Maturity, ovarian cycle, fecundity, and age-specific parturition of black rockfish (Sebastes melanops)

From 1995 to 1998, we collected female black rockfish (Sebastes melanops) off Oregon in order to describe their basic reproductive life history and determine age-specific fecundity and temporal patterns in parturition. Female black rockfish had a 50% probability of being mature at 394 mm fork length and 7.5 years-of-age. The proportion of mature fish age 10 or older significantly decreased each year of this study, from 0.511 in 1996 to 0.145 in 1998. Parturition occurred between mid-January and mid-March, and peaked in February. We observed a trend of older females extruding larvae earlier in the spawning season and of younger fish primarily responsible for larval production during the later part of the season. There were differences in absolute fecundity at age between female black rockfish with prefertilization oocytes and female black rockfish with fertilized eggs; fertilized-egg fecundity estimates were considered superior. The likelihood of yolked oocytes reaching the developing embryo stage increased with maternal age. Absolute fecundity estimates (based on fertilized eggs) ranged from 299,302 embryos for a 6-year-old female to 948,152 embryos for a 16-year-old female. Relative fecundity (based on fertilized eggs) increased with age from 374 eggs/g for fish age 6 to 549 eggs/g for fish age 16

Effects of maternal age on reproductive success in black rockfish, Sebastes melanops

From 1996 through 1998 I collected mature female black rockfish off Oregon and examined ovaries and otoliths to estimate weekly, age-specific larval production. In all reproductive seasons, older black rockfish extruded larvae earlier in the season, followed by progressively younger fish. Each year, beginning in May, I collected young-of-the-year (YOY) benthic juveniles that settled out in nearshore waters and determined their birthdates from counts of daily rings of lapillar otoliths. I compared the birthdate distribution of juvenile survivors to the age-specific temporal distribution of larval production to estimate the contribution of each adult female age group, ages 6-8, 9-11, 12-14, and 15+ to juvenile recruitment. The results from 1996 show a disproportionately greater contribution to benthic YOY recruitment by older fish. 1997 results show a relatively even contribution among maternal age groups. In 1998 most of the YOY recruits came from younger fish extruding larvae late in the season. I then examined larvae per recruit (LPR) models to evaluate the effects of fishing mortality on spawning potential of black rockfish, incorporating my estimates of age-specific maternal reproductive success. When it is evident that certain age groups are more successful at reproducing, as observed in black rockfish, changes in that population's age composition must be considered beyond simply reducing the estimate of total larval production

NCX-4040, a nitric oxide-releasing aspirin, sensitizes drug-resistant human ovarian xenograft tumors to cisplatin by depletion of cellular thiols

Background: Ovarian carcinoma is the leading cause of mortality among gynecological cancers in the world. The high mortality rate is associated with lack of early diagnosis and development of drug resistance. The antitumor efficacy and mechanism of NCX-4040, a nitric oxide-releasing aspirin derivative, against ovarian cancer is studied. Methods: NCX-4040, alone or in combination with cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum, cDDP), was studied in cisplatin-sensitive (A2780 WT) and cisplatin-resistant (A2780 cDDP) cell lines as well as xenograft tumors grown in nude mice. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) was used for measurements of nitric oxide and redox state. Immunoblotting analysis of A2780 cDDP tumor xenografts from mice was used for mechanistic studies. Results: Cells treated with NCX-4040 (25 μM) showed a significant reduction of cell viability (A2780 WT, 34.9 ± 8.7%; A2780 cDDP, 41.7 ± 7.6%; p < 0.05). Further, NCX-4040 significantly enhanced the sensitivity of A2780 cDDP cells (cisplatin alone, 80.6 ± 11.8% versus NCX-4040+cisplatin, 26.4 ± 7.6%; p < 0.01) and xenograft tumors (cisplatin alone, 74.0 ± 4.4% versus NCX-4040+cisplatin, 56.4 ± 7.8%; p < 0.05), to cisplatin treatment. EPR imaging of tissue redox and thiol measurements showed a 5.5-fold reduction (p < 0.01) of glutathione in NCX-4040- treated A2780 cDDP tumors when compared to untreated controls. Immunoblotting analysis of A2780 cDDP tumor xenografts from mice treated with NCX-4040 and cisplatin revealed significant downregulation of pEGFR (Tyr845 and Tyr992) and pSTAT3 (Tyr705 and Ser727) expression. Conclusion: The results suggested that NCX-4040 could resensitize drug-resistant ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin possibly by depletion of cellular thiols. Thus NCX-4040 appears to be a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of human ovarian carcinoma and cisplatin-resistant malignancies

Viva Survivors – the effect of peer-mentoring on pre-viva anxiety in early-years students

Viva voce exams are used in many disciplines as a test of students’ knowledge and skills. Whilst acknowledged as a useful form of assessment, vivas commonly lead to a great deal of anxiety for students. This anxiety is also apparent for vivas in phonetics, where students must produce and recognise sounds drawn from across the world’s languages, and pervious work has shown that viewing a video of a mock-viva does not reduce this anxiety. To address anxiety prior to phonetics vivas, 63 students, across three cohorts, engaged in a brief, isolated, peer-mentoring session with previously successful students (‘viva survivors’). Anxiety about the viva was measured before and after the mentoring experience, using the short form of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory. There was a significant reduction in anxiety after mentoring, and a significant correlation between anxiety before mentoring and the decrease in anxiety after mentoring. Short-term mentoring is posited as a time- and cost-effective method to decrease viva-related anxiety across disciplines

Using fNIRS to Identify Transparency- and Reliability-Sensitive Markers of Trust Across Multiple Timescales in Collaborative Human-Human-Agent Triads

Intelligent agents are rapidly evolving from assistants into teammates as they perform increasingly complex tasks. Successful human-agent teams leverage the computational power and sensory capabilities of automated agents while keeping the human operator's expectation consistent with the agent's ability. This helps prevent over-reliance on and under-utilization of the agent to optimize its effectiveness. Research at the intersection of human-computer interaction, social psychology, and neuroergonomics has identified trust as a governing factor of human-agent interactions that can be modulated to maintain an appropriate expectation. To achieve this calibration, trust can be monitored continuously and unobtrusively using neurophysiological sensors. While prior studies have demonstrated the potential of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a lightweight neuroimaging technology, in the prediction of social, cognitive, and affective states, few have successfully used it to measure complex social constructs like trust in artificial agents. Even fewer studies have examined the dynamics of hybrid teams of more than 1 human or 1 agent. We address this gap by developing a highly collaborative task that requires knowledge sharing within teams of 2 humans and 1 agent. Using brain data obtained with fNIRS sensors, we aim to identify brain regions sensitive to changes in agent behavior on a long- and short-term scale. We manipulated agent reliability and transparency while measuring trust, mental demand, team processes, and affect. Transparency and reliability levels are found to significantly affect trust in the agent, while transparency explanations do not impact mental demand. Reducing agent communication is shown to disrupt interpersonal trust and team cohesion, suggesting similar dynamics as human-human teams. Contrasts of General Linear Model analyses identify dorsal medial prefrontal cortex activation specific to assessing the agent's transparency explanations and characterize increases in mental demand as signaled by dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex and frontopolar activation. Short scale event-level data is analyzed to show that predicting whether an individual will trust the agent, with data from 15 s before their decision, is feasible with fNIRS data. Discussing our results, we identify targets and directions for future neuroergonomics research as a step toward building an intelligent trust-modulation system to optimize human-agent collaborations in real time. &nbsp;</p

The relationship between maternal phenotype and offspring quality: Do older mothers really produce the best offspring?

Maternal effects are increasingly recognized as important drivers of population dynamics and determinants of evolutionary trajectories. Recently, there has been a proliferation of studies finding or citing a positive relationship between maternal size/age and offspring size or offspring quality. The relationship between maternal phenotype and offspring size is intriguing in that it is unclear why young mothers should produce offspring of inferior quality or fitness. Here we evaluate the underlying evolutionary pressures that may lead to a maternal size/age-offspring size correlation and consider the likelihood that such a correlation results in a positive relationship between the age or size of mothers and the fitness of their offspring. We find that, while there are a number of reasons why selection may favor the production of larger offspring by larger mothers, this change in size is more likely due to associated changes in the maternal phenotype that affect the offspring size-performance relationship. We did not find evidence that the offspring of older females should have intrinsically higher fitness. When we explored this issue theoretically, the only instance in which smaller mothers produce suboptimal offspring sizes is when a (largely unsupported) constraint on maximum offspring size is introduced into the model. It is clear that larger offspring fare better than smaller offspring when reared in the same environment, but this misses a critical point: different environments elicit selection for different optimal sizes of young. We suggest that caution should be exercised when interpreting the outcome of offspring-size experiments when offspring from different mothers are reared in a common environment, because this approach may remove the source of selection (e.g., reproducing in different context) that induced a shift in offspring size in the first place. It has been suggested that fish stocks should be managed to preserve these older age classes because larger mothers produce offspring with a greater chance of survival and subsequent recruitment. Overall, we suggest that, while there are clear and compelling reasons for preserving older females in exploited populations, there is little theoretical justification or evidence that older mothers produce offspring with higher per capita fitness than do younger mothers

Institutional analysis of health promotion for older people in Europe - Concept and research tool

Background: European societies are ageing rapidly and thus health promotion for older people (HP4OP) is becoming an increasingly relevant issue. Crucial here is not only the clinical aspect of health promotion but also its organisational and institutional dimension. The latter has been relatively neglected in research on HP4OP. This issue is addressed in this study, constituting a part of the EU project ProHealth65+, engaging ten member countries. This paper is based on two intertwining research goals: (1) exploring which institutions/organisations are performing HP4OP activities in selected European countries (including sectors involved, performed roles of these institutions, organisation of those activities); (2) developing an institutional approach to HP4OP. Thus, the paper provides a description of the analytical tools for further research in this area. Methods: The mentioned aims were addressed through the mutual use of two complementary methods: (a) a literature review of scientific and grey literature; and (b) questionnaire survey with selected expert respondents from 10 European countries. The expert respondents, selected by the project's collaborating partners, were asked to fill in a custom designed questionnaire concerning HP4OP institutional aspects. Results: The literature review provided an overview of the organisational arrangements in different HP4OP initiatives. It also enabled the development of functional institutional definitions of health promotion, health promotion activities and interventions, as well as an institutional definition adequate to the health promotion context. The distinctions between sectors were also clarified. The elaborated questionnaires provided in-depth information on countries specifically indicating the key sectors involved in HP4OP in those selected countries. These are: health care, regional/local authorities, NGO's/voluntary institutions. The questionnaire and literature review both resulted in the indication of a significant level of cross-sectorial cooperation in HP4OP. Conclusions: The inclusion of the institutional analysis within the study of HP4OP provides a valuable opportunity to analyse, in a systematic way, good practices in this respect, also in terms of institutional arrangements. A failure to address this aspect in policymaking might potentially cause organisational failure even in evidence-based programmes. This paper frames the perception of this problem

Community first responders and responder schemes in the United Kingdom: systematic scoping review

Background: Community First Responder (CFR) schemes support lay people to respond to medical emergencies, working closely with ambulance services. They operate widely in the UK. There has been no previous review of UK literature on these schemes. This is the first systematic scoping review of UK literature on CFR schemes, which identifies the reasons for becoming a CFR, requirements for training and feedback and confusion between the CFR role and that of ambulance service staff. This study also reveals gaps in the evidence base for CFR schemes. Methods: We conducted a systematic scoping review of the published literature, in the English language from 2000 onwards using specific search terms in six databases. Narrative synthesis was used to analyse article content. Results: Nine articles remained from the initial search of 15,969 articles after removing duplicates, title and abstract and then full text review. People were motivated to become CFRs through an altruistic desire to help others. They generally felt rewarded by their work but recognised that the help they provided was limited by their training compared with ambulance staff. There were concerns about the possible emotional impact on CFRs responding to incidents. CFRs felt that better feedback would enhance their learning. Ongoing training and support were viewed as essential to enable CFRs to progress. They perceived that public recognition of the CFR role was low, patients sometimes confusing them with ambulance staff. Relationships with the ambulance service were sometimes ambivalent due to confusion over roles. There was support for local autonomy of CFR schemes but with greater sharing of best practice. Discussion: Most studies dated from 2005 and were descriptive rather than analytical. In the UK and Australia CFRs are usually lay volunteers equipped with basic skills for responding to medical emergencies, whereas in the US they include other emergency staff as well as lay people. Conclusion: Opportunities for future research include exploring experiences and perceptions of patients who have been treated by CFRs and other stakeholders, while also evaluating the effectiveness and costs of CFR schemes