Nest success is a critical determinant of the dynamics of avian populations, and nest survival modeling has played a key role in advancing avian ecology and management. Beginning with the development of daily nest survival models, and proceeding through subsequent extensions, the capacity for modeling the effects of hypothesized factors on nest survival has expanded greatly. We extend nest surv...

Nesting success of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) influences annual reproductive success and population dynamics. To describe nesting habitat and measure the effects of vegetation characteristics on nesting outcomes, we sampled 87 sage-grouse nests during 2004 and 2005 in the Montana Mountains of northwestern Nevada. Within a 78.5-m 2 circular plot surrounding each nest, we qua...

Bumblebees tend to face their nest over a limited range of compass directions when learning the nest's location on departure and finding it on their approach after foraging. They thus obtain similar views of the nest and its surroundings on their learning and return flights. How do bees coordinate their flights relative to nest-based and compass-based reference frames to get such similar views?...

Recent years have seen convergence in research on brain mechanisms and neurocomputational approaches, culminating in the creation of a new generation of robots whose artificial "brains" respect neuroscience principles and whose "cognitive" systems venture into higher cognitive domains such as planning and action sequencing, complex object and concept processing, and language. The present articl...

We present NeST, a flexible software-only storage appliance designed to meet the storage needs of the Grid. NeST has three key features that make it well-suited for deployment in a Grid environment. First, NeST provides a generic data transfer architecture that supports multiple data transfer protocols (including GridFTP and NFS), and allows for the easy addition of new protocols. Second, NeST ...

The amino acid compositions of house and cave bird’s nest were determined. Seventeen amino acids were identified, and hydroxyproline was not found. Principle component analysis (PCA) was applied to differentiate the birds’ nests according to their origin and to assess the correlations between the bird’s nest and their amino acid compositions. Studies on the score and loading plots indicated tha...

Most previous artificial ant foraging algorithms have to date relied to some degree on a priori knowledge of the environment, in the form of explicit gradients generated by the nest, by hard-coding the nest location in an easily-discoverable place, or by imbuing the artificial ants with the knowledge of the nest direction. In contrast, the work presented solves ant foraging problems using two p...

Analysis tools that combine large spatial and temporal scales are necessary for efficient management of wildlife species, such as the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia). We assessed the ability of Ripley’s K-function analysis integrated into a geographic information system (GIS) to determine changes in burrowing owl nest clustering over two years at NASA Ames Research Center. Specifically, we u...

A longstanding suggestion posits that parents prefer to match nest volume and clutch size (clutch volume), but few studies have tested this in colonial seabirds that nest in the open. Here, we demonstrate the effects of nest-clutch volume matching on egg survival, hatching, and fledgling success in black-tailed gulls Larus crassirostris on Hongdo Island, Korea. We show that the volume mismatch,...

In polydomous populations of the wood ant Formica exsecta filial nest founding is common. This is relevant for colony dynamics, short-distance dispersal and colony survival. However, little is known about nest site choice, microsite requirements and the nest-building behavior itself. In this context we evaluate the role of the European mole, Talpa europaea, as an ecosystem engineer that provide...