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Architectural Complexity (architectural + complexity)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Polymers and Materials Science	50%
Life Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Host tree architecture mediates the effect of predators on herbivore survival

ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2006
JANNE RIIHIMÄKI
Abstract 1.,Vegetation structural complexity is an important factor influencing ecological interactions between different trophic levels. In order to investigate relationships between the architecture of trees, the presence of arthropod predators, and survival and parasitism of the autumnal moth Epirrita autumnata Borkhausen, two sets of experiments were conducted. 2.,In one experiment, the architectural complexity of mountain birch was manipulated to separate the effects of plant structure and age. In the other experiment the trees were left intact, but chosen to represent varying degrees of natural complexity. Young autumnal moth larvae were placed on the trees and their survival was monitored during the larval period. 3.,The larvae survived longer in more complex trees if predation by ants was prevented with a glue ring, whereas in control trees smaller canopy size improved survival times in one experiment. The density of ants observed in the trees was not affected by canopy size but spider density was higher on smaller trees. The effect of canopy structure on larval parasitism was weak; larger canopy size decreased parasitism only in one year. Until the fourth instar the larvae travelled shorter distances in trees with reduced branchiness than in trees with reduced foliage or control treatments. Canopy structure manipulation by pruning did not alter the quality of leaves as food for larvae. 4.,The effect of canopy structure on herbivore survival may depend on natural enemy abundance and foraging strategy. In complex canopies herbivores are probably better able to escape predation by ambushing spiders but not by actively searching ants. [source]

Developments in Failure and Damage Modeling for UD, 2D, and 3D Composite Materials,

ADVANCED ENGINEERING MATERIALS, Issue 7 2010
Lucio Raimondo
This paper outlines three examples of original solutions for the modeling of three classes of composite materials, which have increasing fiber architectural complexity. Results are presented from application of a novel approach for dynamic elastic and failure modeling of UD composites, and novel failure and damage modeling approaches for 2D and 3D composites, respectively. A comparison between numerical and experimental results shows that the newly proposed strategies have excellent predictive capabilities. [source]

Influences of habitat complexity on the diversity and abundance of epiphytic invertebrates on plants

FRESHWATER BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2003
Hiromi Taniguchi
SUMMARY 1. The compound influence of habitat complexity and patch size on stream invertebrate assemblages associated with submerged macrophytes was investigated through field sampling of two natural macrophyte species with contrasting leaf morphologies (complex, Ranunculus yezoensis; simple, Sparganium emersum) and an experiment with two artificial plants with different levels of morphological complexity. 2. The artificial plant experiment was designed to separate the effects of habitat area (patch size) and habitat complexity, thus enabling a more rigorous assessment of complexity per se than in previous studies where only a single patch size was used. Simple and complex artificial plants were established with five different patch sizes corresponding to the range found in natural plants. 3. Invertebrates occurred on both complex and simple forms of natural and artificial plants at similar abundances with dipterans and ephemeropterans being predominant. Taxon richness was higher on structurally complex Ranunculus than on simple Sparganium and was similarly higher on the complex artificial plant than on the simple one, over the entire range of habitat patch sizes. Thus, architectural complexity affected the taxon richness of epiphytic invertebrates, independently of habitat scale. 4. On the natural plants there was no difference in the abundance (both number of individuals and biomass) of invertebrates between simple and complex forms, while on artificial plants more invertebrates occurred on complex than on simple forms. The amount of particulate organic matter, >225 ,m (POM) and chlorophyll a showed mixed patterns on natural and artificial plants, suggesting that the availability of these resources is not an overriding proximate factor controlling invertebrate abundance on plants. The difficulty of extrapolating from experimental results involving use of artificial plants is discussed, especially when considering the relationship between habitat structure and the occurrence of epiphytic invertebrates on natural plants. [source]

Self-assembly of well-defined amphiphilic polymeric miktoarm stars, dendrons, and dendrimers in water: The effect of architecture

JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE (IN TWO SECTIONS), Issue 22 2009
Daria E. Lonsdale
Abstract Five polymeric architectures with a systematic increase in architectural complexity were synthesized by "click" reactions from a toolbox of functional linear polymers and small molecule linkers. The amphiphilic architectures ranged from a simple 3-miktoarm star block copolymer to the more complex third generation dendrimer-like block copolymer, consisting of polystyrene (PSTY) and polyacrylic acid (PAA). Micellization of these architectures in water at a pH of 7 under identical ionic strength gave spherical micelles ranging in size from 9 to 30 nm. Subsequent calculations of the PSTY core density, average surface area per PAA arm on the corona-core interface, and the relative stretching of the PAA arms provided insights into the effect of architecture on the self-assembly processes. A particular trend was observed that with increased architectural complexity the hydrodynamic diameter, radius of the core in the dry state and the aggregation number also increased with the exception of the third generation dendrimer. On the basis of these observations, we postulate that thermodynamic factors controlling self-assembly were the entropic penalty of forming PSTY loops in the core counterbalanced by the reduction in repulsive forces through chain stretching. This results in a greater number of aggregating unimers and consequently larger micelle sizes. The junction points within the architecture also play an important role in controlling the self-assembly process. The G3 dendrimer showed results contradictory to the aforementioned trend. We believe that the self-assembly process of this architecture was dominated by the increased attractive forces due to stretching of the PSTY core chains to form a more compact core. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 6292,6303, 2009 [source]