Characterization of Navassa National Wildlife Refuge: A preliminary report for NF-06-05 (NOAA ship "Nancy Foster", April 18-30, 2006)

Navassa is a small, undeveloped island in the Windward Passage between Jamaica and Haiti. It was designated a National Wildlife Refuge under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1999, but the remote location makes management and enforcement challenging, and the area is regularly fished by artisanal fishermen from Haiti. In April 2006, the NOAA Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research conducted a research cruise to Navassa. The cruise produced the first high-resolution multibeam bathymetry for the area, which will facilitate habitat mapping and assist in refuge management. A major emphasis of the cruise was to study the impact of Haitian fishing gear on benthic habitats and fish communities; however, in 10 days on station only one small boat was observed with five fishermen and seven traps. Fifteen monitoring stations were established to characterize fish and benthic communities along the deep (28-34 m) shelf, as these areas have been largely unstudied by previous cruises. The fish communities included numerous squirrelfishes, triggerfishes, and parrotfishes. Snappers and grouper were also present but no small individuals were observed. Similarly, conch surveys indicated the population was in low abundance and was heavily skewed towards adults. Analysis of the benthic photoquadrats is currently underway. Other cruise activities included installation of a temperature logger network, sample collection for stable isotope analyses to examine trophic structure, and drop camera surveys to ground-truth habitat maps and overhead imagery. (PDF contains 58 pages

A multidrug approach to modulate the mitochondrial metabolism impairment and relative oxidative stress in fanconi anemia complementation group a

Fanconi Anemia (FA) is a rare recessive genetic disorder characterized by aplastic anemia due to a defective DNA repair system. In addition, dysfunctional energy metabolism, lipid droplets accumulation, and unbalanced oxidative stress are involved in FA pathogenesis. Thus, to modulate the altered metabolism, Fanc-A lymphoblast cell lines were treated with quercetin, a flavonoid compound, C75 (4-Methylene-2-octyl-5-oxotetrahydrofuran-3-carboxylic acid), a fatty acid synthesis inhibitor, and rapamycin, an mTOR inhibitor, alone or in combination. As a control, isogenic FA cell lines corrected with the functional Fanc-A gene were used. Results showed that: (i) quercetin recovered the energy metabolism efficiency, reducing oxidative stress; (ii) C75 caused the lipid accumulation decrement and a slight oxidative stress reduction, without improving the energy metabolism; (iii) rapamycin reduced the aerobic metabolism and the oxidative stress, without increasing the energy status. In addition, all molecules reduce the accumulation of DNA double-strand breaks. Two-by-two combinations of the three drugs showed an additive effect compared with the action of the single molecule. Specifically, the quercetin/C75 combination appeared the most efficient in the mitochondrial and lipid metabolism improvement and in oxidative stress production reduction, while the quercetin/rapamycin combination seemed the most efficient in the DNA breaks decrement. Thus, data reported herein suggest that FA is a complex and multifactorial disease, and a multidrug strategy is necessary to correct the metabolic alterations

NUMERICAL MODELING OF MASSE SHRINKING CLAYEY SOILS IN THE DEPRESSION OF LAMA IN THE SOUTH OF BENIN

This article presents the results of an experimental study about four soil samples coming from Masse, a region crossed by the East depression of LAMA in the south of Benin, where impor- tant damages have been recorded (rising of thefoundations, deformation and cracking of the infrastructures, tearing of the surface coat of pavements...). In the first stage, a physico- mechanical characterization of the soil samples is achieved bylaboratory tests. The second stage of this study was reserved to the numericalmodeling of the shrinkingby basing on the analysis of the behaviour of the curves obtained at the end of the laboratory odometer tests. This approach allowed us to describe the variation of the indication of the voids ratio accord- ing to the loading pressure, to elaborate a mathematical model permitting to simulate the odometer curve of a loading-discharge cycle and to determine the parameters of compressibil- ity. The results show a good quality of the adjustment. A negligible mistake of the order of 0,3% has been recorde

PHYSIC-MECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CLAYEY SOILS OF ISSABA DEPRESSION IN THE SOUTH-EAST OF BENIN

The instability of soils due to the swelling phenomenon is among others at the origin of enormous damages in civil engineering works, such the deformations, the cracking, the tear- ing, the wear of the rotation surface and the destruction of the foundations observed at the infrastructures level (housing, socio-community centers, covered road or not). This phenome- non is a very complex and particularly threatening situation for the different construction projects, in a lot of regions of the world where these types of soilsare met and at the level of which we note premature damages of the works. It urges then to make specific arrangements during the execution of infrastructures. The phenomenon described above is also present in Benin mainly in the depression of Lama

A holistic multi-methodology for sustainable renovation

A review of the barriers for building renovation has revealed a lack of methodologies, which can promote sustainability objectives and assist various stakeholders during the design stage of building renovation/retrofitting projects. The purpose of this paper is to develop a Holistic Multi-methodology for Sustainable Renovation, which aims to deal with complexity of renovation projects. It provides a framework through which to involve the different stakeholders in the design process to improve group learning and group decision-making, and hence make the building renovation design process more robust and efficient. Therefore, the paper discusses the essence of multifaceted barriers in building renovation regarding cultural changes and technological/physical changes. The outcome is a proposal for a multi-methodology framework, which is developed by introducing, evaluating and mixing methods from Soft Systems Methodologies (SSM) with Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). The potential of applying the proposed methodology in renovation projects is demonstrated through a case study

Does Forced Voting Result in Political Polarization?

This paper estimates the effects of the compulsory voting laws on individuals´ political orientations though a regression discontinuity framework. The identification comes from Brazil´s dual voting system – voluntary and compulsory – whose exposure is determined based on citizens’ dates of birth. Using self-collected data, we find that compulsory voting has sizable effects on individuals´ political preferences, making them more likely to identify with a political party and to become oriented towards ideological extremes

Seasonal Consumptive Demand and Prey Use by Stocked Saugeyes in Ohio Reservoirs

Community structure and species composition may be strongly influenced by predator-prey interactions resulting from and leading to episodes of population abundance or scarcity. We quantified diets of stocked saugeyes (female walleye Sander vitreus × male sauger S. canadensis) and estimated biomass of their primary prey, gizzard shad Dorosoma cepedianum, in three Ohio reservoirs at quarterly intervals during July 2002-July 2003 to determine whether saugeye consumptive demand could exceed the supply of available gizzard shad prey, resulting in a shift to alternative prey. We incorporated water temperature and saugeye diet composition, growth, and mortality into walleye bioenergetics models, which allowed us to compare estimated prey-specific consumption rates by saugeyes with gizzard shad standing stocks estimated with acoustics. Spring and summer were critical seasons. During spring, gizzard shad biomass was low, saugeye consumptive demand was low, and saugeyes consumed primarily alternative prey. During summer, when age-0 gizzard shad became available as prey, saugeyes consumed similar proportions of gizzard shad and alternative prey. Saugeye cumulative consumptive demand in summer was high and approached the gizzard shad standing stock. However, during fall and winter, gizzard shad supply was adequate to support high (fall) or declining (winter) saugeye consumptive demand. Across reservoirs and seasons, saugeyes consumed alternative prey to varying degrees, primarily sunfishes Lepomis spp., yellow perch Perca flavescens, logperch Percina caprodes, and minnows Pimephales spp. Seasonal asynchrony between saugeye consumptive demand and gizzard shad biomass during spring and summer indicated that a saugeye population with high survival, growth, and consumptive demand will opportunistically increase use of prey other than gizzard shad. The manner in which saugeye predation quantitatively influences these prey species could not be assessed. However, overexploitation of gizzard shad prey appears to be unlikely at current saugeye population sizes, particularly considering the opportunistic use of alternative prey and the high reproductive potential of gizzard shad.Funding for this research was provided by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife; Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Project F-69-P, Fish Management in Ohio; and the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University

Search for Doubly-Charged Higgs Boson Production at HERA

A search for the single production of doubly-charged Higgs bosons H^{\pm \pm} in ep collisions is presented. The signal is searched for via the Higgs decays into a high mass pair of same charge leptons, one of them being an electron. The analysis uses up to 118 pb^{-1} of ep data collected by the H1 experiment at HERA. No evidence for doubly-charged Higgs production is observed and mass dependent upper limits are derived on the Yukawa couplings h_{el} of the Higgs boson to an electron-lepton pair. Assuming that the doubly-charged Higgs only decays into an electron and a muon via a coupling of electromagnetic strength h_{e \mu} = \sqrt{4 \pi \alpha_{em}} = 0.3, a lower limit of 141 GeV on the H^{\pm\pm} mass is obtained at the 95% confidence level. For a doubly-charged Higgs decaying only into an electron and a tau and a coupling h_{e\tau} = 0.3, masses below 112 GeV are ruled out.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl