The annual number of breeding adults and the effective population size of syntopic newts (Triturus cristatus, T-marmoratus)

Pond-breeding amphibians are deme-structured organisms with a population genetic structure particularly susceptible to demographic threats. We estimated the effective number of breeding adults (N-b) and the effective population size (N-e) of the European urodele amphibians Triturus cristatus (the crested newt) and T. marmoratus (the marbled newt), using temporal shifts in microsatellite allele frequencies. Eight microsatellite loci isolated from a T. cristatus library were used, five of which proved polymorphic in T. marmoratus, albeit with high frequencies of null alleles at two loci. Three ponds in western France were sampled, situated 4-10 kilometres apart and inhabited by both species. Parent-offspring cohort comparisons were used to measure N-b; samples collected at time intervals of nine or 12 years, respectively, were used to measure N-e. The adult population census size (N) was determined by mark-recapture techniques. With one exception, genetic distances (F-ST) between temporal samples were lower than among populations. N-b ranged between 10.6 and 101.8 individuals, N-e ranged between 9.6 and 13.4 individuals. For the pond where both parameters were available, N-b/N (overall range: 0.10-0.19) was marginally larger than N-e/N (overall range: 0.09-0.16), which is reflected in the temporal stability of N. In line with the observed differences in reproductive life-histories between the species, N-b/N ratios for newts were about one order of magnitude higher than for the anuran amphibian Bufo bufo. Despite of the colonization of the study area by T. cristatus only some decades ago, no significant genetic bottleneck could be detected. Our findings give rise to concerns about the long-term demographic viability of amphibian populations in situations typical for European landscapes

Performance Driven FPGA Design Analysis with ASIC Perspective of Vector Quantization

AbstractThe paper presents and analysis two different approaches for the design of modular and optimized Vector Quantisation (VQ) architectural blocks for the generation of the winner Index from a set of Code vectors giving the best match to the input image vector. The two proposed methods are then analysed for area, logical and routing delays and the ease of redesign to suit specific requirements on the FPGA platform. If an FPGA design need be ported to an ASIC at a later stage it is also important to take this into account early in the design cycle so that the ASIC porting will be efficient. The structured and hierarchically design of VQ lead to the consideration of the dedicated parallel architectures in two ways, in the direction of Codebook size ‘N’ and the vector dimension ‘K’, that process with high efficiency. Flexibility in terms of Codebook size expansion and Input vector dimension makes the new design fast to re-configure and meet the specific and challenging needs of a single functioned, tightly constrained and real time VQ encoder. The soft IP core design was targeted on to Xilinx Virtex-5. Simulation result analyses indicate that the design with parallelism only in the direction of the codebook size ‘N’ gives the desirable performance and is cost effective even for an ASIC implementation performed in Cadence tool. The design satisfies the performance requirements of for a real time image processing. Reconfiguring the codebook size and vector dimension makes redesign simpler to suit applications requirements but at the cost of re-synthesis and is capable of even multiplexed image transmission due to reduction in the Bandwidt

Image moments-based ultrasound visual servoing

International audienceA new visual servoing method based on B-mode ultrasound images is proposed to automatically control the motion of a 2D ultrasound probe held by a medical robot in order to reach a desired B-scan image of an object of interest. In this approach, combinations of image moments extracted from the current observed object cross-section are used as feedback visual features. The analytical form of the interaction matrix, relating the time variation of these visual features to the probe velocity, is derived and used in the control law. Simulations performed with a static ultrasound volume containing an egg-shaped object, and in-vitro experiments using a robotized ultrasound probe that interacts with a rabbit heart immersed in water, show the validity of this new approach and its robustness with respect to modeling and measurements errors

Maternal and perinatal outcome in cardiac disease complicating pregnancy

Background: Maternal cardiac disease associated with pregnancy is considered as a high-risk pregnancy. Various physiological and hemodynamic alterations during the course of pregnancy make these women prone for various complications and related morbidity and mortality.Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study of 105 cases of pregnancy complicated by cardiac disease, reporting to tertiary care hospital for delivery, was carried out to find out the maternal and perinatal outcome.Results: The incidence of cardiac disease in pregnancy in the present study was 0.54%. Most of the women (91%) belonged to low socioeconomic class. Rheumatic heart lesions constituted 87% of the cases. Mitral stenosis alone or in combination, was the commonest (57%) valvular lesion. Incidence of spontaneous vaginal delivery was 53 percent and for ventose or outlet forceps was 12 percent. Incidence of caesarean section was 35%. There were 2 maternal deaths, one each due to complication like pulmonary oedema and atrial fibrillation. The perinatal mortality was 36 per 1000 live births, mainly due to combination of factors like prematurity, low birth weight, neonatal sepsis and birth asphyxia.Conclusions: Early diagnosis of heart disease, regular antenatal checkup, institutional delivery, limiting family size can reduce the maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity associated with heart disease

Interplay of Kerr and Raman beam cleaning with a multimode microstructure fiber

We experimentally study the competition between Kerr beam self-cleaning and Raman beam cleanup in a multimode air-silica microstructure optical fiber. Kerr beam self-cleaning of the pump is observed for a certain range of input powers only. Raman Stokes beam generation and cleanup lead to both depletion and degradation of beam quality for the pump. The interplay of modal four-wave mixing and Raman scattering in the infrared domain lead to the generation of a multimode supercontinuum ranging from 500 nm up to 1800 nm

Relaxation under outflow dynamics with random sequential updating

In this paper we compare the relaxation in several versions of the Sznajd model (SM) with random sequential updating on the chain and square lattice. We start by reviewing briefly all proposed one dimensional versions of SM. Next, we compare the results obtained from Monte Carlo simulations with the mean field results obtained by Slanina and Lavicka . Finally, we investigate the relaxation on the square lattice and compare two generalizations of SM, one suggested by Stauffer and another by Galam. We show that there are no qualitative differences between these two approaches, although the relaxation within the Galam rule is faster than within the well known Stauffer rule.Comment: 9 figure

Self-cleaning on a higher order mode in ytterbium-doped multimode fiber with parabolic profile

We experimentally demonstrate polarization-dependent Kerr spatial beam self-cleaning into the LP11 mode of an Ytterbium-doped multimode optical fiber with parabolic gain and refractive index profiles

Scenario of Tourism Industry in India

Purpose– The present study makes an attempt to study the development of Tourism in India. The paper discusses Tourism attractions in India and initiatives taken by Government to promote Tourism. Design/methodology/approach-  The design of the study highlights future prospects and constrains in the development Tourism in India. The thrust area of paper is to analyse positive as well as negative impacts of Tourism Industry on the Economy, Society and Environment.   Findings– Tourism Industry in India is growing and it has vast potential for generating employment and earning large amount of foreign exchange besides giving a fillip to the country’s overall economic and social development. Research limitations/implications– Data were collected through the websites and various research articles. Practical implications– The study implies to the depth of social, economical and environmental effects of the tourism industry  Originality/value– Most of the works that are focused on tourism industry in India have been conducted at the conceptual level. Thus, with the aim of moving on this topic, this study analyses the impact on social, economical and environmental aspects through rise in tourism.Â