Systematic and Evolutionary Insights Derived from mtDNA COI Barcode Diversity in the Decapoda (Crustacea: Malacostraca)

Background: Decapods are the most recognizable of all crustaceans and comprise a dominant group of benthic invertebrates of the continental shelf and slope, including many species of economic importance. Of the 17635 morphologically described Decapoda species, only 5.4% are represented by COI barcode region sequences. It therefore remains a challenge to compile regional databases that identify and analyse the extent and patterns of decapod diversity throughout the world. Methodology/Principal Findings: We contributed 101 decapod species from the North East Atlantic, the Gulf of Cadiz and the Mediterranean Sea, of which 81 species represent novel COI records. Within the newly-generated dataset, 3.6% of the species barcodes conflicted with the assigned morphological taxonomic identification, highlighting both the apparent taxonomic ambiguity among certain groups, and the need for an accelerated and independent taxonomic approach. Using the combined COI barcode projects from the Barcode of Life Database, we provide the most comprehensive COI data set so far examined for the Order (1572 sequences of 528 species, 213 genera, and 67 families). Patterns within families show a general predicted molecular hierarchy, but the scale of divergence at each taxonomic level appears to vary extensively between families. The range values of mean K2P distance observed were: within species 0.285% to 1.375%, within genus 6.376% to 20.924% and within family 11.392% to 25.617%. Nucleotide composition varied greatly across decapods, ranging from 30.8 % to 49.4 % GC content. Conclusions/Significance: Decapod biological diversity was quantified by identifying putative cryptic species allowing a rapid assessment of taxon diversity in groups that have until now received limited morphological and systematic examination. We highlight taxonomic groups or species with unusual nucleotide composition or evolutionary rates. Such data are relevant to strategies for conservation of existing decapod biodiversity, as well as elucidating the mechanisms and constraints shaping the patterns observed.FCT - SFRH/BD/25568/ 2006EC FP6 - GOCE-CT-2005-511234 HERMESFCT - PTDC/MAR/69892/2006 LusomarBo

Thermal and environmental performance of precast building system

Buildings are the living spaces of human beings that usually get-to-gather for number of times and occasions during a day. Quality standard spaces create more secure, comfort and convenient spaces for its users and can provide many advantages in all processes of the building construction, users as well as other supplementary equipment designers. The precast building systems provide some advantage to design quality standard spaces with more secure, comfort and convenience. This research had been conducted to study the thermal and environmental performance of buildings which were constructed using Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) based lightweight wall panels and these building performances had been evaluated through testing of thermal material properties and computer simulation of the buildings. ASHRAE standard for comfort condition is used to develop computer modelling. Testing of small scale model and real scale model were developed under this research study and carried out in locations in Colombo and Tangalle, respectively. Testing is carried out over a two weeks period and observations are discussed in this research study. Another model house, which is located in Jaffna, was evaluated and identified significant variation due to EPS based light weight panel used as walling and celling material. Building design strategies were considered for design of thermally comfortable houses and ECOTECT and Climate Consultant 6 software were used to simulate and generate the design strategies. Based on these strategies, a new house plan was created as a model house for dry zone of Sri Lanka to be located at Polonnaruwa. The ECOTECT simulation showed that building could achieve a reasonable thermal performance by applying the strategies identified based on Climate Consultant 6

Towards a common telecommunication antenna structure farm network through GIS technology

When establishing towers for telecommunication sector on a location, the most of service providers violate rules and regulations regulated by the government, even though there is a possibility to share towers among 3 facility providers. Therefore it is a common scenery in Sri Lanka that the most of tops of mountains are consisted with two or more telecommunication towers with closer locations. This would influence severely the people living in the close proximity and their properties and also to the natural environment. The study was designed to select suitable locations for antenna structures that satisfy the national policies for the study area (Balangoda DS Division, Ratnapura District). The model for the selecting the suitable locations using different criteria was developed using the Model Builder tool in the ArcGIS Software. Using ArcGIS software and different criteria, it was able to prepare the coverage maps for both existing and newly designed tower networks. The study reveals that it needs only two towers to cover up the full study area, even though there are five towers which are maintained by TSPs separately. Further, it discovered that the present network is not so enough for the future demands. And also it is suggesting that the concept of sharing antenna structures is very important to overcome environmental and social issues

Landscape Dynamics and the Control of Infectious Diseases: The Question of Integrating Health into Coviability

International audienc