Prevalence of \u3cem\u3eMyxobolus cerebralis\u3c/em\u3e Infections Among Genetic Lineages of \u3cem\u3eTubifex tubifex\u3c/em\u3e at Three Locations in the Madison River, Montana

Host biodiversity can impact disease risk and influence the transmission of parasitic disease. Stream sediment–dwelling worms, Tubifex tubifex (Clitellata: Oligochaeta), are the definitive host of the parasite Myxobolus cerebralis (Myxozoa: Myxosporea), which causes whirling disease in salmonid fishes. Genetic diversity of T. tubifex is correlated with host susceptibility to M. cerebralis, and mitochondrial Lineage III is generally shown to be more likely to be infected and produce the triactinomyxon (TAM) spores than other lineages. We determined the mitochondrial lineage, relative abundance, and prevalence of infection of T. tubifex collected at 3 sites in the Madison River, Montana, where previous study had shown variation in whirling disease prevalence and severity in caged trout fry. We also compared visual identification of TAMs released from cultured worms with a molecular genetic assay (diagnostic polymerase chain reaction [PCR]) for parasite detection of both infected and uninfected worms. We estimated that mitochondrial Lineage III was most abundant at the site previously shown to have high fish disease and was also most likely to be infected. The 2 techniques for detecting parasite infection did not always agree, and the likelihood of PCR (+) and spore (−) was not significantly different from PCR (−) and spore (+). Differences in the relative infection prevalence for these 2 lineages may explain the wide range of infection in natural streams

Gender inequality and disabled inclusivity in accounting higher education and profession during financial crisis

In this paper, we find that during financial crises, the wage gap between female and male accounting professionals reduces and affects gender inequality in higher education. In addition, less support and lower wages for disabled accounting professionals demotivate disabled students in accounting higher education. Because of budget cuts during financial crisis, universities limit their support to women and the disabled. We consider 104 universities from the UK Higher Education Statistic Agency (HESA) database for 2005– 2011. The theoretical and empirical findings of this paper establish the positive growth in female students and the negative growth in disabled accounting students during the recent financial crisis. The established link between higher education and the accounting profession enriches the existing accounting literature and assists policymakers in identifying a better strategy to enhance equality and inclusion of disabled students in accounting higher education to address inequality and non-inclusivity in the accounting profession, especially during financial crisis

The Parasite that Causes Whirling Disease, \u3cem\u3eMyxobolus cerebralis\u3c/em\u3e, is Genetically Variable Within and Across Spatial Scales

Understanding the genetic structure of parasite populations on the natural landscape can reveal important aspects of disease ecology and epidemiology and can indicate parasite dispersal across the landscape. Myxobolus cerebralis (Myxozoa: Myxosporea), the causative agent of whirling disease in the definitive host Tubifex tubifex, is native to Eurasia and has spread to more than 25 states in the USA. The small amounts of data available to date suggest that M. cerebralis has little genetic variability. We examined the genetic variability of parasites infecting the definitive host T. tubifex in the Madison River, MT, and also from other parts of North America and Europe. We cloned and sequenced 18S ribosomal DNA and the internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS-1) gene. Five oligochaetes were examined for 18S and five for ITS-1, only one individual was examined for both genes. We found two different 18S rRNA haplotypes of M. cerebralis from five worms and both intra- and interworm genetic variation for ITS-1, which showed 16 different haplotypes from among 20 clones. Comparison of our sequences with those from other studies revealed M. cerebralis from MT was similar to the parasite collected from Alaska, Oregon, California, and Virginia in the USA and from Munich, Germany, based on 18S, whereas parasite sequences from West Virginia were very different. Combined with the high haplotype diversity of ITS-1 and uniqueness of ITS-1 haplotypes, our results show that M. cerebralis is more variable than previously thought and raises the possibility of multiple introductions of the parasite into North America

Technological breadth and depth of knowledge in innovation: the role of mergers and acquisitions in biotech

We analyze the diffusion and integration of external knowledge by distinguishing between the depth and breadth of technological knowledge in combination with the type of partner and channel of exchange. Using a latent variable structural equation model with a sample of 202 US biotechnology firms between 1990 and 2009, we investigate the extent to which the mergers and acquisitions with different partners contribute to the depth and breadth of the focal firm's knowledge base. Our analysis also addresses potential endogeneity issues and shows that acquisitions of related firms mainly increase the depth of knowledge, while acquisitions of unrelated firms develop the breadth of knowledge

Post Covid-19 and business analytics

This paper highlights the way companies can apply artificial intelligence (AI) in the post Covid-19 period. We show that how the AI can be advantageous to develop an inclusive model and apply to the businesses of various sizes. The recommendation can be beneficial for academic researchers to identify several ways to overcome the obstacles that companies may face in post Covid-19 period. The paper also addresses few major global issues, which can assist the policy makers to consider developing a business model to bounce back the world economy after this crisis is over. Overall, this paper enhances the understanding of stakeholders of business about the importance of application of the AI in businesses in a volatile market in post Covid-19 period

Galois cohomology of Fontaine rings

Let $V$ be a complete discrete valuation ring of mixed characteristic. We express the crystalline cohomology of the special fibre of certain smooth affine $V$-schemes $X=Spec(R)$ tensored with an appropriate ring of $p$-adic periods as the Galois cohomology of the fundamental group of the geometric generic fibre $\pi_1(X_{\bar{V}[1/p]})$ with coefficients in a Fontaine ring constructed from $R$. This is based on Faltings' approach to $p$-adic Hodge theory (the theory of almost étale extensions). Using this we deduce maps from $p$-adic étale cohomology to crystalline cohomology of smooth $V$-schemes. The results are more general, as the semi-stable case is also considered. In the end we derive an alternative proof of the theorem of Tsuji (the semi-stable conjecture of Fontaine-Jannsen)