Search results for "Rail"
showing 10 items of 699 documents
Sustaining persistent lava lakes: Observations from high-resolution gas measurements at Villarrica volcano, Chile
2016
International audience; Active lava lakes – as the exposed upper part of magmatic columns – are prime locations to investigate the conduit flow processes operating at active, degassing volcanoes. Persistent lava lakes require a constant influx of heat to sustain a molten state at the Earth's surface. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain how such heat transfer can operate efficiently. These models make contrasting predictions with respect to the flow dynamics in volcanic conduits and should result in dissimilar volatile emissions at the surface. Here we look at high-frequency SO2 fluxes, plume composition, thermal emissions and aerial video footage from the Villarrica lava lake i…
Private information alone can trigger trapping of ant colonies in local feeding optima.
2015
Ant colonies are famous for using trail pheromones to make collective decisions. Trail pheromone systems are characterised by positive feedback, which results in rapid collective decision making. However, in an iconic experiment, ants were shown to become 'trapped' in exploiting a poor food source, if it was discovered earlier. This has conventionally been explained by the established pheromone trail becoming too strong for new trails to compete. However, many social insects have a well-developed memory, and private information often overrules conflicting social information. Thus, route memory could also explain this collective 'trapping' effect. Here, we disentangled the effects of social …
Emergence, dispersal, and mate finding via a substrate-borne sex pheromone in the parasitoidMetaphycus luteolus
2013
Metaphycus luteolus Timberlake (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) is a facultatively gregarious parasitoid of soft scale insects. We conducted behavioral experiments to better understand the mating structure of this species. Emergence of male and female offspring is synchronized, beginning at the onset of photoperiod. Both sexes are able to disperse, although dispersal of males from natal patches appears to take longer than dispersal of females. We demonstrated the presence of a female-produced contact pheromone using open arena bioassays and motion tracking software, testing residues deposited by walking females, and extracts of females. Males responded to the females' chemical footprints' and to a…
Trail-following pheromones in basal termites, with special reference to Mastotermes darwiniensis
2007
0098-0331 (Print) Journal Article; In the framework of an evolutionary study, trail pheromones have been studied in the most basal extant termite, Mastotermes darwiniensis (Mastotermitidae), and two other basal termites, the Termopsidae Porotermes adamsoni (Porotermitinae) and Stolotermes victoriensis (Stolotermitinae). Although workers of M. darwiniensis do not walk in single file while exploring a new environment under experimental conditions and are unable to follow artificial trails in 'open field' experiments, they do secrete a trail-following pheromone from their sternal glands. This unique behavior might reflect a primitive function of communication of the sternal gland. The major co…
Symmetry breaking in mass-recruiting ants: extent of foraging biases depends on resource quality.
2016
Abstract The communication involved in the foraging behaviour of social insects is integral to their success. Many ant species use trail pheromones to make decisions about where to forage. The strong positive feedback caused by the trail pheromone is thought to create a decision between two or more options. When the two options are of identical quality, this is known as symmetry breaking, and is important because it helps colonies to monopolise food sources in a competitive environment. Symmetry breaking is thought to increase with the quantity of pheromone deposited by ants, but empirical studies exploring the factors affecting symmetry breaking are limited. Here, we tested if (i) greater …
A new C12 alcohol identified as a sex pheromone and a trail-following pheromone in termites: the diene (Z,Z)-dodeca-3,6-dien-1-ol
2003
0028-1042 (Print) Journal Article; The diunsaturated C12 alcohol (Z,Z)-dodeca-3,6-dien-1-ol (dodecadienol) has been characterized by GC-MS and FTIR as a novel releaser pheromone in termites. This alcohol identified in Ancistrotermes pakistanicus (Termitidae, Macrotermitinae) possesses a double pheromonal function which again illustrates the chemical parsimony of termites compared with other social insects. In workers, dodecadienol elicits trail-following at a very low concentration (activity threshold at 0.1 pg/cm of trail); in male alates it induces trail-following at a low concentration (1-10 pg/cm) and sexual attraction at a higher concentration (about 1 ng). Traces of the monounsaturate…
Identification of multi-component trail pheromones in the most evolutionarily derived termites, the Nasutitermitinae (Termitidae)
2009
In the present study, trail pheromone blends are identified for the first time in termites. In the phylogenetically complex Nasutitermitinae, trail-following pheromones are composed of dodecatrienol and neocembrene, the proportions of which vary according to species, although neocembrene is always more abundant than dodecatrienol (by 25–250-fold). Depending on species, termites were more sensitive to dodecatrienol or to neocembrene but the association of both components always elicited significantly higher trail following, with a clear synergistic effect in most of the studied species. A third component, trinervitatriene, was identified in the sternal gland secretion of several species, but…
The Evidence Base for an Ideal Care Pathway for Frail Multimorbid Elderly : Combined Scoping and Systematic Intervention Review
2019
Source at https://doi.org/10.2196/12517. Background: There is a call for bold and innovative action to transform the current care systems to meet the needs of an increasing population of frail multimorbid elderly. International health organizations propose complex transformations toward digitally supported (1) Person-centered, (2) Integrated, and (3) Proactive care (Digi-PIP care). However, uncertainty regarding both the design and effects of such care transformations remain. Previous reviews have found favorable but unstable impacts of each key element, but the maturity and synergies of the combination of elements are unexplored. Objective: This study aimed to describe how the literature o…
Towards the Design of Robotic Drivers for Full-Scale Self-Driving Racing Cars
2019
Autonomous vehicles are undergoing a rapid development thanks to advances in perception, planning and control methods and technologies achieved in the last two decades. Moreover, the lowering costs of sensors and computing platforms are attracting industrial entities, empowering the integration and development of innovative solutions for civilian use. Still, the development of autonomous racing cars has been confined mainly to laboratory studies and small to middle scale vehicles. This paper tackles the development of a planning and control framework for an electric full scale autonomous racing car, which is an absolute novelty in the literature, upon which we report our preliminary experim…
Procedure for a Temperature-Traffic Model on Rubberized Asphalt Layers for Roads and Railways
2017
The impact of temperature on the mechanical properties and thermal susceptibility of the railway bituminous sub-ballast layer, has served as motivation to develop the advanced measurement of thermal cycles in this layer and, an evaluation of the average seasonal temperatures interpolated by sinusoidal functions, of which characteristic parameters are determined. According to weather situation, Barber’s temperature model was used to prove the effectiveness for the railway superstructure. It is included the assessment of improved modified asphalt mixes performed with coarse rubber from scrap tires, having 1.5 to 3 percent of crumb rubber (particle size 0.2-4 mm) by weight of the total mix, as…