Morpho logical, anatomical, and histochemical effects of S-ethyl dipropylthiocarbamate (EPTC) on Avena sativa var . overland were studied after treatment of seeds at various EPTC concentrations. The oat seed germination percentage was not affected by EPTC treatment. EPTC delayed initial root and coleoptile development at all concentrations used . Two or three days after treatment, however, the roots of seedlings treated with EPTC concentrations lower than 3 ppm grew at the same rate as the untreated seedlings and showed no abnormalities. Primary and adventitious root growth of seedlings treated with 3 ppm and higher was inhibited. Most of the adventitious roots remained in the radicle stage and failed to elongate. Bases of the roots became necrotic and were quite brittle . Formative effects were greater in the shoot than in the root. As result of treatment, coleoptiles became chlorotic, thickened, and were hard and brittle . The first true leaf of treated seedlings tended to adhere to the coleoptile and was broken as the coleoptile elongated . The complete shoot meristem of 12 ppm EPTC treated seedlings broke at the base . Young leaves formed within coleoptiles of treated seedlings oftain failed to emerge. His tochemica l studies s howed more carbohydrates in the coleoptiles of the EPTC treated oat seedlings than in those of the untreated seedlings . The lip1d-containing materials in the coleoptiles of the germinating oat seedlings disappeared from the coleoptiles of fully grm;n untreated oat seedlings , while they still persisted in the coleoptiles of 5-day-old EPTC treated oat seedlings. This suggests that EPTC might inhibit the breakdown and utili zation of stored foods .

Morphological and anatomical effects of pyrazon, 5-amino-4-chloro-2-phenyl-3(2H)-pyridazinone, on Phaseolus vulgaris L. and Amaranthus retroflexus L. were studied after treatment of seeds or seedlings at various pyrazon concentration, exposure times and environmental regimes. Beans treated with pyrazon developed various chlorotic and necrotic symptoms on the unifoliate leaves. Chlorosis and necrosis were observed first on the leaf margins. Beans treated with pyrazon under a complete dark regime developed symptoms much later than those under an alternating light and dark regime. Pyrazon treated pigweed displayed symptoms similar to those on beans. Pyrazon induced abnormal chloroplasts and graded cellular collapse in the unifoliate leaves of beans and cotyledons of pigweed. The severity and/or extent to which morphological and anatomical symptoms developed were dependent upon herbicide concentration, exposure and treatment regime.

<p>Many prey species are able to develop different morphological structures as defence against</p><p>for example predators. Some of these structures are induced only by individuals exposed to a</p><p>predator. This phenomenon is called phenotypic plasticity. In this paper we examine whether</p><p>cuticle thickness in Leucorrhinia dubia (Odonata) larvae differed between specimens caught</p><p>in fish containing lakes and fish-free lakes respectively. We measured the thickness of the</p><p>cuticle from four different parts of the larvae; profemur, pronotum, ninth segment sternite and</p><p>ninth segment tergite. Our results showed a significantly thicker exocuticle on profemur in</p><p>larvae with a head width bigger than 4.5 mm caught in lakes with fish. The smaller larvae</p><p>showed a tendency to have thinner exocuticle on profemur in presence of fish. We discuss the</p><p>probability that the differences in exocuticle thickness on profemur could be some kind of</p><p>trade-off situation. The results also showed a tendency among the large larvae; the large</p><p>individuals from lakes containing fish had a slightly thicker exocuticle on pronotum than the</p><p>bigger individuals from fish-free lakes.</p>

This paper describes an intuitive way of defining geometry design variables for solving structural topology optimization problems using a genetic algorithm (GA). The geometry representation scheme works by defining a skeleton that represents the underlying topology/connectivity of the continuum structure. As the effectiveness of any GA is highly dependent on the chromosome encoding of the design variables, the encoding used here is a directed graph which reflects this underlying topology so that the genetic crossover and mutation operators of the GA can recombine and preserve any desirable geometric characteristics through succeeding generations of the evolutionary process. The overall optimization procedure is tested by solving a simulated topology optimization problem in which a 'target' geometry is pre-defined with the aim of having the design solutions converge towards this target shape. The procedure is also applied to design a straight-line compliant mechanism : a large displacement flexural structure that generates a vertical straight line path at some point when given a horizontal straight line input displacement at another point. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

An investigation of Cambarus dubius and Cambarus carolinus was made in Tennessee to evaluate morphological Variation found in populations of these species and to determine aspects of life history and ecology. Taxonomic position and history of C. carolinus and C. dubius was reviewed and discussed. Three clines or possible subspecies in C. dubius were indicated in Tennessee based on both qualitative and quantitative evidence including: width and length of areola, shape and size of chelae, rostrum, central projection, mesial process, and color. C. dubius populations from northern West Virginia and southern Pennsylvania were significantly different from populations to the south. C. carolinus could not be separated by quantitative measurements from C. dubius, but could be distinguished on the basis of the central projection and other qualitative characters. Color phases were discussed for both C. dubius and C. carolinus. The range for both species in Tennessee was discussed and the range limits for C. dubius delineated. Life history and ecological data were reported for C. dubius and indicated for C. carolinus.

The paper presents an in-depth study of focus marking in Gùrùntùm, a West Chadic language spoken in Bauchi Province of Northern Nigeria. Focus in Gùrùntùm is marked morphologically by means of a focus marker a, which typically precedes the focus constituent. Even though the morphological focus-marking system of Gùrùntùm allows for a lot of fine-grained distinctions in information structure (IS) in principle, the language is not entirely free of focus ambiguities that arise as the result of conflicting IS- and syntactic requirements that govern the placement of focus markers. We show that morphological focus marking with a applies across different types of focus, such as newinformation, contrastive, selective and corrective focus, and that a does not have a second function as a perfectivity marker, as is assumed in the literature. In contrast, we show at the end of the paper that a can also function as a foregrounding device at the level of discourse structure.

<p>Two species of Chrysaora are described from the northern Benguela ecosystem: C. fulgida and C. africana. These species can be diagnosed by a combination of morphological features including lappet and tentacle number, shape of lappets, colouration patterns (alive), shape of the proximal portion of radial septa, gastrovascular pouch shape, point of attachment of gonads and the presence or absence of small raised nematocyst warts on the exumbrellar surface. Objective, quantitative statistical analyses coupled with molecular sequence data support the qualitative morphological dissimilarity observed, as these analyses unambiguously diagnose C. fulgida and C. africana as two distinct species. There is a strong superficial resemblance between the C. fulgida material described here and the preserved specimens of C. hysoscella examined at the Natural History Museum, London. Thorough investigation does however allow the separation of these two species. Morphological features found to be dissimilar were the proximal portion of the manubrium, gastrovascular pouch shape and the presence or absence of sperm sacs. Objective, quantitative statistical analyses support these findings. Nuclear sequence variation suggests considerable divergence between the two species but additional molecular work is needed.</p>

The largest and most important fluid system in an aircraft is the fuel system. Obviously, future aircraft projects involve the design of fuel system to some degree. In this project design methodologies for aircraft fuel systems are studied, with the aim to shortening the system development time. This is done by means of illustrative examples of how optimization and the use of matrix methods, such as the morphological matrix, house of quality and the design structure matrix, have been developed and implemented at Saab Aerospace in the conceptual design of aircraft fuel systems. The methods introduce automation early in the development process and increase understanding of how top requirements regarding the aircraft level impact low-level engineering parameters such as pipe diameter, pump size, etc. The morphological matrix and the house of quality matrix are quantified, which opens up for use of design optimization and probabilistic design. The thesis also discusses a systematic approach when building a large simulation model of a fluid system where the objective is to minimize the development time by applying a strategy that enables parallel development and collaborative engineering, and also by building the model to the correct level of detail. By correct level of detail is meant the level that yields a simulation outcome that meets the stakeholders’ expectations. The experienced gained at Saab in building a simulation model, mainly from the Gripen fuel system, but also the accumulated experience from other system models, is condensed and fitted into an overall process.

Many prey species are able to develop different morphological structures as defence against for example predators. Some of these structures are induced only by individuals exposed to a predator. This phenomenon is called phenotypic plasticity. In this paper we examine whether cuticle thickness in Leucorrhinia dubia (Odonata) larvae differed between specimens caught in fish containing lakes and fish-free lakes respectively. We measured the thickness of the cuticle from four different parts of the larvae; profemur, pronotum, ninth segment sternite and ninth segment tergite. Our results showed a significantly thicker exocuticle on profemur in larvae with a head width bigger than 4.5 mm caught in lakes with fish. The smaller larvae showed a tendency to have thinner exocuticle on profemur in presence of fish. We discuss the probability that the differences in exocuticle thickness on profemur could be some kind of trade-off situation. The results also showed a tendency among the large larvae; the large individuals from lakes containing fish had a slightly thicker exocuticle on pronotum than the bigger individuals from fish-free lakes.

We introduce a new way to accurately segment the 3D femur from pelvic CT scans. The femur is a difficult target for segmentation due to its proximity to the acetabulum, irregular shape and the varying thickness of its hardened outer shell. Atypical bone morphologies, such as the ones present in hips suffering from Femoral Acetabular Impingements (FAIs) can also provide additional challenges to segmentation. We overcome these difficulties by (a) dividing the femur into the femur head and body regions (b) analysis of the femur-head and neighbouring acetabulum’s composition (c) segmentations with two levels of detail – rough and fine contours. Segmentations of the CT volume are performed iteratively, on a slice-by-slice basis and contours are extracted using the morphological snake algorithm. Our methodology was designed to require little initialization from the user and to deftly handle the large variation in femur shapes, most notably from deformations attributed to cam-type FAIs. Our efforts are to provide physicians with a new tool that creates patient-specific and high-quality 3D femur models while requiring much less time and effort. We tested our methodology on a database of 20 CT volumes acquired at the Ottawa General Hospital during a study into FAIs. We selected 6 CT scans from the database, for a total of 12 femurs, considering wide inter-patient variations. Of the 6 patients, 4 had unilateral cam-type FAIs, 1 had a bilateral cam-type FAI and the last was from a control group. The femurs segmented with our method achieved an average volume overlap error of 2.71 ± 0.44% and an average symmetric surface distance of 0.28 ± 0.04 mm compared against the same, manually segmented femurs. These results are better than all comparable literature and accurate enough to be used to in the creation of patient-specific 3D models.