Cranio-osteologlcal studies in Dicynodon grimbeeki with special reference to the sphenethmoid region and cranial kinesis

NoneThe skull structure of Dicynodon grimbeeki has been studied by means of serial sections. It was found that D. grimbeeki is akinetic and that, although several mammal-like characteristics are present, Dicynodon occupies a specialized side-branch of therapsid evolution- a view which has been advocated by many authors. The sphenethmoid region in anomodonts is discussed, and it is concluded that the basicranial axis in Dicynodon is comparable with that of mammals.Non

Administrative Obstacles to Technology Use in West Virginia Public Schools: A Survey of West Virginia Principals

Public school principals must meet many challenges and make decisions concerning financial obligations while providing the best learning environment for students. A major challenge to principals is implementing technological components successfully while providing teachers the 21st century instructional skills needed to enhance students\u27 utilization of technology. For this study, technology consisted of areas related to infrastructure (facilities, hardware, software, funding), social issues (staffing, staff development, principals\u27 motivation, teacher and student perceptions), and policy affecting how principals implement technology in elementary, middle, and high school environments. These areas of technology are greatly impacted through the administrative decision making process. School systems across the United States spend millions of dollars on technology (Monk, Pijanowski, & Hussain, 1997). Research shows there is little assistance to principals on how to implement and maintain this technology. Four research questions will be answered: (1) What technology support do West Virginia principals provide to teachers? (2) Who do West Virginia principals rely on to provide technology support when unable to do so themselves? (3) What facilitates principals\u27 implementation of technology in West Virginia public schools? (4)) What impedes principals\u27 implementation of technology in West Virginia public schools? This quantitative study measured perceptions of principals implementing technology in West Virginia public schools. Six hundred and thirty-five emails delivered through Survey Monkey returned an overall response rate of 38.4% from the three groups of principals, elementary, middle, and high school. Representation from all fifty-five West Virginia counties existed for this study. A brief history of technology beginning in the early 1980s included in chapter two demonstrates West Virginia\u27s successful implementation of technology into public schools. This background builds the context of technology use for principals attempting to establish 21st century skills in West Virginia public schools through the implementation process of technology. A brief history of national technology trends in chapter two also suggests that the obstacles for West Virginia principals exist across the country.;Approximately 76% of West Virginia principals responding to this study had less than fifteen years experience as a principal. Over 95% had been involved in some type of technology training. The data support the importance of a strong technological principal to enhance the implementation process of technology in West Virginia public schools.;Lack of technical support to maintain existing technology in public schools is one of the biggest obstacles for West Virginia principals according to this study. The Technology Integration Specialist (TIS) plays a very positive role in successfully implementing technology; however, only 20.8% of the principals responding have access to a TIS. Over 79% of the principals agreed that lack of technical support is an obstacle.;According to West Virginia principals, obstacles exist that impede the technology implementation process. The research also provides several areas that facilitate the implementation process of technology and recommendations that may provide support to West Virginia public school principals

An investigation of acoustic methods for measuring the length and grout quality of rock anchors in mines

A project report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering Johannesburg, 1990A demand exists in the mining industry for an instrument capable of testing rock anchors quickly, reliably and non-destructively. This report describes laboratory tests in which the acoustic pulse interrogative techniques investigated for rock anchors up to 1,9m in length, using concrete cylinders to simulate rock. [Abbreviation abstraction. Open document to view full version]GR201

Fisheries and Aquaculture and Their Potential Roles in Development: An Assessment of the Current Evidence

Commissioned by the International Sustainability Unity, this report investigates a number of innovative solutions that have been developed to deal with five key challenges that are impeding progress in achieving sustainable fisheries: overcapacity; perverse subsidies; poor governance; lack of data; and by-catch and discards. These key challenges are interlinked and affect the sustainability of fisheries both directly as well as indirectly by undermining instances of good management. Through 22 case studies demonstrating good practice, we explore how these challenges have been addressed around the world and how these approaches might be scaled up and applied in other fisheries. Each case study draws on published material and interviews with key people involved in the fishery. The main report draws lessons from these case studies

TMB-Hunt: An amino acid composition based method to screen proteomes for beta-barrel transmembrane proteins

BACKGROUND: Beta-barrel transmembrane (bbtm) proteins are a functionally important and diverse group of proteins expressed in the outer membranes of bacteria (both gram negative and acid fast gram positive), mitochondria and chloroplasts. Despite recent publications describing reasonable levels of accuracy for discriminating between bbtm proteins and other proteins, screening of entire genomes remains troublesome as these molecules only constitute a small fraction of the sequences screened. Therefore, novel methods are still required capable of detecting new families of bbtm protein in diverse genomes. RESULTS: We present TMB-Hunt, a program that uses a k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN) algorithm to discriminate between bbtm and non-bbtm proteins on the basis of their amino acid composition. By including differentially weighted amino acids, evolutionary information and by calibrating the scoring, an accuracy of 92.5% was achieved, with 91% sensitivity and 93.8% positive predictive value (PPV), using a rigorous cross-validation procedure. A major advantage of this approach is that because it does not rely on beta-strand detection, it does not require resolved structures and thus larger, more representative, training sets could be used. It is therefore believed that this approach will be invaluable in complementing other, physicochemical and homology based methods. This was demonstrated by the correct reassignment of a number of proteins which other predictors failed to classify. We have used the algorithm to screen several genomes and have discussed our findings. CONCLUSION: TMB-Hunt achieves a prediction accuracy level better than other approaches published to date. Results were significantly enhanced by use of evolutionary information and a system for calibrating k-NN scoring. Because the program uses a distinct approach to that of other discriminators and thus suffers different liabilities, we believe it will make a significant contribution to the development of a consensus approach for bbtm protein detection

TMB-Hunt: a web server to screen sequence sets for transmembrane β-barrel proteins

TMB-Hunt is a program that uses a modified k-nearest neighbour (k-NN) algorithm to classify protein sequences as transmembrane β-barrel (TMB) or non-TMB on the basis of whole sequence amino acid composition. By including differentially weighted amino acids, evolutionary information and by calibrating the scoring, a discrimination accuracy of 92.5% was achieved, as tested using a rigorous cross-validation procedure. The TMB-Hunt web server, available at , allows screening of up to 10 000 sequences in a single query and provides results and key statistics in a simple colour coded format

Global energy futures and CO₂-induced climate change

"15 November 1983."Also issued as a 3 volume set"Report prepared for Division of Policy Research and Analysis, National Science Foundation."Includes bibliographical references (pages 224-234)[1] Chapters 1-8 -- [2] Appendices -- [3] Executive summar