Potential for enriching next-generation health-promoting gut bacteria through prebiotics and other dietary components

The human intestinal commensal microbiota and associated metabolic products have long been regarded as contributors to host health. As the identity and activities of the various members of this community have become clearer, newly identified health-associated bacteria, such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Akkermansia muciniphila, Ruminococcus bromii and Roseburia species, have emerged. Notably, the abundance of many of these bacteria is inversely correlated to several disease states. While technological and regulatory hurdles may limit the use of strains from these taxa as probiotics, it should be possible to utilize prebiotics and other dietary components to selectively enhance their growth in situ. Dietary components of potential relevance include well-established prebiotics, such as galacto-oligosaccharides, fructo-oligosaccharides and inulin, while other putative prebiotics, such as other oligosaccharides, polyphenols, resistant starch, algae and seaweed as well as host gut metabolites such as lactate and acetate, may also be applied with the aim of selectively and/or differentially affecting the beneficial bacterial community within the gastrointestinal environment. The present review provides an overview of the dietary components that could be applied in this manner

Energy Efficiency Support through Intra-Layer Cloud Stack Adaptation

Energy consumption is a key concern in cloud computing. The paper reports on a cloud architecture to support energy efficiency at service construction, deployment, and operation. This is achieved through SaaS, PaaS and IaaS intra-layer self-adaptation in isolation. The self-adaptation mechanisms are discussed, as well as their implementation and evaluation. The experimental results show that the overall architecture is capable of adapting to meet the energy goals of applications on a per layer basis

Western Irish Sea Nephrops Grounds (FU15) 2012 UWTV Survey Report

Use the URI link below to search the Marine Institute Data Discovery Catalogue for datasets relevant to this report.This report provides the main results and findings of the tenth annual underwater television on the ‘Irish sea west Nephrops grounds’ ICES assessment area; Functional Unit 15. The survey was multi-disciplinary in nature collecting UWTV, CTD and other ecosystem data. An analysis of the precision, accuracy and sampling intensity trade-offs showed that sampling intensity could be reduced without significantly reducing the precision and accuracy of the survey. Consequently, sampling intensity was reduced this year from ~150 stations in a 3.5 nautical mile grid to 99 stations (4.5nmi grid). Full coverage of the grid was achieved. The krigged burrow abundance estimate for the Irish Sea ground increased slightly (+3% relative to 2011). Abundance estimates have been fairly very stable over the time series. The 2012 randomised isometric grid design resulted in a CV (or relative standard error) of 3% which is in line with CVs observed previously and well below the upper limit of 20% recommended by SGNEPS 2012.Marine Institute; Agri-Food and Biosciences Institut

CV15020

This report provides the main results and findings of the tenth annual underwater television survey on the ‘Smalls grounds’ ICES assessment area; Functional Unit 22. The survey was multi-disciplinary in nature collecting UWTV, CTD and other ecosystem data. A total of 33 UWTV stations were surveyed successfully (good quality video footage) carried out over an isometric grid at 4.5nmi or 8.3km intervals. Of the planned stations 17% (7) could not be completed due to very poor or nil visibility conditions encountered at seabed. For these stations density estimates were filled-in using and average of historic values within 2nmi. The resulting krigged burrow abundance estimate for the Smalls ground decreased by 16% relative to 2014. The final abundance estimate was 1,363 million. The precision, with a CV of 7%, was well below the upper limit of 20% recommended by SGNEPS 2012. Using the 2015 estimate of abundance and updated stock data implies catch of 3,027 tonnes and landings of 2634 tonnes in 2016 fishing at Fmsy (assuming that all catch is landed). Only one species of sea pen Virgilaria mirabilis was recorded as present at the stations surveyed. Trawl marks were observed at 12% of the stations surveyed

CV17018

This report provides the main results of the 2017 underwater television survey on the ‘Labadie, Jones and Cockburn Banks’ ICES assessment area; Functional Unit 20-21. This was the fourth survey to achieve full coverage of the full area. The 2017 survey was multi-disciplinary in nature collecting UWTV, CTD and other ecosystem data. A total of 86 UWTV stations were completed at 6 nmi intervals over a randomised isometric grid design. The mean burrow density was 0.44 burrows/m2 compared with 0.18 burrows/m2 in 2016. The 2017 geostatistical abundance estimate was 4.4±0.01 billion a 236% increase on the abundance for 2016 with a CV of 4% which is well below the upper limit of 20% recommended by SGNEPS 2012. Highest densities were generally observed throughout the ground, and there were also high densities observed close to boundaries. Using the 2017 abundance estimate and updated stock data implies catch of 8,673 tonnes and landings of 6,553 tonnes in 2018 when MSY approach is applied (assuming that discard rates and fishery selection patterns do not change from the average of 2014–2016). One species of sea-pen were recorded as present at the stations surveyed Virgilaria mirabilis. Trawl marks were observed at 32% of the stations surveyed

CV13016

Use the URI link to search the Marine Institute Data Discovery Catalogue for datasets relevant to this report.This report provides the main results and findings of the twelfth annual underwater television on the Aran, Galway Bay and Slyne head Nephrops grounds, ICES assessment area; Functional Unit 17. The survey was multi-disciplinary in nature collecting UWTV, fishing, CTD and other ecosystem data. In total 31 UWTV stations were successfully completed in a randomised isometric grid design at 3.5nmi or 6.5km intervals over the known range of the stock on the Aran Grounds. The mean burrow density observed in 2013, adjusted for edge effect, was 0.32 burrows/m². The final krigged burrow abundance estimate was 317 million burrows with a CV (or relative standard error) of 4 %. Abundance estimates have fluctuated considerably over the time series. The abundance decreased significantly in 2012 and the 2013 estimate was 2% lower and the lowest estimate in the 12 year time series. Raised abundance estimates for Galway Bay and Slyne Head were also low for those areas. Using the 2013 abundance estimate together with updated parameters for mean weight and proportions of removals retained implies 2014 total catch advice fishing at Fmsy (=F35%spr) of 699 tonnes which results in landings of no more than 591 tonnes. Nephrops accounted for approximately 70% of the benthic catch by weight from 7 beam trawl tows. The observed length frequency and maturity of female Nephops caught was similar to previous years. Virgilaria mirabilis was the most common of the two sea-pen species observed on the UWTV footage (Pennatula phosphorea was also present)

CV14014

This report provides the main results and findings of the ninth annual underwater television survey on the ‘Smalls grounds’ ICES assessment area; Functional Unit 22. The survey was multi-disciplinary in nature collecting UWTV, CTD and other ecosystem data. A total of 52 stations UWTV stations were carried out over an isometric grid at 4.5nmi or 8.3km intervals. The krigged burrow abundance estimate for the Smalls ground increased by 22% relative to 2013 and was the highest in the 9 year time series. The final abundance estimate was 1,622 million with a CV of 8% which is well below the upper limit of 20% recommended by SGNEPS 2012. Using the 2014 estimate of abundance and recent mean weight and discard data would imply total catches at Fmsy in 2015 of 3,797t. This implies landings of 3,409 tonnes. Temperature on the seabed varied by 2oC over the Nephrops ground with coldest values around 9.4oC in the deepest part of the area. Only one species of sea pen Virgilaria mirabilis was recorded as present at 46% of the stations surveyed. Trawl marks were observed at 28% of the stations surveyed