Anna Zamansky

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Associate) at University of Haifa

Neural Style Transfer (NST) is a technique for applying the visual characteristics of one image onto another while preserving structural content. Traditionally used for artistic transformations, NST has recently been adapted, e.g., for domain adaptation and data augmentation. This study investigates the use of this technique for enhancing animal fa...

Social negotiation is crucial in human interactions and often involves clear communication, strong socialization skills, adept problem-solving abilities, and strategic planning. Chimpanzees exhibit evidence of social negotiation through manual gesturing to achieve imperative goals. Chimpanzee social negotiations are influenced by demographic factor...

Recent developments in animal motion tracking and pose recognition have revolutionized the study of animal behavior. More recent efforts extend beyond tracking towards affect recognition using facial and body language analysis, with far-reaching applications in animal welfare and health. Deep learning models are the most commonly used in this conte...

The emerging field of canine cognitive neuroscience uses neuroimaging tools such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map the cognitive processes of dogs to neural substrates in their brain. Within the past decade, the non-invasive use of EEG has provided real-time, accessible, and portable neuroimagin...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302893.].

This study explores the question whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) can outperform human experts in animal pain recognition using sheep as a case study. It uses a dataset of N = 48 sheep undergoing surgery with video recordings taken before (no pain) and after (pain) surgery. Four veterinary experts used two types of pain scoring scales: the shee...

Recent developments in animal motion tracking and pose recognition have revolutionized the study of animal behavior. More recent efforts extend beyond tracking towards affect recognition using facial and body language analysis, with far-reaching applications in animal welfare and health. Deep learning models are the most commonly used in this conte...

This study develops a novel automated method for measuring continuous dynamics of dog facial behavior based on video-based tracking of 46 facial landmarks grounded in the Dog Facial Action Coding System. This method is applied for comparing the facial behavior of (n1=7) brachycephalic (Boston Terrier) and (n2=7) normocephalic (Jack Russel Terrier)...

Facial landmarks, widely studied in human affective computing, are beginning to gain interest in the animal domain. Specifically, landmark-based geometric morphometric methods have been used to objectively assess facial expressions in cats, focusing on pain recognition and the impact of breed-specific morphology on facial signaling. These methods e...

Affective states are reflected in the facial expressions of all mammals. Facial behaviors linked to pain have attracted most of the attention so far in non-human animals, leading to the development of numerous instruments for evaluating pain through facial expressions for various animal species. Nevertheless, manual facial expression analysis is su...

There is growing interest in the facial signals of domestic cats. Domestication may have shifted feline social dynamics towards a greater emphasis on facial signals that promote affiliative bonding. Most studies have focused on cat facial signals during human interactions or in response to pain. Research on intraspecific facial communication in cat...

Digital dermatitis (DD) is a common foot disease that can cause lameness, decreased milk production and fertility decline in cows. DD prediction and early detection can positively impact animal welfare and profitability of the dairy industry. This study applies deep learning-based computer vision techniques for early onset detection and prediction...

Animal affective computing is an emerging new field, which has so far mainly focused on pain, while other emotional states remain uncharted territories, especially in horses. This study is the first to develop AI models to automatically recognize horse emotional states from facial expressions using data collected in a controlled experiment. We expl...

Introduction Anxiety and cognitive dysfunction are frequent, difficult to treat and burdensome comorbidities in human and canine epilepsy. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been shown to modulate behavior in rodent models by altering the gastrointestinal microbiota (GIM). This study aims to investigate the beneficial effects of FMT on beha...

The emerging field of canine science has been slow in adopting automated approaches for data analysis. However, with the dramatic increase in the volume and complexity of the collected behavioral data, this is now beginning to change. This paper aims to systematize the field of automation in canine science. We provide an examination of current auto...

Affective computing for animals is a rapidly expanding research area that is going deeper than automated movement tracking to address animal internal states, like pain and emotions. Facial expressions can serve to communicate information about these states in mammals. However, unlike human-related studies, there is a significant shortage of dataset...

Simple Summary Our research team has developed an automated computer system that uses convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to monitor and analyse the sleep patterns of dogs. Traditional methods of recording animal behaviour, such as direct observations (of sleep) of either live behaviour or recorded behaviour, can be time-consuming and error-prone,...

The field of animal affective computing is rapidly emerging, and analysis of facial expressions is a crucial aspect. One of the most significant challenges that researchers in the field currently face is the scarcity of high-quality, comprehensive datasets that allow the development of models for facial expressions analysis. One of the possible app...

Shelters are stressful environments for domestic dogs which are known to negatively impact their welfare. The introduction of outside stimuli for dogs in this environment can improve their welfare and life conditions. However, our current understanding of the influence of different stimuli on shelter dogs’ welfare is limited and the data is still i...

There is a critical need to develop and validate non-invasive animal-based indicators of affective states in livestock species, in order to integrate them into on-farm assessment protocols, potentially via the use of precision livestock farming (PLF) tools. One such promising approach is the use of vocal indicators. The acoustic structure of vocali...

Facial landmarks, widely studied in human affective computing, are beginning to gain interest in the animal domain. Specifically, landmark-based geometric morphometric methods have been used to objectively assess facial expressions in cats, focusing on pain recognition and the impact of breed-specific morphology on facial signaling. These methods e...

Affective states are reflected in the facial expressions of all mammals. Facial behaviors linked to pain have attracted most of the attention so far in non-human animals, leading to the development of numerous instruments for evaluating pain through facial expressions for various animal species. Nevertheless, manual facial expression analysis is su...

Behavioral traits in dogs are assessed for a wide range of purposes such as determining selection for breeding, chance of being adopted or prediction of working aptitude. Most methods for assessing behavioral traits are questionnaire or observation-based, requiring significant amounts of time, effort and expertise. In addition, these methods might...

The present study aimed to employ machine learning algorithms based on sensor behavior data for (1) early-onset detection of digital dermatitis (DD) and (2) DD prediction in dairy cows. Our machine learning model, which was based on the Tree-Based Pipeline Optimization Tool (TPOT) automatic machine learning method, for DD detection on day 0 of the...

The early and accurate diagnosis of brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS) in dogs is pivotal for effective treatment and enhanced canine well-being. Owners often do underestimate the severity of BOAS in their dogs. In addition, traditional diagnostic methods, which include pharyngolaryngeal auscultation, are often compromised by subject...

Animal affective computing is an emerging new field, which has so far mainly focused on pain, while other emotional states remain uncharted territories, especially in horses. This study is the first to develop AI models to automatically recognize horse emotional states from facial expressions using data collected in a controlled experiment. We expl...

This study explores the question whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) can outperform human experts in animal pain recognition using sheep as a case study. It uses a dataset of N=48 sheep undergoing surgery with video recordings taken before (no pain) and after (pain) surgery. Four veterinary experts used two types of pain scoring scales: the sheep...

The early and accurate diagnosis of brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS) in dogs is pivotal for effective treatment and enhanced canine well-being. Owners often do underestimate the severity of BOAS in their dogs. In addition, traditional diagnostic methods, which include pharyngolaryngeal auscultation, are often compromised by subject...

Despite the wide range of uses of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) as experimental models for pain, as well as their increasing popularity as pets, pain assessment in rabbits is understudied. This study is the first to address automated detection of acute postoperative pain in rabbits. Using a dataset of video footage of n = 28 rabbits before (no pa...

A bstract The emerging field of canine cognitive neuroscience uses neuroimaging tools such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map the cognitive processes of dogs to neural substrates in their brain. Within the past decade, the non-invasive use of EEG has provided real-time, accessible, and portable n...

The assessment of behavioral traits in dogs is a well-studied challenge due to its many practical applications such as selection for breeding, prediction of working aptitude, chances of being adopted, etc. Most methods for assessing behavioral traits are questionnaire or observation-based, which require a significant amount of time, effort and expe...

There is a critical need to develop and validate non-invasive animal-based indicators of affective states in livestock species, in order to integrate them into on-farm assessment protocols, potentially via the use of precision livestock farming (PLF) tools. One such promising approach is the use of vocal indicators. The acoustic structure of vocali...

Despite the wide range of uses of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) as experimental models for pain, as well as their increasing popularity as pets, pain assessment in rabbits is understudied. This study is the first to address automated detection of acute postoperative pain in rabbits. Using a dataset of video footage of n=28 rabbits before (no pain...

Manual tools for pain assessment from facial expressions have been suggested and validated for several animal species. However, facial expression analysis performed by humans is prone to subjectivity and bias, and in many cases also requires special expertise and training. This has led to an increasing body of work on automated pain recognition, wh...

Animal affective computing is a quickly growing field of research, where only recently first efforts to go beyond animal tracking into recognizing their internal states, such as pain and emotions, have emerged. In most mammals, facial expressions are an important channel for communicating information about these states. However, unlike the human do...

Manual tools for pain assessment from facial expressions have been suggested and validated for several animal species. However, facial expression analysis performed by humans is prone to subjectivity and bias, and in many cases also requires special expertise and training. This has led to an increasing body of work on automated pain recognition, wh...

In animal research, automation of affective states recognition has so far mainly addressed pain in a few species. Emotional states remain uncharted territories, especially in dogs, due to the complexity of their facial morphology and expressions. This study contributes to fill this gap in two aspects. First, it is the first to address dog emotional...

Advances in animal motion tracking and pose recognition have been a game changer in the study of animal behavior. Recently, an increasing number of works go ‘deeper’ than tracking, and address automated recognition of animals’ internal states such as emotions and pain with the aim of improving animal welfare, making this a timely moment for a syste...

Ataxia is an impairment of the coordination of movement or the interaction of associated muscles, accompanied by a disturbance of the gait pattern. Diagnosis of this clinical sign, and evaluation of its severity is usually done using subjective scales during neurological examination. In this exploratory study we investigated if inertial sensors in...

Internal affective states are closely linked to facial expressions in both human and many non-human animals. For some animal species, objective tools for facial expression analysis such as AnimalFACS are available and are only just beginning to be increasingly used. However, their use requires special expertise, training, and certification, while t...

Traditional methods of data analysis in animal behavior research are usually based on measuring behavior by manually coding a set of chosen behavioral parameters, which is naturally prone to human bias and error, and is also a tedious labor-intensive task. Machine learning techniques are increasingly applied to support researchers in this field, mo...

Advances in animal motion tracking and pose recognition have been a game changer in the study of animal behavior. Recently, an increasing number of works go 'deeper' than tracking, and address automated recognition of animals' internal states such as emotions and pain with the aim of improving animal welfare, making this a timely moment for a syste...

Similarly to humans, facial expressions in animals are closely linked with emotional states. However, in contrast to the human domain, automated recognition of emotional states from facial expressions in animals is underexplored, mainly due to difficulties in data collection and establishment of ground truth concerning emotional states of non-verba...

Facial expressions in non-human animals are closely linked to their internal affective states, with the majority of empirical work focusing on facial shape changes associated with pain. However, existing tools for facial expression analysis are prone to human subjectivity and bias, and in many cases also require special expertise and training. This...

Problem definition: Data errors in business processes can be a source for exceptions and hamper business outcomes. Relevance: The paper proposes a method for analyzing data inaccuracy issues already at process design time, in order to support process designers by identifying process parts where data errors might remain unrecognized, so decisions co...

Facial expressions in non-human animals are closely linked to their internal affective states , with the majority of empirical work focusing on facial shape changes associated with pain. However, existing tools for facial expression analysis are prone to human subjectivity and bias, and in many cases also require special expertise and training. Thi...

Animal shelters have been found to represent stressful environments for pet dogs, both affecting behavior and influencing welfare. The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light new uncertainties in animal sheltering practices which may affect shelter dog behavior in unexpected ways. To evaluate this, we analyzed changes in dog activity levels...

Digital technologies that help us take care of our dogs are becoming more widespread. Yet, little research explores what the role of technology in the human-dog relationship should be. We conducted a mixed-method study incorporating quantitative and qualitative thematic analysis of 155 UK dog owners reflecting on their daily routines and technology...

Digital technologies that help people take care of their dogs are becoming more widespread. Yet, little research explores what the role of technology in the human-dog relationship should be. We conducted a qualitative study incorporating quantitative and thematic analysis of 155 UK dog owners reflecting on their daily routines and technology’s role...

IoT has long since come to the pet industry resulting in a proliferation of data-intensive devices including tracking anything from activity, health, to location. The resulting 'Internet of Pets' is generating large volumes of animal data which, due to the close link between the digital profile of companion animals held as pets (e.g., cats and dogs...

Simple Summary This paper applies machine learning techniques to propose an objective video-based method for assessing the degree of canine ADHD-like behavior in veterinary consultation room. The method is evaluated using clinical data of dog patients in a veterinary clinic, as well as in a focus group of experts. Abstract Canine ADHD-like behavio...

Epilepsy is the most common chronic neurological disease in humans and dogs. Seizures greatly impact patients' and caretakers' quality of life. One of the caretakers' major concerns is that seizures may remain unnoticed or may be noticed too late. There is need for reliable detection of seizures in order to apply quick emergency treatment for preve...

We recall some of the better known approaches to non-classical logics, with an emphasis on the contributions of Arnon Avron to the subject and in relation to the papers in this volume.

Digital technologies are increasingly used by law enforcement in forensic processes. This opens the door to new opportunities for the use of conceptual modeling techniques to support pro-active collection and modeling of crime scene evidence—especially for the more challenging case of soft evidence. As opposed to digital evidence and other ‘hard’ e...

Technology (digital or otherwise) is a great enabler; it bridges gaps and opens doors and, in the process, alters the reality within which it and its users exist. As technology aimed at non-human animals is becoming commonplace, questions about its efficacy and the ethical implications of its use are becoming ever more pertinent. To explore these i...

Hyperactivity in dogs is discussed as being increasingly linked with human Attention Deficit Hyperactiv-ity Disorder. The French veterinary psychiatry community has proposed a precise definition of an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-like syndrome in dogs called Hypersensitivity-Hyperactivity syndrome (HSHA). Dogs suffering from severe HSHA...

Computational animal behavior analysis (CABA) is an emerging field which aims to apply AI techniques to support animal behavior analysis. The need for computational approaches which facilitate ‘objectivization’ and quantification of behavioral characteristics of animals is widely acknowledged within several animal-related scientific disciplines. St...

This book is a collection of contributions honouring Arnon Avron’s seminal work on the semantics and proof theory of non-classical logics. It includes presentations of advanced work by some of the most esteemed scholars working on semantic and proof-theoretical aspects of computer science logic. Topics in this book include frameworks for paraconsis...

Behavioural studies revealed that the dog–human relationship resembles the human mother–child bond, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we report the results of a multi-method approach combining fMRI (N = 17), eye-tracking (N = 15), and behavioural preference tests (N = 24) to explore the engagement of an attachment-like system in d...

Measurement of behavior a major challenge in many animal-related disciplines, including ACI. This usually requires choosing specific parameters for measuring, related to the investigated hypothesis. Therefore, a key challenge is determining a priori what parameters are informational for a given experiment. The scope of this challenge is raised even...

Paraconsistent logics are logics that, in contrast to classical and intuitionistic logic, do not trivialize inconsistent theories. In this paper we take a paraconsistent view on two famous modal logics: B and S5. We use for this a well-known general method for turning modal logics to paraconsistent logics by defining a new (paraconsistent) negation...

Food security is a societal issue of increasing importance requiring careful consideration of the way we produce, process, and distribute food [2], [6]. Digital technologies are increasingly used to optimize processes to support these activities, and therefore, bear important implications for food security. In this article, we focus in particular o...

The rapid development of algorithms for skeletal postural detection with relatively inexpensive contactless systems and cameras opens up the possibility of monitoring and assessing the health and wellbeing of humans. However, the evaluation and confirmation of posture classifications are still needed. The purpose of this study was therefore to deve...

In many cases, software artifacts share similarity across projects and development teams. However, often this similarity is only partially reflected on the level of design and implementation, and therefore the possibilities for its detection are limited in current variability analysis, clone detection, and application search approaches. In this pap...

We report on a mixed-method, comparative study investigating whether there is a difference between privacy concerns expressed about pet wearables as opposed to human wearables-and more importantly, why. We extracted the privacy concerns found in product reviews (N=8,038) of pet wearables (activity, location, and dual-function trackers), contrasting...

Simple Summary ADHD-like (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) behavior in dogs may be expressed as impulsivity, inattentiveness, or aggression, compromising both dog and owner quality of life. Its treatment in a clinical setting requires behavioral modification and sometimes a medical treatment is added. There is a lack of objective tools for...

The problem of inconsistency in requirements engineering has been in the spotlight of the RE community from the early 1990s. In the early years, inconsistency was perceived in the literature as a problem that needs to be eliminated on sight. More recently, it has become recognized that maintaining consistency at all times is not only infeasible, bu...

This paper aims to empirically explore the state of practical applications of paraconsistent logics. To this end, we performed an exploratory literature review, analysing papers published between the years 2015 and 2018. Paraconsistent formalisms based on annotated logics are practically the sole type of approach we found to be applied in engineeri...

One of the most important tools for animal behavior and animal welfare scientists is video-based analysis. Despite the fact that automatic analysis system exists for many species, field of automated video-based behavior analysis doesn't have an effective tool for higher animals, as dogs and therefore scientists have to use manual analysis. This wor...

Automatic age estimation is a challenging problem attracting attention of the computer vision and pattern recognition communities due to its many practical applications. Artificial neural networks, such as CNNs are a popular tool for tackling this problem, and several datasets which can be used for training models are available. Despite the fact th...

Video-based analysis is one of the most important tools of animal behavior and animal welfare scientists. While automatic analysis systems exist for many species, this problem has not yet been adequately addressed for one of the most studied species in animal science—dogs. In this paper we describe a system developed for analyzing sleeping patterns...

Pet wearables increasing popularity on the market places them also in the spotlight of ACI research. Recent studies have shown that they have the potential to impact the human-pet bond, improve caregiving and increase the motivation of owners' for physical exercising with their pets. Thus pet wearables provide pets with a 'digital voice' to speak u...

Pet wearables are increasingly prevalent, with many incorporating location-tracking functionalities, which may reveal privacy-sensitive data about their owners' daily patterns. Typically , these devices are designed for cat (felis catus) or dog (canis familiaris) usage. However, the difference between cat and dog owners in how they interact with th...

Activity trackers for dogs are increasingly popular, having the potential to improve pets' welfare and providing a 'digital voice' for expressing their needs. ACI research has so far mainly focused on their impact on the pet-human bond. However, also privacy considerations play an important role as they may pose significant barriers towards their w...

The field of veterinary healthcare informatics is still in its infancy, and state of the art solutions from human healthcare are not easily adapted. Internet of Things and wearable technologies, as well as recent developments in telehealth legislation may be bringing a wind of change, making it a timely moment to initiate a discussion on the possib...

This research was aimed at eliciting the requirements of practitioners who use conceptual modeling in their professional work for the visual notations of modeling languages. While the use of conceptual modeling in practice has been addressed, what practitioners in fact require of the visual notation of the modeling languages they use has received l...

The vision of automated support for the investigation of logics, proposed decades ago, has been implemented in many forms, producing numerous tools that analyze various logical properties (e.g., cut-elimination, semantics, and more). However, full ‘automation of automated reasoning’ in the sense of automatic generation of efficient provers has rema...

As an increasingly prevalent class of consumer device, pet wearables hold more privacy implications than might at first be apparent. Whilst marketed as devices for pets, through analysis of privacy policies we show that more data is captured about owners than pets-and what data is captured remains vague.

This is a report of three ZooJams that have taken place at the annual Animal-Computer Interaction conference. The ZooJam is a type of workshop whose aim is to extend the reach of UX design beyond human experience in order to become inclusive of other species and their interactions with technology. Our attempts have knitted together colleagues from...

As software becomes more complex, reusing and integrating artifacts from existing projects that may be taken from open or organization-proprietary repositories is becoming an increasingly important practice. This practice requires an in-depth understanding of the projects to be reused and particularly their common and variable features and their no...

We propose a logical language for specifying combinatorial models, which employs the notion of sets and their complements to overcome some weaknesses of the use of standard Boolean semantics. The proposed language may lead to better modelling techniques in combinatorial test design, with the potential to lower the cognitive load of the modeller and...

The field of veterinary healthcare informatics is still in its infancy, and state of the art solutions from human healthcare are not easily adapted. IoT and wearable technologies may be bringing a wind of change, as large amounts of health data of animals are now being produced. It makes this a timely moment to initiate a discussion on the possibil...