Risk-driven behaviour in the African leopard:how is leopard behaviour mediated by lion presence?

Agricultural expansion is restricting many carnivore species to smaller tracts of land, potentially forcing increased levels of overlap between competitors by constraining spatial partitioning. Understanding encounters between competitors is important because competition can influence species densities, distributions, and reproductive success. Despite this, little is known of the mechanisms that mediate coexistence between the African leopard (Panthera pardus) and its competitors. This project used GPS radiocollar data and playback experiments to understand risk-driven changes in the leopard’s behaviour and movement during actual and perceived encounters with lions (Panthera leo). Targeted playbacks of lion roars were used to elucidate immediate and short-lived behavioural responses in leopards when lions were perceived to be within the immediate area. To investigate the post-encounter spatial dynamics of leopard movements, the project used datasets from high-resolution GPS radiocollars deployed on leopards and lions with overlapping territories in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Leopards were found to adapt behaviours and movements when lions were perceived to be nearby. Specifically, roar playbacks elicited longer periods of vigilance than controls, and movement directions were influenced by speaker locations. Further, leopard movements were quicker and more directional after encountering lions. However, adjustments in behaviour and movement were short-lived. The results provide insights into mechanisms used by the leopard to coexist with its competitors and are a useful case study of the methods that could be used to investigate encounter dynamics within other systems

Analysing Educational Waste in the Punjab Schools

This paper examines educational waste in the Punjab Public Schools. The paper focuses upon three areas: schools’ internal efficiency, school capacity utilisation and student teacher ratio. By using cohort analysis technique, the paper measures waste in flows of students in the education cycle. The results show that repetition and dropout are more prevalent in class I and middle school classes. This implies that after having studied for five to six years in schools, a student finds themselves in a blind alley, not knowing where it all would end up. This also suggests that majority of the schools are located at large distance from the most of the population of the Punjab and students have to travel long distance for attending the schools. The under-utilisation of school capacity is more prevalent in rural area than that of urban areas and girls schools are more under-utilised than the boys schools. The under-utilisation is more widespread in boys schools of urban areas than the girls schools located in same vicinity and girls school in rural areas are more under-utilised than the boys schools. The pervasive theme emerged from results is that girls schools and teachers are mostly under-utilised. This reflects that disadvantage that girls face in Pakistan which may also cause under-utilisation of girls schools.

Loads analysis and testing of flight configuration solid rocket motor outer boot ring segments

The loads testing on in-house-fabricated flight configuration Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) outer boot ring segments. The tests determined the bending strength and bending stiffness of these beams and showed that they compared well with the hand analysis. The bending stiffness test results compared very well with the finite element data

New Douglas-Rachford algorithmic structures and their convergence analyses

In this paper we study new algorithmic structures with Douglas- Rachford (DR) operators to solve convex feasibility problems. We propose to embed the basic two-set-DR algorithmic operator into the String-Averaging Projections (SAP) and into the Block-Iterative Pro- jection (BIP) algorithmic structures, thereby creating new DR algo- rithmic schemes that include the recently proposed cyclic Douglas- Rachford algorithm and the averaged DR algorithm as special cases. We further propose and investigate a new multiple-set-DR algorithmic operator. Convergence of all these algorithmic schemes is studied by using properties of strongly quasi-nonexpansive operators and firmly nonexpansive operators.Comment: SIAM Journal on Optimization, accepted for publicatio

Non-Linear Langevin and Fractional Fokker-Planck Equations for Anomalous Diffusion by Levy Stable Processes

The~numerical solutions to a non-linear Fractional Fokker--Planck (FFP) equation are studied estimating the generalized diffusion coefficients. The~aim is to model anomalous diffusion using an FFP description with fractional velocity derivatives and Langevin dynamics where L\'{e}vy fluctuations are introduced to model the effect of non-local transport due to fractional diffusion in velocity space. Distribution functions are found using numerical means for varying degrees of fractionality of the stable L\'{e}vy distribution as solutions to the FFP equation. The~statistical properties of the distribution functions are assessed by a generalized normalized expectation measure and entropy and modified transport coefficient. The~transport coefficient significantly increases with decreasing fractality which is corroborated by analysis of experimental data.Comment: 20 pages 7 figure

Hot Forging of a Cladded Component by Automated GMAW Process

Weld cladding is employed to improve the service life of engineering components by increasing corrosion and wear resistance and reducing the cost. The acceptable multi-bead cladding layer depends on single bead geometry. Hence, in first step, the relationship between input process parameters and the single bead geometry is studied and in second step a comprehensive study on multi bead clad layer deposition is carried out. This paper highlights an experimental study carried out to get single layer cladding deposited by automated GMAW process and to find the possibility of hot forming of the cladded work piece to get the final hot formed improved structure. The experiments for single bead were conducted by varying the three main process parameters wire feed rate, arc voltage and welding speed while keeping other parameters like nozzle to work distance, shielding gas and its flow rate and torch angle constant. The effect of bead spacing and torch orientation on the cladding quality of single layer from the results of single bead deposition was studied. A hot bending test at different temperatures of cladded plates with different dilution and nominal energy carried out