Relaxation of selective constraints on avian mitochondrial DNA following the degeneration of flight ability

The evolution of flight is the most important feature of birds, and this ability has helped them become one of the most successful groups of vertebrates. However, some species have independently lost their ability to fly. The degeneration of flight abilit

Reinforcement-related neurons in the primate basal forebrain respond to the learned significance of task events rather than to the hedonic attributes of reward

The objective of this study was to determine if the responses of basal forebrain neurons are related to the cognitive processes necessary for the performance of behavioural tasks, or to the hedonic attributes of the reinforcers delivered to the monkey as

Gender effect on the right-left discrimination task in a sample of heroin-dependent patients

Rationale: Discriminating right from left is an everyday cognitive ability. Repeated exposure to certain drugs, such as heroin, can produce poor performance on many cognitive tasks. However, it is yet unclear whether drug abuse impairs the ability of right-left discrimination. Objectives: The aim of the present study is to examine whether the spatial ability measured by the right-left discrimination task can be affected by heroin abuse and whether such drug effect, if it exists, is gender related. Methods: A paper-and-pen test was used. The test consists of line drawings of a person with no arm, one arm, or both arms crossing the vertical body axis of the figure. The line drawings are viewed from the back, from the front, or randomly alternating between the back and front drawings. The subjects task is to mark which is the right or left hand in the figure as fast as possible. Results: A main finding in this study was that the ability to discriminate between left and right in visual space was impaired in heroin-dependent patients. Especially, heroin-dependent females performed poorer than control females in all conditions but heroin-dependent males only performed poorly in part of conditions. Conclusions: Recent heroin abuse impairs the ability of right-left discrimination and such impairment is gender related: heroin-dependent females demonstrated greater performance deficits than males.

Effects of exposure to 50 Hz magnetic field of 1 mT on the performance of detour learning task by chicks

In the present study, we examined the effects of exposure to an extremely low-frequency magnetic field of 1 mT intensity on learning and memory in Lohmann brown domestic chicks using detour learning task. These results show that 20 h/day exposure to a low

The stress experience dependent long-term depression disassociated with stress effect on spatial memory task

Behavioral stress can either block or facilitate memory and affect the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). However, the relevance of the stress experience-dependent long-term depression (SLTD) to spatial memory task is unknown. Here we have investigated the effects of acute and sub-acute elevated platform (EP) and foot shock (FS) stress on LTD induction in CA1 region of the hippocampus of anesthetized rats and spatial memory in Morris water maze. We found that LTD was facilitated by acute EP stress, but not by sub-acute EP stress that may be due to the fast adaptation of the animals to this naturalistic mild stress. However, FS stress, an inadaptable strong stress, facilitated LTD induction both in acute and sub-acute treatment. In addition, with the same stress protocols, acute EP stress impaired spatial memory but the sub-acute EP stressed animals performed the spatial memory task as well as the controls, may due to the same reason of adaptation. However, acute FS stress slightly impaired learning but sub-acute FS even enhanced memory retrieval. Our results showed that SLTD was disassociated with the effect of stress on memory task but might be related to stress experience-dependent form of aberrant memory. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

Variation patterns of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene with secondary structure constraints and their application to phylogeny of cyprinine fishes (Teleostei : Cypriniformes)

The mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences from 93 cyprinid fishes were examined to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships within the diverse and economically important subfamily Cyprininae. Within the subfamily a biased nucleotide composition (A > T, C > G) was observed in the loop regions of the gene, and in stem regions apparent selective pressures of base pairing showed a bias in favor of G over C and T over A. The bias may be associated with transition-transversion bias. Rates of nucleotide substitution were lower in stems than in loops. Analysis of compensatory substitutions across these taxa demonstrates 68% covariation in the gene and a logical weighting factor to account for dependence in mutations for phylogenetic inference should be 0.66. Comparisons of varied stem-loop weighting schemes indicate that the down-weightings for stem regions could improve the phylogenetic analysis and the degree of non-independence of stem substitutions was not as important as expected. Bayesian inference under four models of nucleotide substitution indicated that likelihood-based phylogenetic analyses were more effective in improving the phylogenetic performance than was weighted parsimony analysis. In Bayesian analyses, the resolution of phylogenies under the 16-state models for paired regions, incorporating GTR + G + I models for unpaired regions was better than those under other models. The subfamily Cyprininae was resolved as a monophyletic group, as well as tribe Labein and several genera. However, the monophyly of the currently recognized tribes, such as Schizothoracin, Barbin, Cyprinion + Onychostoma lineages, and some genera was rejected. Furthermore, comparisons of the parsimony and Bayesian analyses and results of variable length bootstrap analysis indicates that the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene should contain important character variation to recover well-supported phylogeny of cyprinid taxa whose divergences occurred within the recent 8 MY, but could not provide resolution power for deep phylogenies spanning 10-19 MYA. (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier Inc.

delegation model for periodicity constraints-based dac

Xidian University

软件项目资源优化调度研究

信息技术的不断进步使得软件产品的应用领域不断扩大，同时软件产品的规模也在迅速膨胀。软件产品的开发模式已由最初的手工作坊式开发逐渐转变为大规模的工程化软件开发。这使得资源调度问题逐渐成为软件项目管理的核心研究内容之一。 软件项目与传统工业项目相比具有如下两个显著特点：其一是软件项目对人力资源能力的依赖性非常高；其二是软件项目在开发过程中具有的不确定性因素较多，也就是风险较高。这两个特点决定了传统工业调度方法不能很好地适用于软件项目管理，同时也为软件项目资源优化调度问题研究提出了新的挑战。需要根据软件项目的特点研究适合的资源调度方法为软件项目管理工作提供支持。 本文的研究工作旨在通过对软件项目的结构进行分析和描述，在建立软件项目核心要素模型的基础上，考虑软件项目高人力资源能力依赖性和高风险性两大特征，由人力资源能力和风险作为驱动因素，对软件项目中人力资源和项目缓冲两大核心资源进行优化分配和调度，以提高软件项目的资源利用效率和软件项目执行的稳定性。本文的主要贡献有： （1）建立了软件项目资源优化调度研究框架QMMT和项目核心要素模型PTHR。 QMMT研究框架由问题驱动(Question Driven)，模型描述(Model Description)，方法研究(Method Research)和工具验证(Tool Validation)四个模块构成。四个模块之间既存在顺序关系也存在信息反馈机制，框架具有良好的适应性和可扩展性。实践表明，QMMT研究框架对研究软件项目资源优化调度问题具有良好的指导作用。本文中涉及软件项目资源优化调度的多个研究问题均遵循QMMT研究框架。 通过对软件项目所包含的各个要素及要素之间的关系进行定义和描述，我们建立了软件项目核心要素模型PTHR。模型对软件项目的四个要素：项目（Project）、任务（Task）、人力资源（Human Resource）、风险（Risk）以及四个要素之间的关系进行了形式化定义和描述。PTHR模型涵盖了软件项目的核心要素并具有良好的可扩展性，可以为资源优化调度中具体问题的分析、算法的设计、流程的安排以及工具开发提供底层支持。PTHR模型是本文后续方法中相关系列子模型的基础模型。 （2） 提出了软件项目中任务-人员匹配的三维匹配模型3D-THM和基于3D-THM模型的任务人员优化分配方法。 任务人员匹配是人力资源调度的基础。3D-THM（3 Dimensional model for Task Human Matching）模型通过对人力资源的技术能力、性格能力和职业规划进行描述，以及对任务的技术能力需求、性格能力需求和职业规划需求进行描述，设定相应的多因素匹配算法，为任务-人员的全面优化匹配提供支持。实验表明，3D-THM模型较好的描绘了软件项目中任务-人员优化匹配问题，能够体现软件项目的高人力资源能力依赖性。模型实例化后所得到的匹配方法和相应的原型工具可为软件项目资源优化调度以及软件过程建模提供人员优化匹配支持，能够提高项目管理人员的工作效率，提升项目人员对任务分配的满意度。 （3） 提出了基于人员可用性的人力资源调度方法。 在对任务人员进行优化匹配的基础上，通过综合考虑人力资源能力和工作时间实现了基于人员可用性的人力资源调度方法。方法结合软件项目的结构特征，建立了任务人员可用性约束模型THACM（Task Human resources Availability Constraints Model）。基于THACM模型实现了在给定资源集合、任务集合下的人力资源自动分配和项目进度的自动安排。方法可有效解决采用矩阵组织结构的企业所面临的低资源可见性问题，协助其提高人力资源的利用效率。 （4）提出了基于任务优先级的抢占式人力资源调度方法PP-HAS。 在对人力资源可用性进行考虑的基础上，为了解决多项目环境下常见的资源冲突问题，我们提出了基于任务优先级的抢占式人力资源调度方法PP-HAS（Task Priority Based Preemptive Human Resource Scheduling Method）。方法首先建立了综合考虑进度、成本、质量三方面因素的基于价值的任务优先级模型VBTPM（Value Based Task Priority Model），将该任务优先级模型与过程Agent技术结合，通过设计支持抢占的人力资源调度流程，实现了多过程Agent协商下的人力资源优化调度。方法通过抢占和再计划实现了人力资源的动态高效利用，能够为资源冲突的解决以及项目的再计划工作提供决策支持。 （5）提出了风险驱动的软件项目缓冲资源分配方法。 项目缓冲的合理分配是降低风险对项目进度造成影响的重要手段。我们在软件项目资源调度方法中加入对风险因素的考量，基于软件项目中风险的特征，建立了简化的风险模型RRM（Reduced Risk Model）。基于RRM模型提出了风险驱动的项目缓冲分配方法，旨在软件项目的执行效率和稳定性二者之间进行权衡。模拟实验的结果表明，相对于传统关键链项目管理理论中尾部集中的项目缓冲分配方法，风险驱动的项目缓冲分配方法能够在确保对项目平均执行工期产生较小影响的同时，显著降低项目执行时计划变更的发生频率。该缓冲分配方法与项目模拟工具可以帮助项目经理确定合适的项目缓冲时间长度以及缓冲分配方案，进而提高软件项目计划的可信性和执行的稳定性。