A Proposal Towards a Dutch Caribbean Marine Mammal Sanctuary

Based on the goals set forth in the Dutch Biodiversity Policy Programme, The Netherlands has a traditionally strong commitment to protect biodiversity and marine mammals both internationally and in its own national and Kingdom waters. Last year the responsible ministry, namely the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I), developed a management plan for the biological resources of the recently declared Dutch Caribbean Exclusive Economic Zone. The Dutch Caribbean EEZ was formally declared on June 10, 2010, and amounts to more than 90.000 km2 of diverse tropical marine habitats. One of the key ambition coming forth from that plan was to develop a Dutch Caribbean Marine Mammal Sanctuary (MMS). This report provides the necessary review and background on which to base such an endeavour. Our updated review establishes beyond doubt that the Dutch Caribbean EEZ has a rich and diverse marine mammal fauna which merits more extensive protection. Even though the fauna is only poorly known, based almost exclusively on incidental sightings and strandings, it amounts to a minimum of 19 marine mammal species, and possibly up to more than 30. Without exception, all documented species appear on protected species lists of one or more treaties ratified by the Kingdom, and/or its constituent countries. Large differences are apparent between the leeward and windward sectors of the Dutch Caribbean EEZ, both in terms of species composition and conservation issues. Throughout the region, cetaceans are playing an increasingly important role in island economies as an important natural attraction for eco-based recreation and tourism, and in this respect the Dutch Caribbean also possesses major potential. We here propose the establishment of a MMS as the cornerstone to sustainable conservation and management of these charismatic animals. Ecological arguments for the establishment of habitat protection by means of the concept of sanctuaries are outlined, as are the many environmental issues that would eventually need to be addressed within the sanctuary. Legal designation of a marine mammal sanctuary (MMS) would form the first and most important step which provides the framework for all broader (international cooperation) and in depth (knowledge and conservation development) initiatives. Once established, the fuller implementation of a marine mammal sanctuary should be seen as a gradual process, involving development of knowledge, policy, rules and regulations, public and stakeholder participation. In this the Netherlands would follow and importantly reinforce the efforts of other nations who have already established MMS’s within the region. Favourable pre-conditions for the establishment of a MMS in the Dutch Caribbean include the fact that a) all cetaceans are already have a legal status in the Dutch Caribbean EEZ which calls for actual protection, b) the most deleterious fishing practices are already significantly limited and controlled within Kingdom waters, c) the key enforcer, namely the Coastguard, is already strongly present (largely due to other reasons), d) the islands generally have a strong tradition of marine protected areas in coastal habitat, e) the incremental costs for research and enforcement needed to establish a sanctuary is modest, f) public support is high, thanks to the generally high level of development and awareness of the public, g) indigenous fishery practices do not conflict with cetacean conservation, and h) whale watching interests are only in their infancy. We conclude our review by proposing the following key action points to establishing a MMS: a) Legal designation of the EEZ (one or both sectors) as MMS, along with establishment of legal guidelines for interacting with cetaceans (whale watching). b) Establish bonds of cooperation with sister sanctuaries in the region (France, USA, Dominican Republic), (e.g. regional stranding and sightings data network). c) Conduct baseline quantitative surveys of cetacean distribution and assessments in light of sources of deleterious sound sources and risks of vessel strikes. d) Review and adapt existing national and insular legal frameworks to improve these, preferably by developing separate and standardized marine mammals legislation. e) Develop information systems to promote the development of a whale (cetacean) watching industry. f) Train and equip marine parks and island veterinarians to conduct elementary autopsies and collect basic stranding specimens for analysis of causes of mortality, contamination levels and genetics, and link them to international academic institutions who will accept and analyse the specimens in regional context. g) Develop species action plans (e.g. humpback). h) Conduct cetacean surveys and management reviews every 5 years to assess marine mammal status and conservation progress

Examining the Correlation between Acute Behavioral Manifestations of Concussion and the Underlying Pathophysiology of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: A Pilot Study

Concussion in athletes can contribute to early neuropsychological changes that may be indicative of future neurodegenerative disease. One of the hallmark findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy is anxiety and impulsive behavior that often develops early in the course of the disease. The behavioral dysfunction can be grouped into a broader category referred to as cognitive disruption. The current gold standard for diagnosing chronic neurodegeneration is post-mortem evaluation of tauopathy to identify neurofibrillary tau tangles in neurons. Few studies, however, have looked at clinical correlations between acute injury and chronic neurodegeneration in terms of behavior. This lack of focus towards translational study has limited advancements towards treatment. In this pilot investigation, the acute cognitive and emotional (anger, impulsivity, and anxiety) affects of concussion in a cohort of collegiate athletes (n = 30) are examined and compared to findings in the post-mortem pathologic features of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Specifically, the role of the seroternergic system with alpha synuclein and tauopathy staining and the potential for early clinically relevant behavioral and pharmaceutical interventions was investigated. The purpose was to determine if athletes began demonstrating cognitive disruption present in post-mortem evaluation during the acute phase of injury. The acute data was collected via questionnaires within ten days of the athletes’ concussion diagnosis. Results demonstrated that 11 of 30 athletes (36%) scored in a diagnosable range of anxiety post-concussion, and athletes scored above the norm in state-anger (M = 22.9, SD = 9.99), indicating severe emotional disturbance. A limitation is that due to the long time frame from acute injury to the development of neurodegeneration individual athletes cannot be tracked in longevity thus limiting the findings to the realm of correlation. The findings from this pilot study warrant further investigation into the neuropsychological aspects for how to manage concussion and prevent degenerative disease

Parallax and Kinematics of PSR B0919+06 from VLBA Astrometry and Interstellar Scintillometry

Results are presented from a long-term astrometry program on PSR B0919+06 using the NRAO Very Long Baseline Array. With ten observations (seven epochs) between 1994--2000, we measure a proper motion of 18.35 +/- 0.06 mas/yr in RA, 86.56 +/- 0.12 mas/yr in Dec, and a parallax of 0.83 +/- 0.13 mas (68% confidence intervals). This yields a pulsar distance of 1.21 +/- 0.19 kpc, making PSR B0919+06 the farthest pulsar for which a trigonometric parallax has been obtained, and the implied pulsar transverse speed is 505 +/- 80 km/s. Combining the distance estimate with interstellar scintillation data spanning 20 years, we infer the existence of a patchy or clumpy scattering screen along the line of sight in addition to the distributed electron density predicted by models for the Galaxy, and constrain the location of this scattering region to within about 250 parsecs of the Sun. Comparison with the lines of sight towards other pulsars in the same quadrant of the Galaxy permits refinement of our knowledge of the local interstellar matter in this direction.Comment: 12 pages, includes 4 figures and 3 tables, uses AASTeX 5 (included); ApJ submitte

Variable selection for fault detection and identification based on mutual information of alarm series

Reducing the dimensionality of a fault detection and identification problem is often a necessity, and variable selection is a practical way to do it. Methods based on mutual information have been successful in that regard, but their applicability to industrial processes is limited by characteristics of the process variables such as their variability across fault occurrences. The paper introduces a new estimation strategy of mutual information criteria using alarm series to improve the robustness of the variable selection. The minimal-redundancy-maximal-relevance criterion on alarm series is suggested as new reference criterion, and the results are validated on a multiphase flow facility

Antennae on transmitters on free-living marine animals: Balancing budgets on the high wire

The effect of externally mounted antennae on the energetics of penguins was studied by mounting various antennae on a transducer fixed to a model Magellanic penguin Spheniscus magellanicus to determine drag, run at speeds of up to 2 m s–1 in a swim canal. For rigid antennae set perpendicular to the water flow, measured drag increased with increasing swim speed. Increasing antenna length (for lengths between 100 and 200 mm) or diameter (for diameters between 1 and 4 mm) resulted in accelerating increased drag as a function of both antenna length and diameter. Where antennae were positioned at acute angles to the water flow, drag was markedly reduced, as was drag at higher speeds in flexible antennae. These results were incorporated in a model on the foraging energetics of free-living Magellanic penguins using data (on swim speeds, intervals between prey encounters, amount ingested per patch and dive durations) derived from previously published work and from a field study conducted on birds from a colony at Punta Norte, Argentina, using data loggers. The field work indicated that free-living birds have a foraging efficiency (net energy gain/net energy loss) of about 2.5. The model predicted that birds equipped with the largest rigid external antennae tested (200 mm × 3 mm diameter), set perpendicular to water flow, increased energy expenditure at normal swim speeds of 1.77 m s–1 by 79% and at prey capture speeds of 2.25 m s–1 by 147%, and ultimately led to a foraging efficiency that was about 5 times less than that of unequipped birds. Highly flexible antennae were shown to reduce this effect considerably. Deleterious antenna-induced effects are predicted to be particularly critical in penguins that have to travel fast to capture prey. Possible measures taken by the birds to increase foraging efficiency could include reduced travelling speed and selection of smaller prey types. Suggestions are made as to how antenna-induced drag might be minimized for future studies on marine diving animal

Resolving the compact HII regions in N160A with HST

Using high-resolution imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope, we study the Large Magellanic Cloud HII region N160A and uncover several striking features of this complex massive star-forming site. The two compact high excitation HII blobs (HEBs) A1 and A2 are for the first time resolved and their stellar content and morphology is revealed. A1, being of higher excitation, is powered by a single massive star whose strong wind has created a surrounding bubble. A2 harbors several exciting stars enshrouded inside large quantities of dust. The whole N160A nebula is energized by three star clusters for which we obtain photometry and study their color-magnitude diagram. The HII region is particularly dusty, with extinction values reaching an A_v~2.5 mag in the visible, and it is separated from the molecular cloud by an outstanding ionization front. A previously detected infrared young stellar object is also accurately located with respect to the HII region.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. A version of the paper with higher quality images is available at http://wwwusr.obspm.fr/~heydari/projects/N16

X-ray Observation and Analysis of The Composite Supernova Remnant G327.1-1.1

Based on the data from the observation of the SNR G327.1-1.1 by ASCA and ROSAT, we find that G327.1-1.1 is a composite remnant with both a nonthermal emission component and a diffuse thermal emission component. The nonthermal component is well fitted by a power-law model with photon index about 2.2. This component is attributed to the emission from the synchrotron nebula powered by an undiscovered central pulsar. The thermal component has a temperature of about 0.4 keV. We attribute it to the emission from the shock-heat swept-up ISM. Its age, explosion energy and density of ambient medium are derived from the observed thermal component. Some charactistics about the synchrotron nebula are also derived. We search for the pulsed signal, but has not found it. The soft X-ray(0.4 - 2 keV) and hard X-ray(2 - 10 keV) images are different, but they both elongate in the SE-NW direction. And this X-ray SE-NW elongation is in positional coincidence with the radio ridge in MOST 843MHz radio map. We present a possibility that the X-ray nonthermal emission mainly come from the trail produced by a quickly moving undiscoverd pulsar, and the long radio ridge is formed when the pulsar is moving out of the boundary of the plerionic structure.Comment: 20 pages, 4 Postscript figures, aasms4.sty and psfig.sty, to be published in Astrophysical Journal, January 20, 1999, Vol. 51

The Backgrounds Data Center

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization has created data centers for midcourse, plumes, and backgrounds phenomenologies. The Backgrounds Data Center (BDC) has been designated as the prime archive for data collected by SDIO programs. The BDC maintains a Summary Catalog that contains 'metadata,' that is, information about data, such as when the data were obtained, what the spectral range of the data is, and what region of the Earth or sky was observed. Queries to this catalog result in a listing of all data sets (from all experiments in the Summary Catalog) that satisfy the specified criteria. Thus, the user can identify different experiments that made similar observations and order them from the BDC for analysis. On-site users can use the Science Analysis Facility (SAFE for this purpose. For some programs, the BDC maintains a Program Catalog, which can classify data in as many ways as desired (rather than just by position, time, and spectral range as in the Summary Catalog). For example, data sets could be tagged with such diverse parameters as solar illumination angle, signal level, or the value of a particular spectral ratio, as long as these quantities can be read from the digital record or calculated from it by the ingest program. All unclassified catalogs and unclassified data will be remotely accessible