Elucidating patterns of connectivity for species of conservation concern is crucial in the design of networks of ecologically coherent marine protected areas, and therefore is considered in the design of such a network recently proposed to the UK Government. However, data concerning connectivity are deficient for most invertebrate sessile taxa. Therefore, this study used microsatellite panels developed de novo to assess the population genetic structure and genetic connectivity of two temperate octocorals in the North East Atlantic. Microsatellite panels for both species show evidence of cross-species transferability, and therefore in future may prove to be useful monitoring tools for the target species but also for congenerics further afield in Europe. Eunicella verrucosa (O. Alcyonacea: S.O.Holaxonia: F. Gorgoniidae), a threatened and IUCN red-listed sea fan, was sampled in the northerly extremes of its eastern Atlantic range in southern Portugal, Brittany, the South West UK and western Ireland. In this vicinity, connectivity appears to be defined at regional scales and localised cases of inbreeding and differentiation suggest that the population structure of this species is best described as a metapopulation. Alcyonium digitatum (O. Alcyonacea: S.O. Alcyoniina: F. Alcyoniidae), a soft coral, was sampled in the central portion of its range in Brittany, western Ireland, south west UK and the North Sea. This species exhibited very little population structure and apparent panmixia across the sampled range. However, high levels of heterozygote deficiencies and inbreeding in the majority of populations implies that the genetic structure of some populations of this species may be defined by self-seeding and rarer dispersal events that occur sufficiently often to offset divergence via genetic drift. Coalescent analyses indicate that in both species, migration between regions occurs asymmetrically. The presence of few duplicate genotypes in both datasets implies that sexual reproduction predominates in both species in the sampled area. Eunicella verrucosa is a charismatic species that is often used to promote marine conservation efforts in the UK and A. digitatum is a ubiquitous animal around western European coasts; the two species often occur together and both may suffer the damaging effects of mobile fishing gears. This research represents the first population genetic assessment of both species and the first time microsatellites have been used to assess population structure of octocorals in the North East Atlantic.

Ponds are common and abundant features in nearly all landscapes typical of European lowland landscapes yet research on freshwater biodiversity has traditionally focussed on larger waterbodies such as lakes and rivers. This has led to an increased need to understand and quantify the biodiversity associated with pond habitats to better inform the active conservation and management of these small waterbodies. This thesis examines the aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity (alpha, beta and gamma) and conservation value of 95 ponds in Leicestershire, UK, across a variety of urban and rural landscape types and at a range of spatial scales. In addition, the relative importance of local (physicochemical and biological) and spatial (connectivity) variables in structuring macroinvertebrate communities within ponds is investigated. At a regional scale, the greatest macroinvertebrate biodiversity and conservation value was recorded within meadow ponds compared to urban, agricultural and forest ponds. Spatially, ponds were highly physically and biologically heterogeneous. Temporally (seasonally), invertebrate communities were most dissimilar in meadow and agricultural ponds but assemblages were similar in urban and forest ponds. In urban landscapes, park ponds supported a greater diversity of invertebrates than other urban or garden ponds and typically had a greater conservation value. Garden ponds were the most taxon poor of those investigated. Perennial floodplain meadow ponds supported a greater biodiversity of invertebrates compared to ephemeral meadow ponds although conservation value was similar. Despite regular inundation from the River Soar, ephemeral ponds supported distinct communities compared to perennial meadow ponds. Aquatic macrophytes supported a higher diversity of taxa than other pond mesohabitats across all landscapes studied. Physicochemical factors were identified to be the dominant influence on macroinvertebrate assemblages although, a combination of local and spatial factors best explained the variation in community composition at a regional scale and for meadow ponds. Spatial factors were not identified to significantly influence urban pond communities. This study highlights the ecological importance and conservation value of ponds in rural and anthropogenically disturbed landscapes. Recognition of the significant contribution of ponds to freshwater biodiversity at regional and landscape scales is important for future conservation of pond habitats and will help focus and direct conservation strategies to where they are needed most.

Les individus autistes présentent un profil cognitif particulier. Par exemple, contrairement aux non-autistes, ils tendent à obtenir des scores plus élevés au test des Matrices progressives de Raven (RSPM) qu’aux tests de QI de Wechsler. Ils peuvent aussi résoudre les items du RSPM plus rapidement. Les mécanismes cérébraux sous-tendant cette différence sont toutefois encore peu connus. Cette étude vise à caractériser comment l’activité du réseau fronto-pariétal de raisonnement est modulée par la complexité de la tâche chez les individus autistes (AUT) en comparaison à un groupe contrôle (Non-AUT) lors d’une tâche de raisonnement fluide. Pour ce faire, nous avons ré-analysé les données d’une étude précédente, dans laquelle 15 AUT et 18 Non-AUT ont résolu les 60 problèmes du RSPM alors qu’ils se trouvaient dans un scanner IRM. Lorsque la complexité du raisonnement augmentait, nous avons observé une augmentation de l’activité dans des aires occipitales chez le groupe AUT, et dans les régions frontales et pariétales chez le groupe Non-AUT. De plus, alors que la complexité du raisonnement augmentait, la modulation de la connectivité entre les régions impliquées dans le raisonnement était moins grande chez les AUT et ces derniers montraient une implication plus ciblée des aires occipitales lors de cette modulation que les Non-AUT. La moins grande modulation du réseau impliqué dans le raisonnement pour une performance semblable suggère que les individus autistes sont moins affectés par la complexité des tâches de raisonnement non verbal. Aussi, ils dépendent plus de processus visuospatiaux pour résoudre les matrices plus complexes que les participants non-autistes. Ces résultats nous apportent une meilleure compréhension des processus cognitifs impliqués dans l’intelligence autistique et de l’influence positive du sur-fonctionnement perceptif autistique sur celle-ci. / Having a distinct cognitive profile, autistic individuals, as opposed to non-autistics, tend to obtain higher scores at the Raven’s Progressive Matrices test (RSPM), than at the Wechsler IQ tests and to resolve the items of the RSPM more quickly. Though, the cerebral processes underlying these differences are not well known. Re-analyzing data previously published (Soulières et al., 2009), this study aims to characterize the modulation of the reasoning network by task complexity in the fronto-parietal reasoning network in autistic individuals (AUT) in comparison to a control group (Non-AUT) during a fluid reasoning task. 15 AUT and 18 Non-AUT resolved the 60 RSPM problems while lying in an MRI. As reasoning complexity was increasing, an increase in the activity in the occipital areas in the AUT group, and in frontal and parietal areas for the Non-AUT group were observed. Moreover, as task complexity was increasing, the modulation of the connectivity between areas involved in reasoning was lower in AUT, and they showed a more narrowly focused implication of occipital areas in this modulation as opposed to Non-AUT. These results suggest that autistic individuals are less affected by task complexity, given a lower modulation of the reasoning network that they exhibit for a similar accuracy, and rely more on visuospatial processes to solve complex matrices. These results give us a better understanding of the cognitive processes engaged in autistic intelligence and on the positive influence that the autistic enhanced perceptual functioning has on it.

The aim of the theses is to design a methodology for centralized monitoring of data traffic in an ISP network that would detect individual connection with connectivity problems, and evaluate these problems. The methodology should at least evaluate packet loss and latency between a centrally located monitoring point and endpoints at user premises. A further goal is to implement this methodology, test it and evaluate the results.

Assessment of the impact of landscape structure on the dispersion of lynx in Posumavi Abstract: The big predators are a traditional group of bioindicative species, whose presence shows the state of environment and landscape within a region. As these animals recolonize the cultural landscape of central Europe it's needed to understand their space requirements and habitat preferences. The lynx (Lynx lynx) has been one of the Sumava forest species since the 70's. After almost 40 years the population of lynx has spread from Sumava and Bavarian Forest to forested parts of Cesky Les, Smrcina and Novohradske hory and to both sides of state borders. However today's state of lynx population, stable number of animals or genetic variability is endangered by many factors. Long term viability of the lynx population is - besides poaching or illegal hunting − affected by the loss of suitable habitats and ongoing fragmentation of the landscape. One of the possible solutions of negative impacts is delineation and protection of landscape permeability of habitat corridors. They might have provide supply of new individuals to small, extinction prone population and at the same time they could reinforce overall fitness population. This thesis has three main objectives:1) evaluation of landscape fragmentation and connectivity in...

Landscape fragmentation by line barriers in the Czech Republic - development, state of the art and priorities of territorial protection Abstract This paper deals with the problem of landscape fragmentation by linear structures and changes in land cover printed in Europe and the Czech Republic. The development of the fragmentation geometry consisting of transport infrastructure and urban areas is described in detail in the years 1920-2020. In this time boundary the development of measure of landscape fragmentation in the Czech Republic is evaluated. This paper examines also the quality of the current unfragmented landscape. The degree of landscape fragmentation refills the value of ecological integrity (according to Burkhard et al., 2009). The results of gap analysis define the most valuable areas of the Czech countryside, which are not covered by existing special protection area (NP, CHKO, Natura 2000). The resulting areas are also compared to the territorial system of ecological stability and migration important area for the large mammals. Keywords landscape fragmentation - landscape connectivity - ecological integrity - gap analysis of landscape protection

No description available.

No description available.

Este trabajo de tesis, denominado: “El sistema de planificación estratégica y el cumplimiento de metas y objetivos relacionados al servicio de conectividad en II.EE.”, presenta un enfoque cualitativo - descriptivo, mediante el cual se busca analizar los instrumentos de planificación estratégica del Sector Educación relacionados al tema de conectividad en las Instituciones Educativas, a fin de poder identificar el desarrollo del cumplimiento de las metas y objetivos. Asimismo busca absolver el problema general planteado: ¿Cómo influye El sistema de planificación estratégica del Sector Educación en la eficacia del cumplimiento de las metas y objetivos relacionados al servicio de conectividad en Instituciones Educativas Públicas, de Educación Básica Regular?. Para ello se analizaron instrumentos de planificación del Sector Educación como el Plan Estratégico de Desarrollo Nacional, El Plan Estratégico Sectorial Multianual e Instrumentos de Planificación propios del Ministerio como el Plan Estratégico y el Plan Operativo Institucional. Así como diversos documentos que tienen relación con el tema de conectividad y educación, finalmente presentando los resultados obtenidos de las Estrategias Planteadas en el tema de conectividad en Instituciones Educativas. / Tesis

Dizemos que um grafo e conectado se existe um caminho de arestas entre quaisquer par de vértices. O grafo aleatório de Erdös-Rényi com n vértices e obtido conectando cada par de vértice com probabilidade pn ∈ (0, 1), independentemente dos outros. Neste trabalho, estudamos em detalhe o limiar da conectividade na probabilidade de conexão pn para grafos aleatórios Erdös-Rényi quando o número de vértices n diverge. Para este estudo, revisamos algumas ferramentas probabilísticas básicas (convergência de variáveis aleatórias e Métodos do primeiro e segundo momento), que também irão auxiliar ao melhor entendimento de resultados mais complexos. Além disto, aplicamos os conceitos anteriores para um modelo com uma topologia simples, mais especificamente estudamos o comportamento assintótico da probabilidade de não existência de vértices isolados, e discutimos a conectividade ou não do grafo. Por m mostramos a convergência em distrubuição do número de vértices isolados para uma Distribuição Poisson do modelo estudado. / We say that a graph is connected if there is a path edges between any pair of vertices. Random graph Erdös-Rényi with n vertices is obtained by connecting each pair of vertex with probability pn ∈ (0, 1) independently of the others. In this work, we studied in detail the connectivity threshold in the connection probability pn for random graphs Erdös-Rényi when the number of vertices n diverges. For this study, we review some basic probabilistic tools (convergence of random variables and methods of the first and second moment), which will lead to a better understanding of more complex results. In addition, we apply the above concepts for a model with a simple topology, specifically studied the asymptotic behavior of the probability of non-existence of isolated vertices, and we discussed the connectivity or not of the graph. Finally we show the convergence in distribution of the number of isolated vertices for a Poisson distribution of the studied model.