49,280 research outputs found
Towards a historical ecology of intertidal foraging in the Mafia Archipelago: archaeomalacology and implications for marine resource management
Understanding the timing and nature of human influence on coastal and island ecosystems is becoming a central concern in archaeological research, particularly when investigated within a historical ecology framework. Unfortunately, the coast and islands of eastern Africa have not figured significantly within this growing body of literature, but are important given their historically contingent environmental, social, and political contexts, as well as the considerable threats now posed to marine ecosystems. Here, we begin developing a longer-term understanding of past marine resource use in the Mafia Archipelago (eastern Africa), an area of high ecological importance containing the Mafia Island Marine Park. Focusing on the comparatively less researched marine invertebrates provides a means for initiating discussion on potential past marine ecosystem structure, human foraging and environmental shifts, and the implications for contemporary marine resource management. The available evidence suggests that human-environment interactions over the last 2000 years were complex and dynamic; however, these data raise more questions than answers regarding the specific drivers of changes observed in the archaeomalacological record. This is encouraging as a baseline investigation and emphasizes the need for further engagement with historical ecology by a range of cognate disciplines to enhance our understanding of these complex issues
Exactly solvable model with two conductor-insulator transitions driven by impurities
We present an exact analysis of two conductor-insulator transitions in the
random graph model. The average connectivity is related to the concentration of
impurities. The adjacency matrix of a large random graph is used as a hopping
Hamiltonian. Its spectrum has a delta peak at zero energy. Our analysis is
based on an explicit expression for the height of this peak, and a detailed
description of the localized eigenvectors and of their contribution to the
peak. Starting from the low connectivity (high impurity density) regime, one
encounters an insulator-conductor transition for average connectivity
1.421529... and a conductor-insulator transition for average connectivity
3.154985.... We explain the spectral singularity at average connectivity
e=2.718281... and relate it to another enumerative problem in random graph
theory, the minimal vertex cover problem.Comment: 4 pages revtex, 2 fig.eps [v2: new title, changed intro, reorganized
text
Space - Single Precision Cowell Trajectory Program
Single Precision Cowell Trajectory program - digital computer program for trajectory computatio
SFPRO - Single Precision Cowell Trajectory Processor
Digital computer program for IBM 7094 computer to generate spacecraft tracking station calculation
The Nernst effect in high- superconductors
The observation of a large Nernst signal in an extended region above
the critical temperature in hole-doped cuprates provides evidence that
vortex excitations survive above . The results support the scenario that
superfluidity vanishes because long-range phase coherence is destroyed by
thermally-created vortices (in zero field), and that the pair condensate
extends high into the pseudogap state in the underdoped (UD) regime. We present
a series of measurements to high fields which provide strong evidence for
this phase-disordering scenario.Comment: 21 pages, 28 figure
Classical generalized constant coupling model for geometrically frustrated antiferromagnets
A generalized constant coupling approximation for classical geometrically
frustrated antiferromagnets is presented. Starting from a frustrated unit we
introduce the interactions with the surrounding units in terms of an internal
effective field which is fixed by a self consistency condition. Results for the
magnetic susceptibility and specific heat are compared with Monte Carlo data
for the classical Heisenberg model for the pyrochlore and kagome lattices. The
predictions for the susceptibility are found to be essentially exact, and the
corresponding predictions for the specific heat are found to be in very good
agreement with the Monte Carlo results.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 2 columns. Discussion about the zero T value of
the pyrochlore specific heat correcte
Reducing the Effects of Unequal Number of Games on Rankings
Ranking is an important mathematical process in a variety of contexts such as information retrieval, sports and business. Sports ranking methods can be applied both in and beyond the context of athletics. In both settings, once the concept of a game has been defined, teams (or individuals) accumulate wins, losses, and ties, which are then factored into the ranking computation. Many settings involve an unequal number of games between competitors. This paper demonstrates how to adapt two sports rankings methods, the Colley and Massey ranking methods, to settings where an unequal number of games are played between the teams. In such settings, the standard derivations of the methods can produce nonsensical rankings. This paper introduces the idea of including a super-user into the rankings and considers the effect of this fictitious player on the ratings. We apply such techniques to rank batters and pitchers in Major League baseball, professional tennis players, and participants in a free online social game. The ideas introduced in this paper can further the scope that such methods are applied and the depth of insight they offer
Critical Dynamics of the Contact Process with Quenched Disorder
We study critical spreading dynamics in the two-dimensional contact process
(CP) with quenched disorder in the form of random dilution. In the pure model,
spreading from a single particle at the critical point is
characterized by the critical exponents of directed percolation: in
dimensions, , , and . Disorder causes a
dramatic change in the critical exponents, to , , and . These exponents govern spreading following
a long crossover period. The usual hyperscaling relation, , is violated. Our results support the conjecture by Bramson, Durrett, and
Schonmann [Ann. Prob. {\bf 19}, 960 (1991)], that in two or more dimensions the
disordered CP has only a single phase transition.Comment: 11 pages, REVTeX, four figures available on reques
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