The slow β relaxation is understood to be a universal feature of glassy dynamics. Its presence in bulk metallic
glasses (BMGs) is evidence of a broad relaxation time spectrum that extends to deep within the glassy state.
Despite the breadth of research devoted to this phenomenon, its microscopic origin is...
The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is emerging as a new important species for studying brain mechanisms and its deficits. Focusing on selected CNS disorders (brain cancer, epilepsy and anxiety) and using them as examples, we discuss the value of zebrafish models in translational neuroscience, and their contribution to neuroimaging, circuit-level and...
The protein palmitoylation cycle has been shown to be important for protein signaling and synaptic plasticity. Data from our lab showed a change in the palmitoylation status of certain proteins with age. A greater percentage of the NMDA receptor subunits GluN2A and GluN2B, along with Fyn and PSD95 proteins, were...
Low-frequency acoustic signals generated by baleen whales can
propagate over vast distances, making the assignment of calls to
specific individuals problematic. Here, we report the novel use of
acoustic recording tags equipped with high-resolution accelerometers
to detect vibrations from the surface of two tagged fin whales that
directly match the...
Studies were conducted to assess glacial acetic acid (GAA) with various host plant volatiles (HPVs) and the sex pheromone, (E,E)-8, 10-dodecadien-1-ol, of codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L), as lures in traps for tortricid pests that often co-occur in tree fruits in the western United States. In addition to codling moth,...
SUMMARY:
1. Understanding how predators select their prey can provide important insights into community structure and dynamics. However, the suite of prey species available to a predator is often spatially and temporally variable. As a result, species-specific selectivity data are of limited use for predicting novel predator–prey interactions because they...
Research on the ecology of top predators – upper trophic level consumers that are relatively free from predation once they reach adult size – has provided regular contributions to general ecology and is a rapidly expanding and increasingly experimental, multidisciplinary and technological endeavour. Yet, an exponentially expanding literature coupled with...
Citizen-science projects engage volunteers to gather or process data to address scientific questions. But
citizen-science projects vary in their ability to contribute usefully for science, conservation, or public policy.
eBird has evolved from a basic citizen-science project into a collective enterprise, taking a novel
approach to citizen science by developing...
Computer system I/O has evolved with processor and memory technologies in terms of reducing latency, increasing bandwidth and other factors. As requirements increase for I/O, such as networking, storage, and video, descriptor-based DMA transactions have become more important in high performance systems to move data between I/O adapters and system...
Limbless organisms like snakes can navigate nearly all terrain. In particular, desert-dwelling sidewinder rattlesnakes (C. cerastes) operate effectively on inclined granular media (like sand dunes) that induce failure in field-tested limbless robots through slipping and pitching. Our laboratory experiments reveal that as granular incline angle increases, sidewinder rattlesnakes increase the...
We propose three sampling-based motion planning algorithms for generating informative mobile robot trajectories. The goal is to find a trajectory that maximizes an information quality metric (e.g. variance reduction, information gain, or mutual information) and also falls within a pre-specified budget constraint (e.g. fuel, energy, or time). Prior algorithms have...
The progress made in accelerating simulations of fluid flow using GPUs, and the challenges that remain, are surveyed. The review first provides an introduction to GPU computing and programming, and discusses various considerations for improved performance. Case studies comparing the performance of CPU- and GPUbased solvers for the Laplace and...
It is shown that the life cycles of nonlinear mesoscale eddies, a major component of low-frequency ocean
physical variability, have a characteristic structure that differs fundamentally from that which would be expected
on the basis of classical interpretations of ocean eddy evolution in terms of mean flow instability and equilibration...
This paper reports on a study of primary contextualization processes during science immersion
trips and the resultant student learning. Four High School Ecology classes (n=67) and teachers
participated. Through a pre/post assessment of science concept knowledge (Pathfinder Network
Modeling) and follow-up interviews with students, it was determined that (1) significant...
A phenol formaldehyde (PF) adhesive was uniformly tagged with iodine such that it yielded sufficient x-ray computed tomography (XCT) gray-scale contrast for material segmentation in reconstructed wood-composite bondlines. Typically, untagged adhesives are organic and have a similar solid state density as wood cell-walls, and therefore cannot be segmented quantitatively in...
Studying the ecology of endangered species in portions of their range where the population remains abundant can
provide fundamental information for conservation planners. We studied nesting by radio-tagged Marbled Murrelets
(Brachyramphus marmoratus) during 2007 and 2008 in Port Snettisham, a relatively pristine, remote mainland fjord in
southeast Alaska with high...
This paper asks whether animals can ever break out of anthropocentric value systems in literary narratives and, if so, what critical methods might be enlisted to reveal a literary animal’s independent agency. Examining the representation of a gray wolf in Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Crossing, it concludes that the animal’s...
In addition to the core characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) motor skill
deficits are present, persistent and pervasive across age. Although motor skill deficits have been
indicated in young children with autism they have not been included in the primary discussion of
early intervention content. 159 young children with...
1. Freshwater mussels (Order: Unionidae) are among the most imperiled aquatic organisms in North America. Conservationists and resource managers within the United States are increasingly advocating restoration of these animals to preserve biodiversity and boost ecosystem services in the nation’s waterways. 2. Historically, restoration methods have yielded less than optimal...
The microwave backscatter properties of surf zone waves are analyzed using field observations.
By utilizing a preexisting, independent, water surface discrimination technique, the microwave returns were
extracted along individual waveforms and the data from shoaling (steepening) waves, surf zone breaking
waves, and remnant foam were separated and quantified. In addition,...
Foraging theory predicts that animals will
adjust their foraging behavior in order to maximize net
energy intake and that trade-offs may exist that can influence
their behavior. Although substantial advances have
been made with respect to the foraging ecology of large
marine predators, there is still a limited understanding of...
Hydrate Ridge has the distinction of hosting the first documented subduction-driven cold seep system that supports chemosynthetic life by Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane as well as the most widely researched methane hydrate setting at any active continental margin. Today this site is a vital node of Northeast Pacific regional long-term...
Recent reform initiatives in undergraduate biology call for curricula that prepare students for dealing with real-world issues and making important links between science and society. In response to this call, we have developed an issues-based laboratory module that uses guided inquiry to integrate the concepts of animal behavior and population...
In this paper we discuss the application of a range of techniques to the
verification of mission-critical flight software at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
For this type of application we want to achieve a higher level of confidence than can
be achieved through standard software testing. Unfortunately, given the current...
The Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) for
Solid-State Lighting Science (SSLS) is one of 46 EFRCs initiated in
2009 to conduct basic and use-inspired research relevant to energy
technologies. The overarching theme of the SSLS EFRC is the
exploration of energy conversion in tailored photonic structures. In
this article we...
Several evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) of Columbia River basin Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and Coho Salmon O. kisutch are listed as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Yet little is known about the spatial and temporal distributions of these ESUs immediately following ocean entry, when year-class success...
Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha returns to the Yukon River basin have declined dramatically since
the late 1990s, and detailed information on the spawning distribution, stock structure, and stock timing is needed to
better manage the run and facilitate conservation efforts. A total of 2,860 fish were radio-tagged in the lower...
To better understand the role of tensegrity structures in biological systems and their application to robotics, the Dynamic Tensegrity Robotics Lab at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA, has developed and validated two software environments for the analysis, simulation and design of tensegrity robots. These tools, along with...
The federally threatened northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) is the focus of intensive
conservation efforts that have led to much forested land being reserved as habitat for the owl and associated wildlife
species throughout the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Recently, however, a relatively new threat to spotted...
Football today, most conspicuously at the professional level (National Football
League) is the economic and cultural colossus of American spectator sports. To
speak of its “life cycle,” then, would seem nonsensical: although it has a clear
“birth,” to speak of its “death” might seem ridiculously premature. Yet recent
developments make...
Natal dispersal is an important driver of population and colonization dynamics, yet factors that
affect timing and distance of post-fledging movements are poorly understood. We studied post-fledging movements
of 34 (12 male and 22 female) juvenile Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) between June 2002 and April
2003, in a nonmigratory population...
Equipment and deployment strategies for remote passive acoustic sensing of marine environments must balance
memory capacity, power requirements, sampling rate, duty-cycle, deployment duration, instrument size, and environmental
concerns. The impact of different parameters on the data and applicability of the data to the specific
questions being asked should be considered...
Acoustic scattering layers are ubiquitous, horizontally extensive aggregations of both vertebrate and invertebrate organisms that play key roles in oceanic ecosystems. However, currently there are no conventions or widely adaptable automatic methods for identifying these often dynamic, spatially complex features, so it is difficult to consistently and efficiently describe and...
Condors and vultures comprise the only group of terrestrial vertebrates in the world that are
obligate scavengers, and these species move widely to locate ephemeral, unpredictable, and patchily-distributed
food resources. In this study, we used high-resolution GPS location data to quantify
monthly home range size of the critically endangered California...
Concurrent measurements of predator and prey δ¹⁵N isotope values demonstrated that a cross-shelf
isotopic gradient can propagate through a marine food web from forage species to top-tier predators and
indicate foraging areas at a scale of tens of kilometers. We measured δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N in muscle tissues of
thick-billed murres...