Potential use of offshore marine structures in rebuilding an overfished rockfish species, bocaccio (Sebastes paucispinis)

Although bocaccio (Sebastes paucispinis) was an economically important rockfish species along the west coast of North America, overfishing has reduced the stock to about 7.4% of its former unfished population. In 2003, using a manned research submersible, we conducted fish surveys around eight oil and gas platforms off southern California as part of an assessment of the potential value of these structures as fish habitat. From these surveys, we estimated that there was a minimum of 430,000 juvenile bocaccio at these eight structures. We determined this number to be about 20% of the average number of juvenile bocaccio that survive annually for the geographic range of the species. When these juveniles become adults, they will contribute about one percent (0.8%) of the additional amount of fish needed to rebuild the Pacific Coast population. By comparison, juvenile bocaccio recruitment to nearshore natural nursery grounds, as determined through regional scuba surveys, was low in the same year. This research demonstrates that a relatively small amount of artificial nursery habitat may be quite valuable in rebuilding an overfished species

Identical Response of Caged Rock Crabs (Genera Metacarcinus and Cancer) to Energized and Unenergized Undersea Power Cables in Southern California, USA

Energy generation facilities (i.e., wave and wind) are being sited in offshore marine waters. The electricity generated from these facilities is transmitted to shore through cables carrying alternating or direct current. This current produces an electromagnetic field (EMF) that is emitted from the cable. Concerns have been voiced regarding how marine organisms, in this instance crabs, respond to the EMF emitted by submarine power cables. Two submarine cables, one energized and the other unenergized, and separated by about 7 m, were used in the experiment. Crabs (Metacarcinus anthonyi (Rathbun, 1897) and Cancer productus (Randall, 1839)) were placed in plastic perforated boxes secured to the sea floor with one end in contact with one of the two cables. After one hour and 24 hours, scuba divers ascertained the position of the crabs within the boxes, these positions designated as either “near-half” or “far-half.” EMF readings were taken on the floor of each box at the edge closest to the cable and on the floor of that box furthest from the cable at one and 24 hours. Within the boxes, EMF levels were between 46.2–80.0 microteslas next to the cable an

The Organisms Living Around Energized Submarine Power Cables, Pipe, and Natural Sea Floor in the Inshore waters of Southern California

Between 1 February 2012 and 26 February 2014 using scuba, we surveyed the fishes, invertebrates, and macrophytes living on two energized submarine power cables, an adjacent pipe, and nearby natural habitat in southern California at bottom depths of 10–11 m and 13–14 m. Over the course of the study, average electromagnetic field (EMF) levels at the two cables (A and B) were statistically similar (Cable A = 73.0µT, Cable B = 91.4µT) and were much higher at these two cables than at either the pipe (average = 0.5µT) or sand (0µT). Overall, our study demonstrated that 1) the fish and invertebrate communities on cables, pipe, and natural habitat strongly overlapped and 2) there were differences between the shallower and deeper fish and invertebrate communities. We saw no evidence that fishes or invertebrates are either preferentially attracted to, or repelled by, the EMF emitted by the cables. Any differences in the fish or invertebrate densities between cables, pipe, and natural habitat taxa were most likely due to the differences in the physical characteristics of these habitats. As with the fishes and invertebrates, macrophytes did not appear to be responding to the EMF emitted by the cables. Rather, it is likely that differences in the plant communities were driven by site depth and habitat type

Haven or hell? : A perspective on the ecology of offshore oil and gas platforms

We acknowledge in-kind support from Net Zero Technology Centre and the University of Aberdeen through their partnership in the UK National Decommissioning Centre. Also E. Carr for graphical assistance.Peer reviewe

Comparison of various characteristics of women who do and do not attend for breast cancer screening

BACKGROUND: Information regarding the characteristics and health of women who do and do not attend for breast cancer screening is limited and representative data are difficult to obtain. METHODS: Information on age, deprivation and prescriptions for various medications was obtained for all women at two UK general practices who were invited to breast cancer screening through the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme. The characteristics of women who attended and did not attend screening were compared. RESULTS: Of the 1064 women invited to screening from the two practices, 882 (83%) attended screening. Screening attenders were of a similar age to non-attenders but came from significantly less deprived areas (30% of attenders versus 50% of non-attenders came from the most deprived areas, P < 0.0001) and were more likely to have a current prescription for hormone replacement therapy (32% versus 19%, P < 0.0001). No significant differences in recent prescriptions of medication for hypertension, heart disease, hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes mellitus, asthma, thyroid disease or depression/anxiety were observed between attenders and non-attenders. CONCLUSION: Women who attend the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme come from less deprived areas and are more likely to have a current prescription for hormone replacement therapy than non-attenders, but do not differ in terms of age or recent prescriptions for various other medications

Combining data mining and text mining for detection of early stage dementia:the SAMS framework

In this paper, we describe the open-source SAMS framework whose novelty lies in bringing together both data collection (keystrokes, mouse movements, application pathways) and text collection (email, documents, diaries) and analysis methodologies. The aim of SAMS is to provide a non-invasive method for large scale collection, secure storage, retrieval and analysis of an individual’s computer usage for the detection of cognitive decline, and to infer whether this decline is consistent with the early stages of dementia. The framework will allow evaluation and study by medical professionals in which data and textual features can be linked to deficits in cognitive domains that are characteristic of dementia. Having described requirements gathering and ethical concerns in previous papers, here we focus on the implementation of the data and text collection components