Can the pathway of abalone aquaculture effluent be traced using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of kelp Ecklonia maxima and mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis?

Abalone farms are becoming more common along the coast of South Africa. The effects these farms are having on the coastal habitats they occupy are becoming of increasing concern due to the possible negative effects of the effluent discharged from the farm. This study was conducted along the coast of Jacobsbaai (32°58'22.09" Sand 17°53'10.56" E) and Mauritzbaai (32°58'50.75"S and 17°52'59.44"E) near Saldanha on the South African west coast, situated approximately 120 Km from Cape Town. The aim of this study is to determine if the outflow of effluent from the Jacobsbaai Sea Products (pty) Ltd, abalone farm in Jacobsbaai can be traced using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. Kelp (Ecklonia maxima) and blue mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) along the coast near the farm (in Jacobsbaai) were collected from 8 sites and used as tracers of the farms effluent. A ninth site was sample in another bay (Mauritzbaai) which functioned as our control. We hypothesised that if the kelp and mussels are taking up the nitrogen and carbon from the farm, the amount of nitrogen and carbon taken up would decrease with decreasing distance from the effluent outfall. Using this we could map the geographic distribution of the abalone effluent alone the coast to measure the extent of eutrophication due to abalone effluent. Our results suggest that the effluent from the farm is having a localized effect on both Ecklonia maxima and Mytilus galloprovincialis

Controlled deposition of polymer matrix using electromelt spinning

Electrospinning is a widely used technique to produce fibers from polymer solutions using high electric field. With its simplicity and low-cost, all kinds of polymers can be processed using this technique. But there is a limitation to produce precise 3D structures and inability to control the pore size and non-uniformity. There is an alternative approach called melt electrospinning, which is a processing technique to produce fibers and fibrous structures from polymer melts in the range of micrometers to millimeters. Electromelt technique is solvent-free and can build precise and uniform scaffolds with pre-determined pore size. The efficiency of both processes depends on the instrument parameters and solvent properties: fiber diameter, uniformity of the fibers, solution viscosity, flow rate, tip to collector distance, ambient parameters. The goal of this study is to compare the morphological and biological characteristics of the 3D scaffolds produced from electrospun and electromelt technique. There are three objectives for this study. The first objective was to produce 3D scaffold using the electrospinning process and analyze the scaffolds morphologically. The polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds were produced using the electrospinning system. The second objective was to develop a melt electrospinning system using Newport actuators for controlling the scaffolds in the three dimensions within the range of 100 to 500 microns and its morphological analysis. Obtaining the desired precise movement using the actuators and selecting a suitable flow rate determines the feasibility of the system. The system was tested using a custom-made Arduino programmed stepper motor syringe pump system, which controls the ejection of fluid to maintain constant flow rate, preventing the formation of any non-uniformities. The area roughness, height, pore size and fiber diameter of the structures were analyzed under SEM and Profiler. The third objective was to compare the morphological characteristics of the results from both electrospinning and melt electrospinning. This study successfully developed an electromelt system that can produce rectangular and cylindrical PCL scaffolds with consistent porosity. From the morphological analysis using SEM and profiler, the scaffolds produced from electromelt process has observed to have very precise porosity than the electrospun process thus concluded that melt electrospinning is more efficient technique to produce 3D scaffolds. From the in vitro cell analysis of the scaffolds produced, the cells were able to attach to the scaffolds very easily and observed a noticeable growth of cell, proliferation and infiltration through the pores as the end-product is applied for bio-medical applications. Thus electromelt can provide a consistent solution to the problems of electrospun

Locally Advanced Spiroadenocarcinoma in the Regional Axilla of a Breast Cancer Patient: Hallmarks of Definitive Diagnosis and Management.

Eccrine spiroadenocarcinoma is an extremely rare malignant eccrine gland tumor which may masquerade as other more common malignancies such as poorly differentiated squamous carcinoma or metastatic breast cancer. We report a case of an ulcerated axillary skin lesion with bulky adenopathy in a 77 year-old female with a prior history of ipsilateral triple negative breast carcinoma. The clear transition of benign spiradenoma to malignant carcinoma was essential to establishing a definitive diagnosis and treatment plan

Robust Cardiac Motion Estimation using Ultrafast Ultrasound Data: A Low-Rank-Topology-Preserving Approach

Cardiac motion estimation is an important diagnostic tool to detect heart diseases and it has been explored with modalities such as MRI and conventional ultrasound (US) sequences. US cardiac motion estimation still presents challenges because of the complex motion patterns and the presence of noise. In this work, we propose a novel approach to estimate the cardiac motion using ultrafast ultrasound data. -- Our solution is based on a variational formulation characterized by the L2-regularized class. The displacement is represented by a lattice of b-splines and we ensure robustness by applying a maximum likelihood type estimator. While this is an important part of our solution, the main highlight of this paper is to combine a low-rank data representation with topology preservation. Low-rank data representation (achieved by finding the k-dominant singular values of a Casorati Matrix arranged from the data sequence) speeds up the global solution and achieves noise reduction. On the other hand, topology preservation (achieved by monitoring the Jacobian determinant) allows to radically rule out distortions while carefully controlling the size of allowed expansions and contractions. Our variational approach is carried out on a realistic dataset as well as on a simulated one. We demonstrate how our proposed variational solution deals with complex deformations through careful numerical experiments. While maintaining the accuracy of the solution, the low-rank preprocessing is shown to speed up the convergence of the variational problem. Beyond cardiac motion estimation, our approach is promising for the analysis of other organs that experience motion.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, Physics in Medicine and Biology, 201

An interview with Thomas Morton on CLIL methodology in Spain

The author interviewed Dr. Tom Morton of Birkbeck College (University of London) on CLIL, in June 2017.L'autora va entrevistar al Dr. Tom Morton de Birkbeck College (University of London) sobre AILCE, el juny del 2017.La autora entrevistó al Dr. Tom Morton de Birkbeck College (University of London) sobre AILCE, en junio del 2017.L'auteur a interviewé le Dr. Tom Morton de Birkbeck College (University of London) sur l'EMILE, en juin 2017

Growing food and access, education and opportunity through collaboration and dedication to hope

KC Farm School at Gibbs Road generates an inspiring environment transforming Wyandotte County through community-wide, multi-generational, and participatory food projects while providing vocational training, job opportunities, healing and fun. KC Farm School celebrates our county’s rich cultural heritage, and we offer hope in these urgent times. Our neighbors struggle with food insecurity, economic hardship, limited land access, climate change, soil degradation, disease, and disconnectedness. Many use SNAP benefits, live below the federal poverty level and face food insecurity. Wyandotte County, considered a ‘sacrifice zone’, is home to the country’s third largest rail yard and suffers environmental degradation due to that industry, to silver and limestone mining, and because of aging infrastructure. Still, KC Farm School grows hope by offering education, access, and opportunity to create solutions by working ‘with’ our neighbors not simply ‘for’ them. We learn what our neighbors want by hosting quarterly roundtables. ‘Let’s Grow Wyandotte!’ grew from concerns about food insecurity; and today 300+ households engage in the program which provides plants, seeds, supplies, and mentorship empowering participants to grow their own food. Through relationships with school districts, we bring students on-farm hands-on for farm activities and a robust curriculum, and we offer farm apprenticeships for youth aged 13-18. We collaborate with farmers through the KC Food Hub, Great Plains Regeneration, the KC Young Farmers Chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition, and Growing Growers Kansas City to address soil health through regenerative practices. We’ve created an economic model that provides opportu­­­nities for young farmers and emerging entrepreneurs while increasing food access for our community by hosting a weekly, on-farm farmers market; accepting SNAP, matching with Double-Up Food Bucks, encouraging pay-what-you’re-able, and barter agreements to ensure our neighbors have equitable access to nutritious food and education to lead healthy, whole lives. This win/win/win economic model provides our food and education programming at a rate that is determined by the individual participating; some pay less, and some pay more. In three years, KC Farm School has engaged 30,000+ individuals through participatory food projects, on-farm education and vocational opportunities. On fourteen urban acres, we’re creating innovative solutions with our community as we prove that when we all share what we have, we all have what we need. In this space of hope amid despair, good grows

A Molecular-Informed Species Inventory of the Order Ceramiales (Rhodophyta) in the Narragansett Bay Area (Rhode Island and Massachusetts), USA

Narragansett Bay is an estuarine system in the western North Atlantic Ocean that harbors a diverse marine flora, providing structure, habitat, and food for native biodiversity. This area has been the center of numerous environmental, biological, ecological, and oceanographic studies; however, marine macroalgae have not been extensively examined using modern molecular methods. Here, we document the biodiversity of the red algal order Ceramiales based on DNA sequence comparisons of the 3′ end of the RuBisCo large subunit (rbcL-3P) and the universal plastid amplicon (UPA). Thirty-seven distinct species of this order were identified and validated with molecular data, including five new species reports and at least one new report of an introduced species, Antithamnionella spirographidis, in the vicinity of Narraganset Bay. Novel sequence data were generated for numerous species, and it was discovered that the UPA marker, which has been less frequently used in red algal floristics, revealed an identical inventory of ceramialean algae as the rbcL-3P marker. Thus, the shorter length of the UPA marker holds promise for DNA metabarcoding studies that seek to elucidate biodiversity across algal phyla