Designing woody fuel sampling methods that quickly, accurately and efficiently assess biomass at relevant spatial scales requires extensive knowledge of each sampling method’s strengths, weaknesses and tradeoffs. In this study, we compared various modifications of three common sampling methods (planar intercept, fixed-area microplot and photoload) for estimating fine woody surface fuel componen...

We consider a dynamical system given by an area-preserving map on a two-dimensional phase plane and consider a one-dimensional line of initial conditions within this plane. We record the number of iterates it takes a trajectory to escape from a bounded region of the plane as a function along the line of initial conditions, forming an "escape-time plot." For a chaotic system, this plot is in gen...

Nematode population densities in field plots were estimated by collecting samples consisting of 12 soil cores. Plots encompassed a variety of plant hosts and sampling dates, and provided data on the population densities of seven species of plant-parasitic nematodes. Three separate samples were collected per plot on each sampling date to obtain estimates of the mean and variance of numbers for e...

This paper proposed control strategies for the modern mechatronic Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) System using three different techniques; The Ziegler-Nichols, Linear Quadratic and Pole-Placement methods. The results of the system responses of the designed control schemes were successfully simulated using MATLAB. Comparing the results showed that controller implemented using the Pole-P...

Using a variable frequency drive (VFD) in order to drive the vacuum pump of a milking machine allows a dramatic reduction in energy use, while still producing equivalent vacuum stability. The VFD technology is able to adjust the rate of air removal from the milking system by changing the speed of the vacuum pump motor. A PID controller was developed in order to command the electric motor drivin...

Traditionally, statistical summaries of categorical data often have been visualized using graphical plots of central moments (e.g., mean and standard deviation), or cumulants (e.g., median and quartiles) by box plots. In this work we reexamine the box plot and its relatives and develop a new hybrid summary plot that combines moment, cumulant, and density information. In view of the important ro...

Article history: Received 16 March 2014 Received in revised form 3 May 2015 Accepted 8 May 2015 Available online 15 May 2015 The lack of an observable variable measuring inflationary expectation has been a major difficulty in empirical work on hyperinflation. In this paper we propose a direct measure of expectations—the black-market interest rate in Shanghai—and study the behavior of money dema...

BACKGROUND Statistical tests of heterogeneity are very popular in meta-analyses, as heterogeneity might indicate subgroup effects. Lack of demonstrable statistical heterogeneity, however, might obscure clinical heterogeneity, meaning clinically relevant subgroup effects. METHODS A qualitative, visual method to explore the potential for subgroup effects was provided by a modification of the fo...

Field and ground layer vegetation in a mature Norway spruce (Picea abies L.) forest of Myrtillus-type in Kuorevesi, southern Finland, was sampled on 31 plots of sizes 0.5, 1 and 2 m to find optimal balance among sampling effort, number of observed species, and accuracy of mean species-cover estimates. Rarefaction and bootstrapping were used in the data analysis. According to the results, the ad...

A ventilation simulator is implemented in android mobile devices to simulate the mechanics of the human lung. The simulation results shall be displayed by a dynamic plot to illustrate the trend of the ventilation parameters in real-time. The chosen software library to perform the plots is AndrodPlot [1]. The library provides basic features and tutorials for dynamic plotting. Tests were performe...