Patterns of community assembly among organisms are highly influenced by the ecological traits and strategies of the species that make up those communities. The conservation of ancestral traits can be important in determining how closely related species partition space and habitat on a local scale. Shared ecological traits and strategies of closely related species suggest that they should overlap in space and use similar habitats. However, ecological similarity may result in fitness costs when closely related species live together. Previous work on birds suggests that close relatives avoid each other by using different habitats. I used the radiation of Dendroica wood-warblers to test these two alternative hypotheses and determine how closely related species partition space and habitat, and how patterns of spatial overlap and habitat use change over evolutionary timescales. I measured territory and habitat overlap among nine sympatric species of Dendroica, Setophaga and Mniotila to determine how time since common ancestry is related to patterns of spatial overlap and habitat use at the Queen's University Biological Station in eastern Ontario. I predicted that closely related species would separate by habitat and not overlap their territories. However, I found that the two most recently diverged species pairs overlap their territories and habitats significantly more than do pairs of more distantly divergent species. This pattern contrasts with previous studies on wood-warblers and the ecologically similar Phylloscopus leaf-warblers. These results suggest that during allopatric speciation Dendroica species do not differentiate in habitat on a local scale; rather, habitat differentiation occurs after closely related species have returned to sympatry. / Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2012-01-09 11:32:42.032

Sun King-mo. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: leaves 84-86.

Frequent successful publications by specific institutions are indicators for identifying outstanding centres of research. This institution data are present in scholarly papers as the authors‟ affilations – often in very heterogeneous variants for the same institution across publications. Thus, matching is needed to identify the denoted real world institutions and locations. We introduce an approximate string metric that handles acronyms and abbreviations. Our URL overlap similarity measure is based on comparing the result sets of web searches. Evaluations on affiliation strings of a conference prove better results than soft tf/idf, trigram, and levenshtein. Incorporating the aligned affiliations we present top institutions and countries for the last 10 years of SIGMOD.

L’évolution des technologies réseaux sans fils et cellulaires associée au développement des terminaux mobiles est en train d’ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives pour les usagers à savoir un accès universel et ininterrompu au réseau, aux informations et aux services. La capacité à fournir un accès ubiquitaire et une mobilité transparents à travers des réseaux hétérogènes permettra d'enrichir l'expérience des usagers. Néanmoins, la mise en place de cet environnement pose des challenges de recherche extrêmement importants que cette thèse a comme pour objectif d’aborder. Elle présente une ensemble de solutions qui contribuent à l'évolution de la convergence de technologies en améliorant différentes aspects du handover vertical, de la synergie entre technologies cellulaires et sans fils afin que la mobilité sans couture devienne une réalité. La première partie de la thèse examine le rôle de l'utilisateur dans la gestion de la mobilité inter-système. Nous montrons comment les utilisateurs avec leurs terminaux mobiles intelligents peuvent surmonter certains obstacles dans la gestion de handover vertical et améliorer ses performances. Une solution de la mobilité contrôlée par le terminal d'usager a été proposée. Elle consiste en un nouveau mécanisme de sélection de réseaux d'accès avec de nouvelles fonctions d'utilité. Le terminal est en mesure de contrôler ses interfaces radio pour optimiser la consommation d'énergie ainsi que de contrôler l'initiation et la préparation de handover pour assurer des services sans interruption. Une nouvelle méthode de prédiction du handover pour assister à la préparation d’un basculement sans couture est proposée. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, il s’agit d’aborder le rôle du contrôle du réseau dans la gestion de la mobilité inter-système. Une solution d'interfonctionnement entre UMTS et WiMAX, qui comprend l'architecture d'intégration, les procédures exactes de handover, la mesure inter-système et le chevauchement nécessaire entre deux cellules avoisinantes pour assurer un handover sans couture est proposée. Pour faciliter l'interfonctionnement et l'itinérance (roaming) entre différents réseaux d’accès indépendamment et sans accords directes entre opérateurs, des plateformes intermédiaires ont été proposées. Finalement, une contribution finale qui consiste à introduire une nouvelle définition de la charge, un nouvel indice de l'équilibrage de charge et un algorithme de répartition de charge qui permettent de définir une solution unifié de gestion de la mobilité dans un contexte de réseaux hétérogènes. / In the forthcoming era of seamless mobility, people will have an easy, universal, uninterrupted access to information, entertainment and communication ... when, where and how they want it. The ability to provide a seamless transition across heterogeneous networks will enable a new level of customer experience. This thesis contributes to the evolution of technology convergence by improving different aspects of the vertical handover management to make seamless mobility a reality. In the first part of the thesis, we emphasize on the role of user control in the mobility management. We show how users with their smart mobile terminals can overcome some obstacles in the vertical handover management and improve its performance. We propose a terminal-controlled handover management which is built on the top of a new utility-based access network selection. The terminal is shown to be able to control its radio interface to optimize the power consumption as well as to control the handover initiation or handover preparation to ensure seamless services. We develop a new handover prediction scheme to assist the handover preparation at the application level by the terminal itself. In the second part of the thesis, we consider the role of network control in the inter-system mobility management. We study a UMTS-WiMAX interworking solution including integration architecture, handover procedure, intersystem measurement and required cell overlap for seamless handovers. We also study the interworking and roaming solution across independent access networks using intermediary entities. Last contributions include a new load definition, a new load balancing index and a new algorithm which can hide the heterogeneities of different access technologies from the load balancing.

No description available.

This study investigates phonetic and phonological factors which influence the degree of vowel-to-vowel coarticulation in Korean and English, especially around palatalization rules. Two phonetic factors and two phonological factors were examined in investigating the degree of anticipatory or carryover coarticulation in VCV sequences. The phonetic factors were the intervening consonants (alveolar stop vs. (alveo)palatals), and the second vowels (/i/ vs. /a/); the phonological factors were the effect of palatalization, and the lexical status of palatalization (lexical vs. postlexical palatalization). Ultrasound imaging techniques and F2 measurements are employed to see how much further front the articulation of V1 in V1CV2 sequences is due to influence of V2 across the consonants. Ultrasound images of vowels and their F2 values were quantified and statistically analyzed with ANOVA.First, it was found that V1 in V1CV2 sequences in Korean was articulated further front when intervening consonants were palatals than when they were alveolars, while there was no difference in frontness of V1 between two consonantal conditions in English. This indicates that Korean palatals are a stronger barrier to vowel-to-vowel coarticulation, while English alveopalatals are not. Next, V1 in both languages was articulated further front when V2 was /i/ than when V2 was /a/. Third, we had striking findings that palatalization rules caused stronger vowel-to-vowel coarticulation than in nonpalatalized words. Results showed that V1s were articulated further front across derived palatals than across underlying palatals in V1Ci sequences. Last, it was determined that V2 was articulated further front in words which underwent postlexical palatalization than in words which underwent lexical palatalization. Such findings indicate that postlexical palatalization causes greater gestural overlap than lexical palatalization, showing stronger degree of coarticulation.Based on the experimental results that phonetic details such as the degree of vowel-to-vowel coarticulation are highly conditioned by the lexical status of palatalization as well as the application of palatalization, I suggest a unified model of phonology and phonetics, using feature-and-gesture based OT frameworks. Second, I follow the proposal that abstract intergestural timing relations should be incorporated into phonological representations either in the input or output (Cho 1998, Gafos 2002, Yun 2005b).

CHRISTOPHER R. BOTTOM, for the MASTER OF SCIENCE degree in ZOOLOGY, presented on XXXX at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: HABITAT OVERLAP AMONG MESOCARNIVORES AND WILD TURKEYS IN AN AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE MAJOR PROFESSOR: Clayton K. Nielsen Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) populations have grown considerably in the agricultural Midwest during the past few decades, as have mesocarnivores such as coyotes (Canis latrans) and bobcats (Lunx rufus) which may impact turkey populations. However, few studies have assessed habitat overlap between mesocarnivores and turkeys with a goal to understand potential impacts of mesocarnivores on turkeys. To address these gaps in the literature, my objectives were to (1) create single-species models of habitat use for bobcats, coyotes, and wild turkeys; (2) model habitat overlap among species; and (3) determine the influence of mesocarnivore habitat use on wild turkey nest success and mortality. I captured and radiomarked 14 adult bobcats (10 M, 4 F), 19 adult coyotes (11 M, 8 F), and 44 wild turkey hens (9 J, 34 A) during 2011-2013 in a complex agricultural landscape in southern Illinois. I developed single-species resource selection function models of habitat use for all 3 focal species and also developed habitat overlap models. In the single species models, wild turkey and bobcat use was concentrated largely in forested areas whereas coyote use was highest in agricultural areas. Overlap among species was common and occurred mostly in forested areas. I then used locations of 107 wild turkeys nests and 28 hen mortalities and modeled the effect of bobcat, coyote, and wild turkey use on turkey nest success and mortalities. Coyote presence was the best predictor of nest success, with increased coyote use associated with higher nest success. Wild turkey use was important in determining location of wild turkey hen mortalities, with increased turkey use associated with higher probability of mortality occurrence. My findings suggest that top predators may be important and beneficial for ground nesting avian species (e.g., wild turkey). Coyotes utilize many habitat types for foraging including forest edges, grasslands, and wetlands. These are abundant in a fragmented landscapes and also represent areas preferred by ground nesting bird species and other mesocarnivores. With coyotes acting as the top predator throughout much of the Midwest, they are likely reducing densities of other important turkey nest predator species, thereby increasing nest success. Although the study is not conclusive on its own, it is consistent with the predictions of the mesopredator release hypothesis.

abstract: Gray codes are perhaps the best known structures for listing sequences of combinatorial objects, such as binary strings. Simply defined as a minimal change listing, Gray codes vary greatly both in structure and in the types of objects that they list. More specific types of Gray codes are universal cycles and overlap sequences. Universal cycles are Gray codes on a set of strings of length n in which the first n-1 letters of one object are the same as the last n-1 letters of its predecessor in the listing. Overlap sequences allow this overlap to vary between 1 and n-1. Some of our main contributions to the areas of Gray codes and universal cycles include a new Gray code algorithm for fixed weight m-ary words, and results on the existence of universal cycles for weak orders on [n]. Overlap cycles are a relatively new structure with very few published results. We prove the existence of s-overlap cycles for k-permutations of [n], which has been an open research problem for several years, as well as constructing 1- overlap cycles for Steiner triple and quadruple systems of every order. Also included are various other results of a similar nature covering other structures such as binary strings, m-ary strings, subsets, permutations, weak orders, partitions, and designs. These listing structures lend themselves readily to some classes of combinatorial objects, such as binary n-tuples and m-ary n-tuples. Others require more work to find an appropriate structure, such as k-subsets of an n-set, weak orders, and designs. Still more require a modification in the representation of the objects to fit these structures, such as partitions. Determining when and how we can fit these sets of objects into our three listing structures is the focus of this dissertation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Mathematics 2012

Competition is common between closely related species, no less between birds. For tits in temperate forests, competition for food and space is usually stronger during winter, as foraging opportunities are few. Many species with an otherwise broad diet, therefore,  start eating the same available food items and thus increase their overlap in the use of food resources. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether coal tits and marsh tits compete with each other. The observations were made in 10 selected locations with varying types of forests. In the study, 20 entrants and 20 blacks were observed for 5 minutes per individual. Every minute the position of the individual was noted in the tree.The results indicate an asymmetrical competition between the species because marsh tits changed its habitat use and were found lower in trees in the presence of coal tits, whereas coal tits did not change its habitat use in the presence of marsh tits. The movement by the Marsh tits can then reduce competition and give both species a better chance of living together. / Konkurrens är vanligt mellan närbesläktade arter, inte minst mellan fåglar. Konkurrensen om mat och boplatser blir oftast starkare på vinterhalvåret då det är svårare att hitta mat och många arter som annars föredrar olika sorters föda då börjar äta samma sort. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om svartmes och entita konkurrerar med varandra. Observationerna gjordes på 10 utvalda platser med varierande skogstyper. I studien observerades 20 entitor och 20 svartmesar i 5 minuter per individ. Varje minut noterades individens position i trädet. Resultaten visar att det kan förekomma en asymmetrisk konkurrens mellan arterna då entitan flyttade sig nedåt i höjdnivå i närvaro av svartmes, medan svartmes inte ändrade plats i närvaro av entita. Entitans nedflyttning kan då minska konkurrensen och ge båda arter bättre möjlighet till samlevnad.

No description available.