Growth Potential of Mangrove Crab (Scylla Serrata) in Mantehage Island Waters, Bunaken National Park, North Sulawesi

Scylla serrata is one of the dominant muddy crabs caught in Mantehage Island coastal waters, North Sulawesi. The study was aim to determine the temporal distribution of S. serrata condition i based on carapace length - weight relationship and its condition factors. Data carapace width and weight of muddy crabs collected by enumerators from Oktober 2014 to April 2015. The results showed that b value of male (2.219 – 2.835) and female (1.264-2.352) were significantly different (P<0.05). Male and female crabs have a negative allometric growth pattern with b value of males tend to be larger than females. Range of values for K and Kn male crabs longer than females that male crabs tend to be fatter. Temporal distribution of this mangrove crab condition factors is assumed to be related with the reproductive cycle. The value is increasing since October to a peak season in January which estimated related to a peak of the muddy crabs spawning season in Mantehage Island coastal waters. Key words: growth potential, Mantehage Island coastal waters, Scylla serrata _____________________________________________________________________ 1Staf Pengajar Fakultas Perikanan dan Ilmu Kelautan UNSRAT A b s t r a k Scylla serrata merupakan salah satu jenis kepiting bakau yang dominan tertangkap di perairan Pulau Mantehage Sulawesi Utara. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui potensi pertumbuhan kepiting bakau ditinjau dari hubungan panjang karapas dengan berat. Data panjang karapas dan berat kepiting bakau dikumpulkan melalui nelayan setempat sebagai enumerator sejak Oktober hingga April 2015. Hasil menunjukkan nilai b antara kepiting jantan (2,219 – 2,835) dan betina (1,264 - 2,352) berbeda nyata (P<0,05). Keduanya memiliki pola pertumbuhan allometrik negatif dengan nilai b kepiting jantan cenderung lebih besar dibandingkan betina. Kisaran nilai K dan Kn menunjukkan kepiting jantan lebih panjang dibandingkan betina sehingga kepiting jantan cenderung lebih gemuk. Sebaran faktor kondisi kepiting bakau diduga terkait dengan siklus reproduksinya. Nilai faktor kondisi meningkat sejak bulan Oktober 2014 hingga puncaknya pada bulan Januari 2015yang diduga pada saat tersebut merupakan puncak musim pemijahan kepiting bakau di perairan P. Mantehage

A Giant Planet Around a Metal-poor Star of Extragalactic Origin

Stars in their late stage of evolution, such as Horizontal Branch stars, are still largely unexplored for planets. We report the detection of a planetary companion around HIP 13044, a very metal-poor star on the red Horizontal Branch, based on radial velocity observations with a high-resolution spectrograph at the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope. The star's periodic radial velocity variation of P=16.2 days caused by the planet can be distinguished from the periods of the stellar activity indicators. The minimum mass of the planet is 1.25 Jupiter masses and its orbital semi-major axis 0.116 AU. Because HIP 13044 belongs to a group of stars that have been accreted from a disrupted satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the planet most likely has an extragalactic origin.Comment: 32 pages, 9 Figure

Trophic networks improve the performance of microbial anodes treating wastewater

Microbial anodes represent a distinct ecological niche that is characterized mainly by the terminal electron acceptor, i.e., the anode potential, and the substrate, i.e., the electron source. Here, we determine the performance and the biofilm community of anode microbiomes while using substrates of increasing complexity (organic acids or organic acids and sugar or real domestic wastewater) to mimic different, practically relevant, trophic levels. α-Diversity values increased with substrate complexity. In addition, the higher abundance value of Deltaproteobacteria in the biofilms corresponds to higher reactor performance (i.e., COD removal, current density, and Coulombic efficiency). In reactors exploiting real wastewater, the diversity of the planktonic microorganisms was only little affected. Microbiome network analysis revealed two important clusters for reactor performance as well as performance-independent pathogen-containing clusters. Interestingly, Geobacter was not found to be integrated in the network underlining its outstanding individual ecological role in line with its importance for the efficiency of the electron harvest for all reactors. The microbiome analysis of different trophic levels and their temporal development from initial colonization to stable treatment demonstrate important principles for the implementation of microbial anodes for wastewater treatment

The visitor from an ancient galaxy: A planetary companion around an old, metal-poor red horizontal branch star

We report the detection of a planetary companion around HIP 13044, a metal-poor red horizontal branch star belonging to a stellar halo stream that results from the disruption of an ancient Milky Way satellite galaxy. The detection is based on radial velocity observations with FEROS at the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope. The periodic radial velocity variation of P=16.2 days can be distinguished from the periods of the stellar activity indicators. We computed a minimum planetary mass of 1.25 Jupiter masses and an orbital semimajor axis of 0.116 AU for the planet. This discovery is unique in three aspects: First, it is the first planet detection around a star with a metallicity much lower than few percent of the solar value; second, the planet host star resides in a stellar evolutionary stage that is still unexplored in the exoplanet surveys; third, the planetary system HIP 13044 most likely has an extragalactic origin in a disrupted former satellite of the Milky Way.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, submitted to the Proceedings of the 276th IAU Symposium "The Astrophysics of Planetary Systems

The Star-forming Region NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud with Hubble Space Telescope ACS Observations. II. Photometric Study of the Intermediate-Age Star Cluster BS 90

We present the results of our investigation of the intermediate-age star cluster BS 90, located in the vicinity of the HII region N 66 in the SMC, observed with HST/ACS. The high-resolution data provide a unique opportunity for a very detailed photometric study performed on one of the rare intermediate-age rich SMC clusters. The complete set of observations is centered on the association NGC 346 and contains almost 100,000 stars down to V ~28 mag. In this study we focus on the northern part of the region, which covers almost the whole stellar content of BS 90. We construct its stellar surface density profile and derive structural parameters. Isochrone fits on the CMD of the cluster results in an age of about 4.5 Gyr. The luminosity function is constructed and the present-day mass function of BS 90 has been obtained using the mass-luminosity relation, derived from the isochrone models. We found a slope between -1.30 and -0.95, comparable or somewhat shallower than a typical Salpeter IMF. Examination of the radial dependence of the mass function shows a steeper slope at larger radial distances, indicating mass segregation in the cluster. The derived half-mass relaxation time of 0.95 Gyr suggests that the cluster is mass segregated due to its dynamical evolution. From the isochrone model fits we derive a metallicity for BS 90 of [Fe/H]=-0.72, which adds an important point to the age-metallicity relation of the SMC. We discuss our findings on this relation in comparison to other SMC clusters.Comment: Accepted for Publication in ApJ, 12 pages emulateapj TeX style, 10 figure

Genomic and transcriptomic characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa small colony variants derived from a chronic infection model

Phenotypic change is a hallmark of bacterial adaptation during chronic infection. In the case of chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection in patients with cystic fibrosis, well-characterized phenotypic variants include mucoid and small colony variants (SCVs). It has previously been shown that SCVs can be reproducibly isolated from the murine lung following the establishment of chronic infection with mucoid P. aeruginosa strain NH57388A. Using a combination of single-molecule real-time (PacBio) and Illumina sequencing we identify a large genomic inversion in the SCV through recombination between homologous regions of two rRNA operons and an associated truncation of one of the 16S rRNA genes and suggest this may be the genetic switch for conversion to the SCV phenotype. This phenotypic conversion is associated with large-scale transcriptional changes distributed throughout the genome. This global rewiring of the cellular transcriptomic output results in changes to normally differentially regulated genes that modulate resistance to oxidative stress, central metabolism and virulence. These changes are of clinical relevance because the appearance of SCVs during chronic infection is associated with declining lung function

HUBUNGAN TGF-β1 DAN ESTROGEN DENGAN VOLUME PROSTAT PADA PASIEN BPH, PASIEN TUA NON BPH, DAN PASIEN MUDA

Objective: To determine the correlation of TGF-b1 and estrogen with prostate volume in BPH patients, old patients without BPH and young patients. Materials and methods: We enrolled 30 patients and allocated them into three groups. First group consists of BPH patients, second group consists of old male patients with more than 55 years of age, and third group consists of young male patients with less than 40 years of age. We analyzed the level of TGF-b1 and estrogen in these patients. Transrectal USG was used to measure the prostate volume. We analyzed the correlations of TGF-b1 and estrogen level with prostate volume. Results: We found a positive strong correlation between estrogen and prostate volume in the BPH patient group (p=0,021; r coeff=0,786). Other group showed no significant correlations. Conclusion: Estrogen plays an important role in BPH pathophysiology. Further research on the influence of estrogen in BPH patients is recommended

Higher media multi-tasking activity is associated with smaller gray-matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex

Media multitasking, or the concurrent consumption of multiple media forms, is increasingly prevalent in today’s society and has been associated with negative psychosocial and cognitive impacts. Individuals who engage in heavier media-multitasking are found to perform worse on cognitive control tasks and exhibit more socio-emotional difficulties. However, the neural processes associated with media multi-tasking remain unexplored. The present study investigated relationships between media multitasking activity and brain structure. Research has demonstrated that brain structure can be altered upon prolonged exposure to novel environments and experience. Thus, we expected differential engagements in media multitasking to correlate with brain structure variability. This was confirmed via Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) analyses: Individuals with higher Media Multitasking Index (MMI) scores had smaller gray matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Functional connectivity between this ACC region and the precuneus was negatively associated with MMI. Our findings suggest a possible structural correlate for the observed decreased cognitive control performance and socio-emotional regulation in heavy media-multitaskers. While the cross-sectional nature of our study does not allow us to specify the direction of causality, our results brought to light novel associations between individual media multitasking behaviors and ACC structure differences