Different Scales Of Space Research Articles

THE VIRTUE OF A LIFE OF COMPLEXITY: THE KEY TO HEALTHY AGING

People often wish to simplify their lives as they age, hoping to lead a less complex, stress-free, and happy existence. However, the loss of complexity may actually endanger one’s health. Aging is often associated with the pruning of work, family, and social networks in our external environment, and on a smaller scale, with the degradation of various anatomic structures and physiologic processes internally. This loss of complexity can impair our ability to perform activities of daily life or adapt to surgery or other stressors. We can quantify complexity using measures derived from the concept of fractals that describe patterns of behavior across different scales in space or time. Using these metrics we have shown that complexity loss is potentially reversible. This presentation will describe the measures, mechanisms, and consequences of complexity loss in different human systems, and interventions that can restore complexity and thereby improve functional health in older age.

Feeding ecomorphologies in the fish genus Herichthys (Perciformes: Cichlidae) based on stomach content and lower pharyngeal jaw shape

Speciation is a multifactorial process with factors acting at different scales of space and time. Trophic niche segregation has promoted the diversification of cichlids fishes in lentic (lacustrine) environments, whether this is also the case in lotic (riverine) systems remains unknown. Herichthys is the genus of cichlids with the most boreal distribution in the Americas comprising 12 currently recognized species, most micro-endemic and only two with a wide distribution. In the present work, we analyzed the stomach content and lower pharyngeal jaw morphologies of the species of the genus to evaluate the possible role of feeding ecology in the diversification of the group. Trophic strategies varied widely, including omnivores, piscivores, invertivores, molluskivores, detritivores, herbivores and algivores. Low values of Pianka's index of niche overlap were found in the sympatric micro-endemic species, while in the widely distributed species the indices ranged from low to very high. The analysis of lower pharyngeal jaw morphologies allowed discriminating a shape associated with piscivorous species from other foraging groups. The results of this study suggest that trophic niche segregation is a factor that could promotes diversification within the genus Herichthys although additional studies need to be performed to fully understand the speciation process in this group of Neotropical cichlid fishes.

Corralation of notions «complex system» and «complex environement» in social philosophy

The relationship between the concepts of «complex system» and «complex environment», which are relevant in modern socio-philosophical knowledge, is investigated. It has been substantiated that in modern conditions of the development of society, which are characterized by variability, non-linearity and complexity, a new research paradigm develops in social philosophy, which allows not only to introduce a systemic approach, but also gives a different interpretation of social phenomena. As a result, the systematic approach has been complemented and, even to some extent, is supplanted by the emerging synergistic approach, which presents social reality as a process of continuous changes and phase transitions. The emerging new view on social reality as an unstable integrity has confirmed that it is necessary to study events and processes. In particular, from the standpoint of psychosynergy (I.V. Yershova-Babenko), an understanding of the integrity and complexity of the system takes the form of a conceptual model of the “whole as a whole / whole-in-whole”. Therefore, the concept of «complex system» in social philosophy can be replaced by the concept of «complex environment», which indicates that emphasizes the dynamic characteristics of social reality, indicates its procedurality and disequilibrium.Also there was an appeal to the subject of social reality, which is a person. Focusing on the person and his social activities allows us to consider social reality as a “psychodimensioned environment” (the term of I.V. Ershova-Babenko), implying that it develops and transforms as a result of human mental activity, group, community of people in different scales of space and time, as well as the scale of individual cultures and civilizations.The use of the psycho-synergetic interpretation of the position of I. Prigogine on the non-equilibrium phase transition of a new type in the semantic field of social philosophy is also shown. For the first time, the phenomenon of “unaccounted subject / product”, related to the analysis of social reality, was used.

Spatial Consciousness and Spiritual Practice in Austen’s Mansfield Park

Spatial Consciousness and Spiritual Practice in Austen’s Mansfield Park Toby R. Benis (bio) Space is everywhere in the scholarly conversation about jane Austen; she is the writer of the rural village, of the country estate, of the far-flung empire.1But rather than assuming the analytical primacy of any one kind of space, this article begins with a broader question: how do different scales of space operate together to shape the developmental arcs of the novelist’s heroines?2In a work like Persuasion (1817), the answer seems clear: women’s domestic experiences of loneliness and trial are compared in detail with those of naval professionals in theaters of combat. The narrative dramatizes mutually reinforcing scales of space and community in ways that Edmund Burke proclaims are a particularly British characteristic: “to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind.”3 [End Page 333] Postcolonial scholars have identified similarities, as well as a good deal of friction, between Austen’s representations of “little platoons” like those Burke idealizes and the diverse inhabitants of the sprawling Georgian empire.4Valuable as they are, these analyses have tended to pass over fundamental ways in which space itself is always a social product resulting from a complex array of spatial practices. Austen criticism has reinforced what Henri Lefebvre has called the illusion of transparency: “space appears as luminous, as intelligible, as giving action free rein.”5Lefebvre emphasizes the dialectical character of codes governing social spaces, generated by interactions between subjects and their surroundings in specific historical contexts.6In Austen’s work, female protagonists attain their romantic objectives only when they develop some competence in navigating such codes. Elsewhere, I have discussed Catherine Morland’s development in North-anger Abbey (composed in the 1790s, though published in 1817) in terms of her difficulties in negotiating changing eighteenth-century public spaces, from city streets to rural neighborhoods.7Written some 15 years later, Mansfield Park (1814) approaches the question of space from the point of view of the profession most represented in Austen’s corpus: the clergy. Fanny Price’s transformation from cowering waif to self-possessed young woman depends on her acquired ability to understand codes at work in Evangelical Anglicanism and to enact them in spaces over which she has some control. Mansfield Park has been dubbed Austen’s “Evangelical novel,” since many of the views associated with Evangelicals are in evidence here. Seeking to infuse a new seriousness and piety into religious practice and social life, Evangelical Anglicans promoted mandatory residency for clergymen [End Page 334] in the parish of their living; the abolition of the slave trade; calls for private reflection; a condemnation of decadence in the Regency beau monde; and a distrust of amateur acting.8The novel’s extended arguments over where the clergy should live, and why, reflect the Evangelical conviction that the space of the parish was the foundational unit of the clergyman’s identity. Only by inhabiting small-scale spaces could neighbors and clergymen interact through social routines that possess spiritual and moral force, or what Austen calls “habits.” This dimension of the novel’s discussions about the clergy suggests a spatially informed way of approaching the Evangelicals’ critique of imperial slavery. The Evangelical requirement that clergymen devote themselves to their home parishes points to an ethos at odds with an increasingly globalized British economy in which the absenteeism of West Indian plantation owners like the Bertrams is of a piece with their disregard for the suffering that occurs there. Accordingly, the man who takes clerical orders during the course of novel—Edmund Bertram—cannot resolve the contradictions between the Evangelical principles he appears to endorse, most notably parish residency for priests, and the colonial source of his family’s wealth. When the family conversation turns to how men like his father profit from distant human misery, Edmund does nothing to fill the “dead silence” that follows Fanny Price’s question about the slave trade.9Austen...

Field tests of a general ectotherm niche model show how water can limit lizard activity and distribution

AbstractMechanistic forecasts of how species will respond to climate change are highly desired but difficult to achieve. Because processes at different scales are explicit in such models, careful assessments of their predictive abilities can provide valuable insights that will be relevant to functionally similar species. However, there are surprisingly few comprehensive field tests of mechanistic niche models in the literature. We applied a general, thermodynamically grounded modeling framework to determine the fundamental niche of an extremely well‐studied herbivorous ectotherm, the sleepy lizard Tiliqua rugosa. We then compared the model predictions with detailed long‐term field observations that included sub‐hourly data on microclimate, activity levels, home ranges, and body temperatures as well as annual to decadal patterns of body condition and growth. Body temperature predictions inferred from gridded climatic data were within 10% of empirically observed values and explained >70% of observed daytime activity patterns across all lizards. However, some periods of activity restriction were explained by predicted desiccation level rather than by temperature, and metabolically driven activity requirements were much lower than potential activity time. Decadal trajectories of field growth and body condition could also be explained to within 10% of observed values, with the variance in trajectories being attributable to whether individuals had access to permanent water. Continent‐wide applications of the model partly captured the inland distribution limit, but only after accounting for water limitations. Predicted changes in habitat suitability under six climate change scenarios were generally positive within the species’ current range, but varied strongly with predicted rainfall. Temperature is regarded as the major factor that will restrict the distribution and abundance of lizards and other terrestrial ectotherms under climate change. Yet our findings show how water can be more important than temperature in constraining the activity, habitat requirements, and distribution limits of terrestrial ectotherms. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of first‐principles computation of the climatic limits on terrestrial animals from gridded environmental data, providing a coherent picture for how species will respond to climate change at different scales of space and time.

Thermal modelling of selective beam melting processes using heterogeneous time step sizes

In the context of powder bed-based additive manufacturing, complex part geometries are realised in a layer-by-layer fashion and by the fusion of powdered material in locally defined regions by means of e.g. a laser or electron beam. Simulating these manufacturing processes from a macroscopic point of view may lead to computationally expensive models, due to different scales in space and time, highly non-linear material behaviour and methods to account for the layer-wise build, i.e. dynamic growth of the computational domain. Aiming towards a reduction of the computational cost multiple numerical methods are therefore combined.One approach in the context of Finite Element simulations is given by adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening. This allows to locally refine the mesh where it is needed, e.g. in the region currently exposed to the beam, while keeping it relatively coarse in other regions. Yet, the time step size of the model is constrained by the resolution of the beam path, which clearly limits the size of the problem under investigation. Within the present contribution we employ heterogeneous time step sizes for the arising thermal problem in different parts of the computational domain in order to account for the distinct scales in time. In addition, a line heat input model is utilised to further lower the computational cost.

Indicators of sustainability to assess aquaculture systems

Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food-producing sectors worldwide, making it desirable to assess the sustainability of aquaculture systems. The objective of this study was to develop a portfolio of quantitative indicators of economic, environmental and social sustainability to assess different aquaculture systems. The indicators were developed from 2003 to 2016, combining top-down and bottom-up methods, together with practical observations in experimental and commercial aquaculture facilities. A total of 56 economic (14), environmental (22) and social (20) indicators are proposed. Economic sustainability indicators reveal the degree of efficiency in using financial resources, the economic feasibility, resilience, and the capacity to absorb negative external costs and to generate funds for reinvestment. Environmental indicators reflect the use of natural resources, the efficiency in using resources, the release of pollutants and unused byproducts, and the risk of reducing biodiversity. Social sustainability indicators reflect the capacity to generate benefits for local communities, including jobs and food security, equitable income distribution, equality of opportunity, and inclusion of vulnerable populations. The indicators thus developed can be used on farm, regional, global or sectorial scales. They are quantitative, broad, scientifically sound, easy to understand and interpret, feasible to obtain on farms or on research stations, and permit comparison at different scales of space and time. Thus, they can be used to assess production systems and to compare different experimental treatments in research experiments. They also can be used by certifying organizations, investors, and policymakers. They allow performing diagnostics, identifying strengths and weaknesses, setting goals and determining actions, and assessing the effectiveness of actions and public policies.

The midsummer drought in Mexico: perspectives on duration and intensity from the CHIRPS precipitation database

ABSTRACTIn many regions of Mexico, precipitation occurs in a very well defined annual cycle, with peaks in May–June and September–October and a relative minimum in the middle. This minimum in the middle of the rainy season is known as the midsummer drought (MSD) and impacts agriculture and industry. However, in Mexico there are large areas with either sparse meteorological station coverage or where time series of historical observations have many missing data, which make it difficult to study and analyse the precipitation variability at different scales of space and time. Therefore, the most important objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of the recently available Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) product in estimating the duration and intensity of the MSD in Mexico, taking advantage of its very fine spatial resolution (0.05°) and continuous coverage to improve on current understanding of the MSD. In order to achieve this, MSD duration and intensity are calculated from the CHIRPS data and then compared to gauge data for the 1981–2010 period. In addition, two new indices for estimating the intensity of the MSD are defined, and these new indices provide complementary information to that obtained with more traditional methods. Results show that CHIRPS overestimates (underestimates) precipitation in Mexico during summer and autumn (winter and spring) seasons by up to 30%. Most importantly, by using CHIRPS and the two new indices proposed, the most detailed spatial representation ever of the MSD in Mexico has been obtained through the elimination of spatial and temporal coverage gaps.

CROISSANCE RADIALE ET SENSIBILITÉ AU CLIMAT DU PISTACHIER DE L’ATLAS, PISTACIA ATLANTICA DESF., EN ALGÉRIE

Le pistachier de l’Atlas, Pistacia atlantica Desf., est assez peu étudié alors qu’il occupe une place importante dans les écosystèmes steppique et saharien algé- riens (Ahaggar : Sahara central). L’espèce constitue un cas écologique et biogéo- graphique particulier ; son association à d’autres espèces caractéristiques des milieux saharien, aride et semi-aride indique sa très grande résistance aux changements globaux, notamment cli- matique. La question posée est de savoir comment réagit cet arbre aux change- ments climatiques actuels suivant un gradient d’aridité. Une étude dendro-éco logique a été entreprise pour identifier les facteurs climatiques régissant la croissance radiale de cette espèce. Cette approche permet de préciser à diffé- rentes échelles spatiales et temporelles la relation entre variabilité climatique et variabilité de la croissance radiale du pistachier de l’Atlas. La réponse du pis- tachier de l’Atlas aux évènements clima- tiques extrêmes a été étudiée par l’ana- lyse des années caractéristiques. L’étude a porté sur quatre populations installées dans deux régions : la région des hautes plaines steppiques de Djelfa et la région présaharienne de Béchar. L’analyse révèle que les années caractéristiques dépendent fortement des conditions hydriques (précipitations moyennes annuelles) et thermiques (températures moyennes annuelles). Les années de forte croissance correspondent à des annéeshumides. Enrevanche, lesannées de faible croissance correspondent à des années sèches. La réponse du pistachier de l’Atlas à la grande variabilité clima- tique est traduite par les valeurs élevées du coefficient de sensitivité moyenne. L’analyse des fonctions de réponse montre l’importance des précipitations dans la croissance radiale du pistachier de l’Atlas, et le rôle moindre joué par les températures dans des conditions modu- lées par le biotope.

Crystallization behavior of solid solutions from aqueous solutions: An environmental perspective

Aqueous–solid solution (AQ-SS) processes have garnered increasing attention from geochemists and environmental engineers because they play major roles in the fate and transport of elements in Earth surface environments. The reasons for this interest include: (i) the primary crystallization of minerals from multicomponent aqueous solutions leads to the formation of solid solutions in which different ions are substituted for one another in equivalent structural positions; (ii) the interaction between pre-existing minerals and water frequently yields surface precipitation and dissolution–recrystallization processes in which such substituting ions redistribute to adapt to new physicochemical conditions; (iii) the concentrations of specific minor elements in biogenic and abiogenic minerals have been shown to correlate with various parameters characterizing the growth environment (temperature, pH, nutrient levels, salinity, etc.) and the corresponding compositional signatures can be powerful tools in reconstructing the past from the sedimentary record; (iv) the aqueous concentration of heavy metals and other harmful ions can be significantly reduced by their incorporation into the structure of suitable host minerals and as such a ‘reduction of solubility’ can be exploited as a remediation strategy or used to design engineered barriers for the retention of metals, radionuclides, and other industrially generated inorganic wastes. In this review, the thermodynamics driving of AQ-SS processes is presented using examples of environmentally-relevant systems. The reaction pathways in AQ-SS processes depend not only on thermodynamic factors but also on kinetic and mechanistic effects, which operate at different scales in space and time. Examples of such effects include non-equilibrium ion partitioning, surface passivation, and compositional (sectorial, concentric, oscillatory) zoning. Finally, we discuss the contribution of both state-of-the-art characterization techniques and molecular simulation methods for the development of predictive models.

A Review of Numerical Simulation Strategies for Hydraulic Fracturing, Natural Fracture Reactivation and Induced Microseismicity Prediction

Hydraulic fracturing, natural fracture reactivation and resulting induced microseismicity are interconnected phenomena involved in shale gas exploitation. Due to their multi-physics and their complexity, deep understanding of these phenomena as well as their mutual interaction require the adoption of coupled mechanical and fluid flow approaches. Modeling these systems is a challenging procedure as the involved processes take place on different scales of space and also require adequate multidisciplinary knowledge. An extensive literature review is presented here to provide knowledge on the modeling approaches adopted for these coupled problems. The review is intended as a guide to select effective modeling approaches for problems of different complexity.

La escala geográfica como concepto integrador en la comprensión de problemas socio-ambientales

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of the concept of scale for an integrated geographical understanding of socio-environmental problems in Mexico. This objective is accomplished by comparing the same scalar dimensions of two different problems: the first one is adaptation to climate change policies in Mexico, and the second is deforestation. This paper presents the main elements that have been discussed in recent years in the Anglo literature on the concept of scale, particularly the extent, resolution, level, hierarchy, the problem of modifiable area unit and spatial fallacies. The properties of geographical concepts emerge and can be observed according to the combination of scalar elements. The most fundamental scalar principles discussed in the field refer to identify the combination of elements in which it is possible to observe each geographical phenomena's variability, characteristics and properties. One of the most relevant problems of the scalar thinking refers to the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP), which stems from the data aggregation; the relevant values represented for each spatial unit relate to each other in different ways according to how they organized within a hierarchical structure. Data aggregation affects how the variability and heterogeneity of a phenomenon can be observed, given that the change of scale may show or hide specific properties of the dataset in a change of resolution. This problem is relevant for the inferences that stem from the data, given that individualistic or ecological fallacies may emerge if the dataset characteristics are not correctly interpreted in terms of representation, similarity or heterogeneity.Applying these principles to the comparison between two different geographical problems of different epistemological nature, we show the importance of this concept for the geographical thought; the comparison highlights the need to generate systematic reflections in this regard for the Geography produced in Spanish language.Regarding the socio-environmental problems addressed, the climate change adaptation policies in Mexico show a lack of conceptual and programmatic integration in different levels; the lack of an adequate concurrent relationship between them creates a problem to generate effective results for adaptation. We identify three policy levels (global, national and local), in which we briefly examine the relevant policy instrument and actor(s) that negotiate, design and/ or implement it in each level. For the international level we briefly present the role of the Mexican government on the negotiation and adoption of the Kyoto Protocol principles and goals; for the national level, we examine the approach and jurisdiction of the Special Program of Climate Change and the related juridical field; for the local level, we discuss the Municipal Climate Action Programmes, their design and scope, as well as the lack density that has prevented these instrument to influence other policy levels. This section discusses the hierarchies between these levels, the extension (jurisdiction) under which each of them are relevant and the importance of each scalar level for visualizing the main characteristics of the different adaptation policies.Regarding deforestation and land use change, the scale analysis reveals that might be direct (proximate) and indirect (underlying) and operate on multiple levels; also, its consequences are manifested in different scales of space and time. The spatial heterogeneity of land use change reveals the combination of biophysical and social, economic and political conditions, so the deforestation rate and causes change with observation scale. The implication of scale is that important land use processes could remain undetected, thus not monitored by traditional tools and aggregated land use categories typically applied. On the other hand, the choice of the time scale could undetect economic or social processes that change from year to year, which obscure the underlying causes of deforestation. It is therefore necessary to see change in land use with a view hierarchies.

A hierarchical analysis of the relationship between urban impervious surfaces and land surface temperatures: spatial scale dependence, temporal variations, and bioclimatic modulation

Understanding how urban impervious surfaces (UIS) affect land surface temperatures (LST) on different scales in space and time is important for urban ecology and sustainability. We examined how spatial scales, seasonal and diurnal variations, and bioclimatic settings affected the UIS–LST relationship in mainland China. We took a hierarchical approach explicitly considering three scales: the ecoregion, urban cluster, and urban core. The UIS–LST relationship was quantified with Pearson correlation using multiple remote sensing datasets. In general, UIS and LST were positively correlated in summer daytime/nighttime and winter nighttime, but negatively in winter daytime. The strength of correlation increased from broad to fine scales. The mean R2 of winter nights at the urban core scale (0.262) was 4.03 times as high as that at the ecoregion scale (0.065). The relationship showed large seasonal and diurnal variations: generally stronger in summer than in winter and stronger in nighttime than in daytime. At the urban core scale, the mean R2 of summer daytime (0.208) was 3.25 times as high as that of winter daytime (0.064), and the mean R2 of winter nighttime (0.262) was 4.10 times as high as that of winter daytime (0.064). Vegetation and climate substantially modified the relationship during summer daytime on the ecoregion scale. Our study provides new evidence that the UIS–LST relationship varies with spatial scales, diurnal/seasonal cycles, and bioclimatic context, with new insight into the cross-scale properties of the relationship. These findings have implications for mitigating urban heat island effects across scales in China and beyond.

Using an improved BEMD method to analyse the characteristic scale of aeromagnetic data in the Gejiu region of Yunnan, China

The geological and metallogenic process is a typical non-stationary multifactor and multi-scale random process. Multiple measurement data assess the performance of the integrated process, and the combined data set is usually large and complex, among other characteristics. When different metallogenic prediction targets exist, the data must be decomposed on different scales in space. The study of the scale interval in which the object features are located can eliminate useless information and retrieve useful scale data that are needed for metallogenic prediction. Thus, the model that the specific deposit presents will be rapidly and accurately identified to enhance the efficiency of the prediction and analysis models. This paper employs an improved bidimensional empirical decomposition method to decompose aeromagnetic survey data and expresses and decomposes the spatial distribution of deposits with a mixed Gaussian model. By comparing the decomposition results on various sampling data scales with the distribution function for the deposit, the characteristic scale interval that contains the measurement information that exhibits the greatest similarity to the distribution of the deposits can be identified. This method was employed to analyse a Yunnan Gejiu tin–copper polymetallic deposit using aeromagnetic sampling data to calculate suitable decomposition-scale parameters. This approach provides valuable parameters for metallogenic prediction in other areas with aeromagnetic data.

How Philosophy of Nature Needs Philosophy of Chemistry

This paper aims to highlight how the philosophy of chemistry could be of help for rethinking Nature today. To do so, we will point out: (1) the co-definition of chemical relations (transformations) and chemical relata (bodies) within chemical activities; (2) the constitutive role of the modes of intervention in the definition, always open and provisional, of “active” chemical bodies; and (3) the mutual dependence of the levels of organization in chemistry. We will insist on the way chemists tailor networks of interdependencies within which chemical bodies and properties are context-sensitive and mutually determined by means of particular chemical operations or transformations. To conclude, we will show how the specific action of bodies upon the Earth at different scales of space and time, and how the relational definition of a chemical body, pave the way for a new understanding of Nature.

Must cognitive anthropology be mentalistic? Moving towards a relational ontology of social reality

Maurice Bloch’s Anthropology and the Cognitive Challenge (Bloch 2012) is a luminous essay about the tumultuous relationships between cultural anthropology and disciplines more oriented towards the natural sciences. In a theoretical tour-de-force, Bloch’s clear writing allows the reader to better understand why most anthropologists are so reluctant to take into account naturalistic attempts to specify what makes us human. According to Bloch, one of the best ways to reduce the gap between anthropology and the cognitive sciences is to take the architecture of human cognition more seriously. This architecture is constituted by the deepest, universal level that is inherited ‘from our very remote pre-mammalian ancestors’ and the higher levels that are ‘unique specializations ofour species’. Bloch argues thatsuch an architecturealsounderlies human identity, which he calls the ‘blob’ in order to avoid confusion with any relevant existing theories. The blob can be separated into several levels that are ‘organically united’ with each other. The ‘core self’ is characterised by the pre-reflective experience of one’ sb ody as an agent located in space and differentiated from other entities. The ‘minimal self’, which is particularly developed in social species, involves the sense of continuity of oneself and others in time and requires episodic, short-term memory in order to process information about past behaviours and to plan future behaviours. Last but not least, the‘narrative self’ involvesautobiographicalmemorythatismoreorlessreflexively‘sustained’bynarratives that create an identity, invariant over time and contexts. Because this narrative self is infusedwithlanguageandmetarepresentations,itiseasilycaughtupinthepublicdiscourses onwhichanthropologiststendtofocus.But,toBloch,focusingonthese‘publicselves’,so readily accessible to the anthropological gaze, might be misleading. The blob is a multilayered phenomenon that results from a two-way process, one going from the cultural settings to the core layers of the blob, the other going from natural neuro-psychological processes to high-level self-narratives. While we applaud and admire Bloch’s proposal to reconcile anthropology with cognitive sciences, we are more sceptical about the way he tends to take up the mentalistic framing of social cognition as theory of mind that most psychologists tend to favour. Indeed, after characterising the blobs as naturally differentiated entities, Bloch defines social interactions as the mutual process of reading, penetrating or colonising the minds or the ‘blobs’ of others. The social and cultural world is thus based on a process of ‘interpenetration’ that allows us to go in and out of each other’s bodies and minds. Admittedly, this process of interpenetration has different scales of space

Seasonal and Spatial Variation of Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotopes in Mangrove Oysters (Crassostrea corteziensis) from the Northwest Coast of Mexico

The aim of this study was to evaluate how Crassostrea corteziensis interacts with its habitat (abiotic factors) and to examine the isotopic variations that may exist over different scales of space and time at a subtropical gradient. This information will contribute to the work required to understand the ecology of this oyster species. We analyzed stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) in oyster soft tissue and the concentrations of chlorophyll a, NH4 , and NO3 - in the waters of 6 lagoons during the dry and rainy seasons of 2008 and 2009. The mean C:N ratios in soft tissue were generally greater than 3.5 in the different lagoons and during both seasons, indicating a relatively high amount of lipids in the soft tissue related to reproductive activity. The isotopic variability between sites in this study (-25.5 to — 17.1‰ for δ13C and 6.5 to 13.7‰ for δ15N) suggested differences in the composition of suspended organic matter in the diet of this species at different locations, showing an opportunistic behavior that allowed us to detect differences on temporal and spatial scales. On a temporal scale, however, there was no difference in δ13C, which was most likely related to the high food availability and the observation that individuals tend to feed on and share the same overabundant prey. In the case of δ15N, significant temporal differences were evident in only a few lagoons. These differences were related to a differential contribution of NH4 and NO3 - as primary sources to the suspended organic matter pool during the 2 seasons. On a spatial scale, some lagoons showed significant differences (P < 0.05) and high δ15N values (>10‰) in addition to high concentrations of NH4 . Enriched δ15N values are often associated with an anthropogenic impact, as human and animal waste nitrate have δ15N values of approximately 10–20‰.

Interoperable atlases of the human brain

The last two decades have seen an unprecedented development of human brain mapping approaches at various spatial and temporal scales. Together, these have provided a large fundus of information on many different aspects of the human brain including micro- and macrostructural segregation, regional specialization of function, connectivity, and temporal dynamics. Atlases are central in order to integrate such diverse information in a topographically meaningful way. It is noteworthy, that the brain mapping field has been developed along several major lines such as structure vs. function, postmortem vs. in vivo, individual features of the brain vs. population-based aspects, or slow vs. fast dynamics. In order to understand human brain organization, however, it seems inevitable that these different lines are integrated and combined into a multimodal human brain model.To this aim, we held a workshop to determine the constraints of a multi-modal human brain model that are needed to enable (i) an integration of different spatial and temporal scales and data modalities into a common reference system, and (ii) efficient data exchange and analysis. As detailed in this report, to arrive at fully interoperable atlases of the human brain will still require much work at the frontiers of data acquisition, analysis, and representation. Among them, the latter may provide the most challenging task, in particular when it comes to representing features of vastly different scales of space, time and abstraction. The potential benefits of such endeavor, however, clearly outweigh the problems, as only such kind of multi-modal human brain atlas may provide a starting point from which the complex relationships between structure, function, and connectivity may be explored.

Ecosystem services in changing landscapes: An introduction

The concept of ecosystem services from landscapes is rapidly gaining momentum as a language to communicate values and benefits to scientists and lay alike. Landscape ecology has an enormous contribution to make to this field, and one could argue, uniquely so. Tools developed or adapted for landscape ecology are being increasingly used to assist with the quantification, modelling, mapping, and valuing of ecosystem services. Several of these tools and methods encased therein are described among the eleven papers presented in this special issue, and their application has the potential to facilitate the management and promotion of services within ecosystems. Papers are associated with each of the four key categories of services that ecosystems provide to humans: supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural. The papers represent work conducted in eleven different countries, especially from South America. Each carries a unique approach to address a particular question pertaining to a particular set of ecosystem services. These studies are designed to inform and improve the economic, environmental and social values of the ecosystem services. This knowledge should help to develop new management alternatives for sustaining and planning ecosystems and the services they provide at different scales in space and time. We believe that these papers will create interest and inform management of some potential methods to evaluate ecosystem services at the landscape level with an integrative approach, offering new tools for management and conservation.

Hybrid aeroacoustic computation of a low Mach number non-isothermal shear layer

Direct numerical simulation of noise generated by low speed flows requires strong numerical constraints related to the different scales in space and time for the dynamics of the flow and the propagation of sound waves. At low Mach numbers, the aeroacoustic hybrid approaches initiated by Hardin and Pope (1994) [5] based on separate calculations for the flow and for the acoustic radiation, are therefore attractive. In this paper, we show that such methods can be used for the general case of non-constant density or temperature. The starting point is an asymptotic expansion of the full Navier–Stokes equations that gives a set of equations that retain the presence of density and temperature inhomogeneities, allowing access to the dynamic quantities without the stability constraints related to acoustic waves. Then starting from the solutions of flow fluctuating quantities, we propose several possible developments of the equations to obtain the acoustic field. They lead to different sets of equations and source terms depending on the level of simplifying assumptions: the Perturbed Low Mach Number Approximation (PLMNA) or the linearized Euler equations (LEE) linearized with respect to the mean flow. An isothermal and a non-isothermal spatially evolving mixing layer are taken as test problems. The solutions of the proposed hybrid methods show a satisfactory behavior compared with the reference solution given by a compressible DNS.