Pathways to Grow Impact: Philanthropy's Role in the Journey

Since 2010, through the "Scaling What Works" initiative, GEO has fostered a conversation about scale that considers a variety of ways nonprofits are creating more value for communities and how funders are supporting their work. GEO's newest publication, "Pathways to Grow Impact", shares new learning about the role grantmakers should play. The publication is the result of a collaborative project with Ashoka, Social Impact Exchange, Taproot Foundation and TCC Group that sought to answer the question: How can grantmakers best support high-performing nonprofits in their efforts to grow their impact? "Pathways to Grow Impact" is for any grantmaker who wants his or her grant dollars to have a greater effect. The publication offers a framework for understanding different approaches to scaling impact, stories from nonprofit leaders who have successfully grown their organizations' impact, and practical recommendations for grantmakers seeking more effective ways to achieve better results

Does smoke derived from Victorian native vegetation stimulate germination of dormant soil-stored seed?

The effectiveness of Victorian (local) plant-derived smoke in stimulating germination of soil-stored seeds was compared with that of commercial sources from Western Australia and South Africa, for soil samples from a Eucalyptus baxteri (Bentham) Maiden and Blakely ex. J. Black heathy-woodland in the Grampians National Park, western Victoria, using a glasshouse experiment. Smoke from all three sources enhanced seedling emergence relative to no treatment (control). Seedling densities for the Victorian and Western Australian smoke treatments were not significantly different, but were higher than those for the South African smoke. There were also significant differences in species richness and composition among smoke treatments. Mean richness was highest in the Western Australian and lowest in the South African smoke treatments. Differences in species composition were again greatest between samples treated with Victorian or Western Australian smoke and those treated with South African smoke. Smoke clearly acts as a trigger for germination in some species. However, comparisons here were complicated by different methods of smoke production. Further research is required to identify the chemical constituents of smoke which influence seed germination, and the optimum concentration(s) of smoke in relation to germination

Pre-European fire regimes in Australian ecosystems

We use multiple lines of evidence, including palaeo-environmental, ecological, historical, anthropological and archaeological, to investigate pre-European fire regimes in Australia, with particular focus on the extent to which the use of fire by Aboriginal peoples since their colonisation of the continent at least 45,000 years ago has impacted on the Australian biota. The relative roles of people and climate (including past climate change) as agents driving fire regime are assessed for the major climate–vegetation regions of the continent. Both historical accounts and evidence from current land-use practices in some areas support the argument that Aboriginal peoples used fire as a land management tool. Evidence for pre-European fire regimes suggests that while large areas of savanna woodlands in northern Australia, and dry forests and woodlands in temperate southern Australia, were subjected to increased fire under Aboriginal land management; others were not. Areas where fire regime was controlled primarily by ‘natural’ climate-fuel relationships probably included those that were difficult to burn because they were too wet (e.g. rainforests), fuel levels were usually too low (e.g. desert and semi-arid rangelands), or resource availability was low and did not support other than transient human occupation (e.g. some shrublands). Scientific studies suggest that many fire-sensitive woody species would decline under more frequent burning, so that the use of a small patch size, frequent fire regime – such as may have existed over large parts of Australia in the pre-European (Aboriginal occupation) period – may have harmful biodiversity conservation outcomes if instituted without careful consideration of individual ecosystem and species requirements

Equivalence of the filament and overlap graphs of subtrees of limited trees

The overlap graphs of subtrees of a tree are equivalent to subtree filament graphs, the overlap graphs of subtrees of a star are cocomparability graphs, and the overlap graphs of subtrees of a caterpillar are interval filament graphs. In this paper, we show the equivalence of many more classes of subtree overlap and subtree filament graphs, and equate them to classes of complements of cochordal-mixed graphs. Our results generalize the previously known results mentioned above

When the beachhopper looks at the moon: The moon compass hypothesis

The function of moon position for shoreline orientation by talitrids is investigated. Three major results were found: (1) Observed cases of compensation for changes in the direction of the moon are based on physiological rhythm with a period of about 25 hours which can persist for at least several days under constant conditions. (2) The zeitgeber for physiological rhythm may be either moonlight or some other factor associated with the tides. (3) If talitrids are long removed from environmental entrainment, either artifically or naturally, the internal rhythm no longer exerts an appreciable influence on the angle of lunar orientation; in such cases the system deteriorates into constant angle orientation, with an angle which is determined by the beach orgin, but may be modified by lighting conditions

Paradoxical monocular stereopsis and perspective vergence

The question of how to most effectively convey depth in a picture is a multifaceted problem, both because of potential limitations of the chosen medium (stereopsis, image motion), and because effectiveness can be defined in various ways. Practical applications usually focus on information transfer, i.e., effective techniques for evoking recognition of implied depth relationships, but this issue depends on subjective judgements which are difficult to scale when stimuli are above threshold. Two new approaches to this question are proposed here which are based on alternative criteria for effectiveness. Paradoxical monocular stereopsis is a remarkably compelling impression of depth which is evoked during one-eyed viewing of only certain illustrations; it can be unequivocally recognized because the feeling of depth collapses when one shifts to binocular viewing. An exploration of the stimulus properties which are effective for this phenomenon may contribute useful answers for the more general perceptual problem. Positive vergence is an eye-movement response associated with changes of fixation point within a picture which implies depth; it also arises only during monocular viewing. The response is directionally appropriate (i.e., apparently nearer objects evoke convergence, and vice versa), but the magnitude of the response can be altered consistently by making relatively minor changes in the illustration. The cross-subject agreement in changes of response magnitude would permit systematic exploration to determine which stimulus configurations are most effective in evoking perspective vergence, with quantitative answers based upon this involuntary reflex. It may well be that most effective pictures in this context will embody features which would increase effectiveness of pictures in a more general sense

Periodicity in wide-band time series

Summary: To test the hypotheses that (i) electroencephalograms (EEGs) are largely made up of oscillations at many frequencies and (ii) that the peaks in the power spectra represent oscillations, we applied a new method, called the Period Specific Average (PSA) to a wide sample of EEGs. Both hypotheses can be rejected