7,464 research outputs found
Self-organization, scaling and collapse in a coupled automaton model of foragers and vegetation resources with seed dispersal
We introduce a model of traveling agents ({\it e.g.} frugivorous animals) who
feed on randomly located vegetation patches and disperse their seeds, thus
modifying the spatial distribution of resources in the long term. It is assumed
that the survival probability of a seed increases with the distance to the
parent patch and decreases with the size of the colonized patch. In turn, the
foraging agents use a deterministic strategy with memory, that makes them visit
the largest possible patches accessible within minimal travelling distances.
The combination of these interactions produce complex spatio-temporal patterns.
If the patches have a small initial size, the vegetation total mass (biomass)
increases with time and reaches a maximum corresponding to a self-organized
critical state with power-law distributed patch sizes and L\'evy-like movement
patterns for the foragers. However, this state collapses as the biomass sharply
decreases to reach a noisy stationary regime characterized by corrections to
scaling. In systems with low plant competition, the efficiency of the foraging
rules leads to the formation of heterogeneous vegetation patterns with
frequency spectra, and contributes, rather counter-intuitively,
to lower the biomass levels.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
Gravitational Chern-Simons and the adiabatic limit
We compute the gravitational Chern-Simons term explicitly for an adiabatic
family of metrics using standard methods in general relativity. We use the fact
that our base three-manifold is a quasi-regular K-contact manifold heavily in
this computation. Our key observation is that this geometric assumption
corresponds exactly to a Kaluza-Klein Ansatz for the metric tensor on our three
manifold, which allows us to translate our problem into the language of general
relativity. Similar computations have been performed in a paper of Guralnik,
Iorio, Jackiw and Pi (2003), although not in the adiabatic context.Comment: 17 page
An improved technique for the calibration of solar cells using a high altitude aircraft
A description of a technique for the airborne calibration of solar cells is given. Aircraft modifications and data supporting the inherent advantages of the techniques are discussed
Modeling the mobility of living organisms in heterogeneous landscapes: Does memory improve foraging success?
Thanks to recent technological advances, it is now possible to track with an
unprecedented precision and for long periods of time the movement patterns of
many living organisms in their habitat. The increasing amount of data available
on single trajectories offers the possibility of understanding how animals move
and of testing basic movement models. Random walks have long represented the
main description for micro-organisms and have also been useful to understand
the foraging behaviour of large animals. Nevertheless, most vertebrates, in
particular humans and other primates, rely on sophisticated cognitive tools
such as spatial maps, episodic memory and travel cost discounting. These
properties call for other modeling approaches of mobility patterns. We propose
a foraging framework where a learning mobile agent uses a combination of
memory-based and random steps. We investigate how advantageous it is to use
memory for exploiting resources in heterogeneous and changing environments. An
adequate balance of determinism and random exploration is found to maximize the
foraging efficiency and to generate trajectories with an intricate
spatio-temporal order. Based on this approach, we propose some tools for
analysing the non-random nature of mobility patterns in general.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, improved discussio
Level-1 jet trigger hardware for the ALICE electromagnetic calorimeter at LHC
The ALICE experiment at the LHC is equipped with an electromagnetic
calorimeter (EMCal) designed to enhance its capabilities for jet measurement.
In addition, the EMCal enables triggering on high energy jets. Based on the
previous development made for the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS) level-0 trigger, a
specific electronic upgrade was designed in order to allow fast triggering on
high energy jets (level-1). This development was made possible by using the
latest generation of FPGAs which can deal with the instantaneous incoming data
rate of 26 Gbit/s and process it in less than 4 {\mu}s.Comment: proceeding of TWEPP-10 at Aachen. 6 pages, 4 figure
L\'evy-like behavior in deterministic models of intelligent agents exploring heterogeneous environments
Many studies on animal and human movement patterns report the existence of
scaling laws and power-law distributions. Whereas a number of random walk
models have been proposed to explain observations, in many situations
individuals actually rely on mental maps to explore strongly heterogeneous
environments. In this work we study a model of a deterministic walker, visiting
sites randomly distributed on the plane and with varying weight or
attractiveness. At each step, the walker minimizes a function that depends on
the distance to the next unvisited target (cost) and on the weight of that
target (gain). If the target weight distribution is a power-law, , in some range of the exponent , the foraging medium induces
movements that are similar to L\'evy flights and are characterized by
non-trivial exponents. We explore variations of the choice rule in order to
test the robustness of the model and argue that the addition of noise has a
limited impact on the dynamics in strongly disordered media.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures. One section adde
South Florida Coastal Water Quality Monitoring Network FY2005 Cumulative Report to the South Florida Water Management District (Contract No. C-15397)
South Florida Coastal Water Quality Monitoring Network FY2006 Cumulative Report to the South Florida Water Management District (Contract No. C-15397 and 4600000352)
2007 Cumulative Annual Report for the Coastal Water Quality Monitoring Network (Agreement 4600000352)
This report summarizes the existing data from the FIU Coastal Water Quality Monitoring Network for calendar year January 1 – December 31, 2007. This includes water quality data collected from 28 stations in Florida Bay, 22 stations in Whitewater Bay, 25 stations in Ten Thousand Islands, 25 stations in Biscayne Bay, 49 stations on the Southwest Florida Shelf (Shelf), and 28 stations in the Cape Romano-Pine Island Sound area. Each of the stations in Florida Bay were monitored on a monthly basis with monitoring beginning in March 1991; Whitewater Bay monitoring began in September 1992; Biscayne Bay monthly monitoring began September 1993; the SW Florida Shelf was sampled quarterly beginning in spring 1995; and monthly sampling in the Cape Romano-Pine Island Sound area started January 1999
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