Location Software and Interface with GIS and Supply Chain Management

The objective of this paper is to bridge the gap between location theory and practice. To meet this objective focus is given to the development of software capable of addressing the different needs of a wide group of users. There is a very active community on location theory encompassing many research fields such as operations research, computer science, mathematics, engineering, geography, economics and marketing. As a result, people working on facility location problems have a very diverse background and also different needs regarding the software to solve these problems. For those interested in non-commercial applications (e. g. students and researchers), the library of location algorithms (LoLA can be of considerable assistance. LoLA contains a collection of efficient algorithms for solving planar, network and discrete facility location problems. In this paper, a detailed description of the functionality of LoLA is presented. In the fields of geography and marketing, for instance, solving facility location problems requires using large amounts of demographic data. Hence, members of these groups (e. g. urban planners and sales managers) often work with geographical information too s. To address the specific needs of these users, LoLA was inked to a geographical information system (GIS) and the details of the combined functionality are described in the paper. Finally, there is a wide group of practitioners who need to solve large problems and require special purpose software with a good data interface. Many of such users can be found, for example, in the area of supply chain management (SCM). Logistics activities involved in strategic SCM include, among others, facility location planning. In this paper, the development of a commercial location software tool is also described. The too is embedded in the Advanced Planner and Optimizer SCM software developed by SAP AG, Walldorf, Germany. The paper ends with some conclusions and an outlook to future activities

Macroevolutionary diversification with limited niche disparity in a species-rich lineage of cold-climate lizards

Background: Life diversifies via adaptive radiation when natural selection drives the evolution of ecologically distinct species mediated by their access to novel niche space, or via non-adaptive radiation when new species diversify while retaining ancestral niches. However, while cases of adaptive radiation are widely documented, examples of non-adaptively radiating lineages remain rarely observed. A prolific cold-climate lizard radiation from South America (Phymaturus), sister to a hyper-diverse adaptive radiation (Liolaemus), has extensively diversified phylogenetically and geographically, but with exceptionally minimal ecological and life-history diversification. This lineage, therefore, may offer unique opportunities to investigate the non-adaptive basis of diversification, and in combination with Liolaemus, to cover the whole spectrum of modes of diversification predicted by theory, from adaptive to non-adaptive. Using phylogenetic macroevolutionary modelling performed on a newly created 58-species molecular tree, we establish the tempo and mode of diversification in the Phymaturus radiation. Results: Lineage accumulation in Phymaturus opposes a density-dependent (or ‘niche-filling’) process of diversification. Concurrently, we found that body size diversification is better described by an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck evolutionary model, suggesting stabilizing selection as the mechanism underlying niche conservatism (i.e., maintaining two fundamental size peaks), and which has predominantly evolved around two major adaptive peaks on a ‘Simpsonian’ adaptive landscape. Conclusions: Lineage diversification of the Phymaturus genus does not conform to an adaptive radiation, as it is characterised by a constant rate of species accumulation during the clade’s history. Their strict habitat requirements (rocky outcrops), predominantly invariant herbivory, and especially the constant viviparous reproduction across species have likely limited their opportunities for adaptive diversifications throughout novel environments. This mode of diversification contrasts dramatically with its sister lineage Liolaemus, which geographically overlaps with Phymaturus, but exploits all possible microhabitats in these and other bioclimatic areas. Our study contributes importantly to consolidate these lizards (liolaemids) as promising model systems to investigate the entire spectrum of modes of species formations, from the adaptive to the non-adaptive extremes of the continuum

Ultra-weak photon emission as a dynamic tool for monitoring oxidative stress metabolism

Analytical BioScience

Improved Constraints on the 21 cm EoR Power Spectrum and the X-Ray Heating of the IGM with HERA Phase I Observations

Abstract We report the most sensitive upper limits to date on the 21 cm epoch of reionization power spectrum using 94 nights of observing with Phase I of the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). Using similar analysis techniques as in previously reported limits, we find at 95% confidence that Δ2(k = 0.34 h Mpc−1) ≤ 457 mK2 at z = 7.9 and that Δ2(k = 0.36 h Mpc−1) ≤ 3496 mK2 at z = 10.4, an improvement by a factor of 2.1 and 2.6, respectively. These limits are mostly consistent with thermal noise over a wide range of k after our data quality cuts, despite performing a relatively conservative analysis designed to minimize signal loss. Our results are validated with both statistical tests on the data and end-to-end pipeline simulations. We also report updated constraints on the astrophysics of reionization and the cosmic dawn. Using multiple independent modeling and inference techniques previously employed by HERA Collaboration, we find that the intergalactic medium must have been heated above the adiabatic cooling limit at least as early as z = 10.4, ruling out a broad set of so-called “cold reionization” scenarios. If this heating is due to high-mass X-ray binaries during the cosmic dawn, as is generally believed, our result’s 99% credible interval excludes the local relationship between soft X-ray luminosity and star formation and thus requires heating driven by evolved low-metallicity stars.</jats:p