Anomodonts are a group of non-mammalian synapsids (“mammal-like reptiles”) that represents the dominant herbivores of their time. Their great taxonomic and morphological diversity, unparalleled by any other clade of Permian-Triassic terrestrial tetrapods, is well documented by a cosmopolitan fossil record. In addition, anomodonts survived the most severe extinction event in Earth’s history at the end of the Permian and experienced a second diversification in the Triassic. Thus, they are an ideal clade to investigate macroevolutionary patterns and play an important role in evaluating the impact of the end-Permian extinction on the terrestrial realm. This work combines descriptive, phylogenetic, and quantitative approaches to study evolutionary patterns of anomodonts with special focus on diversity patterns through time. A taxonomic revision of the Late Permian dicynodont genus Emydops reflects the necessity for a solid taxonomic basis for diversity studies. The description of a new species of this genus is combined with a discussion of dental variability and pathology in dicynodont anomodonts. A detailed description of the postcranial anatomy of the basal anomodont Suminia reveals new insights into the early evolution of anomodonts and therapsids in general. Several derived features, in particular in the autopodium, are unique to Suminia and together with a comparative morphometric analysis indicate grasping abilities of this taxon and the earliest evidence for arboreality in the vertebrate fossil record. The cranial anatomy of the Triassic dicynodont Kombuisia is restudied and a phylogenetic evaluation of the survivorship of anomodonts across the Permian-Triassic boundary reveals more surviving lineages than previously recognized. A review of anomodont-bearing tetrapod faunas forms the basis for a faunal similarity analysis that reveals stratigraphic as well as geographic patterns in faunal groupings. The taxonomic diversity of anomodonts reflects three diversifications and subsequent extinctions in the early Middle Permian, the Early Triassic and the mid-late Triassic.

An epidemic increase in severity and incidence of asochyta blight, caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass) Labrousse (teleomorph: <i>Didymella rabiei</i> (Kovachevski) v. Arx. Syn. <i>Mycosphaerella rabiei </i>Kovachevski), has occurred on chickpea (<i>Cicer arietinum</i> L.) crops in Saskatchewan over the past 5 growing seasons. In order to explore the nature of the outbreak, studies assessing population differences in pathogenicity and genetic variability were employed. Isolates of <i>A. rabiei</i> collected in 1998, 2001 and 2002 were inoculated onto 7 differential chickpea genotypes for pathogenicity testing. <p> Significant isolate by differential interaction occurred, but accounted for a low proportion of the total variability suggesting no genotype specific relationship exists between <i>A. rabiei</i> and <i>C. arietinum</i>. Furthermore, it was found that when averaged over all differentials, the isolates from 2001 and 2002 caused significantly greater disease than isolates from 1998, suggesting that the disease epidemic is in part due to a shift in the population to overall greater aggressiveness. The largest increase in disease severity was observed on the cultivar Sanford, which was widely grown in commercial chickpea fields before 1999. To evaluate the genetic diversity of different <i>A. rabiei</i> populations, 30 isolates from 1998 and 30 isolates from 2002 were compared with random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting. Several clusters of isolates collected from either 1998 or 2002 were approximately 60% genetic similar suggesting divergence of these populations of <i>A. rabiei</i>. However, analysis of molecular variance showed that over 90% of the variation occurred within populations. Pairwise differences and gene diversity over loci showed that genetic diversity of the 2 populations had the same amount of genetic variability. Analysis of mating type distributions revealed that the populations from 1998, 2001 and 2002 did not significantly depart from a 1:1 ratio suggesting random mating of each population. Further supporting the hypothesis of a randomly mating population, linkage disequilibrium for both 1998 and 2002 populations was very low.

Anomodonts are a group of non-mammalian synapsids (“mammal-like reptiles”) that represents the dominant herbivores of their time. Their great taxonomic and morphological diversity, unparalleled by any other clade of Permian-Triassic terrestrial tetrapods, is well documented by a cosmopolitan fossil record. In addition, anomodonts survived the most severe extinction event in Earth’s history at the end of the Permian and experienced a second diversification in the Triassic. Thus, they are an ideal clade to investigate macroevolutionary patterns and play an important role in evaluating the impact of the end-Permian extinction on the terrestrial realm. This work combines descriptive, phylogenetic, and quantitative approaches to study evolutionary patterns of anomodonts with special focus on diversity patterns through time. A taxonomic revision of the Late Permian dicynodont genus Emydops reflects the necessity for a solid taxonomic basis for diversity studies. The description of a new species of this genus is combined with a discussion of dental variability and pathology in dicynodont anomodonts. A detailed description of the postcranial anatomy of the basal anomodont Suminia reveals new insights into the early evolution of anomodonts and therapsids in general. Several derived features, in particular in the autopodium, are unique to Suminia and together with a comparative morphometric analysis indicate grasping abilities of this taxon and the earliest evidence for arboreality in the vertebrate fossil record. The cranial anatomy of the Triassic dicynodont Kombuisia is restudied and a phylogenetic evaluation of the survivorship of anomodonts across the Permian-Triassic boundary reveals more surviving lineages than previously recognized. A review of anomodont-bearing tetrapod faunas forms the basis for a faunal similarity analysis that reveals stratigraphic as well as geographic patterns in faunal groupings. The taxonomic diversity of anomodonts reflects three diversifications and subsequent extinctions in the early Middle Permian, the Early Triassic and the mid-late Triassic.

In the latest development in the field of telecommunications it has been observed that a lot is expected from the mobile systems. All kinds of communication standards such as Bluetooth, 3G, W-LAN etc. should be present in the same handset. This requires higher data transmission rates and low bit error probability. One of the major problems in achieving this is fading and multi path environment. The other problem is the growing trend of decreasing size of the electronic devices specially handsets. The handsets are getting smaller and thinner. Due to this the antennas in the device come very close to each other which causes high coupling between the antennas resulting in bad diversity gain. Antenna diversity is considered to be one of easier solution to overcome these problems. This thesis presents an implementation of receiver antenna diversity and suggests different optimised networks between the antenna ports for better diversity gain keeping in view the antenna efficiencies. The thesis involves the following steps: simulating the structures, suggesting different networks between the two antenna ports, optimisation and hardware implementation of the networks and finally measurements in reverberation chamber.

An epidemic increase in severity and incidence of asochyta blight, caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass) Labrousse (teleomorph: <i>Didymella rabiei</i> (Kovachevski) v. Arx. Syn. <i>Mycosphaerella rabiei </i>Kovachevski), has occurred on chickpea (<i>Cicer arietinum</i> L.) crops in Saskatchewan over the past 5 growing seasons. In order to explore the nature of the outbreak, studies assessing population differences in pathogenicity and genetic variability were employed. Isolates of <i>A. rabiei</i> collected in 1998, 2001 and 2002 were inoculated onto 7 differential chickpea genotypes for pathogenicity testing. <p> Significant isolate by differential interaction occurred, but accounted for a low proportion of the total variability suggesting no genotype specific relationship exists between <i>A. rabiei</i> and <i>C. arietinum</i>. Furthermore, it was found that when averaged over all differentials, the isolates from 2001 and 2002 caused significantly greater disease than isolates from 1998, suggesting that the disease epidemic is in part due to a shift in the population to overall greater aggressiveness. The largest increase in disease severity was observed on the cultivar Sanford, which was widely grown in commercial chickpea fields before 1999. To evaluate the genetic diversity of different <i>A. rabiei</i> populations, 30 isolates from 1998 and 30 isolates from 2002 were compared with random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting. Several clusters of isolates collected from either 1998 or 2002 were approximately 60% genetic similar suggesting divergence of these populations of <i>A. rabiei</i>. However, analysis of molecular variance showed that over 90% of the variation occurred within populations. Pairwise differences and gene diversity over loci showed that genetic diversity of the 2 populations had the same amount of genetic variability. Analysis of mating type distributions revealed that the populations from 1998, 2001 and 2002 did not significantly depart from a 1:1 ratio suggesting random mating of each population. Further supporting the hypothesis of a randomly mating population, linkage disequilibrium for both 1998 and 2002 populations was very low.

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ABSTRACT Sipuncula is a group of unsegmented, coelomate, bilaterally symmetrical and wormlike marine deposit-feeding benthic macro-invertebrates. They are abundant along the intertidal habitats and around 150 species have been recorded worldwide. Sipunculans likely accumulate many anthropogenic contaminants by feeding on the contaminated sediments or benthos, and since they are edible marine species and have long been used in Southwest Pacific cuisine, these contaminants may transfer into the food chain and affect the public health of humans.Trace elements and PAHs are the most common contaminants that appear in the coastal areas worldwide. These contaminants lead to losses in oceanic yield and may hazardous effects on health when they enter the food chain. The previous studies of sipunculans along the coast of Taiwan were mostly focused on the taxonomy and distribution of the species living on the hard -ground habitat (rubble), one of the purposes of this study is aiming at the sipunculans on the seagrass beds and wetland soft-ground habitat for species diversity, population dynamic and ecological related research. Among 10 native sipunculans species, Sipunculus nudus is the dominant species living at the segrass bed and wetland in Taiwan. Siangshan wetland locates at the area of industrial pollution and S. nudus here is a species with aquatic economy, but is known limitedly of its population and environmental physiology. Therefore, the other purpose of this research is to investigate the S. nudus population in this wetland and analyze the trace elements: arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), and zinc (Zn) and the organic pollutants: PAHs, in order to understand the bioaccumulation of S. nudus in the above two types of soft-substrate regarding the pollutants. The main results of this study are as follows: (1) This study represents a pioneering investigation in Taiwan regarding the species diversity of sipunculans on the seagrass meadow soft-ground sediment, which describes the species and their morphological characteristics. A total of 42 specimens 10 sipunculan species belonging to 3 families were identified. (2) It is the first time that S. nudus is realized as the dominant species in these soft habitats. Because of its cultivation potential, its population dynamics and reproductive cycle in Siangshan wetland were studied. The population size of S. nudus in this area is 0.965¡Ó 0.46 ind.m-2 and the sex ratio is around 1:1; the reproductive period is from April to September in the year with the peak reproductive period from May to August; the body length of matured individual is over 11cm. (3) This is the first report in Taiwan on the trace elements in sipunculan and their surrounding sediments. The bioaccumulation characteristics of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), and zinc (Zn) were analyzed and compared in two sipunculan species, S. nudus and Siphonosoma vastum, which were collected from seagrass beds and wetlands in Taiwan. Both sipunculans in the these soft habitats had a high Cu bioaccumulation mechanism. Multivariate analysis, principle component analysis, and partial least squares for discriminant analysis of trace element levels and bioaccumulation factors were used to distinguish the element distributions that corresponded to the two habitats (seagrass beds and wetlands). Different levels of certain trace elements in these two sipunculan species may result not only from the environmental factors of various habitats but also from the accumulation characteristics of various species. The As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, and Zn concentrations were markedly lower in sipunculan than in other invertebrates from the adjacent polluted regions. (4) This is the first report on the accumulation situation of PAHs in different body tissues (tentacle, nephridium, intestine, and muscle) of S. nudus in Taiwan. It was found that the smaller individuals had higher amount of PAHs with higher percentage of low-ring PAHs and they were mostly concentrated in the nephridium. This study provides the bioaccumulation pattern of PAH in the tentacle, nephridium, intestine, and muscle of S. nudus. The logKow and logBAF parameters show that S. nudus may excrete or decompose high-ring PAHs via biotransformation. By comparing the t-PAH of S. nudus with that of the surrounding substrate and invertebrates along the coasts of other countries, the t-PAH content in the muscle of S. nudus is lower than the sediment and the invertebrates. As a result, I suggest removing the internal organs and utilizing the muscle portion as good to reduce the uptake and accumulation of PAHs from the sipunculans.

The purpose of this research was to build upon, and extend, the sport diversity research. Specifically, Study 1 adopted a compositional approach to examine the effects of ethnicity, age, and team tenure on a team process (team assists), and their indirect effects on overall team performance (team points) through that team process. Hierarchical regression analyses, after controlling for team ability, indicated that the block of diversity variables accounted for 6.5% (p < .05) of the variance in team assists. Further results indicated that ethnic diversity was significantly, and negatively, related to team assists, while age and team tenure diversity were not related to team assists. In turn, team assists accounted for 22% (p < .001) of the variance in team points, above and beyond team ability. Team assists were significantly, and positively, related to overall team performance. Results suggest that team diversity does impact team processes and, indirectly, team performance. Study 2 adopted a relational approach to examine how being similar, or dissimilar, influences the dyadic relationship between the goal scorer and assistor. The MANOVA analyses were significant for ethnicity, Wilks’ Λ = .976 (p < .001), age group, Wilks’ Λ = .952 (p < .001), and team tenure group, Wilks’ Λ = .896 (p < .001), indicating that there were differences between those goal scorers receiving assists from the various subgroups within each of these three categories. In general, results support the similarity-attraction paradigm, in that, a player is likely to assist a teammate who is similar to himself more so than he is to assist a player who is different, with regards to these three demographic characteristics. Results have practical implications for coaches and managers, while also contributing to the theoretical body of literature for sport and diversity research. This research examined National Hockey League teams and players during a three year period (2001-2004). English Canadians made up 42.5% of the players in the league, followed by Europeans (33%), Americans (15.7%), and French Canadians (8.8%). The average age of players in the league was 27.7 years of age, while the average team tenure was 3.7 years.

“Diversity” has become one of the most commonly used words by U.S. corporations. Indeed, many companies claim that they have spent millions, sometimes billions of dollars to create an egalitarian workplace for all workers. Given the amount of money spent and the increased amount of research that corporations have done on the issue of diversity, we should expect some progress in terms of equality or equal rights for minority and female workers. However, while there has been a substantial increase in the rise of corporate philosophy espousing diversity, there is also overwhelming data that suggests minorities and women are still unable to obtain opportunities or to achieve success at the same rates as their white male counterparts. How can we explain the apparent contradictions? Furthermore, why are many companies that have historically barred minorities and women from their workplace now publicizing their support for racial and gender integration? I suggest that corporations are using the word “diversity” as an ideological tool designed to promote themselves at the forefront of equality in the U.S. Using in-depth interviews conducted with 40 middle and senior-level managers and upper-level executive officers from Fortune 1000 companies, I find that while the word diversity is frequently uttered by managers (and strategically used in various media outlets), most managers are unable to clearly define diversity. Moreover, while managers claim their companies are interested in diversity, there is no convincing evidence that would suggest this is true. Thus, my findings suggest that many corporations use “diversity” as a shield to hide the fact that nothing has really changed in the structure of U.S corporations. That is, U.S. corporations have been, and continue to be, exclusive clubhouses for upper class white males.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L] Moench) was first introduced to the United States in the 1800s. These introductions consisted of tropical varieties with a short day photoperiod response that limited their use in temperate hybrid breeding programs. Commercial exploitation of F1 hybrids in grain sorghum started by the mid 1950s with the use of cytoplasmic male sterility system CMS (A1). Even though other CMS are available, most sorghum hybrid seed production still relies on the A1 system. Genetic gain in most agronomic crop species is limited by several factors. In the specific case of sorghum, the uniform use of the CMS (A1) system and the recent introduction of sorghum to the United States have resulted in a reduction of its genetic base. In order to create enough genetic variability, plant breeders might utilize exotic non adapted material, exotic adapted material or existing elite material as a source of new alleles that will protect and improve genetic gain through selection. This study provides an estimate of the genetic diversity existing in a set of sorghum conversion lines. The objectives of this study were: (1) to estimate the genetic diversity present among a set of 16 sorghum conversion lines; (2) to classify this set of lines based on genetic similarities estimated using AFLP markers and (3) to estimate heterosis, general and specific combining ability for grain yield among the set of conversion lines. Genetic diversity was present in the set of conversion lines evaluated. For the lines included only in this study, Caudatum was the most homogenous race (average GS = 0.69), and this race was closely related to the Durra race (Average GS = 0.66). Two other homogenous races were Bicolor and Kafir with average GS of 0.67. Highest GCA effects were obtained from the Kafir and Caudatum races. Good heterotic responses were obtained from DurraKafir races and CaudatumKafir races. Estimation of SCA, MPH and BPH identified specific crosses that were numerically superior than those of the checks. The use of AFLP markers allowed the identification of five strong clusters through estimates of genetic similarities. This classification did not group the lines by either their genetic background or their fertility reaction. This study provides information to identify specific combinations that would help to understand heterotic relationships in sorghum, and support the suggestions made by Menz and Gabriel that races in sorghum are not well defined.