In the elephant's seed shadow: the prospects of domestic bovids as replacement dispersers of three tropical Asian trees

As populations of the world's largest animal species decline, it is unclear how ecosystems will react to their local extirpation. Due to the unique ecological characteristics of megaherbivores such as elephants, seed dispersal is one ecosystem process that may be affected as populations of large animals are decimated. In typically disturbed South Asian ecosystems, domestic bovids (cattle, Bos primigenius, and buffalo, Bubalus bubalis) may often be the species most available to replace Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) as endozoochorous dispersers of large-fruited mammal-dispersed species. We use feeding trials, germination trials, and movement data from the tropical moist forests of Buxa Tiger Reserve (India) to examine whether domestic bovids are viable replacements for elephants in the dispersal of three largefruited species: Dillenia indica, Artocarpus chaplasha, and Careya arborea. We find that (1) once consumed, seeds are between 2.5 (C. arborea) and 26.5 (D. indica) times more likely to pass undigested into elephant dung than domestic bovid dung; and (2) seeds from elephant dung germinated as well as or better than seeds taken from bovid dung for all plant species, with D. indica seeds from elephant dung 1.5 times more likely to germinate. Furthermore, since wild elephants have less constrained movements than even free-roaming domestic bovids, we calculate that maximum dispersal by elephants is between 9.5 and 11.2 times farther than that of domestic bovids, with about 20% of elephant-dispersed seeds being moved farther than the maximum distance seeds are moved by bovids. Our findings suggest that, while bovids are able to disperse substantial numbers of seeds over moderate distances for two of the three study species, domestic bovids will be unable to routinely emulate the reliable, long-distance dispersal of seeds executed by elephants in this tropical moist forest. Thus while domestic bovids can attenuate the effects of losing elephants as dispersers, they may not be able to prevent the decline of various mammal-dispersed fruiting species in the face of overhunting, habitat fragmentation, and climate change.

From Shadow to Green: Linking Environmental Fiscal Reforms and the Informal Economy

47 p.

Literary portraits of basque-american women from shadow to presence

268 p.

Moon Palace I

Moon Palace I takes its title from the novel “Moon Palace” by Paul Auster and is loosely influenced by the following quotation from the novel: "I had jumped off the edge, and then, at the very last moment, something reached out and caught me in midair. That something is what I define as love. It is the one thing that can stop a man from falling, the one thing powerful enough to negate the laws of gravity." (Auster has authorised reproduction of the quotation) The opening pitches of moon palace I were composed while sitting at the piano exploring the sound of my tinnitus/inner ringing. From an initial rather delicate, graceful presentation of these pitches, the music intensifies rhythmically and dynamically, becoming more aggressive, emphasising the invasive quality inherent in tinnitus. A study at any one time of the pitches and rhythms present in my tinnitus can yield interesting results, the relationship between the sounds heard in each ear sometimes producing unison pitches or clashing dissonances. However, for all the fascination and intrigue, tinnitus can be relentless and disturbing, interrupting concentration and hindering sleep. Moon Palace I is an exploration of these two opposing elements. Laurina Sableviciute gave the first performance at St John's Church, Edinburgh, May 2006. It has also been performed by Tricia Dawn Williams at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta, Malta, November 2011.

Moon Palace II

Selected for performance at the New Music Weekend for Piano, Frederic Chopin Conservatoire, Paris. Premiered by Quentin Meurisse on 4th February 2012.

The D-CIXS X-ray spectrometer on the SMART-1 mission to the Moon - First Results

Grande, Manuel; Kellett, B.; Howe, C.; Perry, C.H., 'The D-CIXS X-ray spectrometer on the SMART-1 mission to the Moon - First Results', Planetary And Space Science (2007) 55(4) pp.494-502 RAE2008

Performance Evaluation of Two-Shadow Speculative Concurrency Control

Speculative Concurrency Control (SCC) [Best92a] is a new concurrency control approach especially suited for real-time database applications. It relies on the use of redundancy to ensure that serializable schedules are discovered and adopted as early as possible, thus increasing the likelihood of the timely commitment of transactions with strict timing constraints. In [Best92b], SCC-nS, a generic algorithm that characterizes a family of SCC-based algorithms was described, and its correctness established by showing that it only admits serializable histories. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of the Two-Shadow SCC algorithm (SCC-2S), a member of the SCC-nS family, which is notable for its minimal use of redundancy. In particular, we show that SCC-2S (as a representative of SCC-based algorithms) provides significant performance gains over the widely used Optimistic Concurrency Control with Broadcast Commit (OCC-BC), under a variety of operating conditions and workloads.

Full moon dance

A Jazz Celtic World Music Fusion Jig. A jig time melody placed in a setting where the rhythm section plays in 4/4 and 6/4 time simultaneously over contemporary modal jazz voicings