Sequence variation in the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene explains color morph variation in several species of birds and mammals. Ruffs (Philomachus pugnax) exhibit major dark/light color differences in melanin-based male breeding plumage which is closely associated with alternative reproductive behavior. A previous study identified a microsatellite marker (Ppu020) near the MC1R locus assoc...

Ornamental plants provide many benefits to humans, including those that affect emotional/mental health, physiological social interactions, and economic/financial conditions. However, research related consumers’ perceived value of ornamental has focused primarily on production methods were used produce plants, while intrinsic postpurchase not been addressed. There is potential for benefit inform...

Beijing Key Laboratory of Development and Quality Control of Ornamental Crops, Department of Ornamental Horticulture, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, PR China (L.W., N.M., Y.J., Y.Z., M.F., J.G.); Crops Pathology and Genetic Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, Davis, California 95616 (C.-Z.J.); and Department of Plant Sciences, Un...

Cycle switches are the simplest changes which can be used to alter latin squares, and as such have found many applications in the generation of latin squares. They also provide the simplest examples of latin interchanges or trades in latin square designs. In this paper we construct graphs in which the vertices are classes of latin squares. Edges arise from switching cycles to move from one clas...

this paper presents a strategy for using harmony search algorithm in facility layout optimization problems. in this paper an adapted harmony search algorithm is developed for solving facility layout optimization problems. this method finds an optimal facility arrangement in an existing layout. two real-world case studies are employed to demonstrate the efficiency of this model. a comparison is ...

Two category rating experiments are described. In both experiments, one group of subjects first judged the upper half and another group first judged the lower half of a graded series of 16 squares. After four blocks of trials with the practice series, both groups were shifted to the total series. Specific instructions to modify or not to modify scales were given before the shift. Experiment 1 m...

abstract soil contamination by heavy metals is yet one of the most important environmental concerns. among heavy metals, nickel and cadmium have dangerous influences on human, animals and plants. the objective of this study was to derive a new model for simultaneous phytoextraction of ni and cd from contaminated soils. consequently, a macroscopic model was derived by combining yield reduction f...

A new descriptor, layout context, is introduced to describe the distribution of the surrounding symbols’ positions relative to a target mathematical symbol within a mathematical expression. Using this new descriptor, a coarse classification is performed in which all mathematical symbols are classified into eight classes[3] as shown in Figure 1. These classes represent different centroid locatio...