Search results for "Study"

Measuring the quality of humanitarian information products: Insights from the 2015 Nepal earthquake

2018

Information plays a critical role in humanitarian assistance. It has become a product that is shared for multiple purposes such as situational awareness, decision-making, coordination, reporting, and attracting funding. In the aftermath of sudden onset disasters, humanitarians are constrained with huge workload, time pressure, and uncertainties and thus, information products are often criticized with respect to quality issues. In this paper, we aim at developing an empirically grounded framework that can measure the quality of information products through accuracy, objectivity, completeness, and consistency. We validate the framework with the help of practitioners and apply it to the inform…

Local expert experiences and perceptions of environmentally induced migration from Bangladesh to India

2017

This study investigates local expert perceptions of the role of environmental factors, especially in terms of contemporary climate change, in population movements from Bangladesh to India. The aim is to delve into locally held understandings of the phenomenon and to gain a better understanding of these migration processes, which are actively intertwined with local experiences. Both Indian and Bangladeshi experts were interviewed using semi-structured, in-depth interviews in order to explore insights from locally held perceptions and understandings of contextual factors. In total, 10 Bangladeshi and 15 Indian experts were interviewed, covering different disciplines, sectors, regions and job …

BDI Modelling and Simulation of Human Behaviours in Bushfires

2016

Each summer in Australia, bushfires burn many hectares of forest, causing deaths, injuries, and destruction of property. Emergency management strategies rely on expected citizens’ behaviour which differs from reality. In order to raise their awareness about the real population behaviour, we want to provide them with a realistic agent-based simulation. The philosophically-grounded BDI architecture provides a very suitable approach but is little used due to the lack of adapted tools. This paper uses this case study to illustrate two new tools to fill this gap: the Tactics Development Framework (TDF) and GAMA BDI architecture.

A population genomics analysis of the native Irish Galway sheep breed.

2019

SUMMARYThe Galway sheep population is the only native Irish sheep breed and represents an important livestock genetic resource, which is currently categorised as “at-risk”. In the present study, comparative population genomics analyses of Galway sheep and other sheep populations of European origin were used to investigate the microevolution and recent genetic history of the breed. These analyses support the hypothesis that British Leicester sheep were used in the formation of the Galway breed and suggest more recent gene flow from the Suffolk sheep breed. When compared to conventional and endangered breeds, the Galway breed was intermediate in effective population size, genomic inbreeding a…

Cold adaptation drives population genomic divergence in the ecological specialist, Drosophila montana

2020

Funding: UK Natural Environment Research Council (Grant Number(s): NE/L501852/1, NE/P000592/1); Academy of Finland (GrantNumber(s): 267244, 268214, 322980), Ella ja Georg Ehrnroothin Säätiö. Detecting signatures of ecological adaptation in comparative genomics is challenging, but analysing population samples with characterised geographic distributions, such as clinal variation, can help identify genes showing covariation with important ecological variation. Here, we analysed patterns of geographic variation in the cold-adapted species Drosophila montana across phenotypes, genotypes and environmental conditions and tested for signatures of cold adaptation in population genomic divergence. We…

Combining GPU and FPGA technology for efficient exhaustive interaction analysis in GWAS

2016

Interaction between genes has become a major topic in quantitative genetics. It is believed that these interactions play a significant role in genetic variations causing complex diseases. Due to the number of tests required for an exhaustive search in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), a large amount of computational power is required. In this paper, we present a hybrid architecture consisting of tightly interconnected CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs and a fine-tuned software suite to outperform other implementations in pairwise interaction analysis while consuming less than 300Watts and fitting into a standard desktop computer case.

Neither Diplectanum nor specific: a dramatic twist to the taxonomic framework of Diplectanum (Monogenea: Diplectanidae).

2019

The taxonomy of the genus Diplectanum has been exclusively based on morphological features, with 28 nominal species parasitic on perciform fishes recognised. We used molecular data, to our knowledge for the first time, to evaluate the taxonomic framework of Diplectanum, infer the relationships amongst species attributed to this genus, re-assess the degree of host specificity and explore the population genetic structure of Diplectanum spp. parasitising Mediterranean sciaenids, which are potential target fish species for aquaculture diversification in the region. A minimum of 10 specimens of Diplectanum spp. were sequenced per host species (Argyrosomus regius, Sciaena umbra, Umbrina canariens…

2017

Abstract Background Results on the association between prenatal exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) and child neuropsychological development are heterogeneous. Underlying genetic differences across study populations could contribute to this varied response to MeHg. Studies in Drosophila have identified the cytochrome p 450 3A (CYP3A) family as candidate MeHg susceptibility genes. Objectives We evaluated whether genetic variation in CYP3A genes influences the association between prenatal exposure to MeHg and child neuropsychological development. Methods The study population included 2639 children from three birth cohort studies: two subcohorts in Seychelles (SCDS) (n = 1160, 20 and 30 months of…

2016

Near Eastern genomes from Iran The genetic composition of populations in Europe changed during the Neolithic transition from hunting and gathering to farming. To better understand the origin of modern populations, Broushaki et al. sequenced ancient DNA from four individuals from the Zagros region of present-day Iran, representing the early Neolithic Fertile Crescent. These individuals unexpectedly were not ancestral to early European farmers, and their genetic structures did not contribute significantly to those of present-day Europeans. These data indicate that a parallel Neolithic transition probably resulted from structured farming populations across southwest Asia. Science , this issue …

Decline in the incidence of colorectal cancer and the associated mortality in young Italian adults

2020

Objective The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) declines among subjects aged 50 years and above. An opposite trend appears among younger adults. In Europe, data on CRC incidence among younger adults are lacking. We therefore aimed to analyse European trends in CRC incidence and mortality in subjects younger than 50 years. Design Data on age-related CRC incidence and mortality between 1990 and 2016 were retrieved from national and regional cancer registries. Trends were analysed by Joinpoint regression and expressed as annual percent change. Results We retrieved data on 143.7 million people aged 20–49 years from 20 European countries. Of them, 187 918 (0.13%) were diagnosed with CRC. On a…