Estimates Of Sea Scallop (Placopecten Magellanicus) Incidental Mortality From Photographic Multiple Before-After-Control-Impact Surveys

After several decades of stock decline, the Atlantic sea scallop ( Placopecten magellanicus) resource has rebounded to become one of the most valuable fisheries in the United States. The continued sustainability of this fishery is supported by catch limits determined by annual stock projection models. Incidental mortality is an important term in these projection models, but is historically difficult to measure. Current estimates are derived from field experiments that relied heavily on qualitative observations and as a result are based on limited data with low precision. To better quantify incidental mortality, a multiple before-after-control-impact experimental design was used to measure the effect of scallop dredging on the disposition of sea scallops that remain uncaptured on the seafloor following dredging. An autonomous underwater vehicle was used to collect color photographs and side-scan sonar images of the seafloor before and after controlled dredge treatments in the mid-Atlantic and Georges Bank regions. Approximately 170,000 photographs were annotated for instances of mortality. Dredge-induced incidental mortality of 2.5% and 8% was estimated for the mid-Atlantic Bight and Georges Bank sites, respectively, a difference that is likely attributable to the relatively harder substrate of the scallop habitat on Georges Bank that results in greater physical trauma to the uncaptured scallops. This study provides a quantitative estimate of incidental mortality using a noninvasive platform that offers precise mission navigation for repeated surveys. The spatial scale and distribution of the study sites are broad relative to past incidental mortality studies, and the substrate types at each are common in the sea scallop fishery. Estimated mortality rates are lower than the values currently used in fishery stock models and suggest the existing values are conservative, but likely appropriate estimates for management purposes

Unconscious Thinking, Feeling and Behavior Towards Products and Brands: Introduction to a Journal of Brand Management Special Issue

This introduction reviews the motivating forces behind this issue, exploring the role of nonconscious consumer behavior in branding environments. The article establishes a foundation of unconscious research in psychology and consumer behavior, and then provides an introduction to the four articles that follow. The article concludes with a call to adopt an inclusive interpretive-positivistic stance to the study of unconscious consumer-brand behavior, attitudes and beliefs

Studies of micronuclei and other nuclear abnormalities in red blood cells of Colossoma macropomum exposed to methylmercury

The frequencies of micronuclei (MN) and morphological nuclear abnormalities (NA) in erythrocytes in the peripheral blood of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum), treated with 2 mg.L−1 methylmercury (MeHg), were analyzed. Two groups (nine specimens in each) were exposed to MeHg for different periods (group A - 24 h; group B - 120 h). A third group served as negative control (group C, untreated; n = 9). Although, when compared to the control group there were no significant differences in MN frequency in the treated groups, for NA, the differences between the frequencies of group B (treated for 120 h) and the control group were extremely significant (p < 0.02), thus demonstrating the potentially adverse effects of MeHg on C. macropomum erythrocytes after prolonged exposure

Gravitational waves from single neutron stars: an advanced detector era survey

With the doors beginning to swing open on the new gravitational wave astronomy, this review provides an up-to-date survey of the most important physical mechanisms that could lead to emission of potentially detectable gravitational radiation from isolated and accreting neutron stars. In particular we discuss the gravitational wave-driven instability and asteroseismology formalism of the f- and r-modes, the different ways that a neutron star could form and sustain a non-axisymmetric quadrupolar "mountain" deformation, the excitation of oscillations during magnetar flares and the possible gravitational wave signature of pulsar glitches. We focus on progress made in the recent years in each topic, make a fresh assessment of the gravitational wave detectability of each mechanism and, finally, highlight key problems and desiderata for future work.Comment: 39 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. Chapter of the book "Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars", NewCompStar COST Action 1304. Minor corrections to match published versio

An Analysis of Enzyme Kinetics Data for Mitochondrial DNA Strand Termination by Nucleoside Reverse Transcription Inhibitors

Nucleoside analogs used in antiretroviral treatment have been associated with mitochondrial toxicity. The polymerase-γ hypothesis states that this toxicity stems from the analogs' inhibition of the mitochondrial DNA polymerase (polymerase-γ) leading to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) depletion. We have constructed a computational model of the interaction of polymerase-γ with activated nucleoside and nucleotide analog drugs, based on experimentally measured reaction rates and base excision rates, together with the mtDNA genome size, the human mtDNA sequence, and mitochondrial dNTP concentrations. The model predicts an approximately 1000-fold difference in the activated drug concentration required for a 50% probability of mtDNA strand termination between the activated di-deoxy analogs d4T, ddC, and ddI (activated to ddA) and the activated forms of the analogs 3TC, TDF, AZT, FTC, and ABC. These predictions are supported by experimental and clinical data showing significantly greater mtDNA depletion in cell culture and patient samples caused by the di-deoxy analog drugs. For zidovudine (AZT) we calculated a very low mtDNA replication termination probability, in contrast to its reported mitochondrial toxicity in vitro and clinically. Therefore AZT mitochondrial toxicity is likely due to a mechanism that does not involve strand termination of mtDNA replication

OneG: A Computational Tool for Predicting Cryptic Intermediates in the Unfolding Kinetics of Proteins under Native Conditions

Understanding the relationships between conformations of proteins and their stabilities is one key to address the protein folding paradigm. The free energy change (ΔG) of unfolding reactions of proteins is measured by traditional denaturation methods and native hydrogen-deuterium (H/D) exchange methods. However, the free energy of unfolding (ΔGU) and the free energy of exchange (ΔGHX) of proteins are not in good agreement, though the experimental conditions of both methods are well matching to each other. The anomaly is due to any one or combinations of the following reasons: (i) effects of cis-trans proline isomerisation under equilibrium unfolding reactions of proteins (ii) inappropriateness in accounting the baselines of melting curves (iii) presence of cryptic intermediates, which may elude the melting curve analysis and (iv) existence of higher energy metastable states in the H/D exchange reactions of proteins. Herein, we have developed a novel computational tool, OneG, which accounts the discrepancy between ΔGU and ΔGHX of proteins by systematically accounting all the four factors mentioned above. The program is fully automated and requires four inputs: three-dimensional structures of proteins, ΔGU, ΔGU* and residue-specific ΔGHX determined under EX2-exchange conditions in the absence of denaturants. The robustness of the program has been validated using experimental data available for proteins such as cytochrome c and apocytochrome b562 and the data analyses revealed that cryptic intermediates of the proteins detected by the experimental methods and the cryptic intermediates predicted by the OneG for those proteins were in good agreement. Furthermore, using OneG, we have shown possible existence of cryptic intermediates and metastable states in the unfolding pathways of cardiotoxin III and cobrotoxin, respectively, which are homologous proteins. The unique application of the program to map the unfolding pathways of proteins under native conditions have been brought into fore and the program is publicly available at http://sblab.sastra.edu/oneg.htm

DNA vaccination for prostate cancer: key concepts and considerations

While locally confined prostate cancer is associated with a low five year mortality rate, advanced or metastatic disease remains a major challenge for healthcare professionals to treat and is usually terminal. As such, there is a need for the development of new, efficacious therapies for prostate cancer. Immunotherapy represents a promising approach where the host’s immune system is harnessed to mount an anti-tumour effect, and the licensing of the first prostate cancer specific immunotherapy in 2010 has opened the door for other immunotherapies to gain regulatory approval. Among these strategies DNA vaccines are an attractive option in terms of their ability to elicit a highly specific, potent and wide-sweeping immune response. Several DNA vaccines have been tested for prostate cancer and while they have demonstrated a good safety profile they have faced problems with low efficacy and immunogenicity compared to other immunotherapeutic approaches. This review focuses on the positive aspects of DNA vaccines for prostate cancer that have been assessed in preclinical and clinical trials thus far and examines the key considerations that must be employed to improve the efficacy and immunogenicity of these vaccines

The many possible climates from the Paris Agreement’s aim of 1.5 °C warming

The United Nations’ Paris Agreement includes the aim of pursuing efforts to limit global warming to only 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. However, it is not clear what the resulting climate would look like across the globe and over time. Here we show that trajectories towards a ‘1.5 °C warmer world’ may result in vastly different outcomes at regional scales, owing to variations in the pace and location of climate change and their interactions with society’s mitigation, adaptation and vulnerabilities to climate change. Pursuing policies that are considered to be consistent with the 1.5 °C aim will not completely remove the risk of global temperatures being much higher or of some regional extremes reaching dangerous levels for ecosystems and societies over the coming decades