water shortages is one of the main factors inhibiting economic and social development and agriculture in most developing countries, especially in countries located in arid and semi-arid belt of the world. the study tried to investigate the affecting factors on water resources exploitation with considering water utilization pattern and an emphasis on sustainable water use in fars province. due t...

This paper contains the consideration of knowledge extraction mechanisms of such object-oriented knowledge representation models as frames, object-oriented programming and object-oriented dynamic networks. In addition, conception of universal exploiters within object-oriented dynamic networks is also discussed. The main result of the paper is introduction of new exploitersbased knowledge extrac...

Darwin's Principle of Divergence explains sympatric speciation as gradual and directional. Contradicting evidence suggests that species' traits evolve saltationally. Here, we model coevolution in exploiter-victim systems. Victims (resource population) have heritable, mutable cue phenotypes with different levels of defense. Exploiters have heritable, mutable perceptual phenotypes. Our simulation...

Anthropogenic noise can have important physiological and behavioral effects on wild animals. For example, urban noise could lead to a state of chronic stress and could alter the development of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Supporting this hypothesis, several studies have found that human disturbance is associated with increased circulating corticosterone (CORT) levels. However,...

During community assembly, species may accumulate not only by immigration, but also by in situ diversification. Diversification has intrigued biologists because its extent varies even among closely related lineages under similar ecological conditions. Recent research has suggested that some of this puzzling variation may be caused by stochastic differences in the history of immigration (relativ...

Mutualisms, cooperative interactions between species, generally involve an economic exchange: species exchange commodities that are cheap for them to provide, for ones that cannot be obtained affordably or at all. But these associations can only succeed if effective partners can be enticed to interact. In some mutualisms, partners can actively seek one another out. However, plants, which use mu...

When patients take an active role in their healthcare, the results may be better, safer care. That is the premise behind the Ontario Hospital Association's (OHA) "Your Health Care--Be Involved" campaign. Launched in September 2005 by the OHA's Patient Safety Support Service, the campaign encourages active two-way communication between patients and providers and highlights the important role of ...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a statement about the involvement of patients in the education of health and social care professionals developed at an international conference in November 2015. It aims to describe the current state and identify action items for the next five years. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes how patient involvement in education has devel...

During the time spent at medical school, students may be presented with various opportunities to engage in teaching and medical education. Often these opportunities are passed up or indeed overlooked all together. However, the value of developing teaching skills and engaging in such activities for the dissemination, application and translation of medical knowledge is of great importance to the ...