This paper deals with a certain class of unbounded optimization problems. The optimization problems taken into account depend on a parameter. Firstly, there are established conditions which permit to guarantee the continuity with respect to the parameter of the minimum of the optimization problems under consideration, and the upper semicontinuity of the multifunction which applies each parameter into its set of minimizers. Besides, with the additional condition of uniqueness of the minimizer, its continuity is given. Some examples of nonconvex optimization problems that satisfy the conditions of the article are supplied. Secondly, the theory developed is applied to discounted Markov decision processes with unbounded cost functions and with possibly noncompact actions sets in order to obtain continuous optimal policies. This part of the paper is illustrated with two examples of the controlled Lindley's random walk. One of these examples has nonconstant action sets.
Data mining animal of genomes has been used before to identify endoparasites, and may be a particularly useful tool to surpass some difficulties faced by studies in the marine environment. We detected a species of Sarcocystis Lankester, 1882, contamination in the sperm whale (Physeter catodon Linnaeus) reference genome available in the GenBank database. We identified and extracted multiple gene fragments and placed the sequences in a phylogenetic framework. Our results indicate that the sequences of Sarcocystis sp. found in the genome do not correspond to any currently described species, despite a few other similar sequences having been identified in fur seals (Pinnipedia) and another sperm whale. Including data from previous studies, we suggest there is enough evidence to support the occurrence of at least four species of Sarcocystis in marine mammals. We also demonstrate that the term "S. canis-like" has been used for samples not closely related to Sarcocystis canis Dubey et Speer, 1991.