Integrating data from vessel monitoring system and fish landings in Menditerranean small fleets, using a PostgreSQL database with PostGIS extension

7th International Workshop on Marine Technology – Martech Workshop 2016, 26-28 October 2016, Barcelona.-- 1 pageGeospatial technologies represent an advance in knowledge of marine ecosystems, allowing approach the study of the potential effect of world fishing fleets and their dynamics. Nevertheless, their application to fisheries biology is very recent and its use is generalizing when the ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) proposed one methodology to study fisheries and their impact in Atlantic Ocean ecosystems in the 2008 year. This procedure is based on the use of position data from the >blue boxes> (VMS-Vessel Monitoring System), mandatory since 2006 due to a European regulation, and it's present in most fishing boats. The junction of the VMS, fishing logbooks and landings data enables us to obtain among others results, maps of fishing effort, behaviour of fishing fleet and precise location of fishing grounds at the European waters. However, its design is made for large trawlers and longliners, and extensive Atlantic areas. This fact makes impossible its application for the study of the fleet and fisheries in Mediterranean waters. Because, the boats are much smaller, have lower mobility and they work in small fishing areas. The aim of this work has been to develop and apply a methodology (ICES based) to study fishing effort on species of commercial interest in Catalan coast, using scripting PL/SQL procedures of PostgreSQL system database with Post- GIS extensionPeer Reviewe

Seven years of marine environmental changes monitoring at coastal OOCS stations (Catalan Sea, NW Mediterranean)

Since March 2009 up to the present (more than 7 years now), the Operational Observatory of the Catalan Sea (OOCS; http://www2.ceab.csic.es/ oceans/) remains a witness of persistent marine environmental changes. The OOCS has two fixed observation stations at the head of the Blanes Canyon (200 m depth, 41.66°N; 2.91°E) and at the Blanes bay (20 m depth, 41.67°N; 2.80°E) in the Catalan Sea, NW Mediterranean. At the canyon station, a multi-parametric buoy presently installed delivers high frequency (by 30 min) and multi-parametric oceanographic (i.e. salinity, temperature, chlorophyll, turbidity, as well as light intensity in the PAR range for the upper 50 m depth) and atmospheric (air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction and PAR) data. Subsurface photos and videos by an IP high resolution fisheye camera attached to the buoy are also delivered at 4-hour basis. Data and multimedia are transmitted in near real time for public access, via combined GSM/GPRS and 3G connections. At both stations, CTD profiles and water samples (collected for nutrients and picoplankton analyses) are carried out on board a research vessel at fortnightly basis. Numerical simulations along with the time series of in-situ observations show inter-annual seasonality anomalies possibly linked to global environmental changes. The lower-atmosphere and upper-sea environmental time series data collected prove the occurrence of shifting patterns of heat and matter fluxes impacting pelagic and benthic organisms.Peer Reviewe

Acceptability with general orderings

We present a new approach to termination analysis of logic programs. The essence of the approach is that we make use of general orderings (instead of level mappings), like it is done in transformational approaches to logic program termination analysis, but we apply these orderings directly to the logic program and not to the term-rewrite system obtained through some transformation. We define some variants of acceptability, based on general orderings, and show how they are equivalent to LD-termination. We develop a demand driven, constraint-based approach to verify these acceptability-variants. The advantage of the approach over standard acceptability is that in some cases, where complex level mappings are needed, fairly simple orderings may be easily generated. The advantage over transformational approaches is that it avoids the transformation step all together. {\bf Keywords:} termination analysis, acceptability, orderings.Comment: To appear in "Computational Logic: From Logic Programming into the Future

Inertial bioluminescence rhythms at the Capo Passero (KM3NeT-Italia) site, Central Mediterranean Sea

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Integrity of H1 helix in prion protein revealed by molecular dynamic simulations to be especially vulnerable to changes in the relative orientation of H1 and its S1 flank

In the template-assistance model, normal prion protein (PrPC), the pathogenic cause of prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) in human, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in cow, and scrapie in sheep, converts to infectious prion (PrPSc) through an autocatalytic process triggered by a transient interaction between PrPC and PrPSc. Conventional studies suggest the S1-H1-S2 region in PrPC to be the template of S1-S2 $\beta$-sheet in PrPSc, and the conformational conversion of PrPC into PrPSc may involve an unfolding of H1 in PrPC and its refolding into the $\beta$-sheet in PrPSc. Here we conduct a series of simulation experiments to test the idea of transient interaction of the template-assistance model. We find that the integrity of H1 in PrPC is vulnerable to a transient interaction that alters the native dihedral angles at residue Asn$^{143}$, which connects the S1 flank to H1, but not to interactions that alter the internal structure of the S1 flank, nor to those that alter the relative orientation between H1 and the S2 flank.Comment: A major revision on statistical analysis method has been made. The paper now has 23 pages, 11 figures. This work was presented at 2006 APS March meeting session K29.0004 at Baltimore, MD, USA 3/13-17, 2006. This paper has been accepted for pubcliation in European Biophysical Journal on Feb 2, 200

Improved methods for detection of β-galactosidase (lacZ) activity in hard tissue

The ß-galactosidase gene (lacZ) of Escherichia coli is widely used as a reporter gene. The expression of lacZ can be detected by enzyme-based histochemical staining using chromogenic substrates such as 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-ß-D: -galactoside (X-gal). Because the enzymatic activity of lacZ is vulnerable to high temperatures and acid treatment for demineralization, detection of lacZ on paraffinized sections is difficult, especially for hard tissues, which require demineralization before sectioning in paraffin. To circumvent this problem, whole-mount X-gal staining before sectioning is performed. However, detection of lacZ activity in the center of larger portions of hard whole adult tissues is challenging. In this study, focusing on fixation procedures, we determined the conditions conducive to improved detection of lacZ activity in deeper areas of whole tissues. We used an annexin a5 (Anxa5)-lacZ reporter mouse model in which the Anxa5 expression in hard tissue is indicated by lacZ activity. We found that lacZ activity could be detected throughout the periodontal ligament of adult mice when fixed in 100% acetone, whereas it was not detected in the periodontal ligament around the root apex fixed in glutaraldehyde and paraformaldehyde. This staining could not be detected in wild-type mice. Acetone maintains the lacZ activity within 48 h of fixation at both 4°C and at room temperature. In conclusion, acetone is the optimal fixative to improve permeability for staining of lacZ activity in large volumes of adult hard tissues

Coastal observatories for monitoring of fish behaviour and their responses to environmental changes

The inclusion of behavioral components in the analysis of a community can be of paramount importance in marine ecology. Diel (i.e., 24-h based), seasonal activity rhythms, or longer durational in behavioral responses can result in shifts in populations, and therefore on measurable abundances. Here, we review the value of developing cabled video observatory technology for the remote, long-term, and high-frequency monitoring of fish and their environments in coastal temperate areas. We provide details on the methodological requirements and constraints for the appropriate measurement of fish behavior over various seasonal scales (24 h, seasonal, annual) with camera systems mounted at fixed observatory locations. We highlight the importance of using marine sensors to simultaneously collect relevant environmental data in parallel to image data acquisition. Here we present multiparametric video, oceanographic, and meteorological data collected from the Mediterranean observatory platform, OBSEA (www.​obsea.​es; 20 m water depth). These data are reviewed in relation to ongoing and future developments of cabled observatory science. Two key approaches for the future improvement of cabled observatory technology are: (1) the application of Artificial Intelligence to aid in the analysis of increasingly large, complex, and highly interrelated biological and environmental data sets, and (2) the development of geographical observational networks to enable the reliable spatial analysis of observed populations over extended distances