The Impact of Settlement Design on Tropical Deforestation Rates and Resulting Land Cover Patterns

Policymakers in the Brazilian Amazon face the challenge of meeting environmental and developmental goals as cities and towns within these tropical forests continue to face migration pressure. Alternative government planning strategies have been implemented to address forest clearing in conjunction with meeting social agendas. This paper uses panel estimation methods to investigate the impact of settlement design on land use. Results indicate that new settlement designs developed to further social interaction have had a negative impact on land cover and land use transformation. Thus, while new settlement designs appear to positively impact stated social goals, including greater contact between families and access to water and services, these social advances have come at the expense of environmental goals.deforestation, land use/land cover change, smart growth, settlement design, Amazon, Brazil, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

Nepotistic patterns of violent psychopathy: evidence for adaptation?

Psychopaths routinely disregard social norms by engaging in selfish, antisocial, often violent behavior. Commonly characterized as mentally disordered, recent evidence suggests that psychopaths are executing a well-functioning, if unscrupulous strategy that historically increased reproductive success at the expense of others. Natural selection ought to have favored strategies that spared close kin from harm, however, because actions affecting the fitness of genetic relatives contribute to an individual’s inclusive fitness. Conversely, there is evidence that mental disorders can disrupt psychological mechanisms designed to protect relatives. Thus, mental disorder and adaptation accounts of psychopathy generate opposing hypotheses: psychopathy should be associated with an increase in the victimization of kin in the former account but not in the latter. Contrary to the mental disorder hypothesis, we show here in a sample of 289 violent offenders that variation in psychopathy predicts a decrease in the genetic relatedness of victims to offenders; that is, psychopathy predicts an increased likelihood of harming non-relatives. Because nepotistic inhibition in violence may be caused by dispersal or kin discrimination, we examined the effects of psychopathy on (1) the dispersal of offenders and their kin and (2) sexual assault frequency (as a window on kin discrimination). Although psychopathy was negatively associated with coresidence with kin and positively associated with the commission of sexual assault, it remained negatively associated with the genetic relatedness of victims to offenders after removing cases of offenders who had coresided with kin and cases of sexual assault from the analyses. These results stand in contrast to models positing psychopathy as a pathology, and provide support for the hypothesis that psychopathy reflects an evolutionary strategy largely favoring the exploitation of non-relatives

Kinematic Foot Types in Youth with Equinovarus Secondary to Hemiplegia

Background Elevated kinematic variability of the foot and ankle segments exists during gait among individuals with equinovarus secondary to hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP). Clinicians have previously addressed such variability by developing classification schemes to identify subgroups of individuals based on their kinematics. Objective To identify kinematic subgroups among youth with equinovarus secondary to CP using 3-dimensional multi-segment foot and ankle kinematics during locomotion as inputs for principal component analysis (PCA), and K-means cluster analysis. Methods In a single assessment session, multi-segment foot and ankle kinematics using the Milwaukee Foot Model (MFM) were collected in 24 children/adolescents with equinovarus and 20 typically developing children/adolescents. Results PCA was used as a data reduction technique on 40 variables. K-means cluster analysis was performed on the first six principal components (PCs) which accounted for 92% of the variance of the dataset. The PCs described the location and plane of involvement in the foot and ankle. Five distinct kinematic subgroups were identified using K-means clustering. Participants with equinovarus presented with variable involvement ranging from primary hindfoot or forefoot deviations to deformtiy that included both segments in multiple planes. Conclusion This study provides further evidence of the variability in foot characteristics associated with equinovarus secondary to hemiplegic CP. These findings would not have been detected using a single segment foot model. The identification of multiple kinematic subgroups with unique foot and ankle characteristics has the potential to improve treatment since similar patients within a subgroup are likely to benefit from the same intervention(s)

Experimenting with database segmentation size vs time performance for mpiBLAST on an IBM HS21 blade cluster

Large-scale genomic projects such as the Epichloë festucae Genome Project require regular use of bioinformatic tools. When using BLAST in conjunction with larger databases, processing complex sequences often uses substantial computation time. Parallelization is considered a standard method of curbing extensive computing requirements and parallel implementations of BLAST, such as mpiBLAST, are freely available

PTF11kx: A Type Ia Supernova with Hydrogen Emission Persisting After 3.5 Years

The optical transient PTF11kx exhibited both the characteristic spectral features of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and the signature of ejecta interacting with circumstellar material (CSM) containing hydrogen, indicating the presence of a nondegenerate companion. We present an optical spectrum at $1342$ days after peak from Keck Observatory, in which the broad component of H$\alpha$ emission persists with a similar profile as in early-time observations. We also present $Spitzer$ IRAC detections obtained $1237$ and $1818$ days after peak, and an upper limit from $HST$ ultraviolet imaging at $2133$ days. We interpret our late-time observations in context with published results - and reinterpret the early-time observations - in order to constrain the CSM's physical parameters and compare to theoretical predictions for recurrent nova systems. We find that the CSM's radial extent may be several times the distance between the star and the CSM's inner edge, and that the CSM column density may be two orders of magnitude lower than previous estimates. We show that the H$\alpha$ luminosity decline is similar to other SNe with CSM interaction, and demonstrate how our infrared photometry is evidence for newly formed, collisionally heated dust. We create a model for PTF11kx's late-time CSM interaction and find that X-ray reprocessing by photoionization and recombination cannot reproduce the observed H$\alpha$ luminosity, suggesting that the X-rays are thermalized and that H$\alpha$ radiates from collisional excitation. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results regarding the progenitor scenario and the geometric properties of the CSM for the PTF11kx system.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables; submitted to Ap

Inertio-capillary rebound of a droplet impacting a fluid bath

The rebound of droplets impacting a deep fluid bath is studied both experimentally and theoretically. Millimetric drops are generated using a piezoelectric droplet-on-demand generator and normally impact a bath of the same fluid. Measurements of the droplet trajectory and other rebound metrics are compared directly to the predictions of a linear quasi-potential model, as well as fully resolved direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations. Both models resolve the time-dependent bath and droplet shapes in addition to the droplet trajectory. In the quasi-potential model, the droplet and bath shape are decomposed using orthogonal function decompositions leading to two sets of coupled damped linear harmonic oscillator equations solved using an implicit numerical method. The underdamped dynamics of the drop are directly coupled to the response of the bath through a single-point kinematic match condition which we demonstrate to be an effective and efficient model in our parameter regime of interest. Starting from the inertio-capillary limit in which both gravitational and viscous effects are negligible, increases in gravity or viscosity lead to a decrease in the coefficient of restitution and an increase in the contact time. The inertio-capillary limit defines an upper bound on the possible coefficient of restitution for droplet-bath impact, depending only on the Weber number. The quasi-potential model is able to rationalize historical experimental measurements for the coefficient of restitution, first presented by Jayaratne and Mason (1964).Comment: 33 pages, 13 figure

Positive Catch and Economic Benefits of Periodic Octopus Fishery Closures: Do Effective, Narrowly Targeted Actions 'Catalyze' Broader Management?

Eight years of octopus fishery records from southwest Madagascar reveal significant positive impacts from 36 periodic closures on: (a) fishery catches and (b) village fishery income, such that (c) economic benefits from increased landings outweigh costs of foregone catch. Closures covered 20% of a village's fished area and lasted 2-7 months.We discuss the implications of our findings for broader co-management arrangements, particularly for catalyzing more comprehensive management

Dealing with Uncertainties in Asteroid Deflection Demonstration Missions: NEOTwIST

Deflection missions to near-Earth asteroids will encounter non-negligible uncertainties in the physical and orbital parameters of the target object. In order to reliably assess future impact threat mitigation operations such uncertainties have to be quantified and incorporated into the mission design. The implementation of deflection demonstration missions offers the great opportunity to test our current understanding of deflection relevant uncertainties and their consequences, e.g., regarding kinetic impacts on asteroid surfaces. In this contribution, we discuss the role of uncertainties in the NEOTwIST asteroid deflection demonstration concept, a low-cost kinetic impactor design elaborated in the framework of the NEOShield project. The aim of NEOTwIST is to change the spin state of a known and well characterized near-Earth object, in this case the asteroid (25143) Itokawa. Fast events such as the production of the impact crater and ejecta are studied via cube-sat chasers and a flyby vehicle. Long term changes, for instance, in the asteroid's spin and orbit, can be assessed using ground based observations. We find that such a mission can indeed provide valuable constraints on mitigation relevant parameters. Furthermore, the here proposed kinetic impact scenarios can be implemented within the next two decades without threatening Earth's safety.Comment: Accepted for publication in the proceedings of the IAUS 318 - Asteroids: New Observations, New Models, held at the IAU General Assembly in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA 201

Water Entry of a Simple Harmonic Oscillator

When a blunt body impacts an air-water interface, large hydrodynamic forces often arise, a phenomenon many of us have unfortunately experienced in a failed dive or "belly flop." Beyond assessing risk to biological divers, an understanding and methods for remediation of such slamming forces are critical to the design of numerous engineered naval and aerospace structures. Herein we systematically investigate the role of impactor elasticity on the resultant structural loads in perhaps the simplest possible scenario: the water entry of a simple harmonic oscillator. Contrary to conventional intuition, we find that "softening" the impactor does not always reduce the peak impact force, but may also increase the force as compared to a fully rigid counterpart. Through our combined experimental and theoretical investigation, we demonstrate that the transition from force reduction to force amplification is delineated by a critical "hydroelastic" factor that relates the hydrodynamic and elastic timescales of the problem