Temporal and spatial distributions of delphinid species in Massachusetts Bay (USA) using passive acoustics from ocean gliders

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Silva, T. L., Mooney, T. A., Sayigh, L. S., & Baumgartner, M. F. Temporal and spatial distributions of delphinid species in Massachusetts Bay (USA) using passive acoustics from ocean gliders. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 631, (2019): 1-17, doi:10.3354/meps13180.Knowledge about marine mammal habitat use is necessary for informing ecosystem-based management and mitigating human impacts. Massachusetts Bay is an important marine mammal foraging area in the Gulf of Maine and an area of substantial human activity, but delphinid habitat use is poorly understood. The goals of this work were to (1) document temporal and spatial occurrence of delphinid species in Massachusetts Bay using passive acoustic monitoring from ocean gliders and (2) explore the potential influences of environmental conditions on delphinid distributions. Gliders were deployed in late fall and early winter of 2014 and 2015-2016 and were equipped with a digital acoustic recorder and conductivity-temperature-depth instrument. Gliders surveyed an area of approximately 1000 km2. Delphinid whistles were detected on 93 of 128 (73%) deployment days. Animals were detected more often at night. Presence was consistent over 2 years, although detection rates showed annual and monthly variability. Spatial distribution differed between years, but most detections occurred close to Stellwagen Bank. Visual assessment of spectrograms suggests the presence of 2 species, Atlantic white-sided dolphins and common dolphins. The reoccurrence of 2 probable signature whistles over several weeks and consecutive winter seasons suggests prolonged occupancy during winter and possible annual site fidelity. These data show a consistent and frequent presence of delphinids near a known marine mammal foraging area (Stellwagen Bank) during late fall and winter and are a first step towards understanding both how odontocetes influence the Massachusetts Bay/Gulf of Maine ecosystem and how they may be impacted by human activities.We gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, The Nature Conservancy, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for their collaboration and support for this project. We thank Susan Parks, Julie Oswald, Sofie Van Parijs, and Danielle Cholewiak for helpful discussionsand sharing acoustic recordings for species comparisons. We are grateful to Ben Hodges for critical assistance with preparing, deploying, and recovering gliders. Thanks to Michael Thompson for assistance with spatial analysis and Dave Wiley for support and insights into the Stellwagen Bank ecosystem. The WHOI Marine Mammal Center provided additional funding for this work. Funding support for T.L.S. was provided by the NOAA Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship. Finally, we thank the 3 anonymous re viewers for their comments and suggestions that improved this manuscript

Publication guidelines for quality improvement in health care: evolution of the SQUIRE project

In 2005, draft guidelines were published for reporting studies of quality improvement interventions as the initial step in a consensus process for development of a more definitive version. This article contains the full revised version of the guidelines, which the authors refer to as SQUIRE (Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence). This paper also describes the consensus process, which included informal feedback from authors, editors and peer reviewers who used the guidelines; formal written commentaries; input from a group of publication guideline developers; ongoing review of the literature on the epistemology of improvement and methods for evaluating complex social programmes; a two-day meeting of stakeholders for critical discussion and debate of the guidelines’ content and wording; and commentary on sequential versions of the guidelines from an expert consultant group. Finally, the authors consider the major differences between SQUIRE and the initial draft guidelines; limitations of and unresolved questions about SQUIRE; ancillary supporting documents and alternative versions that are under development; and plans for dissemination, testing and further development of SQUIRE

Physiological and yield response in maize in cohesive tropical soil is improved through the addition of gypsum and leguminous mulch

Acknowledgements The Brazilian authors thank the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (CAPES) and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for their support. Financial support The current work was undertaken as part of NUCLEUS, a virtual joint centre to deliver enhanced N-use efficiency via an integrated soil–plant systems approach for the United Kingdom and Brazil. Funded in Brazil by FAPESP – São Paulo Research Foundation [grant number 2015/50305-8]; FAPEG – Goiás Research Foundation [grant number 2015-10267001479] and FAPEMA – Maranhão Research Foundation [grant number RCUK-02771/16]; and in the United Kingdom by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [grant number BB/N013201/1] under the Newton Fund scheme.Peer reviewedPostprin

A Robust Solution Procedure for Hyperelastic Solids with Large Boundary Deformation

Compressible Mooney-Rivlin theory has been used to model hyperelastic solids, such as rubber and porous polymers, and more recently for the modeling of soft tissues for biomedical tissues, undergoing large elastic deformations. We propose a solution procedure for Lagrangian finite element discretization of a static nonlinear compressible Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic solid. We consider the case in which the boundary condition is a large prescribed deformation, so that mesh tangling becomes an obstacle for straightforward algorithms. Our solution procedure involves a largely geometric procedure to untangle the mesh: solution of a sequence of linear systems to obtain initial guesses for interior nodal positions for which no element is inverted. After the mesh is untangled, we take Newton iterations to converge to a mechanical equilibrium. The Newton iterations are safeguarded by a line search similar to one used in optimization. Our computational results indicate that the algorithm is up to 70 times faster than a straightforward Newton continuation procedure and is also more robust (i.e., able to tolerate much larger deformations). For a few extremely large deformations, the deformed mesh could only be computed through the use of an expensive Newton continuation method while using a tight convergence tolerance and taking very small steps.Comment: Revision of earlier version of paper. Submitted for publication in Engineering with Computers on 9 September 2010. Accepted for publication on 20 May 2011. Published online 11 June 2011. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

Distinction between the Poole-Frenkel and tunneling models of electric field-stimulated carrier emission from deep levels in semiconductors

The enhancement of the emission rate of charge carriers from deep-level defects in electric field is routinely used to determine the charge state of the defects. However, only a limited number of defects can be satisfactorily described by the Poole-Frenkel theory. An electric field dependence different from that expected from the Poole-Frenkel theory has been repeatedly reported in the literature, and no unambiguous identification of the charge state of the defect could be made. In this article, the electric field dependencies of emission of carriers from DX centers in AlxGa1-xAs:Te, Cu pairs in silicon, and Ge:Hg have been studied applying static and terahertz electric fields, and analyzed by using the models of Poole-Frenkel and phonon assisted tunneling. It is shown that phonon assisted tunneling and Poole-Frenkel emission are two competitive mechanisms of enhancement of emission of carriers, and their relative contribution is determined by the charge state of the defect and by the electric-field strength. At high-electric field strengths carrier emission is dominated by tunneling independently of the charge state of the impurity. For neutral impurities, where Poole-Frenkel lowering of the emission barrier does not occur, the phonon assisted tunneling model describes well the experimental data also in the low-field region. For charged impurities the transition from phonon assisted tunneling at high fields to Poole-Frenkel effect at low fields can be traced back. It is suggested that the Poole-Frenkel and tunneling models can be distinguished by plotting logarithm of the emission rate against the square root or against the square of the electric field, respectively. This analysis enables one to unambiguously determine the charge state of a deep-level defect

Direct Observations of the Ionizing Star in the UC HII Region G29.96-0.02: A Strong Constraint on the Stellar Birth Line for Massive Stars

We have observed the ultracompact HII region G29.96-0.02 in the near infrared J, H, and K bands and in the Br-gamma line. By comparison with radio observations, we determine that the extinction to the nebula is AK = 2.14 with a 3 sigma uncertainty of 0.25. We identify the ionizing star and determine its intrinsic K magnitude. The star does not have an infrared excess and so appears to be no longer accreting. The K magnitude and the bolometric luminosity allow us to place limits on the location of the ionizing star in the HR diagram. The 3 sigma upper limit on the effective temperature of the ionizing star is 42500 K. We favor a luminosity appropriate for star with a mass in excess of about 60 solar masses. The limit on the temperature and luminosity exclude stars on the ZAMS and stars within 10^6 yr of the ZAMS. Since the age of the UC HII region is estimated to be only about 10^5 yr, we suggest that this is direct evidence that the stellar birth line for massive stars at twice solar metallicity must be significantly redder than the ZAMS.Comment: 42 pages; LaTex; 11 Postscript figures; accepted for publication in Ap

Tissue Compatibility of Two Biodegradable Tubular Scaffolds Implanted Adjacent to Skin or Buccal Mucosa in Mice

Radiation therapy for cancer in the head and neck region leads to a marked loss of salivary gland parenchyma, resulting in a severe reduction of salivary secretions. Currently, there is no satisfactory treatment for these patients. To address this problem, we are using both tissue engineering and gene transfer principles to develop an orally implantable, artificial fluid-secreting device. In the present study, we examined the tissue compatibility of two biodegradable substrata potentially useful in fabricating such a device. We implanted in Balb/c mice tubular scaffolds of poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA), poly-glycolic acid coated with PLLA (PGA/PLLA), or nothing (sham-operated controls) either beneath the skin on the back, a site widely used in earlier toxicity and biocompatibility studies, or adjacent to the buccal mucosa, a site quite different functionally and immunologically. At 1, 3, 7, 14, and 28 days postimplantation, implant sites were examined histologically, and systemic responses were assessed by conventional clinical chemistry and hematology analyses. Inflammatory responses in the connective tissue were similar regardless of site or type of polymer implant used. However, inflammatory reactions were shorter and without epithelioid and giant cells in sham-operated controls. Also, biodegradation proceeded more slowly with the PLLA tubules than with the PGA/PLLA tubules. No significant changes in clinical chemistry and hematology were seen due to the implantation of tubular scaffolds. These results indicate that the tissue responses to PLLA and PGA/PLLA scaffolds are generally similar in areas subjacent to skin in the back and oral cavity. However, these studies also identified several potentially significant concerns that must be addressed prior to initiating any clinical applications of this device.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63126/1/107632702760240562.pd

Stable Propagation of a Burst Through a One-Dimensional Homogeneous Excitatory Chain Model of Songbird Nucleus HVC

We demonstrate numerically that a brief burst consisting of two to six spikes can propagate in a stable manner through a one-dimensional homogeneous feedforward chain of non-bursting neurons with excitatory synaptic connections. Our results are obtained for two kinds of neuronal models, leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neurons and Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) neurons with five conductances. Over a range of parameters such as the maximum synaptic conductance, both kinds of chains are found to have multiple attractors of propagating bursts, with each attractor being distinguished by the number of spikes and total duration of the propagating burst. These results make plausible the hypothesis that sparse precisely-timed sequential bursts observed in projection neurons of nucleus HVC of a singing zebra finch are intrinsic and causally related.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure