BACKGROUND AND AIMS Despite recent recognition that (1) plant-herbivore interactions during the establishment phase, (2) ontogenetic shifts in resource allocation and (3) herbivore response to plant volatile release are each pivotal to a comprehensive understanding of plant defence, no study has examined how herbivore olfactory response varies during seedling ontogeny. METHODS Using a Y-tube ...

The role played by human beings in complex computational systems it not exclusively that of an end user; they are often an integral resource in the functioning of the system, and an important factor in its overall performance. However, due to the purely human aspects of human resources that have no analog in computational resources, existing paradigms in dynamic computational resource allocatio...

We review the reasoning underlying two approaches to combination of sensory uncertainties. First approach is noncommittal, making no assumptions about properties of uncertainty or parameters of stimulation, as in Gepshtein, Tyukin, and Albright (2010). Then we explain the relationship between this approach and the one commonly used in modeling “higher level” aspects of sensory systems, such as ...

as observed in some oil and gas countries, upstream service contracts, for instance buy-back contract in iran, would provide an appropriate environment for the development of oil and gas fields. however, certain cases, such as common structures and reservoirs, deep sea oil fields or second and third generations of an oil field may require more attractive contractual mechanisms in the eyes of io...

Healthcare resource planners need to develop policies that ensure optimal allocation of scarce healthcare resources. This goal can be achieved by forecasting daily resource requirements for a given admission policy. If resources are limited, admission should be scheduled according to the resource availability. Such resource availability or demand can change with time. We here model patient flow...

In this chapter, we describe the use of economic principles as the basis for Grid resource allocation policies and mechanisms. A computational economy in which users “buy” resources from their owners is an attractive method of controlling Grid resource allocation for several reasons. Economies are intuitively easy to understand, they fit the model of flexible resource usage under local control ...

Distribution and allocation of resources is affected by factors such as values, norms, social stratifications, ideology, information, coercion, political challenges, and even external factors. This finding means that there is always a fundamental tendency to redirect resources toward political goals instead of public interests and development. Because the resource structure is strongly influenc...

Using a center of gravity model and GIS software, we measured how China’s energy production and consumption centers changed (positions, movements, distances, and rates) from 1997 to 2009, thereby revealing regional differences in the relationship between supply and demand. We found that the centers of gravity for raw coal consumption, crude oil production and consumption, and electricity produc...