Showing papers by "Amazon.com published in 2001"

Soybean cultivation as a threat to the environment in Brazil

Abstract: Summary Soybeans represent a recent and powerful threat to tropical biodiversity in Brazil. Developing effective strategies to contain and minimize the environmental impact of soybean cultivation requires understanding of both the forces that drive the soybean advance and the many ways that soybeans and their associated infrastructure catalyse destructive processes. The present paper presents an up-to-date review of the advance of soybeans in Brazil, its environmental and social costs and implications for development policy. Soybeans are driven by global market forces, making them different from many of the land-use changes that have dominated the scene in Brazil so far, particularly in Amazonia. Soybeans are much more damaging than other crops because they justify massive transportation infrastructure projects that unleash a chain of events leading to destruction of natural habitats over wide areas in addition to what is directly cultivated for soybeans. The capacity of global markets to absorb additional production represents the most likely limit to the spread of soybeans, although Brazil may someday come to see the need for discouraging rather than subsidizing this crop because many of its effects are unfavourable to national interests, including severe concentration of land tenure and income, expulsion of population to Amazonian frontier, and gold-mining, as well as urban areas, and the opportunity cost of substantial drains on government resources. The multiple impacts of soybean expansion on biodiversity and other development considerations have several implications for policy: (1) protected areas need to be created in advance of soybean frontiers, (2) elimination of the many subsidies that speed soybean expansion beyond what would occur otherwise from market forces is to be encouraged, (3) studies to assess the costs of social and environmental impacts associated with soybean expansion are urgently required, and (4) the environmental-impact regulatory system requires strengthening, including mechanisms for commitments not to implant specific infrastructure projects that are judged to have excessive impacts.

Search query autocompletion

Abstract: A system for facilitating online searches suggests query autocompletion strings (terms and/or phrases) to users during the query entry process, wherein the suggested strings are based on specific attributes of the particular database access system (20) being searched. A string extraction component (46) associated with a database access system (20), such as a web site of an online merchant, periodically generates a dataset (30) that contains the autocompletion strings for the system. The datasets (30) are preferably biased to favor the database items that are currently the most popular (e.g., best selling or most frequently viewed), and may be customized to particular users or user groups. The datasets (30) are transmitted to users' computing devices (40), which may include handheld and other wireless devices (40B) that lack a full keyboard. An autocompletion client (50) which runs on the computing devices in association with a browser (54) uses the datasets (30) to suggest the autocompletion strings as users enter queries that are directed to the database access system (20).

Use of product viewing histories of users to identify related products

Abstract: Various methods are disclosed for monitoring user browsing activities that indicate user interests in particular products or other items, and for using such information to identify items that are related to one another. In one embodiment, relationships between products within an online catalog are determined by identifying products that are frequently viewed by users within the same browsing session (e.g., products A and B are related because a significant portion of those who viewed A also viewed B). The resulting item relatedness data is preferably stored in a table that maps items to sets of related items. The table may be used to provide personalized product recommendations to users, and/or to supplement product detail pages with lists of related products. In one embodiment, the table is used to provide session-specific product recommendations to users that are based on the products viewed by the user during the current browsing session.

Personalized recommendations of items represented within a database

Abstract: A computer-implemented service recommends items to a user based on items previously selected by the user, such as items previously purchased, viewed, or placed in an electronic shopping cart by the user. The items may, for example, be products represented within a database of an online merchant. In one embodiment, the service generates the recommendations using a previously generated table that maps items to respective lists of “similar” items. To generate the table, historical data indicative of users' affinities for particular items is processed periodically to identify correlations between item interests of users (e.g., items A and B are similar because a large portion of those who selected A also selected B). Personal recommendations are generated by accessing the table to identify items similar to those selected by the user. In one embodiment, items are recommended based on the current contents of a user's shopping cart.

Environmental impacts of Brazil's Tucuruí Dam: unlearned lessons for hydroelectric development in Amazonia.

Abstract: Brazil's Tucurui Dam provides valuable lessons for improving decision-making on major public works in Amazonia and elsewhere. Together with social impacts, which were reviewed in a companion paper, the project's environmental costs are substantial. Monetary costs include costs of construction and maintenance and opportunity costs of natural resources (such as timber) and of the money invested by the Brazilian government. Environmental costs include forest loss, leading to both loss of natural ecosystems and to greenhouse gas emissions. Aquatic ecosystems are heavily affected by the blockage of fish migration and by creation of anoxic environments. Decay of vegetation left in the reservoir creates anoxic water that can corrode turbines, as well as producing methane and providing conditions for methylation of mercury. Defoliants were considered for removing forest in the submergence area but plans were aborted amid a public controversy. Another controversy surrounded impacts of defoliants used to prevent regrowth along the transmission line. Mitigation measures included archaeological and faunal salvage and creation of a "gene bank" on an island in the reservoir. Decision-making in the case of Tucurui was virtually uninfluenced by environmental studies, which were done concurrently with construction. The dam predates Brazil's 1986 requirement of an Environmental Impact Assessment. Despite limitations, research results provide valuable information for future dams. Extensive public-relations use of the research effort and of mitigation measures such as faunal salvage were evident. Decision-making was closely linked to the influence of construction firms, the military, and foreign financial interests in both the construction project and the use of the resulting electrical power (most of which is used for aluminum smelting). Social and environmental costs received virtually no consideration when decisions were made, an outcome facilitated by a curtain of secrecy surrounding many aspects of the project. Despite improvements in Brazil's system of environmental impact assessment since the Tucurui reservoir was filled in 1984, many essential features of the decision-making system remain unchanged.

Vertical stratification of bat communities in primary forests of Central Amazon, Brazil

Abstract: The vertical stratification of bat communities in primary forests of the Central Amazon (80 km north of Manaus, Brazil) was investigated using capture nets in the canopy (17 to 30 m high) and in the understorey (from 0-2.5 m). Seventeen sites were sampled during one year (3398.5 mistnet-hours) and 936 individuals captured, belonging to 6 families, 29 genera and 51 species. Utilizing Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMMDS), a well-marked vertical stratification between the communities was verified, the canopy being the more utilized region. Fifteen species were exclusively captured in the canopy, 10 were predominantly captured in the canopy, and 12 species were exclus ively captured in ground nets. Species recorded and the communities they form were analysed using a matrix of guilds. The matrix obtained had 24 cells. A guild composed by background cluttered/gleaning frugivores was the richest in species (19), followed by background cluttered/gleaning insectivores (12 species). The results illustrate that when studying tropical forests it is highly desirable to involve both the lower and the upper part of the forests; otherwise the fauna would be merely subsampled, thus under-estimating the status and abundance of some species.

Digital media resource messaging

Abstract: A digital media resource messaging system provides a convenient digital media resource viewing, managing, organizing, and editing platform that facilitates enhanced resource exchange by storing and forwarding digital media resources via a server between multiple resource-sharing partners designated by the user. In one embodiment, the digital media resource messaging system includes services to view, manage, organize, edit, and exchange digital images and video sequences.

Plant-soil interactions in multistrata agroforestry in the humid tropics

Abstract: Multistrata agroforestry systems with tree crops comprise a variety of land use systems ranging from plantations of coffee, cacao or tea with shade trees to highly diversified homegardens and multi-storey tree gardens. Research on plant-soil interactions has concentrated on the former. Tree crop-based land use systems are more efficient in maintaining soil fertility than annual cropping systems. Certain tree crop plantations have remained productive for many decades, whereas homegardens have existed in the same place for centuries. However, cases of fertility decline under tree crops, including multistrata agroforestry systems, have also been reported, and research on the causal factors (both socioeconomic and biophysical) is needed. Plantation establishment is a critical phase, during which the tree crops require inputs but do not provide economic outputs. In larger plantations, tree crops are often established together with a leguminous cover crop, whereas in smallholder agriculture, the initial association with food crops and short-lived cash crops can have both socioeconomic and biological advantages. Fertilizers applied to, and financed by, such crops can help to `recapitalize' soil fertility and improve the development conditions of the young tree crops. Favorable effects on soil fertility and crop nutrition have been observed in associations of tree crops with N2-fixing legume trees, especially under N-deficient conditions. Depending on site conditions, the substitution of legume `service' trees with fast-growing timber trees may lead to problems of competition for nutrients and water, which may be alleviated through appropriate planting designs. The reduction of nutrient leaching and the recycling of subsoil nutrients are ways to increase the availability of nutrients in multistrata systems, and at the same time, reduce negative environmental impacts. These processes are optimized through fuller occupation of the soil volume by roots, allowing a limited amount of competition between associated species. The analysis of temporal and spatial patterns of water and nutrient availability within a system helps to optimize the use of soil resources, e.g., by showing where more plants can be added or fertilizer rates reduced. Important research topics in multistrata agroforestry include plantation establishment, plant arrangement and management for maximum complementarity of resource use in space and time, and the optimization of soil biological processes, such as soil organic matter build-up and the stabilization and improvement of soil structure by roots, fauna and microflora.

Identifying and providing targeted content to users having common interests

Abstract: A computer process is disclosed for selecting items to present or recommend to users based on the referring sites accessed by such users. The process includes tracking referrals of users from referring sites to a target site, and recording the item selections of the referred users from an electronic catalog of the target site. The process may also include analyzing the recorded item selections of the users to identify, for a particular subset of the referring sites, a set of items that correspond to group preferences of users referred to the target site by the subset of referring sites. These identified items may thereafter be presented to users who access a site that is a member of the subset of referring sites.

Hybrid machine/human computing arrangement

Abstract: A hybrid machine/human computing arrangement which advantageously involves humans to assist a computer to solve particular tasks, allowing the computer to solve the tasks more efficiently. In one embodiment, a computer system decomposes a task, such as, for example, image or speech comparison, into subtasks for human performance, and requests the performances. The computer system programmatically conveys the request to a central coordinating server of the hybrid machine/human computing arrangement, which in turn dispatches the subtasks to personal computers operated by the humans. The humans perform the subtasks and provide the results back to the server, which receives the responses, and generates a result for the task based at least in part on the results of the human performances.

European Gastronomy into the 21st Century

Abstract: 'European Gastronomy into the 21st Century' is a unique text examining the development and origins of European food traditions within social, economic and geographical contexts. Gastronomy is the art and science of good eating and drinking: a concept that extends outwards to embrace wider notions of tradition, culture, society and civilisation. This book provides a rigorous, well researched and much needed treatment of the subject, systematically outlining: * the development of European gastronomic tradition, and the social, economic, philosophical and geographical contexts of change * the experiences, philosophies and relative contributions of great gastronomes, past and present * the interplay of traditional and contemporary influences on modern gastronomy * the relationship between gastronomy and and travel and tourism * salient issues of nutrition, food hygiene and health promotion Taking an all-encompassing look at the subject of gastronomy past, present and future, 'European Gastronomy into the 21st Century' uses example menus and case studies to demonstrate the theory. It also provides an insight into the business arena, using key destination restaurants to illustrate management techniques and marketing issues. Accessible and highly structured, the book guides the reader through its wide-ranging and thought-provoking content.

User-to-user payment service with payee-specific pay pages

Abstract: A network-based payment service provides various features for facilitating online, user-to-user payments. One feature involves the ability for users to define customized pay pages for receiving payments from other users. The pay pages are preferably hosted by a service provider site that handles the collection process, and may be created using pay page templates that specify the layouts and behaviors of the pay pages. In one embodiment, a pay page owner can also define one or more “pay boxes” to allow payments to be initiated from other web sites, which may include the web sites of associates who receive commissions on resulting payments. Another feature involves the ability for users to make single-action payments from web sites external to the service provider site. Also disclosed are various features for controlling access to content and services based on whether, or an extent to which, a visitor has made voluntary or mandatory payments.

Increases in sales rank as a measure of interest

Abstract: A facility for displaying consumption information about items is described. The facility uses a current consumption rank for each of a number of items and at least one or more previous consumption ranks for each of these items to attribute to at least a portion of the items a score characterizing the magnitude of increase in the consumption rank of the item. The facility then generates a display incorporating at least a portion of the attributed scores in the corresponding items.

Generating current order fulfillment plans based on expected future orders

Abstract: A method, system, and computer-readable medium for dynamically generating actual fulfillment plans for a current order or a potential order so as to enhance the future fulfillment process for expected future orders is described. In some situations, actual delivery information based on one or more such actual fulfillment plans will then be provided to a customer, such as by displaying actual delivery date and/or time before or during the ordering process based on one or more actual fulfillment plans that can be or will be used to fulfill the order. A variety of types of criteria can be used to evaluate the effects of using a fulfillment plan to fulfill a current order, including criteria that consider the modeled future cost of fulfilling expected future orders, such as an overall cost of fulfilling all orders during a specified time period that is at least partially in the future.

Hosted services for collecting payments from and providing personalized content to web site visitors

Abstract: A network-based payment service provides various features for facilitating online, user-to-user payments. One feature involves the ability for users to define customized pay pages for receiving payments from other users. The pay pages are preferably hosted by a service provider site that handles the collection process, and may be created using pay page templates that specify the layouts and behaviors of the pay pages. In one embodiment, a pay page owner can also define one or more “pay boxes” to allow payments to be initiated from other web sites, which may include the web sites of associates who receive commissions on resulting payments. Another feature involves the ability for users to make single-action payments from web sites external to the service provider site. Also disclosed are various features for controlling access to content and services based on whether, or an extent to which, a visitor has made voluntary or mandatory payments.

Dynamically determining actual delivery information for orders based on actual order fulfillment plans

Abstract: A method, system, and computer-readable medium for dynamically generating actual fulfillment plans for a current order or a potential order so as to enhance the future fulfillment process for expected future orders is described. In some situations, actual delivery information based on one or more such actual fulfillment plans will then be provided to a customer, such as by displaying actual delivery date and/or time before or during the ordering process based on one or more actual fulfillment plans that can be or will be used to fulfill the order. A variety of types of criteria can be used to evaluate the effects of using a fulfillment plan to fulfill a current order, including criteria that consider the modeled future cost of fulfilling expected future orders, such as an overall cost of fulfilling all orders during a specified time period that is at least partially in the future.

Life on the Leaf Litter: The Ecology of Anolis nitens tandai in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract: We studied the ecology of Anolis nitens tandai at three localities in the central and western Amazon of Brazil. The lizards were largely restricted to leaf litter microhabitats in relatively undisturbed rain forest. Activity occurred throughout the day. Body temperatures of active lizards averaged 27.7 ± 0.3 C and were similar to air and substratum temperatures in the microhabitats in which lizards were found. Microhabitats containing lizards were slightly warmer than a random set of microhabitats suggesting that the lizards selected relatively warm sites within a relatively cool forest habitat, but avoidance of treefalls suggests lizards do not seek out the warmest available microhabitats. The diet consisted mostly of grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, and insect larvae. Mean prey size increased with lizard body size, and lizards varied in how full their stomachs were. Sexual dimorphism in mass and limb length exists. Compared with other subspecies of Anolis nitens, A. n. tandai has relatively lon...

Method and apparatus for creating extractors, field information objects and inheritance hierarchies in a framework for retrieving semistructured information

Abstract: According to the invention, a system and method for extracting information from a semistructured information source. The system includes a listing stack for holding extracted information. A means for matching at least one extractor to the semistructured information to return a list of potential matches is also included. The system can also include a means for iterating through the list of potential matches and a means for retrieving information from a particular match in the list of potential matches. A means for adding a particular match into the listing stack can also be part of the system.

Computer services and methods for collecting payments from and providing content to web users

Abstract: A network-based payment service provides functionality for site operators to add payment links or objects to their sites. When a user selects such a link or object, the payment service may charge a fee to an account of the user, and may redirect a browser of the user to content associated with the link. In some use cases, the payment service may also cause all or a portion of the fee to be divided between multiple entities or site operators; for example, a portion may be paid to an entity responsible for hosting or publishing the payment link or object, and another portion may be paid to an entity that hosts or provides the associated content.

Phosphorus management for perennial crops in central Amazonian upland soils

Abstract: The present contribution discusses the soil P status of central Amazonian upland soils, the effects of tree crops on soil P availability and the factors controlling soil P cycling in land use systems with tree crops. Soil fertility management has to target the prevalent P deficiency by adequate P fertilization, especially in southern and northern municipalities of central Amazonia where the largest areas with severe P deficiency are found. P fixation to clay minerals is not a major obstacle for P management in the highly weathered upland soils of the central Amazon due to their low Al- and Fe-oxide contents. Low total soil P amounts are mainly responsible for low P availability. Tree crops are found to be especially suitable for land use under low-P-input conditions. Their large P return to soil by litterfall and pruning improves soil P availability. Additionally, litter quality affects P release and soil P availability. Both aspects, quantity and quality effects, are strongly dependent on tree species. Phosphorus sorption does not seem to be reduced by different litter types confirming earlier results that P fixation is not a major problem in central Amazonian upland soils. In conclusion, biological approaches are more important than physical approaches to improve soil P availability in central Amazonian Oxisols. With large P cycling through soil microbial biomass and between plant and soil, a higher availability of added P can be maintained and P applications only need to replenish P exports by harvest. Low P additions will improve productivity also for long-term uptake by trees. This is of high importance in regions with poor infrastructure and the lack of financial resources.

Apparatus for producing exploded view and animation of assembling, and method thereof

Abstract: An apparatus and method for producing an exploded view of an assembly. The invention includes an input unit, a geometrical data memory for storing geometrical data of parts composing an assembly, a/m for storing assembling process data composed of parts to be attached and attaching directions, a calculating unit for displaying the assembly to a display based on geometrical data, and apparatus for determining arranged positions of the parts in a disassembled state based on assembling process data and geometrical data, thereby producing an exploded view of the display corresponding to the arranged positions.

Association of the maternal experience and changes in adiposity measured by BMI, waist:hip ratio and percentage body fat in urban Brazilian women.

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to determine the association between the maternal experience and changes in adiposity measured by BM! percentage body fat (PBF) and waist:hip ratio (WHR). In a cross-sectional study 203 women were recruited at health care and educational facilities in Brasilia Brazil. These women were divided into three groups: fifty-nulliparous (no full-term pregnancy); sixty-primiparous (one full-term pregnancy); eighty-seven multiparous (two or more full-term pregnancies). Socio-economic behavioural reproductive and dietary data were collected. All the women were measured for weight height skinfold thicknesses and waist and hip circumferences. Analysis of covariance was used to measure the differences among the three groups in relation to BMI PBF and WHR controlling for the following covariates: age; socio-economic status; use of oral contraceptives; smoking; energy intake level; cooking oil intake; physical activity level; lactation score; parity. The three groups of women differed significantly for BMI (P = 0.04) PBF (P = 0.0008) and WHR (P = 0.0001). Multiparous women presented higher BMI (P = 0.01) and PBF (P = 0.03) compared with primi- and nulliparous groups. PBF was also associated with age and high socioecomic status. Primi- and multiparous women showed a higher WHR than nulliparous women (P < 0.0001). Age and smoking habit were also factors associated with higher WHR. (authors)

Method and apparatus for manufacture of unitary lightweight concrete composite blocks

Abstract: A method and apparatus for manufacturing unitary concrete blocks includes a form that defines the desired shape of the unitary concrete block. A form loading station delivers a lightweight concrete composite into the form. A station conveyor conveys the form from the form loading station through a curing oven. In the curing oven, the composite-filled form is cured into a unitary concrete block. The station conveyor conveys the form to a block removal station that removes the unitary concrete block from the form. The station conveyor returns the form to the form loading station to manufacture more unitary concrete blocks. For increased production, multiple forms can be conveyed between stations simultaneously. Additionally, a metering ingredient assembly may be used to deliver appropriate amounts of desired ingredients to a mixer for producing the lightweight concrete composite.

Hydrothermal fluid evolution and structural control of the Guarim gold mineralisation, Tapajós Province, Amazonian Craton, Brazil

Abstract: Fluid inclusion and structural studies were carried out at the Guarim gold deposit in the Palaeoproterozoic Tapajos province of the Amazonian craton. Guarim is a fault-hosted gold deposit cutting basement granitoids. It consists of a quartz vein, which is massive in its inner portions, grading laterally either to a massive or to cavity-bearing quartz vein associated with hydrothermal breccias. The wallrock alteration comprises chlorite, carbonate, white mica and sulphide minerals, with free gold occurring within quartz grains and spatially associated with sulphide mineral grains. Petrographic, microthermometric and Laser Raman investigations recognised CO2-rich, mixed H2O–CO2, and H2O fluid inclusions. The coexisting CO2 and H2O–CO2 inclusions were interpreted as primary immiscible fluids that formed the gold-bearing vein. The H2O inclusions were considered a product of later infiltration of fluids unrelated to the mineralising episode. The mineralising fluid has CO2 ranging typically from 5–10 mol%, contains traces of N2, has salinities of ∼5 wt% NaCl equiv., and densities varying between 0.85 and 0.95 g/cm3. The P–T estimations bracket gold deposition between 270–320 °C and 0.86–2.9 kb; ƒO2–ƒS2–pH estimates suggest a reduced, near-neutral character for the fluid. Variations in the physico-chemical properties, as demonstrated by the fluid inclusion study, resulted from a combination of fluid immiscibility and pressure fluctuation. This interpretation, combined with textural and structural evidence, suggests the emplacement of the mineralised vein in an active fault and at a rather shallow level (4–7 km). The geological and structural setting, deposit-scale textures and structures, wallrock alteration and physico-chemical fluid properties are compatible with those of epizonal to mesozonal orogenic lode gold deposits.

Seller-Focused Algorithms for Online Auctioning

Abstract: In this paper we provide an algorithmic approach to the study of online auctioning. From the perspective of the seller we formalize the auctioning problem as that of designing an algorithmic strategy that fairly maximizes the revenue earned by selling n identical items to bidders who submit bids online. We give a randomized online algorithm that is O(logB)-competitive against an oblivious adversary, where the bid values vary between 1 and B per item. We show that this algorithm is optimal in the worst-case and that it performs significantly better than any worst-case bounds achievable via deterministic strategies. Additionally we present experimental evidence to show that our algorithm outperforms conventional heuristic methods in practice. And finally we explore ways of modifying the conventional model of online algorithms to improve competitiveness of other types of auctioning scenarios while still maintaining fairness.

Method for creating an information closure model

Abstract: According to the invention, a method is provided for forming an information closure of a plurality of rows in a linkage stack built by a wrapper program for accessing semistructured information. This method includes removing a first row from the linkage stack and computing a cross product of the fields in the first row. A step of adding this cross product to a list of accepted rows can also be part of the method. For each remaining row in the linkage stack, the method includes a step of computing a selective cross product according to a plurality of steps. In one step, a result is initialized to empty. Then, for each row in the list of accepted rows, a step of determining for a first new row from the accepted row, extended with the non-empty fields of the remaining row is performed. The method can also include a step of determining a second new row from the remaining row, extended with the non-empty fields in the accepted row. Thereupon, a step of adding the two new rows to the result can be performed. Repeating the determining steps and the adding step for all rows in the list of accepted rows, and removing from the result any identical rows can provide an information closure.

Environmentalists split over Kyoto and Amazonian deforestation

Abstract: Controversies over tropical forest and KyotoSlowing deforestation in Amazonia would be a significant contribution to combating global warming and, depending on decisions under the Kyoto Protocol, could provide non-destructive support for rural population in the region (Fearnside 2000a). Crediting avoided deforestation is divisive, both within and among environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governments. Positions of NGOs on inclusion of avoided deforestation in the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are tightly linked to geography: European NGOs oppose inclusion of forests, USA NGOs (other than USA branches or affiliates of international groups) favour inclusion of forests, and Brazilian NGOs (also excepting most branches or affiliates of international NGOs) also favour forests. The probability of chance explaining these views being clustered in Europe, North America and Brazil in this way is miniscule. In other words, these positions are based on something other than the universal concerns about climate change and future generations that predominate in public statements on all sides.