Leaping Behavior Research Articles

The Challenges and Countermeasures of Ideological and Political Education Theory Course Teaching for Art Students in Universities in the New Media Era

Contemporary art students in universities are a generation that has grown up in the context of new media. With the increasingly close integration of art and new media, in order to enable art students to better shoulder the mission of spreading the excellent culture of the Chinese nation, ideological and political course teachers in universities should strengthen the reform and innovation of ideological and political theory courses for art students in teaching content, teaching methods, and the use of new media, Ensure that art students embody a positive energy of thought in their artistic creation. In this study, a crude oil price prediction model based on quantum leap radius and polynomial fitting is established by building a market atom model, fitting financial funds as "market atoms" with energy, and applying quantum leap theory to describe the leaping behavior of price. The LSTM neural network model is used to learn the price jump paths of financial instruments to improve the prediction effect. After 2000 rounds of iterative training, the RMSE of the model reaches 3.1136, and the correlation coefficient is 0.48084; the model's loss function decreases rapidly, indicating that the training effect is good. The study reveals the potential value of quantum theory in finance, preliminarily verifies the application of quantum leap and LSTM model in crude oil price prediction, and provides new ideas for the in-depth study of quantum finance theory.

Development of a Penguin-Inspired Swimming Robot With Air Lubrication System

In this paper, a novel robotic penguin equipped with air lubrication system is developed. Through mimicking the agile movements of biological penguins, two degrees of freedom (DOF) wings including heaving and pitching motions, and a buoyancy-driven system for ascending and diving are particularly designed. Meanwhile, a complete three-dimensional dynamic model is established based on the Morrison equation, and the hydrodynamic parameters are determined with experimental results. Then, taking the bioinspired central pattern generators as the main actuation, three-dimensional locomotion performance is discussed. More importantly, inspired by the leaping behavior of penguins, a unique air lubrication system is developed, and the obtained results verify the effectiveness of the mechatronic design. This work will offer valuable insight into the future development and control of next-generation versatile underwater vehicles capitalizing on the air lubrication mechanism.

Leaping and differential habitat use in sympatric tamarins in Amazonian Peru

Abstract Differential habitat use in sympatric species can provide insight into how behavior relates to morphological differences and as a general model for the study of biological adaptations to different functional demands. In Amazonia, closely related sympatric tamarins of the genera Saguinus and Leontocebus regularly form stable mixed-species groups, but exhibit differences in foraging height and locomotor activity. To test the hypothesis that two closely related species in a mixed-species group prefer different modes of leaping regardless of the substrates available, we quantified leaping behavior in a mixed-species group of Saguinus mystax and Leontocebus nigrifrons. We studied leaping behavior in relation to support substrate type and foraging height in the field for 5 months in the Amazonian forest of north-eastern Peru. Saguinus mystax spent significantly more time above 15 m (79%) and used predominantly horizontal and narrow supports for leaping. Leontocebus nigrifrons was predominantly active below 10 m (87%) and exhibited relatively more trunk-to-trunk leaping. Both species preferred their predominant leaping modes regardless of support type availability in the different forest layers. This indicates that the supports most commonly available in each forest layer do not determine the tamarins’ leaping behavior. This apparent behavioral adaptation provides a baseline for further investigation into how behavioral differences are reflected in the morphology and species-specific biomechanics of leaping behavior and establishes callitrichid primates as a model well-suited to the general study of biological adaptation.

Biomechanics of fish swimming and leaping under waterfalls: a realistic field, image-based biophysical model with bioengineering implications**This manuscript has been professionally edited and proofread.

Worldwide river fragmentation by infrastructures is altering essential ecological processes including fish migrations. Unlike laboratory approaches, field methods and biophysical models have the potential to provide realistic representations of interacting fish-obstacle systems, furthering insights in behavioural and biomechanics science, and allowing better bioinspired engineering. We developed a new field, image-based method that integrates a biophysical mechanistic model to describe the swimming and leaping biomechanics of wild populations of fish in the non-lab ecological context where their reproductive migration takes place. A weir obstacle in natural riverine conditions where fish freely migrate upstream to their breeding grounds was filmed. A biophysical model including the relevant biomechanical and hydraulic forces and their interactions was parametrised and calibrated with the spatial coordinates of fish trajectories. The method was validated with independent empirical data under field conditions. The distribution of fish initial velocities and angle of emergence of the sample of filmed leaps were reliably quantified in field conditions. The distribution of burst swimming velocities underwater was differentiated from that of the initial leaping velocities associated with the thrust of hydraulic forces; fish behaviour while emerging from water was described. Fish approximated the optimum angle to negotiate the waterfall but did not reach the minimum velocity needed to negotiate the obstacle. The method demonstrated the ability to provide realistic, accurate and precise ecological data on field-based fish interactions with challenge zones during upstream reproductive migrations. The method is cost-effective as it is based on general purpose digital cameras, image analysis, and modelling equations in spreadsheets; all inexpensive and readily available. This new approach can be directly applied to solve scientific problems and bioengineering challenges in any freshwater ecosystem that has natural or artificial obstacles and migratory fish with leaping behaviour.

Oust the louse: leaping behaviour removes sea lice from wild juvenile sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka.

We conducted a manipulative field experiment to determine whether the leaping behaviour of wild juvenile sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka dislodges ectoparasitic sea lice Caligus clemensi and Lepeophtheirus salmonis by comparing sea-lice abundances between O. nerka juveniles prevented from leaping and juveniles allowed to leap at a natural frequency. Juvenile O. nerka allowed to leap had consistently fewer sea lice after the experiment than fish that were prevented from leaping. Combined with past research, these results imply potential costs due to parasitism and indicate that the leaping behaviour of juvenile O. nerka does, in fact, dislodge sea lice.

Obstacle negotiation attempts by leaping cyprinids indicate bank-side spawning migration routes

Understanding freshwater fish population ecology is a pre-requisite for their conservation, management, and exploitation. Many populations of cyprinids, the largest family of freshwater fish, undertake potamodromous migrations. This has important implications for the conservation and management of their stocks. Habitat and connectivity loss are the main factors threatening these stocks. The fine-scale routes (i.e., banks vs. midchannel) of cyprinid spawning migrations in generally turbid rivers are largely unknown, contrary to other taxa such as salmonids, shads, and eels. In this work, we studied the fine-scale leaping behavior of two cyprinid taxa (Luciobarbus sp., barbels) which support commercial and recreational fisheries. We used fish size and leap distance to the margin as indicative of fine-scale spawning migration routes following the river banks vs. midchannel. The results support the idea that these cyprinids migrate close to the banks, and that the larger adults migrate nearer the banks than the smaller ones. This marks a difference between cyprinids and salmonids, showing that knowledge of cyprinid migration routes can help fisheries managers develop improved, more permeable, barriers and less selective fish pass facilities. Particularly, this behavior of cyprinid species can be applied to optimize the design of fish pass facilities: first, by installing fish passes on each bank of wide rivers, where the large lateral distance may make a single facility difficult to find; and second, by using either a single wider entrance or several narrower entrances distributed over a greater distance from the margins so as to cover the more distant stretch used by the younger adults.

Power Transfer to a Human during an Electric Eel’s Shocking Leap

Electric eels have been the subject of investigation and curiosity for centuries [1]. They use high voltage to track [2] and control [3] prey, as well as to exhaust prey by causing involuntary fatigue through remote activation of prey muscles [4]. But their most astonishing behavior is the leaping attack, during which eels emerge from the water to directly electrify a threat [5, 6]. This unique defense has reportedly been used against both horses [7] and humans [8]. Yet the dynamics of the circuit that develops when a living animal is contacted and the electrical power transmitted to the target have not been directly investigated. In this study, the electromotive force and circuit resistances that develop during an eel's leaping behavior were determined. Next, the current that passed through a human subject during the attack was measured. The results allowed each variable in the equivalent circuit to be estimated. Findings can be extrapolated to a range of different eel sizes that might be encountered in the wild. Despite the comparatively small size of the eel used in this study, electrical currents in the target peaked at 40-50 mA, greatly exceeding thresholds for nociceptor activation reported for both humans [9] and horses [10, 11]. No subjective sensation of involuntary tetanus was reported, and aversive sensations were restricted to the affected limb. Results suggest that the main purpose of the leaping attack is to strongly deter potential eel predators by briefly causing intense pain. Apparently a strong offense is the eel's best defense.

Anticyclonic Eddy Sheddings from Kuroshio Loop and the Accompanying Cyclonic Eddy in the Northeastern South China Sea

AbstractSheddings of Kuroshio Loop Current (KLC) eddies in the northeastern South China Sea (SCS) are investigated using mooring arrays, multiple satellite data, and data-assimilative HYCOM products. Based on altimeter sea surface heights between 1992 and 2014, a total of 19 prominent KLC eddy shedding (KLCES) events were identified, among which four events were confirmed by the concurrent moored and satellite observations. Compared to the leaping behavior of Kuroshio, KLCES is a relatively short-duration phenomenon that primarily occurs in boreal autumn and winter. The KLC and its shedding anticyclonic eddy (AE) trap a large amount of Pacific water with high temperature–salinity and low chlorophyll concentration in the upper layer. The corresponding annual-mean transport caused by KLCES reaches 0.24–0.38 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1), accounting for 6.8%–10.8% of the upper-layer Luzon Strait transport. Altimeter-based statistics show that among ~90% of the historical KLCES events, a cyclonic eddy (CE) is immediately generated behind the AE southwest of Taiwan. Both energetics and stability analyses reveal that because of its large horizontal velocity shear southwest of Taiwan, the northern branch of KLC is strongly unstable and the barotropic instability of KLC constitutes the primary generation mechanism for the CE. After CE is generated, it quickly grows and gradually migrates southward, which in turn facilitates the detachment of AE from KLC. The intrinsic relationship between KLC and CE explains well why eddy pairs are commonly observed in the region southwest of Taiwan.

An Integrative Control Method for Bio-Inspired Dolphin Leaping: Design and Experiments

This paper presents the design and implementation of leaping control methods for replicating high-speed dolphin leaping behavior. With full consideration of both mechanical configuration and propulsive principle of a physical robot comprising one neck joint, two propulsive joints, and a pair of two-degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) mechanical flippers, closed-loop pitch, roll, yaw, and depth control methods are integrated to accomplish precise attitude control. Specifically, two pitch control strategies are proposed to separately satisfy small and large pitch requirements based on the real-time feedback of the pitch angle, while the roll controller is further implemented as a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) loop. A combination of pitch and roll control is utilized to regulate the desired pitch maneuvers. Finally, a parameterized five-phase leaping control algorithm instead of Weihs's three-phase porpoising model is implemented on the self-contained real robot, enabling the examination of biological leaping phenomena which are hard to observe or measure. Latest experimental results reveal that besides high speeds exceeding the minimum exit speeds, the pitch control closely related to pitch angle and submersion depth is another critical factor contributing to effective dolphin leaping.

Model-Based Development of Leaping in a Hexapod Robot

We report on the model-based development of leaping behavior in a RHex-style hexapod robot. A three-legged model is proposed to analyze the dynamic behavior of leaping, and this serves as a guide for implementing the behavior on the empirical robot. The model has a rigid body and three massless and compliant legs, which have rolling contact with the ground for better modeling the leg behavior of the empirical robot. By investigating the model's behavior, a two-step leaping maneuver is developed. The first step is utilized for adjusting the body pitch, synchronizing the phases of all six legs, and speeding up the body's forward velocity. This provides adequate initial conditions for the second step leaping, which creates a long-distance flight and adequate landing for follow-up running. In addition, we also report on the strategy of stride length regulation. With implementation of the range sensor, the robot can regulate its stride in order to reach a specific and desired position for leaping. The gait transition and initiation of leaping is fully autonomous. The behavioral development is implemented in the RHex-style robot and is evaluated experimentally.

Model-Based Experimental Development of Passive Compliant Robot Legs from Fiberglass Composites.

We report on the methodology of developing compliant, half-circular, and composite robot legs with designable stiffness. First, force-displacement experiments on flat cantilever composites made by one or multifiberglass cloths are executed. By mapping the cantilever mechanics to the virtual spring model, the equivalent elastic moduli of the composites can be derived. Next, by using the model that links the curved beam mechanics back to the virtual spring, the resultant stiffness of the composite in a half-circular shape can be estimated without going through intensive experimental tryouts. The overall methodology has been experimentally validated, and the fabricated composites were used on a hexapod robot to perform walking and leaping behaviors.

Evolution and allometry of calcaneal elongation in living and extinct primates.

Specialized acrobatic leaping has been recognized as a key adaptive trait tied to the origin and subsequent radiation of euprimates based on its observed frequency in extant primates and inferred frequency in extinct early euprimates. Hypothesized skeletal correlates include elongated tarsal elements, which would be expected to aid leaping by allowing for increased rates and durations of propulsive acceleration at takeoff. Alternatively, authors of a recent study argued that pronounced distal calcaneal elongation of euprimates (compared to other mammalian taxa) was related primarily to specialized pedal grasping. Testing for correlations between calcaneal elongation and leaping versus grasping is complicated by body size differences and associated allometric affects. We re-assess allometric constraints on, and the functional significance of, calcaneal elongation using phylogenetic comparative methods, and present an evolutionary hypothesis for the evolution of calcaneal elongation in primates using a Bayesian approach to ancestral state reconstruction (ASR). Results show that among all primates, logged ratios of distal calcaneal length to total calcaneal length are inversely correlated with logged body mass proxies derived from the area of the calcaneal facet for the cuboid. Results from phylogenetic ANOVA on residuals from this allometric line suggest that deviations are explained by degree of leaping specialization in prosimians, but not anthropoids. Results from ASR suggest that non-allometric increases in calcaneal elongation began in the primate stem lineage and continued independently in haplorhines and strepsirrhines. Anthropoid and lorisid lineages show stasis and decreasing elongation, respectively. Initial increases in calcaneal elongation in primate evolution may be related to either development of hallucal-grasping or a combination of grasping and more specialized leaping behaviors. As has been previously suggested, subsequent increases in calcaneal elongation are likely adaptations for more effective acrobatic leaping, highlighting the importance of this behavior in early euprimate evolution.

The ecology of trunk-to-trunk leaping in <i>Saguinus fuscicollis</i>: implications for understanding locomotor diversity in Callitrichines

Several species of callitrichines (tamarins, marmosets, and callimicos) are reported to frequently leap between vertical supports when foraging and traveling in the forest understory. In the present study, we examine trunk-to-trunk leaping in a wild group of four habituated adult saddleback tamarins (Saguinus fuscicollis weddelli) in northern Bolivia. From June through July, 2011 we analyzed 200 leaps in which the tamarins moved between vertical supports. On average, takeoff height was 4.1 m (±1.3 m, range 1-7.5 m). During the airborne phase of travel the monkeys lost an average of 0.5 m (±0.5 m) at contact with the landing support, and the mean distance leapt was 1.4 m (± 0.7 m). We found no correlation between the diameter at breast height (DBH) of landing and takeoff supports, and either the distance leapt or height gained/lost during leaping. Across callitrichine taxa, it appears that ecological distinctions in diet, patterns of habitat utilization, and predator avoidance strategies have played an important role in understanding the frequency and context of trunk-to-trunk leaping behavior.

Additional postcranial remains of omomyid primates from the Uinta Formation, Utah and implications for the locomotor behavior of large-bodied omomyids

Most omomyids are relatively small bodied (e.g. <500 g), but beginning in the middle Eocene, some omomyids began to grow larger. The largest omomyids occur in the late middle Eocene during the Uintan NALMA, reaching an estimated body mass over 1 kg. The hind limb skeleton of small omomyids is relatively well known, and is generally thought to show active arboreal quadrupedal and leaping adaptations. New postcranial specimens of previously unknown elements from the larger Uintan omomyids, Ourayia (two species), Chipetaia lamporea, and Mytonius hopsoni have recently been recovered from the Uinta Formation, Utah, and from the Mission Valley Formation, California, and they provide additional information concerning their locomotor behavior. The new specimens include several distal tibiae, partial calcanei, a complete talus and a proximal first metatarsal of Chipetaia; distal femora, distal tibiae, cuboids, and partial calcanei of Ourayia uintensis; a complete calcaneus of Ourayia sp.; and a partial calcaneus and talus of Mytonius. Metric analysis of these elements, together with qualitative observations of non-metric traits, indicate that Ourayia and Chipetaia show equal or greater development of traits associated with leaping behavior (including elongation of the calcaneus, navicular and cuboid) than do smaller omomyids from North America. The elements of Mytonius, although fragmentary, lack some leaping features that are well-developed in Ourayia and Chipetaia, suggesting that Mytonius may have relied more on arboreal quadrupedal locomotion than on leaping.

Leaf constrained minimal spanning trees solved by modified quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization

Given an undirected, connected, weighted graph, the leaf-constrained minimum spanning tree (LCMST) problem seeks a spanning tree of minimum weight among all the spanning trees of the graph with at least l leaves. In this paper, we have proposed an approach based on Quantum-Behaved Particle Swarm Optimization (QPSO) for the LCMST problem. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a well-known population-based swarm intelligence algorithm. Quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO) is also proposed by combining the classical PSO philosophy and quantum mechanics to improve performance of PSO. In this paper QPSO has been modified by adding a leaping behavior. When the modified QPSO (MQPSO), falls in to the local optimum, MPSO runs a leaping behavior to leap out the local optimum. We have compared the performance of the proposed method with ML, SCGA, ACO-LCMST, TS-LCMST and ABC-LCMST, which are reported in the literature. Computational results demonstrate the superiority of the MQPSO approach over all the other approaches. The MQPSO approach obtained better quality solutions in shorter time.

Aerial and aquatic feeding in the silver arawana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum

The silver arawana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum, hunts along shorelines and within flooded forests in the Amazon River basin and supplements its limited consumption of aquatic vertebrates by leaping from the water to obtain terrestrial and arboreal prey. We offered O. bicirrhosum prey both suspended above and submerged below the surface of the water. From high-speed digital recordings, we measured kinematic variables associated with the jaws, cranium, pectoral fins, and body during orientation and prey capture. Aquatic and aerial feeding events were kinematically distinct, with aerial events generally involving faster, larger movements and a distinct delay in the onset of lower jaw depression until the head had left the water. The comparatively large gape during leaping may facilitate prey capture by overcoming variability in the apparent position of the prey due to refraction, while the delayed onset of mouth opening may serve to reduce the effects of drag. This distinctive leaping behaviour allows exploitation of the terrestrial prey base, especially during seasonal inundation of the Amazon River basin when the aquatic food base is widely dispersed.

Leaping behaviour and responses to moisture and sound in larvae of piophilid carrion flies

AbstractObservations suggesting that mature larvae of some carrion flies (Piophilidae) tend to leap off carcasses during rain motivated an investigation of the ontogeny and possible functions of larval leaping behaviour and larval responses to two stimuli associated with rain: moisture and sound. These behaviours were investigated in larvae ofProchyliza xanthostomaWalker (Diptera: Piophilidae) by means of laboratory and field observations and experiments. Mature larvae left their feeding substrates (rotting meat) in response to either moisture or rattling sound. The response to moisture was exhibited also by immature larvae. Once on the carcass surface, however, only mature larvae leaped off and pupated in the surrounding soil. The response to sound and the ability to leap only appeared late in larval development and were lost in the prepupal stage. Because rain may facilitate larval locomotion on carcass surfaces, and leaping appears to represent a more rapid and efficient means of leaving a carcass than creeping, these responses may reduce the metabolic costs and predation risks experienced by mature larvae moving to pupation sites in the soil. Thus, the ability to leap and the responses to moisture and sound may represent “ontogenetic adaptations” associated with a brief stage of larval development.

Does substrate quality influence take‐off decisions in Common Starlings?

1. An instrumented perch was used to measure the reaction forces during take‐off of starlings from perches of three thicknesses. There was no significant decrease in reaction force with decreasing perch thickness; however, over the range of perch sizes there was a 10‐fold decrease in safety factor and a 400‐fold increase in the energy of deflection of the thinnest perch. 2. The implications of these results are that birds do not change their take‐off strategy when faced with perches of variable thickness and that, as a result, leaps from thin perches are very much less efficient than those from thicker perches. Birds appear not to adjust their leaping behaviour to minimize the risk of substrate failure during take‐offs.

Myological correlates of prosimian leaping.

Although the skeletal correlates of vertical clinging and leaping behavior in primates have been studied in great detail, myological information on this locomotor group is not readily available. We here provide relative muscle mass data for the hindlimb of four prosimian leapers, representing indriids as well as the small-bodied tarsiers and galagos. Wet weights of all hindlimb muscles, with the exception of the intrinsic muscles of the foot, were determined. For comparative purposes muscle weights were also gathered for Varecia, an arboreal quadruped, and previously unpublished dry muscle weights of several monkeys are included as well. The specialized leapers are characterized by a predominance of muscles for hindlimb joint extensions. Indriids have larger hip extensors than ankle plantarflexors, whereas the galago and tarsier display the reverse condition. This dichotomy in relative muscle mass corresponds to a dichotomy in leaping kinematics, with indriids going through a greater range of movement at the hip joint and galagos and tarsiers at the ankle joint. However, the most striking result is the overwhelming dominance of the quadriceps femoris muscle in both groups. This suggests that power may be transferred from the knee and thigh to adjacent joints and segments. In contrast, quadrupedal primates have more extensor musculature at the hip, suggesting that the need for a short swing phase pendulum constrains muscle mass distribution within the limb of quadrupeds. Total muscle mass of the hindlimb as well as the mass of the propulsive muscles scale with body mass at exponents below the functional equivalence expectation. Larger-bodied leapers therefore have less muscle force available per unit body weight to be propelled than their smaller-bodied counterparts.

Variation in the leaping of lemurs

Locomotor diversity among lemurids has been ignored by placing most species into a category of arboreal quadrupeds. Recent field studies have shown that leaping behaviors comprise a relatively large amount of their travel. In this contribution I detail a study of captive lemurs locomoting on a designed support network and/or in outdoor enclosures. Associations between support context, leaping behaviors, and landing kinematics are detailed for Hapalemur griseus, Eulemur rubriventer, Eulemur fulvus, Eulemur mongoz, and Varecia variegata. In-air body position, including the amount and location of trunk flexion, coupled with the extent of shoulder and hip flexion dictates limb use at landing. Limb strike pattern when landing onto the same support type varies interspecifically. The kinematic variation in leaping behaviors may well have implications for functional analyses of the postcranium. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.