ETEKOS experimental ecological system

The problem of changes in the ecology resulting, for example, in increases in water temperature because of discharges from large thermal power plants is considered. An experiment creating a model of such an ecological system is described

Visual Laterality of Calf–Mother Interactions in Wild Whales

Behavioral laterality is known for a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Laterality in social interactions has been described for a wide range of species including humans. Although evidence and theoretical predictions indicate that in social species the degree of population level laterality is greater than in solitary ones, the origin of these unilateral biases is not fully understood. It is especially poorly studied in the wild animals. Little is known about the role, which laterality in social interactions plays in natural populations. A number of brain characteristics make cetaceans most suitable for investigation of lateralization in social contacts.) in the greatest breeding aggregation in the White Sea. Here we show that young calves (in 29 individually identified and in over a hundred of individually not recognized mother-calf pairs) swim and rest significantly longer on a mother's right side. Further observations along with the data from other cetaceans indicate that found laterality is a result of the calves' preference to observe their mothers with the left eye, i.e., to analyze the information on a socially significant object in the right brain hemisphere.Data from our and previous work on cetacean laterality suggest that basic brain lateralizations are expressed in the same way in cetaceans and other vertebrates. While the information on social partners and novel objects is analyzed in the right brain hemisphere, the control of feeding behavior is performed by the left brain hemisphere. Continuous unilateral visual contacts of calves to mothers with the left eye may influence social development of the young by activation of the contralateral (right) brain hemisphere, indicating a possible mechanism on how behavioral lateralization may influence species life and welfare. This hypothesis is supported by evidence from other vertebrates

Fastloc-GPS reveals daytime departure and arrival during long-distance migration and the use of different resting strategies in sea turtles

Determining the time of day that animals initiate and end migration, as well as variation in diel movement patterns during migration, provides insights into the types of strategy used to maximise energy efficiency and ensure successful completion of migration. However, obtaining this level of detail has been difficult for long-distance migratory marine species. Thus, we investigated whether the large volume of highly accurate locations obtained by Argos-linked Fastloc-GPS transmitters could be used to identify the time of day that adult green (n = 8 turtles, 9487 locations) and loggerhead (n = 46 turtles, 47,588 locations) sea turtles initiate and end migration, along with potential resting strategies during migration. We found that departure from and arrival at breeding, stopover and foraging sites consistently occurred during the daytime, which is consistent with previous findings suggesting that turtles might use solar visual cues for orientation. Only seven turtles made stopovers (of up to 6 days and all located close to the start or end of migration) during migration, possibly to rest and/or refuel; however, observations of day versus night speed of travel indicated that turtles might use other mechanisms to rest. For instance, turtles travelled 31% slower at night compared to day during their oceanic crossings. Furthermore, within the first 24 h of entering waters shallower than 100 m towards the end of migration, some individuals travelled 72% slower at night, repeating this behaviour intermittently (each time for a one-night duration at 3–6 day intervals) until reaching the foraging grounds. Thus, access to data-rich, highly accurate Argos-linked Fastloc-GPS provided information about differences in day versus night activity at different stages in migration, allowing us, for the first time, to compare the strategies used by a marine vertebrate with terrestrial land-based and flying species

ANN-based model for predicting the bearing capacity of strip footing on multi-layered cohesive soil

Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.In reality, footings are most likely to be founded on multi-layered soils. The existing methods for predicting the bearing capacity of 4-layer up to 10-layer cohesive soil are inaccurate. This paper aims to develop a more accurate bearing capacity prediction method based on multiple regression methods and multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs), one type of artificial neural networks (ANNs). Predictions of bearing capacity from the developed multiple regression models and MLP in tractable equations form are obtained and compared with the value predicted using traditional methods. The results indicate ANNs are able to predict accurately the bearing capacity of strip footing and outperform the existing methods. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Y.L. Kuo, M.B. Jaksa, A.V. Lyamin and W.S. Kaggwahttp://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405893/description#descriptio

Parametric Monte Carlo studies of rock slopes based on the Hoek-Brown failure criterion

Probabilistic evaluation of slope failures is increasingly seen as the most appropriate framework for accounting for uncertainties in design. This paper performs reliability assessments for rock slopes based on the latest version of the Hoek–Brown failure criterion. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the use of a new form of stability number for rock slope designs that has been recently developed from finite element upper and lower bound limit analysis methods, and to provide guidance for its use in probabilistic assessments. The analyses show that by using this newly proposed stability number, the probability of failure (Pf) obtained from case studies agrees well with the true state of the slope. In addition, this paper details a procedure to determine the magnitude of safety factor required for rock slope design