Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I have been varying my maturation rate of the young adults to adults (I found data that suggested mice in warmer climates mature sexually faster) and I have found some interesting results when I differ the maturation rates between the P and NP(the NP population explodes, while the P seems not to). I also fixed a latex problem that I have been having for awhile.

Today I met with Professor Heideman and there are some important changes that I need to make to the model. He would like me to incorporate a kind of carrying capacity so that as the population increases there is a greater risk of dying (i.e less nutrients, fewer places to hide, etc.). He also told me that spring, summer, and fall should have similar parameters, while the winter's parameters differ (before I had assumed fall and winter were similar and summer and spring were similar). Next he would like me to add an intermediate group of mice, meaning that there would be a group of mice between P and NP, and that they have a probability of producing half the time in the winter. Adding this group will help with the genetic component of my model; when a NP and P mate there children would become intermediates (assuming heritability is 100%) .

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