Team:KUAS Korea/Human Practices
Integrated practices
Intro
How do we measure and visualize stress? Is there a way of measuring stress in people who are suffering from mental illness in the medical community? Are there needs for the visualization of stress really in the field? As we further specify the project, we asked these questions, and this led us to do further research. Since scenarios, needs, and pain points differ when users are human or animals, interviews and research were conducted in that two categories. The research and feedback of interviewers has had a great impact on our project design direction.
Application for Animals
1. Social studies
Animal welfare covers the responsibilities that humans have when it comes to the treatment of animals in captivity. There are many different situations where animals are held in captivity by people. From farms raising animals for food and zoos to laboratories that run animal testing and circuses, the range of different situations where animals are captive is vast and shocking. Animal welfare refers to the responsibility that humans have when it comes to the treatment of these animals. That can include how they are housed, how they’re handled, the management of their lives and living situations, their medical status and treatment, and their well-being in general. All of these issues are important for the overall well-being of these captive animals.
An animal may be considered to be in a state of stress if abnormal behavior or extreme adjustments in its behavior or physiology are necessary in order to cope with adverse aspects of its environment. Methods used to determine if an animal is stressed can be either behavioral or physiological. Behavioral methods may be highly erroneous due to their subjective nature since alterations in behavior do not necessarily prove that an animal is stressed. Every measure must be critically evaluated to ensure that it is valid for each application.
Products that do have meaningful welfare certifications tend to be more expensive. We found a paper that administered a survey to determine consumers' attitudes towards welfare certifications and the willingness to pay for foods from animals raised under more humane conditions. Most respondents (78%) thought it was important to know that animal-welfare assessments are conducted by an independent third party or the federal government (and not only the industry producer). The majority of respondents would be willing to pay extra for foods with a trustworthy welfare certification both in supermarkets and in restaurants.
2. Interview
KARA [Community]
Figure 1. The logo of KARA
Why we interviewed: KARA(Korea Animal Rights Advocates) is one of Korea’s most prominent animal rights organizations, proposing policies and pushing for changes in legislature concerning the protection of animals. We had an interview with them on current stress management methods for animals, how stress detection and visualization could help promote animal welfare, and their exact needs on our project.
What we learned: For stress detection of pets, behavioral observation and research was favored over invasive methods such as fecal analysis. And unlike animals like cats and dogs with lots of previous researches, data on stress measurement and detection of industrially bred animals such as guinea pigs or various livestock is hard to find and is in demand.
How we applied to our design: We ultimately settled on a tatoo-like injection method with microencapsulated organisms, but through this interview we learned that a consideration for noninvasive measures was also needed.
Mr. Woo-do Lee[Researcher]
Why we interviewed: Mr. Lee is a researcher developing feed for livestock, and researching animal health management and physiology. Through this interview, we sought to learn about current methods on stress detection, if our project will have any demands in the livestock industry, and if any improvements could be made on our project.
What we learned : Our project definitely seems to have demands in the industry. Although farmers are experts in breeding animals, they have little expertise on measuring and determining the levels of stress in animals. They primarily rely on observing irregular activities of animals, but this method is not suited for continuous monitoring and preventing irregularities. If a visible detection system for stress is implemented, preventive measures could be taken to minimize the damage. For example, when poultry are under stress, the meat turns pale and its pH gets lower, thus dropping market value and even rendering some unmarketable. Irregularities caused by stress doesn’t show up until the animal almost ceases to eat, limiting the responsiveness of the farmers. As for points in our project that need improving, Mr. Lee pointed out the huge number of animals in poultry farms will make it hard to apply our tatoos to each individual, and that farmers may have difficulties with injections without proper training.
How we applied to our design: If our project expands into a full-scale business, we could consider sending trained professionals to give the injections. As with the interview with KARA mentioned above, we had issues with our project using an invasive method again. This emphasized the need for consideration of other noninvasive techniques in future applications.
Figure 2. Mr. Woodo is studying the development of healthy feeds in the livestock industry.
Figure 3. He observes animals on the scene as he visits around real farms.
Professor Gu Jang[Expert]
Why we interviewed : Professor Gu, an expert from College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, is renowned for his work on transgenic animals. The fluorescent cow shown on the left is one example of it. We wanted to ask about the feasibility of our project, various mechanisms to induce transgenic features in animals, and things to consider about on projects like ours.
What we learned : In creating transgenic cows, transposons were typically used, as they have the highest rate of success. Ethical issues were the largest when it comes to working with transgenic animals. Although many studies are underway, creating an individual animal with transgenic features creates numerous ethical issues that were not present with cell-scale studies.
How we applied to our design: Since creating transgenic livestock could face various ethical issues, we decided to focus our project on transgenic microbe-based products. This developed into our current project, a tatoo-style detector using microencapsulation methods.
Figure 4. The fluoscent cow
Figure 5. The meeting with Professor Gu Jang
Zookeepers [Potential User]
Why we interviewed : Since zoos incorporate animals from all kinds of habitats, and constantly tend to their needs, we believe them to be our project’s potential users. Since our interviewees did not wish to be identified, we will not specify the names of the zoo or the zookeepers in our wiki. We sought to learn about stress measurement and management in zoos, and their thoughts on our project.
What we learned: For wild animals, being in a zoo itself can be a major source of stress, as the animals are placed in a completely different environment. The zoo has limitations on the size of the enclosures, with artificial structures, other species not naturally encountered in the wild, and different diets. These differences all generate stress, and this leads to abnormal behaviors such as stereotypic behavior or self-injury. Zookeepers normally detect stress through observing such behaviors. The zookeepers believed that our project could help prevent the animals from getting too stressed out and displaying abnormal behaviors. However, they were reluctant about the tattoo being on display for everyone, since it might lead to unwanted controversy and complaints from visitors.
How we applied to our design : The zookeepers wished for an accurate and precise detection of stress levels, and were reluctant about sharing the results with the visitors. Therefore, we decided to limit the visibility of the tattoo so that it will mot stand out in broad daylight, but will be easy to recognize in the dark. And since zoos host a wide variety of animals, a uniform application did not seem desirable
Fiugre 6. Taking a look at how zoo animals are taken care of
Professor Byung Whi Gong [Expert]
Why we interviewed: Professor Gong, an expert from the department of poultry science, university of Arkansas, mainly researches causes and cures for poultry diseases and has much expertise and experience on the health management of animals. We sought to learn about the demands on our project, current stress causes and detection methods on chicken, and the awareness of animal welfare in the global market.
What we learned : One of the major stress factors of chicken is heat stress, primarily from global warming. Chicken breast demands are high in the US, which led to breeding chicken to have larger body-to-leg ratios. This worsens their resistance against heat stress, and can lead to deaths. Farmers normally use ventilation systems and spray water to prevent this, and they detect their stress through observing abnormal behaviors, whether by eye or by camera. In the US, customer awareness of animal welfare is high, and our project can be beneficial in those terms too. As for pets stress can lead to health issues such as pancreatitis, so as our project can help detect and prevent such issues, it will have a demand in that market too.
How we applied to our design: As with humans, not all stress has negative impacts on livestock, and therefore we designed our product to sense long-term chronic stress, not short-term stress. As for our target, we decided upon pets such as dogs and cats, or large livestock such as cows and pigs. This is because poultry like chicken are covered with feathers, are bred in large numbers, and their raising term is relatively short at about four to six weeks. Cows and pigs, on the other hand, take much longer to raise, are relatively smaller in number, and there are prominent areas not covered with fur that we could utilize. Pets typically spend more than a decade together with their owners, so our project can be of even greater help to them. For our future developments, we considered direct transformation of the recipient cells, the vectors needed to do so, how it will react with the recipient’s immune system, and ways to restore them if wanted.
Application for Human
1. Social studies
Studies have shown that stress is associated with various diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and cardiovascular disease; current stress measurements include electrocardiogram measurement, electroencephalogram measurement, and self-diagnosis. However, it requires expensive equipment and professional manpower, and the measurement method is subjective. When people are stressed, a hormone called cortisol is released, which is involved in various body mechanisms in the human body. Furthermore, chronic stretching keeps the blood cortisol concentration high, which increases blood glucose and blood pressure, weakens the immune system, and promotes disease and aging. Therefore, cortisol can be a useful biomarker for measuring stress. Cortisol is present in body fluids such as blood, sweat, and saliva, and cortisol in the saliva has the advantage of being able to measure without using injection needles. However, the concentration of cortisol is very low at the nanomole concentration level.
2. Interview
Professor Gyu-man Han [Expert, Potential User]
Figure 7. Professor Han
Why we interviewed: Professor Han is a psychiatrist at Anam hospital, Korea university, and his field of expertise is depression. We sought to learn whether people were really unaware of their stress levels, if cortisol-based stress detection systems could work on humans as well, potential problems of implementing our project on human subjects, and current methods to measure stress used by doctors.
What we learned : The first response we got from prof. Has was his exclamation on how innovative our project was, and that the academic world would never have thought of such an idea. He agreed with our view that it would be meaningful to implement our project socially to the community. Many of his patients have hardships recognizing their emotions and expressing them. This condition is called alexithymia, and he believes that our project can help treating such patients. Current methods mainly measure heart rates (HRV), galvanic skin response (GSR), and brain activity (fMRI, EEG). Hormone measurements through venipuncture are available, but due to the fluctuation is seldomly used. We were worried that our project could be affected by such changes, but chronic stress typically induces elevated levels of cortisol in the bloodstream compared to short-term stress, so our project could still function. We also discussed alternative hormones such as serotonin or dopamine, but due to the blood-brain barrier, they cannot be easily detected outside the brain region.
How we applied to our design: We decided to focus on cortisol rather than contemplate other detectable hormones. Before the interview, we were worried over cortisol level lowering reported in some cases of chronic stress, but we were assured that the majority of patients show elevated levels, and could carry on our project. Furthermore, we could define our primary targets as patients with alexithymia, and work out a scenario of its use.
Figure 8. Having a meeting with Professor Han