scholarly journals Comparison of two descriptions of heterogeneity used in modelling plants dynamics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Droz ◽  
Andrzej Pękalski

AbstractWe analyse the role played by two different approaches of spatial heterogeneity in theoretical models of annual plants dynamics. The first approach is called quasi-continuous gradient in which one type of resource is changing gradually along the gradient line. In the second one, called the patches approach, part of the habitat is covered by patches and the resource has a different value in each patch. We show that when the spatial heterogeneity of the habitat is small, the two approaches yield the same average number of surviving species, even if a small number of patches is used. In a strong heterogeneity it takes many patches to get similar results as in the gradient case. The difference between the gradient and patchy description of the spatial heterogeneity increases with the number of species present in the system. We have also shown that even when the average number of surviving species is the same, the abundances of species are ordered in a different way, like different species are the dominant ones. The conclusion of this paper is that modelling spatial heterogeneity in a system of plants is not a simple task. Special care is needed when the heterogeneity of the habitat is large, since then depending of the choice of a method, some predictions may differ significantly, making the model non-robust. Therefore the type of theoretical approach must closely match the modelled ecosystem.

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Shen ◽  
Linsong Cheng ◽  
Qiang Sun ◽  
Shijun Huang

Recently, commingling production has been widely used for the development of offshore heavy oil reservoirs with multilayers. However, the differences between layers in terms of reservoir physical properties, oil properties and pressure have always resulted in interlayer interference, which makes it more difficult to evaluate the producing degree of commingled production. Based on the Buckley–Leverett theory, this paper presents two theoretical models, a one-dimensional linear flow model and a planar radial flow model, for water-flooded multilayer reservoirs. Through the models, this paper establishes a dynamic method to evaluate seepage resistance, sweep efficiency and recovery percent and then conducts an analysis with field data. The result indicates the following: (1) the dynamic difference in seepage resistance is an important form of interlayer interference during the commingled production of an offshore multilayer reservoir; (2) the difference between commingled production and separated production is small within a certain range of permeability ratio or viscosity ratio, but separated production should be adopted when the ratio exceeds a certain value.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-165
Author(s):  
Anniken Greve

AbstractThe article seeks to explore sameness and difference in narrative theory by way of shifting the emphasis from the narratives themselves to the research acts we perform on narratives. It proposes a model for analyzing research acts. Applying this model to various research acts in narrative theory it shows that what it implies to look for sameness and difference within narratives will vary with the kind of research act in question. Highlighting the difference between research acts that make theoretical claims about groups of narrative and research acts that seeks to explore the meaning of individual narratives, the article is critically geared both towards theories that stress the fiction/non-fiction divide and towards theories that seek to formulate a narrative theory that encompasses narratives of all kinds. It argues for the place in narrative theory of interpretive working procedures that allow us to focus on the individual narrative, in order to grasp its potential contribution to the human conversation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Nixon ◽  
P. A. Davies

This paper outlines a novel elevation linear Fresnel reflector (ELFR) and presents and validates theoretical models defining its thermal performance. To validate the models, a series of experiments were carried out for receiver temperatures in the range of 30–100 °C to measure the heat loss coefficient, gain in heat transfer fluid (HTF) temperature, thermal efficiency, and stagnation temperature. The heat loss coefficient was underestimated due to the model exclusion of collector end heat losses. The measured HTF temperature gains were found to have a good correlation to the model predictions—less than a 5% difference. In comparison to model predictions for the thermal efficiency and stagnation temperature, measured values had a difference of −39% to +31% and 22–38%, respectively. The difference between the measured and predicted values was attributed to the low-temperature region for the experiments. It was concluded that the theoretical models are suitable for examining linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) systems and can be adopted by other researchers.


1972 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Holland ◽  
Wayne D. Purcell ◽  
Terry Hague

Much of the research in commodity hedging has concentrated upon the development of theoretical models describing the optimum position in cash and futures markets. Other studies have shown that the difference between current spot price and futures price represents the market price for storage, processing services, or both. The revenue stabilizing potential of futures markets for commodities with continuous as opposed to noncontinuous inventories has also received attention. However, very little work or literature is publicly available on how different hedging strategies actually would have performed for a particular commodity over time.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Infusino ◽  
Stefano Scalercio

Study analyzes the macrolepidoptera assemblages in beech woodlands of the Orsomarso Mountains (Pollino National Park, Southern Italy) to assess the role of beech forests in preserving diversity in Mediterranean Basin. Research was run between 2015 and 2016 in 15 stands representative of the main successional stages of forest maturation, placed between 990 and 1,475 meters of elevation. Monthlybased sampling was performed using UV-LED light traps. A total of 33,957 individuals belonging to 410 species was collected. The community is rich and the most abundant and characteristic species (Eilema lurideola, Operophtera fagata, Campaea margaritata) are almost all trophically linked to broadleaves or lichens. The community structure appears fairly constant and recognizable in all stands over the two years of sampling. Young beech forests hosted the greatest number of species compared to other forest maturation stages, though the difference is small. The greatest differences in the community structure are found in the clearings, where generalist and/or related to the herbaceous layer species are mostly represented. Biogeographically widely distributed species prevail, 87% of them having European or Asian-European distribution. There are a number of species of faunistic interest, among which Perizoma juracolaria, Chelis maculosa, Tiliacea citrago, Poecilocampa populi, Triphosa dubitata, Sideridis reticulata, Nebula senectaria, including 13 Italian endemics such as Coenotephria antonii. Populations of many species show significant genetic diversities compared to other European populations. The Orsomarso Mountains beech forests represent an important biodiversity reservoir, even at the genetic level, and show a good degree of naturalness.


1982 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
W. H. Walsh

Few major philosophers show evidence of having studied the works of their predecessors with special care, even in cases where they were subject to particular influences which they were ready to acknowledge. Hume knew that he was working in the tradition of ‘some late philosophers in England, who have begun to put the science of man on a new footing’—‘Mr Locke, my Lord Shaftsbury, Dr Mandeville, Mr Hutchinson, Dr Butler, &c.’ But there is not much sign in the Treatise or elsewhere in Hume's writings of any close acquaintance with the works of these authors; the presumption must be that he had read them at some time and extracted the main ideas, but was not in the habit of returning to their texts. He had something more important to do, namely to work at philosophical problems of his own. Similarly Kant, though he said that the Critique of Pure Reason was not meant to be ‘a critique of books and systems, but of the faculty of reason in general’, had clearly felt the impact of the thought of some important past philosophers, but equally had never spent much time in finding out just what these philosophers had to say. Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Leibniz and Hume all get fairly frequent mention in his pages. But Kant takes his knowledge of Plato and Aristotle from J. J. Brucker's Historia critica philosophiae, a six-volume compilation which first appeared in 1742, or from doubtful sources such as Mendelssohn's doctored translation of the Phaedo, and though he doubtless knew the more recent authors at first hand clearly felt no need to study them in any depth. This was true even of writers to whom he attributed a particular importance, such as Leibniz and Hume. The references to Hume in the Critique and Prolegomena are all disappointingly general, and though the summary of Leibniz's philosophy in the section called ‘The Amphiboly of Concepts of Reflection’ has a certain force, it is not documented with references to Leibnizian texts. Kant knows that there is a difference between the views of the historical Leibniz and those which constituted the ‘Leibnizian-Wolffian system’ of his successors. But he is not very curious about the difference, or inclined to explore it.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (27) ◽  
pp. 17822-17826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galina V. Loukova ◽  
Alexey A. Milov ◽  
Vladimir P. Vasiliev ◽  
Vladimir I. Minkin

For metal-based compounds, the ground- and excited-state dipole moments and the difference thereof are obtained both experimentally and theoretically.


Author(s):  
Calvin H. Li ◽  
G. P. Peterson

Experimental evidence exists that the addition of a small quantity of nanoparticles to a base fluid, can have a significant impact on the effective thermal conductivity of the resulting suspension. The causes for this are currently thought to be due to a combination of two distinct mechanisms. The first is due to the change in the thermophysical properties of the suspension, resulting from the difference in the thermal conductivity of the fluid and the particles, and the second is thought to be due to the transport of thermal energy by the particles, due to the Brownian motion of the particles. In order to better understand these phenomena, a theoretical model has been developed that examines the effect of the Brownian motion. In this model, the well-known approach first presented by Maxwell, is combined with a new expression that incorporates the effect of the Brownian motion and describes the physical phenomena that occurs because of it. The results indicate that the enhanced thermal conductivity may not in fact be due to the transport of energy by the particles, but rather, due to the stirring motion caused by the movement of the nanoparticles which enhances the heat transfer within the fluid. The resulting model shows good agreement when compared with the existing experimental data and perhaps more importantly helps to explain the trends observed from a fundamental physical perspective. In addition, it provides a possible explanation for the differences that have been observed between the previously obtained experimental data, the predictions obtained from Maxwell’s equation and the theoretical models developed by other investigators.


1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teivo Pentikäinen ◽  
Jukka Rantala

AbstractThe estimation of outstanding claims is one of the important aspects in the management of the insurance business. Various methods have been widely dealt with in the actuarial literature. Exploration of the inaccuracies involved is traditionally based on a post-facto comparison of the estimates against the actual outcomes of the settled claims. However, until recent years it has not been usual to consider the inaccuracies inherent in claims reserving in the context of more comprehensive (risk theoretical) models, the purpose of which is to analyse the insurer as a whole. Important parts of the technique which will be outlined in this paper can be incorporated into over-all risk theory models to introduce the uncertainty involved with technical reserves as one of the components in solvency and other analyses (Pentikäinen et al. (1989)).The idea in this paper is to describe a procedure by which one can explore how various reserving methods react to fictitious variations, fluctuations, trends, etc. which might influence the claims process, and, what is most important, how they reflect on the variables indicating the financial position of the insurer. For this purpose, a claims process is first postulated and claims are simulated and ordered to correspond to an actual handling of the observed claims of a fictitious insurer. Next, the simulation program will ‘mime’ an actuary who is calculating the claims reserve on the basis of these ‘observed’ claims data. Finally, the simulation is further continued thus generating the settlement of the reserved claims. The difference between reserved amounts and settled amounts gives the reserving (run-off) error in this particular simulated case. By repeating the simulation numerous times (Monte Carlo method) the distribution of the error can be estimated as well as its effect on the total outcome of the insurer.


Genome ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. B. Gillies ◽  
J. Kuspira ◽  
R. N. Bhambhani

Electron microscopy of synaptonemal complex spreads from autotetraploid Triticum monococcum (2n = 4x = 28) revealed a minimum mean of 3.59 multivalents per zygotene–pachytene nucleus. The range of values was from 1 to 6 multivalents per nucleus. Most of the multivalents were quadrivalents with single, medially located pairing partner switch points. Lateral element pairing switches, particularly the few multiple switches, were often accompanied by extensive asynapsis around the switch point. The synaptonemal complex multivalent frequency is considerably higher than the metaphase I quadrivalent frequency previously reported for the same material. Calculations of expected pachytene quadrivalent frequency from metaphase I data, using several published theoretical models, gave values that did not agree with the results obtained here. The difference between the multivalent frequencies at pachytene and metaphase I does not appear to be the result of a correction process. Instead, it could be caused by a combination of preferential pairing or crossing-over and the effects of the position of partner switches and asynapsis associated with switches. Key words: autotetraploid, multivalents, synaptonemal complex, pairing effects.


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