Abundance and distribution of larval fishes and shrimps in the Laguna Madre, Texas : a hypersaline lagoon

To Texas Water Development BoardContract nos. IAC (88-89)1636 and (90-91)0751October 1990Tidal inlets connecting the Gulf of Mexico with estuarine waters are widely spaced and relatively narrow along the Texas coast. These inlets provide the sole route for ingress of larvae to the estuary for estuarine-dependent marine species and the egress of juveniles and sub-adults of these species back to the ocean. This study was an investigation of the abundance and distribution of ichthyoplankton of selected fishes and shrimps in an area where the opening and maintenance of a new tidal pass has been proposed in the Laguna Madre, a sub-tropical, hypersaline lagoon along the southern Texas coast. Surface and bottom ichthyoplankton samples were taken bimonthly in four zones in the Laguna Madre in areas which were directly influenced by tidal inlets from the Gulf of Mexico and areas isolated from such connections. Seasonal composition of the ichthyoplankton was similar to that reported from other Gulf of Mexico and southeastern United States estuaries with winter catches dominated by offshore spawners and summer catches dominated by inshore and estuarine spawners. The pelagic larvae of three species of estuarine spawners, bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli), spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), and black drum (Pogonias cromis), were common throughout the Laguna Madre at salinities up to 50°/00. Pelagic larvae of offshore spawners were abundant only in the area near the tidal inlet and only a few individuals were found dispersed throughout the lagoon. The majority of these species are distributed throughout the Laguna Madre as juveniles but the dispersion or advection of these species to areas not closely associated with tidal inlets occurs at development stages older than the pelagic larval stage. These data suggest that opening and maintaining a tidal inlet in the upper Laguna Madre would increase the opportunity for recruitment of larvae of offshore spawners into an area currently unoccupied by these life-history stages.Marine Scienc

Women's Work and European Fertility Patterns

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50872/1/95.pd

Will Einstein Have the Last Word on Gravity?

This is a whitepaper submitted to the 2010 Astronomy Decadal Review process, addressing the potential tests of gravity theory that could be made by observations of gravitational waves in the milliHertz frequency band by the proposed ESA-NASA gravitational wave observatory LISA. A key issue is that observations in this band of binary systems consisting of black holes offer very clean tests with high signal-to-noise ratios. Gravitational waves would probe nonlinear gravity and could reveal small corrections, such as extra long-range fields that arise in unified theories, deviations of the metric around massive black holes from the Kerr solution, massive gravitons, chiral effects, and effects of extra dimensions. The availability of strong signals from massive black hole binaries as well as complex signals from extreme mass-ratio binaries is unique to the milliHertz waveband and makes LISA a particularly sensitive probe of the validity of general relativity.Comment: Science White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Surve

Ocean Acidification: The Other CO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e Problem?

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), primarily from human fossil fuel combustion, reduces ocean pH and causes wholesale shifts in seawater carbonate chemistry. The process of ocean acidification is well documented in field data, and the rate will accelerate over this century unless future CO2 emissions are curbed dramatically. Acidification alters seawater chemical speciation and biogeochemical cycles of many elements and compounds. One well-known effect is the lowering of calcium carbonate saturation states, which impacts shell-forming marine organisms from plankton to benthic molluscs, echinoderms, and corals. Many calcifying species exhibit reduced calcification and growth rates in laboratory experiments under high-CO2 conditions. Ocean acidification also causes an increase in carbon fixation rates in some photosynthetic organisms (both calcifying and noncalcifying). The potential for marine organisms to adapt to increasing CO2 and broader implications for ocean ecosystems are not well known; both are high priorities for future research. Although ocean pH has varied in the geological past, paleo-events may be only imperfect analogs to current conditions. Republished with permission from 1 Ann. Rev. Mar. Sci. 169 (2009)

Food Habits and Dietary Overlap of Newly Settled Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) and Atlantic Croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) from Texas Seagrass Meadows

Food habits and dietary overlap of newly settled larval and juvenile red drum and Atlantic croaker were examined during the period when the two species co-occur in seagrass nurseries. A total of 274 red drum (4.00 - 19.99 mm SL) and 205 Atlantic croaker (8.00 - 17.99 mm SL) were used for this analysis. Of the red drum stomachs examined, 8.4% were empty while 28.8% of Atlantic croaker stomachs contained no food. Major prey items identified for both species were calanoid copepods, harpacticoid copepods and mysid shrimp across all size classes. Ontogenetic trophic niche shifts were detected for red drum and Atlantic croaker. Type and quantity of food ingested by red drum were similar across all stations (Aransas Bay Station: 1H, 2T and 3H) examined. Atlantic croaker ingested the same types of prey at all stations, but contained varying quantities of food throughout the study area. In general, high dietary overlap was observed between red drum and Atlantic croaker with most overlap values (Schoener’s index) exceeding 70%

Professional Decisions and Ethical Values in Medical and Law Students

The purpose of this project is to evaluate and compare the values used by medical and law students when dealing with ethical dilemmas in the professional practice of law and medicine. It is assumed that conflict between doctors and lawyers often arises out of the different values that members of each profession apply to similar dilemmas

Frailty degree and illness trajectories in older people towards the end-of-life:a prospective observational study

Objectives To assess the degree of frailty in older people with different advanced diseases and its relationship with end-of-life illness trajectories and survival.Methods Prospective, observational study, including all patients admitted to the Acute Geriatric Unit of the University Hospital of Vic (Spain) during 12 consecutive months (2014–2015), followed for up to 2 years. Participants were identified as end-of-life people (EOLp) using the NECPAL (NECesidades PALiativas, palliative care needs) tool and were classified according to their dominant illness trajectory. The Frail-VIG index (Valoración Integral Geriátrica, Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment) was used to quantify frailty degree, to calculate the relationship between frailty and mortality (Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves), and to assess the combined effect of frailty degree and illness trajectories on survival (Cox proportional hazards model). Survival curves were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier estimator with participants classified into four groups (ie, no frailty, mild frailty, moderate frailty and advanced frailty) and were compared using the log-rank test.Results Of the 590 persons with a mean (SD) age of 86.4 (5.6) years recruited, 260 (44.1%) were identified as EOLp, distributed into cancer (n=31, 11.9%), organ failure (n=79, 30.4%), dementia (n=86, 33.1%) and multimorbidity (n=64, 24.6%) trajectories. All 260 EOLp had some degree of frailty, mostly advanced frailty (n=184, 70.8%), regardless of the illness trajectory, and 220 (84.6%) died within 2 years. The area under the ROC curve (95% CI) after 2 years of follow-up for EOLp was 0.87 (0.84 to 0.92) with different patterns of survival decline in the different end-of-life trajectories (p<0.0001). Cox regression analyses showed that each additional deficit of the Frail-VIG index increased the risk of death by 61.5%, 30.1%, 29.6% and 12.9% in people with dementia, organ failure, multimorbidity and cancer, respectively (p<0.01 for all the coefficients).Conclusions All older people towards the end-of-life in this study were frail, mostly with advanced frailty. The degree of frailty is related to survival across the different illness trajectories despite the differing survival patterns among trajectories. Frailty indexes may be useful to assess end-of-life older people, regardless of their trajectory

Metastatic MTLn3 and non-metastatic MTC adenocarcinoma cells can be differentiated by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Cancer patients are known to be highly susceptible to Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa) infection, but it remains unknown whether alterations at the tumor cell level can contribute to infection. This study explored how cellular changes associated with tumor metastasis influence Pa infection using highly metastatic MTLn3 cells and non-metastatic MTC cells as cell culture models. MTLn3 cells were found to be more sensitive to Pa infection than MTC cells based on increased translocation of the type III secretion effector, ExoS, into MTLn3 cells. Subsequent studies found that higher levels of ExoS translocation into MTLn3 cells related to Pa entry and secretion of ExoS within MTLn3 cells, rather than conventional ExoS translocation by external Pa. ExoS includes both Rho GTPase activating protein (GAP) and ADP-ribosyltransferase (ADPRT) enzyme activities, and differences in MTLn3 and MTC cell responsiveness to ExoS were found to relate to the targeting of ExoS-GAP activity to Rho GTPases. MTLn3 cell migration is mediated by RhoA activation at the leading edge, and inhibition of RhoA activity decreased ExoS translocation into MTLn3 cells to levels similar to those of MTC cells. The ability of Pa to be internalized and transfer ExoS more efficiently in association with Rho activation during tumor metastasis confirms that alterations in cell migration that occur in conjunction with tumor metastasis contribute to Pa infection in cancer patients. This study also raises the possibility that Pa might serve as a biological tool for dissecting or detecting cellular alterations associated with tumor metastasis

NASA Light Emitting Diode Medical Applications from Deep Space to Deep Sea

This work is supported and managed through the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center-SBIR Program. LED-technology developed for NASA plant growth experiments in space shows promise for delivering light deep into tissues of the body to promote wound healing and human tissue growth. We present the results of LED-treatment of cells grown in culture and the effects of LEDs on patients’ chronic and acute wounds. LED-technology is also biologically optimal for photodynamic therapy of cancer and we discuss our successes using LEDs in conjunction with light-activated chemotherapeutic drugs