Biodiversity of forage fishes in the Lower Laguna Madre, southernmost Texas

Coastal estuarine ecosystems serve as nursery habitats for many commercially and recreationally important fishes. Biodiversity is a structural indicator and has been used as a metric for conservation and management. In the hypersaline Lower Laguna Madre of Texas, a variety of organisms makes their living in and around the dominant seagrass vegetation. This study provides a general assessment of forage fishes biodiversity collected seasonally with bag seines in two sites: Holly Beach (HB) and South Bay (SB) within the most southern Texas bay system as part of a broader study on fish biology. A total of 15,880 fishes representing 32 species were collected during four quarterly samplings through a year (11,795 from HB and 4,085 from SB). Both sites are interconnected as no fishes similarities difference were found, nonetheless, the sites’ variable characteristics (i.e. basin area, seagrasses coverage, connection to the Gulf of Mexico) resulted in significant greater species richness, relative abundances, and diversity in HB than SB for most of the year, suggesting differences in habitat quality or at the very least variation in the availability of habitat types, which are known to contribute to differences in fish diversity attributes. - Los ecosistemas de estuarios costeros sirven como hábitats de crianza para muchos peces de importancia comercial y recreativa. La biodiversidad es un indicador estructural y se ha utilizado como métrica para la conservación y la gestión. En la hipersalina Laguna Madre Inferior de Texas, una variedad de organismos vive en y alrededor de la vegetación de pastos marinos dominante. Este estudio proporciona una evaluación general de la biodiversidad de peces de forraje recolectados estacionalmente con redes de cerco en dos sitios: Holly Beach (HB) y South Bay (SB) dentro del sistema de bahías al sur de Texas, como parte de un estudio más amplio sobre la biología de peces. Durante cuatro muestreos trimestrales a lo largo de un año, se recolectaron un total de 15.880 peces (11.795 de HB y 4.085 de SB) que representan 32 especies. Ambos sitios están interconectados, ya que no se encontraron diferencias en las similitudes de peces; sin embargo, las características variables de los sitios (es decir, área de la cuenca, cobertura de pastos marinos, conexión con el Golfo de México) dieron como resultado una riqueza de especies, abundancias relativas y diversidad significativamente mayores en HB que en SB durante la mayor parte del año, lo que sugiere diferencias en la calidad del hábitat o, al menos, variación en la disponibilidad de tipos de hábitat, que se sabe que contribuyen a las diferencias en los atributos de diversidad de peces

Inclusion de mexico en las operaciones de mantenimiento de la paz de la onu

Hoy en día, las amenazas a la paz y seguridad internacionales ya no provienen en su mayoría de actos de agresión entre Estados, sino de conflictos internos o de actores no estatales en el escenario internacional, como el terrorismo y, más recientemente el crimen transnacional organizado, el tráfico de armas y de drogas. Es así que las Misiones de Operación de Paz son medios a través de los cuales la Organización de las Naciones Unidas ha fortalecido su misión por mantener la paz y seguridad a nivel mundial. Desde los inicios de la creación del Organismo en la década de los 40´s hasta la actualidad, miles de soldados de diferentes países han sido enviados para colaborar en dichas operaciones. Sin embargo, en los últimos años, estas misiones han creado escenarios obscuros no solo para el país en conflicto, sino para aquellos países que envían efectivos de cascos azules a misiones de paz, tal es el caso de los cascos azules argentinos secuestrados en Siria, es por ello que se deben analizar las repercusiones interna y externa previo al envío de militares azules. ABSTRACT Today, threats to international peace and security no longer come from acts of aggression between States but internal conflicts or non-state actors on the international stage, such as terrorism and more recently transnational organized crime, trafficking in arms and drugs. It's so Missions Peacekeeping Operation are means by which the United Nations has strengthened its mission to maintain peace and security worldwide. Since the beginning of the creation of the Agency in the early 40s to the present, thousands of soldiers from different countries have been sent to assist in such operations. However, in recent years, these missions have created dark scenarios not only for the country in conflict, also for those countries sending troops to peacekeeping missions, such is the case of Argentine peacekeepers kidnapped in Syria which is why we must analyze the internal and external impacts before sending blue military

Biodiversity of forage fishes in the Lower Laguna Madre, southernmost Texas

Coastal estuarine ecosystems serve as nursery habitats for many commercially and recreationally important fishes. Biodiversity is a structural indicator and has been used as a metric for conservation and management. In the hypersaline Lower Laguna Madre of Texas, a variety of organisms makes their living in and around the dominant seagrass vegetation. This study provides a general assessment of forage fishes biodiversity collected seasonally with bag seines in two sites: Holly Beach (HB) and South Bay (SB) within the most southern Texas bay system as part of a broader study on fish biology. A total of 15,880 fishes representing 32 species were collected during four quarterly samplings through a year (11,795 from HB and 4,085 from SB). Both sites are interconnected as no fishes similarities difference were found, nonetheless, the sites’ variable characteristics (i.e. basin area, seagrasses coverage, connection to the Gulf of Mexico) resulted in significant greater species richness, relative abundances, and diversity in HB than SB for most of the year, suggesting differences in habitat quality or at the very least variation in the availability of habitat types, which are known to contribute to differences in fish diversity attributes

SNOM characterization of a potential low cost thin gold coated micro-structured grating using a commercial CD substrate

In this work near-field optical measurements of a corrugated grating coated with a 30 nm thick gold film are presented. The grating was made using the polycarbonate corrugated substrate of a commercially available recordable CD as template. This has been proved to be a versatile and low cost technique in producing large 1.6 μm period gratings. The study was carried out using a Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscope (SNOM) working in both collection and reflection modes at two different wavelengths, 532 nm and 633 nm. The results illustrate that the intensity patterns of near-field images are strongly polarization-dependent, even showing different periodicity of the localized fields for orthogonal polarization states. When electric field of the light is polarized parallel to the grooves, the periodicity of the SNOM images is coincident with the grating period, whereas when the light is polarized perpendicular to the grooves the SNOM pattern shows a periodicity twice that of the corresponding topography of the grating. Numerical simulations of the SNOM data based on a two-dimensional Finite Difference Time-Domain (2D-FDTD) model have been realized. The results of the simulations are in good agreement with the experimental data, emphasizing the need of performing numerical simulation for the correct interpretation of SNOM data

Evaluación del canibalismo en el calamar gigante Dosidicus gigas en el Golfo de California

In the jumbo squid Dosidicus gigas has been reported a high incidence of cannibalism. The majority of the stomachs reviewed for determining squid diet have been obtained from fishery areas, therefore cannibalism in squids may be overestimated. In this study, a total of 236 Dosidicus gigas stomach contents were analyzed, these were taken from both fishing and non-fishing areas in the Gulf of California and San Carlos (west coast of the Baja California Peninsula) onboard seven cruises carried out between 2005 and 2010. Stomachs were analyzed following the standard methodology and the remains of squid (mantle pieces, suckers, beaks and eye lenses) were separated and weighted and that was called cannibalism weight (% W). Squid mantle length varied from 7 to 86 cm. Bigger sizes were found in fishing areas where cannibalism had major values of cannibalism. The cannibalism weight percentage (%W) and total weight of stomach content (TW) was high in fishing areas, but no significant difference in the frequency of occurrence (%FO) between areas and sex where found. Females presented a higher value of %W than males. The largest sizes had a greater %FO. Results suggest that fishery activities have an important influence in the cannibalism behavior on Dosidicus gigas, therefore this bias should be considered in diet studies when samples are taken from areas where fishing occurs.En el calamar gigante Dosidicus gigas se ha reportado una alta incidencia de canibalismo. En general, la mayoría de los estómagos que se han revisado para determinar su dieta, provienen de áreas donde se realiza la pesca, lo que probablemente esté influyendo en una sobreestimación del canibalismo en los calamares. En el presente estudio, se analizaron un total de 236 contenidos estomacales de Dosidicus gigas, los cuales fueron recolectados tanto en áreas de pesca como de no pesca en el Golfo de California y costa occidental de la península de Baja California, a bordo de siete cruceros realizados entre 2005-2010. Los estómagos se analizaron siguiendo la metodología estándar y los restos de calamar (pedazos de manto, ventosas, picos y lentes oculares) fueron separados y pesados lo que se denominó peso del canibalismo (% W). La longitud de manto de los calamares varió entre 7-86 cm. Las tallas más grandes se encontraron en las zonas de pesca, donde el canibalismo fue mayor. En las áreas de pesca la proporción del peso del canibalismo (%W) y el peso total del contenido estomacal (TW) fueron mayores que en las zonas de no pesca, pero no hubo diferencia significativas en el porcentaje de frecuencia de ocurrencia de canibalismo (%FO) entre zonas y tampoco entre sexos, aunque las hembras mostraron un mayor %W que los machos. Las tallas mayores presentaron una mayor %FO. Los resultados sugieren que las actividades pesqueras, tienen una gran influencia en el comportamiento caníbal de la especie, por lo que debe considerarse este sesgo en las muestras provenientes de sitios en donde ocurre la pesca

Q-switched mode locking noise-like pulse generation from a thulium-doped all-fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation

Q-switched mode locking (QML) noise-like pulse (NLP) emission from an all-fiber thulium-doped laser based on the nonlinear polarization rotation effect is reported. The QML emission is obtained in a cavity with net anomalous dispersion in a pump power interval in between the CW laser threshold and the threshold of the NLP regime. Highest-energy QML pulses were observed with a repetition rate of 812 kHz with a pump power of 520 mW at the optical wavelength of 1881.09 nm. A maximum overall energy of 460 nJ at an average output power of 6.4 mW was reached, which corresponds to a burst of mode-locked noise-like sub-pulses with 8.7 ns of pulse duration within a QML envelope of 11 μs. These results demonstrate unconventional pulse operation regime of NLPs and provide insights into the dynamics of mode-locked fiber lasers

Korištenje smrvljenih ljuštura morskih račića za proizvodnju hitinaze s pomoću soja Serratia marcescens WF

From 102 Serratia marcescens strains screened, 57 strains showed chitinase activity and Serratia marcescens WF showed the highest chitinolytic activity so this strain was selected for further study on the use of crude shrimp waste for chitinase production. The concentration of crude shrimp shell content at 10–70 g/L, incubation temperature of 28–37 °C, pH=6–9, and time 24–96 h on kinetics of chitinase production by S. marcescens WF were evaluated. The maximal chitinase production related to process variables was obtained with the second order polynomial model: dry shrimp shell powder at 6 %, pH=6.5, temperature of 28 °C during fermentation for up to 72 h.Od 102 ispitana soja Serratia marcescens, 57 sojeva imalo je hitinaznu aktivnost, a Serratia marcescens WF imao je najveću hitinolitsku aktivnost, pa je odabran za daljnja ispitivanja proizvodnje hitinaze na smrvljenim ljušturama morskih račića. Kinetika proizvodnje hitinaze sa sojem Serratia marcescens ispitana je korištenjem 10–70 g/L smrvljenih ljuštura račića uz temperaturu inkubacije od 28 do 37 °C, pH=6–9 tijekom 24–96 h. Maksimalna proizvodnja hitinaze postignuta je primjenom polinomskoga modela drugoga reda za varijable procesa: 6 % suhih smrvljenih ljuštura, pH=6,5, temperatura 28 °C tijekom fermentacije do 72 h

Correlation of the Homeostasis Model Assessment Index and Adiponectin, Leptin and Insulin Levels to Body Mass Index-Associated Gene Polymorphisms in Adolescents

Objectives: This study aimed to describe correlations between glucose, insulin and adipokine levels and the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) index with regards to the presence/absence of fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) rs9939609 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-y rs1801282 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as indicators of body mass index in adolescents. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between September and December 2016 in Toluca, Mexico. A total of 71 students between 14–18 years old were included. Various anthropometric and laboratory measurements were collected, including lipid profile, glucose, insulin and adipokine levels and HOMA index. The degree of association between variables was evaluated with regards to the presence/absence of the SNPs. Results: Leptin levels were significantly higher among female students (P = 0.001), although adiponectin levels did not differ significantly (P = 0.060). There were significant positive correlations between insulin levels and HOMA index with FTO (r = 0.391; P = 0.007 and r = 0.413; P = 0.005, respectively) and PPARγ (r = 0.529; P = 0.007 and r = 0.537; P = 0.007, respectively) SNPs. Leptin showed a significant positive correlation in the presence of PPARγ (r = 0.483; P = 0.007) or in the absence of both SNPs (r = 0.627; P = 0.039). However, adiponectin was significantly negatively correlated in the presence of FTO, either alone (r = −0.333; P = 0.024) or in combination with PPARγ (r = −0.616; P = 0.043). Conclusion: The presence of FTO and/or PPARγ SNPs might be related to a genetic predisposition to metabolic syndrome. Keywords: Obesity; Body Mass Index; Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms; Fat Mass and Obesity Associated Protein, Human; Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma; Adipokines