A big-data spatial, temporal and network analysis of bovine tuberculosis between wildlife (badgers) and cattle

postprin

Plasticity in foraging behaviour as a possible response to climate change

published_or_final_versio

The Agricultural Growth and Malting Production of Barley Grains in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia

The purpose of this study is to explore the history and production processes of beer and examines the components that contribute to its brewing. The narrative will provide a timeline of the processes that are required to create the product of beer beginning with the agricultural products and following the brewing processes that result in beer as the finished product. I will also examine the business of agriculture and grain processing and will provide some historical perspectives of grain, beer, and malting. I will also consider whether the growing, processing, and malting of grains in the East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia Region is feasible as demonstrated through this research and reported findings

The Agricultural Growth and Malting Production of Barley Grains in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia

The purpose of this study is to explore the history and production processes of beer and examines the components that contribute to its brewing. The narrative will provide a timeline of the processes that are required to create the product of beer beginning with the agricultural products and following the brewing processes that result in beer as the finished product. I will also examine the business of agriculture and grain processing and will provide some historical perspectives of grain, beer, and malting. I will also consider whether the growing, processing, and malting of grains in the East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia Region is feasible as demonstrated through this research and reported findings

SELF-KNOWLEDGE, BUSINESS-INFORMATION PREFERENCE AND USE AS DETERMINANTS OF SALES PERFORMANCE OF MANAGERS IN PETROLEUM MARKETING COMPANIES IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Purpose: Preliminary investigation into the management of petroleum marketing companies in Oyo State revealed that the sales performance of managers in petroleum industry is drastically poor and the industry is facing a lot of challenges in the Nigerian environment. Consequently, the study investigates the level of self-knowledge, business information preference and use as determinants of sales performance of managers in petroleum marketing companies in Oyo state, Nigeria. Methodology: The study adopted the descriptive research design to determine the direction and degree of relationship between variables. The target population for the study was the managers in petroleum marketing companies. Total enumeration sampling techniques with a structured questionnaire was used for data collection on a population size of 232 managers out of which 220 managers responded giving a response rate of 94.8 percent. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, percentages, one-way analysis of variance, correlation and multiple regression analysis. Combination of self-knowledge, business information preference and use had significant positive relationship with sales performance of managers in petroleum marketing companies. It shows a coefficient of multiple correlation ( r=.8031) and (R2=1658). Findings: However, the study found out that self-knowledge (r =0.306, P \u3c.05); business information preference (r = 0.401, P \u3c 0.05) and business information use (r=0.548, P \u3c 0.05) of the respondents were found to be significant predictors of sales performance. Recommendations: Management of petroleum marketing companies should continually seek appropriate business information on innovative products and services in order to compete favorably with competitor in the industry. The management should invest in human capital development in the organisation to increase customer satisfaction and increase profitability. Originality: The research work is original and Nobel in addressing issues as regards the topic addressed

Allometry and growth of eight tree taxa in United Kingdom woodlands.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0As part of a project to develop predictive ecosystem models of United Kingdom woodlands we have collated data from two United Kingdom woodlands - Wytham Woods and Alice Holt. Here we present data from 582 individual trees of eight taxa in the form of summary variables relating to the allometric relationships between trunk diameter, height, crown height, crown radius and trunk radial growth rate to the tree's light environment and diameter at breast height. In addition the raw data files containing the variables from which the summary data were obtained. Large sample sizes with longitudinal data spanning 22 years make these datasets useful for future studies concerned with the way trees change in size and shape over their life-span

Reconciling actual and perceived rates of predation by domestic cats

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordThe predation of wildlife by domestic cats (Felis catus) is a complex problem: Cats are popular companion animals in modern society but are also acknowledged predators of birds, herpetofauna, invertebrates, and small mammals. A comprehensive understanding of this conservation issue demands an understanding of both the ecological consequence of owning a domestic cat and the attitudes of cat owners. Here, we determine whether cat owners are aware of the predatory behavior of their cats, using data collected from 86 cats in two UK villages. We examine whether the amount of prey their cat returns influences the attitudes of 45 cat owners toward the broader issue of domestic cat predation. We also contribute to the wider understanding of physiological, spatial, and behavioral drivers of prey returns among cats. We find an association between actual prey returns and owner predictions at the coarse scale of predatory/nonpredatory behavior, but no correlation between the observed and predicted prey-return rates among predatory cats. Cat owners generally disagreed with the statement that cats are harmful to wildlife, and disfavored all mitigation options apart from neutering. These attitudes were uncorrelated with the predatory behavior of their cats. Cat owners failed to perceive the magnitude of their cats' impacts on wildlife and were not influenced by ecological information. Management options for the mitigation of cat predation appear unlikely to work if they focus on "predation awareness" campaigns or restrictions of cat freedom. We consider both the ecological consequence of owning a domestic cat and the attitudes of cat owners. Our findings suggest cat owners fail to perceive the magnitude of their cats' impacts on wildlife, with no correlation between the observed and predicted prey return rates among predatory cats. On the basis of opinions of cat owners in this study, management options for the mitigation of cat predation appear unlikely to work if they focus on "predation awareness" campaigns, or restrictions of cat freedom.International Fund for Animal WelfareUniversity of ExeterEuropean Social FundNatural Environment Research Council (NERC

Notes on the Construction of a General Map of Africa, 1/Two Million: Discussion

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Information cards and a design to extend the claims model to incorporate geolocation

The rapid adoption of the internet has occurred despite the lack of a ubiquitous identity meta-system. The status quo is a patchwork of proprietary security systems. A number of security issues have arisen as a result which threaten to lead to a loss of trust in the internet, and may limit the scope of applications built on it; effectively constraining the potential of the internet as a platform for business and services. Current initiatives by a broad consortium of industry leaders promise a vastly improved landscape with a set of interoperable protocols and systems, built on open specifications, and guided by a set of core identity principles, enabling a more secure online experience. Simultaneously there have arisen a large number of location aware web application and services which detect and use a user’s location to enhance their application experience. These advances, although useful, present new security and privacy issues. This paper investigates the operation of one of the new identity technologies, information cards, and proposes extensions to the existing supported schemas to incorporate recent advances in geo-location technology. The proposal is supported by reference to existing o pen source implementations

Runtime Distributions and Criteria for Restarts

Randomized algorithms sometimes employ a restart strategy. After a certain number of steps, the current computation is aborted and restarted with a new, independent random seed. In some cases, this results in an improved overall expected runtime. This work introduces properties of the underlying runtime distribution which determine whether restarts are advantageous. The most commonly used probability distributions admit the use of a scale and a location parameter. Location parameters shift the density function to the right, while scale parameters affect the spread of the distribution. It is shown that for all distributions scale parameters do not influence the usefulness of restarts and that location parameters only have a limited influence. This result simplifies the analysis of the usefulness of restarts. The most important runtime probability distributions are the log-normal, the Weibull, and the Pareto distribution. In this work, these distributions are analyzed for the usefulness of restarts. Secondly, a condition for the optimal restart time (if it exists) is provided. The log-normal, the Weibull, and the generalized Pareto distribution are analyzed in this respect. Moreover, it is shown that the optimal restart time is also not influenced by scale parameters and that the influence of location parameters is only linear