Distinct movement patterns generate stages of spider web-building

The geometric complexity and stereotypy of spider webs have long generated interest in their algorithmic origin. Like other examples of animal architecture, web construction is the result of several assembly phases that are driven by distinct behavioral stages coordinated to build a successful structure. Manual observations have revealed a range of sensory cues and movement patterns used during web construction, but methods to systematically quantify the dynamics of these sensorimotor patterns are lacking. Here, we apply an analytical pipeline to quantify web-making behavior of the orb-weaver Uloborus diversus. Position tracking revealed stereotyped stages of construction that could occur in typical or atypical progressions across individuals. Using an unsupervised clustering approach, we identified general and stage-specific leg movements. A Hierarchical Hidden Markov Model revealed that stages of web-building are characterized by stereotyped sequences of actions largely shared across individuals, regardless of whether these stages progress in a typical or atypical fashion. Web stages could be predicted based on action-sequences alone, revealing that web-stages are a physical manifestation of underlying behavioral phases.

Image investigation using higher moment statistics and edge detection for recognizing abnormal skin

This paper discusses the recognition of skin abnormalities by investigating the images using high-level statistics and edge detection. Six images of skin diseases were analyzed using several statistical parameters, including high-level moments such as skewness and kurtosis. In comparison, some images from other categories such as animal, architecture, art, vehicle, food, people, and scenery have been analyzed as well. The results were compared to skin disease images. It is expected that the general pattern of statistical parameters can distinguish skin images against images from other categories. MatLab is used as a medium to calculate the values of statistical parameters. The mean and median of the skin disease image are much larger. Meanwhile, the standard deviation is the smallest compared to other categorical images. Almost all the analyzed images close to symmetry. Nearly all images category are distributed more leaning to the left, except for the images of the art category, which is slightly more leaning to the right. Moreover, the edge detection process has been done using the Sobel algorithm. The result, however, cannot clearly distinguish a skin's abnormality. This difficulty is because of the lack of accuracy in selection the intensity.

Evolutionary Ecology of Burrow Construction and Social Life

Burrows represent a prominent example of animal architecture that fundamentally alters the surrounding physical environment, often with important consequences for social life. Crustaceans, in particular, offer a model system for understanding the adaptive functions of burrows, their ecological costs and benefits, and their long-term evolutionary impacts on sociality. In general, burrows are central to the life history of many species, functioning as protective dwellings against predators and environmental extremes. Within the refuge of a burrow, one or multiple inhabitants can feed, molt, grow, mate, and raise offspring in relative safety. Depending on the substratum, substantial construction costs can be incurred to excavate a burrow de novo or enlarge a preexisting natural crevice. This investment has been evolutionarily favored because the benefits afforded by the burrow outweigh these costs, making the burrow an “extended phenotype” of the architect itself. Yet even after a burrow is fully constructed, the architect must incur continued costs over its life history, both in maintenance and defense, if it is to reap further benefits of its burrow. Indeed, because burrows accumulate value based on the work involved in their construction, they can attract conspecific intruders who seek to shortcut the cost of construction by evicting an existing occupant and usurping its burrow. Consequently, a burrowing lifestyle can lead to escalating social competition, with many crustaceans evolving elaborate weapons and territorial signals to resolve conflicts over burrow ownership. Some burrows even outlast the original architect as an “ecological inheritance,” serving as a legacy that impacts social evolution among subsequent generations of kin and nonkin. Comparative studies, using cutting-edge technology to dig deeper into the natural history of crustacean burrows, can provide powerful tests of general theoretical models of animal architecture and social evolution, especially the extended phenotype and niche construction.

A Software Engineering Method Based on Bionic Components

With the development of Information Technology, the traditional software engineering method is no longer fully meet the needs of software development. Thesis, according to the point of view of bionics, combined with the analysis of animal architecture, presents the concept of bionic components characteristic of animal body organs and the software engineering method which uses bionic components as the basic unit, based on bionic component method for short. In this paper, the bionic component model, the process model based on bionic component method and the life cycle model based on bionic component method are studied. And on the basis of these models, detailed describes the software development method based on bionic components.