Paprikų augintojai žymių derliaus nuostolių patiria dėl virusinių ligų. Jos, sukeldamos augalų ir jų vaisių išsigimimą ir netgi žuvimą, sumažina augalų produktyvumą ir prekinę išvaizdą. Lietuvoje nebuvo iki šiol atlikta išsamių virusinių ligų sukėlėjų tyrimų. Saldžiosiose paprikose buvo identifikuoti 2 virusai:agurkų mozaikos virusas (Cucumber mosaic cucumovirus) ir pipirų margligės virusas (Pepper mottle potyvirus). / Pepper growers suffer substantial harvest losses from viral diseases. They, causing plants and fruit malformations, and even disapearance, reduce plant productivity, nutritional value and look. The full - scale tests about disease of virus weren't made until now in Lithuania. Were identified 2 viruses of sweet pappers: Cucumber mosaic cucumovirus and Papper mottle potyvirus.

An extensive amount of research has been conducted on Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) in the context of logistics, supply chain and manufacturing. Additionally, marketing opportunities related to RFID usage have been argued to exist. Despite this, limited research has focused on RFID in a marketing context which constitutes the research gap for this study.  A literature review on the subject area yielded an overview of the existing literature within the field. The literature review identified a research gap that constitutes the purpose of this study. The purpose is to investigate the factors influencing the adoption of Radio Frequency IDentification technology and whether it enhances retailers’ marketing opportunities. The study was of a qualitative nature and was conducted through a multiple case study. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with four companies. An archival analysis was performed in addition to the interviews. The interview data reveals that RFID technology adoption still has barriers to overcome, especially in regards to the identified marketing opportunities. Based on the conclusions of this study recommendations for managerial implications were formed. The findings of the study were able to support previous research stating that the main challenge for RFID adoption is the cost of the equipment. However, the previously identified marketing opportunities were not fully supported by the interviewed companies, thus, this area of research needs to be developed further.

DNA fingerprinting was applied for the molecular elucidation of taxonomic relationships within a genus of orchids which have previously been based on morphological characteristics. Phragmipediwn consists of 15-20 species native to Central and South America. This research project included two studies. In the first study DNA was isolated from 11 samples (including two unidentified ones). These individuals, which were mostly hybrids, were found in the Wheeler Orchid Collection and Species Bank at Ball State University. In order to position Phragmipediwn within the orchid family fingerprinting was also performed on individuals in the sister taxa, Cypripedium and Paphiopedium, which are members of the same subfamily, and on a member of the outgroup taxon Vanda. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed to yield fingerprints resulting from the use of random primers. Fifty nine random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) bands were obtained using 5 different primers to yield 107 polymorphic bands. As many as 75% of genetic loci were found to be shared between hybrids that resulted from a cross of more than one individual in the same section. However the percentage dropped to 35-65 % when only one parent was shared in the cross. Furthermore, the sister group taxa Cypripedium and Paphilopedium shared from 12 % -35 % of their polymorphic loci with the members of the genus Phragmipedium. The outgroup taxon Vanda shared 17% of its polymorphic loci with the rest of the samples.In a second study DNA was isolated from one member of each of the five sections of the genus Phragmipedium, and RAPD-PCR fingerprinting was used to compare their genetic similarities to that of the two sister taxa and the outgroup taxon. It was found that individuals in different genera shared 25% or less of their polymorphic bands. Between sections of the same genus 20-50% of genetic loci were shared. Two sections, Platypetalwn and Phragmipedium showed the highest degree of genetic relatedness (41-53%). Again the outgoup taxon shared less than 20% Phragmipediwn samples on the phenograms produced but the percentage was again insignificant. However, genetic analyses of the members of the section Lorifolia gave conflicting results: 46% genetic identity was observed in the first trial and 20% in the second.In conclusion, RAPD-PCR fingerprinting results appeared to be effective in the positioning of sections within a genus indicating the degree of similarity of closely related taxa. Also RAPD-PCR was able to place an unknown individual within a specific section of the genus. However, it could not be employed to determine the identity of unknown species due to the high degree of genetic diversity observed between even closely related individuals. / Department of Biology

The underlying idea of this thesis is that the surface chemical and morphological nature of bacterial strains uniquely differentiates one from another and hence can be used as the basis for their identification and control. It follows that their interactions with an artificial substratum uniquely characterize them. In principle, potentially it is easier and faster to evaluate the interfacial energy between a bacterium and a substratum than to characterize its genome or determine molecular biomarkers characteristic of the strain, hence validation of this thesis opens the way to rapid screening and diagnosis. Auxiliary to this main idea, an advanced metrology for evaluating the interfacial energies has been developed, exploiting the power of kinetic analysis.

Following the studies of natural frequency based damage detection methods, an advanced technique for damage detection and localization in beam-type structures using a vibration characteristic tuning procedure is developed by an optimal design of piezoelectric materials. Piezoelectric sensors and actuators are mounted on the surface of the host beam to generate excitations for the tuning via a feedback process. The excitations induced by the piezoelectric effect are used to magnify the effect of the damage on the change of the natural frequencies of the damaged structure to realize the high detection sensitivity. Based on the vibration characteristic tuning procedure, a scan-tuning methodology for damage detection and localization is proposed. From analytical simulations, both crack and delamination damage in the beams are detected and located with over 20% change in the natural frequencies. Finite element method (FEM) simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. / October 2016

D.Com. (Informatics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

During the first decade of the twenty-first century, the Swedish civil service underwent some extensive changes, such as the relocations of public sector jobs, initiated by the government in 2005. This thesis follows an ethnological tradition of focusing on employees’ perspectives as a way of exploring power relations and changes in society. In this study, I draw attention to the fears, joys, anxieties, hopes, and dreams of employees in the Swedish civil service at a time when their workplace was being relocated from one city to another. The study especially focuses on the fact that a decision to relocate initiates processes that change employee’s images of their work life and future. They become forced to rethink life and work and re-identify with professional positions. Such processes are described in this thesis as processes of professional identification. The aim of the study is to analyze professional identification among employees during the relocation of a government agency. It is based on four articles that highlight different aspects of the relocation and the conditions under which research was conducted. The overarching question that runs through the thesis is: what did processes of professional identification mean in relocation practice? I argue that such processes should be taken into account as pivotal to civil service practices such as relocation work. Such knowledge could also be used as a tool for thinking about work life change in a wider sense. Because relocations entail moving people’s entire lives, points of interest are formulated that tell stories of how social norms and rules are formed, maintained, and contested. The results in this thesis could also serve as a departure for discussing the localization of knowledge-intensive institutions. The case study builds on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2005 and 2009 at a government agency that moved from the capital of Sweden to a smaller town in the north of Sweden. The ethnographic source material was analyzed using discourse analysis. The analysis centres on a discussion of how processes of professional identification became conditioned by social structures in terms of gender, age, and social class in relocation work. I furthermore discuss the ways in which images of geographies and emotions could be regarded as social categories that conditioned professional identities and had implications for how the move of the agency was organized and conducted, for example for the transferring of competency, travelling on business, and setting up new work practices.  The establishment of professional identity positions functioned to stabilize the social environment during the move - a time when many things at work seemed to be in turmoil. At the same time the positions worked to privilege some ways of professional identification and exclude others. Attention should be drawn to the ways in which agency staff became enmeshed in power structures, norms, ideals, images, and plans for the future that limited their actions in various ways. It is therefore important that the features of professional identification in this relocation process should be further discussed, not primarily as individual concerns of particular individuals, or even a particular agency or location, but as a vital issue of the greatest concern to the welfare state. / Decentralization of government agencies, work force mobility and rural development

Abstract We designed a 16S rRNA gene PCR-RFLP scheme to identify all currently described Bartonella spp. The 16S rRNA genes of all Bartonella spp. were in-silico analyzed in order to design a RFLP technique able to discriminate among different species. The restriction enzymes selected were MaeIII, MseI, Sau96I, BsaAI, DrdI, FokI, BssHII, BstUI, AluI, TspDTI and HphI which, according to a decision-making tree, facilitated the differentiation of all the currently described species of Bartonella.The technique was experimentally tested in different species of Bartonella, including human pathogenic B. bacilliformis and B. henselae with a 100% of concordance with the in-silico predicted patterns.This novel RFLP assay could be used to identify both human and non-human pathogenic Bartonella in diagnostic, phylogenetic and epidemiologic studies.

Accurate estimates of tree and forest biomass are essential for a wide range of applications. Automated treetop detection and tree crown discrimination using LiDAR data can greatly facilitate forest biomass estimation. Previous work has focused on homogenous or single-species forests, while few studies have focused on mixed forests. In this study, a new method for treetop detection is proposed in which the treetop is the cluster center of selected points rather than the highest point. Based on treetop detection, tree crowns are discriminated through comparison of three-dimensional shape signatures. The methods are first tested using simulated LiDAR point clouds for trees, and then applied to real LiDAR data from the Soquel Demonstration State Forest, California, USA. Results from both simulated and real LiDAR data show that the proposed method has great potential for effective detection of treetops and discrimination of tree crowns.

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