Genetic diversity and hybridization in natural stands of shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.)

Scope and Method of Study: molecular markers (AFLPs and IDH), population genetics, conversation, forest genetics.Findings and Conclusions: Genetic diversity in natural stands of shortleaf pine and loblolly pine is high. The majority (over 80%) of this genetic diversity is found within subpopulations and less than 20% is found among subpopulations. The subpopulations in both shortleaf pine and loblolly pine have similar level of genetic diversity. The populations located east of the Mississippi River and those west of the River have similar level of genetic diversity. Gene flow is high among subpopulations and between populations east and west of the Mississippi River. No apparent relationship exists between populations' geographic distances and genetic distances. The hybridization rate between the two species varies from place to place, ranging from 25% in MO to 0 in other populations in this study. The hybridization frequency is higher in populations west of Mississippi River than in those east of the River. IDH is a useful marker to detect hybrids of shortleaf and loblolly pine. AFLPs are good markers for genetic diversity and structure study, but not efficient in finding later generation hybrids. More codominant markers are needed to detect later generation hybrids. The results of this study may have important forest management implications

Preparation of Amidoxime Polyacrylonitrile Chelating Nanofibers and Their Application for Adsorption of Metal Ions.

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning and they were modified with hydroxylamine to synthesize amidoxime polyacrylonitrile (AOPAN) chelating nanofibers, which were applied to adsorb copper and iron ions. The conversion of the nitrile group in PAN was calculated by the gravimetric method. The structure and surface morphology of the AOPAN nanofiber were characterized by a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM), respectively. The adsorption abilities of Cu2+ and Fe3+ ions onto the AOPAN nanofiber mats were evaluated. FT-IR spectra showed nitrile groups in the PAN were partly converted into amidoxime groups. SEM examination demonstrated that there were no serious cracks or sign of degradation on the surface of the PAN nanofibers after chemical modification. The adsorption capacities of both copper and iron ions onto the AOPAN nanofiber mats were higher than those into the raw PAN nanofiber mats. The adsorption data of Cu2+ and Fe3+ ions fitted particularly well with the Langmuir isotherm. The maximal adsorption capacities of Cu2+ and Fe3+ ions were 215.18 and 221.37 mg/g, respectively

Investment Timing and Capacity Choice under Uncertainty

This paper examines strategic investment between two firms that compete not only for investment timing but also for capacity under stochastic market demand. The value functions of real option for the follower, the dominant leader, and the preemptive leader are derived and their investment decisions are investigated. It finds that both firms will delay investment and the delayed margin of the follower will surpass that of the leader under greater uncertainty. Furthermore, both firms will provide more outputs in the face of increasing uncertainty and the growth rate of the follower’s capacity will exceed that of the leader’s. In addition, this paper finds that the follower will end up with a larger capacity than the leader

Why Is “A White Horse Not a Horse”?

This paper attempts a new reading of Gongsun Long’s “Baima lun”, through comparison with the Heidelberg School’s interpretation of Hölderlin’s “Being and Judgement” as a critique of self-consciousness and its judgmental form. It demonstrates that “Baima lun” correspondingly employs a reflectivity, or logic-transcending, anti-foundational perspective of “Being”, in order to undertake an ironical critique of judgment by a judgment as an illustration and confirmation of the epistemological ideas developed in “Zhiwu lun” and “Mingshi lun”. Consequently, based on the GSLZ, this paper proposes a new nominalist approach which differs from that of Hansen. Derived from further elaboration of the Heidelberg School’s interpretation of Hölderlin’s conception of Being, this paper posits that “things”, as read in “Mingshi lun”, are a specific dimension of “Being”, as singular infinity, and “name”, as superior to “zhi” or judgment in the rendering of things as criticized in “Zhiwu lun” and “Baima lun”

A semi-automated method of building element retrieval from point cloud

3D point cloud data can be utilized for site inspection and reverse engineering of building models. However, conventional methods for building element retrieval require a database of 3D CAD or BIM models which are unsuitable for the case of historical buildings without as-planned models or temporary structures that are not in the pre-built model. Thus, this paper proposes a semi-automated method to efficiently retrieve duplicate building elements without these constraints. First, the point cloud is processed with a pre-trained deep feature extractor to generate a 50-dimensional feature vector for each point. Next, the point cloud is segmented through feature clustering and region growing algorithms, then displayed on a user interface for selection. Lastly, the selected exemplar is provided as input to a peak-finding algorithm to determine positive matches. The results show the proposed method gets the average rates above 90% of precision and recall scores of each point cloud dataset. The proposed method can distinguish the correct building elements form the similarly-shaped candidates and complex building elements. In terms of the applicability, the study shows the proposed method has a certain tolerance of error with different selected instances or boundaries of the selected exemplar and voxel grid resolution. On the other hand, the actual computation time is reasonably fast and efficient.M.S

大域的最適化問題のための同種および異種粒子群最適化法の研究

The premature convergence problem and the exploration-exploitation trade-off problem are the two major problems encountered by many swarm intelligence algorithms in both global optimization and large scale global optimization. This thesis proposes that the two main problems could be handled by several variants of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) developed below. Five variants of homogeneous PSO have been developed for multimodal and large scale global optimization problems, and two variants of dynamic heterogeneous PSO for complex real-world problems.First of all, an individual competition strategy is proposed for the new variant of PSO, namely Fitness Predator Optimization (FPO), for multimodal problems. The development of individual competition plays an important role for the diversity conservation in the population, which is crucial for preventing premature convergence in multimodal optimization.To enhance the global exploration capability of the FPO algorithm for high multimodality problems, a modified paralleled virtual team approach is developed for FPO, namely DFPO. The main function of this dynamic virtual team is to build a paralleled information-exchange system, strengthening the swarm\u27s global searching effectiveness. Furthermore, the strategy of team size selection is defined in DFPO named as DFPO-r, which based on the fact that a dynamic virtual team with a higher degree of population diversity is able to help DFPO-ralleviate the premature convergence and strengthen the global exploration simultaneously. Experimental results demonstrate that both DFPO-r and DFPO have desirable performances for multimodal functions. In addition, DFPO-r has a more robust performance in most cases compared with DFPO.Using hybrid algorithms to deal with specific real-world problems is one of the most interesting trends in the last years. In this thesis, we extend the FPO algorithm for fuzzy clustering optimization problem. Thus, a combination of FPO with FCM (FPO-FCM) algorithm is proposed to avoid the premature convergence and improve the performance of FCM.To handle the large scale global optimization problem, a variant of modified BBPSO algorithm incorporation of Differential Evolution (DE) approach, namely BBPSO-DE, is developed to improve the swarm\u27s global search capability as the dimensionality of the search space increases. To the best of our knowledge, the Static Heterogeneous PSO (SHPSO) has been studied by some researchers, while the Dynamic Heterogeneous PSO (DHPSO) is seldom systematically investigated based on real problems. In this thesis, two variants of dynamic Heterogeneous PSO, namely DHPSO-d and DHPSO-p are proposed for complex real-world problems. In DHPSO-d, several differential update rules are proposed for different particles by the trigger event. When the global best position p_g is considered stagnant and the event is confirmed, then p_g is reset and all particles update their positions only by their personal experience. In DHPSO-p, two proposed types of topology models provide the particles different mechanism choosing their informers when the swarm being trapped in the local optimal solution. The empirical study of both variants shows that the dynamic self-adaptive heterogeneous structure is able to effectively address the exploration-exploitation trade-off problem and provide excellent optimal solutions for the complex real-world problem.To conclude,the proposed biological metaphor approaches provide each of the PSO algorithms variants with different search characteristics, which makes them more suitable for different types of real-world problems.博士(理学)法政大学 (Hosei University

Informational and Emotional Appeals of Cover Image in Crowdfunding Platforms and the Moderating Role of Campaign Outputs

The first-stage decision is critical in the decision process in crowdfunding, where the cover image plays an important role in forming first impressions and persuading click funders. This study explores how emotional visual cues (human face) and informational visual cues (visual text) in the cover image affect funders’ decisions and how the effects differ across campaigns. The results demonstrate the great persuasive power of human faces and visual text. We further illustrate the effects of joyful expressions and image-text congruency as well as the non-significant influence of the length and polarity of visual text. Moreover, emotional visual cues are more effective in intangible product campaigns, while informational visual cues are more effective in tangible product campaigns, and both are important in social service campaigns. Valuable insight is provided to creators about the design of the cover image

Critique of “Judgment” in Gongsun Long’s “Zhiwu lun”

This paper has attempted to characterize “Zhiwu lun” as the presentation of the incapacity of object-oriented knowledge to represent the realm of “things”, highlighting Gongsun Long’s epistemological and ontological value beyond a logical one. This paper proposes that only based upon this assumption does “Zhiwu lun” allow a thorough interpretation of “Mingshi lun”, whereby the intuitive function of “names” provides a better solution to the cognitive limits imposed by object-oriented (self-)consciousness. Methodologically, this paper mainly considers the Heidelberg School’s interpretation of Hölderlin’s critique of judgment in “Judgment and Being” to be both a complementary justification and reconstruction of the implicit structures of Gongsun Long’s view. This paper has presupposed the interpretation of Gongsun Long’s key concept of 指 as “judgment” in Hölderlin’s sense, in contrast to “things” (物) and “name” (名), then verified this hypothesis, as well as the relationships amongst these translations, by a close textual analysis and new translation of “Zhiwu lun”

INSTITUTIONAL LOGICS IN THE SINGAPORE STATE

Master'sMASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCE