Mean sze of the landed catch: a fishery community index for trend assessment in exploited marine ecosystems

Based on fisheries landings data I propose the size-base index (community level) Mean Size of the Landing Catch (MSL). The MSL index was estimated based on high taxonomic resolution data available from auctions (species level) and demographic data acquired during the auction, namely species landed by "size-box" categories, which is assessed mandatorily in all EU members state for fisheries quality and statistic proposes. The MSL was calculated from the average inferred size-box categories of a species weighted by their annual catch. The use of MSL allows determining inter-annual changes in the size of the catch when weighted data is available from the fishery. Using the Portuguese fisheries landing data as an example, the MSL revealed that the landing yield of large fish linearly declined over time while the catch of small fishes increased (i.e., survivors to old age was reduced by fishing). The MSL can be easily used to assess trends in marine exploited commercial communities (community rather than population level) and is fully applicable with any species-size data source (e.g., scientific surveys, visual census data). The MSL can also be applied as a key indicator within the new ecosystem-based Marine Policy Framework Strategy (ecosystem approach to fisheries), which required the use of size-based indicators for the assessment of fisheries trends in exploited marine communities.CLIMFISH project A framework for assess vulnerability of coastal fisheries to climate change in Portuguese coast - Portugal 2020 n2/SAICT/2017 - SAICTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impacts of nitrate on the water resources of Malta

High density of population (1250 persons/km2) and livestock (300 head/km2). • Heavy dependence on groundwater for public supply and agriculture. • Complex landuse with multiple cropping and small landholdings. • Semi-arid Mediterranean climate with low and variable infiltration (<200 mm/year). • Two aquifers, ‘perched’ and ‘mean sea level’ (MSL) separated by impermeable clay. • Water level in MSL aquifer depressed to 5 m above sea level by abstraction

Hypocenter Determination and Clustering of Volcano-tectonic Earthquakes in Gede Volcano 2015

Gede volcano is an active volcano in West Java, Indonesia. Research about determination the volcano-tectonic earthquake source positions has given results using volcano-tectonic earthquakes data from January until November 2015. Volcano-tectonic earthquakes contained deep (VT-A) have frequency (maximum amplitude) range 5 – 15 Hz. Furthermore, they contain shallow earthquake, VT-B have range 3-5 Hz and LF have range 1-3 Hz. Geiger's Adaptive Damping (GAD) methods used for determining the hypocenter of these volcano-tectonic (VT) events. Hypocenter distribution divided into 4 clusters. Cluster I located in the crater of Gede volcano dominated by VT-B earthquakes their depth range 2 km below MSL to 2 km above MSL including the VT-B swarm. The seismic sources in cluster I indicated dominant due to the volcanic fluid or gas filled in conduit pipes. Cluster II located at the west of Gede volcano caused by Gede-Pangrango fault-line dominated by VT-A earthquakes with depths range 1.5 km below MSL to 700 m above MSL. Cluster III located in the North of Gede volcano dominated by VT-A events there caused by graben fault area with those depths range 7.5 – 1.65 km below MSL. Cluster IV located in South West of Gede volcano contained VT-A earthquakes with depth range at 10 km below MSL and VT-B earthquakes this depth 2 km below MSL. Due to magma intrusion filled into fractures of the fault in the West of Gede volcano this shallow magma filling-fractures and degassing in subsurface assumed dominates the volcano-tectonic events from January to November 2015 due to faults extends from North to South occured in the West of Gede volcano

The construction of self in relationships: narratives and references to mental states during picture-book reading interactions between mothers and children

Previous studies showed that mothers vary in the way in which they discuss past experiences with their children, since they can exhibit narrative (elaborative) or paradigmatic (repetitive) styles to different extents. Given this background, the aim of the present study was to analyze differences in the mothers’ use of narrative styles and mental state language (MSL), as a function of children’s age and gender. Thirty dyads consisting of mothers and their 4- to 6-year-old children were observed during a picture-book reading interaction. Maternal utterances were coded according to the categories described by Tessler and Nelson (1994), classifying each mother as Narrative or Paradigmatic. Eight categories of MSL were analyzed: perceptual, emotional (positive and negative), volitional, cognitive, communicative, and moral. The results confirmed the existence of the two maternal styles observed in the earlier studies. Importantly, we found that the mothers of younger children were more narrative than paradigmatic, whereas the opposite pattern occurred for the mothers of older children (they were more paradigmatic than narrative). As concerns MSL, the results indicated that the use of communicative terms was significantly more frequent for narrative than for paradigmatic mothers, and decreased linearly with children’s age. Lastly, the mothers of younger children referred their MSL more frequently to the book characters than to themselves or to the child. Taken together, these results support the idea that mothers adapt their narrative styles and MSL input to the growing abilities of their children, therefore contributing to the development of social understanding

A study of CIS-acting elements required for dosage compensation in Drosophila Melanogaster : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Genetics at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Dosage compensation (the equalisation of X-linked gene products) occurs in Drosophila melanogaster by a two fold transcriptional up-regulation of X-linked gene expression in males. This involves the binding of five proteins, MSL-1, MSL-2, MSL-3, MLE, MOF, and potentially an RNA (roXl or roX2), to hundreds of sites along the male X chromosome. The cis-acting X-linked DNA sequences required for dosage compensation (called dosage compensation regulatory elements or DCREs) remain elusive, despite numerous attempts of identify them. An insulated reporter gene assay system has been developed to minimise problems previously encountered with identification of these elements. The reporter system consists of the constitutive armadillo promoter fused to the lacZ reporter gene (called arm-lacZ). This reporter construct is flanked by SCS/SCS' insulator elements to block potential repressive effects of an autosomal chromatin environment. The role of the roX genes during dosage compensation was investigated. Initially both the roXl and roX2 RNAs were expressed from within the arm-lacZ insulated system. Expression of either RNA lead to a significant increase in lacZ expression in males, although consistently less than two-fold. These results suggested that either the MSL complex was binding to the roX genes or the expression of the roX RNAs in cis lead to male-specific hypertranscription of lacZ. To test these possibilities roX1 and roX2 cDNAs were inserted into the arm-lacZ reporter. Insertion of either cDNA lead to a significant increase in lacZ expression in males, suggesting that the transcribed regions of the roX genes contain binding site(s) for the MSL complex. Interestingly the level of lacZ hypertranscription in males was significantly higher in homozygous roX1 cDNA lines than homozygous roX1 gene lines. This may indicate that too high a local concentration of roX1 RNA has a dampening effect on the level of hypertranscription meditated by the MSL complex. In a set of experiments designed to identify the MSL binding site(s) in roX1, two regions of the cDNA sequence were amplified and inserted into the arm-lacZ system. One of these fragments, containing a proposed DNAseI hypersensitivity site and possible GAGA binding sites, increased lacZ expression in males, but to levels lower than the entire cDNA. This suggests there may be more than one MSL biding site in roX1. A second method of dosage compensation is thought to occur in Drosophila, independently of the MSL proteins. The arm-lacZ insulated reporter system was used to investigate the hypothesis that some genes may be dosage compensated due to repression by Sex-lethal (Sxl) in females. Several genes have been found to contain three or more Sxl binding sites in their 3' UTRs. with some also carrying Sxl binding sites in the 5' UTR. Fragments from the Sxl, Cut and Small Forked genes, containing numerous Sxl binding sites from the 3' UTR, were inserted into the 3' UTR region of arm-lacZ. Males carrying autosomal insertions of the construct had on average 1.07 - 1.50 times the level of β-galactosidase in females. This suggests that some genes could be partially compensated through Sxl repression in females. In addition to inserting 3' UTR fragments into arm-lacZ, a synthetic oligonucleotide containing a long Sxl binding site was inserted into the 5' region of an arm-lacZ construct already carrying the Runt 3' UTR fragment. Males carrying autosomal insertions of the construct had levels of β-galactosidase activity similar to those lines carrying autosomal insertions of the 3' UTR fragments alone. This suggests that other factors such as RNA binding proteins or RNA secondary structure may be required in order to obtain efficient translation repression by Sxl. Finally three X-linked DNA fragments, from the 1C region, were inserted individually between the SCS' element and the armadillo promoter. If the X-linked fragment contained a DCRE then males carrying autosomal insertions of the construct would produce twice the β-galactosidase activity of females. However, males and females expressed the same levels of lacZ

Virus taxonomy: the database of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV)

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) is charged with the task of developing, refining, and maintaining a universal virus taxonomy. This task encompasses the classification of virus species and higher-level taxa according to the genetic and biological properties of their members; naming virus taxa; maintaining a database detailing the currently approved taxonomy; and providing the database, supporting proposals, and other virus-related information from an open-access, public web site. The ICTV web site (http://ictv.global) provides access to the current taxonomy database in online and downloadable formats, and maintains a complete history of virus taxa back to the first release in 1971. The ICTV has also published the ICTV Report on Virus Taxonomy starting in 1971. This Report provides a comprehensive description of all virus taxa covering virus structure, genome structure, biology and phylogenetics. The ninth ICTV report, published in 2012, is available as an open-access online publication from the ICTV web site. The current, 10th report (http://ictv.global/report/), is being published online, and is replacing the previous hard-copy edition with a completely open access, continuously updated publication. No other database or resource exists that provides such a comprehensive, fully annotated compendium of information on virus taxa and taxonomy

Exploring Language-Independent Emotional Acoustic Features via Feature Selection

We propose a novel feature selection strategy to discover language-independent acoustic features that tend to be responsible for emotions regardless of languages, linguistics and other factors. Experimental results suggest that the language-independent feature subset discovered yields the performance comparable to the full feature set on various emotional speech corpora.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, 6 table

Emergency Notification System

This document contains the impact structures, breach area, and location of high hazard dams within the City of Austin.Waller Creek Working Grou