In this paper, a modified algorithm for object segmentation of binary images is presented, and denoted as 2D modified chain code algorithm. The 2D modified chain code algorithm can be applied to color images after being binarized. The segmented object is used to derive the chain code in the image. The definition of the 2Dmodified chain code algorithm is valid for shapes composed of triangular, ...

Nectar-feeding bats show morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptations for feeding on nectar. How they find and localize flowers is still poorly understood. While scent cues alone allow no precise localization of a floral target, the spatial properties of flower echoes are very precise and could play a major role, particularly at close range. The aim of this study is to understand th...

Analysis of sexual selection and sexual isolation in Drosophila mojavensis and its relatives has revealed a pervasive role of rearing substrates on adult courtship behavior when flies were reared on fermenting cactus in preadult stages. Here, we assessed expression of contact pheromones comprised of epicuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) from eclosion to 28 days of age in adults from two populations ...

Pereskia bleo, a leafy cactus, is a medicinal plant native to West and South America and distributed in tropical and subtropical areas. It is traditionally used as a dietary vegetable, barrier hedge, water purifier, and insect repellant and for maintaining health, detoxification, prevention of cancer, and/or treatment of cancer, hypertension, diabetes, stomach ache, muscle pain, and inflammator...

Prophenoloxidases (PPOs) are key enzymes of the melanization reaction, which is a prominent defense mechanism of arthropods. The mosquito Aedes aegypti has ten PPO genes in the genome, four of which (PPO1, PPO3, PPO5, and PPO8) were expressed in response to microbial infection. Cactus depletion resulted in transcriptional activation of these four genes, suggesting this up-regulation to be under...

Self-assembly of CuX2 (X(-) = ClO4(-) and BF4(-)) with 2,3-bis(nicotinoyloxy)naphthalene yields a 1D loop-chain skeleton. The loop-chains form an ensemble constituting a unique 3D kagome-type structure with both hexagonal and trigonal supra-channels. The unprecedented supra-channel effects on the catalytic oxidation of 3,5-di-tert-butylcatechol to 3,5-di-tert-butylbenzoquinone were investigated.

By adapting a novel surfactant exchange method, in which surfactants inside mesopores are completely exchanged by surfactants with longer alkyl chain lengths, pore-expansion of monodisperse mesoporous silica spheres (MMSS) with radially ordered hexagonal regularity was attained while retaining spherical morphology and high monodispersity.

Level set methods are a general and powerful technique to represent an object's boundary by the means of an implicit function that has a specific value on the boundary. This property permits the easy modeling of interfaces between different fluids that interact under prescribed/evolving conditions or that act under specified constraints. The Cactus Code is a general framework for developing com...

Drosophila mojavensis is a cactophilic fly endemic to the northwestern deserts of North America. This species includes four genetically isolated cactus host races each individually specializing on the necrotic tissues of a different cactus species. The necrosis of each cactus species provides the resident D. mojavensis populations with a distinct chemical environment. A previous investigation o...

Understanding the genetic basis of adaptation to novel environments remains one of the major challenges confronting evolutionary biologists. While newly developed genomic approaches hold considerable promise for addressing this overall question, the relevant tools have not often been available in the most ecologically interesting organisms. Our study organism, Drosophila mojavensis, is a cactop...