Landmark memories are more robust when acquired at the nest site than en route: experiments in desert ants

Foraging desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, encounter different sequences of visual landmarks while navigating by path integration. This paper explores the question whether the storage of landmark information depends on the context in which the landmarks are learned during an ant's foraging journey. Two experimental set-ups were designed in which the ants experienced an artificial landmark panorama that was placed either around the nest entrance (nest marks) or along the vector route leading straight towards the feeder (route marks). The two training paradigms resulted in pronounced differences in the storage characteristics of the acquired landmark information: memory traces of nest marks were much more robust against extinction and/or suppression than those of route marks. In functional terms, this result is in accord with the observation that desert ants encounter new route marks during every foraging run but always pass the same landmarks when approaching the nest entrance.     

泔脚与秸杆混合发酵法生产蛋白饲料的新工艺流程

利用多菌种混合发酵同时处理泔脚和秸杆2种废弃物,提出了一种生产高蛋白饲料的新工艺流程,并且对该流程初步进行了经济估算。结果表明,在泔脚和稻草秸杆粉按3:1、温度150℃、高压锅中高温湿热酸处理的条件下,经过初步双菌混合发酵试验所得的饲料产品质量为粗蛋白≥25％,粗纤维≤18％,水分≤ 10％,说明新工艺能很好地同时处理泔脚和秸杆2种废弃物,并且大大地提高了秸秆饲料的蛋白含量。处理新工艺流程简单、技术可行,是一种很好的饲料制备方法。     

Thioindigo: Crystal structural data for modification II

The Science of Nature -