Ethnobiology and the evolution of the human mind

An evolutionary perspective on human thought and behaviour indicates that we should expect to find universal systems of perception, classification, and decision-making regarding the natural world. It is the interaction between these evolved aspects of the human mind, the biodiversity of the natural world, and unique historical, social, and economic contexts within which individuals develop and act that gives rise to cultural diversity. The palaeoanthropological record also indicates that language is a recently evolved phenomenon. This suggests that linguistic approaches in ethnobiology are likely to provide only a partial understanding of how humans perceive, classify, and engage with the natural world.

Maize yield and rainfall on different spatial and temporal scales in Southern Brazil

This study aimed to establish relationships between maize yield and rainfall on different temporal and spatial scales, in order to provide a basis for crop monitoring and modelling. A 16-year series of maize yield and daily rainfall from 11 municipalities and micro-regions of Rio Grande do Sul State was used. Correlation and regression analyses were used to determine associations between crop yield and rainfall for the entire crop cycle, from tasseling to 30 days after, and from 5 days before tasseling to 40 days after. Close relationships between maize yield and rainfall were found, particularly during the reproductive period (45-day period comprising the flowering and grain filling). Relationships were closer on a regional scale than at smaller scales. Implications of the crop-rainfall relationships for crop modelling are discussed.

Integrating woodland with pig production in the United Kingdom: an investigation of potential performance and interactions

Although silvopastoral systems involving pigs were once widespread in Britain, the practice has largely died out. However, recent changes in pig production techniques, consumer demands and the economic climate within which farmers operate, have led to renewed interest in both traditional and novel tree-pig systems. This paper describes a financial spreadsheet model (MAST) that was developed to: provide a means of determining financial performance of integrating finishing pigs with natural woodland; identify the likely importance of different as yet largely unresearched animal-tree interactions; and, determine which interactions warrant attention in research and management. Preliminary analysis suggests that the financial performance of this agroforestry enterprise could be superior to that of a pasture-based enterprise. The most important factors in determining incremental performance are identified as sales premia for ‘forest-reared’ pork, changes to feed conversion ratios arising from the provision of a heterogeneous microclimate, and the availability of cheaper land rents.

Integrating natural woodland with pig production in the United Kingdom: an investigation of potential performance and interactions

Although silvopastoral systems involving pigs were once widespread in Britain, the practice has largely died out. However, recent changes in pig production techniques, consumer demands and the economic climate within which farmers operate, have led to renewed interest in both traditional and novel tree-pig systems. This paper describes a financial spreadsheet model ( MAST) that was developed to: provide a means of determining financial performance of integrating finishing pigs with natural woodland; identify the likely importance of different as yet largely unresearched animal-tree interactions; and, determine which interactions warrant attention in research and management. Preliminary analysis suggests that the financial performance of this agroforestry enterprise could be superior to that of a pasture-based enterprise. The most important factors in determining incremental performance are identified as sales premia for 'forest-reared' pork, changes to feed conversion ratios arising from the provision of a heterogeneous microclimate, and the availability of cheaper land rents.

Friends or relatives? Phylogenetics and species delimitation in the controversial European orchid Genus ophrys

Background and Aims Highly variable, yet possibly convergent, morphology and lack of sequence variation have severely hindered production of a robust phylogenetic framework for the genus Ophrys. The aim of this study is to produce this framework as a basis for more rigorous species delimitation and conservation recommendations. Methods Nuclear and plastid DNA sequencing and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) were performed on 85 accessions of Ophrys, spanning the full range of species aggregates currently recognized. Data were analysed using a combination of parsimony and Bayesian tree-building techniques and by principal coordinates analysis. Key Results Complementary phylogenetic analyses and ordinations using nuclear, plastid and AFLP datasets identify ten genetically distinct groups (six robust) within the genus that may in turn be grouped into three sections (treated as subgenera by some authors). Additionally, genetic evidence is provided for a close relationship between the O. tenthredinifera, O. bombyliflora and O. speculum groups. The combination of these analytical techniques provides new insights into Ophrys systematics, notably recognition of the novel O. umbilicata group. Conclusions Heterogeneous copies of the nuclear ITS region show that some putative Ophrys species arose through hybridization rather than divergent speciation. The supposedly highly specific pseudocopulatory pollination syndrome of Ophrys is demonstrably 'leaky', suggesting that the genus has been substantially over-divided at the species level.

Multivariate relationships between groundwater chemistry and toxicity in an urban aquifer

Multivariate statistical methods were used to investigate file Causes of toxicity and controls on groundwater chemistry from 274 boreholes in an Urban area (London) of the United Kingdom. The groundwater was alkaline to neutral, and chemistry was dominated by calcium, sodium, and Sulfate. Contaminants included fuels, solvents, and organic compounds derived from landfill material. The presence of organic material in the aquifer caused decreases in dissolved oxygen, sulfate and nitrate concentrations. and increases in ferrous iron and ammoniacal nitrogen concentrations. Pearson correlations between toxicity results and the concentration of individual analytes indicated that concentrations of ammoinacal nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, ferrous iron, and hydrocarbons were important where present. However, principal component and regression analysis suggested no significant correlation between toxicity and chemistry over the whole area. Multidimensional Scaling was used to investigate differences in sites caused by historical use, landfill gas status, or position within the sample area. Significant differences were observed between sites with different historical land use and those with different gas status. Examination of the principal component matrix revealed that these differences are related to changes in the importance of reduced chemical species.

Do children with Williams syndrome really have good vocabulary knowledge? Methods for comparing cognitive and linguistic abilities in developmental disorders

The comparison of cognitive and linguistic skills in individuals with developmental disorders is fraught with methodological and psychometric difficulties. In this paper, we illustrate some of these issues by comparing the receptive vocabulary knowledge and non-verbal reasoning abilities of 41 children with Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder in which language abilities are often claimed to be relatively strong. Data from this group were compared with data from typically developing children, children with Down syndrome, and children with non-specific learning difficulties using a number of approaches including comparison of age-equivalent scores, matching, analysis of covariance, and regression-based standardization. Across these analyses children with Williams syndrome consistently demonstrated relatively good receptive vocabulary knowledge, although this effect appeared strongest in the oldest children.

Multimodal semantic-associative collateral labelling and indexing of still images

A novel framework for multimodal semantic-associative collateral image labelling, aiming at associating image regions with textual keywords, is described. Both the primary image and collateral textual modalities are exploited in a cooperative and complementary fashion. The collateral content and context based knowledge is used to bias the mapping from the low-level region-based visual primitives to the high-level visual concepts defined in a visual vocabulary. We introduce the notion of collateral context, which is represented as a co-occurrence matrix, of the visual keywords, A collaborative mapping scheme is devised using statistical methods like Gaussian distribution or Euclidean distance together with collateral content and context-driven inference mechanism. Finally, we use Self Organising Maps to examine the classification and retrieval effectiveness of the proposed high-level image feature vector model which is constructed based on the image labelling results.

Sparse kernel modelling: a unified approach

A unified approach is proposed for sparse kernel data modelling that includes regression and classification as well as probability density function estimation. The orthogonal-least-squares forward selection method based on the leave-one-out test criteria is presented within this unified data-modelling framework to construct sparse kernel models that generalise well. Examples from regression, classification and density estimation applications are used to illustrate the effectiveness of this generic sparse kernel data modelling approach.

Semantic-associative visual content labelling and retrieval: A multimodal approach

A novel framework referred to as collaterally confirmed labelling (CCL) is proposed, aiming at localising the visual semantics to regions of interest in images with textual keywords. Both the primary image and collateral textual modalities are exploited in a mutually co-referencing and complementary fashion. The collateral content and context-based knowledge is used to bias the mapping from the low-level region-based visual primitives to the high-level visual concepts defined in a visual vocabulary. We introduce the notion of collateral context, which is represented as a co-occurrence matrix of the visual keywords. A collaborative mapping scheme is devised using statistical methods like Gaussian distribution or Euclidean distance together with collateral content and context-driven inference mechanism. We introduce a novel high-level visual content descriptor that is devised for performing semantic-based image classification and retrieval. The proposed image feature vector model is fundamentally underpinned by the CCL framework. Two different high-level image feature vector models are developed based on the CCL labelling of results for the purposes of image data clustering and retrieval, respectively. A subset of the Corel image collection has been used for evaluating our proposed method. The experimental results to-date already indicate that the proposed semantic-based visual content descriptors outperform both traditional visual and textual image feature models. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An effective approach for land-cover classification from airborne lidar fused with co-registered data

Airborne lidar provides accurate height information of objects on the earth and has been recognized as a reliable and accurate surveying tool in many applications. In particular, lidar data offer vital and significant features for urban land-cover classification, which is an important task in urban land-use studies. In this article, we present an effective approach in which lidar data fused with its co-registered images (i.e. aerial colour images containing red, green and blue (RGB) bands and near-infrared (NIR) images) and other derived features are used effectively for accurate urban land-cover classification. The proposed approach begins with an initial classification performed by the Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence with a specifically designed basic probability assignment function. It outputs two results, i.e. the initial classification and pseudo-training samples, which are selected automatically according to the combined probability masses. Second, a support vector machine (SVM)-based probability estimator is adopted to compute the class conditional probability (CCP) for each pixel from the pseudo-training samples. Finally, a Markov random field (MRF) model is established to combine spatial contextual information into the classification. In this stage, the initial classification result and the CCP are exploited. An efficient belief propagation (EBP) algorithm is developed to search for the global minimum-energy solution for the maximum a posteriori (MAP)-MRF framework in which three techniques are developed to speed up the standard belief propagation (BP) algorithm. Lidar and its co-registered data acquired by Toposys Falcon II are used in performance tests. The experimental results prove that fusing the height data and optical images is particularly suited for urban land-cover classification. There is no training sample needed in the proposed approach, and the computational cost is relatively low. An average classification accuracy of 93.63% is achieved.

Present-day and mid-Holocene biomes reconstructed from pollen and plant macrofossil data from the former Soviet Union and Mongolia

Fossil pollen data supplemented by tree macrofossil records were used to reconstruct the vegetation of the Former Soviet Union and Mongolia at 6000 years. Pollen spectra were assigned to biomes using the plant-functional-type method developed by Prentice et al. (1996). Surface pollen data and a modern vegetation map provided a test of the method. This is the first time such a broad-scale vegetation reconstruction for the greater part of northern Eurasia has been attempted with objective techniques. The new results confirm previous regional palaeoenvironmental studies of the mid-Holocene while providing a comprehensive synopsis and firmer conclusions. West of the Ural Mountains temperate deciduous forest extended both northward and southward from its modern range. The northern limits of cool mixed and cool conifer forests were also further north than present. Taiga was reduced in European Russia, but was extended into Yakutia where now there is cold deciduous forest. The northern limit of taiga was extended (as shown by increased Picea pollen percentages, and by tree macrofossil records north of the present-day forest limit) but tundra was still present in north-eastern Siberia. The boundary between forest and steppe in the continental interior did not shift substantially, and dry conditions similar to present existed in western Mongolia and north of the Aral Sea.

Evaluation of cumulative externality: environmental economics, oligopoly and the private provision of public goods

This paper evaluates environmental externality when the structure of the externality is cumulative. The evaluation exercise is based on the assumption that the agents in question form conjectural variations. A number of environments are encompassed within this classification and have received due attention in the literature. Each of these heterogeneous environments, however, possesses considerable analytical homogeneity and permit subscription to a general model treatment. These environments include environmental externality, oligopoly and the analysis of the private provision of public goods. We highlight the general analytical approach by focusing on this latter context, in which debate centers around four issues: the existence of free-riding, the extent to which contributions are matched equally across individuals, the nature of conjectures consistent with equilibrium, and the allocative inefficiency of alternative regimes. This paper resolves each of these issues, with the following conclusions: A consistent-conjectures equilibrium exists in the private provision of public goods. It is the monopolistic-conjectures equilibrium. Agents act identically, contributing positive amounts of the public good in an efficient allocation of resources. There is complete matching of contributions among agents, no free-riding, and the allocation is independent of the number of members within the community. Thus the Olson conjecture—that inefficiency is exacerbated by community size—has no foundation in a consistent-conjectures, cumulative-externality, context (212 words).

Reproducibility of the online Food4Me food-frequency questionnaire for estimating dietary intakes across Europe

Background: Accurate dietary assessment is key to understanding nutrition-related outcomes and is essential for estimating dietary change in nutrition-based interventions. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the pan-European reproducibility of the Food4Me food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in assessing the habitual diet of adults. Methods: Participantsfromthe Food4Me study, a 6-mo,Internet-based, randomizedcontrolled trial of personalized nutrition conducted in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Greece, and Poland were included. Screening and baseline data (both collected before commencement of the intervention) were used in the present analyses, and participants were includedonly iftheycompleted FFQs at screeningand at baselinewithin a 1-mo timeframebeforethe commencement oftheintervention. Sociodemographic (e.g., sex andcountry) andlifestyle[e.g.,bodymass index(BMI,inkg/m2)and physical activity] characteristics were collected. Linear regression, correlation coefficients, concordance (percentage) in quartile classification, and Bland-Altman plots for daily intakes were used to assess reproducibility. Results: In total, 567 participants (59% female), with a mean 6 SD age of 38.7 6 13.4 y and BMI of 25.4 6 4.8, completed bothFFQswithin 1 mo(mean 6 SD: 19.26 6.2d).Exact plus adjacent classification oftotal energy intakeinparticipants was highest in Ireland (94%) and lowest in Poland (81%). Spearman correlation coefficients (r) in total energy intake between FFQs ranged from 0.50 for obese participants to 0.68 and 0.60 in normal-weight and overweight participants, respectively. Bland-Altman plots showed a mean difference between FFQs of 210 kcal/d, with the agreement deteriorating as energy intakes increased. There was little variation in reproducibility of total energy intakes between sex and age groups. Conclusions: The online Food4Me FFQ was shown to be reproducible across 7 European countries when administered within a 1-mo period to a large number of participants. The results support the utility of the online Food4Me FFQ as a reproducible tool across multiple European populations. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01530139.