scholarly journals Preliminary Assumptions for Identification of the Common Hamster (Cricetus cricetus) as a Service Provider in the Agricultural Ecosystem

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6793
Author(s):  
Magdalena Joanna Hędrzak ◽  
Elżbieta Badach ◽  
Sławomir Adam Kornaś

The common hamster is a critically endangered species, but it is also perceived as a pest. Searching for an economic reason for its protection can be an argument to prevent its extinction. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the identification services provided by hamsters in the agricultural ecosystem and the determination of their correlation with human welfare. We propose the methods that can be applied for this purpose, and we check if the knowledge of the species is sufficient in order to use available methods for estimating the value of the services. The common hamster is a provider of supporting, regulating, and cultural services. Estimating their value is difficult because (1) available knowledge on the species’ ecology requires an update, in many aspects, due to changes to agricultural practices that have taken place since the 1970s (e.g., assessment of actual losses to cereal, vegetable, or root crops), and also extending by context, enabling the economic valuation of services (e.g., determination of impact range on various habitat components); it is also necessary to identify the correlations between profits and losses caused by this species; (2) there is a low level of public knowledge on the presence of hamsters and their role in the ecosystem. Education, primarily for consumers, followed by the promotion of hamsters as an umbrella and key species for agricultural areas, may result in the development of cultural services, which will increase the economic value of the services provided by hamsters.

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 116-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Yu. Feoktistova ◽  
Alexey V. Surov ◽  
Nikolay N. Tovpinetz ◽  
M.V. Kropotkina ◽  
Pavel L. Bogomolov ◽  
...  

Abstract Following the expansion of agriculture in the Neolithic period, the common hamster has spread throughout Europe, and occurred abundantly until the recent past. However, in the last 45 years, populations declined markedly, partly attributable to urbanization and to major changes in agricultural practices. As a result, the species has been considered endangered at international levels as well as in most European countries. At the same time, the species has established populations in large Central and Eastern-European cities such as Vienna (Austria), Simferopol (Ukraine) and Nalchik (Russia), where it inhabits green spaces such as parks, gardens, embankments and buffer strips. In an attempt to reveal factors enabling hamsters to cope with urban environments, we reviewed historical data and habitat conditions of several urban hamster populations. We suggest that supplemental food resources and reduced predation pressure were the main factors promoting urban occurrence of common hamsters in the last 30 years. Its notable adaptability may be associated with higher stress resilience, ecological opportunism, polyphagy and higher fertility compared to species relying on non-urban habitats. The phenomenon of synurbization implies coexistence of wildlife and our urban civilization, but at the same time conflicting interests in conservation and urban development. Thus, the common hamster might serve as a model species for efficient mitigation and compensation concepts in urbanism and spatial planning.


1906 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 32-45
Author(s):  
J. G. Milne
Keyword(s):  

During the excavations of Messrs. Hogarth Grenfell and Hunt for the Egypt Exploration Fund in the winter of 1895–6 on the site of Karanis (Kom Ushim) in the Fayum, a considerable number of clay-sealings were found, mainly in the cellars of the Roman houses. These were recently put in my hands for investigation and offer some interesting material.The sealings have evidently come from various kinds of articles: in many instances the clay is too much broken for any determination of the shape which it had taken to be possible; but among the better preserved pieces are examples from the mouths of bottles, some of which have been squeezed down into the neck like a cork, others placed over a linen covering, sometimes tied down with cord: others are from the flat sides of wooden boxes, often showing the marks of cord: others again from parcels of irregular shape, in some cases seemingly wrapped in papyrus. The common points of all are that they consist of lumps of Nile-mud, and that they have been impressed, while the clay was damp, with signets, which were presumably those of the merchants who forwarded the goods upon which the sealings were placed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 51-56
Author(s):  
Yu. B. Sazonov ◽  
D. Yu. Ozherelkov ◽  
R. Sh. Latypov ◽  
E. E. Gorshkov

Possibility of determination of the fragments and articles made of different grades of steel aluminium and copper alloys and their affiliation to the common melt was examined via the methods of photoelectric spectral analysis based on composition of micro-impurities. Chemical elements with micro-impurities were revealed; they allow to determine affiliation of metal fragments to one melt. Ultimately possible deviations of micro-impurities within one melt were obtained. The technique allowing to establish affiliation of fragments to the common melt based on their elementary composition of micro-impurities with minimal amount of measurements was suggested based on the obtained results. The minimal geometric size of a sample available for analysis was determined; it allows to classify the examined fragments to one melt based on the results of investigation of expanded elementary composition of micro-impurities. Practical opportunities of this technique were displayed on the example of the alloys with different chemical composition.


2019 ◽  
pp. 218-226
Author(s):  
Ahmed Ibrahim Ekhmaj ◽  
Younes Daw Ezlit ◽  
Mukhtar Mahmud Elaalem

Three major performance indicators developed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI, 1998) are used in this paper to evaluate the performance of the irrigated crops in the region according to the commonly followed practices among farmers as compared with their performance under conditions of much improved irrigation management and agricultural practices. These indicators include the Standardized Gross Value Production (SGVP), the unit area production output (crop yield or its financial value per hectare) and the unit volume of irrigation water production output (crop yield or its financial value per cubic meter). The comparison between the two agricultural practices indicated that the unit area output of the common practices among farmers did not exceed 6483 Libyan Dinars / hectare, while that under the improved practices was 11605 Libyan Dinars / hectare. The unit volume of irrigation water output for the common practices was 0.63 Libyan Dinar / cubic meter, while that under the improved practices reached 1.63 Libyan Dinar / cubic meter. These results clearly show the importance of the applied performance indicators in the assessment and clarification of the economic impacts of any introduced interventions aiming at the improvement of and/or the differentiation among irrigation management practices and alternative agricultural cropping systems.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Maraun ◽  
Moritz Heene

There has come to exist within the psychometric literature a generalized belief to the effect that a determination of the level of factorial invariance that holds over a set of k populations Δj, j = 1..s, is central to ascertaining whether or not the common factor random variables ξj, j = 1..s, are equivalent. In the current manuscript, a technical examination of this belief is undertaken. The chief conclusion of the work is that, as long as technical, statistical senses of random variable equivalence are adhered to, the belief is unfounded.


Author(s):  
Aleksandr Brailov ◽  
Vitaliy Panchenko

In the present research the optimizing approach to the determination of the parameters of an inaccessible point of an object is developed. The common issues are revealed and essential steps of their resolution are identified. The essence of the problem is an objective contradiction between a requirement for the location of points A and B of the centers of the sighting tubes of optical devices in the same horizontal plane P1 and the lack of a real possibility to perform such to achieve this an identical one-level arrangement without error. The aim of the study is to develop strategies for determining the position of an inaccessible point of an object in the minimum domain between intersecting sighting rays as well as an adaptive algorithm for determining the values of the parameters of an inaccessible point under the given absolute and relative errors. To achieve this aim, the following problems are formulated and solved in the paper: 1. Develop strategies for determining the position of the inaccessible point of the object in the minimum domain between the intersecting sighting rays. 2. Develop an adaptive algorithm for determining the values of the parameters of an inaccessible point based on the specified absolute and relative errors. In the proposed optimizing approach, the three-dimensional geometrical model with crossed directional rays for the determination of coordinates of the inaccessible point of an object is developed. It is discussed that points С and C', coordinated of which to be determined, locates in domain [CDM, CEM], [C'D'M, C'E'M] of the minimum distance ρmin between crossed directional rays. The optimizing problem of the determination of coordinates of an inaccessible point of an object in space is reduced to a problem of the determination of the minimum distance between two crossed directional rays. It’s known from the theory of function of multiple variables that function ρ = f (tC'D', tC'E') reaches its extremum ρmin when its partial derivatives by each variable are equal to zero. Three strategies for selecting the position of the inaccessible point C (xC, yC, zC) in the found minimum region [CDM, CEM] are proposed. The required point C' (xC', yC', zC') can be located, for example, in the middle of the minimum segment [C'D'M, C'E'M]. The essence of the adaptive algorithm is in optimizing the variation of the initial values of data α, α', β, γ, γ', AB, at which the absolute and relative errors of the coordinates of the inaccessible point satisfy the error values set by the customer (0.0001-1.2%) The proposed approach is verified using real experimental data.


Author(s):  
Elena Petrovna Berezkina ◽  
Mariya Nikolaevna Zhornikova

This article is dedicated to the autobiographical discourse in the compilation of poems “The Empress Life” by the national poet of Buryatia Andrey Rumyantsev.  The subject of research is the key images and motifs of Rumyantsev’s autobiographicallyrics, while the object is the poet’s lyrical biography. The author analyzes Andrey Rumyantsev’s poetry for the purpose of determination of the means of expression of autobiographical images and motifs in the texts created in form of poetic reminiscences. Most careful attention is given to the compositions dedicated to parents, grandparents, and sister of the poet. Methodology leans on the basic principle of biographical method, according to which personality of the writer defines the specificity of his works. The scientific novelty consists in conducting a motif-imagery analysis of Rumyantsev’s poetry from the perspectives of biographical method. The conclusion is formulated that the main motifs of Andrey Rumyantsev’s autobiographical lyrics is “great guilt”, “repentance”, and “responsibility” that encompass all poetic reminiscences of his loved ones – the key images of autobiographical lyrics. The specific approaches in creation of autobiographical images and motifs are revealed. Thus, the common for all images is the stance on labor and possession of physical fortitude. All female images are united by the motif of the hardship of being a woman, as well as righteousness semanticized through the concepts of “patience” and “love”. The mail images resemble bogatyrs (heroes of the Russian epic poems); the author also emphasizes their unity with the native nature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 589-606
Author(s):  
Günter Hempel ◽  
Paul Sotta ◽  
Didier R. Long ◽  
Kay Saalwächter

Abstract. Chemical shift tensors in 13C solid-state NMR provide valuable localized information on the chemical bonding environment in organic matter, and deviations from isotropic static-limit powder line shapes sensitively encode dynamic-averaging or orientation effects. Studies in 13C natural abundance require magic-angle spinning (MAS), where the analysis must thus focus on spinning sidebands. We propose an alternative fitting procedure for spinning sidebands based upon a polynomial expansion that is more efficient than the common numerical solution of the powder average. The approach plays out its advantages in the determination of CST (chemical-shift tensor) principal values from spinning-sideband intensities and order parameters in non-isotropic samples, which is here illustrated with the example of stretched glassy polycarbonate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 906 (1) ◽  
pp. 012015
Author(s):  
João Duarte ◽  
Francisco Sousa ◽  
Bruno Valente

Abstract As part of the strategy for Industry 4.0, this work was developed to outline a methodology that is an important contribution to improve the efficiency and productivity of processes in the ornamental stone extraction industry. Since this sector is important for the Portuguese economy, it is imperative to optimize processes to improve their efficiency in the use of resources, economic valuation, and economic viability. Knowing that one of the main factors to take into account in the feasibility of an exploration of ornamental rocks is the density, persistence and attitude of the discontinuities present in the rock mass, a methodology is proposed that aims to map and characterize the existing discontinuities in the using the latest digital technologies and whenever possible open access (CloudCompare, Stereonet, 3D Block Expert). To this end, work was initially carried out on an active exploration front, identifying and characterizing, through the traditional method (compass and clinometer) and photogrammetry, existing discontinuities and statistically analysing their occurrence. The data analysis shows a variation in the attitude of the discontinuities in a range of -17.72 ° to 14.7 °, this variation corresponding to the strike. As a percentage, there is also a variation in the range of values, from -5.30% to 4.91%, with the reference value being the value obtained by the photogrammetric method. This step was also used to compare the acquired data and verify the variations between them depending on the method used. Photogrammetry was used with another complementary purpose, but very important for the proposed methodology, which is related to the 3D modelling of the fronts and the subsequent projection or extraction of the existing discontinuity plans. The determination of the attitude of the discontinuities was obtained through the manipulation of the point clouds obtained by the photogrammetric modelling, based on the technique of Structure for Motion [SfM] and application of the RANSAC Shape Detection algorithm of the CloudCompare® program, which allows the determination of the attitude of the discontinuities. The characterization of the discontinuities by the photogrammetric method provided the data that was used in the present study to calculate the blocometry in that sector. This was calculated using the 3D BlockExpert software, based on the exploration sequences. The program calculated the predicted volumes in each one, based on a standard dimension for the block of 2.7 × 3.0 × 2.0 meters. As a result, it was possible to compare a number of blocks the value predicted by the 449 modellings and the number of blocks produced 490. This difference of approximately 10% for this order of magnitude is acceptable and confirms the reliability of the proposed methodology. This evaluation using Geotechnologies allows data modelling to be effectively an important process in the planning of the extractive process, and with the development of this approach, it may introduce in a second phase the decision automation of the extractive process, based on economic and commercial criteria and last and third stage, the automation of the extractive process.


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