PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New software eases analysis of insect in motion

2010-10-28
(Press-News.org) Cockroaches can skitter through a crowded under-the-sink cabinet, eluding capture or worse, making the insects a model for rescue robots that would creep through the debris of disaster in search of survivors.

But learning how they use all six legs at the same time to walk, run and turn has been a difficult and time-consuming task. Until now.

Using a pair of high-speed cameras and a custom computer program, researchers at Case Western Reserve University are able to simultaneously extract three-dimensional movement of a cockroach's 26 leg joints. They report their findings in the online journal PLoS ONE.

"Each leg does something a little different but in concert," said John Bender, a postdoctoral research associate in the department of biology and lead author of the study. A cockroach doesn't inch ahead on the push of one leg. So, to understand just one step requires a synchronous picture of what each joint in each leg is doing as the insect propels forward.

The new technology allowed Bender and his collaborators to provide the first detailed analysis of how the cockroach uses the tiny trampoline-like trochanter-femur joint that lies between the stubby coxa and long femur.

The analysis showed the joint reduces bouncing as the body's weight shifts forward, and then rolls to lift the tibia off the ground as the leg begins its forward swing.

Bender, biology professor Roy Ritzmann and undergraduate researcher Elaine Simpson, who has since graduated, used synchronized digital high-speed cameras to produce 3-D images of the leg joints of a moving cockroach. The cameras shoot 500 frames per second for 8 seconds.

Bender led development of software that enabled them to analyze in hours 106,496 individual 3-D points, with about 90 percent accuracy. He estimated that the old method of analyzing the 3-D movement of all 26 joints frame-by-frame would take at least a couple of weeks. By automating much of the work, the team sought also to eliminate some of the subjectivity of analyzing each frame by human eye.

The researchers say the software can benefit others who seek to analyze movement of other insects and have made the software free and open-source for other investigators to use and add enhancements. Bender and Ritzman are using the software now to study changes in coordination that occur during changes in walking speed and turning.

INFORMATION:

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Texas A&M University becomes key player in global study to save Earth's endangered species

2010-10-28
Texas A&M University is one of 10 international partners involved in the global conservation study and subsequent scientific paper, "The Impact of Conservation on the Status of the World's Vertebrates," that is scheduled to be published in Science, the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Thomas E. Lacher, Jr., Texas A&M University's wildlife and fisheries sciences department head at College Station, Texas and a coauthor, said the report reviews the current status of thousands of species in light of the 2010 target of the Convention ...

2 THEMIS probes redirected to moon to study magnetosphere, solar wind interactions

2 THEMIS probes redirected to moon to study magnetosphere, solar wind interactions
2010-10-28
Two micro-satellites originally launched into Earth's orbit in 2007 by NASA have been redirected by University of California, Berkeley, scientists toward new orbits around the moon, extending study of the earth and moon's interaction with the solar wind. The second of the two probes settled into a temporary "Lagrange-point" orbit on Friday, Oct. 22, inaugurating science operations for a new mission dubbed ARTEMIS – Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun. Lagrange points are places where the gravity of Earth ...

Too much SP2 protein turns stem cells into 'evil twin' cancer cells

2010-10-28
Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that the overproduction of a key protein in stem cells causes those stem cells to form cancerous tumors. Their work may lead to new treatments for a variety of cancers. Dr. Jon Horowitz, associate professor of molecular biomedical sciences, and a team of NC State researchers looked at the protein SP2, which regulates the activity of other genes. They knew that elevated amounts of SP2 had been observed in human prostate-cancer patients, and that these levels only increased as the tumors became more dangerous. They ...

Variable southeast summer rainfall linked to climate change

2010-10-28
DURHAM, N.C. – A doubling of abnormally wet or dry summer weather in the southeastern United States in recent decades has come from an intensification of the summertime North Atlantic Subtropical High (NASH), or "Bermuda High." And that intensification appears to be coming from global warming, according to a new analysis by a Duke University-led team of climate scientists. The NASH is an area of high pressure that forms each summer near Bermuda, where its powerful surface center helps steer Atlantic hurricanes and plays a major role in shaping weather in the eastern ...

Even the sickest babies benefit from breast-feeding

2010-10-28
Pediatric researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia describe a successful program in which nurses helped mothers attain high rates of breast-feeding in very sick babies--newborns with complex birth defects requiring surgery and intensive care. Many of these highly vulnerable newborns immediately experience a paradoxical situation. Their mother's milk helps to fend off infection and provides easily digestible, nutritious ingredients that can reduce the infant's stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). But because the babies are often in critical condition, ...

Schools an ideological battleground in Sudanese strife, scholar says

2010-10-28
Education is often heralded as an engine for peace and prosperity, but in the fifty-year civil war that has gripped Sudan, schools have played an important role in deepening the country's divisions. That's the conclusion of Anders Breidlid, a professor of international education and development at Oslo University College. His research on education in Sudan is published in the November issue of Comparative Education Review. Since taking power in northern Sudan in 1989, the Arab-dominated National Congress Party (NCP) "targeted the Ministry of Education to conduct their ...

Not so fast -- sex differences in the brain are overblown

2010-10-28
People love to speculate about differences between the sexes, and neuroscience has brought a new technology to this pastime. Brain imaging studies are published at a great rate, and some report sex differences in brain structure or patterns of neural activity. But we should be skeptical about reports of brain differences between the sexes, writes psychological scientist Cordelia Fine in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The results from these studies may not necessarily withstand the tests of larger sample ...

Scientists issue call to action for archaeological sites threatened by rising seas

Scientists issue call to action for archaeological sites threatened by rising seas
2010-10-28
Should global warming cause sea levels to rise as predicted in coming decades, thousands of archaeological sites in coastal areas around the world will be lost to erosion. With no hope of saving all of these sites, archaeologists Torben Rick from the Smithsonian Institution, Leslie Reeder of Southern Methodist University, and Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon have issued a call to action for scientists to assess the sites most at risk. Writing in the Journal of Coastal Conservation and using California's Santa Barbara Channel as a case study, the researchers illustrate ...

Prospective voters and the new health care law

2010-10-28
Boston, MA – A comprehensive review of national opinion polls, including newly released data, shows that those who say they intend to vote for a Democratic congressional candidate in 2010 and those who say they intend to vote for a Republican in their district hold starkly different views of what they want the future of health reform legislation to be, mirroring the divide between Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress on this issue. Nearly three-fourths (73%) of registered voters who say they intend to vote for a Democratic candidate favor the health care legislation ...

Doctors' sense of mission, self-identity key in choice to work in underserved areas

2010-10-28
Medical schools and clinics could boost the number of primary care physicians in medically underserved areas by selecting and encouraging students from these communities, who often exhibit a strong sense of responsibility for and identification with the people there, according to a new study by UCLA researchers and colleagues published in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Training these students in underserved settings during medical school and their residencies could also increase the likelihood they would continue serving those populations, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New quantum sensors can withstand extreme pressure

Tirzepatide more cost-effective than semaglutide in patients with knee osteoarthritis and obesity

GLP-1 drugs shown cost-effective for knee osteoarthritis and obesity

Interactive apps, AI chatbots promote playfulness, reduce privacy concerns

How NIL boosts college football’s competitive balance

Moffitt researchers develop machine learning model to predict urgent care visits for lung cancer patients

Construction secrets of honeybees: Study reveals how bees build hives in tricky spots

Wheat disease losses total $2.9 billion across the United States and Canada between 2018 and 2021

New funding fuels development of first potentially regenerative treatment for multiple sclerosis

NJIT student–faculty team wins best presentation award for ant swarm simulation

Ants defend plants from herbivores but can hinder pollination

When the wireless data runs dry

Inquiry into the history of science shows an early “inherence” bias

Picky eaters endure: Ecologists use DNA to explore diet breadth of wild herbivores

Study suggests most Americans would be healthier without daylight saving time

Increasing the level of the protein PI31 demonstrates neuroprotective effects in mice

Multi-energy X-ray curved surface imaging-with multi-layer in-situ grown scintillators

Metasurface enables compact and high-sensitivity atomic magnetometer

PFAS presence confirmed in the blood of children in Gipuzkoa

Why do people believe lies?

SwRI installs private 5G network for research, development, testing and evaluation

A new perspective in bone metabolism: Targeting the lysosome–iron–mitochondria axis for osteoclast regulation

Few military spouses use formal support services during, after deployment

Breakthrough in the hunt for light dark matter: QROCODILE project reveals world-leading constraints

2D x-ray imaging technique reveals hidden processes in CO2 electrolyzers

Rational high entropy doping strategy via modular in-situ/post solvothermal doping integration for microwave absorption

Circular Economy has been officially included in the ESCI

Recent advances in exciton-polariton in perovskite

Efficacy and safety of GLP-1 RAs in children and adolescents with obesity or type 2 diabetes

Over-the-counter sales of overdose reversal drug naloxone decline after initial surge

[Press-News.org] New software eases analysis of insect in motion