# behav: mechanics of fire ant rafts as an active self-healing membrane

<< The unique ability of fire ants to form a raft to survive flooding rain has enchanted biologists as well as researchers in other disciplines. (..) a three-dimensional aggregation of fire ants exhibits viscoelasticity with respect to external compression and shearing among numerous unusual mechanical properties. >>️

AA << study the ant raft in its natural form, i.e., composing no more than two layers. This allowed to focus on the cracks that are unique to membranes and see how their patterns are influenced by the fact that these ants are mobile and can self-repair the damage to keep their raft from disintegration. >>️

They << show that vertical and horizontal shaking can also prompt fire ants to aggregate.  (..)  the pull force expedites the alignment of fire ants, in analogy to the effect of an electric field on liquid crystal polymers. >>️

<< One major finding is that the raft can exhibit zero Poisson's ratio without resorting to specific geometry structures. This is enabled by the active recruitment of ants from the top layer to the bottom layer to keep the raft from disintegrating. >>️

️

Chung-Hao Chen, Ting-Heng Hsieh, et al. Formation and mechanics of fire ant rafts as an active self-healing membrane. Phys. Rev. E 109, 014607. Jan 9, 2024. 

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.109.014607

David Ehrenstein. Material Properties of Fire-Ant Rafts. Physics 17, s5. Jan 9. 2024. 

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/s5

Also:  raft   https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=raft  

zattera (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2005/04/1864-onda-di-liberazione.html  

randa (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=randa

Also: behav, behavior, in  https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords behavior, behaviour, ant, raft, self-healing

# gst: scanning inside a granular raft

<< Rheology of macroscopic particle-laden interfaces, called “granular rafts,” has been experimentally studied in the simple shear configuration.  >>️

<< Close to the walls of the rheometer cell, one can observe regions of large local shear rate while in the middle of the cell a quasistatic zone exists. >>

<< Measuring the probability density functions of the instantaneous local shear rate, (AA) provide evidence of a balance between positive and negative instantaneous local shear rate. This behavior is the signature of a quasistatic region inside the granular raft. >>️

️

J. Lalieu, A. Seguin, G. Gauthier. Rheology of granular rafts. Phys. Rev. E 107, 064901. June 29, 2023.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.107.064901

Also: Bavand Keshavarz, Michela Geri. Mandelbrot granular raft. Phys. Rev. Fluids 8, 110506. Nov 16, 2023.

https://journals.aps.org/prfluids/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.8.110506

Also: grain, particle, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Also: << l'invasiva scorribanda /

sull' oramai alla deriva lacerata randa. >>️ in: Schismi da vibrati di tangone. Notes. March 23, 2005. (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2005/03/1608b-schismi-da-vibrati-di-tangone.html

Keywords: gst, raft, particle, grain, granular raft, life

# gst: compression and fracture of ordered and disordered droplet rafts

AA << simulate a two-dimensional array of droplets being compressed between two walls. The droplets are adhesive due to an attractive depletion force. As one wall moves toward the other, the droplet array is compressed and eventually induced to rearrange. The rearrangement occurs via a fracture, where depletion bonds are quickly broken between a subset of droplets. >>

<< For monodisperse, hexagonally ordered droplet arrays, this fracture is preceded by a maximum force exerted on the walls, which drops rapidly after the fracture occurs. >>

<< In small droplet arrays a fracture is a single well-defined event, but for larger droplet arrays, competing fractures can be observed. These are fractures nucleated nearly simultaneously in different locations. >>

AA << also study the compression of bidisperse droplet arrays. The addition of a second droplet size further disrupts fracture events, showing differences between ideal crystalline arrays, crystalline arrays with a small number of defects, and fully amorphous arrays. >>

️

Pablo Eduardo Illing, Jean-Christophe Ono-dit-Biot, et al. Compression and fracture of ordered and disordered droplet rafts. Phys. Rev. E 109, 014610. Jan 17, 2024.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.109.014610

Also: drop, defect, fracture, crack, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Also:  raft   https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=raft  

zattera (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2005/04/1864-onda-di-liberazione.html  

randa (quasi-stochastic poetry) https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=randa

Keywords: gst, drop, droplet, raft, defect, fracture, crack

# brain: apropos of mandering minds, the 'default mode' network.

<< When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network is active. Its discovery 20 years ago inspired a raft of research into networks of brain regions and how they interact with each other. >>

<< The default mode was one of the first brain networks characterized by science. It consists of a handful of brain regions, including a few at the front of the brain, like the dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortices, and others scattered throughout the organ, like the posterior cingulate cortex, the precuneus and the angular gyrus. These regions are associated with memory, experience replay, prediction, action consideration, reward/ punishment and information integration. >> ️

<< The default mode is clearly up to something complicated; it’s involved in many different processes that can’t be neatly described. >>

<< “It’s kind of silly to think that we’re ever going to be like, ‘This one brain region or one brain network does one thing,’” (..). “I don’t think that’s how it works.” (..) “Network interactions are more elucidating to study in some ways than just a network in isolation because they do work together and then come apart and then change what they’re doing over time”. >> Lucina Uddin.️

Lucina Uddin << is particularly interested in how the default mode network interacts with the ️salience network, which seems to help us identify the most relevant piece of information at any given time. Her work suggests that the salience network detects when something is important to pay attention to and then acts as an off switch for the default mode network. >>

Vinod Menon << has developed what he calls️ ️the triple network theory. It posits that abnormal interactions between the default mode network, the salience network and a third one called the frontoparietal network could contribute to mental health disorders. >>️

Nora Bradford. What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything.  quantamagazine.org. Feb 5, 2024. 

https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-your-brain-is-doing-when-youre-not-doing-anything-20240205/

FonT: the cat when it is in a contemplative state ... Who knows in what forms and with what results an artificial intelligence (AI) will be able to structure itself in networks of this type.

Also: brain, brain default mode network, in  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=brain+default+mode+network

Also: brain, salience network, in https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=brain+salience+network

Also: brain, triple network theory, in https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=brain+triple+network+theory

Also: brain, ai (artificial intell), analogy,  in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html

Keywords: brain, mind, default mode network, salience network, triple network theory, AI