Basic principles of bird and mammal brains Mammals can be very smart. They also have a brain with cortex. It has thus often been assumed that the advanced cognitive skills mammals are closely related to evolution cerebral However, birds smart, several species show amazing abilities. Although lack cortex, they do pallium, this is considered analogous, if not homologous, An outstanding feature mammalian cortex its layered architecture. In detailed anatomical study Stacho et al. describe...

The pursuit behaviour of houseflies has been analysed by the evaluation movie films. On floor, males, but not females, turn towards passing targets. Males as well females pursue targets in air. Male chasing seems to be functionally different from female tracking. attack air below. They sometimes retract target fly after an approach. Thus, a chase may divided into attacks, periods and retreats. catch other males. pursuer is therefore able discriminate between sexes. Close approach or contact...

This paper investigates the role of central nucleus barn owl's inferior colliculus in determination sound-source azimuth. The contains many neurons that are sensitive to interaural time difference (ITD), cue for azimuth owl. response these varies a cyclic manner with ITD tone or noise burst. Response maxima recur at integer multiples period stimulating tone, or, if stimulus is noise, corresponding neuron's best frequency. Such can signal, by means their relative spike rate, phase between...

A previous observation, which indicated that the β-relaxation intensity of o-terphenyl is sensitive to thermal history, substantiated by dielectric relaxation experiments. Unlike β-processes other materials, only quenched glassy state displays this secondary feature. The β-intensity observed decay gradually upon annealing and disappears altogether in equilibrium liquid at T > Tg. We compare case with concomitant signatures d-sorbitol, represents more typical a glass-former exhibits slow...

In this work, an acoustic feature set based on a gammatone filterbank is introduced for large vocabulary speech recognition. The features presented here lead to competitive results the EPPS English task, and considerable improvements were obtained by subsequent combination number of standard features, i.e. MFCC, PLP, MF-PLP, VTLN plus voicedness. Best when combining all other using weighted ROVER, resulting in relative improvement about 12% word error rate compared best single system. We...

Owls are known for their silent flight. Even though there is some information available on the mechanisms that lead to a reduction of noise emission, neither morphological basis, nor biological owl's flight known. Therefore, we have initiated systematic analysis wing morphology in both specialist, barn owl, and generalist, pigeon. This report presents comparison between feathers owl pigeon emphasise specific characteristics macroscopic microscopic level. An understanding features underlying...

Free-flying houseflies have been filmed simultaneously from two sides. The orientation of the flies’ body axes in three-dimensional space can be seen on films. A method is presented for reconstruction movements a fly-centred coordinate system, relative to an external system and airstream. flies are regarded as three-dimensionally rigid bodies. They move with respect six degrees freedom they thus possess. analysis organization flight motor kinematic data leads following conclusions: sideways...

Flight feathers of birds interact with the flow field during flight. They bend and twist under aerodynamic loads. Two parameters are mainly responsible for flexibility in feathers: elastic modulus (Young's modulus, E) material (keratin) geometry rachises, more precisely second moment area (I). independent methods were employed to determine Young's feather rachis keratin. Moreover, bending stiffness shafts from fifth primaries barn owls (Tyto alba) pigeons (Columba livia) calculated. These...

Abstract Endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide; LPS) and superantigens (exotoxins) have been identified as potent inducers of lethal shock. While endotoxin primarily interacts with CD 14 receptors on macrophages, like the staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) preferentially activate T cells. Both cell types are triggered to release pro‐inflammatory cytokines that in turn induce We analyzed whether superantigen interact during induction phase report LPS SEB operate synergistically. Lethal doses both...

How does a neuron vary its mean output firing rate if the input changes from random to oscillatory coherent but noisy activity? What are critical parameters of neuronal dynamics and statistics? To answer these questions, we investigate coincidence-detection properties an integrate-and-fire neuron. We derive expression indicating how coincidence detection depends on parameters. Specifically, show shape postsynaptic response function, number synapses, statistics, demonstrate that there is...

The eyes of barn owls (Tyto alba pratincola) display very little aberrations, and have thus excellent optical quality. In a series behavioral experiments, we tested whether this presumably beneficial feature is also reflected at perceptual level in species. As fundamental indicators for visual performance, the spatial contrast sensitivity function (CSF) grating acuity were measured two with psychophysical techniques. Stimulus luminance was 2.7 cd/m(2). CSF found here renders typical...

Barn owl feathers at the leading edge of wing are equipped with comb-like structures termed serrations on their outer vanes. Each serration is formed by one barb ending that separates and bends upwards. This structure considered to play a role in air-flow control noise reduction during flight. Hence, it has considerable potential for engineering applications, particularly aviation industry. Several publications have reported possible functions artificial airfoils. However, only crude...

Barn owls are effective nocturnal predators. We tested their visual performance at low light levels and determined acuity contrast sensitivity of three barn by behavior stimulus luminances ranging from photopic to fully scotopic (23.5 1.5 × 10⁻⁶). Contrast decreased only slightly conditions. Peak grating was mesopic (4 10⁻² cd/m²) retained a quarter maximal when luminance 5.5 log units. argue that the system is designed yield as much under conditions possible, thereby sacrificing resolution