Autonomic service configuration for telecommunication MASs with extended role-based GAIA and JADEx

Autonomie Communications have attracted huge attention recently for the management of telecommunication networks in the European Network Research Community. The purpose of this research is to offer the abilities such as autonomy, scalability, adaptation as well as simplicity for management application in complex networks. The accomplished networks inspired by biological mechanisms or market-based concepts could enable agents to be of intelligence, scalablility, and interoperabliliry in the management functional domains with regards to the large volume requirements from services' fulfillment perspective in decentralized Multi-Agent Systems. In accordance with TMF and FIPA specifications and requirements, the autonomy attributes self-configuring, self-adapting, self-limiting, self-preserving, and self-optimizing are involved into our simulation. Resource allocation requests are bidded for a long session in the multi-unit Vickrey-Clarke-Groves auction. This design adopts the software development methodology-GAIA and the framework-JADEx. We have shown multiple service configuration in dynamic network can be nearly optimized by autonomie behaviors via bidding according to business objectives for getting maximum revenues. We conclude this end-to-end approach maintains self-managing capability, easy-to-implement scalability, and more incentively compatible and efficient over other common implementation so that it could achieve the optimal solution to the flexible requirements for the Service Fulfillment for advanced IP networks. © 2005 IEEE

Wild fledgling tits do not mob in response to conspecific or heterospecific mobbing calls

This research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/J018694/1), the Royal Society (RG2012R2), the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust (2014199) and the University of St Andrews (University of St Andrews 600th Year Scholarship and the St Leonard’s Fee Scholarship).Mobbing, where birds harass a predator through a combination of vocalizations and stereotyped behaviours, is an effective anti‐predator behaviour for many species. Mobbing may be particularly important for juveniles, as these individuals are often more vulnerable than adults. Although the component behaviours of mobbing are often considered to be un‐learned, there are few confirmatory data, and the developmental trajectory of mobbing is unknown. In this study, we tested whether conspecific or heterospecific mobbing calls initiated mobbing behaviour in juvenile Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus. We located wild adult and recently fledged juvenile Blue Tits and presented them with playback recordings of adult conspecific (Blue Tit) and heterospecific (Great Tit Parus major) mobbing alarm calls. Although adult birds readily mob in response to these types of playbacks, juveniles did not exhibit characteristic mobbing behaviour. Some juveniles did, however, exhibit individual components of mobbing behaviour found in mobbing, despite not producing adult‐like mobbing behaviour in response to either conspecific or heterospecific playback. These results suggest that, although birds might be capable of mobbing as juveniles, the associations between the non‐vocal stereotyped mobbing behaviours and mobbing calls may be learned.PostprintPeer reviewe

Homeotic genes controlling flower development in Antirrhinum

In order to study genes controlling flower development, we have carried out an extensive transposon-mutagenesis experiment in Antirrhinum majus. More than 15 independent homeotic mutations were obtained, allowing three categories of genes to be defined. The first includes floricaula (flo), a primary gene required for the initiation of the floral developmental pathway. In the absence of the wild-type flo product, proliferating inflorescence meristems arise in place of flowers. The flo gene has been isolated and shown to be expressed transiently in a subset of organ primordia in the floral meristem. The second category includes genes that affect the identity, and also sometimes the number, of whorls of organs in the flower. These genes act in overlapping domains so that each whorl has a distinct combination of gene functions, suggesting a model for the genetic control of whorl identity and number. Genes of the third category control differences between organs in the same whorl and hence the overall symmetry of the flower. We discuss how the basic plan of the flower and inflorescence may arise through the interactions between the three categories of genes

Different understandings of quality education across the globe: a special issue on the guiding theme of the BAICE 2016 Conference Editorial : Editorial, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

While the concept of ‘quality education’ has been widely debated, there is by no means a universal definition in the literature (e.g. Harvey and Williams 2010; Mishra 2007; Tam 2001). Different approaches and conceptualisations reveal the context-based nature of quality as a value judgement. In the education field in particular, its vagueness is further compounded by the difficulty in measuring education performance: learning outcomes are reflected in transformations of individuals in terms of their knowledge, characteristics and behaviour (Tsinidou, Gerogiannis, and Fitsilis 2010), and these outcomes are defined and understood in ways that are highly contextualised (Tikly 2011; Walker 2006). The critical role of context in the construction of quality education is a central theme in this special issue

Molecular membrane separation: plants inspire new technologies

Plants draw up their surrounding soil solution to gain water and nutrients required for growth, development and reproduction. Obtaining adequate water and nutrients involves taking up both desired and undesired elements from the soil solution and separating resources from waste. Desirable and undesirable elements in the soil solution can share similar chemical properties, such as size and charge. Plants use membrane separation mechanisms to distinguish between different molecules that have similar chemical properties. Membrane separation enables distribution or retention of resources and efflux or compartmentation of waste. Plants use specialised membrane separation mechanisms to adapt to challenging soil solution compositions and distinguish between resources and waste. Coordination and regulation of these mechanisms between different tissues, cell types and subcellular membranes supports plant nutrition, environmental stress tolerance and energy management. This review considers membrane separation mechanisms in plants that contribute to specialised separation processes and highlights mechanisms of interest for engineering plants with enhanced performance in challenging conditions and for inspiring the development of novel industrial membrane separation technologies. Knowledge gained from studying plant membrane separation mechanisms can be applied to developing precision separation technologies. Separation technologies are needed for harvesting resources from industrial wastes and transitioning to a circular green economy.Annamaria De Rosa, Samantha McGaughey, Isobel Magrath and Caitlin Byr

Declining extra-pair paternity with laying order associated with initial incubation behavior, but independent of final clutch size in the blue tit

Although functional explanations for female engagement in extra-pair copulation have been studied extensively in birds, little is known about how extra-pair paternity is linked to other fundamental aspects of avian reproduction. However, recent studies indicate that the occurrence of extra-pair offspring may generally decline with laying order, possibly because stimulation by eggs induces incubation, which may suppress female motivation to acquire extra-pair paternity. Here we tested whether experimental inhibition of incubation during the laying phase, induced by the temporary removal of eggs, resulted in increased extra-pair paternity, in concert with a later cessation of laying, in blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus). As expected, experimental females showed a more gradual increase in nocturnal incubation duration over the laying phase and produced larger clutches than controls. Moreover, incubation duration on the night after the first egg was laid predicted how extra-pair paternity declined with laying order, with less incubation being associated with more extra-pair offspring among the earliest eggs in the clutch. However, incubation duration on this first night was unrelated to our experimental treatment and independent of final clutch size. Consequently, the observed decline in extra-pair paternity with laying order was unaffected by our manipulation and larger clutches included proportionally fewer extra-pair offspring. We suggest that female physiological state prior to laying, associated with incubation at the onset of laying, determines motivation to acquire extra-pair paternity independent of final clutch size. This decline in proportion of extra-pair offspring with clutch size may be a general pattern within bird species

Birds orient their heads appropriately in response to functionally referential alarm calls of heterospecifics

Vertebrate alarm calls signal danger and often encode graded or categorical information about predatorproximity or type. In addition to allowing communication with conspecifics, alarm calls are a valuablesource of information for eavesdropping heterospecifics. However, although eavesdropping has beenexperimentally demonstrated in over 70 species, we know little about exactly what informationeavesdroppers gain from heterospecific alarm calls. Here, we investigated whether Australian magpies,Cracticus tibicen, extract relevant information about the type of threat from functionally referential alarmcalls given by noisy miners, Manorina melanocephala. Miner aerial alarm calls signal a predator in flight,whereas mobbing calls signal a terrestrial or perched predator. We therefore tested whether magpiesgain information on the elevation of expected danger. We first confirmed, by measuring bill angles onvideo, that magpie head orientation changes appropriately with differences in the elevation of a con-spicuous moving object. We then conducted a field experiment that measured magpie bill angle inresponse to playback of miner aerial and mobbing alarm calls. The maximum and mean bill angles werehigher in response to aerial than to mobbing calls, sug gesting that magpies use information from mineralarms to search visually at appropriate elevations for the specific type of danger. Magpies were alsovigilant for longer af ter aerial alarm calls that followed mobbing calls, implying perception of an esca-lating threat level. Our work shows that individuals can gain information on the type or location of danger from heterospecific alarm calls, which is likely to increase the effectiveness of antipredator responses.The work was funded by the Research School of Biology and an Australian Research Council Discovery grant (DP150102632) awarded to R.D.M., A.N.R. and E.F.J

Museum Genomics Confirms that the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect Survived Extinction

The Lord Howe Island stick insect, Dryococelus australis, was once common on the island but was driven to extinction after the arrival of ship rats in the early 20th century [1, 2]. It was thought to be extinct for decades, until a tiny population of similar-looking stick insects was discovered 20 km away, on the islet of Ball’s Pyramid, in 2001 [2]. Individuals from this population are currently being reared in Australia and elsewhere in the world, with the eventual goal of recolonizing Lord Howe Island [3]. Recent surveys of the wild population on Ball’s Pyramid suggest that it is among the world’s rarest species. However, there are significant morphological differences between Ball’s Pyramid and museum specimens, and there has never been a genetic confirmation of the rediscovered population’s species identity. Because Dryococelus is monotypic, there are also no known extant relatives for comparison. Using shotgun genomic data from the Ball’s Pyramid population, we assembled a draft genome and the complete mitochondrial genome. We found that the genome is massive, over 4 Gb in size, and is most likely hexaploid. We re-sequenced mitochondrial genomes from historic museum specimens collected on Lord Howe Island before the extinction event. Sequence divergence between the two populations is less than 1% and is within the range of intraspecific differences between the museum specimens, suggesting that they are conspecific and that D. australis has successfully evaded extinction so far. This work highlights the importance of museum collections for taxonomic validation in the context of ongoing conservation efforts

Flow-cytometric monitoring of disease-associated expression of 9-O-acetylated sialoglycoproteins in combination with known CD antigens, as an index for MRD in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a two-year longitudinal follow-up study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Over expression of 9-<it>O-</it>acetylated sialoglycoproteins (Neu5,9Ac₂-GPs, abbreviated as <it>O</it>AcSGP) has been demonstrated as a disease-associated antigen on the lymphoblasts of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Achatinin-H, a lectin, has selective affinity towards terminal 9-<it>O-</it>acetylated sialic acids-α2-6-<it>N</it>acetylated galactosamine. Exploring this affinity, enhanced expression of <it>O</it>AcSGP was observed, at the onset of disease, followed by its decrease with chemotherapy and reappearance with relapse. In spite of treatment, patients retain the diseased cells referred to as minimal residual disease (MRD) responsible for relapse. Our aim was to select a suitable template by using the differential expression of <it>O</it>AcSGP along with other known CD antigens to monitor MRD in peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) of Indian patients with B- or T-ALL during treatment and correlate it with the disease status.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A two-year longitudinal follow-up study was done with 109 patients from the onset of the disease till the end of chemotherapy, treated under MCP841protocol. Paired samples of PB (n = 1667) and BM (n = 999) were monitored by flow cytometry. Three templates selected for this investigation were <it>O</it>AcSGP⁺CD10⁺CD19⁺or <it>O</it>AcSGP⁺CD34⁺CD19⁺for B-ALL and <it>O</it>AcSGP⁺CD7⁺CD3⁺for T-ALL.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using each template the level of MRD detection reached 0.01% for a patient in clinical remission (CR). 81.65% of the patients were in CR during these two years while the remaining relapsed. Failure in early clearance of lymphoblasts, as indicated by higher MRD, implied an elevated risk of relapse. Soaring MRD during the chemotherapeutic regimen predicted clinical relapse, at least a month before medical manifestation. Irrespective of B- or T-lineage ALL, the MRD in PB and BM correlated well.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A range of MRD values can be predicted for the patients in CR, irrespective of their lineage, being 0.03 ± 0.01% (PB) and 0.05 ± 0.015% (BM). These patients may not be stated as normal with respect to the presence of MRD. Hence, MRD study beyond two-years follow-up is necessary to investigate further reduction in MRD, thereby ensuring their disease-free survival. Therefore, we suggest use of these templates for MRD detection, during and post-chemotherapy for proper patient management strategies, thereby helping in personalizing the treatment.</p

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011