The feeding habits of the sharpnose shark Rhizoprionodon longurio of the SE Gulf of California are described using the stomach contents of 250 specimens (135 males and 115 females) obtained weekly from December 2007 to March 2008 in the two main landing sites of the artisanal fishing fleet of Mazatlan. The mean total length (TL) was 77.7 ± 12.8 cm and the respective ranges for males and females were 60-120 cm and 52- 120 cm. Size distribution showed two modal groups (juveniles: 52-80 cm, mode 72.5 cm, and adults: 85-140 cm, mode 92.5 cm). Out of the 395 preys identified in 235 stomachs with identifiable contents, the most important were cephalopods (Index of Relative Importance, IRI = 93.1%), mainly Argonauta spp. (IRI = 92.9%). The total IRI value for fish was 5.9%, mostly represented by Oligoplites refulgens and Oligoplites sp. (joint IRI value = 4.8%). The diversity of the stomach contents of males and females was not significantly different, and although the values of diversity, equitability and dietary breadth indexes were lower in juveniles than in adults, ANOSIM analysis did not show differences in dietary habits related to age and sex. The results indicate a specialized feeding behaviour, with Argonauta spp. as preferred prey. This behaviour does not agree with all previous information on R. longurio, and is probably due to local availability of this prey during the sampling period.


The financial crisis led to a broad consensus among policy-makers and regulators that macro-prudential frameworks, in addition to micro-prudential policy, must be part of the solution to ensure the resilience of the financial system. The counter-cyclical capital buffer represents the first step in this direction taken by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Regarding liquidity issues, two micro-prudential standards have been designed. The delegated act implementing the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) at the European level has recently been adopted by the European Commission and the net stable funding ratio (NSFR) standard has just been finalised by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and was published on 31 October. After implementing these new standards, it will be necessary to monitor their impact on banks' behaviour, market liquidity, monetary policy and financial stability before considering introducing any additional instruments. At this stage, the need for a liquidity-based macro-prudential tool is in the early stages of identification and discussion. Therefore, this special feature aims to provide some initial technical considerations regarding the macro-prudential use of the NSFR. The discussion considers two broad perspectives. The first is the need for a counter-cyclical NSFR to complement the counter-cyclical capital buffer. While capital and liquidity standards pursue different objectives, the two can also be used in conjunction depending on the specific risk to financial stability being targeted. The second perspective regards the use of the NSFR as a stand-alone macro-prudential tool, together with its potential trigger mechanism and its use in the current low yield environment. JEL Classification: G00


Studies in recent years have revealed the challenges involved in deploying ERP solutions due to its complexity. Before attempting to implement ERP systems, it is essential to study various aspects such as project management, training, and change management in detail to manage the associated risks. When an ERP project is undertaken with insufficient planning, it may result in failure to integrate business processes and in substantial financial loss. Research has been pursued to identify critical risk/failure factors that may arise during implementation and the measures that should be taken to manage them. However, there is lack of research in identifying the management of critical risk/failure factor using a structured methodology. This raises a question of 'can a structured methodology identify and manage critical risk/failure factors and support deploying ERP solutions with a better quality?' A study of Microsoft Sure Step Methodology is performed to identify critical risk/failure factors that frequently occur during ERP implementation. These factors are derived from 8 articles. On determining critical risk/failure factors, we investigated if Sure Step methodology likely contains procedures that approach these factors.


This treatise addresses the elements of the law of intellectual property (IP)—namely, copyright, trademark, and right of publicity—most important to members of the sport media. Statutes and court decisions under copyright include definition, rights of owners, fair use, licenses, secondary transmission, file sharing, and work for hire. Under trademark name confusion, dilution, trade dress, abandonment, and cancellation are described, and the current use of the right of publicity, a new member of the IP group, among athletes and entertainers is outlined. Infringement and criminal violation of IP rights are mentioned. The results of court cases focus on IP decisions in sport.


Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with persistent sleep-wake dysfunction, including insomnia and circadian rhythm disruption, which can exacerbate functional outcomes including mood, pain, and quality of life. Present therapies to treat sleep-wake disturbances in those with TBI (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia) are limited by marginal efficacy, poor patient acceptability, and/or high patient/provider burden. Thus, this study aimed to assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of morning bright light therapy, to improve sleep in Veterans with TBI (NCT03578003). Thirty-three Veterans with history of TBI were prospectively enrolled in a single-arm, open-label intervention using a lightbox (~10,000 lux at the eye) for 60-minutes every morning for 4-weeks. Pre- and post-intervention outcomes included questionnaires related to sleep, mood, TBI, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and pain; wrist actigraphy as a proxy for objective sleep; and blood-based biomarkers related to TBI/sleep. The protocol was rated favorably by ~75% of participants, with adherence to the lightbox and actigraphy being ~87% and 97%, respectively. Post-intervention improvements were observed in self-reported symptoms related to insomnia, mood, and pain; actigraphy-derived measures of sleep; and blood-based biomarkers related to peripheral inflammatory balance. The severity of comorbid PTSD was a significant positive predictor of response to treatment. Morning bright light therapy is a feasible and acceptable intervention that shows preliminary efficacy to treat disrupted sleep in Veterans with TBI. A full-scale randomized, placebo-controlled study with longitudinal follow-up is warranted to assess the efficacy of morning bright light therapy to improve sleep, biomarkers, and other TBI related symptoms.


Context. Theoretically, rotation-induced chemical mixing in massive stars has far reaching evolutionary consequences, affecting the sequence of morphological phases, lifetimes, nucleosynthesis, and supernova characteristics. Aims. Using a sample of 72 presumably single O-type giants to supergiants observed in the context of the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey (VFTS), we aim to investigate rotational mixing in evolved core-hydrogen burning stars initially more massive than 15 M by analysing their surface nitrogen abundances. Methods. Using stellar and wind properties derived in a previous VFTS study we computed synthetic spectra for a set of up to 21 N ii-v lines in the optical spectral range, using the non-LTE atmosphere code fastwind. We constrained the nitrogen abundance by fitting the equivalent widths of relatively strong lines that are sensitive to changes in the abundance of this element. Given the quality of the data, we constrained the nitrogen abundance in 38 cases; for 34 stars only upper limits could be derived, which includes almost all stars rotating at 3e sin i > 200 km s−1. Results. We analysed the nitrogen abundance as a function of projected rotation rate 3e sin i and confronted it with predictions of rotational mixing. We found a group of N-enhanced slowly-spinning stars that is not in accordance with predictions of rotational mixing in single stars. Among O-type stars with (rotation-corrected) gravities less than log gc = 3.75 this group constitutes 30−40 percent of the population. We found a correlation between nitrogen and helium abundance which is consistent with expectations, suggesting that, whatever the mechanism that brings N to the surface, it displays CNO-processed material. For the rapidly-spinning O-type stars we can only provide upper limits on the nitrogen abundance, which are not in violation with theoretical expectations. Hence, the data cannot be used to test the physics of rotation induced mixing in the regime of high spin rates. Conclusions. While the surface abundances of 60-70 percent of presumed single O-type giants to supergiants behave in conformity with expectations, at least 30-40 percent of our sample can not be understood in the current framework of rotational mixing for single stars. Even though we have excluded stars showing radial velocity variations, of our sample may have remained contaminated by postinteraction binary products. Hence, it is plausible that effects of binary interaction need to be considered to understand their surface properties. Alternatively, or in conjunction, the effects of magnetic fields or alternative mass-loss recipes may need to be invoked.


Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a collection of small numbers of cells that have the potential to induce all cell types within the tumor mass and have self-renewal capacity. Today, the reasons for the failure of conventional cancer therapies lie in the fact that they are unable to target cancer stem cells. Targeting the cancer stem cell is thought to provide a very important and revolutionary advance in cancer cell targeting and therapy.

Tumor hypoxia is a characteristic of solid tumors and has been associated with poor prognosis and resistance to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. HIF-1 (Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1) is the major transcription factor activated in hypoxic conditions and allows transcriptional activation of various genes that are effective for the adaptation of the cell to the hypoxic condition. Experimental studies have provided evidence that also hypoxia and HIF-1α promote the cancer stem cell phenotype and targeting of HIF-1α may reduce or eliminate cancer stem cells.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women worldwide and affects 10% of the world's female population. 25% to 30% of patients with invasive breast cancer still die from this disease. The recurrence frequency of the disease varies between 60% and 80% within the first 3 years after treatment. In order to target breast cancer stem cells more effectively, in this study we aimed to reveal whether the hypoxic conditions in the tumor, which act as the stem cell production area, at the same time creates resistance to therapy. Thus, we evaluated effect of CSCs targeting agent Salinomycin alone or in combination with Everolimus which is an m-TOR and HIF-1α inhibitor on parental MCF-7 and MDA-231 breast cancer cells and their isolated CSCs in hypoxic conditions.

Here it is presented that starting with 2 mM, increased concentrations of salinomycin significantly inhibits proliferation and induce apoptosis in hypoxia, in both parental MCF-7 and MDA-231 breast cancer cells and in their isolated CSCs. The most effective concentration of salinomycin was 10 mM and induced around 35% and 45% of apoptosis in both parental MCF-7 and MDA-231 and their isolated CSCs, respectively. Whereas everolimus alone was not as effective as salinomycin, as 25 mM everolimus induced 30% and 15% of growth inhibition or apoptosis in both parental and CSCs of MCF-7 and MDA-231 cellsin hypoxia, respectively. When lower concentrations of salinomycin (2mM) and everolimus (5mM) was used in combination they show synergistic effect and able to inhibit proliferation at least 35% and 45% in both parental and CSCs of MCF-7 and MDA-231 cells in hypoxia, respectively. Similar results were also obtained for induction of apoptosis in response to salinomycin + everolimus treatment in hypoxia in both parental and CSCs of MCF-7 and MDA-231 cells. Hence using lower concentrations of salinomycin and everolimus together may provide an effective targeting strategy for hypoxic CSCs and may contribute to the development of novel strategies for therapeutic intervention in breast cancer.


A field data set collected under different conditions is analyzed to characterize the spatial arrangement of two large inflows (Ebro and Segre) with distinct physical‐chemical characteristics as they join at the upstream end of Ribarroja reservoir in northern Spain. Given the short average residence time of water in the reservoir, the spatial arrangement of the rivers at their confluence and their mixing rates are likely the drivers of the stratification patterns observed near the dam. In winter, inflows have similar densities—Δρ/ρ0 ≈ O(10−5)—and their spatial distribution is largely determined by inertial forces, and in particular, by the discharge ratio. Downstream of the confluence, both rivers flow side by side and largely unmixed over long distances. In summer, with Δρ/ρ0 of O(10−3), the flow fields at the confluence are largely controlled by buoyancy forces. Atmospheric forcing during strong wind events and centrifugal forces caused by the meandering shape of the reservoir induce significant tilting of the isotherms, leading to localized high mixing rates. Mixing, in general, though is weak at this time of the year. In fall and early winter, density differences are largely controlled by conductivity differences between the incoming flows. The warmer Ebro water, with larger thermal inertia, flows beneath the colder Segre water. The spatial arrangement of the inflows is largely controlled by the discharge ratio and mixing between sources is strong, likely as a result of mixed water being denser than either of the incoming flows.


To capture the deliverable of Innovation, the initial conditions for all related type of capitals must be considered to model for innovation.
Such Paradigm in modelling becomes key in allowing for bidirectional relations between different types of capital.

The model integrates HC, RC, and SC in a single model. This is determined by agents behavior of the skilled labor by earning status, availability of jobs, and immigration friction, their willingness-to-become a part of the skilled labor in a country. Immigration proceeds in our model, if unemployment is increased or earning potential is reduced, agents then seek to immigrate causing a reduction in overall country's innovation wealth and capital.

Endogeneity is given due to the fact that labor type awareness as well as their willingness-to-remain in a certain country. Vice versa, rivalry determines wages and therefore skilled labor relocation.

Market entry and exit decisions as well as innovation wealth creation and overall GDP delta produced based on innovation wealth settings are driven by the underlying demand function. We utilize GDP Delta as a competition to calculate competitive dynamics. Countries compete on the policies instrument utilized.

Policy outcomes are evaluated in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness is primarily measured via acceleration (innovation-speed) to overtake another country.

An effective policy initiates skilled labor to remain and produce brain gain. also accounting for emerging behavior of salary level changes. On the contrary, efficiency measures the trade-off between policy effectiveness and associated costs. For instance, policies may boost innovation levels remarkably, but produce extraordinary additional salary hikes that may reduce competitive advantage . Direct policy costs such as demand influence as well as market flex in terms of labor surplus and costs are evaluated.


Can individuals believe that they are acting with integrity, yet in disobedience to the dictates of their conscience? Can they retain fidelity to their conscience while ignoring a sense of what integrity requires? Integrity and conscience are often thought to be closely related, perhaps even different aspects of a single impulse. This timely book supports a different and more complicated view. Acting with integrity and obeying one's conscience might be mutually reinforcing in some settings, but in others they can live in varying degrees of mutual tension. Bringing together prominent scholars of legal theory and political philosophy, the volume addresses both classic ruminations on integrity and conscience by Plato, Hume, and Kant as well as more contemporary examinations of professional ethics and the complex relations among politics, law and personal morality.


Stress analysis programs such as MULSIM/NL, LAMODEL, MinSim 2000, and EXAMINE are used in the mining industry to analyze stresses and displacements in coal mines, platinum mines, gold reefs, and tabular-type deposits. These relatively simple numerical models can efficiently simulate yielding and failure of a rock mass near a mine opening and subsequent stress transfer. The main input parameters for these models are a family of nonlinear stress-strain curves for the in-seam material. For many applications of these models, such as in coal mining, extensive field measurements and observations exist from which to estimate these stress-strain curves and calibrate the numerical models; however, such measurements are lacking for other types of mines. A three-step method is presented to determine nonlinear stressstrain curves for boundary-element (BE) programs used in many mining applications. The method requires a suite of laboratoryscale strength tests at various confining pressures. Note that this analysis uses laboratory -measured strength and modulus properties of alluvium. The dependency of the mechanical properties of alluvium on scale has not been established, although more tests are being planned. However, it is believed that the relative comparisons performed are valuable regardless of scale effects. First, the FLAC2D computer program is used to model the laboratory tests and determine cohesion (c) and friction angle (φ) for a Mohr-Coulomb material model. Second, another FLAC2D model uses the c and φ values to calculate vertical stress and strain around a single opening in the rock mass. This model calculates the stress-strain path of points at various distances from the opening boundary. Finally, based on these stress-strain paths, the stress-strain curves needed for a BE analysis are derived. This three-step method was demonstrated in a large, flat-lying underground test facility in very weak rock. The BE analyses agreed well with observations of failure at the test facility and provided a basis for evaluating the behavior of alternative layouts. INTRODUCTION


This companion article to the Fall 2007 A Comparative Guide to the Eastern Public Trust Doctrines explores the state public trust doctrines - emphasis on the plural - in the 19 western states. In so doing, this Article seeks to make the larger point that, while the broad contours of the public trust doctrine, especially regarding state ownership of the beds and banks of navigable waters, have a federal law basis, the details of how public trust principles actually apply vary considerably from state to state. Public trust law, in other words, is very much a species of state common law. Moreover, as with other forms of common law, states have evolved their public trust doctrines in light of the particular histories, perceived needs, and perceived problems of each state. This Article notes that, in the West, four factors have been most important in the evolution of state public trust doctrines: (1) the severing of water rights from real property ownership and the riparian rights doctrine; (2) subsequent state declarations of public ownership of fresh water; (3) clear and explicit perceptions of shortages of water, submerged lands, and environmental amenities; and (4) a willingness to raise water and other environmental issues to constitutional status and/or to incorporate broad public trust mandates into statutes. From these factors, two important trends in western states' public trust doctrines have emerged: (1) the extension of public rights based on states' ownership of the water itself; and (2) an increasing, and still cutting-edge, expansion of public trust concepts into ecological public trust doctrines that are increasingly protecting species, ecosystems and the public values that they provide. The Article includes an extensive Appendix that summarizes each of the 19 states' public trust doctrines. These summaries include relevant constitutional provisions, statutory provisions, and cases.


This paper presents a class of Stochastic Petri Nets with concurrent transition firings. It is assumed that transitions occur in steps and for every step each enabled transition decides probabilistically whether it wants to participate in the step or not. Among the transitions which want to participate in a step, a maximal number is chosen to perform the firing step. The observable behavior of a net is described by labels associated with transitions. For this class of nets the dynamic behavior is defined and equivalence relations are introduced. These equiv- alences extend the well-known trace and bisimulation ones for systems with step semantics onto Stochastic Petri Nets with concurrent transition firing. It is shown that the equivalence notions form a lattice of interrelations. We demonstrate how the equivalences can be used to compare stationary behavior of nets. In addition, we propose a stochastic process algebra that describes a subclass of the nets we introduced.


WE HAVE BEEN operating under the impression that the International Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) is inimical to our effective prosecution of the war on terrorism.1 But what has come to be called lawfare is a weapon that rightly belongs in the hands of those who abide by the LOAC. I submit that our problem lies not with the LOAC, but with our failure to make our own superior claim to legitimacy over terror warfare. We have also failed to exploit legitimacy's strategic advantages in order to sever terrorist organizations and their sponsor states from the public support on which their success depends. Instead of dealing with the hyper-legalization of warfare with an uncoordinated series of isolated tactical solutions of opportunity, we need to develop a comprehensive, proactive lawfighting doctrine of our own. As its overarching strategy, such a doctrine would * Publicly unmask terror warfare as inherently, irremediably in contravention of the letter and the spirit of the Geneva Conventions. * Recognize that lawfare in the hands of those who abide by the LOAC can be a powerful weapon in the Global War on Terrorism. Internationally, there are at least a dozen ways for politically sophisticated nations to expose the fraudulent notion that right is on the side of those who deliberately target innocent noncombatants while claiming protected civilian status for their murderers. One possibility that comes to mind is to press for a UN resolution declaring that * Terrorism is inherently, irremediably illegal as a way of war. * Terrorism directed at particular nationalities, religious communities, or ethnic groups is outright genocide. I do not expect such a resolution would pass in the current international political climate. Still, win or lose, by bringing its case before the UN, the United States would automatically gain exposure in the national and international media for it. Another possibility is to spearhead a movement to put real teeth into the LOAC in the form of provisions explicitly outlining sanctions for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Should we be successful, we must be prepared to see members of our own military tried for isolated violations such as those at Abu Ghraib. If we do a proper job of educating our troops to our moral and legal expectations, such incidents will be rare. But our enemies' entire way of war would be on trial before the court of public opinion because no way exists for terrorists to conduct war that does not contravene the LOAC. The opinions and pronouncements of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), terrorist sympathizers and apologists, and uninformed reporters with political agendas are not the law, and by our inaction we should not allow them to become new prerogative norms. Stopping this trend is especially important as we creep toward zero tolerance for civilian casualties. We must steer a middle course between utter disregard for the LOAC and uncritical acceptance of a hyper-legalistic approach that would place terrorists in the same legal and moral category as bona fide noncombatants. By definition, terror warfare cannot be waged except by means of deliberate attack on persons and places specially protected under Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions. It is impossible to conduct terror warfare without intentionally committing criminal breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Two recent cases regarding Iraq show how enemies and nonsympathizers have attempted to turn the law against us. The first involves Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist who was kidnapped by insurgents and then ransomed. Sgrena made a highly emotional claim in European and American media that U.S. troops at a Baghdad checkpoint had opened fire on the vehicle in which she was being transported to the airport following her release. She said U.S. troops fired on her without giving warning with the intention of killing her in retaliation for her political writing. …


The Goldstone Report, when read in full and in context, is much worse than most of its detractors (and supporters) believe. It is far more accusatory of Israel, far less balanced in its criticism of Hamas, far less honest in its evaluation of the evidence, far less responsible in drawing its conclusion, far more biased against Israeli than Palestinian witnesses, and far more willing to draw adverse inferences of intentionality from Israeli conduct and statements than from comparable Palestinian conduct and statements. It is worse than any report previously prepared by any other United Nations agency or human rights group. As Major General Avichai Mandelblit, the advocate general of the Israeli Defense Forces, aptly put it: "I have read every report, from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Arab League. We ourselves set up investigations into 140 complaints. It is when you read these other reports and complaints that you realize how truly vicious the Goldstone report is. He made it look like we set out to go after the economic infrastructure and civilians, that it was intentional: It's a vicious lie.The Goldstone report is, to any fair reader, a shoddy piece of work, unworthy of serious consideration by people of good will, committed to the truth.


This work examines how the optimization of molecular dimensions and chemical functionality of the organic ligands of quantum dots (QDs) can be explored for dramatic enhancement of the optical properties of QD films, particularly, optical gain. We show that the replacement of traditional QD organic ligands with a much shorter ligand, butylamine, yields a dense QD-packing that results in a two-fold increase in optical gain. Overall, the highly packed QD films exhibit very large net gain values (∼500 cm−1) which greatly exceed typical Cd-based QD films with traditional ligands. In addition, thresholds for amplified-spontaneous emission (ASE) down to 50 μJ cm−2 were observed, which is exceptionally low for ns-pulse pumped QD systems. Our results confirm an additional route for obtaining high optical gain using QDs, and outline a strategy for modifying the optical gain characteristics by ligand exchange without needing to modify the QD selection. Consideration of the ligands along with QD compositional design could make it possible to fabricate photonic systems with exceptionally low lasing thresholds, and offers a route toward achieving high gain using steady state pumping, an extremely difficult feat to achieve in traditional QD systems.


Nearly half a billion years passed between the release of the now routinely observed Comic Microwave Backrgound and the formation of the first galaxies and black holes which reionized the ubiquitous hydrogen. This Epoch of Reionization (EoR) is the next major unexplored cosmological milestone. At the current time the space between galaxies is almost completely ionized, therefor we know that the universe must have undergone a global phase transition. The nature of the ionizing sources, whether young galaxies or accreting massive black holes is unknown. Neither do we know when this reionization occured or how long it took. Models suggest that we can detect fluctuations in the 21cm hydrogen emission line as ionization proceeds and high contrast ionized holes are carved in the neutral hydrogen. Detecting these fluctuations is one of the few direct probes of the reionization process but is a difficult task requiring a new generation of low frequency radio telescopes. Motivated by the breadth of unknowns, the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER) has been slowly building in complexity while folding the results of observations back into improving the design and operation of the telescope. As part of this process, this thesis analyzes early observations to explore three major areas of concern in detecting EoR: contamination by foreground sources, calibration stability and limiting sensitivity. Catalogs produced from this early data show good agreement with previous measurements. We conclude that the calibration is stable and sensitivity floors are close to the expected theoretical levels. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Physics & Astronomy First Advisor James Aguirre


Introduction Preoperative functional capacity is an important predictor of postoperative outcomes. Prehabilitation aims to optimise patients' functional capacity before surgery to improve postoperative outcomes. As prolonged hospital stay and postoperative complications present an avoidable use of healthcare resources, prehabilitation might also save costs. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the cost-effectiveness of prehabilitation programmes for patients awaiting elective surgery compared with usual preoperative care. The results will be useful to inform decisions about the implementation of prehabilitation programmes and the design of future economic evaluations of prehabilitation programmes. Methods and analysis We will search PubMed, Embase, the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination Database, the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform and ClinicalTrials.gov for full or partial economic evaluations of preoperative prehabilitation programmes conducted in any population compared with usual preoperative care. Studies will be included regardless of the type, design and perspective of the economic evaluation, and their publication year, language or status. Initial searches were performed between 30 April and 4 May 2020. Study selection, data extraction and assessment of the included studies' risk of bias and methodological quality will initially be performed by two independent reviewers and, if agreement was sufficiently high, by one reviewer. We will extract data regarding the included studies' basic characteristics, economic evaluation methods and cost-effectiveness results. A narrative synthesis will be performed. The primary endpoint will be cost-effectiveness based on cost–utility analyses. We will discuss heterogeneity between the studies and assess the risk of publication bias. The certainty of the evidence will be determined using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval is not required as the systematic review will not involve human participants. We plan to present our findings at scientific conferences, pass them on to relevant stakeholder organisations and publish them in a peer-reviewed journal. PROSPERO registration number CRD42020182813


Macroparasites have a central place in wildlife ecology because they have the potential to regulate host populations through effects on reproduction and/or survival. However, there remains a paucity of studies that have demonstrated the regulatory role of these parasites in free-ranging animals. Previous work on Svalbard reindeer demonstrated that the experimental removal of the parasitic gastrointestinal nematode Ostertagia gruehneri transmitted in summer, improved reindeer fecundity, and that the species was capable of mediating a density-dependent reduction in fecundity. The main coexisting parasitic nematode in the system, Marshallagia marshalli, exhibits a contrasting life history with low abundances in summer and an increase during the winter. Here, we examine the impact of this over-winter infection on fitness of female reindeer in the same population. Worm burdens were removed at the start of the winter in October using a novel delayed-release anthelmintic bolus. Body mass and pregnancy rates were recorded for animals recaptured five (February) and seven (April) months later. The sub-set of treated animals recaptured in February was treated again with anthelmintic to remove newly acquired nematodes. The experiment was replicated over six winters (2006/2007-2011/2012) with a total of 343 recaptures, comprising 145 individual animals. We found little effect of anthelmintic treatment on reindeer body mass or pregnancy rates during the winter, suggesting that nematode infection during this time does not significantly affect fitness of Svalbard reindeer. Our studies are consistent with marked virulence nutritional trade-offs in this system and highlights the need to integrate studies of parasite co-infection, interspecific competition and community ecology to understand parasite impacts on hosts.


Presented is an evolutionary model of consumer non-durable markets, which is an extension of a previously published paper on consumer durables. The model suggests that the repurchase process is governed by preferential growth. Applying statistical methods it can be shown that in a competitive market the mean price declines according to an exponential law towards a natural price, while the corresponding price distribution is approximately given by a Laplace distribution for independent price decisions of the manufacturers. The sales of individual brands are determined by a replicator dynamics. As a consequence the size distribution of business units is a lognormal distribution, while the growth rates are also given by a Laplace distribution. Moreover products with a higher fitness replace those with a lower fitness according to a logistic law. Most remarkable is the prediction that the price distribution becomes unstable at market clearing, which is in striking difference to the Walrasian picture in standard microeconomics. The reason for this statement is that competition between products exists only if there is an excess supply, causing a decreasing mean price. When, for example by significant events, demand increases or is equal to supply, competition breaks down and the price exhibits a jump. When this supply shortage is accompanied with an arbitrage for traders, it may even evolve into a speculative bubble. Neglecting the impact of speculation here, the evolutionary model can be linked to a stochastic jump-diffusion model.