Invasive Blue Catfish in the Chesapeake Bay Region: A Case Study of Competing Management Objectives

Freshwater fishes have been introduced outside their native range to establish recreational fisheries, but management conflicts arise when such introductions also result in potentially harmful effects on native species. In this case study, we focus on Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus, which were introduced in the Chesapeake Bay region and are now considered invasive. In many tidal tributaries, Blue Catfish have increased dramatically in abundance, expanded into high-salinity habitats (up to 21.8 psu), and negatively affected native species, prompting calls for the development of an effective management plan. However, management of this conflict species is complicated by multiple competing objectives, including control of population size, maintenance of trophy fisheries, and expansion of commercial fisheries for Blue Catfish. Seven management recommendations were advanced by the Invasive Catfishes Work Group to control the spread and limit the ecological impacts of Blue Catfish on native species. We highlight opportunities for addressing these complex management issues and guide our suggestions using results from research on invasive Blue Catfish ecology and population dynamics, as well as management of invasive species in general. A formal approach, such as structured decision analysis, is required to resolve conflicts among user groups and to address the wicked problem of Blue Catfish in the Chesapeake Bay region

A Synchronized Shared Key Generation Method for Maintaining End-to-End Security of Big Data Streams

A large number of mission critical applications ranging from disaster management to smart city are built on the Internet of Things (IoT) platform by deploying a number of smart sensors in a heterogeneous environment. The key requirements of such applications are the need of near real-time stream data processing in large scale sensing networks. This trend gives birth of an area called big data stream. One of the key problems in big data stream is to ensure the end-to-end security. To address this challenge, we proposed Dynamic Prime Number Based Security Verification (DPBSV) and Dynamic Key Length Based Security Framework (DLSeF) methods for big data streams based on the shared key derived from synchronized prime numbers in our earlier works. One of the major shortcomings of these methods is that they assume synchronization of the shared key. However, the assumption does not hold when the communication between Data Stream Manager (DSM) and sensing devices is broken. To address this problem, this paper proposes an adaptive technique to synchronize the shared key without communication between sensing devices and DSM, where sensing devices obtain the shared key re-initialization properties from its neighbours. Theoretical analyses and experimental results show that the proposed technique can be integrated with our DPBSV and DLSeF methods without degrading the performance and efficiency. We observed that the proposed synchronization method also strengthens the security of the models

Inferior STEMI Complicated by Retroperitoneal Hemorrhage due to Ruptured AAA

When patients present with life threatening conditions, a rapid cost-benefit analysis prioritizes care and commits treatment to a certain course that, in the case of ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) treated with drug-eluting stents (DES), could be fatal if there is any deviation. Antiplatelet therapy is vital and secondary concerns (i.e. bleeding diatheses) may accept suboptimal outcomes – in rare cases, another life-threatening condition may be unmasked, the treatment for which runs directly counter to the first. We present a case of STEMI with high clot burden treated with multiple DES, complicated by retroperitoneal hemorrhage due to a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm

Surface Structure and Surface Kinetics of InN Grown by Plasma-Assisted Atomic Layer Epitaxy: A HREELS Study

The surface bonding configuration and kinetics of hydrogen desorption from InN grown by plasma-assisted atomic layer epitaxy have been investigated. High resolution electron energy loss spectra exhibited loss peaks assigned to a Fuchs–Kliewer surface phonon, N-N and N-H surface species. The surface N-N vibrations are attributed to surface defects. The observation of N-H but no In-Hsurface species suggested N-terminated InN. Isothermal desorption data were best fit by the first-order desorption kinetics with an activation energy of (0.88 ± 0.06) eV and pre-exponential factor of (1.5 ± 0.5) × 105 s−1

Stability of skyrmion lattices and symmetries of quasi-two-dimensional chiral magnets

Recently there has been substantial interest in realizations of skyrmions, in particular in quasi-two-dimensional (2D) systems due to increased stability resulting from reduced dimensionality. A stable skyrmion, representing the smallest realizable magnetic texture, could be an ideal element for ultradense magnetic memories. Here we use the most general form of the quasi-2D free energy with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions constructed from general symmetry considerations reflecting the underlying system. We predict that the skyrmion phase is robust and it is present even when the system lacks the in-plane rotational symmetry. In fact, the lowered symmetry leads to increased stability of vortex-antivortex lattices with fourfold symmetry and in-plane spirals, in some instances even in the absence of an external magnetic field. Our results relate different hexagonal and square cell phases to the symmetries of materials used for realizations of skyrmions. This will give clear directions for experimental realizations of hexagonal and square cell phases, and will allow engineering of skyrmions with unusual properties. We also predict striking differences in gyrodynamics induced by spin currents for isolated skyrmions and for crystals where spin currents can be induced by charge carriers or by thermal magnons. We find that under certain conditions, isolated skyrmions can move along the current without a side motion which can have implications for realizations of magnetic memories

Carbon nanotubes: are they dispersed or dissolved in liquids?

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) constitute a novel class of nanomaterials with remarkable applications in diverse domains. However, the main intrincsic problem of CNTs is their insolubility or very poor solubility in most of the common solvents. The basic key question here is: are carbon nanotubes dissolved or dispersed in liquids, specifically in water? When analyzing the scientific research articles published in various leading journals, we found that many researchers confused between "dispersion" and "solubilization" and use the terms interchangeably, particularly when stating the interaction of CNTs with liquids. In this article, we address this fundamental issue to give basic insight specifically to the researchers who are working with CNTs as well asgenerally to scientists who deal with nano-related research domains

Let us conserve and exchange seeds: celebrating traditional crop diversity of the Nepali lowlands

A seed fair is an activity to create awareness about and appreciate local crop diversity, exchange seed and related knowledge, and celebrate farmers’ efforts to conserve agrobiodiversity. It takes considerable time and effort to organize a seed fair. This brief describes the seed fair organized at the Agyauli Community Seedbank, Nawalparasi in the southern region of Nepal. About 30 members of 10 community seedbanks from the terai (the southern lowland) region of Nepal came together for this. Apart from exchanging seeds of traditional crop varieties, they also shared stories about the socio-cultural, religious, spiritual, nutritional and medicinal values of their varieties. The recent formal registration of the Community Seed Banks Association of Nepal (CSBAN) was also celebrated