Marine Reserve Design: Optimal Size, Habitats, Species Affinities, Diversity, And Ocean Microclimate

The design of marine reserves is complex and fraught with uncertainty. However, protection of critical habitat is of paramount importance for reserve design. We present a case study as an example of a reserve design based on fine-scale habitats, the affinities of exploited species to these habitats, adult mobility, and the physical forcing affecting the dynamics of the habitats. These factors and their interaction are integrated in an algorithm that determines the optimal size and location of a marine reserve for a set of 20 exploited species within five different habitats inside a large kelp forest in southern California. The result is a reserve that encompasses similar to 42% of the kelp forest. Our approach differs fundamentally from many other marine reserve siting methods in which goals of area, diversity, or biomass are targeted a priori. Rather, our method was developed to determine how large a reserve must be within a specific area to protect a self-sustaining assemblage of exploited species. The algorithm is applicable across different ecosystems, spatial scales, and for any number of species. The result is a reserve in which habitat value is optimized for a predetermined set of exploited species against the area left open to exploitation. The importance of fine-scale habitat definitions for the exploited species off La Jolla is exemplified by the spatial pattern of habitats and the stability of these habitats within the kelp forest, both of which appear to be determined by ocean microclimate

Prevention of Catheter-Related Bacteremia with a Daily Ethanol Lock in Patients with Tunnelled Catheters: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Background: Catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) results in significant attributable morbidity and mortality. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we studied the efficacy and safety of a daily ethanol lock for the prevention of CRBSI in patients with a tunnelled central venous catheter (CVC). Methodology: From 2005 through 2008, each lumen of the CVC of adult hematology patients was locked for 15 minutes per day with either 70%-ethanol or placebo, where after the lock solution was flushed through. As a primary endpoint, the incidence rates of endoluminal CRBSI were compared. Principal Findings: The intent-to-treat analysis was based on 376 patients, accounting for 448 CVCs and 27,745 catheter days. For ethanol locks, the incidence of endoluminal CRBSI per 1000 CVC-days was 0.70 (95%-CI, 0.4-1.3), compared to 1.19 (95% confidence interval, 0.7-1.9) for placebo (incidence rate-ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.27-1.30; P = .19). For endoluminal CRBSI according to the strictest definition (positive hub culture and identical bacterial strain in blood), a 3.6-fold, non-significant, reduction was observed for patients receiving ethanol (2 of 226 versus 7 of 222; P = .103). No lifethreatening adverse events were observed. More patients receiving ethanol discontinued lock-therapy (11 of 226 versus 1 of 222; P = .006) or continued with decreased lock-frequency (10 of 226 versus 0 of 222; P = .002), due to non-severe adverse events. Conclusions: In this study, the reduction in the incidence of endoluminal CRBSI using preventive ethanol locks was nonsignificant, although the low incidence of endoluminal CRBSI precludes definite conclusions. Therefore, the lack of statistical significance may partially reflect a lack of power. Significantly more patients treated with ethanol locks discontinued their prophylactic treatment due to adverse effects, which were non-severe but reasonably ethanol related. Additional studies should be performed in populations with higher incidence of (endoluminal) CRBSI. Alternative sources of bacteremia, like exoluminal CRBSI or microbial translocation during chemotherapy-induced mucositis may have been more important in our patients. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00122642

Asynchronous behavior of outlet glaciers feeding Godthåbsfjord (Nuup Kangerlua) and the triggering of Narsap Sermia's retreat in SW Greenland

We assess ice loss and velocity changes between 1985 and 2014 of three tidewater and fiveland terminating glaciers in Godthabsfjord (Nuup Kangerlua), Greenland. Glacier thinning accounted for 43.8 +/- 0.2 km(3) of ice loss, equivalent to 0.10 mm eustatic sea-level rise. An additional 3.5 +/- 0.3 km(3) was lost to the calving retreats of Kangiata Nunaata Sermia (KNS) and Narsap Sermia (NS), two tidewater glaciers that exhibited asynchronous behavior over the study period. KNS has retreated 22 km from its Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum (1761 AD), of which 0.8 km since 1985. KNS has stabilized in shallow water, but seasonally advects a 2 km long floating tongue. In contrast, NS began retreating from its LIA moraine in 2004-06 (0.6 km), re-stabilized, then retreated 3.3 km during 2010-14 into an over-deepened basin. Velocities at KNS ranged 5-6 km a(-1), while at NS they increased from 1.5 to 5.5 km a(-1) between 2004 and 2014. We present comprehensive analyses of glacier thinning, runoff, surface mass balance, ocean conditions, submarine melting, bed topography, ice melange and conclude that the 2010-14 NS retreat was triggered by a combination of factors but primarily by an increase in submarine melting.We thank W. Dryer and D. Podrasky for assistance with fieldwork and L. Kenefic for assisting with digitizing glacier front positions. CH2 M HILL Polar Services and Air Greenland provided logistics support. The SPOT-5 images used for the 2008 DEM were provided by the SPIRIT program (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, France). The DigitalGlobe Worldview images used for the 2014 DEM were obtained from P. Morin. Terminus positions were derived from Landsat images courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. Funding was provided by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs (OPP) grants NSF PLR-0909552 and NSF PLR-0909333. Cassotto is supported by NASA under the Earth and Space Science Fellowship Program (Grant NNX14AL29H). K. K. Kjeldsen acknowledges support from the Danish Council Research for Independent Research (grant no. DFF-409000151). K. Kjaer is thanked for his support during the earlier phases of this study. On-ice weather stations are operated by GEUS (Denmark) within the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE). J. Mortensen acknowledges support from IIKNN (Greenland), DEFROST project of the Nordic Centre of Excellence program "Interaction between Climate Change and the Cryosphere" and the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring Programme (www. g-e-m. dk).S. Rysgaard was funded by the Canada Excellence Research Chair Programme. Additional funding was provided by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Greenland Climate Research Centre. Scientific editor H. Fricker and reviewers H. Jiskoot and G. Cogley provided very constructive feedback that helped improve the paper.Peer ReviewedRitrýnt tímari

Comparison of dust released from sanding conventional and nanoparticle-doped wall and wood coatings

Introduction of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) into traditional surface coatings (e.g., paints, lacquers, fillers) may result in new exposures to both workers and consumers and possibly also a new risk to their health. During finishing and renovation, such products may also be a substantial source of exposure to ENPs or aggregates thereof. This study investigates the particle size distributions (5.6 nm–19.8 μm) and the total number of dust particles generated during sanding of ENP-doped paints, lacquers, and fillers as compared to their conventional counterparts. In all products, the dust emissions from sanding were found to consist of five size modes: three modes under 1 μm and two modes around 1 and 2 μm. Corrected for the emission from the sanding machine, the sanding dust, was dominated by 100–300 nm size particles, whereas the mass and surface area spectra were dominated by the micrometer modes. Adding ENPs to the studied products only vaguely affected the geometric mean diameters of the particle modes in the sanding dust when compared to their reference products. However, we observed considerable differences in the number concentrations in the different size modes, but still without revealing a clear effect of ENPs on dust emissions from sanding

Information scan of quantum states based on entropy-power uncertainty relations

We use Renyi-entropy-power-based uncertainty relations to show how the information probability distribution associated with a quantum state can be reconstructed in a process that is analogous to quantum-state tomography. We illustrate our point with the so-called "cat states", which are of both fundamental interest and practical use in schemes such as quantum metrology, but are not well described by standard variance-based approaches

Sea ice breakup and marine melt of a retreating tidewater outlet glacier in northeast Greenland (81°N)

Rising temperatures in the Arctic cause accelerated mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet and reduced sea ice cover. Tidewater outlet glaciers represent direct connections between glaciers and the ocean where melt rates at the ice-ocean interface are influenced by ocean temperature and circulation. However, few measurements exist near outlet glaciers from the northern coast towards the Arctic Ocean that has remained nearly permanently ice covered. Here we present hydrographic measurements along the terminus of a major retreating tidewater outlet glacier from Flade Isblink Ice Cap. We show that the region is characterized by a relatively large change of the seasonal freshwater content, corresponding to ~2 m of freshwater, and that solar heating during the short open water period results in surface layer temperatures above 1 °C. Observations of temperature and salinity supported that the outlet glacier is a floating ice shelf with near-glacial subsurface temperatures at the freezing point. Melting from the surface layer significantly influenced the ice foot morphology of the glacier terminus. Hence, melting of the tidewater outlet glacier was found to be critically dependent on the retreat of sea ice adjacent to the terminus and the duration of open water