Effects of habitat restoration on the macroinvertebrate fauna in a foreland along the river waal,the main distributary in the Rhine delta

River engineering in the Rhine delta and water pollution have been major threats for the ecological functioning of the river in The Netherlands. To mitigate effects of river engineering, secondary channel construction in the forelands along the existing distributaries is considered to be an important measure for river restoration. These areas are the remnants of the former Rhine floodplain and the only area where habitat restoration is possible due to the river functions assigned. Secondary channel construction in the area called ‘Gamerensche Waarden’ was taken as an example to show effects of habitat restoration on the macroinvertebrate fauna. Totally 322 macroinvertebrate taxa were found during the monitoring period. During the first 3 years species richness in the area increased rapidly due to colonization processes in the channels following habitat development. After that period total number of taxa found in the channels stabilized at around 170. A clear positive relationship was demonstrated between habitat quality and species richness. Furthermore, the density of exotic species in the secondary channels was less than in the groyne fields of the main channel. The relatively low number of taxa in polluted habitats could be explained by the presence of the PCB 28 congener. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Supervisors' beliefs and subordinates' intrinsic motivation: A behavioral confirmation analysis.

Numerous studies have documented that when supervisors are more supportive of autonomy and less controlling, subordinates demonstrate higher levels of intrinsic motivation. The present research examined the role of supervisors' beliefs about a subordinate's intrinsic or extrinsic motivation in explaining this relation. A teaching paradigm was used in which participants were assigned the role of supervisors or subordinates. Supervisors were given no information regarding the subordinate, told that the subordinate was extrinsically motivated, or told that the subordinate was intrinsically motivated. Results revealed that subordinates who were believed to be intrinsically motivated perceived their supervisor as being significantly more supportive of autonomy, reported significantly more intrinsic interest, and spent significantly more time on the task during the free-choice period than subordinates whose supervisors believed them to be extrinsically motivated. Theoretical implications of the behavioral confirmation process for social perception and intrinsic motivation research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pourquoi adoptez-vous des comportements écologiques? Validation en langue fran?aise de l'échelle de motivation vis-à-vis les comportements écologiques.

This article presents the French-Canadian validation of the Motivation Towards the Environment Scale (MTES), along with information regarding its psychometric properties. Ss were 338 17–51 yr olds. The "Echelle de Motivation vis-a-vis les Comportements Ecologiques" (EMCE) is based on Self-determination Theory. It consists of 6 subscales measuring intrinsic motivation (IM), four forms of extrinsic motivation (EM by external, introjected, identified, and integrated regulation), and amotivation. In Study 1, results of a confirmatory factor analysis (using LISREL VII) supported the factorial structure of the scale. In addition, the construct validity of the EMCE was supported by a series of correlational analyses among the 6 subscales, as well as between these subscales and several variables relevant to the environment. Finally, results of Study 2 reveal that the EMCE subscales displayed satisfactory internal consistency, as well as high temporal stability. The results compared quite favourably to those of the English-Canadian version. Directions concerning the future use of the EMCE in environmental research are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A New State-space-based Algorithm to Assess the Stability of the Finite-difference Time-domain Method for 3D Finite Inhomogeneous Problems

The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is an explicit time discretization scheme for Maxwell's equations. In this context it is well-known that explicit time discretization schemes have a stability induced time step restriction. In this paper, we recast the spatial discretization of Maxwell's equations, initially without time discretization, into a more convenient format, called the FDTD state-space system. This in turn allows us to derive a new algorithm in order to determine the stability limit of FDTD for lossy, inhomogeneous finite problems. It is shown that a crucial parameter is the spectral norm of the matrix resulting from the spatial discretization of the curl operator. In a rectangular simulation domain the time step upper bound can be calculated in closed form and results in a time step limit less stringent than the Courant condition. Finally, the validity of the technique is illustrated by means of some pertinent numerical examples.     

Optimising a production process by a neural network/genetic algorithm approach

An important aspect of production control is the quality of the resulting end product. The end product should have optimal product characteristics and minimal faults. In theory, both objectives can be realised using an optimisation algorithm. However, the complexity of a production process may be very high. In most cases no mathematical function can be found to represent the production process. In this paper a method is presented to simulate a complex production process using a neural network. The subsequent optimisation is done by means of a genetic algorithm. The method is applied to the case study of a spinning (fibre-yarn) production process. The neural network is used to model the process, with the machine settings and fibre quality parameters as input, and the yarn tenacity (yarn strength) and elongation as output. The genetic algorithm is then used to optimise the input parameters for obtaining the best yarns. Since it is a multiobjective optimisation, the genetic algorithm is enforced with a sharing function and a Pareto optimisation. The paper shows that simultaneous optimisation of yarn qualities is easily achieved as a function of the necessary (optimal) input parameters, and that the results are considerably better than current manual machine intervention. The paper concludes by indicating future research towards making an optimal mixture of available fibre qualities.     

Design,realization and performance of a millimetric six-port network analyzer

This paper presents the design, realization and performance of a six-port network analyzer in W frequency band (75–110 GHz). Schottky diodes operating in AC detection mode are used as power detectors. A new calibration method taking into consideration the imperfection components of the system, especially the flexible waveguide and the couplers is described. Finally, a comparison between experimental results performed with the six-port network analyzer and other measurement systems available in the W-band are presented.     

Moment invariants for recognition under changing viewpoint and illumination

Generalised color moments combine shape and color information and put them on an equal footing. Rational expressions of such moments can be designed, that are invariant under both geometric deformations and photometric changes. These generalised color moment invariants are effective features for recognition under changing viewpoint and illumination. The paper gives a systematic overview of such moment invariants for several combinations of deformations and photometric changes. Their validity and potential is corroborated through a series of experiments. Both the cases of indoor and outdoor images are considered, as illumination changes tend to differ between these circumstances. Although the generalised color moment invariants are extracted from planar surface patches, it is argued that invariant neighbourhoods offer a concept through which they can also be used to deal with 3D objects and scenes.     

Olfactory function in the human fetus: Evidence from selective neonatal responsiveness to the odor of amniotic fluid.

This study was aimed at characterizing the level of specificity of the human newborn's response to an odor experienced in utero. Three groups of breast-fed infants and 3 groups of bottle-fed infants were examined on Postnatal Day 3 for their differential head-turning response when exposed to paired-choice tests contrasting the odors of either familiar (f) amniotic fluid (AF) or nonfamiliar (nf) AF or either of these AF odors and a control (C) stimulus. In fAF versus nfAF tests, the infants oriented preferentially to the odor of fAF, regardless of their feeding regimen (i.e., of their postnatal reexposure to AF-like cues in maternal milk). The fAF or nfAF versus C tests showed that this response pattern was caused by a true positive orientation toward fAF and not by avoidance from nfAF odor. This highly selective neonatal response to fAF odor is consistent with the hypothesis that the human fetus can detect and store the unique chemosensory information available in the prenatal environment and that this information becomes coupled with positive control of behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What can two images tell us about a third one?

This paper discusses the problem of predicting image features in an image from image features in two other images and the epipolar geometry between the three images. We adopt the most general camera model of perspective projection and show that a point can be predicted in the third image as a bilinear function of its images in the first two cameras, that the tangents to three corresponding curves are related by a trilinear function, and that the curvature of a curve in the third image is a linear function of the curvatures at the corresponding points in the other two images. Our analysis relies heavily on the use of the fundamental matrix which has been recently introduced (Faugeras et al, 1992) and on the properties of a special plane which we call the trifocal plane. Though the trinocular geometry of points and lines has been very recently addressed, our use of the differential properties of curves for prediction is unique.We thus completely solve the following problem: given two views of an object, predict what a third view would look like. The problem and its solution bear upon several areas of computer vision, stereo, motion analysis, and model-based object recognition. Our answer is quite general since it assumes the general perspective projection model for image formation and requires only the knowledge of the epipolar geometry for the triple of views. We show that in the special case of orthographic projection our results for points reduce to those of Ullman and Basri (Ullman and Basri, 1991). We demonstrate on synthetic as well as on real data the applicability of our theory.