Search results for "Rho"
showing 10 items of 2586 documents
Plant functional and taxonomic diversity in European grasslands along climatic gradients
2021
Aim European grassland communities are highly diverse, but patterns and drivers of their continental-scale diversity remain elusive. This study analyses taxonomic and functional richness in European grasslands along continental-scale temperature and precipitation gradients. Location Europe. Methods We quantified functional and taxonomic richness of 55,748 vegetation plots. Six plant traits, related to resource acquisition and conservation, were analysed to describe plant community functional composition. Using a null-model approach we derived functional richness effect sizes that indicate higher or lower diversity than expected given the taxonomic richness. We assessed the variation in abso…
Improvement of lateral connectivity in a sector of River Hârtibaciu (Olt/Danube Basin)
2017
Abstract The Hârtibaciu River in the Alţâna area has a disturbed lateral connectivity owing to its lateral embankments, as a result of which fish communities in this river sector are negatively influenced. The method of obtaining the water supply for a new proposed wetland is by gravitation, and any excessive water supply to the wetland will be controled and directed to the Hârtibaciu River in a natural manner. A state-of-the-art man-made wetland should increase the quality of the habitat for local fish communities, especially for the Rhodeus sericeus population, which is a species of conservation interest.
Large multiple neighborhood search for the soft-clustered vehicle-routing problem
2021
Abstract The soft-clustered vehicle-routing problem (SoftCluVRP) is a variant of the classical capacitated vehicle-routing problem. Customers are partitioned into clusters and all customers of the same cluster must be served by the same vehicle. In this paper, we present a large multiple neighborhood search for the SoftCluVRP. We design and analyze multiple cluster destroy and repair operators as well as two post-optimization components, which are both based on variable neighborhood descent. The first allows inter-route exchanges of complete clusters, while the second searches for intra-route improvements by combining classical neighborhoods (2-opt, Or-opt, double-bridge) and the Balas-Simo…
Iterated greedy with variable neighborhood search for a multiobjective waste collection problem
2020
Abstract In the last few years, the application of decision making to logistic problems has become crucial for public and private organizations. Efficient decisions clearly contribute to improve operational aspects such as cost reduction or service improvement. The particular case of waste collection service considered in this paper involves a set of economic, labor and environmental issues that translate into difficult operational problems. They pose a challenge to nowadays optimization technologies since they have multiple constraints and multiple objectives that may be in conflict. We therefore need to resort to multiobjective approaches to model and solve this problem, providing efficie…
Improving the performance of embedded systems with variable neighborhood search
2017
Graphical abstractDisplay Omitted Embedded systems have become an essential part of our lives, mainly due to the evolution of technology in the last years. However, the power consumption of these devices is one of their most important drawbacks. It has been proven that an efficient use of the memory of the device also improves its energy performance. This work efficiently solves the dynamic memory allocation problem, which can be formally defined as follows: given a program that has to be executed by a circuit, the objective is to fit that program in memory in such a way that the computing time required to execute it is minimized. In this work, we propose a parallel variable neighborhood se…
Photoexcitation of the P4480 State Induces a Secondary Photocycle That Potentially Desensitizes Channelrhodopsin-2
2018
Channelrhodopsins (ChRs) are light-gated cation channels. In spite of their wide use to activate neurons with light, the photocurrents of ChRs rapidly decay in intensity under both continuous illum...
Oil-degrading bacteria from a membrane bioreactor (BF-MBR) system for treatment of saline oily waste: Isolation, identification and characterization …
2016
A collection of forty-two (42) strains was obtained during microbiological screening of a Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) system developed for the treatment of saline oily waste originated from marine transportation. The diversity of the bacterial collection was analyzed by amplification and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Taxonomic analysis showed high level of identity with recognized sequences of seven (7) distinct bacterial genera (Alcanivorax, Erythrobacter, Marinobacter, Microbacterium, Muricauda, Rhodococcus and Rheinheimera). The biotechnological potential of the isolates was screened considering an important factor such as the biosurfactant production. In particular fourteen (14) biosur…
Hepatitis delta virus infection in a large cohort of chronic hepatitis B patients in Ethiopia.
2017
Background Hepatitis D Virus (HDV)-infection is associated with a more severe outcome in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB); however, little is known about the presence of HDV in sub-Saharan Africa. We aimed to determine the prevalence of HDV-infection, as well as its clinical, biological and virological characteristics, in a large CHB cohort in Ethiopia. Methods In total, 1267 HIV-negative CHB patients at St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa were screened for anti-HDV antibodies using ELISA assays. Confirmed positive samples were further tested for HDV RNA using a consensus commercial real-time RT-PCR assay. HDV genotypes were also determined for RNA positive …
Assessment of liver fibrosis progression and regression by a serological collagen turnover profile
2018
There is a need for noninvasive biomarkers that can identify patients with progressive liver fibrosis and monitor response to antifibrotic therapy. An equally important need is identification of patients with spontaneous fibrosis regression, since they may not need treatment nor be included in clinical studies with fibrosis as end point. Circulating biomarkers, originating from defined fragments of the scar tissue itself, may serve as valuable tools for this aspect of precision medicine. We investigated a panel of serological collagen formation and degradation markers to identify patients likely to regress or progress in absence of a therapeutic intervention. Plasma samples from patients wi…
Cancer-associated circulating large extracellular vesicles in cholangiocarcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma.
2017
Background & Aims Large extracellular vesicles, specifically AnnexinV + EpCAM + CD147 + tumour-associated microparticles (taMPs), facilitate the detection of colorectal carcinoma (CRC), non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) as well as pancreas carcinoma (PaCa). Here we assess the diagnostic value of taMPs for detection and monitoring of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Specifically, the aim of this study was to differentiate liver taMPs from other cancer taMPs, such as CRC and NSCLC. Methods Fluorescence-activated cell scanning (FACS) was applied to detect various taMP populations in patients' sera that were associated with the presence of a tumour (AnnexinV + Ep…