Increasing sensitivity of results by using quantile regression analysis for exploring community resilience

Community resilience offers a conceptual framework for assessing a community's capacity for coping with environmental changes and emergency situations. It is perceived as a core element of sustainable lifestyle, helping to mitigate the community's reaction to crises by facilitating purposeful and collective action on the part of its’ members. The conjoint community resilience assessment measure (CCRAM) provides a standard measure of community resilience including five factors: leadership, collective efficacy, preparedness, place attachment, and social trust. The mean scores of each the factors portray a community resilience profile and the overall CCRAM score is calculated as the average of the scores of the 21 survey items with an equal weight.Two regression models were employed. Logistic regression, a commonly used tool in the field of applied statistics, and quantile regression, which is a non-parametric method that facilitates the detection of the effect of a regressor on various quantiles of the dependent variable.The study aims to demonstrate the innovative use of quantile regression modeling in community resilience analysis.The results demonstrate that the quantile regression was significantly more sensitive to sub-populations than the logistic regression.Having an income below average, which was negatively correlated with perceived community resilience in the logistic model was found to be significant only in the lower (Q10, Q25) resilience quantiles. Age (per year) and previous involvement in emergency situations which were not noted as significant in the logistic regression, were found to be positively associated with perceived community resilience in the lowest quantile. A difference between quantiles of perceived community resilience was noted in regard to size of community. The association between size of community and perceived community resilience which was negative in the logistic regression (residents of larger towns had lower community resilience), was found to be such only up to quantile 75, but it reversed in the highest quantile.It was concluded that the utilization of quantile regression analysis in studies of community resilience can facilitate the creation of tailored response plans, adapted to the needs of sub (such as weaker) populations and help enhance overall community resilience in crises.     

Developing the methodology for determining the relative weight of dimensions employed in sustainable building assessment tools for Brazil

The fundamental differences between the dimensions of sustainable development have been identified by researchers and many assessment tools have been developed in several countries. This paper introduces the development of a methodology for determining the weight of each dimension employed in sustainable construction assessment through the use of assessment tools that use the Brazilian indicators of sustainable development in accordance with the Commission on Sustainable Development, and also through the utilization of a database provided by the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE). Firstly, the Sustainability Panel tool was employed to reveal separately the status of dimensions in sustainable development (environmental, social and economic) and then it was made a statistical analysis of the results for each region in Brazil (north, northeast, midwest, southeast and south). The solution presented in this paper aims to reduce the inconsistencies found in the adjustments of the assessment tools considering regional differences based on political actions included in governmental agencies.     

Coral bleaching, reef fish community phase shifts and the resilience of coral reefs

The 1998 global coral bleaching event was the largest recorded historical disturbance of coral reefs and resulted in extensive habitat loss. Annual censuses of reef fish community structure over a 12-year period spanning the bleaching event revealed a marked phase shift from a prebleach to postbleach assemblage. Surprisingly, we found that the bleaching event had no detectable effect on the abundance, diversity or species richness of a local cryptobenthic reef fish community. Furthermore, there is no evidence of regeneration even after 5–35 generations of these short-lived species. These results have significant implications for our understanding of the response of coral reef ecosystems to global warming and highlight the importance of selecting appropriate criteria for evaluating reef resilience.     

A taxonomy of application scheduling tools for high performance cluster computing

Application scheduling plays an important role in high-performance cluster computing. Application scheduling can be classified as job scheduling and task scheduling. This paper presents a survey on the software tools for the graph-based scheduling on cluster systems with the focus on task scheduling. The tasks of a parallel or distributed application can be properly scheduled onto multi-processors in order to optimize the performance of the program (e.g., execution time or resource utilization). In general, scheduling algorithms are designed based on the notion of task graph that represents the relationship of parallel tasks. The scheduling algorithms map the nodes of a graph to the processors in order to minimize overall execution time. Although many scheduling algorithms have been proposed in the literature, surprisingly not many practical tools can be found in practical use. After discussing the fundamental scheduling techniques, we propose a framework and taxonomy for the scheduling tools on clusters. Using this framework, the features of existing scheduling tools are analyzed and compared. We also discuss the important issues in improving the usability of the scheduling tools. This work is supported by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University under grant H-ZJ80 and by NASA Ames Research Center by a cooperative grant agreement with the University of Texas at Arlington. Jiannong Cao received the BSc degree in computer science from Nanjing University, Nanjing, China in 1982, and the MSc and the Ph.D degrees in computer science from Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA, in 1986 and 1990 respectively. He is currently an associate professor in Department of Computing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. He is also the director of the Internet and Mobile Computing Lab in the department. He was on the faculty of computer science at James Cook University and University of Adelaide in Australia, and City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include parallel and distributed computing, networking, mobile computing, fault tolerance, and distributed software architecture and tools. He has published over 120 technical papers in the above areas. He has served as a member of editorial boards of several international journals, a reviewer for international journals/conference proceedings, and also as an organizing/programme committee member for many international conferences. Dr. Cao is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, the IEEE Communication Society, IEEE, and ACM. He is also a member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Distributed Processing, IEEE Technical Committee on Parallel Processing, IEEE Technical Committee on Fault Tolerant Computing, and Computer Architecture Professional Committee of the China Computer Federation. Alvin Chan is currently an assistant professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He graduated from the University of New South Wales with a Ph.D. degree in 1995 and was subsequently employed as a Research Scientist by the CSIRO, Australia. From 1997 to 1998, he was employed by the Centre for Wireless Communications, National University of Singapore as a Program Manager. Dr. Chan is one of the founding members and director of a university spin-off company, Information Access Technology Limited. He is an active consultant and has been providing consultancy services to both local and overseas companies. His research interests include mobile computing, context-aware computing and smart card applications. Yudong Sun received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. He received Ph.D. degree from the University of Hong Kong in 2002, all in computer science. From 1988 to 1996, he was among the teaching staff in Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. From 2002 to 2003, he held a research position at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. At present, he is a Research Associate in School of Computing Science at University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His research interests include parallel and distributed computing, Web services, Grid computing, and bioinformatics. Sajal K. Das is currently a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and the Founding Director of the Center for Research in Wireless Mobility and Networking (CReWMaN) at the University of Texas at Arlington. His current research interests include resource and mobility management in wireless networks, mobile and pervasive computing, sensor networks, mobile internet, parallel processing, and grid computing. He has published over 250 research papers, and holds four US patents in wireless mobile networks. He received the Best Paper Awards in ACM MobiCom’99, ICOIN-16, ACM, MSWiM’00 and ACM/IEEE PADS’97. Dr. Das serves on the Editorial Boards of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, ACM/Kluwer Wireless Networks, Parallel Processing Letters, Journal of Parallel Algorithms and Applications. He served as General Chair of IEEE PerCom’04, IWDC’04, MASCOTS’02 ACM WoWMoM’00-02; General Vice Chair of IEEE PerCom’03, ACM MobiCom’00 and IEEE HiPC’00-01; Program Chair of IWDC’02, WoWMoM’98-99; TPC Vice Chair of ICPADS’02; and as TPC member of numerous IEEE and ACM conferences. Minyi Guo received his Ph.D. degree in information science from University of Tsukuba, Japan in 1998. From 1998 to 2000, Dr. Guo had been a research scientist of NEC Soft, Ltd. Japan. He is currently a professor at the Department of Computer Software, The University of Aizu, Japan. From 2001 to 2003, he was a visiting professor of Georgia State University, USA, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. Dr. Guo has served as general chair, program committee or organizing committee chair for many international conferences, and delivered more than 20 invited talks in USA, Australia, China, and Japan. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Embedded Systems. He is also in editorial board of International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking, Journal of Embedded Computing, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Scientific and Engineering Computing, and International Journal of Computer and Applications. Dr. Guo’s research interests include parallel and distributed processing, parallelizing compilers, data parallel languages, data mining, molecular computing and software engineering. He is a member of the ACM, IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, and IEICE. He is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in Science and Engineering.     

A review of vertebrate community composition in seasonal forest pools of the northeastern United States

Seasonally-flooded wetlands occur throughout the world and provide important foraging, resting, and breeding habitat for a broad array of organisms. This review summarizes our current understanding of vertebrate community composition at seasonal forest pools in the northeastern United States. These wetlands typically have hydroperiods that range from temporarily flooded to intermittently exposed, which reduces densities of many potential predators (e.g., fish). Current research has shown that pool hydroperiod, canopy closure, vegetation structure within pools, presence of potential predators, and landscape structure surrounding pools are the key factors determining vertebrate diversity at seasonal forest pools. Of 25 species of amphibians in the region, frogs (10 of 12 species) are more likely to breed in seasonal forest pools than salamanders (6 of 13 species). Seven of 10 amphibian species that breed in seasonal forest pools are state-listed as threatened or endangered. Among 27 species of reptiles, 3 of 15 species of snakes, and 6 of 12 species of turtles utilize seasonal pools during at least one stage of their annual cycle. Seasonal forest pools are important foraging and basking habitat for three species of turtles listed as threatened or endangered. Compared to other vertebrate taxa, most species of mammals are habitat generalists, with 50 of 63 mammal species potentially foraging at seasonal pools during part of their annual cycle. Chiroptera (bats; all 9 species) are believed to actively forage at seasonal pools and some Insectivora, particularly Sorex palustris Richardson and S. fumeus (Miller) and Condylura cristata (L.), are detected regularly at seasonal pools. Breeding birds are less likely to utilize seasonal pools than other vertebrate taxa, although 92 of 233 species might forage or breed near seasonal pools. Several species of Anatidae, Rallidae, and some Passeriformes use seasonally flooded pools. All vertebrates that use seasonal forest pools use other habitats during some stage in their life cycle; thus gaining a clear understanding of their habitat requirements is critical to their long-term persistence.     

A comparison of two methods for assessing critical flicker fusion frequency in hens

This paper compared two general methods for assessing critical fusion frequency in hens (gallus gallus domesticus). The first method was a conditional discrimination procedure with the stimuli presented successively. The second was a two-alternative forced-choice procedure with the stimuli presented simultaneously. It was found that both methods of stimulus presentation gave comparable results suggesting that either method is useful when investigating psychophysics in animals. The results also show that hens’ critical fusion frequency is considerably higher than that of humans which may account for hens’ inability to recognise images presented on standard computer or television monitors.     

A comparison of methods for measuring primary productivity and community respiration in streams

Carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange procedures for measuring community metabolism (two open stream methods and three chamber methods) were compared on the same reach of a third-order stream. Open stream methods were complicated by high diffusion rates and yielded net community primary productivity estimates lower than those obtained with chamber methods. Chamber methods yielded variable productivity and respiration data. However, when normalized for chlorophyll a, productivity estimates from the chamber methods were within an expected range for the system. Balances of photosynthesis and respiration from the chamber methods were similar between methods and indicated that autotrophic or heterotrophic processes could dominate the system. Considerations in applying the various procedures are discussed.     

A review of histomorphometric analysis techniques for assessing implant-soft tissue interface

Abstract

The success of dental implant treatment depends on the healing of both hard and soft tissues. While osseointegration provides initial success, the biological seal of the peri-implant soft tissue is crucial for maintaining the long term success of implants. Most studies of the biological seal of peri-implant tissues are based on animal or monolayer cell culture models. To understand the mechanisms of soft tissue attachment and the factors affecting the integrity of the soft tissue around the implants, it is essential to obtain good quality histological sections for microscopic examination. The nature of the specimens, however, which consist of both metal implant and soft peri-implant tissues, poses difficulties in preparing the specimens for histomorphometric analysis of the implant-soft tissue interface. We review various methods that have been used for the implant-tissue interface investigation with particular focus on the soft tissue. The different methods are classified and the advantages and limitations of the different techniques are highlighted.     

Bioaccessibility and other key parameters in assessing oral exposure to PAH-contaminated soils and dust: A critical review

Soil ingestion is an important pathway for human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated soils and dust for children (via ingesting hand residue) as well as for adults (via occupational exposure). An appropriate selection of exposure parameter values is essential for having an accurate risk assessment. This review addresses key parameters for estimating oral exposure to PAH-contaminated soils/dust, discusses their variability and uncertainty, and provides recommendations for value selection. Bioaccessibility (contaminant fraction solubilized in gastro-intestinal tract, available for entering bloodstream and reaching target organs) and soil ingestion rate are two key parameters for exposure assessment (usually characterized by large variability and/or uncertainty), followed by exposure frequency/duration and body weight.     

Reserves as tools for alleviating impacts of marine disease

Marine protected areas can prevent over-exploitation, but their effect on marine diseases is less clear. We examined how marine reserves can reduce diseases affecting reef-building corals following acute and chronic disturbances. One year after a severe tropical cyclone, corals inside reserves had sevenfold lower levels of disease than those in non-reserves. Similarly, disease prevalence was threefold lower on reserve reefs following chronic exposure to terrestrial run-off from a degraded river catchment, when exposure duration was below the long-term site average. Examination of 35 predictor variables indicated that lower levels of derelict fishing line and injured corals inside reserves were correlated with lower levels of coral disease in both case studies, signifying that successful disease mitigation occurs when activities that damage reefs are restricted. Conversely, reserves were ineffective in moderating disease when sites were exposed to higher than average levels of run-off, demonstrating that reductions in water quality undermine resilience afforded by reserve protection. In addition to implementing protected areas, we highlight that disease management efforts should also target improving water quality and limiting anthropogenic activities that cause injury.     

A method for the estimation of bacterial biomass and community structure in mangrove-associated sediments

Many recent reports have proposed that certain monocarboxylic fatty acids found in sediments originate in the in situ bacterial population. In this study we have divided the acids derived from bacteria into nine subgroups, each characteristic of a distinct compositional group of bacteria. It is proposed that the abundance of selected marker acids from each bacterial subgroup (chemotype) can be used to estimate the biomass of that chemotype. Conversion factors from acid abundance to bacterial biomass have been estimated using literature data. Since this procedure results in nine biomass parameters, bacterial communities can be compared in terms of both total biomass and chemotype distribution, that is, biomass and community structure. The ability of this procedure to resolve community structure variations is illustrated with the interpretation of the fatty acid profiles of a spatially distributed set of mangrove-associated sediments.     

A new look at the critical community size for childhood infections

Quasi-stationarity and time to extinction are studied for the classic endemic model. Attention is restricted to the transition region in parameter space where the quasi-stationary distribution is non-normal. A new approximation of the marginal distribution of infected individuals in quasi-stationarity is presented. It leads to a simple explicit expression for an approximation of the critical community size in terms of model parameters.     

A critical review of PASBio's argument structures for biomedical verbs

Background

Propositional representations of biomedical knowledge are a critical component of most aspects of semantic mining in biomedicine. However, the proper set of propositions has yet to be determined. Recently, the PASBio project proposed a set of propositions and argument structures for biomedical verbs. This initial set of representations presents an opportunity for evaluating the suitability of predicate-argument structures as a scheme for representing verbal semantics in the biomedical domain. Here, we quantitatively evaluate several dimensions of the initial PASBio propositional structure repository.

Results

We propose a number of metrics and heuristics related to arity, role labelling, argument realization, and corpus coverage for evaluating large-scale predicate-argument structure proposals. We evaluate the metrics and heuristics by applying them to PASBio 1.0.

Conclusion

PASBio demonstrates the suitability of predicate-argument structures for representing aspects of the semantics of biomedical verbs. Metrics related to theta-criterion violations and to the distribution of arguments are able to detect flaws in semantic representations, given a set of predicate-argument structures and a relatively small corpus annotated with them.

     

A stochastic dispersal-limited trait-based model of community dynamics

I present a model of stochastic community dynamics in which death occurs randomly in the community, propagules disperse randomly from a regional pool, and recruitment of new individuals of a species is proportional to the species local abundance multiplied by its local competitive ability. The competitive ability of a species is assumed to be determined by a function of one trait of the species, and I call this function the environmental filtering function. I show that information on local species abundances in a network of plots, together with trait data for each species, enables the inference of both the immigration rate and the environmental filtering function in each plot. I further study how the diversity patterns produced by this model deviate from the neutral predictions, and how this deviation depends on the characteristics of the environmental filtering function. I show that this inference framework is more powerful at detecting trait-based environmental filtering than existing statistical approaches based on trait distributions, and discuss how the predictions of this model could be used to assess environmental heterogeneity in a plot, to detect functionally meaningful trade-offs among species traits, and to test the assumption that there exists a simple relationship between species traits and local competitive ability.     

Assessment of the resilience of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes: A case study from Lefke Region of North Cyprus

The purpose of this study is to assess the resilience of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) of Lefke Region in North Cyprus in the face of disturbance factors (e.g. drought, urbanization and land abandonment) by adopting a set of indicators. The main objectives of the study include measurement of the respective resilience of the ecological, social and agricultural systems of the SEPLS by using relevant indicators. The method of the study consists of three parts: (i) conceptualization of the resilience of the SEPLS of Lefke Region to address the key systems (ecosystem, agricultural and social), their hierarchical structures, components and interrelations; (ii) development of a set of suitable resilience assessment indicators for these systems; (iii) for the development of resilience assessment indicators a participatory approach was designated to collect the relevant data. Accordingly, a multiple-choice questionnaire – consisting of 5 choices – was prepared and relevant data were collected from December 2015 to March 2016 in 12 villages through personal interviews with 106 respondents.The respondents have expressed their preferences by selecting the most suitable choice in 5 which were ordered from the lowest to the highest degree of resilience (1–5 point scale). The results of the evaluation revealed that the average values (importance) of the ecological, agricultural and social resilience are respectively 2,87 (low), 3,44 (moderate) and 2,53 (low) out of maximum 5-points. The overall resilience of the SEPLS was estimated to be low with a 2,94 magnitude. Finally, some conclusions (e.g. integrated landscape management) for strengthening the resilience of the SEPLS in Lefke Region in terms of biodiversity conservation, agricultural production and sustainable livelihood development were drawn based on the major findings of the study.It is expected that the findings and conclusions of this study can draw attention of policy makers and natural resource managers on building and strengthening the resilience of the SEPLS of Lefke Region in terms of biodiversity conservation, sustainable agricultural production and livelihood development.     

Efficacy of algal metrics for assessing nutrient and organic enrichment in flowing waters

1. Algal-community metrics were calculated for periphyton samples collected from 976 streams and rivers by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Programme during 1993–2001 to evaluate national and regional relations with water chemistry and to compare whether algal-metric values differ significantly among undeveloped and developed land-use classifications.
2. Algal metrics with significant positive correlations with nutrient concentrations included indicators of trophic condition, organic enrichment, salinity, motility and taxa richness. The relative abundance of nitrogen-fixing algae was negatively correlated with nitrogen concentrations, and the abundance of diatom species associated with high dissolved oxygen concentrations was negatively correlated with both nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations. Median algal-metric values and nutrient concentrations were significantly lower at undeveloped sites than those draining agricultural or urban catchments.
3. Total algal biovolume did not differ significantly among major river catchments or land-use classifications, and was only weakly correlated with nitrate (positive) and suspended-sediment (negative) concentrations. Estimates of periphyton chlorophyll a indicated an oligotrophic–mesotrophic boundary of about 21 mg m⁻² and a mesotrophic–eutrophic boundary of about 55 mg m⁻² based on upper and lower quartiles of the biovolume data distribution.
4. Although algal species tolerance to nutrient and organic enrichment is well documented, additional taxonomic and autecological research on sensitive, endemic algal species would further enhance water-quality assessments.     

A review of selected triassic to Early Cretaceous ferns

After becoming nearly extinct during the Permian, the ferns began a slow recovery during the Triassic as the climate of the earth moderated. As a result, a considerable number and variety were present and widely distributed during the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. However, with the rapid expansion of the angiosperms during the Late Cretaceous, the ferns once again became reduced in variety and greatly restricted in distribution. Some of the Mesozoic ferns are rather primitive and obviously are closely related descendants of Paleozoic taxa. Such ferns are assigned mostly to the Marattiaceae, Guaireaceae, Osmundaceae, and Gleicheniaceae. The majority of the Mesozoic ferns, however, are distinctive and appear to have originated during that era. These fossil ferns generally fit into modern orders and families such as the Matoniaceae or the Dipteridaceae. In some cases, it is difficult to clearly distinguish some of the Mesozoic ferns from living genera. A portion was presented as an invited paper to the symposium: Evolution of pteridophytes and gymnosperms at the XV International Botanical Congress, Yokohama, Japan (1993).