The adoption of postures as a response to threats is often interpreted in terms of predator detection or signalling (e.g. vigilance and defence display). The possibility that an alternative or additional function of anti-predator postures might be to enhance the subsequent escape has been largely unexplored. Here, we use black goby (Gobius niger) to test the hypothesis that a postural curvature...

The positioning of a bubble inside a many fermion system does not affect the volume, surface, or curvature terms in the liquid drop expansion of the total energy. Besides possible Coulomb effects, the only other contribution to the ground state energy of such a system arises from shell effects. We show that the potential energy surface is a rather shallow function of the displacement of the bub...

Analysis of strain and the study of flexural moments of a deformed object is of utmost importance in non-destructive testing and evaluation. In digital holographic interferometry (DHI), this information is provided, respectively, by the first and second-order derivatives of the interference phase. This paper introduces high-order instantaneous moments based approach for the simultaneous measure...

Parallels are drawn between the response of a discrete strut on a linear elastic foundation and force-chain buckling in a constrained granular medium. Both systems buckle initially into periodic shapes, with wavelengths that depend on relative resistances to lateral displacement, and curvature in the buckled shape. Under increasing end shortening, the classical structural model evolves to a loc...

We present a study of an electrical model of electromechanically active carbon-polymer composite (CPC) with carbide-derived carbon (CDC) electrodes. The major focus is on investigation of surface electrode behavior upon external bending of the material. We show that electrical impedance measured from the surface of the CDC-based CPC can be used to determine the curvature of the material and, he...

Remembered saccades of rhesus monkeys are markedly influenced by starting eye position. Altering the initial position systematically affects the direction or amplitude of the movements to a striking degree. In general, changes in the horizontal or vertical starting position primarily produce changes in the horizontal or vertical component, respectively, regardless of whether the target displace...

The refractive index of a liquid is determined with 0.0003 accuracy from measurements of laser beam displacement by a liquid-filled standard 10 mm spectrophotometer cell. The apparatus and methods are described and the results of measurements at λ=1064 nm and T=25.0 °C for 30 solvents and deuterated solvents are presented. Several sources of potential systematic errors as large as 0.003 are ide...

This paper examines the kinematics and control of a Load Haul Dump Vehicle used in underground mining operations. The aim of the work is to develop an autonomous guidance strategy. A linear, state-space, mathematical model of the vehicle is derived purely from geometric consideration of the vehicle and its desired path. Autonomous regulation of the vehicle is shown to be theoretically feasible ...

We introduce a family of conditions on a simplicial complex that we call local klargeness (k ≥ 6 is an integer). They are simply stated, combinatorial and easily checkable. One of our themes is that local 6-largeness is a good analogue of the nonpositive curvature: locally 6-large spaces have many properties similar to nonpositively curved ones. However, local 6-largeness neither implies nor is...