Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

Machine Learning is the study of methods for programming computers to learn. Computers are applied to a wide range of tasks, and for most of these it is relatively easy for programmers to design and implement the necessary software. However, there are many tasks for which this is difficult or impossible. These can be divided into four general categories. First, there are problems for which there exist no human experts. For example, in modern automated manufacturing facilities, there is a need to predict machine failures before they occur by analyzing sensor readings. Because the machines are new, there are no human experts who can be interviewed by a programmer to provide the knowledge necessary to build a computer system. A machine learning system can study recorded data and subsequent machine failures and learn prediction rules. Second, there are problems where human experts exist, but where they are unable to explain their expertise. This is the case in many perceptual tasks, such as speech recognition, hand-writing recognition, and natural language understanding. Virtually all humans exhibit expert-level abilities on these tasks, but none of them can describe the detailed steps that they follow as they perform them. Fortunately, humans can provide machines with examples of the inputs and correct outputs for these tasks, so machine learning algorithms can learn to map the inputs to the outputs. Third, there are problems where phenomena are changing rapidly. In finance, for example, people would like to predict the future behavior of the stock market, of consumer purchases, or of exchange rates. These behaviors change frequently, so that even if a programmer could construct a good predictive computer program, it would need to be rewritten frequently. A learning program can relieve the programmer of this burden by constantly modifying and tuning a set of learned prediction rules. Fourth, there are applications that need to be customized for each computer user separately. Consider, for example, a program to filter unwanted electronic mail messages. Different users will need different filters. It is unreasonable to expect each user to program his or her own rules, and it is infeasible to provide every user with a software engineer to keep the rules up-to-date. A machine learning system can learn which mail messages the user rejects and maintain the filtering rules automatically. Machine learning addresses many of the same research questions as the fields of statistics, data mining, and psychology, but with differences of emphasis. Statistics focuses on understanding the phenomena that have generated the data, often with the goal of testing different hypotheses about those phenomena. Data mining seeks to find patterns in the data that are understandable by people. Psychological studies of human learning aspire to understand the mechanisms underlying the various learning behaviors exhibited by people (concept learning, skill acquisition, strategy change, etc.).

Machine learning

Probability Distributions.- Linear Models for Regression.- Linear Models for Classification.- Neural Networks.- Kernel Methods.- Sparse Kernel Machines.- Graphical Models.- Mixture Models and EM.- Approximate Inference.- Sampling Methods.- Continuous Latent Variables.- Sequential Data.- Combining Models.

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

This document is an international evidence-based guideline on the diagnosis and management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and is a collaborative effort of the American Thoracic Society, the European Respiratory Society, the Japanese Respiratory Society, and the Latin American Thoracic Association. It represents the current state of knowledge regarding idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and contains sections on definition and epidemiology, risk factors, diagnosis, natural history, staging and prognosis, treatment, and monitoring disease course. For the diagnosis and treatment sections, pragmatic GRADE evidence-based methodology was applied in a question-based format. For each diagnosis and treatment question, the committee graded the quality of the evidence available (high, moderate, low, or very low), and made a recommendation (yes or no, strong or weak). Recommendations were based on majority vote. It is emphasized that clinicians must spend adequate time with patients to discuss patients' values and preferences and decide on the appropriate course of action.

An Official ATS/ERS/JRS/ALAT Statement: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: Evidence-Based Guidelines for Diagnosis and Management

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a complex disorder for which currently there is no accepted definition. Having a uniform standard for diagnosing and classifying AKI would enhance our ability to manage these patients. Future clinical and translational research in AKI will require collaborative networks of investigators drawn from various disciplines, dissemination of information via multidisciplinary joint conferences and publications, and improved translation of knowledge from pre-clinical research. We describe an initiative to develop uniform standards for defining and classifying AKI and to establish a forum for multidisciplinary interaction to improve care for patients with or at risk for AKI. Members representing key societies in critical care and nephrology along with additional experts in adult and pediatric AKI participated in a two day conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in September 2005 and were assigned to one of three workgroups. Each group's discussions formed the basis for draft recommendations that were later refined and improved during discussion with the larger group. Dissenting opinions were also noted. The final draft recommendations were circulated to all participants and subsequently agreed upon as the consensus recommendations for this report. Participating societies endorsed the recommendations and agreed to help disseminate the results. The term AKI is proposed to represent the entire spectrum of acute renal failure. Diagnostic criteria for AKI are proposed based on acute alterations in serum creatinine or urine output. A staging system for AKI which reflects quantitative changes in serum creatinine and urine output has been developed. We describe the formation of a multidisciplinary collaborative network focused on AKI. We have proposed uniform standards for diagnosing and classifying AKI which will need to be validated in future studies. The Acute Kidney Injury Network offers a mechanism for proceeding with efforts to improve patient outcomes.

Acute Kidney Injury Network: report of an initiative to improve outcomes in acute kidney injury

P. Lopez-Lopez was supported by FPU grant of the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion (reference AP2005-0874) and wrote this paper during a pre-doctoral stay at Donana Biological Station (CSIC) in Sevilla, Spain. The funders of this study (Spanish Ministry of Education, Natural Research Ltd. and Junta de Andalucia) had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Solving man-induced large-scale conservation problems: the Spanish imperial eagle and power lines.

This paper presents a multimodal biometric identification system based on the combination of geometrical, palm and finger print features of the human hand. The right hand images are acquired by a commercial scanner with a 150 dpi resolution. The geometrical features are obtained from the binarized images and consist on 15 measures. A support vector machines is used as verifier. The palm print and finger texture are obtained by means of different 20 Gabor phase encoding schemes. A robust coordinate system is defined to assure the image alignment. A Hamming distance and threshold are used for verifying the identity. A feature, score and decision level fusion results have shown the improvement of the combined scheme.

Low Cost Multimodal Biometric identification System Based on Hand Geometry, Palm and Finger Print Texture

Summary


1.  The booted eagle Hieraaetus pennatus is a poorly known and scarce raptor that breeds in Spain. In Donana National Park (south-west Spain) its population has increased from only six breeding pairs in the early 1980s to about 150 today.



2.  In order to guide habitat management for this raptor in Donana National Park, we related nesting habitat selection to breeding success.



3.  Birds withstood some human disturbance when nesting, choosing sites closer to pastures besides marshes, footpaths and crops than would occur in a random distribution. Birds also selected areas near to marsh and stands of cork oak Quercus suber.



4.  Trees used for nesting were wider and taller than would occur at random. They were usually in small groups or were large isolated trees, typically eucalyptus (Eucaliptus spp.).



5.  The most productive nests were close to marshland and stone pine trees Pinus pinea.



6.  Habitat management to improve the breeding success of booted eagles in Donana should include: (i) retaining small groups of trees or large isolated trees, especially eucalyptus and cork oaks close to marshland, isolated buildings and crops; (ii) creating clearings in stone pine plantations; (iii) burying potentially dangerous power lines to reduce collision risks; (iv) clearing some areas of scrubland to increase the rabbit population; and (v) controlling forest activities, especially in the breeding season.



7.  The increase in booted eagle populations in western Europe during recent decades may be a consequence of the species’ capacity to adapt to environmental change. Deforestation policies designed to favour agricultural use implemented during the second half of the 20th century have not had a detrimental effect on this raptor.



8.  Our work demonstrates how scarce and important organisms can be favoured by sensitive management in forestry and agricultural habitats.

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Nesting habitat selection by booted eagles Hieraaetus pennatus and implications for management

Over a period of 19 years, we studied 237 breeding attempts of Spanish Imperial Eagles (Aquila adalberti) in Donana National Park (southwestern Spain), including 29 pairs with at least one immature member, to investigate age-related effects on population fecundity. Without considering effect of territory quality, adult pairs were signifi cantly more productive than immature pairs. Highly signifi cant differences in breeding performance among territories were independent of age-classes of birds occupying them. Low-quality territories were more frequently occupied by immature pairs, whereas high-quality territories were occupied mostly or exclusively by adult birds. Therefore, age and territory quality appear to be interrelated. We found no effect on average population fecundity due to breeding by immature pairs. Received 13 November 2001, accepted 26 October 2002. RESUMEN.—Para estudiar los efectos relacionados con la edad sobre la fecundidad de la poblacion de Aguilas Imperiales Ibericas (Aquila adalberti) en el Parque Naconal de Donana (SO Espana), analizamos 237 intentos de nidifi cacion, incluyendo 29 de parejas con al menos un miembro inmaduro, a lo largo de un periodo de 19 anos. Sin considerar el efecto de la calidad de territorio, las parejas de adultos fueron signifi cativamente mas productivas que las parejas con inmaduros. Las diferencias altamente signifi cativas en los resultados reproductivos entre territorios fueron independientes de la clase de edad de los individuos que los ocupaban. Los territorios de baja calidad eran mas frecuentemente ocupados por parejas con inmaduros, mientras que los territorios de alta calidad fueron ocupados mayoritaria o exclusivamente por aves adultas. Por tanto, la edad y la calidad del territorio estan interrelacionadas. No encontramos ningun efecto de la nidifi cacion de inmaduros sobre la fecundidad media de la poblacion.

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Age and territory-quality effects on fecundity in the spanish imperial eagle (aquila adalberti)

I studied factors influencing dispersal distances in 30 young Spanish imperial eagles (Aquila adalberti) radio-tagged in southwestern Spain in 1986–1990. The mean dispersal distance between the natal nest and the settling area was 138 km. Every young bird reached its maximum dispersal distance within 4 months of its departure from the natal population. No significant differences between the sexes were detected in maximum dispersal distance, but females spent more time in the more distant settling areas. Dispersal distance was not related to the date of departure from the natal population. Dispersal distance was significantly longer for birds that hatched earlier and that had lower blood urea levels, indicating that better-nourished young had longer displacements. These results are not in accordance with the competitive displacement hypothesis.

Miguel Ferrer

Papers

Solving man-induced large-scale conservation problems: the Spanish imperial eagle and power lines.

Low Cost Multimodal Biometric identification System Based on Hand Geometry, Palm and Finger Print Texture

Nesting habitat selection by booted eagles Hieraaetus pennatus and implications for management

Age and territory-quality effects on fecundity in the spanish imperial eagle (aquila adalberti)

Ontogeny of dispersal distances in young Spanish imperial eagles