Social challenges of spatial planning for outdoor cat management in Amami Oshima Island, Japan

Outdoor cats pose substantial threats to native biodiversity, especially on islands. However, cats also provide benefits to people, such as companionship and the killing of pests. Thus, management of outdoor cats is controversial and can lead to conflicts among stakeholders. Although previous studies have examined stakeholders' preferences for outdoor cats and their management, little is known about the differences in their attitudes toward cat occurrences and management across habitats. Identifying these attitudinal differences would provide useful knowledge for policy makers about zoning management. We conducted structured interviews with residents in Amami Oshima Island, Japan, to evaluate the residents' attitudes to outdoor cats' occurrence and their management across habitats (Forest, Rural, and Town areas). Furthermore, we compared the attitudes of cat- owners and non-owners. The results show that the Forest was least preferred as an outdoor cat habitat. Lethal options as a management strategy were unacceptable to the residents, whereas adoption was acceptable in all areas. Cat-owners showed a significantly higher acceptance toward outdoor cats in Town and Rural areas than did non-owners; they also showed a lower acceptance of lethal options and a higher acceptance toward Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR) than non-owners. These findings imply that it is difficult to achieve consensus regarding outdoor cat management, especially in town and rural areas; however, outdoor cats from these areas move to the forests and pose a threat to the endangered species. Communication efforts with both cat-owners and non-owners should fill these attitudinal gaps among stakeholders and lead to effective management. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Macroscopic Expression Connecting the Rate of Energy Dissipation and Violation of the Fluctuation-Response Relation

A direct connection between the magnitude of the violation of the fluctuation-response relation (FRR) and the rate of energy dissipation is presented in terms of field variables of nonequilibrium systems. Here, we consider the density field of a colloidal suspension either in a relaxation process or in a nonequilibrium steady state driven by an external field. Using a path-integral representation of the temporal evolution of the density field, we find an equality that relates the magnitude of the violation of the FRR for scalar and vector potentials of the velocity field to the rate of energy dissipation for the entire system. Our result demonstrates that the violation of the FRR for field variables captures the entropic component of the dissipated free energy.Comment: 4 pages, a major reviso

Social Dilemmas in Nature-Based Tourism Depend on Social Value Orientations

Nature-based tourism (NBT) is vulnerable to a rapid increase in visitors because natural resources are often open access. Market failure caused by over-exploitation of natural resources is an example of social dilemmas in common-pool resource systems. Game theory, which describes people’s decision making under conflicts, has been applied to the analysis of social dilemmas in NBT. However, previous studies use non-cooperative games assuming individualistic players and discuss the emergence of social dilemmas only in a limited situation. Here, we demonstrate, by developing a two-player non-cooperative game of wildlife viewing, that the traditional game-theoretic approach fails to find social dilemmas. By analysing the competition between tour operators (players) with different social value orientations (SVOs), we found that concentration of tours becomes a Pareto-inefficient Nash equilibrium (PINE) when both players are competitive. Whether the wildlife-viewing market is a Prisoner’s dilemma depends on players’ SVOs. Furthermore, we found that fair punishment on competitive players promotes rather than suppresses the emergence of PINE. Our results suggest that the diversity of SVOs is an essential factor in understanding social dilemmas in NBT

OCTAD-S: Digital Fast Fourier Transform Spectrometers by FPGA

We have developed a digital fast Fourier transform (FFT) spectrometer made of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The base instrument has independent ADC and FPGA modules, which allow us to implement different spectrometers in a relatively easy manner. Two types of spectrometers have been instrumented, one with 4.096 GS/s sampling speed and 2048 frequency channels and the other with 2.048 GS/s sampling speed and 32768 frequency channels. The signal processing in these spectrometers has no dead time and the accumulated spectra are recorded in external media every 8 ms. A direct sampling spectroscopy up to 8 GHz is achieved by a microwave track-and-hold circuit, which can reduce the analog receiver in front of the spectrometer. Highly stable spectroscopy with a wide dynamic range was demonstrated in a series of laboratory experiments and test observations of solar radio bursts.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Earth, Planets and Spac

Two parameter flow of \sigma_{xx}(\omega) - \sigma_{xy}(\omega) for the graphene quantum Hall system in ac regime

Flow diagram of $(\sigma_{xx}, \sigma_{xy})$ in finite-frequency ($\omega$) regime is numerically studied for graphene quantum Hall effect (QHE) system. The ac flow diagrams turn out to show qualitatively similar behavior as the dc flow diagrams, which can be understood that the dynamical length scale determined by the frequency poses a relevant cutoff for the renormalization flow. Then the two parameter flow is discussed in terms of the dynamical scaling theory. We also discuss the larger-$\omega$ regime which exhibits classical flows driven by the raw frequency $\omega$.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Heat conduction induced by non-Gaussian athermal fluctuations

We study the properties of heat conduction induced by non-Gaussian noises from athermal environments. We find that new terms should be added to the conventional Fourier law and the fluctuation theorem for the heat current, where its average and fluctuation are determined not only by the noise intensities but also by the non-Gaussian nature of the noises. Our results explicitly show the absence of the zeroth law of thermodynamics in athermal systems.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, PRE in pres