Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 57 p. Includes bibliographical references.

ABSTRACT This study reports on the results of a selection experiment using Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) with the aim of assessing the impact of a number of selection regimes on tolerance to heat stress as measured by growth rate. Four lines were selected for six generations for increased weight gain from 14-28 days of age under either high (W, 32ºC) or normal (C, 25ºC) temperature conditions on either a high (H, 250 g/kg) or low (L, 150 g/kg) protein diet. Both diets contained 13.0 MJ ME/kg. The four selected lines were thus designated WH, CH, WL and CL. Fortnightly hatches were produced each generation from matings between 12 males and 36 females per line, with the parents of the next generation selected from approximately 100 birds per sex per line. A randomly selected control line (line C) of similar size was also maintained and reared in all cages with the selected line birds. Each generation, a third hatch of birds was reared and approximately 20 birds per line per environment were placed in single-bird cages to measure correlated responses in weight gain and feed efficiency in all four temperature/ dietary protein environments. In addition, correlated responses were measured in body composition and an assessment of the relative responses of the lines to early post-hatch epigenetic heat conditioning and to dietary addition of betaine (an osmolyte) were undertaken. The final study involved measurement of correlated response in the lines in the components of reproductive performance. On the high protein diet, response in growth rate relative to the control line in all selected lines was positive under both temperature environments, and by generations 5 and 6 growth rate was higher in the WH than in the CH line birds in both temperature environments. As weight gain was the selection criterion, these results suggest that selection for increased growth rate under high temperature conditions may not only be beneficial for progeny reared under high temperature conditions, but might also be at least as effective as selection under normal temperatures for progeny reared under normal temperature conditions. Whilst there was no equivalent advantage in feed efficiency in the WH line birds in either temperature environment, and the results arise from a comparison between un-replicated lines, they certainly indicate that such a selection approach is unlikely to have deleterious consequences. There was no benefit in either growth rate or feed efficiency under either temperature environments achieved through selection of birds on a low protein diet, irrespective of the selection temperature conditions. This indicates that irrespective of environmental temperature either during selection or subsequently, any possible advantage obtained through a reduction in the protein breakdown rate conferred through selection on a diet limiting in protein is outweighed by other factors contributing to a lower heritability and poorer response in these lines. In contrast to the WH line, the CH line birds in the normal temperature conditions were significantly (P<0.01) leaner under high than normal temperature conditions, although these differences were not reflected in differences in feed efficiency. On the low protein diet, females were considerably fatter than males and the CL line birds had a considerably higher proportion of body fat than either their WL or C line counterparts. Responses in body composition emphasise the inadvisability of selecting birds for growth rate under protein deficient diets, particularly if they are expected to perform under high temperature conditions on either high or low protein diets. In a study of the effect of early post-hatch epigenetic heat conditioning on subsequent performance in the single-bird cages, half of the chicks from each line were exposed at 2 days of age to 38OC for 24 hours. The results of the study showed that there was a positive effect of heat conditioning, as measured by subsequent growth rate, in birds selected for increased growth rate under normal temperatures. However, selection for increased heat tolerance appeared to render the birds refractory to the beneficial effects of epigenetic conditioning. This suggests that the physiological pathways exploited by epigenetic heat conditioning are also utilised in selection for heat tolerance. Inclusion of betaine in the diet at 0.5 g/kg had a beneficial effect upon growth performance from 14-28 days of age in birds kept under high temperature conditions, but the degree of the effect was influenced by other factors possibly associated with the nutrient (and particularly the amino acid) composition of the diet. There was a lack of consistency in the relative responses of the lines to betaine supplementation indicating that it is unlikely that osmoprotection contributes in any meaningful way to heat tolerance expressed by the lines selected under high temperature conditions. A study of reproductive performance of the birds at generation six lent support to previous published findings showing deleterious effects upon the components of reproductive performance from selection for increased growth rate. There were, however, significant differences between the selection lines which suggested beneficial outcomes from selection for growth rate under moderately high temperature conditions, particularly in breeders housed under these same conditions. Relative to selection under normal temperatures, these benefits included: early onset of lay, increased egg production, increased egg weight and improved fertility.

The immune system must be able to mount a response against pathogens and transformed cells while remaining tolerant to healthy host tissue. A key process for ensuring this self-tolerance is the negative selection of self-reactive thymocytes. Expression of Programmed Death-1 (PD-1), a co-inhibitory member of the CD28 family associated with dampened peripheral immune responses,was found to be upregulated in 20-40% of thymocytes undergoing negative selection in the HYcd4model of thymic development. Although analysis of gene and protein expression directly ex vivo indicates that PD-1- and PD-1+ thymocytes are equally apoptotic, PD-1+ thymocytes appear to be protected from apoptosis in an in vitro stimulation assay. Analysis of HYcd4PD-1-/- mice indicates that thymocytes receive a higher intensity signal in the absence of PD-1. Future work utilizing HYcd4PD-1-/- mice will increase our understanding of the role of PD-1 in thymic negative selection. / Immunology

While extant research on recruiting has highlighted a number of applicant attitudes that predict future attitudes and decisions, questions regarding how attitudes develop over time and differentially predict applicant job choice have received scant attention. To address this currently impoverished research area, this study utilizes three prominent recruitment frameworks (signaling theory, fit, and image) to theoretically and empirically examine how applicant attitudes towards possible future employers develop over the course of the recruitment process. Also, this study explores the possible divergent patterns of development of these applicant attitudes by examining taking a job offer and passing on a job offer as two separate decision-making processes. Finally, this study investigates the pattern of relationships between proximal predictors of job choice (organizational attraction and acceptance intentions) and applicant decisions to take or pass on a job offer. Participants in this study were 178 undergraduates seeking internships during a five-month recruitment period. Applicant attitudes about organizational image, fit, attraction, acceptance intentions as well as recruiter trustworthiness and timeliness of a consistent set of firms were assessed eight times over the five-month period. Results of this study indicate that recruiting, from an applicant perspective, is a dynamic decision-making process where applicants gather and assimilate information in distinct patterns prior to making job choice decisions. Specifically, across six applicant attitudes that have previously been shown to predict recruiting outcomes such as job choice, applicant attitudes toward the organization they take an offer from increase, and at a faster rate, over time relative to organizations whose offers they pass. These attitudes significantly differ between offers that are ultimately taken and passed on as early as the start of the recruitment process (i.e. image) or as late as slightly more than three weeks (i.e. fit) into a five-month recruitment process.

According to Barclay (2001), behavioral interviews yield higher quality information, than other interview techniques. This study focused on whether the quality and quantity of information differ between structured interview and behavioral interviewing. Two headhunters held 16 job interviews with the two techniques, 9 behavioral interviews and 7 structured interviews. Both headhunters and candidates have evaluated the interviews quantitatively. Initial and concluding interviews have, as well, been held with the headhunters.  No definitive answers were found in the quantitative analysis, but the qualitative results suggest that behavioral interviews give, because of the headhunters opinions, more and higher quality information. Continued development of the technique and themselves are the headhunters next steps in order to improve their recruitment process. / Enligt Barclay (2001) erhålls bättre kvalitet på informationen som insamlas genom beteendeintervjuer, än genom andra intervjutekniker. Denna studie fokuserar på att se om kvaliteten och mängden information skiljer sig mellan strukturerad intervju och beteendeintervju. Två rekryterare har hållit 16 anställningsintervjuer med de två intervjuteknikerna, nio med beteendeintervju och sju med strukturerad intervju. Både rekryterare och kandidater har efteråt utvärderat intervjuerna kvantitativt, inledande och avslutande intervjuer har även hållits med rekryterarna. Inga tydliga svar kunde utläsas utav den kvantitativa analysen, men de kvalitativa resultaten tyder på att beteendeintervju var bättre gällande att rekryterarna totalt sett ansåg sig få mer och säkrare information om kandidaterna genom den tekniken. Att utveckla beteendeintervjumallen och sig själva är rekryterarnas nästa steg i att förbättra sin rekryteringsprocess.

In the domain of Web Services, it is not uncommon to find redundant services that provide functionalities to the clients. Services with the same functionality can be clustered into a group of redundant services. Respectively, if a service offers different functionalities, it belongs to more than one group. Having various Web Services that are able to handle the client's request suggests the necessity of a mechanism that selects the most appropriate Web Service at a given moment of time. <p>This thesis presents an approach, Virtual Web Services Layer, for dynamic service selection based on virtualization on the server side. It helps managing redundant services in a transparent manner as well as allows adding services to the system at run-time. In addition, the layer assures a level of security since the consumers do not have direct access to the Web Services. <p>Several selection techniques are applied to increase the performance of the system in terms of load-balancing, dependability, or execution time. The results of the experiments show which selection techniques are appropriate when different QoS criteria of the services are known and how the correctness of this information influences on the decision-making process.

A new method for determining the number of k-means clusters in a given data set is presented. The algorithm is developed from a theoretical perspective and then its implementation is examined and compared to existing solutions.

A new method for determining the number of k-means clusters in a given data set is presented. The algorithm is developed from a theoretical perspective and then its implementation is examined and compared to existing solutions.

In the domain of Web Services, it is not uncommon to find redundant services that provide functionalities to the clients. Services with the same functionality can be clustered into a group of redundant services. Respectively, if a service offers different functionalities, it belongs to more than one group. Having various Web Services that are able to handle the client's request suggests the necessity of a mechanism that selects the most appropriate Web Service at a given moment of time. <p>This thesis presents an approach, Virtual Web Services Layer, for dynamic service selection based on virtualization on the server side. It helps managing redundant services in a transparent manner as well as allows adding services to the system at run-time. In addition, the layer assures a level of security since the consumers do not have direct access to the Web Services. <p>Several selection techniques are applied to increase the performance of the system in terms of load-balancing, dependability, or execution time. The results of the experiments show which selection techniques are appropriate when different QoS criteria of the services are known and how the correctness of this information influences on the decision-making process.

The primary objective of this thesis is to provide a low-complexity rate-distortion optimal coding mode selection method in digital video encoding. To achieve optimal compression efficiency in the rate-distortion framework with low computational complexity, we first propose a rate-distortion model and then apply it to the coding mode selection problem. The computational complexity of the proposed method is very low compared to overall encoder complexity because the proposed method uses simple image properties such as variance that can be obtained easily. Also, the proposed method gives significant PSNR gains over the mode selection scheme used in TM5 for MPEG-2 because the rate-distortion model considers rate constraints of each mode as well as distortion. We extend the model-based mode selection approach to motion vector selection for further improvement of the coding efficiency. In addition to our theoretical work, we present practical solutions to real-time implementation of encoder modules including our proposed mode selection method on digital signal processors. First, we investigate the features provided by most of the recent digital signal processors, for example, hierarchical memory structure and efficient data transfer between on-chip and off-chip memory, and then present practical approaches for real-time implementation of a video encoder system with efficient use of the features.