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There is increasing evidence that occasional utilization area (peripheral sites), in addition to typical utilization area (home range), is important for wildlife conservation and management. Here we estimated the maximum utilization area (MUA), including both typical and occasional utilization areas, based on asymptotic curves of utilization area plotted against sample size. In previous studies, these curves have conventionally been plots of cumulative utilization area versus sample size, but this cumulative method is sensitive to stochastic effects. We propose a new method based on simulation studies where outcomes of replicated simulations are averaged to reduce stochastic effects. In this averaged method, possible combinations of sample size with the same number of location data replicated from a dataset were averaged and applied to the curves of utilization area. The cumulative method resulted in a large variation of MUA estimates, depending on the start date as well as total sample size of the dataset. In the averaged method, MUA estimates were robust against changes in the start date and total sample size. The large variation of MUA estimates arose because location data on any day including the start date are affected by unpredictable effects associated with animal activity and environmental conditions. In the averaged method, replicates of sample size resulted in a reduction of temporal stochasticity, suggesting that the method stably provides reliable estimates for MUA., (© 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

One persistent curiosity in visuomotor adaptation tasks is that participants often do not reach maximal performance. This incomplete asymptote has been explained as a consequence of obligatory computations within the implicit adaptation system, such as an equilibrium between learning and forgetting. A body of recent work has shown that in standard adaptation tasks, cognitive strategies operate alongside implicit learning. We reasoned that incomplete learning in adaptation tasks may primarily reflect a speed-accuracy tradeoff on time-consuming motor planning. Across three experiments, we find evidence supporting this hypothesis, showing that hastened motor planning may primarily lead to under-compensation. When an obligatory waiting period was administered before movement start, participants were able to fully counteract imposed perturbations (Experiment 1). Inserting the same delay between trials - rather than during movement planning - did not induce full compensation, suggesting that the motor planning interval influences the learning asymptote (Experiment 2). In the last experiment (Experiment 3), we asked participants to continuously report their movement intent. We show that emphasizing explicit re-aiming strategies (and concomitantly increasing planning time) also lead to complete asymptotic learning. Findings from all experiments support the hypothesis that incomplete adaptation is, in part, the result of an intrinsic speed-accuracy tradeoff, perhaps related to cognitive strategies that require parametric attentional reorienting from the visual target to the goal.

When we collect the growth curves of many individuals, orderly variation in the curves is often observed rather than a completely random mixture of various curves. Small individuals may exhibit similar growth curves, but the curves differ from those of large individuals, whereby the curves gradually vary from small to large individuals. It has been recognized that after standardization with the asymptotes, if all the growth curves are the same (anamorphic growth curve set), the growth curve sets can be estimated using nonchronological data; otherwise, that is, if the growth curves are not identical after standardization with the asymptotes (polymorphic growth curve set), this estimation is not feasible. However, because a given set of growth curves determines the variation in the observed data, it may be possible to estimate polymorphic growth curve sets using nonchronological data.In this study, we developed an estimation method by deriving the likelihood function for polymorphic growth curve sets. The method involves simple maximum likelihood estimation. The weighted nonlinear regression and least-squares method after the log-transform of the anamorphic growth curve sets were included as special cases.The growth curve sets of the height of cypress ( Chamaecyparis obtusa ) and larch ( Larix kaempferi ) trees were estimated. With the model selection process using the AIC and likelihood ratio test, the growth curve set for cypress was found to be polymorphic, whereas that for larch was found to be anamorphic. Improved fitting using the polymorphic model for cypress is due to resolving underdispersion (less dispersion in real data than model prediction).The likelihood function for model estimation depends not only on the distribution type of asymptotes, but the definition of the growth curve set as well. Consideration of these factors may be necessary, even if environmental explanatory variables and random effects are introduced., Competing Interests: None declared., (© 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The goal of improving reading rate and fluency is to positively impact reading comprehension; however, it is unclear how fast students with learning disabilities (LD) need to read to reap this benefit. The purpose of this research was to identify the point of diminishing return for students who were dysfluent readers. Participants included 337 students with reading difficulties in second and fourth grade (61% eligible for special education; 80% with a diagnosis of LD in the area of reading) and 150 typical readers from the same general education classes. LOESS (LOcal regrESSion) plots (logistic regression) were used to determine where linear relations between reading rate and comprehension broke down for these students: the rate at which getting faster no longer contributed clearly to reading comprehension improvement. Although typical readers in this sample showed patterns of oral reading rate and comprehension similar to students in other studies, patterns for students with reading difficulties differed. For dysfluent readers, improving reading rate improved comprehension only in the bands between 35 and 75 words correct per minute in second grade and between 40 and 90 words correct in fourth grade. Reading at faster rates revealed no clear advantage for reading comprehension.

Many industries are confronted by plateauing safety performance as measured by the absence of negative events--particularly lower-consequence incidents or injuries. At the same time, these industries are sometimes surprised by large fatal accidents that seem to have no connection with their understanding of the risks they faced; or with how they were measuring safety. This article reviews the safety literature to examine how both these surprises and the asymptote are linked to the very structures and practices organizations have in place to manage safety. The article finds that safety practices associated with compliance, control and quantification could be partly responsible. These can create a sense of invulnerability through safety performance close to zero; organizational resources can get deflected into unproductive or counterproductive initiatives; obsolete practices for keeping human performance within a pre-specified bandwidth are sustained; and accountability relationships can encourage suppression of the 'bad news' necessary to learn and improve.

Studies of habitat suitability (HS) are essential when animals' habitats have been altered or when animals migrate to a habitat different from their natural habitat. This study assessed HS and used an integrated geographic information system in the assessment of Rattus norvegicus in a highly developed urban environment. Using data from the Campbell market and the police quarters of George Town, Malaysia, home range (through the use of 100% Minimum Convex Polygon [MCP], 95% MCP and 95% Harmonic Mean [HM]) was estimated. Home range for male rats at Campbell market reached an asymptote, with a slight increase, at 96 radio fixes (home range = 133.52 m(2); core area = 29.39 m(2)). Female rats reached an asymptote at 62 radio fixes (home range = 13.38 m(2); core area = 9.17 m(2)). At Campbell market, male rats emerged at 1900 hours every day, whereas females emerged at 2000 hours; at police quarters, the most common time of emergence for males was 2000 hours and for females was 2200. Raster charts of R. norvegicus showed that rat hot spots can be grouped into 4 zones (market, shop houses, settlement and general places). The standardised raster chart isolated the market as the major rallying points of the rats (hot spots) by producing the highest rats frequencies of 255. All of the habitat suitability thresholds, including the built-up points, skip bins, water source and nature of the site explored in this study, produced a structural pattern (monotonic increase or decrease) of habitat suitability.