Plant biologists have an enduring interest in assessing components of plant fitness and determining limits to seed set. Consequently, the relative contributions of resource and pollinator availability have been documented for a large number of plant species. We experimentally examined the roles of resource and pollen availability on seed set by the northern pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea. We...

The array of biomolecules generated by a functioning ecosystem represents both a potential resource for sustainable harvest and a potential indicator of ecosystem health and function. The cupped leaves of the carnivorous pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea, harbor a dynamic food web of aquatic invertebrates in a fully functional miniature ecosystem. The energetic base of this food web consists o...

Predation can have both direct and indirect effects on the population dynamics and community structure of freshwater plankton communities, but its effects on the bacterial component of aquatic systems are less well known. We used a series of laboratory reconstructions of the detritus-based food web in the leaves of the northern pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea to test the hypothesis that inter...

Pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes efficiently trap and retain insect prey in highly specialized leaves. Besides a slippery peristome which inhibits adhesion of insects they employ epicuticular wax crystals on the inner walls of the conductive zone of the pitchers to hamper insect attachment by adhesive devices. It has been proposed that the detachment of individual crystals and the resultin...

This paper tests the assumption that evaluators are biased to positively evaluate high status individuals, irrespective of quality. Using unique data from Major League Baseball umpires’ evaluation of pitch quality, which allow us to observe the difference in a pitch’s objective quality and in its perceived quality as judged by the umpire, we show that umpires are more likely to over-recognize q...

Pitching faster ball is one of the most important abilities for baseball pitchers. There are many investigations of baseball pitching motions focused on pitching kinematics in a range of different skill levels. Although there are a few investigations of pitching kinetics, there are no comparative investigations of the differences in pitching kinetics between different pitch velocity pitchers. B...

This study aims to reveal the function of fingers during fastball (FB) and curveball (CB) pitches of a male adult who had played university baseball pitcher by conducting kinetic analysis on throwing motion with a link-segment model including finger segment. There was no apparent difference in the timing of peak finger joint angle between FB and CB pitches. Peak finger adduction torque in CB pi...

The wax coverage of the waxy zone in Nepenthes alata pitchers consists of two clearly distinguishable layers, designated the upper and lower wax layers. Since these layers were reported to reduce insect attachment, they were considered to have anti-adhesive properties. However, no reliable adhesion tests have been performed with these wax layers. In this study, pull-off force measurements were ...