A Continuum of Conspicuousness, Floral Signals, and Pollination Systems in Rhynchospora (Cyperaceae): Evidence of Ambophily and Entomophily in a Mostly Anemophilous Family

Floral colors and odors are evolutionary strategies used by plants to attract pollinating animals and may be absent in mostly anemophilous groups, such as Cyperaceae. However, considering that insects are floral visitors of some Rhynchospora Vahl species, the objective of this study was to characterize the floral traits and pollination systems within this genus. We analyzed 16 Rhynchospora species with regard to flower morphology, colors of floral structures, floral scents, pollen vectors, and pollination systems. We verified factors that can favor abiotic or biotic pollination in a continuum of floral traits in Rhynchospora. The flower morphology of R. dissitispicula T. Koyama, with inconspicuous brown spikelets in open panicles, is interpreted as a complete adaptation to anemophily. Conspicuous floral traits in Rhynchospora were distinguished from the background by bees. Some species also emit floral volatiles, and we made the first record of floral scent chemistry within the genus. Most of the compounds emitted by these species are known as attractants to many floral-visiting insects. Bees, beetles, and flies visited species with conspicuous floral traits and contributed to fruit set. The investigated floral traits form a continuum across the different pollination systems in Rhynchospora, from anemophilous to ambophilous and then to entomophilous representatives.

Residual errors in visuomotor adaptation persist despite extended motor preparation periods

A consistent finding in sensorimotor adaptation is a persistent undershoot of full compensation, such that performance asymptotes with residual errors greater than seen at baseline. This behaviour has been attributed to limiting factors within the implicit adaptation system, which reaches a sub-optimal equilibrium between trial-by-trial learning and forgetting. However, recent research has suggested that allowing longer motor planning periods prior to movement eliminates these residual errors. The additional planning time allows required cognitive processes to be completed before movement onset, thus increasing accuracy. Here we looked to extend these findings by investigating the relationship between increased motor preparation time and the size of imposed visuomotor rotation (30°, 45° or 60°), with regards to the final asymptotic level of adaptation. We found that restricting preparation time to 0.35 seconds impaired adaptation for moderate and larger rotations, resulting in larger residual errors compared to groups with additional preparation time. However, we found that even extended preparation time failed to eliminate persistent errors, regardless of magnitude of cursor rotation. Thus, the asymptote of adaptation was significantly less than the degree of imposed rotation, for all experimental groups. Additionally, there was a positive relationship between asymptotic error and implicit retention. These data suggest that a prolonged motor preparation period is insufficient to reliably achieve complete adaptation and therefore our results provide support for the proposal that the balance between error-based learning and forgetting (i.e., incomplete retention) contributes to asymptotic adaptation levels.

Short-term isothermic heat acclimation elicits beneficial adaptations but medium-term elicits a more complete adaptation

Purpose To investigate the effects of 60 min daily, short-term (STHA) and medium-term (MTHA) isothermic heat acclimation (HA) on the physiological and perceptual responses to exercise heat stress. Methods Sixteen, ultra-endurance runners (female = 3) visited the laboratory on 13 occasions. A 45 min sub-maximal (40% Wmax) cycling heat stress test (HST) was completed in the heat (40 °C, 50% relative humidity) on the first (HSTPRE), seventh (HSTSTHA) and thirteenth (HSTMTHA) visit. Participants completed 5 consecutive days of a 60 min isothermic HA protocol (target Tre 38.5 °C) between HSTPRE and HSTSTHA and 5 more between HSTSTHA and HSTMTHA. Heart rate (HR), rectal (Tre), skin (Tsk) and mean body temperature (Tbody), perceived exertion (RPE), thermal comfort (TC) and sensation (TS) were recorded every 5 min. During HSTs, cortisol was measured pre and post and expired air was collected at 15, 30 and 45 min. Results At rest, Tre and Tbody were lower in HSTSTHA and HSTMTHA compared to HSTPRE, but resting HR was not different between trials. Mean exercising Tre, Tsk, Tbody, and HR were lower in both HSTSTHA and HSTMTHA compared to HSTPRE. There were no differences between HSTSTHA and HSTMTHA. Perceptual measurements were lowered by HA and further reduced during HSTMTHA. Conclusion A 60 min a day isothermic STHA was successful at reducing physiological and perceptual strain experienced when exercising in the heat; however, MTHA offered a more complete adaptation.

Evaluation and modification of von Kries chromatic adaptation transform

Over the years, various chromatic adaptation transforms have been derived to fit the visual perception. However, some research demonstrated that CAT02, the most widely used chromatic adaptation transform, overestimates the degree of adaptation, especially for colored illumination. In this study, a memory color matching experiment was conducted in a real scene with the background adapting field varying in field of view, luminance and chromaticity. It showed that a larger field of view results in more complete adaptation. The results were used to test several existing chromatic adaptation models and to develop three new types of models. All of them improved the performance to some extent, especially for the illuminations with low CCT.

The Solar Nation of Tokelau: An adventure in documentary making

Commentary: The Tokelau solar project first came to the attention of this filmmaker at a Pacific Energy Summit in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2013. Three remote islands in the Pacific becoming the first 100 percent solar-powered nation on earth and setting an example for the complete adaptation of sustainable energy sounded like a story too good to be overlooked by mainstream news media. However, research demonstrated that this was indeed widely ignored. So the author set about his usual practice of pitching the idea to his colleagues at German Television. The fact that he had already made a short documentary about Tokelau in 2006 (ARTE TV Reportage: Independence Referendum in Tokelau) and was thus familiar with the territory and its people, which worked in his favour. But funding proved to be a difficult challenge because the logistics of the project demanded a longer than usual shooting schedule and crew time. In the end, a solution was found by accessing additional funding and negotiating a bulk deal with the crew to make The Solar Nation of Tokelau (2014).

Exploración de las posibilidades de la librería Three-js en proyectos de difusión del patrimonio cultural

<p>For whatever project related with the study and conservation of cultural heritage, the dissemination stage of tree-dimensional (3D) information must be a key part of the whole process. Most of the existing web-based platforms are using WebGL technology to disseminate 3D content through Web navigators, despite they are normally generic, with a low level of viewers ‘customization. Alternatively, users can make use of several libraries, most of them open source, which allow a complete adaptation to the specific project features, even though enough level of programming skills are necessary to use them. In the present paper we will describe the minimum requirements that any cultural heritage dissemination project should contain and its implementation using Three-js, one of the most versatile open source libraries for 3D visualization. In addition, we will show several examples of Three-js integration with other libraries that take advantage from HTML5 (HyperText Markup Language, version 5) to enhance the user's experience on a Web platform.</p>

The peripheral olfactory code in Drosophila larvae contains temporal information and is robust over multiple timescales

We studied the electrophysiological activity of two classes of Drosophila melanogaster larval olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), Or24a and Or74a, in response to 1 s stimulation with butanol, octanol, 2-heptanone, and propyl acetate. Each odour/OSN combination produced unique responses in terms of spike count and temporal profile. We used a classifier algorithm to explore the information content of OSN activity, and showed that as well as spike count, the activity of these OSNs included temporal information that enabled the classifier to accurately identify odours. The responses of OSNs during continuous odour exposure (5 and 20 min) showed that both types of neuron continued to respond, with no complete adaptation, and with no change to their ability to encode temporal information. Finally, we exposed larvae to octanol for 3 days and found only minor quantitative changes in OSN response to odours, indicating that the larval peripheral code is robust when faced with long-term exposure to odours, such as would be found in a natural context.

The English-Slovene language contact: borrowing of personal names

The article aims to shed some light on the growing tendency of Slovene native speakers towards borrowing English personal names when naming new-born children. Some historical overview of the borrowing of English personal names into Slovene is given, starting with lists compiled from 1931 onwards, established from the data supplied by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS). The phenomenon of borrowing personal names is discussed from the point of view of pragmatic borrowing as advocated by G. Andersen (2014), taking into account the traditional distinction between necessary loans on the one hand and luxury loans on the other. The article illustrates how in the case of personal names, ‘exoticisms’ (e.g. Alex, Liam, Kevin, Kim, Ian, Vanessa, Adrian, Ella, Emma, Patrick, Nick, Alan, Lucas, listed among the most popular 200 first names in the 2001–2013 period) compete with name forms that have been adapted and nativised long ago (e.g. Patrik), or are currently being introduced for the first time into Slovene. In these recent borrowings, the foreign forms undergo some adaptation, but at the same time, unlike other anglicisms, show the tendency to resist complete adaptation, particularly in terms of spelling and pronunciation. Such pragmatically borrowed items carry significant sociolinguistic signals about the borrowers’ attitudes, and these are briefly commented on.

MODERN MEDICAL PROBLEMS OF MICROCIRCULATION AND HYPOXIC SYNDROME

In this paper long known problems of microcirculation are shown, which were solved only during the last 40 years. They are concerned with the velocity and character of the capillary blood flow, the regulation of the capillary blood flow, the role of various vessels in the oxygen transport, the role of leukocytes in physiology and pathology of the capillary blood flow, with the special features of the function of lungs in supplying the whole organism with oxygen and with bioenergetic laws in the development of an organism adaptation to hypoxia. Here we considered a number of the most important medical problems of microcirculation and hypoxic syndrome. A relatively new factor in the capillary circulation is the fact that in the brain and heart capillaries there are sites with pO2 close to zero. They show that the capillary circulation has no central nervous regulation of the blood flow. The blood flow in these organs obeys only occasional oscillations. The new fact is that Krogh’s rule about metabolism and oxygen exchange occurring only in the capillaries is abandoned. It is shown that almost 30% of consumed oxygen is delivered to the brain via arterioles, which changes our relation to the capillary circulation as a unique mechanism of the tissue supply with oxygen. The new fact is also the mass adhesion of leukocytes to the walls of microvessels, which results in the occlusion of the vessels followed by the development of the heart and brain ischemia. It was shown for the first time that contrary to previous ideas the alveoli in the lungs are supplied with blood from a powerful network of large microvessels from 20 to 50 μm in diameter rather than from thin arterioles. They make possible the passage of 6–12 l of the blood in the norm and during stressed muscle activity — up to 18–23 l of blood per minute. The principle is substantiated that during hypoxia only normal supply of an organism with oxygen may result in a complete adaptation of an organism to the deficit of oxygen.