11,512 research outputs found
Master\u27s Project - Wildlife Habitat Linkages Surrounding the Lake George and Southern Lake Champlain Region
Conservation priorities – when developed systematically and objectively – can maximize land protection efforts in heterogeneous landscapes susceptible to parcelization and development. One such region surrounds Lake George and Southern Lake Champlain, nested between the Green and Adirondack Mountains. This mosaic of conserved and private parcels sits upon an array of forest, agriculture, wetland, and development valuable to both humans and resident wildlife species. This landscape’s inherent connectedness provides many benefits to wildlife, including species richness, enhanced persistence, and increased genetic interchange. However, it is difficult to make definitive statements about potential wildlife movement through such complex matrices. Therefore, wildlife modeling approaches have evolved to paint a clearer picture of landscape connectivity.
Sam Talbot, ecological planning graduate student at the University of Vermont, worked with the Lake Champlain Land Trust and Lake George Land Conservancy to incorporate landscape connectivity and wildlife corridors into their strategic conservation planning efforts. This project, including a least-cost corridor analysis of the region to highlight large swaths of contiguous habitat, provides the information critical to such conservation efforts. Using the ArcGIS program CorridorDesigner to conduct the analysis, with custom model parameters, identifies three discrete latitudinal corridors between large established wildland blocks. These outputs were then evaluated and compared based on several landscape factors. Ultimately, this study will inform conservation and management decisions, as well as enhance dialogue among local conservation organizations
Chemical accuracy from quantum Monte Carlo for the Benzene Dimer
We report an accurate study of interactions between Benzene molecules using
variational quantum Monte Carlo (VMC) and diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DMC)
methods. We compare these results with density functional theory (DFT) using
different van der Waals (vdW) functionals. In our QMC calculations, we use
accurate correlated trial wave functions including three-body Jastrow factors,
and backflow transformations. We consider two benzene molecules in the parallel
displaced (PD) geometry, and find that by highly optimizing the wave function
and introducing more dynamical correlation into the wave function, we compute
the weak chemical binding energy between aromatic rings accurately. We find
optimal VMC and DMC binding energies of -2.3(4) and -2.7(3) kcal/mol,
respectively. The best estimate of the CCSD(T)/CBS limit is -2.65(2) kcal/mol
[E. Miliordos et al, J. Phys. Chem. A 118, 7568 (2014)]. Our results indicate
that QMC methods give chemical accuracy for weakly bound van der Waals
molecular interactions, comparable to results from the best quantum chemistry
methods.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.
143, Issue 11, 201
Low-pressure phase diagram of crystalline benzene from quantum Monte Carlo
We study the low-pressure (0 to 10 GPa) phase diagram of crystalline benzene
using quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) and density functional theory (DFT) methods. We
consider the , , and structures as the best candidates
for phase I and phase II. We perform diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DMC)
calculations to obtain accurate static phase diagrams as benchmarks for modern
van der Waals density functionals. We use density functional perturbation
theory to compute phonon contribution in the free-energy calculations. Our DFT
enthalpy-pressure phase diagram indicates that the and
structures are the most stable phases within the studied pressure range. The
DMC Gibbs free-energy calculations predict that the room temperature to
phase transition occurs at 2.1(1) GPa. This prediction is consistent
with available experimental results at room temperature. Our DMC calculations
show an estimate of 50.60.5 kJ/mol for crystalline benzene lattice energy
Agricultural Information Needs and Food Access in the Stann Creek District of Belize
The purpose of this study was to describe agricultural information sources available to farmers and to describe food access and availability for the people of Dangriga, Stann Creek, Belize. This study used descriptive survey research methods with convenience sampling of the general public (n=22) and of farmers (n = 38) in the summer of 2017. Farmers use a variety of agricultural information sources with the extension service cited most often, followed by friends and fellow farmers. Weather, lack of information, pests, and inadequate access to capital were of primary concern for farmers. Face-to-face meetings were used most often by extension officers for disseminating agricultural information. Smallholder farmers and the general public have very similar levels of food access and availability. No significant difference was foundbetween the smallholder farmers and the general public on food insecurity with both groups reporting mild to severe food insecurity. Recommendations focused on practical operational strategies for the local Department of Agriculture, as well as the Belize Ministry of Agriculture to eradicate hungerand increase overall food access and availability throughout Belize
Drop spreading and drifting on a spatially heterogeneous film: capturing variability with asymptotics and emulation
A liquid drop spreading over a thin heterogeneous precursor film (such as an
inhaled droplet on the mucus-lined wall of a lung airway) will experience
perturbations in shape and location as its advancing contact line encounters
regions of low or high film viscosity. Prior work on spatially one-dimensional
spreading over a precursor film having a random viscosity field [Xu & Jensen
2016, Proc. Roy. Soc. A 472, 20160270] has demonstrated how viscosity
fluctuations are swept into a narrow region behind the contact line, where they
can impact drop dynamics. Here we investigate two-dimensional drops, seeking to
understand the relationship between the statistical properties of the precursor
film and those of the spreading drop. Assuming the precursor film is much
thinner than the drop and viscosity fluctuations are weak, we use asymptotic
methods to derive explicit predictions for the mean and variance of drop area
and the drop's lateral drift. For larger film variability, we use Gaussian
process emulation to estimate the variance of outcomes from a restricted set of
simulations. Stochastic drift of the droplet is predicted to be greatest when
the initial drop diameter is comparable to the correlation length of viscosity
fluctuations.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure
Estimation of geopotential from satellite-to-satellite range rate data: Numerical results
A technique for high-resolution geopotential field estimation by recovering the harmonic coefficients from satellite-to-satellite range rate data is presented and tested against both a controlled analytical simulation of a one-day satellite mission (maximum degree and order 8) and then against a Cowell method simulation of a 32-day mission (maximum degree and order 180). Innovations include: (1) a new frequency-domain observation equation based on kinetic energy perturbations which avoids much of the complication of the usual Keplerian element perturbation approaches; (2) a new method for computing the normalized inclination functions which unlike previous methods is both efficient and numerically stable even for large harmonic degrees and orders; (3) the application of a mass storage FFT to the entire mission range rate history; (4) the exploitation of newly discovered symmetries in the block diagonal observation matrix which reduce each block to the product of (a) a real diagonal matrix factor, (b) a real trapezoidal factor with half the number of rows as before, and (c) a complex diagonal factor; (5) a block-by-block least-squares solution of the observation equation by means of a custom-designed Givens orthogonal rotation method which is both numerically stable and tailored to the trapezoidal matrix structure for fast execution
A History and Explanation of Montana Disciplinary Practices
A History and Explanation of Montana Disciplinary Practice
Divine Kink: A Consideration of the Evidence for BDSM as Spiritual Ritual
This paper reviews the limited empirical research supporting BDSM as a spiritual ritual that enables distinct altered states of consciousness. It expands upon Sagarin, Lee, and Klement’s (2015) preliminary comparison of BDSM to extreme ritual by suggesting that BDSM bears in common with spiritual ritual elements of pain or ordeal, spiritual meaning, and transformative potential. An increasing interest in BDSM in the West is considered in light of the spiritual and ritual roles BDSM fulfills for many practitioners. The relevance of BDSM to transpersonal psychology is discussed and BDSM is considered as an area for further research in transpersonal psychology
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