Neural classifier for multi-purpose image recognition systems is developed. One of the applications is an adaptive control system based on image recognition system for micromechanics where the limited receptive area (LIRA) neural classifier is proposed for texture recognition of mechanically treated metal surfaces. The performance of the proposed classifier was tested on image database with fou...

The cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), spends most of its larval life feeding within the cladodes of Opuntia cactuses, but the gregarious caterpillars begin their life outside the plant, and in the later instars make intermittent excursions over plant surfaces to access new cladodes and to thermoregulate. The study reported here showed that when the caterpillars...

In mutualisms, each interacting species obtains resources from its partner that it would obtain less efficiently if alone, and so derives a net fitness benefit. In exchange for shelter (domatia) and food, mutualistic plant-ants protect their host myrmecophytes from herbivores, encroaching vines and fungal pathogens. Although selective filters enable myrmecophytes to host those ant species most ...

Herbivores employ a variety of chemical, behavioural and morphological defences to reduce mortality from natural enemies. In some caterpillars the head capsules of successive instars are retained and stacked on top of each other and it has been suggested that this could serve as a defence against natural enemies. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the survival of groups of the gumleaf skele...

There are two main paradigms for querying semi structured data: regular path queries and XPath. The aim of this paper is to provide a synthesis between these two. This synthesis is given by a small addition to tree walk automata and the corresponding caterpillar expressions. These are evaluated on unranked finite sibling-ordered trees. At the expression level we add an operator whose meaning is...

Selective sensation of sound by the plant Arabidopsis thaliana may enable timely upregulation defensive compounds to protect against caterpillars plant’s primary insect herbivore. Vibration leaf trichomes has been shown occur over frequency ranges that are appropriate for responding these caterpillars, but distribution trichome shapes and sizes a means range sounds could possibly be transduced....

The edge-bandwidth of a graph is the minimum, over all labelings of the edges with distinct integers, of the maximum difference between labels of two incident edges. We prove that edgebandwidth is at least as large as bandwidth for every graph, with equality for certain caterpillars. We obtain sharp or nearly sharp bounds on the change in edge-bandwidth under addition, subdivision, or contracti...

A rollercoaster is a sequence of real numbers for which every maximal contiguous subsequence, that is increasing or decreasing, has length at least three. By translating this sequence to a set of points in the plane, a rollercoaster can be defined as a polygonal path for which every maximal sub-path, with positiveor negative-slope edges, has at least three points. Given a sequence of distinct r...

BACKGROUND The Asp Caterpillar, Megalopyge opercularis, is endemic to the southern United States and causes hundreds of human envenomations annually. Envenomation from the spines of the caterpillar causes severe pain, burning, swelling, nausea, abdominal distress, and headache. Despite the high prevalence of envenomations, little is known about the caterpillars, their geographical distribution,...