Stock-catch analysis of carp recreational fisheries in Czech reservoirs: Insights into fish survival, and impact of extreme events

In culture-based fisheries, managers strive for high stocking efficiency, the ratio between the total weight of caught and stocked fish. Here we present a new time series approach to examine the dependence of reported anglers. catches on stocking and external events, using data on carp ('Cyprinus carpio' L.) from 14 reservoirs in the Czech Republic. Average stocking efficiency varied between 0.25 and 2.2, with values close to unity in most reservoirs. The lowest efficiencies occurred in three reservoirs receiving cold hypoxic water from a large upstream reservoir, while the highest efficiencis were found in two shallow, highly productive reservoirs. Analyses further indicate that stocked carp are typically caught during the year of release or the year after; but also that the mean time lag- between stocking and capture increases with reservoir area. External events can be important: major floods in the years 2002 and 2006 were in many cases followed by large, up to 10-fold, increases in catches in subsequent years; we attribute the surplus catch to carp washed down from upstream aquaculture and river stretches. In contrast, the "Velvet REvolution" (demise of the communist regime in 1989) had no discernible effect on catches in subsequent years. In conclusion, the proposed method can simultaneously estimate the likely mean survival time of stocked carp and identify the impact of major environmental and societal events on recreational fisheries. The approach thus sheds light on the performance of current stocking practices at individual reservoirs, and could be used to monitor and improve stocking strategies and management of culture-based recreational fisheries

TARGET: A Digitizing And Trigger ASIC For The Cherenkov Telescope Array

The future ground-based gamma-ray observatory Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will feature multiple types of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, each with thousands of pixels. To be affordable, camera concepts for these telescopes have to feature low cost per channel and at the same time meet the requirements for CTA in order to achieve the desired scientific goals. We present the concept of the TeV Array Readout Electronics with GSa/s sampling and Event Trigger (TARGET) Application Specific Circuit (ASIC), envisaged to be used in the cameras of various CTA telescopes, e.g. the Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope (GCT), a proposed 2-Mirror Small-Sized Telescope, and the Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (SCT), a proposed Medium-Sized Telescope. In the latest version of this readout concept the sampling and trigger parts are split into dedicated ASICs, TARGET C and T5TEA, both providing 16 parallel input channels. TARGET C features a tunable sampling rate (usually 1 GSa/s), a 16k sample deep buffer for each channel and on-demand digitization and transmission of waveforms with typical spans of ~100 ns. The trigger ASIC, T5TEA, provides 4 low voltage differential signal (LVDS) trigger outputs and can generate a pedestal voltage independently for each channel. Trigger signals are generated by T5TEA based on the analog sum of the input in four independent groups of four adjacent channels and compared to a threshold set by the user. Thus, T5TEA generates four LVDS trigger outputs, as well as 16 pedestal voltages fed to TARGET C independently for each channel. We show preliminary results of the characterization and testing of TARGET C and T5TEA.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Gamma2016

The helicase Ded1p controls use of near-cognate translation initiation codons in 5' UTRs.

The conserved and essential DEAD-box RNA helicase Ded1p from yeast and its mammalian orthologue DDX3 are critical for the initiation of translation1. Mutations in DDX3 are linked to tumorigenesis2-4 and intellectual disability5, and the enzyme is targeted by a range of viruses6. How Ded1p and its orthologues engage RNAs during the initiation of translation is unknown. Here we show, by integrating transcriptome-wide analyses of translation, RNA structure and Ded1p-RNA binding, that the effects of Ded1p on the initiation of translation are connected to near-cognate initiation codons in 5' untranslated regions. Ded1p associates with the translation pre-initiation complex at the mRNA entry channel and repressing the activity of Ded1p leads to the accumulation of RNA structure in 5' untranslated regions, the initiation of translation from near-cognate start codons immediately upstream of these structures and decreased protein synthesis from the corresponding main open reading frames. The data reveal a program for the regulation of translation that links Ded1p, the activation of near-cognate start codons and mRNA structure. This program has a role in meiosis, in which a marked decrease in the levels of Ded1p is accompanied by the activation of the alternative translation initiation sites that are seen when the activity of Ded1p is repressed. Our observations indicate that Ded1p affects translation initiation by controlling the use of near-cognate initiation codons that are proximal to mRNA structure in 5' untranslated regions

Principais usos da madeira de reflorestamento.

O plantio de espécies florestais de rápido crescimento em propriedades rurais traz uma série de benefícios indiretos,tais como a ocupação de solos não agricultáveis,proteção de nascentes e cursos d'água,recuperação do solo,entre outros.Contudo,a cultura da floresta é também uma atividade econômica,tal como uma cultura agrícola tradicional

Target of Opportunity observations of flaring blazars with H.E.S.S. \

Blazars are the most common class of TeV extragalactic emitters. In the framework of the AGN unified model, they are understood as AGNs with a relativistic jet pointing close the line of sight. They are characterized by extreme variability, observed to be as fast as minutes. These flares are usually observed at multiple wavelengths and their study require fast reaction and coordination among multiwavelength observatories. An important part of blazars observations with the H.E.S.S. array of Cherenkov telescopes is thus in the form of Target of Opportunity (ToO) observations. In this contribution the H.E.S.S. blazar ToO program is presented, with a focus on recent results.Comment: to appear in the proceedings of the ICRC 2023 Conferenc

The NuSTAR view of the non-thermal emission from PSR J0437-4715

We present a hard X-ray Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observation of PSR J0437−4715, the nearest millisecond pulsar. The known pulsations at the apparent pulse period ∼5.76ms are observed with a significance of 3.7σ, at energies up to 20 keV above which the NuSTAR background dominates. We measure a photon index Γ = 1.50 ± 0.25 (90 per cent confidence) for the power-law fit to the non-thermal emission. It had been shown that spectral models with two or three thermal components fit the XMM–Newton spectrum of PSR J0437−4715, depending on the slope of the power-law component, and the amount of absorption of soft X-rays. The new constraint on the high-energy emission provided by NuSTAR removes ambiguities regarding the thermal components of the emission below 3keV. We performed a simultaneous spectral analysis of the XMM–Newton and NuSTAR data to confirm that three thermal components and a power law are required to fit the 0.3–20 keV emission of PSR J0437−4715. Adding a ROSAT-PSPC spectrum further confirmed this result and allowed us to better constrain the temperatures of the three thermal components. A phase-resolved analysis of the NuSTAR data revealed no significant change in the photon index of the high-energy emission. This NuSTAR observation provides further impetus for future observations with the NICER mission (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer) whose sensitivity will provide much stricter constraints on the equation of state of nuclear matter by combining model fits to the pulsar's phase-folded light curve with the pulsar's well-defined mass and distance from radio timing observations

Environmental Enrichment Mitigates Cognitive Deficits in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease

Epidemiological studies suggest that individuals with greater education or more cognitively demanding occupations have diminished risk of developing dementia. We wanted to test whether this effect could be recapitulated in rodents using environmental enrichment, a paradigm well documented to attenuate behavioral deficits induced by various pathological insults. Here, we demonstrate that learning and memory deficits observed in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease can be ameliorated by enrichment. Female transgenic mice overexpressing amyloid precursor protein and/or presenilin-1 and nontransgenic controls were placed into enriched or standard cages at 2 months of age and tested for cognitive behavior after 6 months of differential housing. Enrichment significantly improved performance of all genotypes in the radial water maze and in the classic and repeated-reversal versions of the Morris water maze. However, enrichment did not benefit all genotypes equally. Mice overproducing amyloid-β (Aβ), particularly those with amyloid deposits, showed weaker memory for the platform location in the classic Morris water maze and learned new platform positions in the repeated-reversals task less quickly than their nontransgenic cagemates. Nonetheless, enrichment normalized the performance of Aβ-overproducing mice to the level of standard-housed nontransgenic mice. Moreover, this functional preservation occurred despite increased neuritic plaque burden in the hippocampus of double-transgenic animals and elevated steady-state Aβ levels, because both endogenous and transgene-derived Aβ are increased in enriched animals. These results demonstrate that the generation of Aβ in vivo and its impact on the function of the nervous system can be strongly modulated by environmental factors

The helicase HAGE prevents interferon-a-induced PML expression in ABCB5+ malignant melanoma-initiating cells by promoting the expression of SOCS1

The tumour suppressor PML (promyelocytic leukaemia protein) regulates several cellular pathways involving cell growth, apoptosis, differentiation and senescence. PML also has an important role in the regulation of stem cell proliferation and differentiation. Here, we show the involvement of the helicase HAGE in the transcriptional repression of PML expression in ABCB5 + malignant melanoma-initiating cells (ABCB5 + MMICs), a population of cancer stem cells which are responsible for melanoma growth, progression and resistance to drug-based therapy. HAGE prevents PML gene expression by inhibiting the activation of the JAK-STAT (janus kinase-signal transducers and activators of transcription) pathway in a mechanism which implicates the suppressor of cytokine signalling 1 (SOCS1). Knockdown of HAGE led to a significant decrease in SOCS1 protein expression, activation of the JAK-STAT signalling cascade and a consequent increase of PML expression. To confirm that the reduction in SOCS1 expression was dependent on the HAGE helicase activity, we showed that SOCS1, effectively silenced by small interfering RNA, could be rescued by re-introduction of HAGE into cells lacking HAGE. Furthermore, we provide a mechanism by which HAGE promotes SOCS1 mRNA unwinding and protein expression in vitro

Detection of variable VHE gamma-ray emission from the extra-galactic gamma-ray binary LMC P3

Context. Recently, the high-energy (HE, 0.1-100 GeV) $\gamma$-ray emission from the object LMC P3 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) has been discovered to be modulated with a 10.3-day period, making it the first extra-galactic $\gamma$-ray binary. Aims. This work aims at the detection of very-high-energy (VHE, >100 GeV) $\gamma$-ray emission and the search for modulation of the VHE signal with the orbital period of the binary system. Methods. LMC P3 has been observed with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.); the acceptance-corrected exposure time is 100 h. The data set has been folded with the known orbital period of the system in order to test for variability of the emission. Energy spectra are obtained for the orbit-averaged data set, and for the orbital phase bin around the VHE maximum. Results. VHE $\gamma$-ray emission is detected with a statistical significance of 6.4 $\sigma$. The data clearly show variability which is phase-locked to the orbital period of the system. Periodicity cannot be deduced from the H.E.S.S. data set alone. The orbit-averaged luminosity in the $1-10$ TeV energy range is $(1.4 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{35}$ erg/s. A luminosity of $(5 \pm 1) \times 10^{35}$ erg/s is reached during 20% of the orbit. HE and VHE $\gamma$-ray emissions are anti-correlated. LMC P3 is the most luminous $\gamma$-ray binary known so far.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&

Hyperglycemia modulates extracellular amyloid-β concentrations and neuronal activity in vivo

Epidemiological studies show that patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and individuals with a diabetes-independent elevation in blood glucose have an increased risk for developing dementia, specifically dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These observations suggest that abnormal glucose metabolism likely plays a role in some aspects of AD pathogenesis, leading us to investigate the link between aberrant glucose metabolism, T2DM, and AD in murine models. Here, we combined two techniques — glucose clamps and in vivo microdialysis — as a means to dynamically modulate blood glucose levels in awake, freely moving mice while measuring real-time changes in amyloid-β (Aβ), glucose, and lactate within the hippocampal interstitial fluid (ISF). In a murine model of AD, induction of acute hyperglycemia in young animals increased ISF Aβ production and ISF lactate, which serves as a marker of neuronal activity. These effects were exacerbated in aged AD mice with marked Aβ plaque pathology. Inward rectifying, ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channels mediated the response to elevated glucose levels, as pharmacological manipulation of K(ATP) channels in the hippocampus altered both ISF Aβ levels and neuronal activity. Taken together, these results suggest that K(ATP) channel activation mediates the response of hippocampal neurons to hyperglycemia by coupling metabolism with neuronal activity and ISF Aβ levels