Biosensors are increasingly being utilized in dairy farms to better monitor animal health and detect illnesses early on [ 9]. Making a correct diagnosis is a crucial intermediate step between identifying a disease's root cause and treating it [ 18].

Continuous observation of behavioral and physiological indicators may make it possible to spot subtle alterations before they manifest as overt clinical symptoms. Cattle may benefit from early sickness detection by preventing disease development and improving treatment response [ 2]. Farm managers, veterinarians, and farmers themselves can use sensors to monitor animal movements, food intake, sleep cycles, and even shelter air quality. Big data-capable computers store and process raw data [ 19]. Proficient estrus identification is a constant issue for efficient reproductive performance in dairy herds, especially on farms that use artificial insemination (AI) [ 20, 21]. In preparation for calving and milk production, dairy cattle experience many changes to their metabolism and bodies as they move from late gestation to early lactation. These profound alterations cause an increase in the likelihood of developing a wide variety of health problems, such as metritis, mastitis, ketosis, and displaced abomasum [ 22]. The absence of sickness is an important aspect of general animal health and well-being. Disease, lameness, and limb problems are already posing substantial challenges to the dairy industry. Lameness is uncomfortable, and animals in pain usually change their activity, stride, food, posture, and appearance from their regular behavior. The economic expenses associated with treatment, decreased milk output, decreased fertility, mortality, or removal from the herd may be lowered if a disease is diagnosed earlier [ 22]. The earlier adoption of intervention methods can be made possible by the earlier identification of cows at risk for health issues [ 19, 22].

Devices that can be implanted in an animal's body (thermography, pedometers) remain in the stomach (bolus) and provide owners with valuable information on the animal's behavior and medical conditions. Using various devices prevents farm managers and veterinarians from spending unnecessary time on evaluating and inspecting animals. Veterinarians can catch diseases early on with wearable sensors (pedometers, GPS, milk analyzers, body condition scoring), which keeps animals from getting subclinically sick, clinically sick, or even dying. Owners can sort out sick animals in time to keep diseases from spreading through whole herds [ 9]. For instance, a decline in activity might be a sign of illness, and a decrease in time spent lying down could be a sign of discomfort or pain (pedometer, accelerometer) [ 23].

3. Innovative Tools in Farm Animals' Early Disease Diagnosis

Farm management is being significantly influenced by technological breakthroughs, which are reducing physical labor, expenditures, and waste while increasing yields and profits. As a result of agricultural technological breakthroughs, a new farming method called "precision agriculture" has evolved [ 24]. Monitoring real-time autonomic responses (e.g., respiration rate, heart rate variability and heart rate, blood pressure, changes in peripheral blood flow) and defense-related reflexes with innovative biosensor equipment can aid in understanding how housing, nutrition, and genotype influence animals' resilience to stressors. These sensors can contribute to the knowledge of factors that influence animal welfare and the creation of remedies (for example, husbandry techniques, genotype selection) that increase the welfare of livestock and companion animals. Wearable sensors can track feeding behavior, rumination behavior, rumen pH, rumen temperature, body temperature, laying behavior, animal activity, and animal location or placement [ 25]. Wearable or imprinted biosensors that allow remote data transfer could be significant in this rapidly evolving field [ 9]. There are many gadgets that can measure body temperature, behavior, and movement of the animal [ 9, 26, 27, 28]. Sensors and wearable technology can be inserted into animals to detect the components of their body fluids such as sweat [ 9, 29, 30]. Cows are also fitted with commercially available biosensor collars to monitor the estrous cycle [ 9, 31]. Figure 1 demonstrates examples of various technologies applied to cows.

3.1. Milk Analyzers

The use of technologies to evaluate physiological, behavioral, and production markers on individual animals in order to identify events of interest is included in the process of precision dairy monitoring [ 23]. Milk analytes can be used as biomarkers for diseases or reproductive status detection. For example, DeLaval Herd Navigator (DeLaval Inc., Tumba, Sweden) detects the amount of progesterone in milk. The program also recommends the ideal timing for insemination, names animals that need to be confirmed as pregnant, flags early abortions, and lists cows at risk for cysts and protracted anestrus. Other milking robots such as Lely Astronaut A4 (Lely Campus, Cornelis van der Lely an 1, 3147, PB, Maassluis, The Netherlands) can determine milk analytes and milk electrical conductivity. Blood biomarkers are useful indicators of animal health, although they have limited economic use. They might provide a great deal of information, especially because biomarkers can detect subclinical stages of illnesses even when the cow appears fully healthy and shows no visible indications of illness. An alternative to blood biomarkers can be milk biomarkers [ 10]. Sensor devices for determining the fat and protein content of milk are widely utilized on farms nowadays. According to each farm's milking system, a unique sensor system is utilized. These sensors provide information on the health and fertility of cattle. Using milk analyzers, the estrous cycle and reproductive performance in dairy cows can be tracked [ 9]. There are various analyzers which may operate on different principles, some using chemical indicators and others based on spectroscopy [ 32].

3.1.1. Somatic Cell Count

Mastitis-related milk production losses in dairy animals are economically significant [ 33]. Monitoring somatic cell count (SCC) concentrations in milk is the most widely used method for detecting mastitis, especially in its subclinical forms. When SCC values surpass the limit, the milk's value plummets drastically. As a result, experts feel that SCC level is a significant parameter for evaluating udder health [ 34, 35]. Despite the absence of clinical signs, subclinical mastitis is distinguished by an increase in SCC in milk. SCC is a useful udder health indicator since it counts the quantity of somatic cells (mainly desquamated epithelial cells, macrophages, and neutrophils) in milk. Aside from being used as a criterion for selecting dairy cows that are less susceptible to mastitis, the presence of SCC in bovine milk is a well-established indicator of mammary gland inflammation, which is strongly linked to the presence of a mammary infection. SCC has proven to be a useful indicator of decreased milk supply due to subclinical mastitis, which is present when the cell count is greater than 200,000 per milliliter [ 33, 36, 37, 38, 39].

Using cell staining methods and microscopy, the SCC concentration can be evaluated at the laboratory level. However, these approaches are time-consuming and call for specialized equipment and personnel [ 39]. Modern techniques for SCC in milk detection are much less laborious and time-consuming [ 39].

Automatic mastitis detection devices are examples of novel diagnostic processes that are field-adaptable, simple, and can rapidly provide results. There are many types of equipment such as the milk checker, Fossomatic meter (Hillerød, Denmark), Dramiski mastitis detector/Wykrywacz mastitis detector (Olsztyn, Poland), DeLaval cell counter (Tumba, Sweden), Afimilk mastitis detector (Kibbutz Afikim, Izrael), UdderCheck ® test (Moorestown, USA), and PortaSCC ® test (Moorestown, USA). They rely on either detecting physicochemical-biological alterations in milk or the udder or assessing biomarkers in body fluids (milk, serum) linked with mastitis [ 40].

It has been demonstrated that the diagnostic capacity of infrared thermography (IRT) is comparable to that of the California mastitis test, and it also distinguishes instances of clinical mastitis from those of subclinical mastitis. As a result, IRT has the potential to develop into a diagnostic tool that is both convenient and portable [ 40].

3.1.2. Milk Progesterone

Fertility control needs close coordination between farmers and veterinarians, systematic examination of farm records, and reliable clinical data. Furthermore, low fertility might be considered a sign of poor health and well-being [ 41]. Breeding is an essential element of cattle husbandry. Detecting the ovulation phase in cattle is crucial for determining the best window for artificial insemination [ 8]. The presence of progesterone implies the existence of a functioning corpus luteum. As a result, it has been utilized for decades as a biomarker of reproductive efficiency. Milk progesterone is a potential non-invasive indicator for reproductive status in dairy cows since progesterone is transported from blood to milk [ 41]. Therefore, progesterone sensors could be useful sensor systems, despite the fact that little research has been carried out on the performance of such systems [ 42]. The Herd Navigation ® system (Tumba, Sweden), which integrates five sensing systems, including progesterone in milk, was developed for commercial usage in 2008. It detects progesterone levels in milk and recommends insemination times, animals for final pregnancy confirmation, early termination, and cows at risk for cysts and extended anestrus. In Denmark, estrus detection rates of 95-97% have been recorded, with much higher pregnancy rates (up to 42-50%) than traditional approaches [ 8]. Endocrine regulation is crucial for optimal fertilization throughout the follicular period. Because progesterone production is strongly related to embryonic development from the early stages of pregnancy, adequate monitoring of both pre-ovulatory decline and post-insemination elevation in milk progesterone can be used to detect animals with reduced fertility. Reduced milk progesterone concentrations, for example, around days 4-7 following insemination are related to low fertility and an increased chance of embryonic loss [ 41]. According to various studies, pregnant cows had higher quantities of milk progesterone in their milk samples for the first week following insemination [ 10].

Infrared spectroscopy is a fast, inexpensive, and user-friendly technology that can be used for research as well as online and offline milk analyses [ 24]. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has long been used to measure the amount of milk components such as fat, protein, and lactose [ 43]. Numerous studies demonstrate that a near-infrared spectroscopy approach is a viable method for assessing individual milk progesterone levels. In fact, monitoring progesterone levels in milk is an efficient and cost-effective method for determining a cow's reproductive status, detecting heat, and diagnosing pregnancy. Cows are milked twice or three times per day under standard dairy practices, implying that milk samples provide information on the current health of the herd/individual and may be collected and tested on a frequent basis without severely compromising the animal's daily living [ 24]. In addition, it has been demonstrated that the physiological status of the animal affects the molecular structure of the water in milk; therefore, milk spectra can provide useful information regarding animal health and sickness [ 43].

3.2. Breath, Sweat and Saliva Analysis

Researchers have long been interested in disease detection by the identification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), representing a non-invasive technique. Animals and humans both exhale and excrete VOCs in their secretions with breath, blood, feces, skin, urine, and vaginal discharges [ 44, 45]. Gases such as hydrogen (H2) and methane (CH4), as well as volatile organic molecules such as fatty acids, which can serve as biomarkers for metabolic and pathologic processes, are examples of metabolites found in the breath. VOCs such as ketone bodies, ethanol, methanol, and exogenous compounds are commonly associated with blood glucose levels [ 46]. VOC analysis has been used to study bovine respiratory sickness, brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, Johne's disease, ketoacidosis, and normal rumen physiology in cattle [ 8, 44].

The majority of sweat metabolite analysis biosensors were created with the intention of monitoring human health. These have been put to use to measure lactate levels and salt concentrations, and they have also been made portable (in belt form) to measure sweat [ 8]. Additionally, this sensor may be modified for use in measuring animal perspiration, particularly as an indicator of physical stress in animals [ 8, 47].

Saliva collection for disease and other biochemical markers of physiological health is an appealing non-invasive alternative to blood sampling [ 48]. Because saliva contains both local and systemic components, it is a useful source of information regarding systemic processes occurring in the body, allowing for the evaluation of the organism's physiological or pathological status. However, the use of saliva in the diagnosis of animal illnesses necessitates a detailed examination of its protein composition under various situations [ 49, 50]. The technique is especially helpful for monitoring animals and diagnosing diseases because drawing blood from animals is thought to be a stressor and can affect the biochemical parameters being measured. Salivary biomarkers can be useful for several purposes, including disease early detection and diagnosis, decision support for managing animals, and disease progression monitoring [ 51]. There are other diagnostic applications for saliva, such as biomarkers from saliva being investigated for the detection of oral cancer [ 52]. According Mojsym et al., saliva can be a valuable diagnostic sample comprising possible indications of physiological and pathological conditions such as pregnancy status of cattle. Moreover, it can be useful for developing rapid tests from saliva [ 49]. In buffalo, there are attempts to determine estrous time using saliva biomarkers for more precise insemination planning [ 53]. Saliva analytes were explored for their relationships with lameness in another investigation. It was also anticipated that cows can change certain particles in their saliva, and some of these may reflect improvements in lameness after therapy [ 54]. Table 1 shows a summary of milk and other body fluid analysis and its benefits.

3.3. Wearable Devices for Animals

Portable electronic monitoring devices have the potential to transform intensive, large-scale dairy production by monitoring and managing cows on an individual basis. There has been a notable increase in the number of published research looking into the application of wearable electronic monitoring devices for use in commercial farming environments since the early 2000s [ 55].

3.3.1. Head/Muzzle and Noseband Sensors

Three distinct kinds of biosensors can be employed to recognize the jaw movements that characterize cattle grazing behavior. These are electromyography sensors, mechanical/pressure sensors, and acoustic sensors [ 8]. Cattle grazing behavior necessitates close observation of each cow based on three crucial factors: the cow's position, an analysis of its posture, and the cow's motions, particularly its gait and jaw movement [ 8, 56]. The amount of time an animal spends with its head in a downward posture is added to the sensor's recorded data to calculate grazing time [ 57]. For instance, continuous observation of jaw motions can reveal information about diurnal grazing habits, animal health disorders, and forage deficiencies [ 58, 59].

3.3.2. Motion, Movement, and Behavior Sensors

Activity can be reduced in cattle afflicted with lameness or diseases such as bovine respiratory diseases (BRD). Energy conservation for immune system metabolic costs and indirect effects of fever and inflammatory responses to infection were proposed as biological underpinnings for reduced activity in ill animals [ 69]. There are plenty of technologies for motion, movement, and behavior analysis, such as accelerometer, pedometers, and global positioning system (GPS).

Understanding how grazing animals migrate throughout pastures and what they do in each region is essential for developing management plans that will maximize the potential productivity of grazing systems and limit their negative impacts on the environment (nutrient losses to water and gaseous emissions). Using real-time global positioning system (GPS) tracking and biologging technologies, it is possible to perform remote monitoring of animals to look for any indications of illness or concerns regarding their well-being [ 71]. Animals on livestock farms can be monitored for their activity levels, which can provide useful information about the animals' overall health and degree of care [ 72]. The global positioning system, radio tracking, and wireless local area network are now the most important technologies for monitoring livestock in the field; however, there are a few more tools (such as Bluetooth and ultrasound) that can be employed for indoor monitoring [ 71]. GPS collars equipped with activity sensors enable the distinction between foraging sites and those used for other activities such as sleeping or travelling [ 57, 73, 74]. Diverse studies conducted over the past decade have proved the utility of GPS telemetry devices for analyzing the behavior of cattle when combined with other devices/sensors. Combining GPS collars with activity sensors results in an effective method for tracking the whereabouts of grazing animals and determining animal behavior simultaneously. Real-time location systems have been created to pinpoint the position of an object within a particular area [ 6]. Although little research has been conducted on the behavior and movement of lame dairy cows on pasture, GPS technology may be useful in enhancing pasture-based systems' automatic lameness diagnosis. According to Riaboff et al., severely lame cows spend 4.5 times less time grazing and nearly twice as much time resting in the laying position than their sound counterparts [ 75]. Additionally, GPS is used to forecast the behavior of ruminants and locate their location in pastures. This geolocation technique appears promising for identifying animals with a high frequency and a low mistake rate, despite the GPS's inadequacy for forecasting behavior in a robust manner. Geolocated behaviors are especially intriguing for investigating changes in behavior connected to demanding events. The usage of data from accelerometers and GPS devices together is an approach that could prove to be both intriguing and beneficial in the process of researching how cows interact with their surroundings. These challenging scenarios can include heat stress, physical stress, resource depletion, restricted access to pasture, and other similar situations [ 76]. These characteristics could be used to improve the efficacy of existing lameness detection sensors in pasture-based systems [ 75]. Table 3 gives a brief summary of wearable sensors.

There are GPS systems that allow users to track and confine animals. Special attention has been paid to a solar-powered GPS collar-based virtual fence system (NoFence, Beatnfjordsra, Norway). The GPS position data collected by the collar are shown on an app that the farmer uses to create a grazing border map for cattle, sheep, or goats. When the animal gets close to the virtual boundary, the collar will begin to emit warning audio stimuli at a volume of forty decibels and a rising frequency of two to four thousand hertz. This will give the animal the time to change course to avoid such stimuli. When an animal passes the virtual barrier, it is considered to have "escaped", and the auditory and the electric shock are turned off. Additionally, a push notification is delivered to the farmer's mobile app when the animal has crossed the boundary [ 77]. GPS also can be promising in heat detection. Sheep estrus can be detected with global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) by monitoring a surge in activity levels followed by a return to "normal" patterns of behavior [ 70].

Pedometer

In animals, a pedometer (step counter) is a proven recording method for determining movement activity. Previously, it was mostly utilized for estrus detection [ 9]. Pedometers objectively measure an animal's total number of steps and total distance traveled using an algorithm that calculates the steps. While pedometers are relatively simple to deploy and operate, the number of steps taken by each ruminant varies significantly depending on the day and ambient conditions. There could be a link between cattle distance traveled and stressful and unpleasant procedures; one study found that calves took fewer steps for four days after castration, while another found a link between calves' stress and the number of steps they took after castration [ 6]. Other observations are made while recording active or lying behavior. The method is useful for the early identification of lameness in dairy herds. In one investigation, pedometers were used to detect lame calves before clinical indications appeared. Individual cows were examined and monitored, and it was shown that 92% of the cows acquired obvious lameness. When cattle were monitored using a pedometer, their hoof activity was reduced by at least 15% several days before the start of clinical lameness. The researchers concluded that pedometers are a beneficial tool for the early detection and treatment of the vast majority of cases of developing lameness [ 78].

3.4. Other Analyzers: BCS Camera, Infrared Thermography, Sensors of Bolus

3.4.1. Infrared Thermography

Infrared thermography (IRT) is method for diagnosing and assessing pain since it indicates physiological changes [ 6, 79]. Thermography can be used to identify and determine thermal abnormalities in animals by identifying a rise or decrease in the surface temperature of the skin [ 80, 81]. IRT is a technique that is frequently utilized in the field of veterinary medicine to diagnose conditions such as infection, lameness in horses, and mastitis in both sheep and cattle, and to determine scrotal temperature in buffalo [ 70]. IR thermography is a noninvasive method that monitors emitted infrared radiation and displays the data as a thermogram, which is a visual representation of an object's surface temperature. Each pixel in the thermogram represents the recorded surface temperature of an object. The data can be displayed in grayscale or color. The warmest areas are displayed in white or red on a color scale, while the coldest areas are shown in black or blue. When an animal is stressed, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis is engaged, and heat is created as a result of increased catecholamine and cortisol concentrations, as well as blood blow reactions, resulting in changes in heat generation and heat loss from the animal. As a result, this technique may be beneficial as a general stress indicator [ 80]. Changes in surface temperature patterns, particularly those generated by changes in blood flow, can be utilized to detect inflammation or damage associated with illnesses such as foot lesions. Thermal (color) variations represent thermal gradients, which represent changes in skin temperature induced by underlying illnesses. Thermography has the advantage of measuring heat emissions without having direct physical contact with the surface. Because of its high sensitivity, it is useful when paired with other exact data (such as pedometer, accelerometer activity). In general, thermography works best in concert with other modalities rather than as a replacement for them. Thermography frequently detects physiological changes before they emerge as clinical symptoms, allowing for early diagnosis and treatment [ 79, 80]. According research, there was no statistically significant difference in foot temperature amongst different illnesses, but there was a difference between sick and healthy cows [ 81].

Thermography can also be employed in research of various diseases such as musculoskeletal affections and ocular temperature assessment in calves for early illness diagnosis. This instrument has also been used to identify mammary gland inflammation [ 79]. Infrared thermography has been shown to be useful in assessing udder health and detecting quarters with subclinical mastitis [ 34]. Mastitis raises the warmth of the udder before clinical symptoms appear. Furthermore, after inoculating lactating cows with Escherichia coli in various locations of the udder, Pezeshki et al. noticed a 2-3 °C rise in udder surface temperature [ 60]. Berry et al. demonstrated that thermography of the udder can be a useful diagnostic tool for detecting mastitis in dairy cattle. Because the temperature rises considerably three days before ovulation, using thermography to identify cow estrus can increase pregnancy chances in regular or quiet estrus [ 82]. An Australian study involving Holstein cattle found that a fall in vulva and muzzle temperature 48 h before ovulation correlates to corpus luteum regression, and an increase in temperature 24 h before ovulation corresponds to the period of estrus [ 82]. Thermography could also be used to detect estrus in sheep and goats [ 77]. Zaninelli et al. investigated the potential of IRT in the diagnosis of mastitis in their 2018 study and discovered that it corresponds well with the somatic cell count [ 83]. Thermography has been demonstrated to distinguish between clinical and subclinical mastitis in both large and small ruminants, with diagnostic sensitivity and specificity comparable to the California mastitis test (CMT). As a result, with further adjustments and advancements, farmer-friendly and non-invasive infrared thermography has the potential to become a useful and practical instrument for use on farms in the future. Individual determinations for each mammary compartment can be made, with an increase in local temperature suggesting the presence of inflammation, if it exists [ 34].

In cases of stress, fertility, welfare, metabolism, health, and illness detection, the animal's surface temperature can be used as an indicator trait to accurately measure an animal's physiological state [ 6, 83]. Thermal infrared sensors have shown that there is a strong link between changes in the temperature around the eyes and changes in the temperature of the body's core. Temperature readings from different parts of an animal's body give information about its health and allow for quick decisions about its welfare (e.g., isolating animals with higher body temperature or managing the internal temperatures of animal housing units) [ 6]. Salles et al.'s study shows that among the body regions tested, IRT frontal temperature had the strongest correlation with rectal temperature, while the temperature-humidity index is substantially related with forehead and right and left flank temperature [ 84]. Another investigation found out that setting the illness threshold for filthy feet at 27 °C correctly detected 80% of feet with lesions and 73% of feet without lesions [ 85]. Although this method is sensitive in identifying changes in the temperature patterns of animals, it may not be adequate to pinpoint their causes [ 83].

As the livestock industry's reliance on automated systems grows, technologies that can be implemented into these systems to monitor animal health and welfare must be developed. Infrared thermography (IRT) is one such technology that has been utilized for monitoring animal health and welfare and has the potential to be incorporated into automated agricultural systems through automation [ 86].

3.4.2. Bolus Sensors

Bolus sensors are primarily intended to detect variations in ruminal temperature, which can indicate a change in animal physiological states [ 87]. Ruminal temperature decreases in response to drinking and eating events, and it rises in response to increased body temperature. Monitoring changes in ruminal temperature and activity can help spot anomalous behavior, the estrous cycle, and infections early [ 87, 88, 89].

Metabolic illnesses (rumen acidosis, hypocalcemia) and other diseases that cause fever and pain have an effect on the amplitude and frequency of ruminal contractions in cattle [ 6]. Wireless intraruminal bolus sensors have been devised to monitor the temperature and pH levels of the rumen and reticulum via the esophagus. The availability of boluses for measuring reticuloruminal pH for purchase has simplified the evaluation process greatly. These boluses wirelessly transfer pH information to a central processing location on a regular basis, simplifying the evaluation procedure. An example of bolus sensors can be seen in Table 2.

The pH level of the ruminal fluid is one of the most straightforward indicators that ruminal acidosis is present. The ruminal pH can be measured in real time by wireless pH probes that are put in boluses within the rumen. In addition to the pH of the rumen, various markers for either ruminal acidosis or subacute ruminal acidosis can be determined in blood, urine, feces, or milk. These can be used to diagnose either condition [ 41].

Other studies, while using bolus sensors, have shown that cows with higher rumen pH (6.22-6.42) can emit 46.18% more methane than cows with lower ruminal pH [ 90]. Cantor et al.'s study revealed that reticulorumen temperature is an accurate predictor of well-being factors in cows such as daily herd water intake and inflammation [ 91].

3.4.3. Body Condition Score

Body condition score (BCS) is an evaluation of the cow's fat stores and indicates the cow's overall energy balance. The amount of fat mobilization in cows with a higher BCS is higher [ 22]. There is a substantial correlation between body condition score (BCS) and many reproductive and lactational performances in small ruminants, making BCS an important indication of their well-being [ 77]. BCS at calving and its fluctuations during lactation have been found to have an impact on the health and fertility of high-yielding dairy cows. When a cow's condition deviates from acceptable BCS standards, the occurrence of metabolic disorders, infertility, and lameness increases [ 10].

Anatomical points from the rear end of the dairy cow (such as the hooks and tail-head area), which are located in an area of the cow where changes in subcutaneous body reserves are visually more evident, are visually evaluated in order to assign a score according to a standardized scale in the process of visual body condition scoring [ 95]. In the past decade, numerous proposals for agricultural three-dimensional (3D) vision systems that are based on optical two-dimensional (2-D) and 3D sensors were developed [ 96]. Recent years have seen an increase in the use of 3D sensors in the applications of BCS. These sensors bring more information about the body's surface than 2D-based or thermal image-based systems [ 93]. Three-dimensional cameras have recently advanced in technology and could provide novel feed management solutions for dairy farms. Portable ASUS Xtion Pro sensors (ASUSTeK Computer Inc.) can be used to capture 3D photos of cows' rear ends [ 97]. There is also a commercially available automatic BCS camera for use on dairy cows' heads (DeLaval Body Condition Scoring, BCS DeLaval International AB, Tumba, Sweden) [ 92, 98]. This camera system uses a radio frequency identification reader to individually identify cows that have been fitted with transponders. It also enables multiple BCS measurements to be taken within a single day. The camera software records individual daily BCS values for each scoring session and reports a daily trimmed, 7-day rolling average of BCS [ 95]. The BCS camera system produces accurate BCS ratings between 3.00 and 3.75; however, the magnitude of low and high BCS scores is typically miscalculated.

Time of flight (ToF) cameras are quickly becoming one of the most common types of sensors used to acquire 3D data. ToF systems use either visible or near-infrared (NIR) light, and the reflected light is received by smart pixel sensors, which then measure the amount of time it takes for the light to return. It was demonstrated that the characteristics extracted from the dorsal and posterior sections achieved 100% accuracy of the projected BCS within a 0.5 point deviation of the actual BCS) [ 93].

Studies have shown that BCS can not only be a metabolic disease marker, but can also be associated with production, health, and reproduction. Antanaitis et al. found that BCS is associated with pregnancy success because the BCS (+0.29 score) and mP4 (10.93 ng/mL) of the pregnant cows were higher compared to the group of non-pregnant cows [ 99].

3.4.4. Animal Surveillance through Video and Imaging

Livestock illness prediction and abnormal behavior management both benefit greatly from automated tracking systems. Animals can be monitored in a number of ways, some of which are manual, some of which include wearable devices, and some of which involve computerized tracking systems. However, relying on human observers to keep tabs on animals is labor-intensive and not always reliable. The level of intelligent livestock management can be greatly improved with the help of computer vision technology, which provides a non-contact and low-cost technique to track cattle. Researchers have put much time and effort into determining how to achieve the level of autonomous monitoring of animals shown in the video.

Face recognition is another emerging technology that is sweeping the globe. One study compares three loss functions used in human face recognition paired with RetinaFace-mobilenet, and the results suggest that the proposed CattleFaceNet beats others with an identification accuracy of 91.3% and a processing time of 24 frames per second (FPS) [ 100]. Li et al. suggested a method for recognizing individual dairy cows based on an image of the animal's tail and head. This approach retrieved form characteristics from the tail head image's region of interest using Zernike moments and categorized them using four classifiers [ 101]. Gaber et al. proposed a muzzle-based livestock recognition strategy that employed the Weber local descriptor and the Adaboost classifier for each head photo to identify the head of cattle [ 102]. In other studies to evaluate cow lameness, color edge detection and bilateral projection were utilized to detect the region of the cow's knees. For cow identification and recognition, these approaches rely on color and contour characteristics. However, the strong reliance on hand-crafted characteristics precludes these systems from being applied to complicated settings. Deep learning approaches and Convolutional Neural Network models (e.g., Fast R-CNN, Faster R-CNN, YOLO, SSD, Mask R-CNN, AlexNet, VGGNet, and ResNet) have recently achieved substantial advancements in image identification and recognition through end-to-end feature learning [ 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112]. With the release of a new large-scale cow dataset with about 50,000 annotated cow face detection data points and approximately 18,000 cow recognition data points, cow face detection and recognition have been improved. There is also a framework for cow face recognition that combines the detection and recognition models to improve recognition performance. The experimental results show that the proposed technique is superior. The detection accuracy is 98.3%, while the accuracy of cow facial recognition is up to 94.1% [ 113]. A sheep study showed results suggesting that the method proposed in that study outperforms the others, with a recognition precision of 89.12%, and it was discovered that incorporating the biometrics of the sheep face can significantly boost the network's recognition capacity [ 114]. In Kumar et al.'s study, experimental findings on a muzzle point picture database were described. Their solution achieved 93.87% identification accuracy, demonstrating its superiority over other existing machine-learning-based recognition systems [ 115].

Su et al. conducted a study with the Dairy Goat Dataset (DG-dataset) containing 200 dairy goat motion videos with a total of 161,000 frames of images randomly collected from the farm. The study shows that their algorithm was successful in locating and tracking a single dairy goat [ 116]. Video tracking of animals helps to recognize ill animals or strange behavior in animals without human contact.

3.4.5. Electronic Nose for Estrus Detection

The MENT-EGAS prototype used electronic nose (EN) technology (ten unspecified chemical metal-oxide sensors) to detect estrus by direct sampling of odor from the perineal headspace. In cycling cows, principal component analysis (PCA) revealed effective discrimination between proestrus and estrus, as well as estrus and metestrus. Based on these findings, it was demonstrated for the first time that direct sampling of the perineal headspace using an EN device during milking may correctly detect estrus in dairy cattle [ 20]. In this study, the MENT-EGAS prototype (Patent No. WO2010099800A2) provided by AIRSENSE ANALYTICS GmbH (Schwerin, Germany) was used to detect emanated odor changes from the perineal headspace of the cows. Another study described an effective electronic nose system created using polyaniline-based sensors doped with various acids for determining estrus in female cattle. Disposable swabs for material gathered from the perigenital area and vagina of the animals were employed in the suggested olfactory technology, eliminating rectal manipulation, as well as disposable sensors, providing simplicity of handling and health safety for the estrus determination procedure. The results demonstrated that the olfactory system reliably detected estrus, optimal AI moment (12 h after estrus detection), and diestrus (corpus luteum phase) in cows, and that this information could be utilized to efficiently suggest the ideal AI time in calves [ 117]. Thermography and its measured analytes and other electronic devices are reviewed on Table 4.

4. Innovations for Common Procedures

At present, innovations are becoming inseparable from animal husbandry. Mastitis (both clinical and subclinical), metabolic diseases such as ketosis and acidosis, the reproductive state of the animal, and predicted calving now can be determined by various technologies. Two features of milk quality-the somatic cell count (SCC) and the appearance of obviously abnormal milk in cases of clinical mastitis-are used to detect mastitis in milk [ 119]. Some technologies and their functions in disease and behavior diagnostics are shown in Table 5. The real-time detection of beta-hydroxybutyrate from blood or milk is used to determine the animals' energy balance and can be greatly aided by nano-biosensors. One of the metabolic illnesses, subclinical ketosis, raises the chance of developing clinical ketosis, lowers milk production, impairs reproductive ability, and has a negative energy balance during the transition phase, all of which have an adverse economic impact [ 120].

5. Conclusions and Future Directions

The primary goal of precision livestock farming is to generate reliable data using biosensors and run it through intelligent software systems to create value for the farmer, the environment, and the animals in the form of improved animal health and welfare, increased productivity and yields, and lower costs while minimizing environmental impact. Sensor-based technology has made important contributions to lowering animal stress, improving animal well-being, and thereby eliminating economic losses. By forecasting future disease outbreaks, the early identification of physiological reactions can assist farmers in taking targeted interventions to reduce pressure on their animals, increase animal welfare, and avert performance losses. Future technological advancements will lead to the identification of biomarkers for specific health and welfare concerns at a far earlier stage. Precision livestock farming aims to create a management system based on automatic, continuous, real-time monitoring and control of all aspects of livestock management, including reproduction, animal health and welfare, and the environmental impact of livestock production. Monitoring animal behavior without upsetting the animal is another component of management. Farmers can employ wearable sensors to detect illness early, reducing animal deaths. Farmers and veterinarians can also destroy sick animals before they spread disease to the entire herd of cattle, if they plan ahead. Through satellites and smartphones, the incorporation of revolutionary diagnostic and disease detection systems utilizing biosensors would keep cattle and the agricultural business one step ahead of unseen diseases. When biosensors are used to detect diseases early, the epidemiological curve can be moved to the left because quick action can be taken to stop the spread of the disease and its negative effects on production, society, and the economy. An early warning system for more effective livestock health management can be created by shortening the amount of time it takes to receive findings when diagnosing infectious disease biomarkers on a farm in a manner that is in real time.

Author Contributions

K.D., D.B. and R.A. wrote the paper; R.A. edited the paper. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Informed Consent Statement

Data Availability Statement

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Technology

Benefits of Use

Reference

Milk progesterone

Milk progesterone is a potential non-invasive indicator of reproductive status in dairy cows

[ 41]

Somatic cell count

SCC has proven to be a useful, non-invasive indicator of subclinical mastitis

[ 36]

Breath, Sweat and Saliva analysis

Biomarkers for metabolic and pathologic processes are examples of metabolites found in the breath. VOCs such as ketone bodies, ethanol, methanol, and exogenous compounds are commonly associated with blood glucose levels. Saliva collection is a non-invasive alternative to blood sampling

[ 9, 44]

Sensor

Method

Detected Analytes

Reference

Cainthus (© 2022 Ever.Ag, Frisco, TX, USA)

Smart camera system that monitors animal behavior and farm activities 24 h a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
It is artificial intelligence that converts visual input from cameras into real-time insights. These insights are provided daily on any farm device, phone, tablet, or computer.
The information provided is accurate and unbiased. This technique is easily scalable, does not require any hardware on the cows, and requires extremely minimal maintenance in comparison to other solutions.

Animal behavior

[ 67]

BROLIS Herdline (Vilnius, Lithuania)

The analyzer examines the composition of each cow's milk during each milking. This "mini-spectroscope" is installed in the milking stalls or milking robot in the milk line and does not use additional reagents and does not require special maintenance.
The analysis of protein, fat, lactose, and electrical conductivity provides a proper evaluation of the health, productivity, and economic efficiency of dairy cattle. The data collected during milking are processed in real time and can be viewed using the BROLIS HerdLine application.

Milk fat, protein, lactose, milk electrical conductivity

[ 32]

HeatWatch (HeatWatch ® DDx, Inc., Denver, CO, USA)

A tiny radionic transmitter is linked to a pressure sensor in a stiff plastic box implanted in a nylon packaging that is glued to the cow's tail hair in the sacral region. The device is activated by the weight of the mounting animal for a minimum of 2 seconds, after which the transmitter sends the breeding approval signal to the system along with the animal's identification. In general, this device's assessed performance ranges from 37% to 94%.

Heat detection

[ 68]

Technology

Benefits of Use

Reference

Head/muzzle and noseband sensors

Noseband sensor was designed and validated as a scientific monitoring device for the automated detection of rumination and eating behaviors. It can be executed without contact with the animal.

[ 59]

Motion, movement, and behavior sensors

Accelerometers, pedometers, and GPS tracking all can be used to monitor animal behavior. Active time can predict heat; prolonged laying time can signal diseases such as mastitis, ketosis, and lameness. GPS helps to locate animals on the farm.

[ 69, 72, 76]

Technology

Benefits of Use

Reference

Infrared Thermography

Determine thermal abnormalities in animals by identifying a rise or fall in the surface temperature of skin. Infrared thermography is a noninvasive method that monitors infrared radiation emitted from the body. Inflammation, stress, calving, and heat can be evaluated. Thermography can detect physiological changes before they emerge as clinical symptoms.

[ 79, 80, 81]

Bolus Sensors

Wireless intraruminal boluses without constant contact, can measure and analyze ruminal and eating behavior, examine ruminal pH.

[ 6, 41, 118]

Body Condition Score Cameras

Tracking BCS can help reduce postpartum disease percent; it helps to notice obese or poor health animals. When it comes to production and reproduction, lower calving BCS is connected with lower rates, while greater calving BCS is associated with an increased risk of metabolic diseases

[ 92, 93, 94, 96]

Cattle Face Recognition

Face analysis can help to identify pain, unwell animals, locate, identify, and select animals on the farm.

[ 102, 113]

Electronic Nose for Estrus Detection

Can detect estrus by direct sampling of odor from the perineal headspace.

[ 117]

Disease/Status of Cow

Technology for Diagnosis

Analytes

Reference

Mastitis
Image processing, spectroscopy, electrical conductivity, biosensors, SCC sensors, tri-axial accelerometers, pedometers, spectroscopy

Temperature, lying behavior, eating behavior, milk analytes (fat, protein, electrical conductivity), rumination time, somatic cell count (SCC), milk pH, milk yield

[ 25, 32, 34, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127]

Metritis/Endometritis
Tri-axial accelerometer, electronic feeding system

Eating, drinking time, rumination, activity, laying time,

[ 2, 25, 128, 129, 130]

Ketosis
3D cameras, spectroscopy, milking robots, accelerometers

body condition score, BHB, milk analytes (fat, protein), milk yield, activity, rumination behavior

[ 10, 13, 131, 132]

Acidosis
Three-axis accelerometers, angular velocity sensors, pH meter, milking robots

Milk yield, milk analytes (fat, protein) activity, rumination behavior, walking behavior, feeding behavior

[ 118]

Lameness
Tri-axial accelerometers, pedometers, video observations, accelerometers, rumination sensor

Walking behavior, feeding behavior, rumination, activity, and laying time have been linked to lameness

[ 25, 80, 133, 134, 135]

Heat
Tri-axial accelerometers, pedometers, video observations, accelerometers, spectroscopy, chemical analysis, electronic nose, acoustic sensors

Activity, milk analytes (progesterone), odor from the perineal headspace, pression, friction, rumen movement

[ 20, 21, 25, 117, 136, 137]

Pregnancy
Milking robots, radioimmunoassay, enzyme immunoassay, accelerometers, pedometers

Milk progesterone, activity, temperature

[ 136, 137, 138, 139, 140]

Calving, dystocia
Intravaginal thermometer, tri-axial accelerometers, pedometers, video observations, accelerometers, rumination sensor, infrared thermometry (IRT imaging)

Body temperature, activity, rumination time, laying time

[ 137, 141, 142]

Disclaimer/Publisher's Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

AMA Style

Chicago/Turabian Style

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Innovations in Cattle Farming: Application of Innovative Technologies and Sensors in the Diagnosis of Diseases

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Precision livestock farming has a crucial function as farming grows in significance. It will help farmers make better decisions, alter their roles and perspectives as farmers and managers, and allow for the tracking and monitoring of product quality and animal welfare as mandated by the government and industry.

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Animal Health Innovation - ANIMAL HEALTH INSTITUTE

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Animal diseases never rest – they constantly evolve and trigger a ripple effect that impacts animal welfare, human health, and the economy. Disease outbreaks among livestock can threaten food security and trade, and increased pet ownership and companion animal bonding inspires the need for improved…

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Fifteen start-ups from around the globe will showcase their pioneering technologies during the virtual Animal AgTech Innovation Summit on March 8, 2021. Of those, six will take the digital stage to present their concepts to a panel of investors hosted by Cavallo Ventures, Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, and Zoetis.

Aquafort. This Canadian company has developed a predictive data analytics platform that helps finfish producers lower mortality rates and improve yield quality and quantity. Through automation and predicting ecosystem health, the technology diagnoses fish health and welfare problems. This replaces manual and reactive processes, which contribute 30% to the cost of production. The platform has the potential to help turn around the projected 50 million metric ton finfish supply gap that threatens global food security.

Armenta. Mastitis is disease that causes over $6 billion in losses annually in U.S. and Europe. Using acoustic pulse technology (APT), this Israeli company has developed the first non-antibiotic treatment for bovine mastitis. Infected cows treated with APT have shown 70% cure rates and, therefore, a 10% increase in milk yield.

Bezoar Laboratories. Based in the U.S., Bezoar Laboratories is a research and development company dedicated to bringing innovations to market that will benefit farm animals, producers, and the planet. Its first product is Fortis, a probiotic that reduces enteric methane formation in ruminant by 50%.

EmGenisys. This U.S. company has created a comprehensive embryo evaluation system to improve pregnancy outcomes of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in livestock. EmGenisys' technology uses computer vision to evaluate real-time cellular activity in bovine embryos. This solution offers a practical and objective approach to evaluate bovine embryo health in the lab or chute side.

iYOTAH Solutions. Based in the U.S., this service technology company empowers the animal protein value chain to build smart, agile, and efficient businesses that produce more with less. The platform connects various stakeholders and datasets within the value chain to provide high-value, prescriptive, and actionable solutions that enhance operational efficiency, increase profitability, and help meet sustainability, traceability, and compliance objectives.

Precision Livestock Technologies. This U.S. company has developed a machine vision and artificial intelligence platform that helps producers increase profits while improving quality and animal well-being. Its initial target market is the $40 billion beef cattle feedlot industry, where its Bunk Management System delivers metrics that optimize feeding, save on labor, and provide accurate data to consulting nutritionists and veterinarians.

Virtual Exhibition

The nine early-stage companies below will be in the summit's virtual exhibition.

Cynomys. This Italian company is the first to patent an IoT solution for monitoring environmental parameters in animal housing. By providing continuous monitoring and access to real-time data from any connected device, Cynomys Livestock System optimizes animal productivity as well as quality of life.

FarmSee. Using computer vision and AI, this Israeli company provides the pig industry with critical information. FarmSee's solution provides actionable insights that drive significant revenue growth and cost optimization, while ensuring animal welfare.

FarmTrace. Based in the U.S., FarmTrace's cloud-based software connects isolated farm systems, which creates a single access point or 'plug-in' for farm suppliers and veterinarians to run tailored tools and services on farm. The company also offers its own veterinary software and works with customers to tailor or develop new digital services.

FarrPro. This U.S. company's Haven platform reduces piglet mortality, saves energy, and improves sow welfare by creating a microclimate environment for piglets to stay safe, warm, and healthy. The platform is FarrPro's first milestone on its roadmap to bring traceability and automation to the pork industry. It provides the insight and control required to prevent disease outbreaks, rapidly develop vaccines, and safeguard the pork supply chain.

General Probiotics. Based in the U.S., General Probiotics develops cellbots and antimicrobial probiotics that eliminate harmful pathogens in livestock, enable the production of safe food, and reduce dependency on antibiotics. Its core competency is the precise engineering of advanced probiotics using synthetic biology and artificial intelligence.

Nutrivert. This U.S. start-up has discovered that antibiotics reduce producers' costs in a way that doesn't actually require antibacterial efficacy. As a result, it is developing patented non-antibacterial growth promoters for livestock producers worldwide. The company's postbiotics is a formulation of a feed additive that increases livestock feed conversion efficiency, enabling customers to get better output from livestock and control diseases.

OneCup AI. Based in Canada, this start-up has developed an animal facial recognition technology that tracks livestock individually and at scale using only computer vision. Its AI BETSY (Bovine Expert Tracking and Surveillance) monitors and analyzes health, growth, activity, and nutrition. Its first product is Calving Cam, which proactively notifies ranchers when a heifer needs help.

Rakr. By improving margins through smart and effective cost-cutting measures, this Canadian start-up is saving farms over $30,000 annually. NeatMeter, Rakr's first device, is a sensor solution that collects and processes barn data to make farms more energy efficient and reduce machine breakdowns through predictive maintenance.

SomaDetect. The Canadian company's core technology is an in-line sensor that monitors critical indicators of reproductive status, health, and milk components from individual cows. SomaDetect bridges the information gap by providing data from every cow at every milking.

About the Summit
The Animal AgTech Innovation Summit is an international networking and deal-making event for livestock and poultry producers, animal health providers, feed companies, ingredients manufacturers, technology companies, entrepreneurs and investors. More than 350 animal ag tech leaders will gather virtually on March 8, 2021, to accelerate innovation in animal health and welfare, sustainability, and farm-to-fork solutions. The full program and information on registration are available at animalagtech.com.

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15 innovations poised to shake up animal health and nutrition

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Fifteen start-ups from around the globe will showcase their pioneering technologies during the virtual Animal AgTech Innovation Summit on March 8, 2021. Of those, six will take the digital stage to present their concepts to a panel of investors hosted by Cavallo Ventures, Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, and Zoetis. Aquafort.

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The World Is Growing More Crops — but Not for Food

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More than 750 million people faced hunger in 2021, yet new analysis shows that more and more of the crops the world harvests are being used for things other than directly feeding people.

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Janet Ranganathan, Richard Waite, Tim Searchinger, Craig Hanson

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How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts

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Can we feed the world without destroying it? New research reveals 22 steps to a sustainable food future.

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The World In 2050, The Real Future Of Earth (BBC & Nat Geo Documentaries)

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'Disruptive' science has declined - and no one knows why

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The proportion of publications that send a field in a new direction has plummeted over the past half-century. The proportion of publications that send a field in a new direction has plummeted over the last half-century.

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Befriending Our Bodies - Jon Kabat-Zinn (Greater Good Science Center)

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Advertiser retains sole responsibility for the content of this article

Some of the biggest discoveries in history have been made when researchers challenged the status-quo - a lesson two Tokyo-based academics have taken to heart.

Produced by

Scientific literature,and by extension, our understanding of the world is built on a complex web of assumptions. But progress in both the natural and human sciences, often demands questioning those assumptions and looking at existing theories with a critical eye.

Two Tokyo-based researchers are doing that, and making surprising discoveries related to fields as diverse as education theory and sports science as a result.

"I had a dream of instilling young people with an appreciation of the beauty of mathematics," recalls Waseda University's Noriyuki Inoue of his decision to train as a high school maths teacher. However, after six years of teaching, he had realized that focusing on mathematical theory alone was not enough to inspire students.

This realization sent him to the United States as a Fulbright scholar to retrain in educational psychology.

SHAPING THE MIND
Bridging theory and practice has always been a big challenge in the education sciences, says Inoue, now a professor at Waseda's School of Human Sciences. "There's this idea that it's just academic theory that's important for university researchers. Practice is seen as just belonging to practitioners," he explains. "I felt this was a disconnect with reality."

This was the beginning of Inoue's journey to action research - a methodology to pursue practice-linked theory building rooted in the context of the pursuit of change - and it wasn't a comfortable one.

In fact, he wrote a book chapter called 'Confessions of an Educational Researcher' that detailed how he, with his mathematics and engineering science background, overcame his cognitive dissonance about action research.

"I was very suspicious in the beginning. As scientists, we look at the universal truth - action research just didn't seem objective enough to reach such truth," he says. "But I came to realize we have to really think about the 'so what?' question in each context. If we intend to create a truly sophisticated model and make an impact on the real-life practice, we must think about how to make the model work in real life classrooms, schools and community organisations."

Bridging research and practice is what action research really aims at, explains Inoue. In the case of the education sciences, that involves "improving real-life practice through research that includes practitioners and schools, people who are inside the practice. And that's why it's called action research. It involves actions that situate the agents within the practice at the centre of the research process, taking in all the contextual setup."

It's an evolution that has changed the way Inoue approaches research and teaching. Now, he encourages students to think critically and challenge existing assumptions. He points to his work on the implementation of the new Sesame Street Curriculum in public elementary schools in Japan, which promoted the importance of putting teachers at centre of cross-institutional efforts to facilitate educational innovation and curriculum implementation.

"It's a very messy, muddy, swampy kind of area - but that's the nature of education, and that's what academics are for," he says.
SHAPING THE BODY
Challenging assumptions is something that Yasuo Kawakami, a professor of biodynamics and the director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Waseda, is also very familiar with. Where Inoue focuses on how we learn, Kawakami has been working to transform our understanding of how we grow and move.

"I'm a former rower, a middle-aged man, and a father to a growing child - so I'm particularly fascinated by the impressive ability of skeletal muscle to adapt," says Kawakami, who is also part of the university's 'Health Promotion: The Joy of Sports and Exercise' research group. This group is one of seven academic units under the 'Waseda Goes Global' project, tasked with boosting the university's status as an international collaborative research centre.

Skeletal muscles are those with fibres attached by tendons to our bones. There are more than 600 types in the human body, including abdominal, hamstring and bicep muscles.

"The prevailing view of skeletal muscle was that they individually contribute to movements, such as a finger moving for example," says Kawakami. So he and his team conducted in vivo imaging of people jumping, running and walking to test this assumption. What they discovered was a complete surprise.

"We found that individual muscle-tendon units were connected anatomically and mechanically through fascial connections inside and outside of the muscle - so individual muscles are not really 'individual'. The human body takes advantage of this to save redundancy controlling more than 600 muscles separately. This indicates that the musculoskeletal system should really be treated holistically," he says. "I think this will be a major topic in future muscle mechanics studies."

Another aspect of Kawakami's research that overturned existing assumptions focuses on muscular growth and development, particularly in children.

"Children about 3-5 years old have a surprising amount of potential in terms of body resources and functional capacities," he says. "They have relatively large musculature in the lower extremities, in the quadriceps in particular," and can produce a surprising amount of force for their size.

In a 2021 study in BMC Pediatrics, Kawakami and colleagues compared the muscle growth and functional development of children aged 3-5 and 6-8 years to adults, revealing that "children are not simply a small-scale version of adults, neither morphologically nor functionally," he says. This may have implications for how we can hone our body's abilities as we develop.

Kawakami says he is passionate about showing that conditioning the body is an important activity for everyone - not solely for people who love sports.

Both Inoue and Kawakami have shown the rich benefits to research that can come from thinking outside the box.

EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION

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The science and art of challenging assumptions

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Advertiser retains sole responsibility for the content of this article Some of the biggest discoveries in history have been made when researchers challenged the status-quo - a lesson two Tokyo-based academics have taken to heart. Produced by Scientific literature,and by extension, our understanding of the world is built on a complex web of assumptions.

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How to Improve Innovation

Let's face it busy operational managers and senior leaders need solutions! They recognize that today ordinary, quick-fix solutions have limited benefit in an environment where constant change is routine. These managers and leaders want innovative solutions to the problems they face in the workplace. In working with business professionals, I often find that they want a magic formula for innovative problem solving.

The truth is, however, innovative and creative solutions require every day changes in behavior and thinking. There is no magic formula. Every day tools for innovative and creative thinking are often simple and they require some time. The biggest challenge for these results-oriented managers is often just slowing down their responses. When managers and leaders make the commitment to slow down their responses and use the tools, however, the payoff can be huge.

Two simple and underrated tools for achieving innovative and creative solutions are listening and observation. I discussed the power of listening in an earlier post. Observation is the sibling to listening. And, like listening, it too is underrated! Observing the problem and watching it under different circumstances is one of the best ways to understand a problem's true nature. Observation is also helpful for improving practices.

There are many examples of the power of observation. The television series, Undercover Boss, is one example of the importance of observation. In this series, each week, a CEO will work in disguise at different jobs in the company. At the end of the show, the CEO will describe important learning that he has gained from the experience. Interestingly, the most significant learning often comes from the CEO's observations of others performing jobs in his organization. The saying a picture is worth a thousand words also describes the importance of observation. People can describe a problem to you, but there is no substitute for seeing it for yourself in action.

To use this tool effectively, you have to observe a problem as it occurs naturally without affecting the behavior of any people involved. If you lead or manage a team, you may have to do discrete observations of your operation. An alternate approach is to view a similar operation to gain insights on how they handle an issue. Observing what others do is a great way to spark your own breakthrough thinking.

If you manage or lead a group, one way to use this tool is to give your team observation assignments to complete. For example, if your unit is unable to meet deadlines on a particular project, have team members spend some time observing and noting what is occurring in the workplace and have them report back to you in a team meeting. By relying on the collective observations of your team, you increase the quantity of quality feedback. You also have more eyes on the problem so the potential to achieve a breakthrough solution is more likely.

The next time you face an issue observe the situation and allow your mind to understand the true nature of the problem. As you understand the problem, you can spark your own innovation.

Written by Robert Tanner | Copyrighted Material | All Rights Reserved Worldwide

This article is accurate to the best of the author's knowledge.
Content is for informational or educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional advice in business, management, legal, or human resource matters.

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Observation for Innovative and Creative Problem Solving

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How to Improve Innovation Let's face it busy operational managers and senior leaders need solutions! They recognize that today ordinary, quick-fix solutions have limited benefit in an environment where constant change is routine. These managers and leaders want innovative solutions to the problems they face in the workplace. In working...

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There are different approaches that you might take to capture first-hand observations of the delivery of humanitarian programmes and the experience of those involved. Consider some of the following options:

Peer-to-peer observation: Looking at how other users might be tackling this problem.

Non-participant observation: Observe what happens in a process or situation.

Shadowing: Follow the 'problem holder' around while they are dealing with the problem.

First-hand experience: Take on the role of the problem holder and do what they do.

Arrange your observational activities in advance. If you are getting a guided tour of a place where humanitarian products and services are provided, think about how your tour might be organised.

Make sure that you think through how you intend to record your learning. We recommend undertaking visits with two people, one to ask questions and one to take notes. Try to find out in advance whether you'll be able to take photos and record audio, but always make sure that you have the permission of those you record on the day.

When you are taking your tour, 'AEIOU' is a useful framework for thinking about and recording your observations:

Activities: What kind of activities are people engaged in? What steps do the processes involve? Why are they doing this?

Environment: What are the characteristics of the environment? How does the environment affect how people behave?

Interactions: Who is interacting with users? What is the purpose of these interactions? How are they carried out? What is helping or hindering these interactions?

Objects: What objects (or products) are being used? Are they central or peripheral to activities? How are they harnessed to conduct activities? Are they fulfilling their 'job'?

Users: Who are the users? What are their needs and drivers of behaviour?

The AEIOU Design Thinking Worksheets, developed by Mark Baskinger and Bruce Hanington at Carnegie Mellon University, are a great resource to help you organise your thoughts, observations and ideas into distinct categories.

IDEO's Design Kit is also a good source of advice and Nesta's DIY Toolkit provides another useful template for gathering information. Lastly, Unicef's Demand for Health Services toolkit provides guidance and tools for exploring the users' environment that is broadly applicable outside of the health sector.

If you are carrying out observational activities in a humanitarian context, ensure that the area where you carry out your observations is safe, and that your activities are culturally appropriate and do not put any of your staff or partner staff at risk.

If community members are the focus of your observational activities, ensure that you respect their dignity, that you do not expose them to protection risks or falsely raise expectations, and that you follow up with findings and feedback where appropriate.

Lastly, ensure that you adhere to humanitarian principles and standards by gaining informed consent from all individuals under observation, and putting in place robust data protection guidelines for managing personal, identifiable data.

If you're recording video or audio, state exactly how you will use the recording and ask people to confirm their consent on camera for your records. If you're taking photographs, produce a consent form, detailing how you will use the images, and ask people to sign their name at the end.

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There are different approaches that you might take to capture first-hand observations of the delivery of humanitarian programmes and the experience of those involved. Consider some of the following options: Peer-to-peer observation: Looking at how other users might be tackling this problem. Non-participant observation: Observe what happens in a process or situation.