A Prototype Selection Committee Decision Analysis and Support System, SCDAS: Theoretical Background and Computer Implementation

One of the important problems in decision analysis related to the situation, where the committee (group of decision makers) has to select the best alternative from a given, finite set. In the most cases, the alternatives are evaluated on the basis of several quality factors. In the paper, the authors present the new approach, based on the principle of satisfactory decision making. This approach ensures proper structuralization of the decision process and allows proper balance of opinion of the group member. The experimental decision support system SCDAS was developed to test this approach

Association of GH Gene Polymorphism with Semen Parameters of Boars

Relations between polymorphism of the Growth Hormone gene and semen characters were analyzed. The DNA for the purpose of examination was isolated from the peripheral blood of 173 boars. In the boar herd under study the frequency of allele occurrence for the GH/MspI was as follows: allele GHA - 0.79 and allele GHB - 0.21. As far as the GH/HaeII polymorphism is concerned, the relevant frequency was as follows: allele GHA - 0.53 and allele GHB - 0.47, respectively. The relationship between the GH genotypes and semen characteristic traits were analyzed. The study showed that boars with GHBGHB genotype of both polymorphous loci of the GH gene produced ejaculates of larger volume, higher percentage, number of normozosperms in the ejaculate and number of insemination as compared to GHA GHA and GHAGHB boars. Our current findings suggested that polymorphism of the GH/MspI and GH/HaeII might have potential effect for reproductive performance traits of boars

Mean-risk models using two risk measures: A multi-objective approach

This paper proposes a model for portfolio optimisation, in which distributions are characterised and compared on the basis of three statistics: the expected value, the variance and the CVaR at a specified confidence level. The problem is multi-objective and transformed into a single objective problem in which variance is minimised while constraints are imposed on the expected value and CVaR. In the case of discrete random variables, the problem is a quadratic program. The mean-variance (mean-CVaR) efficient solutions that are not dominated with respect to CVaR (variance) are particular efficient solutions of the proposed model. In addition, the model has efficient solutions that are discarded by both mean-variance and mean-CVaR models, although they may improve the return distribution. The model is tested on real data drawn from the FTSE 100 index. An analysis of the return distribution of the chosen portfolios is presented

The cream rises to the top: a very severe case of diabetic dyslipidaemia

Newmark J, Pitts S, Millar E, Bowman J, West L, Wierzbicki A, Simpson

Identification of plastic constitutive parameters at large deformations from three dimensional displacement fields

The aim of this paper is to provide a general procedure to extract the constitutive parameters of a plasticity model starting from displacement measurements and using the Virtual Fields Method. This is a classical inverse problem which has been already investigated in the literature, however several new features are developed here. First of all the procedure applies to a general three-dimensional displacement field which leads to large plastic deformations, no assumptions are made such as plane stress or plane strain although only pressure-independent plasticity is considered. Moreover the equilibrium equation is written in terms of the deviatoric stress tensor that can be directly computed from the strain field without iterations. Thanks to this, the identification routine is much faster compared to other inverse methods such as finite element updating. The proposed method can be a valid tool to study complex phenomena which involve severe plastic deformation and where the state of stress is completely triaxial, e.g. strain localization or necking occurrence. The procedure has been validated using a three dimensional displacement field obtained from a simulated experiment. The main potentialities as well as a first sensitivity study on the influence of measurement errors are illustrated

Microbiome function predicts amphibian chytridiomycosis disease dynamics

[Background] The fungal pathogenBatrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) threatens amphibian biodiversity and ecosystem stability worldwide. Amphibian skin microbial community structure has been linked to the clinical outcome of Bd infections, yet its overall functional importance is poorly understood. [Methods] Microbiome taxonomic and functional profiles were assessed using high-throughput bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal ITS2 gene sequencing, bacterial shotgun metagenomics and skin mucosal metabolomics. We sampled 56 wild midwife toads (Alytes obstetricans) from montane populations exhibiting Bd epizootic or enzootic disease dynamics. In addition, to assess whether disease-specific microbiome profiles were linked to microbe-mediated protection or Bd-induced perturbation, we performed a laboratory Bd challenge experiment whereby 40 young adult A. obstetricans were exposed to Bd or a control sham infection. We measured temporal changes in the microbiome as well as functional profiles of Bd-exposed and control animals at peak infection. [Results] Microbiome community structure and function differed in wild populations based on infection history and in experimental control versus Bd-exposed animals. Bd exposure in the laboratory resulted in dynamic changes in microbiome community structure and functional differences, with infection clearance in all but one infected animal. Sphingobacterium, Stenotrophomonas and an unclassified Commamonadaceae were associated with wild epizootic dynamics and also had reduced abundance in laboratory Bd-exposed animals that cleared infection, indicating a negative association with Bd resistance. This was further supported by microbe-metabolite integration which identified functionally relevant taxa driving disease outcome, of which Sphingobacterium and Bd were most influential in wild epizootic dynamics. The strong correlation between microbial taxonomic community composition and skin metabolome in the laboratory and field is inconsistent with microbial functional redundancy, indicating that differences in microbial taxonomy drive functional variation. Shotgun metagenomic analyses support these findings, with similar disease-associated patterns in beta diversity. Analysis of differentially abundant bacterial genes and pathways indicated that bacterial environmental sensing and Bd resource competition are likely to be important in driving infection outcomes. [Conclusions] Bd infection drives altered microbiome taxonomic and functional profiles across laboratory and field environments. Our application of multi-omics analyses in experimental and field settings robustly predicts Bd disease dynamics and identifies novel candidate biomarkers of infection. [MediaObject not available: see fulltext.]K.A.B. was funded by a CASE studentship from NERC, NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility grant (NBAF939) and an E.P. Abraham Junior Research Fellowship from St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford. M.C.F and T.W.J.G. were funded by NERC award NE/E006701/1 and the Biodiversa project RACE: Risk Assessment of Chytridiomycosis to European Amphibian Biodiversity. T.W.J.G was also funded by Research England and NERC NE/S000062/1. D.S.S. and A.L. received funding through the project People, Pollution, and Pathogens financed through the call “Mountains as Sentinels of Change” by the Belmont-Forum (ANR-15-MASC-0001 - P3, DFG-SCHM3059/6-1, NERC-1633948, NSFC-41661144004). D.S.S. holds the AXA Chair for Functional Mountain Ecology funded by the AXA Research Fund through the project GloMEc and M.C.F. is a fellow in the CIFAR ‘Fungal Kingdoms’ Program