We tested the hypothesis that the effect of forest basal area on tree growth interacts with macro-ecological gradients of primary productivity, using a large dataset of eucalypt tree growth collected across temperate and sub- tropical mesic Australia. To do this, we derived an index of inter-tree competition based on stand basal area (stand BA) relative to the climatically determined potential ...

Few studies have examined how below-ground interactions among plants affect the abundance and community composition of symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi. Here, we combined observations during drought with a removal experiment to examine the effects of below-ground interactions with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) shrubs on the growth of pinyon pines (Pinus edulis), and the abundance and community composi...

First, though the Draft Guidelines appear to apply a “rule of reason” or effects-based approach to most vertical restraints, Part I.3 and Part I, Chapter 1 carve out resale price maintenance (RPM) practices on the ground that they “usually have significant anticompetitive effects and, as a general rule, they tend to impede fair competition.” Given the economic theory and empirical evidence show...

We study strongly correlated ground and excited states of rotating quasi-2D Fermi gases constituted of a small number of dipole-dipole interacting particles with dipole moments polarized perpendicular to the plane of motion. As the number of atoms grows, the system enters an intermediate regime, where ground states are subject to a competition between distinct bulk-edge configurations. This eff...

BACKGROUND Studies of animal mating systems increasingly emphasize female multiple mating and cryptic sexual selection, particularly sperm competition. Males under intense sperm competition may manipulate sperm quantity and quality through masturbation, which could waste sperm and decrease fertility. I examined the factors influencing masturbation by male Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris) i...

We investigate entanglement between electrons in serially coupled double quantum dots attached to non interacting leads. In addition to local repulsion we consider the influence of capacitive inter-dot interaction. We show how the competition between extended Kondo and local singlet phases determines the ground state and thereby the entanglement.

As time-based competition is gathering ground among leading companies, express checkouts become more and more widely used for waiting time reduction. Express line systems, however, can be formed and operated in several ways. This article reviews the most important management issues related to the analysis and improvement of waiting process at the checkouts of ex-

We compute the ground-state phase diagram of the Hubbard and frustrated Hubbard models on the square lattice with density matrix embedding theory using clusters of up to 16 sites. We provide an error model to estimate the reliability of the computations and complexity of the physics at different points in the diagram. We find superconductivity in the ground-state as well as competition between ...

This paper describes MRESim, a multi-robot exploration simulator which aims to provide a middle ground between the RoboCup Agent and Virtual Robot competitions. A detailed description of this new infrastructure is provided, followed by examples and case studies of successful research outcomes arising from the use of MRESim. Our work on MRESim won the 2014 Infrastructure competition of the RoboC...