BACKGROUND The extent to which co-evolutionary processes shape morphological traits is one of the most fascinating topics in evolutionary biology. Both passive and active pollination modes coexist in the fig tree (Ficus, Moraceae) and fig wasp (Agaonidae, Hymenoptera) mutualism. This classic obligate relationship that is about 75 million years old provides an ideal system to consider the role o...

Conclusive evidence for sexual dimorphism in non-avian dinosaurs has been elusive. Here it is shown that dimorphism in the shape of the dermal plates of Stegosaurus mjosi (Upper Jurassic, western USA) does not result from non-sex-related individual, interspecific, or ontogenetic variation and is most likely a sexually dimorphic feature. One morph possessed wide, oval plates 45% larger in surfac...

BACKGROUND Extravagant ornaments used as social signals evolved to advertise their bearers' quality. The Immunocompetence Handicap Hypothesis proposes that testosterone-dependent ornaments reliably signal health and parasite resistance; however, empirical studies have shown mixed support. Alternatively, immune function and parasite resistance may be indirectly or directly related to glucocortic...

In this paper, we describe our approach taken in the MSM2013 IE Challenge, which was aimed at concept extraction from microposts. The goal of the approach was to combine several existing NER tools which use different classification methods and benefit from their combination. Several NER tools have been chosen and individually evaluated on the challenge training set. We observed that some of the...

Theory predicts that the trade-off between ornamentation and fecundity limits female attractiveness. However, there is little evidence on this theoretical trade-off and its proximate background. Our aim was to study whether pigment availability modulates this potential relationship in blue-footed booby females. We supplemented females with dietary carotenoids after laying the first egg and asse...

The most commonly assumed cost for exaggerated male ornamentation is increased predation pressure owing to decreased locomotor performance or increased conspicuousness to predators. Despite its intuitive basis, the locomotor costs of male ornamentation are not well established. We tested the hypothesis that multiple male signals that are used independently during female choice and male competit...

This deliverable defines the evaluation strategies for the Information Extraction tools that are under development within the Dot.Kom project.

PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN is the traditional name given to the ancestor language of the Indo-European family that is spread from Iceland to Chinese Turkestan and from Scandinavia to the Near East. A PROTO-LANGUAGE (Gk. prõtos ‘first’) refers to the earliest form of a language family presupposed by all of its descendants. There will forever be major gaps in the reconstruction of proto-languages, but a...