10,388 research outputs found
Wind erosion in semiarid landscapes: Predictive models and remote sensing methods for the influence of vegetation
Wind erosion in semi-arid regions is a significant problem for which the sheltering effect of rangeland vegetation is poorly understood. Individual plants may be considered as porous roughness elements which absorb or redistribute the wind's momentum. The saltation threshold is the minimum wind velocity at which soil movement begins. The dependence of the saltation threshold on geometrical parameters of a uniform roughness array was studied in a wind tunnel. Both solid and porous elements were used to determine relationships between canopy structure and the threshold velocity for soil transport. The development of a predictive relation for the influence of vegetation canopy structure on wind erosion of soil is discussed
Anti-pheromone as a tool for better exploration of search space
Many animals use chemical substances known as pheromones to induce behavioural changes in other members of the same species. The use of pheromones by ants in particular has lead to the development of a number of computational analogues of ant colony behaviour including Ant Colony Optimisation. Although many animals use a range of pheromones in their communication, ant algorithms have typically focused on the use of just one, a substance that encourages succeeding generations of (artificial) ants to follow the same path as previous generations. Ant algorithms for multi-objective optimisation and those employing multiple colonies have made use of more than one pheromone, but the interactions between these different pheromones are largely simple extensions of single criterion, single colony ant algorithms. This paper investigates an alternative form of interaction between normal pheromone and anti-pheromone. Three variations of Ant Colony System that apply the anti-pheromone concept in different ways are described and tested against benchmark travelling salesman problems. The results indicate that the use of anti-pheromone can lead to improved performance. However, if anti-pheromone is allowed too great an influence on ants' decisions, poorer performance may result
Connoisseurship of nineteenth and early twentieth century publishers' bookbindings
Journal ArticleThe vast majority of historically significant nineteenth- and early-twentieth century publishers' bookbindings reside in the general collections of research libraries. In no way does this minimize the importance of this material historically nor the library's professional obligation to guarantee its protection. Unique or extremely rare examples of original publishers', binders', and designers' works, of value simply by virtue of their limited survival rate, reside unrecognized in the open stacks. Consequently, this circulating material is subject to wear, and remains at risk of being lost through inappropriate book repair practices and commercial rebinding, a tragedy not restricted to U.S. libraries
The Randall-Sundrum Scenario with an Extra Warped Dimension
We investigate a scenario with two four-branes embedded in six dimensions.
When the metric is periodic and compact in one of the dimensions parallel to
the branes, the value of the effective cosmological constant for the remaining
five dimensions can assume a variety of values, determined by the dependence of
the metric on the sixth dimension. The picture that emerges resembles the
Randall-Sundrum model but with an extra warped dimension that allows the usual
brane-bulk fine tuning to be satisfied without finely tuning any of the
parameters in the underlying six dimensional theory. Although the action
contains terms with four derivatives of the metric, we show that when the
branes have a finite, natural thickness, such terms have only a small effect on
the Randall-Sundrum structure. The presence of these four derivative terms also
allows a configuration that resembles that produced by a domain wall but which
results from gravity alone.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, requires harvmac and picte
Genomic islands of divergence in the Yellow Tang and the Brushtail Tang Surgeonfishes.
The current ease of obtaining thousands of molecular markers challenges the notion that full phylogenetic concordance, as proposed by phylogenetic species concepts, is a requirement for defining species delimitations. Indeed, the presence of genomic islands of divergence, which may be the cause, or in some cases the consequence, of speciation, precludes concordance. Here, we explore this issue using thousands of RAD markers on two sister species of surgeonfishes (Teleostei: Acanthuridae), Zebrasoma flavescens and Z. scopas, and several populations within each species. Species are readily distinguished based on their colors (solid yellow and solid brown, respectively), yet populations and species are neither distinguishable using mitochondrial markers (cytochrome c oxidase 1), nor using 5193 SNPs (pairwise Φst = 0.034). In contrast, when using outlier loci, some of them presumably under selection, species delimitations, and strong population structure follow recognized taxonomic positions (pairwise Φst = 0.326). Species and population delimitation differences based on neutral and selected markers are likely due to local adaptation, thus being consistent with the idea that these genomic islands of divergence arose as a consequence of isolation. These findings, which are not unique, raise the question of a potentially important pathway of divergence based on local adaptation that is only evident when looking at thousands of loci
The relation of perceptual factors and speed of handwriting to spelling ability.
Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit
Spin and a Running Radius in RS1
We develop a renormalization group formalism for the compactified
Randall-Sundrum scenario wherein the extra-dimensional radius serves as the
scaling parameter. Couplings on the hidden brane scale as we move within local
effective field theories with varying size of the warped extra dimension. We
consider this RG approach applied to U(1) gauge theories and gravity. We use
this method to derive a low energy effective theory.Comment: 18 pages, minor changes, references adde
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