Migrations of yellowfin tuna tagged off the southern coast of Mexico in 1960 and 1969

ENGLISH: The map method, the Jones method, the variance-covariance method, and the Skellam method were used to study the migrations of tagged yellowfin tuna released off the southern coast of Mexico in 1960 and 1969. The first three methods are all useful, and each presents information which is complementary to that presented by the others. The Skellam method, as used in this report, is less useful. The movements of the tagged fish released in 1960 appeared to have been strongly directed, but this was probably caused principally by the distribution of the fishing effort. The effort was much more widely distributed in 1970, and the movements of the fish released in 1969 appeared to have been much less directed. The correlation coefficients derived from the variance-covariance method showed that it was not random, however. The small fish released in the Acapulco and 10°N-100°W areas in 1969 migrated to the Manzanillo area near the beginning of February 1970. The medium and large fish released in the same areas in the same year tended to migrate to the southeast throughout the first half of 1970, however. SPANISH: El método de mapas, el de Jones, el de la variancia-covariancia y el de Skellam fueron empleados para estudiar las migraciones del atún aleta amarilla marcado y liberado frente a la costa meridional de México en 1960 y 1969. Los tres primeros métodos son todos útiles, y cada uno presenta información que complementa la presentada por los otros. El método de Skellam, conforme se usa en este informe, es menos útil. Parece que los desplazamientos de los peces marcados y liberados en 1960 hubieran sido fuertemente orientados, pero ésto probablemente fue causado principalmente por la distribución del esfuerzo de pesca. El esfuerzo se distribuyó más extensamente en 1970, y parece que los desplazamientos de los peces liberados en 1969 fueran menos orientados. Los coeficientes de correlación derivados del método variancia-covariancia indicaron, sin embargo, que no eran aleatorios. Los peces pequeños liberados en las áreas de Acapulco y los 10°N-100°W en 1969 migraron al área de Manzanillo a principios de febrero 1970. Los peces medianos y grandes liberados en las mismas áreas en el mismo año tuvieron, sin embargo, la tendencia a desplazarse al sudeste durante el primer semestre de 1970. (PDF contains 64 pages.

A note on conditionals and restrictors

Within linguistic semantics, it is near orthodoxy that the function of the word ‘if’ (in most cases) is to mark restrictions on quantification. Despite its linguistic prominence, this view of the word ‘if’ has played little role in the philosophical discussion of conditionals. This paper tries to fill in this gap by systematically discussing the impact of the restrictor view on the competing philosophical views of conditionals. I argue that most philosophical views can and should be understood in a way that is compatible with the restrictor view, but that accepting the restrictor allows for new responses to some prominent arguments for non-truth-conditional account of conditionals

Characterization of quantitative trait loci for growth and meat quality in a cross between commercial breeds of swine

A three-generation resource family was created by crossing two Berkshire grandsires with nine Yorkshire granddams to identify QTL affecting growth, body composition, and meat quality. A total of 512 F2 offspring were evaluated for 11 traits related to growth and body composition and 28 traits related to meat quality. All animals were initially genotyped for 125 markers across the genome. The objectives of this advanced phase of the project were to further identify and characterize QTL after genotyping for another 33 markers in special regions of interest, and to develop and apply methods for detecting QTL with parent-of-origin effects. New marker linkage maps were derived and used in QTL analysis based on line-cross least squares regression-interval mapping. A decision tree for identifying QTL with parent-of-origin effects was developed based on tests against the Mendelian mode of expression. Empirical significance thresholds were derived at chromosomewise and genomewise levels using specialized permutation strategies to create data under the null hypothesis appropriate for each test. Significance thresholds derived by the permutation tests were validated based on simulation of a pedigree and data structure similar to the Berkshire-Yorkshire population. The addition of 33 markers resulted in the discovery of 29 new QTL at the 5% chromosomewise level using the Mendelian model of analysis. Thirteen of the original QTL were no longer significant at the 5% chromosomewise level. A total of 33 QTL with parent-of-origin effects were identified, including QTL with paternal expression for backfat and loin muscle area on chromosome 2, near IGF2, and QTL with maternal expression for drip loss and reflectance on chromosome 9. Tests for imprinting against Mendelian expression identified much fewer QTL with parent-of-origin effects than tests based on significance of paternal and maternal alleles, which have been used in other studies. The detected QTL and their identified mode of expression will allow further research in these QTL regions and their utilization in marker-assisted improvement of meat quality

Detection and Characterization of Genes for Meat Quality in Pigs using Combined Line-cross and Half-sib Analysis

Data from an F2 cross between the Berkshire and Yorkshire breeds was used to detect and characterize chromosomal regions (quantitative trait loci, QTL) that affect growth, composition, and meat quality traits. A new method of analysis was used that combines the power of the line-cross model to detect QTL that differ between the breeds and the half-sib model to detect QTL that segregate within the breeds. The complementary information that is capitalized on in the combined models increased the number of QTL detected and allowed characterization of the detected QTL in terms of their segregation within the original breeds. This provides valuable information for subsequent QTL analyses and marker-assisted breeding schemes

Rapid communication: Physical and genetic mapping of the Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor γ (PPARγ) gene to porcine chromosome 13

Genus and Species. Sus scrofa. Locus Name. Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor gamma (PPARγ). Source and Description of Primers. Primers were designed in exon 5 from a published porcine cDNA sequence (GenBank accession no. AJ006756). Forward primer: 5′ GAC ATG AAT TCC TTA ATG 3′; reverse primer: 5′ ACT TCA CAG CGA ACT CGA ACT T 3′

The MicroJansky Radio Galaxy Population

We use highly spectroscopically complete observations of the radio sources from the VLA 1.4 GHz survey of the HDF-N region to study the faint radio galaxy population and its evolution. We spectrally classify the sources into four spectral types: absorbers, star formers, Seyfert galaxies, and broad-line AGNs, and we analyze their properties by type. We supplement the spectroscopic redshifts with photometric redshifts measured from the rest-frame UV to MIR spectral energy distributions. Using deep X-ray observations of the field, we do not confirm the existence of an X-ray-radio correlation for star-forming galaxies. We also do not observe any correlations between 1.4 GHz flux and R magnitude or redshift. We find that the radio powers of the host galaxies rise dramatically with increasing redshift, while the optical properties of the host galaxies show at most small changes. Assuming that the locally determined FIR-radio correlation holds at high redshifts, we estimate total FIR luminosities for the radio sources. We note that the FIR luminosity estimates for any radio-loud AGNs will be overestimates. Considering only the radio sources with quasar-like bolometric luminosities, we find a maximum ratio of candidate highly-obscured AGNs to X-ray-luminous (>10^42 ergs/s) sources of about 1.9. We use source-stacking analyses to measure the X-ray surface brightnesses of various X-ray and radio populations. We find the contributions to the 4-8 keV light from our candidate highly-obscured AGNs to be very small, and hence these sources are unable to account for the light that has been suggested may be missing at these energies.Comment: 20 pages, Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal (scheduled for 1 Jan 2007), color figures 2 and 3 can be found at http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~barger/radiopaper.htm

Rapid Communication: Assignment of Porcine Serotonin Receptor Subtype 2 Alpha and Endothelin-B Receptor to Chromosome 11 by Linkage Analysis

Genus and Species. Sus scrofa. Locus. Pig serotonin receptor subtype 2 alpha ( HTR2A) and pig endothelin-B receptor ( EDNRB) . Source and Description of Primers. Heterologous primers for EDNRB were obtained from Leslie Lyons through the CATS project (Lyons et al., 1997) and primers for HTR2A were designed from highly conserved human (M86841) and mouse sequences (X72222). Primers ( EDNRB forward: 5¢-AATTGTTTTAATTTGGGTGGTCTC- 3¢ and EDNRB reverse: 5¢-AGCCACCAGTCTTTAGCTGTC-3¢; HTR2A forward: 5¢-CCCTAGAGAAAAAGCTGCAGA-3¢ and HTR2A reverse: 5¢-GACACGGGCATGACAAGGA-3¢) were used to amplify pig homologous fragments by standard PCR. Pig genomic fragments amplified with heterologous primers were sequenced to confirm homology. An 81% similarity over 125 bp was found in the exon 3 region of the EDNRB gene between human and the new pig sequence-tagged sites ( STS) . A 100% sequence similarity was found for 115 bases of the exon 1 region of HTR2A gene between our STS and a pig HTR2A cDNA sequence (accession no. S78208). Pig-specific primers were designed from the pig STS obtained in this study ( HTR2A forward: 5¢- CCCTAGAGAAAAAGCTG CAGA-3¢ and HTR2A reverse: 5¢-GCAGAGGCCACCGGTA-3¢) to increase the PCR efficiency

Right coronary artery—Pulmonary artery arteriovenous fistula secondary to open heart surgery

A patient is described who underwent atrial septal defect repair at age 12 and presented 16 years later with angina. Coronary angiography revealed a right coronary artery to pulmonary artery fistula that had developed at the site of the previous thoracotomy. This is the first report of an acquired fistula of this type developing secondary to trauma associated with open heart surgery. Diagnosis, shunt quantification and treatment are discussed

Recognition of compact astrophysical objects

NASA's Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics and the Dept. of Physics and Astrophysics at the Univ. of Md. collaberated on a graduate level course with this title. This publication is an edited version of notes used as the course text. Topics include stellar evolution, pulsars, binary stars, X-ray signatures, gamma ray sources, and temporal analysis of X-ray data

Two types of bone necrosis in the middle triassic pistosaurus longaevus bones: The results of integrated studies

Avascular necrosis, diagnosed on the basis of either a specific pathological modification of the articular surfaces of bone or its radiologic appearance in vertebral centra, has been recognized in many Mesozoic marine reptiles as well as in present-day marine mammals. Its presence in the zoological and paleontologic record is usually associated with decompression syndrome, a disease that affects secondarily aquatic vertebrates that could dive. Bone necrosis can also be caused by infectious processes, but it differs in appearance from decompression syndrome-associated aseptic necrosis. Herein, we report evidence of septic necrosis in the proximal articular surface of the femur of a marine reptile, Pistosaurus longaevus, from the Middle Triassic of Poland and Germany. This is the oldest recognition of septic necrosis associated with septic arthritis in the fossil record so far, and the mineralogical composition of pathologically altered bone is described herein in detail. The occurrence of septic necrosis is contrasted with decompression syndrome-associated avascular necrosis, also described in Pistosaurus longaevus bone from Middle Triassic of Germany