Finite rigid sets and homologically non-trivial spheres in the curve complex of a surface

Aramayona and Leininger have provided a "finite rigid subset" $\mathfrak{X}(\Sigma)$ of the curve complex $\mathscr{C}(\Sigma)$ of a surface $\Sigma = \Sigma^n_g$, characterized by the fact that any simplicial injection $\mathfrak{X}(\Sigma) \to \mathscr{C}(\Sigma)$ is induced by a unique element of the mapping class group $\mathrm{Mod}(\Sigma)$. In this paper we prove that, in the case of the sphere with $n\geq 5$ marked points, the reduced homology class of the finite rigid set of Aramayona and Leininger is a $\mathrm{Mod}(\Sigma)$-module generator for the reduced homology of the curve complex $\mathscr{C}(\Sigma)$, answering in the affirmative a question posed by Aramayona and Leininger. For the surface $\Sigma = \Sigma_g^n$ with $g\geq 3$ and $n\in \{0,1\}$ we find that the finite rigid set $\mathfrak{X}(\Sigma)$ of Aramayona and Leininger contains a proper subcomplex $X(\Sigma)$ whose reduced homology class is a $\mathrm{Mod}(\Sigma)$-module generator for the reduced homology of $\mathscr{C}(\Sigma)$ but which is not itself rigid.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures; Section 4 revised along with minor corrections throughou

Measuring religious values development based on Maqasid Syariah approach in compliance behavior of business Zakat Scenario / Mohd Rahim Khamis.

Religious values are one of the important aspects in explaining human behavior. However, lack of study focused on how to develop and measuring the religious values are hardly found in literature since the issue is important to discuss to produce good results. Hence, the main objective of this study is to develop the measurement instrument in measuring religious values based on Maqasid Al-Syariah approach as guideline in compliance behavior of business zakat scenario. 276 questionnaires managed to be collected from SMEs entrepreneurs in Selangor. Rasch Measurement Model was employed to analyze the data. From the results of item polarity and misfit indicates that all items measured religious values really measured what supposedly to measure since all items fit with the Rasch Measurement Model. The implication of this paper provides evidence of the usefulness of Maqasid Al-Syariah approach as a guideline in order to develop the measurement of religious values in compliance behavior of business zakat scenario. At the same, it also suggests that Rasch Measurement Model the usefulness of Rasch Measurement Model in analyzing the items that measured what supposedly to measure

YUSOF @GHANI

PIC16 small prototyping board is the microcontroller development board that holding a microcontroller and other required circuitry used for application or embedded system development. The board is directly useful to an application developer, without require spending time and effort in developing the controller board. The purpose of this project is to develop a working prototype, PIC16 small prototyping board that used for rapid prototyping. The board is based on PIC16F628A microcontroller. The board design is similar to Arduino Uno board. ExpressPCB and ExpressSCH are used to design the board before it is fabricated. After that, the prototype is fabricated and the testing is carried out to observe the performance of the device. The switches and LEDs are placed on the board to test each input output of the board. The result of the tested board is summarized in the end of this project

National Security Risks? Uncertainty, Austerity and Other Logics of Risk in the UK government’s National Security Strategy

Risk scholars within Security studies have argued that the concept of security has gone through a fundamental transformation away from a threat-based conceptualisation of defence, urgency and exceptionality to one of preparedness, precautions and prevention of future risks, some of which are calculable, others of which are not. This article explores whether and how the concept of security is changing due to this ‘rise of risk’, through a hermeneutically grounded conceptual and discourse analysis of the United Kingdom government’s national security strategy (NSS) from 1998 to 2011. We ask how risk-security language is employed in the NSS; what factors motivate such discursive shifts; and what, if any, consequences of these shifts can be discerned in UK national security practices. Our aim is twofold: to better understand shifts in the security understandings and policies of UK authorities; and to contribute to the conceptual debate on the significance of the rise of risk as a component of the concept of security

How to evaluate community predictions without thresholding?

Stacked species distribution models (S-SDM) provide a tool to make spatial predictions about communities by first modelling individual species and then stacking the modelled predictions to form assemblages. The evaluation of the predictive performance is usually based on a comparison of the observed and predicted community properties (e.g. species richness, composition). However, the most available and widely used evaluation metrics require the thresholding of single species' predicted probabilities of occurrence to obtain binary outcomes (i.e. presence/absence). This binarization can introduce unnecessary bias and error. Herein, we present and demonstrate the use of several groups of new or rarely used evaluation approaches and metrics for both species richness and community composition that do not require thresholding but instead directly compare the predicted probabilities of occurrences of species to the presence/absence observations in the assemblages. Community AUC, which is based on traditional AUC, measures the ability of a model to differentiate between species presences or absences at a given site according to their predicted probabilities of occurrence. Summing the probabilities gives the expected species richness and allows the estimation of the probability that the observed species richness is not different from the expected species richness based on the species' probabilities of occurrence. The traditional Sorensen and Jaccard similarity indices (which are based on presences/absences) were adapted to maxSorensen and maxJaccard and to probSorensen and probJaccard (which use probabilities directly). A further approach (improvement over null models) compares the predictions based on S-SDMs with the expectations from the null models to estimate the improvement in both species richness and composition predictions. Additionally, all metrics can be described against the environmental conditions of sites (e.g. elevation) to highlight the abilities of models to detect the variation in the strength of the community assembly processes in different environments. These metrics offer an unbiased view of the performance of community predictions compared to metrics that requiring thresholding. As such, they allow more straightforward comparisons of model performance among studies (i.e. they are not influenced by any subjective thresholding decisions).Peer reviewe

Biotic interactions in driving biodiversity : Insights into spatial modelling

The effects of co-occurring species, namely biotic interactions, govern performance and assemblages of species along with abiotic factors. They can emerge as positive or negative, with the outcome and magnitude of their impact depending on species and environmental conditions. However, no general conception of the role of biotic interactions in functioning of ecosystems exists. Implementing correlative spatial modelling approaches, combined with extensive data on species and environmental factors, would complement the understanding of biotic interactions and biodiversity. Moreover, the modelling frameworks themselves, conventionally based on abiotic predictors only, could benefit from incorporating biotic interactions and their context-dependency. In this thesis, I study the influence of biotic interactions in ecosystems and examine whether their effects vary among species and environmental gradients (sensu stress gradient hypothesis = SGH), and consequently, across landscapes. Species traits are hypothesized to govern the species-specific outcomes, while the SGH postulates that the frequency of positive interactions is higher under harsh environmental conditions, whereas negative interactions dominate at benign and productive sites. The study applies correlative spatial models utilizing both regression models and machine-learning methods, and fine-scale (1 m2) data on vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen communities from Northern Finland and Norway (69°N, 21°E). In addition to conventional distribution models of individual species (SDM), also species richness, traits and fitness are modelled to capture the community-level impacts of biotic interactions. The underlying methodology is to incorporate biotic predictors into the abiotic-only models and to examine the impacts of biotic interactions and their dependency on species traits and environmental conditions. Cover values of the dominant species of the study area are used as proxies for the intensity of their impact on other species. The results show, firstly, that plant plant interactions consistently and significantly affect species performance and richness patterns. Secondly, the results make evident that the impacts of biotic interactions vary between species, and, more importantly, that the guild, geographic range and traits of species can indicate the outcome and magnitude of the impact. For instance, vascular plant species, particularly competitive ones, respond mainly negatively to the dominant species, whereas lichens tend to show more positive responses. Thirdly, as proposed, the manifestation of biotic interactions also varies across environmental gradients. Support for the SGH is found as the effect of the dominant species is more negative under ameliorate conditions for most species and guilds. Finally, simulations of species richness, where the cover of the dominant species is modified, demonstrate that the biotic interactions exhibit a strong control over landscape-level biodiversity patterns. These simulations also show that even a moderate increase in the cover of the dominant species can lead to drastic changes in biodiversity patterns. Overall, all analyses consistently demonstrate that taking into account biotic interactions improves the explanatory power and predicting accuracy of the models. There are global demands to understand species-environment relationships to enable predictions of biodiversity changes with regard to a warming climate or altered land-use. However, uncertainties in such estimates exist, especially due to the precarious influence of biotic interactions. This thesis complements the understanding of biotic interactions in ecosystems by demonstrating their fundamental, yet species-specific and context-dependent, role in shaping species assemblages and performance across landscapes. From an applied point of view, our study highlights the importance of recognizing biotic interactions in future forecasts of biodiversity patterns.Bioottiset interaktiot (= lajien väliset vuorovaikutukset) vaikuttavat lajien levinneisyyteen abioottisten (mm. lämpötila, vesi) tekijöiden ohella. Bioottisten interaktioiden vaikutus voi olla negatiivinen (esim. lajien välinen kilpailu) tai positiivinen (esim. auringon paahteelta suojaaminen), ja vaikutuksen suunnan ja voimakkuuden on havaittu riippuvan lajeista ja vallitsevista ympäristöoloista. Ymmärrys bioottisten interaktioiden merkityksestä biodiversiteetille on kuitenkin vähäistä, mutta tätä voitaisiin täydentää useita lajeja ja ympäristöoloja yhtäaikaisesti käsittelevillä alueellisilla malleilla. Lisäksi myös alueellisia biodiversiteettiennusteita voitaisiin parantaa huomioimalla bioottiset interaktiot malleissa. Tämä väitöskirja tutkiikin bioottisten interaktioiden vaikutusta kasvillisuuteen, sekä miten nämä vaikutukset vaihtelevat lajien välillä ja erilaisissa ympäristöoloissa. Tutkimus nojautuu alueelliseen mallintamiseen hyödyntäen kattavia laji- ja ympäristöaineistoja Pohjois-Suomesta ja -Norjasta (69°N, 21°E). Mallinnuksessa käytetään niin yksittäisiä lajilevinneisyysmalleja, kuin myös lajirunsautta ja -rakennetta ja lajien kelpoisuutta tarkastelevia malleja. Mallinnusprosessissa malleihin tuodaan abioottisten tekijöiden lisäksi myös bioottisia muuttujia; tässä työssä valtalajien peittävyysarvot. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat ensinnäkin, että bioottiset interaktiot vaikuttavat kasvillisuuteen ja sen diversiteettiin. Tutkimuksen ennusteiden perusteella vähäinenkin kasvu tutkimusalueen valtalajin peitossa voi vähentää lajirunsautta merkittävästi. Toiseksi, bioottisten interaktioiden vaikutukset vaihtelevat lajien välillä, mutta vaikutuksen suuntaa ja voimakkuutta voidaan arvioida lajien ominaisuuksien perusteella. Kolmanneksi, bioottisten interaktioiden vaikutuksen suunta ja voimakkuus vaihtelee myös ympäristöolojen suhteen siten, että negatiivisimmat interaktiot vallitsevat suotuisissa ympäristöoloissa (ts. tuottoisat ympäristöt), kun positiivisia vuorovaikutuksia ilmenee taas karuissa ympäristöissä (esim. kylmät ja kuivat alueet). Viimeiseksi, bioottiset interaktiot vaikuttavat kasvillisuuteen koko maisematasolla ja niiden huomiotta jättäminen heikentää siten alueellisia biodiversiteettimalleja. Ilmastonmuutos ja maankäytön muuttuminen uhkaavat ekosysteemejä, mikä asettaa tarpeen tarkoille ja realistisille ennusteille biodiversiteetin muutoksista tulevaisuudessa. Tämä tutkimus osoittaa, että näitä ennusteita on mahdollista parantaa huomioimalla bioottiset interaktiot malleissa. Lisäksi tämä tutkimus valottaa bioottisten interaktioiden merkitystä kasvillisuudelle, etenkin herkillä pohjoisilla tundra-alueilla

Agota Kristóf, une écriture de ruines aspirant à la survie

La mise en scène d’une identité morcelée par le traumatisme de l’exil traverse l’œuvre de l’écrivaine d’origine hongroise Agota Kristóf. L’étude de l’emploi systématique du pronom “nous” dans Le Grand Cahier, pour articuler l’histoire de ses personnages jumeaux, permet de caractériser les modalités du dédoublement d’une identité douloureuse. L’écriture d’Agota Kritóf porte l’urgence d’une réunification qui ne peut avoir lieu que dans et par la pratique littéraire

Bioottisten interaktioiden merkitys ympäristögradienteilla : Esimerkkinä variksenmarjan vaikutus arktis-alpiinisessa kasvillisuudessa

Plant-plant interactions, i.e. biotic interactions, shape plant communities and the vegetation's succession along abiotic environmental factors. Positive interactions (e.g. facilitation) may expand species niches and enhance growth and reproduction. Negative interactions (e.g. competition, allelopathy) can interfere with growth and reproduction, even out competing some species from their niches. Negative and positive interactions co-occur, but research has shown that positive interactions are generally more common and important than negative ones in harsh environments. The theory of change of net-interaction from negative to positive along an environmental gradient is called the stress gradient hypothesis (=SGH). This work examines nordic crowberry's (Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum) effect on arctic-alpine species' sexual reproduction under different environmental stress levels. Crowberry is a dominant species in low-nutrient, acidic arctic-alpine ecosystems. Its competitive ability is based on allelopathic characteristics and a forming of dense mats. It is also unpalatable for herbivores. The species facilitative characteristics include providing shelter from the wind and maintaining an ericoidmycorrhiza community. In this research environmental stress is represented by geomorphological disturbance and soil moisture, with the interactions between crowberry and other species are examined as the relationship between crowberry cover and the fitness measures (e.g. abundance of flowers or fruits) of study species. Explanation for the variation in the effects of crowberry is tried to find from the traits of the study species. Data was collected in May 2011 from Kilpisjärvi, northernmost Finland. The study area comprised 960 1m2 cells. In each cell the cover of each species (including crowberry), the abundance of each species flowers or fruits, the cover of geomorfological disturbance and soil moisture were recorded. Generalized linear models (=GLM) were run for all species to identify the best model for predicting fitness (as selected by the AIC-criterion). Spatial autocorrelation was accounted for by repeating analyses using generalized estimation equation models (GEE), which explicitly account for the spatial structure of data. 17 species were included to the research based on the abundance of their flowers and berries in the research area. Crowberry is included in the best fit model for 14 out of 17 species. The effect of crowberry was positive for four species and negative for ten species based on the modeling results. Interactions of the crowberry and one of the environmental variables are included to the models 19 times. In ten of these cases the interactions agreed with the predictions of the SGH (i.e. effect of crowberry became less negative with increasing abiotic stress). No species traits were consistently related to the outcome of interaction between crowberry and environmental variable, although crowberry effects on dwarf shrub species appeared to be more commonly positive than on other growthforms. According to these results, crowberry has dominant role in arctic-alpine plant communities. The species effect on sexual reproduction of other plant species is commonly negative, but the effect can change to positive along environmental stress gradients, supporting the SGH. Dwarf shrubs may interact positively with crowberry because of sharing the same mycorrhiza type, while more generally species may benefit from crowberry due to its provisioning of shelter from the wind and increased soil moisture. The negative effect of crowberry might be related to its production of allelopathic compounds or its dense growth. The reason for crowberry having a facilitative affect under disturbed conditions might be an indirect effect of disturbance decreasing crowberry's allelopathic effects. These results show that the roles of crowberry and biotic interactions in arctic-alpine vegetation are important. Therefore understanding their effects and mechanisms is important in predicting how this vegetation will respond to changing climate.Kasvien väliset vuorovaikutukset eli bioottiset interaktiot muokkaavat ympäristötekijöiden ohella tietylle alueelle kehittyvää kasvillisuutta. Positiiviset interaktiot (mm. fasilitaatio) laajentavat lajien levinneisyyksiä ja edesauttavat lajien kasvua ja lisääntymistä. Negatiiviset interaktiot (mm. kilpailu ja allelopatia) taas häiritsevät muiden lajien kasvua ja lisääntymistä ja jopa häätävät lajeja niiden esiintymisalueilta. Negatiiviset ja positiiviset interaktiot vaikuttavat lajien välillä samanaikaisesti, mutta tutkimuksissa on havaittu korkean ympäristöstressin alueilla positiivisten vuorovaikutuksen olevan negatiivisia voimakkaampia. Teoriaa kasvien välisen nettointeraktion suunnan muuttumisesta negatiivisesta positiiviseksi ympäristögradientilla kutsutaan stressigradienttihypoteesiksi (=SGH).Tässä työssä tarkastellaan pohjanvariksenmarjan (Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum) vaikutusta muiden lajien lisääntymiskelpoisuudelle ympäristöstressin vaihdellessa. Variksenmarja on heikkoravinteisten ja happamien alueiden dominoivampia lajeja arktis-alpiinisissa ympäristöissä. Sen kilpailukyky perustuu sen allelopatisiin ominaisuuksiin, mattomaiseen kasvutapaan ja kelpaamattomuuteen kasvinsyöjien ravinnoksi. Sen fasilitoivia ominaisuuksia ovat mm. hyvä tuulensietokyky ja erikoidmykorritsayhdyskunnan ylläpito. Tutkimuksessa ympäristöstressiä edustavat geomorfologinen häiriö ja maaperän kosteus. Variksenmarjan ja lajien vuorovaikutusta tarkastellaan variksenmarjan peiton ja lajien lisääntymiskelpoisuuden välillä. Variksenmarjan vaikutuksen ja vaikutuksen suunnan muuttumisen lisäksi tarkastellaan lajien piirteitä mahdollisina interaktion suunnan selittäjinä. Aineisto kerättiin heinäkuussa 2011 Kilpisjärveltä, Luoteis-Lapista. Aineisto koostuu 960 neliömetrin ruudusta, joista on laskettu kukkivien tai marjovien lajien kukat ja marjat, arvioitu variksenmarjan ja muiden lajien peitto ja geomorfologisen häiriön osuus sekä mitattu maaperän kosteus. Variksenmarjan vaikutuksen selvittämiseksi aineistoa analysoitiin tilastollisin menetelmin, ensisijaisesti käyttäen yleistettyjä lineaarisia malleja (GLM). Mallit ajettiin kaikille lajeille kaikilla mahdollisilla muuttujakombinaatioilla sallien toisen asteen interaktiot. Kunkin lajin kelpoisuutta parhaiten mallintava malli valittiin AIC-mallinvalintamenettelyllä. Spatiaalisen autokorrelaation mahdollisuus huomioitiin vertaamalla tuloksia GEE- (Generalised estimation equations) menetelmällä saatuihin vastaaviin tuloksiin. GEE:ssä on mahdollisuus huomioida aineiston spatiaalinen rakenne. Mallinnettavia lajeja oli 17. Lajit valittiin niiden kukkimisen ja marjomisen yleisyyden perusteella. Variksenmarja on mukana 14 lajin parhaassa mallissa 17:stä lajista. Variksenmarjan vaikutus on mallinnustulosten perusteella positiivinen neljälle lajille ja negatiivinen kymmenelle. Variksenmarjan ja toisen ympäristömuuttujan interaktio on mukana 19 kertaa. Kymmenessä tapauksessa interaktion suunnan muuttuminen ympäristögradientilla tukee stressigradienttihypoteesia. Lajien piirteistä ei löytynyt yksiselitteistä selitystä interaktion suunnalle, mutta tulosten perusteella variksenmarja vaikuttaa positiivisesti yleisimmin muihin varpukasveihin. Tulosten perusteella variksenmarjalla on varsin dominoiva rooli arktis-alpiinisessa ympäristössä. Se vaikuttaa lajien kelpoisuuteen yleisesti negatiivisesti, mutta vaikutus muuttuu usein positiiviseksi lajin ankaraksi kokemassa ympäristössä tukien SGH:a. Variksenmarjan negatiivinen vaikutus liittyy luultavasti allelopatisiin ominaisuuksiin ja mattomaiseen kasvutapaan. Fasilitointi taas erikoidmykorritsayhdyskunnan ylläpitoon, tuulen suojan tarjoamiseen ja maaperän kosteuttamiseen, sekä välillisesti allelopatisten mekanismien heikentymiseen geomorfologisen häiriön ollessa suurta. Varpukasvien positiiviseen ragointiin voi olla syynä samanlainen kasvumuoto tai symbioosin muodostaminen saman mykorritsatyypin kanssa. Tulokset osoittavat, että bioottisten interaktioiden merkitys arktis-alpiinisessa kasvillisuudessa ovat tärkeitä. Niiden vaikutusten ja mekanismien tunteminen on tärkeää muuttuvassa ilmastossa