Neolithic woodland composition and exploitation in the Southern Levant: a comparison between archaeobotanical remains from WF16 and present day woodland at Hammam Adethni

Excavations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of WF16 in the Southern Levant produced an archaeobotanical assemblage constituted by plant macro-fossils and wood charcoal. As with all such assemblages, its species composition will most likely provide a biased reflection of those within the Neolithic woodland that had been exploited owing to cultural selection and differential preservation. As a means of facilitating its interpretation, a survey was undertaken of a relatively undisturbed patch of gallery woodland associated with a permanent water course at Hammam Adethni, approximately four kilometres south-east of WF16. The substantial overlap of the species within this woodland and those in the archaeobotanical assemblage suggests that this present-day woodland provides an analogue for that of the Neolithic and may therefore indicate what other plant resources the inhabitants of WF16 may have exploited, but which have left no archaeological trace. The interpretation of the results is supported by a comparative study of wood charcoal from present-day Bedouin hearths in Wadi Faynan.

Haploids in flowering plants: origins and exploitation

The first haploid angiosperm, a dwarf form of cotton with half the normal chromosome complement, was discovered in 1920, and in the ninety years since then such plants have been identified in many other species. They can occur either spontaneously or can be induced by modified pollination methods in vivo, or by in vitro culture of immature male or female gametophytes. Haploids represent an immediate, one-stage route to homozygous diploids and thence to F(1) hybrid production. The commercial exploitation of heterosis in such F(1) hybrids leads to the development of hybrid seed companies and subsequently to the GM revolution in agriculture. This review describes the range of techniques available for the isolation or induction of haploids and discusses their value in a range of areas, from fundamental research on mutant isolation and transformation, through to applied aspects of quantitative genetics and plant breeding. It will also focus on how molecular methods have been used recently to explore some of the underlying aspects of this fascinating developmental phenomenon.

Aligning business and IT from multi-level learning perspectives

Business and IT alignment is increasingly acknowledged as a key for organisational performance. However, alignment research lack to mechanisms that enable for on-going process with multi-level effects. Multi-level learning allows on-going effectiveness through development of the organisation and improved quality of business and IT strategies. In particular, exploration and exploitation enable effective process of alignment across dynamic multi-level of learning. Hence, this paper proposes a conceptual framework that links multi-level learning and business-IT strategy through the concept of exploration and exploitation, which considers short-term and long-term alignment together to address the challenges of strategic alignment faced in sustaining organisational performance.

Exploring business and IT alignment mechanisms: toward a learning perspective

Numerous studies have attempted to develop strategic alignment mechanisms. The strategic alignment mechanism is broken down into two categories namely: strategy process and strategy content. Our review shows that alignment research has been carried out in isolation. We see this as having had the effect of limiting the extent to which executives can understand elements of performance. We confer with a number of researchers in postulating that using a mechanism such as multilevel learning to combine strategy content and strategy process under one metaphor can greatly facilitate, through exploration and exploitation, the understanding not only of human interactions within a firm, but also of the interaction existent between a firm and its environment. The findings in this study further support the idea of integrating strategy process and content to have a better understating of alignment maturity and impact on business performance. It also elaborates the affect of misalignment in companies on performance.

Proactive R&D management and firm growth: a punctuated equilibrium model

The external environment is characterized by periods of relative stability interspersed with periods of extreme change, implying that high performing firms must practice exploration and exploitation in order to survive and thrive. In this paper, we posit that R&D expenditure volatility indicates the presence of proactive R&D management, and is evidence of a firm moving from exploitation to exploration over time. This is consistent with a punctuated equilibrium model of R&D investment where shocks are induced by reactions to external turbulence. Using an unbalanced panel of almost 11,000 firm-years from 1997 to 2006, we show that greater fluctuations in the firm's R&D expenditure over time are associated with higher firm growth. Developing a contextual view of the relationship between R&D expenditure volatility and firm growth, we find that this relationship is weaker among firms with higher levels of corporate diversification and negative among smaller firms and those in slow clockspeed industries.

An integrated multi-stage model of knowledge management in international joint ventures: identifying a trigger for knowledge exploration and knowledge harvest

This paper examines the evolution of knowledge management from the initial knowledge migration stage, through adaptation and creation, to the reverse knowledge migration stage in international joint ventures (IJVs). While many studies have analyzed these stages (mostly focusing on knowledge transfer), we investigated the path-dependent nature of knowledge flow in IJVs. The results from the empirical analysis based on a survey of 136 Korean parent companies of IJVs reveal that knowledge management in IJVs follows a sequential, multi-stage process, and that the knowledge transferred from parents to IJVs must first be adapted within its new environment before it reaches the creation stage. We also found that only created knowledge is transferred back to parents.

Development and exploitation of a controlled vocabulary in support of climate modelling

There are three key components for developing a metadata system: a container structure laying out the key semantic issues of interest and their relationships; an extensible controlled vocabulary providing possible content; and tools to create and manipulate that content. While metadata systems must allow users to enter their own information, the use of a controlled vocabulary both imposes consistency of definition and ensures comparability of the objects described. Here we describe the controlled vocabulary (CV) and metadata creation tool built by the METAFOR project for use in the context of describing the climate models, simulations and experiments of the fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). The CV and resulting tool chain introduced here is designed for extensibility and reuse and should find applicability in many more projects.

Wetland habitats, their resource potential and exploitation: a case study from the Humber wetlands

The notion that wetlands are among the most productive environments in the world is widely quoted, but its relationship with the exploitation of wetland ecosystems during the prehistoric and early historic period has been the subject of few investigations. The current paper discusses the primary production of different wetland habitats and its relationship to the resource potential of these habitats and their actual exploitation, using recent results from the Humber Wetlands Survey. It is argued that during the early Holocene, wetland landscapes were central to the subsistence economy and that a clear association exists between the primary productivity of wetlands and the intensity of exploitation. With the introduction of agriculture, however, wetland habitats become increasingly peripheral to the economy.

Short fiction of Thomas Hardy: an exploration and assessment

Hardy's novels and poetry have received extensive criticism, in due proportion to their merit. Hardy's short stories, however, have been virtually excluded from the annals of Hardy criticism, even though Hardy wrote over forty short stories, several of which are truly outstanding. In part, the reason for this neglect is because of the neglected state of the short story in Victorian England. Short fiction, published mainly only in periodicals and never collected in volume form, was obscured to a large extent by the highly popular serial novel. This thesis examines Thomas Hardy's short stories in the context of both the Victorian period and the Victorian short story genre, and explores the ways in which Thomas Hardy improved upon and deviated from some of the common types of short fiction being written in his day.

Reproduction, food dynamics and exploitation level of Oreochromis niloticus (Perciformes: Cichlidae) from artisanal fisheries in Barra Bonita Reservoir, Brazil

Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), which is exotic to South America, is the most common species caught in artisanal fisheries at the Barra Bonita Reservoir, Southeastern Brazil. This species is of great socioeconomic importance for the region and keeps active a population of about 500 fishers. In the present study we assess reproduction, food dynamics and level of exploitation of O. niloticus, caught by artisanal fisheries in the Barra Bonita Reservoir. Specimens were collected monthly, from July 2004-June 2005, and a total of 1 715 specimens were analyzed. Each specimen was examined to obtain biological and biometric data: standard length (cm), total weight (g), reproductive data (sex and stage of maturation), and stomach contents (empty, partly full, and full). We also estimated the sex ratio (by macroscopic observation of gonads), reproductive period (by ovarian development and seasonal average of gonadosomatic index in females), and feeding habits (by stomach contents). The possible relationship between abiotic factors and the reproductive period was statistically verified using Spearman's Rank Correlation. The FiSAT (ELEFAN I) package was used to assess growth parameters, mortality rates and to infer exploitation rate from standard length frequencies. The O. niloticus population had a sex ratio of 1.3:1 (M:F). Results indicated that ripe females were captured throughout the year, with a higher frequency during the winter-2004 (with a frequency of 59%, at a mean temperature of 20.5°C), and in spring-2004 (with a frequency of 60.5% at a mean temperature of 21.18°C). The GSI mean values obtained by season were: winter-2004: 1.71; spring-2004: 1.72; summer-2005: 0.80, and autumn-2005: 1.19. The Spearman correlation indicated positive values with respect to pH, dissolved oxygen, electric conductivity, transparency and chlorophyll a, and negative values with respect to temperature, accumulated rainfall and altimetric benchmark. The main food items were phytoplankton and periphytic algae, observed in 99.6% of the analyzed stomachs. The estimated growth and mortality parameters were: L∞=33.60cm, k=0.63/year, longevity= 4.76years, Z=2.81/ year, M=1.20/year and F=1.61/year. The weight-length relationship was Ln Wt=-2.8532+2.8835 Ln Lp. The estimated yield per recruit values were as follows: E=0.570, Emax=0.776, E0.1=0.604 and E0.5=0.349. These results indicate that a well established population of O. niloticus is present at Barra Bonita Reservoir; with an active reproduction throughout the year, more intense during winter and spring, and that O. niloticus is a phytoplanktophagus species. There were no indications that this species is being overfished, we therefore recommend that, due to its exotic condition, no restrictions need to be taken on its fishing activities.

Microbial culture collections as pillars for promoting fungal diversity, conservation and exploitation

Fungi are a diverse group of organisms with an overall global number of 1.5 M up to 3.3 M species on Earth. Besides their ecological roles as decomposers, fungi are important in several aspects of applied research. Here, we review how culture collections may promote the knowledge on diversity, conservation and biotechnological exploitation of fungi. The impact of fungi diversity on biotechnological studies is discussed. We point out the major roles of microbial repositories, including fungal preservation, prospecting, identification, authentication and supply. A survey on the World Data Center for Microorganisms (WDCM) powered by the World Federation for Culture Collections and on the Genetic Heritage Management Council (CGEN) database revealed that 46 Brazilian culture collections registered in these databases are dedicate to preserving fungi. Most of these culture collections are located in the Southeast of Brazil. This scenario also demonstrates that Brazil has many collections focused on fungal strains, but the lack of up-to-date information in WDCM as well as of a solid national platform for culture collections registration do not allow accurate assessment of fungal preservation. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.