Preliminary Inventory of Boats and Gears in Manila Bay

Recent information about the number and types of boats and gears used in Manila Bay is lacking. Here we discuss the results of the initial boat and gear inventory conducted in Manila Bay from May 2015 to October 2016. The survey was done in the coastal barangays of Cavite, Bataan, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Metro Manila. A total of 3,659 fishing boats were recorded from 84 coastal barangays or about 40% out of the 212 coastal barangays in Manila Bay. About 94.45% of the boats are municipal fishing boats and only 5.55% are commercial boats and the highest number of boats recorded was in Cavite (1,461 boats). 91.04% of the fishing boats are motorized and only 8.96% are non-motorized. The average fisher to boat ratio for the five provinces is 3.0:1, which is higher compared to the 2.4:1 result of MADECOR and National Museum Assessment (1995). There are 25 types of fishing gears recorded during the survey with a total of4, 946 units. Gillnet, specifically bottom gillnet, is the most dominant gear being used in Manila Bay

Species Composition, Distribution, Biomass Trends and Exploitation of Dominant Fish Species in Manila Bay using Experimental Trawl Survey

An experimental trawl fishing survey was conducted in Manila Bay from March 2014 to October 2015 at sixteen (16) pre-established dragging stations adapted from an earlier study (MADECOR, 1995). Using a commercial otter trawl, the average trawling speed during fishing operations was 6-7 km/hour. Analysis of catches focused on biomass trends, species composition, distribution and exploitation of dominant species. A total of 146 fish and invertebrate species belonging to 48 families were recorded during the survey period wherein most of the catches were dominated by small pelagic species such as anchovies and sardines. Exploitation rates (E) for the six (6) dominant species (Sardinella gibbosa, Sardinella fimbriata, Valamugil seheli, Mugil cephalus, Encrasicholina devisi and Stolephorous commersonnii) shows signs of overfishing. The estimated demersal fish biomass of the bay revealed that the relative decline was about 90% from the 1947 baseline study

Reproductive Biology of Common Small Pelagic Fishes in Manila Bay, Philippines

Reproductive biology of the three dominant species (Sardinella gibbosa, Sardinella fimbriata, and Rastrelliger kanagurta) were studied in Manila Bay from January 2014 to December 2015. The data were collected from landed catch (coming from gillnet, lift net, purse seine, ringnet, and trawl) and during the actual trawl fishing survey. A total of 2,383 Sardinella gibbosa, 2,334 Sardinella fimbriata, and 549 Rastrelliger kanagurta were analyzed by pooling the two years data. The overall female to male ratio conformed to the expected 1:1 sex ratio. These species spawn throughout the year with major peak in March and April and minor peak in October to December for Sardinella gibbosa; with major peak in February to May and minor peak in October to December for Sardinella fimbriata; and for Rastrelliger kanagurta, with major peak in October to December and minor peak in May and June. The GSI values correlate with the maturation of the gonads of these species. The length at maturity (Lm50) was calculated at 12.75 cm in males and 13.25 cm in females for S. gibbosa; 12.25 cm in males and 12.75 cm in females for S. fimbriata; and 25.5 cm in males and 24.5 cm in females for R. kanagurta

Aerothermodynamic Analysis of a Reentry Brazilian Satellite

This work deals with a computational investigation on the small ballistic reentry Brazilian vehicle SARA (acronyms for SAt\'elite de Reentrada Atmosf\'erica). Hypersonic flows over the vehicle SARA at zero-degree angle of attack in a chemical equilibrium and thermal non-equilibrium are modeled by the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, which has become the main technique for studying complex multidimensional rarefied flows, and that properly accounts for the non-equilibrium aspects of the flows. The emphasis of this paper is to examine the behavior of the primary properties during the high altitude portion of SARA reentry. In this way, velocity, density, pressure and temperature field are investigated for altitudes of 100, 95, 90, 85 and 80 km. In addition, comparisons based on geometry are made between axisymmetric and planar two-dimensional configurations. Some significant differences between these configurations were noted on the flowfield structure in the reentry trajectory. The analysis showed that the flow disturbances have different influence on velocity, density, pressure and temperature along the stagnation streamline ahead of the capsule nose. It was found that the stagnation region is a thermally stressed zone. It was also found that the stagnation region is a zone of strong compression, high wall pressure. Wall pressure distributions are compared with those of available experimental data and good agreement is found along the spherical nose for the altitude range investigated.Comment: The paper will be published in Vol. 42 of the Brazilian Journal of Physic

Three-dimensional nuclear architecture distinguishes thyroid cancer histotypes.

Molecular markers can serve as diagnostic tools to support pathological analysis in thyroid neoplasms. However, because the same markers can be observed in some benign thyroid lesions, additional approaches are necessary to differentiate thyroid tumor subtypes, prevent overtreatment and tailor specific clinical management. This applies particularly to the recently described variant of thyroid cancer referred to as noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP). This variant has an estimated prevalence of 4.4% to 9.1% of all papillary thyroid carcinomas worldwide. We studied 60 thyroid lesions: 20 classical papillary thyroid carcinoma (CPTC), 20 follicular variant of PTC (FVPTC) and 20 NIFTP. We examined morphological and molecular features to identify parameters that can differentiate NIFTP from the other PTC subtypes. When blindly investigating the nuclear architecture of thyroid neoplasms, we observed that NIFTP has significantly longer telomeres than CPTC and FVPTC. Super-resolved 3D-structured illumination microscopy demonstrated that NIFTP is heterogeneous and that its nuclei contain more densely packed DNA and smaller interchromatin spaces than CPTC and FVPTC, a pattern that resembles normal thyroid tissue. These data are consistent with the observed indolent biological behavior and favorable prognosis associated with NIFTP, which lacks BRAFV600E mutations. Of note, next-generation thyroid oncopanel sequencing was unable to distinguish the thyroid cancer histotypes in our study cohort. In summary, our data suggest that 3D nuclear architecture can be a powerful analytical tool to diagnose and guide clinical management of NIFTP

Observation of bright polariton solitons in a semiconductor microcavity

Microcavity polaritons are composite half-light half-matter quasi-particles, which have recently been demonstrated to exhibit rich physical properties, such as non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation, parametric scattering and superfluidity. At the same time, polaritons have some important advantages over photons for information processing applications, since their excitonic component leads to weaker diffraction and stronger inter-particle interactions, implying, respectively, tighter localization and lower powers for nonlinear functionality. Here we present the first experimental observations of bright polariton solitons in a strongly coupled semiconductor microcavity. The polariton solitons are shown to be non-diffracting high density wavepackets, that are strongly localised in real space with a corresponding broad spectrum in momentum space. Unlike solitons known in other matter-wave systems such as Bose condensed ultracold atomic gases, they are non-equilibrium and rely on a balance between losses and external pumping. Microcavity polariton solitons are excited on picosecond timescales, and thus have significant benefits for ultrafast switching and transfer of information over their light only counterparts, semiconductor cavity lasers (VCSELs), which have only nanosecond response time

The effects of chronic stress on hippocampal adult neurogenesis and dendritic plasticity are reversed by selective MAO-A inhibition.

Online first version - Oct 14, 2014There is accumulating evidence that adult neurogenesis and dendritic plasticity in the hippocampus are neuroplastic phenomena, highly sensitive to the effects of chronic stress and treatment with most classes of antidepressant drugs, being involved in the onset and recovery from depression. However, the effects of antidepressants that act through the selective inhibition of monoamine oxidase subtype A (MAO-A) in these phenomena are still largely unknown. In the present study, adult neurogenesis and neuronal morphology were examined in the hippocampus of rats exposed to chronic mild stress (CMS) and treated with the selective reversible MAO-A inhibitor (RIMA) drug, pirlindole and the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), fluoxetine. The results provide the first demonstration that selective MAO-A inhibition with pirlindole is able to revert the behavioural effects of stress exposure while promoting hippocampal adult neurogenesis and rescuing the stress-induced dendritic atrophy of granule neurons.This research was funded by a collaborative research project established between ICVS and Grupo Tecnimede