An application of Soft System Methodology

AbstractThe typical course timetabling problem is assigning Classes of students to appropriate faculty members, suitable classrooms and available timeslots. Hence, it involves a large number of stakeholders including students, teachers and institutional administrators. Different kinds of Hard Operational Research techniques have been employed over the years to address such problems. Due to the computational difficulties of this NP complete problem as well as the size and the complexity of the real world instances, an efficient optimal solution cannot be found easily.As an alternative strategy, this paper investigates the application of Checkland‘s Soft System Methodology (SSM) to the course timetabling problem. Besides giving an ideal course timetable, even to large and complex real problems, application of SSM, generates debate, learning, and understanding; enables key changes; facilitates negotiating the actions to be taken and makes possible the meaningful collaboration among concerned stakeholders. This paper also provides an appropriate course timetable for the management faculty at University of Tehran to show the potential of this application to real problems

Physicochemical traits of seedless barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.) fruits stored under refrigeration as affected by heat and calcium chloride treatments

The loss of chemical characteristics and quality of the fresh seedless barberry fruit during storage and qualitative losses of its dried fruit are the most important postharvest challenges in barberry industry and its exports. The fresh harvested fruit samples were dried using an electrical drier at 50°C to 50% moisture content. Thereafter, the effects of hot water alone (65°C for 45 sec), and hot water + 2% calcium chloride were carried out on the quality maintenance and chemicals during the cold storage of seedless barberry. The results showed that the samples treated with calcium chloride stored at 2°C had the highest TSS over time, whereas the titratable acidity of barberry fruits was not significantly affected by postharvest treatments. Hot water alone or in combination with calcium chloride treatment increased redness and chroma values result in better appearance quality than control. In addition, the treatments reduced the variable L* and thereby enhanced fruit lightness. The highest antioxidant content (% 77.92) was observed in hot water treated samples and the lowest (% 54.28) was obtained on control. Also, the highest amount of anthocyanins and antioxidants were obtained from samples treated with hot water. Only calcium chloride treatment had a significant effect on Ca content of the samples. The results revealed that postharvest application of hot water and calcium chloride treatments improved the appearance quality and nutritional values of fresh seedless barberry fruit, as well as extend the cold storage life, likely due to reduced pathogen contamination

Phylogenomics and morphological evolution of the mega-diverse genus Artemisia (Asteraceae: Anthemideae): implications for its circumscription and infrageneric taxonomy

Background and Aims Artemisia is a mega-diverse genus consisting of ~400 species. Despite its medicinal importance and ecological significance, a well-resolved phylogeny for global Artemisia, a natural generic delimitation and infrageneric taxonomy remain missing, owing to the obstructions from limited taxon sampling and insufficient information on DNA markers. Its morphological characters, such as capitulum, life form and leaf, show marked variations and are widely used in its infrageneric taxonomy. However, their evolution within Artemisia is poorly understood. Here, we aimed to reconstruct a well-resolved phylogeny for global Artemisia via a phylogenomic approach, to infer the evolutionary patterns of its key morphological characters and to update its circumscription and infrageneric taxonomy. Methods We sampled 228 species (258 samples) of Artemisia and its allies from both fresh and herbarium collections, covering all the subgenera and its main geographical areas, and conducted a phylogenomic analysis based on nuclear single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) obtained from genome skimming data. Based on the phylogenetic framework, we inferred the possible evolutionary patterns of six key morphological characters widely used in its previous taxonomy. Key Results The genus Kaschgaria was revealed to be nested in Artemisia with strong support. A well-resolved phylogeny of Artemisia consisting of eight highly supported clades was recovered, two of which were identified for the first time. Most of the previously recognized subgenera were not supported as monophyletic. Evolutionary inferences based on the six morphological characters showed that different states of these characters originated independently more than once. Conclusions The circumscription of Artemisia is enlarged to include the genus Kaschgaria. The morphological characters traditionally used for the infrageneric taxonomy of Artemisia do not match the new phylogenetic tree. They experienced a more complex evolutionary history than previously thought. We propose a revised infrageneric taxonomy of the newly circumscribed Artemisia, with eight recognized subgenera to accommodate the new results.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 31870179, 31570204, 31270237 and J1310002), the International Partnership Program (grant no. 151853KYSB20190027), Sino-Africa Joint Research Center (grant no. SAJC201614), Key technology projects of Jiangxi Province's major scientific and technological research and development project (grant no. 20223AAF01007), Survey of Wildlife Resources in Key Areas of Tibet (grant no. ZL202203601) and National Plant Specimen Resource Center (grant no. E0117G1001) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Project at Central Government Level: The Ability Establishment of Sustainable Use of Valuable Chinese Medicine Resources (grant no. 2060302) and Project of the Central Siberian Botanical Garden of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (grant no. AAAA-A21-121011290024-5).Abstract INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION Conclusions SUPPLEMENTARY DATA FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CONFLICT OF INTEREST LITERATURE CITED Supplementary dat

Advancing the use of passive sampling in risk assessment and management of contaminated sediments: Results of an international passive sampling inter-laboratory comparison

This work presents the results of an international interlaboratory comparison on ex situ passive sampling in sediments. The main objectives were to map the state of the science in passively sampling sediments, identify sources of variability, provide recommendations and practical guidance for standardized passive sampling, and advance the use of passive sampling in regulatory decision making by increasing confidence in the use of the technique. The study was performed by a consortium of 11 laboratories and included experiments with 14 passive sampling formats on 3 sediments for 25 target chemicals (PAHs and PCBs). The resulting overall interlaboratory variability was large (a factor of ∼10), but standardization of methods halved this variability. The remaining variability was primarily due to factors not related to passive sampling itself, i.e., sediment heterogeneity and analytical chemistry. Excluding the latter source of variability, by performing all analyses in one laboratory, showed that passive sampling results can have a high precision and a very low intermethod variability

Metastatic eccrine porocarcinoma: report of a case and review of the literature

Eccrine porocarcinoma (EPC) is a rare type of skin cancer arising from the intraepidermal portion of eccrine sweat glands or acrosyringium, representing 0.005-0.01% of all cutaneous tumors. About 20% of EPC will recur and about 20% will metastasize to regional lymph nodes. There is a mortality rate of 67% in patients with lymph node metastases. Although rare, the occurrence of distant metastases has been reported

Benign follicular tumors

Benign follicular tumors comprise a large and heterogeneous group of neoplasms that share a common histogenesis and display morphological features resembling one or several portions of the normal hair follicle, or recapitulate part of its embryological development. Most cases present it as clinically nondescript single lesions and essentially of dermatological relevance. Occasionally, however, these lesions be multiple and represent a cutaneous marker of complex syndromes associated with an increased risk of visceral neoplasms. In this article, the authors present the microscopic structure of the normal hair follicle as a basis to understand the type and level of differentiation of the various follicular tumors. The main clinicopathological features and differential diagnosis of benign follicular tumors are then discussed, including dilated pore of Winer, pilar sheath acanthoma, trichoadenoma, trichilemmoma, infundibuloma, proliferating trichilemmal cyst/tumor, trichoblastoma and its variants, pilomatricoma, trichodiscoma/fibrofolliculoma, neurofollicular hamartoma and trichofolliculoma. In addition, the main syndromes presenting with multiple follicular tumors are also discussed, namely Cowden, Birt-Hogg-Dubé, Rombo and Bazex-Dupré-Christol syndromes, as well as multiple tumors of follicular infundibulum (infundibulomatosis) and multiple trichoepitheliomas. Although the diagnosis of follicular tumors relies on histological examination, we highlight the importance of their knowledge for the clinician, especially when in presence of patients with multiple lesions that may be the cutaneous marker of a cancer-prone syndrome. The dermatologist is therefore in a privileged position to recognize these lesions, which is extremely important to provide further propedeutic, appropriate referral and genetic counseling for these patients.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cutaneous lesions of the external ear

Skin diseases on the external aspect of the ear are seen in a variety of medical disciplines. Dermatologists, othorhinolaryngologists, general practitioners, general and plastic surgeons are regularly consulted regarding cutaneous lesions on the ear