ANALYSIS OF THE ALBANIAN NATIONAL LEGISLATION IN THE LIGHT OF THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK RELEVANT TO THE CONSERVATION AND USE OF ANIMAL GENETIC RESOURCES

The Albanian legislation on conservation, management and sustainable economic use of Farm Animal genetic Resources is an intensive developing process. It aims to the FAnGR development in accordance with the requirements and obligation arising from the accession to various international convention (CDB, WTO etc...), and to align it with other legislations of EU member states. The legislative development is part of the work that Albania is implementing in the context of the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation of Animal Genetic Resources (FAO). Albanian current legislation treats only generally the entirety of the requests that should be fulfilled in order to enable the conservation and administration of the biological diversity of farm animals. It is necessary to develop it in order to solve the entirety of the problems regarding the need and necessity of the administration of this national asset, to meet, in an optimal way, the food security of current and future generations

Ice: a strongly correlated proton system

We discuss the problem of proton motion in Hydrogen bond materials with special focus on ice. We show that phenomenological models proposed in the past for the study of ice can be recast in terms of microscopic models in close relationship to the ones used to study the physics of Mott-Hubbard insulators. We discuss the physics of the paramagnetic phase of ice at 1/4 filling (neutral ice) and its mapping to a transverse field Ising model and also to a gauge theory in two and three dimensions. We show that H3O+ and HO- ions can be either in a confined or deconfined phase. We obtain the phase diagram of the problem as a function of temperature T and proton hopping energy t and find that there are two phases: an ordered insulating phase which results from an order-by-disorder mechanism induced by quantum fluctuations, and a disordered incoherent metallic phase (or plasma). We also discuss the problem of decoherence in the proton motion introduced by the lattice vibrations (phonons) and its effect on the phase diagram. Finally, we suggest that the transition from ice-Ih to ice-XI observed experimentally in doped ice is the confining-deconfining transition of our phase diagram.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Arnavutluk Tavşan Populasyonunda Yerel Farklılaşma

Six measures of body conformation of six rabbit subpopulations were analyzed to determine the quantity of local differentiation of Albanian rabbit population. Data analyses showed that: (i) the local rabbit breed is classified in medium breed group with harmonic body development, (ii) the Albanian local rabbit population is distinguished for considerable level of local differentiation (iii) the main factor of this differentiation is the isolation in distance of rabbit subpopulations (iv) local differentiation can contribute on genetic variability conservation of Albanian local rabbit population that is actually under the pressure of genetic erosion.Arnavutluk tavşan populasyonularındaki yerel faklılaşmaların miktarını belirlemek için altı tavşan alt populasyonunun vücut kon formasyon ölçümleri analiz edilmiştir. Verilerin analizleri aşağıda hususları göstermiştir. (i) Arnavutluk yerel tavşan ırkı harmonik vücut gelişimli orta büyüklükte ırk olarak sınıflandırılmıştır.(ii) Arnavutluk yerel populasyonları önemli ölçüde farklılaşma göstermektedir.(iii) Yerel Populasyonlar farklılaşmasın da en önemli faktör tavşan alt populasyonları arasındaki mesafe izolasyonudur. (iv) Yerel populasyonların farklılığı genetik erozyon baskısı altıdaki Arnavutluk yerel populasyonları korunması sürecindeki genetik çeşitliliğe katkıda bulunmaktadır

Magnitude and variation of traffic air pollution as measured by CO in the City of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: Air pollution level in Addis Ababa is presumed to be high due to the prevalence of old vehicles and substandard road infrastructures. This study assessed CO concentration as a measure of traffic air pollution.Materials and methods: a total of 80 road side and 24 on-road daily traffic air samples during wet and dry seasons of 2007 and 2008, respectively, were taken using CO data logger. A structured checklist was used to document related data. Downloaded data from the CO sampler was used to generate summary statistics and data presentations. Data quality of CO measurement was ensured using calibration checks.Results: The mean for 15 minutes CO concentration was 2.1 ppm (GM=1.3) and 2.8 ppm (GM=2.2) for wet and dry seasons, respectively. The concentrations from season to season varied statistically. The CO temporal and spatial profiles among the two seasons were similar. The overall mean on-road CO concentration was 5.4 ppm (GM=5.3). Fifteen percent of roadside samples and all on-road samples exhibited more than 50% of the 8-hr CO WHO guideline.. Daily CO maxima were observed in early mornings and late afternoons.Conclusions: The consistency in spatial and temporal profiles and the variation on both on-road and road side traffic lines imply that vehicles are the main source of traffic air pollution. There is a concern that the CO 8-hr World Health Organization guideline might be exceeded in future

Interaction between Foxc1 and Fgf8 during Mammalian Jaw Patterning and in the Pathogenesis of Syngnathia

Syngnathia (bony fusion of the upper and lower jaw) is a rare human congenital condition, with fewer than sixty cases reported in the literature. Syngnathia typically presents as part of a complex syndrome comprising widespread oral and maxillofacial anomalies, but it can also occur in isolation. Most cartilage, bone, and connective tissue of the head and face is derived from neural crest cells. Hence, congenital craniofacial anomalies are often attributed to defects in neural crest cell formation, survival, migration, or differentiation. The etiology and pathogenesis of syngnathia however remains unknown. Here, we report that Foxc1 null embryos display bony syngnathia together with defects in maxillary and mandibular structures, and agenesis of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). In the absence of Foxc1, neural crest cell derived osteogenic patterning is affected, as osteoblasts develop ectopically in the maxillary prominence and fuse with the dentary bone. Furthermore, we observed that the craniofacial musculature is also perturbed in Foxc1 null mice, which highlights the complex tissue interactions required for proper jaw development. We present evidence that Foxc1 and Fgf8 genetically interact and that Fgf8 dosage is associated with variation in the syngnathic phenotype. Together our data demonstrates that Foxc1 – Fgf8 signaling regulates mammalian jaw patterning and provides a mechanistic basis for the pathogenesis of syngnathia. Furthermore, our work provides a framework for understanding jaw patterning and the etiology of other congenital craniofacial anomalies, including temporomandibular joint agenesis

Shape Analysis of HII Regions — II. Synthetic Observations

The statistical shape analysis method developed for probing the link between physical parameters and morphologies of Galactic HII regions is applied here to a set of synthetic observations (SOs) of a numerically modelled HII region. The systematic extraction of HII region shape, presented in the first paper of this series, allows for a quantifiable confirmation of the accuracy of the numerical simulation, with respect to the real observational counterparts of the resulting SOs. A further aim of this investigation is to determine whether such SOs can be used for direct interpretation of the observational data, in a future supervised classification scheme based upon HII region shape. The numerical HII region data was the result of photoionisation and radiation pressure feedback of a 34 M_\bigodot star, in a 1000 M_\bigodot cloud. The SOs analysed herein comprised four evolutionary snapshots (0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 Myr), and multiple viewing projection angles. The shape analysis results provided conclusive evidence of the efficacy of the numerical simulations. When comparing the shapes of the synthetic regions to their observational counterparts, the SOs were grouped in amongst the Galactic HII regions by the hierarchical clustering procedure. There was also an association between the evolutionary distribution of regions and the respective groups. This suggested that the shape analysis method could be further developed for morphological classification of HII regions by using a synthetic data training set, with differing initial conditions of well-defined parameters

Measures of goodness of fit obtained by almost-canonical transformations on Riemannian manifolds

The standard method of transforming a continuous distribution on the line to the uniform distribution on $[0,1]$ is the probability integral transform. Analogous transforms exist on compact Riemannian manifolds, \scr X, in that for each distribution with continuous positive density on \scr X, there is a continuous mapping of \scr X to itself that transforms the distribution into the uniform distribution. In general, this mapping is far from unique. This paper introduces the construction of an almost-canonical version of such a probability integral transform. The construction is extended to shape spaces, Cartan–Hadamard manifolds, and simplices. The probability integral transform is used to derive tests of goodness of fit from tests of uniformity. Illustrative examples of these tests of goodness of fit are given involving (i) Fisher distributions on $S^2$, (ii) isotropic Mardia–Dryden distributions on the shape space $Σ^5_2$. Their behaviour is investigated by simulation

Linear Collider Final Doublet Considerations: ATF2 Vibration Measurements

Original publication available at http://www.jacow.org/International audienceAt ATF2, to allow the Shintake Monitor located at the Interaction Point to measure the beam size with only 2% of error, vertical relative motion tolerance between SM (Shintake Monitor) and final doublet magnets (FD) is of 7nm for QD0 and 20nm for QF1 above 0.1Hz. Vibration transfer function of FD and SM with their supports has been measured and show a good rigidity. Vertical relative motion between the SM and QD0 (QF1) was thus measured to be only of 5.1nm (6.5nm) with high ground motion representative of a shift period. Same measurements done in horizontal directions showed that tolerances were also respected (much less strict). Moreover, relative motion tolerances should be released due to the good motion correlation measured between FD. Thus the FD and SM supports have been validated on site at ATF2 to be within the vibration specifications