A macroscopic study of the Swedish human population

The thesis research studies the Swedish human population with Smith\u27s macroscopic approach. In demographic statics, a couple of plots are drawn for each time point (period) of the human populations of Sweden and five other countries namely Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. One plot is for the probability distribution of a random newborn\u27s mother\u27s age. Another is for the net maternity function. These plots can be used to identify past historical information from the agreement and discrepancy of related curves. In demographic kinetics, important macroscopic parameters are tracked over time for the Swedish human population. Entropy, reproductive potential, logarithmic maternity, and generation times T and t are studied as separate parameters. From their trends of changes, important conclusions are drawn. Entropy has the overall trend to decrease. This is the response of the increasing level of human societal organization. Reproductive potential, logarithmic maternity, T, and t also reveal this kind of information. The important results from them are that many extreme points are significant in history. More important results are obtained from the combinations of macroscopic parameters. Two relations concern the (t, u) vector, where t is the logarithmic generation time and u is a standard deviation: (a) u will decrease as t increases, and vice versa, and (b) a proper scaling factor can make the formula t+ku be constant. The first relation holds for the Swedish human population with a brief exception, but does not apply to the U.S. population. The second relation works for the Swedish human population before 1930. Most importantly, intensive cycles are found with the (r, s) vector, where r is the Malthusian parameter, the rate of natural increase, and s is the perturbation, measuring the deviation from Lotka stability. As separate parameters, it is difficult to find patterns from their trajectories. But nearly regular cycles appear in the tracking of the (r, s) vector. Three intensive cycles are found from the Swedish human population and modeled with Kepler\u27s second law. Further investigation shows that intensive cycles exist in most of the human populations under study. Their structures are diverse. The intensive cycles of this kind are thought to be related to human population development. A cycle covers at least four five-year periods or twenty years. This is a relatively long time. In the Leslie matrix model, the maximum eigenvalue represents a long term growth rate. Is there some relation between these intensive cycles of the Swedish human population and their maximum eigenvalues? Explorations are made and appear to be intriguing. The maximum eigenvalue changes at similar steps in each of the terms which correspond to the three intensive cycles. Subdominant eigenvalues have a similar performance, with some exceptions

Why People Reject Advantageous Offers – Non-monotone Strategies in Ultimatum Bargaining

When using the strategy method in ultimatum bargaining, many researchers ask responders for the minimal acceptable offer only implicitly assuming strategies to be monotone. Recent research has shown, however, that subjects decline disadvantageous and advantageous proposals. We report on an ultimatum game video experiment where more than 50 percent of the responders rejected advantageous offers. Proposers and responders acted together in groups of three people each and were video taped during decision making. The videotapes then were content analyzed. Our experimental design provides the unique opportunity to learn from participants’ spontaneous discussions about their motivations for rejecting advantageous offers. Main motives are social concern, non-expectancy of high offers, emotional, ethical, and moral reasons, group-specific decision rules and aversion against unpleasant numbers.ultimatum game, video experiments, strategy method, content analysis, non-monotone strategies, social preferences

Motif Recognition

The problem of recognizing motifs from biological data has been well-studied and numerous algorithms, both exact and approximate, have been proposed to address the underlying issue. We strongly believe that open availability and ease of accessibility of quality implementations for such algorithms are critical to the research community, in order to directly reproduce and utilize the results from other studies, so as not to reinvent the wheel. Moreover, it is also important for the implementation to be as generic as possible so that any researcher can to extend it with minimal effort to test a newly implemented algorithmic extension or heuristic. With this motivation, we choose to focus an existing algorithm, PatternBranching and, to a lesser degree, Yang2004. We analyze these approaches for minor heuristical changes & speed-ups by adjusting certain thresholds, and finally, implement the variant in high-level language (Java) using thought through programming practices and generic, extensible interfaces. We also analyze the performance of PatternBranching using a synthetically generated test-suite for a variety of sequence lengths and report the results. Code from this project will be made freely available online to the research community

Why People Reject Advantageous Offers – Non-monotone Strategies in Ultimatum Bargaining

When using the strategy method in ultimatum bargaining, many researchers ask responders for the minimal acceptable offer only implicitly assuming strategies to be monotone. Recent research has shown, however, that subjects decline disadvantageous and advantageous proposals. We report on an ultimatum game video experiment where more than 50 percent of the responders rejected advantageous offers. Proposers and responders acted together in groups of three people each and were video taped during decision making. The videotapes then were content analyzed. Our experimental design provides the unique opportunity to learn from participants’ spontaneous discussions about their motivations for rejecting advantageous offers. Main motives are social concern, non-expectancy of high offers, emotional, ethical, and moral reasons, group-specific decision rules and aversion against unpleasant numbers

A new process chain for ultra-precision machining potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal parts

Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal parts used in high power laser systems require high figure accuracy and high laser induced damage threshold (LIDT). However KDP crystal is extremely soft, hygroscopic, brittle and thermally sensitive, which make it difficult to meet the requirements via conventional processing methods. This paper puts forward a new process chain for ultra-precision machining KDP crystals, including single point diamond turning (SPDT), magnetorheological finishing (MRF) polishing and ion beam figuring (IBF) polishing processes. A compensation SPDT process is developed as the first step of the process chain to reduce machining errors (due to vacuum suction force, spindle unbalance, etc.). As a result high shape accuracy and fine surface roughness is obtained with high machining efficiency Non-aqueous and abrasive-free MRF polishing process is then employed to remove the diamond turning marks and further improve shape accuracy and increase the LIDT. Ion beam figuring (IBF) polishing is introduced as the final step of the process chain to remove the impurity layer. Experiments are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed ultra-precision process chain

Characterization of head transcriptome and analysis of gene expression involved in caste differentiation and aggression in Odontotermes formosanus (Shiraki)

Background The subterranean termite Odontotermes formosanus (Shiraki) is a serious insect pest of trees and dams in China. To date, very little is known about genomic or transcriptomic data for caste differentiation and aggression in O. formosanus. Hence, studies on transcriptome and gene expression profiling are helpful to better understand molecular basis underlying caste differentiation and aggressive behavior in O. formosanus. Methodology and Principal Findings Using the Illumina sequencing, we obtained more than 57 million sequencing reads derived from the heads of O. formosanus. These reads were assembled into 116,885 unique sequences (mean size = 536 bp). Of the unigenes, 30,646 (26.22%) had significant similarity with proteins in the NCBI nonredundant protein database and Swiss-Prot database (E-value\u3c10−5). Of these annotated unigenes, 10,409 and 9,009 unigenes were assigned to gene ontology categories and clusters of orthologous groups, respectively. In total, 19,611 (25.52%) unigenes were mapped onto 242 pathways using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway database (KEGG). A total of 11,661 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were predicted from the current transcriptome database. Moreover, we detected seven putative genes involved in caste differentiation and six putative genes involved in aggression. The qPCR analysis showed that there were significant differences in the expression levels of the three putative genes hexamerin 2, β-glycosidase and bicaudal D involved in caste differentiation and one putative gene Cyp6a20 involved in aggression among workers, soldiers and larvae of O. formosanus. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first study to characterize the complete head transcriptome of a higher fungus-cultivating termite using high-throughput sequencing. Our study has provided the comprehensive sequence resources available for elucidating molecular basis underlying caste differentiation and aggressive behavior in O. formosanus

Antipredator Behavior Produced by Heterosexual and Homosexual Tandem Running in the Termite Reticulitermes chinensis (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

Heterosexual and homosexual tandem running can be observed together in the alate pairings in some species of termites. This study examined the effect of heterosexual and homosexual tandem running in the termite Reticulitermes chinensis on the predation risk by a predatory ant, Leptogenys kitteli. Results showed that both heterosexual and homosexual tandem running reduced the predation risk of participants. When a male-male tandem encountered a female, the back male had a significant advantage over the front male in winning a female. Moreover, the back males were significantly heavier than the front males. These results indicated that the predation risk of dealates could be decreased by tandem running through the dilution effect. Furthermore, these data suggest that male-male tandem running could induce selection pressure in favor of vigorous males and may play an essential role in indirect sexual selection

Evaluation of formic acid toxicity to subterranean termite, Reticulitermes chinensis Snyder

This study examined formic acid contact and fumigation toxicity to R. chinensis in the laboratory. In the contact toxicity bioassay, the LD50 values ranged from 267.86 to 287.68 μg adult-1 for workers, 279.09 μg adult-1 for alates (male and female) and 223.08 μg adult-1 for soldiers after 24 h, respectively. In the fumigation bioassays, the LC50 values ranged from 0.84 to 1.08 μg ml-1 for workers, 1.19 μg ml-1 for alates (male and female) and 0.57 μg ml-1 for soldiers after 24 h, respectively. At the concentration of 2.50 μg ml-1, the KT50 value of formic acid ranged from 25.38 to 34.75 min for workers, from 42.21 to 45.62 min for alates (male and female), from 32.18 to 36.37 min for soldiers. Although formic acid was significantly less toxic to subterranean termite than bifenthrin, but higher toxic to many other pest insects. The findings of this study provide important confirmation of formic acid with fumigation toxicity against termite. It may be worth investigating the use of formic acid for managing subterranean termite