15,094 research outputs found
Colouration in crab spiders: substrate choice and prey attraction
Published version: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/208/10/1785/F3.expansio
The role of UV in crab spider signals: effects on perception by prey and predators
Australian crab spiders Thomisus spectabilis sit on the petals of flowers and ambush prey such as honeybees. White-coloured T. spectabilis reflect in the UV (UV+ spiders) and previous research has shown that their presence, curiously, attracts honeybees to daisies. We applied an UV-absorber (ParsolÂź) to create UV-absorbing (UVâ) spiders that did not reflect any light below 395 nm wavelength. These physical changes of visual signals generated by crab spiders caused honeybees to avoid flowers with UVâ spiders on their petals. They also affected the perception of UVâ spiders by honeybees and a potential avian predator (blue tits). Compared to UV+ spiders, UVâ spiders produced less excitation of the UV-photoreceptors in honeybees and blue tits, which translated into a reduced UV-receptor contrast and a reduced overall colour contrast between UVâ spiders and daisy petals. Our results reveal that a clean physical elimination of reflection in the UV range affects perception in predators and prey and ultimately changes the behaviour of prey.7 page(s
Knowledge Graph Completion to Predict Polypharmacy Side Effects
The polypharmacy side effect prediction problem considers cases in which two
drugs taken individually do not result in a particular side effect; however,
when the two drugs are taken in combination, the side effect manifests. In this
work, we demonstrate that multi-relational knowledge graph completion achieves
state-of-the-art results on the polypharmacy side effect prediction problem.
Empirical results show that our approach is particularly effective when the
protein targets of the drugs are well-characterized. In contrast to prior work,
our approach provides more interpretable predictions and hypotheses for wet lab
validation.Comment: 13th International Conference on Data Integration in the Life
Sciences (DILS2018
Noise auto-correlation spectroscopy with coherent Raman scattering
Ultrafast lasers have become one of the most powerful tools in coherent
nonlinear optical spectroscopy. Short pulses enable direct observation of fast
molecular dynamics, whereas broad spectral bandwidth offers ways of controlling
nonlinear optical processes by means of quantum interferences. Special care is
usually taken to preserve the coherence of laser pulses as it determines the
accuracy of a spectroscopic measurement. Here we present a new approach to
coherent Raman spectroscopy based on deliberately introduced noise, which
increases the spectral resolution, robustness and efficiency. We probe laser
induced molecular vibrations using a broadband laser pulse with intentionally
randomized amplitude and phase. The vibrational resonances result in and are
identified through the appearance of intensity correlations in the noisy
spectrum of coherently scattered photons. Spectral resolution is neither
limited by the pulse bandwidth, nor sensitive to the quality of the temporal
and spectral profile of the pulses. This is particularly attractive for the
applications in microscopy, biological imaging and remote sensing, where
dispersion and scattering properties of the medium often undermine the
applicability of ultrafast lasers. The proposed method combines the efficiency
and resolution of a coherent process with the robustness of incoherent light.
As we demonstrate here, it can be implemented by simply destroying the
coherence of a laser pulse, and without any elaborate temporal scanning or
spectral shaping commonly required by the frequency-resolved spectroscopic
methods with ultrashort pulses.Comment: To appear in Nature Physic
Deconvolution of positron annihilation coincidence Doppler broadening spectra using an iterative projected Newton method with non-negativity constraints
A generalized least-square method with Tikonov-Miller regularization and non-negativity constarints was developed for deconvoluting two-dimensional coincidence Doppler broadening spectroscopy (CDBS) spectra. A projected Newton algorithm was developed to solve the generalized least-square problem. The algorithm was used to deconvolute experimental CDBS data from aluminum was tested on Monte Carlo generated spectra. The retrieval of the positron-electron momentum distributions in the low momentum region was also demonstrated.published_or_final_versio
A Schwarz lemma for K\"ahler affine metrics and the canonical potential of a proper convex cone
This is an account of some aspects of the geometry of K\"ahler affine metrics
based on considering them as smooth metric measure spaces and applying the
comparison geometry of Bakry-Emery Ricci tensors. Such techniques yield a
version for K\"ahler affine metrics of Yau's Schwarz lemma for volume forms. By
a theorem of Cheng and Yau there is a canonical K\"ahler affine Einstein metric
on a proper convex domain, and the Schwarz lemma gives a direct proof of its
uniqueness up to homothety. The potential for this metric is a function
canonically associated to the cone, characterized by the property that its
level sets are hyperbolic affine spheres foliating the cone. It is shown that
for an -dimensional cone a rescaling of the canonical potential is an
-normal barrier function in the sense of interior point methods for conic
programming. It is explained also how to construct from the canonical potential
Monge-Amp\`ere metrics of both Riemannian and Lorentzian signatures, and a mean
curvature zero conical Lagrangian submanifold of the flat para-K\"ahler space.Comment: Minor corrections. References adde
Evidence for Duality of Conifold from Fundamental String
We study the spectrum of BPS D5-D3-F1 states in type IIB theory, which are
proposed to be dual to D4-D2-D0 states on the resolved conifold in type IIA
theory. We evaluate the BPS partition functions for all values of the moduli
parameter in the type IIB side, and find them completely agree with the results
in the type IIA side which was obtained by using Kontsevich-Soibelman's
wall-crossing formula. Our result is a quite strong evidence for string
dualities on the conifold.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, v2: typos corrected, v3: explanations about
wall-crossing improved and figures adde
Effective String Theory Revisited
We revisit the effective field theory of long relativistic strings such as
confining flux tubes in QCD. We derive the Polchinski-Strominger interaction by
a calculation in static gauge. This interaction implies that a non-critical
string which initially oscillates in one direction gets excited in orthogonal
directions as well. In static gauge no additional term in the effective action
is needed to obtain this effect. It results from a one-loop calculation using
the Nambu-Goto action. Non-linearly realized Lorentz symmetry is manifest at
all stages in dimensional regularization. We also explain that independent of
the number of dimensions non-covariant counterterms have to be added to the
action in the commonly used zeta-function regularization.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, v2: typo corrected, references added, published
versio
Discussion of âObservation of ground movement with existing pile groups due to tunneling in sand using centrifuge modellingâ by Ittichai Boonsiri and Jiro Takemura
This discussion aims to highlight the underlying cause of several aspects of the greenfield settlement data presented by Boonsiri and Takemura (Geotech Geol Eng 33(3):621â640, 2015). The discussion considers, for the geotechnical centrifuge tests that were reported, the effects of the boundary conditions imposed at the model tunnel on resulting settlements. Data obtained using the rigid boundary model tunnel in Boonsiri and Takemura (Geotech Geol Eng 33(3):621â640, 2015) are compared against other available data from tests using a fluid-filled flexible membrane model tunnel. It is demonstrated that the boundary conditions used to simulate tunnel ground loss have an important impact on the settlement mechanism; compared to a fluid-filled flexible membrane, a rigid boundary model tunnel results in wider settlement troughs, which do not vary in shape considerably with changes in relative tunnel depth, and can result in higher ratios between the area of the settlement troughs and the tunnel ground loss. The appropriateness of the different tunnel boundary conditions is also discussed
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