Space Use

DOE-2 building energy simulations were conducted to determine if there were practical architectural and control strategy solutions that would enable electrochromic (EC) windows to significantly improve visual comfort without eroding energy-efficiency benefits. EC windows were combined with overhangs since opaque overhangs provide protection from direct sun which EC windows are unable to do alone. The window wall was divided into an upper and lower aperture so that various combinations of overhang position and control strategies could be considered. The overhang was positioned either at the top of the upper window aperture or between the upper and lower apertures. Overhang depth was varied. EC control strategies were fully bleached at all times, modulated based on incident vertical solar radiation limits, or modulated to meet the design work plane illuminance with daylight. The EC performance was compared to a state-of-the-art spectrally selective low-e window with the same divided window wall, window size, and overhang as the EC configuration. The reference window was also combined with an interior shade which was manually deployed to control glare and direct sun. Both systems had the same daylighting control system to dim the electric lighting. Results were given for south-facing private offices in a typical commercial building. In hot and cold climates such as Houston and Chicago, EC windows with overhangs can significantly reduce the average annual daylight glare index (DGI) and deliver significant annual energy use savings if the window area is large. Total primary annual energy use was increased by 2-5% for moderate-area windows in either climate but decreased by 10% in Chicago and 5% in Houston for large-area windows. Peak electric demand can be reduced by 7-8% for moderate-area windows and by 14-16% for large-area windows in either climate. Energy and peak demand reductions can be significantly greater if the reference case does not have exterior shading or state-ofthe-art static glass.

We tested the influence of a change in food resource distribution on space use and diet of coyotes (Canis latrans). We focused on 2 facets of space use: maintenance of home ranges by residents, and establishment of home ranges by immigrants after a coyote removal program. The study was conducted on 2 populations of coyotes in southern Texas. In both populations, a clumped, high-quality food source was added to randomly selected feeding stations to measure the influence of food distribution and abundance on home-range patterns, trespassing rates, and consumption of native prey. In established home ranges, coyotes visited and foraged at stations regularly and were found closer to stations during the treatment period. Although there was no overall treatment effect on home-range size (F ¼ 1.66, d.f. ¼ 5, P ¼ 0.15), home ranges without supplemental food remained stable in size, whereas home ranges that had received supplemental food increased during the posttreatment period (t ¼ 2.09, d.f. ¼ 1, P ¼ 0.04). Core areas showed a similar trend; there was no overall treatment effect (F ¼ 1.51, d.f. ¼ 2, P ¼ 0.24); however, core areas of home ranges that received supplemental food were smaller than those of controls during the treatment period (t ¼ 2.71, d.f. ¼ 1, P , 0.01). There were no statistical differences in occurrence of any species, such as small mammals or white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), in scats of treatment versus control coyotes. Coyotes within the study site after removals were located closer to feeding stations during treatment than posttreatment (F ¼ 8.83, d.f. ¼ 1, P , 0.02, n ¼ 897) periods, yet homerange size with supplemental food was larger than home-range size during the posttreatment period. Our findings suggest that a resource other than food influences coyote spatial patterns.

We tested the influence of a change in food resource distribution on space use and diet of coyotes (Canis latrans). We focused on 2 facets of space use: maintenance of home ranges by residents, and establishment of home ranges by immigrants after a coyote removal program. The study was conducted on 2 populations of coyotes in southern Texas. In both populations, a clumped, high-quality food source was added to randomly selected feeding stations to measure the influence of food distribution and abundance on home-range patterns, trespassing rates, and consumption of native prey. In established home ranges, coyotes visited and foraged at stations regularly and were found closer to stations during the treatment period. Although there was no overall treatment effect on home-range size (F ¼ 1.66, d.f. ¼ 5, P ¼ 0.15), home ranges without supplemental food remained stable in size, whereas home ranges that had received supplemental food increased during the posttreatment period (t ¼ 2.09, d.f. ¼ 1, P ¼ 0.04). Core areas showed a similar trend; there was no overall treatment effect (F ¼ 1.51, d.f. ¼ 2, P ¼ 0.24); however, core areas of home ranges that received supplemental food were smaller than those of controls during the treatment period (t ¼ 2.71, d.f. ¼ 1, P , 0.01). There were no statistical differences in occurrence of any species, such as small mammals or white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), in scats of treatment versus control coyotes. Coyotes within the study site after removals were located closer to feeding stations during treatment than posttreatment (F ¼ 8.83, d.f. ¼ 1, P , 0.02, n ¼ 897) periods, yet homerange size with supplemental food was larger than home-range size during the posttreatment period. Our findings suggest that a resource other than food influences coyote spatial patterns.

Several flood events brought river levees into the focus of attention for some disasters due to their collapse. This phenomena is quite complex to investigate, because of different factors that can affect the stability of levees, among them the non uniformity of material properties, which influencing the permeability of the embankment, might induce high percolation velocity of flux thus triggering the unstability. Thus, to apply a fast and integrate investigation methods with a non-destructive characteristics should have a large ...

This paper presents an interactive transfer function design tool based on ellipsoidal Gaussian transfer functions (ETFs). Our approach explores volumetric features in the statistical space by modeling the space using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) with a small number of Gaussians to maximize the likelihood of feature separation. Instant visual feedback is possible by mapping these Gaussians to ETFs and analytically integrating these ETFs in the context of the pre-integrated volume rendering process. A suite of intuitive control widgets is designed to offer automatic transfer function generation and flexible manipulations, allowing an inexperienced user to easily explore undiscovered features with several simple interactions. Our GPU implementation demonstrates interactive performance and plausible scalability which compare favorably with existing solutions. The effectiveness of our approach has been verified on several datasets.

The current method of delivering gene replacement to the posterior segment of the eye involves a three-port pars plana vitrectomy followed by injection of the agent through a 37-gauge cannula, which is potentially wrought with retinal complications. In this paper we investigate the safety and efficacy of delivering adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector to the suprachoroidal space using an ab externo approach that utilizes an illuminated microcatheter. Methods: 6 New Zealand White rabbits and 2 Dutch Belted rabbits were used to evaluate the ab externo delivery method. sc-AAV5-smCBA-hGFP vector was delivered into the suprachoroidal space using an illuminated iTrackTM 250A microcatheter. Six weeks after surgery, the rabbits were sacrificed and their eyes evaluated for AAV transfection using immunofluorescent antibody staining of GFP. Results: Immunostaining of sectioned and whole-mounted eyes demonstrated robust transfection in all treated eyes, with no fluorescence in untreated control eyes. Transfection occurred diffusely and involved both the choroid and the retina. No apparent adverse effects caused by either the viral vector or the procedure itself could be seen either clinically or histologically. The ab externo method of delivery using a microcatheter was successful in safely and effectively delivering a gene therapy agent to the suprachoroidal space. This method presents a less invasive alternative to the current method of virally vectored gene delivery.

The reflectance spectroscopy and BVRI photometry are two widely used procedures in many different fields of astronomy. Thanks to these observation techniques we categorize objects into groups according to similarities in surface properties and characteristics, improve our knowledge about the density of specific materials onorbit, identify specific spectral features, related to certain materials in comparison to laboratory samples and find evidence of material "reddening" caused by the spaceweathering or aging effects. The photometric measurements, acquired by the AGO70 telescope, are capable of recognition and processing of the diffuse part of the reflection, while the reflectance spectroscopy with the AMOS-Spec cameras capture specular reflections. Both methods are based on the capturing and processing of the incoming sunlight reflected by the object's surface, which enables us to reconnect these methods again and use them for the crosscalibration. In this article we will present the instruments and methods of the data processing, as well as the example results.

We begin a study of the intersection theory of the moduli spaces of degree two stable maps from two-pointed rational curves to arbitrary-dimensional projective space. First we compute the Betti numbers of these spaces using Serre polynomial and equivariant Serre polynomial methods developed by E. Getzler and R. Pandharipande. Then, via the excision sequence, we compute an additive basis for their Chow rings in terms of Chow rings of nonlinear Grassmannians, which have been described by Pandharipande. The ring structure of one of these Chow rings is addressed in a sequel to this paper.

This paper proposes a new heuristic algorithm suitable for real-time applications using partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDP). The algorithm is based in a reward shaping strategy which includes entropy information in the reward structure of a fully observable Markov decision process (MDP). This strategy, as illustrated by the presented results, exhibits near-optimal performance in all examples tested.

The European mink Mustela lutreola Linnaeus, 1761 and the European polecat Mustela putorius Linnaeus, 1758 are sympatric in southwestern France. They are related species but the former is highly threatened whereas the latter maintains good populations. Nine European mink and 14 polecats were radiotracked in the Landes de Gascogne region to compare their space use and to identify appropriate conservation measures for the European mink. Resting animals were located once a day and active animals were tracked by continuous monitoring. European mink had linear home ranges whose sizes were larger than predicted by Johnson's model (mean ± SD = 2971 ± 1888 ha in males and 257 ± 113 ha in females). They travelled long inter-day distances (1.4 ± 1.9 km in males and 0.4 ± 0.6 km in females). Polecats had home ranges of various shapes (linear, circular or combined) and their sizes were consistent with Johnson's model (707 ± 779 ha in males and 51 ± 58 ha in females). They also had shorter inter-day distances than mink (0.7 ± 0.9 km in males and 0.2 ± 0.4 km in females). However male polecats had longer activity bouts than male mink. Thus European mink exhibit large movements between small and distant activity areas while polecats compensate for their smaller range by a higher activity in restricted areas. The behaviour of the European mink appears to be an adaptation to habitats scattered over linear ranges. This extensive use of space suggests that conservation of this endangered species cannot be achieved in the confinement of Europe's natural reserves. Conservation plans should aim at maintaining high quality habitats along entire river networks and ensuring safe movements for the animals, preventing particularly the risk of collisions with vehicles.

We show that integrable conformal Jacobi fibrations are in one-to-one correspondence with source-simply connected fibered conformal contact groupoids. We also prove that prequantizable Poisson fibrations give rise to Jacobi fibrations. In addition, source-simply connected symplectic groupoids associated to prequantizable and integrable Poisson fibrations are also prequantizable.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

We present a theory for constructing linear subspace approximations to face recognition algorithms and empirically demonstrate that a surprisingly diverse set of face recognition approaches can be approximated well using a linear model. A linear model, built using a training set of face images, is specified in terms of a linear subspace spanned by, possibly non-orthogonal, vectors. We divide the linear transformation used to project face images into

We examine the issues that arise in extending an estimatedregression planner to find plans for multiagent teams, cooperating agents that take orders but do no planning themselves. An estimated-regression system is a classical planner that searches situation space, using as a heuristic numbers derived from a backward search through a simplified space, summarized in the regression-match graph. Extending the planner to work with multiagent teams requires it to cope with autonomous processes, and objective functions that go beyond the traditional step count. Although regressing through process descriptions is no more difficult than regressing through standard action descriptions, figuring out how good an action recommended by the regression-match graph really is requires projecting the subtree suggested by the action. We are in the process of implementing the algorithm.

I am grateful to my advisor, Bir Bhanu, whose guidance and encouragement has been pivotal in helping me achieve my goals. I would like to thank my committee members for their help, insights, and for providing an endless source of ideas on which to pursue and ponder. To my fellow labmates, all 40+ who have come and gone over the past 5 years, some from the lab and some forever, I thank you for the experiences we shared, both professionally in the lab and socially on all the trips we embarked on together. From quarterly potlucks to hiking in Yosemite, from paintball trips to piloting planes and helicopters. You have made graduate school a wonderful experience. I extend my thanks to Kevin Bash and all 60+ of my training partners at Riverside Aikido, to the members of the UCR Taekwondo Club, to the teachers of the UCR Swing Club, and to the Outdoor Excursion and personal trainers at the UCR Student Recreation Center. You helped make every day an adventure. I would like to thank Victor Glen Hill and Giovanni Laviste Denina for their encouragement and patience while I finished my studies. I would also like to thank the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering staff for silently (but tirelessly) working behind the scenes to keep everything up and running, and to the Bourns College of Engineering Dean's Office for providing me the opportunity to work on new projects. Additionally, I would like to extend my thanks to the custodial staff, Sunday and Andy, for being there for us every day.

ostatistical Kriging is performed on hydrologic model parameters in a twodimensional region—different from the geographical space—as a hydrospace. The x-axis in percent is a relative difference of soil characteristics between an embedded 12 watersheds in reference to a large one related to the Niger River in West Africa; noted var_WHC, it stands for Water Holding Capacity. The y-axis in percent, var_Nash, is a hydrologic model’s efficiency in two contexts: (a) calibrated model parameters on the reference watershed are injected in modelling on each sub-watershed in validation phase to produce a series of Nash values as references, (b) a second series of Nash values is produced in calibrations. SimulHyd which stands for Simulation of Hydrological Systems is applied along with a French hydrological model—Genie Rural with 2 parameters at Monthly time step. The built Nash-WHC hydrospace and its two variants, or hybrids, permit the krige of both hydrologic model’s parameters. The relative variation of upper module absolute ranges from 0.1% to 15.68%—
the developed hydro-geostatistics practice is considered in reference to hydrological calibration. Accepted as hydrogeostatistics practice, it is applicable to ungauged watersheds to estimate hydrologic models’ parameters

The aim of this paper is to integrate the strong points of statistical debugging and program slicing techniques for efficient program fault localization. The dynamic slices could be inappropriately large including redundant information considering that the statements are not ranked according to their fault relevance in the computed slice. On the other hand, the conventional statistical debugging techniques do not consider the dependence relationships between the faulty code (i.e., the cause) and the erroneous output (i.e., the effect). This information is very useful during the debugging. In this paper, a new method Stat-Slice for locating the latent bugs in programs is presented which could find a wider range of bugs, e.g. the omitted code faults, the header file faults, and etc., comparing with other techniques. Unlike the traditional program slicing techniques, the proposed method computes the backward dynamic slices of several failing and passing runs. Using K-means clustering i...

This paper reports on work carried out within the Cityware project using mobile technologies to map, visualise and project the digital co-presence in the city. This paper focuses on two pilot studies exploring the Bluetooth landscape in the city of Bath. Here we apply adapted and 'digitally augmented' methods for spatial observation and analysis based on established methods used extensively in the space syntax approach to urban design. We map the physical and digital flows at a macro level and observe static space use at the micro level. In addition we look at social and mobile behaviour from an individual's point of view. We apply a method based on intervention through 'Sensing and projecting' Bluetooth names and digital identity in the public arena. We present early findings in terms of patterns of Bluetooth flow and presence, and outline initial observations about how people's reaction towards the projection of their Bluetooth names practices in public. In particular we note the importance of constructing socially meaningful relations between people mediated by these technologies. We discuss initial results and outline issues raised in detail before finally describing ongoing work.

Spellbinder is a new interactive digital medium based on camera phones and image matching. Using Spellbinder, digital content can be embedded in the real world by taking a photograph of an object or place. The digital content can be released by another user by taking another photograph of the same location. Spellbinder does not require special markers or barcodes to be placed in the world. Unlike tracking technologies such as global positioning systems, the focus is on what specifically is being looked at rather than where the user is. The Branded Tribes research project is exploring uses of this technology for social interaction in city spaces using an approach of research by design. Graphics of real world brandscapes are used as placeholders for virtual computer graphics.We report innovative outcomes from the first phase of this research.

Wider bandwidth speech is efficiently used for quality and intelligibility. In this paper we discuss the relation between bandwidth and intelligibility in speech, how improve the bandwidth with other deficiencies such as noise and reverberation, also we describe a new method for creating a wider bandwidth speech from normal telephone bandwidth speech.

Space use and movements of Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) are difficult to study with very-high-frequency radiocollars. We deployed global positioning system (GPS) collars on 11 lynx in Minnesota to study their seasonal space-use patterns. We estimated home ranges with minimum-convex-polygon and fixed-kernel methods and estimated core areas with area/probability curves. Fixed-kernel home ranges of males (range ¼ 29-522 km 2) were significantly larger than those of females (range ¼ 5-95 km 2) annually and during the denning season. Some male lynx increased movements during March, the month most influenced by breeding activity. Lynx core areas were predicted by the 60% fixed-kernel isopleth in most seasons. The mean core-area size of males (range ¼ 6-190 km 2) was significantly larger than that of females (range ¼ 1-19 km 2) annually and during denning. Most female lynx were reproductive animals with reduced movements, whereas males often ranged widely between Minnesota and Ontario. Sensitivity analyses examining the effect of location frequency on homerange size suggest that the home-range sizes of breeding females are less sensitive to sample size than those of males. Longer periods between locations decreased home-range and core-area overlap relative to the home range estimated from daily locations. GPS collars improve our understanding of space use and movements by lynx by increasing the spatial extent and temporal frequency of monitoring and allowing home ranges to be estimated over short periods that are relevant to life-history characteristics.

Kinematic abnormalities of fast multijoint movements in cerebellar ataxia include abnormally increased curvature of hand trajectories and an increased hand path and are thought to originate from an impairment in generating appropriate levels of muscle torques to support normal coordination between shoulder and elbow joints. Such a mechanism predicts that kinematic abnormalities are pronounced when fast movements are performed and large muscular torques are required. Experimental evidence that systematically explores the effects of increasing movement velocities on movement kinematics in cerebellar multijoint movements is limited and to some extent contradictory. We, therefore, investigated angular and hand kinematics of natural multijoint pointing movements in patients with cerebellar degenerative disorders and healthy controls. Subjects performed self-paced vertical pointing movements with their right arms at three different target velocities. Limb movements were recorded in three-dimensional space using a two-camera infrared tracking system. Differences between patients and healthy subjects were most prominent when the subjects performed fast movements. Peak hand acceleration and deceleration were similar to normals during slow and moderate velocity movements but were smaller for fast movements. While altering movement velocities had little or no effect on the length of the hand path and angular motion of elbow and shoulder joints in normal subjects, the patients exhibited overshooting motions (hypermetria) of the hand and at both joints as movement velocity increased. Hypermetria at one joint always accompanied hypermetria at the neighboring joint. Peak elbow angular deceleration was markedly delayed in patients compared with normals. Other temporal movement variables such as the relative timing of shoulder and elbow joint motion onsets were normal in patients. Kinematic abnormalities of multijoint arm movements in cerebellar ataxia include hypermetria at both the elbow and the shoulder joint and, as a consequence, irregular and enlarged paths of the hand, and they are marked with fast but not with slow movements. Our findings suggest that kinematic movement abnormalities that characterize cerebellar limb ataxia are related to an impairment in scaling movement variables such as joint acceleration and deceleration normally with movement speed. Most likely, increased hand paths and decomposition of movement during slow movements, as described earlier, result from compensatory mechanisms the patients may employ if maximum movement accuracy is required.

In this paper we present an overview of colour spaces used In electrical engineering and image processing. We Streis the imparfance of the perceptual, historical and sppllcananal~hackgraund that led to a colour spare. The colour spaces presented are : RGB;opponentsolours rpsces, phenomenal colaur spscer, CMY, CMYK, TV colour s~aces (UW and YIQ), PhotoYCC, CIE XYZ, Lab and Luv colour spaces.

The generalized Stokes problem is solved for non-standard boundary conditions. This problem arises after time semi-discretization by ALE method of the Navier-Stokes system, which describes the flow of two immiscible fluids with similar densities but different viscosities in a horizontal pipe, when modeling heavy crude oil transportation. We discretized the generalized Stokes problem in space using the "Mini" finite element. The inf-sup condition is proved when the interface between the two fluids and its discretization match exactly. The linear system obtained after discretization is solved using different iterative Krylov methods with and without preconditioning. Numerical experiments with different meshes are presented as well as comparisons between the methods considered. The results suggest that FGMRES and a preconditioning technique based on symmetric/skew-symmetric decomposition is a promising candidate for solving large scale generalized Stokes problem.

We studied suspensions of sterically stabilized poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) particles in the solvent cyclohexyl bromide (CHB; ε r = 7.92). We performed microelectrophoresis measurements on suspensions containing a single particle species and on binary mixtures, using confocal microscopy to measure the velocity profiles of the particles. We measured the charge of so-called locked PMMA particles, for which the steric stabilizer, a comb-graft stabilizer of poly(12-hydroxystearic acid) (PHSA) grafted on a backbone of PMMA, was covalently bonded to the particle, and for unlocked particles, for which the stabilizer was adsorbed to the surface of the particle. We observed that locked particles had a significantly higher charge than unlocked particles. We found that the charge increase upon locking was due to chemical coupling of 2-(dimethylamino)ethanol to the PMMA particles, which was used as a catalyst for the locking reaction. For particles of different size we obtained the surface potential and charge from the electrophoretic mobility of the particles. For locked particles we found that the relatively high surface potential (∼ +5.1 k B T/e or +130 mV) was roughly constant for all particle diameters we investigated (1.2 μm < σ < 4.4 μm), and that the particle charge was proportional to the square of the diameter.

We analyzed the effect of analog-to-digital conversion on the performance of polarization-multiplexed quadrature phase-shift keying at 111 Gb/s. We address analog-to-digital converter sampling speed, resolution, and clipping, taking into account both linear and nonlinear propagation effects over a 20-span uncompensated wavelength-division-multiplexing long-haul test-link with 50-GHz channel spacing, using either standard single-mode fiber or nonzero dispersion-shifted fiber. We assumed realistic optical and electrical filters. We found that penalty can be limited within 0.5 and 0.8 dB, if at least 5 bits of resolution and 1.6 or 1.5 samples per symbol are used, respectively. Index Terms-Analog-to-digital converter (ADC), clipping, coherent detection, polarization-multiplexed quadrature phase-shift keying (PM-QPSK), sampling speed. I. INTRODUCTION C OHERENT systems have recently been the subject of very intensive research. They currently appear as the most promising option for long-haul operation at 100 Gb/s and above. Specifically, polarization-multiplexed quadrature phase-shift keying (PM-QPSK) seems to be a forerunner for practical exploitation [1]-[3]. A key aspect of all high-speed coherent systems is the analog-to-digital conversion occurring in the receiver (Rx). This process is essentially identified by the following analog-to-digital converter (ADC) parameters: sampling speed, resolution, and range/clipping. These parameters have interactions, for instance, speed and resolution typically trade-off for each other. On the other hand, reducing speed to enhance resolution can cause aliasing and other problems. Propagation may play an important role, too, because the signals coming into the Rx after long-haul propagation are quite different from those in back-to-back (btb). In particular, the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), which is ideally 1 in btb, grows considerably after propagation, especially in uncompensated links. Increasing the ADC range to accommodate Manuscript

The European mink Mustela lutreola Linnaeus, 1761 and the European polecat Mustela putorius Linnaeus, 1758 are sympatric in southwestern France. They are related species but the former is highly threatened whereas the latter maintains good populations. Nine European mink and 14 polecats were radiotracked in the Landes de Gascogne region to compare their space use and to identify appropriate conservation measures for the European mink. Resting animals were located once a day and active animals were tracked by continuous monitoring. European mink had linear home ranges whose sizes were larger than predicted by Johnson's model (mean ± SD = 2971 ± 1888 ha in males and 257 ± 113 ha in females). They travelled long inter-day distances (1.4 ± 1.9 km in males and 0.4 ± 0.6 km in females). Polecats had home ranges of various shapes (linear, circular or combined) and their sizes were consistent with Johnson's model (707 ± 779 ha in males and 51 ± 58 ha in females). They also had shorter inter-day distances than mink (0.7 ± 0.9 km in males and 0.2 ± 0.4 km in females). However male polecats had longer activity bouts than male mink. Thus European mink exhibit large movements between small and distant activity areas while polecats compensate for their smaller range by a higher activity in restricted areas. The behaviour of the European mink appears to be an adaptation to habitats scattered over linear ranges. This extensive use of space suggests that conservation of this endangered species cannot be achieved in the confinement of Europe's natural reserves. Conservation plans should aim at maintaining high quality habitats along entire river networks and ensuring safe movements for the animals, preventing particularly the risk of collisions with vehicles.

We generalise the classical Transition by Breaking of Analyticity for the class of Frenkel-Kontorova models studied by Aubry and others to non-zero Planck's constant and temperature. This analysis is based on the study of a renormalization operator for the case of irrational mean spacing using Feynman's functional integral approach. We show how existing classical results extend to the quantum regime. In particular we extend MacKay's renormalization approach for the classical statistical mechanics to deduce scaling of low frequency effects and quantum effects. Our approach extends the phenomenon of hierarchical melting studied by Vallet, Schilling and Aubry to the quantum regime.

Competition with barred owls (Strix varia varia) is an important factor contributing to the continued decline of threatened northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) populations in the Pacific Northwest, USA, but basic information on habitat selection and space use patterns of barred owls is lacking for much of the region. We investigated space use and habitat selection by tracking radiotagged barred owls in the Eastern Cascade Range of Washington, USA, from 2004 to 2006. We surveyed for barred owls across the 309‐km2 study area and confirmed presence of barred owl pairs at 21 sites. We collected movement data on 14 barred owls from 12 sites. Mean annual 95% fixed‐kernel home‐range size was 194 ha for females (n = 4, SD = 70) and 288 ha for males (n = 5, SD = 114). Home ranges were located more frequently than expected in areas with low topographic position, gentle slopes, large overstory tree‐crown diameter, high normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), overstory tree...

A new non-perturbative approach to quantum field theory -D-theory -is proposed, in which continuous classical fields are replaced by discrete quantized variables which undergo dimensional reduction. The 2-d classical O(3) model emerges from the (2 + 1)-d quantum Heisenberg model formulated in terms of quantum spins. Dimensional reduction is demonstrated explicitly by simulating correlation lengths up to 350,000 lattice spacings using a loop cluster algorithm. In the framework of D-theory, gauge theories are formulated in terms of quantum links -the gauge analogs of quantum spins. Quantum links are parallel transporter matrices whose elements are non-commuting operators. They can be expressed as bilinears of anticommuting fermion constituents. In quantum link models dimensional reduction to four dimensions occurs, due to the presence of a 5-d Coulomb phase, whose existence is confirmed by detailed simulations using standard lattice gauge theory. Using Shamir's variant of Kaplan's fermion proposal, in quantum link QCD quarks appear as edge states of a 5-d slab. This naturally protects their chiral symmetries without fine-tuning. The first efficient cluster algorithm for a gauge theory with a continuous gauge group is formulated for the U (1) quantum link model. Improved estimators for Wilson loops are constructed, and dimensional reduction to ordinary lattice QED is verified numerically.

Pi2 waves are an intergral part of the substorm process and have been observed on the ground and in space. Using the special ability of Cluster to determine the propagation direction of signals measured in the magnetometer data, it is found that in the lobes of the Earth's magnetotail, for the cases in this study, the Pi2 waves are travelling tailward. The polarization of the waves in the lobes corresponds well with the polarization observed in the highest latitude ground station. The propagation velocity of the Pi2 waves in the lobes is basically Alfvénic.

Three peaks and two dips have been detected in the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background from the BOOMERANG experiment, at ∼ 210, 540, 840 and ∼ 420, 750, respectively. Using model-independent analyses, we find that all five features are statistically significant and we measure their location and amplitude. These are consistent with the adiabatic inflationary model. We also calculate the mean and variance of the peak and dip locations and amplitudes in a large 7-dimensional parameter space of such models, which gives good agreement with the model-independent estimates, and forecast where the next few peaks and dips should be found if the basic paradigm is correct. We test the robustness of our results by comparing Bayesian marginalization techniques on this space with likelihood maximization techniques applied to a second 7-dimensional cosmological parameter space, using an independent computational pipeline, and find excellent agreement: Ω tot = 1.02 +0.06 -0.05 vs. 1.04±0.05, Ω b h 2 = 0.022 +0.004 -0.003 vs. 0.019 +0.005 -0.004 , and n s = 0.96 +0.10 -0.09 vs. 0.90±0.08. The deviation in primordial spectral index n s is a consequence of the strong correlation with the optical depth.

En este trabajo mostramos, cómo la deconvolución basada en ondículas de imágenes obtenidas con telescopios de campo ancho, incrementa el límite de magnitud en ∆R∼0.6 y supone una mejora en la separación de imágenes. La precisión astrométrica no disminuye, lo cual hace que la técnica sea válida para proyectos astrométricos. Así mismo aplicamos el proceso de deconvolución a una serie de imágenes obtenidas con la repotenciada cámara Baker-Nunn del Observatorio Astrofísico de Rothney.

We show how wavelet-based image deconvolution can provide to wide-field CCD telescopes an increase in limiting magnitude of Delta R ˜ 0.6 and significant deblending improvement. Astrometric accuracy is not distorted, therefore, the feasibility of the technique for astrometric projects is validated. We apply the deconvolution process to a set of images from the recently refurbished Baker-Nunn camera at Rothney

Experimental manipulations of the densities of two larval anurans, Pelodytes punctatus and Bufo bufo, showed that these species compete asymmetrically in semi‐natural conditions. Growth, mass at metamorphosis, date of metamorphosis, and survival were used as measures of response to interspecific competition. A mechanistic approach was used to collect information on the behaviour of the two species in different conditions. The competitive superiority of Pelodytes at individual level was correlated with a larger body, faster growth rate, increased per capita competitive impact on conspecifics, and greater reduction in the availability of trophic and spatial resources. In the presence of Pelodytes, Bufo showed slower growth, smaller size at metamorphosis and reduced survival. In the interspecific treatments Bufo individuals modified their behaviour by increasing activity and use of the water column while Pelodytes did not change their foraging activity or space use in the aquaria. Howe...

Search for a Web-page using Crawler based Search Engine depends on its Ranking Mechanism. Search Engine sorts through millions of Web-pages and present the significant Web-pages through Ranking method. A new approach is proposed here adopting Cellular Automata.

The Transportation Informatics and Telematics Knowledge Centre (after the abbreviation of its name in Hungarian: 'KITT') of Budapest Tech initiated its operation in the Autumn of 2006 thank to the financial support provided by the 'National Office for Research and Technology' (NKTH) and the 'Agency for Research Fund Management and Research Exploitation' (KPI) using the resources of the 'Research and Technology Innovation Fund' within the project No. RET-10/2006. One of the duties of KITT is to give contribution to the educational activities of the host institution of the research consortium, which role is played in this case by Budapest Tech. Regarding education, the main aim is transferring the freshest research results achieved by KITT into the education without considerable delay. Following the first few months of KITT's activities, Bánki Donát Faculty of Mechanical and Safety Engineering initiated its BSc courses in which, at first time, within the sub-branch of 'Robot Systems' of the branch of 'Mechatronics', the course 'Control of Robots' was launched in the Autumn semester of the academic year 2007/2008. Due to a lucky constellation in the KITT's Project No. 2.3 entitled 'Automatic Analysis of Vehicle Behavior' partly is involved the automatic observation, analysis and control of strongly coupled nonlinear systems of which normally very limited, imprecise, and incomplete 'a priori' information is available for the controller, as e.g. in the case of

We apply the renormalization program to the massless Wess-Zumino model in anti-de Sitter space, using the version of Bunch and Parker of the adiabatic expansion. We consider an extrapolation of the dimensional-reduction prescription taking only the momentum of the expansion in D dimensions, while all the other tensors are kept in 0-4 , and show that the supersymmetry Ward identities are satisfied by the divergent one-loop corrections, but are violated by finite local terms proportional to the curvature of the space.

Menger space is a probabilistic metric space introduced by K. Menger [15] in 1942 as one of the generalizations of metric space. The two different types of contraction mappings in probabilistic metric spaces are the creation of V.M. Sehgal [20-21], and T.L. Hicks [14]. Since then many researchers have introduced generalizations of these contraction mappings and established fixed point theorems in Menger space. In this paper, we discuss Menger space and contraction mapping in Menger space. Also, presents the interrelationship between some contraction mapping with examples.

While malware models have become increasingly accurate over the past few years, none of the existing proposals accounts for the use of Network Address Translation (NAT). This oversight is problematic since many network customers use NAT in their local networks. In fact, measurements we collected from a distributed honeynet show that approximately 19% of the infected hosts reside in NATted domains. To account for this fact, we present a model that can be used to understand the impact of varying levels of NAT deployment on malware that spread by preferentially scanning the IP space. Using this model, we show that NATting impedes malware propagation in several ways and can have a significant impact on non-uniform scanning worms as it invalidates the implicit assumption that vulnerable hosts reside in densely populated subnets.