Thickness characterization of thin films is of primary importance in a variety of nanotechnology applications, either in the semiconductor industry, quality control in nanofabrication processes or engineering of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) because small thickness variability can strongly compromise the device performance. Here, we present an alternative optical method in bright field m...

1. There is growing recognition that linking patterns to their underlying processes in interconnected and dynamic ecological systems requires data sampled atmultiple spatial and temporal scales. 2. However, spatially explicit and temporally resolved data sets can be difficult to analyze using classical statistical methods because the data are typically autocorrelated and thus violate the assump...

The presence of gap junctions between rods in mammalian retina suggests a role for rod-rod coupling in human vision. Rod coupling is known to reduce response variability, but because junctional conductances are not known, the downstream effects on visual performance are uncertain. Here we assessed rod coupling in guinea pig retina by measuring: (1) the variability in responses to dim flashes, (...

Small-scale fisheries are an important source of food and livelihoods to coastal communities around the world. Understanding the seasonality of fisheries catch and composition is crucial to fisheries management, particularly in the context of changing environmental and socioeconomic conditions. While seasonal variability directly impacts the lives of fishers, most fisheries studies focus on lon...

Recent studies with infants and adults demonstrate a facilitative role of labels in object categorization. A common interpretation is that labels highlight commonalities between objects. However, direct evidence for such a mechanism is lacking. Using a novel object category with spatially separate features that are either of low or high variability across the stimulus set, we tracked 12-month-o...

A review of the main characteristics of low-latitude sources in the third EGRET catalog is presented. There are 75 unidentified gamma-ray sources detected by EGRET at |b| < 10◦. About a half of these sources are spatially correlated with potential galactic gamma-ray emitters such as supernova remnants, OB associations and early-type stars with very strong stellar winds. The other half is formed...

Understanding and interpreting the temporal variations of the vegetation growth can provide valuable information on its dynamics and in case of crops provide an estimate of the phenological milestones that can help describe the crop. The focus of this work is to use the phenological parameters derived from MODIS EVI time series composite data to map the variability in cropping practices. These ...

In the present study our aim was to spatially characterize the electrocardiogram (ECG) during the free navigation of rats in an open space via 2D maps. The development of the necessary tools (hardware, analytical) to carry out this mapping should allow us in the future to obtain a physiological correlate of different behaviours. With that purpose, we recorded the ECG from Lister Hooded rats wit...

We recorded muscle activity from an upper limb muscle while human subjects reached towards peripheral targets. We tested the hypothesis that the transient visual response sweeps not only through the central nervous system, but also through the peripheral nervous system. Like the transient visual response in the central nervous system, stimulus-locked muscle responses (< 100 ms) were sensitive t...

In the present study, analytical solutions are obtained for two-dimensional advection dispersion equation for conservative solute transport in a semi-infinite heterogeneous porous medium with pulse type input point source of uniform nature. The change in dispersion parameter due to heterogeneity is considered as linear multiple of spatially dependent function and seepage velocity whereas seepag...