Are skyline plot-based demographic estimates overly dependent on smoothing prior assumptions?

In Bayesian phylogenetics, the coalescent process provides an informative framework for inferring changes in the effective size of a population from a phylogeny (or tree) of sequences sampled from that population. Popular coalescent inference approaches such as the Bayesian Skyline Plot, Skyride and Skygrid all model these population size changes with a discontinuous, piecewise-constant function but then apply a smoothing prior to ensure that their posterior population size estimates transition gradually with time. These prior distributions implicitly encode extra population size information that is not available from the observed coalescent data i.e., the tree. Here we present a novel statistic, Ω, to quantify and disaggregate the relative contributions of the coalescent data and prior assumptions to the resulting posterior estimate precision. Our statistic also measures the additional mutual information introduced by such priors. Using Ω we show that, because it is surprisingly easy to over-parametrise piecewise-constant population models, common smoothing priors can lead to overconfident and potentially misleading inference, even under robust experimental designs. We propose Ω as a useful tool for detecting when effective population size estimates are overly reliant on prior assumptions and for improving quantification of the uncertainty in those estimates

NEW TOOLS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE TOURISM: ACCESSIBLE VIRTUAL REALITY FOR MILAN’S BASILICA SANT’AMBROGIO

Although virtual reality provides much new unexplored territory for presenting and disseminating cultural heritage, operating VR headsets and controllers remains challenging for new users. By taking advantage of the tools available within the Unreal Engine game engine, the ergonomics of the Oculus Rift motion controllers, and certain principles of storytelling; one can develop a set of strategies for making the use of virtual reality more accessible and intuitive, allowing for new possibilities in the dissemination of built cultural heritage to a general audience. Therefore his paper aims to provide concrete examples of how to produce more effective VR tools for cultural heritage dissemination

Large scale Phaeocystis blooms off the west cost of Ireland in 1990

The occurrence of blooms of Phaeocystis are reported from the West Coast of Ireland in the spring of 1990. Populations were observed along the coastlines of counties Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal. The causative species is believed to have been P. globosa. These blooms represent the largest scale development of this or any other phytoplanktonic species recorded from this geographic area