You Can\u27t Catch a Fish with a Robot

Abstract In this essay I will relate the challenges associated with deep sea ocean exploration as well as the advantages and disadvantages of today’s ocean technologies based on experience with most of these systems. After nearly five decades using robotic vehicles (Remotely Operated Vehicles = ROVs and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles = AUVs) and manned submarines for fish research, I thought it would be appropriate to briefly describe a career spent using these technologies as they were developed. Deep sea ichthyologists cannot effectively catch a swimming fish with a robot even 40 years after the development of the first ROV for deep ocean science investigation, nor can most currently-available manned submarines. There is a continuing debate on the advantages of using robotic machines (cheaper, safer) versus manned machines (more expensive, dangerous) for ocean research. Appropriately designed and operated manned submarines can accomplish considerable ocean exploration that robotic vehicles cannot. Robotic vehicles have their own advantages and science missions that manned vehicles cannot accomplish, but there is a loss in capturing mobile specimens for study and recording important behaviors and ecologies that simply cannot be accomplished with robots. I have written this retrospective on deep ocean research capabilities as my profession, ichthyology, and the world, have lost a major technological asset that can easily be brought back once its value is realized

Hypothermal Mortality in Marine Fishes of South-Central Florida, January, 1977

Comparable climatic conditions on both coasts of central Florida resulted in cold induced fish mortalities from 19 January to 13 February 1977. Lethal temperatures, the species killed and their relative numbers killed are compared for the Indian River lagoon, Tampa Bay and Sanibel Island estuarine systems. Fifty-six species were killed in the Indian River area, 36 in the Tampa Bay area, while 19 died at Sanibel Island. The higher species mortality in the Indian River lagoon may be attributed to local hydrological and topographical conditions-and a richer ichthyofauna. Cold-induced mortality was noted in both juvenile and adult tropical fishes. Some tropical species appear to be more eurythermic than others as lethal minimum temperatures ranged from 6 to 13 C. Hypothermal stress and mortality were observed in offshore reef fishes

A Comparison of the Fish Populations and Habitat in Open and Closed Salt Marsh Impoundments in East-Central Florida

Historical and recent biological surveys including aerial and ground level photographs reveal gross changes in vegetation and fish habitat associated with impoundment and flooding of salt marshes bordering the Indian River lagoon in east-central Florida. These studies show a depauperate ichthyofauna and floral association in impoundments excluded from estuarine tidal influence. Monthly collections of fishes made during 1979 and 1980 are used to compare two marsh impoundments: one closed to tidal influence from the Indian River lagoon and the other reopened to tidal influence through a single 80 em diameter culvert. The closed impoundment was found to contain a depauperate ichthyofauna consisting of 12 species collected under stressed environmental conditions. Water temperatures ranged from 14 to 34° C, salinities fluctuated widely from 2.0 to 200 ppt and dissolved oxygen was measured as low as 1.2 and as high as 14.2 ppm. The open impoundment contained a far richer ichthyofauna with 41 fish species captured at temperatures of 13.5 to 30° C, salinities of 25 to 38 ppt and dissolved oxygen levels of 2.2 to 7.5 ppm. The open impoundment also demonstrated extensive regrowth of marsh vegetation

Treating the placenta to prevent adverse effects of gestational hypoxia on fetal brain development.

Some neuropsychiatric disease, including schizophrenia, may originate during prenatal development, following periods of gestational hypoxia and placental oxidative stress. Here we investigated if gestational hypoxia promotes damaging secretions from the placenta that affect fetal development and whether a mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ might prevent this. Gestational hypoxia caused low birth-weight and changes in young adult offspring brain, mimicking those in human neuropsychiatric disease. Exposure of cultured neurons to fetal plasma or to secretions from the placenta or from model trophoblast barriers that had been exposed to altered oxygenation caused similar morphological changes. The secretions and plasma contained altered microRNAs whose targets were linked with changes in gene expression in the fetal brain and with human schizophrenia loci. Molecular and morphological changes in vivo and in vitro were prevented by a single dose of MitoQ bound to nanoparticles, which were shown to localise and prevent oxidative stress in the placenta but not in the fetus. We suggest the possibility of developing preventative treatments that target the placenta and not the fetus to reduce risk of psychiatric disease in later life

A review of elliptical and disc galaxy structure, and modern scaling laws

A century ago, in 1911 and 1913, Plummer and then Reynolds introduced their models to describe the radial distribution of stars in `nebulae'. This article reviews the progress since then, providing both an historical perspective and a contemporary review of the stellar structure of bulges, discs and elliptical galaxies. The quantification of galaxy nuclei, such as central mass deficits and excess nuclear light, plus the structure of dark matter halos and cD galaxy envelopes, are discussed. Issues pertaining to spiral galaxies including dust, bulge-to-disc ratios, bulgeless galaxies, bars and the identification of pseudobulges are also reviewed. An array of modern scaling relations involving sizes, luminosities, surface brightnesses and stellar concentrations are presented, many of which are shown to be curved. These 'redshift zero' relations not only quantify the behavior and nature of galaxies in the Universe today, but are the modern benchmark for evolutionary studies of galaxies, whether based on observations, N-body-simulations or semi-analytical modelling. For example, it is shown that some of the recently discovered compact elliptical galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5 may be the bulges of modern disc galaxies.Comment: Condensed version (due to Contract) of an invited review article to appear in "Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems"(www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-90-481-8818-5). 500+ references incl. many somewhat forgotten, pioneer papers. Original submission to Springer: 07-June-201

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns