Summary of Coral Cay Conservation's habitat mapping data from Utila, Honduras

IIThe coral reefs of Honduras are of vital national and international importance,both ecologically and economically, but are threatened because of rapid economicand population growth.? During work on Utila between 1999 and 2000 (the ?Bay Islands 2000? project),Coral Cay Conservation developed a programme of surveys, training andconservation education aimed at assessing the status of local reefs and improvingenvironmental awareness amongst neighbouring communities.? This summary report provides an overview of the habitat mapping data collectedby the Bay Islands 2000 project.? CASA provided software, hardware and skills, on a charitable basis to ensure thatthe data collected by CCC could be developed into a GIS, not only for mappingthe status of the coral reefs of Honduras, but also to provide analysis of the aerialextent of these reefs.? Data were collected within individual ?study areas?, to facilitate analysis at a rangeof spatial scales, and utilised the CCC standard baseline survey technique for therapid assessment of the characteristics of reef communities. The surveys,therefore, utilised a series of transects, perpendicular to the reef.? Baseline transects discriminated nine benthic and six geomorpholgical classeswhich indicates Utila has a high habitat diversity. Habitat diversity is importantsince the number of habitat types has been shown to be a good representation ofspecies biodiversity.? The nine benthic classes that were distinguished were all relatively coral poorbecause of a suite of relatively long-term local and regional factors, exacerbatedby the combination of Hurricane Mitch and coral bleaching in 1995 and 1998.? Damselfish were the most abundant reef associated fish recorded during baselinetransect surveys. Commercially important fish were less abundant that wouldnormally be expected in unfished systems.? A recurring pattern in the baseline transect data was the greater abundance anddiversity of fish in coral rich classes. However, although the link between fishabundance and coral cover was clear, not all species were necessarily mostabundant in the most coral rich areas.? Invertebrates were generally uncommon, partly because of fishing pressure, andthe abundances of many invertebrate taxa were correlated with coral cover.? A habitat map is presented within this report as an indication of the distribution ofhabitat types around Utila.? Using the map, estimates of areal extents of each benthic class and habitat type areinstructive. For example, there is only approximately 27 km2 of reefal habitatsaround Utila. Furthermore, the area supporting the most coral rich benthic classesis only approximately 4 km2 (15%). These statistics both highlight the damagecaused by the bleaching event and Hurricane Mitch and other anthropogenicimpacts and the need to conserve remaining coral rich areas.? If further reserves were to be created, it would be important to try to protect arange of reef and habitat types. For this reason, it appears that the Turtle HarbourWildlife Refuge is well placed since this areas includes a wide range of habitattypes. However, placement of reserves in Utila should favour relatively coral richhabitats over sand dominated areas.? This study led to six recommendations:Summary Utila habitat mapping reportIII? One or more agencies should collect additional ground-truthing data fromaround Utila to facilitate both classification of currently ?Unknown? polygonsand an accuracy assessment of the map.? Establish an integrated GIS and associated meta-database for Utila, includingdata from the Bay Islands 2000 project.? Examine the potential of using data collected by the Bay Islands 2000 projectas the basis of national habitat classification scheme and subsequent nationalhabitat map.? Continue to aim to establish one or more additional multiple use marineprotected areas around Utila, with an integrated monitoring programme tomeasure their efficacy, and strengthen the enforcement of regulations in theTurtle Harbour Wildlife Sanctuary. Establish regulations, and enforce existinglegislation, to minimise the detrimental effects of coastal development on reefhealth.? Additional marine reserves in Utila should integrate factors such as thepreference of many fish species for coral rich habitats and the protection ofareas incorporating a range of habitat types, including mangroves and seagrassbeds, in order to allow for nursery areas, ontogenetic shifts and species thatrely on non-coral rich habitats. The corollary of the preference of fish speciesfor coral rich habitats is to protect coral cover within the reserves.? The reef on the south coast of Utila appears to be a good candidate forprotection because it is relatively sheltered from storm and hurricane damage

Endothelin signaling in bone

The endothelin (ET) system includes 3 small peptide hormones and a pair of G-protein-coupled receptors. This review first outlines the ET signaling pathway and ET metabolism. Next, it summarizes the role of ET1 signaling in craniofacial development. Then, it discusses observations relating ET signaling to osteoblastic and other osteosclerotic processes in cancer. Finally, it describes recent work in our laboratory that points to endothelin signaling as an upstream mediator of WNT signaling, promoting bone matrix synthesis and mineralization. It concludes with a statement of some remaining gaps in knowledge and proposals for future research

Measles vaccination and antibody response in autism spectrum disorder

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that measles vaccination was involved in the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as evidenced by signs of a persistent measles infection or abnormally persistent immune response shown by circulating measles virus or raised antibody titres in children with ASD who had been vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) compared with controls. DESIGN: Case-control study, community based. METHODS: A community sample of vaccinated children aged 10-12 years in the UK with ASD (n = 98) and two control groups of similar age, one with special educational needs but no ASD (n = 52) and one typically developing group (n = 90), were tested for measles virus and antibody response to measles in the serum. RESULTS: No difference was found between cases and controls for measles antibody response. There was no dose-response relationship between autism symptoms and antibody concentrations. Measles virus nucleic acid was amplified by reverse transcriptase-PCR in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from one patient with autism and two typically developing children. There was no evidence of a differential response to measles virus or the measles component of the MMR in children with ASD, with or without regression, and controls who had either one or two doses of MMR. Only one child from the control group had clinical symptoms of possible enterocolitis. CONCLUSION: No association between measles vaccination and ASD was shown

Intravascular ultrasound aids in the performance of endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm

AbstractPurpose: The purpose of this retrospective review was to assess the accuracy of aortic measurements with intravascular ultrasound scan (IVUS) compared with computed tomographic (CT) scan and to assess the role of IVUS in the performance of endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs). Methods: Seventy-eight patients undergoing repair of AAA with the AneuRx stent graft (Medtronic AVE, Inc, Santa Rosa, Calif) underwent measurement with CT scan and IVUS. The initial selection of stent graft size was made on the basis of the CT scan measurements, but the final decision for size was made on the basis of the IVUS measurements. Standard measurements of a phantom tube obtained with IVUS, CT scan, and digital caliper were also compared. Results: IVUS measurements of the phantom standard agreed closely with CT scan measurements. However, stent graft size initially selected with CT measurement was altered in 28% of cases on the basis of intraoperative IVUS measurements. No type I endoleaks were encountered in our series, and no aortic cuffs were necessary for endoleak repair. Conclusion: IVUS accurately measures the aorta for selection of stent grafts for endovascular repair of AAA and may prevent type I endoleaks and remedial procedures for their repair. (J Vasc Surg 2003;37:615-8

Leveraging D2D Communication to Maximize the Spectral Efficiency of Massive MIMO Systems

In this paper, we investigate offloading of UEs in D2D mode for a massive MIMO system, where the base station (BS) is equipped with a large, but finite number of antennas and the total number of UEs is kept fixed. We derive closedform expressions for the bounds of the overall capacity of the system. Our results reveal that there exists an optimal user offload fraction, which maximizes the overall capacity. This fraction is strongly coupled with the network parameters such as the number of antennas at the BS, D2D link distance and the transmit SNR at both the UE and the BS. Given a set of network parameters, careful tuning of the offload fraction can provide up to 5× capacity gains

Surface Tension of Aqueous Solutions of Small-Chain Amino and Organic Acids

Peer reviewedPostprin

Understanding Conditional Associations between ToxCast in Vitro Readouts and the Hepatotoxicity of Compounds Using Rule-Based Methods

Current in vitro models for hepatotoxicity commonly suffer from low detection rates due to incomplete coverage of bioactivity space. Additionally, in vivo exposure measures such as Cmax are used for hepatotoxicity screening which are unavailable early on. Here we propose a novel rule-based framework to extract interpretable and biologically meaningful multi-conditional associations to prioritize in vitro endpoints for hepatotoxicity and understand the associated physicochemical conditions. The data used in this study was derived for 673 compounds from 361 ToxCast bioactivity measurements and 29 calculated physicochemical properties against two lowest effective levels (LEL) of rodent hepatotoxicity from ToxRefDB, namely 15mg/kg/day and 500mg/kg/day. In order to achieve 80% coverage of toxic compounds, 35 rules with accuracies ranging from 96% to 73% using 39 unique ToxCast assays are needed at a threshold level of 500mg/kg/day, whereas to describe the same coverage at a threshold of 15mg/kg/day 20 rules with accuracies of between 98% and 81% were needed, comprising 24 unique assays. Despite the 33-fold difference in dose levels, we found relative consistency in the key mechanistic groups in rule clusters, namely i) activities against Cytochrome P, ii) immunological responses, and iii) nuclear receptor activities. Less specific effects, such as oxidative stress and cell cycle arrest, were used more by rules to describe toxicity at the level of 500mg/kg/day. Although the endocrine disruption through nuclear receptor activity formulated an essential cluster of rules, this bioactivity is not covered in four commercial assay setups for hepatotoxicity. Using an external set of 29 drugs with drug-induced liver injury (DILI) labels, we found promiscuity over important assays discriminates between compounds with different levels of liver injury. In vitro-in vivo associations were also improved by incorporating physicochemical properties especially for the potent, 15mg/kg/day toxicity level, as well for assays describing nuclear receptor activity and phenotypic changes. The most frequently used physicochemical properties, predictive for hepatotoxicity in combination with assay activities, are linked to bioavailability, which were the number of rotatable bonds (less than 7) at a of level of 15mg/kg/day, and the number of rings (of less than 3) at level of 500mg/kg/day. In summary, hepatotoxicity cannot very well be captured by single assay endpoints, but better by a combination of bioactivities in relevant assays, with the likelihood of hepatotoxicity increasing with assay promiscuity. Together these findings can be used to prioritize assay combinations which are appropriate to assess potential hepatotoxicity

Application of RQD-Number and RQD-Volume multifractal modelling to delineate rock mass characterisation in Kahang Cu-Mo porphyry deposit, central Iran.

Identification of rock mass properties in terms of Rock Quality Designation (RQD) plays a significant role in mine planning and design. This study aims to separate the rock mass characterisation based on RQD data analysed from 48 boreholes in Kahang Cu-Mo porphyry deposit situated in the central Iran utilising RQD-Volume (RQD-V) and RQD-Number (RQD-N) fractal models. The log-log plots for RQD-V and RQD-N models show four rock mass populations defined by RQD thresholds of 3.55, 25.12 and 89.12% and 10.47, 41.68 and 83.17% respectively which represent very poor, poor, good and excellent rocks based on Deere and Miller rock classification. The RQD-V and RQD-N models indicate that the excellent rocks are situated in the NW and central parts of this deposit however, the good rocks are located in the most parts of the deposit. The results of validation of the fractal models with the RQD block model show that the RQD-N fractal model of excellent rock quality is better than the RQD-V fractal model of the same rock quality. Correlation between results of the fractal and the geological models illustrates that the excellent rocks are associated with porphyric quartz diorite (PQD) units. The results reveal that there is a multifractal nature in rock characterisation with respect to RQD for the Kahang deposit. The proposed fractal model can be intended for the better understanding of the rock quality for purpose of determination of the final pit slope.The authors are grateful to the National Iranian Copper Industries Co. (NICICO) for their permission to have access to the Kahang deposit dataset. Additionally, the authors would like to thank Mr. Reza Esfahanipour the head of Exploration and Development Department of the NICICO for his support. The authors also are hugely thankful to the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) for its financial support in order to conduct this research

Cardiosphere-derived cells demonstrate metabolic flexibility that Is influenced by adhesion status

Adult stem cells demonstrate metabolic flexibility that is regulated by cell adhesion status. The authors demonstrate that adherent cells primarily utilize glycolysis, whereas suspended cells rely on oxidative phosphorylation for their ATP needs. Akt phosphorylation transduces adhesion-mediated regulation of energy metabolism, by regulating translocation of glucose transporters (GLUT1) to the cell membrane and thus, cellular glucose uptake and glycolysis. Cell dissociation, a pre-requisite for cell transplantation, leads to energetic stress, which is mediated by Akt dephosphorylation, downregulation of glucose uptake, and glycolysis. They designed hydrogels that promote rapid cell adhesion of encapsulated cells, Akt phosphorylation, restore glycolysis, and cellular ATP levels

An evaluation of the quality of metallurgical coking coal seams within the north block of Eastern Parvadeh coal deposit, Tabas, Central Iran

The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of the metallurgical coking coal seams in the north block of Eastern Parvadeh coal deposit located in Tabas, Central Iran. Quality particulars of the main coking coal seams named as C1 and B2 , are; thickness, sulfur content and ash content, and have been evaluated by using statistical analysis and 3D modeling based on subsurface hole data including collar, orientation, lithology, stratigraphy and assay taken and analyzed from 87 drill holes. Seams were separated based on USGS (Bulletin 1450-B) and Russian (10583-72 and 7059-75) quality standards. Statistical studies reveal that the amounts of ash content and sulfur content are high considering the USGS standard. This study concludes that the C1 seam has the highest quality amongst the analyzed seams based on metallurgical quality particulars