bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Graphs, Colourings And The Four-Colour Theorem
Authors: Wilson Robert A
Published: November 2023

The four-colour theorem is one of the famous problems of mathematics, that frustrated generations of mathematicians from its birth in 1852 to its solution (using substantial assistance from electronic computers) in 1976. The theorem asks whether four colours are sufficient to colour all conceivable maps, in such a way that countries with a common border are coloured with different colours. The book discusses various attempts to solve this problem, and some of the mathematics which developed out of these attempts. Much of this mathematics has developed a life of its own, and forms a fascinating part of the subject now known as graph theory. The book is designed to be self-contained, and develops all the graph-theoretical tools needed as it goes along. It includes all the elementary graph theory that should be included in an introduction to the subject, before concentrating on specific topics relevant to the four-colour problem. Part I covers basic graph theory, Euler's polyhedral formula, and the first published false `proof' of the four-colour theorem. Part II ranges widely through related topics, including map-colouring on surfaces with holes, the famous theorems of Kuratowski, Vizing, and Brooks, the conjectures of Hadwiger and Hajos, and much more besides. In Part III we return to the four-colour theorem, and study in detail the methods which finally cracked the problem.
The visual analysis of bodily motion
Authors: Shiffrar Maggie , Pinto Jeannine
Published: November 2023

Abstract. Does the visual system process human movement differently from object movement? If so, what are the criteria that the visual system uses to discriminate between human and non-human motions? A series of psychophysical studies was conducted to address these questions by examining the conditions under which the visual perception of human and object motions appears to rely on similar and different mechanisms. To determine whether motion integration across space is similar for human and non-human movements, observers viewed moving stimuli through a set of spatially disconnected apertures. Under these conditions, motion integration across space was found to signi1cantly differ for human and object movements as long as the human movement was upright and consistent with normal locomotion. An apparent-motion paradigm was used to investigate motion integration across time. It was found that human and object movements are similarly perceived at brief temporal intervals. However, important differences arise at slower display rates. Finally, recent PET data indicate motor-system activity during the perception of possible, but not impossible, human movements. When considered together, these results support the hypothesis that the visual analysis of human movement does differ from the visual analysis of a wide variety of non-human movements whenever visual motion signals are consistent with an observer’s internal representation of possible human movements.
Eliminating, magnifying, and reversing spatial compatibility effects with mixed location-relevant and irrelevant trials
Authors: Proctor Robert W , Vu Kim-Phuong L
Published: November 2023

Abstract. Regardless of whether stimulus location is relevant or irrelevant to a task, responses are faster and more accurate when stimulus location and response location correspond than when they do not. Stimulus– response compatibility (SRC) effects of this nature are robust and typically considered to be automatic consequences of stimulus-response associations that are either hard-wired or acquired through years of experience. An exception to the robustness of SRC effects has been shown to occur when compatible and incompatible mappings are mixed. In the present paper, we review the literature on mixing compatible and incompatible mappings and show that mixing does not always reduce the SRC effect. We then present results from studies in which location-irrelevant (LI) trials are mixed with location-relevant (LR) trials. The SRC effect for LR trials of physical locations to keypresses is eliminated when stimulus color, rather than location, is relevant on half of the trials. However, the SRC effect for LR trials is unaffected by mixing when the location information is conveyed by arrows and ampli1ed when it is conveyed by words. With vocal location responses, the SRC effects for all three stimulus types are enhanced by mixing.
Introduction to Computational Methods for Differential Equations
Authors: Eriksson Kenneth , Estep Don , Hansbo Peter , Johnson Claes
Published: November 2023

We give an introduction to a unified approach to computational methods for differential equations based on Galerkin methods with piecewise polynomial approximation. We present adaptive methods with reliable and efficient control of computational errors and also discuss estimation and control of data and modeling errors. As model problems we consider two-point boundary value problems, initial value problems for ordinary differential equations, the Poisson equation and the heat equation. We present sample results using the Fem lab software.
Complexity Reduction Methods for Fractal Image Compression
Authors: Saupe Dietmar , Hamzaoui Raotll
Published: November 2023

Fractal image compression allows fast decoding but suffers from long encoding times. During the encoding a large number of sequential searches through a list of domains (portions of the image) are carried out while trying to find a best match for another image portion called range. In this article we review and extend the methods that have been developed to reduce the time complexity of this searching. Also we present a new taxonomy of the methods, provide an evaluation and propose two new techniques.
Atom probe studies of non-metallic materials, thin films and surface phenomena
Authors: Miller M K , Cerezo A , Hetherington M G , Smith G D W
Published: November 2023

In general, applications of the atom probe technique to the study of non-metallic materials, thin films and surface phenomena are less advanced than the corresponding studies of metallurgical processes. The results obtained from non-metals are more complex and difficult to interpret and the spectra are more dependent on experimental conditions, than is normally the case for metals. Also, in the study of surface processes, the high electric field is an additional state variable, which may exert a profound effect on the observed behaviour. In this chapter, some of the difficulties of research in these areas will be considered, as well as the results obtained to date.
Geometry
Authors: Scheinerman Edward R
Published: November 2023

There are many ways to connect graph theory with geometry. In this chapter we forge a link by means of intersection graphs, whose vertices are geometrical objects that are adjacent if and only if they have non-empty intersection. There are a great many connections between graph theory and geometry. For example, we can consider the plane to be a graph: the points of the plane are the vertices and two vertices are adjacent if they are exactly distance 1 apart. A famous problem is to determine the chromatic number of this graph; it is known to lie in the range 4 to 7.
Elements of classification, structure, sexuality, biology and genetics of Fungi
Authors: Burnett John
Published: November 2023

The Fungi constitute a eukaryotic phylum comparable in diversity, albeit often on a physically smaller scale, with that of the animals or plants and, numerically, many times larger than the latter. Their structure and biology differ from other eukaryotes in a number of characteristic ways, and some of these differences affect their population biology and genetics.
Change in gene frequency in fungal populations-II Natural selection for multigenically determined traits: competition and fitness
Authors: Burnett John
Published: November 2023

Few experiments and observations have been carried out on multigenically determined traits in fungi but they are sufficient to give some idea of how selection operates on such traits in natural populations. They have demonstrated that both directional and stabilizing selection occur in experimental and natural situations, and that the consequences of selection differ on the same fungus in different environments.
Niko’s Nature
Authors: Kruuk Hans
Published: November 2023

A charismatic naturalist, bird-watcher, teacher, artist, photographer, film-maker, and winner of the Nobel Prize, Niko Tinbergen was a prominent and influential scientist. Jointly with Konrad Lorenz, he laid the foundation for a new science, the biological study of animal behaviour. ‘Ethology’, and his talent for devising behaviour-testing experiments, provided an outlet for Niko’s enthusiasm for gulls and sticklebacks, snow-buntings and foxes, wasps and falcons, and even children. This first full-length biography of Niko Tinbergen, lavishly illustrated with many of Niko’s own drawings, describes his background in Holland, a naturalists’ paradise, and the beginnings of his investigations into the behaviour of birds, fish, and insects. Hans Kruuk also explores is Niko’s relationship with his colleague and co-Nobelist Konrad Lorenz. These were two men full of contrasts: Niko a charming, self-effacing field man and experimenter; Konrad a flamboyant and egocentric German, always full of new ideas. Niko’s Nature goes on to follow Niko’s progress in Oxford after the Second World War, where he became the world authority on the behaviour of animals in the wild: his inspiring book The Study of Instinct remains an all-time classic. As a scientist Niko will always be known for the four fundamentally different ways in which he asked the question ‘why does an animal do this?’ These questions, about physiology, development, evolution, and function, became known as ‘Tinbergen’s four whys’. But Niko’s successes came at a price - severe and devastating depressions that were to plague him throughout his career. In this fascinating and engaging story, Niko’s long-time friend and student Hans Kruuk argues that his impact as a scientist and naturalist was in large part due to his skills as a communicator, photographer, and film-maker. Niko’s Nature is an intimate and insightful portrait of an extraordinary figure.
Dynamics of the Liquid State
Authors: Balucani Umberto , Zoppi Marco
Published: November 2023

The purpose fo this book is to present a comprehensive account of the physical concepts and theoretical approaches developed for the study of the dynamical properties of liquids (or more generally, of high-density fluids) at a microscopic level. After a discussion of the basic dynamical phenomena to be interupted, as well as of the various experimental probes, the book gradually exposes the reader to the sophisticated theoretical techniques needed for a satisfactory account of both single particle and coleective motions. The complications are faced in a stepwise fashion, with special attention to the physical content of the results. As a result of the progress achieved in the last decade, in the end a satisfactory understanding of most of the phenomena characterizing this fascinating field emerges.
Entropy of an ideal gas
Authors: Carrington Gerald
Published: November 2023

The concept of entropy evolved first during the 1850s, largely due to Clausius (1850, 1865) who coined the word. Since entropy is arguably the most important thermodynamic state function, the sooner it is introduced the better. Here we shall start with the ideal gas state equations and obtain the entropy function for the gas in order to explore its basic properties. This will be an informal introduction to entropy, but many of the properties we encounter also hold quite generally. A more formal introduction is given in Chapter 6.
The second law
Authors: Carrington Gerald
Published: November 2023

We showed that the integral is independent of the path of integration provided the process is quasistatic and we found that the entropy has some interesting properties: It is useful for representing adiabatic quasistatic processes, S being constant. S always increases in an adiabatic non-quasistatic process (Section 4.2). When an isolated system is allowed to change state, as in heat transfer between two bodies, the equilibrium state is associated with the state of maximum entropy (Section 4.2). The ideal gas Carnot cycle takes on a simple rectangular shape in (T, S) coordinates (Section 4.3).
Applications to Physical Systems
Authors: Brink D M , Satchler G R
Published: November 2023

The purpose of the present chapter is to apply the results of the previous two chapters to some physical systems of interest in atomic and nuclear physics, as examples of the usefulness of these techniques.
Meson Production
Authors: Boffi Sigfrido , Franco Davide Pacati Carlotta Giusti , Radici Marco
Published: November 2023

Meson production by real and virtual photons is a unique tool to investigate basic aspects of strong interactions. The excitation of a baryon resonance is followed by its decay through emission of one or more mesons. Looking at the different decay channels in an exclusive experiment provides detailed information on the structure and dynamics of baryons via the Q2 dependence of their photocouplings. We shall confine our discussion to photo- and electroproduction of the lightest (pseudoscalar) mesons belonging to the lowest meson octet, i.e. the pions, the kaons and the eta. We shall first discuss pion production on the nucleon (Fig. 9.1). This will enable us to understand the elementary process of meson production which will subsequently be embedded in the nuclear environment to study meson production on nuclei.
Neutron scattering formalism
Authors: Nield Victoria M , Keen David A
Published: November 2023

In this chapter we will develop the formalism used in neutron diffraction studies, assuming the minimum of prior knowledge. This formalism provides the framework for the analysis of neutron diffuse scattering in later chapters, and in particular is developed to be applicable in specific cases in Chapter 3.
Framework structures
Authors: Nield Victoria M , Keen David A
Published: November 2023

Framework structures constitute an important class of materials encompassing a wide range of materials including the relatively simple natural silica polymorphs, network glasses and complex and technologically important synthetic zeolites. They have been extensively investigated, principally because network aluminosilicates, a large subgroup within framework structures, form an important group of naturally occuring minerals with complex pressure-temperature phase diagrams. The structures found in this group of materials are all constructed in the same simple manner, as shown schematically in Fig. 11.1. Essentially rigid, regular small structural units are joined to other similar units in a manner which permits the formation of a continuous, fully-connected network structure. In the case of the framework aluminosilicates, SiO (or AlO) tetrahedra are joined via common oxygen atoms to form a continuous network of comer-sharing tetrahedra. This leads to a relatively open structure. The flexible nature of the intertetrahedral coupling, with a range of permitted Si-O-Si bond angles (often found to be between ≈135° and ≈150°) as well as a large variation in possible torsional angles, ø and ø, leads to a rich variety of possible structures. Two extreme examples of these structures are shown in Fig. 11.2 which compares HP tridymite (V = 183.2 Å3) with the zeolite NaY (V = 15242 Å3), which compared with other zeolites is a relatively small structure. Both are composed from the same structural motif, but HP-tridymite, which forms a hexagonal structure of alternating SiO tetrahedral sheets parallel to c and a simple connectivity, contrasts starkly with the complex structure of zeolite NaY which forms a series of large open channels within the tetrahedral framework.
Cognitive and behavioral therapies
Authors: Grant Paul , Young Paula R , DeRubeis Robert J
Published: November 2023

Cognitive-behavioral therapies represent a class of pragmatic approaches to understanding and treating psychiatric disorders and problems. Although there is much diversity among these treatments, interventions are characteristically problem focused, goal directed, future oriented, time limited, and empirically based.
Psychotherapy For the Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Authors: Millon Theodore , Grossman Seth D
Published: November 2023

What would it really take to save Narcissus, the legendary, dazzlingly beautiful, but misguided character of Greek mythology? As legend has it, the young Narcissus, scornful of all others but his own beautiful self, was the love object of the beautiful nymph, Echo.
Introduction
Authors: Maggiore Michele
Published: November 2023

Quantum field theory is a synthesis of quantum mechanics and special relativity, and it is one of the great achievements of modern physics. Quantum mechanics, as formulated by Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Pauli, Dirac, and many others, is an intrinsically non-relativistic theory. To make it consistent with special relativity, the real problem is not to find a relativistic generalization of the Schrodinger equation. Wave equations, relativistic or not, cannot account for processes in which the number and the type of particles changes, as in almost all reactions of nuclear and particle physics.
Cross-sections and decay rates
Authors: Maggiore Michele
Published: November 2023

In the previous chapter we have understood how to compute matrix elements between initial and final states and how to make them finite. We will see in this chapter how to use these matrix elements to compute scattering cross-sections and decay rates. It is useful first of all to clarify a difference between the relativistic and non-relativistic normalization of one-particle states. To make the argument cleaner, we first consider a system in a cubic box with spatial volume V = L3At the end of the computation V will be sent to infinity.
The low-energy limit of the electroweak theory
Authors: Maggiore Michele
Published: November 2023

In this section we begin our study of weak interactions. The electroweak theory is described by the Standard Model (SM). A systematic explanation of the SM is beyond the scope of this course, but in the next chapters we will introduce two of the most important theoretical tools for its construction, i.e. non abelian gauge fields and the Higgs mechanism.
Mechanisms of schedule entrainment
Authors: Reid Alliston K , On J E R St Add
Published: November 2023

If hungry rats are placed on a fixed-time (FT) schedule of food delivery in which food pellets are delivered every, say, 60 seconds independent of the rat’s behaviour, and if supporting apparatus such as a running wheel and a water dispenser are available, the sequence of the activities between food deliveries becomes strikingly stereotyped. Fig. 8.1 shows a second-by-second summary of an entire 45-min session for a rat on an FT 60-s schedule. Each row represents a single interfood interval, and each character or space represents one second of an activity. ‘F’ corresponds to ‘head-in-feeder’, ‘D’ to drinking, ‘R’ to wheel running, ‘C’ to chewing an oak block, blank spaces to unmeasured activities, and the lower case letters correspond to various inoperative levers in the apparatus. The ‘l’ in the first column is the number of food pellets beginning the interval, and the ‘60’ in the last column represents the duration of the interfood interval.When data are depicted in this format, the most striking aspect is the temporal entrainment of the various activities by food presentation. With few exceptions most interfood intervals contained a relatively stereotyped temporal pattern of activities: eating the food pellet, then drinking from the water spout, running in the wheel, and finally returning to the feeder area in anticipation of the next food delivery. But there is another striking aspect of these data.
A unification of inference from capture–recapture studies through martingale estimating functions
Authors: Lloyd Chris J , Yip Paul
Published: November 2023

This paper attempts to present a unified method of inference for the size of a closed population based on data from a capture-recapture study under varying assumptions about homogeneity across time and individuals. The unifying idea is that of a martingale estimating function. This should ultimately lead to a regression like approach to capture-recapture experiments, incorporating covariates, goodness-of-fit and diagnostic residuals. The main contention is that what martingale methods may lack in efficiency relative to likelihood methods they more than make up for in computational simplicity, conceptual simplicity and flexibility.
The computer synthesis of expressive faces
Authors: Waters Keith , Terzopoulos Demetri
Published: November 2023

This paper presents a methodology for the computer synthesis of realistic faces capable of expressive articulations. A sophisticated three-dimensional model of the human face is developed that incorporates a physical model of facial tissue with an anatomical model of facial muscles. The tissue and muscle models are generic, in that their structures are independent of specific facial geometries. To synthesize specific faces, these models are automatically mapped onto geometrically accurate polygonal facial representations constructed by photogrammetry of stereo facial images or by non-uniform meshing of detailed facial topographies acquired by using range sensors. The methodology offers superior realism by utilizing physical modelling to emulate complex tissue deformations in response to coordinated facial muscle activity. To provide realistic muscle actions to the face model, a performance driven animation technique is developed which estimates the dynamic contractions of a performer’s facial muscles from video imagery.
The development of face processing skills
Authors: Ellis Hadyn D
Published: November 2023

An early orientation to faces is followed by a gradual development of face processing skills. During the course of maturation, children acquire the ability to learn new faces and to deal with facial transformations. Some skills are achieved more quickly than others. Moreover, encoding ability in young children is somewhat different from that shown by older children. The younger groups fail to take advantage of increased inspection time and stimulus characteristics such as facial distinctiveness. They are also more likely to be confused by alterations in background context. Although with familiar faces they reveal very similar identity priming effects to older children and adults, younger children display a relative inefficiency in categorizing faces as being that of a target unless it is noticeably dissimilar. Young children are more likely than older people to prefer positive caricatures of certain faces, which is not consistent with the view that caricature effects are simple reflections of a general expertise with faces.
Parameterization Issues in Bayesian Inference
Authors: Hills Susan E , Smith Adrian F M
Published: November 2023

The adequacy and efficiency of numerical and analytic techniques for implementing parametric Bayesian methods can be highly dependent on the parameterization adopted in specifying the likelihood and prior forms. Issues relating to this problem will be reviewed and illustrated. Over the past decade, a great deal of effort has gone into developing accurate and efficient analytic and numerical procedures for implementing Bayesian methods. As is well known, such implementation presents difficulties because of the implicit need for (often high-dimensional) integrations, the latter being required for normalization, marginalization and interval or moment summaries. Implementation procedures are therefore typically, implicitly or explicitly, methods for approximating integrals.
Opinions in Dispute: the Sacco-Vanzetti Case
Authors: Kadane Joseph B , Schum David A
Published: November 2023

Bayesian methods are ideally suited for comparing the opinions of experts who disagree. In this paper we explore the historiography of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, a cause celebre in American history of the 1920’s. The evidence in this case, from the writings of prominent historians, is parsed using charting methods adapted from the work of Wigmore. Probability elicitation, using as experts two prominent historians of the case who disagree about the guilt of Sacco, is the next step to be undertaken to understand the nature and extent of their disagreement.
Bayes Factors for Linear Models and Improper Priors
Authors: Consonni Guido , Veronese Piero
Published: November 2023

A new method is suggested to evaluate the Bayes factor for choosing between two nested models using improper priors for the model parameters. Within the above framework it is shown that commonly used vague priors always lead to an infinite Bayes factor. For normal linear models we identify a class of improper priors consistent with a finite Bayes factor. Furthermore we single out a subclass of such priors under which the Bayes factor is a function of the standard F-statistic. A numerical illustration is provided in the one-way analysis of variance setup.
Derivative-free Adaptive Rejection Sampling for Gibbs Sampling
Authors: Gilks W R
Published: November 2023

We propose a method for adaptive rejection sampling from log-concave densities. The density need only be known modulo a normalising constant. The method does not involve locating the mode of the density, and unlike the tangent-based adaptive rejection method of Gilks and Wild (1991), does not involve the evaluation of first derivatives of the log density. ‘The method is well suited to sampling from complicated densities, such as those that arise in applications of Gibbs Sampling (Geman and Geman, 1984).
Bayesian Design for Random Walk Barriers
Authors: Parmigiani Giovanni , Polson Nicholas G
Published: November 2023

We study the optimal design of absorption barriers and sample size for a simple random walk. High barriers yield more informative experiments, but may be more costly. We obtain optimal designs that are balancing the relative advantages of choosing a high barrier with few replications versus a lower barrier with more replications. We address the problem from a Bayesian, decision theoretic, viewpoint, by using a utility function based on a limiting form of Shannon information. After discussing properties of the optimal designs, we apply the results to a model describing the growth of cancer cells, and we illustrate how the selection of the prior distribution influences the solution.
[B/D] Works
Authors: Wooff David
Published: November 2023

is a computer language developed at the University of Hull, and more recently at the University of Durham, which implements a subjectivist statistical methodology based upon the analysis and revision of genuine beliefs about observables, using expectation rather than probability as a primitive. Within a traditional Bayesian framework, our environment assists in the analysis of partial belief specifications. The role of this paper is to survey very briefly our approach and the tool that we employ to solve problems within our approach, namely [BID].
Physiological Adaptation
Authors: Harrison G Ainsworth
Published: November 2023

This contribution is concerned with the changes which occur in the individual human organism when it experiences new environments. Many of these changes, though by no means all, facilitate living in the new environment and are recognized as components of’individual adaptability’. Much of the ecological success of the human species is attributed to this adaptability, which is exceptional among animals and has played a major role in allowing our species to occupy every kind of environment on Earth. The unique features of human adaptability lie in behaviour, which of course is also at the root of technology. But it also appears that human beings are outstandingly adaptable in other physiological systems, and it is these to which attention will be given here. Although ‘individual adaptability’ is a species characteristic, i.e. all individuals possess the capacity, the degree and effectiveness of that capacity may vary from person to person. Some of this variation is probably genetically determined—indeed it needs to have been in the past to have evolved, by natural selection, as a species characteristic—but it is usually taken that when two individuals differ in the state of a physiological system affecting adaptability it is because they are in, or have in the past experienced, different environments.
Statistics of offences
Authors: Walker Monica
Published: November 2023

There are two main sources of data on offences committed in England and Wales. The most detailed are those recorded by the police and published regularly by the Home Office: half-yearly in Statistical Bulletins (HOSB), annually in Criminal Statistics and in the Digest of Information on the Criminal Justice System (e.g. Barclay 1993). These give the numbers of what are called ‘notifiable offences’ of about 70 types, summarized in eight offence groups.
Regression analysis
Authors: Payne R W , Lane P W , Digby P G N , Harding S A , Leech P K , Morgan G W , Todd AD , Thompson R , Wilson G Tunnicliffe , Welham S J , White R P
Published: November 2023

The simplest meaning of the word regression is the technique for fitting a straight line that relates one quantitative variable to another. The response variable is supposed to be dependent on the explanatory variable. We describe how to do this simple linear regression with Genstat in 8.1.

In later sections we use the word regression to cover a much wider class of relationships. We look at more than two variables, at qualitative variables, and at nonparametric and nonlinear relationships. But the common feature is that we shall always be modelling the dependence of one variable on others.
Dispersal of the ALDH2 mutant Mongoloid populations
Authors: Harada Shoji
Published: November 2023

A number of recent studies have indicated that individual and ethnic differences are seen in the manifestation of acute symptoms after alcohol intake (Ewing et al. 1974; Goedde and Agarwal 1986; Reed et al. 1976; Mizoi et al. 1979; Zeiner et al. 1979). Individual and ethnic differences are also associated with multiple forms of alcohol metabolizing enzymes (Von Wartburg eta/. 1965, Smith eta/. 1971, Harada eta/. 1980a,b, 1981; Goedde eta/. 1983). The first metabolite of ethanol by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) is acetaldehyde, which is oxidized by aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) into acetic acid. Among human ALDH isozymes, which consist of at least four different components, mitochondrial enzyme (ALDH2) contributes most to the oxidation of acetaldehyde because it has higher affinity to the substrate than the other isozymes. Our previous studies revealed that the catalytic deficiency of ALDH2 isozyme is responsible for facial flushing and other symptoms, such as tachycardia and headache. The enzyme deficiency per mits accumulation of a higher acetaldehyde level after alcohol intake and it is these high levels of acetaldehyde that are responsible for the unpleasant symp toms following alcohol ingestion (Harada et al. 1982). The deficiency of ALDH2 occurs primarily among peoples of Mongoloid origin (Harada eta/. 1980a, 1981; Goedde eta/. 1986, 1990; Harada 1989). Individuals deficient in ALDH2 refrain from excessive drinking of alcohol due to their averse reaction, thus ALDH2 defi ciency affords protection against alcoholism (Harada eta/. 1981). The latter may explain why alcoholism in Japanese and many other Mongoloid population is less common than among Caucasians.
The Mammoth Steppe and the origin of Mongoloids and their dispersal
Authors: Guthrie R Dale
Published: November 2023

I would like to proffer a new theory: that the complex of characters which we identify with Mongoloid peoples are the product of a special Holarctic biome, the Mammoth Steppe. And further, that this Mammoth Steppe environment is the key to understanding both the adaptive features of Mongoloids and much of their dispersal history. The roots go deep. The collision of the Indian Plate with the Asian Plate starting 40 million years ago created the Himalayas, building mountains higher than any the earth had known. This series of massive upward thrusts affected atmospheric circulation by blocking southern monsoonal air flow which normally moves northwestward from the Pacific.

This mountain building reached a crescendo in Pleistocene times (Molnar 1989). An almost permanent high pressure cell developed behind the Himalayas, resulting in a cold and arid climate. The flora and fauna which persisted in these conditions had some unusual aspects due to the combination of low latitude (30° to 45° North) but moderately high altitude (2000 to 5000 meters). The cold, dry grassland which developed behind the south face of the Himalayas (the Tibetan Plateau on the north to Mongolia) became the heartland of the Mammoth Steppe (Fig. 11.1), and, I propose, was also the evolutionary homeland of the Mongoloid peoples. During Pleistocene cycles of low solar input this grassy biome spread eastward across Europe to the Atlantic, northward to the Arctic Ocean onto the huge exposed continental shelf north of Asia, and eastward to North America via the exposed Bering land bridge.
Ethnographic analogy and migration to the western hemisphere
Authors: Kelly Robert L
Published: November 2023

The western hemisphere was first occupied by Asians who crossed Beringia into Alaska. Linguistic, dental, and genetic data suggest three to four migrations (Turner 1992), possibly more. People were in North America by at least 11 500 years ago (Goebel eta/. 1991); perhaps earlier if dates from Bluefish Cave, Meadowcroft, Monte Verde, and other South American sites prove accurate. The lives of these first inhabitants have been reconstructed with a heavy reliance on ethnographic analogies to Arctic or Subarctic large game hunting cultures. Given the bias towards hunting in these models, a ‘generalized foraging model’, based largely on South African foragers, and which emphasizes small game and plant utilization, has been used more recently. Let me say immediately that ethnographic analogies are useful, and Paleoindians were undoubtedly similar to ethnographically known foragers in some ways. But models of past lifeways are linked to explanations of that past. A model of Paleoindian society must account not only for similarities between Paleoindians and modern foragers, but also for differences. Archaeological data suggest that the early occupants of the western hemisphere differed from modern foragers in ways that limit the usefulness of the broad brush of ethnographic analogy. Reconstructions of the Paleoindian lifeway must proceed hand-in-hand with a theoretical framework focusing on how unpopulated continents would be occupied by Homo sapiens sapiens.
A literature review of statistical methods for the analysis of general toxicology data
Authors: Shirley Eryl
Published: November 2023

This review covers the analysis of standard general toxicology studies. The purpose of these studies is to test for possible toxic effects of drugs or other substances, such as agrochemicals. The studies are usually carried out on at least one rodent species and on either beagle dogs or monkeys. The decision as to whether to test a drug on humans or to introduce a substance into the environment will depend on the results of these studies. Previous acute toxicity studies on the same species will have been carried out in order to find non-lethal doses. In each study there are a control group of animals, receiving a zero dose of the compound under test, sometimes a second control group which does not receive either the compound or the vehicle used for dosing the animals, and a number of groups dosed at increasing levels of the test compound. Most commonly there are three such groups, whose dose levels are on an approximate logarithmic scale. Occasionally, there is also a positive control group dosed with a standard compound already in use and thought to be similar in effect to the test compound. This group is dosed at a level which is considered to be equivalent to one of the doses of the test compound. Often, the low-dose equivalent is chosen. It is expected that the highest-dose group of the test compound will demonstrate some signs of toxicity, but it is hoped that none of the other groups will. The lowest dose level is chosen to be relatively close to the expected human dose level, but with a safety margin. In dog and monkey studies the group sizes are small-often only three or four of each sex. Group sizes in rodent studies are much larger-at least ten of each sex-often with increased replication in the zero-dose control group.
On likelihood and Bayesian methods for interval estimation of the LD
Authors: Grieve Andrew P
Published: November 2023

The controversy surrounding the validity, and usefulness, of acute toxicity experiments in which interest centres on determining an estimate of the median lethal dose (LD50) reached a climax in the 1980s. On the one hand, animal rights groups questioned the biological relevance of such tests, quoting examples in which only insignificant information was able to be extracted. The scientific objections were generally supported by toxicologists (e.g. Zbinden and FluriRoversi 1981), while at the same time they emphasized the need to quantify the toxic potential of a chemical and simultaneously encouraged the development of procedures designed to limit the number of animals required to give an assessment of lethality.
Bayes Linear Strategies for Matching Hydrocarbon Reservoir History
Authors: Craig P S , Goldstein M , Seheult A H , Smith J A
Published: November 2023

In the oil industry, efficient management and prediction of hydrocarbon production depends crucially on having a good model of the reservoir. Approximate numerical solutions to the model are obtained using a “reservoir simulator”, which takes as input physical descriptions of the reservoir. It is important, therefore, to find settings of the input geology which result in a simulator run with outputs which match as closely as possible to the corresponding reservoir history. This process is termed history matching. Running the simulator with a given input geology may be very time-consuming. A large number of runs is therefore impractical. The natural way to approach the problem is to use the detailed prior knowledge of geologists and reservoir engineers to direct our search. This suggests some kind of Bayesian analysis. A full Bayesian approach is extremely difficult, due to the high dimensionality of the problem. Therefore, we discuss a Bayes linear approach for history matching, which formally incorporates the beliefs of the reservoir engineer, but which only requires a limited specification of aspects of second order beliefs. While we focus on history matching, the methodology that we describe is appropriate in general applications involving sequential design of computer experiments to solve high dimensional inverse problems.
Some New Tools for Dirichlet Priors
Authors: Diaconis P , Kemperman J
Published: November 2023

Let a be a finite measure on the line. Let F be chosen from the Dirichlet prior D( a). Consider the random variable X = ∫ xF( dx). We show this has a density and give a formula for this in terms of a. This provides numerous examples for a theory of Cifarelli and Regazzini. We also give connections between this work, the Markov moment problem, and recent work of Kerov which gives an elegant way of choosing X given a. This paper gives examples and pointers to the literature.
Predictive Cross-Validation of Bayesian Meta-Analyses
Authors: Dumouchel W
Published: November 2023

The hierarchical Bayesian approach to meta-analysis considers three sources of variation among the outcomes of studies: readily observable differences in study designs or populations, unexplainable study-to-study variation, and sampling error within each study. The statistical model for the outcomes is a mixed model with two error terms. A fully Bayesian approach requires prior distributions for the coefficients and the two error variances; in the case of the between study variance, the usual nonintegrable reference priors do not work well and are not recommended. A general schema for applying the model to data and presenting the results is described. The particular focus of this article is the use of cross-validation to evaluate the fit of the Bayesian model to the data. Deleted residuals are defined by leaving each study out in turn and transforming its predictive distribution to normality. Plots of these residuals allow assessment of the model. In addition, leverage plots are defined that allow regression diagnostics for hierarchical meta-analysis.
Convergence of Markov Chain Monte Carlo Algorithms¹
Authors: Polson Nicholas G
Published: November 2023

This paper explores convergence properties of Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms. These algorithms provide a simulation based strategy for sampling from high dimensional probability distributions. We describe techniques for analysing the convergence rate of the chain and show how this determines the running time of an algorithm. For log-concave distributions, a polynomial time running time bound of Frieze, Kannan and Polson (1993) for a local Metropolis algorithm is discussed. The running time depends on dimension, local curvature, sampling accuracy and starting distribution. For several examples, we illustrate how dimension and correlation structure affect the running time. For non-log-concave distributions, we propose the use of latent variables to speed up convergence. Implementation issues are described and limitations of relying on limit theorems to assess convergence are discussed. An analysis of the mean squared error of a delayed average estimator is given.
Accounting for Model Uncertainty in Survival Analysis Improves Predictive Performance¹
Authors: Rafi’Ery A E , Madigan D , Volinsky C T
Published: November 2023

Survival analysis is concerned with finding models to predict the survival of patients or to assess the efficacy of a clinical treatment. A key part of the model-building process is the selection of the predictor variables. It is standard to use a stepwise procedure guided by a series of significance tests to select a single model, and then to make inference conditionally on the selected model. However, this ignores model uncertainty, which can be substantial.
The Bigstep approach to flow management in stochastic processing networks
Authors: Harrison J Michael
Published: November 2023

Flow management in stochastic networks may involve dynamic routing, dynamic input control, dynamic resource allocation, or combinations thereof. This paper describes a new and very general approach to flow management in which system status is reviewed at discrete points in time, a linear programming problem is solved at each such point, and the processing plan obtained from that linear program is implemented in open-loop fashion over the ensuing period. Discrete-review policies of the proposed type are motivated by heavy traffic theory for network control problems, in which the loads imposed on at least some processing resources are assumed to approach the capacities of those resources. Striving to construct a discrete-review policy that is asymptotically optimal in the heavy traffic limit, one must first formulate and analyze an approximating Brownian control problem, which typically is much simpler than the original processing network.
Limit theorems for workload input models
Authors: Kurtz Thomas G
Published: November 2023

General models for workload input into service systems are considered. Scaling limit theorems appropriate for the formulation of fluid and heavy traffic approximations for systems driven by these inputs are given. Under appropriate assumptions, it is shown that fractional Brownian motion can be obtained as the limiting workload input process. Motivation for these results comes from data on communication network traffic exhibiting scaling properties similar to those for fractional Brownian motion.
Analysing system behaviour on different time scales
Authors: Evans Suzanne P
Published: November 2023

Events in an integrated services telecommunications network occur on multiple time scales and careful analysis of time dependent behaviour is important to derive appropriate system descriptions at different levels. This paper analyses time dependent behaviour expressed in terms of the eigenstructure of a Markov generator. Identifying terms that are dominant on different time scales is not always straightforward and we discuss a number of technical conditions required to guarantee a separation of time scales. These conditions are shown to have implications for the appropriate representation of fast and slow time scale dynamics and for the sensitivity of these representations to errors in the model parameters.
Determinants of age-related memory loss
Authors: Parkin Alan J , Java Rosalind I
Published: November 2023

The cognitive basis of age-related memory loss has become of increasing interest over the last ten years – not in the least, perhaps, because cognitive psychologists are themselves getting older and gaining first hand experience of the problem. The study of age-related memory loss can be characterized as one in which ‘generalist’ explanations have been sought. A generalist explanation, in this context, is one in which a specific deficit is explained as one consequence of a more general problem brought on by advancing years. Within the sphere of age-related memory loss there have been a number of generalist accounts (e.g. Hasher and Zacks 1988; Light 1991) and, in this chapter, we will focus on three: frontal lobe dysfunction, speed of processing, and fluid intelligence.
Feature binding, attention an object perception
Authors: Treisman Anne
Published: November 2023

The seemingly effortless ability to perceive meaningful objects in an integrated scene actually depends on complex visual processes. The ‘binding problem’ concerns the way in which we select and integrate the separate features of objects in the correct combinations. Experiments suggest that attention plays a central role in solving this problem. Some neurological patients show a dramatic breakdown in the ability to see several objects; their deficits suggest a role for the parietal cortex in the binding process. However, indirect measures of priming and interference suggest that more information may be implicitly available than we can consciously access.
Cross-modal links in spatial attention
Authors: Driver Jon , Spence Charles
Published: November 2023

A great deal is now known about the effects of spatial attention within individual sensory modalities, especially for vision and audition. However, there has been little previous study of possible crossmodal links in attention. Here we review recent findings from our own experiments on this topic, which reveal extensive spatial links between the modalities. An irrelevant but salient event presented within touch, audition, or vision, can attract covert spatial attention in the other modalities (with the one exception that visual events do not attract auditory attention when saccades are prevented). By shifting receptors in one modality relative to another, the spatial coordinates of these crossmodal interactions can be examined. For instance, when a hand is placed in a new position, stimulation of it now draws visual attention to a correspondingly different location, although some aspects of attention do not spatially remap in this way. Crossmodal links are also evident in voluntary shifts of attention. When a person strongly expects a target in one modality (e.g. audition) to appear in a particular location, their judgements improve at that location not only for the expected modality but also for other modalities (e.g. vision), even if events in the latter modality are somewhat more likely elsewhere. Finally, some of our experiments suggest that information from different sensory modalities may be integrated preattentively, to produce the multimodal internal spatial representations in which attention can be directed. Such preattentive crossmodal integration can, in some cases, produce helpful illusions that increase the efficiency of selective attention in complex scenes.