Geographic distribution Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

... Genetic Density in Linguistics ... The Eskimoan spread across arctic North America to Greenland was initially entirely coastal and replaced the previous, also coastal, Dorsetculture and language (Dumond 1984, Woodbury 1984). ...

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- Archaeology, Anthropology, Linguistics, Population structure

Ehrlichia are obligate intracellular bacteria that belong to the family Rickettsiaceae. Human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME) and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) are the 2 ehrlichial diseases that are of greatest health concern in the United States. The agents causing HME and HGE are zoonotic pathogens requiring a mammalian reservoir and an arthropod vector. Differences in the geographic distribution of their tick vectors account for the concentration of HME in the South and southeastern United States and HGE in the Northeast and northern Midwest. Both infections have been reported in coastal regions from Rhode Island to Florida. HME and HGE are flulike illnesses that usually are self-limited but may be fatal. Diagnosis is confirmed by identification of the microorganism on blood smear or polymerase chain reaction or by detection of anti-ehrlichial antibody. Doxycycline is the antibiotic of choice for treatment of ehrlichiosis.

- by Paul Lantos
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- Risk, Ticks, Child, Mice

MPI is a de facto standard for high performance numerical applications on parallel machines: it is available, in a variety of implementations, for a range of architectures, ranging from supercomputers to clusters of workstations. Nonetheless, with the growing demand for distributed, heterogeneous and Grid computing, developers are hitting some of its limitations: e.g. security is not addressed, and geographically distributed machines are difficult to connect. In this work, we give an example of a parallel application, implemented with the use of Web Services. Web Services represent an emerging standard to offer computational services over the Internet. While this solution does not reach the same performance of MPI, it offers a series of advantages: high availability, rapid design, extreme heterogeneity.

- by Diego Puppin
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- Grid Computing, High performance, Web Service, Geographic distribution

Evolutionary studies in plant and animal breeding are aimed at understanding the structure and organization of genetic variations of species. We have identiWed and characterized a genomic sequence in Phaseolus vulgaris of 1,200 bp (PvSHP1) that is homologous to SHATTER-PROOF-1 (SHP1), a gene involved in control of fruit shattering in Arabidopsis thaliana. The PvSHP1 fragment was mapped to chromosome Pv06 in P. vulgaris and is linked to the Xower and seed color gene V. AmpliWcation of the PvSHP1 sequence from the most agronomically important legume species showed a high degree of interspecies diversity in the introns within the Phaseoleae, while the coding region was conserved across distant taxa. Sequencing of the PvSHP1 sequence in a sample of 91 wild and domesticated genotypes that span the geographic distribution of this species in the centers of origin showed that PvSHP1 is highly polymorphic and, therefore, particularly useful to further investigate the origin and domestication history of P. vulgaris. Our data conWrm the gene pool structure seen in P. vulgaris along with independent domestication processes in the Andes and Mesoamerica; they provide additional evidence for a single domestication event in Mesoamerica. Moreover, our results support the Mesoamerican origin of this species. Finally, we have developed three indel-spanning markers that will be very useful for bean germplasm characterization, and particularly to trace the distribution of the domesticated Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools. Communicated by B. Diers.

- by Elena Bitocchi and +1
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- Technology, Polymorphism, Phylogeography, Population Genetics

In the Ponto-Mediterranean Province, the geographical distribution of 19 species plus 1 variety belonging to the family Acartiidae has been studied. The study utilised cartographic techniques of terrestrial biogeography and the entire Province was subdivided in 1375 squares. The geographic distributions obtained derived from data published during the last 126 years. The first result was that about 3/4 of the area considered has never been sampled, and only about 8% of the entire area has been repeatedly sampled (at least seasonally). Long time-series of sampling are known only from very few sites. The species considered belong to three genera. Species distributions are discontinuous either in space or in time. Three species are endemic. The historical analysis suggests that four species arrived in the Province recently (two of them are Lessepsian migrants; the others have been introduced by human activities). Two species appear to have crossed the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea (anti-Lessepsian migration). Two species are considered to be ante-Lessepsian (they were tropical species present in the Mediterranean before the Suez Canal opening). The doubtful presence of two species in the Mediterranean is discussed. At the present time, it seems that the distribution of many species is rapidly changing, probably as a consequence of the anthropogenic influence on communication between areas of the Province, and supported by the ability of Acartiidae to cross geographic barriers, mainly as resting stages.

- by GENUARIO BELMONTE
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- Earth Sciences, Time Series, Crustacea, Biogeography

Many of today's military services and applications run on geographically distributed sites. Before these services and applications can be deployed in an actual network, they need to be tested and evaluated under realistic scenarios with many unpredictable factors. Existing experimental tools cannot meet the requirements for scale, accuracy and timeliness. A network emulation framework called ROSENET is proposed that can meet these requirements by using a remote parallel simulation server to model a wide area network and a local network emulator to provide timely QoS predictions for testing real world applications. This paper discusses the challenges faced in applying ROSENET to defense applications through two case studies. In the first case study we apply synthetic traffic workloads over DARPA's NMS network topology for a large scale simulation and define a metric called remote emulation delay to evaluate and quantify ROSENET's performance. In the second case study we illustrate the procedures using ROSENET to evaluate a contemporary real-time distributed VoIP application, Skype, and present experimental results.

- by Richard Fujimoto
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- Network Simulation, Case Study, Real Time, Distributed Simulation

Problem According to the International Health Regulations (IHR), countries need to strengthen core capacity for disease surveillance and response systems. Many countries are establishing or enhancing their field epidemiology training programmes (FETPs) to meet human resource needs but face challenges in sustainability and training quality. Indonesia is facing these challenges, which include limited resources for field training and limited coordination in a newly decentralized health system. Approach A national FETP workplan was developed based on an evaluation of the existing programme and projected human resource needs. A Ministry of Health Secretariat linking universities, national and international partners was established to oversee revision and implementation of the FETP. Local setting The FETP is integrated into the curriculum of Indonesian universities and field training is conducted in district and provincial health offices under the coordination of the universities and the FETP Secretariat. Relevant changes The FETP was included in the Ministry of Health workforce development strategy through governmental decree. Curricula have been enhanced and field placements strengthened to provide trainees with better learning experiences. To improve sustainability of the FETP, links were established with the Indonesian Epidemiologists' Association, local governments and donors to cultivate future FETP champions and maintain funding. Courses, competitions and discussion forums were established for field supervisors and alumni. These changes have increased the geographic distribution of students, intersectoral and international participation and the quality of student performance. Lessons learnt The main lesson learnt is that linkages with universities, ministries and international agencies such as the World Health Organization are critical for building a sustainable high-quality programme. The most critical factors were development of trusting relationships and clear definitions of the responsibilities of each stakeholder. Une traduction en français de ce résumé figure à la fin de l'article. Al final del artículo se facilita una traducción al español. ‫املقالة.‬ ‫لهذه‬ ‫الكامل‬ ‫النص‬ ‫نهاية‬ ‫يف‬ ‫الخالصة‬ ‫لهذه‬ ‫العربية‬ ‫الرتجمة‬

- by Tjandra Y Aditama
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- Epidemiology, Indonesia, Human Resource, Workforce Development

This study presents an initial computational model of shared situation awareness (SA) based upon data collected from a simulated training exercise, designed to mimic real life events in a military personnel recovery center. Situation awareness was measured during the exercise using the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT). Our initial model examined how well five factors (social network distance, physical distance, rank similarity, branch similarity, and experience similarity) predicted shared SA. Overall, regression analyses highlighted the significant influence of geographical distribution (physical distance) on the development of shared SA and frequency of communications amongst team members. The discussion centers on the need for developing useful technological tools and techniques for supporting communication and collaboration among distributed teams.

- by Cheryl Bolstad
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- Situation awareness, Tools and Techniques, Computer Model, Data Collection

The extinction and recovery of scleractinian corals at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary was analyzed based on a global database of taxonomically revised late Campanian to Paleocene coral collections. In contrast to earlier statements, our results indicate that extinction rates of corals were only moderate in comparison to other marine invertebrates. We have calculated a 30% extinction rate for Maastrichtian coral genera occurring in more than one stratigraphic stage and more than one geographic region. Reverse rarefaction suggests that some 45% of all coral species became extinct. Photosymbiotic (zooxanthellate) corals were significantly more affected by the extinction than azooxanthellate corals; colonial forms were hit harder than solitary forms, and among colonial forms an elevated integration of corallites raised extinction risk. Abundance, as measured by the number of taxonomic occurrences, had apparently no influence on survivorship, but a wide geographic distribution significantly reduced extinction risk. As in bivalves and echinoids neither species richness within genera nor larval type had an effect on survivorship. An indistinct latitudinal gradient is visible in the extinction, but this is exclusively due to a higher proportion of extinction-resistant azooxanthellate corals in higher-latitude assemblages. No significant geographic hotspot could be recognized, neither in overall extinction rates nor in the extinction of endemic clades.

- by Wolfgang Kiessling
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- Evolutionary Biology, Geology, Ecology, Evolution
- by Dwight Bowman
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- Microbiology, Environmental Education, Public Health, Veterinary

1] We have incorporated the cycling of water isotopes into the NCAR atmospheric general circulation model, CAM2. Isotope dynamics mostly follow those of previous isotope GCMs, with fractionation being produced by evaporation at the surface and by cloud processes. A new feature that we have added is the direct estimation of the degree of isotopic equilibration between vapor and raindrops as a function of temperature and rain rate. The model yields a reasonable global pattern of water isotopes in precipitation, but detailed comparison with observations is limited by known inaccuracies in precipitation and temperatures yielded by CAM2. We use the results to evaluate the fundamental controls on water isotopic composition in precipitation. We emphasize that, over much of the surface of the Earth, the concept of Rayleigh distillation is inadequate to understand the large-scale geographic distribution of water isotopes in precipitation, because the effects of surface fluxes are more important than those of distillation, in particular at low and midlatitudes and over the oceans. In oceanic regions the balance between precipitation and evaporation (P À E), which reflects the large-scale atmospheric circulation, is the primary determinant of the isotopic composition of precipitation and vapor. Variations of P À E at low latitudes over the oceans produce about 7% variation of precipitation d 18 O that is independent of temperature variation. Where P > E, the convergence of atmospheric vapor derived from various sources leads to low values and a particularly wide range in d ppt . In the tropical and subtropical troposphere the vertical decrease of d 18 O in vapor is different from the values expected from Rayleigh distillation because of entrainment, convective mixing, detrainment, evaporation of detrained water, and subsidence of low-d 18 O highaltitude air. The low d 18 O of atmospheric vapor over the oceans at high (ca. 55°) latitudes produces, as a result of kinetic effects associated with evaporation, a zone of heavy (high-d 18 O) evaporation from the oceans. This effect may account for the low d 18 O of some high-latitude ocean surface waters and also helps attenuate the effects of global temperature changes on the isotopic composition of polar precipitation.

- by Cara Henning
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- Kinetics, Earth, Evaporation, Multidisciplinary

This paper is the first part of a twofold contribution dedicated to the new version of the Louvain-la-Neuve sea ice model LIM3. In this part, LIM3 is described and its results are compared with observations. LIM3 is a C-grid dynamic-thermodynamic model, including the representation of the subgrid-scale distributions of ice thickness, enthalpy, salinity and age. Brine entrapment and drainage as well as brine impact on ice thermodynamics are explicitly included. LIM3 is embedded into the ocean modelling system NEMO, using OPA9, a hydrostatic, primitive equation, finite difference ocean model in the 2°Â 2°cos/ configuration ORCA2. Model performance is evaluated by performing a hindcast of the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice packs, forced by a combination of daily NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and various climatologies. The annual cycle of sea ice growth and decay is very realistically captured with ice area, thickness, drift and snow depth in good agreement with observations. In the Arctic, the simulated geographical distributions of ice thickness and concentration are significantly improved when compared with earlier versions of LIM. Model deficiencies feature an overestimation (underestimation) of ice thickness in the Beaufort gyre (around the North Pole) as well as an underestimation of ice thickness in the Southern Ocean. The simulated first year/multiyear sea ice limit agrees with observations. The values and distribution of sea ice age in the perennial ice zone are different from satellite-derived values, which is attributed to the different definitions of ice age. In conclusion, in light of the exhaustive sea ice analysis presented here, LIM3 is found to be an appropriate tool for large-scale sea ice and climate simulations.

- by Miguel Angel Morales Maqueda
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- Oceanography, Thermodynamics, Sea Ice, Southern Ocean

Cryptic species of the digeneans, Cercaria batillariae (Heterophyidae) and an undescribed philophthalmid, were detected using polymerase chain reaction-based restriction fragment-length polymorphism methodology and sequence analyses. These digeneans were all collected from the same species of gastropod first intermediate host, Batillaria cumingi (ZBatillaria attramentaria). The mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 gene (approximately 800 bp) and nuclear internal transcribed spacer 1 gene (approximately 400 bp) were used for species level discrimination. Restriction fragment-length polymorphism analyses of cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 gene showed that C. batillariae included 10 distinguishable fragment patterns, and the philophthalmid included five patterns. On the basis of subsequent sequence analyses, the restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns of C. batillariae were grouped into eight phylogenetically distinct lineages and those of the philophthalmid into three phylogenetically distinct lineages. There was no evidence of gene flow among the different lineages due to the lack of heterozygosity within the observed internal transcribed spacer 1 gene fragment patterns. This suggests that all of these lineages are different species. Most of these species were widespread, but some exhibited restricted geographic distributions. We discuss the implications of these findings for host specificity of these trematodes. These results demonstrate the utility of genetic analysis to distinguish species of morphologically similar trematodes. Hence, trematode species diversity may often be underestimated when species identifications are limited to morphological features. q

- by Eleca Dunham
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- Microbiology, Zoology, Gene Flow, Molecular Genetics

Transportation planning is an important part of the supply chain or wood flow chain in forestry. There are often several forest companies operating in the same region and collaboration between two or more companies is rare. However, there is an increasing interest in collaborative planning as the potential savings are large, often in the range 5-15%. There are several issues to agree on before such collaborative planning can be used in practice. A key question is how savings should be distributed among the participants. In this paper, we investigate a number of possibilities based on economic models including Shapley value, the nucleolus, separable and non-separable costs, shadow prices and volume weights. We also propose a new allocation method, with the aim that the participants relative profits are as equal as possible. A large case study comprising eight forest companies in Sweden, is described and analyzed.

- by Kurt Jörnsten
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- Economics, Forestry, Supply Chain Management, Natural Resources

Recently, a molecular phylogeny based on four mtDNA gene regions has been estimated for 17 species and subspecies of Aegla freshwater crabs from Chile. With this phylogenetic hypothesis and information on geographic distribution, environmental conditions, habitat requirements, and population abundance, Chilean aeglids were assessed for conservation status based on the criteria included in the IUCN Red List Categories (2001). Aegla concepcionensis and Aegla expansa qualify as ''Extinct in the Wild'' and nine other taxa fall within the threatened category: three as ''Critically Endangered'' (A. laevis laevis, A. papudo and A. spectabilis) and six as ''Vulnerable'' (A. alacalufi, A. bahamondei, A. cholchol, A. hueicollensis, A. laevis talcahuano and A. manni). Six hydrographic regions within temperate Chile were ranked for conservation priority using species richness, and phylogenetic and genetic diversity indices. The hydrographic region made up of the Tucapel, Imperial, and Tolte´n Basins was found to rank highest in terms of conservation priorities. Conservation of this region and the regions ranging between the Aconcagua and Mataquito Basins, and the Valdivia and Maullı´n Basins, would preserve almost all the Aegla diversity present in Chile.

- by Carlos Jara
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- Conservation, Biology, Ecology, Chile

Surges are common in all the major ice caps in Iceland, and historical reports of surge occurrence go back several centuries. Data collection and regular observation over the last several decades have permitted a detailed description of several surges, from which it is possible to generalize on the nature of surging in Icelandic glaciers. Combining the historical records of glacier-front variations and recent field research, we summarize the geographic distribution of surging glaciers, their subglacial topography and geology, the frequency and duration of surges, changes in glacier surface geometry during the surge cycle, and measured velocity changes compared to calculated balance velocities. We note the indicators of surge onset and describe changes in ice, water and sediment fluxes during a surge. Surges accomplish a significant fraction of the total mass transport through the main outlet glaciers of ice caps in Iceland and have important implications for their hydrology. Our analysis of the data suggests that surge-type glaciers in Iceland are characterized by gently sloping surfaces and that they move too slowly to remain in balance given their accumulation rate. Surge frequency is neither regular nor clearly related to glacier size or mass balance. Steeply sloping glaciers, whether hard-or soft-bedded, seem to move sufficiently rapidly to keep in balance with the annual accumulation.

- by Helgi Björnsson
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- Geophysics, Atmospheric sciences, Data Collection, Geographic distribution

1. Burying beetles are carrion feeders that specialize on small carcasses. We investigated interactions among congeners at two sites in Michigan, U.S.A., that differ in both number and relative proportion of species.

- by J fudge
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- Zoology, Ecology, Seasonality, Temperature Dependence

The current geographical distribution of the Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus colony inhabiting the Cabo Blanco peninsula (Western Sahara-Mauritania) is described. Its distribution range has apparently not changed since surveys conducted in 1984–1988. Sightings of adults on the Tarf el Guerguerat coast, 20 km north of the known breeding caves, suggests the existence of other possible breeding groups further north. Two caves used by the seals are described for the first time. A review of historical trends in cave occupation by seals made it possible (1) to locate the so-called ‘maternity cave’, last reported in 1949; and (2) to establish that the colony, since its discovery, has occupied at least eight caves, five of which have collapsed. An index of population size based on counts of individuals of identified morphological types indicates that, during 1993–1994, the colony was composed of c.113–165 individuals (excluding pups), a larger number than previously assumed. Counting of seals at times of maximum haul-out is proposed as a tool to monitor population trends, although it is considered unreliable for estimating absolute numbers.

Amanita muscaria sensu lato has a wide geographic distribution, occurring in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and North, Central and South America. Previous phylogenetic work by others indicates three geographic clades (i.e. 'Eurasian', 'Eurasian-alpine' and 'North American' groups) within A. muscaria . However, the historical dispersal patterns of A. muscaria remained unclear. In our project, we collected specimens from arctic, boreal and humid temperate regions in Alaska, and generated DNA sequence data from the protein-coding beta-tubulin gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and large subunit (LSU) regions of the ribosomal DNA repeat. Homologous sequences from additional A. muscaria isolates were downloaded from GenBank. We conducted phylogenetic and nested clade analyses (NCA) to reveal the phylogeographic history of the species complex. Although phylogenetic analyses confirmed the existence of the three above-mentioned clades, representatives of all three groups were found to occur sympatrically in Alaska, suggesting that they represent cryptic phylogenetic species with partially overlapping geographic distributions rather than being allopatric populations. All phylogenetic species share at least two morphological varieties with other species, suggesting ancestral polymorphism in pileus and wart colour pre-dating their speciations. The ancestral population of A. muscaria likely evolved in the Siberian-Beringian region and underwent fragmentation as inferred from NCA and the coalescent analyses. The data suggest that these populations later evolved into species, expanded their range in North America and Eurasia. In addition to range expansions, populations of all three species remained in Beringia and adapted to the cooling climate.

- by József Geml and +1
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- Geography, Demography, Computational Biology, Molecular Evolution

Today's Internet services are commonly built over TCP , the standard Internet connection-oriented reliable transport protocol. The endpoint naming scheme of TCP, based on network layer (IP) addresses, creates an implicit binding between a service and the IP address of a server providing it, throughout the lifetime of a client connection. This makes a TCP client prone to all adverse conditions that may affect the server endpoint or the internetwork in between, after the connection is established: congestion or failure in the network, server overloaded, failed or under DoS attack. Studies that quantify the effects of network stability and route availability demonstrate that connectivity failures can significantly impact Internet services. As a result, although highly available servers can be deployed, sustaining continuous service remains a problem.

- by Liviu Iftode
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- DoS Attack, Stability, Geographic distribution, Internet services

The new species Eugenia pallidopunctata, E. caducibracteata, E. tenuiflora and E. breviracemosa from the Brazilian Amazon, all belonging to Eugenia sect. Racemosae (Myrtaceae), are described, illustrated and compared with their putative close relatives. Data on the geographic distribution and habitat are given for the new taxa, as well as illustrations.

- by Vinicius A Souza
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- Evolutionary Biology, Plant Biology, Brazilian Amazon, Geographic distribution

Forty-six accessions of Vigna vexillata from Africa, America and Australia were screened for variability in globulin protein fraction by using SDS-PAGE under reducing and non-reducing conditions. The globulin fraction was composed of several bands clustering in two size fractions, both of which were polymorphic. The high molecular weight fraction was constituted by one or two subunits, while the fraction of lower molecular weight exhibited from two to four bands. Two single types were found within the collection. Due to the observed polymorphism only the subunit at 52 kD was species-specific. Southeastern Africa proved to be the region with the highest diversity for Vigna vexillata. Different frequencies of the globulin patterns were observed between the African and American groups of accessions. No significant differences were found comparing the distribution of the globulin types between the varieties vexillata and angustifolia.

Previous research [1, 2] has indicated that pair programming is better than individual programming when the pairs are physically colocated. However, important questions arise: How effective is pair programming if the pairs are not physically next to each other? What if the programmers are geographically distributed? An experiment was conducted to compare the different working arrangements of student teams developing object-oriented software. The teams were both colocated and in distributed environments; ...

- by Ed Gehringer
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- Computer Science, Distance Education, Software Development, Distance Learning

Lessonia trabeculata is a brown seaweed inhabiting the rocky subtidal zone along the coast of central and northern Chile, where it is the dominant kelp, and an important species in community structure. Morphological and reproductive aspects of this alga are dependent on environmental conditions and geographic distribution, and the present study gives data on its reproductive periodicity. The reproductive phenology for three populations from northern Chile (29-30°S) was evaluated by means of seasonal examination of morphological and reproductive characteristics of both macroscopic sporophytes and microscopic gametophytes. Comparative laboratory cultures of spores were made to determine seasonal differences in their capacity to produce viable plants. This species is perennial, and demonstrates year-round presence of reproductive tissues, although showing variation in reproductive phenology over time and among populations. The size of blades increases in spring and summer, whereas its reproductive potential (e.g., area and proportion of the reproductive tissue and the release of spores) increases in autumn. Culture experiments showed that spring and summer reproductive tissue released zoospores which had low germination rates compared to those of autumn and winter, and which produced female gametophytes of low fertility. The population differences depended on the character analysed and the season of the year. The development of both phases of the life cycle of L. trabeculata may be influenced by the local environmental conditions and their seasonal changes, and were expressed as morphological and/ or reproductive changes in the plants. A better understanding of the seasonal adaptations may be obtained if future comparisons are made between widely separated populations or between individuals from the extremes of geographic distribution of the species.

- by Julio Vásquez
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- Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Seasonality, Environmental Sciences

Important aerosol properties and processes depend on their size distribution: light scattering, cloud nucleating properties, dry deposition, and penetration into airways of lungs. The evolution of the mass loading itself depends on particle size because of the size dependence of growth and removal processes. For these reasons it is increasingly recognized that chemical transport and transformation models must represent not

- by Stephen E Schwartz
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- Chemistry, Air Quality, Light Scattering, Atmospheric Aerosols

suggested that Atlantic sturgeon were likely aggregating to some degree. Total lengths of captured Atlantic sturgeon ranged from 577 to 1,517 mm (mean of 967 mm), suggesting that most fish were juveniles. Limited tag returns and genetic data suggest that fish wintering off North Carolina constitute a mixed stock. Information about their distribution and habitat utilization should benefit fishery managers seeking to reduce bycatch and protect key habitats.

- by Wilson Laney
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- North Carolina, Fishery Management, Habitat Use, Geographic distribution

This paper presents a brief characterization of wind power in Portugal, considering the installed power capacity, the capacity under construction, and the location of wind farms. It also describes the Portuguese Lightning Location System, and presents the results of the ccurrence of cloud-to-ground strikes both temporally and eographically distributed and the accumulative probability of the peak current. Based on these results, new ground flash density maps were drawn. Thus, this paper allows the characterization of discharges occurring in Portugal, helping to improve risk analysis and the protection systems adopted.

- by Victor Mendes
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- Wind Energy, Risk Analysis, Wind Power, Wind turbine

Nonductile concrete buildings arguably represent the greatest seismic life safety hazard in many urban centers world-wide because of their collapse potential. This paper documents the development of an inventory to evaluate the risk from the approximately 1600 potentially nonductile concrete buildings in the City of Los Angeles. Using state-of-the-art spatial databases, publicly available online resources, and building inspections, we record the geographic distribution of these buildings as well as their general characteristics with respect to structural configurations and usage. We describe the diverse array of data sources used to develop the inventory, which provides information on building size, age, type, usage, and ownership type. We particularly emphasize the data collection methodologies developed and utilized for this project and the significant challenges associated with data collection of this type. This information is being utilized in ongoing collapse risk studies related to nonductile concrete construction in Los Angeles and to guide a testing/simulation program that will ultimately lead to more accurate loss estimation tools.

- by Mary Comerio
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- Los Angeles, Data Collection, Geographic distribution, Spatial Database

Endemism Gondwana Vicariance a b s t r a c t The rigorous study of processes shaping geographic distributions of lineages is a relatively new and emerging field in mycology. While it was previously generally believed that most fungi have wide distributions and largely unstructured populations, recent studies have shown that this is not the case. The study of distributions in tandem with molecular approaches to phylogeny has recently made substantial advances to our understanding of the diversity and biogeography of fungi. Comprehensive species inventories have provided a better picture of the actual distribution of these organisms, while robust phylogenies based on molecular characters have provided both data that allow interpretation of current distributions and testable hypotheses regarding the processes responsible for distribution patterns. This commentary provides an introduction to five papers in this issue of Mycological Research that focus on fungal phylogeography. These papers are based on oral contributions given at two symposia at the International Mycological Congress (IMC8) held in Cairns (Australia) in August 2006. j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / m y c r e s m y c o l o g i c a l r e s e a r c h 1 1 2 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 4 2 3 -4 2 4 0953-7562/$ -see front matter ª

- by Gregory Mueller
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- Microbiology, Geography, Demography, Molecular Evolution

Managing international teams with geographically distributed participants is a complex task. The risk of communication breakdowns increases due to cultural and organizational differences grounded in the geographical distribution of the participants. Such breakdowns indicate general misunderstandings and a lack of shared meaning between participants. In this paper, we address the complexity of building shared meaning. We examine the communication breakdowns that occurred in two globally distributed virtual teams by providing an analytical distinction of the organizational context as the foundation for building shared meaning at three levels. Also we investigate communication breakdowns that can be attributed to differences in lifeworld structures, organizational structures, and work process structures within a virtual team. We find that all communication breakdowns are manifested and experienced by the participants at the work process level; however, resolving breakdowns may require critical reflection at other levels. Where previous research argues that face-to-face interaction is an important variable for virtual team performance, our empirical observations reveal that communication breakdowns related to a lack of shared meaning at the lifeworld level often becomes more salient when the participants are co-located than when geographically distributed. Last, we argue that creating translucence in communication structures is essential for building shared meanings at all three levels.

- by Pernille Bjorn
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- Information Systems, Organizational structure, Critical Reflection, Face to Face

From the northern Negev Desert of Israel three new localities for land tortoises are reported: Be'er Mash'abim, the Mash'abim Sands Nature Reserve for Testudo kleinmanni and T. graeca; approximately 2 km south of Lahav (southwest of Eshkolot) for T. graeca and approximately 6 km northeast of Nizzana for T. kleinmanni. Be'er Mash'abim is the first sympatric occurrence of T. kleinmanni and any other tortoise species. Further Israeli localities for T. kleinmanni are discussed.

- by Henrik Bringsøe
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- Herpetology, Chelonians, Israel, Tortoises

Spatial data mining has been developed as the effective technique in many applications that involve large amounts of geo-spatial data. Many organizations provide fieldbased services such as delivery, field-services and emergency to their customers. Considering the geographical distribution of the customer request points, the location of facilities will have noticeable impact on the overall efficiency of the company's operations. The closer the facilities are to the customers, the sooner and cheaper will be the service provision transaction. In this paper, we empirically study the role of spatial clustering methods in such context. We have implemented and tuned some of the main spatial clustering algorithms to discover the best locations for facility establishment. A new spatial clustering algorithm is proposed that does not require the number of facilities as input. The new algorithm will determine the optimal number of facilities along with their locations based on the business context trade-offs. Many experiments are conducted to study the performance of the studied algorithms on real world and synthetic data sets. The results reveal valuable distinctions between the different methods and confirm the higher efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

- by Maseud Rahgozar
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- Data Mining, Facility Location, Spatial data mining, Empirical Study

Geographically distributed virtual teams are increasingly prevalent in global organizations. Despite the growing attention to virtual teams, there is limited understanding of how cross-cultural collaboration and electronic dependence in communication affect virtual workers' psychological reactions and well-being. This qualitative multi-case study aims at understanding the different causes of stress in cross-cultural collaboration. An overarching analysis across seven case studies revealed that globally distributed team members experienced job stressors such as language challenges in English, or lingua franca, misunderstandings, and conflicts due to different mindsets, communication and behavior styles, and work-leisure orientations. Without adequate skills in lingua franca, or proper cultural and local awareness of distant team sites, coping was not successful, thereby stressors lead to distress.

- by Niina Nurmi
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- Human Computer Interaction, HCI, Case Study, Geographic distribution

The fern genus Dryopteris (Dryopteridaceae) is represented in the Hawaiian Islands by 18 endemic taxa and one non-endemic, native species. The goals of this study were to determine whether Dryopteris in Hawai’i is monophyletic and to infer the biogeographical origins of Hawaiian Dryopteris by determining the geographical distributions of their closest living relatives. We sequenced two chloroplast DNA fragments, rbcL and the trnL-F intergenic spacer (IGS), for 18 Hawaiian taxa, 45 non-Hawaiian taxa, and two outgroup species. For individual fragments, we estimated phylogenetic relationships using Bayesian inference and maximum parsimony. We performed a combined analysis of both cpDNA fragments employing Bayesian inference, maximum parsimony, and maximum likelihood. These analyses indicate that Hawaiian Dryopteris is not monophyletic, and that there were at least five separate colonizations of the Hawaiian Islands by different species of dryopteroid ferns, with most of the five groups having closest relatives in SE Asia. The results suggest that one colonizing ancestor, perhaps from SE Asia, gave rise to eight endemic taxa (the glabra group). Another colonizing ancestor, also possibly from SE Asia, gave rise to a group of five endemic taxa (the exindusiate group). Dryopteris fusco-atra and its two varieties, which are endemic to Hawai’i, most likely diversified from a SE Asian ancestor. The Hawaiian endemic Nothoperanema rubiginosum has its closest relatives in SE Asia, and while the remaining two species, D. wallichiana and D. subbipinnata, are sister species, their biogeographical origins could not be determined from these analyses due to the widespread distributions of D. wallichiana and its closest non-Hawaiian relative.

- by Tom Ranker
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- Information Systems, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Marine Biology

As currently defined, the 24 species of Schoenocaulon occur in three disjunct areas: north central Florida (one species, S. dubium), southern Peru (portion of the range of S. officinale), and the region from southeastern New Mexico-Texas south to Venezuela; the 20 species endemic to Mexico are geographically restricted. Species delimitations, often based on tepal morphology, have been problematic. Our analyses of ITS sequence data for all 27 species and infraspecific taxa support recognition of two new species and recircumscription and placement of elements of the polyphyletic S. ghiesbreghtii and S. mortonii complexes. For taxa with adequate sampling, our data also indicate 11-12 cladospecies and 3-6 metaspecies according to the apomorphic species concept. The resolved phylogeny, correlated with geography and morphology, allows insight into biogeographical diversification and the evolution of some unusual morphological characters within the genus, such as nectary differentiation and tepal margin type.

- by norris williams
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- Evolutionary Biology, Plant Biology, Ecology, Peru
- by santiago pinto
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- Fiscal policy, Geographic distribution, Economica, Económica

Scholars have recently argued for flatter, organic organizational structures that enable workers to deal more effectively with dynamic and uncertain environments. In a correlational study of 33 R&D teams, we find that although this network form is associated with more smooth coordination in collocated teams, the opposite is true for geographically distributed teams. In fact, an informal hierarchical structure was associated with more smooth coordination in distributed teams. These results add to the scant literature on networks in teams and provide insight into important differences in the structure of geographically distributed and collocated teams. /06/0011...$5.00. indicate causality in the opposite direction. That is, teams whose coordination is going smoothly may tolerate a more hierarchical organization of work.

- by Pamela Hinds
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- Organizational structure, Social Structure, Geographic distribution, Social Network

See the end of the text for the complete list of affiliations Overall prevalence of malnutrition was 30.7%, with higher rates in the northern macroarea (36.7%) than in central (28.0%), southern (26.9%) and island (16.7%) ones (p < 0.0001). This discrepancy appeared to be mainly related to the prevalence of overweight/obesity. By a multivariate model, malnutrition was significantly lower in males (p < 0.05) and surgical wards (p < 0.002), associated with geography (p < 0.05) and consistently higher in patients aged ≥65 years (p < 0.01), presenting with malignancies (p < 0.005) and having multidrug therapy (p < 0.05). The prevalence of hospital malnutrition is high also in Italy. It presents with different geographical distribution also according to overweight prevalence. This evidence should be considered when designing national nutritional policies.

- by Lucio Lucchin
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- Nutrition, Weight Loss, Nutritional Status Assessment, Nutritional Status

The current way of designing industrial plants relies on the communication among experts in the field, and on tools that allow the simulation of the site. Virtual reality (VR) tools are used to visualize and interact with complex 3D environments in real time, and several engineering simulations employ VR to foresee the results of complex industrial operations. The research project described here presents a collaborative engineering environment (CEE) that integrates VR techniques into a system where the execution of different sequences of engineering simulations is modeled as scientific workflows. The focus of this research is on the oil & gas industry, particularly offshore engineering, where the project of a new production unit is a lengthy and expensive process and usually is conducted by different specialists who are geographically distributed. Among the integrated engineering simulations are those involving structural calculus, hydrodynamics, naval engineering with mooring systems, meteo-oceanography, and others. The main objective is to improve the users' interpretation capacity and skills while providing visualization tools for a better understanding of the results.

2 ABSTRACT.- BRASIL-SATO, M. DE C.; SANTOS, M. D. DOS (Helminths of Myleus micans (Lütken, 1875) (Characiformes: Serrasalminae) from the São Francisco river, Brazil.) Helmintos de Myleus micans (Lütken, 1875) (Characiformes: Serrasalminae) do rio São Francisco, Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Parasitologia Veteriná- ria, v. 12, n. 3, p. 131-134, 2003. Departamento de Biologia Animal, UFRRJ, Km 47, Antiga Rod. Rio-São

- by Michelle Santos
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- Minas Gerais, Total Length, Geographic distribution

This work is referred to the characterization of the environmental hydrochemistry in the broader Sapes area -Thrace region, on the basis of physico-chemical properties of surface and groundwaters occurring in the volcanosedimentary formations of this area, where gold mining activities are planned to operate. Volcanic rocks are considerably altered where they are in contact with hydrothermal solutions. Aquifers are formed within these formations. Surface and ground waters are strongly metalliferous and their hydrochemical facies present similar but complex water types. Certain characteristic chemical types are the following: Ca-Mg-HCO 3 -SO 4 , Ca-Mg-SO 4 -HCO 3 . Ca-SO 4 , Ca-Mg-SO 4 . Ca-Na-Cl-HCO 3 , Na-Cl. A small majority of the water samples present the following order of anion dominance HCO 3 − > SO 4 2− > Cl − . Calcium is the dominant cation. Bicarbonates and sulfate ions are the dominant anions. The order of dominance for the heavy metals in surface and ground waters is as follows: Fe > Mn > Zn > Ni > Cu. The saturation index of waters regarding minerals is low. Computer simulation indicates that calcite and dolomite are common minerals in all water samples which are saturated in respect to quartz and argillaceous-siliceous minerals. The most pronounced property of waters is their acidic character. The high metal concentrations are related to water with low pH. Sulfide minerals control the low pH values of waters which is an important control factor for the evolution of the water chemical composition. The abundance of sulfates is attributed to the dissolution of the minerals pyrite (FeS 2 ) and alunite (KAl 3 (SO 4 ) 2 (OH) 6 . The water-mineral interactions are responsible for the chemical composition of waters. Water quality problems can be successfully handled by the use factor analysis. 17 chemical parameters can be substituted by five factors which successfully represent the hydrochemical processes as well as their geographic distribution. Volcanic rocks in the study area have the potential to produce acid drainage.

- by N. Lambrakis
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- Water quality, Multidisciplinary, Factor analysis, Computer Simulation

Baseline information on the biogeography of the species Quercus humboldtii Bonpl is presented. This species, commonly known as Roble, has many uses for local communities, but has recently been placed in the IUCN category of "low risk/conservation depending". Prior to initiating conservation efforts, it is important to have baseline information on the species. This study analyses the geographic distribution of the species, and examines its climatic adaptation. A database of all known observations of Q. humboldtii in Colombia and Panama is presented, including a new registry of the species between the Western and Central cordilleras, in the Serranía de San Lucas at 1.200 meters above sea level. The database was used to examine the species distribution. This is done using both a qualitative assessment of the points of observation, and through predictive species distribution modeling. The species is found across all three cordilleras of the northern Andean region, from the department of Nariño in Colombia to the southern regions of Panama. Q. humboldtii has a wide climatic adaptation, from low to high elevations (representing a mean temperature from 9.3 o C to 27.9 o C), and wet to dry environments (788mm/year -2681mm/year). The species could be split into two climatic clusters, with differing adaptations to mean temperature; low elevations and high elevations. The main municipalities where the species is likely to be found are listed. No climatically unique and geographically succinct clusters of Q. humboldtii populations are found, providing little evidence for splitting the species apart. Genetic and morphological studies are needed to reach concrete conclusions.

- by Juan Palacio-mejía
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- Genetics, Species Distribution, Oak, Species Distribution Model

Contemporary picture archiving and communication systems are limited in managing large and varied image collections, because content-based image retrieval (CBIR) methods are unavailable. In this paper, an XML-based data and resource exchange framework is defined using open standards and software to enable specialized CBIR systems to act as geographically distributed toolkits. The approach enables communication and collaboration between two or more geographically separated complementary systems with possibly different architectures and developed on different platforms, and specialized for different image modalities and characteristics. The resulting synergy provides the user with a rich functionality operating within a familiar Web browser interface, making the combined system portable and independent of location and underlying user operating systems. We describe the coupling of the Image Retrieval in Medical Applications (IRMA) system and the Spine Pathology and Image Retrieval System (SPIRS) as proof of this concept.

Parameter-space (p-space) studies involve running a single application several times with different parameter sets. Since the jobs are mutually independent, many computing resources can be recruited to conduct an entire study in a distributed manner. The p-space studies are attractive applications for grids, which are networked collections of computing and other resources. Legion is a grid infrastructure that facilitates the secure and easy use of heterogeneous, geographically distributed resources by providing the illusion of a single virtual machine from those resources. Legion provides tools and services that support advanced p-space studies, i.e., studies that make complex demands such as transparent access to distributed files, fault-tolerance and security. We demonstrate these benefits with a protein-folding experiment in which a molecular simulation package was run over a grid managed by Legion.

- by Andrew Grimshaw
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- Information Systems, Distributed Computing, Protein Folding, Computer Networks

foxes, 36 stone martens and 48 badgers from the western Italian Alps were examined for sarcoptic mange and for gastrointestinal helminths to investigate their prevalence and geographical distribution and to point out the existence of potential interactions among them. Sarcoptic mange was observed in 25.3±2.8% SE of foxes and in 5.6±3.8% SE of stone martens, while no badger was found infected. Helminths belonged to Cestoidea Cyclophillidea (3.0±1.1% SE), Nematoda Trichurida (Capillaria aerophila and Trichuris vulpis: 6.5±1.6% SE; Trichinella britovi: 3.0±1.1% SE), Ascaridida (12.2±2.2% SE) and Strongylida (6.9±1.7% SE). Sarcoptic mange infection and the presence of helminths proved to be associated, with mangy foxes showing significantly higher prevalence of both cestode and nematode (particularly Ascaridida) worms. Moreover, considering three clusters of parasites (S. scabiei, nematodes and cestodes), more foxes than expected hosted simultaneously 2 and 3 taxa. These evidences suggest the existence of some kind of interaction, whose modalities and implications are discussed in this paper.

- by Riccardo Orusa
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- Zoology, Red Fox, European, Geographic distribution

The historical evolution of van chai from within the administrative structure of farming villages is explained, and their geographical distribution described. The social and management functions and administration of the ‘floating village’ type of van chai is explained with particular reference to the lagoons of Thua Thien Hue Province. The van chai is the focus for the spiritual activities of fishing, so in each fishing community founded by migrants along the South-Central coast a van chai was established to worship the Whale God. These reflected the traditional folk and professional beliefs and mutual assistance within the community. Analysis of the religious and social functions and organization of the ‘guild-type’ van chai of the South-Central coast is based on Van Thuy Tu, Phan Thiet City, Binh Thuan Province. The general design principles of pre-existing management systems in Vietnam are examined in terms of rights, rules, monitoring and accountability, conflict resolution, and sanctions.

- by Duy Nguyen
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- Fisheries Management, Conflict Resolution, Vietnam, Anthropology of Vietnam

Many existing building performance analysis methods and tools do not effectively encourage and facilitate iterative, multi-criteria, and multi-agenda building design development. SEMPER, which was originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is a building design and performance simulation environment that attempts to remedy these shortcomings. It is an active, multi-domain, space-based, object-oriented design support tool for integrated building performance computing.

- by Sanjay Gupta
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- Engineering, Design Support, Object Oriented Design, Collaborative Research