Organic pig husbandry systems in Europe are diverse – ranging from indoor systems with concrete outside run (IN) to outdoor systems all year round (OUT) and combinations of both on one farm (POUT). As this diversity has rarely been taken into account in research projects on organic pig production, the aim of this study was to assess and compare pig health, welfare and productivity in these three systems. Animal health and welfare were assessed using direct observation and records of 22 animal-based measures, comprising 17 health-, 3 productivity- and 2 behavioural measures. These were collected in pregnant sows, weaners and fattening pigs during direct observations and from records within a cross-sectional study on 74 farms (IN: n = 34, POUT: n = 28, OUT: n = 12) in eight countries. Overall, prevalence of several animal health and welfare issues was low (e.g. median 0% for pigs needing hospitalisation, shoulder lesions, ectoparasites; <5% for runts, tail lesions, conjunctivitis). Exceptions in particular systems were respiratory problems in weaners and fatteners (IN: 60.0%, 66.7%; POUT: 66.7%, 60.0%), weaning diarrhoea (IN: 25.0%), and short tails in fatteners (IN: 6.5%, POUT: 2.3%). Total suckling piglet losses (recorded over a period of 12 months per farm) were high in all three systems (IN: 21.3%; POUT: 21.6; OUT: 19.2%). OUT had lower prevalences of respiratory problems, diarrhoea and lameness of sows. POUT farms in most cases kept sows outdoors and weaners and fatteners similar to IN farms, which was reflected in the results regarding several health and welfare parameters. It can be concluded, that European organic pigs kept in all three types of husbandry system showed a low prevalence of health and welfare problems as assessed by our methodology, but respiratory health and diarrhoea should be improved in weaners and fatteners kept indoors and total piglet mortality in all systems. The results provide benchmarks for organic pig producers and organisations which can be used in strategies to promote health and welfare improvement. Furthermore, in future research, the identified health and welfare issues (e.g. suckling piglet mortality, weaning diarrhoea) should be addressed, specifically considering effects of husbandry systems.

This paper presents the results of a new multipath mitigating antenna “V-Ray” for use with terrestrial ranging signals in severe multipath indoor environments. The V-Ray antenna – as used in the Locata positioning system – forms tight beams that provide line-of-sight range measurements as well as azimuth measurements. To take advantage of these two types of measurements a new navigation algorithm – Position and Attitude Modelling System (PAMS) – is proposed for processing carrier phase and azimuth measurements via an unscented Kalman filter. The PAMS can output the complete navigation parameters of position, velocity, acceleration and attitude simultaneously. The indoor test was conducted in a metal warehouse and the results confirmed that the horizontal positioning solutions had an accuracy of better than four centimetres and an orientation accuracy of better than 1°.

Localization and mapping in indoor environments, such as airports and hospitals, are key tasks for almost every robotic platform. Some researchers suggest the use of Range-Only (RO) sensors based on WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) technology with SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) techniques to solve both problems. The current state of the art in RO SLAM is mainly focused on the filtering approach, while the study of smoothing approaches with RO sensors is quite incomplete. This paper presents a comparison between filtering algorithms, such as EKF and FastSLAM, and a smoothing algorithm, the SAM (Smoothing And Mapping). Experimental results are obtained in indoor environments using WiFi sensors. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the smoothing approach using WiFi sensors in an indoor environment.

As part of the ongoing European project NERIS-TP, a revision has been made of someparameters influencing dose estimates in the European emergency management decisionsupport systems RODOS and ARGOS. On the basis of survey data, the estimates of the timefractions typically spent indoors and outdoors over longer time periods have been revised.On the basis of measurement data, also new values for the natural ventilation rategoverning early ingression of contaminants into dwellings have been derived for differentparts of Europe. Other potential parameterisation improvements for the decision supportsystems are discussed.

Two feeding systems trials were carried out to determine the antioxidant activity of soft goats' milk cheeses, and also to evaluate the presence of bioactive polyphenolic compounds. Two groups (A and B), each one with 20 (BW 50±5 kg) French Alpine goats were employed. All animals had between 70 to 80 milking days and were milked once a day. Group A included daily grazing on shruby rangeland vegetation, and group B was kept in full indoor confinement. Thirty kg of goats' milk from each group were collected; 15 kg from each were pasteurized and the remaining 15 kg were not pasteurized (raw), resulting in four treatments (two feeding system×two milk treatments). Soft goat's cheese antioxidant activity can be modified by the animals feeding system; grazing management represents a better option than indoor feeding to produce a healthy profile of bioactive compounds; providing an increase of total polyphenol, hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonoid concentrations. Pasteurization did have a significant effect on these metabolites, and diminished total polyphenol concentration. More research is needed to elucidate the potential of soft goat's cheese as a functional food.