In this paper, we explain the social foraging behavior of E. coli and M. xanthus bacteria and develop simulation models based on the principles of foraging theory that view foraging as optimization. This provides us with novel models of their foraging behavior and with new methods for distributed nongradient optimization. Moreover, we show that the models of both species of bacteria exhibit the...

We present an agent-based foraging model, EPICURE, which captures the results from recent human group foraging experiments (Goldstone and Ashpole, 2004; Goldstone et al., 2005), provides a novel explanation for those results and previous animal foraging results, and makes predictions for future foraging experiments. We describe a series of simulations that test the sources of resource undermatc...

The foraging behavior of Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) on the University of Maryland campus was compared to the Tivoli neighborhood in the Wheaton-Glendale area of Maryland. Three different sizes of banana slices were presented to squirrels to determine if individuals exhibited a selection preference. Results were compared to the optimal foraging model. The peak activity time of...

Just because the rules surrounding microblogging services are simple does not mean that tools support for them should be simple too. Microblogging generates volumes of interesting social content, but there is a lack of frameworks and tools that allow us to exploit such information and enhance knowledge workers’ sensemaking. Beyond adoption, we believe that new promising research directions on m...

This paper proposes a novel multimodal interactive surgical simulator that incorporates haptic, olfactory, as well as traditional vision feedback. A scent diffuser was developed to produce odors when errors occur. Haptic device was used to provide the sense of touch to the user. The preliminary results show that adding smell as an aid to the simulation enhanced the memory retention that lead to...

This study characterizes the foraging activity of the queenless ant Dinoponera quadriceps (Kempf) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in its natural environment by testing the hypotheses that foraging activity presents both daily and seasonal rhythmic variations, and that these rhythms are related to environmental variables. Four colonies of D. quadriceps were observed in an area of secondary Atlantic fo...

Bottlenose dolphins use a variety of foraging specializations to detect and pursue prey. Like other mammals, individual dolphins may use specialized foraging techniques that are shaped in response to habitat or particular prey resources. The long duration of the mother-calf bond presents an opportunity for mothers to transmit such specializations to their calves, and cases of observational lear...

Foraging on resources that are fixed in space but that replenish over time, such as floral nectar and pollen, presents animals with the problem of selecting a foraging route. What can flower visitors such as bees do to optimize their foraging routes, that is, reduce return time or route distance? Some repeatedly visit a set of plants in a significantly predictable sequence (so-called ‘‘trapline...

BACKGROUND Straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) migrate over vast distances across the African continent, probably following seasonal bursts of resource availability. This causes enormous fluctuations in population size, which in turn may influence the bats' impact on local ecosystems. We studied the movement ecology of this central-place forager with state-of-the-art GPS/acceleration log...

Optimization algorithms are search methods where the goal is to find an optimal solution to a problem, in order to satisfy one or more objective functions, possibly subject to a set of constraints. Studies of social animals and social insects have resulted in a number of computational models of swarm intelligence. Within these swarms their collective behavior is usually very complex. The collec...