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We describe how interpretable boosting algorithms based on ridge-regularized generalized linear models can be used to analyze high-dimensional environmental data. We illustrate this by using environmental, social, human and biophysical data to predict the financial vulnerability of farmers in Chile and Tunisia against climate hazards. We show how group structures can be considered and how interactions can be found in high-dimensional datasets using a novel 2-step boosting approach. The advantages and efficacy of the proposed method are shown and discussed. Results indicate that the presence of interaction effects only improves predictive power when included in two-step boosting. The most important variable in predicting all types of vulnerabilities are natural assets. Other important variables are the type of irrigation, economic assets and the presence of crop damage of near farms.

Machine learning and statistical modeling methods were used to analyze the impact of climate change on financial wellbeing of fruit farmers in Tunisia and Chile. The analysis was based on face to face interviews with 801 farmers. Three research questions were investigated. First, whether climate change impacts had an effect on how well the farm was doing financially. Second, if climate change was not influential, what factors were important for predicting financial wellbeing of the farm. And third, ascertain whether observed effects on the financial wellbeing of the farm were a result of interactions between predictor variables. This is the first report directly comparing climate change with other factors potentially impacting financial wellbeing of farms. Certain climate change factors, namely increases in temperature and reductions in precipitation, can regionally impact self-perceived financial wellbeing of fruit farmers. Specifically, increases in temperature and reduction in precipitation can have a measurable negative impact on the financial wellbeing of farms in Chile. This effect is less pronounced in Tunisia. Climate impact differences were observed within Chile but not in Tunisia. However, climate change is only of minor importance for predicting farm financial wellbeing, especially for farms already doing financially well. Factors that are more important, mainly in Tunisia, included trust in information sources and prior farm ownership. Other important factors include farm size, water management systems used and diversity of fruit crops grown. Moreover, some of the important factors identified differed between farms doing and not doing well financially. Interactions between factors may improve or worsen farm financial wellbeing.

Quasi--realistic heterotic-string models in the free fermionic formulation typically contain an anomalous U(1), which gives rise to a Fayet-Iliopolous term that breaks supersymmetry at the one--loop level in string perturbation theory. Supersymmetry is restored by imposing F- and D-flatness on the vacuum. In Phys. Rev. D 78 (2008) 046009, we presented a three generation free fermionic standard-like model which did not admit stringent F- and D-flat directions, and argued that the all the moduli in the model are fixed. The particular property of the model was the reduction of the untwisted Higgs spectrum by a combination of symmetric and asymmetric boundary conditions with respect to the internal fermions associated with the compactified dimensions. In this paper we extend the analysis of free fermionic models with reduced Higgs spectrum to the cases in which the SO(10) symmetry is left unbroken, or is reduced to the flipped SU(5) subgroup. We show that all the models that we study in this paper do admit stringent flat directions. The only examples of models that do not admit stringent flat directions remain the strandard-like models of reference Phys. Rev. D 78 (2008) 046009., Comment: 38 pages, 1 figure

The in-plane dynamics of ferrimagnetic Co/Gd multilayers are investigated by means of ferromagnetic resonance, magneto-optical Kerr effect and SQUID magnetometry. The power absorbed from these multilayers is strongly temperature dependent. For example, the resonant peak for a (Co 40 A /Gd 40 A)8 multilayer vanishes approximately 50 K below room temperature. We have further investigated Gd/Co/Gd and Tb/Co/Tb trilayers with different thicknesses of Gd (5-7 A), Tb (1-7 A) and Co (30-40 A). At room temperature, these Co-based trilayers show a shift of approximately 600 Oe at 24 GHz in the uniform ferromagnetic resonance field, compared to pure Co film, indicating the exchange coupling between the Co and Gd. The shift in the field for the resonance increases as the temperature is decreased. Furthermore the resonance linewidth increases as the temperature is decreased. The experimental results are in good agreement with our theoretical calculations., Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures

We present a variation of the NAHE-basis for free fermionic heterotic string models. By rotating some of the boundary conditions of the NAHE periodic/anti-periodic fermions {y^m, \bar{y}^m, w^m, \bar{w}^m,}, for m = 1 to 6, associated with the six compact dimensions of a bosonic lattice/orbifold model, we show an additional method for enhancing the standard NAHE gauge group of SO(10) back to E6. This rotation transforms (SO(10) {\otimes} SO(6)^3)_obs {\otimes} (E_8)_hid into (E_6 {\otimes} U(1)^5)_obs {\otimes} SO(22)_hid. When SO(10) is enhanced to E_6 in this manner, the i^{th} MSSM matter generation in the SO(10) 16_i rep, originating in the twisted basis vector b_i, recombines with both its associated untwisted MSSM Higgs in a 10_i rep and an untwisted non-Abelian singlet {\phi}_i, to form a 27_i rep of E_6. Beginning instead with the E6 model, the inverse transformation of the fermion boundary conditions corresponds to partial GUT breaking via boundary rotation. Correspondence between free fermionic models with Z_2 {\otimes} Z_2 twist (especially of the NAHE class) and orbifold models with a similar twist has received further attention recently. Our NAHE variation also involves a Z_2 {\otimes} Z_2 twist and offers additional understanding regarding the free fermion/orbifold correspondence. Further, models based on this NAHE variation offer some different phenomenological features compared to NAHE-based models. In particular, the more compact Z2 {\otimes} Z2 twist of the NAHE variation offers a range of mirror models not possible from NAHE-based models. Examples of such models are presented., Comment: 22 pages, latex

We systematically study the evolution of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe coupled with a cosmological constant $\Lambda$ and a perfect fluid that has the equation of state $p=w\rho$, where $p$ and $\rho$ denote, respectively, the pressure and energy density of the fluid, and $w$ is an arbitrary real constant. Depending on the specific values of $w,\; \Lambda$, and the curvature $k$ of 3-dimensional space, we separate all of the solutions into various cases. In each case the main properties of the evolution are given in detail, including the periods of deceleration and/or acceleration, and the existence of big bang, big crunch, and big rip singularities. In some cases, errors in classification and interpretation appearing in standard textbooks have been corrected., Comment: revtex4, 24 figures