BACKGROUND The shells of molluscs survive well in many sedimentary contexts and yield information about the diet of prehistoric humans. They also yield evidence of symbolic behaviours through their use as beads for body adornments. Researchers often analyse the location of perforations in shells to make judgements about their use as symbolic objects (e.g., beads), the assumption being that hole...

Polyimide shells are used as targets in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiments. These shells are filled with DT gas, then cooled to low temperatures for cryogenic laser shots. During target preparation, shells require careful pressure and temperature control due to their sensitivity. The pressure is governed partly by permeation through the shell wall, which can only be determined with t...

RoboClam is a burrowing technology inspired by Ensis directus, the Atlantic razor clam. Atlantic razor clams should only be strong enough to dig a few centimeters into the soil, yet they burrow to over 70 cm. The animal uses a clever trick to achieve this: by contracting its body, it agitates and locally fluidizes the soil, reducing the drag and energetic cost of burrowing. RoboClam technology,...

Occam's razor, the principle of parsimony, is a tool that finds application in many areas of science. Its validity has never been proven in full generality from first principles. Convergent guessing is the property th at as more examples of an input-output mapp ing are provided , one would expect the modelling of that mapping to become mor e and more accurate. It too is widely used and has not ...

Thin shells are found in nature at scales ranging from viruses to hens' eggs; the stiffness of such shells is essential for their function. We present the results of numerical simulations and theoretical analyses for the indentation of ellipsoidal and cylindrical elastic shells, considering both pressurized and unpressurized shells. We provide a theoretical foundation for the experimental findi...

HI observations have revealed in several shell galaxies the presence of gaseous shells slightly displaced from the stellar shells radially, in the outward direction. We propose a mechanism to form this gaseous shells, based on the well-known phase-wrapping process of the companion matter in a merger, with nearly radial orbits. The mechanism relies on the existence of a clumpy interstellar matte...

The Internet of Things is expected to increase the amount of data produced and exchanged in the network, due to the huge number of smart objects that will interact with one another. The related information management and transmission costs are increasing and becoming an almost unbearable burden, due to the unprecedented number of data sources and the intrinsic vastness and variety of the datase...

The task of parametric model selection is cast in terms of a statistical mechanics on the space of probability distributions. Using the techniques of low-temperature expansions, I arrive at a systematic series for the Bayesian posterior probability of a model family that significantly extends known results in the literature. In particular, I arrive at a precise understanding of how Occam’s razo...

We investigated the physicochemical characteristics of Aedes albopictus Skuse viz. breeding sites, by examining coconut shells, tires and plastic containers in a chikungunya affected area of Calicut, India. The study design was a cross-sectional ecological type. Thirty-four water samples were collected randomly from coconut shells, tires and plastic containers. The larvae were counted and the w...

Thin walled cylindrical shells are important components of industrial structures such as liquid storage tanks, silos, etc. Shell buckling is usually a major failure mode of thin walled shells under extreme loads such as earthquakes. Longitudinal and radial stiffeners are generally used in order to increase buckling capacity of thin walled shells. During an earthquake, cylindrical shells may exp...