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Sexual dimorphism in eye structure is attributed to sexual selection in animals that employ vision for locating mates. In many male insects, large eyes and eye regions of higher acuity are believed to facilitate the location of females. Here, we compare various features of male and female eyes in three sympatric carpenter bee species, which include two diurnal species (Xylocopa tenuiscapa and X. l
We explore a promising new approach to understanding the neural filter mechanisms intermediate in motion processing at low luminance. We carefully account for the known filter properties of early stages of visual processing in a nocturnal moth, and then measured spatiotemporal tuning of higher order neurons. We then use a computational model to identify likely strategies used to reject noisy signa
We study how a neutralising cloud of counterions screens the electric field of a uniformly charged planar membrane (plate), when the counterions are characterised by a distribution of charges (or valence), n(q). We work out analytically the one-plate and two-plate cases, at the level of non-linear PoissonBoltzmann theory. The (essentially asymptotic) predictions are successfully compared to numeri
The main challenge in predicting structure-borne sound in wood buildings is to accurately model the vibration transmission between the source and the receiving room. Large variations in model parameters make it difficult to predict absolute vibration levels and to make conclusions regarding the relative effects of different designs. A step towards establishing reliable models is to investigate the
The Characterizing ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) mission was selected in October 2012 by ESA as the first small mission. It will be a ultra-high precision photometer dedicated to the observation of transits of known exoplanets on bright stars, for which the mass has already been measured via ground-based spectroscopic surveys. Its precision will allow the accurate determination of the planetary rad
Although atmospheric 222radon (222Rn) activity concentration measurements are currently performed worldwide, they are being made by many different laboratories and with fundamentally different measurement principles, so compatibility issues can limit their utility for regional-to-global applications. Consequently, we conducted a European-wide 222Rn ∕ 222Rn progeny comparison study in order to eval
Aerosol loss in air intake systems potentially hampers the application of one-filter systems for progeny-based atmospheric 222radon (222Rn) measurements. The artefacts are significant when air has to be collected via long sampling lines, e.g. from elevated heights at tall tower observatories. Here we present results from a study, determining 222Rn progeny loss from ambient air sampled via 8.2 mm i
Brain structure and function are tightly correlated across all animals. While these relations are ultimately manifestations of differently wired neurons, many changes in neural circuit architecture lead to larger-scale alterations visible already at the level of brain regions. Locating such differences has served as a beacon for identifying brain areas that are strongly associated with the ecologi
Context. There have been conflicting results with respect to the extent that radial migration has played in the evolution of the Galaxy. Additionally, observations of the solar neighborhood have shown evidence of a merger in the past history of the Milky Way that drives enhanced radial migration. Aims. We attempt to determine the relative fraction of stars that have undergone significant radial mi
In this paper we argue that the Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD), instead of the spectrogram, should be used as basic input into convolutional neural network (CNN) based classification schemes. The WVD has superior resolution and localization as compared to other time-frequency representations. We present a method where a large-size kernel may be learned from the data, to enhance features important
Substantial evidence now supports the hypothesis that the common ancestor of bats was nocturnal and capable of both powered flight and laryngeal echolocation. This scenario entails a parallel sensory and biomechanical transition from a nonvolant, vision-reliant mammal to one capable of sonar and flight. Here we consider anatomical constraints and opportunities that led to a sonar rather than visio
We have calculated relative binding affinities for eight tetrafluorophenyl-triazole-thiogalactoside inhibitors of galectin-3 with the alchemical free-energy perturbation approach. We obtain a mean absolute deviation from experimental estimates of only 2–3 kJ/mol and a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.5–0.8 for seven relative affinities spanning a range of up to 11 kJ/mol. We also studied the effe
Recognizing and categorizing human actions is an important task with applications in various fields such as human-robot interaction, video analysis, surveillance, video retrieval, health care system and entertainment industry.This thesis presents a novel computational approach for human action recognition through different implementations of multi-layer architectures based on artificial neural net
Solution techniques such as small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) play a central role in structural studies of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs); yet, due to low resolution, it is generally necessary to combine SAXS with additional experimental sources of data and to use molecular simulations. Computational methods for the calculation of theoretical SAXS intensity profiles can be separated in
In this study, we have used the coarse-grained model developed for the intrinsically disordered saliva protein (IDP) Histatin 5, on an experimental selection of monomeric IDPs, and we show that the model is generally applicable when electrostatic interactions dominate the intra-molecular interactions. Experimental and theoretically calculated small-angle X-ray scattering data are presented in the
For over 30 years GIS has been a major theme in archaeology, leading scholars to debate the way geo-spatial platforms can contribute to a better understanding of the ancient landscape and a more thorough interpretation of the archaeological record. Recently, the introduction of more advanced software and hardware solutions have made it possible to use GIS for visualizing and analysing even geometr
How do we judge the direction of self-motion (i.e., heading) in the presence of independent object motion? Previous studies that examined this question confounded the effects of a moving object's speed and its position on heading judgments, and did not examine whether the visual system uses salient nonmotion visual cues (such as color contrast and binocular disparity) to segment a moving object fr
