European silver eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) migration behaviour in a highly regulated shipping canal

Among the many man-made structures that facilitate shipping, navigable canals take an important position. These canals may offer energetically favourable migration routes for diadromous fish, but they may also obstruct fish migration, for instance at shipping locks. Because the use of shipping canals by, and their effects on, migrating fish remain unknown, we assessed whether these canals can play a significant role in the migration of the critically endangered European eel. Only one third of 70 acoustically tagged silver eels completed migration through a shipping canal, and did so at a very low pace (average < 0.06 m s(-1)) due to delays at shipping locks and most likely also due to the disruption of water flow. These delays may come at an energetic cost, hampering the chances of successful migration. Knowledge on the impact of shipping canals on diadromous fish is crucial for proper management regulations. For instance, the observation that eels mostly migrated at night and during spring and autumn can support water managers to define adequate measures to improve eel migration in shipping canals

European silver eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) migration behaviour in a highly regulated shipping canal

Over the last 40 years, Anguilla species in the northern hemisphere have shown a strong decline in recruitment. Due to a 98% recruitment decline, the European eel is now classified as critically endangered according to the IUCN Red List. To aid conservation and recovery of European eel populations, the European Union recently adopted a Council Regulation which imposes a management system that ensures 40% escapement of the spawning stock biomass, defined as the best estimate of the theoretical escapement rate if the stock were completely free of anthropogenic influences. Various causes likely contribute to the eel decline (e.g. pollution, human-introduced parasites, changes in ocean climate, habitat deterioration…), but habitat fragmentation by migration barriers that prevent the movement of silver eels between freshwater and the sea is probably one of the most important bottlenecks. During the last decades, a substantial number of canals has been developed, creating new habitat for eels. However, eel migration and potential obstacles in these systems are still underexplored. In this study, we tracked 131 European eels (Anguilla anguilla L.) from October 2014 till March 2017 in the Belgian Albert Canal with acoustic telemetry. The 130-km long canal is on average 86 m wide, 5 m deep and functions as a shipping route between the rivers Schelde and Meuse. The canal has a highly regulated water flow and six shipping locks to overcome the 56-m fall, which may have a negative impact on silver eel escapement. Indeed, we found significant delays (i.e. periods with a significantly prolonged residence time) and a ca 50% lower swimming speed near shipping locks compared to riverine conditions. Depending on nothing but their accumulated fat for migration to their spawning grounds, delays can seriously impact eels by wasting precious energy resources needed for a successful trans-Atlantic migration

Search for Scalar Diphoton Resonances in the Mass Range 65−60065-600 GeV with the ATLAS Detector in pppp Collision Data at s\sqrt{s} = 8 TeVTeV

A search for scalar particles decaying via narrow resonances into two photons in the mass range 65–600 GeV is performed using $20.3\text{}\text{}{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=8\text{}\text{}\mathrm{TeV}$ $pp$ collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The recently discovered Higgs boson is treated as a background. No significant evidence for an additional signal is observed. The results are presented as limits at the 95% confidence level on the production cross section of a scalar boson times branching ratio into two photons, in a fiducial volume where the reconstruction efficiency is approximately independent of the event topology. The upper limits set extend over a considerably wider mass range than previous searches

Finska tingsdomares bedömningar av partsutlåtanden givna på plats i rätten eller via videokonferens

Professionals within the judicial system sometimes believe they can assess whether someone is lying or not based on cues such as body language and emotional expression. Research has, however, shown that this is impossible. The Finnish Supreme Court has also given rulings in accordance with this demonstrated fact. There has also been previous research on whether party or witness statements are assessed differently in court depending on whether they are given live, via videoconference, or via prerecorded video. In the present study, we investigated how a Finnish sample of district judges (N=47) assigned probative value to different variables concerning the statement or the statement giver, such as body language and emotional expression. We also investigated the connection between the judges’ beliefs about the relevance of body language and emotional expression and their preference for live statements or statements via videoconference. The judges reported assigning equal amounts of probative value to statements given live and statements given via videoconference. However, judges found it easier to detect deception live, and this preference correlated with how relevant they thought body language is when assessing the probative value of the statement. In other words, a slight bias to assess live statements more favorably than statements given via videoconference might still exist. More effort needs to be put into making judges and Supreme Courts aware of robust scientific results that have been the subject of decades of research, such as the fact that one cannot assess whether someone is lying or not based on cues such as body language

Measurement of differential J/ψJ/\psi production cross-sections and forward-backward ratio in p+Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of differential cross-sections for $J/\psi$ production in p+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV at the LHC with the ATLAS detector are presented. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 28.1 nb$^{-1}$. The $J/\psi$ mesons are reconstructed in the dimuon decay channel over the transverse momentum range $8<p_{\mathrm{T}}<30$ GeV and over the center-of-mass rapidity range $-2.87<y^{*}<1.94$. Prompt $J/\psi$ are separated from $J/\psi$ resulting from $b$-hadron decays through an analysis of the distance between the $J/\psi$ decay vertex and the event primary vertex. The differential cross-section for production of nonprompt $J/\psi$ is compared to a FONLL calculation that does not include nuclear effects. Forward-backward production ratios are presented and compared to theoretical predictions. These results constrain the kinematic dependence of nuclear modifications of charmonium and $b$-quark production in p+Pb collisions