Seasonality of the pelagic ichthyofauna in the Lazarev Sea

The Southern Ocean is characterised by an extreme seasonality which is best observed by the huge variation in sea ice extent. It expands from a minimum extent of 4 million square kilometres in February to a maximum of 19 million square kilometres in September and influences the physics and chemistry of the surface layers and the corresponding life histories of organisms. Reduced light condition and sea ice cover have a pronounced impact on primary production and predation risk in the pelagic zone. Here we present comparison of the distribution of fish in the Lazarev Sea correlated to biotic an abiotic features. Samples were collected in the framework of three LAKRIS (Lazarev Krill Study) campaigns onboard RV Polarstern during summer, fall and winter. The main focus was on factors affecting krill distribution. As such a wide variety of biotic and abiotic measures were made. Fish and fish larvae were collected from trawls from the upper 200m during both seasons. Both during summer and winter larval composition was dominated by pre-metamorphic Electrona antarctica and Notolepis coatsi. Post-metamorphic E. antarctica showed a pronounced seasonal difference in occurrence

Expressions of EphA2 and EphrinA-1 in early squamous cell cervical carcinomas and their relation to prognosis

By using immunohistochemistry we investigated the expression of EphA2 and EphrinA-1 in 217 early squamous cell cervical carcinomas and examine their prognostic relevance. For EphA2 expression, 21 tumors (10%) showed negative, 108 (50%) weak positive, 69 (32%) moderate positive and 19 (9%) strong positive, whereas for EphrinA-1 expression, 33 tumors (15%) showed negative, 91 (42%) weak positive, 67 (31%) moderate positive and 26 (12%) strong positive. In univariate analysis high expression (strong staining) of EphrinA-1 was associated with poor disease-free (P = 0.033) and disease-specific (P = 0.039) survival. However, in the multivariate analyses neither EphrinA-1 nor EphA2 was significantly associated to survival. The increased levels of EphA2 and EphrinA-1 in a relative high number of early stage squamous cell carcinomas suggested that these two proteins may play an important role in the development of a subset of early cervical cancers. However, EphA2 and EphrinA-1 were not independently associated with clinical outcome