Boise State University

About: Boise State University is a education organization based out in Boise, Idaho, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Computer science. The organization has 3698 authors who have published 8664 publications receiving 210163 citations. The organization is also known as: BSU & Boise State.

Significant Ages—An Introduction to Petrochronology

Abstract: Question : Why “Petrochronology”? Why add another term to an already cluttered scientific lexicon? Answer : Because petrologists and geochronologists need a term that describes the unique, distinctive way in which they apply geochronology to the study of igneous and metamorphic processes Other terms just won’t do Such evolution of language is natural and well-established For instance, “Geochronology” was originally coined during the waning stages of the great Age-of-the-Earth debate as a means of distinguishing timescales relevant to Earth processes from timescales relevant to humans (Williams 1893) Eighty-eight years later, Berger and York (1981) coined the term “Thermochronology,” which has evolved as a branch of geochronology aimed at constraining thermal histories of rocks, where (typically) the thermally activated diffusive loss of a radiogenic daughter governs the ages we measure Thermochronology may now be distinguished from “plain vanilla” geochronology, whose limited purpose, in the words of Reiners et al (2005), is “…exclusively to determine a singular absolute stratigraphic or magmatic [or metamorphic] formation age, with little concern for durations or rates of processes” that give rise to these rocks Neither of these terms describes what petrologists do with chronologic data A single date is virtually useless in understanding the protracted history of magma crystallization or metamorphic pressure–temperature evolution And we are not simply interested in thermal histories, but in chemical and baric evolution as well Rather, we petrologists and geochronologists strive to understand rock-forming processes, and the rates at which they occur, by integrating numerous ages into the petrologic evolution of a rock It is within this context that a new discipline, termed “Petrochronology”, has emerged1 In some sense petrochronology may be considered the sister of thermochronology: petrochronology typically focuses on the processes leading up to the formation of igneous and metamorphic rocks—the minerals and textures we observe …

Gene‐based evolutionary theories in criminology *

Abstract: In the past 20 years, several theories of criminal (and antisocial) behavior have been proposed from an evolutionary perspective, some of which specifically stipulate that people vary in their genetic dispositions toward criminality. It is these theories, herein called gene-based evolutionary theories, that are the focus of this article. Two categories of gene-based evolutionary theories are described. One category is crime specific, pertaining to the offenses of rape, spousal assault/murder, and child abuse neglect. The second category consists of two general theories of criminal and antisocial behavior: the cheater (or cad vs. dad) theory, and the r/K theory. In addition to assuming that genes contribute to variation in criminal (and antisocial) behavior, all five of these theories assume that natural selection has acted on human populations to open up reproductive niches for individuals and groups who victimize others. While the theories are still far too new to have been fully tested, we derive some of the most obvious hypotheses from each theory and explore the relevant empirical evidence. We show that while gene-based evolutionary theories open make predictions similar to strictly environmental theories, they also lead to unique hypotheses, several of which have at least some support.

Ground-penetrating radar theory and application of thin-bed offset-dependent reflectivity

Abstract: Offset-dependent reflectivity or amplitude-variation-with-offset (AVO) analysis of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data may improve the resolution of subsurface dielectric permittivity estimates. A horizontally stratified medium has a limiting layer thickness below which thin-bed AVO analysis is necessary. For a typical GPR signal, this limit is approximately 0.75 of the characteristic wavelength of the signal. Our approach to modeling the GPR thin-bed response is a broadband, frequency-dependent computation that utilizes an analytical solution to the three-interface reflectivity and is easy to implement for either transverse electric (TE) or transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations. The AVO curves for TE and TM modes differ significantly. In some cases, constraining the interpretation using both TE and TM data is critical. In two field examples taken from contaminated-site characterization data, we find quantitative thin-bed modeling agrees with the GPR field data and available characterization data.

The dilemma of foraging herbivores: dealing with food and fear

Abstract: For foraging herbivores, both food quality and predation risk vary across the landscape. Animals should avoid low-quality food patches in favour of high-quality ones, and seek safe patches while avoiding risky ones. Herbivores often face the foraging dilemma, however, of choosing between high-quality food in risky places or low-quality food in safe places. Here, we explore how and why the interaction between food quality and predation risk affects foraging decisions of mammalian herbivores, focusing on browsers confronting plant toxins in a landscape of fear. We draw together themes of plant–herbivore and predator–prey interactions, and the roles of animal ecophysiology, behaviour and personality. The response of herbivores to the dual costs of food and fear depends on the interplay of physiology and behaviour. We discuss detoxification physiology in dealing with plant toxins, and stress physiology associated with perceived predation risk. We argue that behaviour is the interface enabling herbivores to stay or quit food patches in response to their physiological tolerance to these risks. We hypothesise that generalist and specialist herbivores perceive the relative costs of plant defence and predation risk differently and intra-specifically, individuals with different personalities and physiologies should do so too, creating individualised landscapes of food and fear. We explore the ecological significance and emergent impacts of these individual-based foraging outcomes on populations and communities, and offer predictions that can be clearly tested. In doing so, we provide an integrated platform advancing herbivore foraging theory with food quality and predation risk at its core.