Understanding patterns of among-island variation in species richness has long been an important question in ecology and biogeography. However, despite the clear spatial nature of the data used for such investigations, the spatial distribution of the different sampled locations is rarely explicitly considered, which may be critical for statistical and biological reasons. In a recent study, Chown et al. (1998) investigated the relationships between species richness of different indigenous and introduced taxonomic groups and a variety of variables characterizing Southern Ocean islands, and here, we use these data to address spatial issues. As predicted, we found spatial autocorrelation in species richness for terrestrial taxa with high dispersal ability or for terrestrial taxa that had time to disperse locally (introduced land birds and indigenous taxa) but not for taxa that had low opportunity to disperse to nearby islands (introduced plants, insects, and mammals), which suggests that colonization from nearby islands has played an important role in shaping present-day patterns of among-island variation in species richness. Interestingly, in several cases, the estimated effect of variables changed when spatial covariance was incorporated. Moreover, the absence of autocorrelation of some variables allowed us to confirm some important results of Chown et al. (1998), notably those involving the potential impact of human presence on the biodiversity of these islands. Overall, our results illustrate the importance of considering spatial structures in ecological studies. This is notably the case when dispersal processes can be expected to explain some of the observed patterns.

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In this paper, we review recent developments of the Monte Carlo approach to the simulation of semi-classical carrier transport in nano-MOSFETs, with particular focus on the inclusion of quantum-mechanical effects in the simulation (using either the Multi-Subband approach or quantum corrections to the electrostatic potential) and on the numerical stability issues related to the coupling of the transport with the Poisson equation. Selected applications are presented, including the analysis of quasi-ballistic transport, the determination of the RF characteristics of deca-nanometric MOSFETs, and the study of nonconventional device structures and channel materials.

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