RAPD PCR Confirms Absence of Genetic Variation Between Insecticide Resistant Variants of the Green Peach Aphid, \u3ci\u3eMyzus Persicae\u3c/i\u3e (Homoptera: Aphididae)

Previous allozyme analysis has revealed an apparent absence of enzyme variability in the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer). We are interested in determining the genetic relatedness of individual M persicae clones carrying different numbers of esterase 4 (E4) gene copies conferring resistance to insecticides, in order to determine how many times and in what geographic locations resistance via gene duplication may have evolved. We have therefore extended the analysis of genetic variability in M. persicae to the DNA level using random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) with single 10 mer oligonucleotide primers. Here we report a lack of variability be- tween resistant clones in Wisconsin populations even at the DNA level Further, \u27fast\u27 E4 (FE4) variants appear to be absent from Wisconsin populations, despite FE4 variants of moderate resistance (Rl) being the most common clones in the United Kingdom. These results suggest that resistance in M. persicae may have evolved a very few times and that North American populations may differ from those in Europe by founder effects

Portfolio peak algorithms achieving superior performance for maximizing throughput in WiMAX networks

The Mobile WiMAX IEEE 802.16 standards ensure provision of last mile wireless access, variable and high data rate, point to multi-point communication, large frequency range and QoS (Quality of Service) for various types of applications. The WiMAX standards are published by the Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and specify the standards of services and transmissions. However, the way how to run these services and when the transmission should be started are not specified in the IEEE standards and it is up to computer scientists to design scheduling algorithms that can best meet the standards. Finding the best way to implement the WiMAX standards through designing efficient scheduler algorithms is a very important component in wireless systems and the scheduling period presents the most common challenging issue in terms of throughput and time delay. The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to design and develop an efficient scheduling algorithm to provide the QoS support for real-time and non-real-time services with the WiMAX Network. This was achieved by combining a portfolio of algorithms, which will control and update transmission with the required algorithm by the various portfolios for supporting QoS such as; the guarantee of a maximum throughput for real-time and non-real-time traffic. Two algorithms were designed in this process and will be discussed in this thesis: Fixed Portfolio Algorithms and Portfolio Peak Algorithm. In order to evaluate the proposed algorithms and test their efficiency for IEEE 802.16 networks, the authors simulated the algorithms in the NS2 simulator. Evaluation of the proposed Portfolio algorithms was carried out through comparing its performance with those of the conventional algorithms. On the other hand, the proposed Portfolio scheduling algorithm was evaluated by comparing its performance in terms of throughput, delay, and jitter. The simulation results suggest that the Fixed Portfolio Algorithms and the Portfolio Peak Algorithm achieve higher performance in terms of throughput than all other algorithms. Keywords: WiMAX, IEEE802.16, QoS, Scheduling Algorithms, Fixed Portfolio Algorithms, and Portfolio Peak Algorithms.The Mobile WiMAX IEEE 802.16 standards ensure provision of last mile wireless access, variable and high data rate, point to multi-point communication, large frequency range and QoS (Quality of Service) for various types of applications. The WiMAX standards are published by the Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and specify the standards of services and transmissions. However, the way how to run these services and when the transmission should be started are not specified in the IEEE standards and it is up to computer scientists to design scheduling algorithms that can best meet the standards. Finding the best way to implement the WiMAX standards through designing efficient scheduler algorithms is a very important component in wireless systems and the scheduling period presents the most common challenging issue in terms of throughput and time delay. The aim of the research presented in this thesis was to design and develop an efficient scheduling algorithm to provide the QoS support for real-time and non-real-time services with the WiMAX Network. This was achieved by combining a portfolio of algorithms, which will control and update transmission with the required algorithm by the various portfolios for supporting QoS such as; the guarantee of a maximum throughput for real-time and non-real-time traffic. Two algorithms were designed in this process and will be discussed in this thesis: Fixed Portfolio Algorithms and Portfolio Peak Algorithm. In order to evaluate the proposed algorithms and test their efficiency for IEEE 802.16 networks, the authors simulated the algorithms in the NS2 simulator. Evaluation of the proposed Portfolio algorithms was carried out through comparing its performance with those of the conventional algorithms. On the other hand, the proposed Portfolio scheduling algorithm was evaluated by comparing its performance in terms of throughput, delay, and jitter. The simulation results suggest that the Fixed Portfolio Algorithms and the Portfolio Peak Algorithm achieve higher performance in terms of throughput than all other algorithms. Keywords: WiMAX, IEEE802.16, QoS, Scheduling Algorithms, Fixed Portfolio Algorithms, and Portfolio Peak Algorithms

Physicochemically Modifying Wood by Low Energy Hydrogen Ion Shower: An Alternative Plasma-Based Antitermite Method

Blantocas et al (2007) reported that low-energy hydrogen ion shower (LEHIS) irradiation of wood produced inhibited flammability and surface inactivation of wood. In this study, pest control performance of LEHIS compared with conventional pesticide (pyrethroid toxin) was assessed. Subsequent statistical analyses indicated that LEHIS was equally as effective as pyrethroid toxin in arresting microcerotermes losbañosensis subterranean termite infestations. LEHIS functions not as a toxicant, but rather as a treatment that made wood unpalatable to infesters. LEHIS treatment smoothened wood exterior and decreased surface pore sizes restricting moisture penetration. The change rate constant k in the wetting model equation (dθ/dt = -kθ) fell two orders of magnitude from 0.25/s (initial θ = 25°) for the control to 0.001 9/s (initial θ = 60°) for the treated sample. Hydrophobization was attributed to molecular reorientation resulting in loss of bonding sites for polar molecules. Fourier transform IR spectra showed that LEHIS treatment decreased absorption intensities of hydroxyls (O-H at 3360 cm-1) and carbonyls (C=O at 1730 and 1647 cm-1) suggesting the breakdown of hydrophilic components, in particular that of hemicellulose. With less moisture absorptive capacity, wood became less palatable to termites, thus inhibiting further decimations

OGSR: A Low Complexity Galileo Software Receiver using Orthogonal Data and Pilot Channels

To improve localisation accuracy and multipath rejection, the Galileo-OS signal offers a new modulation with efficient power distribution technique between the two data and pilot navigation components. To achieve the full benefits of this modulation, a robust acquisition and tracking methods must be deployed. For example, using two parallel correlation channels to acquire these data and pilot will gain 3dB over using a single channel acquisition correlating with either one of them. However, dual channel SW receivers cost more processing overheads. In this paper, the authors propose to orthogonalise the received data and pilot signals so to enable their acquisition in a single correlation channel bandpass sampling receiver. Our simulation results, using Simulink, prove that OGSR performance is maintained (preserving the 3dB gain) with less processing time while the implementation complexity is reduced by 50%

Enhanced receiver architectures for processing multi GNSS signals in a single chain : based on partial differential equations mathematical model

The focus of our research is on designing a new architecture (RF front-end and digital) for processing multi GNSS signals in a single receiver chain. The motivation is to save in overhead cost (size, processing time and power consumption) of implementing multiple signal receivers side-by-side on-board Smartphones. This thesis documents the new multi-signal receiver architecture that we have designed. Based on this architecture, we have achieved/published eight novel contributions. Six of these implementations focus on multi GNSS signal receivers, and the last two are for multiplexing Bluetooth and GPS received signals in a single processing chain. We believe our work in terms of the new innovative and novel techniques achieved is a major contribution to the commercial world especially that of Smartphones. Savings in both silicon size and processing time will be highly beneficial to reduction of costs but more importantly for conserving the energy of the battery. We are proud that we have made this significant contribution to both industry and the scientific research and development arena. The first part of the work focus on the Two GNSS signal detection front-end approaches that were designed to explore the availability of the L1 band of GPS, Galileo and GLONASS at an early stage. This is so that the receiver devotes appropriate resources to acquire them. The first approach was based on folding the carrier frequency of all the three GNSS signals with their harmonics to the First Nyquist Zone (FNZ), as depicted by the BandPass Sampling Receiver technique (BPSR). Consequently, there is a unique power distribution of these folded signals based on the actual present signals that can be detected to alert the digital processing parts to acquire it. Volterra Series model is used to estimate the existing power in the FNZ by extracting the kernels of these folded GNSS signals, if available. The second approach filters out the right-side lobe of the GLONASS signal and the left-side lobe of the Galileo signal, prior to the folding process in our BPSR implementation. This filtering is important to enable none overlapped folding of these two signals with the GPS signal in the FNZ. The simulation results show that adopting these two approaches can save much valuable acquisition processing time. Our Orthogonal BandPass Sampling Receiver and Orthogonal Complex BandPass Sampling Receiver are two methods designed to capture any two wireless signals simultaneously and use a single channel in the digital domain to process them, including tracking and decoding, concurrently. The novelty of the two receivers is centred on the Orthogonal Integrated Function (OIF) that continuously harmonies the two received signals to form a single orthogonal signal allowing the “tracking and decoding” to be carried out by a single digital channel. These receivers employ a Hilbert Transform for shifting one of the input signals by 90-degrees. Then, the BPSR technique is used to fold back the two received signals to the same reference frequency in the FNZ. Results show that these designed methods also reduce the sampling frequency to a rate proportional to the maximum bandwidth, instead of the summation of bandwidths, of the input signals. Two combined GPS L1CA and L2C signal acquisition channels are designed based on applying the idea of the OIF to enhance the power consumption and the implementation complexity in the existing combination methods and also to enhance the acquisition sensitivity. This is achieved by removing the Doppler frequency of the two signals; our methods add the in-phase component of the L2C signal together with the in-phase component of the L1CA signal, which is then shifted by 90-degree before adding it to the remaining components of these two signals, resulting in an orthogonal form of the combined signals. This orthogonal signal is then fed to our developed version of the parallel-code-phase-search engine. Our simulation results illustrate that the acquisition sensitivity of these signals is improved successfully by 5.0 dB, which is necessary for acquiring weak signals in harsh environments. The last part of this work focuses on the tracking stage when specifically multiplexing Bluetooth and L1CA GPS signals in a single channel based on using the concept of the OIF, where the tracking channel can be shared between the two signals without losing the lock or degrading its performance. Two approaches are designed for integrating the two signals based on the mathematical analysis of the main function of the tracking channel, which the Phase-Locked Loop (PLL). A mathematical model of a set of differential equations has been developed to evaluate the PLL when it used to track and demodulated two signals simultaneously. The simulation results proved that the implementation of our approaches has reduced by almost half the size and processing time

ATTEMPTS FOR DETECTION OF NANOPARTICLES-NANOBACTERIA AND DISTRIBUTION OF THEIR ANTIBODIES IN SAUDI PATIENTS WITH UROLITHIASIS

Calcifying biologic nanoparticles (CNPs) have been identified from diverse tissue samples including kidney stones and calcified aneurysms. Whether or not they represent independent, biologic entities or a form of self-perpetuating biomineralization remains controversial.In this study, 50 serum samples collected from Saudi patients with urolithiasis and 20 samples collected randomly from healthy individuals were tested for detecting anti- CNP IgG using commercially available ELISA kits. Seven renal stone samples were obtained from National Guard-Health Affairs, King Abdullaziz Medical City, KSA. Each stone sample is divided into two fragments; one fragment was cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum under cell culture condition to investigate the living nature of CNPs and the other fragment was used for chemical analysis.Results indicated that 98% of patients have anti-CNP Abs compared with 20% in healthy individuals. Light Microscopy with DIC optic revealed the absence of any microorganism in the tested culture media and no visible mineralized biofilm were observed in cell culture in any of the seven tested stones. Chemically, 71, 4% (5 out of 7) of tested stones were calcium oxalate and 28, 6% (2 out of 7) were urate

A Comparative Study of Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System and Artificial Neural Networks for Predicting Groundwater Hydraulic Head in an Arid Region

يهدف هذا البحث إلى تطوير نموذج تنبؤي لتقدير منسوب المياه الجوفية في منطقة سفوان-الزبير باستخدام نظام الاستدلال العصبي الضبابي المكيف (ANFIS). تمثل هذه المنطقة الجزء الجنوبي من الصحراء العراقية، وهي منطقة قاحلة ذات موارد مائية محدودة. تم توليد البيانات المطلوبة لبناء نموذج ANFIS باستخدام نموذج MODFLOW V.5.3)). حيث تمت معايرة نموذج MODFLOW اعتمادا على القياسات الحقلية خلال سنة واحدة. ولد نموذج MODFLOW (3797) قيمة للمنسوب الهيدروليكي خلال كل شهر. استخدمت 70 ٪ من هذه القيم (2658 عينة) للتدريب، و30 ٪ منها (1139 عينة) في عملية التحقق. تم مقارنة دقة نماذج ANFIS مع دراسة سابقة معتمدة على تقنية الشبكة العصبية الاصطناعية (ANN). كانت متغيرات الادخال من المناسيب الهيدروليكية المتعاقبة ومعدلات تغذية المياه الجوفية. لا توجد زيادة كبيرة في دقة التقدير عند إضافة متغير إدخال آخر (معدل تغذية المياه الجوفية)، لأن مقدار هذا المتغير قليل جدًا، لذلك كان تأثيره على النتائج غير محسوس. توضح مقارنة ANFIS وANN أن نموذج ANFIS هو أفضل من ANN في مرحلة التحقق. يمكن ان يعزا ذلك الى ان نموذج ANFIS يجمع بين أساسيات المنطق الضبابي والشبكات العصبية؛ وبالتالي يمكن استخدام خصائصها في إطار واحد. يمكن استنتاج أن نموذج ANFIS أكثر ملائمة من نموذج ANN للتنبؤ بالمنسوب الهيدروليكي للمياه الجوفية من بيانات المدخلات ذات الصلة.The aim of this research is to develop a predictive model to estimate the groundwater head in Safwan-Zubair area by using an adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). This area represents the southern sector of the Iraqi Desert, an arid region with scarce and limited resources. The data required for building the ANFIS model are generated using MODFLOW model (V.5.3). MODFLOW model was calibrated based on field measurements during one year. MODFLOW model generated (3797) hydraulic head values during each month. 70% of these values (2658 samples) was used for training, 30% of these values (1139 samples) was used for checking. The accuracy of the ANFIS models are compared with previous work based on artificial neural network (ANN) technique. Different combination of successive hydraulic heads and recharge rates of groundwater is used as input variables. There is no significant increase in the estimation accuracy when adding another input variable (recharge rate). Because the amount of this variable is very little, so its influence on the results was imperceptible. A comparison of ANFIS and ANN shows that the ANFIS model performs preferable than the ANN model on the checking phase. ANFIS model combines both fuzzy logic basics and neural networks; thus their properties can be utilized in one frame. It can be concluded, the ANFIS model appears to be more convenient than the ANN model for predicting groundwater hydraulic head from related input data

Galileo Signals Acquisition Using Enhanced Subcarrier Elimination Conversion and Faster Processing

To solve multipath and to enhance the localisation accuracy in a harsh environment, BOC modulation has been adopted in modern GNSS transmission, such as GPS-M-code and Galileo-OS-code signals. The designers of the BOC technique have pointed out that the correlation function becomes ambiguous when the received signal is correlated with the reference BOC signal at code phase resolutions of 0.5 Chip. This has motivated many contributions to resolving this ambiguity, for example, by processing each side of the BOC lobes as a BPSK signal. Our literature survey concluded that solutions claiming to have mitigated this ambiguity actually have resulted in a more complex receiver implementation. The Enhanced Subcarrier Elimination (ESCE) method detailed in this paper proposes combining the two side lobes into a single lobe centered at the main frequency, thus gaining 2dB more signal power as well as reducing the correlation requirements (signal’s mixing and transforming operations) to the half; i.e. accelerating the acquisition process. HaLo-430 platform generated signals used for testing the MATLAB model of ESCE proves that we outperform three of the most used unambiguous methods

A Single Acquisition Channel Receiver for GPS L1CA and L2C Signals Based on Orthogonal Signal Processing

The GPS L1CA and L2C signals are transmitted from the same GPS Satellite Vehicles constellation. It is desirable, especially in commercial GNSS receivers, to have both of these signals acquired by a single receiver so to assure better signal acquisition and improved reliability at wider operating areas. To achieve this in an efficient process, we propose to integrate the GPS L1CA and L2CM signals orthogonally and acquire them in a single processing channel. After removing the Doppler frequency, our receiver first adds the quadrature components of the L2CM signal and the L1CA signal. This new signal is then shifted by 90o. This is then added to the remaining components of these two signals; thus resulting in an orthogonal form of the combined signals. Secondly, the FFT of this orthogonal signal is then mixed with the complex conjugate of the FFT of a locally generated replica of the CA code combined with a 90o-shifted replica of the CM code. Finally, the output signal is then converted back to the time domain to acquire the signal’s peak. The complexity of our dual-signal receiver implementation is half of that used in dual acquisition methods. Furthermore, MATLAB Simulation results show that our acquisition method compares favorably with other approaches in terms of detection of low sensitivity signals and false alarm probability

Diet breadth and its relationship with genetic diversity and differentiation: the case of southern beech aphids (Hemiptera : Aphididae)

Gaete-Eastman, C. and Ramirez, C.C. Centro de Investigación en Biotecnologia Silvoagrıcola, Instituto de Biología Vegetal y Biotecnología, Universidad de Talca, Casilla 747, Talca, Chile.Herbivorous insect species with narrow diet breadth are expected to be more prone to genetic differentiation than insect species with a wider diet breadth. However, a generalist can behave as a local specialist if a single host-plant species is locally available, while a specialist can eventually behave as a generalist if its preferred host is not available. These problems can be addressed by comparing closely related species differing in diet breadth with overlapping distributions of insect and host populations. In this work, diet breadth, genetic diversity and population differentiation of congeneric aphid species from southern beech forests in Chile were compared. While at the species level no major differences in genetic diversity were found, a general trend towards higher genetic diversity as diet breadth increased was apparent. The aphid species with wider diet breadth, Neuquenaphis edwardsi (Laing), showed the highest genetic diversity, while the specialist Neuquenaphis staryi Quednau & Remaudière showed the lowest. These differences were less distinct when the comparisons were made in the same locality and over the same host. Comparison of allopatric populations indicates that genetic differentiation was higher for the specialists, Neuquenaphis similis Hille Ris Lambers and N. staryi, than for the generalist N. edwardsi. Over the same host at different locations, genetic differentiation among populations of N. edwardsi was higher than among populations of N. similis. The results support the assumption that specialists should show more pronounced genetic structuring than generalists, although the geographical distribution of host plants may be playing an important role