Ant System is a general purpose heuristic algorithm inspired by the foraging behavior of real ant colonies. Here we introduce an improved version of Ant System, that we called MAX{ MIN Ant System. We describe the new features present in MAX{MIN Ant System, make a detailed experimental investigation on the contribution of the design choices to the improved performance and give computational resu...

Ant System is a general purpose heuristic algorithm inspired by the foraging behavior of real ant colonies. Here we introduce an improved version of Ant System, that we called MAX{ MIN Ant System. We describe the new features present in MAX{MIN Ant System, make a detailed experimental investigation on the contribution of the design choices to the improved performance and give computational resu...

CONTEXT The Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) and the Y-Balance Test (YBT) have 3 common reach directions: anterior (ANT), posteromedial (PM), and posterolateral (PL). Previous research has indicated that reach-distance performance on the ANT reach direction of the SEBT differs from that on the YBT. Kinematic patterns associated with the ANT reach direction of the SEBT and YBT need to be inves...

Muscles involved in rapid, targeted movements about a single joint often display a triphasic [agonist (AG1)-antagonist (ANT)-agonist (AG2)] electromyographic (EMG) pattern. Early work using movement perturbations suggested that for short movements, the entire EMG pattern was prepared and initiated in advance (Wadman WJ, Dernier van der Gon JJ, Geuze RH, Mol CR. J Hum Mov Stud 5: 3-17, 1979), wh...

—Weekly reports of the abundance of the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, in 69 households for 18 mo (1/98–7/99) in the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California were compared with weather data. Ant abundance inside homes was highest in cold rainy weather, and there was a second smaller peak of ant abundance in hot dry weather. Pesticide use in the home decreased ant abundance, from one we...

Argentine ant invasion changed colour-polymorphic composition of ant-mimetic jumping spider Myrmarachne in southwestern Japan. In Argentine ant-free sites, most of Myrmarachne exhibited all-blackish colouration. In Argentine ant-infested sites, on the other hand, blackish morph decreased, and bicoloured (i.e. partly bright-coloured) morphs increased in dominance. Invasive Argentine ant drives a...

We synthesized a series of fluorinated compounds and tested them in an easy assay for their repellent activity against the ant Myrmica rubra. Depending on their chain length and pattern of fluorination these molecules are efficient repellents for this ant. Fluorinated compounds are stronger repellents than their unfluorinated analogs. 1,1,1-Trifluorotridecan-2-one (4) is an even better repellen...

In 1995, an antibiotic (ANT) was used in starter, grower, and withdrawal (WD) feeds by 94.3, 98.2, and 75.1% of broiler production units, but by 2000, ANT use had declined to 64.8, 66.9, and 48.1% respectively. Roxarsone (ROX) was used in the starter and grower feeds by 69.8 and 73.9% of production units. Bacitracin (BAC) was used more frequently than other antibiotics in the starter and grower...

The concept of ‘ant mosaics’ has been established to describe the structure of arboreal ant communities in plantations and other relatively simple forest systems. It is essentially built upon the existence of negative and positive associations between ant species plus the concept of dominance hierarchies. Whether this concept can be applied to ant communities in more complex mature tropical rai...

This paper describes GRAF-ANT (Graphical Framework for Ant Colony Optimization), an objectoriented C# framework for developing ant colony systems that we have developed. While developing this framework, abstractions that are necessary for ant colony optimization algorithms were analyzed, as well as the features that their implementing classes should have. During creation of these classes, sever...