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Effectively managing diversity not only allows organizations to attract and retain wellqualified employees, but also helps develop the flexibility to respond to the demands of increasingly diverse markets. While much has been written about how to address diversity in human resource practices (recruitment, retention, and professional development), less has been written about how to develop strategies to leverage diversity in other areas. To help organizations assess their diversity strategies, this paper proposes the Diversity Assessment Tool (DAT); it reviews the dimensions of the DAT and compares it to six other diversity lenses.

Submitted by Jorge Silva (jorgelmsilva@ufrrj.br) on 2018-05-11T19:39:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Rosalba Ortega Fors.pdf: 2620047 bytes, checksum: d7b3d78fdeae080e9bee983dad584881 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-11T19:39:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Rosalba Ortega Fors.pdf: 2620047 bytes, checksum: d7b3d78fdeae080e9bee983dad584881 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-18 CNPq Brazil is the main sugarcane producer worldwide, with the crop accounting for 15% of the total fertilizers used in the country. In this context, the development and application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) (Phylum Glomeromycota) inoculants represents a promising alternative for increasing the utilization eficiency of chemical fertilizers, mainly the phosphates In the present work a survey of the AMF community was carried out before planting and after harvesting of the "plant cane" in renewal (rotated or not with Brachiaria ruziziensis) and expansion (previously under pasture) areas. A similar assessment was carried out in sugarcane renovation and expansion areas where two experiments of inoculation with diazotrophic bacterias were being conducted. Under greenhouse conditions, two experiments for selecting AMF strains for sugarcane (Variety SP81-3250) in different soils and substrates were carried out. In renewal areas, after maintained sugarcane monocropping, a rotation cycle with B. ruziziensis between the ratoon removal and the new cane planting doesnot influence the AMF species richness. Prolonged monoculture of sugarcane tends to reduce the AMF diversity after the renewal of the sugarcane plantation, but stills quite high compared to other agricultural systems. In pasture areas converted to sugarcane plantation (expansion) the AMF species richness tends to be higher in the first year after the conversion (plant cane) compared to sugarcane renovation areas. The spore density reached the highest values after the "plant cane" harvesting. The AMF isolates with potentiality to compose a mycorrhizal inoculant for sugarcane areAcaulospora colombiana and Claroideoglomus etunicatum which favoured the development of the pre-sprouted seedlings of sugarcane in soil and substrate. Other isolates that promoted the sugarcane seedlings' development ou nutrition, but still need additional studies are Gigaspora margarita, Scutellospora calospora and Rhizophagus clarus. The expansion area soil (with moderate P content) was the most favorable for the sugarcane growth. The Multiplant substrate promoted the highest growth of the seedlings and favored the AMF colonization. The fertillization recommended for sugarcane seedling production inhibited the plants growth, particularly in the substrate Turfa F?rtil. The Sugar Mill substrate stimulated the seedlings growth the least. The rate of dark septate endophytes colonization (DSE) in the sugarcane seedlings of the cultivar SP81-3250 was high, independently of the inoculated AMF isolate. All the AMF isolates tested showed simultaneus colonization with DSE. O Brasil ? o maior produtor mundial de cana-de-a??car, sendo a cultura respons?vel por 15% dos fertilizantes utilizados no pa?s. Nesse contexto, o desenvolvimento e aplica??o de inoculantes de fungos micorr?zicos arbusculares (FMAs) (Phylum Glomeromycota) representa uma promissora alternativa para incrementara efici?ncia de aproveitamento dos fertilizantes, principalmente os sfatados. No presente trabalho foi realizado um levantamento da comunidade de FMAs pr?-plantio e p?s-colheita da "cana planta" em ?reas de renova??o (rotacionadas ou n?o com Brachiaria ruzizensis) e expans?o (previamente sobre pastagem) do canavial. Uma avalia??o similar foi realizada em ?reas correspondentes a dois experimentos de inocula??o com bact?rias diazotr?ficas. Foram conduzidos, em casa de vegeta??o, dois experimentos de sele??o de linhagens de FMAs para cana-de-a??car (Cultivar SP81-3250) em diferentes solos e substratos. Em ?reas de monocultivo prolongado de cana-de-a??car uma rota??o com B. ruziziensis na ?poca da renova??o n?o influencia a riqueza da comunidade de FMAs. Por?m, a riqueza de FMAs diminui em monocultura prolongada de cana, mas ainda ? elevada comparada com outros sistemas agr?colas. A riqueza de FMAs em pastagem convertida a canavial ? maior na ?cana planta? comparada ? ?reas de renova??o de canavial. As maiores densidades de esporos nas ?reas canavieiras ocorrem ap?s a colheita da ?cana planta?. As linhagens de FMAs com potencialidade para compor um inoculante micorr?zico para cana-de-a??car s?o Acaulospora colombiana Claroideoglomus etunicatum as quais favorecem o desenvolvimento de mudas pr?-brotadas de cana tanto em solo como em substrato. Outras linhagens que precisam de estudos adicionais por promoverem crescimento ou nutri??o de mudas de cana s?o Gigaspora margarita, Scutellospora calospora e Rhizophagus clarus. O solo da ?rea de expans?o, com teores intermedi?rios de P, ? o mais favor?vel para o crescimento da cana-de-a??car. O substrato Multiplant foi o que mais estimulou o crescimento de mudas pr?-brotadas e promove a maior coloniza??o por FMAs. A aduba??o completa recomendada para a produ??o de mudas pr?-brotadas de cana-de-a??car inibiu o crescimento das plantas, particularmente no substrato Turfa F?rtil. O substrato da Usina promoveu o menor crescimento de mudas de cana-de-a??car. A taxa de coloniza??o radicular por DSE nas mudas da cultivar SP81-3250 foi elevada, independentemente da linhagem de FMA inoculada. Todas as linhagens de FMAs avaliadas apresentaram coloniza??o conjunta com DSE.

이 연구는 세계 39개 생물다양성 hot spot중에 하나인 인도 동부 히말라야 상부 Siang 지역의 식물상을 4년 동안 조사한 결과물이다. 이 지역의 식생에 대한 분석결과와 함께 조사된 총 1,003분류군, 110과, 529속, 994종, 1아종 그리고 8변종의 피자식물 목록을 첨부하였으며 1신종, 3미기록종 및 82특산종을 포함하고 있다. 초본과 관목의 다양성이 교목보다는 높게 나타났으며 과별로는 벼과, 콩과 그리고 난과 순으로 다양성이 우세한 것으로 조사되었다. 이 지역의 절멸위기에 처한 종들을 보고함과 동시에 급속한 도시화와 화전은 자연식생의 직접적인 절멸을 가속화하고 있어 이 지역의 자연유산을 보호하고 보존하는 방법을 찾는데 도움이 되기를 제안한다. 【Present paper is an outcome of a four-year floristic survey work carried out in Upper Siang district of eastern Himalayan region in India which is also recognized as one of the 39 known 'Biodiversity Hot-Spots' of the world. We present here with a vegetation analysis of this area along with a checklist of 1,003 taxa belonging to 110 families, 529 genera, 994 species, 1 subspecies and 8 varieties of the angiosperms. Besides, one new species, 3 new records to India and 82 endemic species were also recorded. The diversity of herbs and shrubs were found higher than the tree species. Orchidaceae was found the most dominant family followed by Poaceae and Fabaceae. Many threatened plants have also been reported from the area. However, rapid urbanization and Jhum cultivation are imposing direct threat to the natural vegetation. We suggest some conservation measures that could help protecting this natural heritage.】

The wide range of uses of Moringa oleifera in recent time has witnessed increasing demand of its foliar and seed products in nutritional, medical and ecological applications. The upsurge of demand for these products needs to be balanced with new varieties of improved performance to meet the supply chain. To achieve this, morphological diversity assessment is prerequisite for future crop improvement programme. Therefore, numerical analyses of the external morphology of leaf and fruit of thirty accessions of Moringa oleifera were assessed. The study was carried out on both qualitative and quantitative characters to assess the diversity at morphological level to establish the phenetic relationships and the delimitation of accessions. Relationship studies showed considerable correlation between the leaf and fruits characters that produced clear and reproducible threats and were selected for diversity study. Numerical analysis of the qualitative and quantitative characters clustered the accessions into five groups – operational taxonomic units (OTUs) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 were clustered in group one; OTUs 6 and 8 were clustered in group two and three respectively; OTUs 15 and 16 in group four and OUT 23 in group five cluster membership. Principal Component Analysis was carried out to augment the Cluster Analysis which showed large morphological diversity existing in accessions of Moringa oleifera hence, infraspecific classification is hereby proposed. These analysis particularly traits related to leaf and fruits yield can also be utilised for crop improvement programme.

The use of multi-dimensional “chemistry spaces” to represent large compound collections has become widespread in pharmaceutical research. In such spaces compounds are treated as points. Points in close proximity represent similar compounds, while distant points represent dissimilar compounds. Assessing the diversity of a compound collection, thus, is tantamount to characterizing the distribution of points in chemistry space. To facilitate many procedures such as selecting subsets of compounds for screening, for compound acquisition and designing combinatorial libraries, chemistry spaces have been partitioned into sets of non-overlapping, multi-dimensional cells, which are generated by dividing each axis into a number of equal-sized bins. This leads to a lattice of \({(N_{bins})^{N_{\rm dim}}}\) cells, where N bins is the number of bins on each axis and N dim is the dimensionality of the space. One diversity measure that is typically used in cell-based chemistry spaces is identical in form to Shannon entropy, \({D_{N_{cpd}}^{cpd}}\) A normalized measure of this Shannon entropy given by, \({D_{rel}^{cpd}}\) enables comparison between compound collections that occupy different number of occupied cells. Although \({D_{rel}^{cpd}}\) characterizes the uniformity and “spreadout” of the corresponding compound collection, it treats cells as positionally independent. Some of the positional information lost can be recaptured by another diversity measure, which is also related in form to Shannon entropy. This new measure \({D_{N_{bin}}^{cell} (\lambda)}\) characterizes the distribution of occupied cells along each axis of chemistry space. The normalized measure \({\left\langle {D_{rel}^{cell}}\right\rangle}\) over all axes is given then by the average. Examples illustrating the applicability of these two Shannon-like measures to compound collections are presented.

Understanding the organisation of genetic diversity in a crop species is a key element for both the conservation and utilisation of its genetic resources. In the case of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), Ethiopia is one of the secondary centers of diversity of this species. Hence, this study sought to improve our understanding of genetic diversity of common bean by integrating morphological and agronomic evaluations with prior molecular diversity data from a collection of landrace accessions from different common bean growing regions of Ethiopia. The samples studied included 115 landraces, four standard varieties, and two control genotypes. Twenty agronomic traits and morphological descriptors were used to evaluate the accessions under field conditions. A Principal Component Analysis clearly separated the accessions into the Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools, with the first two axes explaining most of the variation. Step-wise discriminant and canonical correlation analyses, with all variables or only the morphological variables, enabled the identification of characters distinguishing accessions from the Andean/Mesoamerican gene pools, and their respective ecogeographic races. Data distinguishing racial and morphological traits were used to clarify the identities of five cluster groups, identified at STRUCTURE preset K = 5, in a preceding study. The three Andean cluster groups were shown to belong to two of the races in the gene pool, ‘Nueva Granada’ and ‘Peru’; while the two Mesoamerican groups were from the race ‘Mesoamerica’. By integrating the morphological and agronomic evaluation of an Ethiopian germplasm collection of common bean, initially performed just based on molecular characterisation, we were able to improve our understanding of the organisation of this diversity. Our results suggest extensive hybridisation between the Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools after introduction of common bean germplasm in Ethiopia.Key Words: Canonical discriminant analysis, genetic resources, intra-specific diversity, multivariate analyses, plant breeding, principal component analysis

In this interview, Patricia Arredondo shares with us her scholarship and expertise working with Latino families. Patricia talks about multicultural competencies, multicultural development as well as diversity assessment when working with Latino families. Dr. Arredondo has published widely on these topics and is the coauthor of Counseling Latinos y la Familia (2006). Her leadership as the President of the American Counseling Association, Division 45 Society for Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues and the National Latina/Latino Psychological Association among others shows her commitment to our field. Her interview offers critical perspectives for the family therapy field in the area of diversity and specifically when working with Latino families.

A groundnut core collection was evaluated in two seasons to identify 21 early maturing landraces. Phenotypic diversity of these 21 early maturing landraces was assessed in three rainy and five post-rainy seasons, along with the three known sources of early maturity (Chico, Gangapuri, and JL 24). The new sources differed in 8 of 14 morphological traits studied. Of the 14 agronomic and 2 quality traits studied, 8 yield and yield-component traits were evaluated at two harvest dates. The landraces matured in 80–90 days after sowing (DAS), similar to Chico and Gangapuri (80–90 DAS) and earlier than JL 24 (90–95 DAS). Four new early maturing landraces [ICG 4558 (India); ICG 4890 (Argentina); ICG 9930 (Zimbabwe); ICG 11605 (Bolivia)], with predominantly three to four seeds per pod, were identified as additional sources for breeding confectionery groundnut varieties. Correlation coefficients between the observations made at the two harvest dates for the seven yield traits were ≥0.71, indicating a single observation is sufficient at 75 DAS or 90 DAS in initial characterization. Correlation between pod yield and 100-seed weight was significant in all the eight seasons individually and overall at 90 DAS. Presence of additional phenotypic diversity in the new early maturity landraces was detected. Principal component analysis (PCA) using the first 10 PC scores delineated the 21 landraces into three clusters. The formation of these clusters could neither be explained on the basis of geographic areas of landraces collection nor on the basis of botanical varieties. This might reflect the nascent variation acquired by the landraces in their secondary habitats, under ecologically similar conditions, independent of their countries of origin. Landraces in clusters 2 and 3 showed a wide range for several agronomic traits, indicating their usefulness in breeding programs for developing early maturing high yielding broad based cultivars.

Conservation of crop germplasm diversity involves the establishment of in situ and ex situ genebanks. The major activities for ex situ genebanks include assembling, conserving, characterizing and providing easy access to germplasm for scientists. More than six million accessions are currently assembled in over 1300 genebanks worldwide. ICRISAT is one of the 15 CGIAR centres, with headquarters at Patancheru, India, and conserves genetic resources of sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, and six small millets. The ICRISAT genebank holds 114,870 accessions from 130 countries, including both archival materials from various organizations throughout the world, and from fresh collections resulting from 213 missions in 62 countries. The ICRISAT genebank supplies annually over 40,000 germplasm samples to scientists worldwide. Sixty-six varieties selected from the basic germplasm have been released for cultivation in 44 countries, and ICRISAT has restored/repatriated crop germplasm to eight countries. The research focus is on germplasm diversity assessment, developing core and mini-core collections, and using a molecular characterization approach to both enhance the utilization of germplasm in research and improve the efficiency of germplasm management. Following these approaches, we have been able to identify a significant number of accessions with traits potentially relevant for crop improvement.

Phenological observations have shown that about 10 to 15 percent of the Quercus ithaburensis Decne (Tabor oak) trees in any given population shed their leaves very late in the season, and that this phenomenon is a characteristic of the individual trees, irrespective of meteorological factors. The aim of this study was to elucidate whether phenological differences in the leaf shedding behavior of Q. ithaburensis trees are also genotypic. DNA, extracted from one-year-old leaves sampled from trees shedding late in the season, was subjected to RAPD-based PCR procedure using 20 primers. Comparisons between allele frequencies in the 16 natural populations and the "late in season leaf-shedding" population revealed large differences in 3 out of the 72 loci analyzed.

The objective of this study was to identify an efficient set of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) variety fingerprinting, relying on semi-automated analysis conditions. Based on criteria such as quality of amplification products, co-dominant and single locus, 78 SSR markers were selected and used to assess the genetic variability among a large set of 124 sunflower inbred lines, including 67 female maintainers (M lines) and 57 male restorers (R lines). They revealed a total of 276 alleles across the 124 elite inbred lines, with a mean of 3.5 alleles per SSR locus. The polymorphism index content per locus varied from 0.06 to 0.81, with an average of 0.51. Relationships among the inbred lines were studied using estimations of Rogers' distances. The great majority of the distance estimates ranged between 0.4 and 0.6, but distances between some pairs of lines were less than 0.1. The genetic diversity value was similar within each subset of R and M lines and low, but significant differentiation was found (GST = 0.049) between the two pools. The selected set of SSRs proved to be useful both for sunflower fingerprinting and genetic diversity assessment.Key words: genetic diversity, genotyping, Helianthus annuus, multiplex PCR, simple sequence repeats (SSR).

Diversity is the general approach used for decreasing common cause failure (CCF) risks of instrumentation and control (I&C) systems. Differences in equipment, development and verification technologies, implemented functions, etc. can mitigate the potential for common faults. Diversity and defense-in-depth (D3) is the required attribute of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) I&C systems important for safety. One of the key theoretical and practical problems is diversity estimation and optimization of used version redundancy capacity. Existing NUREG guidelines published in reports CR-7007 and CR-6303 present the technical basis for establishing acceptable mitigating strategies that resolve D3 assessment findings. These approaches work in the terms of diversity attributes and associated criteria aimed at the potential for CCF vulnerabilities and make possible to choose I&C system architecture based on combinations of diversity criteria. But they do not provide measures (diversity indexes or metrics) to calculate reliability of such system in the context of CCF. In the report some other techniques for diversity assessment are analyzed, as well as advantages and disadvantages of these techniques in comprising with NUREG-based method are described. Possibilities of their joint applications and tool support are considered. The combined use of reliability models, diversity metrics and reliability indexes of system components allows enhancement of estimation sensitivity, making sufficiency criteria for diversity and redundancy more concrete and choice of technical solutions more informed and confident at the early stages of NPP I&C system design. The problems for future research are stated as creation of Safety-Case-oriented techniques and tools for multi-version NPP I&C systems assessment.

The marketplace metaphor that provides the foundation for the regulation of electronic media assumes not only that a diversity of content is available, but also that audiences expose themselves to this diversity. This exposure dimension of the diversity issue has been largely absent from conventional diversity assessments. This article proposes a method of assessing exposure diversity and conducts a preliminary analysis using 1995 Nielsen data for prime-time television. The marketplace metaphor that provides the foundation for the regulation of electronic media assumes not only that a diversity of content is available, but also that audiences expose themselves to this diversity. This exposure dimension of the diversity issue has been largely absent from conventional diversity assessments. This article proposes a method of assessing exposure diversity and conducts a preliminary analysis using 1995 Nielsen data for prime-time television.

We present some new ideas for characterizing and comparing largechemical databases. The comparison of the contents of large databases is nottrivial since it implies pairwise comparison of hundreds of thousands ofcompounds. We have developed methods for categorizing compounds into groupsor series based on their ring-system content, using precalculatedstructure-based hashcodes. Two large databases can then be compared bysimply comparing their hashcode tables. Furthermore, the number of distinctring-system combinations can be used as an indicator of database diversity.We also present an indepen- dent technique for diversity assessment calledthe ’saturation diversity‘ approach. This method is based on picking as manymutually dissimilar compounds as possible from a database or a subsetthereof. We show that both methods yield similar results. Since the twomethods measure very different properties, this probably says more about theproperties of the databases studied than about the methods.

Diversity is the general approach used for decreasing common cause failure (CCF) risks of instrumentation and control (I&C) systems. Differences in equipment, development and verification technologies, implemented functions, etc. can mitigate the potential for common faults. Diversity and defense-in-depth (D3) is the required attribute of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) I&C systems important for safety. One of the key theoretical and practical problems is diversity estimation and optimization of used version redundancy capacity. Existing NUREG guidelines published in reports CR-7007 and CR-6303 present the technical basis for establishing acceptable mitigating strategies that resolve D3 assessment findings. These approaches work in the terms of diversity attributes and associated criteria aimed at the potential for CCF vulnerabilities and make possible to choose I&C system architecture based on combinations of diversity criteria. But they do not provide measures (diversity indexes or metrics) to calculate reliability of such system in the context of CCF. In the report some other techniques for diversity assessment are analyzed, as well as advantages and disadvantages of these techniques in comprising with NUREG-based method are described. The combined use of reliability models, diversity metrics and reliability indexes of system components allows enhancement of estimation sensitivity, making sufficiency criteria for diversity and redundancy more concrete and choice of technical solutions more informed and confident at the early stages of NPP I&C system design. The problems for future research are stated as creation of Safety-Case-oriented techniques and tools for multi-version NPP I&C systems assessment.

We have constructed a fiber-bundle based FSO receiver and investigated its performance as a function of transmission misalignment, turbulence, and weather. We also investigate a wavelength diversity scheme, which consists of switching between multiple transmission wavelengths, for reducing the impact of turbulence. Three wavelengths, 850nm, 1310nm, and 1550nm, are emitted by one or more transmitting fibers, and the effects of turbulence and misalignment experimentally evaluated in an indoor environment. The receiver retained the link for a reduced range of misalignment at all wavelengths without adjustments. Initial outdoor experiments were conducted using 1550nm under various lighting, wind, and turbulence conditions.

Performance assessment of Pareto-optimal set is an important issue in comparing or designing multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. This paper studies the characteristics and shortcomings of the current diversity metrics and proposed a distance and neighborhood-based uniformity indicator by using an improved K nearest neighborhood algorithm. In particular, this metric can compare the uniformity of population with different shapes and objectives. With an agglomeration of tests, the metric can accurately give an evaluation.

Twenty modified-Whittaker plots were stratified at different sampling locations from February to May of 2008 in the central zone of Korup National Park, Cameroon. Our interest was to assess floristic diversity and investigate their relationship with environmental variables. Diversity profiles and rank abundance–curves were used for diversity analysis while canonical correspondence analysis and species–response curves were used to investigate the relationships between the response and explanatory variables. Of the 66 families identified, the Rubiaceae (999 species) were the most abundant. The Sterculiaceae (basal area = 10.482 m2 ha−1) were the dominant family, while the co-dominant families included the Ebenaceae (basal area = 9.092 m2 ha−1) and the Euphorbiaceae (basal area = 8.168 m2 ha−1). Soil variables explained 54.3% of total variation in family distribution. Canonical axes were related to different environmental gradients: axis1 was related to increasing canopy cover (r = 0.6951); axis 2, increasing Magnesium (r = 0.8465) and effective cation exchange capacity (r = 0.5899); axis 3, increasing effective cation exchange capacity (r = 0.5536); while axis 4, increasing Phosphorus concentration (r = 0.5232). Our results demonstrate the advantage which diversity profiles have over single or combination of indices, and the importance of using a combination of methodologies in diversity analysis. Resume De fevrier a mai 2008, vingt parcelles de Whittaker modifie ont ete stratifiees a differents sites d’echantillonnage dans la zone centrale du Parc National de Korup, au Cameroun. Nous voulions evaluer la diversite floristique et etudier son lien avec diverses variables environnementales. Nous avons employe des profils de diversite et des courbes de rangs d’abondance pour l’analyse de la diversite, tandis que nous utilisions une analyse canonique des correspondances et des courbes de reponse des especes pour etudier les relations entre les reponses et les variables explicatives. Sur les 66 familles identifiees, les Rubiacees (999 especes) etaient les plus abondantes. Les Sterculiacees (surface basale = 10,482 m2 ha−1) etaient la famille dominante et, parmi les familles co-dominantes, il y avait les Ebenacees (surface basale = 9,092 m2 ha−1) et les Euphorbiacees (surface basale = 8,168 m2 ha−1). Des variables du sol expliquaient 54,3% de la variation totale de la distribution des familles. Les axes canoniques ont ete lies aux differents gradients environnementaux; l’axe 1 etait liea une couverture croissante de la canopee (r = 0,6951); l’axe 2 a une augmentation du magnesium (r = 0,8465) et a la capacite reelle d’echange de cations (r = 0,5899); l’axe 3 a une capacite reelle croissante d’echanges de cations (r = 0,5536); et l’axe 4 a une concentration croissante en phosphore (r = 0,5532). Nos resultats montrent l’avantage que les profils de diversite ont sur des indices uniques ou combines et l’importance d’utiliser une combinaison de methodologies dans une analyse de diversite.

The Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) project aims at compiling an overview of genus- and species-level diversity of animals in the continental, aquatic ecosystems of the world. It is a collective effort of 163 experts, and presents 59 articles treating the diversity and endemism of different animal taxa, ranging from microscopic worms to mammals, at global and regional scales. Given their structural importance, an article on macrophytes is also added. Here, we give an overview of the project’s history, and outline the common framework of the various articles, as well as the conventions the experts agreed to adhere to in their treatises. Furthermore, we briefly introduce future prospects.

A novel diversity assessment method, the Explicit Diversity Index (EDI), is introduced for druglike molecules. EDI combines structural and synthesis-related dissimilarity values and expresses them as a single number. As an easily interpretable measure, it facilitates the decision making in the design of combinatorial libraries, and it might assist in the comparison of compound sets provided by different manufacturers. Because of its rapid calculation algorithm, EDI enables the diversity assessment of in-house or commercial compound collections.

Banana ( Musa spp.) cultivar diversity in the Great Lakes region of East Africa has been on the decline for the last several decades. A number of abiotic, biotic and socio-economic factors are thought to be responsible for this decline. In spite of low variation with respect to stress resistance, a number of farmers have continued to maintain a diversity of the local landrace highland banana cultivars in small plots. However, it is largely unknown whether farmers understand the value of banana diversity. If diversity is to be conserved and utilised, its value to farmers must be understood. Studies to assess diversity on farm were carried out in four benchmark sites in Uganda and Tanzania. The objectives of the study were to estimate levels of Musa diversity within and between benchmark sites; understand diversity trends over time in respect to changes in diversity within national genebanks and finally assess the usefulness of numerical methods in diversity assessment of a wider Musa genepool. Cultivar diversity per farm per site was assessed in 135 households and then compared with cultivar diversity in the national collections. Morphometric data was then taken from 135 sampled farms. Altogether, 257 accessions were studied; 125 from the national collection, and 132 from on farm. A total of 60 characters were used to measure diversity in the sampled household farms and the national collections. Two coefficients were used to measure diversity, group average clustering and principal component analyses were used to analyse similarity or dissimilarity among different groups of bananas and between different cultivars of the East African highland bananas. There was variation in cultivar diversity per site. The percentage variation explained by the first major components did not exceed 20% and these were able to separate genome groups. Within the highland bananas, clusters corresponding to clone sets were not very distinct in the first run of the analyses due to overlap. Thus, distinct clusters of the East African highland bananas were only observed in the second run of the analyses. Diversity varied in sites, and also between sites and national Musa collections due to different selection criteria and needs of different stakeholders. The level of viability between groups is demonstrated to be great but small within subgroups and this morphological diversity can be linked to utility of these traits by the farmers. Key Words: Cluster analysis, cultivars, morphometric data, principal component analysis RESUME La diversite des varietes des bananes dans la region des grands lacs de l'Afrique de l'est a ete en declin pour plusieurs dernieres decennies. Un nombre des facteurs abiotiques, biotiques et socio economiques sont penses etre responsables pour ce declin. Malgre la faible variation avec respect a la stresse de resistance, un nombre des fermiers a continue a maintenir une diversite des varietes locales des races de terre de banane des regions de montagne dans les petites parcelles. Cependant, il est largement inconnu si les fermiers comprennent la valeur de la diversite des bananes. Si la diversite est a etre conservee et utilisee, sa valeur aux fermiers doit etre comprise. Les etudes pour evaluer la diversite sur ferme etaient conduites dans quatre sites de reference en Ouganda et Tanzanie. Les objectives de cette etude etaient d'estimer les niveaux de diversite de Musa dans et entre les sites de reference; comprendre les tendances de diversite tout au long du temps en respect aux changements dans la diversite dans les banques nationales des genes et finalement evaluer l'utilite des methodes numeriques dans l'evaluation de diversite d'une large gene commune. La diversite des varietes par ferme et par site etait evaluee dans 135 menages et ainsi comparee avec la diversite des varietes dans les collections nationales. La donnee morphometrique etait alors prise a partir de 135 fermes echantillonnees. Ensemble, 257 accessions etaient etudiees ; 125 de la collection nationale, et 132 a partir de la ferme. Un total de 60 caracteres etait utilise pour mesurer la diversite, le groupe moyen de bouquet et les analyses des composants principaux etaient utilises pour analyser la similarite ou la dissimilarite parmi les differents groupes des bananes et entre les differentes varietes de bananes de region de montagne de l'Afrique de l'est. Il y avait une variation dans la diversite des varietes par site. La variation du pourcentage expliquee par les premiers composants majeurs n'a pas excede 20% et ceux ci etaient capables de separer les groupes de genomes. Dans les bananes de region de montagne, bouquets correspondant aux groupes de clones n'etaient pas distincts dans les premiers essais des analyses dues a l'empietement. Ainsi, les bouquets distincts des bananes de region de montagne de l'Afrique de l'est etaient seulement observes dans le second essai des analyses. La diversite variee dans les sites, et aussi entre les sites et les collections nationales Musa due au different critere de selection et les besoins des differents participants. Le niveau de viabilite entre les groupes est demontre etre grand mais petit dans les sous groupes et cette diversite morphologique peut etre liee a l'utilite de ces traits par les fermiers. Mots Cles: Analyse de bouquet, varietes, donnee morphologique, analyse du principal composant African Crop Science Journal Vol.12(1) 2004: 75-83

An approach to analysis of multiversion I&C systems which bases on theoretic-set model of defects is proposed. Metrics for evaluation of diversity are proposed and analyzed.

An entropy-based metric is presented to assess the diversity of solutions in a multi-objective optimization technique. This metric quantifies the 'goodness' of a solution set in terms of its distribution quality over the Pareto-optimal frontier. As a demonstration via a three-objective test example, the entropy metric is used as a means of comparing two multi-objective genetic algorithms.

I. SALVESEN AND O. VADSTEIN. 2000. Two plate count methods are proposed for direct assessment of the maximum specific growth rate (μ m ) of bacteria in mixed communities. An estimate of μ m of individual colonies is obtained by plating samples on an agar medium and determining either the time required to form macroscopically visible colonies, T v (diameter ≤0.2 mm), or the linear radial growth rate, K r , of single colonies. In accordance with theoretical models, a linear relationship was found between μ m determined in liquid culture and 1/T v , and between μ m and K r . Empirical relationships were established for these relationships. The time required to form a visible colony was 17 ± 9 h longer for cells in the stationary growth phase, whereas the linear radial growth rate was not affected by the physiological state of the cells. The proposed plate count methods are simple and applicable for describing the community structure, and for estimating the frequency distribution of maximum specific growth rates in mixed communities. By using this frequency distribution it is possible to calculate diversity indexes and to assign a microbial community a position on an r/K-gradient.

O. Ivanciuc and A.T. Balaban University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Department of Organic Chemistry,Faculty of Industrial Chemistry, Oficiul 12 CP 243, 78100 Bucharest, RomaniaUsually, the chemical structure of organic compounds is represented by molecular graphs. Graph algorithms are currently used in isomer generation, coding of chemical compounds and reactions, chemical database search, similarity and diversity assessment. An important graph theory application is the numerical characterization of chemical structures with graph invariants, that can be polynomials, spectra, atomic or molecular topological indices. After a brief presentation of graph theory and chemical graphs, the molecular graphs are defined. The most important molecular graph matrices, polynomials, and spectra are introduced, and some examples are presented. A large variety of mathematical operations are applied to molecular graphs giving atomic and molecular structural descriptors; the most important topological indices are reviewed, and their applications in structure-property models are briefly presented.

After many years of careful planning, we are pleased to launch Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818), a new international and interdisciplinary Open Access journal. Among diversity topics, biodiversity has always been a key topic. In 1996, when I was establishing Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI), an organization dedicated to the collection and distribution of rare molecular samples, I read several books on biodiversity. To promote the MDPI project, in 1996 the journal Molecules was launched, where authors are encouraged to deposit authentic samples of chemicals reported in the published articles. One of the topics covered by the journal Molecules was molecular diversity, and my own paper on diversity assessment published in volume 1 of Molecules cited some of the biodiversity books I had read [1] and Molecules still has a section called “Molecular Diversity” [2]. Our founding Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Michael Wink [3], also cites biological diversity as one of his main research interests. [...]

A new pairwise similarity formula has been defined and used for molecular diversity assessment based on a novel method. It is demonstrated here that the logarithmic relations of entropy and indistinguishability give the expected diversity values which decrease with the increase in species similarities. The calculation by Agrafiotis would be successful if the present pairwise similarity is used.

This chapter focuses on the equity issues inherent in the use of performance assessment, particularly in its use as an instrument of educational reform. The interest in performance assessment represents nothing less than a grass-roots rebellion against an assessment system that has made little sense to most of its users. The advocacy for performance assessment extends well beyond its usefulness as an improved source of educational information. Performance assessment is being advocated because it is thought to be a powerful tool of educational reform. Many proponents believe that performance assessment, when used as a direct reform instrument for accountability purposes, will motivate teachers and students toward higher achievement (Baron, 1990; Mitchell, 1992). This belief is rooted in the idea that students and teachers will direct their attention to assessments that have clear consequences for performance. In the last two years, partly as the result of the report of the National Council on Education Standards and Testing (1992), performance assessment has often been paired with reforms of the goals and content of schooling, and advocated as the concrete means by which to assess the attainment of challenging, content-based standards (Resnick & Tucker, 1991).

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is a molecular biology technique that enables the localization, quantification, and identification of microorganisms in a sample. This technique has found applications in several areas, most notably the environmental, for quantification and diversity assessment of microorganisms and, the clinical, for the rapid diagnostics of infectious agents. The FISH method is based on the hybridization of a fluorescently labeled nucleic acid probe with a complementary sequence that is present inside the microbial cell, typically in the form of ribosomal RNA (rRNA). In fact, an hybridized cell is typically only detectable because a large number of multiple fluorescent particles (as many as the number of target sequences available) are present inside the cell. Here, we will review the major steps involved in a standard FISH protocol, namely, fixation/permeabilization, hybridization, washing, and visualization/detection. For each step, the major variables/parameters are identified and, subsequently, their impact on the overall hybridization performance is assessed in detail.

The main goals of this study were: 1) to evaluate the structure, diversity, and functional trophic group composition of benthic macroinvertebrate communities; 2) to characterize water quality in the headwaters of the Doce river watershed, based on physical, chemical, and biological parameters (benthic macroinvertebrates, fecal coliforms, heterotrophic bacteria, and yeasts); and 3) to contribute to the knowledge of the structure and function of longitudinal gradients in lotic ecosystems in Brazil. A total of 60 benthic macroinvertebrate taxa were identified, the dominant group being the aquatic insects, with 50 families distributed in 8 orders. The dry period presented higher values of taxonomic richness and total density of benthic macroinvertebrates. A decreasing gradient was observed in these variable values from the 3rd order stretch down to the 6th order stretch. The highest Shannon-Wiener diversity values were found in the rainy period in the 3rd order stretches, which presented well-developed riparian forest. Besides the 3rd order stretches, the Pielou evenness index values were also high in the 6th order stretch. The collectors, together with the scrapers, predominated in the benthic macroinvertebrate communities in all river stretches, except in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th order stretches in the rainy period, where communities were dominated by filterers. The shredders and predators presented low densities for all river stretches. All microbiological variables presented low levels. Due to the high counts of heterotrophic bacteria and coliforms, the studied river stretches presented inadequate potability but adequate balneability levels. The results suggest that the structure, diversity, and composition of the benthic macroinvertebrate communities are influenced by the trophic resource availability, seasonality, and sediment heterogeneity. The microbiological results of this study allow inferring that the waters from Serra do Cipó have excellent potential for recreational use and as future sources of water for human consumption. Os principais objetivos deste estudo foram: 1) avaliar a estrutura, a diversidade e a composição de grupos tróficos funcionais das comunidades de macroinvertebrados bentônicos; 2) caracterizar a qualidade das águas nas cabeceiras da bacia do rio Doce, com base em parâmetros físicos, químicos e biológicos (macroinvertebrados bentônicos, coliformes fecais, bactérias heterotróficas e leveduras); e 3) contribuir para o conhecimento da estrutura e do funcionamento de gradientes longitudinais em ecossistemas lóticos no Brasil. No total, 60 taxa de macroinvertebrados bentônicos foram identificados, sendo os insetos aquáticos o grupo dominante, com 50 famílias distribuídas em 8 ordens. O período de seca apresentou os maiores valores de riqueza taxonômica e de densidade total de macroinvertebrados bentônicos. Foi observado gradiente decrescente nos valores dessas variáveis do trecho de 3ª ordem ao trecho de 6ª ordem. Os maiores valores do índice de diversidade de Shannon-Wiener foram encontrados no período de chuvas nos trechos de 3ª ordem, que apresentaram mata ciliar bem desenvolvida. Além dos trechos de 3ª ordem, os valores do índice de eqüitabilidade de Pielou também foram elevados no trecho de 6ª ordem. Os coletores, juntamente com os raspadores, predominaram nas comunidades de macroinvertebrados bentônicos, exceto nos trechos de 2ª, 4ª e 5ª ordens, durante o período de chuvas, quando houve o domínio de filtradores. Os fragmentadores apresentaram baixas densidades na maioria dos trechos de rio estudados. Todas as variáveis microbiológicas apresentaram baixos valores. Os trechos de rio estudados são impróprios quanto à potabilidade e próprios para balneabilidade, em decorrência das altas contagens de bactérias heterotróficas e coliformes. Os resultados sugerem que a estrutura, a diversidade e a composição das comunidades de macroinvertebrados bentônicos são influenciadas pela disponibilidade de recursos tróficos, pela sazonalidade e pela heterogeneidade do sedimento. Os resultados microbiológicos nos permitem inferir que as águas da Serra do Cipó apresentam potencial para uso recreacional e como fonte futura de água para abastecimento humano.