Summing the strokes: energy economy in northern elephant seals during large-scale foraging migrations.

BackgroundThe energy requirements of free-ranging marine mammals are challenging to measure due to cryptic and far-ranging feeding habits, but are important to quantify given the potential impacts of high-level predators on ecosystems. Given their large body size and carnivorous lifestyle, we would predict that northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) have elevated field metabolic rates (FMRs) that require high prey intake rates, especially during pregnancy. Disturbance associated with climate change or human activity is predicted to further elevate energy requirements due to an increase in locomotor costs required to accommodate a reduction in prey or time available to forage. In this study, we determined the FMRs, total energy requirements, and energy budgets of adult, female northern elephant seals. We also examined the impact of increased locomotor costs on foraging success in this species.ResultsBody size, time spent at sea and reproductive status strongly influenced FMR. During the short foraging migration, FMR averaged 90.1 (SE = 1.7) kJ kg(-1)d(-1) - only 36 % greater than predicted basal metabolic rate. During the long migration, when seals were pregnant, FMRs averaged 69.4 (±3.0) kJ kg(-1)d(-1) - values approaching those predicted to be necessary to support basal metabolism in mammals of this size. Low FMRs in pregnant seals were driven by hypometabolism coupled with a positive feedback loop between improving body condition and reduced flipper stroking frequency. In contrast, three additional seals carrying large, non-streamlined instrumentation saw a four-fold increase in energy partitioned toward locomotion, resulting in elevated FMRs and only half the mass gain of normally-swimming study animals.ConclusionsThese results highlight the importance of keeping locomotion costs low for successful foraging in this species. In preparation for lactation and two fasting periods with high demands on energy reserves, migrating elephant seals utilize an economical foraging strategy whereby energy savings from reduced locomotion costs are shuttled towards somatic growth and fetal gestation. Remarkably, the energy requirements of this species, particularly during pregnancy, are 70-80 % lower than expected for mammalian carnivores, approaching or even falling below values predicted to be necessary to support basal metabolism in mammals of this size

Immunotherapeutic potential of DISC-HSV and OX40L in cancer

Several vectors, viral and bacterial, have been developed over the past few years for means of generating an effective anti-tumor immune response. We have developed and studied a “model for immunotherapy” using a viral vector DISC-HSV, which efficiently transduces various tumor cell lines and offers a useful vehicle for the further development of cell based vaccines. The immunotherapeutic potential of DISC-HSV encoding GMCSF was demonstrated in a number of murine carcinoma models, leading to complete regression of well established tumors in up to 70% of the mice. Moreover, the therapeutic potential of DISC-HSV-GMCSF was significantly enhanced when used in combination therapy with either OX40L or dendritic cells (DC), even in poorly immunogenic tumor model. The ability of this vector to accept large gene inserts, its good safety profile, its ability to undergo only a single round of infection, the inherent viral immunostimulatory properties and its ability to infect various tumor cell lines efficiently, make DISC-HSV an ideal candidate vector for immunotherapy. The DISC- CT-26 tumor model has been used to investigate these mechanisms associated with immunotherapy – induced tumor rejection. Although CTL induction, was positively correlated with regression, MHC class I down regulation and accumulation of immature Gr1+ myeloid cells were shown to be the main immuno-suppressor mechanisms operating against regression and associated with progressive tumor growth

The causes of full ocean depth interannual variability in Drake Passage

In recent years a number of large scale modes of Southern Hemisphere climate variability have been observed, most notably the Southern Annular Mode (SAM, e.g. Thompson and Solomon, 2002), the Pacific South American modes (PSA, e.g. Mo and Peagle, 2001), the Antarctic Dipole (e.g. Martinson and Ianuzzi, 2003), the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave (e.g. White and Peterson, 1996), and of course the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). All have pronounced effects over or in the Southern Ocean, and may be expected to account for a significant part of the interannual variability observed there. Most studies analyse these phenomena from a large-scale point of view, often by extracting modes from Southern Hemisphere atmospheric and oceanic fields using various mathematical techniques. In this study we have taken an alternative approach, and tried to understand the causes of the full ocean depth variability in Drake Passage observed in the WOCE SR1b repeat hydrographic sections (Cunningham et al. 2003)

Second order statistics of NLOS indoor MIMO channels based on 5.2 GHz measurements

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Toward improved streamflow forecasts: Value of semidistributed modeling

The focus of this study is to assess the performance improvements of semidistributed applications of the U.S. National Weather Service Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting model on a watershed using radar-based remotely sensed precipitation data. Specifically, performance comparisons are made within an automated multicriteria calibration framework to evaluate the benefit of "spatial distribution" of the model input (precipitation), structural components (soil moisture and streamflow routing computations), and surface characteristics (parameters). A comparison of these results is made with those obtained through manual calibration. Results indicate that for the study watershed, there are performance improvements associated with semidistributed model applications when the watershed is partitioned into three subwatersheds; however, no additional benefit is gained from increasing the number of subwatersheds from three to eight. Improvements in model performance are demonstrably related to the spatial distribution of the model input and streamflow routing. Surprisingly, there is no improvement associated with the distribution of the surface characteristics (model parameters)

Kebijakan Pendidikan Dasar Di Provinsi Sulawesi Selatan

Desentralisasi pendidikan merupakan kebijakan pemerintah yang diharapkan mampu memberikan solusi demi meningkatkan kualitas pendidikan untuk menciptakan sumber daya manusia (SDM) yang handal. Dalam penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memperoleh informasi tentang Capaian Kinerja Implementasi Kebijakan Desentralisasi Pendidikan Dasar pada aspek perluasan akses dan pemerataan pendidikan, peningkatan kualitas layanan serta mutu pendidikan dasar. Penelitian ini mengunakan paradigma deskriptif kuasi kualitatif dengan pendekatan Evaluasi Formatif, tehnik pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui wawancara, quesioner, observasi dan studi dokumen, selanjutnya dianalisis dengan menggunakan analisis deskriptif kualitatif dan persentase. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pada aspek perluasan akses dan pemerataan pendidikan dasar dengan indikator Angka Partisipasi Kasar (APK) dan Angka Partisipasi Murni (APM) telah berada di atas rata-rata nasional. Pada aspek kualitas layanan pendidikan menunjukkan bahwa, fasilitas dan kualitas sarana dan prasarana pendidikan, ketersediaan tenaga termasuk kualifikasi dan standar kompetensi guru relatif belum memenuhi standar pelayanan minimal pendidikan. Pada aspek peningkatan mutu dengan indikator Ujian Nasional (UN), menunjukkan selama tiga tahun terakhir mengalami penurunan. Strategi dan program percepatan implementasi kebijakan desentralisasi pendidikan dasar, dapat dilakukan melalui model-model pengembangan pembangunan sekolah baru dan ruang kelas baru, penggabungan sekolah, Sekolah Dasar Satu Atap, Sekolah Inklusi, SMP Terbuka dan Kelas Layanan Khusus. Untuk mencapai target dan standar tersebut diperlukan peningkatan kompetensi stakeholder pendidikan, membangun akses komunikasi yang efektif untuk mendukung implementasi kebijakan desentralisasi pendidikan dasar dan menerapkan Manajemen Berbasis Sekolah (MBS) secara effektif. Implikasi kebijakan tersebut berdampak kepada penataan sistem penganggaran pendidikan, peningkatan kompetensi SDM pendidikan dan penataan struktur kelembagaan pendidikan di Kota Makassar

Polarimetric properties of indoor MIMO channels for different floor levels in a residential house

This paper analyzes polarimetric characteristics of power delay profiles (PDPs), cross polarization discrimination (XPD), and received power of specular and diffuse multipath components of indoor MIMO radio channels at 2.45 GHz. Measurements were done in a residential house at two floors levels: "same floor" and "cross floor". Variations of 5 to 15 dB in PDPs between co-and cross-polar links were found in the same floor level; however these changes decrease as radio links move from line-of-sight to non-line-of-sight propagations. XPDs of radio waves were found to be higher for cross floor configuration, about 5 dB in horizontally and 7 dB in vertically polarized waves. Also, diffuse components of channels were less affected compared to that of specular components in same floor setups for cross-polar links. Our results demonstrate that the contribution of diffuse components to total channel power is higher than previously presented studies for large industrial indoor environments

Interaction between polar molecules subject to a far-off-resonant optical field: Entangled dipoles up- or down-holding each other

We show that the electric dipole-dipole interaction between a pair of polar molecules undergoes an all-out transformation when superimposed by a far-off resonant optical field. The combined interaction potential becomes tunable by variation of wavelength, polarization and intensity of the optical field and its dependence on the intermolecular separation exhibits a crossover from an inverse-power to an oscillating behavior. The ability thereby offered to control molecular interactions opens up avenues toward the creation and manipulation of novel phases of ultracold polar gases among whose characteristics is a long-range entanglement of the dipoles' mutual orientation. We devised an accurate analytic model of such optical-field-dressed dipole-dipole interaction potentials, which enables a straightforward access to the optical-field parameters required for the design of intermolecular interactions in the laboratory.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1104.104

Functional Relationships between Kinetic, Flow, and Geometrical Parameters in a High-Temperature Chemical Microreactor.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and isothermal approximation were applied for the interpretation of experimental measurements of the C10H7Br pyrolysis efficiency in the high-temperature microreactor and of the pressure drop in the flow tube of the reactor. Applying isothermal approximation allows the derivation of analytical relationships between the kinetic, gas flow, and geometrical parameters of the microreactor, which, along with CFD simulations, accurately predict the experimental observations. On the basis of the obtained analytical relationships, a clear strategy for measuring rate coefficients of (pseudo) first-order bimolecular and unimolecular reactions using the microreactor was proposed. The pressure- and temperature-dependent rate coefficients for the C10H7Br pyrolysis calculated using variable reaction coordinate transition state theory were invoked to interpret the experimental data on the pyrolysis efficiency

Ex vivo perfusion, arteriography, and autotransplantation procedures for kidney salvage

Three kidneys with arterial lesions that would have been difficult or impossible to repair by standard vascular reconstruction were removed, perfused by the Belzer technique, and returned to host after partial or complete autotransplantation. The fact that kidneys can be studied, dissected, repaired, and constantly salvaged with this technique should have important implications in several aspects of urologic operations