Effects of bottom trawling on fish foraging and feeding

The effects of bottom trawling on benthic invertebrates include reductions of biomass, diversity and body size. These changes may negatively affect prey availability for demersal fishes, potentially leading to reduced food intake, body condition and yield of fishes in chronically trawled areas. Here, the effect of trawling on the prey availability and diet of two commercially important flatfish species, plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) and dab (Limanda limanda), was investigated over a trawling intensity gradient in the Irish Sea. Previous work in this area has shown that trawling negatively affects the condition of plaice but not of dab. This study showed that reductions in local prey availability did not result in reduced feeding of fish. As trawling frequency increased, both fish and prey biomass declined, such that the ratio of fish to prey remained unchanged. Consequently, even at frequently trawled sites with low prey biomass, both plaice and dab maintained constant levels of stomach fullness and gut energy contents. However, dietary shifts in plaice towards energy-poor prey items were evident when prey species were analysed individually. This, together with a potential decrease in foraging efficiency due to low prey densities, was seen as the most plausible cause for the reduced body condition observed. Understanding the relationship between trawling, benthic impacts, fish foraging and resultant body condition is an important step in designing successful mitigation measures for future management strategies in bottom trawl fisheries

Mid-Miocene cooling and the extinction of tundra in continental Antarctica

A major obstacle in understanding the evolution of Cenozoic climate has been the lack of well dated terrestrial evidence from high-latitude, glaciated regions. Here, we report the discovery of exceptionally well preserved fossils of lacustrine and terrestrial organisms from the McMurdo Dry Valleys sector of the Transantarctic Mountains for which we have established a precise radiometric chronology. The fossils, which include diatoms, palynomorphs, mosses, ostracodes, and insects, represent the last vestige of a tundra community that inhabited the mountains before stepped cooling that first brought a full polar climate to Antarctica. Paleoecological analyses, 40Ar/39Ar analyses of associated ash fall, and climate inferences from glaciological modeling together suggest that mean summer temperatures in the region cooled by at least 8°C between 14.07 ± 0.05 Ma and 13.85 ± 0.03 Ma. These results provide novel constraints for the timing and amplitude of middle-Miocene cooling in Antarctica and reveal the ecological legacy of this global climate transition

Biophysical assessment of reefs in Keppel Bay: a baseline study (April 2007)

The Keppel Islands are a group of 16 continental islands lying 18 km off the coastal town of Yeppoon in the southern Great Barrier Reef. Located in the shallow basin to the north of Keppel Bay, the islands are host to a patchwork of fringing reefs in various forms of development. Coral communities are abundant in some locations, and coral cover is high (60 to 70%) relative to the average at sites surveyed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s Long-Term Monitoring Program (~35%), and are often dominated by extensive stands of branching Acropora that extend into shallow water. These ‘staghorn’ corals are vulnerable to impacts caused by environmental stresses such as elevated sea temperature (causing coral bleaching events), degraded water quality (associated with hyposaline floods events) and physical damage (from cyclones, storms and anchoring). The Fitzroy River, one of the largest catchments in Queensland, is about 40 km to the south of the Keppel Islands. Large flood plumes occur approximately every 10 years, and the soft riverine sediments are regularly re-suspended in the shallow bay by wind and tide action causing high turbidity. Heavy rainfall also affects the shallow reef flat habitats, with reported incidences of coral mortality caused by heavy rain at times of extreme low tidesID: 176

Alpha Backgrounds for HPGe Detectors in Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Experiments

The Majorana Experiment will use arrays of enriched HPGe detectors to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge. Such a decay, if found, would show lepton-number violation and confirm the Majorana nature of the neutrino. Searches for such rare events are hindered by obscuring backgrounds which must be understood and mitigated as much as possible. A potentially important background contribution to this and other double-beta decay experiments could come from decays of alpha-emitting isotopes in the 232Th and 238U decay chains on or near the surfaces of the detectors. An alpha particle emitted external to an HPGe crystal can lose energy before entering the active region of the detector, either in some external-bulk material or within the dead region of the crystal. The measured energy of the event will only correspond to a partial amount of the total kinetic energy of the alpha and might obscure the signal from neutrinoless double-beta decay. A test stand was built and measurements were performed to quantitatively assess this background. We present results from these measurements and compare them to simulations using Geant4. These results are then used to measure the alpha backgrounds in an underground detector in situ. We also make estimates of surface contamination tolerances for double-beta decay experiments using solid-state detectors.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, submitted to NIM

Use of variability in national and regional data to estimate the prevalence of lymphangioleiomyomatosis

Background: Understanding the true prevalence of lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is important in estimating disease burden and targeting specific interventions. As with all rare diseases, obtaining reliable epidemiological data is difficult and requires innovative approaches. Aim: To determine the prevalence and incidence of LAM using data from patient organizations in seven countries, and to use the extent to which the prevalence of LAM varies regionally and nationally to determine whether prevalence estimates are related to health-care provision. Methods: Numbers of women with LAM were obtained from patient groups and national databases from seven countries (n = 1001). Prevalence was calculated for regions within countries using female population figures from census data. Incidence estimates were calculated for the USA, UK and Switzerland. Regional variation in prevalence and changes in incidence over time were analysed using Poisson regression and linear regression. Results: Prevalence of LAM in the seven countries ranged from 3.4 to 7.8/million women with significant variation, both between countries and between states in the USA. This variation did not relate to the number of pulmonary specialists in the region nor the percentage of population with health insurance, but suggests a large number of patients remain undiagnosed. The incidence of LAM from 2004 to 2008 ranged from 0.23 to 0.31/million women/per year in the USA, UK and Switzerland. Conclusions: Using this method, we have found that the prevalence of LAM is higher than that previously recorded and that many patients with LAM are undiagnose

Kirchhoff's Loop Law and the maximum entropy production principle

In contrast to the standard derivation of Kirchhoff's loop law, which invokes electric potential, we show, for the linear planar electric network in a stationary state at the fixed temperature,that loop law can be derived from the maximum entropy production principle. This means that the currents in network branches are distributed in such a way as to achieve the state of maximum entropy production.Comment: revtex4, 5 pages, 2 figure

The study of progesterone action in human myometrial explants

Study hypothesis: Myometrial explants represent a superior model compared with cell culture models for the study of human myometrial progesterone (P4) signalling in parturition. Study finding: Gene expression analysis showed myometrial explants closely resemble the in vivo condition and the anti-inflammatory action of P4 is not lost with labour onset. What is known already: Circulating P4 levels decline before the onset of parturition in most animals, but not in humans. This has led to the suggestion that there is a functional withdrawal of P4 action at the myometrial level prior to labour onset. However, to date, no evidence of a loss of P4 function has been provided, with studies hampered by a lack of a physiologically relevant model. Study design, samples/materials, methods: Myometrial biopsies obtained at Caesarean section were dissected into explants after a portion was immediately snap frozen (t = 0). Microarray analysis was used to compare gene expression of t = 0 with paired (i) explants, (ii) passage 4 myometrial cell cultures or (iii) the hTERT myometrial cell line. Western blotting and chemokine/cytokine assays were used to study P4 signalling in myometrial explants. Main results and the role of chance: Gene expression comparison of t = 0 to the three models demonstrated that explants more closely resemble the in vivo status. At the protein level, explants maintain both P4 receptor (PR) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) levels versus t = 0 whereas cells only maintain GR levels. Additionally, treatment with 1 μM P4 led to a reduction in interleukin-1 (IL-1) β-driven cyclooxygenase-2 in explants but not in cells. P4 signalling in explants was PR-mediated and associated with a repression of p65 and c-Jun phosphorylation. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory action of P4 was maintained after labour onset. Limitations/reasons for caution: There is evidence of basal inflammation in the myometrial explant model. Wider implications of the findings: Myometrial explants constitute a novel model to study P4 signalling in the myometrium and can be used to further elucidate the mechanisms of P4 action in human labour. Large scale data: Data deposited at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?token=gvmpggkurbgxfqf&acc=GSE77830

Antiferromagnetic Zigzag Spin Chain in Magnetic Fields at Finite Temperatures

We study thermodynamic behaviors of the antiferromagnetic zigzag spin chain in magnetic fields, using the density-matrix renormalization group method for the quantum transfer matrix. We focus on the thermodynamics of the system near the critical fields in the ground-state magnetization process($M$-$H$ curve): the saturation field, the lower critical field associated with excitation gap, and the field at the middle-field cusp singularity. We calculate magnetization, susceptibility and specific heat of the zigzag chain in magnetic fields at finite temperatures, and then discuss how the calculated quantities reflect the low-lying excitations of the system related with the critical behaviors in the $M$-$H$ curve.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review