University of New England (United States)

About: University of New England (United States) is a education organization based out in Biddeford, Maine, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Higher education. The organization has 3471 authors who have published 5607 publications receiving 107555 citations. The organization is also known as: UNE.

Selecting thresholds of occurrence in the prediction of species distributions

Abstract: Transforming the results of species distribution modelling from probabilities of or suitabilities for species occurrence to presences/absences needs a specific threshold. Even though there are many approaches to determining thresholds, there is no comparative study. In this paper, twelve approaches were compared using two species in Europe and artificial neural networks, and the modelling results were assessed using four indices: sensitivity, specificity, overall prediction success and Cohen's kappa statistic. The results show that prevalence approach, average predicted probability/suitability approach, and three sensitivity-specificity-combined approaches, including sensitivity-specificity sum maximization approach, sensitivity-specificity equality approach and the approach based on the shortest distance to the top-left corner (0,1) in ROC plot, are the good ones. The commonly used kappa maximization approach is not as good as the afore-mentioned ones, and the fixed threshold approach is the worst one. We also recommend using datasets with prevalence of 50% to build models if possible since most optimization criteria might be satisfied or nearly satisfied at the same time, and therefore it's easier to find optimal thresholds in this situation.

The functional significance of the hyporheic zone in streams and rivers

Abstract: ▪ Abstract The hyporheic zone is an active ecotone between the surface stream and groundwater. Exchanges of water, nutrients, and organic matter occur in response to variations in discharge and bed topography and porosity. Upwelling subsurface water supplies stream organisms with nutrients while downwelling stream water provides dissolved oxygen and organic matter to microbes and invertebrates in the hyporheic zone. Dynamic gradients exist at all scales and vary temporally. At the microscale, gradients in redox potential control chemical and microbially mediated nutrient transformations occurring on particle surfaces. At the stream-reach scale, hydrological exchange and water residence time are reflected in gradients in hyporheic faunal composition, uptake of dissolved organic carbon, and nitrification. The hyporheic corridor concept describes gradients at the catchment scale, extending to alluvial aquifers kilometers from the main channel. Across all scales, the functional significance of the hyporheic z...

Willingness to Pay and Compensation Demanded: Experimental Evidence of an Unexpected Disparity in Measures of Value

Abstract: Aside from possible income effects, measures of the maximum amounts people will pay to avoid a loss and the minimum compensation necessary for them to accept it are generally assumed to be equivalent. Unexpectedly wide variations between these sums, however, have been noted in survey responses to hypothetical options. This paper reports the results of a series of experiments that confronted people with actual money payments and cash compensations. The results indicate that the compensation measure of value seems to exceed significantly the willingness to pay measure, which would appear to call into some question various rules of entitlement, damage assessments, and interpretations of indifference curves.

Transfer of Learning: Cognition, Instruction, and Reasoning

Abstract: Transfer of learning refers to how previous learning influences current and future learning, and how past or current learning is applied or adapted to similar or novel situations. It is the neurocognitive mechanism underlying many phenomena and it acts as the basis of mental abstraction, analogical relations, classification, generalization, generic thinking, induction, invariance, isomorphic relations, logical inference, metaphor, and constructing mental models. The research on teaching for transfer clearly shows that for transfer to occur, the original learning must be repeatedly reinforced with multiple examples or similar concepts in multiple contexts, and on different levels and orders of magnitude. The history of science, invention, technology transfer, and everyday life is replete with people who are good at transfer. Many advances in science are made on the basis of a simple type of transfer. Transfer of learning creates creativity and learning itself and it helps to efficiently store, remember, integrate, process, and retrieve information.

Biophysical and economic limits to negative CO2 emissions

Abstract: To have a >50% chance of limiting warming below 2 °C, most recent scenarios from integrated assessment models (IAMs) require large-scale deployment of negative emissions technologies (NETs). These are technologies that result in the net removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. We quantify potential global impacts of the different NETs on various factors (such as land, greenhouse gas emissions, water, albedo, nutrients and energy) to determine the biophysical limits to, and economic costs of, their widespread application. Resource implications vary between technologies and need to be satisfactorily addressed if NETs are to have a significant role in achieving climate goals.