CTFS-ForestGEO: a worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change

Global change is impacting forests worldwide, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services including climate regulation. Understanding how forests respond is critical to forest conservation and climate protection. This review describes an international network of 59 long-term forest dynamics research sites (CTFS-ForestGEO) useful for characterizing forest responses to global change. Within very large plots (median size 25ha), all stems 1cm diameter are identified to species, mapped, and regularly recensused according to standardized protocols. CTFS-ForestGEO spans 25 degrees S-61 degrees N latitude, is generally representative of the range of bioclimatic, edaphic, and topographic conditions experienced by forests worldwide, and is the only forest monitoring network that applies a standardized protocol to each of the world's major forest biomes. Supplementary standardized measurements at subsets of the sites provide additional information on plants, animals, and ecosystem and environmental variables. CTFS-ForestGEO sites are experiencing multifaceted anthropogenic global change pressures including warming (average 0.61 degrees C), changes in precipitation (up to +/- 30% change), atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and sulfur compounds (up to 3.8g Nm(-2)yr(-1) and 3.1g Sm(-2)yr(-1)), and forest fragmentation in the surrounding landscape (up to 88% reduced tree cover within 5km). The broad suite of measurements made at CTFS-ForestGEO sites makes it possible to investigate the complex ways in which global change is impacting forest dynamics. Ongoing research across the CTFS-ForestGEO network is yielding insights into how and why the forests are changing, and continued monitoring will provide vital contributions to understanding worldwide forest diversity and dynamics in an era of global change.

Directed Nonabelian Sandpile Models on Trees

We define two general classes of nonabelian sandpile models on directed trees (or arborescences), as models of nonequilibrium statistical physics. Unlike usual applications of the well-known abelian sandpile model, these models have the property that sand grains can enter only through specified reservoirs. In the Trickle-down sandpile model, sand grains are allowed to move one at a time. For this model, we show that the stationary distribution is of product form. In the Landslide sandpile model, all the grains at a vertex topple at once, and here we prove formulas for all eigenvalues, their multiplicities, and the rate of convergence to stationarity. The proofs use wreath products and the representation theory of monoids.

Markov chains, R-trivial monoids and representation theory

We develop a general theory of Markov chains realizable as random walks on R-trivial monoids. It provides explicit and simple formulas for the eigenvalues of the transition matrix, for multiplicities of the eigenvalues via Mobius inversion along a lattice, a condition for diagonalizability of the transition matrix and some techniques for bounding the mixing time. In addition, we discuss several examples, such as Toom-Tsetlin models, an exchange walk for finite Coxeter groups, as well as examples previously studied by the authors, such as nonabelian sandpile models and the promotion Markov chain on posets. Many of these examples can be viewed as random walks on quotients of free tree monoids, a new class of monoids whose combinatorics we develop.

A sleep-inducing peptide from the venom of the Indian cone snail Conus araneosus

The marine snail Conus araneosus has unusual significance due to its confined distribution to coastal regions of southeast India and Sri Lanka. Due to its relative scarceness, this species has been poorly studied. In this work, we characterized the venom of C. araneosus to identify new venom peptides. We identified 14 novel compounds. We determined amino acid sequences from chemically-modified and unmodified crude venom using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Ten sequences showed six Cys residues arranged in a pattern that is most commonly associated with the M-superfamily of conotoxins. Four other sequences had four Cys residues in a pattern that is most commonly associated with the T-superfamily of conotoxins. The post-translationally modified residue (pyroglutamate) was determined at the N-terminus of two sequences, ar3h and ar3i respectively. In addition, two sequences, ar3g and ar3h were C-terminally amidated. At a dose of 2 nmol, peptide ar3j elicited sleep when injected intraperitoneally into mice. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a peptide from a molluscivorous cone snail with sleep-inducing effects in mice. The novel peptides characterized herein extend the repertoire of unique peptides derived from cone snails and may add value to the therapeutic promise of conotoxins. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Numerical study of laminar, standing hydraulic jumps in a planar geometry

We solve the two-dimensional, planar Navier-Stokes equations to simulate a laminar, standing hydraulic jump using a Volume-of-Fluid method. The geometry downstream of the jump has been designed to be similar to experimental conditions by including a pit at the edge of the platform over which liquid film flows. We obtain jumps with and without separation. Increasing the inlet Froude number pushes the jump downstream and makes the slope of the jump weaker, consistent with experimental observations of circular jumps, and decreasing the Reynolds number brings the jump upstream while making it steeper. We study the effect of the length of the domain and that of a downstream obstacle on the structure and location of the jump. The transient flow which leads to a final steady jump is described for the first time to our knowledge. In the moderate Reynolds number regime, we obtain steady undular jumps with a separated bubble underneath the first few undulations. Interestingly, surface tension leads to shortening of wavelength of these undulations. We show that the undulations can be explained using the inviscid theory of Benjamin and Lighthill (Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 1954). We hope this new finding will motivate experimental verification.

Separation index of graphs and stacked 2-spheres

In 1987, Kalai proved that stacked spheres of dimension d >= 3 are characterised by the fact that they attain equality in Barnette's celebrated Lower Bound Theorem. This result does not extend to dimension d = 2. In this article, we give a characterisation of stacked 2-spheres using what we call the separation index. Namely, we show that the separation index of a triangulated 2-sphere is maximal if and only if it is stacked. In addition, we prove that, amongst all n-vertex triangulated 2-spheres, the separation index is minimised by some n-vertex flag sphere for n >= 6. Furthermore, we apply this characterisation of stacked 2-spheres to settle the outstanding 3-dimensional case of the Lutz-Sulanke-Swartz conjecture that ``tight-neighbourly triangulated manifolds are tight''. For dimension d >= 4, the conjecture has already been proved by Effenberger following a result of Novik and Swartz. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Benjamín de Tudela y los motivos del viaje : la educación del judío y el encuentro con la propia identidad a través del otro

Resumen: El presente trabajo aborda un tema concreto: el motivo u objeto con que el maestro y erudito español Benjamín de Tudela (1130-1173) abandona momentáneamente su país, España, para realizar un viaje de más de diez años por el Mediterráneo, el Asia Menor, el Medio Oriente y, aunque es menos probable, el Lejano Oriente. El corpus a considerar es su Libro de viajes (1160-1173), uno de los más completos y didácticos cuadernos de bitácora de la literatura occidental. Esta obra, que ha tenido grandes incidencias en la educación judía de siglos posteriores, es considerada hasta hoy como uno de los primeros documentos demográficos de las comunidades judías de la diáspora. Una vez identificados los motivos que impulsaron un periplo de tal calibre, procederé a analizar básicamente dos. Por un lado, la misión didáctica que él mismo se ha atribuido en consonancia con el precepto que ordena la transmisión intergeneracional de la fe y sus valores. Por otro lado, infiero un motivo que califico como de origen divino o sobrenatural, y que comparo con el viaje de Abraham desde Ur de Caldea hasta la Tierra Prometida. Para desarrollar este punto parto de un fragmento de la Biblia denominado en la tradición judía Lej lej�� (Génesis XII:1-XVII:27), del que tomo los dos versículos iniciales, y aplico un análisis hecho por la licenciada y rabina Silvina Chemen con motivo del diálogo interreligioso.

Efecto de aplicaciones de NPK sobre el crecimiento, desarrollo y rendimiento agroindustrial de la caña de azucar (Saccharum sp híbrido) variedad C87-51 en caña planta en el IBZ-CASUR S.A., Potosí, Rivas

El presente estudio se realizó en áreas de la finca "San Fernando" perteneciente al Ingenio Benjamin Zeledón (IBZ) de la Compañía Azucarera del Sur (CASUR, S.A.) ubicado en Potosí, departamento de Rivas (11005' LN y 86001' LO, a 70 msnm) con el objetivo de contribuir al incremento del rendimiento agroindustrial de la caña de azúcar se evaluaron el efecto de niveles de NPK: Nitrógeno (0, 80, 120 y 160 kg ha-1), F��sforo (0 y 60 kg ha-1) y Potasio (0, 60, 90 y 120 kg ha-1) sobre el crecimiento, desarrollo y rendimiento agroindustrial de la variedad C87-51. Los 32 tratamientos fueron distribuidos en un diseño de Bloques Completamente al Azar (BCA) con arreglo en Parcelas Subdivididas con tres réplicas. Se inició y estableció en la segunda semana de abril del 2003 y se cosechó en marzo del 2004. A los resultados de campo se les aplicó un análisis de varianza (ANDEVA) y separación de medias (Tukey ∞=0.05) sobre 13 variables cuantitativas. Asimismo, se utilizó un modelo estadístico de tendencia (lineal, cuadrática y cúbica) en el rendimiento agroindustrial para evaluar los niveles de N y K, y modelos de regresión múltiple en rendimiento. Se otuvieron efecto significativo en las variables de desarrollo y rendimiento, en el caso del P su efecto no fue significativo en el rendimiento. El mayor rendimiento agroindustrial se alcanzó en la combinación de 160–0–120 (9.34 Ton ha-1) y 160–60–120 (9.42 Ton ha-1), y presentó significancia estadística para una respuesta lineal y cúbica en N; para el caso del K la respuesta a los tres modelos establecidos fue significativa, pero con mayor significancia estadística la función lineal. La relación del rendimiento industrial a partir de rendimiento agrícola fue significativa con un ajuste cuadrático determinada por un R2 de 0.8671.

有基本流动的渠道中的孤立波

<正> 迄今为止,大多数关于渠道中的孤立波的研究都作了静水的假定,从而避免了波与流相互作用的难题。但在自然界的江河中大都有基本流动,这就要求我们研究有基本流动情况下渠道中的孤立波。Benjamin,Peters,Turpin等人先后在这方面做了一些工作。 我们研究无粘、不可压缩流体的运动,基本流动沿着渠道方向,渠道断面及坐标如图

Diário da Constituinte [gravação de vídeo] : [programa n. 319]

Reunião da Mesa da Constituinte discute como será a votação do substitutivo da Sistematização no Plenário geral. J�� existem propostas do Centrão e da Mesa. De acordo com o Senador Mauro Benevides (PMDB-CE), presidente em exercício da Assembleia Nacional Constituinte (ANC), a Mesa se encaminhará para a apresentação de outro substitutivo. Sessão solene conclui os trabalhos da Comissão de Sistematização dando por encerrada a votação do substitutivo, este encaminhado à Mesa da ANC. O Deputado Bernardo Cabral (PMDB-AM), faz considerações sobre os trabalhos da Comissão de Sistematização. O Senador Affonso Arinos (PFL-RJ) repete a frase de Benjamin Franklin: "Por haver vivido muito, fui levado a mudar de opinião várias vezes em assuntos importantes, assim aceito este projeto" e conclui declarando aceitar o projeto. O Deputado Amaury Muller (PDT-RS) afirma que embora os Constituintes façam um balanço positivo dos assuntos que foram tratados na Sistematização, reconhecendo seu trabalho, mantém-se a f�� e a esperança de que os Constituintes no Plenário possam traduzir com fidelidade os compromissos que assumiram com a sociedade brasileira durante a campanha eleitoral. O Senador Mario Covas (PMDB-SP), a Deputada Sandra Martins Cavalcanti (PFL-RJ) e o Deputado Arnaldo Faria de Sá (PTB-SP) consideram que no Plenário alguns dos pontos do substitutivo serão reformados, enriquecendo o texto. O Deputado Carlos Sant'anna (PMDB-BA) ressalta a necessidade de alterações em questões formais como a língua, a estrutura e a harmonia do texto. O Deputado Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva (PT-SP) espera que o projeto tenha melhorias no Plenário, pois a sociedade brasileira está na expectativa de que esta Constituição possa retratar sua luta nos últimos anos. O Senador Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PMDB-SP) crê que o resultado dos trabalhos será uma Constituição democrática e moderna.

Marine Mammal Strandings in the United States: Proceedings of the Second Marine Mammal Stranding Workshop, Miami, Florida, December 3-5, 1987

Over a decade ago, in August 1977, the First Marine Mammal Stranding Workshop was convened in Athens, Georgia. That workshop, organized by j.R. Geraci and D.J. St. Aubin, not only considered biology and pathology of stranded marine mammals, but it also served as a springboard for the formation of regional marine mammal stranding networks in the United States. The ramifications have been extremely important to the field of marine mammalogy since, for some species, examination or rehabilitation of stranded specimens serves as virtually the only source of information on distribution, anatomy, physiology, reproduction, and pathology. The First Marine Mammal Stranding Workshop led to increased awareness of the marine mammals themselves, as well as the logistic and legal factors associated with effective handling of the animals. A number of individuals indicated that they felt that a Second Marine Mammal Stranding Workshop held prior to the Seventh Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals (Miami, Florida; December 1987) would be both timely and productive. Accordingly, we organized the workshop and scheduled it to occur on 3-5 December. Our goals for the workshop were several, including 1) providing descriptions of some research, especially new techniques, regarding stranded marine mammals; 2) providing a forum where scientists could interact and possibly initiate cooperative research activities; 3) presenting information regarding procedures used effectively to handle stranded animals; 4) assessing ways to standardize data and specimen collection, archiving, and retrieval; and 5) providing a forum for assessing accomplishments and status of regional stranding networks to date, as well as for making recommendations regarding future activities of the networks. Nearly 100 individuals representing Federal and State governments, academic institutions, the oceanarium industry, consulting groups, conservation organizations, and the private sector attended the workshop (see Workshop Participants, this volume). (PDF file contains 166 pages.)

I. Singular perturbation problems involving singular points and turning points. II. On the averaged Lagrangian technique for nonlinear dispersive waves

In Part I a class of linear boundary value problems is considered which is a simple model of boundary layer theory. The effect of zeros and singularities of the coefficients of the equations at the point where the boundary layer occurs is considered. The usual boundary layer techniques are still applicable in some cases and are used to derive uniform asymptotic expansions. In other cases it is shown that the inner and outer expansions do not overlap due to the presence of a turning point outside the boundary layer. The region near the turning point is described by a two-variable expansion. In these cases a related initial value problem is solved and then used to show formally that for the boundary value problem either a solution exists, except for a discrete set of eigenvalues, whose asymptotic behaviour is found, or the solution is non-unique. A proof is given of the validity of the two-variable expansion; in a special case this proof also demonstrates the validity of the inner and outer expansions.

Nonlinear dispersive wave equations which are governed by variational principles are considered in Part II. It is shown that the averaged Lagrangian variational principle is in fact exact. This result is used to construct perturbation schemes to enable higher order terms in the equations for the slowly varying quantities to be calculated. A simple scheme applicable to linear or near-linear equations is first derived. The specific form of the first order correction terms is derived for several examples. The stability of constant solutions to these equations is considered and it is shown that the correction terms lead to the instability cut-off found by Benjamin. A general stability criterion is given which explicitly demonstrates the conditions under which this cut-off occurs. The corrected set of equations are nonlinear dispersive equations and their stationary solutions are investigated. A more sophisticated scheme is developed for fully nonlinear equations by using an extension of the Hamiltonian formalism recently introduced by Whitham. Finally the averaged Lagrangian technique is extended to treat slowly varying multiply-periodic solutions. The adiabatic invariants for a separable mechanical system are derived by this method.

Essays in behavioral and neuro-economics

This thesis examines foundational questions in behavioral economics—also called psychology and economics—and the neural foundations of varied sources of utility. We have three primary aims: First, to provide the field of behavioral economics with psychological theories of behavior that are derived from neuroscience and to use those theories to identify novel evidence for behavioral biases. Second, we provide neural and micro foundations of behavioral preferences that give rise to well-documented empirical phenomena in behavioral economics. Finally, we show how a deep understanding of the neural foundations of these behavioral preferences can feed back into our theories of social preferences and reference-dependent utility.

The first chapter focuses on classical conditioning and its application in identifying the psychological underpinnings of a pricing phenomenon. We return to classical conditioning again in the third chapter where we use fMRI to identify varied sources of utility—here, reference dependent versus direct utility—and cross-validate our interpretation with a conditioning experiment. The second chapter engages social preferences and, more broadly, causative utility (wherein the decision-maker derives utility from making or avoiding particular choices).