Macroinvertebrate assemblages in mountain tributaries of glacial-fed and rain-fed rivers in eastern Nepal

While river macroinvertebrates are the most widely used form of bioindicators, their baseline information, although crucial, is scarce in Nepal. The main objective of this study was to assess the macroinvertebrate assemblages in mountain tributaries of the glacial-fed Tamor and rain-fed Kamala rivers. A total of eight sites were sampled during March 2015 (Spring), November 2015 (Autumn), January 2016 (Winter), and May 2016 (Summer). Altogether, 49 Families of macroinvertebrates belonging to 15 Orders were identified with 39 Families and 12 Orders in Tamor’s tributaries, and 33 Families and 10 Orders in Kamala’s tributaries. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) revealed different assemblages between the two river systems. The most dominant Order in the Tamor was Ephemeroptera and it was Trichoptera in the Kamala. EPT (Ephemeroptera Plecoptera Trichoptera) assemblages were the most abundant in all four seasons for both the river systems and higher % EPT in Tamor’s tributaries indicate better water quality than in the Kamala tributaries. Typical cold water adapted Families such as Rhyacophilidae and Stenopsychidae were observed in Tamor’s tributaries whereas in Kamala’s tributaries, warm water adapted Families like Naididae and Thiaridae were found, reflecting a difference in the abiotic variables such as temperature, dissolved oxygen attributed to each of the catchments. This baseline data can serve as the foundation for further bioassessment including those of climate change impacts on aquatic biodiversity.

Cluster Appearance Glyphs: A Methodology for Illustrating High-Dimensional Data Patterns in 2-D Data Layouts

Two-dimensional space embeddings such as Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) are a popular means to gain insight into high-dimensional data relationships. However, in all but the simplest cases these embeddings suffer from significant distortions, which can lead to misinterpretations of the high-dimensional data. These distortions occur both at the global inter-cluster and the local intra-cluster levels. The former leads to misinterpretation of the distances between the various N-D cluster populations, while the latter hampers the appreciation of their individual shapes and composition, which we call cluster appearance. The distortion of cluster appearance incurred in the 2-D embedding is unavoidable since such low-dimensional embeddings always come at the loss of some of the intra-cluster variance. In this paper, we propose techniques to overcome these limitations by conveying the N-D cluster appearance via a framework inspired by illustrative design. Here we make use of Scagnostics which offers a set of intuitive feature descriptors to describe the appearance of 2-D scatterplots. We extend the Scagnostics analysis to N-D and then devise and test via crowd-sourced user studies a set of parameterizable texture patterns that map to the various Scagnostics descriptors. Finally, we embed these N-D Scagnostics-informed texture patterns into shapes derived from N-D statistics to yield what we call Cluster Appearance Glyphs. We demonstrate our framework with a dataset acquired to analyze program execution times in file systems.

The Effectiveness of Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in Localized Contexts

The professionalization of addressing conflict creates a field filled with specialists highly trained to apply modularized and manualized, often evidence-based solutions. But how effective are these professionalized conflict management strategies in Indigenous and localized cultural contexts compared to homegrown Indigenous approaches? While instances of these Indigenous peacebuilding and conflict management strategies are routine throughout the world, to date, no one has attempted to test which conflict management approaches are most effective empirically, nor has the literature sufficiently addressed the contexts in which strategies are most helpful. Using multi-dimensional scaling and chi-square tests of independence applied to a similarity matrix of co-occurrences from select Outline of Cultural Materials subjects from the Human Relations Area Files cultural database, this study tests the hypothesis: Indigenous conflict management strategies are more effective (i.e., less associated conflict) than non-Indigenous conflict management strategies in Indigenous contexts. We show that Indigenous conflict management approaches co-occur with conflict less often than non-Indigenous strategies. From an applied perspective, when we break conflict into four discreet types—sociocultural/interpersonal, political, legal/judicial, and economic—Indigenous conflict management strategies co-occur most often with socio-cultural types of conflicts. The results suggest that Indigenous approaches are more effective in Indigenous contexts overall, while they are most often applied to socio-cultural and interpersonal conflicts. Based on our findings, homegrown solutions effectively manage, resolve, and transform localized conflicts.

Paleogeographic position of the Ordovician rocks from the Svoge Unit, Western Balkan – preliminary results

Two sandstone samples from the upper and lower parts of the Ordovician succession of the Svoge Unit were analyzed in order to determine their detrital zircon U-Pb age spectra using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Multi-dimensional scaling statistical technique allowed a reliable objective identification of the potential source areas in North Africa and paleogeographic reconstructions were made. Both samples indicate a close proximity to the Trans-Saharan Belt provenance, which is the most probable source of the detrital component.

Growth variability, dimensional scaling, and the interpretation of osteohistological growth data

Osteohistological data are commonly used to study the life history of extant and extinct tetrapods. While recent advances have permitted detailed reconstructions of growth patterns, physiology and other features using these data, they are most commonly used in assessments of ontogenetic stage and relative growth in extinct animals. These methods have seen widespread adoption in recent years, rapidly becoming a common component of the taxonomic description of new fossil taxa, but are often applied without close consideration of the sources of variation present or the dimensional scaling relationships that exist among different osteohistological measurements. Here, we use a combination of theoretical models and empirical data from a range of extant and extinct tetrapods to review sources of variability in common osteohistological measurements, their dimensional scaling relationships and the resulting interpretations that can be made from those data. In particular, we provide recommendations on the usage and interpretation of growth mark spacing/zonal thickness data, when these are likely to be unreliable, and under what conditions they can provide useful inferences for studies of growth and life history.

Sustainability Analysis of Tuna (Thunnus sp.) Fishery in Sendang Biru, Malang Regency

Tuna capture fisheries have a very important value and meaning for the socio-economic life of coastal communities, either directly or indirectly. On the other hand, the catch of tuna has decreased from an ecological aspect based on the exploited status, production, and the value of CpUE (Cath per Unit Effort), the length of the fish caught, and the amount. The research objective was to analyze the sustainability status of tuna fisheries from 3 dimensions. This study was a survey of 76 respondents in the Sendang Biru Malang districts. The method used the Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis using the software Rapfish (Rapid Appraisal for Fisheries). The results showed that the sustainability status to be seen from 3 dimensions, ecology, economic, and social, which showed that the level of sustainability of tuna fishery from the economic and social dimensions was enough sustainable. For the ecological dimensions, it shows less sustainability. In general, the level of sustainability of tuna fishery in the Sendang Biru is enough sustainable. There need activities related to environmental conservation to increase ecological sustainability. In addition, it is necessary to hold counseling and training on aquatic ecosystems so that they are utilized in the short term and in the long term.