OBJECTIVE To determine if juvenile pearl oysters (Pinctada maxima) infected with Haplosporidium hinei are also infected with another haplosporidian parasite, Minchinia occulta. DESIGN Archived samples of pearl oysters infected with H. hinei were examined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays and in situ hybridisation (ISH) to analyse and identify haplosporidians. A 144-bp and 220-bp re...

An approach to holistic system modelling is presented, based on the Specification PEARL hardware/software co-design methodology, having its origin in the standard Multiprocessor PEARL specification language. Specification PEARL specifications and models represent prototypes of systems and programs, based on the PEARL program model. The system models built are checked for timely execution by co-...

BACKGROUND During the Neolithic revolution, early farmers altered plant development to domesticate crops. Similar traits were often selected independently in different wild species; yet the genetic basis of this parallel phenotypic evolution remains elusive. Plant architecture ranks among these target traits composing the domestication syndrome. We focused on the reduction of branching which oc...

French Polynesia exports more than 90 per cent of its pearl production, making it the world’s largest exporter of Tahitian black pearls. Tahitian black pearl exports are therefore crucial for the Tahitian economy as they accounted for an average of 50 per cent of total export earnings, for the latest data available, for the years 2004, 2005, and 2006. This means that export performance not only...

We report an Ac-like sequence from pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and deletion derivative Ac-like sequences from pearl millet and another grass species, Bambusa multiplex. Sequence relationships between the pearl millet and maize Ac elements suggest that Ac/Ds transposable-element family is ancient. Further, the sequence identity between the Bambusa Ac-like sequence and maize Ac implies that...

Cultured pearls can be produced both with and without a nucleus. Marine pearl oysters that produce Akoya, South Sea and Tahitian cultured pearls typically use nuclei for their pearl products. The nucleus material used for these beaded cultured pearls is traditionally from freshwater Mississippi mussels. In recent years, there have been a number of attempts to use alternative pearl and shell mat...

In this paper we investigates the co-evolution of pearl industry cluster and specialized market in Zhuji. Firstly we begin with a literature review of the specialized market, which played a crucial role as a shared trading platform for SMEs, and an institutional innovation to achieve economic transformation and for China to promote industrialization, urbanization and regional economic developme...

in this study, we have investigated the effects of mix of tomato (solanum lycopersicum) & carrot) daucus carota ( and red bell pepper )capsicum annuum( as a natural pigment source and astaxanthin as synthetic pigment sources on the skin colour of cichlid fish (astronotus ocellatus sp., agassiz, 1831), which are generally white with red patches in the dorsal skin. the fish were fed diets con...

The influence of polymeric dispersants containing different functional groups on TiO2 pigment particle suspension was investigated at pH 6.0 and 9.5, using rheology and particle size data. The dispersants chosen were polyacrylic acid and modified polyacrylamides including homo and copolymers modified with carboxylate and/or hydroxyl groups. The pigment suspension was strongly affected by both p...

The Nursebot project is a multi-disciplinary, multi-university effort aimed at developing mobile robotic assistants for the elderly. In this paper, we describe one such robot, Pearl. Pearl has two primary functions: (i) reminding people about routine activities such as eating, drinking, taking medicine, and using the bathroom, and (ii) guiding them through their environments. We provide a brief...