bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Field-based evidence of rose seed-infesting wasps Megastigmus aculeatus (Swederus) surviving bird gut passage
Authors: Hernández Ángel 
Published: June 2009

AbstractThe survival of fruit-infesting insects after bird ingestion and gut processing has been verified in very few cases, and little is known about its ecological significance. It has already been reported that the torymid wasp Megastigmus aculeatus (Swederus) survives passage through the digestive tract of frugivorous birds in the larval stage in rose seeds, but now, for the first time this has been demonstrated in hips consumed by birds in a natural environment, after collecting droppings in the field during winter and verifying wasp survival and emergence almost two years later. The rate of rose seed infestation was c.5% and the survival rate c.88%. The adult emergence rate was noticeably lower in droppings collected in early winter (54.5%) than late winter (87.5%), probably because the seeds collected in early winter were kept at room temperature (approximately 22° C) before those collected in late winter and the minimum time of exposure to low temperatures needed by the larvae to complete the diapause and continue morphogenesis had not elapsed. The results support the hypothesis that the role of frugivorous birds, particularly Turdus blackbirds and thrushes in Europe, could facilitate the dispersion of this torymid species as adult wasps have very limited flight capacity.
An investigation of factors influencing erythrocyte morphology of red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus)
Authors: Davis Andrew , Milanovich Joseph , DeVore Jayna , Maerz John 
Published: June 2009

Abstract
Amphibians have long been known to display wide variation in erythrocyte morphology across species, but within species there has been little attention given to individual variation in red blood cell morphology. We captured 49 red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) from central Pennsylvania, USA and used image analysis procedures to measure erythrocyte morphology (size and shape) on blood smears made from all individuals. We then statistically examined whether variation in snout-vent-length, sex, tail loss, or capture location influenced these cell variables. Only snout-vent-length affected erythrocyte size and shape, with increasing body sizes associated with increasing cell areas and increasingly rounder cells. Further, erythrocyte shape was also associated with a measure of body condition that was corrected for body size, such that individuals with high body condition scores had rounder cells. Given the oxygen-carrying role of erythrocytes in all vertebrates, we suspect this discovery is related to size-related changes in oxygen demand, since total oxygen consumption increases with body size in an allometric manner. While our results warrant further investigation to understand the mechanism, the association we found between cell roundness and both body size and condition nevertheless indicates this parameter could be used to assess the health state of plethodontid salamanders in future research, provided non-destructive sampling is employed. Our results also underscore the value of hematological investigations in the study of animal biology.
Biological observations on the common guitarfish Rhinobatos rhinobatos from İskenderun Bay (Turkey, Eastern Mediterranean)
Authors: Çek Şehriban , Başusta Nuri , Demirhan Sefa Ayhan , Karalar Murat 
Published: June 2009

Abstract
Histological examination of the gonads showed that spermatogenesis occurs in every male R. rhinobatos collected in autumn and winter months of the year. The testis was composed of lobes having numerous spermatocysts in a dorsoventral zonated arrangement. Present results suggest that since R. rhinobatos have a cystic mode of spermatogenesis it can be used as a model for biomedical and toxicological studies. Eight stages of maturation for females and seven stages of maturation for males were identified. Moreover, vitellogenic oocytes were consistently found in every female collected during the summer months. In vitellogenic oocytes, yolk is present as pleomorphic droplets and very often; small yolk droplets have a crystalline configuration. These data suggest that both sexes are reproductively active at different times of the year. Both, the right ovary/testis and the left ovary/testis were functional. Ripe oocytes in the ovaries were usually symmetrically distributed. The population consisted of aplacental viviparous individuals with lecithotrophic embryo development. Although, sex ratios of R. rhinobatos were not significantly different from the expected 1:1 ratio (p>0.05), slightly female biased sex ration were recorded.
Delta3D: A Complete Open Source Game and Simulation Engine for Building Military Training Systems
Authors: McDowell Perry , Darken Rudolph , Sullivan Joe , Johnson Erik 
Published: June 2009

Delta3D, the open source game and simulation engine built for military training, is continuing to be improved to meet the requirements of the military users. The most recent upgrades, available in versions 1.4 and later, include adding capability for After Action Review, integration with SCORM-compliant learning management systems (LMS's), and distributed interactive simulation (DIS) networking. Additionally, more applications, created by both government users and civilian companies, continue to be built using Delta3D and its expanding capabilities With these added features, Delta3D has become the engine of choice for several military simulations, including programs of record. The developers and program managers of these programs were attracted by its advanced technical features, its lack of proprietary vendor lock-in and licensing fees, and the ability to quickly produce sophisticated applications using Delta3D. This paper discusses the current state of Delta3D version 1.4 and how developers and program managers can use Delta3D to quickly and cheaply build complex training systems. It will also briefly touch upon the systems currently being built using Delta3D and how some of these have been proven to work in a training environment. It will also discuss what improvements to the engine will be added in the near future.
Massively Multi-Player (MMP) Environments for Asymmetric Warfare
Authors: Mayo Michelle , Singer Michael J. , Kusumoto Laura 
Published: June 2009

It has been proposed that the Army needs a high-level training capability for asymmetric missions. Current training programs are focused on conventional warfare and are mainly limited to units that are co-located. Where training capability exists, the scenarios have limited interactivity and fail to address a variety of cross-cultural communication issues that troops encounter in the real world. U.S. Army's Research, Development, and Engineering Command, Simulation, and Training Technology Center in Orlando, Florida, has been conducting an Army Technology Objective (ATO) using massively multi-player (MMP) gaming technology to address these issues. The objective of the ATO is to develop a large-scale, persistent, distributed simulation environment to train soldiers. The research is focused on evaluating the use of MMPs for Army training for operations in asymmetric warfare environments. Weapons of mass destruction, terrorists' actions, crowd and hostage situations, peacekeeping, psychological operations, and civil affairs will be possible interactions faced by the users. OneSAF Objective System computer generated entities will augment the large numbers of real people who will populate the scenarios. The various Armed Forces will be able to engage in such simulation environments anytime, anywhere, using standard personal computers (PCs) connected via the Internet. The paper details research in the formative evaluation of Internet-based training using soldier participants and gaming technologies. Initial test results with the 101st Airborne Division of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and the Illinois Army National Guard are presented to indicate the potential such technology has to meet new asymmetric training needs and optimize use of soldiers' time while preparing for live training events and actual deployment. The paper also addresses the tools needed to build the training environments and required After Action Review capabilities.
Using Graphics Processor Units to Accelerate OneSAF: A Case Study in Technology Transition
Authors: Verdesca Marlo , Munro Jaeson , Hoffman Michael , Bauer Maria , Manocha Dinesh 
Published: June 2009

Ongoing research aims to accelerate the runtime processing speed of the One Semi-Automated Forces (OneSAF) Computer Generated Forces (CGF) simulation by converting and migrating some of the core algorithms from the host central processing unit (CPU) to an onboard auxiliary graphics processor unit (GPU). In this research the GPU chip is regarded as a surrogate stream processor, and appropriate algorithms are designed to map to the GPU architecture. Processing speed gains are realized both through computational capabilities of the GPU as well as through offloading of the host CPU. Technology transfer of this research into the OneSAF baseline is a key requirement of this research. The OneSAF development program focuses on the same issues of scalability and runtime performance that will be directly affected by use of GPUs. As program architects are marshalling conventional approaches for resolving these challenges, the introduction of GPU-based solutions is being realized. This paper examines the challenges, planned approaches, and benchmarked results for using GPUs to accelerate OneSAF simulation.
Injecting Realistic Human Models into the Optical Display of A Future Land Warrior System for Embedded Training Purposes
Authors: Sottilare Robert , Marshall Laurie D. , Martin Ricardo , Morgan Justin 
Published: June 2009

Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) have traditionally been and are currently utilized in a variety of applications including training, entertainment, and military operations. Most applications of HMDs seek to provide the user with enriched information, that is, information beyond that of what a human can gather with only biological vision. The Land Warrior is an operational system that utilizes a HMD. For Land Warrior, the HMD provides the Soldier better battle field situational understanding through text by communicating command and control information. Other Land Warrior battlefield tasks include target detection and recognition. This paper evaluates the visual components of the current Ground Soldier System (GSS), Land Warrior HMD, analyzes embedded training requirements (specifically detection ranges for embedded virtual targets and human performance issues associated with HMDs), and proposes an optical model to overcome some of the limitations inherent to the current commercial version of the Land Warrior HMD and other commercially-available HMDs. The design quality of the Land Warrior HMD has a direct impact on a soldier's performance in the field. The varying stringent environment in which LW operates provides HMD visual component design challenges, due to the correlation between the equipment style, information formatting, and use environment. Information formatting affects a Soldier's workload. The current LW HMD visual implementation contains information formatting limitations based on its ability to scale to other resolutions and size linearly. By increasing the performance of the HMD of the Land Warrior System, the potential to improve readiness and survivability also increase. Forty-five thousand sets of Land Warrior equipment will be fielded between 2001 and 2014.
A Model of 21st Century Counterinsurgency Warfare
Authors: Schaffer Marvin Baker 
Published: June 2009

The insurgency warfare being practiced by global terrorists in the 21st Century is put in a historical context and modeled mathematically. The most widely known insurgency model is the “fish in the sea” formulation attributed to Mao Tse-tung. Fundamentally, it is a phased attrition model that can be described by variations of the Lanchester equations. In a collective sense, much of the Vietnam War fits that formulation. However, the 21st Century has featured a different type of insurgency where attrition is not the decisive factor on either side. Today's insurgencies are psychological wars of political endurance, not attrition. They require different mathematics. The mathematical formulation of 21st Century counterinsurgency warfare contains two stochastic time series, the first dealing with defeat and the second success. The defeat portion deals with the likelihood of precipitous troop withdrawals permitting terrorist insurgents to declare victory in a de facto sense. The defeat probability roughly mirrors public opinion polls. Public opinion polls are probabilistic because they are heavily influenced by short-term unpredictable events, some detrimental to the war effort and some supporting it. In a sense, this is similar to the fluctuations of the stock market or exchange rate variations. They are also influenced by the duration of the war and accumulated casualties, both in a negative sense. Consequently, the defeat probability trends upward asymptotically toward unity over time although the instantaneous values cluster above and below the trend curve. In a democracy, decision makers or funding bodies can resist adverse polls but not indefinitely. If war support polls are heavily negative, it is probable that decision makers will eventually move to cut their losses and pull out. The second portion of the model independently deals with success by counterinsurgency forces; i.e., a level of stability and security that permits at least a partial, phased troop draw down. It is based on estimates of the strength and quality of the host country military and police forces, the level of insurgent-initiated violence, the state of the host country economy, the services provided by the host government, and the willingness of the host government to address the insurgency in an even-handed manner. The success model resembles the Hamlet Evaluation System used during the Vietnam War. The instantaneous measures of success fluctuate above and below the trend curve with a variance that can be small, approaching determinacy. The success model has fixed, predetermined benchmarks that can but may not be achieved depending on the level of effort relative to the insurgent opposition. Both parts of the model deal with counterinsurgent troop withdrawals, one precipitous and one gradual and phased. In neither of the cases considered, de facto defeat or phased withdrawal, does the model deal with “military” defeat or victory. If the type of insurgencies encountered in the 21st Century become the norm, military defeat and victory are irrelevant.
Applying Software Product Line Technology to Simulation Modeling of Emergency Response Facility
Authors: Shao Guodong , Lee Y. Tina 
Published: June 2009

This paper proposes an effective, reusable solution for modeling and simulation. The approach is to develop a Software Product Line (SPL) architecture that explicitly captures the commonality and variability in a family of similar simulation systems. First responders and incident management personnel need better training resources to prepare for possible catastrophic events, including natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Live exercises are often very expensive to organize and conduct. With modeling and simulation technology, simulation-based exercise and training models could be developed. The SPL technology enables the simulation system to easily adapt to multiple contexts and allows the simulation system to reconfigure quickly. SPL models can be developed at different levels of scope and depth to suit the emergency responder's needs. By reusing the system requirement analysis, software architectures, and design, the development time is shorter, the development cost is lower, and the quality is easily maintained. This paper focuses on the application of SPL technology to simulation systems of emergency facilities, such as hospital emergency rooms, on-site emergency triage stations, decontamination stations, first-aid stations, and ambulances. The paper also introduces a prototype simulation of the SPL member system – a hospital emergency room simulation system that has been developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The detailed modeling of a family of emergency response facility simulation systems is performed based on the Product Line Unified Modeling Language (UML)-based Software engineering (PLUS) method.
Availability of Weapon Systems with Air-attack Missions
Authors: Upadhya K. Sadananda , Srinivasan N. K. 
Published: June 2009

During air-attack operations, i.e., air-to-air and land-air operations in battles, maintaining a high level of availability of weapon systems (aircraft and weapons) becomes important from the point of view of winning the battle. Availability may depend on severity of combat operations, attrition factors (battle damage failures and reliability related failures), and logistic delays in weapons deployment and in the repair process. In this paper, a simulation model is developed for availability of weapon systems considering air-to-air and land-air combat operations, multiple failures causing aircraft failure and logistic delays in weapons deployment, and in the repair process. The availability of aircraft and the availability of weapons are separately derived from simulation and the product of them is denoted as combined availability for analysis. The results are analyzed in terms of fluctuations in availability on specified days of battle such as 1, 7, 14, and 21 days from the graphical output. The simulation procedure employs discrete event simulation technique using Monte Carlo methods. The time to failure distribution and the time to repair distribution for the major subsystems of the aircraft and helicopters is considered to be Weibull and exponential respectively. The logistic delay time distribution for weapons replenishment and for logistic factors, spares, crew, and equipment, is considered to be lognormal. Assuming a certain range of values for air-attack missions and for the number of sorties to be generated and a set of reliability and maintainability parameters for the considered major subsystems of the aircraft, the simulation for availability is analyzed. The number of aircraft (both fixed wing and rotary wing) for different missions is varied. The possible reduction in availability due to changes in logistic factors, considering two extreme cases noted as optimistic and pessimistic is specifically examined through simulation runs. The results obtained indicate the pronounced decrease in availability of weapon systems and their fluctuations due to multiple failures and logistic delays in weapons replenishment and in the repair process. The results are, however, highly sensitive to a combination of reliability, maintainability, and logistic delay parameters.
Applying a Methodology to Identify Structural Variances in Interoperations
Authors: Muguira James A. , Tolk Andreas 
Published: June 2009

Specification of the interoperation of components in a system-of-systems is a current research problem. Though the literature has identified several means of breaking this problem into levels, the literature also reveals that no single specification scheme can cover all levels of interoperability well. The base to be covered is broad: one needs an overarching model, such as the DoDAF for the military domain, to guide the capture of conceptual detail and at the same time provide a low-level base set of implementation specific details, such as DEVS, and protocols, like HLA, that create the study system. This paper will describe a framework that will merge the various specification schemes and apply a methodology to define the structural variances between components. An example of multiresolution modeling will demonstrate the application of the methodology.
A Conceptual Model for Interoperable Command and Control Acquisition
Authors: Hamilton John A. 
Published: June 2009

Interoperability is a hard problem and there has been no shortage of searches for quick fixes. Comparatively easy problems are fixed as “proofs of concept,” which then wither when unable to scale up to the huge size of the DoD enterprise. In order to perform a meaningful analysis of individual interoperability tools, we developed a methodology (the Rosen-Parenti Model) and analyzed the domain against which the tools were to be evaluated. We next mapped the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System against that domain. The results were and are instructive. The research team determined that in many cases, the tools themselves were driving processes. In our view, tools should be developed to support processes, not drive processes. First, we will describe the methodology developed and then move into the domain analysis. Although we will briefly report the results of our tool analysis, we stress that our findings indicate that the tools themselves are not terribly important. What is important is the domain model itself. The domain model provides an effective means of developing useful DoD Architecture Framework-compliant architectures. Most importantly, the domain model addresses the very real differences in perspective when implementing a DoDAF-compliant architecture.
Polymorphisms in multidrug resistance-associated protein gene 4 is associated with outcome in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Authors: Ansari Marc , Sauty Géraldine , Labuda Malgorzata , Gagné Vincent , Laverdière Caroline , Moghrabi Albert , Sinnett Daniel , Krajinovic Maja 
Published: June 2009

Abstract
Methotrexate and 6-mercaptopurine, important components of acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment, are substrates for multidrug resistance-associated protein MRP4. Eight single nucleotide polymorphisms were analyzed in MRP4 gene, and 4 variants were identified as tagSNPs with frequency more than or equal to 5%. They were investigated for association with treatment responses in 275 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The TC genotype of the regulatory T-1393C polymorphism was associated with better event-free survival (P = .02) and lower methotrexate plasma levels (P = .01). The CA genotype of A934C (Lys304Asn) substitution correlated in contrast with lower event-free survival (P = .02) and higher frequency of high-grade thrombocytopenia (P = .01). Gene reporter assay showed that the promoter haplotype uniquely tagged by the C-1393 allele conferred higher promoter activity compared with remaining haplotypes (P < .001). Further analyses are needed to replicate this pilot study and get closer insight into the functional effect of these polymorphisms.