1,085 research outputs found
Status of longtail tuna, Thunnus tonggol fishery along the Northwest coast of India
Longtail tuna, Thunnus tonggol, is a neritic species with continuous
distribution along the continent of Asia from Iran to mainland China (Yesaki,
1993). The average landings during the 1995-2002 period along the Indian coast
was about 5970 t of which 78% was contributed from the North-west region.
Although the species has so far been reported to be exploited marginally only,
since 1998 there has been a perceptible intensification of fishing activities mainly
due to technological advancements all along the Indian coast and especially so
along the North-west coast (Anon., 1996). Catches of T. tonggol which has
shown an increasing trend along the North-west coast since the early 90s peaked
during 2000 and subsequently showed a sudden decline with catches as low as
when the fishery was just developing during 1990-92 period
Stock assessment of mackerel in the Indian seas
Along both the coasts they start appearing in the catches when they are about two
months old. But, along the west coast they are fiilly recruited to the fishery at an age
of 6 months and along the east coast this happens at an age of 9 months. Bulk of the
catches from west coast is by large seines of small meshes where young ones are
liable to be caught and peak catches are from the size group of 140-149 mm. The
major gear along the east coast is gill net with larger mesh and peak catches are from
size group 190-199 mm. Along the west coast the estimated annual total mortality is
3.6. With an estimated M of 2.64 the fishing mortality F is 0.96 at an exploitation
rate of 0.27 and E _^ estimated is 0.70
Can the evolution of music be analyzed in a quantitative manner?
We propose a methodology to study music development by applying multivariate
statistics on composers characteristics. Seven representative composers were
considered in terms of eight main musical features. Grades were assigned to
each characteristic and their correlations were analyzed. A bootstrap method
was applied to simulate hundreds of artificial composers influenced by the
seven representatives chosen. Afterwards we quantify non-numeric relations like
dialectics, opposition and innovation. Composers differences on style and
technique were represented as geometrical distances in the feature space,
making it possible to quantify, for example, how much Bach and Stockhausen
differ from other composers or how much Beethoven influenced Brahms. In
addition, we compared the results with a prior investigation on philosophy.
Opposition, strong on philosophy, was not remarkable on music. Supporting an
observation already considered by music theorists, strong influences were
identified between composers by the quantification of dialectics, implying
inheritance and suggesting a stronger master-disciple evolution when compared
to the philosophy analysis.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, added references for sections 1 and 4.C, better
mathematical description on section 2. New values and interpretation, now
considering a bootstrap metho
Stock assessment of coastal tunas in the Indian seas
Tuna and billfish production from the Indian coastal waters, Lakshadweep and
Andaman and Nicobar islands during the period 1985-'99 averaged 40,204 t. The
contribution by E.affinis, Athazard, T.tonggol, K.pelamis and T.albacares (young
ones) were 18,5041,6,8521,3,093 t, 3,3921 and 2,2111 respectively. Drift gill net
was the major gear employed in the coastal tuna fishery. The length frequency data
collected on the above species during 1990-'98 at seven centres along the Indian
coast were analysed employing FiSAT programme to estimate their growth and
mortality parameters, exploitation rates and relative yield per recmit
Status of exploitation of coastal tunas in the Indian seas
Tuna and billfish production from Indian seas during the period 1985-'99 evinced an
increasing trend and the landings fluctuated between 24,287 t (1987) and
53,6621 (1992). The average annual production during the said period was 40,2041,
contributing to 3.6% of the total pelagic fish landings and 1.8% of the total marine
fish landings. On an average, 24% of the total tuna and billfish production during
1991-'99 was contributed by northwest coast, 2% by Andaman and Nicobar islands
and 14.9% by Lakshadweep. Among the maritime states, Kerala (36 %), Gujarat
(18.1%) Tamilnadu (11.6%), Maharashtra (5.9%), Kamataka (5%), Andhra Pradesh
(4.4 %) and Goa (2%) were the prime tuna producing states
Different genes interact with particulate matter and tobacco smoke exposure in affecting lung function decline in the general population
BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress related genes modify the effects of ambient air pollution or tobacco smoking on lung function decline. The impact of interactions might be substantial, but previous studies mostly focused on main effects of single genes. OBJECTIVES: We studied the interaction of both exposures with a broad set of oxidative-stress related candidate genes and pathways on lung function decline and contrasted interactions between exposures. METHODS: For 12679 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), change in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)), FEV(1) over forced vital capacity (FEV(1)/FVC), and mean forced expiratory flow between 25 and 75% of the FVC (FEF(25-75)) was regressed on interval exposure to particulate matter >10 microm in diameter (PM10) or packyears smoked (a), additive SNP effects (b), and interaction terms between (a) and (b) in 669 adults with GWAS data. Interaction p-values for 152 genes and 14 pathways were calculated by the adaptive rank truncation product (ARTP) method, and compared between exposures. Interaction effect sizes were contrasted for the strongest SNPs of nominally significant genes (p(interaction)>0.05). Replication was attempted for SNPs with MAF<10% in 3320 SAPALDIA participants without GWAS. RESULTS: On the SNP-level, rs2035268 in gene SNCA accelerated FEV(1)/FVC decline by 3.8% (p(interaction) = 2.5x10(-6)), and rs12190800 in PARK2 attenuated FEV1 decline by 95.1 ml p(interaction) = 9.7x10(-8)) over 11 years, while interacting with PM10. Genes and pathways nominally interacting with PM10 and packyears exposure differed substantially. Gene CRISP2 presented a significant interaction with PM10 (p(interaction) = 3.0x10(-4)) on FEV(1)/FVC decline. Pathway interactions were weak. Replications for the strongest SNPs in PARK2 and CRISP2 were not successful. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with a stratified response to increasing oxidative stress, different genes and pathways potentially mediate PM10 and tobac smoke effects on lung function decline. Ignoring environmental exposures would miss these patterns, but achieving sufficient sample size and comparability across study samples is challengin
Endotypes of difficult-to-control asthma in inner-city African American children
African Americans have higher rates of asthma prevalence, morbidity, and mortality in comparison with other racial groups. We sought to characterize endotypes of childhood asthma severity in African American patients in an inner-city pediatric asthma population. Baseline blood neutrophils, blood eosinophils, and 38 serum cytokine levels were measured in a sample of 235 asthmatic children (6–17 years) enrolled in the NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)-sponsored Asthma Phenotypes in the Inner City (APIC) study (ICAC (Inner City Asthma Consortium)-19). Cytokines were quantified using a MILLIPLEX panel and analyzed on a Luminex analyzer. Patients were classified as Easy-to-Control or Difficult-to-Control based on the required dose of controller medications over one year of prospective management. A multivariate variable selection procedure was used to select cytokines associated with Difficult-to-Control versus Easy-to-Control asthma, adjusting for age, sex, blood eosinophils, and blood neutrophils. In inner-city African American children, 12 cytokines were significant predictors of Difficult-to-Control asthma (n = 235). CXCL-1, IL-5, IL-8, and IL-17A were positively associated with Difficult-to-Control asthma, while IL-4 and IL-13 were positively associated with Easy-to-Control asthma. Using likelihood ratio testing, it was observed that in addition to blood eosinophils and neutrophils, serum cytokines improved the fit of the model. In an inner-city pediatric population, serum cytokines significantly contributed to the definition of Difficult-to-Control asthma endotypes in African American children. Mixed responses characterized by TH2 (IL-5) and TH17-associated cytokines were associated with Difficult-to-Control asthma. Collectively, these data may contribute to risk stratification of Difficult-to-Control asthma in the African American population
The fission yeast Rpb4 subunit of RNA polymerase II plays a specialized role in cell separation
RNA polymerase II is a complex of 12 subunits, Rpb1 to Rpb12, whose specific roles are only partly understood. Rpb4 is essential in mammals and fission yeast, but not in budding yeast. To learn more about the roles of Rpb4, we expressed the rpb4 gene under the control of regulatable promoters of different strength in fission yeast. We demonstrate that below a critical level of transcription, Rpb4 affects cellular growth proportional to its expression levels: cells expressing lower levels of rpb4 grew slower compared to cells expressing higher levels. Lowered rpb4 expression did not affect cell survival under several stress conditions, but it caused specific defects in cell separation similar to sep mutants. Microarray analysis revealed that lowered rpb4 expression causes a global reduction in gene expression, but the transcript levels of a distinct subset of genes were particularly responsive to changes in rpb4 expression. These genes show some overlap with those regulated by the Sep1-Ace2 transcriptional cascade required for cell separation. Most notably, the gene expression signature of cells with lowered rpb4 expression was highly similar to those of mcs6, pmh1, sep10 and sep15 mutants. Mcs6 and Pmh1 encode orthologs of metazoan TFIIH-associated cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-activating kinase (Cdk7-cyclin H-Mat1), while Sep10 and Sep15 encode mediator components. Our results suggest that Rpb4, along with some other general transcription factors, plays a specialized role in a transcriptional pathway that controls the cell cycle-regulated transcription of a specific subset of genes involved in cell division. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00438-006-0161-5 and is accessible for authorized users
A bibliography of parasites and diseases of marine and freshwater fishes of India
With the increasing demand for fish as human food, aquaculture both in freshwater
and salt water is rapidly developing over the world. In the developing countries,
fishes are being raised as food. In many countries fish farming is a very important
economic activity. The most recent branch, mariculture, has shown advances in
raising fishes in brackish, estuarine and bay waters, in which marine, anadromous and
catadromous fishes have successfully been grown and maintained
- …