Individual variability of behavioural responses by Wandering Albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) to human disturbance

Sub-Antarctic Marion Island has had a permanent research station for 50 years and the islands Wandering Albatrosses have been intensively studied for 20 years. The reactions of breeding birds to approaches by a human on foot were recorded. Three response variables were calculated: intensity of vocal reaction (IVR), intensity of non-vocal reaction (INR) and overall response index (ORI). At 5 m from the nest, twice as many birds stood and/or vocalised as at 15 m. Nearest neighbour distance, age and gender did not explain individual variability of responses. Study colony birds had higher IVR scores than non-study colony birds; birds at colonies closest to the station had the highest ORI scores. A better breeding record was associated with lower IVR and ORI scores, but a causative relationship remains to be demonstrated. A minimum viewing distance of 25 m is recommended for breeding Wandering Albatrosses.

---

Leitlinien zur molekulargenetischen Diagnostik: Fragiles-X und Fragiles-X assoziiertes Tremor/Ataxie Syndrom

Ohne Zusammenfassung

---

Hennigian Phylogenetic Systematics and the ‘Groundplan’ vs. ‘Post-Groundplan’ Approaches: A Reply to Kukalová-Peck

The recent contribution by Jarmila Kukalová-Peck on Hennigian phylogenetics and hexapod limb evolution is critically evaluated.

Common Ground: Risk, Scarcity, and Shared Resources in Goan Agriculture

In the Indian state of Goa, communally owned agricultural land has persisted through indigenous state rule, colonial occupation and postcolonial liberation. We show that in Goa, and indeed elsewhere in the world, communally owned land provides protection against scarcity, risk, and state revenue demands in wet rice agriculture. When wet rice agriculture is the primary agricultural activity, communally owned land is an effective way to utilize resources. These findings add to the literature that challenges the inevitability of the tragedy of commonly owned resources.

Individual optimization efforts and population dynamics: a mathematical model for the evolution of resource allocation strategies, with applications to reproductive and mating systems

We develop a formal framework for the optimal allocation of limited resources that includes and clarifies the interplay between individual optimization and the resulting effects at the population level. As an example, in regard to the evolution of sexual recombination, the paradox of the twofold cost of sex is avoided by distinguishing between the evolution of recombination and the subsequent emergence and stability of different mating types as a result of individual optimization within a population that benefits from recombination.

Personal adaptive clusters as containers for scientific jobs

We describe a system for creating personal clusters in user-space to support the submission and management of thousands of compute-intensive serial jobs to the network-connected compute resources on the NSF TeraGrid. The system implements a robust infrastructure that submits and manages job proxies across a distributed computing environment. These job proxies contribute resources to personal clusters created dynamically for a user on-demand. The personal clusters then adapt to the prevailing job load conditions at the distributed sites by migrating job proxies to sites expected to provide resources more quickly. Furthermore, the system allows multiple instances of these personal clusters to be created as containers for individual scientific experiments, allowing the submission environment to be customized for each instance. The version of the system described in this paper allows users to build large personal Condor and Sun Grid Engine clusters on the TeraGrid. Users then manage their scientific jobs, within each personal cluster, with a single uniform interface using the feature-rich functionality found in these job management environments.

Is it a revolution?

Jablonka and Lamb's claim that evolutionary biology is undergoing a ‘revolution’ is queried. But the very concept of revolutionary change has uncertain application to a field organized in the manner of contemporary biology. The explanatory primacy of sequence properties is also discussed.

Why Folkbiology Matters: Resource Conflict Despite Shared Goals and Knowledge

There is a continuing controversy over Native American fishing and hunting rights. We show that Native American (Menominee) and European American fish experts have a common knowledge base and share values and attitudes associated with fishing practices (though organized around different ethical principles). Nonetheless, perceived group differences are dramatic (especially European American perceptions of Native Americans). Cultural differences in models of nature and associated inference processes appear to mediate these stereotypes and may hold the key to reducing intergroup conflict over resources.

Pastoralist Responses to Floodplain Rehabilitation in North Cameroon

This paper examines the responses of mobile pastoralists to a floodplain rehabilitation program in north Cameroon. From 1993 to 1999, we measured changes in number of camps and herds, and the time they spent in the 600 km² of the Logone floodplain that was reflooded in 1994. The first year, few pastoralists anticipated the reflooding or its impact, and the increase in grazing intensity was caused by a prolonged stay of pastoralists who already used the area for transit. The following three years showed a sharp increase in the number of camps and herds, which stabilized from 1997 onwards. Overall, grazing intensity increased threefold, following the gradually recovering perennial grasslands, with no signs of overexploitation of the area. These developments closely match the ideal preemptive distribution model. We also examined how reflooding affected pastoral incursions in the Waza National Park located in the floodplain.

Hierarchical analysis of piecewise affine models of gene regulatory networks

A key point in the analysis of dynamical models of biological systems is to handle systems of relatively high dimensions. In the present paper we propose a method to hierarchically organize a certain type of piecewise affine (PWA) differential systems. This specific class of systems has been extensively studied for the past few years, as it provides a good framework to model gene regulatory networks. The method, shown on several examples, allows a qualitative analysis of the asymptotic behavior of a PWA system, decomposing it into several smaller subsystems. This technique, based on the well-known strongly connected components decomposition, is not new. However, its adaptation to the non-smooth PWA differential equations turns out to be quite relevant because of the strong discrete structure underlying these equations. Its biological relevance is shown on a 7-dimensional PWA system modeling the gene network responsible for the carbon starvation response in Escherichia coli.

---

Gridcast—a next generation broadcast infrastructure?

Gridcast is an R&D project investigating grid ideas and technologies in the broadcasting technical infrastructure. In this paper I discuss the business and technical issues in building infrastructures to support broadcasters and outline the structure of the Gridcast grid-based service oriented architecture for broadcasting playout support.

Compositional reasoning of performance in component-based distributed systems

Rapid prototyping of distributed systems can be achieved by integrating commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. With components as the building blocks, it is important to predict the performance of the system based on the performance of individual components. In this paper, performance prediction of a system consisting of a small number of components is investigated under different inter-component communication patterns, and the number of threads provided by components. Based on the experimental results, it can be inferred that the proposed composition rules provide a reasonably accurate prediction of the performance of a system made out of these components.

Causal Explanation of Indonesian Forest Fires: Concepts, Applications, and Research Priorities

Problems with studies, claims, and assumptions that have been made about the causes of fires in Indonesia's tropical moist forests are identified, and the kinds of concepts, methods, prioritizing, and data needed to resolve the problems are discussed. Separate sections are devoted to studying ignitions, studying fire susceptibility and fire behavior, and using the goal of causal explanation to guide interdisciplinary research.

Transformations in the sociocultural values and meanings of reefs and resources on Mwoakilloa

People have been living on Mwoakilloa, a coral atoll in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), for well over a millennium. Foreign interlopers, colonial governments, global commerce, and a host of internal and external forces have all played a role in shaping the uses, values, and meanings assigned to the atoll, its reefs, and its resources. This paper explores the changing relationships among the people and reefs of Mwoakilloa, highlighting the multiple, co-existing, and sometimes competing meanings and values assigned to atoll resources. It emphasizes the point that even in a small, ethnically homogeneous population there exists a diversity of meanings associated with reef resources that are dependent upon wider socioeconomic contexts. Identifying the sources of these cultural meanings is critical for understanding behaviors toward and uses of reef resources, the status and application of traditional ecological knowledge, and the success and failure of local management measures on Mwoakilloa.

The connectionist framework for gene regulation

I show that gene regulation networks are qualitatively consistent and therefore sufficiently similar to linearly seperable connectionist networks to warrant that the connectionist framework be applied to gene regulation. On this view, natural selection designs gene regulation networks to overcome the difficulty of development. I offer some general lessons about their evolvability that can be learned by examining the generic features of connectionist networks.

Anthropogenic impacts to coral reefs in Palau,western Micronesia during the Late Holocene

The Palauan archipelago contains one of the most ecologically diverse coral reef systems in the Indo-Pacific that was as attractive for humans prehistorically as it is today. New evidence is emerging that during the past few thousand years there has been increasing exploitation of coral reef resources, particularly finfish and mollusks, leading to a decline in taxa numbers, richness, and diversity in various locales. This paper examines the historical interactions between human populations and coral reef ecologies in Palau by combining known archaeological data and results from modern biological data of different reef fauna. The integration of these data sources provides a framework for attempting to explain variations in taxa composition between islands in the archipelago and how this may relate to human exploitation or other phenomena through time. By using this perspective to link past events with present-day conditions, we can gain a better sense of the extent to which anthropogenic changes may have affected island environments in western Micronesia during the Late Holocene. The study also illustrates the many difficulties researchers face in attempting to synthesize and explain past and present human predation behavior when using disparate sources of data.