Cnemidophorus neomexicanus

Number of Pages: 3Integrative BiologyGeological Science

The time budget and feeding ecology of the pukeko (Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus, Temminck 1820) a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Zoology at Massey University

The annual and seasonal time budget and feeding ecology of pukeko Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus are described both as a composite day and diurnally. The study shows pukeko do not spend equal time in all activities in all habitats over the day, for each season or over the year. They spend by far the bulk of their time feeding (75-90%), and less time to attentiveness, bodily maintenance, and social encounters. However time allocated to all activities varies with habitat. By far most time is spent in dryland (pasture), and less in turn in rush margins, swamp and water. Bimodal activity patterns (dawn and dusk) are described for each season, whereas feeding effort is unimodal peaking in the mid to late afternoon. Direct sampling of an adjacent population indicates pukeko gradually increase the length of tiller taken and quantity of ingesta consumed over the day. Pukeko do not peck at the same rate or feed at the same intensity in all habitats, at all times of the day, for each season or over the year - feeding fastest and most intensely in rush margin and mud areas, and slower and less intensely in dryland, swamp and water. However considering use of habitats over the year pukeko feed most intensively and extensively in dryland, but less in rush margin, mud, swamp and water. Feeding in the latter three habitats is linked notably with seasonal availability (and/or quality) of forage. Evidence indicates pukeko are able to gauge seasonally the availability (and/or quality) of forage, and allocate their feeding effort appropriately

Hume’s Academic Scepticism: A Reappraisal of His Philosophy of Human Understanding

A philosopher once wrote the following words:If I examine the PTOLOMAIC and COPERNICAN systems, I endeavour only, by my enquiries, to know the real situation of the planets; that is, in other words, I endeavour to give them, in my conception, the same relations, that they bear towards each other in the heavens. To this operation of the mind, therefore, there seems to be always a real, though often an unknown standard, in the nature of things; nor is truth or falsehood variable by the various apprehensions of mankind. Though all human race should for ever conclude, that the sun moves, and the earth remains at rest, the sun stirs not an inch from his place for all these reasonings; and such conclusions are eternally false and erroneous

An analysis of the price behaviour of selected vegetables at a New Zealand auction : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies at Massey University

The immediate and short run behaviour of prices and volumes of eighteen vegetables at auction are examined. The objectives were to describe the behaviour of weekly prices and volumes and to investigate various relationships. The data analysed are weekly volume and turnover for eighteen vegetables at a Palmerston North auction for a three year period. Various climatological variables relating to the same period were also analysed. Much of the descriptive analysis relies on the techniques of Exploratory Data Analysis; boxplots, letterplots, and a resistant smoother are used extensively. These methods facilitate the analysis of the behaviour of prices and volumes over time. The auction marketing system is discussed at length, with particular emphasis on the effect of length of run on supply response. Various relationships are examined predominantly using stepwise reqression. These include: current price and quantity; current quantity and lagged price; quantity and month of the year; price and month of the year; price and various weather variables; quantity and various weather variables; current price and lagged price. Some transformations are used to try to get a more linear relationship between price and quantity. This relied on fitting several resistant lines, another EDA technique. The interdependence or interrelationship of prices examined using Principal Components Analysis, and principal components were extracted and described. Some useful insights into the behaviour of the market are gained. Immediate run price variation, that is from week to week, is quite large and this is reflected in low R-squared values for the price-volume relationships. The relationship between current marketed volume and lagged prices was also investigated. The results indicate that in the immediate run, using weekly prices, this relationship is weak. Arguably the most useful analysis was the monthly price boxplots which give a clear graphic display of the behaviour of prices. These and the other plots give indications as to when prices were highest and lowest. They may be useful to growers in planning production and harvesting. It was discovered that weekly prices were more variable than weekly volumes for 10 vegetables, less variable for six vegetables, and equally variable for two vegetables. 0ften the highest weekly price did not coincide with the lowest weekly supply, and the lowest price did not correspond to the highest supply. This suggests that bidders under or over estimate the quantity on the floor and each other's requirements

NEEXP is Contained in MIP*

We study multiprover interactive proof systems. The power of classical multiprover interactive proof systems, in which the provers do not share entanglement, was characterized in a famous work by Babai, Fortnow, and Lund (Computational Complexity 1991), whose main result was the equality MIP = NEXP. The power of quantum multiprover interactive proof systems, in which the provers are allowed to share entanglement, has proven to be much more difficult to characterize. The best known lower-bound on MIP* is NEXP ⊆ MIP*, due to Ito and Vidick (FOCS 2012). As for upper bounds, MIP* could be as large as RE, the class of recursively enumerable languages. The main result of this work is the inclusion of NEEXP = NTIME[2^(2poly(n))] ⊆ MIP*. This is an exponential improvement over the prior lower bound and shows that proof systems with entangled provers are at least exponentially more powerful than classical provers. In our protocol the verifier delegates a classical, exponentially large MIP protocol for NEEXP to two entangled provers: the provers obtain their exponentially large questions by measuring their shared state, and use a classical PCP to certify the correctness of their exponentially-long answers. For the soundness of our protocol, it is crucial that each player should not only sample its own question correctly but also avoid performing measurements that would reveal the other player's sampled question. We ensure this by commanding the players to perform a complementary measurement, relying on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to prevent the forbidden measurements from being performed

Private donations for international development

Charitable donations by private individuals and firms can help fund the Millennium Development Goals. What are the prospects for increasing donations for international development, whether from small scale donors, the super-rich (as in the recent gifts by Bill Gates and Ted Turner), or the corporate sector? The paper starts by reviewing how large are the sums currently given in OECD countries (including gifts of time) and the problems development has in competing with domestic causes. It then looks at possibilities for the future, including tax-deductions, the new 'global funds', corporate social responsibility and 'cause-related marketing', the use of the Internet, and long-term donor education

An investigation into the feasibility and potential benefits of shared taxi services to commuter stations

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