This paper addresses the problem of incorporating cognitively salient landmarks in computer-generated navigation instructions. Based on a review of the existing literature in the domain of navigation with landmarks, the paper develops algorithms for generating routing instructions that include references to landmarks. The most basic algorithm uses a new weighting model to annotate simple routes...

Threats to biodiversity outpace the resources of the conservation community and necessitate careful prioritization of conservation actions. I suggest that targeting the regions where biogeographic assemblages intersect—“biogeographic crossroads”—is a strategy that may achieve significant conservation economy by focusing on areas that satisfy many conservation criteria. I used a combination of d...

I N recent years, several notes in this journal have called attention to the distinctive wing-flashing of the Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) , in which the wings are opened upward at about 45” in a series of jerking movements, then closed. In this display, large white wing patches are exposed. The function of this behavior remains unknown; but, since the display is most frequently seen being p...

Plants and Insects are studied since decades, but, most of the time, separately. In Agronomy, plants are studied in order to improve crop yields while insects are studied in order to control their (negative or positive) impacts on crop yields. It is well known that plants and insects are always in interaction but, surprisingly, they are very few mathematical models of these interactions. For in...

Like the idea it advocates, The Tuning of Place begins with the suggestion that “the influences people exert on one another go beyond those between two agents seeking to affect each other’s behavior” (xviii). From here, the text repeatedly appeals for an attendance to the “subtle shifts secreted within apparently bold moves” (185) that are “the currency that enables innovation” (240). In partic...