Use of remotely-derived bathymetry for modelling biomass in marine environments

The paper presents results on the influence of geometric attributes of satellite-derived raster bathymetric data, namely the General Bathymetric Charts of the Oceans, on spatial statistical modelling of marine biomass. In the initial experiment, both the resolution and projection of the raster dataset are taken into account. It was found that, independently of the equal-area projection chosen for the analysis, the calculated areas are very similar, and the differences between them are insignificant. Likewise, any variation in the raster resolution did not change the computed area. Although the differences were shown to be insignificant, for the subsequent analysis we selected the cylindrical equal area projection, as it implies rectangular spatial extent, along with the automatically derived resolution. Then, in the second experiment, we focused on demersal fish biomass data acquired from trawl samples taken from the western parts of ICES Sub-area VII, near the sea floor. The aforementioned investigation into processing bathymetric data allowed us to build various statistical models that account for a relationship between biomass, sea floor topography and geographic location. We fitted a set of generalised additive models and generalised additive mixed models to combinations of trawl data of the roundnose grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris) and bathymetry. Using standard statistical techniques—such as analysis of variance, Akaike information criterion, root mean squared error, mean absolute error and cross-validation—we compared the performance of the models and found that depth and latitude may serve as statistically significant explanatory variables for biomass of roundnose grenadier in the study area. However, the results should be interpreted with caution as sampling locations may have an impact on the biomass–depth relationship

Die tunesische Verfassung zwischen demokratischem Anspruch und Verfassungsrealität

Die einstige Euphorie auf eine Demokratisierung der Staaten des „Arabischen Frühlings“ ist nach den jüngsten Entwicklungen in Libyen oder Ägypten getrübt. Einzig Tunesien gilt nach wie vor als hoffnungsvoller Kandidat für eine erfolgreiche demokratische Konsolidierung. Verstärkt wird dieser Enthusiasmus durch die Verabschiedung der neuen Verfassung im Januar 2014, die erstmals und einzigartig im arabischen Kontext, Menschen-, Freiheits- und Grundrechte gewährt, sowie die Gleichstellung der Geschlechter sichert. Fraglich ist jedoch, ob die Ratifizierung einer –zumindest formal betrachtet – demokratischen Verfassung auch zur Entwicklung einer demokratischen politischen Gesellschaft führt, die für die Beseitigung autoritärer und hybrider Strukturen notwendig ist. Um also Aussagen zum demokratischen Potential der tunesischen Verfassung machen zu können, müssen sowohl die Verfassungsrealität als auch ihre gesellschaftlichen und politischen Bedingungen hinterfragt werden

Squaring an Open Circle: Trends and Opportunities in Open Access Publishing, Promotion, and Impact

This poster will examine the trends surrounding scholarly communications amongst faculty authors at UTHSC to determine prevalence of Open Access (OA) publishing in order to formulate a strategy for the library to reallocate services and funds to meet the changing needs of the Library’s users. Using bibliographic analysis and citation analysis for the prior 10 years (2009-2018), we hope to discover the following: the trend with respect to OA publishing amongst UTHSC faculty including the difference between Gold OA and Green OA; the specific journals in which UTHSC faculty choose to publish; and, the impact of OA publishing versus traditional models with respect to citations. Using filters built into the Web of Science database, the authors were able to isolate OA articles authored by UTHSC affiliated faculty. Citations in which a UTHSC affiliated author is listed as the corresponding author were included in the OA results. The resulting citations were grouped by year of publication and Gold/Green OA to determine potential growth trends. Further, Gold OA results were filtered by journal title to determine in which journals faculty were publishing. Finally, the OA output was compared with non-OA results from the same period to determine what, if any, impact OA had on impact of the scholarship with respect to citations

Short communication: Molecular genetic characterization of ovine αS1-casein allele H caused by alternative splicing

Abstract Sequencing of ovine CSN1S1*H cDNA showed an absence of exon 8 in comparison with GenBank sequences; the absence was confirmed by protein sequencing. We demonstrated that this allelic aberration is the result of a deletion of 4 nucleotides, the last 3 of exon 8 and the first 1 of intron 8, which are replaced by an insertion of 13 nucleotides in the DNA sequence. The insertion is a precise duplication of a part of the adjacent intronic sequence of CSN1S1*C″ . These sequence differences result in an inactivation of the splice donor sequence distal to exon 8, leading to upstream exon skipping during the serial splice reactions of the ovine CSN1S1*H pre-mRNA, and may affect the specific casein expression as well as protein characteristics

The Relationship between Just World Beliefs and Life Satisfaction

An important and often unexplored factor shaping life satisfaction is one’s perception of the world as a “just” place. The “just world hypothesis” is predicated on the idea that the world works as a place where people get what they merit, an idea that often serves as a means for people to rationalize injustices. The research addressing just world beliefs has expanded into a four-factor model that categorizes just world beliefs for self and others into subcategories of distributive and procedural justice. Distributive justice involves evaluations of the fairness of outcomes, allocations, or distribution of resources, while procedural concerns evaluations of the fairness of decision processes, rules, or interpersonal treatment. This study explored the relationship between the four just world beliefs subscales and overall satisfaction with life and examined their associations with demographic variables including ethnicity, age, gender, religion, and social class. The relationships of demographic factors with justice beliefs and life satisfaction generally yielded very small effect sizes. However, respondents who identified themselves as middle and upper class reported higher levels of life satisfaction than those who identified themselves as lower class, with a medium effect size. Consistent with the results of earlier research, regressing life satisfaction on the four justice beliefs subscales indicated that the two self-subscales (distributive and procedural) were significantly predictive of life satisfaction, but the two other subscales (distributive and procedural) were not

Effectiveness of natural honey application on oral mucositis among patients undergoing radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy

A study to evaluate the effectiveness of natural honey application on oral mucositis among patients undergoing radiation therapy with or without Chemotherapy in selected hospital , kanyakumari district. Quasi experimental, pre-test post-test control group design was adopted for this study. purposive sampling technique was used to select the samples. Out of 60 samples, 30 samples were in study group and 30 samples were in the control group. The WHO Oral Mucositis Grading Scale was used to screen the oral mucositis in study and control group. Pre assessment was done on first day and post assessment was done on seventh day . The findings reveals that, in study group during pre assessment, among 30 samples. The demographic variables in control group 10(33.33%) of them belongs to the age group between 51-60 years,16(53.33%) of them were males, 18(60%)of them were belongs to rural areas , 16 (53.33%) of them were Hindu religion, Marital status 30(100%)were married,14(46.67%) were primary education ,11(36.67%) were self worker, 30 (100%) were non -vegetarian 13(43.33%) had 13-24 months duration of illness,13(43.33%)belongs to 0-2 times of exposure to radiation therapy,5(16.67%) had undergone the 6-8 times of exposure to radiation therapy. During pre assessment, in study group ,26(87%) had moderate oral mucositis and 4(13.33%) had severe oral mucositis. In control group, 27(90%) had moderate oral mucositis, 3(10%) had severe oral mucositis. There was no significant difference in the pre assessment and post assessment level of oral mucositis in study and control group at 0.05 significant. There was a significant difference between the post assessment level of oral mucositis in study group and control group . The study represents the natural honey application is efficient with the ‘t’ value level of 2.36 at 0.05 significant . Hence the researcher concluded as per the study that, oral mucositis can be reduced by natural honey application . This study statistically proved the natural honey application is effective on oral mucositis among patient undergoing radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy

Kinetic Predictions Concerning the Long-Term Stability of TKX-50 and Other Common Explosives Using the NETZSCH Kinetics Neo Software

Explosives are used in both military and civilian applications all over the world. Sufficient longevity and good thermal stability are therefore essential for safe handling and safe storage of energetic materials. In this work, five well-known compounds, TKX-50, RDX, HMX, CL-20 and PETN, were investigated by means of different kinetic models, in order to make predictions about their long-term stability. For this purpose, the compounds were synthesized according to literature-known procedures and thermogravimetric (TG) measurements were performed. The TG plots were analyzed using the Ozawa-Flynn-Wall, Friedman and ASTM E698 kinetic models with the NETZSCH Kinetics Neo software and the activation energy and isothermal long-term stability were determined. Moreover, various climatic predictions of different countries were made

Natural variability in a stable, 1000-yr global coupled climate-carbon cycle simulation

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Climate 19 (2006): 3033–3054, doi:10.1175/JCLI3783.1.A new 3D global coupled carbon–climate model is presented in the framework of the Community Climate System Model (CSM-1.4). The biogeochemical module includes explicit land water–carbon coupling, dynamic carbon allocation to leaf, root, and wood, prognostic leaf phenology, multiple soil and detrital carbon pools, oceanic iron limitation, a full ocean iron cycle, and 3D atmospheric CO2 transport. A sequential spinup strategy is utilized to minimize the coupling shock and drifts in land and ocean carbon inventories. A stable, 1000-yr control simulation [global annual mean surface temperature ±0.10 K and atmospheric CO2 ± 1.2 ppm (1σ)] is presented with no flux adjustment in either physics or biogeochemistry. The control simulation compares reasonably well against observations for key annual mean and seasonal carbon cycle metrics; regional biases in coupled model physics, however, propagate clearly into biogeochemical error patterns. Simulated interannual-to-centennial variability in atmospheric CO2 is dominated by terrestrial carbon flux variability, ±0.69 Pg C yr−1 (1σ global net annual mean), which in turn reflects primarily regional changes in net primary production modulated by moisture stress. Power spectra of global CO2 fluxes are white on time scales beyond a few years, and thus most of the variance is concentrated at high frequencies (time scale 20 yr), global net ocean CO2 flux is strongly anticorrelated (0.7–0.95) with the net CO2 flux from land; the ocean tends to damp (20%–25%) slow variations in atmospheric CO2 generated by the terrestrial biosphere. The intrinsic, unforced natural variability in land and ocean carbon storage is the “noise” that complicates the detection and mechanistic attribution of contemporary anthropogenic carbon sinks.This work was supported by NCAR, NSF ATM-9987457, NASA EOS-IDS Grant NAG5-9514, NASA Carbon Cycle Program Grant NAG5-11200, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory LDRD, and the WHOI Ocean and Climate Change Institute

Mapping of exciton-exciton annihilation in a molecular dimer via fifth-order femtosecond two-dimensional spectroscopy

We present a theoretical study on exciton–exciton annihilation (EEA) in a molecular dimer. This process is monitored using a fifth-order coherent two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy as was recently proposed by Dostál et al. [Nat. Commun. 9, 2466 (2018)]. Using an electronic three-level system for each monomer, we analyze the different paths which contribute to the 2D spectrum. The spectrum is determined by two entangled relaxation processes, namely, the EEA and the direct relaxation of higher lying excited states. It is shown that the change of the spectrum as a function of a pulse delay can be linked directly to the presence of the EEA process