Institute of Agricultural SciencesOpen OpportunitiesAdvances in aerial robotics and autonomy have led to remarkable achievements, primarily through the use of drones with rigid frames. However, nature offers a different paradigm: animals’ wings are significantly softer than these rigid structures, yet they achieve highly efficient and agile flight. This project reimagines aerial drone design by focusing on soft, deformable frames and leveraging machine learning to control their unique dynamics. - Intelligent Robotics, Robotics and Mechatronics
- Internship, Master Thesis
| The concept of positive welfare recognizes the importance of offering animals the opportunity for rewarding experiences and fulfilled states, beyond the alleviation of suffering. Ensuring positive welfare requires close monitoring and reliable indicators. Oxytocin (OT) has been suggested as a physiological indicator of positive welfare states in domesticated animals, as increased OT levels have been linked to positive social experiences and decreased levels linked to negative situations. However, there is no clear evidence that OT concentrations necessarily correlate with positive outcomes. Furthermore, OT may be released upon exposures to physical or negative social events and modulate stress responses, seriously questioning the potential of OT as indicator of positive affective states. Some possible reasons for the discrepant reported results in non-human animals have been highlighted and remained to be addressed. Those include lack of standardization in methodology, reliable experimental design, and suboptimal sampling methodology. While most research on the relationship between OT and affective states has been conducted in human and non-human primates and rodents, reports in domesticated animals remain limited, especially in farms animals despite direct implications for their welfare. The results obtained from the present study will deepen the knowledge on the possible role of salivary oxytocin as an indicator of positive welfare. - Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Sciences not elsewhere classified
- ETH Zurich (ETHZ), Master Thesis
| Opportunities for socio-positive (i.e. affiliative) interactions are associated with better welfare in mammalian farm animals. Animals may benefit from affiliative interactions with a familiar group mate via social buffering of stress triggered through activation of the oxytocinergic system, which inhibits the stress-induced activity of the HPA axis to promote the return of levels to normal levels after stress is experienced. However, the characteristics of social interactions responsible for the activation of the oxytocinergic systems remain unknown. Beyond familiarity, the presence of affiliative relationships has been hypothesised to enhance social buffering of stress. Furthermore, the sensorial quality of the interactions may also play a role. For instance, affiliative interactions including physical contacts have been shown to facilitate endogenous peripheral oxytocin release. Yet, research on the role of social relationships and tactile contacts on social buffering is scarce. While most research on the link between oxytocin and affiliative relationship has been conducted in human and non-human primates and rodents, reports in domesticated animals remain limited, especially in farms animals despite direct implications for their welfare. The results obtained from the present study will deepen the knowledge on the implication of salivary oxytocin in the relationship between affiliative interactions and social buffering of stress in farm animals. This research can notably provide support for the further development of a more comprehensive view of the role of oxytocin on animal interactions, which is of high relevance for the basic understanding of social behaviours. - Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Sciences not elsewhere classified
- ETH Zurich (ETHZ), Master Thesis
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