A profile of the Monterey squid fleet in 1992

There were approximately 20 vessels active in the 1992 Monterey Bay squid fishery. The size of the fleet has not changed since the early 1970's when 15 to 20 vessels participated in the fishery. Since 1977, eleven steel hulled vessels have been added to the fleet, replacing smaller wooden hulled vessels that were in use during the 1960's. The hold capacity of the new fleet remains about 800 tons, because the new larger vessels replaced small vessels that used lighters (20 - 25 ton capacity non-motorized barges). Purse seines were legalized in 1989 and have replaced lamparas which were in use during the 1960'S and 1970's. Seines used in the squid fishery are small and shallow, ranging from 120 to 200 fm in length with most less than 25 fm deep. Crew size has been reduced nearly 50% by the addition of net reels, power blocks, submersible fish pumps, and vacuum pumps used for unloading at dockside. In the 1970's flasher type fathometers were used by the fleet and few vessels had navigational aids. Today most of the fleet have sonar, radar, and loran C. Three vessels carry global positioning systems. In 1988 squid attracting lights were legalized and the entire fleet used lights during the 1992 season. (21pp.

Rats, Mice, and People: Rodent Biology and Management

Farm Management,

The Hybrid Approach to Intervention of Chronic Total Occlusions

The "hybrid" approach to chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was developed to provide guidance on optimal crossing strategy selection. Dual angiography remains the cornerstone of clinical decision making in CTO PCI. Four angiographic parameters are assessed: (a) morphology of the proximal cap (clear-cut or ambiguous); (b) occlusion length; (c) distal vessel size and presence of bifurcations beyond the distal cap; and (d) location and suitability of location and suitability of a retrograde conduit (collateral channels or bypass grafts) for retrograde access. Antegrade wire escalation is favored for short (<20 mm) occlusions, usually escalating rapidly from a soft tapered-tip polymer-jacketed guidewire to a stiff polymer-jacketed or tapered-tip guidewire. Antegrade dissection/re-entry is favored in long (≥20 mm long) occlusions, trying to minimize the dissection length by re-entering into the distal true lumen immediately after the occlusion. Primary retrograde approach is preferred for lesions with an ambiguous proximal cap, poor distal target, good interventional collaterals, and heavy calcification,as well as chronic kidney disease. The "hybrid" approach advocates early change between strategies to enable CTO crossing in the most efficacious, efficient, and safe way. Several early studies are demonstrating high success and low complication rates with use of the "hybrid" approach, supporting its expanding use in CTO PCI

Reading Acquisition in Morocco

While interest in reading and writing has always been important to researchers and educational policy-makers, multidisciplinary investigations of the acquisition of literacy are a relatively new enterprise. In the Arabic-speaking wrold, in particular, there have been relatively few efforts to discover what kinds of literacy abilities the child brings to the classroom, and what kinds of home, preschool, and language environments lead to various levels of literacy both in and out of school. The research described here presents data collected during the first three years of the Morocco Literacy Project, whose general aim has been to investigate the process of literacy acquisition and retention in Morocco. The present paper will consider the effects of preschool experience and language background on a sample of primary school children living in contrastin rural and urban environments in Morocco

Financing Renewable Energy in Developing Countries: Mechanisms and Responsibilities

This paper reviews the instruments currently in use to finance renewable energy in developing countries, and considers those that have been proposed but not yet fully employed

Setting, Mechanical, Morphological, Degradation and Antibacterial Properties of Brushite cements

Aims: This study aim was to develop high strength, antibacterial-releasing brushite cements with controllable setting and porosity for bone-filling. Materials and Methods: Monocalcium phosphate monohydrate (MCPM) was reacted with equimolar β-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) and 800mM aqueous citric acid (CA) containing 0, 20, or 40wt% of antibacterial ε-polylysine (PLS). The large MCPM monoclinic crystals (10x100x500 micron) were used as received or after grinding. The powder to liquid ratio was 3:1 or 4:1. Setting kinetics, mechanical strengths, fracture surface morphologies, degradation rates, and PLS release was undertaken. Additionally, MRSA colony forming units (CFU) on set material discs with 0 versus 40wt% PLS and in surrounding broth medium was compared. Results Use of smaller particles and increased PLS lead to formation of more stable intermediate complexes and slower Brushite formation. Formulations with intermediate MCPM particle size and higher powder content had significantly higher flexural strengths. Pores / channels with dimensions comparable with those of the original MCPM crystals were detected on the fracture surfaces. Dissolution rates were affected by MCPM particle size but not PLS content. PLS release occurred primarily in the first 24 hours of set disc immersion in water. Addition of PLS enabled MRSA growth to decline from 1.8 x 107 to 2.5 x 104 on a set disc and from 2.0 x 109 to 1.2 x 104 CFU in the surrounding medium. . Conclusion and significance The above antibacterial Brushite cements could be employed in the treatment of infected bone (e.g. periodontitis, implantitis, osteomyelitis). Controlled setting is required to minimise leakage away from the required site of application. The channels in the cements and dissolution will allow bone cell penetration and provide ions for new bone formation respectively. The higher strengths will enable application in greater load bearing clinical situations

An evaluation of the bacteriostatic effect of platelet-rich plasma

Chronic wounds are a considerable health burden with high morbidity and poor rates of healing. Colonisation of chronic wounds by bacteria can be a significant factor in their poor healing rate. These bacteria can develop antibiotic resistance over time and can lead to wound infections, systemic illness, and occasionally amputation. When a large number of micro‐organisms colonise wounds, they can lead to biofilm formation, which are self‐perpetuating colonies of bacteria closed within an extracellular matrix, which are poorly penetrated by antibiotics. Platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) is an autologous blood product rich in growth factors and cytokines that are involved in an inflammatory response. PRP can be injected or applied to a wound as a topical gel, and there is some interest regarding its antimicrobial properties and whether this can improve wound healing. This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro bacteriostatic effect of PRP. PRP was collected from healthy volunteers and processed into two preparations: activated PRP—activated with calcium chloride and ethanol; inactivated PRP. The activity of each preparation against Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermis was evaluated against a control by three experiments: bacterial kill assay to assess planktonic bacterial growth; plate colony assay to assess bacterial colony growth; and colony biofilm assay to assess biofilm growth. Compared with control, both preparations of PRP significantly inhibited growth of planktonic S aureus and S epidermis. Activated PRP reduced planktonic bacterial concentration more than inactivated PRP in both bacteria. Both PRP preparations significantly reduced bacterial colony counts for both bacteria when compared with control; however, there was no difference between the two. There was no difference found between biofilm growth in either PRP against control or against the other preparation. This study demonstrates that PRP does have an inhibitory effect on the growth of common wound pathogens. Activation may be an important factor in increasing the antimicrobial effect of PRP. However, we did not find evidence of an effect against more complex bacterial colonies

Alkali-rich replacement zones in evolved NYF pegmatites: metasomatic fluids or immiscible melts?

IMA2018 Abstract submission Pegmatite mineralogy, geochemistry, classification and origins IMA2018-1337 Alkali-rich replacement zones in evolved NYF pegmatites: metasomatic fluids or immiscible melts? Axel Muller* 1, John Spratt2, Rainer Thomas3, Ben J. Williamson4, Reimar Seltmann2 1Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, 2Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom, 3Chemistry and Physics of Earth Materials, German Research Centre for Geoscience GFZ, Potsdam, Germany, 4Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, Penryn, United Kingdom What is your preferred presentation method?: Oral or poster presentation : Replacement zones (RZ), which are a common feature of evolved granitic pegmatites, are irregular, commonly alkali-rich zones superimposing, cross-cutting and replacing the primary zonation in almost all consolidated pegmatite bodies. RZ are widely considered to result from late-stage metasomatism even though little is known about the melts and/or fluids involved in their formation. However, the observed textures and mineral paragenesis of RZ cannot be explained by metasomatism in a strict sense. In this study, the nature of the late stage silicate melt forming “cleavelandite” RZ is assessed from textural, mineralogical, chemical and melt inclusion studies of evolved, Proterozoic Niobium-Yttrium-Fluorine (NYF) rare metal pegmatites from Evje–Iveland, southern Norway. These were studied as they are mineralogically simple, compared with RZ in evolved Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum (LCT) pegmatites. Silicate melt inclusions in RZ-forming topaz and “cleavelandite” document high H2O contents of up to18 wt.% of the F-rich silicate melt from which the RZ crystallized. In addition, from mineral compositions (“cleavelandite”, “amazonite”, white mica, garnet, columbite group minerals, topaz, fluorite, and beryl), they must have also been strongly alkaline (Na-dominated) with enrichments in F (at least 4 wt.%), Cs, Rb, Ta, Nb, Mn, Ge, Bi, As, and in some cases also Li compared with host pegmatites. These elements are concentrated in a few RZ-forming minerals resulting in very distinctive mineral-trace element signatures. “Amazonite” is strongly enriched in Cs and Rb and often white mica and beryl in Li and Cs. To acquire these mineral compositions, the overall Li-Cs-Ta-poor Evje-Iveland original pegmatite melt must have undergone extreme internal chemical differentiation resulting in melt/melt immiscibility aiding rheology contrasts and resulting in RZ formation. The resulting RZ-forming H2O-F-rich silicate melt would have shown large differences in viscosity and density, and therefore physical flow/transport properties, to the host pegmatite melt resulting in discordant contacts. The mineralogy and melt inclusion data from the Evje-Iveland pegmatites document a gradient of crystallization temperatures within the investigated pegmatite bodies with highest temperatures at the pegmatite margin (during initial emplacement, ~680°C) and lowest temperatures within the RZ (<500°C). Considering the temperature and pressure conditions of the host rocks gneisses and amphibolites (~650°C, up to 5 kbar) at the time of pegmatite emplacement and the crystallization conditions of the RZ, the Evje- Iveland pegmatites and RZ likely formed over a period of 2.2 million years, assuming an exhumation rate of 1.5 mm per million years and a geothermal gradient of 45°C km-1. Such a long crystallization time contradicts the classical view that pegmatites represent strongly undercooled melts which crystallize relatively fast.The attached document is the authors’ submitted version of the oral presentation. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it

What Drives Wind and Solar Energy Investment in India and China?

This research is motivated by the need to transform the basis of energy systems from fossil fuels to renewable sources. As well as the imperative of climate change, this transformation is needed to create development trajectories for economies that are genuinely sustainable over the long term. Our objectives are therefore both environmental and developmental. Understanding what drove low-carbon investments in the past is the key to identifying the drivers of investment in the future. In this regard, low-carbon investment decisions are not technical questions of optimal asset allocation. Rather, understanding these decisions requires an approach rooted in political economy, which assesses the motivations and incentives of the different actors involved, and how these interact. Understanding the dynamics of this process is the first step in shaping it. This research concentrates on private investment. Of the US$45 trillion of investments that the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates are required by 2050 to reduce global carbon emissions by half, it is assumed that 85 per cent will need to come from the private sector. Annually, this averages at a little over US$1 trillion, half of which will fund the replacement of existing technologies, largely in developed countries. The remaining US$530bn is investment in new capacity, the bulk of which (US$400bn pa) will be in developing countries (IEA 2008). Our focus is on the determinants of low-carbon investment in the world’s two largest emerging economies: China and India. While these countries are responsible for the biggest growth in carbon emissions, China is now the largest global investor in renewable energy and India saw the highest growth rate in recent times between 2010 and 2011 (BNEF 2012).UK Department for International Developmen