Biological dispersal shapes species' distribution and affects their coexistence. The spread of organisms governs the dynamics of invasive species, the spread of pathogens, and the shifts in species ranges due to climate or environmental change. Despite its relevance for fundamental ecological processes, however, replicated experimentation on biological dispersal is lacking, and current assessme...

Microbialbiodegradation is known as an effective and harmless method to overcome environmental pollution with oil hydrocarbon. Some bacterial species were isolated from the Sarvestan oilfields (Iran, Fars province), then identified and applied for oil hydrocarbon decomposition. A carbon-free minimum medium (CFMM) containing 1% crude oil was used to isolate bacteria through incubation at 30°C in...

The New World species of the millipede-parasitic genus Myriophora Brown are revised. Sixty-five species based on the female sex are treated, mostly from the Neotropical Region. Of these, fifty-seven are new to science: Myriophora alexandrae sp. nov., Myriophora alienipennis sp. nov., Myriophora angustifascia sp. nov., Myriophora annetteae sp. nov., Myriophora annulata sp. nov., Myriophora bicus...

This thesis is written for the Swedish degree Licentiate of Science, teknisk licentiat. It is a university degree, intermediate between that of master and that of doctor. We study the approximability of different generalizations of the Max Cut problem. First, we show that Max Set Splitting and Max Not-All-Equal Sat are both approximable within 1.380 in probabilistic polynomial time. The algorit...

Five new Astragalus species from section Malacothrix Bunge, namely, A. musaianus Maassoumi & Joharchi sp. nov., A. neo-iranshahrii Maassoumi & Amini Rad sp. nov., A. pseudocomosus Maassoumi, F. Ghahrem. & Bagheri sp. nov., A. subaspadanus Maassoumi, F. Ghahrem. & Bagheri sp. nov. and A. takabensis Maasoumi & Maroofi are described and illustrated. These are endemic from different parts of Iran. ...