Swarming is a conspicuous behavioral trait observed in bird flocks, fish shoals, insect swarms, and mammal herds. It is thought to improve collective awareness and offer protection from predators. Many current models involve the hypothesis that information coordinating motion is exchanged among neighbors. We argue that such local interactions alone are insufficient to explain the organization o...

The objectives of this study were to 1) evaluate the genetic diversity of Navajo-Churro sheep using pedigree information; 2) examine the distribution of the Navajo-Churro population; and 3) evaluate the effect of breeder dynamics on genetic conservation of the breed. Pedigree data and breeder information (city and state) were obtained from the Navajo-Churro Sheep Breed Association. Inbreeding c...

The aggregate motion of a flock of birds, a herd of land animals, or a school of fish is a beautiful and familiar part of the natural world. But this type of complex motion is rarely seen in computer animation. This paper explores an approach based on simulation as an alternative to scripting the paths of each bird individually. The simulated flock is an elaboration of a particle system, with t...

This study utilised computer simulation modelling (Risk Management Model for Nematodes) to investigate the impact of different parasite refugia scenarios on the development of anthelmintic resistance and worm control effectiveness. The simulations were conducted for adult ewe flocks in a Mediterranean climatic region over a 20 year time period. Factors explored in the simulation exercise were e...

Small ruminant lentivirus infections in sheep most commonly present with respiratory signs (maedi) and indurative mastitis, while primary neurological (visna) have rarely been reported Great Britain (GB). Most reports of visna describe referable to myelitis, although central associated encephalitis may feature. In this case, was diagnosed a 4-year-old ewe small pedigree flock, recently imported...

While many methods to simulate flocking behaviors have been proposed, these techniques usually only provide simplistic navigation and planning capabilities because each flock member’s behavior depends only on its local environment. In this work, we investigate how the addition of global information in the form of a roadmap of the environment enables more sophisticated flocking behaviors and sup...

A truly fruitful way to construct finite generalized quadrangles is through the detection of Kantor families in the general 5-dimensional Heisenberg group H2(q) over some finite field Fq . All these examples are so-called “flock quadrangles”. Payne (Geom. Dedic. 32:93–118, 1989) constructed from the Ganley flock quadrangles the new Roman quadrangles, which appeared not to arise from flocks, but...

In this paper, we study how and to what extent a self-organized mobile robot flock can be guided to move in a desired direction by informing some of the individuals within the flock. Specifically, we extend a flocking behavior that was shown to maneuver a swarm of mobile robots as a cohesive group in free space, avoiding obstacles. In its original form, the flock does not have a preferred direc...

Morel's disease caused by Staphylococcus aureus subsp. anaerobius was diagnosed for the first time in Poland in October 2006 in a goat flock. A second infected flock was found two months later. The course of the disease in both flocks was observed for 15-17 months. Clinical manifestation was confined to abscesses located near major superficial lymph nodes, mostly: superficial cervical, subiliac...