Evolution, Autism and Social Change: A New Feminine Theory of Evolution That Explains Autism

125 p. Libro ElectrónicoEl libro pretende hacer una reseña a cerca de los cambios que se han visto reflejados en la sociedad, respecto a lo que es la participación de las mujeres hoy en día.Incluye ilustracione

Survival and Habitat Selection of Golden-Winged Warblers (\u3ci\u3eVermivora chrysoptera\u3c/i\u3e) during Nesting and Post-fledging Periods at North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area, Tennessee

Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) populations in the Appalachian Mountains have declined precipitously over the past 50 years. To better understand the decline, I studied two important aspects of the reproductive cycle: the nesting and post-fledging periods on reclaimed surface mines and recent timber harvest sites at North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area (NCWMA), Tennessee from 2013 to 2015. Nestlings were radio-marked with a 30-day transmitter two days before their scheduled fledge date and monitored daily once they fledged. Vegetation data were collected at the nest site and daily fledgling locations points along with paired random points. Vegetation characteristics most important during nest site selection were percent mature forest within 250 m of nest (selected against), percent Rubus spp. within 1m of nest (selected for) and vertical vegetation density (selected for). Fledglings did not select for or against any vegetation types during their first 3 days post-fledging. Shrub/sapling vegetation was most selected for during days 4-25. Fledglings avoided mature forest vegetation and herbaceous vegetation during the same time period. Nest survival over a 23-day nesting cycle was 0.354 ± 0.058 (SE) across all years. Vegetation characteristics most closely related to daily nest survival were percent forbs within 1 m of nest (positive relationship) and percent Rubus spp. within 1 m of nest (negative relationship). Fledgling survival for the entire 25-day post-fledging period was 0.289 ± 0.066, with most of the mortality occurring in the first 3 days (0.736 ± 0.039 daily survival rate). Snake predation accounted for 52% (16/31) of known deaths. The best supported model when individual habitat covariates were added included percent shrub-sapling vegetation within 250 m of post-fledging location (negative relationship). All other individual covariates had a delta AICc \u3e2 when compared to the top model. Managing for Golden-winged Warbler reproduction must be a balance between meeting the needs for nesting and ensuring fledgling survival. Compared to values reported elsewhere across the northern parts of the breeding range of the species, full season productivity at NCWMA of 0.66 offspring/pair may be insufficient to sustain populations without significant sources of immigration

Updating America\u27s Nuclear Power

America’s first commercial nuclear reactors began powering the grid in the 1960s, with the most modern designs and equipment available. While these reactors have aged, science and technology have progressed. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has declared that many of these geriatric reactors must be decommissioned, almost all within the next decade. The question remains: how can we respond to this challenge given that reactor energy provides one-fifth of the US electricity supply? New reactor designs, dubbed Generation IV reactors, are considerably more advanced than these aging relics, producing more energy, in a far more reliable and safe design, for less money. This project submits recommendations for four distinct sets of circumstances.https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/gps-posters/1031/thumbnail.jp

Covariance Matrix Adaptation for the Rapid Illumination of Behavior Space

We focus on the challenge of finding a diverse collection of quality solutions on complex continuous domains. While quality diver-sity (QD) algorithms like Novelty Search with Local Competition (NSLC) and MAP-Elites are designed to generate a diverse range of solutions, these algorithms require a large number of evaluations for exploration of continuous spaces. Meanwhile, variants of the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) are among the best-performing derivative-free optimizers in single-objective continuous domains. This paper proposes a new QD algorithm called Covariance Matrix Adaptation MAP-Elites (CMA-ME). Our new algorithm combines the self-adaptation techniques of CMA-ES with archiving and mapping techniques for maintaining diversity in QD. Results from experiments based on standard continuous optimization benchmarks show that CMA-ME finds better-quality solutions than MAP-Elites; similarly, results on the strategic game Hearthstone show that CMA-ME finds both a higher overall quality and broader diversity of strategies than both CMA-ES and MAP-Elites. Overall, CMA-ME more than doubles the performance of MAP-Elites using standard QD performance metrics. These results suggest that QD algorithms augmented by operators from state-of-the-art optimization algorithms can yield high-performing methods for simultaneously exploring and optimizing continuous search spaces, with significant applications to design, testing, and reinforcement learning among other domains.Comment: Accepted to GECCO 202

Summary of large-scale nonplanar reinforced concrete wall tests

Nonplanar wall configurations are prevalent in engineering practice, yet relatively little research has addressed nonplanar walls and the earthquake response of these components remains poorly understood. A recent experimental test program conducted by the authors investigated the earthquake response of modern, ACI Code compliant C‐shaped walls subjected to unidirectional and bidirectional lateral loading. To compare the results of this study with previous experimental investigations conducted by others, this document examines laboratory tests of slender nonplanar walls available in the literature. Response histories, damage patterns, drift capacity and failure mechanisms are used to characterize the behavior of each nonplanar wall test specimen. The impact on behavior of various design parameters as well as unidirectional versus bidirectional load history is investigated. Results are synthesized to provide improved understanding of behavior and guidance for design of nonplanar walls. Section 2 provides an overview of the nonplanar wall test found in the literature. Section 3 provides a more in‐depth overview of C‐ and U‐shaped walls, including the C‐shaped wall tests conducted as part of this study. Section 4 presents failure and response mechanism observed during nonplanar wall tests. Section 5 summarizes observations and presents conclusions about nonplanar wall behavior

Empirically derived effective stiffness expressions for concrete walls

In most cases, analysis to determine component demands for seismic design of concrete buildings employs linear elastic models in which reduced, effective component stiffnesses are used. This document i) reviews the recommendations for defining the effective flexural, shear and axial stiffness of concrete walls that are included in current design codes, standards and guidelines and ii) compares these recommendations with stiffness expressions derived directly from experimental data by the authors and others. Section 2 reviews existing empirically derived and code‐, standard‐, and guideline‐based expressions for the effective stiffness of concrete walls. Section 3 presents the process used by the authors to compute effective stiffness values from laboratory data. Sections 4 through 6 present effective stiffness values derived from laboratory test data for C‐shaped wall specimens tested as part of this study, for planar wall specimens tested by the authors as part of a previous study, and for non‐planar wall specimens tested by others. Section 7 presents the results of a study in which recommended effective stiffness values were used to compute the yield displacements of seven coupled‐wall specimens tested in the laboratory by the authors and others. Section 8 summarizes the results of this investigation