Papilionid butterflies of the tribe Troidini are specialists on plants of the family Aristolochiaceae. The role of plant volatiles in host recognition by adult and larval stages of these insects remains unknown. We used Battus polydamas archidamas (Papilionidae: Troidini) and its host-plant, Aristolochia chilensis (Aristolochiaceae), to study: (i) the olfactory and electrophysiological responses of adults to headspace volatiles of the host-plant, (ii) the chemical composition of the headspace volatiles of the host-plant, (iii) the patterns of aggregation of larvae in the field in order to ascertain the time when they leave the plant where the eggs were laid, and (iv) the olfactory responses of solitary-feeding fourth-instar larvae to headspace volatiles of the host-plant. Larvae left their initial host-plant during the third or fourth instar. Host-plant headspace volatiles attracted fourth-instar larvae as well as adults; adult females were more responsive than males. Taken together, these results reveal changes in the responsiveness to host-plant volatiles during development, and provide an insight into the host-plant specialization of this butterfly.
In the real-life engineering practice, non-linear regression models have to be designed rather often. To ensure their technical or physical feasibility, such models may, in addition, require another coupling condition. This paper describes two procedures for designing a specific non-linear model using AI methods. A Radial Basis Functions (RBF) based optimization is presented of the model using Genetic Algorithms (GA). The problem solved was based on practical measurements and experiments. The results presented in the paper can be applied to many technical problems in mechanical and civil engineering and other engineering fields. and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The N250r is a face-sensitive event-related potential (ERP) deflection whose long-term memory sensitivity remains uncertain. We investigated the possibility that long-term memory-related voltage changes are represented in the early ERP's to faces but methodological considerations could affect how these changes appear to be manifested. We examined the effects of two peak analysis procedures in the assessment of the memory-sensitivity of the N250r elicited in an old/new recognition paradigm using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and artificial neural networks (ANN's). When latency was kept constant within subjects, ANOVA was unable to detect differences between ERP's to remembered and new faces; however, an ANN was. Network interpretation suggested that the ANN was detecting amplitude differences at occipitotemporal and frontocentral sites corresponding to the N250r. When peak latency was taken into account, ANOVA detected a significant decrease in onset latency of the N250r to remembered faces and amplitude differences were not detectable, even with an ANN. Results suggest that the N250r is sensitive to long-term memory. This effect may be a priming phenomenon that is attenuated at long lags between faces. Choice of peak analysis procedures is critical to the interpretation of phasic memory effects in ERP data.
The mobile robot path planning involves finding the shortest and least difficult path from a start to a goal position in a given environment without collisions with known obstacles.
The main idea of case-based reasoning (CBR) is a presumption that similar tasks probably also have similar solutions. New tasks are solved by adapting old proved solutions of similar tasks to new conditions. Tasks and their solutions (cases) are stored in a case base.
The focal point of this paper is the proposition of a path planning method based on CBR combined with graph algorithms in the environment represented by a rectangular grid. On the basis of the experimental results obtained, it is possible to say that case-based reasoning can significantly save computation costs, particularly in large environments. and Obsahuje seznam literatury