Levels and spatial distribution of organochlorinated compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fishes from a Mediterranean coastal lagoon

The seasonal input and distribution of organic contaminants in the Mar Menor lagoon have been recently characterized in seawater and sediments, showing the significant impact of flash flood events. Mar Menor is a hypersaline (42-47 psu) coastal lagoon located in the Cartagena Field area at the South East of Spain subjected mainly to intensive agriculture, seasonal tourism and recreational activities. The bioaccumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorinated pesticides (OCPs) has been also determined in bivalves, but no information was available about their accumulation in fishes. In this study the concentrations of PAHs, PCBs and OCPs in golden grey mullet (Liza aurata) and red mullet (Mullus barbatus) muscle were determined. Their spatial distribution throughout the Mar Menor lagoon was characterized considering 9 sampling areas and two different sampling periods, spring and autumn in 2010 for golden grey mullet and only one (autumn) for red mullet. PAHs and organochlorinated pollutants were extracted using specific Soxhlet procedures. After cleanup and purification steps the final extracts were analyzed by HPLC for PAHs, and by GC-MS for PCBs and OCPs. The higher concentrations of all pollutants were found close to main urban and port areas of this lagoon and in the influence area of El Albujón watercourse. PAHs concentrations (sum of 14 congeners) in both species varied between 1 and 20.7 g/kg w.w. being pyrene and phenanthrene the most abundant ones. p,p’DDE showed higher concentrations than PAHs in golden grey mullet (concentration range: 0.2-32.7 g/kg w.w.), specially close to the main navigation channel between this lagoon and the Mediterranean Sea.This work has been supported by the Spanish Inter-Ministerial Science and Technology Commission through ‘DECOMAR’ project (CICYT, CTM2008-01832) and by Seneca Foundation (Region of Murcia, Spain) through ‘BIOMARO’ project (15398/PI/10). Rubén Moreno-González wishes to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the FPI grant (BES 2009-014713)

Sea snail (Hexaplex trunculus) and sea cucumber (Holothuria polii) as potential sentinel species for organic pollutants and trace metals in coastal ecosystems

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Revisión y Control del Plan de Vigilancia Ambiental de las obras de dragado del Puerto de Maó

Se integra información hidrográfica, geomorfológica, sedimentológica y biológica, para la caracterización de los ecosistemas marinos en el punto de vertido y área adyacente previa al inicio de las obras de dragado del Puerto de Maó.RESUMEN: En este documento se presentan los trabajos científicos realizados por el Instituto Español de Oceanografía, dentro del Plan de Vigilancia Ambiental del dragado del Puerto de Maó (Menorca, Islas Baleares), para la caracterización de los ecosistema marino en el punto de vertido y área adyacente, previa al inicio de las obras. Se incluyen los resultados y las conclusiones de los estudios realizados por diversos grupos de investigación, principalmente en Enero-Marzo 2014, en relación al fondo marino, la hidrodinámica, las praderas de Posidonia oceanica y el molusco bivalvo Pinna nobilis, el macro-bentos de los fondos circalitorales blandos y los contaminantes en agua, sedimentos y biota, así como en especies de interés comercial para el consumo humano. Este informe se contempla en el contrato entre la Autoridad Portuaria de Baleares y el Instituto Español de Oceanografía, suscrito el 5 Febrero 2014, para los trabajos de asistencia técnica para la revisión y control del Plan de Vigilancia Ambiental del dragado del Puerto de Maó.RESUM: En aquest document es presenten els treballs científics realitzats per l’Instituto Español de Oceanografía, dins del Pla de Vigilància Ambiental del dragat del Port de Maó (Menorca, Illes Balears), per a la caracterització dels ecosistemes marins en el punt de vessament i àrea adjacent, prèvia a l’inici de les obres. S’inclouen els resultats i les conclusions del estudis realitzats per diversos grups de recerca, principalment durant Gener-Març 2014, en relació al fons marí, la hidrodinàmica, les praderies de Posidonia oceanica i el mol•lusc bivalve Pinna nobilis, el macro-bentos dels fons circalitorals tous i els contaminants en aigua, sediments i biota, així com en espècies d’interès comercial pel consum humà. Aquest informe es contempla en el contracte entre l’Autoritat Portuària de Balears i el Instituto Español de Oceanografía, subscrit el 5 Febrer 2014, pels treballs d’assistència tècnica per a la revisió i control del Pla de Vigilància Ambiental del dragat de Port de Maó.ABSTRACT: This document presents the scientific actions developed by the Instituto Español de Oceanografía within the Environmental Monitoring Plan of the works of dredging the Port of Maó (Minorca, Balearic Islands), for the characterization of the marine ecosystems in the point of discharge of dredged material and adjacent area, before the beginning of the dredging. The results and conclusions of the studies developed by several research groups, mainly in January-March 2014, in relation to the bottom, hydrodynamics, Posidonia oceanica meadows, and the bivalve mollusc Pinna nobilis, the macro-benthos of the circalittoral soft bottoms and the contaminants in water, sediments and biota, as well as in commercial species for human consumption, are included. This report is contemplated within the contract between the Autoridad Portuaria de Baleares and the Instituto Español de Oceanografía, signed on 5 February 2014, for the technical assistance activities to review and control the Environmental Monitoring Plan of the works of dredging the Port of Maó.Autoridad Portuaria de Baleare

Reconstruction of events recorded with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

Cosmic rays arriving at Earth collide with the upper parts of the atmosphere, thereby inducing extensive air showers. When secondary particles from the cascade arrive at the ground, they are measured by surface detector arrays. We describe the methods applied to the measurements of the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory to reconstruct events with zenith angles less than 60o using the timing and signal information recorded using the water-Cherenkov detector stations. In addition, we assess the accuracy of these methods in reconstructing the arrival directions of the primary cosmic ray particles and the sizes of the induced showers

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Performance of reconstruction and identification of τ leptons decaying to hadrons and vτ in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV

The algorithm developed by the CMS Collaboration to reconstruct and identify τ leptons produced in proton-proton collisions at √s=7 and 8 TeV, via their decays to hadrons and a neutrino, has been significantly improved. The changes include a revised reconstruction of π⁰ candidates, and improvements in multivariate discriminants to separate τ leptons from jets and electrons. The algorithm is extended to reconstruct τ leptons in highly Lorentz-boosted pair production, and in the high-level trigger. The performance of the algorithm is studied using proton-proton collisions recorded during 2016 at √s=13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb¯¹. The performance is evaluated in terms of the efficiency for a genuine τ lepton to pass the identification criteria and of the probabilities for jets, electrons, and muons to be misidentified as τ leptons. The results are found to be very close to those expected from Monte Carlo simulation

Pileup mitigation at CMS in 13 TeV data

With increasing instantaneous luminosity at the LHC come additional reconstruction challenges. At high luminosity, many collisions occur simultaneously within one proton-proton bunch crossing. The isolation of an interesting collision from the additional "pileup" collisions is needed for effective physics performance. In the CMS Collaboration, several techniques capable of mitigating the impact of these pileup collisions have been developed. Such methods include charged-hadron subtraction, pileup jet identification, isospin-based neutral particle "δβ" correction, and, most recently, pileup per particle identification. This paper surveys the performance of these techniques for jet and missing transverse momentum reconstruction, as well as muon isolation. The analysis makes use of data corresponding to 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the CMS experiment in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The performance of each algorithm is discussed for up to 70 simultaneous collisions per bunch crossing. Significant improvements are found in the identification of pileup jets, the jet energy, mass, and angular resolution, missing transverse momentum resolution, and muon isolation when using pileup per particle identification

Identification of heavy, energetic, hadronically decaying particles using machine-learning techniques

Machine-learning (ML) techniques are explored to identify and classify hadronic decays of highly Lorentz-boosted W/Z/Higgs bosons and top quarks. Techniques without ML have also been evaluated and are included for comparison. The identification performances of a variety of algorithms are characterized in simulated events and directly compared with data. The algorithms are validated using proton-proton collision data at √s = 13TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. Systematic uncertainties are assessed by comparing the results obtained using simulation and collision data. The new techniques studied in this paper provide significant performance improvements over non-ML techniques, reducing the background rate by up to an order of magnitude at the same signal efficiency