Session report: Geophysics,1

A large number of papers has been presented in the session devoted to geophysical methods, confirming their consolidated role in site characterization. Different applications and a wide variety of techniques are also discussed in the present report. For one the reliability, which can be improved with advanced interpretation strategies based on joint inversion of multiple geophysical datasets. The role of guidelines for the execution and interpretation in improving the standard of practice is finally commente

Egg parasitoid exploitation of plant volatiles induced by single or concurrent attack of a zoophytophagous predator and an invasive phytophagous pest

Zoophytophagous insect predators can induce physiological responses in plants by activating defence signalling pathways, but whether plants can respond to facultative phytophagy by recruiting natural enemies remains to be investigated. In Y-tube olfactometer bioassays, using a system including a Vicia faba plant, the zoophytophagous predator Podisus maculiventris and the egg parasitoid Telenomus podisi, we first demonstrated that T. podisi females are attracted by broad bean plants damaged by feeding activity of P. maculiventris and on which host egg masses had been laid, while they are not attracted by undamaged plants or plants damaged by feeding activity alone. In a second experiment, we evaluated the impact of the invasive phytophagous pest Halyomorpha halys on this plant volatile-mediated tritrophic communication. Results showed that the invasive herbivorous adults do not induce plants to recruit the native egg parasitoid, but they can disrupt the local infochemical network. In fact, T. podisi females are not attracted by volatiles emitted by plants damaged by H. halys feeding alone or combined with oviposition activity, nor are they attracted by plants concurrently infested by P. maculiventris and H. halys, indicating the specificity in the parasitoid response and the ability of the invasive herbivore in interrupting the semiochemical communication between plants and native egg parasitoids. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study showing that zoophytophagous predator attacks induce indirect plant defences similarly to those defence strategies adopted by plants as a consequence of single or concurrent infestations of herbivorous insects

A Monte Carlo multimodal inversion of surface waves

The analysis of surface wave propagation is often used to estimate the S-wave velocity profile at a site. In this paper, we propose a stochastic approach for the inversion of surface waves, which allows apparent dispersion curves to be inverted. The inversion method is based on the integrated use of two-misfit functions. A misfit function based on the determinant of the Haskell–Thomson matrix and a classical Euclidean distance between the dispersion curves. The former allows all the modes of the dispersion curve to be taken into account with a very limited computational cost because it avoids the explicit calculation of the dispersion curve for each tentative model. It is used in a Monte Carlo inversion with a large population of profiles. In a subsequent step, the selection of representative models is obtained by applying a Fisher test based on the Euclidean distance between the experimental and the synthetic dispersion curves to the best models of the Monte Carlo inversion. This procedure allows the set of the selected models to be identified on the basis of the data quality. It also mitigates the influence of local minima that can affect the Monte Carlo results. The effectiveness of the procedure is shown for synthetic and real experimental data sets, where the advantages of the two-stage procedure are highlighted. In particular, the determinant misfit allows the computation of large populations in stochastic algorithms with a limited computational cost

Are the deficits in navigational abilities present in the Williams syndrome related to deficits in the backward inhibition?

Williams syndrome (WS) is associated with a distinct profile of relatively proficient skills within the verbal domain compared to the severe impairment of visuo-spatial processing. Abnormalities in executive functions and deficits in planning ability and spatial working memory have been described. However, to date little is known about the influence of executive function deficits on navigational abilities in WS. This study aimed at analyzing in WS individuals a specific executive function, the backward inhibition (BI) that allows individuals to flexibly adapt to continuously changing environments. A group of WS individuals and a mental age- and gender-matched group of typically developing children were subjected to three task-switching experiments requiring visuospatial or verbal material to be processed. Results showed that WS individuals exhibited clear BI deficits during visuospatial task-switching paradigms and normal BI effect during verbal task-switching paradigm. Overall, the present results suggest that the BI involvement in updating environment representations during navigation may influence WS navigational abilitie