5,502 research outputs found
A catch-free stock assessment model with application to goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) off southern Florida
Many modern stock assessment methods provide the machinery for determining the status of a stock in relation to certain reference points and for estimating how quickly a stock can be rebuilt. However, these methods typically require catch data, which are not always available. We introduce a model-based framework for estimating reference points, stock status, and recovery times in situations where catch data and other measures of absolute abundance are unavailable. The specif ic estimator developed is essentially an age-structured production model recast in terms relative to pre-exploitation levels. A Bayesian estimation scheme is adopted to allow the incorporation of pertinent auxiliary information such as might be obtained from meta-analyses of similar stocks or anecdotal observations. The approach is applied to the population of goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) off southern Florida, for which there are three indices of relative abundance but no reliable catch data. The results confirm anecdotal accounts of a marked decline in abundance during the 1980s followed by a substantial increase after the harvest of goliath grouper was banned in 1990. The ban appears to have reduced fishing pressure to between 10% and 50% of the levels observed during the 1980s. Nevertheless, the predicted fishing mortality rate under the ban appears to remain substantial, perhaps owing to illegal harvest and depth-related release mortality. As a result, the base model predicts that there is less than a 40% chance that the spawning biomass will recover to a level that would produce a 50% spawning potential ratio
Extravehicular activity at geosynchronous earth orbit
The basic contract to define the system requirements to support the Advanced Extravehicular Activity (EVA) has three phases: EVA in geosynchronous Earth orbit; EVA in lunar base operations; and EVA in manned Mars surface exploration. The three key areas to be addressed in each phase are: environmental/biomedical requirements; crew and mission requirements; and hardware requirements. The structure of the technical tasks closely follows the structure of the Advanced EVA studies for the Space Station completed in 1986
Polymorphism of the tumor necrosis factor beta gene in systemic lupus erythematosus
We investigated the Nco I restriction fragment
length polymorphism (RFLP) of the tumor necrosis
factor beta (TNFB) gene in 173 patients with systemic
lupus erythematosus (SLE), 192 unrelated
healthy controls, and eleven panel families, all of German
origin. The phenotype frequency of the TNFB*I
allele was significantly increased in patients compared
to controls (63.6% vs 47.1%, RR = 1.96, p <0.002).
The results of a two-point haplotype statistical analysis
between TNFB and HLA alleles show that there is linkage
disequilibrium between TNFB*I and HLA-A1,
Cw7, B8, DR3, DQ2, and C4A DE. The frequency of
TNFB*I was compared in SLE patients and controls in
the presence or absence of each of these alleles.
TNFB*I is increased in patients over controls only in
the presence of the mentioned alleles. Therefore, the
whole haplotypeA1, Cw7, B8, TNFB* I, C4A DE, DR3,
DQ2 is increased in patients and it cannot be determined
which of the genes carried by this haplotype is
responsible for the susceptibility to SLE. In addition,
two-locus associations were analyzed in 192 unrelated
healthy controls for TNFB and class I alleles typed by
serology, and for TNFB and class II alleles typed by
polymerase chain reaction/oligonucleotide probes. We
found positive linkage disequilibrium between
TNFB*I and the following alleles: HLA-A24, HLA-B8,
DRBI*0301, DRBI*ll04, DRBI*1302, DQAI*0501, DQBI*0201, DQBI*0604, and DPBI*OIO1. TNFB*2
is associated with HLA-B7, DRBI*1501, and
DQB I *0602
Rotation of visual landmark cues influences the spatial response profile of hippocampal neurons in freely-moving homing pigeons
Pigeon hippocampal neurons display two spatial response profiles: location fields frequently at goals, and path fields connecting goals. We recorded from 15 location and six path cells, with color cues positioned near four goal locations. Following color cue rotation, most location cells (12/15) shifted their response fields; path cells (5/6) lost their fields. Therefore, local visual cues can independently define a reference frame for location cells, but path cells may be more broadly tuned to context or alternative reference frames
Quasi-realistic heterotic-string models with vanishing one-loop cosmological constant and perturbatively broken supersymmetry?
Quasi-realistic string models in the free fermionic formulation typically
contain an anomalous U(1), which gives rise to a Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term that
breaks supersymmetry at the one--loop level in string perturbation theory.
Supersymmetry is traditionally restored by imposing F- and D-flatness on the
vacuum. By employing the standard analysis of flat directions we present a
quasi--realistic three generation string model in which stringent F- and D-flat
solution do not appear to exist to all orders in the superpotential. We
speculate that this result is indicative of the non-existence of supersymmetric
flat F- and D-solutions in this model. We provide some arguments in support of
this scenario and discuss its potential implications. Bose-Fermi degeneracy of
the string spectrum implies that the one--loop partition function and hence the
one-loop cosmological constant vanishes in the model. If our assertion is
correct, this model may represent the first known example with vanishing
cosmological constant and perturbatively broken supersymmetry. We discuss the
distinctive properties of the internal free fermion boundary conditions that
may correspond to a large set of models that share these properties. The
geometrical moduli in this class of models are fixed due to asymmetric boundary
conditions, whereas absence of supersymmetric flat directions would imply that
the supersymmetric moduli are fixed as well and the dilaton may be fixed by
hidden sector nonperturbative effects.Comment: 37 pages, LaTeX. Added discussion on stringent flat directions. PRD
published versio
Iginio Tansini revisited
The origin of the muscolocutaneous latissimus dorsi flap dates back to 1906 when Igino Tansini, an Italian surgeon, described a procedure to reconstruct the mastectomy defect. After a detailed study of Tansini's original description and drawings, new insights about the pedicle of its compound flap have been found, showing that it has the same pedicle of the scapular flap. In the end, Tansini's flap should be more correctly considered as a compound musculocutaneous scapular flap
Examining the Role of Social Network Size and the Structural Holes
This study examines the importance of social network size and structural holes within the network to the entrepreneurial opportunity recognition process
Advanced extravehicular activity systems requirements definition study. Phase 2: Extravehicular activity at a lunar base
The focus is on Extravehicular Activity (EVA) systems requirements definition for an advanced space mission: remote-from-main base EVA on the Moon. The lunar environment, biomedical considerations, appropriate hardware design criteria, hardware and interface requirements, and key technical issues for advanced lunar EVA were examined. Six remote EVA scenarios (three nominal operations and three contingency situations) were developed in considerable detail
Elevated cerebral spinal fluid biomarkers in children with mucopolysaccharidosis I-H.
Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) type-IH is a lysosomal storage disease that results from mutations in the IDUA gene causing the accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Historically, children with the severe phenotype, MPS-IH (Hurler syndrome) develop progressive neurodegeneration with death in the first decade due to cardio-pulmonary complications. New data suggest that inflammation may play a role in MPS pathophysiology. To date there is almost no information on the pathophysiologic changes within the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) of these patients. We evaluated the CSF of 25 consecutive patients with MPS-IH. While CSF glucose and total protein were within the normal range, we found a significantly mean elevated CSF opening pressure at 24 cm H2O (range 14-37 cm H2O). We observed a 3-fold elevation in CSF heparan sulfate and a 3-8 fold increase in MPS-IH specific non-reducing ends, I0S0 and I0S6. Cytokine analyses in CSF of children with MPS-IH showed significantly elevated inflammatory markers including: MCP-1 SDF-1a, IL-Ra, MIP-1b, IL-8, and VEGF in comparison to unaffected children. This is the largest report of CSF characteristics in children with MPS-IH. Identification of key biomarkers may provide further insight into the inflammatory-mediated mechanisms related to MPS diseases and perhaps lead to improved targeted therapies
Abelian gauge theories on compact manifolds and the Gribov ambiguity
We study the quantization of abelian gauge theories of principal torus
bundles over compact manifolds with and without boundary. It is shown that
these gauge theories suffer from a Gribov ambiguity originating in the
non-triviality of the bundle of connections whose geometrical structure will be
analyzed in detail. Motivated by the stochastic quantization approach we
propose a modified functional integral measure on the space of connections that
takes the Gribov problem into account. This functional integral measure is used
to calculate the partition function, the Greens functions and the field
strength correlating functions in any dimension using the fact that the space
of inequivalent connections itself admits the structure of a bundle over a
finite dimensional torus. The Greens functions are shown to be affected by the
non-trivial topology, giving rise to non-vanishing vacuum expectation values
for the gauge fields.Comment: 33 page
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