Revision of Yunnanilus with descriptions of a miniature species flock and six new species from China (Cypriniformes: Homalopteridae)

The genus Yunnanilus Nichols, 1925 is revised; Eonemachilus Berg, 1938 is a junior subjective synonym. Yunnanilus includes at least nine described species and five undescribed species. The status of Y; salmonides Chaudhuri is still incertae sedis. Six new species are described: Y. parvus, Y: altus, Y; pachycephalus, X niger, Y. macrogaster and Y. paludosus. The last three species occur sympatrically in a small endorheic basin of eastern Yunnan; they developed different feeding specializations which allowed them to use different niches. Other species also have peculiar specializations. The diversity of feeding habits and related adaptations in Yunnanilus is greater than in the whole subfamily Nemacheilinae and is one more example of supralimital specialization. Speciation of fishes on the Yunnan Plateau is discussed. Several species are endangered or possibly extinct. Introduction

Effective descriptions of molecular structures and the quantitative structure - Activity relationship studies

In this research. we found CoMFA alone could not obtain sufficiently a strong equation to allow confident prediction for aminobenzenes. When some other parameter. such as heat of molecular formation of the compounds, was introduced into the CoMFA model, the results Were improved greatly. It gives us a hint that a better description for molecular structures will yield a better prediction model, and this hint challenged us to look for another method-the projection areas of molecules in 3D space for 3D-QSAR. It is surprising that much better results than that obtained by using CoMFA Were achieved. Besides the CoMFA analysis. multiregression analysis and neural network methods for building the models were used in this paper.

Descriptions of Protospathidium serpens (Kahl, 1930) and P-fraterculum n. sp (Ciliophora, Haptoria), two species based on different resting cyst morphology

Protospathidium serpens (Kahl, 1930) is frequent in semiterrestrial and terrestrial habitats worldwide. Conventionally, all populations are considered as conspecific because they have very similar overall morphologies and morphometrics. We studied in detail not only the morphology of the vegetative cells but also the resting cysts using live observation, protargol impregnation, and scanning electron microscopy. These revealed a cryptic diversity and biogeographic pattern in details of the dorsal brush and cyst wall morphology. The cyst wall is spiny in the Austrian specimens, while smooth in the South African and Antarctic populations. Accordingly, P. serpens consists of at least two species: P. serpens (with spiny cyst wall) and P. fraterculum n. sp. (with smooth cyst wall); the latter is probably composed of two distinct taxa differing by the absence (South African)/presence (Antarctic) of a monokinetidal bristle tail in brush row 3, the number of dikinetids comprising brush row 1 (seven versus three), and the total number of brush dikinetids (29 versus 17). Protospathidium serpens is neotypitied with the new population from Austria. The significance of resting cyst morphology is discussed with respect to alpha-taxonomy and overall ciliate diversity.

Deep-sea pontoniines (Decapoda : Palaemonidae) from the philippine "PANGLAO 2005" expedition, with descriptions of four new species

Ten species belonging to three genera of the subfamily Pontoniinae were colleted by the deep-sea expedition "PANGLAO 2005" in the Philippines, including four new species of the genus Periclimenes, i.e., P. boucheti n. sp., P. leptunguis n. sp., P. ngi n. sp., and P. panglaonis sp. nov., and one newly recorded species from the Philippines, Periclimenes laccadivensis. They are reported with color photographs except one species, Plesiopontonia monodi. The possible synonymy of Periclimenes foresti and P. granuloides is discussed.

Automated Acquisition of Evolving Informal Descriptions

The Listener is an automated system that unintrusively performs knowledge acquisition from informal input. The Listener develops a coherent internal representation of a description from an initial set of disorganized, imprecise, incomplete, ambiguous, and possibly inconsistent statements. The Listener can produce a summary document from its internal representation to facilitate communication, review, and validation. A special purpose Listener, called the Requirements Apprentice (RA), has been implemented in the software requirements acquisition domain. Unlike most other requirements analysis tools, which start from a formal description language, the focus of the RA is on the transition between informal and formal specifications.

Learning Shape Descriptions: Generating and Generalizing Models of Visual Objects

We present the results of an implemented system for learning structural prototypes from grey-scale images. We show how to divide an object into subparts and how to encode the properties of these subparts and the relations between them. We discuss the importance of hierarchy and grouping in representing objects and show how a notion of visual similarities can be embedded in the description language. Finally we exhibit a learning algorithm that forms class models from the descriptions produced and uses these models to recognize new members of the class.

Creation of Computer Animation from Story Descriptions

This report describes a computer system that creates simple computer animation in response to high-level, vague, and incomplete descriptions of films. It makes its films by collecting and evaluating suggestions from several different bodies of knowledge. The order in which it makes its choices is influenced by the focus of the film. Difficult choices are postponed to be resumed when more of the film has been determined. The system was implemented in an object-oriented language based upon computational entities called "actors". The goal behind the construction of the system is that, whenever faced with a choice, it should sensibly choose between alternatives based upon the description of the film and as much general knowledge as possible. The system is presented as a computational model of creativity and aesthetics.

Learning Structural Descriptions from Examples

The research here described centers on how a machine can recognize concepts and learn concepts to be recognized. Explanations are found in computer programs that build and manipulate abstract descriptions of scenes such as those children construct from toy blocks. One program uses sample scenes to create models of simple configurations like the three-brick arch. Another uses the resulting models in making identifications. Throughout emphasis is given to the importance of using good descriptions when exploring how machines can come to perceive and understand the visual environment.

Generating Semantic Descriptions From Drawings of Scenes With Shadows

The research reported here concerns the principles used to automatically generate three-dimensional representations from line drawings of scenes. The computer programs involved look at scenes which consist of polyhedra and which may contain shadows and various kinds of coincidentally aligned scene features. Each generated description includes information about edge shape (convex, concave, occluding, shadow, etc.), about the type of illumination for each region (illuminated, projected shadow, or oriented away from the light source), and about the spacial orientation of regions. The methods used are based on the labeling schemes of Huffman and Clowes; this research provides a considerable extension to their work and also gives theoretical explanations to the heuristic scene analysis work of Guzman, Winston, and others.

An Address delivered in the Mercer Street Church at the funeral of the Hon. Benjamin Franklin Butler

Address