Stock assessment of Queensland east coast saddletail snapper (Lutjanus malabaricus), Australia

In Queensland, east coast saddletail snapper (Lutjanus malabaricus) are mostly line-caught by commercial and recreational fishers, with some recreational spearfishing take. Saddletail snapper are believed to be a single stock (population) off Queensland’s east coast. This is the first stock assessment of the Queensland east coast stock. The assessment implemented a two-sex population model fit to age and length data, constructed within the Stock Synthesis modelling framework. The model incorporated data spanning the period from financial years 1988 to 2020 including commercial logbook harvest (1988–2020), recreational, charter and Indigenous survey harvest estimates (2000–2019), length distribution data from boat-ramp surveys (2017–2020) and age-length (2018–2020). Twenty-one model scenarios were run, covering a wide range of modelling assumptions. Base case (preferred) scenario results suggested that biomass declined between 1961 and 2017 to 19% unfished biomass. In 2020, the stock level was estimated to be 23% (13–73% range across scenarios) unfished biomass. The harvest consistent with a biomass ratio of 60%, the Sustainable Fisheries Strategy longer-term target, was estimated at 159 t (146–348 t range across scenarios and all sectors). The recommended harvest in the 2021 financial year is 12 t (0–494 t range across scenarios) to achieve this target by 2040

Neural networks as tools for predicting materials properties

Materials science is of fundamental significance to science and technology because our industrial base and society depend upon our ability to develop advanced materials. Materials and materials processing cuts across almost every sector of industry. The key in all of these areas is the ability to rapidly screen possible designs which will have significant impact. However up to now materials design and processing have been to a large extent empirical sciences. In addition we are still unable to design new alloys and polymers to meet application specific requirements. Being able to do so quickly and at minimum cost would provide an incredible advantage. Obviously, the ability to predict physical, chemical, or mechanical properties of compounds prior to their synthesis is of great technological value in optimizing their design, processing, or recycling. In addition, in order to realize the ultimate goal of materials by computational design, the reverse problem, prediction of chemical structure based on desired properties, has to be resolved. Research at ORNL has lead to the development of a novel computational paradigm (coupling computational neural networks with graph theory, genetic algorithms, wavelet theory, fuzzy logic, molecular dynamics, and quantum chemistry) capable of performing accurate computational synthesis (both predictions of properties or the design of compounds that have specified performance criteria). The computational paradigm represents a hybrid of a number of emerging technologies and has proven to work very well for test compounds ranging from small organic molecules to polymeric materials. Fundamental to the method is the neural network-based formulation of the correlations between structure and properties. The advantages of this method is in its ease of use, speed, accuracy, and that it can be used to predict both properties from structure, and also structure from properties

Configuration development study of the X-24C hypersonic research airplane

Bottom line results were made of a three-phase study to determine the feasibility of designing, building, and operating, and maintaining an air-launched high performance aircraft capable of cruising at speeds up to Mach 8 for short durations. The results show that Lockalloy heat-sink structure affords the capability for a 'work-horse' vehicle which can serve as an excellent platform for this research. It was further concluded that the performance of a blended wing body configuration surpassed that of a lifting body design for typical X-24C missions. The cost of a two vehicle program, less engines, B-52 modification and contractor support after delivery, can be kept within $70M (in Jan. 1976 dollars)

Anti-anxiety drugs and fish behavior: Establishing the link between internal concentrations of oxazepam and behavioral effects

This is the final published version. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.Some of the chemistry data have been provided in the Supplemental Data. The raw data from the behavioral analysis can be provided on contact with the corresponding author ([email protected]).Psychoactive drugs are frequently detected in the aquatic environment. The evolutionary conservation of the molecular targets of these drugs in fish suggests that they may elicit mode of action–mediated effects in fish as they do in humans, and the key open question is at what exposure concentrations these effects might occur. In the present study, the authors investigated the uptake and tissue distribution of the benzodiazepine oxazepam in the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) after 28 d of waterborne exposure to 0.8 μg L −1 , 4.7 μg L −1 , and 30.6 μg L −1 . Successively, they explored the relationship between the internal concentrations of oxazepam and the effects on fish exploratory behavior quantified by performing 2 types of behavioral tests, the novel tank diving test and the shelter-seeking test. The highest internal concentrations of oxazepam were found in brain, followed by plasma and liver, whereas muscle presented the lowest values. Average concentrations measured in the plasma of fish from the 3 exposure groups were, respectively, 8.7 ± 5.7 μg L −1 , 30.3 ± 16.1 μg L −1 , and 98.8 ± 72.9 μg L −1 . Significant correlations between plasma and tissue concentrations of oxazepam were found in all 3 groups. Exposure of fish to 30.6 µg L −1 in water produced plasma concentrations within or just below the human therapeutic plasma concentration (H T PC) range in many individuals. Statistically significant behavioral effects in the novel tank diving test were observed in fish exposed to 4.7 μg L −1 . In this group, plasma concentrations of oxazepam were approximately one-third of the lowest H T PC value. No significant effects were observed in fish exposed to the lowest and highest concentrations. The significance of these results is discussed in the context of the species-specific behavior of fathead minnow and existing knowledge of oxazepam pharmacology. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:2782–2790. © 2016 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.Brunel University (London, UK)Spanish Ministry of Economy and CompetitivenessEconomy and Knowledge Department of the Catalan governmen

Individual rules for trail pattern formation in Argentine ants (Linepithema humile)

We studied the formation of trail patterns by Argentine ants exploring an empty arena. Using a novel imaging and analysis technique we estimated pheromone concentrations at all spatial positions in the experimental arena and at different times. Then we derived the response function of individual ants to pheromone concentrations by looking at correlations between concentrations and changes in speed or direction of the ants. Ants were found to turn in response to local pheromone concentrations, while their speed was largely unaffected by these concentrations. Ants did not integrate pheromone concentrations over time, with the concentration of pheromone in a 1 cm radius in front of the ant determining the turning angle. The response to pheromone was found to follow a Weber's Law, such that the difference between quantities of pheromone on the two sides of the ant divided by their sum determines the magnitude of the turning angle. This proportional response is in apparent contradiction with the well-established non-linear choice function used in the literature to model the results of binary bridge experiments in ant colonies (Deneubourg et al. 1990). However, agent based simulations implementing the Weber's Law response function led to the formation of trails and reproduced results reported in the literature. We show analytically that a sigmoidal response, analogous to that in the classical Deneubourg model for collective decision making, can be derived from the individual Weber-type response to pheromone concentrations that we have established in our experiments when directional noise around the preferred direction of movement of the ants is assumed.Comment: final version, 9 figures, submitted to Plos Computational Biology (accepted

Autosis is a Na+,K+-ATPase-regulated form of cell death triggered by autophagy-inducing peptides, starvation, and hypoxia-ischemia.

A long-standing controversy is whether autophagy is a bona fide cause of mammalian cell death. We used a cell-penetrating autophagy-inducing peptide, Tat-Beclin 1, derived from the autophagy protein Beclin 1, to investigate whether high levels of autophagy result in cell death by autophagy. Here we show that Tat-Beclin 1 induces dose-dependent death that is blocked by pharmacological or genetic inhibition of autophagy, but not of apoptosis or necroptosis. This death, termed "autosis," has unique morphological features, including increased autophagosomes/autolysosomes and nuclear convolution at early stages, and focal swelling of the perinuclear space at late stages. We also observed autotic death in cells during stress conditions, including in a subpopulation of nutrient-starved cells in vitro and in hippocampal neurons of neonatal rats subjected to cerebral hypoxia-ischemia in vivo. A chemical screen of ~5,000 known bioactive compounds revealed that cardiac glycosides, antagonists of Na(+),K(+)-ATPase, inhibit autotic cell death in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, genetic knockdown of the Na(+),K(+)-ATPase α1 subunit blocks peptide and starvation-induced autosis in vitro. Thus, we have identified a unique form of autophagy-dependent cell death, a Food and Drug Administration-approved class of compounds that inhibit such death, and a crucial role for Na(+),K(+)-ATPase in its regulation. These findings have implications for understanding how cells die during certain stress conditions and how such cell death might be prevented

Symmetry restoring bifurcation in collective decision-making.

How social groups and organisms decide between alternative feeding sites or shelters has been extensively studied both experimentally and theoretically. One key result is the existence of a symmetry-breaking bifurcation at a critical system size, where there is a switch from evenly distributed exploitation of all options to a focussed exploitation of just one. Here we present a decision-making model in which symmetry-breaking is followed by a symmetry restoring bifurcation, whereby very large systems return to an even distribution of exploitation amongst options. The model assumes local positive feedback, coupled with a negative feedback regulating the flow toward the feeding sites. We show that the model is consistent with three different strains of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum, choosing between two feeding sites. We argue that this combination of feedbacks could allow collective foraging organisms to react flexibly in a dynamic environment

Analysis of parameter mismatches in the master stability function for network synchronization

In this letter, we perform a sensitivity analysis on the master stability function approach for the synchronization of networks of coupled dynamical systems. More specifically, we analyze the linear stability of a nearly synchronized solution for a network of coupled dynamical systems, for which the individual dynamics and output functions of each unit are approximately identical and the sums of the entries in the rows of the coupling matrix slightly deviate from zero. The motivation for this parametric study comes from experimental instances of synchronization in human-made or natural settings, where ideal conditions are difficult to observe.Comment: Accepted for publication in EuroPhysics Letter