Exclusive Distribution Research Articles

Strongly exclusive distribution with putative character displacement in two flying stag beetles

Character displacement is considered a key driver of evolutionary divergence and adaptation. Few examples of reproductive character displacement with a narrow contact zone have been identified. We examined the genetic structure, body length variation, and genital morphology in the contact and allopatric areas of Platycerus takakuwai and P. viridicuprus to investigate character displacement and gene flow. In the contact area, the species identifications based on endophallic morphology and nuclear genes were identical, whereas mitochondrial gene did not exhibit a perfect match. This incongruence suggests that interspecific hybridization followed by the mitochondrial introgression has likely occurred during historical secondary contact. The species are essentially parapatric in contact area, co-occurring at only one of 28 adjacent sampling sites despite being flying species, and no hybrids based on morphology have been found, which indicates a strongly exclusive distribution. The results showed that the body length variation was consistent with character displacement after controlling for variation along geographic and environmental gradients. Interspecific body size differentiation may have evolved to reduce incorrect mating between the species. Moreover, selective pressure caused by reproductive interference between the two species may act on body size that have likely resulted in strongly exclusive distribution at the edge of their ranges.

Human African trypanosomiasis cases diagnosed in non-endemic countries (2011-2020).

Sleeping sickness, or human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), is transmitted by tsetse flies in endemic foci in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of international travel and population movements, cases are also occasionally diagnosed in non-endemic countries. Antitrypanosomal medicines to treat the disease are available gratis through the World Health Organization (WHO) thanks to a public-private partnership, and exclusive distribution of the majority of them enables WHO to gather information on all exported cases. Data collected by WHO are complemented by case reports and scientific publications. During 2011-2020, 49 cases of HAT were diagnosed in 16 non-endemic countries across five continents: 35 cases were caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, mainly in tourists visiting wildlife areas in eastern and southern Africa, and 14 cases were due to T. b. gambiense, mainly in African migrants originating from or visiting endemic areas in western and central Africa. HAT diagnosis in non-endemic countries is rare and can be challenging, but alertness and surveillance must be maintained to contribute to WHO's elimination goals. Early detection is particularly important as it considerably improves the prognosis.

Naked barley: taxonomy, breeding, and prospects of utilization.

This review surveys the current state of taxonomy, origin, and utilization prospects for naked barley. The cultivated barley Hordeum vulgare L. incorporates the covered and naked barley groups. Naked barleys are divided into six-row naked barley (convar. сoeleste (L.) A. Trof.) and two-row naked barley (convar. nudum (L.) A. Trof.). The groups include botanical varieties differing in the structural features of spikes, awns, floret and spikelet glumes, and the color of kernels. The centers of morphogenesis for naked barley are scrutinized employing archeological and paleoethnobotanical data, and the diversity of its forms. Hypotheses on the centers of its origin are discussed using DNA marker data. The main areas of its cultivation are shown, along with possible reasons for such a predominating or exclusive distribution of naked barley in highland areas. Inheritance of nakedness and mechanisms of its manifestation are considered in the context of new data in genetics. The biochemical composition of barley grain in protein, some essential and nonessential amino acids, β-glucans, vitamins, and antioxidants is described. Naked barley is shown to be a valuable source of unique combinations of soluble and insoluble dietary fibers and polysaccharides. The parameters limiting wider distribution of naked barley over the world are emphasized, and breeding efforts that could mitigate them are proposed. Pathogen-resistant naked barley accessions are identified to serve as promising sources for increasing grain yield and quality. Main stages and trends of naked barley breeding are considered and the importance of the VIR global germplasm collection as the richest repository of genetic material for the development of breeding is shown.

Acral Prurigo Nodularis: A Case Report

Prurigo nodularis (PN) is a chronic skin disease that manifests with severe itchy, firm, hyperkeratotic nodules distributed on the trunk and the extremities symmetrically. Here, we report a unique presentation of PN. A 26-year-old male presented with multiple itchy nodules over the hands and feet sparing the trunk, which were confirmed histologically as PN. This is the first reported case of PN with exclusive acral distribution.

How does film education increase the economic and social impact of European arthouse cinema? the case of the danish initiative Med Skolen i Biografen /School Cinema

ABSTRACT Focusing on one representative case study – the Danish film literacy initiative School Cinema (Med skolen i biografen) – this article investigates how film education can make European arthouse cinema more sustainable in both cultural and industrial terms. The analysis has shown that one successful model builds on a collaboration between the cultural sectors and the market players where the former ones propose the content and reach out to the target audience, while the latter ones provide the infrastructure and technology. School Cinema gathers both stakeholder groups in Denmark. The cultural sector is represented by the Danish Film Institute, municipal education departments, schools and regional centers for education. The market players in this constellation are Danish distributors and exhibitors which provide rights to the films and secure the screening venues. According to the School Cinema’s concept, students see films in cinemas and discuss their themes, dramaturgy and visual language afterwards in class within multiple school subjects. Yet, this program does not only have educational and cultural goals. As this article demonstrates, building on the exclusive distribution data and one expert interview, School Cinema also contributes to the European audience-building project in an industrial sense.

Nominal Modifiers in Tὲὲ

The paper analyzed nominal modifiers in Tὲὲ within a formal linguistic framework. The paper identified ten discrete nominal modifiers in the grammatical structure of Kana. The paper found that pre-head and post-head modification are attested in the grammar of Tὲὲ as seven of the modifiers occur before the head noun while three occur after the head noun in the grammatical structure of the noun phrase. The paper reported that there is no distinction between mass and count nouns in the use of quantifiers in Tὲὲ. The paper noted that there can be no intervening element between the prepositional phrase modifier and the head noun. The study also showed that the demonstrative can only co-occur with the head noun in the maximal projection of the noun phrase in mutually exclusive distribution with the prepositional phrase. The study also noted that the numeral modifier does not participate in the maximal expansion of the NP. The paper, therefore, recommended a detailed investigation of numerals and numeracy in Tὲὲ in order to ascertain the structural status of the numeral element in Tὲὲ.

Cloeon tzeltalsp. nov. (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae), a Miocene mayfly from Mexican amber

A new fossil species of mayfly of the genus Cloeon Leach, 1815 (Ephemeroptera, Baetidae) is described. The type material comprises female imagines from 24 amber inclusions, from Miocene strata of Chiapas in southern Mexico. The fossil species, Cloeon tzeltal sp. nov., closely resembles those in the genus Cloeon by the following diagnostic characters: absence of hind wings; two major crossveins between R1 and R2 not in line with the crossveins below them; single marginal intercalaries; and basal crossveins between veins R and Rs situated more basally than the following vein. The new species can be distinguished from extant species of Cloeon by the absence of colored costal and subcostal fields in the forewings and the absence of transversal veins in vitta broadly bordered with white. Extant species of the genus Cloeon in America have an exclusive distribution in the northern part of the continent; with the exception of one introduced taxon, no valid species have been recorded in the tropics. As such, the fossil record of Cloeon in the southernmost part of North America suggests a broader geographic distribution of this genus in the geological past, including the southernmost part of North America.

Exclusive content and platform competition in Latin America

Platforms often compete over non-price strategies such as the exclusive distribution of products. But these strategies are not always welfare-enhancing. Using rich data on audiovisuals distributed on platforms in Brazil, we find that non-exclusive distribution and availability of titles across platforms is more effective in deterring online piracy than in the single-homing case. Moreover, for the subset of domestic movies, it induces higher average investment in the quality of new titles upstream. We discuss options of copyright and competition policies in the light of these findings.

Effect of Sales Promotion on Sales Performance of Kenya Tea Packers Ltd

Successful promotion is a substantial aspect on which business establishments anchor their success. This study aimed at evaluating the effect of sales promotion on sale performance of Kenya Tea Packers Ltd. The study was informed by the AIDA Theory developed by Elmo Lewis, in (1898). To answer the research questions, a descriptive research design was used, targeting all customers who buy KETEPA products from the seven (7) KETEPA exclusive distribution points in Nairobi region. (Eastleigh, Baba-Dogo, Rongai, Athi-River, Wangige, Kawangware and Ngong) The researcher targeted 100 customers from each of the 7 distributors thus a total target of 700 customers were targeted for the study. Determination of the sample size followed a systematic random sampling technique to gather data from KETEPA Customers. Prior to data collection the validity and reliability of the research tools was tested by use of supervisor’s comments and Cronbach's alpha test respectively. The study participants were interviewed through a one-on-one interview guided questionnaire, to gather the relevant data for the study. The study revealed that respondents agreed on the parameters used to measure the effect of sales promotion on sales performance of Kenya Tea Packers Ltd. Particularly, the study revealed that Sales Promotions improve sales volumes for KETEPA brands and promote customer loyalty. The study recommended for further studies to be conducted to other organizations to determine other elements that would contribute to high sales performance and show how they can be integrated to achieve optimal performance.

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of the Island-Dwelling Kogaionidae (Mammalia, Multituberculata) in the Uppermost Cretaceous of Transylvania (Western Romania)

The latest Cretaceous kogaionid multituberculates from Transylvania (western Romania) were part of an endemic European clade of mammals that underwent an insular radiation at the end of the Cretaceous and then survived the end-Cretaceous mass extinction that extinguished many groups of contemporary therians. Transylvanian kogaionids lived on what was an island during the latest Cretaceous—“Haţeg Island”—and their fossils are found in the uppermost Campanian to upper Maastrichtian deposits of the Haţeg, Rusca Montană, and southwestern Transylvanian basins. This fossil record has improved dramatically over the past several decades, in part resulting from our decade-long joint Romanian-American-Scottish fieldwork, and comprises one of the most impressive and complete archives of Mesozoic mammals, including not only jaws and teeth but several incomplete skulls and partial skeletons. We here review the fossil record of kogaionids from Transylvania. We report four new occurrences from the Haţeg Basin, update information on previously described ones, and use our database to reassess the chronostratigraphical and geographical distribution of kogaionids and their evolutionary patterns. Although it was previously suggested that large and small kogaionids had largely mutually exclusive spatial distributions, we recognize the cooccurrence of small and large taxa in various units, suggesting a sympatric distribution across their entire chronostratigraphic range. We also identify a novel pattern: small kogaionids appear somewhat earlier than their larger relatives in all well-sampled sedimentary successions, suggesting that kogaionid colonizations of Haţeg Island and component regions took place at small body size and that body size increased only later through local evolution. We find correlations between body size, preservation style, and sedimentary context, which give insight into kogaionid paleobiology and diversity. Larger kogaionids are represented more often by partial skulls and occasionally skeletons compared with small kogaionids, which are usually represented only by isolated teeth, regardless of provenance. Larger kogaionids currently have a higher recognized local taxic diversity than their smaller relatives. We hypothesize that this may be in part a consequence of preservational bias related to body size, as more complete specimens may be more easily diagnosed as distinct taxa than those that are represented by more fragmentary and/or incomplete fossils. If true, the taxic diversity of smaller kogaionids may currently be underestimated. Finally, we identify correspondence between sedimentary facies and preservation style. Red-colored fine-grained rocks, suggestive of well-drained, oxidized floodplain paleoenvironments, yield more complete specimens than drab, greenish or grayish sediments deposited in more poorly drained parts of the floodplain. This pattern may suggest habitat preferences for better-drained floodplain environments and a semifossorial lifestyle for some taxa. As the kogaionid fossil record improves, we can further test the hypotheses and patterns outlined above. The pace of new kogaionid discoveries by our team and others indicates that a more complete picture of kogaionid distribution, paleobiology, and evolution will emerge in the coming years, contributing to a more profound understanding of this peculiar group of island-dwelling Mesozoic mammals.

Dispersion in lattices with patterns of hardening and softening stiffness nonlinearity

Recent focus has been given to analytically predicting amplitude-dependent dispersion in periodic structures with weak stiffness nonlinearity. These dispersion relationships may inform devices such as amplitude-dependent filters, waveguides, and diodes. However, attention is generally restricted to either spatially uniform nonlinearity or mutually exclusive distributions of hardening or softening stiffness. This study investigates dispersion in lattices with spatial modulations in stiffness nonlinearity. Special attention is given to modulations consisting of both hardening and softening nonlinear terms. A multiple scales perturbation analysis reveals that patterns of hardening and softening stiffness enable both lifting and lowering of a passband’s frequencies. In such cases, passbands contain discrete frequency and wavenumber pairs that prevent amplitude-dependent dispersion shifting. Numerical integration of the lattice equations of motion are carried out to confirm the analytically predicted dispersion behavior. A design of experiment is proposed in which strength and sign of nonlinearity can be tuned with the initial angle of additively manufactured grounding springs. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research.]

Experiential marketing strategies used by luxury cosmetics companies

The evolving needs of the consumers in the luxury cosmetic segment require the firms to pique consumer interest. This forces the firms to keep their focus on providing superior quality products and, at the same time, creating a memorable experience. The study is undertaken to provide a better understanding of experience through emotions. This study aims to investigate the strategies of experiential marketing used by luxury cosmetics companies for influencing consumer perception. Thus, the current study examines empirical studies selected using PRISMA guidelines to formulate a critical review of prevailing literature to arrive at the findings of the study. The results show that strategies such as free samples and exclusive distribution influence the probability of usage of products and cater to consumer expectations of exclusive approaches. In addition, the strategies of the online community, gift promotion, flagship stores, service from experts, and showbiz marketing can be used to create a meaningful brand experience. The brand image creation, stories associated with design, innovativeness, and product exclusivity enable the impactful contribution of experiential marketing. Thus, companies using immersive experience through technology should implement strategies like virtual shopping or event marketing for targeting consumers. In conclusion, the strategy of e-word of mouth using various social media platforms, event marketing, and storytelling have been identified to shape the feeling and experience of a consumer to influence attitude towards online shopping and maintain their engagement after a purchase.

Study of Video Platform Pricing Strategies under Different Distribution

This paper develops a two-stage game model containing a monopolistic independent video provider and two free video platforms, and explores the distribution choices of the video provider as well as the advertising pricing strategies of the two platforms in different distribution choices. We found the following: (i) When video quality is high, the video provider offers its video exclusively to one platform; when video quality is low, the video provider offers its video non-exclusively to both platforms. (ii) In exclusive distribution, the platform with the exclusive video has an advantage in advertising price, viewer share, and advertiser share over its competitor, and this advantage increases with video quality. (iii) In non-exclusive distribution, the advertising prices, viewer market shares, and advertiser shares of the two platforms are equal and independent of video quality.

Middle Devonian Foraminifera from the Holy Cross Mountains

The Middle Devonian was an exceptional time for foraminiferal evolution because of the emergence of the first true calcareous multilocular taxa. Despite being key forms for an understanding of the origin of foraminiferal multilocularity, which is one of the most intriguing events in the evolutionary history of the group, they are largely unstudied. These unique foraminifera, including representatives of the genera Cremsia , Moravammina , Pseudopalmula , Semitextularia, and Vasicekia, are presented herein as well as foraminifer-like microfossils of uncertain biological position. The studied material comes from the Middle Givetian strata of the Miłoszów section and the Eifelian part of the Grzegorzowice-Skały section (Holy Cross Mountains, Poland). Described isolated specimens are in an exceptionally good state of preservation on a worldwide scale, which enabled the detailed analysis of test morphologies, complementing previous papers based on less well-preserved material. The suggested systematics of the foraminifera collected attempts to revise scarce taxonomic data that is still under debate, especially the classification of Moravammina , Cremsia, and Vasicekia . The Devonian foraminifers presented were prominent endobenthic and epibenthic inhabitants of common organic coral-stromatoporoid buildups. Palaeobiogeographical records show that during the Middle Devonian, the studied forms extended their exclusive European distribution into further Laurussian shelves and shallow seas, located in the northern and southeastern parts of the Rheic basin. This assumes that such assemblages may be used as palaeoenvironmental indicators. However, at present, their correlative potential is unknown.

Content-distribution strategies in markets with locked-in customers

We study how the presence of locked-in customers in a downstream market affects the distribution choice of an upstream content provider. Two asymmetric distributors compete in a mature market and the content provider sells its rights using lump-sum fees. A higher number of locked-in customers reduces the need to resort to exclusivity to relax downstream competition. The content provider therefore sells its rights to both distributors when there is a sufficiently-high proportion of locked-in customers. We show that an exclusive affiliation with the smaller rather than the larger distributor facilitates distributors’ rent-extraction, in particular for low-quality content. When there are few locked-in customers, the content provider sells low-quality content to the smaller distributor and high-quality content to the larger distributor. Our results suggest that competition authorities should cautiously evaluate the effects of lower switching costs on consumer welfare. By encouraging exclusive distribution, a lower proportion of locked-in customers may reduce consumer welfare.

Co-occurrence pattern of congeneric tree species provides conflicting evidence for competition relatedness hypothesis.

In plants, negative reproductive interaction among closely related species (i.e., reproductive interference) is known to hamper the coexistence of congeneric species while facilitation can increase species persistence. Since reproductive interference in plants may occur through interspecific pollination, the effective range of reproductive interference may reflects the spatial range of interspecific pollination. Therefore, we hypothesized that the coexistence of congeners on a small spatial scale would be less likely to occur by chance but that such coexistence would be likely to occur on a scale larger than interspecific pollination frequently occur. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis using spatially explicit woody plant survey data. Contrary to our prediction, congeneric tree species often coexisted at the finest spatial scale and significant exclusive distribution was not detected. Our results suggest that cooccurrence of congeneric tree species is not structured by reproductive interference, and they indicate the need for further research to explore the factors that mitigate the effects of reproductive interference.

Comparisons among populations and individuals to evaluate pollen-pistil interaction as a mechanism of reproductive interference in Taraxacum.

Reproductive interference (RI), an interspecific mating interaction that reduces the fitness of at least one of the species involved, can lead to exclusive distributions in closely related species. A hypothesis previously proposed is that RI in plants may occur by ovule usurpation, in which pistils lack interspecific incompatibility and mistakenly accept heterospecific pollen, thereby losing an opportunity for conspecific pollen fertilization. However, few comparative studies have evaluated the consistency of the inferred mechanism within and among individuals and populations. We conducted hand-pollination experiments in six populations of three native Taraxacum species that suffered from different levels of RI from an alien congener, T. officinale, and compared pollen-pistil interactions among populations. We also investigated the interactions for eight individual T. japonicum plants whose response to heterospecific pollen deposition had been previously measured. Our results revealed that pollen tubes often penetrated native ovaries following heterospecific pollination in populations suffering from strong RI, whereas they seldom did in populations suffering from marginal RI. However, the relative frequency of the pollen tube penetration was not significantly related to the strength of alien RI. Not all pistils on an individual plant showed the same pollen receptivity following heterospecific pollination; rather, some accepted and some refused the pollen tubes. The relationship between pollen tube penetration following heterospecific pollination and the strength of the alien RI was also not significant among individuals. Our present results generally support the ovule usurpation hypothesis, but suggest that other factors, such as competition for pollinator services, variation in the effects of heterospecific pollen donors, and condition of the native inflorescences, might also affect the observed RI strength.

Thread-Aware Mechanism to Enhance Inter-Node Load Balancing for Multithreaded Applications on NUMA Systems

NUMA multi-core systems divide system resources into several nodes. When an imbalance in the load between cores occurs, the kernel scheduler’s load balancing mechanism then migrates threads between cores or across NUMA nodes. Remote memory access is required for a thread to access memory on the previous node, which degrades performance. Threads to be migrated must be selected effectively and efficiently since the related operations run in the critical path of the kernel scheduler. This study focuses on improving inter-node load balancing for multithreaded applications. We propose a thread-aware selection policy that considers the distribution of threads on nodes for each thread group while migrating one thread for inter-node load balancing. The thread is selected for which its thread group has the least exclusive thread distribution, and thread members are distributed more evenly on nodes. This has less influence on data mapping and thread mapping for the thread group. We further devise several enhancements to eliminate superfluous evaluations for multithreaded processes, so the selection procedure is more efficient. The experimental results for the commonly used PARSEC 3.0 benchmark suite show that the modified Linux kernel with the proposed selection policy increases performance by 10.7% compared with the unmodified Linux kernel.

Spodoptera frugiperda mRNA export factor interacts with and mediates the nuclear import of Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus ORF34 (Ac34)

Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus orf34 (ac34) is one of the unique genes of alphabaculoviruses. For successful alphabaculovirus replication, viral proteins must be transported to the nucleus. Our previous study showed that the nuclear localization of Ac34 was required for optimal production of budded virions. To investigate the mechanism of Ac34 nuclear import, mass spectrometric analysis was performed to identify potential proteins that may be involved in the nuclear import of Ac34. The result indicated that Spodoptera frugiperda mRNA export factor (SfMEF) may interact with Ac34 during baculovirus infection. Co-immunoprecipitation assays confirmed that Ac34 could interact with SfMEF in the absence of other baculovirus proteins. The deletion of ac34 did not affect the subcellular localization of SfMEF; however, knocking down Sfmef prevented the nuclear import of Ac34 in virus-infected cells. The mutations of C116 or C119 in a potential CCCH zinc finger motif (C116-X2-C119-X8-C128-X2-H131) of Ac34 led to an exclusive cytoplasmic distribution of Ac34, in consistent with our previous finding of mutations of C128 or H131 in this motif. Co-immunoprecipitation analysis showed that the above mutations in the potential zinc finger motif disrupted the interaction between Ac34 and SfMEF, and the loss of the interaction resulted in decreased BV production. Our findings demonstrated that SfMEF interacts with and mediates the nuclear import of Ac34, which is a new nucleocytoplasmic transport pathway used by alphabaculovirus to achieve successful viral replication within the nucleus of the infected cells.

Уточнение границ районов сульфатного карста Пермского края

The areas referred to the areas of sulfate karst are related to the areas of exclusive distribution of gypsum and anhydrite karst, as well as joint occurrence with carbonate rocks and salts. Based on the field study data, generalization of archive materials and publications, as well as the results of monitoring of exogenous geological processes carried out by the authors of the article, the data on sulfate karst of the Perm Territory not updated since the 90s of the last century were analyzed. This made it possible to clarify the boundaries of the previously identified areas of sulfate karst in the Perm region