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The literature acknowledges the variety of local austerity policies, but has paid less attention to their geographical diversity. This paper questions the theorisation of space in this literature and investigates the relationships between local austerity policies and the diversity of local spatial systems. By combining two fiscal and socio-economic classifications of French municipalities, it provides a comprehensive and fine-grained mapping of local austerity for an entire country. Our findings demonstrate that austerity occurs in a wide range of local spatial systems and highlight numerous instances of mundane austerity that exist between affluent areas and those most severely impacted by austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving greater geographical diversity in economics in general, and in the field of development in particular, is a desirable objective due to ethical and utilitarian reasons. In this article, we analyze geographical diversity in the main academic journals of the discipline, providing a detailed look at articles written in collaboration between researchers from developed and developing countries. Our results confirm the striking prevalence of articles written by researchers based in developed countries. We also detect an increase in collaborative research in time and highlight the importance of non‐academic institutions in the conformation of these collaborative research teams. In terms of contents, most of these collaborations address the study of a country or a region, and many of them are empirical, mainly using quantitative approaches. Integrating a collaborative research team allows researchers located in the developing world to publish in higher quality journals and get more impact, at least in terms of citations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of the chemical composition of propolis is crucial for understanding the characteristics of products of different origins, but also for quality control and regulatory purposes. To date, official monographs or official analyses that allow researchers to evaluate propolis in a proper way have not yet been released. This study focuses on the characterization of twenty-seven Italian propolis samples and the identification of chemical markers that define its geographical provenance. Total polyphenol (TP) and total flavonoid (TF) content, alongside the quantification of pinocembrin, chrysin, galangin, and caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), were identified as potential markers. Additionally, DPPH assays were conducted to evaluate the antiradical activity of propolis samples. Our findings demonstrated that TPs, TFs and pinocembrin differed in propolis of different origins, especially in samples from the islands. However, the quantification of the sum of chrysin and galangin and CAPE provided a clearer distinction of the geographical origin of the propolis samples. In contrast, the DPPH assay did not prove useful for this purpose, as most results were similar and, therefore, not significant. This study lays the groundwork for future research on propolis. These findings could contribute to the development of more refined methods for distinguishing propolis origins, enhancing the understanding, valuation and quality control of this natural product in various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies have examined the gender and geographic diversity within editorial boards across various academic disciplines, excluding the field of education. Thus, the purpose of this study was to address this gap by investigating the extent of gender and geographic disparity within the editorial boards of education journals. Methods: The selection of top five education journals from each quartile (Q1-Q4) was performed based on Clarivate Analytics' Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2021 within the category of "Education & Educational Research." The information of editors was collected through online sources. Results: Overall, female editors accounted for 17 out of the 29 editors-in-chief (58.62%), 36 out of the 64 deputy/associate editors (56.25%), 378 out of the 728 editorial/advisory board members (51.92%) and 15 out of the 28 other types of editors (53.57%). There was no significant association between the impact factor (IF) and the proportion of female editors (Pearson's r = -0.095, p = 0.689). The United States had the highest number of editors (n = 459, 54.06%), followed by the United Kingdom (n = 98, 11.54%), Australia (n = 63, 7.42%), China (n = 29, 3.42%), Germany (n = 25, 2.94%), and Canada (n = 22, 2.59%). Notably, the majority of the included editors were from developed countries (n = 794, 93.52%), while editors from developing countries constituted a significantly smaller proportion (n = 55, 6.48%). Conclusion: Editorial boards of education journals exhibit reasonable gender diversity than other disciplines, though still fall short when considering the proportion of women in the discipline. Besides, obvious geographical disparity was observed among editorial boards of education journals. There was a notable lack of representation of researchers associated with institutions from developing countries on the editorial boards of education journals. While maintaining sufficient gender diversity, it is imperative to enhance the geographical diversity in these journals, ensuring a more equitable number of positions to individuals from these underrepresented groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of the chemical composition of propolis is crucial for understanding the characteristics of products of different origins, but also for quality control and regulatory purposes. To date, official monographs or official analyses that allow researchers to evaluate propolis in a proper way have not yet been released. This study focuses on the characterization of twenty-seven Italian propolis samples and the identification of chemical markers that define its geographical provenance. Total polyphenol (TP) and total flavonoid (TF) content, alongside the quantification of pinocembrin, chrysin, galangin, and caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), were identified as potential markers. Additionally, DPPH assays were conducted to evaluate the antiradical activity of propolis samples. Our findings demonstrated that TPs, TFs and pinocembrin differed in propolis of different origins, especially in samples from the islands. However, the quantification of the sum of chrysin and galangin and CAPE provided a clearer distinction of the geographical origin of the propolis samples. In contrast, the DPPH assay did not prove useful for this purpose, as most results were similar and, therefore, not significant. This study lays the groundwork for future research on propolis. These findings could contribute to the development of more refined methods for distinguishing propolis origins, enhancing the understanding, valuation and quality control of this natural product in various applications.

With its diverse landscape of regional and local news media, Switzerland seems far from being a news desert. However, the centralization of editorial offices following the economic crisis of journalism has led to news outlets that share most of their content but appear under different names in different regions. This development has fostered fears about declining geographical diversity at the regional level in the news coverage of Swiss news media. We argue that this centralization by regional news outlets affects news content; it constitutes a specific process of news desertification, which is not aptly captured by news desert research’s focus at the outlet level. With our explorative study, we aim to analyze news deserts at the content level. We apply an automated geoparser to a manually annotated dataset of local news media articles (n = 5,173) published by six regional news outlets of two news organizations between 2016 and 2021 to determine the extent and development of geographical diversity in Swiss regional news media. The geoparser uses a weighted gazetteer-based approach to determine the most relevant locations of news articles within Switzerland. We find early signs of news desertification. At the output level, we observe a declining number of articles published by the analyzed outlets. At the performance level, we see a declining number of unique place names in the articles and more mentions per article. However, the diversity of place names in the coverage remains stable.

Background: Nontuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) are emerging pathogens causing opportunistic infections in humans and animals. Their distribution in the waters and caves of Bulgaria is poorly studied. Climatic changes are associated with changes in the amplitudes of ambient and water temperature, as well as changes in the amount of precipitation which play an essential role in the creation of reservoirs of some types of NTM in the environment. Material and Methods: We optimized the methods for successful isolation of environmental NTM and then used molecular genetic methods for identification. Results: A total of 235 samples (karst water, sediments, soil, bat guano) were collected in some caves of the following karst regions: 203 in Vratsa Karst area, 204 in Ponor Karst area, 205 in Bezdenski area and 303 in Karst and caves of Bosnek region. Primary isolation of mycobacteria by Löwenstein–Jensen at room temperature was more successful than on liquid media at 37°C. We identified NTM in 10% (n=24) from these materials. Diverse NTM included: M. chelonae (n=3), M. gordonae (n=2), M. intermedium (n=3), M. scrofulaceum (n=1), M. szulgai (n=4), M. fortuitum group (n=4), NTM mix culture (n=5), M. terrae complex (n=1), Mycobacterium sp. (n=1). Rapidly growing NTM (M. chelonae, M. fortuitum group) were the most common. The isolates belonged to group of environmental saprophytes (Risk group 1) and potential pathogens (Risk group 2). Conclusions: We successfully implemented a procedure for decontamination and isolation of NTM from the environment. For the first time in the country, NTM species were identified in biofilms, karst waters, soil and bat guano within caves. The presence of NTM in cave ecosystems represents a potential source for human infection.

Background: Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are generally free-living and have a potential to cause opportunistic infection. More than 190 species of NTM have been identified (http://www.bacterio.net/mycobacterium.html), up to 60 species of them are pathogenic. The distribution is geographically specific for some species and others are cosmopolitan. Understanding their diversity has practical value for the treatment and management of NTM disease. Except for isolated reports, there is no accurate information about NTM spread among Bulgarian patients. Material and Methods: We retrospectively analysed the data on the NTM isolated from patients throughout the country for the period from January 2010 to December 2017. Identification to the species level was done by Line Probe Assay (LPA). Results: 586 NTM strains were identified. We calculated the rate of NTM isolation in Bulgaria and NTM disease incidence by applying microbiological criteria defined by the American Thoracic Society (ATS). As a result, the laboratory isolation rate amounted to 1/100 000 people for the period, and when applying only the ATS criteria, the prevalence of NTM disease was 0,23 per 100 000 people. In both cases, we reported that NTM disease incidence remains low as compared to tuberculosis, though with an increasing trend. The prevalence of NTM varied significantly between northern and southern Bulgaria, as well as between the capital and the rest of the country's regions. Conclusions: Slow growing NTM species predominate in Bulgaria but rapidly growing ones have isolation levels higher than the average for Europe and closer to that of Asian countries. Given the demographic situation in Bulgaria and the changing climatic factors, NTM infections need special attention.

The use of stone to build shelters was an important step in terms of ensuring buildings’ durability and security in pre-historic times. It was also an acknowledgment of power and grandeur when societies demonstrated their respect for their leaders and gods by building stone monuments. For this reason, cathedrals, churches, and other magnificent religious monuments were built around the globe; however, the importance of the stone used in their construction itself is not sufficiently appreciated as the key factor ensuring the endurance of these historic buildings. While Western countries have long used iconic buildings to promote their heritage and advance in other socio-economic aspects, including tourism, other regions are yet to take full advantage of this outlook, even though their monumental structures may be equally impressive. Those important monuments are built of stone, which were referred to as Heritage Stones by some research groups, and their recognition would showcase the cultural and geological diversity of the world. However, there are many stones of heritage importance from geographic areas that are under-represented in the scientific literature and the work of research groups. This paper presents a review of the degree of geographical diversity in the recognition of stones and their heritage value.

The use of stone to build shelters was an important step in terms of ensuring buildings' durability and security in pre-historic times. It was also an acknowledgment of power and grandeur when societies demonstrated their respect for their leaders and gods by building stone monuments. For this reason, cathedrals, churches, and other magnificent religious monuments were built around the globe; however, the importance of the stone used in their construction itself is not sufficiently appreciated as the key factor ensuring the endurance of these historic buildings. While Western countries have long used iconic buildings to promote their heritage and advance in other socio-economic aspects, including tourism, other regions are yet to take full advantage of this outlook, even though their monumental structures may be equally impressive. Those important monuments are built of stone, which were referred to as Heritage Stones by some research groups, and their recognition would showcase the cultural and geological diversity of the world. However, there are many stones of heritage importance from geographic areas that are under-represented in the scientific literature and the work of research groups. This paper presents a review of the degree of geographical diversity in the recognition of stones and their heritage value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Human civilization prospers along rivers worldwide. Here, we investigated human–river relations by revealing the linkage between water and habitability for human settlements, and socioeconomic and cultural development across China. We found that human–water co‐occurrence relationships are self‐similar over sub‐basins for different scales of stream‐order in the river networks. According to the earlier complete demographic census conducted during the reign of the Qing Dynasty (1776), there has been a general tendency for inhabitants to live close to rivers, characterized by population density associated with habitability cored by water under a near‐natural state, which still remains to date (2019) even after long‐term population growth and human interventions. Throughout history, we have extended the linkage of human settlements to humanistic attributes with river networks, derived four different modes of human aggregation towards rivers, and elucidated the geographical diversity of river density, population density, cultural prosperity, and clusters of ethnicity, particularly the Western and the Northeast culture established in the arid (desert) areas, the Huaxia culture in the alluvial plains, the Loess/Nomadic/Southwestern Ethnic culture in the plateaus, and the Qi‐Lu/Wu‐Yue/Linnan culture in coastlands across the whole country. This work is also of significance to understanding long‐term human–water relationships at a global scale.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to health and economics worldwide. Initially, diseases only ravage local populations, while a pandemic could aggravate global economic burdens. Lopinavir/Ritonavir is an anti-HIV drug that was used on small scale patients during SARS, but its effectiveness for COVID-19 treatment is still unclear. Previous studies or meta-analysis have retrieved clinical data of subgroup analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Lopinavir/Ritonavir for the treatment of COVID-19 in a few affected regions. However, geographical diversity and small number of studies bias correction were not achieved in such subgroup analysis of published meta-analysis. The present study demonstrates a practical approach in refining the binary outcome for COVID-19 treatment of Lopinavir/Ritonavir according to geographical location diversity and small number of studies (less than or equal to five) for subgroup analysis. After performing practical approach, the risk of adverse event with LPV/RTV for treatment of COVID-19 becomes nonsignificant compared to previous meta-analysis. Furthermore, we also notice heterogeneity of random effect of meta-analysis may be declined after proposed adjustment. In conclusion, proposed practical approach is recommend for performing a subgroup analysis to avoid concentration in a single geographical location and small number of studies bias.

Introduction: The epidemiology of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is not well known. In this study, we aimed to determine the incidence of NTM isolates and nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD) in five closely located hospitals in an area of northern Spain and analyse differences between them., Material and Methods: Demographic, microbiological, clinical and radiological data were collected retrospectively from all patients with a NTM isolated from respiratory specimens at five hospitals between 2012 and 2019. Mycobacterium gordonae isolates were excluded. Once the data was collected, it was determined which patients met the NMT-PD criteria., Results: 594 patients were included in the study. The mean incidence rate of NTM isolates across all five hospitals in the period studied was 4.15 per 100,000 person-year, while the rate of NTM-PD was 1.2. The annual number of isolates showed an upward trend over this period, but the same did not occur in the number of cases of NTM-PD. The species most frequently isolated were Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) and Mycobacterium xenopi and those most frequently causing disease were MAC and Mycobacterium kansassi . There were significant differences between the five centres., Conclusions: Our results are in line with similar studies in Europe in terms of NTM isolation and NTM-PD incidence and species isolated; however, we do not see the upward trend in NTM-PD rates described elsewhere. The great variability in isolation and disease rates, as well as in species isolated in geographically close areas, underlines, in our opinion, the importance of local environmental factors., (© 2024 Sociedad Española de Neumología y Cirugía Torácica (SEPAR). Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U.)

The COVID-19 outbreak, along with post-pandemic impact has prompted Internet Plus education to re-examine numerous facets of technology-oriented academic research, particularly Educational Big Data (EBD). However, the unexpected transition from face-to-face offline education to online lessons has urged teachers to introduce educational technology into teaching practice, which has had an overwhelming impact on teachers' professional and personal lives. The aim of this present work is to fathom which research foci construct EBD in a comprehensive manner and how positive psychological indicators function in the technostress suffered by less agentic teachers. To this end, CiteSpace 5.7 and VOSviewer were applied to examine a longitudinal study of the literature from Web of Science Core Collection with the objective of uncovering the explicit patterns and knowledge structures in scientific network knowledge maps. Thousand seven hundred and eight articles concerned with educational data that met the criteria were extracted and analyzed. Research spanning 15 years was conducted to reveal that the knowledge base has accumulated dramatically after many governments' initiatives since 2012 with an accelerating annual growth and decreasing geographic imbalance. The review also identified some influential authors and journals whose effects will continue to have future implications. The authors identified several topical foci such as data mining, student performance, learning environment and psychology, learning analytics, and application. More specifically, the authors identified the scientific shift from data mining application to data privacy and educational psychology, from general scan to specific investigation. Among the conclusions, the results highlighted the important integration of educational psychology and technology during critical periods of educational development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak, along with post-pandemic impact has prompted Internet Plus education to re-examine numerous facets of technology-oriented academic research, particularly Educational Big Data (EBD). However, the unexpected transition from face-to-face offline education to online lessons has urged teachers to introduce educational technology into teaching practice, which has had an overwhelming impact on teachers' professional and personal lives. The aim of this present work is to fathom which research foci construct EBD in a comprehensive manner and how positive psychological indicators function in the technostress suffered by less agentic teachers. To this end, CiteSpace 5.7 and VOSviewer were applied to examine a longitudinal study of the literature from Web of Science Core Collection with the objective of uncovering the explicit patterns and knowledge structures in scientific network knowledge maps. Thousand seven hundred and eight articles concerned with educational data that met the criteria were extracted and analyzed. Research spanning 15 years was conducted to reveal that the knowledge base has accumulated dramatically after many governments' initiatives since 2012 with an accelerating annual growth and decreasing geographic imbalance. The review also identified some influential authors and journals whose effects will continue to have future implications. The authors identified several topical foci such as data mining, student performance, learning environment and psychology, learning analytics, and application. More specifically, the authors identified the scientific shift from data mining application to data privacy and educational psychology, from general scan to specific investigation. Among the conclusions, the results highlighted the important integration of educational psychology and technology during critical periods of educational development.

ABSTRACT Bacteria are globally distributed in various environments on earth, but a global view of the geographic diversity and distribution of a single taxon is lacking. The Earth Microbiome Project (EMP) has established a global collection of microbial communities, providing the possibility for such a survey. Myxococcales is a bacterial order with a potent ability to produce diverse natural products and have wide application potential in agriculture, biomedicine, and environmental protection. In this study, through a comparative analysis of the EMP data and public information, we determined that myxobacteria account for 2.34% of the total bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and are one of the most diverse bacterial groups on Earth. Myxococcales OTUs are globally distributed and prefer nonsaline soil and sediments, followed by saline environments, but rarely appear in host-associated environments. Myxobacteria are among the least-investigated bacterial groups. The presently cultured and genome-sequenced myxobacteria are most likely environmentally widespread and abundant taxa, and account for approximately 10% and 7% of the myxobacterial community (>97% similarity), respectively. This global panoramic view of the geographic distribution and diversity of myxobacteria, as well as their cultured and genome-sequenced information, will enable us to explore these important bioresources more reasonably and efficiently. The diversity and distribution of myxobacteria beyond the EMP data are further discussed. IMPORTANCE The diversity and distribution of bacteria are crucial for our understanding of their ecological importance and application potential. Myxobacteria are fascinating prokaryotes with multicellular behaviors and a potent capacity for producing secondary metabolites, and have a wide range of potential applications. The ecological importance of myxobacteria in major ecosystems is becoming established, but the global geographic diversity and distribution remain unclear. From a global survey we revealed that Myxococcales OTUs are globally distributed and prefer nonsaline soil and sediments, followed by saline environments, but rarely appear in host-associated environments. The global panoramic view of the geographic distribution and diversity of myxobacteria, as well as their cultured and genome-sequenced information, will enable us to explore these important bioresources more reasonably and efficiently.

Eco-tourism is one of the fastest growing industries. Eco-tourism is often perceived as a tool for promoting sustainable development in developing countries. Arunachal Pradesh "the land of dawn-lit mountains" has unparalleled natural beauty with extensive geographical diversity and climatic conditions varying from the tropical to the temperate having a variety of wildlife, flora and fauna. The tourist destination of whole Arunachal Pradesh has been divided into twelve divisions of circuit. Objective: The paper aims to find out the potentiality of eco-tourism in Arunachal Pradesh. Methodology: This study is descriptive type in nature based basically on data of secondary sources collected especially from published books, journals, official reports, and websites. Conclusion: Tourism industry can play a vital role in the State. As this sector is a labor-intensive industry, it can open an employment opportunity. A large number of unemployed persons can be employed by this industry. The Government should take necessary steps for development of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational change researchers have reported an accelerated rate of change in modern organizations, with as many as 70% of them reportedly failing to deliver expected results (Church & Dawson, 2018). A consensus is yet to be reached on the main contributors to this high rate of failure. This research explored the concept of power distance to increase understanding and general awareness of its perceived effects on the process of an organizational change in a multicultural environment. The conceptual framework was based on Hofstede's (1980) model of cultural dimensions, which differentiates crossborder business in terms of cultural differences. This article contributes to the existing knowledge on cross-border trade with the finding that the cultural aspect of power distance has an impact on the various elements of cross-border organizational change, such as utilization of hierarchy, relationships and interactions, power balance, organizational structure, and change communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pearl millet is an important cereal crop grown for grain and fodder in arid and semi-arid regions of India. Pyricularia grisea (teleomorph: Magnaporthe grisea) is known to cause devastating foliar blast disease leading to reduction in grain and fodder yields in pearl millet. Internal transcribed spacer sequencing of ribosomal DNA revealed that the foliar blast of pearl millet in western arid Rajasthan, India, is caused by Pyricularia pennisetigena. Multiple sequence alignment validated that the reference sequence of P. pennisetigena from USA, aligned well with that of our sequence of P. pennisetigena. Phylogram clearly delineated P. grisea and P. penniseticola as phylogenetically separate species of Pyricularia compared to P. pennisetigena. Therefore concerted efforts are needed to develop resistant varieties and hybrids in pearl millet against P. pennisetigena in future plant breeding programmes, particularly for western arid Rajasthan. In addition, isolate CZPMP-17, molecularly identified as Colletotrichum sublioneola isolated from P. glaucum causing foliar disease is shown to be a pathogen of pearl millet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the personalized Point-Of-Interest (POI) (or venue) recommendation, the diversity of recommended POIs is an important aspect. Diversity is especially important when POIs are recommended in the target users' frequently visited areas, because users are likely to revisit such areas. In addition to the (POI) category diversity that is a popular diversification objective in recommendation domains, diversification of recommended POI locations is an interesting subject itself. Despite its importance, existing POI recommender studies generally focus on and evaluate prediction accuracy. In this article, geographical diversification (geo-diversification), a novel diversification concept that aims to increase recommendation coverage for a target users' geographic areas of interest, is introduced, from which a method that improves geo-diversity as an addition to existing state-of-the-art POI recommenders is proposed. In experiments with the datasets from two real Location Based Social Networks (LSBNs), we first analyze the performance of four state-of-the-art POI recommenders from various evaluation perspectives including category diversity and geo-diversity that have not been examined previously. The proposed method consistently improves geo-diversity (CPR(geo)@20) by 5 to 12% when combined with four state-of-the-art POI recommenders with negligible prediction accuracy (Recall@20) loss and provides 6 to 18% geo-diversity improvement with tolerable prediction accuracy loss (up to 2.4%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animation is pervasive. As Suzanne Buchan has observed, “[i]t is transforming cinema, is the basis for computer games, is used throughout the web, and advertising and propaganda learned early on its power to astonish, influence and coerce” (1). Animated landscape, therefore, cannot be simply understood as a background for films or a decorative image that moves; instead, it should be considered in broader artistic, technological, philosophical, cultural and political contexts. Arising from the Society for Animation Studies International Conference held in 2013 in Los Angeles, California, and edited by Chris Pallant, Animated Landscapes: History, Form and Function aims to address such issues and explore the rich and challenging terrain of animated landscape. Divided into five parts, the collection is organised according to a logical categorisation and order, bringing together fifteen essays that investigate various aspects of animated landscape, from histories to forms and functions.

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ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the morphology and biometrics of female Amiata donkeys reared in four different areas of southern Tuscany, Italy, to determine the differentiation degree of animals. Four southern Tuscan areas were investigated: two mountainous zones (East and West Amiata) and two flatter areas (Coastal area and Siena surrounding). Morphology and biometrics of adult female Amiata donkeys were collected to determine the homogeneity of the population. Primitive coat markings typical of the breed (shoulder and leg stripes) were found in Amiata donkey. Jennets from Siena surrounding were more dolichomorphic, while West Amiata individuals were smaller. The Principal Component Analysis and the Discriminant Analysis separated the Siena surrounding jennets from the other populations. This result was confirmed through the heatmap representation. The biometrics found in this research confirm that Amiata donkey is a small-medium sized breed suitable for different purposes.

This paper explores how geographical diversity of an alliance portfolio benefits resource-based firm innovation. We propose that there are inverted U-shaped relationships between geographical diversity of an alliance portfolio and a firm's radical and incremental innovation. In addition, resource characteristics and alliance governance structures are considered as important moderators between geographically diverse alliances and innovation. Relevant resources of alliance partners help focal firms to acquire valuable resources from different locations, thus improving organizational capabilities and achieving innovation. Governance structure choices concentrate on opportunism and transaction cost in coordinating resource sharing and recombination activities, which determine focal firms' cost of knowledge management and then innovation outcome. Our research could advance the literature on alliance portfolio diversity by studying how firms use their alliance portfolio from diverse locations to recombine resources and then to enhance innovation, which remains less explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaboration in innovation is considered an effective strategy to overcome barriers to innovate in SMEs. However, resource constraints and risk of knowledge leakage force management in SMEs to be selective with whom and where to collaborate. Still little is known about interactions between types of partners and their geographical location. This paper sheds new light on the relation between functional and geographical diversity in innovation partners and new-to-the-market and new-to-the-firm innovation performance in SMEs. Using data from two waves (2008 and 2010) of the Community Innovation Survey for Belgium, a positive relation is found between market partners and innovation new-to-the-firm, and between science and global partners and innovation new-to-the-market. A larger diversity in type and in geographical spread of partners is found to be positively associated with innovation new-to-the-market. Cooperation with a diverse set of market partners enhances new-to-the-firm innovation. More diversity in science partners enhances the balance between new-to-the-firm and new-to-the-market innovation. Diversity among international partners enhances new-to-the-firm and new-to-the-market innovation, but not the balance between both. A cooperation strategy balancing functional with geographical partner diversity enhances the balance between new-to-the-firm versus new-to-the-market innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shiitake [Lentinula edodes (Berk) Pegler] mushroom (SM) has evolved into an important specialty food owing to its high nutritional content and medicinal properties. Progress on genetic improvement is limited due to a narrow genetic base. Genetic divergence and variability in 19 strains of SM were analyzed. Cultivation trials were conducted under environmentally controlled conditions suitable for growing L. edodes on synthetic logs. Mahalanobis distance (D2) and cluster analysis using Tocher’s method was used to ascertain genetic diversity. Heritability, genetic advance and components of variances were determined through variability studies. Genotypes were clustered into three major groups based on yield and yield attributing traits. The strains took an average period of 85 days from incubation to first fruiting; DMRO-388s had the shortest duration of 50 days. Days from incubation to first fruiting exhibited high heritability (97.76%) with fair genetic advance (22.83) having substantial practical utility for selection in L. edodes. Cluster analysis for shiitake improvement predicted the most promising crosses would be between DMRO-23×DMRO-388s, DMRO-34×DMRO-623, and DMRO-35×DMRO-388s. The DMRO-388s and DMRO-327 strains can be successfully cultivated on wheat straw based substrate due its quick colonization abilities. The pre-incubation period using a sawdust based cultivation system appears to shorten the cropping cycle of L. edodes which has economic implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

R&D partner diversity is generally acknowledged to help organizations to improve innovation performance. This study investigates the influence mechanism in depth by introducing technological diversification as mediator and the structural holes of new knowledge elements from R&D partners and the degree centrality of the focal organization’s knowledge elements as two moderators. The empirical analysis is based on patent data in the emerging nano-biopharmaceutical field and includes 554 innovative organizations. Results show that partners’ organizational diversity and geographical diversity have positive effects on focal organizations’ innovation performance through improving technological diversification. The structural holes of new knowledge elements from R&D partners and the degree centrality of the focal organization’s knowledge elements moderate the process in the way that when they are at high levels, the indirect positive effects of partner diversity on innovation performance through technological diversification are strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erasure code-based distributed storage systems are increasingly being used by storage providers for big data storage since they offer the same reliability as replication with a significant decrease in the amount of storage required. But, when it comes to a storage system with data nodes spread across a very large geographical area, the node’s recovery performance is affected by various factors that are both network and computation related. In this paper, we present a XOR-based code supplemented with the ideas of parity duplication and rack awareness that could be adopted in such storage clusters to improve the recovery performance during node failures and compare it with popular implementations of erasure codes, namely Facebook’s Reed-Solomon codes and XORBAS local recovery codes. The code performance along with the proposed ideas are evaluated on a geo-diverse cluster deployed on the NeCTAR research cloud. We also present a scheme for intelligently placing blocks of coded storage depending on the design of the code, inspired by local reconstruction codes. The sum of all these propositions could offer a better solution for applications that are deployed on coded storage systems that are geographically distributed, in which storage constraints make triple replication not affordable, at the same time ensuring minimal recovery time is a strict requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the tail muscle microbiota of pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) sourced from five countries across Central and South America and Southeast Asia were determined and compared. The genomic DNA was sequenced at around 10× coverage for each geographical location and was assembled de novo for comparative analysis. The assembled sequences for all the lines were classified based on their similarity to the sequences in the public database. We found that there is high correlation among the microbiota of shrimp from disparate regions, as well as the presence of some DNA from bacteria known to cause food poisoning in humans. Sequencing data has been deposited at NCBI-SRA database and can be found under the BioProject ID PRJNA282154.

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an important horticultural plant with several cultivated forms planted in different regions of Iran. Due to its economic importance, studies have been carried out to illustrate the genetic diversity at the chromosomal and molecular levels in different pomegranate cultivars growing in this region. This study analyzed chromosome pairing and B-chromosomes of 21 pomegranate cultivars and tried to investigate the effects of geographical parameters like altitude and longitude as well as elevation and the mean annual rainfall on cytogenetic diversity of these taxa. An ANOVA test revealed the presence of a significant difference for chiasmata and chromosome pairing among the cultivars, indicating their genetic differences. A positive significant correlation was observed between total chiasma frequency and terminal chiasmata, intercalary chiasmata and the mean number of quadrivalents. A significant positive correlation was observed between annual rainfall and the mean number of rod bivalents, while a significant negative correlation was found for the number of ring bivalents. Altitude did not show any correlation with the cytogenetic characters studied, but showed a significant negative correlation with the number of univalents. Longitude showed significant positive correlation with the number of ring bivalents and a negative correlation with the number of univalents and intercalary chiasmata. PCA analysis showed that both geographical and cytological features contribute greatly in the diversity observed in the pomegranate cultivars. The occurrence of multipolar cells and unreduced pollen grains were observed in some of the cultivars.A romã (Punica granatum L.) é uma planta hortícola importante com diversas formas de cultura plantadas em diferentes regiões do Irã. Devido à sua importância econômica, alguns estudos genéticos têm sido realizados para ilustrar a diversidade genética em ambos os níveis cromossômico e molecular em diferentes cultivares de romã que crescem neste país. O presente estudo considera as análises de pareamento cromossômico e cromossomo-B em 21 cultivares de romã e tenta investigar os efeitos dos parâmetros geográficos, como altitude e longitude, bem como a elevação e a queda de chuva média anual sobre a diversidade citogenética destes cultivares. O teste ANOVA revelou a presença de uma diferença significativa para quiasmas e emparelhamento de cromossomos entre as cultivares, indicando a sua diversidade genética. A correlação positiva e significativa foi observada entre o freqüência total de quiamas de quiasmas terminais, quiasmas intercalares e o número médio de quadrivalentes. Uma correlação positiva foi observada entre a queda da chuva anual e o número médio de bivalentes haste, com correlação negativa significativa com o número de bivalentes anel. A altitude não mostrou qualquer correlação com caracteres citogenéticos estudados, enquanto a altitude apresentou correlação negativa significativa com o número de monovalentes. A longitude mostrou correlação positiva e significativa com o número de bivalentes anel e correlação negativa com o número de univalentes e chismata intercalares. A análise de PCA mostrou que tanto as características geográficas quanto citológicos podem contribuir grandemente na diversidade observada nas cultivares de romã. A ocorrência de células multipolares e grãos de pólen não reduzidos foram observados em alguns dos cultivares.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic relationships of 28 chickpea accessions from diverse origin using AFLP markers. On average, 13 polymorphic bands per primer were observed in AFLP analysis. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.71, ranging from 0.48 to 0.92. The lowest and the highest PIC value were recorded for primer P-GAG/M-GC and P-AT/M-GC, respectively. The average GD, based on Fst values among the 21 accessions was 0.42, ranging from 0.61 to 0.16. From the UPGMA dendrogram, it is discernible that material taken for the analysis can be divided in four clusters. The results indicate that the greatest genetic diversity occurs in Afghanistan, Iran and Lebanon. In many cases, the diversity between individuals of an accession is as great as between individuals of different accessions. Based on DNA markers it is concluded that there are three centers of diversity for chickpea: Pakistan-Afghanistan, Iran-Turkey and Syria-Lebanon. India and Ethiopia, which were previously considered as a secondary center of diversity for chickpea, showed lower diversity than the above regions.

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