During the last four decades, Iraq, like most other developing countries, faced very rapid urban growth. Due to thr absence of definite urbanisation policies, the major part of the urban growth went to the main cities, in particular , the capital Baghdad. Such a pattern of growth created many socio-economic problems at the national, as well as the urban level. This study represents an attempt toward developing a methodology of dealing with urban growth problems on a regional level in Iraq. It aims at finding what is thought to be, under the prevailing socio-economic and physical constraints, the most efficient urban growth pattern in the Upper Euphrates Region (U.E.R.) up to 1985. To achieve this aim the study first reviews and critically examines a wide range of urban growth theories and models. Despite the lessons that were learned from this review and the adoptation of many of their principles in developing this study, they did not provide a ready made answer to the problem of urban growth in the region Secondly, for the better understanding of urbanisation on and spatial development policies in Iraq and the U.E.R. a thorough examination of these and other aspects has been dealt with in part two. Thirdly, after examining the basic techniques that could be used in analysing the urban growth problem, such as the cost-benefit analysis and its refinement the planning balance sheet, threshold analysis and the goals-achievement analysis, it is found that the latter, at this stage of development in Iraq could be applied in studying such a problem. Finally, three alternative urban growth patterns were considered, i.e., the expansion of the largest urban centre in each urban node, the expansion of the proposed smaller urban centres and the establishment of a new town in each urban node and a set of socio-economic, physical, environmental and structural, factors that were thought to affect strongly the proposed urban growth patterns were incorporated in the analysis. From these it was found that the expansion of the largest urban centre in each urban nod e is the most suitable solution at this stage of the socio-economic development of the region. The vitality of this conclusion was tested by applying sensitivity analysis which supported it.

The process of domestication of the chicken had knowingly and unknowingly employed genetics to achieve human perceived changes in economic traits such as growth and egg production. These changes sometimes resulted in negative side effects, such as a physiological delay in sexual maturity observed in a line of White Plymouth Rock chickens selected for low body weight. These chickens plateaued after about 30 generations of selection possibly due to a conflict between survival/reproduction and the selection for slow growth. Yet, the even smaller red junglefowl seem to be free of such physiological barriers. Here, data are presented for reproductive, growth, and behavioral traits for the Richardson strain of red junglefowl, a line of White Plymouth Rock chickens that has undergone 57 generations of selection for 8-week body weight and their F1 and F2 reciprocal crosses. While exploring the physical and genetic differences between domestic chickens, as well as the genetic basis for the striking differences in growth patterns between the two lines, observed was plasticity and considerable residual genetic variation which likely facilitated the adaptability of the chicken to a broad range of husbandry practices. Differences in growth patterns implied additive and non- additive genetic variation and modifications in resource allocation strategies during domestication. / PHD / The use of intensive genetic selection and heterosis in breeding programs since the end of World War II has contributed to poultry industry achievements of high economic production. This has come about through increased feed efficiency, greater processing yield, shorter generation intervals, and improvements in growth rates of commercial populations. However, with these improvements there has been a 50% decrease in genetic diversity in commercial pure lines in comparison to their ancestors. This change has been attributed to the limited number of commercial primary breeders and increased inbreeding. Animals in populations that have been through intense selection for high and efficient production may be more at risk for physiological, and immunological issues. This dissertation addresses the relationship between the junglefowl and the domestic chicken with regard to these issues through a three-generation quantitative and molecular analysis.

<p> Barley coleoptiles were observed to be remarkably variable in height at 72 hr of germination. The objective or the study presented here was to analyze this variation in growth among coleoptiles and to attempt to determine its cause. The first step in this analysis of the variation was to determine the growth patterns of 900 individual coleoptiles by measuring their heights periodically during their growth period. In determining the cause for the variation, genetic, environmental, hormonal, metabolic and cytoplasmic factors were considered. For example, since gibberellin and kinetin have been implicated in the control of cell division and cell elongation these growth factors were supplied exogenously to germinating seedlings in an attempt to stimulate uniform growth of all coleoptiles. In similar studies, the effect or physical conditions and co2 on coleoptile growth was determined variation in growth is shown by any one of a number of parameters. Proteins, however, because they are closer to gene activity than the others are a better indicator of whether the variation in growth is caused at a fundamental level. Variations similar to those in coleoptile height were found in the amino acid analysis of different types of coleoptiles. Experiments were also done to determine if a genetic component was responsible for the variation in coleoptile growth. There was no correlation between germination pattern of a seedling and that of its progeny; therefore, the variation in growth was attributed to differences in cytoplasmic constituents of individual coleoptiles. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Five species of stoneflies (Zapada haysi, Plumiperla diversa, Taenionema pacificum, Isoperla petersoni, Arcynopteryx compacta) from the North Slope and Interior of Alaska were examined for seasonal patterns of emergence of adults and growth of nymphs. Generally growth was retarded during the winter in this region, and all species except I. petersoni completed growth prior to January. The life cycles of six stonefly species (Prostoia besametsa, Triznaka signata, Sweltsa coloradensis. Isoperla fulva, Skwala parallela, Claassenia sabulosa) are described from northern New Mexico. In this region growth was generally less retarded during the winter than in Alaska; P. besametsa completed all nymphal growth during late fall and winter. Drumming behavior of a Colorado population of Pteronarcella badia was described using an evolutionary framework to explain the maintenance of signal variation in this species. Laboratory experiments were used to explore the effect of intraspecific and interspecific interactions on spatial partitioning in P. badia and Claassenia sabulosa. P. badia exhibited clumping and distributed itself as the surface area of substrate in low densities; however, in the presence of C. sabulosa its distribution was random and different from available surface area. A field study was used to examine spatial partitioning by three New Mexico stonefly species (I_. fulva, P. besametsa, T. signata) and to ascertain patterns of microdistribution relating to several abiotic and biotic factors. Generally, there was an interaction of the measured abiotic parameters (current, water temperature, time) with nymphal size. Additionally, void space and sample volume were successfully used to compare biotic densities among leaf and mineral substrates, which were higher in leaf packs than in mineral substrates.

Estudos relacionados à microestrutura óssea de elementos fósseis surgiram no século XVIII, porém começaram a desenvolver-se mais profundamente somente nas últimas décadas. Hoje, a Paleohistologia é uma das áreas mais promissoras dentro da Paleontologia, pois nos possibilita acessar uma série de características do espécime fóssil que complementam nosso conhecimento sobre o animal. Assim como outros clados, os Dicynodontia vêm sendo estudados por esse viés há muito tempo, e hoje conhecemos os padrões ósseos e de crescimento de um grande número de espécies. A presente dissertação traz a descrição ósteo-histológica de alguns elementos fósseis de Dinodontosaurus turpior, uma espécie de dicinodonte de grande porte do Mesotriássico, encontrada em afloramentos da Formação Santa Maria. Os ossos analisados apresentam majoritariamente uma matriz do tipo fibrolamelar, com alguns subtipos da matriz em dois fragmentos, ausência de linhas de crescimento nos espécimes juvenis e presença destas em fragmentos de espécimes adultos, possibilidade de EFS em um fragmento de adulto, reconstrução secundária surgindo apenas em estágios mais avançados e córtex razoavelmente espesso. Tais características não divergem do padrão já descrito para o grupo como um todo, cujas interpretações para a biologia do animal incluem um metabolismo mais acelerado e uma rápida osteogênese, quando comparada com a de terápsidos mais basais. / Studies related to bone microstructure of fossil elements started about the 18th century, however, they began to significantly grow only in the past few decades. Today, paleohistology is one of the most promising areas inside paleontology, because permits to access several characteristics of the fossil specimen which complement our knowledge about the animal. As in other clades, Dicynodontia has been studied in this subject for long time, and now we know about bone growth and microstructure patterns in a variety of species. The present study shows a osteohistological description of some fossil elements of Dinodontosaurus turpior, a medium-to-large size dicynodont species from Middle Triassic of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, founded in outcrops of the Santa Maria Formation. The bones analyzed present a fibrolamelar type of bone tissue as major matrix, with some subtypes appearing in a couple of fragments. Growth lines are absent in all juvenile fragments, but appears in the adult ones. One of the adult fragments seems to have an EFS. Also, it was observed secondary reconstruction in adult sample and a thick cortex in all slides that RBT can be calculated. All these features were already been observed in the Dicynodontia clade, whose biological interpretations include an accelerated metabolism and rapid osteogenesis, when compared with basal therapsids.

The dimensions of the lumbar vertebrae are examined in order to determine if these measurements can be used to predict the age of an individual, and if the lumbar vertebrae exhibit sexual dimorphism. Various statistical techniques were utilized to analyze several dimensions of the lumbar vertebrae. Aging patterns in the lumbar elements are distinct between males and females, and females exhibit compression of the L3 element, which may be related to vertebral wedging. Some dimensions of the lumbar vertebrae are sexually dimorphic.

Understanding the growth pattern of content popularity has become a subject of immense interest to Internet service providers, content makers and on-line advertisers. This understanding is also important for the sustainable development of content distribution systems. As an approach to comprehend the characteristics of this growth pattern, a significant amount of research has been done in analyzing the popularity growth patterns of YouTube videos. Unfortunately, no work has been done that intensively investigates the popularity patterns of YouTube videos based on video object category. In this thesis, an in-depth analysis of the popularity pattern of YouTube videos is performed, considering the categories of videos. Metadata and request patterns were collected by employing category-specific YouTube crawlers. The request patterns were observed for a period of five months. Results confirm that the time varying popularity of di fferent YouTube categories are conspicuously diff erent, in spite of having sets of categories with very similar viewing patterns. In particular, News and Sports exhibit similar growth curves, as do Music and Film. While for some categories views at early ages can be used to predict future popularity, for some others predicting future popularity is a challenging task and require more sophisticated techniques, e.g., time-series clustering. The outcomes of these analyses are instrumental towards designing a reliable workload generator, which can be further used to evaluate diff erent caching policies for YouTube and similar sites. In this thesis, workload generators for four of the YouTube categories are developed. Performance of these workload generators suggest that a complete category-specific workload generator can be developed using time-series clustering. Patterns of users' interaction with YouTube videos are also analyzed from a dataset collected in a local network. This shows the possible ways of improving the performance of Peer-to-Peer video distribution technique along with a new video recommendation method.

Estudos relacionados à microestrutura óssea de elementos fósseis surgiram no século XVIII, porém começaram a desenvolver-se mais profundamente somente nas últimas décadas. Hoje, a Paleohistologia é uma das áreas mais promissoras dentro da Paleontologia, pois nos possibilita acessar uma série de características do espécime fóssil que complementam nosso conhecimento sobre o animal. Assim como outros clados, os Dicynodontia vêm sendo estudados por esse viés há muito tempo, e hoje conhecemos os padrões ósseos e de crescimento de um grande número de espécies. A presente dissertação traz a descrição ósteo-histológica de alguns elementos fósseis de Dinodontosaurus turpior, uma espécie de dicinodonte de grande porte do Mesotriássico, encontrada em afloramentos da Formação Santa Maria. Os ossos analisados apresentam majoritariamente uma matriz do tipo fibrolamelar, com alguns subtipos da matriz em dois fragmentos, ausência de linhas de crescimento nos espécimes juvenis e presença destas em fragmentos de espécimes adultos, possibilidade de EFS em um fragmento de adulto, reconstrução secundária surgindo apenas em estágios mais avançados e córtex razoavelmente espesso. Tais características não divergem do padrão já descrito para o grupo como um todo, cujas interpretações para a biologia do animal incluem um metabolismo mais acelerado e uma rápida osteogênese, quando comparada com a de terápsidos mais basais. / Studies related to bone microstructure of fossil elements started about the 18th century, however, they began to significantly grow only in the past few decades. Today, paleohistology is one of the most promising areas inside paleontology, because permits to access several characteristics of the fossil specimen which complement our knowledge about the animal. As in other clades, Dicynodontia has been studied in this subject for long time, and now we know about bone growth and microstructure patterns in a variety of species. The present study shows a osteohistological description of some fossil elements of Dinodontosaurus turpior, a medium-to-large size dicynodont species from Middle Triassic of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, founded in outcrops of the Santa Maria Formation. The bones analyzed present a fibrolamelar type of bone tissue as major matrix, with some subtypes appearing in a couple of fragments. Growth lines are absent in all juvenile fragments, but appears in the adult ones. One of the adult fragments seems to have an EFS. Also, it was observed secondary reconstruction in adult sample and a thick cortex in all slides that RBT can be calculated. All these features were already been observed in the Dicynodontia clade, whose biological interpretations include an accelerated metabolism and rapid osteogenesis, when compared with basal therapsids.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:28:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-07-18Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:57:57Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 perez_hl_me_jabo.pdf: 253936 bytes, checksum: b4207e189c180a854872829f47586958 (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / A demanda por produtos de origem animal, tem aumentado, paralelamente a este crescimento, observam-se esforços para promover melhorias na produtividade de carne dos rebanhos ovinos. Com o objetivo de estudar o desempenho produtivo e reprodutivo de cruzas de ovinos lanados, foram utilizados os dados da escrituração zootécnica do rebanho, pertencente ao Setor de Ovinocultura do Departamento de Zootecnia da Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV/Unesp), Jaboticabal, SP. Os dados da escrituração foram oriundos de 312 ovelhas, sendo 129 da raça Ideal, 44 1/2 Ile de France 1/2 Ideal, 98 3/4 Ile de France 1/4 Ideal e 41 7/8 Ile de France 1/8 Ideal, submetidas ao cruzamento absorvente para a raça Ile de France. As ovelhas foram mantidas em sistema de criação semi-extensivo, levadas ao pasto pela manhã e recolhidas ao aprisco no final da tarde. A estação de monta aconteceu nos meses de novembro a janeiro. Após o nascimento, as crias eram pesadas e marcadas com número de identificação e as informações registradas em fichas individuais, que posteriormente foram transcritas para planilhas do Microsoft ExcelÒ. As análises das características produtivas: peso ao nascer (PN), peso ao desmame (PD), peso aos 180 dias (P180), ganho médio diário (GMD) e tempo para o animal atingir 32 kg de peso corporal (D32), foram realizadas no SAS, (1996) baseadas no método dos quadrados mínimos, utlizando o procedimento GLM e o teste Tukey para comparação das médias. Para as curvas de crescimento foi utilizado o modelo não-linear Von Bertalanffy, sendo o ajuste realizado pelo procedimento NLIN, utilizandose o método de DUD. Para as características reprodutivas foram utilizados o procedimento GLM e o teste Tukey, basedo no método dos quadrados mínimos para idade ao primeiro parto (IPP) e o teste de qui-quadrado para fertilidade, taxa de desmame, e prolificidade... / The demand for products originated from animals, mainly meat, has been increasing and it is clear that efforts are being made to improve the productivity in ovine cattle. Aiming to study productive and reproductive performance of crossbred sheep, data from the sheep recording of the ovine cattle from Paulista State University, FCAV/Unesp, Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil were used. The record data came from 312 sheep (129 of Polwarth breed, 44 1/2 Ile de France 1/2 Polwarth, 98 3/4 Ile de France 1/4 Polwarth e 41 7/8 Ile de France 1/8 Polwarth) submitted to absorber crossbreeding for Ile de France. The sheep were kept in semi-extensive raising system; they were taken to the field in the morning and returned to the shelter late in the afternoon. The breeding season happened from November until January. After birth, the sheep were weighted and marked with the identification number and the information registered in individual forms that were later transcripted to Microsoft ExcelÒ. Productive characteristic analysis: body weight at birth (BWB), body weight at weaning (BWW), body weight with 180 days (BW180), daily weight gain average (DWGA) and necessary period for animals to get 32 kg of body weight (BW32) were carried out at SAS statistical analysis (1996), based on the Chi-square method, using the GLM procedure and the Tukey test for average comparisons. The non linear model of Van Bertalanffy was used to analyse growth pattern and the adjustment was accomplished by the NLIN procedure using the DUD method. It was used the GLM procedure for the reproductive characteristics, the Tukey test to analyse age at the first birth (AFB) and the Chi-square test to analyse fertility, weaning rate and prolificacy. None significant alterations were observed for the following productive characteristics, BWB, BWW, and BW32 (p>0.05), with composition genetic averages... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Resumo: A demanda por produtos de origem animal, tem aumentado, paralelamente a este crescimento, observam-se esforços para promover melhorias na produtividade de carne dos rebanhos ovinos. Com o objetivo de estudar o desempenho produtivo e reprodutivo de cruzas de ovinos lanados, foram utilizados os dados da escrituração zootécnica do rebanho, pertencente ao Setor de Ovinocultura do Departamento de Zootecnia da Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV/Unesp), Jaboticabal, SP. Os dados da escrituração foram oriundos de 312 ovelhas, sendo 129 da raça Ideal, 44 1/2 Ile de France 1/2 Ideal, 98 3/4 Ile de France 1/4 Ideal e 41 7/8 Ile de France 1/8 Ideal, submetidas ao cruzamento absorvente para a raça Ile de France. As ovelhas foram mantidas em sistema de criação semi-extensivo, levadas ao pasto pela manhã e recolhidas ao aprisco no final da tarde. A estação de monta aconteceu nos meses de novembro a janeiro. Após o nascimento, as crias eram pesadas e marcadas com número de identificação e as informações registradas em fichas individuais, que posteriormente foram transcritas para planilhas do Microsoft ExcelÒ. As análises das características produtivas: peso ao nascer (PN), peso ao desmame (PD), peso aos 180 dias (P180), ganho médio diário (GMD) e tempo para o animal atingir 32 kg de peso corporal (D32), foram realizadas no SAS, (1996) baseadas no método dos quadrados mínimos, utlizando o procedimento GLM e o teste Tukey para comparação das médias. Para as curvas de crescimento foi utilizado o modelo não-linear Von Bertalanffy, sendo o ajuste realizado pelo procedimento NLIN, utilizandose o método de DUD. Para as características reprodutivas foram utilizados o procedimento GLM e o teste Tukey, basedo no método dos quadrados mínimos para idade ao primeiro parto (IPP) e o teste de qui-quadrado para fertilidade, taxa de desmame, e prolificidade... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The demand for products originated from animals, mainly meat, has been increasing and it is clear that efforts are being made to improve the productivity in ovine cattle. Aiming to study productive and reproductive performance of crossbred sheep, data from the sheep recording of the ovine cattle from Paulista State University, FCAV/Unesp, Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil were used. The record data came from 312 sheep (129 of Polwarth breed, 44 1/2 Ile de France 1/2 Polwarth, 98 3/4 Ile de France 1/4 Polwarth e 41 7/8 Ile de France 1/8 Polwarth) submitted to absorber crossbreeding for Ile de France. The sheep were kept in semi-extensive raising system; they were taken to the field in the morning and returned to the shelter late in the afternoon. The breeding season happened from November until January. After birth, the sheep were weighted and marked with the identification number and the information registered in individual forms that were later transcripted to Microsoft ExcelÒ. Productive characteristic analysis: body weight at birth (BWB), body weight at weaning (BWW), body weight with 180 days (BW180), daily weight gain average (DWGA) and necessary period for animals to get 32 kg of body weight (BW32) were carried out at SAS statistical analysis (1996), based on the Chi-square method, using the GLM procedure and the Tukey test for average comparisons. The non linear model of Van Bertalanffy was used to analyse growth pattern and the adjustment was accomplished by the NLIN procedure using the DUD method. It was used the GLM procedure for the reproductive characteristics, the Tukey test to analyse age at the first birth (AFB) and the Chi-square test to analyse fertility, weaning rate and prolificacy. None significant alterations were observed for the following productive characteristics, BWB, BWW, and BW32 (p>0.05), with composition genetic averages... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Orientador: Américo Garcia da Silva Sobrinho / Coorientadora: Sandra Aidar de Queiroz / Banca: Humberto Tonhati / Banca: Cledson Augusto Garcia / Mestre