Hydroacoustic evaluation of spawning red hind (Epinephelus guttatus) aggregations along the coast of Puerto Rico in 2002 and 2003

Red hind (Epinephelus guttatus) have been overfished in the Caribbean and were included with seven other regional grouper species deemed vulnerable to risk of extinction. The Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources desired to map spawning red hind aggregations within commonwealth waters as part of their resource management program for the species. Mobile hydroacoustic surveys were conducted over 3-day periods in 2002 and 2003, indexed to the full moon phase in February or March when red hind were known to aggregate. Four vessels concurrently sampled the southwest, south, and southeast coasts of Puerto Rico in 2002. In 2003, three vessels conducted complementary surveys of the northwest, north, and northeast coasts of the island, completing a circuit of the coastal shelf-spawning habitat. These surveys indicated that red hind spawning aggregations were prevalent along the south and west coasts, and sparse along the north coast during the survey periods. Highest spawning red hind concentrations were observed in three areas offshore of the west coast of Puerto Rico, around Mona and Desecheo islands (20,443 and 10,559 fish/km2, respectively) and in the Bajo de Cico seasonal closed area (4,544 fish/km2). Following both 2002 and 2003 surveys, a series of controlled acoustic measurements of known local fish species in net pens were conducted to assess the mean target strength (acoustic backscatter) of each group. Ten species of fish were measured, including red hind (E. guttatus), coney (E. fulvus), white grunt (Haemulon plumieri), pluma (Calamus pennatula), blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus), squirrel fish (Holocentrus spp.), black durgeon (Melichtyhs niger), ocean file fish (Canthidermis sufflamen), ocean surgeon fish (Acanthurus bahianus), and butter grouper (Mycteroperca spp.). In general, the mean target strength results from the caged fish experiments were in agreement with published target strength length relationships, with the exception of white grunt and pluma

Cognitive representations of disability behaviours in people with mobility limitations : consistency with theoretical constructs

Disability is conceptualised as behaviour by psychological theory and as a result of bodily impairment by medical models. However, how people with disabilities conceptualise those disabilities is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine disability representations in people with mobility disabilities. Thirteen people with mobility disabilities completed personal repertory grids (using the method of triads) applied to activities used to measure disabilities. Ten judges with expertise in health psychology then examined the correspondence between the elicited disability constructs and psychological and medical models of disability. Participants with mobility disabilities generated 73 personal constructs ofdisability. These constructs were judged consistent with the content of two psychological models, namely the theory of planned behaviour and social cognitive theory and with the main medical model of disability, the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health.Individuals with activity limitations conceptualise activities in a manner that is compatible with both psychological and medical models. This ensures adequate communication in contexts where the medical model is relevant, e.g. clinical contexts, as well as in everyday conversation about activities and behaviours. Finally, integrated models of disability may be of value for theory driven interdisciplinary approaches to disability and rehabilitation

Effects of Price and Access Laws on Teenage Smoking Initiation: A National Longitudinal Analysis

Over the past three decades a significant amount of economic research has established that increasing cigarette prices reduces cigarette smoking among both adults and adolescents. The consensus estimates for the price elasticity of adult demand from these studies fall in a narrow range of 0.3 to 0.5, suggesting that a 10% increase in the price of cigarettes would decrease adult consumption by 3%-5%. A smaller literature on youth responsiveness to cigarette prices has also emerged. A majority of these studies concluded that youth are up to three times as responsive to price as are adults. Only four econometric studies have attempted to model youth and young adult smoking initiation decisions. All four studies concluded that cigarette prices (or cigarette excise taxes) are insignificant determinants of smoking initiation. This study addresses the limitations of the previous studies on smoking initiation and examines the impact of cigarette prices and youth access laws on adolescent smoking initiation. Nationally representative longitudinal surveys of 8th and 10th graders as part of the Monitoring the Future project are employed in the analysis. State-specific prices and several measures of youth access restrictions are added to the survey data. Discrete-time hazard methods are used to model the probability of initiation. Contradicting the results of the four previous studies on smoking initiation, the results of this study clearly indicate that increases in the price of cigarettes would significantly reduce the number of adolescents who start smoking. The results are mixed with respect to youth access restrictions.

A novel mode of capping protein-regulation by Twinfilin

Cellular actin assembly is controlled at the barbed ends of actin filaments, where capping protein (CP) limits polymerization. Twinfilin is a conserved in vivo binding partner of CP, yet the significance of this interaction has remained a mystery. Here, we discover that the C-terminal tail of Twinfilin harbors a CP-interacting (CPI) motif, identifying it as a novel CPI-motif protein. Twinfilin and the CPI-motif protein CARMIL have overlapping binding sites on CP. Further, Twinfilin binds competitively with CARMIL to CP, protecting CP from barbed-end displacement by CARMIL. Twinfilin also accelerates dissociation of the CP inhibitor V-1, restoring CP to an active capping state. Knockdowns of Twinfilin and CP each cause similar defects in cell morphology, and elevated Twinfilin expression rescues defects caused by CARMIL hyperactivity. Together, these observations define Twinfilin as the first \u27pro-capping\u27 ligand of CP and lead us to propose important revisions to our understanding of the CP regulatory cycle

Staggered-spin contribution to nuclear spin-lattice relaxation in two-leg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 ladders

We study the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$ in the two-leg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 Heisenberg ladder. More specifically, we consider the contribution to $1/T_1$ from the processes with momentum transfer $(\pi,\pi)$. In the limit of weak coupling between the two chains, this contribution is of activation type with gap $2\Delta$ at low temperatures ($\Delta$ is the spin gap), but crosses over to a slowly-decaying temperature dependence at the crossover temperature $T\approx\Delta$. This crossover possibly explains the recent high-temperature NMR results on ladder-containing cuprates by T. Imai et al.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX, uses eps

Benzo-fused Lactams from a Diversity-oriented Synthesis (DOS) Library as Inhibitors of Scavenger Receptor BI (SR-BI)-mediated Lipid Uptake

We report a new series of 8-membered benzo-fused lactams that inhibit cellular lipid uptake from HDL particles mediated by Scavenger Receptor, Class B, Type I (SR-BI). The series was identified via a high-throughput screen of the National Institutes of Health Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository (NIH MLSMR), measuring the transfer of the fluorescent lipid DiI from HDL particles to CHO cells overexpressing SR-BI. The series is part of a previously reported diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) library prepared via a build-couple-pair approach. Detailed structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies were performed with a selection of the original library, as well as additional analogs prepared via solution phase synthesis. These studies demonstrate that the orientation of the substituents on the aliphatic ring have a critical effect on activity. Additionally, a lipophilic group is required at the western end of the molecule, and a northern hydroxyl group and a southern sulfonamide substituent also proved to be optimal. Compound 2p was found to possess a superior combination of potency (av IC50 = 0.10 μM) and solubility (79 μM in PBS), and it was designated as probe ML312

HIV/AIDS: Risk Protective Behaviors among American Young Adults, 2004-2012.

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137918/1/mtf-hiv-aids_2012.pd

HIV/AIDS: Risk & protective behaviors among adults ages 21 to 40 in the U.S., 2004-2017

National Institute on Drug Abusehttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146526/1/FINAL FINAL 2.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146526/3/license_rdfDescription of FINAL FINAL 2.pdf : Annual monograp

Engineering semiconductor nanowires for photodetection: From visible to terahertz

III-V semiconductor nanowires combine the properties of III-V materials with the unique advantages of the nanowire geometry, allowing efficient room temperature photodetection across a wide range of photon energies, from a few eV down to meV. For example, due to their nanoscale size, these show great promise as sub-wavelength terahertz (THz) detectors for near-field imaging or detecting elements within a highly integrated on-chip THz spectrometer. We discuss recent advances in engineering a number of sensitive photonic devices based on III-V nanowires, including InAs nanowires with tunable photoresponse, THz polarisers and THz detectors.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant ACrossWire), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK), the Australian Research Council, and the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). J. A. Alexander-Webber and H. J. Joyce especially thank the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 for their research fellowships