Material Properties Measurements for Selected Materials

Hugoniot equation of state measurements were made on Coconino sandstone, Vacaville basalt, Kaibab limestone, Mono Crater, pumice and Zelux (a polycarbonate resin) for pressures to 2 Mb. A single data point was obtained for fused quartz at 1.6 Mb. In addition to the hugoniot studies, the uniaxial compressive stress behavior of Vacaville basalt and Zelux was investigated at strain rates from about 10(exp -5)/sec to 10(exp 3)/second. The data presented include the stress - strain relations as a function of strain rate for these two materials

Statistical relational learning with soft quantifiers

Quantification in statistical relational learning (SRL) is either existential or universal, however humans might be more inclined to express knowledge using soft quantifiers, such as ``most'' and ``a few''. In this paper, we define the syntax and semantics of PSL^Q, a new SRL framework that supports reasoning with soft quantifiers, and present its most probable explanation (MPE) inference algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, PSL^Q is the first SRL framework that combines soft quantifiers with first-order logic rules for modelling uncertain relational data. Our experimental results for link prediction in social trust networks demonstrate that the use of soft quantifiers not only allows for a natural and intuitive formulation of domain knowledge, but also improves the accuracy of inferred results

Demography and Life Histories of Sympatric Patas Monkeys, Erythrocebus patas, and Vervets, Cercopithecus aethiops, in Laikipia, Kenya

Mortality patterns are thought to be strong selective forces on life history traits, with high adult mortality and low immature mortality favoring early and rapid reproduction. Patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas) have the highest potential rates of population increase for their body size of any haplorhine primate because they reproduce both earlier and more often. We report here 10 yr of comparative demographic data on a population of patas monkeys and a sympatric population of vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops), a closely related species differing in aspects of social system, ecology, and life history. The data reveal that 1) adult female patas monkeys have significantly higher mortality than adult female vervets; 2) infant mortality in patas monkeys is relatively low compared to the norm for mammals because it is not significantly different from that of adult female patas monkeys; and 3) infant mortality is significantly higher than adult female mortality in vervets. For both species, much of the mortality could be attributed to predation. An epidemic illness was also a major contributor to the mortality of adult female patas monkeys whereas chronic exposure to pathogens in a cold and damp microenvironment may have contributed to the mortality of infant vervets. Both populations experienced large fluctuations during the study period. Our results support the prediction from demographic models of life history evolution that high adult mortality relative to immature mortality selects for early maturation

Ramified rectilinear polygons: coordinatization by dendrons

Simple rectilinear polygons (i.e. rectilinear polygons without holes or cutpoints) can be regarded as finite rectangular cell complexes coordinatized by two finite dendrons. The intrinsic $l_1$-metric is thus inherited from the product of the two finite dendrons via an isometric embedding. The rectangular cell complexes that share this same embedding property are called ramified rectilinear polygons. The links of vertices in these cell complexes may be arbitrary bipartite graphs, in contrast to simple rectilinear polygons where the links of points are either 4-cycles or paths of length at most 3. Ramified rectilinear polygons are particular instances of rectangular complexes obtained from cube-free median graphs, or equivalently simply connected rectangular complexes with triangle-free links. The underlying graphs of finite ramified rectilinear polygons can be recognized among graphs in linear time by a Lexicographic Breadth-First-Search. Whereas the symmetry of a simple rectilinear polygon is very restricted (with automorphism group being a subgroup of the dihedral group $D_4$), ramified rectilinear polygons are universal: every finite group is the automorphism group of some ramified rectilinear polygon.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure

Food site residence time and female competitive relationships in wild gray-cheeked mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena)

Authors of socioecological models propose that food distribution affects female social relationships in that clumped food resources, such as fruit, result in strong dominance hierarchies and favor coalition formation with female relatives. A number of Old World monkey species have been used to test predictions of the socioecological models. However, arboreal forest-living Old World monkeys have been understudied in this regard, and it is legitimate to ask whether predominantly arboreal primates living in tropical forests exhibit similar or different patterns of behavior. Therefore, the goal of our study was to investigate female dominance relationships in relation to food in gray-cheeked mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena). Since gray-cheeked mangabeys are largely frugivorous, we predicted that females would have linear dominance hierarchies and form coalitions. In addition, recent studies suggest that long food site residence time is another important factor in eliciting competitive interactions. Therefore, we also predicted that when foods had long site residence times, higher-ranking females would be able to spend longer at the resource than lower-ranking females. Analyses showed that coalitions were rare relative to some other Old World primate species, but females had linear dominance hierarchies. We found that, contrary to expectation, fruit was not associated with more agonism and did not involve long site residence times. However, bark, a food with a long site residence time and potentially high resource value, was associated with more agonism, and higher-ranking females were able to spend more time feeding on it than lower-ranking females. These results suggest that higher-ranking females may benefit from higher food and energy intake rates when food site residence times are long. These findings also add to accumulating evidence that food site residence time is a behavioral contributor to female dominance hierarchies in group-living species

Ranking Network of a Captive Rhesus Macaque Society: A Sophisticated Corporative Kingdom

We develop a three-step computing approach to explore a hierarchical ranking network for a society of captive rhesus macaques. The computed network is sufficiently informative to address the question: Is the ranking network for a rhesus macaque society more like a kingdom or a corporation? Our computations are based on a three-step approach. These steps are devised to deal with the tremendous challenges stemming from the transitivity of dominance as a necessary constraint on the ranking relations among all individual macaques, and the very high sampling heterogeneity in the behavioral conflict data. The first step simultaneously infers the ranking potentials among all network members, which requires accommodation of heterogeneous measurement error inherent in behavioral data. Our second step estimates the social rank for all individuals by minimizing the network-wide errors in the ranking potentials. The third step provides a way to compute confidence bounds for selected empirical features in the social ranking. We apply this approach to two sets of conflict data pertaining to two captive societies of adult rhesus macaques. The resultant ranking network for each society is found to be a sophisticated mixture of both a kingdom and a corporation. Also, for validation purposes, we reanalyze conflict data from twenty longhorn sheep and demonstrate that our three-step approach is capable of correctly computing a ranking network by eliminating all ranking error

Soft quantification in statistical relational learning

We present a new statistical relational learning (SRL) framework that supports reasoning with soft quantifiers, such as "most" and "a few." We define the syntax and the semantics of this language, which we call , and present a most probable explanation inference algorithm for it. To the best of our knowledge, is the first SRL framework that combines soft quantifiers with first-order logic rules for modelling uncertain relational data. Our experimental results for two real-world applications, link prediction in social trust networks and user profiling in social networks, demonstrate that the use of soft quantifiers not only allows for a natural and intuitive formulation of domain knowledge, but also improves inference accuracy

Seasonal effects on reconciliation in Macaca Fuscata Yakui

Dietary composition may have profound effects on the activity budgets, levelof food competition, and social behavior of a species. Similarly, in seasonally breeding species, the mating season is a period in which competition for mating partners increases, affecting amicable social interactions among group members. We analyzed the importance of the mating season and of seasonal variations in dietary composition and food competition on econciliation in wild female Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata yakui) on Yakushima Island, Japan. Yakushima macaques are appropriate subjects because they are seasonal breeders and their dietary composition significantly changes among the seasons. Though large differences occurred between the summer months and the winter and early spring months in activity budgets and the consumption of the main food sources, i.e., fruits, seeds, and leaves, the level of food competition and conciliatory tendency remained unaffected. Conversely,conciliatory tendency is significantly lower during the mating season than in the nonmating season. Moreover, conciliatory tendency is lower when 1 or both female opponents is in estrous than when they are not. Thus the mating season has profound effects on reconciliation, whereas seasonal changes in activity budgets and dietary composition do not. The detrimental effects of the mating season on female social relationships and reconciliation may be due to the importance of female competition for access to male partners in multimale, multifemale societies

Compared to conventional, ecological intensive management promotes beneficial proteolytic soil microbial communities for agro-ecosystem functioning under climate change-induced rain regimes

Projected climate change and rainfall variability will affect soil microbial communities, biogeochemical cycling and agriculture. Nitrogen (N) is the most limiting nutrient in agroecosystems and its cycling and availability is highly dependent on microbial driven processes. In agroecosystems, hydrolysis of organic nitrogen (N) is an important step in controlling soil N availability. We analyzed the effect of management (ecological intensive vs. conventional intensive) on N-cycling processes and involved microbial communities under climate change-induced rain regimes. Terrestrial model ecosystems originating from agroecosystems across Europe were subjected to four different rain regimes for 263 days. Using structural equation modelling we identified direct impacts of rain regimes on N-cycling processes, whereas N-related microbial communities were more resistant. In addition to rain regimes, management indirectly affected N-cycling processes via modifications of N-related microbial community composition. Ecological intensive management promoted a beneficial N-related microbial community composition involved in N-cycling processes under climate change-induced rain regimes. Exploratory analyses identified phosphorus-associated litter properties as possible drivers for the observed management effects on N-related microbial community composition. This work provides novel insights into mechanisms controlling agro-ecosystem functioning under climate change