Economic Forecasting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Economic Forecasting - Essay Example The telecommunication network also allows individuals in one institution to search databases, including library catalogues, in any other institution’s computer that has been made available for such use (Carnot, Koen, Tissot, & Carnot, 2011). Non-print media is also a resource that can be used in gather historical data, as well as economic forecasting data. CDs, videodisks among other resources provide large storage space for information and thus can be used to retrieve economic information stored as well as store the information being gathered. Print media such books, journals, magazines, as well as newspapers, are important resources to use while gathering economic forecasting. Books written by an economist in the past can be useful in studying the history of economic thoughts that were used in the past to help explain various economic trends (Higgins, 2011). Newspapers always have resourceful economic articles written by a knowledgeable economist. Since newspapers are produced on a daily basis, they would provide sufficient and current information that would be helpful in economic forecasting. The dialogue could also be resourceful while gathering information on the economic history of economics, as well as economic foresting. Face to face interviews with economists and other key players in the economy could complement information gathered from internet print and non-print media (Carnot et al.,

Computer Networking and Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Computer Networking and Management - Case Study Example figurations at the data center core switch enable functional areas within each department to operate as independent LANs regardless of their physical locations. Internet-enabled Client Applications The following typical applications are allowed by the security management team to access the Internet: 1. Web browsers (IE 7). 2. Email client (Outlook 2007). 3. Skype client; used for voice chat, instant messaging, video conferencing, and low-cost Internet telephony. These applications were found essential to facilitate immediate contact and collaboration across to other universities and research institutions. No other network applications are allowed access to the Internet. The above Internet clients operate at designated TCP ports, which are open but monitored and occasionally audited though the firewall, to ensure compliance with security and IT access policy set forth by the campus network management. Any other applications requiring access to university wide intranet resources achieve that through a web interface and therefore do not require having arbitrary ports open. Figure : screen shot of web browser, email client, and IM/IPT clients Servers Servers, central security appliances, and edge network appliances are all housed in a secure one-level data center, located within the same campus area. Servers are connected to the main access router via a 10Gbps optical Ethernet. Table 2 illustrates the server distribution, platforms, and functionality. Web server (Linux) 1 central server Hosts the intranet portals and internal applications Mail server (Exchange over Windows 2003) 1 central server Hosts all email accounts and archives Domain Controller (Windows 2003) 1 central server Manages DNS, DHCP, and Active Directory Antivirus server (Linux) 1 central server Manages... This document demonstrates the understanding of some major aspects of computer networking, over three distinct sections. Section 1 considered the internal network of the College of Engineering and presented detailed high level description of user, server, network, and security designs of the network and how it connects to the Internet and to the university core intranet. Section 2 examined the important topic of data encryption. Symmetric and asymmetric ciphers have been described and contrasted. Examples of each have been provided. Also, the use of encryption for message authentication in the form of digital signature and/or message authentication code was discussed and the two schemes were compared. Section 3 considered the topic of congestion control and avoidance for TCP/IP networks, which make the overall transport infrastructure of almost all today’s public and private data networks. Congestion control algorithms were discussed at a topical level and a comparative descri ption of three algorithms (Tahoe, Reno and Vegas) was provided. Section 3 concluded with describing the role of an HTTP proxy and the performance penalty it encounters due to the common use of database driven dynamic web content.

Evaluating Different Sources of Information Essay Example for Free

Evaluating Different Sources of Information Essay 1. Introduction With vast access to various types of information nowadays; it’s important to be able to distinguish truth and accuracy. The aim of this report is to evaluate the reliability of three different sources; a policy document, academic paper and newspaper articles in regards to space, place and culture. The objectives are to compare the listed sources through highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each source and to indicate when and how it might be appropriate to use them for a potential essay ‘The interaction between global and local processes in the creation of ‘places’. 2. What are Space, Place and Culture? Space and place can be seen as an absolute structure or as a social experience with meaning, these play key roles in our culture; this system of shared meaning based on everyday life is central to a sense of identity. 3. The Policy Document This policy document ‘Communities in control: Real people, real power’ is a government report based on policies or proposals of an issue. It discusses how local communities can be empowered through having more influence over local council policies and more access to information. 4.1. Advantages The policy document was written by academics and practitioners so the information is reliable; published by the Department for Communities and Local Government so we can assume that the information is accurate. Also, the document is clear, explicit and easy to understand which is important as it’s aimed at the general public. It was printed in July 2008 so it’s recent information. However, this indicates it’s from the previous government and changes have been made to policies due to recent budget cuts so may no longer be up to date but can still be significant when analysing the past. 4.2. Disadvantages However, the policy document may be politically biased because it’s a government document and also as stated on paragraph 58 page 12, ‘In developing the White Paper, we spoke to a wide range of stakeholders who fed their comments and suggestions into policy development.’ Therefore, it raises the question, who are these stakeholders and is their viewpoint biased? 4.3. How to use the source? In relation to the essay title, this policy document is useful when analysing a politically biased viewpoint and discussing the influence of political control on different groups of people. The Academic Paper Academic writing is writing done by scholars, devoted to topics and questions that are of interest to the academic community. This particular academic paper ‘A Global Sense of Place’ by Doreen Massey Taken from Space, Place and Gender (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994) discusses how globalisation is such the norm that those who have control can flourish with it but many people are imprisoned by it due to capitalism or feel at lost for a sense of belonging or identity. 4.4. Advantages Academic papers are usually written by scholars who specialize in a particular field so information which usually consists of primary data can be considered to be accurate. In addition, its peer reviewed and scrutinized by other academics so is reliable. Massey makes reference to Marxist to support her argument and provides facts about different places in order to conceptualise the journal article. The intended audience is academics/students and is fairly easy to understand. 4.5. Disadvantages Journal articles take time to collect research; this was written in 1994 which can be disadvantageous in using for the essay as concepts may no longer be up to date. However, it can be significant when comparing historical information. It appears written as a personal journal entry for example when Massey states ‘a walk down Kilburn road, my local shopping centre.’ so it can seem biased. However, Massey explores different viewpoints in order to compare the ideas. Concepts can seem implicit as the reader needs to almost visualize their own perspective. 4.6. How to use the source? As journal articles are constructed on primary data and have been scrutinized by other academics it is the most reliable source. In relation to the essay title, it would be useful to use when building arguments of different perspectives and to compare with other theories. 4. Newspaper articles Guardian article, ‘Triumph of democracy’ by James Harkin, (2006) informs the public about how the residents of Dingle vote to keep the name of their town, emphasising being in favour of equality and universalism rather than ethnic identities. The other Guardian article, ‘Is Paddington the Big Society in action?’ by Saba Salman, (2011) informs of how Neil Johnston (PDT chief executive) and residents are helping fund and lead the regeneration of the area despite cut backs in government funds. With emphasis on how a strong community input is the back bone to surviving the cuts. 5.7. Advantages The Guardian newspaper is a reliable and popular newspaper; ‘triumph of democracy’ was written in 2006 and ‘Paddington the big society’ was written in 2011, so its current and as it’s aimed at the general public, the information is explicit and easy to understand. 5.8. Disadvantages Information is based on mainly secondary data so it’s not completely reliable, especially as journalists aren’t not required to cite sources so no evidence provided. These particular articles seem biased as it’s the journalist’s viewpoint and Neil Johnston’s viewpoint, and could also be based on newspaper owner’s political goal. 5.9. How to use the source? Newspaper articles are useful when signifying current affairs or comparing historical data. 5. Conclusion Overall, through evaluating the sources it can be suggested that the policy document is politically biased and currently invalid with the change in government. The newspaper articles can be scrutinised as data is second hand and it’s in a biased format. The academic paper has proved most reliable as it’s been peer reviewed and based on primary data, despite being written in 1994 the concepts are still relevant today. However, all sources provide  different concepts of ‘place’ and would be efficient to use to write the essay. 6. Bibliography Communities and Local Government Publications, (July 2008) ‘Communities in control: Real people, real power,’ Department for Communities and Local Government Harkin James, (2006) ‘Triumph of democracy,’ The Guardian Massey Doreen, (1994) ‘A Global sense of Place,’ Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, from Space, Place and Gender Salman Saba, (2011) ‘Is Paddington the big society in action?’ The Guardian

Socialization Leads To Identity Formation

Socialization Leads To Identity Formation What is socialization? Socialization is the process in which human beings interact with each other individually and in groups. It is the process by which one learns the traditions, customs and accepted behaviour in any given society. It is not a onetime process, but it is a lifelong process that provides individuals with skills, values and attitudes that are necessary for interacting with the society. Human beings need social experiences to learn their culture and survive in the society. They are not born with values and skills. They learn from what they see, hear and experience throughout their life. They have the capability to learn and absorb from what they see around them. Socialization is not a just a simple term that can be seen at face value. It has many layers, and each layer is different from the other and leads to different processes and situations. Socialization has three layers; primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary is what we learn from our family and when we are youn g, secondary is what we learn in school, and tertiary is what we learn throughout our lives. We now know what socialization means, but what is identity? Identity is what makes an individual who he really is and what his purpose in life is. It is what makes an individual definable and recognizable. It is who you are and where you come from and what makes you unique from every other human being. It gives an individual a sense of being. Identity can be defined as individuality, personality, distinctiveness or uniqueness that makes an individual stand out. Like socialization, identity too cannot be seen at face value. Identity has many layers to itself, and as we walk through life, each new layer keeps unfolding in front of us. Now, since we know what socialization and identity both mean, we can bring them together and relate them to answer our question does socialization lead to identity formation? Well, I think yes, socialization does lead to identity formation as we discover who we really are and where we fit in, only in the midst of people and in our interaction with them. Once we start interacting with the society, we learn so much about ourselves as well as about others (individuals or societies), their culture, customs, behaviour, etc. We learn that we are similar to some people, and different from others. Socialization makes an individual more confident. The more people we talk to, the more topics we talk about, and this in turn widens our scope. Also, we make ourselves more visible to society and hence people recognize us. Thus socialization helps in building ones identity. Todays world is all about power and identity. If one has an identity as well as the right attitude, he can achieve whatever h e wants. Socializing also leads to better networking. Better networking means more connections and more connections means higher opportunities at work or elsewhere as well. Hence socialization leads to a boost in ones career or talent and thus helps in identity formation. The more we interact with people, the more we discover ourselves and form judgements about ourselves as well as others. One is only able to discover his true self when he interacts with others and reacts in certain ways that are different from others. Everyone has a different and unique reaction to a certain situation. This uniqueness is what gives an individual his identity. For example, if we see Phillip Zimbardos Stanford Prison Study Experiment (Zimbardo, 1971), that was undertaken to study the behavioural and psychological consequences of becoming a prisoner or prison guard, we observe that the prisoners started to lose their identity, and didnt see it as an experiment, but as a real prison run by psychologist. They forgot that they were actually just college students and not actually prisoners. The prisoners actually gave up their freedom and forgot their rights and liberties. The situation was such that it made them feel that way. The environment was so realistic that they act ually believed they were prisoners and thus behaved in rebellion. It is the prisoners who created in the guards a sadistic impulse. The guards were compelled to act in ways that were totally opposite from what they were feeling inside. But few of the guards were actually cruel, and felt no guilt or regret while doing their job. They had completely lost themselves and started behaving in the role that was assigned to them, i.e. the role of a prison guard. The prisoners as well as the guards lost their true identity and became what the situation required them to be. The fresh prison routine, the privilege cell for the obedient ones and the hole for those who were punished, the clothes they were made to wear, the food they were made to eat, the number given to them by which they were now addressed, made them lose their true identity and become someone else. Thus, from this experiment we learn that situations affect us more than we think. What the volunteers in this experiment experienc ed was the power of the situation and not anything to do with their personality. Prisons are institutions which attempt to rid individuals of their previous identity, and this can be clearly seen in Zimbardos prison experiment. Another example is The Clark Doll Experiment (Clark, 1939) that was carried out by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife, where they asked black children to choose between a black doll and a white doll. Most of the children said the white doll was nicer, prettier and the one they preferred playing with, whereas the black doll was the bad doll. All these children were aged from 6 to 9 only and were already so damaged by racism at such a young age. This racism was due to the school segregation between white and black kids. It was distorting their minds, causing them to have stereotypes and hate themselves. When asked the last question of the experiment-which doll looks like you? the children hesitated and answered. They wanted to choose the white doll, but reluctantly pick the black one. Thus, prejudice, discrimination and segregation caused black children to develop a sense of inferiority and self hatred. These children were embarrassed of who they truly were, and hated themselves for being black. They wanted to be white like the other kids. Thus, they lost their identity at such a young age and in fact were ashamed of who they actually were. They preferred being someone else. Thus, socialization does lead to identity formation, and this identity formation starts at a young age itself. Even before children learn the basic dos and donts. So, it is very important to keep children away from bad influences and situations that can make them form bad judgements and ideas about themselves. Now, arguing against the motion, socialization leads to identity formation, I would completely disagree upon this statement. Identity is who we are and where we come from. We form our identity by how we behave, how our family has brought us up, what education we get, where our interests lie, etc. It is what we do and how we behave as individuals that form our identity and make us who we truly are. Socialization has nothing to do with identity formation. Socialization will not pour knowledge or talents into an individual; it will not build ones identity. It is important because we get to know more people, and get to widen our base. But it doesnt form who we are. It is we ourselves who from who we are, not the people around us. Primary and Tertiary socialization may lead to identity formation, but I can confidently say that Secondary socialization does not lead to identity formation. This can be proved by Paul Williss Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs (Willis, 1977). In this study, we see that it is the family that gives the children their identity and even schooling could not change this identity. This is because the school did not teach them what they actually required in life and what they need to live life the way their society lives it. It is the students who distance themselves from the school culture and requirements, and develop their own counterculture. They are resistant to the schooling, and reject what the school offers to them. Willis finds that they are not less talented, but they do develop an antagonism towards the work hard move forward mentality of modern education, and develop what Willis terms as counter school culture (Willis, 1977). Thus, these children do not form a different identity that their school wants them to become. They stick to what their family has taught them and what their family requires them to be. Their family requires them to be labourers, who earn their living by hard work and labour, not by sitting on a desk and signing papers. Thus, these children reject the education and school culture that schooling is supposed to embed in a student, and prefer living life the way their family has been doing so, not because they want to, but because it is their duty, it is who they are and where they belong.

The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality :: History Historical Racial Essays

The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality The Afro-Cuban struggle for equality essentially began after the emancipation of the slaves in 1886. This struggle would continue until 1912, when a brutal government massacre ended their hopes of real equality. The Afro-Cuban struggle for equality was a key issue in Cuba’s fight for independence, as well as, Cuba’s fight to find its identity and character. The first attempt to unite the Afro-Cuban community was the formation of the Directorio Central de las Sociedades de la Raza de Color in 1887. This was the first black political party within Latin America. "The main focus of the struggle led by these Afro-Cubans and the Directorio was equal rights and equal protection under the law." [35] The Spanish did not see the Directorio in the same manner. They thought it was a tool, used by blacks and mulattos that used racism against whites in order for the black population to take over Cuba. When the black community said they wanted to be considered equals, the white community was hearing another Haiti. They feared that the black community was going to revolt against them and try to take over the whole country. This white fear was at the core of the equality issue and represents the white person’s main rejection of equality. The Afro-Cuban community tried to explain the Directorio by "explaining that the Directorio was not a black party uniting Afro-Cubans in a supposed hatred of whites. It was the opposite of a racist movement and struggled to suppress racism." [52] Afro-Cubans knew that they would never be accepted as equals with the white class, so they helped decided to help aid in the cause for independence of Cuba from Spain. They hoped that if they helped fight to win their countries independence, they would be able to achieve greater equality and a better role in society. †¦their goal was probably not only independence from Spain but also the creation of a new society in which they would fully participate. Blacks rebelled against racism and inequality, landless peasants regardless of race stood up for land, popular cabecillas wanted political power, and orientales in general hoped to gain control of their region’s destiny. The potential for the war to become a social revolution was strong indeed. [57] The war was a colorless one. Cubans fought next to Cubans. Cubans looked at the war as a new beginning.

Beginnings of Democracy Essay

As time went by and sedentary conditions began to stabilize, the relations between the king, council and assembly changed as well. The council proved to be more resilient than the king and disputes on succession and opposition to a weak king did not help to improve the status of monarchy. It was imminent that the council whose members were supported by their dependents in the population would gain more power than the king. Although the position of king remained in most cities, its authority ultimately decreased, and the position itself became an elective post which was limited to a year. New positions were also required as the states began to increase its territories. On the other hand, powerful families would rely on their dependents for support, without which they could gain no favor from the council. Thus, in the Greek classical period, final decisions were made by a majority vote on the public assembly. The assembly became the sovereign and we see the birth of democracy. The public assembly’s sovereignty, however, was not won through a class struggle. Conflicts between powerful head of families were resolved through an appeal to their followers who attended the assembly. Perhaps because the leaders would prefer to keep the stability of the states, or perhaps it is preferable to settle disputes between citizens, most especially between powerful families, through diplomatic solutions, or more likely the fear of a threat of an appeal to a violent mob, that decisions were reached favoring whoever can amass a larger supporter. Hence, a family with more dependents would become politically dominant than one with lesser dependents. The rise of tyrants did not further improve the status of the king and council as sovereign of the states. Contrary to its modernized meaning, tyrants were not necessarily bad, as oppressors or unpopular rulers. These were challengers to the current power. Generally, this is the term applied to rulers who had no hereditary or legal claim to rule. They have gained such positions through the benefits they brought to the city or by having risen as champions of popular movements. The rule of tyrants, however, would soon be perceived negatively. Sealey explained that â€Å"the public life in the classical Greek city was highly competitive, and when one competitor far outdistanced his rivals, they felt that they no longer had a fair chance; they used the term ‘tyrant’ to express their disapproval of his excessive preeminence† (39). Peter John Rhodes held that the name and substance of politics was invented by the Greeks (3). He explained that the Greeks have â€Å"the first society in which states were governed not at the whim of an all-powerful ruler but by citizens who ‘took it in turn to rule and be ruled’†¦ , in accordance with agreed constitutional procedures where policy was decided not by intrigue in the court or bedchamber but by debate in the council and assembly† (Rhodes 3). Aside from citizens, there were non-citizens and slaves who were owned by a citizen or the state. These allowed the citizens to devote time in politics. The reintroduction of the use of alphabet would also contribute to the rise of the public assembly as the sovereign of Greek states. Greek states, independently of each other, adopted an alphabet that seems of a Semitic origin. This alphabet would later prove to be characteristic of the Greeks as a nation. It made available the development of literature, of which was traditionally recited orally. The increase of literacy among the citizens would also allow them to demand that state laws be put in writing. Hence, we see a steady rise in power of the citizenry. Trade, Warfare, and Alliances As population began to increase, the acquisition of new territories was a natural solution. Though some began to colonize other regions, it proved to be insufficient to provide homeland and to feed the growing population. Powerful states would look into invading a weaker neighboring state. These inter-state warfare brought upon improvement in warfare. Warfare before 800 BC were very different from the wars the Greeks waged against each other, and later, in defense from Persian invasion, during the classical period, or which the armies were organized in a formation known as the phalanx. As evidenced by the Homeric poems, Greek warfare in antiquity was carried out by relatively few leading warriors. These warriors would typically have a shield, a spear and a sword but had very little defensive armor. The warriors were also not organized in phalanx as each fought largely on his own. As a result, the battles tended to be a series of duels from warriors on each side. On the other hand, as people perfected how to fashion iron, the Greeks were able to supply their army with armor. Moreover, the Greeks discovered that fighting in close formation was more efficient. The classical Greek army would comprise of units called hoplites, which were heavily armed with spears and swords. The defensive armor comprised of a plate corslet, greaves, a closed helmet, and a large round shield, called hoplon and from which the unit’s name was derived. The phalanx was characterized by having the hoplites fight in close formation, in a series of rows, where the front row would be able to push the enemy off the field, with those behind able to thrust their spears and added their weight into pushing the enemy. Such was the effectivity of the phanlanx that once a city had adopted it, others had to do likewise in order to survive. The city-states found it convenient to establish various kinds of diplomatic relationship with others. Sparta, as an example, found itself unable to expand its territories further. It directed its attention to forming alliances with other city-states, some of which have other alliances in which Sparta was not included. At the end of the sixth century, Sparta was able to form what we now know as the Peloponnesian league. On the other hand, Athens had founded the Delian league to liberate Greece from the Persians.

Evaluation of Genetic Diversity of Golden Apple Snail, Pomacea Canaliculata

ABSTRACT Genetics is a trend these days especially that, DNA barcoding has been developed. DNA barcoding is an important tool in categorizing the taxa of different species and it tells so much about the species’ traits, including genetic diversity. The Pomacea canaliculata was introduced in different parts of Asia and had been an invasive species and a pest in different ecosystems ever since the introduction. In understanding this species of snails, samples were collected, DNA’s were extracted, undergone PCR and electrophoresis, and was sequenced and analyzed.The analysis was qualitative In the Philippines while quantitative in China. In the Philippines, the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) genes was used and compared among the species collected and when it was sequenced, it showed differences due to localized gap, mismatch and non-correspondence of bases. And in China, the diversity was analyzed by means of Nei’s gene diversity, Shannon’s information in dex, percentage of polymorphic bands (PPB) an AMOVA anlysis. Both the quantitative and qualitative showed that there was diversification within and among the populations of these snails.INTRODUCTION Genetics is the study of the genes, and the heredity and variation of individuals. Understanding the genome, which is the complete set of chromosomes or the entire genotype of an individual, is important because it helps in the taxonomy of species, especially nowadays wherein advancements in science needs more specific information, and that basing on morphological features is not enough. Life is specified by genomes which contain all the biological information which is encoded in its deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and divided into units or the genes.The genes are the blueprint for life because it is the particulate determiner of hereditary traits. Hence, DNA barcoding became a trend for scientists and researchers for the understanding of the different variations in the traits of different o rganisms. The golden apple snails (Pomacea canaliculata) originated from the South America, Central America, the West Indies and the Southern USA (Pain 1972) and was spread in the past decades to the different parts of Southeast Asia, namely Philippines, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Japan.The introduction of the P. canaliculata without prior studies caused damages to the different plants and it became an invasive species which resulted to becoming pests to humans and competitors to other local snails, example of which are those from the genus Pili. The P. canaliculata was observed to have different growth and reproduction in different parts of Asia, together with their external characteristics due to the different habitats and environmental conditions (Keawjam, 1986 and 1987), therefore there is the possibility to misidentify two sympatric species as one.On the other hand allopatric populations inhabiting different habitats may show ecomorphological variations and questionable species status and it was also suggested that the golden apple snails had high adaptability hence it was easier for them to form new populations (Dong et al. 2011). The understanding of the genomes of different species is a trend for scientists these days but the information about the different mollusks is still limited. The basic information on the number of species and/or population is of help for conservation programs (Carvalho and Hauser, 1994) and for building appropriate management schemes.In contribution, the studies aims are to evaluate the genetic diversity of the golden apple snail population in Asia, namely, Philippines and China via molecularly characterizing the P. canaliculata and to find different ways of analyzing the gathered data from the sequenced DNA of the said species. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Genetic diversity (Reed 2005) The significance of genetic diversity arose from two necessities: genetic diversity is required for populations to evo lve in response to environmental changes and heterozygosity levels are linked directly to reduce population fitness via inbreeding depression.The amount of genetic variation a population contains is predicted to correlate with current fitness and, in the case of heritabilities (which can remain high or even increase despite severe reductions in population size) with evolutionary potential. This correlation between fitness and levels of genetic variation, however, may be weak or nonexistent due to the neutrality of molecular markers used in estimating heterozygosity, nonadditive genetic variation and the purging of deleterious alleles because of increased selection against homozygotes.There is a body of literature that suggests that allozyme heterozygosity is a good measure of population fitness and adaptive potential. Others caution though that such molecular genetic data generally reflect only a small portion of genome and thus may not be indicator of adaptive genetic differences. But molecular markers may be useful for assessing the extent of genetic drift. Moreover, deleterious alleles, in mutation-selection balance, are responsible for at least half of the genetic variation in fitness.Selection has the tendency to purge the population of the deleterious recessive alleles which in theory creates inbred populations with a higher fitness than their outbreed progenitor. In other words, inbred populations with less genetic diversity would have higher fitness if the population is not kept small enough for a long enough to allow the fixation of deleterious alleles to occur. Fitness and future adaptability are reduced in smaller populations of plants and animals due to drift and inbreeding depression.Commonly used surrogates for fitness such as heritabilities, heterozygosity, and population size, significantly correlate with fitness and explain 15-20 % of the variation in fitness. Correlations suggest that many populations have reduced fitness as a result of inbre eding depression and genetic drift. There is much fuss and concern thus, over genetic variation because of the fact that endangered species typically have lower levels of heterozygosity and the loss of adaptive genetic variation and inbreeding depression puts wildlife populations at an increased risk of extinction.Finally, this increase occurs as a result of the reduction of productive fitness because of inbreeding depression or due to the failure of tracking the change in abiotic and biotic environment of the population as a result of the loss of genetic variation through drift. DNA barcoding (Moritz & Cicero 2004) At the very core, the purpose of DNA barcoding is for large scale screening of one or a few reference genes in order to assign unknown individuals to species and enhance discovery of new species.In the hope of developing a comprehensive database of sequences that will serve as a comparison tool to sequences from sampled individuals, proponents used DNA barcoding. There i s, however, nothing new with DNA barcoding as it is an offshoot of the use molecular markers for the very same purpose except, in DNA barcoding, there is an increased scale and proposed standardization. The selection of one or more reference genes characterizes standardization, with regards to microbial community and in stimulating large scale phylogenetic analyses if of proven value, though whether or not one gene fits all remain to be a question.Presently, most methods of DNA barcoding are tree-based and can fall into two broadly defined classes. One class is the distance-based, wherein it is based on the degree of DNA sequence variation within and between species. This kind of approach converts DNA sequences into genetic distances and then uses these distances to establish identification schemes. It further defines a similarity threshold below which a DNA barcode is assigned to a known or a new species. There is also the mention by several authors of a â€Å"barcoding gap† , a distance-gap between intra- and interspecific sequences, for species identification.However, the distance-based approach seems to be ill suited as a general means for species identification and the discovery of new species. One reason is that substitution rates of mitochondrion DNA vary between and within species and between different groups of species. The varied substitution rates can result in broad overlaps of intra- and interspecific distances, and hinder the accurate assignment of query sequences. Another class which is the monophyly-based requires the recovery of species as discrete clades (monophyly) on a phylogenetic tree and is used to assign unknown taxa to a known or new species.Similarly, some issues complicate the use of monophyly in a barcoding framework. For example, the long-recognized problem of incomplete lineage sorting will yield gene genealogies that may differ in topology from locus to locus. The recently divergent taxa may not be reciprocally monophyletic due to lack of time needed to coalesce. In addition, the gene trees are not necessarily congruent with species trees, and the monophyly, while a discrete criterion is arbitrary with respect to taxonomic level.Moreover, there is a recently applied new technique that has been proposed as an alternative to tree-based approaches for DNA barcoding, the so called character-based DNA barcode method, which is based on the fundamental concept that members of a given taxonomic group share attributes that are absent from comparable groups. It is the kind of method that characterizes species through a unique combination of diagnostic characters rather than genetic distances. The four standard nucleotides (A,T,C,G) if found in fixed states in one species can be used as diagnostics for identifying that species.This way, species boundaries can be defined by a diagnostic set of characters which can be increased to any level of resolution by applying multiple genes. Presently, character-based DNA b arcode method has been proved useful for species identification and discovery of several taxa. In the view that single-gene sequence should be the primary identifier of species, a contention arises that if that is the case then there’ll be a real need to connect different life history stages and increase the precision and efficiency of field studies involving diverse and difficult-to-identify taxa.Although the DNA barcoding community has put emphasis on the importance of large-scale sequence database within the existing framework and practice of systematics, it should be bore in mind that DNA barcoding is not the primary answer in resolving the tree of life. Furthermore, as much as the term â€Å"DNA barcoding† appealing, it implies, however, that each species has a fixed and invariant characteristic. But this kind of implication renders unrest to the minds of evolutionary biologists.In evaluating thus, the promise and pitfall of DNA barcoding, two areas of application should be distinguished: the molecular diagnostics of individuals relative to described taxa and DNA-led discovery of new species. And although there is little doubt that large-scale and standardized sequencing, when integrated with existing taxonomic practice, can contribute significantly to the challenges of identifying individuals and increasing the rate of discovering biological diversity as presented by this study, the general utility of DNA barcoding still requires further scrutiny.PCR (Moore 2005) In rapidly copying a selected template sequence from a DNA mixture in vitro, PCR offers a wide range of applications such as sequence detection and isolation for research, forensics and species identification through the PCR itself and in combination with other techniques. PCR's new technique uses flourescent probes to monitor the amounted product at end of every cycle and PCR machines look for the cycle at which the can readily detect flourescence.PCR is also being used to monitor RNA through the addition of reverse transcriptase enzyme at the beginning to generate DNA template. In addition, there are now new applications of PCR like single nucleotide polymorphism detection and screening. Cytochrome Oxydase subunit 1 (COI) (Buhay 2009) COI plays a significant role in documenting biodiversity and remains to be the choice for phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies. COI is a mitochondrial protein-coding gene which is a widely accepted marker for molecular identification across diverse taxa.Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have a relatively fast mutation rate, thus they result in significant differences between species. With respect to this, the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene with ~700bp was proposed to be a potential barcode or marker for molecular identification across various taxa. Furthermore, COI is a protein coding gene that has an open reading frame and in thecase of barcoding, COI can be highly divergent from the actual COI sequences which may cause major problems because species identification is based on sequence similarity.Pomacea canaliculata (Cowie 2002) The Pomacea canaliculata belongs to the family Ampullariidae. Its structure appears to have a slight dimorphism in shape of aperture and operculum. Females have broader mouth and concave operculum while convex in male. In terms of reproduction, oviposition often takes place at night or at early morning or evening about 24 hrs after copulation up to two weeks after mating (occurs three times per week) which occurs anytime of the day or night although there may be some diurnal rhythm.On each oviposition occasion a single clutch is laid of highly variable egg number. Moreover, the interval among successive ovipositions for p. canaliculata has been reported to be about five days and hatching generally takes place about two weeks after oviposition. The P. canaliculata breeds only during summer and grows into maturity in less than two months. P. canaliculata is s aid to be prolific and hence has rapid succession of generations which leads to rapid population expansion.They relatively inhabit still water and in water temperatures above 32 degree Celsius, it has been observed that the mortality of p. canaliculata is high. Whereas in low temperature p. canaliculata can survive 15-20 days at 0 degree Celsius, 2 days at -3 degree Celsius but only 6 hrs at -6 degree Celsius. And it is sufficiently tolerant of sea water to survive long enough to be carried by currents from one stream mouth to another, thereby expanding its distribution. P. canaliculata shows preferences among food plants.Its rate of growth has a direct correlation with its feeding on the preferred plant. Moreover, it is able to detect its food plants from some distance using chemical cues in the water. P. canaliculata, however, appears to be relatively generalist and indiscriminate that it is viewed to be particularly voracious compared to other Ampullariids. METHODOLOGY Sampling S nail samples were identified and collected from 2 countries in Asia, specifically in the Philippines and in China, where the P. canaliculata was introduced. In the Philippines; Los Banos (Dong et al. 011, p. 1778), 2 barangays in Tarlac (Brgy. Cabayaoasan, Paniqui and Brgy. Pance, Ramos) and Iloilo (Chichoco & Patdu 2012, p13), 44 snail samples were collected. And in China, specifically from Yuyao and Taizhou in Zhejiang province, Fuzhou in Fujian province, Guangzhou in Guangdong province, Nanning in Guangxi province, Kunming in Yunnan province, wherein a total of 120 samples were identified with the conserved sequence by Matsukura et al. (2008) and Pan et al. (2009) and then was collected (Dong et al. 2011, p. 1778).The snails were then stored, either by wrapping in paper, freezing or preserving it in ethanol, and brought into the respective labs in each country for the next steps; DNA extraction, PCR, electrophoresis and sequencing. DNA extraction The two studies used the phenol-c hloroform method (Bergallo et al. 2006) with an alternative of the Qiagen’s Dneasy extraction kit for China. The DNA concentration was determined spectrophotometrically and adjusted by a mini-gel method (Maniatis et al. , 1982) when the extracted DNA was enough, it was stored at 4oC to -20oC until needed. PCR and ElectrophoresisThe PCR method was basically done by choosing the right primers that will yield clearly reproduced bands and they tested the proper amounts and amplification effects of the components of PCR, which were the Mg2+, dNTP’s, DNA templates and polymerase, and the primers. After the mixture of the components and the DNA extracted, it was carried out in the thermocycler programmed for pre-denaturing at 94 °C for 3 min, followed by 26 cycles of 94 °C for 10-30s, 36-52 °C for 30-45s, extension of 65-72 °C for 60-90s, and the final extension for 5-7mins at 72 °C for final extension with 38-48 cycles.After which, the amplified products together w ith negative controls were run in electrophoresis to be separated and tested for contaminations, respectively. The products were then purified later on with the respective kits present in each lab. In the Philippines, the reaction was done with 2? L MgCl2, 5? L PCR buffer, 1? L dNTP, 2. 5 ? L of the primers, which were the LCO1490 and HCO2198, distilled H2O with 22. 75 ? L, 0. 25 Taq, and 10 ? L Q-buffer. The electrophoresis was done after the ethidium bromide staining (Maniatis et al. , 1982), analyzed through 1. % agarose gels and visualized under a transilluminator. In China, they made use of the ISSR-PCR analysis where they got four primers, which produced clearly reproduced bands, out of the 90 that was screened from the University of British Columbia’s primer set and the reactions were done with a volume of 20 ? l, containing 0. 2 mM of each dNTP, 1. 5 mM MgCl2, 0. 5 ? M primers, 1 U Taq polymerase and 10 ng DNA template, and also with the determination of the optimal r eaction system of ISSR for P. canaliculata (Dong et al. 2011, p. 1779).The products’ sizes after the amplification was estimated using DNA marker DL2000 and then was run in electrophoresis, which was done on 6% polyacrylamide gels, visualized by silver staining and then photographed (Li et al. , 2009). Sequencing/ Data analysis Chichioco and Patdu (2012) sent the DNA samples to the First Base Laboratory in Singapore for sequencing and the results were sent back to the DNA barcoding Laboratory after a week. The COI sequences were aligned in the BLAST, specifically the STADEN package version 1. 5. 3 and Bioedit Sequence Alignment Editor version 7. 0. 9. 0.Aside from the sequences sampled, other sequences and their haplotypes from the GenBank were also compared and matched. In Dong’s (2011) research, he made use of the RAPD fragments by labeling them into binary matrices, used them to get the similarity index, Sxy = 2nxy / nx+ ny, where nx and ny represent the number of R APD bands in individuals x and y, and nxy represents the number of shared bands between individuals, as stated by Nei and Li (1979), then averaging it across all the possible comparisons between individuals within a geographic sample to get the within samples similarity (Si).Between sample similarity corrected by within sample similarity Si and Sj of geographic samples i and j, respectively) is also calculated between pairs of individuals across samples i and j using the equation; S’ij = 1 + Sij – (Si and Sj)/2. Genetic distance between paired samples was then calculated as D’ij = 1- S’ij (Lynch, 1990). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In the Philippines (Chichioco & Patdu 2012, p. 18-31) The collected samples from Brgy. Cabayaoasan were found in the elevated parts of a rice paddy, specifically, it was a muddy substrate with decaying leaves from the rice plants and surrounding trees while those that was found in Brgy.Pance was in the muddy bottom of the shallow fis h pond in the roots of water lilies and grasses. The samples from the two barangays in Tarlac and Iloilo had relatively different colors and sizes. Those that were collected from Brgy. Cabayaoasan had the largest size and they are colored black while those in Brgy. Pance had brown in color and still, those in Iloilo had very small sized specimens and some of the specimens can be mistaken as Pila conica snails if not examined properly. Primers affect the amplification success greatly, since according to Hajibabaei (2005) a 95% success is necessary for barcoding.The primers LCO1490 (SENSE) and HCO2198 are generally used for the amplification of forward and reverse fragments from COI genes. The DNA samples were subjected to the PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE), and they produced single discrete bands that suggest that the fragments were homogenous and start and end at the same point (Reece 2004). The bands that were brighter and distinct are more appropriate for sequencing bec ause it means that the DNA fragments were well amplified. The best DNA’s were chosen and forwarded to the First Base Laboratory in Singapore for sequencing.At the return of the results, other sequenced DNA barcodes were also collected and was aligned and compared with the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) database. Fig 1. Alignment of the COI gene sequences of the Pomacea canaliculata (CPT1-5 from Brgy. Cabayaoasan, PRT 7,9,10 from Brgy. Pance, IICK & IIPC1,3 from Iloilo) from the Philippines using Bioedit Sequence Alignment and ClustalW multiple Alignment (Chichioco & Patdu 2012, p. 26) By aligning the sequenced data, it can be seen that there are both similarities and differences among the genetic make-up of the samples.The differences are due to localized gap, mismatch and non-correspondence of bases along the COI fragments as pointed out in fig. 2 Fig 2. Comparisons of the COI sequences of the P. canaliculata samples from 35bp- 120bp (Chichioco & Patdu 2012, p. 28 ) As emphasized in fig. 2, on the 55bp-58bp, a sequence from CPT1 was observed having (5’-AATT-3’) while all the others have (5’-GGTA-3’). Even though this is a noticeable difference and could have been caused by mutation or variation, the difference is still low enough and less that 1% difference to be considered significant.But on the other hand, the PCa1 sample had 36 different base pairs compared with the others, which was 5. 5% difference and is high enough and can be considered significant since it is ;4% divergent(Meyer and Paulay 2005). Then with a ~98% confidence, it could be said that PCa1 is from an independent evolutionary lineage and might indicate a divergence within or outside its population or might have occurred due to relationships and interactions among the other species.The introduction of the P. canaliculata to different places may have an effect on its intra- and interpopulation and might be why it has various genetic sequences altho ugh it goes against the theory that introduced species becomes a founding population in a new habitat thus they have a limited gene pool and as a consequence genetic drift, which removes variability since it affects all genes, and bottleneck might occur, which reduces the new species to have a reduced genetic diversity.To observe the genetic variability, the sequences collected were compared with those from GenBank with the use of the BLAST software. As a result from 81 COI barcodes and 55 haplotypes, the samples collected showed 99% and 100% similarities with the different haplotypes thus it showed that the species has a high diversity within the populations. The phylogeography within and among the species does not apply on the P. analiculata since intra- and interpopulation diversity was observed which was shown by the multiple introduction throughout the Philippines, hence the different times of the introduction contributed more to its diversity and it coincides with the migrant pool model that says that the introduced population acquires more genetic variability because of the multiple sources of genetically divergent populations as compared to that of the local species (Slatkin 1997, Sakal et al 2001). In China (Dong et al 2010) The chosen primers an average of 124. bands, since they generated a total of 498 bands, which ranged from 150-2500bp and qualifies them for barcoding, as seen in table 1. Among the 140 individuals, 435 bands were polymorphic which was different for each primer. In table 2, Nei’s gene diversity (H) varied between 0. 2612 and 0. 3340, with an average of 0. 3044, and arranged in a descending order the populations, LB ; KM ; NN ; FZ ; TZ ; GZ ; YY while the Shannon’s information index (I) ranged from 0. 3910 to 0. 4856, with an average of 0. 4499.At the species level, the values of Nei’s and Shannon’s showed the same trend as that of PPB. AMOVA analysis showed that there are highly significant (P ; 0. 001) genetic differences among the seven populations of P. canaliculata. The genetic diversity was mostly due to the differences within the population (92. 76%) while the rest was due to among populations. The analysis tells the same as that of the Nei’s and Shannon’s information, which says that there was a relatively high level of genetic differentiation among populations. CONCLUSIONGenetics of different species are studied by means of DNA barcoding, mostly of the COI gene in the mitochondria, to know the taxon of a species and to understand their trends and characteristics not only morphologically but also genetically. The diversity of a species can also be tested by means of DNA barcoding as seen in the study of the Pomacea canaliculata. The P. canaliculata was introduced in Asia for agricultural purposes and was seen for its benefits but not its drawbacks, which later on resulted to it being invasive and a pest for both humans and other species.To understand the P. can aliculata further, its diversity was studied by means of DNA barcoding and was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively in the Philippines and China, respectively. Both the analysis showed the same outcome, wherein the results showed high levels of genetic diversity among populations. 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