An Information-Theoretic Approach to Detect the Associations of GPS-Tracked Heifers in Pasture
Sensor technologies, such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), produce huge amounts of data by tracking animal locations with high temporal resolution. Due to this high resolution, all animals show at least some co-occurrences, and the pure presence or absence of co-occurrences is not s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/22/7585 |
| _version_ | 1797508527249424384 |
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| author | Cornelia Meckbach Sabrina Elsholz Caroline Siede Imke Traulsen |
| author_facet | Cornelia Meckbach Sabrina Elsholz Caroline Siede Imke Traulsen |
| author_sort | Cornelia Meckbach |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Sensor technologies, such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), produce huge amounts of data by tracking animal locations with high temporal resolution. Due to this high resolution, all animals show at least some co-occurrences, and the pure presence or absence of co-occurrences is not satisfactory for social network construction. Further, tracked animal contacts contain noise due to measurement errors or random co-occurrences. To identify significant associations, null models are commonly used, but the determination of an appropriate null model for GNSS data by maintaining the autocorrelation of tracks is challenging, and the construction is time and memory consuming. Bioinformaticians encounter phylogenetic background and random noise on sequencing data. They estimate this noise directly on the data by using the average product correction procedure, a method applied to information-theoretic measures. Using Global Positioning System (GPS) data of heifers in a pasture, we performed a proof of concept that this approach can be transferred to animal science for social network construction. The approach outputs stable results for up to 30% missing data points, and the predicted associations were in line with those of the null models. The effect of different distance thresholds for contact definition was marginal, but animal activity strongly affected the network structure. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:05:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-98749ba7c46f41769857f5864e2a0687 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:05:10Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-98749ba7c46f41769857f5864e2a06872023-11-23T01:26:12ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202021-11-012122758510.3390/s21227585An Information-Theoretic Approach to Detect the Associations of GPS-Tracked Heifers in PastureCornelia Meckbach0Sabrina Elsholz1Caroline Siede2Imke Traulsen3Department of Animal Sciences, Livestock Systems, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, GermanyDepartment of Animal Sciences, Livestock Systems, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, GermanyDepartment of Animal Sciences, Livestock Systems, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, GermanyDepartment of Animal Sciences, Livestock Systems, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, GermanySensor technologies, such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), produce huge amounts of data by tracking animal locations with high temporal resolution. Due to this high resolution, all animals show at least some co-occurrences, and the pure presence or absence of co-occurrences is not satisfactory for social network construction. Further, tracked animal contacts contain noise due to measurement errors or random co-occurrences. To identify significant associations, null models are commonly used, but the determination of an appropriate null model for GNSS data by maintaining the autocorrelation of tracks is challenging, and the construction is time and memory consuming. Bioinformaticians encounter phylogenetic background and random noise on sequencing data. They estimate this noise directly on the data by using the average product correction procedure, a method applied to information-theoretic measures. Using Global Positioning System (GPS) data of heifers in a pasture, we performed a proof of concept that this approach can be transferred to animal science for social network construction. The approach outputs stable results for up to 30% missing data points, and the predicted associations were in line with those of the null models. The effect of different distance thresholds for contact definition was marginal, but animal activity strongly affected the network structure.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/22/7585social networkspointwise mutual informationassociation measureinformation theorysensor-tracked animals |
| spellingShingle | Cornelia Meckbach Sabrina Elsholz Caroline Siede Imke Traulsen An Information-Theoretic Approach to Detect the Associations of GPS-Tracked Heifers in Pasture Sensors social networks pointwise mutual information association measure information theory sensor-tracked animals |
| title | An Information-Theoretic Approach to Detect the Associations of GPS-Tracked Heifers in Pasture |
| title_full | An Information-Theoretic Approach to Detect the Associations of GPS-Tracked Heifers in Pasture |
| title_fullStr | An Information-Theoretic Approach to Detect the Associations of GPS-Tracked Heifers in Pasture |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Information-Theoretic Approach to Detect the Associations of GPS-Tracked Heifers in Pasture |
| title_short | An Information-Theoretic Approach to Detect the Associations of GPS-Tracked Heifers in Pasture |
| title_sort | information theoretic approach to detect the associations of gps tracked heifers in pasture |
| topic | social networks pointwise mutual information association measure information theory sensor-tracked animals |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/22/7585 |
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