What can legacy datasets tell us about soil quality trends? Soil acidity in Victoria

Purpose-built soil monitoring networks have been established in many countries to identify where soil functionality is threatened and to target remediation initiatives. An alternative to purpose-built soil monitoring networks is to use legacy soils information. Such information yields almost instant assessments of soil change but the results should be interpreted with caution since the information was not collected with monitoring in mind. We assess the threat of soil acidification in Victoria using two legacy datasets: (i) the Victorian Soils Information System (VSIS) which is a repository of the results of soil analyses conducted for scientific purposes since the 1950s and (ii) a database of 75 000 routine soil test results requested by farmers between 1973 and 1993. We find that the VSIS measurements are clustered in space and time and are therefore suitable for local rather than broad-scale assessments of soil change. The farmers' results have better spatial and temporal coverage and space-time models can be used to quantify the spatial and temporal trends in the pH measurements. However, careful validation of these findings is required since we do not completely understand how the measured paddocks were selected and we cannot be certain that sampling or laboratory protocols have not changed with time

Intelligent Playful Environments for Animals

© Owner/Author 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in Interacción '15 Proceedings of the XVI International Conference on Human Computer Interaction, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2829875.2829879We are evolving towards an interconnected and ubiquitous world, where digital devices and interfaces progressively adapt themselves to fit our needs and ease our daily activities. Although we coexist with plenty of animal species, such as our pets, we are approaching the evolution of technology in a strictly human-centric manner. A new field in Computer Science, called Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI), aims at filling this technological gap by developing systems and interfaces specifically designed for animals. Supporting animals' natural behavior and habits with suitable technology could improve both humans and animals' wellbeing. As a consequence, this doctoral research aims to explore, design and develop animal-centered intelligent systems that focus on enhancing one of the most natural animal behaviors: play. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to expand ACI with the ability of automatically manage and adapt animals play activity in order to improve their wellbeing.Work supported by MINECO (TIN2010-20488 and TIN2014-60077-R), UPV (UPV-FE-2014-24), MECD (FPU13/03831) and GVA (APOSTD/2013/013).Pons Tomás, P.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Catalá Bolós, A. (2015). Intelligent Playful Environments for Animals. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2829875.2829879SHu, F., Silver, D., and Trude, A. LonelyDog@Home. 2007 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conferences on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology - Workshops, IEEE (2007), 333--337.Huizinga, J.Homo ludens. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, The Nederlands, 1985.Mancini, C. Animal-computer interaction: a manifesto. Magazine interactions 18, 4 (2011), 69--73.Mancini, C. Animal-computer interaction (ACI): changing perspective on HCI, participation and sustainability. CHI '13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press (2013), 2227--2236.Matsuzawa, T. The Ai project: historical and ecological contexts. Animal cognition 6, 4 (2003), 199--211.Pons, P., Jaen, J., and Catala, A. Animal Ludens: Building Intelligent Playful Environments for Animals. 11th Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment - Workshop on Animal Human Computer Interaction, (2014).Pons, P., Jaen, J., and Catala, A. Envisioning Future Playful Interactive Environments for Animals. In A. Nijholt, ed., More Playful User Interfaces. Springer, 2015.Robinson, C., Mancini, C., van der Linden, J., Guest, C., and Harris, R. Empowering assistance dogs: an alarm interface for canine use. Intelligent Systems for Animal Welfare, (2014).Rumbaugh, D.M., Gill, T. V., Brown, J. V., et al. A computer-controlled language training system for investigating the language skills of young apes. Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation 5, 5 (1973), 385--392.Westerlaken, M. and Gualeni, S. Felino: The Philosophical Practice of Making an Interspecies Videogame. The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, (2014), 1--12.Wingrave, C.A., Rose, J., Langston, T., and LaViola, J.J.J. Early explorations of CAT: canine amusement and training. CHI '10 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, (2010), 2661--2669.SpeakDolphin. http://www.speakdolphin.com

Phylogenetic relationships of African Caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona): insights from mitochondrial rRNA gene sequences

Africa (excluding the Seychelles) has a diverse caecilian fauna, including the endemic family Scolecomorphidae and six endemic genera of the more cosmopolitan Caeciliidae. Previous molecular phylogenetic studies have not included any caecilians from the African mainland. Partial 12S and 16S mitochondrial gene sequences were obtained for two species of the endemic African Scolecomorphidae and five species and four genera of African Caeciliids, aligned against previously reported sequences for 16 caecilian species, and analysed using parsimony, maximum likelihood, Bayesian and distance methods. Results are in agreement with traditional taxonomy in providing support for the monophyly of the African Caeciliid genera Boulengerula and Schistometopum and for the Scolecomorphidae. They disagree in indicating that the Caeciliidae is paraphyletic with respect to the Scolecomorphidae. Although more data from morphology and/or molecules will be required to resolve details of the interrelationships of the African caecilian genera, the data provide strong support for at least two origins of caecilians in which the eye is reduced and covered with bone, and do not support the hypotheses that the caecilian assemblages of Africa, and of East and of West Africa are monophyletic

Ferromagnetic phase transition and Bose-Einstein condensation in spinor Bose gases

Phase transitions in spinor Bose gases with ferromagnetic (FM) couplings are studied via mean-field theory. We show that an infinitesimal value of the coupling can induce a FM phase transition at a finite temperature always above the critical temperature of Bose-Einstein condensation. This contrasts sharply with the case of Fermi gases, in which the Stoner coupling $I_s$ can not lead to a FM phase transition unless it is larger than a threshold value $I_0$. The FM coupling also increases the critical temperatures of both the ferromagnetic transition and the Bose-Einstein condensation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Uniqueness Theorem for Generalized Maxwell Electric and Magnetic Black Holes in Higher Dimensions

Based on the conformal energy theorem we prove the uniqueness theorem for static higher dimensional electrically and magnetically charged black holes being the solution of Einstein (n-2)-gauge forms equations of motion. Black hole spacetime contains an asymptotically flat spacelike hypersurface with compact interior and non-degenerate components of the event horizon.Comment: 7 pages, RevTex, to be published in Phys.Rev.D1

Some Findings Concerning Requirements in Agile Methodologies

gile methods have appeared as an attractive alternative to conventional methodologies. These methods try to reduce the time to market and, indirectly, the cost of the product through flexible development and deep customer involvement. The processes related to requirements have been extensively studied in literature, in most cases in the frame of conventional methods. However, conclusions of conventional methodologies could not be necessarily valid for Agile; in some issues, conventional and Agile processes are radically different. As recent surveys report, inadequate project requirements is one of the most conflictive issues in agile approaches and better understanding about this is needed. This paper describes some findings concerning requirements activities in a project developed under an agile methodology. The project intended to evolve an existing product and, therefore, some background information was available. The major difficulties encountered were related to non-functional needs and management of requirements dependencies

Sixty Years of Fractal Projections

Sixty years ago, John Marstrand published a paper which, among other things, relates the Hausdorff dimension of a plane set to the dimensions of its orthogonal projections onto lines. For many years, the paper attracted very little attention. However, over the past 30 years, Marstrand's projection theorems have become the prototype for many results in fractal geometry with numerous variants and applications and they continue to motivate leading research.Comment: Submitted to proceedings of Fractals and Stochastics

Radio Bursts Associated with Flare and Ejecta in the 13 July 2004 Event

We investigate coronal transients associated with a GOES M6.7 class flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME) on 13 July 2004. During the rising phase of the flare, a filament eruption, loop expansion, a Moreton wave, and an ejecta were observed. An EIT wave was detected later on. The main features in the radio dynamic spectrum were a frequency-drifting continuum and two type II bursts. Our analysis shows that if the first type II burst was formed in the low corona, the burst heights and speed are close to the projected distances and speed of the Moreton wave (a chromospheric shock wave signature). The frequency-drifting radio continuum, starting above 1 GHz, was formed almost two minutes prior to any shock features becoming visible, and a fast-expanding piston (visible as the continuum) could have launched another shock wave. A possible scenario is that a flare blast overtook the earlier transient, and ignited the first type II burst. The second type II burst may have been formed by the same shock, but only if the shock was propagating at a constant speed. This interpretation also requires that the shock-producing regions were located at different parts of the propagating structure, or that the shock was passing through regions with highly different atmospheric densities. This complex event, with a multitude of radio features and transients at other wavelengths, presents evidence for both blast-wave-related and CME-related radio emissions.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; Solar Physics Topical Issue, in pres

Snacking characteristics and patterns and their associations with diet quality and BMI in the Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research Consortium

Objective: To describe snacking characteristics and patterns in children and examine associations with diet quality and BMI. Design: Children's weight and height were measured. Participants/adult proxies completed multiple 24 h dietary recalls. Snack occasions were self-identified. Snack patterns were derived for each sample using exploratory factor analysis. Associations of snacking characteristics and patterns with Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010) score and BMI were examined using multivariable linear regression models. Setting: Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) Consortium, USA: NET-Works, GROW, GOALS and IMPACT studies. Participants: Predominantly low-income, racial/ethnic minorities: NET-Works (n 534, 2-4-year-olds); GROW (n 610, 3-5-year-olds); GOALS (n 241, 7-11-year-olds); IMPACT (n 360, 10-13-year-olds).Results: Two snack patterns were derived for three studies: a meal-like pattern and a beverage pattern. The IMPACT study had a similar meal-like pattern and a dairy/grains pattern. A positive association was observed between meal-like pattern adherence and HEI-2010 score (P for trend < 0-01) and snack occasion frequency and HEI-2010 score (β coefficient (95 % CI): NET-Works, 0-14 (0-04, 0-23); GROW, 0-12 (0-02, 0-21)) among younger children. A preference for snacking while using a screen was inversely associated with HEI-2010 score in all studies except IMPACT (β coefficient (95 % CI): NET-Works, -3-15 (-5-37, -0-92); GROW, -2-44 (-4-27, -0-61); GOALS, -5-80 (-8-74, -2-86)). Associations with BMI were almost all null. Conclusions: Meal-like and beverage patterns described most children's snack intake, although patterns for non-Hispanic Blacks or adolescents may differ. Diets of 2-5-year-olds may benefit from frequent meal-like pattern snack consumption and diets of all children may benefit from decreasing screen use during eating occasions