5,406 research outputs found
Target-group backgrounds prove effective at correcting sampling bias in Maxent models
Aim: Accounting for sampling bias is the greatest challenge facing presence-only and presence-background species distribution models; no matter what type of model is chosen, using biased data will mask the true relationship between occurrences and environmental predictors. To address this issue, we review four established bias correction techniques, using empirical occurrences with known sampling effort, and virtual species with known distributions. Innovation: Occurrence data come from a national recording scheme of hoverflies (Syrphidae) in Great Britain, spanning 1983â2002. Target-group backgrounds, distance-restricted backgrounds, travel time to cities and human population density were used to account for sampling bias in 58Â species of hoverfly. Distributions generated by bias correction techniques were compared in geographical space to the distribution produced accounting for known sampling effort, using Schoener's distance, centroid shifts and range size changes. To validate our results, we performed the same comparisons using 50 randomly generated virtual species. We used sampling effort from the hoverfly recording scheme to structure our biased sampling regime, emulating complex real-life sampling bias. Main conclusions: Models made without any correction typically produced distributions that mapped sampling effort rather than the underlying habitat suitability. Target-group backgrounds performed the best at emulating sampling effort and unbiased virtual occurrences, but also showed signs of overcompensation in places. Other methods performed better than no-correction, but often differences were difficult to visually detect. In line with previous studies, when sampling effort is unknown, target-group backgrounds provide a useful tool for reducing the effect of sampling bias. Models should be visually inspected for biological realism to identify any areas of potential overcompensation. Given the disparity between corrected and un-corrected models, sampling bias constitutes a major source of error in species distribution modelling, and more research is needed to confidently address the issue
Developing and enhancing biodiversity monitoring programmes: a collaborative assessment of priorities
1.Biodiversity is changing at unprecedented rates, and it is increasingly important that these changes are quantified through monitoring programmes. Previous recommendations for developing or enhancing these programmes focus either on the end goals, that is the intended use of the data, or on how these goals are achieved, for example through volunteer involvement in citizen science, but not both. These recommendations are rarely prioritized.
2.We used a collaborative approach, involving 52 experts in biodiversity monitoring in the UK, to develop a list of attributes of relevance to any biodiversity monitoring programme and to order these attributes by their priority. We also ranked the attributes according to their importance in monitoring biodiversity in the UK. Experts involved included data users, funders, programme organizers and participants in data collection. They covered expertise in a wide range of taxa.
3.We developed a final list of 25 attributes of biodiversity monitoring schemes, ordered from the most elemental (those essential for monitoring schemes; e.g. articulate the objectives and gain sufficient participants) to the most aspirational (e.g. electronic data capture in the field, reporting change annually). This ordered list is a practical framework which can be used to support the development of monitoring programmes.
4.People's ranking of attributes revealed a difference between those who considered attributes with benefits to end users to be most important (e.g. people from governmental organizations) and those who considered attributes with greatest benefit to participants to be most important (e.g. people involved with volunteer biological recording schemes). This reveals a distinction between focussing on aims and the pragmatism in achieving those aims.
5.Synthesis and applications. The ordered list of attributes developed in this study will assist in prioritizing resources to develop biodiversity monitoring programmes (including citizen science). The potential conflict between end users of data and participants in data collection that we discovered should be addressed by involving the diversity of stakeholders at all stages of programme development. This will maximize the chance of successfully achieving the goals of biodiversity monitoring programmes
Weak-strong uniqueness of dissipative measure-valued solutions for polyconvex elastodynamics
For the equations of elastodynamics with polyconvex stored energy, and some
related simpler systems, we define a notion of dissipative measure-valued
solution and show that such a solution agrees with a classical solution with
the same initial data when such a classical solution exists. As an application
of the method we give a short proof of strong convergence in the continuum
limit of a lattice approximation of one dimensional elastodynamics in the
presence of a classical solution. Also, for a system of conservation laws
endowed with a positive and convex entropy, we show that dissipative
measure-valued solutions attain their initial data in a strong sense after time
averaging
Concurrent invasions by European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) suggest selection on shared genomic regions even after genetic bottlenecks
A speciesâ success during the invasion of new areas hinges on an interplay between the demographic processes common to invasions and the specific ecological context of the novel environment. Evolutionary genetic studies of invasive species can investigate how genetic bottlenecks and ecological conditions shape genetic variation in invasions, and our study pairs two invasive populations that are hypothesized to be from the same source population to compare how each population evolved during and after introduction. Invasive European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) established populations in both Australia and North America in the 19th century. Here, we compare whole-genome sequences among native and independently introduced European Starling populations to determine how demographic processes interact with rapid evolution to generate similar genetic patterns in these recent and replicated invasions. Demographic models indicate that both invasive populations experienced genetic bottlenecks as expected based on invasion history, and we find that specific genomic regions have differentiated even on this short evolutionary timescale. Despite genetic bottlenecks, we suggest that genetic drift alone cannot explain differentiation in at least two of these regions. The demographic boom intrinsic to many invasions as well as potential inversions may have led to high population-specific differentiation, although the patterns of genetic variation are also consistent with the hypothesis that this infamous and highly mobile invader adapted to novel selection (e.g., extrinsic factors). We use targeted sampling of replicated invasions to identify and evaluate support for multiple, interacting evolutionary mechanisms that lead to differentiation during the invasion process
Present and Future CP Measurements
We review theoretical and experimental results on CP violation summarizing
the discussions in the working group on CP violation at the UK phenomenology
workshop 2000 in Durham.Comment: 104 pages, Latex, to appear in Journal of Physics
Precision Determination of the Neutron Spin Structure Function g1n
We report on a precision measurement of the neutron spin structure function
using deep inelastic scattering of polarized electrons by polarized
^3He. For the kinematic range 0.014<x<0.7 and 1 (GeV/c)^2< Q^2< 17 (GeV/c)^2,
we obtain at an average . We find relatively large negative
values for at low . The results call into question the usual Regge
theory method for extrapolating to x=0 to find the full neutron integral
, needed for testing quark-parton model and QCD sum rules.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures To be published in Phys. Rev. Let
Dark Matter And With Minimal Soft SUSY Breaking II
We update and extend to larger masses our previous analysis of the MSSM with
minimal [MSOSM] soft SUSY breaking boundary conditions. We
find a well--defined, narrow region of parameter space which provides the
observed relic density of dark matter, in a domain selected to fit precision
electroweak data, including top, bottom and tau masses. The model is highly
constrained which allows us to make several predictions. We find the light
Higgs mass GeV and also upper bounds on the mass of the
gluino \mgluino\lsim3.1 TeV and lightest neutralino \mchi\lsim450 GeV. As
the CP odd Higgs mass increases, the region of parameter space consistent
with WMAP data is forced to larger values of and smaller values of
. Hence, we find an upper bound m_A \lsim 1.3 TeV. This in turn leads to
lower bounds on (assuming minimal
flavor violation) and on the dark matter spin independent detection cross
section \sigsip > 10^{-9} pb. Finally, we extend our previous analysis to
include WIMP signals in indirect detection and find prospects for WIMP
detection generally much less promising than in direct WIMP searches.Comment: 24 page
Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay
channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7
TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector,
and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No
significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper
limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the
standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at
95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE
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