Ontogenetic Variation in Sciaenid Otolith Morphometry with Fish Size from the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Sciaenids are a diverse family of coastal fishes and their fisheries are an important industry in the United States. In the northern Gulf of Mexico this industry is dominated by six species, specifically, red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), black drum (Pogonias cromis), spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), sand seatrout (C. arenarius), Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus), and spot (Leiostomus xathurus). Sagittal otoliths of all species were evaluated for changes in size and shape in relation to changes in fish total length and age across a variety of seasons and habitats. Evaluation of otolith morphology was done through computer-aided image analysis, specifically the R package ShapeR, and conventional shape descriptors. Results showed there were strong ontogenetic changes in otolith size and shape in all species. Otolith length and width were among the best predictors of fish total length in all species. Furthermore, otolith size metrics (i.e., otolith length, width, perimeter, area and mass) were used to determine the fish species with high accuracy (95.2%). Otolith shape was not a great predictor of fish total length nor species identification, as the development of protuberances on the surface of the otoliths over the lives of the fishes induced a wide range of shape complexities. The results provide a preliminary framework for using otolith morphology to evaluate the fish size and age in sciaenids and how the environment impacts their otolith morphology. This work is the first of its kind to be conducted on sciaenids in the northern Gulf of Mexico and improves upon our biologic and ecologic knowledge of these socioeconomically important fishes

The Science Case for an Extended Spitzer Mission

Although the final observations of the Spitzer Warm Mission are currently scheduled for March 2019, it can continue operations through the end of the decade with no loss of photometric precision. As we will show, there is a strong science case for extending the current Warm Mission to December 2020. Spitzer has already made major impacts in the fields of exoplanets (including microlensing events), characterizing near Earth objects, enhancing our knowledge of nearby stars and brown dwarfs, understanding the properties and structure of our Milky Way galaxy, and deep wide-field extragalactic surveys to study galaxy birth and evolution. By extending Spitzer through 2020, it can continue to make ground-breaking discoveries in those fields, and provide crucial support to the NASA flagship missions JWST and WFIRST, as well as the upcoming TESS mission, and it will complement ground-based observations by LSST and the new large telescopes of the next decade. This scientific program addresses NASA's Science Mission Directive's objectives in astrophysics, which include discovering how the universe works, exploring how it began and evolved, and searching for life on planets around other stars.Comment: 75 pages. See page 3 for Table of Contents and page 4 for Executive Summar

Plasmid-Cured Chlamydia caviae Activates TLR2-Dependent Signaling and Retains Virulence in the Guinea Pig Model of Genital Tract Infection

Loss of the conserved “cryptic” plasmid from C. trachomatis and C. muridarum is pleiotropic, resulting in reduced innate inflammatory activation via TLR2, glycogen accumulation and infectivity. The more genetically distant C. caviae GPIC is a natural pathogen of guinea pigs and induces upper genital tract pathology when inoculated intravaginally, modeling human disease. To examine the contribution of pCpGP1 to C. caviae pathogenesis, a cured derivative of GPIC, strain CC13, was derived and evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Transcriptional profiling of CC13 revealed only partial conservation of previously identified plasmid-responsive chromosomal loci (PRCL) in C. caviae. However, 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) treatment of GPIC and CC13 resulted in reduced transcription of all identified PRCL, including glgA, indicating the presence of a plasmid-independent glucose response in this species. In contrast to plasmid-cured C. muridarum and C. trachomatis, plasmid-cured C. caviae strain CC13 signaled via TLR2 in vitro and elicited cytokine production in vivo similar to wild-type C. caviae. Furthermore, inflammatory pathology induced by infection of guinea pigs with CC13 was similar to that induced by GPIC, although we observed more rapid resolution of CC13 infection in estrogen-treated guinea pigs. These data indicate that either the plasmid is not involved in expression or regulation of virulence in C. caviae or that redundant effectors prevent these phenotypic changes from being observed in C. caviae plasmid-cured strains

An interlaboratory study of TEX86 and BIT analysis using high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 10 (2009): Q03012, doi:10.1029/2008GC002221.Recently, two new proxies based on the distribution of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) were proposed, i.e., the TEX86 proxy for sea surface temperature reconstructions and the BIT index for reconstructing soil organic matter input to the ocean. In this study, fifteen laboratories participated in a round robin study of two sediment extracts with a range of TEX86 and BIT values to test the analytical reproducibility and repeatability in analyzing these proxies. For TEX86 the repeatability, indicating intra-laboratory variation, was 0.028 and 0.017 for the two sediment extracts or ±1–2°C when translated to temperature. The reproducibility, indicating among-laboratory variation, of TEX86 measurements was substantially higher, i.e., 0.050 and 0.067 or ±3–4°C when translated to temperature. The latter values are higher than those obtained in round robin studies of Mg/Ca and U37 k′ paleothermometers, suggesting the need to primarily improve compatibility between labs. The repeatability of BIT measurements for the sediment with substantial amounts of soil organic matter input was relatively small, 0.029, but reproducibility was large, 0.410. This large variance could not be attributed to specific equipment used or a particular data treatment. We suggest that this may be caused by the large difference in the molecular weight in the GDGTs used in the BIT index, i.e., crenarchaeol versus the branched GDGTs. Potentially, this difference gives rise to variable responses in the different mass spectrometers used. Calibration using authentic standards is needed to establish compatibility between labs performing BIT measurements

Shifting boundaries between the normal and the pathological:the case of mild intellectual disability

When disorders fade into normality, how can the threshold between normality and disorder be determined? In considering mild intellectual disability, I argue that economic factors partly determine thresholds. We tend to assume that the relationship between disorder, need and services is such that: first, a cut-off point between the disordered and the normal is determined; second, a needy population is identified; and third, resources are found (or at least should be found) to meet this need. However, the changing definitions of intellectual disability can best be understood if we think of this happening in reverse. That is, first, certain resources are thought obtainable, and then a cut-off point for disorder is selected which supplies an appropriately sized ‘needy population’

Collectively Improving Our Teaching: Attempting Biology Department–wide Professional Development in Scientific Teaching

Many efforts to improve science teaching in higher education focus on a few faculty members at an institution at a time, with limited published evidence on attempts to engage faculty across entire departments. We created a long-term, department-wide collaborative professional development program, Biology Faculty Explorations in Scientific Teaching (Biology FEST). Across 3 years of Biology FEST, 89% of the department's faculty completed a weeklong scientific teaching institute, and 83% of eligible instructors participated in additional semester-long follow-up programs. A semester after institute completion, the majority of Biology FEST alumni reported adding active learning to their courses. These instructor self-reports were corroborated by audio analysis of classroom noise and surveys of students in biology courses on the frequency of active-learning techniques used in classes taught by Biology FEST alumni and nonalumni. Three years after Biology FEST launched, faculty participants overwhelmingly reported that their teaching was positively affected. Unexpectedly, most respondents also believed that they had improved relationships with departmental colleagues and felt a greater sense of belonging to the department. Overall, our results indicate that biology department-wide collaborative efforts to develop scientific teaching skills can indeed attract large numbers of faculty, spark widespread change in teaching practices, and improve departmental relations

First Place: Conservation Category

For many, shipwrecks spark an internal curiosity. How did it get here? What was the fate of the crew? Where was it headed? These questions, and others, may come to us as we gaze and wonder upon these once grandeur vessels. However, questions that may not readily come to mind is how these wreckages are impacting the surrounding environment. Are dangerous chemicals leeching in the ground and water? Is the vessel disturbing nesting or foraging sites of local fauna? Has human attraction to the site caused behavioral changes in the local fauna? I submitted this photo under conservation because while a crumbling ship may seem, at face value, relatively harmless to the environment, the real impact it has on local flora and fauna may be greater than we realize.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_shuttershark_2020/1111/thumbnail.jp

First Place: In Motion Category

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_shuttershark_2020/1118/thumbnail.jp

Second Place: Tiny World Category

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_shuttershark_2020/1115/thumbnail.jp

Using Otolith Morphometrics to Estimate the Ages of Commercially-Valuable Sciaenid Fishes

Sciaenids are a diverse family of coastal fishes and their fisheries are an important industry in the United States. However, our limited knowledge of age structure for some species inhibits the sustainable utilization of these socioeconomically important fish stocks. Fishery managers use a stocks age structure to develop appropriate management plans that maximize yearly harvests while keeping the fishery sustainable. Teleost fish can be aged by counting annuli in scales, vertebrae, and otoliths, or, potentially, otolith morphology. This study aims to develop and test morphometric age models on six species of commercially valuable sciaenids. Specifically, red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), black drum (Pogonias cromis), spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), sand seatrout (Cynoscion arenarius), Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus), and spot (Leiostomus xathurus). Digital measurements of photographed sagittal otoliths will be used to determine otolith morphology. Subsequently, left otoliths will be sectioned to reveal concentric growth rings (annuli) that will be counted to age individuals. These two approaches will be compared using computer software to develop models to estimate age by analyzing external otolith morphology. This technique may provide a valuable alternative to traditional time-consuming aging methods