The Perceptions of Incoming College Students from One of the Universities of the South on the Use of Biomimicry as a Method in the Field of Engineering

Biomimicry is a growing concept in science. Technologies that are developed nowadays are influenced by thorough studies on the structure and function of plants and animals. To bring innovative ideas that came from nature\u27s own adaptation and apply this to the principles of engineering, the study aimed to gauge and understand the level of perception of incoming Engineering students towards the process and engineering of biomimetics technologies. It determined the level of knowledge of the respondents with regards to the utilization of biomimicry in the modern setting. The researchers used a descriptive quantitative survey research design to measure the awareness or perception of the respondents. The researchers also made use of a researcher-made questionnaire for the collection of data and applied the 4-point Likert scale. The respondents of this study are the Grade 12 STEM students of the University of Perpetual Help System DALTA. The study utilized the statistical tools of frequency, percentage, and weighted mean in interpreting the perception of the respondents. The results of the study showed that majority of the respondents are aware to more famous inventions/concepts inspired by biomimicry such as the Bullet Train and photosynthetic ability of plants. After analyzing the results, the researchers conclude that the respondents are aware of the modern the designs and concepts of biomimicry making way for professionals to apply biomimicry in the future. In addition, the results of this study provided the researchers insights for future reference and engineering designs

Plasma Dynamics

Contains table of contents for Section 2 and reports on three research projects.U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-90-J-4130National Science Foundation Contract ATM 94-24282U.S. Department of Energy Contract DE-FG02-91-ER-54109U.S. Department of Energy Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor Contract DE-AC02-78-ET-5101

Plasma Dynamics

Contains table of contents for Section 2 and reports on three research projects.U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-90-J-4130Princeton University/Tokamak Physics Experiment Grant S-03688-GU.S. Department of Energy Grant DE-FG02-91-ER-54109National Science Foundation Grant ATM 94-2428

A new spin on a compositionalist predictive modelling framework for conservation planning: a tropical case study in Ecuador

Knowledge about spatial biodiversity patterns is a basic criterion for reserve network design. Although herbarium collections hold large quantities of information, the data are often scattered and cannot supply complete spatial coverage. Alternatively, herbarium data can be used to fit species distribution models and their predictions can be used to provide complete spatial coverage and derive species richness maps. Here, we build on previous effort to propose an improved compositionalist framework for using species distribution models to better inform conservation management. We illustrate the approach with models fitted with six different methods and combined using an ensemble approach for 408 plant species in a tropical and megadiverse country (Ecuador). As a complementary view to the traditional richness hotspots methodology, consisting of a simple stacking of species distribution maps, the compositionalist modelling approach used here combines separate predictions for different pools of species to identify areas of alternative suitability for conservation. Our results show that the compositionalist approach better captures the established protected areas than the traditional richness hotspots strategies and allows the identification of areas in Ecuador that would optimally complement the current protection network. Further studies should aim at refining the approach with more groups and additional species information

Oceanic islands are not sinks of biodiversity in spore-producing plants

Islands have traditionally been considered as migratory and evolutionary dead ends for two main reasons: island colonizers are typically assumed to lose their dispersal power, and continental back colonization has been regarded as unlikely because of niche preemption. The hypothesis that islands might actually represent dynamic refugia and migratory stepping stones for species that are effective dispersers, and in particular, for spore-producing plants, is formally tested here, using the archipelagos of the Azores, Canary Islands, and Madeira, as a model. Population genetic analyses based on nuclear microsatellite variation indicate that dispersal ability of the moss Platyhypnidium riparioides does not decrease in the island setting. The analyses further show that, unlike island populations, mainland (southwestern Europe and North Africa) populations underwent a severe bottleneck during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Our results thus refute the traditional view of islands as the end of the colonization road and point to a different perception of North Atlantic archipelagos as major sources of biodiversity for the postglacial recolonization of Europe by spore-producing plants