EFFECTS OF CO 2 OCEAN SEQUESTRATION ON MARINE FISH

ABSTRACT Ocean sequestration of CO 2 has been proposed as a possible measure to retard the increasing rate of the atmospheric CO 2 concentration. Since some negative impacts on marine animals and ecosystems are likely to ensue, we must carefully investigate biological effects of ocean CO 2 sequestration before embarking on this mitigation practice. Considering the expected depths for CO 2 ocean sequestration (> 1,000 m), it is desirable to use deep-sea animals for the experimental assessment of CO 2 ocean sequestration. In addition, experimental protocols preferably mimic environmental conditions at the releasing site: CO 2 concentrations vary due to mixing with surrounding seawater at low temperatures (0-2 °C) and under high pressures. This paper describes our recent experiments to elucidate the effects of high CO 2 on marine fishes. A deep-sea fish Careproctus trachysoma (habitat depth 400-800 m) can be captured alive and be used for in vivo CO 2 exposure experiments. 100% mortality occurred when the fish was exposed to seawater equilibrated with a gas mixture containing 3% CO 2 conditions at 2 °C within 48 h, whereas mortality was never observed when shallow-water fishes (Mustelus manazo, Paralichthys olivaceus and Seriola quinqueradiata) were tested under the same CO 2 conditions but at higher temperatures (17-20 °C). It is currently not clear whether this difference in mortality is due to often presumed high susceptibility of deepsea organisms to environmental perturbations. Subsequent experiments demonstrated that low water temperature accelerates mortality by CO 2 exposure. Thus, half lethal time decreased from 105h to only 5 h when water temperature was decreased from 26 °C to 20 °C (CO 2 8.5%, Sillago parvisquamis). Therefore, the high CO 2 susceptibility of C. trachysoma could be solely due to low water temperature. Temporally varying CO 2 conditions resulted in markedly different mortality patterns when compare with mortality recorded under constant CO 2 conditions. Step-wise increases in ambient CO 2 resulted in much lower mortalities than under one-step increases to the same CO 2 levels. Further, a sudden drop of CO 2 from 9-10% CO 2 to air level (0.038%) killed all the surviving fish within a few minutes

Challenges for social impact assessment in coastal regions: A case study of the Tomakomai CCS Demonstration Project

This paper assesses challenges for social impact assessment (SIA) for coastal and offshore infrastructure projects, using the case study of the Tomakomai Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Demonstration Project in Hokkaido, Japan. Interest in SIA and linked concepts such as social licence to operate is growing, yet marine environments also have potential to raise additional complexity in project governance. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in Tomakomai and Japan more widely across the project development and implementation phase, the paper argues that building an understanding of the social, cultural and historical relationship between the community, industry and the sea is crucial to understanding the neutral or cautiously supportive response of the citizens and stakeholders in Tomakomai to the project. Moreover, effective SIA in coastal regions needs to find a way to account for – or at least make visible – these complex relations between society and the sea. Based on the findings, it is suggested that developers or policymakers overseeing SIA in coastal regions ought to pay extra attention to the extent to which developments like CCS are viewed by communities as 'new' as opposed to a continuation of existing activities in the sea; to the importance of engagement on monitoring during the project operations phase; and to the non-economic values such as pride and identity which communities and stakeholders may derive from the sea

Combination of Real-Value Smell and Metaphor Expression Aids Yeast Detection

Background: Smell provides important information about the quality of food and drink. Most well-known for their expertise in wine tasting, sommeliers sniff out the aroma of wine and describe them using beautiful metaphors. In contrast, electronic noses, devices that mimic our olfactory recognition system, also detect smells using their sensors but describe them using electronic signals. These devices have been used to judge the freshness of food or detect the presence of pathogenic microorganisms. However, unlike information from gas chromatography, it is difficult to compare odour information collected by these devices because they are made for smelling specific smells and their data are relative intensities. Methodology: Here, we demonstrate the use of an absolute-value description method using known smell metaphors, and early detection of yeast using the method. Conclusions: This technique may help distinguishing microbial-contamination of food products earlier, or improvement o

Neuroanatomical Basis of Individuality in Muscle Tuning Function: Neural Correlates of Muscle Tuning

In a conventional view of motor control, the human brain might employ an optimization principle that leads a stereotypical motor behavior which we observe as an averaged behavioral data over subjects. In this scenario, the inter-individual motor variability is considered as an observation noise. Here, we challenged this view. We considered a motor control task where the human participants manipulated arm force by coordinating shoulder and elbow torques and investigated the muscle-tuning function that represents how the brain distributed the ideal joint torques to multiple muscles. In the experimental data, we observed large inter-individual variability in the profile of a muscle-tuning function. This contradicts with a well-established optimization theory that is based on minimization of muscle energy consumption and minimization of motor variability. We then hypothesized the inter-subject differences in the structure of the motor cortical areas might be the source of the across-subjects variability of the motor behavior. This was supported by a voxel-based morphometry analysis of magnetic resonance imaging; The inter-individual variability of the muscle tuning profile was correlated with that of the gray matter volume in the premotor cortex which is ipsilateral to the used arm (i.e., right hemisphere for the right arm). This study suggests that motor individuality may originate from inter-individual variation in the cortical structure

Acute CO2 tolerance limits of juveniles of three marine invertebrates, Sepia lycidas, Sepioteuthis lessoniana, and Marsupenaeus japonicus

CO2 ocean storage is proposed as a possible measure to mitigate climate changes caused by increasing atmospheric concentrations of the gas. The feasibility of the measure has been intensively investigated, yet its biological impact on marine animals is still largely unknown. We investigated the acute CO2 tolerance of juveniles of three marine invertebrates; the cuttlefish, Sepia lycidas, the squid, Sepioteuthis lessoniana, and the prawn, Marsupenaeus japonicus. Median tolerance limits of CO2 were 8.4% (24 h) for the cuttlefish, 5.9% (24 h) and 3.8% (48 h) for the squid and 14.3% (72 h) for the prawn. Comparison of these and previously reported data suggests an inverse relationship between O2 requirement and CO2 tolerance among marine animals

Endoscopic removal of subgaleal hematoma in a 7-year-old patient treated with anticoagulant and antiplatelet agents

Background: Subgaleal hematomas frequently occur in children after head trauma and extend over the cranial sutures. Although conservative treatment suffices in most cases, surgical removal of a subgaleal hematoma is indicated when the patient presents with anemia and headache associated with its progressive enlargement. Copyright:Case Description: We present the case of a 7-year-old boy who was medicated with warfarin and aspirin due to a hypoplastic left ventricle and fell from a rock wherein he hit his head in the frontal region. Although a computed tomography scan of the head revealed no intracranial lesion, an extracranial hematoma was found to extend over the cranial sutures, leading to the diagnosis of subgaleal hematoma. The hematoma continued to grow gradually despite the cessation of warfarin and aspirin therapy immediately after the head trauma. Since the patient\u27s headache and anemia were progressing as the hematoma enlarged, removal of the hematoma was performed 3 days after admission. Endoscopic hematoma removal was planned to enable accurate coagulation of the sites of bleeding and removal of the maximal amount of hematoma through minimal incision. The hematoma was completely removed, and the patient\u27s postoperative course was excellent with alleviation of both the anemia and the headache. No sign of hematoma recurrence could be detected during 2 years follow-up.Conclusion: An angled endoscope can allow visualization of the deep subgaleal space, and this technique enabled direct visualization of the bleeding sites and accurate coagulation to prevent recurrence of hematoma. Endoscopic techniques, such as minimally invasive techniques, can allow sufficient removal of subgaleal hematoma with minimal morbidity, especially in patients such as ours

Symptomatic foramen of Magendie arachnoid cyst in an elderly patient

Background: Arachnoid cysts (ACs) are congenital anomalies of the central nervous system and arise in virtually all locations where the arachnoid membrane exists. Posterior fossa ACs are considered to develop in the posterior aspect of the rhombencephalic roof plate and do not communicate freely with the fourth ventricle or perimedullary subarachnoid space. Although posterior fossa ACs have been reported a number of times, ACs arising from the foramen of Magendie are very rare. Case Description: We report here on a 76-year-old female who presented with progressive gait disturbance. Magnetic resonance imaging of the head showed a large AC in the foramen of Magendie that was compressing the inferior vermis and medial aspects of the cerebellar hemisphere without causing hydrocephalus. Neurological examination revealed cerebellar ataxia without Romberg\u27s sign. A nearly total excision of the cyst was safely performed via a median suboccipital approach. The patient\u27s postoperative course was excellent and her neurological recovery was remarkable. Conclusion: Most cases of ACs located in the foramen of Magendie are reported in children, and it is extremely rare to observe such ACs in the elderly. In fact, to our knowledge, a symptomatic foramen Magendie AC has never been reported previously in an elderly person. Our results indicate that proper surgical intervention can yield highly positive outcomes in such cases

Large negative uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in highly distorted Co-ferrite thin films

The strain induced magnetic anisotropy (MA) of epitaxial Co-ferrite (CFO) thin films grown on MgAl2O4(001) (MAO) by reactive sputtering was studied. These films underwent large tetragonal compressive strain due to the lattice mismatch between the substrates and films, resulting in tetragonalities of up to −0.04. Scanning transmission electron microscopy observation combined with fast Fourier transform analysis revealed that the lattice distortion monotonically relaxed with the increasing film thickness. Unlike the CFO(001) films on MgO(001) substrates, a magnetically enhanced layer exists at the interface between CFO and MAO. A large negative uniaxial MA energy of −5.9 MJ/m3 was confirmed for the thinnest film of 12.9 nm at 300 K by magneto-torque measurements. The induced uniaxial anisotropy decreased with the increasing film thickness owing to misfit relaxation. The magneto-elastic (ME) constant, which was determined by a fitting line for films with different thicknesses and therefore different tetragonalities, was 0.15±0.01 GJ/m3. This result is consistent with the value of 0.14 GJ/m3 for the bulk and suggests that the framework of the phenomenological ME theory for CFO is valid for a wide range of tetragonalities, at least up to −0.04. Our results also indicate that the misfit engineering of CFO thin films has great potential in inducing enhanced uniaxial MA