Seagrass communities in the Shoalwater Bay region, Queensland: Spring (September) 1995 and Autumn (April) 1996

The Commonwealth Commission of Inquiry into Shoal water Bay (Commission of Inquiry 1994) recommended equal priority be given to conservation and defence force training use in the Shoalwater Bay area, and that integrated management plans be developed for the terrestrial and marine environments. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) was given responsibility for developing management plans for a special Shoalwater Bay Marine Park. The GBRMPA commissioned a number of studies of marine resource inventories and use patterns in the Shoalwater Bay area for marine park zone planning. The present Spring and Autumn baseline surveys of seagrass resources is one of these studies. Seagrasses have seasonal differences in distribution and abundance, so two baseline surveys Spring (pre-wet) and Autumn (post-wet) - were recommended. This report presents the results of the two surveys conducted September 1995 and April 1996. The objectives were: to map the distribution of seagrass meadows in Shoa/water Bay during the Spring and Autumn periods; to estimate seagrass species biomass for the major seagrass meadows; to identify juvenile prawn and fish species present on selected seagrass areas; and to provide quantitative data 011 seagrass communities of Shoalwater Bay for use as a baseline for future monitoring of seagrass species composition, area or biomass

Seagrasses between Cape York and Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia

The area of seagrasses in waters adjacent to the Queensland coast between Cape York and Hervey Bay is approximately 4000 km2. Seagrasses were found near estuaries, in coastal bays and associated with islands, at sites that provided shelter from the south-easterly trade winds and Pacific Ocean swells. Of the seagrass meadows mapped, 37% had a bottom vegetation cover greater than 50%. Two large continuous areas (total of approximately 2500 km2) of seagrass of predominantly Halophila species were found in deep water in Hervey Bay and between Barrow Point and Lookout Point and may be part of a much larger area of deep-water seagrass habitat not yet surveyed in the Great Barrier Reef province. Fourteen seagrass species were found in the surveyed region, and most were typical of the northern Australian and Indo-West Pacific region. The opportunistic Halophila and Halodule species were most common, with Halophila ovalis (R. Br.) Hook. f. and Halodule uninervis (Forsk.) Aschers. each being found in more than 15% of samples. High species richness occurred at depths of less than 6 m, predominantly in sheltered bays at coastal and island locations. Low species richness at estuary- associated sites may be due to stresses caused by low salinity during monsoonal runoff periods or exposure at low tides. Zostera capricorni Aschers. was restricted to these areas and may have a competitive advantage over other species with lesser tolerance to varying salinity. Species richness decreased with an increase in both latitude and depth. The latitudinal limits of recorded distributions for some of these tropical seagrasses were confirmed. Seagrass biomass decreased with increasing depth, but parameters of seagrass abundance showed no correlation with latitude, being dependent on a complex of site-related factors. High seagrass biomass occurred at sheltered sites, including estuary-associated, coastal-bay and island-associated sites. The maximum recorded above-ground biomass was 102.9 g m-2 for Zostera capricorni at Upstart Bay. Shoot densities reached 13 806 shoots m-2 for Halophila ovalis at Escape River, and the highest leaf area index was 1.81 for Zostera capricorni at Upstart Bay

Monitoring Oyster Point seagrasses : 1995 to 1999

In the present report, an assessment of changes in seagrass distribution and abundance since the baseline (November 1995) and previous monitoring surveys of December 1997 and November 1998 is included. We provide a quantification of changes between years and comment on the possible impacts of the dredging program

Seagrass and marine resources in the Dugong protection areas of Upstart Bay, Newry Region, Sand Bay, Llewellyn Bay, Ince Bay and the Clairview Region, April/May 1999 and October 1999

The Marine Plant Ecology Group (Queensland Fisheries Service, Queensland Department of Primary Industries) was commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to undertake two (one autumn and one spring) detailed seagrass surveys of the Dugong Protection Areas in Upstart Bay, Newry region, Sand Bay, Llewellyn Bay, Ince Bay, and a reconnaissance survey in the Clairview region. The information gathered from these surveys enhances the understanding and subsequent management of seagrass resources for fisheries and as dugong feeding habitats

Baseline survey of Hinchinbrook region seagrasses - October (spring) 1996

Current coastal zone management issues in the Hinchinbrook region include protection of fisheries habitats, dugong habitat areas and increases in aquaculture, agriculture and tourist operations. A regional coastal management plan which is being developed, also requires detailed information on seagrass resources for the coastal zone from Dunk Island in the north, to Cleveland Bay in the south. Decreases in estimates of dugong abundance in the southern half of the Great Barrier Reef region since the 1980's have also prompted the need for detailed baseline and monitoring surveys of seagrasses in this and other regions

Static quantities of the W boson in the SU_L(3) X U_X(1) model with right-handed neutrinos

The static electromagnetic properties of the $W$ boson, $\Delta \kappa$ and $\Delta Q$, are calculated in the SU_L(3)} \times U_X(1) model with right-handed neutrinos. The new contributions from this model arise from the gauge and scalar sectors. In the gauge sector there is a new contribution from a complex neutral gauge boson $Y^0$ and a singly-charged gauge boson $Y^\pm$. The mass of these gauge bosons, called bileptons, is expected to be in the range of a few hundreds of GeV according to the current bounds from experimental data. If the bilepton masses are of the order of 200 GeV, the size of their contribution is similar to that obtained in other weakly coupled theories. However the contributions to both $\Delta Q$ and $\Delta \kappa$ are negligible for very heavy or degenerate bileptons. As for the scalar sector, an scenario is examined in which the contribution to the $W$ form factors is identical to that of a two-Higgs-doublet model. It is found that this sector would not give large corrections to $\Delta \kappa$ and $\Delta Q$.Comment: New material included. Final version to apppear in Physical Review

Novel gonadal characteristics in an aged bovine freemartin

The gonads from a five year old freemartin Holstein animal were subjected to morphological analysis and to immunohistochemistry using antibodies against developmental and functional markers. We demonstrate, for the first time, the retention of anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) producing intratubular cells (Sertoli cells) in the context of abundant steroidogenic interstitial cells, and structures consistent with clusters of luteal cells. This novel report describes the clinical, gross and histological findings accompanying this newly described gonadal immunophenotype, and its implication in the understanding of freemartin development

On the spherical-axial transition in supernova remnants

A new law of motion for supernova remnant (SNR) which introduces the quantity of swept matter in the thin layer approximation is introduced. This new law of motion is tested on 10 years observations of SN1993J. The introduction of an exponential gradient in the surrounding medium allows to model an aspherical expansion. A weakly asymmetric SNR, SN1006, and a strongly asymmetric SNR, SN1987a, are modeled. In the case of SN1987a the three observed rings are simulated.Comment: 19 figures and 14 pages Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science in the year 201

Cosmological Effects of Radion Oscillations

We show that the redshift of pressureless matter density due to the expansion of the universe generically induces small oscillations in the stabilized radius of extra dimensions (the radion field). The frequency of these oscillations is proportional to the mass of the radion and can have interesting cosmological consequences. For very low radion masses $m_b$ ($m_b\sim10-100 H_0\simeq10^{-32} eV$) these low frequency oscillations lead to oscillations in the expansion rate of the universe. The occurrence of acceleration periods could naturally lead to a resolution of the coincidence problem, without need of dark energy. Even though this scenario for low radion mass is consistent with several observational tests it has difficulty to meet fifth force constraints. If viewed as an effective Brans-Dicke theory it predicts $\omega=-1+\frac{1}{D}$ ($D$ is the number of extra dimensions), while experiments on scales larger than $1mm$ imply $\omega>2500$. By deriving the generalized Newtonian potential corresponding to a massive toroidally compact radion we demonstrate that Newtonian gravity is modified only on scales smaller than $m_b^{-1}$. Thus, these constraints do not apply for $m_b>10^{-3} eV$ (high frequency oscillations) corresponding to scales less than the current experiments ($0.3mm$). Even though these high frequency oscillations can not resolve the coincidence problem they provide a natural mechanism for dark matter generation. This type of dark matter has many similarities with the axion.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. D. Clarifying comments added in the text and some additional references include

Prevalence of Desmin Mutations in Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Background— Desmin-related myofibrillar myopathy (DRM) is a cardiac and skeletal muscle disease caused by mutations in the desmin ( DES ) gene. Mutations in the central 2B domain of DES cause skeletal muscle disease that typically precedes cardiac involvement. However, the prevalence of DES mutations in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) without skeletal muscle disease is not known. Methods and Results— Denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography was used to screen DES for mutations in 116 DCM families from the Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy Registry and in 309 subjects with DCM from the Beta-Blocker Evaluation of Survival Trial (BEST). DES mutations were transfected into SW13 and human smooth muscle cells and neonatal rat cardiac myocytes, and the effects on cytoskeletal desmin network architecture were analyzed with confocal microscopy. Five novel missense DES mutations, including the first localized to the highly conserved 1A domain, were detected in 6 subjects (1.4%). Transfection of DES mutations in the 2B domain severely disrupted the fine intracytoplasmic staining of desmin, causing clumping of the desmin protein. A tail domain mutation (Val459Ile) showed milder effects on desmin cytoplasmic network formation and appears to be a low-penetrant mutation restricted to black subjects. Conclusions— The prevalence of DES mutations in DCM is between 1% and 2%, and mutations in the 1A helical domain, as well as the 2B rod domain, are capable of causing a DCM phenotype. The lack of severe disruption of cytoskeletal desmin network formation seen with mutations in the 1A and tail domains suggests that dysfunction of seemingly intact desmin networks is sufficient to cause DCM