bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An efficient extension of N-mixture models for multi-species abundance estimation
Authors: Gomez Juan Pablo , Robinson Scott K. , Blackburn Jason K. , Ponciano José Miguel 
Published: September 2016

Abstract1. In this study we propose an extension of the N-mixture family of models that targets an improvement of the statistical properties of rare species abundance estimators when sample sizes are low, yet typical size for tropical studies. The proposed method harnesses information from other species in an ecological community to correct each species’ estimator. We provide guidance to determine the sample size required to estimate accurately the abundance of rare tropical species when attempting to estimate the abundance of single species.2. We evaluate the proposed methods using an assumption of 50-m radius plots and perform simulations comprising a broad range of sample sizes, true abundances and detectability values and a complex data generating process. The extension of the N-mixture model is achieved by assuming that the detection probabilities of a set of species are all drawn at random from a beta distribution in a multi-species fashion. This hierarchical model avoids having to specify a single detection probability parameter per species in the targeted community. Parameter estimation is done via Maximum Likelihood.3. We compared our multi-species approach with previously proposed multi-species N-mixture models, which we show are biased when the true densities of species in the community are less than seven individuals per 100-ha. The beta N-mixture model proposed here outperforms the traditional Multi-species N-mixture model by allowing the estimation of organisms at lower densities and controlling the bias in the estimation.4. We illustrate how our methodology can be used to suggest sample sizes required to estimate the abundance of organisms, when these are either rare, common or abundant. When the interest is full communities, we show how the multi-species approaches, and in particular our beta model and estimation methodology, can be used as a practical solution to estimate organism densities from rapid inventory datasets. The statistical inferences done with our model via Maximum Likelihood can also be used to group species in a community according to their detectabilities.
The effect of quality determinants on house prices of eight capital cities in Australia
Authors: Peng Ti-Ching , Chen Chien-Fu 
Published: September 2016

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the effects of “quality” as well as fundamentals on house prices in eight capital cities in Australia from 1985-2011. Two types of quality are considered: housing quality, proxied by “value of alterations and additions”, “value of new residential buildings”, “floor area” and “site area”; and living environment quality, proxied by “overall crime rate”.Design/methodology/approachThe application of dynamic panel model, in which the lagged values of house prices are considered, is to reveal the dynamic persistence of house prices over time and to investigate the heterogeneity of house prices across cities in Australia.FindingsFundamental variables including “unemployment rate”, introduction of “GST” (Goods and Service Tax), “real mortgage rate” and “price-to-rent ratio” demonstrated their consistent and expected effects on property prices in Australia. More importantly, “value of new residential buildings” – indicating housing quality – and “overall crime rate” – representing environmental living quality – also demonstrated statistically significant effects on house prices.Originality/valueAs one of the few studies that attempt to take housing/living-environment quality into account in analysing house prices, it gives households, researchers and policy-makers a better understanding of the role of “quality” in the variation of house prices.
The Canonical Robot Command Language (CRCL)
Authors: Proctor Frederick , Balakirsky Stephen , Kootbally Zeid , Kramer Thomas , Schlenoff Craig , Shackleford William 
Published: September 2016

Purpose
This paper aims to describe an information model, the Canonical Robot Command Language (CRCL), which provides a high-level description of robot tasks and associated control and status information.

Design/methodology/approach
A common representation of tasks was used that is understood by all of the resources required for the job: robots, tooling, sensors and people.

Findings
Using CRCL, a manufacturer can quickly develop robotic applications that meet customer demands for short turnaround, enable portability across a range of vendor equipment and maintain investments in application development through reuse.

Originality/value
Industrial robots can perform motion with sub-millimeter repeatability when programmed using the teach-and-playback method. While effective, this method requires significant up-front time, tying up the robot and a person during the teaching phase.
Academics’ e-learning adoption in higher education institutions: a matter of trust
Authors: Martins Jorge Tiago , Baptista Nunes Miguel 
Published: September 2016

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how academics enact trust in e-learning through an inductive identification of perceived risks and enablers involved in e-learning adoption, in the context of higher education institutions (HEIs).Design/methodology/approachGrounded Theory was the methodology used to systematically analyse data collected in semi-structured interviews with 62 academics. Data analysis followed the constant comparative method and its three-staged coding approach: open, axial and selective coding.FindingsThe resulting trajectory of trust factors is presented in a Grounded Theory narrative where individual change and integration through shared collective understanding and institutionalisation are discussed as stages leading to the overcoming of e-learning adoption barriers.Originality/valueThe paper proposes that the interplay between institutionalism and individualism has implications in the success or failure of strategies for the adoption of e-learning in HEIs, as perceived by academics. In practical terms, this points to the need for close attention to contextually sensitive trust-building mechanisms that promote the balance between academics’ commitments, values and sense of self-worth and centrally planned policy, rules, resources and exhortations that enable action.
Spatial scale and intraspecific trait variability mediate assembly rules in alpine grasslands
Authors: Chalmandrier Loïc , Münkemüller Tamara , Colace Marie‐Pascale , Renaud Julien , Aubert Serge , Carlson Bradley Z. , Clément Jean‐Christophe , Legay Nicolas , Pellet Gilles , Saillard Amélie , Lavergne Sébastien , Thuiller Wilfried 
Published: September 2016

Summary

Assembly of grassland communities has long been scrutinized through the lens of functional diversity. Studies generally point to an overwhelming influence of climate on observed patterns of functional diversity, despite experimental evidence demonstrating the importance of biotic interactions. We postulate that this is because most observational studies neglect both scale dependencies of assembly processes and phenotypic variation between individuals. Here, we test for changes in the importance of abiotic filtering and biotic interactions along a stress gradient by explicitly accounting for different scales. In addition to quantifying intraspecific trait variability (ITV), we also vary the two components of spatial scale, including grain (i.e. community size) and extent (i.e. the geographical area that defines the species pool).

We sampled 20 grassland communities in ten sites distributed along a 975‐m elevation gradient. At each site, we measured seven functional traits for a total of 2020 individuals at different spatial grains. We related community functional diversity metrics to the main environmental gradient of our study area, growing season length (GSL), and assessed the dependence of these relationships on spatial grain, spatial extent and ITV.

At large spatial grain and extent, the imprint of environmental filtering on functional diversity became more important with increasing stress (i.e. functional diversity decreased with shorter GSL). At small spatial grain and extent, we found a convex relationship between functional diversity and GSL congruent with the hypothesis that competition is dominant at low‐stress levels while facilitative interactions are dominant at high‐stress levels (i.e. high functional diversity at both extremes of the stress gradient). Importantly, the effect of intraspecific variability on assembly rules was noticeable only at small spatial grain and extent.

Synthesis. Our study reveals how the combination of abiotic stress and biotic interactions shapes the functional diversity of alpine grasslands at different spatial scales, and highlights the importance of phenotype variation between individuals for community assembly processes at fine spatial scale. Our results suggest that studies analysing trait‐based assembly rules but ignoring ITV and focusing on a single spatial scale are likely to miss essential features of community diversity patterns.
Constraining or Enabling Green Capability Development? How Policy Uncertainty Affects Organizational Responses to Flexible Environmental Regulations
Authors: Teeter Preston , Sandberg Jörgen 
Published: September 2016

AbstractDespite their growing popularity, flexible environmental regulations are increasingly characterized by high levels of policy uncertainty. This uncertainty poses numerous challenges for managers, policymakers and researchers, for we still have a poor understanding of how such uncertainty affects organizational responses and the ability of organizations to generate unique capabilities. This paper presents findings of a qualitative study of how organizations respond to the introduction of flexible environmental regulations amidst extremely high levels of policy uncertainty. Through an investigation of Australia's complex, and ultimately brief, carbon pricing scheme, we find that policy uncertainty forces organizations to focus their responses on short‐term investments and dealing with that very uncertainty, thereby precluding the development of green capabilities and preventing flexible regulations from achieving their intended policy results. However, we also find that organizations are able to develop innovative regulatory coping capabilities and that variation in regulatory response results in a variation in these capabilities.
Hypotheses and trends on how body size affects trophic interactions in a guild of South American killifishes
Authors: Ortiz Esteban , Arim Matías 
Published: September 2016

AbstractA chief structuring force in food webs is the hierarchy of trophic interactions, where bigger animals feed on smaller ones. The anatomic and physiological explanations of why body size determines this hierarchy are embodied within the concept of gape limitation. The relaxation of gape limitation and an increase in energetic demands due to predators' larger body size determine the size and diversity of prey species. However, these patterns may be related to further trends in trophic interactions with body size, which have been less considered. Specifically, the passive incorporation of prey should involve a nested distribution of prey among predator size classes. However, predators avoid smaller resources because of their low energy return, with a clumped distribution of prey potentially generating modular organization with qualitative changes in prey identity (e.g. zooplankton, macroinvertebrates and fishes). Finally, size‐mediated interactions (such as direct and indirect competition) may cause predators of similar body size to differentiate among prey organisms, resulting in a checkerboard distribution of prey identity. Consequently, nestedness, modularity and checkerboard distributions of prey among predators of different size classes should form emergent network structures that are directly related to clear ecological mechanisms. We analyse these predictions in a killifish guild, where trends in trophic positions, prey richness, evenness and the number of energy sources systematically scale with body size. We found significant nestedness and segregation in diet among different size classes, supporting the progressive incorporation of prey items coupled with prey differentiation among similar classes. However, we also detected an ‘anti‐modular’ trend, which contradicts theoretical expectations and previous results. We hypothesize that this anti‐modularity is determined by the high biodiversity of the system and the continuous representation of prey size classes. These results reinforce the concept of size‐mediated interactions and its connection with community biodiversity as a main structuring force of food webs.
Review: Genetic and environmental risk factors for alcohol use disorders in American Indians and Alaskan Natives
Authors: Enoch Mary‐Anne , Albaugh Bernard J. 
Published: September 2016

Background and ObjectivesGenetic and environmental predictors for alcohol use disorder (AUD) are both important in the general population. As a group, American Indian and Alaskan Native individuals (AI/AN) are at increased risk for alcohol‐related morbidity /mortality, early onset problem drinking and AUD.MethodsAlcohol consumption behaviors amongst AI/AN tribes, environmental stressors and genetic studies in AI/AN and European‐ancestry individuals are reviewed followed by an analysis of unique difficulties for undertaking research with AI/AN.ResultsSome AI/AN tribes have high rates of childhood trauma that predict psychopathology including AUD. The deleterious effects of historical trauma and forced placement in boarding schools cross generations to the present day. There are scanty numbers of genetic studies of AUD in AI/AN and these derive from only a few tribes. However, it is important to note that the results are largely similar to findings in European‐ancestry individuals indicating that AI/AN do not have increased genetic risk for AUD. Conducting AI/AN genetic studies has been challenging, in part because of tribe disillusionment and mistrust over past experiences and unique hurdles in getting consent from tribes, each a sovereign nation. However, it is encouraging that a new way forward has been established—community‐based participatory research with tangible health benefits and a focus on strength‐based approaches.Conclusions and Scientific SignificanceGiven the high prevalence of AUD in many AI/AN tribes and limited knowledge about genetic risk‐resilience factors, it is important for our understanding of prevention and treatment that AI/AN research progresses and that more tribes are represented. (Am J Addict 2017;26:461–468)
When chronic conditions become emergencies – a report from regional Queensland
Authors: Harriss Linton R. , Thompson Fintan , Dey Arindam , Mills Jane , Watt Kerrianne , McDermott Robyn 
Published: September 2016

AbstractObjectiveTo describe chronic conditions and injuries as a proportion of total emergency presentations to a large public hospital in regional Queensland, and to investigate differences in presentation rates associated with Indigenous status.DesignCross‐sectional analysis using Emergency Department Information System data between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2014.SettingRegional Queensland, Australia.ParticipantsA total of 95 238 emergency presentations were generated by 50 083 local residents living in the 10 statistical local areas (SLAs) immediately around the hospital.Main outcome measuresEmergency presentations for chronic conditions and injuries identified from discharge ICD‐10‐AM principal diagnosis. Age‐standardised presentation rates were calculated using the Australian 2001 reference population.ResultsApproximately half of all presentations were for chronic conditions (20.2%) and injuries (28.8%). Two‐thirds of all chronic condition presentations were for mental and behavioural disorders (34.6%) and circulatory diseases (33.2%). Head injuries accounted for the highest proportion of injuries (18.9%). Age‐standardised rates for major diagnostic groups were consistently higher for Indigenous residents, whose presentations were lower in mean age (95% CI) by 7.7 (7.3–8.1) years, 23% less likely to be potentially avoidable GP‐type presentations [RR (95% CI) = 0.77 (0.75–0.80)], 30% more likely to arrive by ambulance [1.31 (1.28–1.33)] and 11% more likely to require hospital admission [1.11 (1.08–1.13)].ConclusionsOpportunities exist to enhance current coordinated hospital avoidance and primary health services in regional Queensland targeting common mental and circulatory disorders, especially for Indigenous Australians.
Pachychoroid neovasculopathy: aspect on optical coherence tomography angiography
Authors: Azar Georges , Wolff Benjamin , Mauget‐Faÿsse Martine , Rispoli Marco , Savastano Maria‐Cristina , Lumbroso Bruno 
Published: September 2016

AbstractPurposeTo describe and interpret the features of pachychoroid neovasculopathy (PNV) using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) technique.MethodsThis is an observational case series of patients who presented with PNV. Best‐corrected visual acuity (BCVA), anterior segment examination, dilated funduscopic examination, infrared and autofluorescence fundus images and spectral‐domain optical coherence tomography (SD‐OCT; B‐scan, ‘en‐face’ and OCTA) were carried out for all patients. Choroid thickness was measured using enhanced depth imaging (EDI) mode. Colour fundus photographs, fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) were not performed systematically. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) features of PNV are described and interpreted.ResultsFive eyes of five patients with a mean age of 62.2 years (range, 53–73 years) presenting with PNV were analysed. They all presented pachychoroid pigment epitheliopathy (PPE) with choroidal thickening and dilated choroidal vessels as seen with EDI‐OCT. Fluorescein angiography (FFA) was performed in three patients showing multiple areas of retinal pigment epithelium atrophy and fundus lesions suggestive of chronic central serous chorioretinopathy. Indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) in one patient confirmed the presence of large choroidal veins and choroidal hyperpermeability seen beneath the area of the neovascular tissue. Two eyes had the appearance of polypoidal structures within the neovascular tissue, with the characteristic aspect of the polypoidal lesions on B‐scan and ‘en‐face’. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) showed the appearance of tangled filamentous vascular network in all eyes.ConclusionOptical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a safe, highly sensitive and specific examination for the detection of type 1 neovascularization associated with PPE. Features are characteristic of tangled filamentous vessels overlying a focal area of thickened choroid.
The effect of air, SF6 and C3F8 on immortalized human corneal endothelial cells
Authors: Hesse Marina , Kuerten David , Walter Peter , Plange Niklas , Johnen Sandra , Fuest Matthias 
Published: September 2016

AbstractPurposeWhile anterior chamber air bubbles aid attachment during posterior lamellar surgery only for few days, these periods can be prolonged with gases in non‐expanding concentrations. To test the effects of different gas compositions on immortalized human corneal endothelial cells (HCEC‐12), we utilized Transwell inserts with semipermeable membranes as an artificial anterior chamber model.MethodsHuman corneal endothelial cells (HCEC‐12) were cultured on Transwell inserts for 24 hr, then flipped, burdened and sunk with titanium rings in medium (M1), as well as filled with 2 ml of air (A), 20% sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) (S), or 12% C3F8 (C). After gas exposition for 24, 48 and 120 hr, cells were evaluated by live/dead staining, cell viability assay and Ki67 immunohistochemistry.ResultsProliferation was significantly reduced (Ki67‐positive fraction; M1, 14.8 ± 2.0%; A, 7.9 ± 1.4%; S, 8.1 ± 1.3%; C, 9.9 ± 2.3%; p‐values; A, S, C versus M1 < 0.01), the total cell number decreased and the percentage of dead cells increased under gas exposition, independently of the type of gas (120 hr cell count/2.25 cm2: M1 = 660.8 ± 57.0 cells; A = 125.5 ± 17.4 cells, S = 123.5 ± 17.0 cells, C = 118.8 ± 16.6 cells; p‐value: M versus A/S/C < 0.001; 120 hr dead cells: M = 2.6 ± 1.0%, A = 8.4 ± 2.7%, S = 9.5 ± 3.2%, C = 11.3 ± 3.1%; p‐value: M1 versus A/S/C < 0.01). Medium (M1)‐control also proved significantly higher cell viability values in comparison with the gases, which did not differ significantly among them (120 hr luminescence: M1 = 1752.2 ± 91.4, A = 433.0 ± 30.3, S = 507.8 ± 23.3, C = 523.8 ± 20.3; p‐value: M1 versus A/S/C < 0.01).ConclusionsGas exposition led to a reduction in proliferation and an increase in cell death in HCEC‐12, independently of the gas composition.
Habitat specificity analyses reveal the importance of grazing refugia for plant diversity conservation in a warm‐temperate grassy ecosystem
Authors: Schultz Nick L. , Reid Nick , Lodge Greg , Hunter John T. 
Published: September 2016

AbstractAimsThe effects of pastoralism on grassy vegetation are predicted to vary across spatial scales. However, local‐scale effects have generally been better considered than large‐scale effects that may be pertinent for plant diversity conservation. We examined variation in plant diversity in an agricultural region by comparing patterns observed at large and local scales for different land uses. We tested whether habitat specificity (which relates to how specific different species are to particular land uses) can indicate the importance of land uses to plant diversity conservation.LocationNorthwest Slopes of New South Wales, Australia.MethodsWe surveyed 127 quadrats of grassy vegetation across four land uses: previously cultivated and never‐cultivated native pastures, grazed woodland and ungrazed woodlands (grazing refugia). We assessed (1) species density at the quadrat scale, (2) correlations among explanatory variables and species composition using ordination techniques, and (3) habitat specificity at the regional scale using the γ‐diversity contribution index.ResultsAt the quadrat scale, differences in species density among land uses were not pronounced. In contrast, habitat specificity was highest in ungrazed, unfertilized woodlands. Land uses that were grazed, cleared of trees and fertilized were generally species dense at the quadrat scale (>40 species 400 m−2), but were comprised of a limited suite of native and exotic grasses and forbs, with relatively homogeneous composition across the region.ConclusionsIn the region studied, grazing refugia with no tree clearing or history of fertilizer application were valuable for conserving a large number of native species, and so should be protected. Such land uses are currently rare in the region. Simple measures of native or total species density were insufficient for evaluating conservation value, as they did not distinguish habitats with large numbers of common, generalist native species from those with species that were rare or restricted in the region. Analyses of habitat specificity may potentially overcome the pitfalls of basing conservation management decisions on local‐scale measures. Our results also highlighted a need to understand the processes associated with management practices that serve to reduce species diversity at landscape and regional scales.