A Multistage Stochastic Programming Approach to the Dynamic and Stochastic VRPTW - Extended version

We consider a dynamic vehicle routing problem with time windows and stochastic customers (DS-VRPTW), such that customers may request for services as vehicles have already started their tours. To solve this problem, the goal is to provide a decision rule for choosing, at each time step, the next action to perform in light of known requests and probabilistic knowledge on requests likelihood. We introduce a new decision rule, called Global Stochastic Assessment (GSA) rule for the DS-VRPTW, and we compare it with existing decision rules, such as MSA. In particular, we show that GSA fully integrates nonanticipativity constraints so that it leads to better decisions in our stochastic context. We describe a new heuristic approach for efficiently approximating our GSA rule. We introduce a new waiting strategy. Experiments on dynamic and stochastic benchmarks, which include instances of different degrees of dynamism, show that not only our approach is competitive with state-of-the-art methods, but also enables to compute meaningful offline solutions to fully dynamic problems where absolutely no a priori customer request is provided.Comment: Extended version of the same-name study submitted for publication in conference CPAIOR201

Seismic characteristics of earthquakes along the offshore extension of the western transverse ranges, California

The short- and long-period body waves of five moderate (M_L 5 to 6) earthquakes that took place in the nearshore region of southcentral California between 1969 and 1981 are modeled to obtain the source parameters. Both regional Pnl waveforms and teleseismic P waveforms are used in this analysis. Four of the events are thrust earthquakes with strikes that rotate southwestward as the epicenters move southward; the fifth is a strike-slip event occurring on a fault subparallel to the San Andreas fault. The focal mechanisms for all five events are consistent with known faults in the source localities and suggest that the regional stress field is compressional in a north-south direction. At least three events have complex source time histories, suggesting that complex sources are common even for events of this size. The most exotic event started with a low stress drop subevent, ruptured bilaterally, and concluded with strong asperity ruptures at each end. Since Pnl waveforms for thrust events are particularly sensitive to crustal thickness, regionalized crustal models were developed. The crustal thickness appears to increase southward but may be a function of the distance of the event from shore rather than of latitude. Basin and range paths yield the thinnest crustal models, while paths crossing the Colorado Plateau and Rockies yield the thickest. We also examined amplitude variations with station and path. In general, the amplitudes seem to be controlled by the station site rather than the path

Genomic analyses reveal an absence of contemporary introgressive admixture between fin whales and blue whales, despite known hybrids

Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and blue whales (B. musculus) are the two largest species on Earth and are widely distributed across the world's oceans. Hybrids between these species appear to be relatively widespread and have been reported in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific; they are also relatively common, and have been proposed to occur once in every thousand fin whales. However, despite known hybridization, fin and blue whales are not sibling species. Rather, the closest living relative of fin whales are humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). To improve the quality of fin whale data available for analysis, we assembled and annotated a fin whale nuclear genome using in-silico mate pair libraries and previously published short-read data. Using this assembly and genomic data from a humpback, blue, and bowhead whale, we investigated whether signatures of introgression between the fin and blue whale could be found. We find no signatures of contemporary admixture in the fin and blue whale genomes, although our analyses support ancestral gene flow between the species until 2.4-1.3 Ma. We propose the following explanations for our findings; i) fin/blue whale hybridization does not occur in the populations our samples originate from, ii) contemporary hybrids are a recent phenomenon and the genetic consequences have yet to become widespread across populations, or iii) fin/blue whale hybrids are under large negative selection, preventing them from backcrossing and contributing to the parental gene pools

Physiological stress and recovery kinetics in trawl escapees of the Antarctic krill Euphausia superba Dana, 1850 (Euphausiacea)

When caught in a trawl, some individuals interacting with the fishing gear may escape, but such interactions may lead to physiological trauma that causes direct delayed mortality and/or increased vulnerability to predation. Understanding fishery-induced stress levels and the recovery period of escapees is therefore crucial for predicting total fishing-induced mortality. Hemolymph lactate concentration is commonly used as an index of physiological stress in many crustacean species, and the clearing time of lactate back to normal levels indicates the ability to recover from stress. We measured the hemolymph lactate concentration in three groups of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superbaDana, 1850): Group 1, trawl escapees collected during fishing; Group 2, specimens subjected to simulated mesh penetration; and Group 3, an onboard acclimated control group. Individuals that had escaped the trawl during fishing had the highest concentrations of hemolymph lactate (mean > 6 mmol–l). Exposure to mesh penetration was in itself not stressful, as hemolymph lactate concentrations did not differ significantly between Group 2 and the control Group (mean 0.8 mmol–lversus 0.7 mmol–l, respectively). Additional stress factors during the capture and handling process likely added to the elevated lactate levels observed in Group 1. For the trawl escapees, the lactate clearance time during stress recovery was modeled as a function of exponential decay. Hemolymph lactate levels did not differ significantly among the three groups after 200 min, which suggested that Antarctic krill recovered from fishery-induced stress within this time period.publishedVersio

Detection of 1p19q Deletion by Real-Time Comparative Quantitative PCR

1p/19q (1p and/or 19q) deletions are prognostic factors in oligodendroglial tumors (OT) and predict better survival after both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. While studying 1p/19q status as a potential variable within multivariate prognosis models for OT, we have frequently encountered unknown 1p/19q status within our glioma sample database due to lack of paired blood samples for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) assay and/or failure to perform fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). We realized that a 1p and 19q deletion assay that could be reliably performed solely on tumor DNA samples would allow us to fill in these molecular biology data “holes”. We built recombinant DNA with fragments of the selected “marker” genes in 1p (E2F2, NOTCH2), and 19q (PLAUR) and “reference” genes (ERC2, SPOCK1, and SPAG16 ) and used it as quantification standard in real-time PCR to gain absolute ratios of marker/reference gene copy numbers in tumor DNA samples, thus called comparative quantitative PCR (CQ-PCR). Using CQ-PCR, we identified 1p and/ or 19q deletions in majority of pure low-grade oligodenroglioma (OG) tumors (17/21, 81%), a large portion of anaplastic oligodendroglioma (AO) tumors (6/15, 47%), but rarely found in mixed oligoastrcytomas (OA) tumors (1/8, 13%). These data are consistent with results of LOH and FISH assays generally reported for these tumor types. In addition, 15 out 18 samples showed concordant results between FISH and CQ-PCR. We conclude that CQ-PCR is a potential means to gain 1p/19q deletion information, which prognostic and predictive values of CQ-PCR-derived 1p/19q status will be determined in a future study

A re-examination of historic earthquakes in the San Jacinto fault zone, California

The high level of seismic activity and the potential for large earthquakes in the San Jacinto fault zone, southern California, make it desirable to have accurate locations and source parameters for as many previous events as possible. Prior to the installation of a dense seismic network in this region, earthquakes were located using only a few stations with generally poor azimuthal coverage resulting in considerable uncertainty in the locations. We relocate and obtain moment estimates for historic (pre-WWSSN) earthquakes in the western Imperial Valley by comparing the waveforms and travel times with recent earthquakes in the region. All the events are in the M_L 5.5 to 6.5 range. The historic earthquakes of interest occurred in 1937, 1942, and 1954. We use the 1968 Borrego Mountain, 1969 Coyote Mountain, and 1987 Elmore Ranch earthquakes as calibration events. We employ regional and teleseismic data from continuously operating stations, with Pasadena, DeBilt, Berkeley, Ottawa, and St. Louis recording most of the events. The waveforms imply that all the events are almost pure strike-slip events on vertical or near-vertical faults. Approximate values for the strikes were obtained and are within the range of observed strikes for well-studied earthquakes in this region. The earthquakes are relocated by comparing S-P and surface-wave - S travel times of historic events with the presumably well-located recent events. The relocations require only a small change in location for the 1954 event and a larger adjustment in the 1942 epicenter. It also appears that the 1969 earthquake may have been mislocated. The moment estimates are obtained by direct comparison of the maximum amplitudes. The moment estimates imply that the 1968 and not the 1942 earthquake is the largest to have occurred in the region this century. Previous magnitude estimates suggested the 1942 event was larger