Intrinsic population growth rate (r(max)) is an important parameter for many ecological applications, such as population risk assessment and harvest management. However, r(max) can be a difficult parameter to estimate, particularly for long-lived species, for which appropriate life table data or abundance time series are typically not obtainable. We describe a method for improving estimates of ...

The Adonis ladybird, Hippodamia variegataGoeze (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) is known as an important predator of the Common pistachio psylla, Agonoscena pistaciae Burckhardt & Lauterer (Hemiptera: Psyllidae). Despite using the selective pesticides to manage the pests in the pistachio orchards, these chemicals have influenced non-target organisms like predators and parasitoids. ...

-the cowpea aphid, aphis craccivora koch, is an important pest of robinia pseudoacacia frisia. life table parameters of a. craccivora were determined under natural (16- 33ºc and 32-89% rh, respectively) and laboratory (25 ± 1ºc, rh of 70 ± 5% and a photoperiod of 16:8 h (l: d) conditions. the data were analyzed using the age-stage, two-sex life table theory. each experiment was replicated 45 ti...

background: northern regions of iran have been encountered to dominate malignancies of gastrointestinal (gi) tract. we came to examine the total excess mortality due to the gi cancer in mazandaran province. methods: socio-demographic and clinical data of 484 patients with gi cancer collected during the years 1990-1991were available from babol cancer registry. patients were followed up for 15 ye...

life table parameters of aphis pomi degeer (hemiptera: aphididae) were determined on two host plants: apple (malus pumila l.) and flowering quince (chaenomeles japonica lindl.). this study was carried out under laboratory conditions (25 ± 1 ºc and rh of 70 ± 5 % and a photoperiod of 16: 8 h (l: d). the survivorship from first instar nymphs to adult was very close in m. pumila and c. japonica. t...

In this work we present a novel approach to transfer knowledge between reinforcement learning tasks with continuous states and actions, where the transition and policy functions are approximated by Gaussian Processes (GPs). The novelty in the proposed approach lies in the idea of transferring qualitative knowledge between tasks, we do so by using the GPs’ hyper-parameters used to represent the ...

Actuaries and demographers have a long tradition of using collateral data to improve mortality estimates. Three main approaches have been used to accomplish the improvement — mortality laws, model life tables, and relational methods. The present paper introduces a regression model that incorporates all of the beneficial principles from each of these approaches. The model is demonstrated on mort...

In 1992, I wrote an article on a method of modifying the Decennial US Life Table to accommodate any pattern of excess mortality expressed in terms of excess death rate (EDR), for the specific purpose of calculating the reduced life expectancy, e. I believe this was the first article published in the Journal of Insurance Medicine (JIM) that dealt specifically with life expectancy as an index of ...

BACKGROUND The estimation of health impacts involves often uncertain input variables and assumptions which have to be incorporated into the model structure. These uncertainties may have significant effects on the results obtained with model, and, thus, on decision making. Fine particles (PM2.5) are believed to cause major health impacts, and, consequently, uncertainties in their health impact a...