Catch and effort of the shore and skiboat linefisheries along the South African Eastern Cape Coast

An assessment of catch and effort in the Eastern Cape shore and skiboat linefisheries was undertaken between 1994 and 1996 by means of roving creel and access point surveys. Catch-and-effort data were obtained from direct observation of 3 273 shore-fishers, 172 recreational and 223 commercial skiboat outings. Total effort in the region was high at 903 186 fisher-days year-1 in the shore fishery and 64 266 and 24 357 fisher-days year-1 in the commercial and recreational skiboat sectors respectively. The fisheries are multispecies in nature. The shore fishery consisted of 66 species, the recreational skiboat fishery 44 species and the commercial skiboat fishery 48 species. Just 10 species accounted for 75, 83 and 90% of the catch of the shore, recreational and commercial skiboat fishery respectively. The average catch per unit effort (cpue) was low in all sectors, 1.15 kg fisher-1 day-1 in the shore fishery, 9.4 kg fisher-1 day-1 in the recreational skiboat fishery and 21.5 kg fisher-1 day-1 in the commercial skiboat fishery. Catch data showed that professional and club anglers are more successful fishers. Comparisons with historic records for Port Elizabeth revealed that the cpue in the shore fishery had declined markedly, whereas the total effort increase was negligible (0.1%). In addition, the species composition of the fishery has changed.Keywords: access point surveys, catch and effort, linefishery, roving creel surveyAfrican Journal of Marine Science 2002, 24: 341–35

The biology of the skates raja wallacei and r.pullopunctata (batoidea: rajidae) on the Agulhas bank, South Africa

Aspects of the biology of Raja wallacei and R. pullopunctata were investigated using data collected in 1995 and 1996 from research and commercial trawls on the Agulhas Bank, South Africa. Age and growth parameters were investigated by examination of bands on the vertebral centrum. Estimates of Von Bertalanffy parameters for R. wallacei were L‡ = 405.40 mm disc width (DW), K = 0.27 and t0 = . 0.08 years for males and L‡ = 435.23 mm DW, K = 0.26 and t0 = .0.21 years for females. For R. pullopunctata, the estimates were L‡ = 770.50 mm DW, K = 0.10 and t0 = .2.37 years for males and L‡ = 1 326.75 mm DW, K = 0.05 andt0 = .2.20 years for females. Growth was significantly different between sexes for both species. The oldest aged R. wallacei and R. pullopunctata were 15 and 18 years respectively. The length at first maturity was approximately 350 mm DW or 7 years of age for R. wallacei and 600 mm DW or 9 years of age for R. pullopunctata. The length-at-50% maturity for R. wallacei was 395 mm DW for males and 400 mm DW for females. R. wallacei fed primarily on benthic teleosts and crustaceans. There were significant differences (p < 0.05) in the diet between research- and commercially caught fish, in terms of percentage frequency of occurrence and volume of prey

Structure-Function Relationships of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transcription Factor WhiB1

Background Members of the WhiB-like (Wbl) protein family possess iron-sulfur clusters and are implicated in the regulation of developmental processes in Actinomycetes. Mycobacterium tuberculosis possesses seven Wbl proteins. The [4Fe-4S] cluster of M. tuberculosis WhiB1 is relatively insensitive to O2 but very sensitive to nitric oxide (NO). Nitric oxide nitrosylates the WhiB1 iron-sulfur cluster and promotes DNA-binding; the apo-forms of WhiB1 also bind DNA. However, the molecular requirements for iron-sulfur cluster acquisition and for DNA-binding by WhiB1 are poorly characterized. Methods and Findings WhiB1 variants were created by site-directed mutagenesis and the abilities of the corresponding proteins to acquire an iron-sulfur cluster and/or bind to whiB1 promoter DNA were assessed. All four Cys residues (Cys9, 37, 40, and 46) in the N-terminal region of WhiB1 were required for incorporation of a [4Fe-4S] cluster, whereas a possible alternative cluster ligand Asp13 (by analogy with M. smegmatis WhiB2) was not. The C-terminal region of WhiB1 is predicted to house the DNA-binding domain of the protein consisting of a predicted β-turn (58GVWGG62) followed by two amino acid motifs (72KRRN75 and 78TKAR81) that are conserved in WhiB1 proteins. Gly residues (Gly58, 61 and 62) in the β-turn and positively-charged residues (Lys72, Arg73, Arg74, Lys79 and Arg81) in the downstream conserved regions were required for binding of WhiB1 DNA. Conclusions Site-directed mutagenesis of M. tuberculosis whiB1 and characterization of the corresponding proteins has been used to explore structure-function relationships of the NO-responsive transcription factor WhiB1. This showed that all four conserved Cys residues in the N-terminal region are required for incorporation of iron-sulfur clusters but not for DNA-binding. Analysis of variants with amino acid substitutions in the C-terminal region revealed the crucial roles played by a predicted β-turn and two conserved positively-charged motifs in facilitating DNA-binding, but not iron-sulfur cluster acquisition, by WhiB1

Prospects and challenges of environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring in freshwater ponds

Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is a rapid, non-invasive, cost-efficient biodiversity monitoring tool with enormous potential to inform aquatic conservation and management. Development is ongoing, with strong commercial interest, and new uses are continually being discovered. General applications of eDNA and guidelines for best practice in freshwater systems have been established, but habitat-specific assessments are lacking. Ponds are highly diverse, yet understudied systems that could benefit from eDNA monitoring. However, eDNA applications in ponds and methodological constraints specific to these environments remain unaddressed. Following a stakeholder workshop in 2017, researchers combined knowledge and expertise to review these applications and challenges that must be addressed for the future and consistency of eDNA monitoring in ponds. The greatest challenges for pond eDNA surveys are representative sampling, eDNA capture, and potential PCR inhibition. We provide recommendations for sampling, eDNA capture, inhibition testing, and laboratory practice, which should aid new and ongoing eDNA projects in ponds. If implemented, these recommendations will contribute towards an eventual broad standardisation of eDNA research and practice, with room to tailor workflows for optimal analysis and different applications. Such standardisation will provide more robust, comparable, and ecologically meaningful data to enable effective conservation and management of pond biodiversity

Alcohol affects neuronal substrates of response inhibition but not of perceptual processing of stimuli signalling a stop response

Alcohol impairs inhibitory control, including the ability to terminate an initiated action. While there is increasing knowledge about neural mechanisms involved in response inhibition, the level at which alcohol impairs such mechanisms remains poorly understood. Thirty-nine healthy social drinkers received either 0.4g/kg or 0.8g/kg of alcohol, or placebo, and performed two variants of a Visual Stop-signal task during acquisition of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. The two task variants differed only in their instructions: in the classic variant (VSST), participants inhibited their response to a “Go-stimulus” when it was followed by a “Stop-stimulus”. In the control variant (VSST_C), participants responded to the “Go-stimulus” even if it was followed by a “Stop-stimulus”. Comparison of successful Stop-trials (Sstop)>Go, and unsuccessful Stop-trials (Ustop)>Sstop between the three beverage groups enabled the identification of alcohol effects on functional neural circuits supporting inhibitory behaviour and error processing. Alcohol impaired inhibitory control as measured by the Stop-signal reaction time, but did not affect other aspects of VSST performance, nor performance on the VSST_C. The low alcohol dose evoked changes in neural activity within prefrontal, temporal, occipital and motor cortices. The high alcohol dose evoked changes in activity in areas affected by the low dose but importantly induced changes in activity within subcortical centres including the globus pallidus and thalamus. Alcohol did not affect neural correlates of perceptual processing of infrequent cues, as revealed by conjunction analyses of VSST and VSST_C tasks. Alcohol ingestion compromises the inhibitory control of action by modulating cortical regions supporting attentional, sensorimotor and action-planning processes. At higher doses the impact of alcohol also extends to affect subcortical nodes of fronto-basal ganglia- thalamo-cortical motor circuits. In contrast, alcohol appears to have little impact on the early visual processing of infrequent perceptual cues. These observations clarify clinically-important effects of alcohol on behaviour

Improvements in 25 Years of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Therapy

In 1980, Dr. Michel Mirowski and his team inserted the first implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in a patient. Initially, ICD therapy was not widely accepted, and many physicians actually considered this therapy unethical. Large secondary and primary prevention trials, demonstrating a beneficial effect of ICD therapy in selected patients not only on arrhythmic death but also on all-cause mortality, stimulated a rapid growth in the number of implants and increased patient’s and physician’s acceptance. Improvements in size and weight, arrhythmia discrimination capabilities, battery technology, shock waveform and output, monitoring capabilities and defibrillator electrode technology eventually resulted in the current large number of yearly implants. Today, almost 40 years after the conception of the ICD and 25 years after the first human implant, ICD therapy is the treatment of choice for patients at risk for life-threatening arrhythmias either as secondary or primary prevention. Furthermore, with the more recent addition of resynchronisation therapy to standard ICD therapy, it became possible to treat selected patients with advanced symptoms of heart failure and to lower the risk of sudden death