water conveyance systems (wcss) are costly infrastructures in terms of materials, construction, maintenance and energy requirements. much attention has been given to the application of optimization methods to minimize the costs associated with such infrastructures. historically, traditional optimization techniques have been used, such as linear and non-linear programming. in this paper, applica...

This paper proposes an algorithm for data mining called Ant-Miner (ant-colony-based data miner). The goal of AntMiner is to extract classification rules from data. The algorithm is inspired by both research on the behavior of real ant colonies and some data mining concepts as well as principles. We compare the performance of Ant-Miner with CN2, a well-known data mining algorithm for classificat...

Background: This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of aminoglycoside resistance and the prevalence of the resistance-modifying enzyme genes, ant(3”)-III, ant(6’)-Ia, aac(6′)-Ie-aph(2”)-Ia, and aph(2’)-Id, in Enterococcus strains isolated in Kermanshah Province, west of Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 108 enterococcal isolates from urine, wound, blood, and cerebrospinal flui...

zār is the term used to describe a form of spirit possession common in northern african, eastern african, and some middle-eastern societies. although these regions share some cultural similarities arising from their history of slavery, in these places, zār varies in prevalence, clinical characteristics, and social context. based on a selective review of the literature, this paper looks at the p...

Inter-organizational information systems depend at least as much on collaboration across organizational cultures as on the development of technical infrastructure for their success. Actor-network theory (ANT) is a useful approach for bringing together social and technical considerations. In this chapter we discuss key features of ANT and show how it might be applied to a particular case of IOIS...

Ant System is a general purpose heuristic algorithm inspired by the foraging behavior of real ant colonies. Here we introduce an improved version of Ant System, that we called MAX{ MIN Ant System. We describe the new features present in MAX{MIN Ant System, make a detailed experimental investigation on the contribution of the design choices to the improved performance and give computational resu...

Ant System is a general purpose heuristic algorithm inspired by the foraging behavior of real ant colonies. Here we introduce an improved version of Ant System, that we called MAX{ MIN Ant System. We describe the new features present in MAX{MIN Ant System, make a detailed experimental investigation on the contribution of the design choices to the improved performance and give computational resu...

—Weekly reports of the abundance of the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, in 69 households for 18 mo (1/98–7/99) in the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California were compared with weather data. Ant abundance inside homes was highest in cold rainy weather, and there was a second smaller peak of ant abundance in hot dry weather. Pesticide use in the home decreased ant abundance, from one we...

Argentine ant invasion changed colour-polymorphic composition of ant-mimetic jumping spider Myrmarachne in southwestern Japan. In Argentine ant-free sites, most of Myrmarachne exhibited all-blackish colouration. In Argentine ant-infested sites, on the other hand, blackish morph decreased, and bicoloured (i.e. partly bright-coloured) morphs increased in dominance. Invasive Argentine ant drives a...

In 1995, an antibiotic (ANT) was used in starter, grower, and withdrawal (WD) feeds by 94.3, 98.2, and 75.1% of broiler production units, but by 2000, ANT use had declined to 64.8, 66.9, and 48.1% respectively. Roxarsone (ROX) was used in the starter and grower feeds by 69.8 and 73.9% of production units. Bacitracin (BAC) was used more frequently than other antibiotics in the starter and grower...