Mimicry and ultrastructural analogy between the semi-aquatic grasshopper Paulinia acuminata (Orthoptera: Pauliniidae) and its foodplant, the water-fern Salvinia auriculata (Filicatae: Salviniaceae)

The semi-aquatic grasshopper Paulinia acuminata is mimetically protected by a striking similarity to its foodplant, the floating fern Salvinia auriculata. A SEM study of the cuticula of young grasshopper nymphs and the Salvinia leaf surface reveals a similar ultrastructure of epicuticular waxes which makes both organisms extremely water repellent

Koalas use a novel vocal organ to produce unusually low-pitched mating calls

SummaryDuring the breeding season, male koalas produce ‘bellow’ vocalisations that are characterised by a continuous series of inhalation and exhalation sections, and an extremely low fundamental frequency (the main acoustic correlate of perceived pitch) [1]. Remarkably, the fundamental frequency (F0) of bellow inhalation sections averages 27.1 Hz (range: 9.8–61.5 Hz [1]), which is 20 times lower than would be expected for an animal weighing 8 kg [2] and more typical of an animal the size of an elephant (Supplemental figure S1A). Here, we demonstrate that koalas use a novel vocal organ to produce their unusually low-pitched mating calls

Disparate Ontologies? Revisiting Descola’s Ontological Schema among Northern Societies

Disparate Ontologies? Takes a critical look at Philippe Descola’s four-field anthropological model for ontologies among hunter-gatherer societies. Descola’s model juxtaposes animism, totemism, analogism, and naturalism as reflecting different expressions of interiority and physicality and queries those four ontological concepts as comparative units of analysis. While Descola’s Beyond Nature and Culture (2013) was a ground-breaking exploration of ontological ethnology and anthropological theory, the present work questions whether animism and totemism should be considered as comparable units in cross-cultural anthropological studies. Disparate Ontologies? focuses on the interpretive suitability of the concepts of animism and totemism as comparable variables in comparative analysis by investigating a sample of traditional indigenous societies from the northernmost Northern Hemisphere. The work focuses on ethnographic examples of animism and totemism, as well as cyclical rebirth eschatology and forms of perspectivism in an attempt to provide insights into the similarities and differences of ontological reckonings among diverse peoples across the North

The SASSCAL contribution to climate observation, climate data management and data rescue in Southern Africa

A major task of the newly established "Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management" (SASSCAL; www.sasscal.org) and its partners is to provide science-based environmental information and knowledge which includes the provision of consistent and reliable climate data for Southern Africa. Hence, SASSCAL, in close cooperation with the national weather authorities of Angola, Botswana, Germany and Zambia as well as partner institutions in Namibia and South Africa, supports the extension of the regional meteorological observation network and the improvement of the climate archives at national level. With the ongoing rehabilitation of existing weather stations and the new installation of fully automated weather stations (AWS), altogether 105 AWS currently provide a set of climate variables at 15, 30 and 60 min intervals respectively. These records are made available through the SASSCAL WeatherNet, an online platform providing near-real time data as well as various statistics and graphics, all in open access. This effort is complemented by the harmonization and improvement of climate data management concepts at the national weather authorities, capacity building activities and an extension of the data bases with historical climate data which are still available from different sources. These activities are performed through cooperation between regional and German institutions and will provide important information for climate service related activities

Investigation of laser-induced ablation of ceramic materials for spaceborne applications

In this work tests for determination of ablation thresholds of various ceramic materials for pulsed laser irradiations at wavelengths of 355 nm and 1064 nm in vacuum are presented. For comparison tests with copper and aluminium are also reported. The ablation process was monitored insitu by long-distance microscopy. The morphology of ablation spots was exsitu inspected by scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, the redeposition of potentially released particles on optics in the vicinity to the target was examined

Passenger car data – a new source of real-time weather information for nowcasting, forecasting, and road safety

Presentación realizada en la 3rd European Nowcasting Conference, celebrada en la sede central de AEMET en Madrid del 24 al 26 de abril de 2019

Cross modal perception of body size in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris)

While the perception of size-related acoustic variation in animal vocalisations is well documented, little attention has been given to how this information might be integrated with corresponding visual information. Using a cross-modal design, we tested the ability of domestic dogs to match growls resynthesised to be typical of either a large or a small dog to size- matched models. Subjects looked at the size-matched model significantly more often and for a significantly longer duration than at the incorrect model, showing that they have the ability to relate information about body size from the acoustic domain to the appropriate visual category. Our study suggests that the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms at the basis of size assessment in mammals have a multisensory nature, and calls for further investigations of the multimodal processing of size information across animal species

On the Communication of Scientific Results: The Full-Metadata Format

In this paper, we introduce a scientific format for text-based data files, which facilitates storing and communicating tabular data sets. The so-called Full-Metadata Format builds on the widely used INI-standard and is based on four principles: readable self-documentation, flexible structure, fail-safe compatibility, and searchability. As a consequence, all metadata required to interpret the tabular data are stored in the same file, allowing for the automated generation of publication-ready tables and graphs and the semantic searchability of data file collections. The Full-Metadata Format is introduced on the basis of three comprehensive examples. The complete format and syntax is given in the appendix

The Victorian Newsletter (Spring 1986)

The Victorian Newsletter is sponsored for the Victorian Group of Modern Language Association by the Western Kentucky University and is published twice annually.The Novel as Risk and Compromise, Poetry as Safe Haven: Hardy and the Victorian Reading Public, 1863-1901 / William W. Morgan -- Bard and Lady Novelist: Swinburne and the Novel of (Mrs.) Manners / David G. Riede -- Genre and Gender in Aurora Leigh / Dorothy Mermin -- Walter Pater: The Critic and the Irrational / Robert Keefe -- He Stoops to Conquer: Redeeming the Fallen Woman in the Fiction of Dickens, Gaskell and Their Contemporaries / Laura Hapke -- Trollope's Ground of Meaning: The Macdermots of Ballycloran / Sarah Gilead -- Byron and Disraeli / Peter W. Graham -- Wilde's Autobiographical Signature in The Picture of Dorian Gray / Karl Beckson -- Books Receive