Search results for " land"
showing 10 items of 3130 documents
Comparative transcriptomics of albino and warningly‐coloured caterpillars
2021
Abstract Coloration is perhaps one of the most prominent adaptations for survival and reproduction of many taxa. Coloration is of particular importance for aposematic species, which rely on their coloring and patterning acting as a warning signal to deter predators. Most research has focused on the evolution of warning coloration by natural selection. However, little information is available for color mutants of aposematic species, particularly at the genomic level. Here, I compare the transcriptomes of albino mutant caterpillars of the aposematic wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis) to those of their full sibs having their distinctive orange‐black warning coloration. The results showed >29…
Automatic surrogate modelling technique selection based on features of optimization problems
2019
A typical scenario when solving industrial single or multiobjective optimization problems is that no explicit formulation of the problem is available. Instead, a dataset containing vectors of decision variables together with their objective function value(s) is given and a surrogate model (or metamodel) is build from the data and used for optimization and decision-making. This data-driven optimization process strongly depends on the ability of the surrogate model to predict the objective value of decision variables not present in the original dataset. Therefore, the choice of surrogate modelling technique is crucial. While many surrogate modelling techniques have been discussed in the liter…
CIRCULAR PROCESSES FOR A NEW URBAN METABOLYSM: THE ROLE OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN THE SUSTAINABLE REQUALIFICATION
2014
Through this paper we present the first results of a research combining the management problem of Municipal Solid Waste to the requalification of built environment. The goal of this research is to mitigate the vulnerability of territory and urban heritage and to transform a problem into opportunities. Above all, we have paid attention to several exemplifying cases of Italian territory: suburbs of large towns, historical centres, small centres (and, in particular, those with a strong historical connotation). Their features are, at the same time, restrictions and challenges for designing new compatible systems that can contribute to the requalification of urban landscape recovering spaces wit…
Il territorio dei Monti Sicani. Il sistema delle risorse territoriali per l’attivazione di politiche di sviluppo locale
2015
Il contributo presenta i primi risultati della ricerca – condotta nell’ambito del Laboratorio di Sviluppo Locale del Polo Universitario di Ricerca di Bivona e Santo Stefano Quisquina per l’energia, l’ambiente e le risorse del territorio1, ed affidata alla responsabilità scientifica del prof. Maurizio Carta – relativa all’interpretazione delle identità del territorio Sicano e alle opportunità di sviluppo da attivare attraverso la definizione di strategie fondate sulla dimensione rurale e culturale e indirizzate alla sperimentazione del modello smart land. La ricerca, che si inserisce nell’ambito dell’interesse ministeriale sulle Aree Interne, è finalizzata alla individuazione di sistemi rura…
Simultaneous optimization of harvest schedule and measurement strategy
2013
In many recent studies, the value of forest inventory information in the harvest scheduling has been examined. Usually only the profitability of measuring simultaneously all the stands in the area is examined. Yet, it may be more profitable to concentrate the measurement efforts to some subset of them. In this paper, the authors demonstrate that stochastic optimization can be used for defining the optimal measurement strategy simultaneously with the harvest decisions. The results show that without end-inventory constraints, it was most profitable to measure the stands that were just below the medium age. Measuring the oldest stands was not profitable at all. It turned out to be profitable t…
Super-fit and population size reduction in compact Differential Evolution
2011
Although Differential Evolution is an efficient and versatile optimizer, it has a wide margin of improvement. During the latest years much effort of computer scientists studying Differential Evolution has been oriented towards the improvement of the algorithmic paradigm by adding and modifying components. In particular, two modifications lead to important improvements to the original algorithmic performance. The first is the super-fit mechanism, that is the injection at the beginning of the optimization process of a solution previously improved by another algorithm. The second is the progressive reduction of the population size during the evolution of the population. Recently, the algorithm…
Grazing intensity in subarctic tundra affects the temperature adaptation of soil microbial communities
2015
Abstract Grazing by large ungulates, such as reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L.), in subarctic tundra exerts a considerable effect on the soil microclimate. Because of higher insulation by the aboveground vegetation in light versus heavily grazed areas, soil temperatures during the growing season are considerably higher under heavy grazing. Here, we hypothesized that these grazer-induced changes in soil microclimate affect the temperature sensitivity of soil microbial activity. To test this hypothesis, we conducted soil incubations at different temperatures (4 °C, 9 °C and 14 °C) for six weeks using soils from sites with contrasting long-term grazing intensities. Microbial respiration at low te…
Comparing Conservation Value Maps and Mapping Methods in a Rural Landscape in Southern Finland
2015
We tested to what extent conservation value maps are different if the valuation and mapping method is changed. We compared 66 different conservation value and 4 different ecosystem service maps. Using remote sensing and other georeferenced data, we produced 2 different habitat type maps, which were 50 % similar. We valued each mapped habitat type based on rarity corrected potential number of vascular plant species and naturalness using 6 different valuation alternatives. We mapped habitat type connectivity and complementarity using 2 main approaches. The habitat type valuation alternatives were quite similar, but if the habitat type naturalness was taken into account, differences were large…
Committing, engaging and negotiating : Teachers’ stories about creating shared spaces for co-teaching
2019
The study examined teachers’ stories on developing co-teaching partnerships. The narratives of three two-teacher teams were used to illustrate joint professional landscapes. The teams narrated the development process as one in which commitment, engagement and negotiation were the key elements in shaping their professional landscapes. The findings indicate wide variation in the role of shared understanding and related engagement in co-constructing co-teaching practices. peerReviewed
Vegetation dynamics on abandoned terraces of Sicily: the course and driving forces of succession
2007
In Mediterranean Europe, terrace landscapes can be found where 1) the orography is characterized by hills or mountains, 2) there is a high amount of stone outcrops and 3) the human need for agricultural production was quite high till the recent past. During the last century, many of these landscapes have been abandoned, due to their unsuitability for mechanized, intensive agriculture and due to the general land abandonment trend which arised in large parts of Europe. Since with land abandonment start secondary succession processes, the plant and animal communities linked to agroecosystems are replaced by other species which find their habitat in the developing succession stages. This proces…