Cognitive dimensions of predator responses to imperfect mimicry?

Many palatable insects, for example hoverflies, deter predators by mimicking well-defended insects such as wasps. However, for human observers, these flies often seem to be little better than caricatures of wasps – their visual appearance and behaviour are easily distinguishable. This imperfect mimicry baffles evolutionary biologists, because one might expect natural selection to do a more thorough job. Here we discuss two types of cognitive processes that might explain why mimics distinguishable mimics might enjoy increased protection from predation. Speed accuracy tradeoffs in predator decision making might give imperfect mimics sufficient time to escape, and predators under time constraint might avoid time-consuming discriminations between well-defended models and inaccurate edible mimics, and instead adopt a “safety first” policy of avoiding insects with similar appearance. Categorization of prey types by predators could mean that wholly dissimilar mimics may be protected, provided they share some common property with noxious prey

GESCHÄFTSMODELLE 4.0: Baukasten zur Entwicklung datenbasierter Geschäftsmodelle

Die Digitalisierung ermöglich Unternehmen den Zugriff auf einen neuen Schatz an Ressourcen: Daten. Doch wie sind diese Daten wirtschaftlich zu nutzen? Das Praxishandbuch zeigt Ihnen, wie Sie datenbasierte Geschäftsmodelle entwickeln, um gezielt einen strategischen Wettbewerbsvorteil aufbauen zu können. Hierfür steht ein Baukasten aus methodischen Werkzeugen zur Verfügung, welcher Sie Schritt für Schritt durch die Entwicklung Ihres individuellen datenbasierten Geschäftsmodells führt

Splash: a software tool for stereotactic planning of recording chamber placement and electrode trajectories.

While computer-aided planning of human neurosurgeries is becoming more and more common, animal researchers still largely rely on paper atlases for planning their approach before implanting recording chambers to perform invasive recordings of neural activity, which makes this planning process tedious and error-prone. Here we present SPLASh (Stereotactic PLAnning Software), an interactive software tool for the stereotactic planning of recording chamber placement and electrode trajectories. SPLASh has been developed for monkey cortical recordings and relies on a combination of structural MRIs and electronic brain atlases. Since SPLASh is based on the neuroanatomy software Caret, it should also be possible to use it for other parts of the brain or other species for which Caret atlases are available. The tool allows the user to interactively evaluate different possible placements of recording chambers and to simulate electrode trajectories

Life Cycle Evaluation of Factories: The Case of a Car Body Welding Line with Pneumatic Actuators

Part 2: Case StudiesInternational audienceDuring the planning phase of the build up or overhaul of factories a large share of the life cycle spanning impact of such production facilities is determined. Furthermore it is very hard to evaluate the impact of possible measures for improvement, resulting Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and environmental impacts of factory systems. Against this background this paper presents an integrated life cycle analysis approach for a streamlined economical and environmental life cycle assessment of factory systems. The approach gets applied while using two interacting tools for a) energy efficiency evaluation of pneumatic systems and b) life cycle evaluation of factory systems

Comment on “Single-trial spike trains in parietal cortex reveal discrete steps during decision-making”

Latimeret al (Reports, 10 July 2015, p. 184) claim that during perceptual decision formation, parietal neurons undergo one-time, discrete steps in firing rate instead of gradual changes that represent the accumulation of evidence. However, that conclusion rests on unsubstantiated assumptions about the time window of evidence accumulation, and their stepping model cannot explain existing data as effectively as evidence-accumulation models

DOG1 overexpression is associated with mismatch repair deficiency and BRAF mutations but unrelated to cancer progression in colorectal cancer

Introduction. The transmembrane channel protein DOG1 (Discovered on GIST1) is normally expressed in the gastrointestinal interstitial cells of Cajal and also in gastrointestinal stroma tumors arising from these cells. However, there is also evidence for a relevant role of DOG1 expression in colorectal cancers. This study was undertaken to search for associations between DOG1 expression and colon cancer phenotype and key molecular alterations. Methods. A tissue microarray containing samples from more than 1,800 colorectal cancer patients was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Results. DOG1 immunostaining was detected in 503 (30.2%) of 1,666 analyzable colorectal cancers and considered weak in 360 (21.6%), moderate in 78 (4.7%), and strong in 65 (3.9%). Strong DOG1 immunostaining was associated with advanced pT stage (p=0.0367) and nodal metastases (p=0.0145) but these associations were not retained in subgroups of 1,135 mismatch repair proficient and 86 mismatch repair deficient tumors. DOG1 positivity was significantly linked to several molecular tumor features including mismatch repair deficiency (p=0.0034), BRAF mutations (p<0.0001), nuclear p53 accumulation (p=0.0157), and PD-L1 expression (p=0.0199) but unrelated to KRAS mutations and the density of tumor infiltrating CD8 positive lymphocytes. Conclusion. Elevated DOG1 expression is frequent in colorectal cancer and significantly linked to important molecular alterations. However, DOG1 overexpression is largely unrelated to histopathological parameters of cancer aggressiveness and may thus not serve as a prognostic parameter for this tumor entity

Elevated MUC5AC expression is associated with mismatch repair deficiency and proximal tumor location but not with cancer progression in colon cancer

Mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) is a secreted gel-forming mucin expressed by several epithelia. In the colon, MUC5AC is expressed in scattered normal epithelial cells but can be abundant in colorectal cancers. To clarify the relationship of MUC5AC expression with parameters of tumor aggressiveness and mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR) in colorectal cancer, a tissue microarray containing 1812 colorectal cancers was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. MUC5AC expression was found in 261 (15.7%) of 1,667 analyzable colorectal cancers. MUC5AC expression strongly depended on the tumor location and gradually decreased from proximal (27.4% of cecum cancers) to distal (10.6% of rectal cancers; p &amp;lt; 0.0001). MUC5AC expression was also strongly linked to dMMR. dMMR was found in 21.3% of 169 cancers with MUC5AC positivity but in only 4.6% of 1051 cancers without detectable MUC5AC expression (p &amp;lt; 0.0001). A multivariate analysis showed that dMMR status and tumor localization predicted MUC5AC expression independently (p &amp;lt; 0.0001 each). MUC5AC expression was unrelated to pT and pN status. This also applied to the subgroups of 1136 proficient MMR (pMMR) and of 84 dMMR cancers. The results of our study show a strong association of MUC5AC expression with proximal and dMMR colorectal cancers. However, MUC5AC expression is unrelated to colon cancer aggressiveness