When ovipositing, prey organisms avoid habitat patches containing predator cues because predators consume, and negatively affect the fitness of their prey. Richness of predator species often enhances the strength of consumptive predator effects, but little is known about how multiple predators combined affect prey non-consumptively. We quantified dipteran colonization in aquatic mesocosms in response to varied predator richness. Multiple predator species combined reduced oviposition by Culex mosquitoes, chironomid midges, and the general colonizing dipteran community more than predicted by the effects of the independent predator species. Previous research which quantifies effects of multiple predators on prey as prey abundance, but does not measure consumption by predators, may be underestimating or overestimating the strength of effect by assuming equal colonization. Our findings enhance understanding of the ways predators influence abundances and distributions of their prey, and yields insight into the ways predators may non-consumptively affect prey by changing prey behavior.

Electronic cigarettes (ECIGs) operate by heating a nicotine-containing solution resulting in an inhalable aerosol. Nicotine delivery may be affected by users’ puffing behavior (puff topography), and little is known about the puff topography of ECIG users. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which a mouthpiece-based topography measurement device influences the acute effects associated with ECIG use. Twenty-nine experienced ECIG users completed two sessions differing only by the presence of a mouthpiece-based topography recording device. In both sessions, participants completed one 10 puff, 30 sec inter-puff interval (IPI) ECIG-use bout and another 90 minute ad libitum bout. Acute ECIG effects (plasma nicotine concentration, heart rate [HR], and subjective effects) were largely unaffected by the presence of the topography recording device. Evaluating ECIG puff topography through clinical laboratory methodology is necessary to understand the effects of these products (including toxicant exposure) and to inform their regulation.

Clustered data often feature nested structures and repeated measures. If coupled with binary outcomes and large samples (>10,000), this complexity can lead to non-convergence problems for the desired model especially if random effects are used to account for the clustering. One way to bypass the convergence problem is to split the dataset into small enough sub-samples for which the desired model convergences, and then recombine results from those sub-samples through meta-analysis. We consider two ways to generate sub-samples: the K independent samples approach where the data are split into k mutually-exclusive sub-samples, and the cluster-based approach where naturally existing clusters serve as sub-samples. Estimates or test statistics from either of these sub-sampling approaches can then be recombined using a univariate or multivariate meta-analytic approach. We also provide an innovative approach for simulating clustered and dependent binary data by simulating parameter templates that yield the desired cluster behavior. This approach is used to conduct simulation studies comparing the performance of the K independent samples and cluster-based approaches to generating sub-samples, the results from which are combined either with univariate and multivariate meta-analytic techniques. These studies show that using natural clusters leaded to lower biased test statistics when the number of clusters and treatment effect were large, as compared to the K independent samples approach for both the univariate and multivariate meta-analytic approaches. And the independent samples approach was preferred when the number of clusters and treatment effect were small. We also apply these methods to data on cancer screening behaviors obtained from electronic health records of n=15,652 individuals and showed that these estimated results support the conclusions from the simulation studies.

Ce travail porte sur l'étude des propriétés optiques des composés à transition d'état de spin. Plus précisément, nous avons caractérisé le transition photo-induite de ce type de composé. Pour réaliser ces études, nous avons développé des montages basés sur la technique pompe-sonde résolue en temps. Nous avons alors caractérisé la cinétique de la transition photo-induite de composé du Fe(II) montant ainsi qu'un processus thermique est à l'origine de la transition et amorce un processus de type "nucléation/croissance". De plus, ces études ont été faites pour des poudres composées de particules dont la taille a été réduite. Par ailleurs, nous avons étudié les propriétés optiques de nanoparticules synthétisées sous forme de micelles. / This work deals with the study of optical properties of spin-state transition compounds. More precisely, we characterized the photo-induced transition of this complex. To make these studies, we have used two home-built experimental set ups based on time resolved pump-probe techniques. We have shown that thermal mechanism induces nucleation/growth process. Besides, we have studied the effect of particle size on the photo-induced transition. Finally, we have studied the optical properties of nanoparticles.

Half of Earth's land surface has been altered by human activities, creating various consequences on the climate and weather systems at local to global scales, which in turn affect a myriad of land surface processes and the adaptation behaviors. This study reviews the status and major knowledge gaps in the interactions of land and atmospheric changes and present 11 grand challenge areas for the scientific research and adaptation community in the coming decade. These land-cover and land-use change (LCLUC)-related areas include 1) impacts on weather and climate, 2) carbon and other biogeochemical cycles, 3) biospheric emissions, 4) the water cycle, 5) agriculture, 6) urbanization, 7) acclimation of biogeochemical processes to climate change, 8) plant migration, 9) land-use projections, 10) model and data uncertainties, and, finally, 11) adaptation strategies. Numerous studies have demonstrated the effects of LCLUC on local to global climate and weather systems, but these putative effects vary greatly in magnitude and even sign across space, time, and scale and thus remain highly uncertain. At the same time, many challenges exist toward improved understanding of the consequences of atmospheric and climate change on land process dynamics and services. Future effort must improve the understanding of the scale-dependent, multifaceted perturbations and feedbacks between land and climate changes in both reality and models. To this end, one critical cross-disciplinary need is to systematically quantify and better understand measurement and model uncertainties. Finally, LCLUC mitigation and adaptation assessments must be strengthened to identify implementation barriers, evaluate and prioritize opportunities, and examine how decisionmaking processes work in specific contexts.

Performance of stock markets is determined by three classes of variables: macroeconomic indicators, industry & firm heterogeneity and third country effects. When assessing performance of a stock market index, impact of industry & firm heterogeneity is marginal as it is already embedded in the index through its constituent companies. This paper will therefore focus on the other two. Chinese stock market was selected as an application as their performance compared to other domestic indicators (mainly GDP growth) is considered inferior by many researchers. Using econometric framework for panel data and a Bayesian extension, the paper estimates multiple models of Chinese stock market performance examining individual determinants of it. Subsequently, it predicts development of theoretical prices of two main Chinese stock indices on two time samples until 2013. The paper then demonstrates underperformance of Chinese stock market by comparing the modeled prices to actual prices realized on the market. JEL Classification C23, C51, C53, G15, G17 Keywords underperformance, panel data, fixed effects model, Bayesian Model Averaging Author's e-mail roman_kovac@ymail.com Supervisor's e-mail karel.bata@seznam.cz

Systematic calculations were performed to uncover the free energy surfaces for hydrolytic reactions of methyl-diphosphate (in vacuum and implicit solvents) and GTP in EF-Tu active site. Density functional theory and ONIOM extrapolative QM/MM scheme were adopted for the assay. In accordance with experiments, the catalytic effect of the sodium cation was mild. It changes the conformation of GTP attracting its negatively charged oxygen atoms. hydrolýze GTP. The Na+ also equilibrates the charges of all phosphate groups of the GTP mostly by transferring electrons from gamma to beta-phosphate group, which is characteristic for the intermediate states during the hydrolytic reaction.

thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford Approximate Word Count: 50,000 After literary scholars, the group of people who most likely cite Marcel Proust are the niche group of psychologists and neuroscientists researching the topic of memory. The incident of the madeleine and Proust's vibrant re-experiencing of 'times past' highlights how important contextual associations are in our lives. The memories we form are often rich in contextual detail, and it is this type of memory which I aim to explore in this thesis. Specifically, I show how memories of contextual nature are formed, and used to guide behaviour. In the General Introduction (Chapter 1), I review the background literature of attention, and the different sources of information that guide it, as well as how contextual information -the associations between iterns-, specifically in natural scenes, can serve as such a source. Next, I describe in detail the literature to date on memory-based signals for attentional guidance. The next chapter summarizes the methodological approaches used in this thesis (Chapter 2). In Chapter 3, I show that long-term memory can optimize perception in complex natural scenes by modulating preparatory attention as well as target processing, using electroencephalography (EEG). In Chapter 4, exploiting the high temporal and spatial resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG), I explore the neurophysiological markers of encoding, while participants learned contextual associations. In the final experimental chapter (Chapter 5), in a series of experiments I test the low-level mechanisms through which the long-term memory-bias in attentional guidance comes about. In the General Discussion (Chapter 6), I summarize my Findings and incorporate them into the existing literature, and propose outstanding questions.

This June one of the biggest and most popular sports tournaments will take place in Austria and Switzerland, the European soccer championship 2008 (UEFA EURO 2008). Therefore millions of soccer fans in Europe and throughout the world are asking themselves: "Who is going to win the EURO 2008?" Many people, including sports experts and former players, give their guesses and expectations in the media, but there is also a group with financial incentives, like some economists who expect economical increases for the country of the winning team and bookmakers and their customers who directly make money with their beliefs. Some predictions are only guesses, but other predictions are based on quantitative methods, such as the studies of UBS Wealth Management Research Switzerland and the Raiffeisen Zentralbank. In this report we will introduce a new method for predicting the winner. Whereas other prediction methods are based on historical data, e.g., the Elo rating, or the FIFA/Coca Cola World rating, our method is based on current expectations, the bookmakers odds for winning the championship. In particular we use the odds for winning the championship for each of the 16 teams of 45 international bookmakers. By interpreting these odds as rating of the expected strength of the teams by the bookmakers, we derive a consensus rating by modelling the log-odds using a random-effects model with a team-specific random effect and a bookmaker-specific fixed effect. The consensus rating of a team can be used as an estimator for the unknown "true" strength of a team. Our method predicts team Germany with a probability of about 18.7% as the EURO 2008 winner. We predict also that the teams playing the final will be Germany and Spain with a probability of 13.9%, where Germany will win with a probability of 55%. In our study, Italy, the favorite according to the current FIFA/Coca Cola World ranking and Elo ranking, has a much lower probability than these teams to win the tournament: only 10.6%. The defending champion Greece has low chances to win the title again: about 3.4%. Furthermore, the expected performance of the host countries, Austria and Switzerland, is much better in the bookmakers consensus than in the retrospective Elo and FIFA/Coca Cola World ratings, i.e., indicating an (expected) home court advantage. Despite the associated increase in the winning probabilities, both teams have rather poor chances to win the tournament with probabilities of 1.3% and 4.0%, respectively. In a group effect study we investigate how much the classification into the four groups (A-D) affects the chance for a team to win the championship. / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics

This study examined the link between interparental violence and children's functioning. The goal of the study was to examine an indirect pathway of the effect of interparental violence on children's internalizing and externalizing problems. The data for the study was drawn from The Women and Family Project and included 359 women and one of their children between the ages of 5 and 12-years-old. Sixty-four of these women resided in a battered women's shelter, 100 of these women resided in the community but had a history of interparental violence, and 195 of these women were recruited as a comparison sample. Interparental violence, maternal parenting practices, maternal depression, and children's internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed via interviews with mothers and their children. An indirect pathway hypothesis of the effects of interparental violence which posits that interparental violence leads to maternal depression, maternal depression leads to maternal use of maladaptive parenting practices, and maternal maladaptive parenting practices lead to children's internalizing and externalizing problems was tested using structural equation modeling. This new model of the indirect effects of interparental violence was supported by the results of the structural equation models when tested on the sample as a whole as well as separately for the battered and nonbattered sample. A second indirect pathway, though, was more strongly supported. This second model indicates that interparental violence affects children through maternal depression, which is directly related to children's internalizing and externalizing problems. The results of the present study support the importance of indirect pathways of the effects of interparental violence on children.