5,861 research outputs found
Evolution of size-dependent flowering in Onopordum illyricum: A quantitative assessment of the role of stochastic selection pressures
We explore the evolution of delayed, size-dependent reproduction in the monocarpic perennial Onopordum illyricum, using a range of mathematical models, parameterized with long-term field data. Analysis of the long-term data indicated that mortality, flowering, and growth were age and size dependent. Using mixed models, we estimated the variance about each of these relationships and also individual-specific effects. For the held populations, recruitment was the main density-dependent process, although there were weak effects of local density on growth and mortality Using parameterized growth models, which assume plants grow along a deterministic trajectory, we predict plants should flower at sizes approximately 50% smaller than observed in the field. We then develop a simple criterion, termed the "1-yr look-ahead criterion," based on equating seed production now with that of next year, allowing for mortality and growth, to determine at what size a plant should flower. This model allows the incorporation of variance about the growth function and individual-specific effects. The model predicts flowering at sizes approximately double that observed, indicating that variance about the growth curve selects for larger sizes at flowering. The 1-yr look-ahead approach is approximate because it ignores growth opportunities more than 1 yr ahead. To assess the accuracy of this approach, we develop a more complicated dynamic state variable model. Both models give similar results indicating the utility of the 1-yr look-ahead criterion. To allow for temporal variation in the model parameters, we used an individual-based model with a generic algorithm. This gave very accurate prediction of the observed flowering strategies. Sensitivity analysis of the model suggested that temporal variation in the parameters of the growth equation made waiting to flower more risky, so selected for smaller sizes at flowering. The models clearly indicate the need to incorporate stochastic variation in life-history analyses
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Geographies of Production I: Relationality revisited and the âpractice shiftâ in economic geography
This report considers recent developments and ongoing debates around relational economic geography, and a growing body work that has focused on economic practices as a means to better understand production processes and economic development. In particular it examines the critical reaction to relational thinking within the sub-discipline, and the nature of the debate about the degree to which relational work is - and needs to be - regarded as distinct from more traditional approaches to economic geography. It then considers how relational economic geography has become inflected towards an epistemological and methodological focus on practice. It argues that this engagement with economic practices provides the basis to respond to some of the limitations identified with earlier work, and opens up fruitful new potential for theorizing the nature of agency in the space economy
The potential impact on Florida-based marina and boating industries of a post-embargo Cuba: an analysis of geographic, physical, policy and industry trends
The information in this Technical Paper addresses the future of the US-Cuban marina and recreational
boating industries from the geographic, physical, policy making and economic perspectives for a post-embargo Cuba.
Each individual paper builds on the presentations made at the workshop, the information obtained in the subsequent trip
to Cuba and presents in detailed form information which we hope is useful to all readers. (147pp.
Reduced-rank spatio-temporal modeling of air pollution concentrations in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution
There is growing evidence in the epidemiologic literature of the relationship
between air pollution and adverse health outcomes. Prediction of individual air
pollution exposure in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded
Multi-Ethnic Study of Atheroscelerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air) study
relies on a flexible spatio-temporal prediction model that integrates land-use
regression with kriging to account for spatial dependence in pollutant
concentrations. Temporal variability is captured using temporal trends
estimated via modified singular value decomposition and temporally varying
spatial residuals. This model utilizes monitoring data from existing regulatory
networks and supplementary MESA Air monitoring data to predict concentrations
for individual cohort members. In general, spatio-temporal models are limited
in their efficacy for large data sets due to computational intractability. We
develop reduced-rank versions of the MESA Air spatio-temporal model. To do so,
we apply low-rank kriging to account for spatial variation in the mean process
and discuss the limitations of this approach. As an alternative, we represent
spatial variation using thin plate regression splines. We compare the
performance of the outlined models using EPA and MESA Air monitoring data for
predicting concentrations of oxides of nitrogen (NO)-a pollutant of primary
interest in MESA Air-in the Los Angeles metropolitan area via cross-validated
. Our findings suggest that use of reduced-rank models can improve
computational efficiency in certain cases. Low-rank kriging and thin plate
regression splines were competitive across the formulations considered,
although TPRS appeared to be more robust in some settings.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AOAS786 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
The Anti-Coincidence Detector for the GLAST Large Area Telescope
This paper describes the design, fabrication and testing of the
Anti-Coincidence Detector (ACD) for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
(GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT). The ACD is LAT first-level defense against
the charged cosmic ray background that outnumbers the gamma rays by 3-5 orders
of magnitude. The ACD covers the top and 4 sides of the LAT tracking detector,
requiring a total active area of ~8.3 square meters. The ACD detector utilizes
plastic scintillator tiles with wave-length shifting fiber readout. In order to
suppress self-veto by shower particles at high gamma-ray energies, the ACD is
segmented into 89 tiles of different sizes. The overall ACD efficiency for
detection of singly charged relativistic particles entering the tracking
detector from the top or sides of the LAT exceeds the required 0.9997.Comment: 33 pages, 19 figure
Extreme Kuiper Belt Object 2001 QG298 and the Fraction of Contact Binaries
Extensive time-resolved observations of Kuiper Belt object 2001 QG298 show a
lightcurve with a peak-to-peak variation of 1.14 +-0.04 magnitudes and
single-peaked period of 6.8872 +- 0.0002 hr. The mean absolute magnitude is
6.85 magnitudes which corresponds to a mean effective radius of 122 (77) km if
an albedo of 0.04 (0.10) is assumed. This is the first known Kuiper Belt object
and only the third minor planet with a radius > 25 km to display a lightcurve
with a range in excess of 1 magnitude. We find the colors to be typical for a
Kuiper Belt object (B-V = 1.00 +- 0.04, V-R = 0.60 +- 0.02) with no variation
in color between minimum and maximum light. The large light variation,
relatively long double-peaked period and absence of rotational color change
argue against explanations due to albedo markings or elongation due to high
angular momentum. Instead, we suggest that 2001 QG298 may be a very close or
contact binary similar in structure to what has been independently proposed for
the Trojan asteroid 624 Hektor. If so, its rotational period would be twice the
lightcurve period or 13.7744 +- 0.0004 hr. By correcting for the effects of
projection, we estimate that the fraction of similar objects in the Kuiper Belt
is at least 10% to 20% with the true fraction probably much higher. A high
abundance of close and contact binaries is expected in some scenarios for the
evolution of binary Kuiper Belt objects.Comment: 15 text pages,6 figures(Color),5 Tables, Accepted to AJ for May 200
Twin-Photon Confocal Microscopy
A recently introduced two-channel confocal microscope with correlated
detection promises up to 50% improvement in transverse spatial resolution
[Simon, Sergienko, Optics Express {\bf 18}, 9765 (2010)] via the use of photon
correlations. Here we achieve similar results in a different manner,
introducing a triple-confocal correlated microscope which exploits the
correlations present in optical parametric amplifiers. It is based on tight
focusing of pump radiation onto a thin sample positioned in front of a
nonlinear crystal, followed by coincidence detection of signal and idler
photons, each focused onto a pinhole. This approach offers further resolution
enhancement in confocal microscopy
Lattice Model of Sweeping Interface for Drying Process in Water-Granule Mixture
Based on the invasion percolation model, a lattice model for the sweeping
interface dynamics is constructed to describe the pattern forming process by a
sweeping interface upon drying the water-granule mixture. The model is shown to
produce labyrinthine patterns similar to those found in the experiment[Yamazaki
and Mizuguchi, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. \textbf{69} (2000) 2387]. Upon changing the
initial granular density, resulting patterns undergo the percolation
transition, but estimated critical exponents are different from those of the
conventional percolation. Loopless structure of clusters in the patterns
produced by the sweeping dynamics seems to influence the nature of the
transition.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
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