Abnormal swimming behavior is considered to be one of the useful indicators to estimate health condition of the cultured fish in aquaculture. Fish behavior is checked commonly by watching observation, however, it is easy to overlook abnormal fish because of limited time, and is impossible during nighttime. In this paper, we proposed techniques that enable quantitative observation of three-dimensional behavior of fish in culture tank. Automatic tracking method of fish movement is established with captured images of fish in the tank by using image-processing technique. The thinning operation is applied to the fish images and fish direction is estimated by considering the direction of thinning images to avoid misleading when some fish are overlapped. We monitored fish behavior in the culture tank with three red sea beam by the development techniques, and succeeded to track fish movement individually in the tank. Abnormal swimming in response with acoustic stimuli was also detected.

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It is known that the alternating component of bioelectric potential is useful in plant nutrient analysis, as a signal occurs at a specific frequency for each element for which there is nutritional deficiency (e.g. 20 Hz indicates nitrogen (N) deficiency ). Here, we investigated the effects of red light irradiation of specific frequency (20 Hz) on the growth of tomato plants. For the analysis, we developed three irradiation systems: a long-standing irradiation system, a manual irradiation system, and an automatic irradiation system. Tomato plants were cultivated using these systems with a low level of N and potassium (K) in hydroponic culture. At the time of harvest, fruit weight, height and leaf area of the tomato plants were measured. The values in all criteria examined were higher in tomato plants cultivated using the automatic irradiation system than those of plants from the other systems. The growth rate of tomato plants was marginally reduced by a decrease of N and K in the culture solution. However, when the system detector and irradiation were set to tomato plants, the growth recovery of tomato plants was enhanced. The photosynthetic activities of tomato plants exposed to short durations of red light irradiation blinked at 20Hz may be sufficient to promote growth in the automatic irradiation system. In this study, we examined the growth recovery of tomatoes cultivated in hydroponic with a low levels of N and K using an automatic irradiation system which consists of irradiation equipment (20Hz) in conjunction with a detector for bioelectric potential signals (20Hz) from tomato plants. It demonstrates that the specific signal (20 Hz) is, and suggests that the automatic irradiation system has the potential to save plant nutrition.

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The Shiba (Capra hircus f. Shiba) is a miniature and robust goat native to Japan. A female Shiba has no seasonal gestation. In a closed ecosystem, the goat is expected to be a useful animal for eating crop leavings and providing milk and meat to human beings. To find a practical way of recycling the feces from Shiba goats in the closed ecosystem, we examined mushrooms cultivation on the beds of ground and sterilized feces supplemented with and without their hay. In a thermal and humid controlled incubator, Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) and Shiitake mushroom (Lentinus edodes) were cultivated. After the 60 days from the inoculation, Oyster mushrooms grew up to 70mm to 90 mm height on the beds of feces supplemented with hay. Shiitake mushrooms failed to grow due to the lack of spawn growth.

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Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) and Shiitake mushroom (Lentinus edodes) were examined to cultivate on the substrate of animal feces and supplementary hay in a chamber controlled for thermal, humid, CO₂ and illumination conditions. The animals were goat, cattle, pig, hen and horse. After the fresh animal feces were dried and crushed into powder, the chemical of the animal feces and the hay used for cattle and goat was analyzed and compared with that of typical bed materials such as cedar saw dust and rice bran. To investigate an optimal fraction of the hay supplemented with the feces, mushroom's spawn growth test on a plate culture with each kind of the feces was examined. The three beds made of the pure feces, the feces 90% and hay 10%, and the feces 80% and hay 20% were examined. After the beds mounted on a glass plate were controlled in moisture of 65% and autoclaved, Oyster fungus was inoculated. A bottle culture using a glass bottle was experimented for Oyster and Shiitake fungi on the two beds of the pure feces and the feces 90% and hay 10%. The animal feces were rich in protein and scarce in fiber except those from cattle and horse. The optimal combination was the feces 90% and the hay 10%. In the test of the bottle culture, Oyster mushroom was obtained on the beds of animal feces except that of hen. Pig's feces showed the greatest yield. Shiitake mushroom was failed to harvest on the all beds of the animal feces, even though of enough spawn growth excepting the hen.

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