Maine Lobstermen and the North Atlantic Right Whale: The Ongoing Conflict and the Obvious Solution

The majestic North Atlantic right whale is on the brink of extinction. With fewer than seventy breeding females left, every loss contributes to a decrease in biodiversity and brings us closer to an unrecognizable planet. Like most critically endangered species, the plummeting number of North Atlantic right whales is a direct result of human activity. Specifically, gear used by the lobster fishing industry is entangling and killing right whales off the coast of Maine. The federal Endangered Species Act, meant to protect vulnerable species like the North Atlantic right whale, is violated every time the State of Maine permits Maine lobstermen to use this gear. The solution is twofold: implementation of new, anti-entanglement lobstering gear and a shorter fishing season for Maine lobstermen. Although the federal government has taken steps in the right direction, their efforts are simply inadequate. As the Maine Lobstermen’s Association continues to fight for fewer regulations, conservationists urge the federal government to do more, and to do so quickly

The development of peer coaching skills in primary school children in years 5 and 6

Can peer coaching skills be developed through ‘non academic’ tasks? The enquiry also aims to answer the following question: Can children give and receive feedback? The research methods reported are ethnographic combined with pre- and post- responses to the drawing task. The categorisation of the children’s drawings and their use of feedback were analysed and for the majority of children the quality of the feedback did not affect their choice of accepting the feedback or ignoring the suggestions made, which appeared counter to our initial hypothesis

They’re Just Here for Ball: Proposing a Multi-Level Analysis on the Impact of Collegiate Athletics at Historically White Institutions on Black Male Collegiate Athlete Holistic Identity

As the overrepresentation of Black male collegiate athletes (BMCA) increases in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (DI) revenue-generating sports, coaches and athletic staff continue to overemphasize sport performance, while graduation rates for BMCA remain persistently lower than their peers and research continues to document transition out of sport concerns for this population. Proposing a multi-level approach, we explore the collegiate athletic factors that influence the holistic identity development of DI revenue generating BMCA at historically White institutions (HWIs) leading to difficulty transitioning out of sport. At the macro-level, the NCAA and its policies on eligibility are analyzed. At the meso-level, HWIs collegiate athletic departments and the impact of organizational practices are examined in regards to their impact on BMCA’s identity development, overall experiences and transition out of sport. Lastly, at the micro-level, we explore research focused on BMCAs’ experiences, expectations, and issues at HWIs. By identifying salient factors influencing BMCAs’ identity development and experiences, collegiate athletic stakeholders can use this information to create more effective programming and improve campus cultures that foster BMCAs’ holistic development on a systematized basis creating an environment where BMCAs are prepared to move into the next stage of life after sport ends

21 cm Tomography of the High-Redshift Universe with the Square Kilometer Array

We discuss the prospects for ``tomography'' of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at high redshifts using the 21 cm transition of neutral hydrogen. Existing observational constraints on the epoch of reionization imply a complex ionization history that may require multiple generations of sources. The 21 cm transition provides a unique tool to probe this era in detail, because it does not suffer from saturation effects, retains full redshift information, and directly probes the IGM gas. Observations in the redshifted 21cm line will allow one to study the history and morphology of reionization in detail. Depending on the characteristics of the first sources, they may also allow us to probe the era before reionization, when the first structures and luminous sources were forming. The construction of high signal-to-noise ratio maps on arcminute scales will require approximately one square kilometer of collecting area.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, to appear in "Science with the Square Kilometer Array," eds. C. Carilli and S. Rawlings, New Astronomy Reviews (Elsevier: Amsterdam), corrected Fig.

Controls on gut phosphatisation : the trilobites from the Weeks Formation Lagerstätte (Cambrian; Utah)

Despite being internal organs, digestive structures are frequently preserved in Cambrian Lagerstätten. However, the reasons for their fossilisation and their biological implications remain to be thoroughly explored. This is particularly true with arthropods--typically the most diverse fossilised organisms in Cambrian ecosystems--where digestive structures represent an as-yet underexploited alternative to appendage morphology for inferences on their biology. Here we describe the phosphatised digestive structures of three trilobite species from the Cambrian Weeks Formation Lagerstätte (Utah). Their exquisite, three-dimensional preservation reveals unique details on trilobite internal anatomy, such as the position of the mouth and the absence of a differentiated crop. In addition, the presence of paired pygidial organs of an unknown function is reported for the first time. This exceptional material enables exploration of the relationships between gut phosphatisation and the biology of organisms. Indeed, soft-tissue preservation is unusual in these fossils as it is restricted to the digestive structures, which indicates that the gut played a central role in its own phosphatisation. We hypothesize that the gut provided a microenvironment where special conditions could develop and harboured a source of phosphorus. The fact that gut phosphatization has almost exclusively been observed in arthropods could be explained by their uncommon ability to store ions (including phosphorous) in their digestive tissues. However, in some specimens from the Weeks Formation, the phosphatisation extends to the entire digestive system, suggesting that trilobites might have had some biological particularities not observed in modern arthropods. We speculate that one of them might have been an increased capacity for ion storage in the gut tissues, related to the moulting of their heavily-mineralised carapace

Influence of Microbial Biofilms on the Preservation of Primary Soft Tissue in Fossil and Extant Archosaurs

Background: Mineralized and permineralized bone is the most common form of fossilization in the vertebrate record. Preservation of gross soft tissues is extremely rare, but recent studies have suggested that primary soft tissues and biomolecules are more commonly preserved within preserved bones than had been presumed. Some of these claims have been challenged, with presentation of evidence suggesting that some of the structures are microbial artifacts, not primary soft tissues. The identification of biomolecules in fossil vertebrate extracts from a specimen of Brachylophosaurus canadensis has shown the interpretation of preserved organic remains as microbial biofilm to be highly unlikely. These discussions also propose a variety of potential mechanisms that would permit the preservation of soft-tissues in vertebrate fossils over geologic time. Methodology/Principal Findings: This study experimentally examines the role of microbial biofilms in soft-tissue preservation in vertebrate fossils by quantitatively establishing the growth and morphology of biofilms on extant archosaur bone. These results are microscopically and morphologically compared with soft-tissue extracts from vertebrate fossils from the Hell Creek Formation of southeastern Montana (Latest Maastrichtian) in order to investigate the potential role of microbial biofilms on the preservation of fossil bone and bound organic matter in a variety of taphonomic settings. Base

Embedding clinical research in pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes

Background: Within the UK, there is a goal that research is embedded into everyday healthcare practice. Currently education provided to students at pre-registration level is theoretical, with little focus on clinical research delivery. Aims: The paper’s aim is to report on the development and evaluation of a pre-registration clinical research resource for nursing and midwifery students with direct application to clinical settings and patient care outcomes. Methods: An initial survey assessed whether the learning resource was useful for nursing pre-registration students. Based on the findings, alongside expert stakeholder input, adaptations were made to the learning resources and a second survey re-evaluated the learning resources. Survey findings were analysed using descriptive statistics. Free text responses were thematically grouped. Results: Ninety-seven pre-registration nursing students responded. Most students agreed that they had enjoyed using the resources, had improved understanding of clinical research, anticipated being actively involved in research and would consider a future clinical research role. Conclusions: The learning resources can help overcome barriers to research engagement by nurses and midwives. The results demonstrate that research can be incorporated into clinical, educational and academic roles, highlighting their worth in supporting the clinical research workforce

Exceptionally well-preserved vegetal remains from the Upper Cretaceous of "Lo Hueco", Cuenca, Spain

Vegetal remains are considered labile structures that quickly become decayed in ecosystems. However, certain lignified tissues (woody plants) can largely resist decomposition, becoming sometimes exceptionally well preserved. At the Upper Cretaceous site of ?Lo Hueco? (Cuenca, Spain), those woody remains (trunks and branches) with resinous material in the inner tracheids and parenchyma cells that were buried rapidly under anoxic conditions experienced a low degree of maturation, becoming exceptionally well preserved. Those woody remains deposited under oxic conditions (subaerial or sub-aquatic exposure) were more intensely biodegraded and subsequently carbonified, partially or completely mineralized in gypsum and covered by a ferruginous crust. These two modes of preservation are scarce, with silicification or carbonification processes much more common, and both can be considered as ?exceptional preservation?. Other vegetal remains, such as carbonified leaves, stems and roots, were collected in the site. The different modes of preservation depend directly on: depositional micro-environment (sandy distributary channel, muddy flood plain); and type (trunk, branch, stem, leave, root) and state (presence or absence of resinous material) of the material. The great abundance and diversity of fossils in ?Lo Hueco? identify it as Konzentrat-Lagersta¿tten, sequentially formed by alternated events of flooding and drying depositional events, but the exceptional quality and rarity of determinate vegetal macroremains preservation suggest that certain deposits of this site can be considered as conservation deposits

Feedforward and feedback pathways of nociceptive and tactile processing in human somatosensory system: A study of dynamic causal modeling of fMRI data

Nociceptive and tactile information is processed in the somatosensory system via reciprocal (i.e., feedforward and feedback) projections between the thalamus, the primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortices. The exact hierarchy of nociceptive and tactile information processing within this ‘thalamus-S1-S2’ network and whether the processing hierarchy differs between the two somatosensory submodalities remains unclear. In particular, two questions related to the ascending and descending pathways have not been addressed. For the ascending pathways, whether tactile or nociceptive information is processed in parallel (i.e., 'thalamus-S1′ and 'thalamus-S2′) or in serial (i.e., 'thalamus-S1-S2′) remains controversial. For the descending pathways, how corticothalamic feedback regulates nociceptive and tactile processing also remains elusive. Here, we aimed to investigate the hierarchical organization for the processing of nociceptive and tactile information in the ‘thalamus-S1-S2’ network using dynamic causal modeling (DCM) combined with high-temporal-resolution fMRI. We found that, for both nociceptive and tactile information processing, both S1 and S2 received inputs from thalamus, indicating a parallel structure of ascending pathways for nociceptive and tactile information processing. Furthermore, we observed distinct corticothalamic feedback regulations from S1 and S2, showing that S1 generally exerts inhibitory feedback regulation independent of external stimulation whereas S2 provides additional inhibition to the thalamic activity during nociceptive and tactile information processing in humans. These findings revealed that nociceptive and tactile information processing have similar hierarchical organization within the somatosensory system in the human brain

Nuclear terrorism and virtual risk: Implications for prediction and the utility of models

Assessing the risk of nuclear terrorism is a challenging task due to the diversity of actors involved, variety of pathways to success, range of defensive measures employed, and the lack of detailed historical record upon which to base a nalysis. Numerical models developed to date vary wildly in both approach and ultimate assessment: estimates of the likelihood a nuclear terrorist attack differ by up to nine orders of magnitude. This paper critiques existing efforts from the standpoint of probability theory, and proposes an alternative perspective on the utility of risk assessment in this area. Nuclear terrorism is argued to be a ‘virtual risk’ for which it is not possible to meaningfully ascribe a quantitative measure, making numerical estimates of the likelihood of nuclear terrorism misleading. Instead, we argue that focus should be placed on utilising models to identify areas of disagreement as targets for further research, with greater emphasis on understanding terrorist decision-making and adaption in response to nuclear security measures