Born Knowing: Tentacled Snakes Innately Predict Future Prey Behavior

Background: Aquatic tentacled snakes (Erpeton tentaculatus) can take advantage of their prey’s escape response by startling fish with their body before striking. The feint usually startles fish toward the snake’s approaching jaws. But when fish are oriented at a right angle to the jaws, the C-start escape response translates fish parallel to the snake’s head. To exploit this latter response, snakes must predict the future location of the fish. Adult snakes can make this prediction. Is it learned, or are tentacled snakes born able to predict future fish behavior? Methods and Findings: Laboratory-born, naïve snakes were investigated as they struck at fish. Trials were recorded at 250 or 500 frames per second. To prevent learning, snakes were placed in a water container with a clear transparency sheet or glass bottom. The chamber was placed over a channel in a separate aquarium with fish below. Thus snakes could see and strike at fish, without contact. The snake’s body feint elicited C-starts in the fish below the transparency sheet, allowing strike accuracy to be quantified in relationship to the C-starts. When fish were oriented at a right angle to the jaws, naïve snakes biased their strikes to the future location of the escaping fish’s head, such that the snake’s jaws and the fish’s translating head usually converged. Several different types of predictive strikes were observed. Conclusions: The results show that some predators have adapted their nervous systems to directly compensate for the future behavior of prey in a sensory realm that usually requires learning. Instead of behavior selected during their lifetime

Carbon Nanotubes Based 3-D Matrix for Enabling Three-Dimensional Nano-Magneto-Electronics

This letter describes the use of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNT)-based arrays with estimated 2-nm thick cobalt (Co) nanoparticles deposited inside individual tubes to unravel the possibility of using the unique templates for ultra-high-density low-energy 3-D nano-magneto-electronic devices. The presence of oriented 2-nm thick Co layers within individual nanotubes in the CNT-based 3-D matrix is confirmed through VSM measurements as well as an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS)

Earth construction in Algeria between tradition and modernity

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Construction Materials and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/jcoma.15.00048.In the south of Algeria, many indigenous settlements have been built using local earth construction techniques; in the north, despite the availability of suitable earth, only a few rural contemporary settlements have been built using ‘improved’ earth construction. This paper adopts a case study approach to examine and compare structural deficiencies of two earth-built housing settlements in different regions in Algeria. In the indigenous earth settlement in the south, where adobe was used in combination with local timber and stones, the dwellings exhibit many structural defects. Stabilisation of the soil and introduction of modern materials in the contemporary rammed earth settlement in the north has not, however, helped produce structurally adequate dwellings. These dwellings also exhibited many cracks and debonding of rendering, and thus did not fulfil the requirements and aspirations of their occupants. The study concludes that for a potentially successful earth building scheme there are inter-related factors that should be considered: selection of an appropriate soil and construction technique, implementation of a suitable structural design, construction and post-completion processes, availability of relevant skills and provision of adequate training on the construction technique