<p>The 24-item scale has been used extensively to assess the attitudes towards AIDS precautions. This study investigated the usefulness and validity of the instrument in a South African setting, fourteen years after the development of the instrument. If a new structure could be found statistically, the HIV/AIDS prevention strategies could be more effective in aiding campaigns to change attitudes and sexual behaviour.</p>

Diversity indices confound two components: species richness and evenness. Community structure should therefore be evaluated by employing separate measures of the number of species and their relative abundances. However, the relative abundances of species are dependent on the abundance measure used. Although the use of biomass or productivity is recommended by theory, in practice a surrogate measure is more often used. Frequency (local or relative) and point-quadrat cover provide two objective measures of abundance which are fast, less destructive and avoid problems associated with distinguishing individuals. However, both give discrete bounded data which may further alter the relative abundances of species. These measures have a long history of use and, as the need for objective information on biodiversity becomes more pressing, their use is likely to become more widespread. Consequently, it seems appropriate to investigate the effect of these abundance measures, and the resolution at which they are used, on calculated evenness. Field, artificial and simulated data were used to investigate the effect of abundance measure and resolution on evidence for community structure. The field data consisted of seventeen sites. Sites from four vegetation types (saltmeadow, geothermal, ultramafic and high-altitude meadow) were sampled in three biogeographical regions. Most of the indices of community structure (species richness, diversity and evenness) detected differences between the different vegetation types, and different niche-apportionment models were fitted to the field data from saltmeadow and geothermal vegetation. Estimates of community structure based on local frequency and point-quadrat data differed. Local frequency tended to give higher calculated evenness; whereas point-quadrat data tended to fit to niche apportionment models where local frequency data failed. The effect of resolution on the eighteen evenness indices investigated depended on community species richness and the particular index used. The investigated evenness indices were divided into three groups (symmetric, continuous and traditional indices) based on how they ranked real and artificially constructed communities. Contrary to Smith and Wilson�s recommendation the symmetric indices E[VAR] and E[Q] proved unsuitable for use with most types of plant data. In particular, E[Q] tends to assign most communities low values and has a dubious relationship with intrinsic evenness. The continuous indices, E[MS] and E[2,1], were the indices best able to discriminate between field, artificial and simulated communities, and their use should be re-evaluated. Traditional indices used with low resolution tended to elevate the calculated evenness, especially in species-rich communities. The relativized indices, E[Hurlbert] and EO[dis], were an exception, as they were always able to attain the minimum of zero; however, they were more sensitive to changes in resolution, particularly when resolution was low. Overall, traditional indices based on Hill�s ratios, including E[1/D] (=E[2,0]), and G[2,1] gave the best performance, while the general criticism of the use of Pielou�s J� as an index of evenness was further substantiated by this study. As a final recommendation, ecologists are implored to investigate their data and the likely effects that sampling and analysis have had on the calculated values of their indices.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2009. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--California Institute of Technology, 2003. / "April 2004." Includes bibliographical references. EERL report series available at their website: http://caltecheerl.library.caltech.edu.

Orientador: Sheila Zambello de Pinho / Banca: Martha Maria Mischan / Banca: Décio Barbin / Banca: Antonio Francisco Iemma / Banca: David Ariovaldo Banzatto / Resumo: As funções de crescimento logística e de Gompertz têm sido bastante estudadas e freqüentemente utilizadas na área biológica. Diversos pesquisadores têm ajustado as funções logística ou de Gompertz a dados provenientes de experimentos com vários tratamentos onde curvas são ajustadas e o interesse é saber se há diferença entre estes tratamentos. A verificação da adequacidade de ajustes das funções não-lineares e a comparação de diferentes funções para um determinado conjunto de dados estão bem contempladas na literatura. Porém, quando o mesmo tipo de função é ajustado a várias situações (tratamentos) e o interesse é fazer a comparação das mesmas, há dificuldades de se encontrar subsídios na literatura. O objetivo deste trabalho foi a apresentação de um método de comparação de curvas logísticas e de Gompertz. Compararam-se as equações ajustadas através de testes dos parâmetros, utilizando-se métodos paramétricos e nãoparamétricos. Determinaram-se também, valores da variável independente x a partir dos quais a diferença entre a assíntota e a curva ajustada deixa de ser significativa. Estudaram-se nesta pesquisa o modelo logístico com erro aditivo na ausência e na presença de autocorrelação nos resíduos, o modelo logístico com erro multiplicativo na ausência e na presença de autocorrelação nos resíduos, o modelo de Gompertz com erro aditivo na ausência e na presença de autocorrelação nos resíduos e o modelo de Gompertz com erro multiplicativo na ausência e na presença de autocorrelação nos resíduos. Para ilustração da metodologia utilizaram-se dados de peso de matéria fresca (g) de sementes de feijão Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. carioca 80 SH, porcentagens médias do peso de frutos de araribá, pesos de frangos de corte de aves Indian River e pesos de ratos Rattus norvergicus, aos quais ajustaram-se,...(Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The logistic and the Gompertz growth functions have been considerably studied and frequently used in biological area. Several researchers have fitted the Logistic and the Gompertz to data from experiments with many treatments where the purpose is to detect the difference among them. The verification of the adequacy of the non-linear fits and the comparison of different functions for a set of data are well studied in the literature. However, when the same function is fitted to several situations (treatments) and the purpose is to compare them, there are difficulty to find subsidy in the literature. The purpose of this work was to determine a method of comparison of the Logistic and the Gompertz curves and to verify until when the difference between the curves and their superior asymptotes are significant. In this research were studied the logistic and the Gompertz models considering additive and multiplicative error terms with and without autocorrelation. For enlightenment of the methodology were used data of fresh matter of Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv carioca 80 SH seeds, percentage of araribá fruit weight, weight of chicken for slaughter Indian River and weight of rats Rattus norvergicus, where were fitted the Logistic model with additive errors terms and without autocorrelation, the Logistic model with additive errors terms and with autocorrelation, the Gompertz model with additive errors terms and without autocorrelation, the Gompertz model with additive errors terms and with autocorrelation...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below) / Doutor

We investigate mechanisms to improve efficiency for line and point transect surveys of clustered populations by combining the distance methods with adaptive sampling. In adaptive sampling, survey effort is increased when areas of high animal density are located, thereby increasing the number of observations. We begin by building on existing adaptive sampling techniques, to create both point and line transect adaptive estimators, these are then extended to allow the inclusion of covariates in the detection function estimator. However, the methods are limited, as the total effort required cannot be forecast at the start of a survey, and so a new fixed total effort adaptive approach is developed. A key difference in the new method is that it does not require the calculation of the inclusion probabilities typically used by existing adaptive estimators. The fixed effort method is primarily aimed at line transect sampling, but point transect derivations are also provided. We evaluate the new methodology by computer simulation, and report on surveys of harbour porpoise in the Gulf of Maine, in which the approach was compared with conventional line transect sampling. Line transect simulation results for a clustered population showed up to a 6% improvement in the adaptive density variance estimate over the conventional, whilst when there was no clustering the adaptive estimate was 1% less efficient than the conventional. For the harbour porpoise survey, the adaptive density estimate cvs showed improvements of 8% for individual porpoise density and 14% for school density over the conventional estimates. The primary benefit of the fixed effort method is the potential to improve survey coverage, allowing a survey to complete within a fixed time and effort; an important feature if expensive survey resources are involved, such as an aircraft, crew and observers.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 1996-02-16Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:42:09Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 carvalho_lr_dr_botfca.pdf: 576008 bytes, checksum: d62e81066da0452991a1456ffa8c8118 (MD5) / As funções de crescimento logística e de Gompertz têm sido bastante estudadas e freqüentemente utilizadas na área biológica. Diversos pesquisadores têm ajustado as funções logística ou de Gompertz a dados provenientes de experimentos com vários tratamentos onde curvas são ajustadas e o interesse é saber se há diferença entre estes tratamentos. A verificação da adequacidade de ajustes das funções não-lineares e a comparação de diferentes funções para um determinado conjunto de dados estão bem contempladas na literatura. Porém, quando o mesmo tipo de função é ajustado a várias situações (tratamentos) e o interesse é fazer a comparação das mesmas, há dificuldades de se encontrar subsídios na literatura. O objetivo deste trabalho foi a apresentação de um método de comparação de curvas logísticas e de Gompertz. Compararam-se as equações ajustadas através de testes dos parâmetros, utilizando-se métodos paramétricos e nãoparamétricos. Determinaram-se também, valores da variável independente x a partir dos quais a diferença entre a assíntota e a curva ajustada deixa de ser significativa. Estudaram-se nesta pesquisa o modelo logístico com erro aditivo na ausência e na presença de autocorrelação nos resíduos, o modelo logístico com erro multiplicativo na ausência e na presença de autocorrelação nos resíduos, o modelo de Gompertz com erro aditivo na ausência e na presença de autocorrelação nos resíduos e o modelo de Gompertz com erro multiplicativo na ausência e na presença de autocorrelação nos resíduos. Para ilustração da metodologia utilizaram-se dados de peso de matéria fresca (g) de sementes de feijão Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. carioca 80 SH, porcentagens médias do peso de frutos de araribá, pesos de frangos de corte de aves Indian River e pesos de ratos Rattus norvergicus, aos quais ajustaram-se,... / The logistic and the Gompertz growth functions have been considerably studied and frequently used in biological area. Several researchers have fitted the Logistic and the Gompertz to data from experiments with many treatments where the purpose is to detect the difference among them. The verification of the adequacy of the non-linear fits and the comparison of different functions for a set of data are well studied in the literature. However, when the same function is fitted to several situations (treatments) and the purpose is to compare them, there are difficulty to find subsidy in the literature. The purpose of this work was to determine a method of comparison of the Logistic and the Gompertz curves and to verify until when the difference between the curves and their superior asymptotes are significant. In this research were studied the logistic and the Gompertz models considering additive and multiplicative error terms with and without autocorrelation. For enlightenment of the methodology were used data of fresh matter of Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv carioca 80 SH seeds, percentage of araribá fruit weight, weight of chicken for slaughter Indian River and weight of rats Rattus norvergicus, where were fitted the Logistic model with additive errors terms and without autocorrelation, the Logistic model with additive errors terms and with autocorrelation, the Gompertz model with additive errors terms and without autocorrelation, the Gompertz model with additive errors terms and with autocorrelation...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below)

No description available.

No description available.

Magister Scientiae - MSc / The 24-item scale has been used extensively to assess the attitudes towards AIDS precautions. This study investigated the usefulness and validity of the instrument in a South African setting, fourteen years after the development of the instrument. If a new structure could be found statistically, the HIV/AIDS prevention strategies could be more effective in aiding campaigns to change attitudes and sexual behaviour. / South Africa