On four measures of taxonomic richness

Paleobiology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-175
Author(s):  
John Alroy

AbstractThe choice of measures used to estimate the richness of species, genera, or higher taxa is a crucial matter in paleobiology and ecology. This paper evaluates four methods called shareholder quorum subsampling, true richness estimated using a Poisson sampling model (TRiPS), squares, and the corrected first-order jackknife (cJ1). Quorum subsampling interpolates to produce a relative richness estimate, while the other three extrapolate to the size of the overall species pool. Here I use routine ecological data to show that squares and cJ1 pass several basic validation tests, but TRiPS does not. First, TRiPS estimates are insensitive to the shape of abundance distributions, being entirely predicted by total counts of species and of individuals regardless of the details. Furthermore, TRiPS tends not to extrapolate at all when sampling is moderate or intense. Second, all three extrapolators yield lower values when they work with small uniform subsamples of large raw inventories. The third test is a split-analyze-and-sum analysis: each inventory is divided between the most common and least common halves of the abundance distribution, the methods are applied to the half-inventories, and the estimates are summed. Squares and cJ1 perform well here, but TRiPS does not extrapolate as long as the full inventories are reasonably well-sampled. It is otherwise not particularly accurate. The extrapolators are largely insensitive to the influence of abundance distribution evenness, as quantified using Pielou's J and a new index called the ratio of means. Quorum subsampling generally performs well, but it stumbles on the split-analyze-and-sum test and is confounded somewhat by evenness.

Axioms ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malec

The aim of this article is to present a method of creating deontic logics as axiomatic theories built on first-order predicate logic with identity. In the article, these theories are constructed as theories of legal events or as theories of acts. Legal events are understood as sequences (strings) of elementary situations in Wolniewicz′s sense. On the other hand, acts are understood as two-element legal events: the first element of a sequence is a choice situation (a situation that will be changed by an act), and the second element of this sequence is a chosen situation (a situation that arises as a result of that act). In this approach, legal rules (i.e., orders, bans, permits) are treated as sets of legal events. The article presents four deontic systems for legal events: AEP, AEPF, AEPOF, AEPOFI. In the first system, all legal events are permitted; in the second, they are permitted or forbidden; in the third, they are permitted, ordered or forbidden; and in the fourth, they are permitted, ordered, forbidden or irrelevant. Then, we present a deontic logic for acts (AAPOF), in which every act is permitted, ordered or forbidden. The theorems of this logic reflect deontic relations between acts as well as between acts and their parts. The direct inspiration to develop the approach presented in the article was the book Ontology of Situations by Boguslaw Wolniewicz, and indirectly, Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.


2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 815-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICK BARRACLOUGH ◽  
CHRIS TINSLEY ◽  
BEN WEBB ◽  
CHRIS VINCENT ◽  
ANDREW DERRINGTON

We measured the responses of single neurons in marmoset visual cortex (V1, V2, and the third visual complex) to moving first-order stimuli and to combined first- and second-order stimuli in order to determine whether first-order motion processing was influenced by second-order motion. Beat stimuli were made by summing two gratings of similar spatial frequency, one of which was static and the other was moving. The beat is the product of a moving sinusoidal carrier (first-order motion) and a moving low-frequency contrast envelope (second-order motion). We compared responses to moving first-order gratings alone with responses to beat patterns with first-order and second-order motion in the same direction as each other, or in opposite directions to each other in order to distinguish first-order and second-order direction-selective responses. In the majority (72%, 67/93) of cells (V1 73%, 45/62; V2 70%, 16/23; third visual complex 75%, 6/8), responses to first-order motion were significantly influenced by the addition of a second-order signal. The second-order envelope was more influential when moving in the opposite direction to the first-order stimulus, reducing first-order direction sensitivity in V1, V2, and the third visual complex. We interpret these results as showing that first-order motion processing through early visual cortex is not separate from second-order motion processing; suggesting that both motion signals are processed by the same system.


ENTOMON ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-262
Author(s):  
Atanu Seni ◽  
Bhimasen Naik

Experiments were carried out to assess some insecticide modules against major insect pests of rice. Each module consists of a basal application of carbofuran 3G @ 1 kg a.i ha-1 at 20 DAT and Rynaxypyr 20 SC @ 30 g a.i ha-1 at 45 DAT except untreated control. All modules differ with each other only in third treatment which was applied in 65 DAT. The third treatment includes: Imidacloprid 17.8 SL @ 27 g a.i ha-1, Pymetrozine 50 WG @ 150 g a.i ha-1, Triflumezopyrim 106 SC @ 27 g a.i ha-1, Buprofezin 25 SC @ 250 g a.i ha-1; Glamore (Imidacloprid 40+Ethiprole 40% w/w) 80 WG @ 100 g a.i. ha-1, Thiacloprid 24 SC @ 60 g a.i ha-1, Azadirachtin 0.03 EC @ 8 g a.i ha-1, Dinotefuran 20 SG@ 40 g a.i ha-1 and untreated control. All the treated plots recorded significantly lower percent of dead heart, white ear- head caused by stem borer and silver shoot caused by gall midge. Module with Pymetrozine 50 WG @ 150 g a.i ha-1 treated plot recorded significantly higher per cent reduction of plant hoppers (>80% over untreated control) and produced higher grain yield (50.75 qha-1) than the other modules. Among the different treated modules the maximum number of spiders was found in Azadirachtin 0.03 EC @ 8 g a.i ha-1 treated module plot followed by other treatments.


Author(s):  
Daniel Martin Feige

Der Beitrag widmet sich der Frage historischer Folgeverhältnisse in der Kunst. Gegenüber dem Gedanken, dass es ein ursprüngliches Werk in der Reihe von Werken gibt, das späteren Werken seinen Sinn gibt, schlägt der Text vor, das Verhältnis umgekehrt zu denken: Im Lichte späterer Werke wird der Sinn früherer Werke neu ausgehandelt. Dazu geht der Text in drei Schritten vor. Im ersten Teil formuliert er unter der Überschrift ›Form‹ in kritischer Abgrenzung zu Danto und Eco mit Adorno den Gedanken, dass Kunstwerke eigensinnig konstituierte Gegenstände sind. Die im Gedanken der Neuverhandlung früherer Werke im Lichte späterer Werke vorausgesetzte Unbestimmtheit des Sinns von Kunstwerken wird im zweiten Teil unter dem Schlagwort ›Zeitlichkeit‹ anhand des Paradigmas der Improvisation erörtert. Der dritte und letzte Teil wendet diese improvisatorische Logik unter dem Label ›Neuaushandlung‹ dann dezidiert auf das Verhältnis von Vorbild und Nachbild an. The article proposes a new understanding of historical succession in the realm of art. In contrast to the idea that there is an original work in the series of works that gives meaning to the works that come later, the text proposes to think it exactly the other way round: in the light of later works, the meanings of earlier works are renegotiated. The text proceeds in three steps to develop this idea. Under the heading ›Form‹ it develops in the first part a critical reading of Danto’s and Eco’s notion of the constitution of the artworks and argues with Adorno that each powerful work develops its own language. In the second part, the vagueness of the meaning of works of art presupposed in the idea of renegotiating earlier works in the light of later works is discussed under the term ›Temporality‹ in terms of the logic of improvisation. The third and final part uses this improvisational logic under the label ›Renegotiation‹ to understand the relationship between model and afterimage in the realm of art.


2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 178-184
Author(s):  
T. V. Chernyakova ◽  
A. Yu. Brezhnev ◽  
I. R. Gazizova ◽  
A. V. Kuroyedov ◽  
A. V. Seleznev

In the review we have integrated all up-to-date knowledge concerning clinical course and treatment of glaucoma among pregnant women to help specialists choose a proper policy of treatment for such a complicated group of patients. Glaucoma is a chronic progressive disease. It rarely occurs among childbearing aged women. Nevertheless the probability to manage pregnant patients having glaucoma has been recently increasing. The situation is complicated by the fact that there are no recommendations on how to treat glaucoma among pregnant women. As we know, eye pressure is progressively going down from the first to the third trimester, so we often have to correct hypotensive therapy. Besides, it is necessary to take into account the effect of applied medicines on mother health and evaluate possible teratogenic complications for a fetus. The only medicine against glaucoma which belongs to category B according to FDA classification is brimonidine. Medicines of the other groups should be prescribed with care. Laser treatment or surgery may also be a relevant decision when monitoring patients who are planning pregnancy or just bearing a child. Such treatment should be also accompanied by medicines.


2020 ◽  
pp. 13-61
Author(s):  
Natalia Małecka-Drozd

The 3rd millennium BC appears to be a key period of development of the historical settlement landscape in ancient Egypt. After the unification of the country, the process of disappearance of the predynastic socio-political structures and settlement patterns associated with them significantly accelerated. Old chiefdoms, along with their centres and elites, declined and vanished. On the other hand, new settlements emerging in various parts of the country were often strictly related to the central authorities and formation of the new territorial administration. Not negligible were climatic changes, which influenced the shifting of the ecumene. Although these changes were evolutionary in their nature, some important stages may be recognized. According to data obtained during surveys and excavations, there are a number of sites that were considerably impoverished and/or abandoned before and at the beginning of the Old Kingdom. On the other hand, during the Third and Fourth Dynasties some important Egyptian settlements have emerged in the sources and begun their prosperity. Architectural remains as well as written sources indicate the growing interest of the state in the hierarchy of landscape elements and territorial structure of the country.


1979 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-109
Author(s):  
B. Coupal ◽  
M. de Broissia

Abstract The movement of oil slicks on open waters has been predicted, using both deterministic and stochastic methods. The first method, named slick rose, consists in locating an area specifying the position of the slick during the first hours after the spill. The second method combines a deterministic approach for the simulation of current parameters to a stochastic method simulating the wind parameters. A Markov chain of the first order followed by a Monte Carlo approach enables the simulation of both phenomena. The third method presented in this paper describes a mass balance on the spilt oil, solved by the method of finite elements. The three methods are complementary to each other and constitute an important point for a contingency plan.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 472-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuo-Chen Chou ◽  
Xiang Cheng ◽  
Xuan Xiao

<P>Background/Objective: Information of protein subcellular localization is crucially important for both basic research and drug development. With the explosive growth of protein sequences discovered in the post-genomic age, it is highly demanded to develop powerful bioinformatics tools for timely and effectively identifying their subcellular localization purely based on the sequence information alone. Recently, a predictor called “pLoc-mEuk” was developed for identifying the subcellular localization of eukaryotic proteins. Its performance is overwhelmingly better than that of the other predictors for the same purpose, particularly in dealing with multi-label systems where many proteins, called “multiplex proteins”, may simultaneously occur in two or more subcellular locations. Although it is indeed a very powerful predictor, more efforts are definitely needed to further improve it. This is because pLoc-mEuk was trained by an extremely skewed dataset where some subset was about 200 times the size of the other subsets. Accordingly, it cannot avoid the biased consequence caused by such an uneven training dataset. </P><P> Methods: To alleviate such bias, we have developed a new predictor called pLoc_bal-mEuk by quasi-balancing the training dataset. Cross-validation tests on exactly the same experimentconfirmed dataset have indicated that the proposed new predictor is remarkably superior to pLocmEuk, the existing state-of-the-art predictor in identifying the subcellular localization of eukaryotic proteins. It has not escaped our notice that the quasi-balancing treatment can also be used to deal with many other biological systems. </P><P> Results: To maximize the convenience for most experimental scientists, a user-friendly web-server for the new predictor has been established at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/pLoc_bal-mEuk/. </P><P> Conclusion: It is anticipated that the pLoc_bal-Euk predictor holds very high potential to become a useful high throughput tool in identifying the subcellular localization of eukaryotic proteins, particularly for finding multi-target drugs that is currently a very hot trend trend in drug development.</P>


Author(s):  
C. Daniel Batson

After rejecting the remove–empathy hypothesis (Chapter 4), attention turned to the other two classic egoistic explanations for the motivation to help produced by empathic concern: empathy-specific punishment and empathy-specific reward. This chapter considers two kinds of empathy-specific punishment, shame and guilt. The shame hypothesis claims that we help more when we feel empathic concern because we’re motivated to avoid disapproval and censure from others. The guilt hypothesis says that we’re motivated to avoid self-condemnation for failing to do what we should. Contradicting the shame hypothesis, experiments revealed that even when no one else will know if participants fail to help, empathy still increased helping. Contradicting the guilt hypothesis, participants induced to feel empathy helped more even when provided a good excuse for not helping. Given that neither form of empathy-specific punishment could account for the empathy–helping relationship, our search shifted to the third classic egoistic explanation: pursuing pride.


Author(s):  
Patrick Colm Hogan

The introduction first sets out some preliminary definitions of sex, sexuality, and gender. It then turns from the sexual part of Sexual Identities to the identity part. A great deal of confusion results from failing to distinguish between identity in the sense of a category with which one identifies (categorial identity) and identity in the sense of a set of patterns that characterize one’s cognition, emotion, and behavior (practical identity). The second section gives a brief summary of this difference. The third and fourth sections sketch the relation of the book to social constructionism and queer theory, on the one hand, and evolutionary-cognitive approaches to sex, sexuality, and gender, on the other. The fifth section outlines the value of literature in not only illustrating, but advancing a research program in sex, sexuality, and gender identity. Finally, the introduction provides an overview of the chapters in this volume.


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