A family of probability densities, which has proved useful in modelling the size distributions of various phenomena, including incomes and earnings, human settlement sizes, oil-field volumes and particle sizes, is introduced. The distribution, named herein as the double Pareto-lognormal or dPlN distribution, arises as that of the state of a geometric Brownian motion (GBM), with lognormally dist...

Payment systems are one of the key Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) and have showed remarkable progress over the past two decades. The first half of this chapter focuses on the evolutionary process of payment systems, starting with the Deferred Net Settlement (DNS) system and progressing to the RealTime Gross Settlement (RTGS) system. Subsequently, much more sophisticated payment systems...

Processes occurring early in the life stages of corals can greatly influence the demography of coral populations, and successful settlement of coral larvae that leads to recruitment is a critical life history stage for coral reef ecosystems. Although corals in Singapore persist in one the world's most anthropogenically impacted reef systems, our understanding of the role of coral settlement in ...

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) provides a model of human-induced environmental degradation. A reliable chronology is central to understanding the cultural, ecological, and demographic processes involved. Radiocarbon dates for the earliest stratigraphic layers at Anakena, Easter Island, and analysis of previous radiocarbon dates imply that the island was colonized late, about 1200 A.D. Substantial eco...

The increased abundance of ephemeral algae and corresponding decline in perennial fucoids observed in eutrophic (nutrient-rich) waters could be caused by eutrophication-driven shifts in the competitive relationship between the 2 groups as early as the germling stage. During the initial post-settlement period germlings are exposed to large temporal variations in temperature, which may influence ...

Both ecological and social factors play an important role in determining the structure of animal settlement patterns. While the ecological factors determining animal settlement are generally well known, the relative importance of social factors in mediating fine-scale settlement choices is poorly understood. As a result, we have little knowledge of why individuals choose to settle near specific...

Settlement size predicts extreme variation in the rates and magnitudes of many social and ecological processes in human societies. Yet, the factors that drive human settlement-size variation remain poorly understood. Size variation among economically integrated settlements tends to be heavy tailed such that the smallest settlements are extremely common and the largest settlements extremely larg...

This paper examines the use of sorting by defendants as a strategy for lowering their overall costs of litigation. The effectiveness of this strategy relies on the defendant’s ability to bundle settlement offers with some other variable that is valued differently by plaintiffs. The example I examine in this paper is settlement delay. For example, if plaintiffs have different time costs of pursu...

Sewage solids are usually characterized by non-specific parameters such as suspended solids. The suspended solids has been shown to be an inadequate index for advanced water treatment processes. In this study, the sewages solids particle size distribution was used to provide more detailed information on sewage characteristic. It is hoped that, by introducing particle size distribution, the mech...