2,280 research outputs found
Using sports infrastructure to deliver economic and social change: Lessons for London beyond 2012
Over the last two decades, there has been a
new trend emerging within sport, which has
seen a shift, from investment for the sake of
sport, to investment in sport for good (Sport
England, 2008). In the context of the latter
approach, there has been an emergence of
the use of sport to address regeneration objectives,
largely stemming from the belief of government
and other sporting and non-sporting
organizations, that it can confer a wide range
of economic and social benefits to individuals
and communities beyond those of a purely
physical sporting nature, and can contribute
positively to the revitalization of declining
urban areas (BURA, 2003). This commentary
will examine regeneration legacy in the context
of the London Olympic Games. In particular,
it will focus on the use of sports stadia
as a tool for delivering economic and social
change, and by drawing upon previous examples,
suggest lessons London can learn to
enhance regeneration legacies beyond 2012
Improved large-mode area endlessly single-mode photonic crystal fibers
We numerically study the possibilities for improved large-mode area endlessly
single mode photonic crystal fibers for use in high-power delivery
applications. By carefully choosing the optimal hole diameter we find that a
triangular core formed by three missing neighboring air holes considerably
improves the mode area and loss properties compared to the case with a core
formed by one missing air hole. In a realized fiber we demonstrate an
enhancement of the mode area by ~30 % without a corresponding increase in the
attenuation.Comment: 3 pages including 3 eps-figures. Accepted for Optics Letter
Patterns of Interactions in Complex Social Networks Based on Coloured Motifs Analysis
Coloured network motifs are small subgraphs that enable to discover and interpret the patterns of interaction within the complex networks. The analysis of three-nodes motifs where the colour of the node reflects its high â white node or low â black node centrality in the social network is presented in the paper. The importance of the vertices is assessed by utilizing two measures: degree prestige and degree centrality. The distribution of motifs in these two cases is compared to mine the interconnection patterns between nodes. The analysis is performed on the social network derived from email communication
Lianas have a greater competitive effect than trees of similar biomass on tropical canopy trees
Lianas (woody vines) reduce growth and survival of host trees in both temperate and tropical forests; however, the relative strength of lianaâtree competition in comparison to treeâtree competition remains unexplored. When controlling for biomass, lianas may have greater competitive effects than trees because the unique morphology of lianas allows them to reach the forest canopy at relatively small stem diameters and deploy a substantial crown above their host. We tested the hypothesis that lianas have a greater negative effect on canopy trees than do trees of similar biomass with a lianaâ and tree saplingâcutting experiment in a seasonal tropical moist forest in Panama. The response of canopy trees to the cutting treatments was characterized as the change in their daily water use by measuring their sap velocity before and after cutting. We compared the responses of canopy trees around which a similar biomass of either lianas or tree saplings had been cut to control trees with no cutting. Liana cutting increased canopyâtree sap velocity by âŒ8% from before to after cutting relative to control trees during the dry season. In contrast, canopyâtree sap velocity did not respond to tree cutting, probably because trees with biomass similar to lianas were confined to the forest understory. We observed a similar pattern of sap velocity changes during the wet season, but treatment differences were not significant. Our results demonstrate that release from liana competition, but not tree competition, resulted in increased water transport in canopy trees, and suggests that relative to their biomass, lianas have greater competitive effects on canopy tree performance than do competing trees
Validation of a nutria (\u3ci\u3eMyocastor coypus\u3c/i\u3e) environmental DNA assay highlights considerations for sampling methodology
Nutria (Myocastor coypus) is a semiaquatic rodent species that is invasive across multiple regions within the United States. Here, we evaluated a qPCR assay previously described for use in Japan for application across invasive populations in the United States. We also compared two environmental DNA sampling methodologies for this assay: field filtration of large volumes of water passed through filters versus direct sampling of small volumes of water. We validated assay specificity, generality, and sensitivity, compared assay performance between two independent laboratories, and successfully tested the assay in situ on a known wild population. The filtration method required fewer samples for environmental DNA detection than direct sampling, but the choice of methods should be assessed based on specific field conditions and time and budget considerations. Our extensive assay validation and comparison across laboratories suggest that the assay is ready to be applied in environmental DNA monitoring of nutria throughout the United States
Unique Competitive Effects of Lianas and Trees in a Tropical Forest Understory
Lianas are an important component of tropical forests, contributing up to 25 % of the woody stems and 35 % of woody species diversity. Lianas invest less in structural support but more in leaves compared to trees of similar biomass. These physiological and morphological differences suggest that lianas may interact with neighboring plants in ways that are different from similarly sized trees. However, the vast majority of past liana competition studies have failed to identify the unique competitive effects of lianas by controlling for the amount of biomass removed. We assessed liana competition in the forest understory over the course of 3 years by removing liana biomass and an equal amount of tree biomass in 40 plots at 10 sites in a secondary tropical moist forest in central Panama. We found that growth of understory trees and lianas, as well as planted seedlings, was limited due to competitive effects from both lianas and trees, though the competitive impacts varied by species, season, and size of neighbors. The removal of trees resulted in greater survival of planted seedlings compared to the removal of lianas, apparently related to a greater release from competition for light. In contrast, lianas had a species-specific negative effect on drought-tolerant Dipteryx oleifera seedlings during the dry season, potentially due to competition for water. We conclude that, at local scales, lianas and trees have unique and differential effects on understory dynamics, with lianas potentially competing more strongly during the dry season, and trees competing more strongly for light
Serially-regulated biological networks fully realize a constrained set of functions
We show that biological networks with serial regulation (each node regulated
by at most one other node) are constrained to {\it direct functionality}, in
which the sign of the effect of an environmental input on a target species
depends only on the direct path from the input to the target, even when there
is a feedback loop allowing for multiple interaction pathways. Using a
stochastic model for a set of small transcriptional regulatory networks that
have been studied experimentally, we further find that all networks can achieve
all functions permitted by this constraint under reasonable settings of
biochemical parameters. This underscores the functional versatility of the
networks.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Kristus og imperiets sportspladser. Det britiske imperies evangeliske atleter
Artikel om den britiske imperialismes sportslige effekter
Kristus og imperiets sportspladser. Det britiske imperies evangeliske atleter
Artikel om den britiske imperialismes sportslige effekter
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