Short communication: Serranus cabrilla (Linnaeus, 1758) (Perciformes, Serranidae) a new host record for Nerocila orbigyni (Guérin-Mèneville, 1832) (Isopoda, Cymothoidae)

Cymothoids are among the largest parasites of fishes in the world. These isopods associate with many commercially important fish species and attach themselves to the body or fins of the fishes. The isopods cause significant economic losses to fisheries by killing, stunting, or damaging these fishes. ... The serranid fish, Serranus cabrilla (Linnaeus, 1758) (the comber) is a commercial species and has a wide distribution (north Atlantic Sea [sic], North Sea and Mediterranean Sea). The comber is a demersal species found on rocks, and on sandy and muddy bottoms at depths of 1-500 [meters]. This is the main species captured by trawlers fishing in the Aegean Sea of the Turkish coast. N. orbignyi has been determined for the first time on S. cabrilla from the Turkish coasts within the frame of the present study

A Component Based Heuristic Search Method with Evolutionary Eliminations

Nurse rostering is a complex scheduling problem that affects hospital personnel on a daily basis all over the world. This paper presents a new component-based approach with evolutionary eliminations, for a nurse scheduling problem arising at a major UK hospital. The main idea behind this technique is to decompose a schedule into its components (i.e. the allocated shift pattern of each nurse), and then to implement two evolutionary elimination strategies mimicking natural selection and natural mutation process on these components respectively to iteratively deliver better schedules. The worthiness of all components in the schedule has to be continuously demonstrated in order for them to remain there. This demonstration employs an evaluation function which evaluates how well each component contributes towards the final objective. Two elimination steps are then applied: the first elimination eliminates a number of components that are deemed not worthy to stay in the current schedule; the second elimination may also throw out, with a low level of probability, some worthy components. The eliminated components are replenished with new ones using a set of constructive heuristics using local optimality criteria. Computational results using 52 data instances demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach in solving real-world problems.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figure

Determination and economical evaluations of damages on forest products logged by different logging techniques

Bu çalışmada; dağlık arazi yapısına sahip olan Artvin bölgesinde gerçekleştirilen odun hammaddesi üretimi faaliyetlerinin taşınan ürünler üzerinde oluşturduğu fiziksel zararlar tespit edilmiş ve bu zararların ekonomik boyutlarına yönelik genel değerlendirmeler yapılmıştır. Bölmeden çıkarma çalışmalarının taşınan ürünlere verdiği zarara yönelik ölçümler toplam 15 deneme alanında yapılmıştır. Ölçümler Artvin Orman İşletme Müdürlüğü-Taşlıca Orman İşletme Şefliği sınırları içerisinde orman hava hatları, orman traktörü ve insan gücüyle ile bölmeden çıkarmanın yapıldığı her bir teknik için beşer adet olmak üzere toplam 15 deneme alanında gerçekleştirilmiştir. Taşınan ürünlerde oluşan zarar tespitinde 0 ile 3 arasında toplam 4 kategoride derecelendirme yapılmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre kullanılan 3 değişik bölmeden çıkarma tekniğinin taşınan ürünlerde oluşan zararlar üzerinde önemli derecede etkili olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. Taşınan ürünler üzerinde en fazla zarar insan gücü ile yapılan bölmeden çıkarma çalışmalarında oluşmuş (1.92) onu sırasıyla traktörle (1.22) ve hava hattı ile (0.51) bölmeden çıkarma tekniği izlemiştir. Hava hattı ile bölmeden çıkarmada taşınan ürünlerin % 57.6’sı hiç zarar görmemiştir. Bu durum diğer bölmeden çıkarma çalışmalarında % 15’in altında kalmıştır. Hava hattı ile bölmeden çıkarmada taşınan ürünlerin hiç biri ağır zarara uğramazken, traktörle bölmeden çıkarmada ürünlerin % 6.0’sı, insan gücü ile bölmeden çıkarma da ise % 20’si ağır zarara uğramıştır. Bölmeden çıkarma tekniğine bağlı olarak ortaya çıkan bu zararlar, ürünler üzerinde nitelik ve bazen de nicelik kayıplarına sebebiyet vermiştir. Bu zarardan dolayı tomruğun kağıtlık oduna veya kağıtlık odunun yakacak oduna dönüşmesi sonucunda, birim ürün satış fiyatında kaba bir tahminle % 25 ile % 60 oranlarında bir ekonomik kayıp söz konusu olmaktadır.In this present study, the physical damages of logging on forest products were investigated in Artvin, and the qualitative and quantitative impacts of damages on forest products were economically discussed. The damages of three logging techniques (man power, skidder, skyline) on the forest products were investigated in 15 sites in Artvin Forest Enterprise-Taşlıca Forest District. The levels of damages in each site were categorized into 4 as 0- no damage, 1- low, 2- moderate and 3-heavy damages. Results have showed that three different logging techniques have a significant influence on damages of forest products. The highest damage on forest products was for the man power (1.92) followed by skidder (1.22) and skyline (0.51). The undamaged forest products were 56.7% for skyline, 17.7% for skidder and 6% for man power. The forest products logged by skyline had no heavily damages, while the other techniques caused heavily damages on the forest products with being 6% for the skidder and 20% for the man power

Scalar Casimir Effect on a D-dimensional Einstein Static Universe

We compute the renormalised energy momentum tensor of a free scalar field coupled to gravity on an (n+1)-dimensional Einstein Static Universe (ESU), RxS^n, with arbitrary low energy effective operators (up to mass dimension n+1). A generic class of regulators is used, together with the Abel-Plana formula, leading to a manifestly regulator independent result. The general structure of the divergences is analysed to show that all the gravitational couplings (not just the cosmological constant) are renormalised for an arbitrary regulator. Various commonly used methods (damping function, point-splitting, momentum cut-off and zeta function) are shown to, effectively, belong to the given class. The final results depend strongly on the parity of n. A detailed analytical and numerical analysis is performed for the behaviours of the renormalised energy density and a quantity `sigma' which determines if the strong energy condition holds for the `quantum fluid'. We briefly discuss the quantum fluid back-reaction problem, via the higher dimensional Friedmann and Raychaudhuri equations, observe that equilibrium radii exist and unveil the possibility of a `Casimir stabilisation of Einstein Static Universes'.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figures, v2: minor changes in sections 1, 2.5, 3 and 4; version published in CQ

Distributive politics and regional development: assessing the territorial distribution of Turkey’s public investment

Turkey is often perceived as a country with low bureaucratic capacity and prone to political manipulation and ‘pork-barrel’. This article tests whether this is the case, by analysing the extent to which politics, rather than equity and efficiency criteria, have determined the geographical allocation of public investment across the 81 provinces of Turkey between 2005 and 2012. The results show that although the Turkish government has indeed channelled public expenditures to reward its core constituencies, socioeconomic factors remained the most relevant predictors of investment. Moreover, in contrast to official regional development policy principles, we uncover the concentration of public investment in areas with comparatively higher levels of development. We interpret this as the state bureaucracy’s intentional strategy of focussing on efficiency by concentrating resources on ‘the better off among the most in need’

ADAMTS13 and VWF activities guide individualized caplacizumab treatment in patients with aTTP

Introduction of the nanobody caplacizumab was shown to be effective in the treatment of acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (aTTP) in the acute setting. The official recommendations include plasma exchange (PEX), immunosuppression, and the use of caplacizumab for a minimum of 30 days after stopping daily PEX. This study was a retrospective, observational analysis of the use of caplacizumab in 60 patients from 29 medical centers in Germany. Immunosuppressive treatment led to a rapid normalization of ADAMTS13 activities (calculated median, 21 days). In 35 of 60 patients, ADAMTS13 activities started to normalize before day 30 after PEX; in 11 of 60 patients, the treatment was extended beyond day 30; and in 5 patients, it was extended even beyond day 58 due to persistent autoimmune activity. In 34 of 60 instances, caplacizumab was stopped before day 30 with a favorable outcome whenever ADAMTS13 activities were >10%. In contrast, 11 of 34 patients with ADAMTS13 activities <10% at the time of stopping caplacizumab treatment developed a nonfavorable outcome (disease exacerbation or relapse). In some cases, prolongation of the treatment interval to every other day was feasible and resulted in a sustained reduction of von Willebrand factor activity. ADAMTS13 activity measurements are central for a rapid diagnosis in the acute setting but also to tailor disease management. An ADAMTS13 activity-guided approach seems safe for identifying the individual time point when to stop caplacizumab to prevent overtreatment and undertreatment; this approach will result in significant cost savings without jeopardizing the well-being of patients. In addition, von Willebrand factor activity may serve as a biomarker for drug monitoring

Real-world data confirm the effectiveness of caplacizumab in acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

Acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (aTTP) is a rare but life-threatening condition. In 2018, the nanobody caplacizumab was approved for the treatment of adults experiencing an acute episode of aTTP, in conjunction with plasma exchange (PEX) and immunosuppression for a minimum of 30 days after stopping daily PEX. We performed a retrospective, observational analysis on the use of caplacizumab in 60 patients from 29 medical centers in Germany during acute disease management. Caplacizumab led to a rapid normalization of the platelet count (median, 3 days; mean 3.78 days). One patient died after late treatment initiation due to aTTP-associated complications. In 2 patients with initial disease presentation and in 4 additional patients with laboratory signs of an exacerbation or relapse after the initial therapy, PEX-free treatment regimens could be established with overall favorable outcome. Caplacizumab is efficacious in the treatment of aTTP independent of timing and ancillary treatment modalities. Based on this real-world experience and published literature, we propose to administer caplacizumab immediately to all patients with an acute episode of aTTP. Treatment decisions regarding the use of PEX should be based on the severity of the clinical presentation and known risk factors. PEX might be dispensable in some patients

A methodology for detecting the orthology signal in a PPI network at a functional complex level

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