A nursery site of the Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera) in the eastern Bering Sea

A nursery site for the Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera) was sampled seasonally from June 2004 to July 2005. At the small nursery site (~2 km2), located in a highly productive area near the shelf-slope interface at the head of Bering Canyon in the eastern Bering Sea, reproductive males and females dominated the catch and neonate and juvenile skates were rare. Seasonal samples showed summertime (June and July) as the peak reproductive time in the nursery although some reproduction occurred throughout the year. Timeseries analysis of embryo length frequencies revealed that three cohorts were developing simultaneously and the period of embryonic development was estimated at 3.5 years and average embryo growth rate at 0.2 mm/day. Estimated egg case deposition occurred mainly during summertime and hatching occurred during winter months. Protracted hatching times may be common for oviparous elasmobranch species and may be directly correlated with ambient temperatures as evident from a meta-data analysis. Evidence indicates that the Alaska skate uses the eastern Bering Sea outer continental shelf region for reproduction and the middle and inner shelf regions as habitat for immature and subadults. Skate nurseries may be vulnerable to disturbances because they are located in highly productive areas and because embryos develop slowly

Biodiversity as an index of regime shift in the eastern Bering Sea

Data collected from an annual groundf ish survey of the eastern Bering Sea shelf from 1975 to 2002 were used to estimate biomass and biodiversity indexes for two fish guilds: f latfish and roundfish. Biomass estimates indicated that several species of f latfish (particularly rock sole, arrowtooth flounder, and f lathead sole), several large sculpins (Myoxocephalus spp.), bigmouth (Hemitripterus bolini), and skates (Bathyraja spp.) had increased. Declining species included several f latfish species and many smaller roundfish species of sculpins, eelpouts (Lycodes spp.), and sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria). Biodiversity indexes were calculated by using biomass estimates for both guilds from 1975 through 2002 within three physical domains on the eastern Bering Sea shelf. Biodiversity trends were found to be generally declining within the roundfish guild and generally increasing within the f latfish guild and varied between inner, middle, and outer shelf domains. The trends in biodiversity indexes from this study correlated strongly with the regime shift reported for the late 1970s and 1980s

Emerging patterns of species richness, diversity, population density, and distribution in the skates (Rajidae) of Alaska

Six years of bottom-trawl survey data, including over 6000 trawls covering over 200 km2 of bottom area throughout Alaska’s subarctic marine waters, were analyzed for patterns in species richness, diversity, density, and distribution of skates. The Bering Sea continental shelf and slope, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska regions were stratified by geographic subregion and depth. Species richness and relative density of skates increased with depth to the shelf break in all regions. The Bering Sea shelf was dominated by the Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera), but species richness and diversity were low. On the Bering Sea slope, richness and diversity were higher in the shallow stratum, and relative density appeared higher in subregions dominated by canyons. In the Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska, species richness and relative density were generally highest in the deepest depth strata. The data and distribution maps presented here are based on species-level data collected throughout the marine waters of Alaska, and this article represents the most comprehensive summary of the skate fauna of the region published to date

Bathyraja panthera, a new species of skate (Rajidae: Arhynchobatinae) from the western Aleutian Islands, and resurrection of the subgenus Arctoraja Ishiyama

We provide morphological and molecular evidence to recognize a new species of skate from the North Pacific, Bathyraja panthera. We also resurrect the skate subgenus Arctoraja Ishiyama, confirming its monophyly and the validity of the subgenus. Arctoraja was previously recognized as a distinct subgenus of Breviraja and later synonymized with Bathyraja (family Rajidae). Although the nominal species of Arctoraja have all been considered synonyms of Bathyraja parmifera by various authors, on the basis of morphometric, meristic, chondrological, and molecular data we recognize four species, including the new species. Species of Arctoraja are distributed across the North Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas from southern Japan to British Columbia. Bathyraja parmifera is abundant in the eastern Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and northern Gulf of Alaska; B. smirnovi is a western Pacific species found in the Sea of Okhotsk and Sea of Japan; B. simoterus is restricted to waters around the northern and eastern coasts of Hokkaido, Japan; and the new species B. panthera is restricted to the western Aleutian Islands. Bathyraja panthera is diagnosed by its color pattern of light yellow blotches with black spotting on a greenish brown background, high thorn and vertebral counts, chondrological characters of the neurocranium and clasper, and a unique nucleotide sequence within the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase gene. Furthermore, the species presently recognized as Bathyraja parmifera exhibits two haplotypes among specimens from Alaska, suggesting the possibility of a second, cryptic species

Practice Management Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Injury in the Pregnant Patient: The EAST Practice Management Guidelines Work Group

Trauma during pregnancy has presented very unique challenges over the centuries. From the first report of Ambrose Pare of a gunshot wound to the uterus in the 1600s to the present, there have existed controversies and inconsistencies in diagnosis, management, prognostics, and outcome. Anxiety is heightened by the addition of another, smaller patient. Trauma affects 7% of all pregnancies and requires admission in 4 of 1000 pregnancies. The incidence increases with advancing gestational age. Just over half of trauma during pregnancy occurs in the third trimester. Motor vehicle crashes comprise 50% of these traumas, and falls and assaults account for 22% each. These data were considered to be underestimates because many injured pregnant patients are not seen at trauma centers. Trauma during pregnancy is the leading cause of nonobstetric death and has an overall 6% to 7% maternal mortality. Fetal mortality has been quoted as high as 61% in major trauma and 80% if maternal shock is present. The anatomy and physiology of pregnancy make diagnosis and treatment difficult

The cross-sectional GRAS sample: A comprehensive phenotypical data collection of schizophrenic patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Schizophrenia is the collective term for an exclusively clinically diagnosed, heterogeneous group of mental disorders with still obscure biological roots. Based on the assumption that valuable information about relevant genetic and environmental disease mechanisms can be obtained by association studies on patient cohorts of ≥ 1000 patients, if performed on detailed clinical datasets and quantifiable biological readouts, we generated a new schizophrenia data base, the GRAS (Göttingen Research Association for Schizophrenia) data collection. GRAS is the necessary ground to study genetic causes of the schizophrenic phenotype in a 'phenotype-based genetic association study' (PGAS). This approach is different from and complementary to the genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on schizophrenia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>For this purpose, 1085 patients were recruited between 2005 and 2010 by an invariable team of traveling investigators in a cross-sectional field study that comprised 23 German psychiatric hospitals. Additionally, chart records and discharge letters of all patients were collected.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The corresponding dataset extracted and presented in form of an overview here, comprises biographic information, disease history, medication including side effects, and results of comprehensive cross-sectional psychopathological, neuropsychological, and neurological examinations. With >3000 data points per schizophrenic subject, this data base of living patients, who are also accessible for follow-up studies, provides a wide-ranging and standardized phenotype characterization of as yet unprecedented detail.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The GRAS data base will serve as prerequisite for PGAS, a novel approach to better understanding 'the schizophrenias' through exploring the contribution of genetic variation to the schizophrenic phenotypes.</p

The Churches' Bans on Consanguineous Marriages, Kin-Networks and Democracy

This paper highlights the role of kin-networks for the functioning of modern societies: countries with strong extended families as characterized by a high level of cousin marriages exhibit a weak rule of law and are more likely autocratic. To assess causality, I exploit a quasi-natural experiment. In the early medieval ages the Church started to prohibit kin-marriages. Using the variation in the duration and extent of the Eastern and Western Churches' bans on consanguineous marriages as instrumental variables, reveals highly significant point estimates of the percentage of cousin marriage on an index of democracy. An additional novel instrument, cousin-terms, strengthens this point: the estimates are very similar and do not rest on the European experience alone. Exploiting within country variation of cousin marriages in Italy, as well as within variation of a 'societal marriage pressure' indicator for a larger set of countries support these results. These findings point to a causal effect of marriage patterns on the proper functioning of formal institutions and democracy. The study further suggests that the Churches' marriage rules - by destroying extended kin-groups - led Europe on its special path of institutional and democratic development

Biodiversity as an index of regime shift in the eastern Bering Sea

Data collected from an annual groundf ish survey of the eastern Bering Sea shelf from 1975 to 2002 were used to estimate biomass and biodiversity indexes for two fish guilds: f latfish and roundfish. Biomass estimates indicated that several species of f latfish (particularly rock sole, arrowtooth flounder, and f lathead sole), several large sculpins (Myoxocephalus spp.), bigmouth (Hemitripterus bolini), and skates (Bathyraja spp.) had increased. Declining species included several f latfish species and many smaller roundfish species of sculpins, eelpouts (Lycodes spp.), and sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria). Biodiversity indexes were calculated by using biomass estimates for both guilds from 1975 through 2002 within three physical domains on the eastern Bering Sea shelf. Biodiversity trends were found to be generally declining within the roundfish guild and generally increasing within the f latfish guild and varied between inner, middle, and outer shelf domains. The trends in biodiversity indexes from this study correlated strongly with the regime shift reported for the late 1970s and 1980s

A nursery site of the Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera) in the eastern Bering Sea

A nursery site for the Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera)was sampled seasonally from June 2004 to July 2005. At the small nursery site (~2 km2), located in a highly productive area near the shelf-slope interface at the head of Bering Canyon in the eastern Bering Sea, reproductive males and females dominated the catch and neonate and juvenile skates were rare. Seasonal samples showed summertime (June and July) as the peak reproductive time in the nursery although some reproduction occurred throughout the year. Timeseriesanalysis of embryo length frequencies revealed that three cohorts were developing simultaneously and the period of embryonic development was estimated at 3.5 years and averageembryo growth rate at 0.2 mm/day. Estimated egg case deposition occurred mainly during summertime and hatching occurred during winter months. Protracted hatching timesmay be common for oviparous elasmobranch species and may be directly correlated with ambient temperatures as evident from a meta-data analysis. Evidence indicates that the Alaska skate uses the eastern Bering Sea outer continental shelf region for reproduction and the middle and innershelf regions as habitat for immature and subadults. Skate nurseries may be vulnerable to disturbances because they are located in highly productive areas and because embryos develop slowly

Antho (Acarnia) ridgwayi Stone & Lehnert & Hoff 2019, n. sp.

Antho (Acarnia) ridgwayi n. sp. (Figs. 2 & 3; Table 2) Material examined. Holotype USNM2084685, largely intact specimen originally frozen then dried, collected by Jerry Hoff with a research survey bottom trawl from the FV Cape Flattery; 21 June 2016, 210 m depth, haul station #27, 97.5 km WSW of St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, upper slope of the eastern Bering Sea (56°54.5880' N, 173°21.9390' W). Water temperature = 3.9 °C. A fragment of the holotype is deposited at the Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Germany under the registration number ZSM 20190188. Description. A foliaceous or flabellate, golden brown sponge with an irregular outline and lobes in several directions (Fig. 2A), maximum dimensions 130 x 120 x 2–3 mm. The consistency is flexible and resilient. No oscules visible, surface is smooth. Skeletal architecture. The relatively narrow sheet of the sponge has a reticulation of acanthostrongyles in its center (Figs. 2B & 3A), near the two surfaces, plumose tracts composed of two categories of styles rise towards the ectosome (Figs. 2B, 2C, & 3A). The smaller category of subtylostyles with microspined heads also occurs in bundles in between the tracts. The ectosome consists of a thin organic veneer (Figs. 2B & C) and contains abundant palmate isochelae, toxa and tylotes with microspined heads. Spicules. Megascleres are ectosomal tylotes with microspined heads (Fig. 3C), 223–254 x 6–9 µm, choanosomal acanthostrongyles (Figs. 3B & D), 195–228 x 14–24 µm, choanosomal, echinating smooth, thick styles (Figs. 2B, 2D, & 3B), 620–805 x 2 5–38 µm, and choanosomal thin (subtylo-)styles (Fig. 3B) with microspined heads, 378–466 x 8–10 µm. Microscleres are palmate isochelae (Fig. 3F), 20–24 µm and toxa in two size categories, small, 10–42 µm, and large, 136–182 µm (Figs. 2D & 3E). Discussion. A well-structured choanosome with megascleres differentiated in geometry and distribution, more than one category of choanosomal megascleres, one greatly modified and accessory spicules that consist of acanthostrongyles and are accompanied by ascending plumose tracts of styles clearly indicate the assignment of the new species within the family Microcionidae, the genus Antho, and the subgenus Acarnia. A comparison of the new species with congeners from the Bering Sea, North Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and North Atlantic Ocean indicate that there are no other Antho species in the area with two categories of toxa and none with large styles of comparable size and geometry. The new species differs from all compared congeners in the following characters (Table 2): Antho arctica has thinner large styles that have spined heads, much thinner acanthostrongyles (approximately one third), tornotes instead of tylotes that are much longer, and lacks toxa. A. bakusi has shorter styles, an additional category of thin styles and shorter acanthostyles, shorter and thinner acanthostrongyles, no ectosomal tylotes, and three distinct categories of toxa. A. circonflexa has acanthostyles instead of styles that are shorter and thinner, lacks a second category of styles, much shorter acanthostrongyles, lacks tylotes although the subtylostyles mentioned by Lévi (1960) could be regarded as tylotes based on the figure in the publication, and has shorter isochelae. A. coriacea has shorter styles (both acanthostyles), much shorter acanthostrongyles, and lacks tylotes although we regard the subtylostyles mentioned by Lévi (1960) as ectosomal spicules. A. elegans has much shorter styles and acanthostyles, shorter acanthostrongyles, ectosomal subtylostyles intead of tylotes, shorter isochelae, and different sizes of the two toxa categories. A. illgi has shorter and thinner styles (both categories), short styles without microspined heads, shorter and thinner acanthostrongyles, and lacks tylotes. A. planoramosa has only one category of styles (acanthostyles), thinner acanthostrongyles spined only at the ends, and lacks toxa. *measurements from Lévi, 1960 **measurements from Van Soest et al., 2013 ***Topsent (1904, p. 155) described “tylotes” but pictured acanthostrongyles on plate XIV 1d A. signata has shorter and thinner acanthostrongyles, ectosomal subtylostyles instead of tylotes, anisochelae and only one category of toxa. A. spinulosa has shorter and thinner thick styles with microspined heads, more slender thin styles that do not have microspined heads, strongyles to tylotes (with spines at the ends only) rather than acanthostrongyles, lacks ectosomal tylotes, smaller isochelae (described as arcuate by Tanita), and only one category of toxa in a size category intermediate to the two in A. ridgwayi. Etymology. We name this new species in memory of Michelle Ridgway who made major contributions to the conservation of Alaska’s marine resources, particularly in the Bering Sea, and whose passion inspired many.Published as part of Stone, Robert P., Lehnert, Helmut & Hoff, Gerald R., 2019, Inventory of the eastern Bering Sea sponge fauna, geographic range extensions and description of Antho ridgwayi sp. nov., pp. 236-250 in Zootaxa 4567 (2) on pages 245-249, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4567.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/259492