Equilibrium states for potentials with \sup\phi - \inf\phi < \htop(f)

In the context of smooth interval maps, we study an inducing scheme approach to prove existence and uniqueness of equilibrium states for potentials $\phi$ with he `bounded range' condition \sup \phi - \inf \phi < \htop, first used by Hofbauer and Keller. We compare our results to Hofbauer and Keller's use of Perron-Frobenius operators. We demonstrate that this `bounded range' condition on the potential is important even if the potential is H\"older continuous. We also prove analyticity of the pressure in this context.Comment: Added Lemma 6 to deal with the disparity between leading eigenvalues and operator norms. Added extra references and corrected some typo

Complex maps without invariant densities

We consider complex polynomials $f(z) = z^\ell+c_1$ for $\ell \in 2\N$ and $c_1 \in \R$, and find some combinatorial types and values of $\ell$ such that there is no invariant probability measure equivalent to conformal measure on the Julia set. This holds for particular Fibonacci-like and Feigenbaum combinatorial types when $\ell$ sufficiently large and also for a class of `long-branched' maps of any critical order.Comment: Typos corrected, minor changes, principally to Section

Visualizations of Projected Rainfall Change in the United Kingdom: An Interview Study about User Perceptions

Stakeholders from public, private, and third sectors need to adapt to a changing climate. Communications about climate may be challenging, especially for audiences with limited climate expertise. Here, we study how such audience members perceive visualizations about projected future rainfall. In semi-structured interviews, we presented 24 participants from climate-conscious organizations across the UK with three prototypical visualizations about projected future rainfall, adopted from the probabilistic United Kingdom Climate Projections: (1) Maps displaying a central estimate and confidence intervals, (2) a line graph and boxplots displaying change over time and associated confidence intervals, and (3) a probability density function for distributions of rainfall change. We analyzed participants’ responses using “Thematic Analysis”. In our analysis, we identified features that facilitated understanding—such as colors, simple captions, and comparisons between different emission scenarios—and barriers that hindered understanding, such as unfamiliar acronyms and terminology, confusing usage of probabilistic estimates, and expressions of relative change in percentages. We integrate these findings with the interdisciplinary risk communication literature and suggest content-related and editorial strategies for effectively designing visualizations about uncertain climate projections for audiences with limited climate expertise. These strategies will help organizations such as National Met Services to effectively communicate about a changing climate

Integration of a smoking cessation program in the treatment protocol for patients with head and neck and lung cancer

Smoking is the main causative factor for development of head and neck and lung cancer. In addition, other malignancies such as bladder, stomach, colorectal, kidney and pancreatic cancer have a causative relation with smoking. Continued smoking after having been diagnosed with cancer has many negative consequences: effectiveness of radiotherapy is diminished, survival time is shortened and risks of recurrence, second primary malignancies and treatment complications are increased. In view of the significant health consequences of continued smoking, therefore, additional support for patients to stop smoking seems a logical extension of the present treatment protocols for smoking-related cancers. For prospectively examining the effect of nursing-delivered smoking cessation programme for patients with head and neck or lung cancer, 145 patients with head and neck or lung cancer enrolled into this programme over a 2-year period. Information on smoking behaviour, using a structured, programme specific questionnaire, was collected at baseline, and after 6 and 12 months. At 6 months, 58 patients (40%) had stopped smoking and at 12 months, 48 patients (33%) still had refrained from smoking. There were no differences in smoking cessation results between patients with head and neck and lung cancer. The only significant factor predicting success was whether the patient had made earlier attempts to quit smoking. A nurse-managed smoking cessation programme for patients with head and neck or lung cancer shows favourable long-term success rates. It seems logical, therefore, to integrate such a programme in treatment protocols for smoking-related cancers

Chytrid epidemics may increase genetic diversity of a diatom spring-bloom

Contrary to expectation, populations of clonal organisms are often genetically highly diverse. In phytoplankton, this diversity is maintained throughout periods of high population growth (that is, blooms), even though competitive exclusion among genotypes should hypothetically lead to the dominance of a few superior genotypes. Genotype-specific parasitism may be one mechanism that helps maintain such high-genotypic diversity of clonal organisms. Here, we present a comparison of population genetic similarity by estimating the beta-dispersion among genotypes of early and peak bloom populations of the diatom Asterionella formosa for three spring-blooms under high or low parasite pressure. The Asterionella population showed greater beta-dispersion at peak bloom than early bloom in the 2 years with high parasite pressure, whereas the within group dispersion did not change under low parasite pressure. Our findings support that high prevalence parasitism can promote genetic diversification of natural populations of clonal hosts

Statistical stability of equilibrium states for interval maps

We consider families of multimodal interval maps with polynomial growth of the derivative along the critical orbits. For these maps Bruin and Todd have shown the existence and uniqueness of equilibrium states for the potential $\phi_t:x\mapsto-t\log|Df(x)|$, for $t$ close to 1. We show that these equilibrium states vary continuously in the weak$^*$ topology within such families. Moreover, in the case $t=1$, when the equilibrium states are absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue, we show that the densities vary continuously within these families.Comment: More details given and the appendices now incorporated into the rest of the pape

К численному решению задач о деформации анизотропных пластин с отверстием

Представлен подход к расчету напряженно-деформированного состояния пластин с отверстием, основанный на численной параметризации двусвязной области, сведении исходной нелинейной краевой задачи к последовательности линейных двухмерных и интегрировании последних устойчивым численным методом. Исследуется влияние формы и месторасположения отверстия на напряженно-деформированное состояние квадратной пластины.Представлено підхід до розрахунку напружено-деформованого стану пластин, що послаблені отвором. Підхід базується на числовій параметризації двозв’язної області, зведенні вихідної нелінійної задачі до послідовності лінійних двомірних та останніх до одномірних, інтегрування яких проводиться стійким числовим методом. Досліджується вплив форми та місцезнаходження отвору на напружено-деформований стан квадратної пластини.The study presents an approach to stressed-state analysis of plates with apertures which is based on the numerical parameterization of a doubly-connected area, reduction of the initial nonlinear boundary-value problem to a sequence of linear two-dimensional problems and integrating the latter by the stable numerical method. The effect of form and place of an aperture on stressed state of a square plate has been analyzed