Empiricism and stochastics in cellular automaton modeling of urban land use dynamics

An increasing number of models for predicting land use change in regions of rapidurbanization are being proposed and built using ideas from cellular automata (CA)theory. Calibrating such models to real situations is highly problematic and to date,serious attention has not been focused on the estimation problem. In this paper, wepropose a structure for simulating urban change based on estimating land usetransitions using elementary probabilistic methods which draw their inspiration fromBayes' theory and the related ?weights of evidence? approach. These land use changeprobabilities drive a CA model ? DINAMICA ? conceived at the Center for RemoteSensing of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (CSR-UFMG). This is based on aneight cell Moore neighborhood approach implemented through empirical land useallocation algorithms. The model framework has been applied to a medium-size townin the west of São Paulo State, Bauru. We show how various socio-economic andinfrastructural factors can be combined using the weights of evidence approach whichenables us to predict the probability of changes between land use types in differentcells of the system. Different predictions for the town during the period 1979-1988were generated, and statistical validation was then conducted using a multipleresolution fitting procedure. These modeling experiments support the essential logicof adopting Bayesian empirical methods which synthesize various information aboutspatial infrastructure as the driver of urban land use change. This indicates therelevance of the approach for generating forecasts of growth for Brazilian citiesparticularly and for world-wide cities in general

NIR Luminosity Function of Galaxies in Close Major-Merger Pairs and Mass Dependence of Merger Rate

A sample of close major-merger pairs (projected separation ${\rm 5 \leq r \leq 20 h^{-1}}$ kpc, ${\rm K_s}$ band magnitude difference $\delta {\rm K_s} \leq 1$ mag) is selected from the matched 2MASS-2dFGRS catalog of Cole et al. (2001). The pair primaries are brighter than ${\rm K_s} = 12.5$ mag. After corrections for various biases, the comparison between counts in the paired galaxy sample and counts in the parent sample shows that for the local `M* galaxies' sampled by flux limited surveys, the fraction of galaxies in the close major-merger pairs is 1.70$\pm 0.32$. Using 38 paired galaxies in the sample, a ${\rm K_s}$ band luminosity function (LF) is calculated. This is the first unbiased LF for a sample of objectively defined interacting/merging galaxies in the local universe, while all previously determined LFs of paired galaxies are biased by mistreating paired galaxies as singles. A stellar mass function (MF) is translated from the LF. Compared to the LF/MF of 2MASS galaxies, a differential pair fraction function is derived. The results suggest a trend in the sense that less massive galaxies may have lower chance to be involved in close major-merger pairs than more massive galaxies. The algorithm presented in this paper can be easily applied to much larger samples of 2MASS galaxies with redshifts in near future.Comment: Accepted by ApJL, 16 pages, 2 figure

Fruti-ovinocultura - produção consorciada de mangueiras e videiras com ovinos.

Caracterização do problema e sua importância; Vantagens em relação a situação atual; Como acessar a tecnologia

Desenvolvimento de bezerros desmamados pastejando caatinga e capim buffel e suplementados com feno de leucena.

O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar um sistema alternativo de suplementacao da alimentacao de bovinos, delineado para antecipar a idade media ao abate de 40-60 meses observada na regiao semi-arida do Nordeste. Para isto, avaliou-se o ganho de peso de 45 bezerros anelorados, desmamados, distribuidos em tres grupos: (C) patejo exclusivo em caatinga durante todo o ano; (B) pastejo em caatinga, no periodo verde, e em capim buffel (Cenchrus ciliaris L.) no periodo seco; (CBL) o mesmo que CB mais suplementacao com feno de leucena (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit.), no periodo seco. As observacoes foram feitas durante dois periodos secos e dois chuvosos, num total de 711 dias. Ao final do periodo experimental, os animais do grupo suplementado com leucena estavam em media, 33,4 Kg e 107,5 Kg mais pesados (P < 0,05) que os dos grupos CB e C, respectivamente. Os resultados indicam que mesmo com uma oferta quantitativamente inaqueada de leucena foi possivel a obtencao de animais com o mesmo peso medio ao abate observado na regiao, com, pelo menos, 14 meses de antecipacao

Experimental studies on physiological and behavioural response mechanisms of the planktonic copepod Euterpina acutifrons (Dana) to various salinities

Experimentos sobre regulação volumétrica e teste para verificação de preferência a determinadas salinidades foram realizadoscom Euterpina acutifrons (Dana). Esta espécies é muito abundante nas amostras de plâncton coletadas no Canal de São Sebastião, cerca de 23º 49,6'S e 45º 25.3'W. Experimentos sobre regulação volumétrica mostraram que E. acutifrons tem capacidade de regular o volume de seu corpo pelo menos dentro dos limites de salinidade entre 25º e 35%. Estes limites estão além daqueles comumente encontrados no biótopo onde esses copépodes foram coletados

Fruti-ovinocultura: limitações e possibilidades de consorciar ovinos com fruteiras.

Vantagens e desvantagens da consorciação; Caracterização do sistema; Os pastos; Os animais; O manejo dos animais; Produtividade e economicidade do sistema

Exact Nonequilibrium Work Generating Function for a Small Classical System

We obtain the exact nonequilibrium work generating function (NEWGF), for a small system consisting of a massive Brownian particle connected to internal and external springs. The external work is provided to the system for a finite time interval. The Jarzynski equality (JE), obtained in this case directly from the NEWGF, is shown to be valid for the present model, in an exact way regardless of the rate of external work

How genetic determinism and genetic diseases are presented in textbooks of 14 countries

The purpose of the present study was to analyse whether "Genetic Determinism" and "Genetic anomalies" are present in the textbooks of 14 countries and, being present, how these issues are addresses, for the age group of 14 to 18 years old. These countries are involved in the international project “Biohead-citzen”(European Project FP6 STREP Biohead-Citizen; CIT2-CT2004-506015) in which one of the topics is "Human Genetics" Results show that both terms “Genetic program" and "Genetic information", carrying different meanings, are expressed in textbooks with no clear association to the countries culture. Some of the genetic anomalies referred in textbooks are consistently present in all textbooks whereas others vary a lot from country to country. The association of the socio-cultural influences with this issue is now a matter of research