The potential for using acoustic tracking to monitor the movement of the West Coast rock lobster Jasus lalandii

Although acoustic tracking has been used to study the movement of several species of clawed and spiny lobsters, only recent technological advances have provided sufficiently small transmitters to examine the utility of using acoustic tracking as a means to analyse the movement of relatively small spiny lobsters, such as Jasus lalandii. The effect of the transmitter on the mobility of J. lalandii was tested in aquarium experiments and was shown to have no influence on movement in three separate experiments. Thereafter, adult male rock lobsters (86–98mm carapace length) were tracked in field trials for up to 32 days at Betty's Bay (n = 4) and Hermanus (n = 5) off the Western Cape, South Africa. Tracking J. lalandii in the field using acoustic tags was successful, even in areas with dense kelp beds and rocky outcrops. The signal from the transmitters was readily detectable from the surface and subsequent use of underwater tracking equipment enabled visual confirmation of the position of the rock lobsters. Lobsters moved significantly longer distances (>45m day−1) in the first two days following tagging than during any subsequent time period (<10m day−1). This suggests that transmitter attachment and/or handling altered the movement pattern for the first 72 hours after tagging. During the period of observation, J. lalandii displayed classical nomadic behaviour

The ultimate arc: Differential displacement, oroclinal bending, and vertical axis rotation in the External Betic-Rif arc

The External Betic-Rif arc, which lies between the converging African and Iberian plates, is one of the tightest orogenic arcs on Earth. It is a thin-skinned fold and thrust belt formed in Miocene time around the periphery of the Alborán Domain, an older contractional orogen that underwent extensional collapse coevally with the formation of the thrust belt. Restoration of four sections across the thrust belt, together with kinematic and paleomagnetic analysis, allows a reconstruction of the prethrusting geometry of the Alborán Domain, and the identification of the following processes that contributed to the formation of the arc: (1) The Alborán Domain moved some 250 km westward relative to Iberia and Africa during the Miocene. This initiated the two limbs of the arc on its NW and SW margins, closing to the WSW in the region of Cherafat in northern Morocco. The overall convergence direction on the Iberian side of the arc was between 310° and 295°, and on the African side it was between 235° and 215°. The difference in convergence direction between the two sectors was primarily a result of the relative motion between Africa and Iberia. (2) Extensional collapse of the Alborán Domain during the Miocene modified the geometry of the western end of the arc: the Internal Rif rotated anticlockwise to form the present north trending sector of the arc, and additional components of displacement produced by extension were transferred into the external thrust belt along a series of strike-slip faults and shear zones. These allowed the limbs of the arc to rotate and extend, tightening the arc, and creating variations in the amounts and directions of shortening around the arc. The Betic sector of the arc rotated clockwise by 25° during this process, and the southern Rif rotated anticlockwise by ∼55°. (3) Oblique convergence on the two limbs of the arc, dextral in the Betics and sinistral in the southern Rif, resulted in strongly noncoaxial deformation. This had three related effects: (1) large rotations of individual thrust sheets resulted from the oblique propagation of thrusts away from the thrust front, followed by pinning and rotation as the thrust sheets peeled off, (2) continued oblique convergence resulted in distributed shear, particularly in the rear of the thrust wedge, causing rotation of stacks of thrust sheets on the scale of a few tens of kilometers, and (3) distributed shear in the orogen resulted in the rotation of folds as they amplified, the hinges migrating through the rock body, and rotating at a slower rate than the rock. These rotations were substantially larger than the bulk rotations of the limbs of the arc, and they strongly modified the orientations of folds, thrust traces, and the structural indicators of fault slip directions

The Effects of HB1519 Funding on Early Childhood Programs

Includes bibliographical reference.In 1998, the Missouri Legislature created the Early Childhood Care and Education Fund (HB1519). The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Social Services funded a three-year study that evaluated the development and care of children participating in programs across the state that were supported by HB1519 funds compared to children participating in programs that did not receive funding. Program quality was evaluated using the Infant-Toddler Environmental Rating Scale, the Family Daycare Environmental Rating Scale and the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale-Revised. Furthermore, the intellectual abilities of children who attended high quality programs were compared to the abilities of children who attended programs of lower quality using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities.Funded by the Missouri Department of Social Services and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Ambulatory care, insurance, and avoidable emergency department utilization in North Carolina

Objective: To examine whether and how avoidable emergency department (ED) utilization is associated with ambulatory or primary care (APC) utilization, insurance, and interaction effects. Design and sample: A cross-sectional analysis of electronic health records from 70,870 adults residing in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, who visited an ED within a large integrated healthcare system in 2017. Methods: APC utilization was measured as total visits, categorized as: 0, 1, and &gt; 1. Insurance was defined as the method of payment for the ED visit as: Medicaid, Medicare, private, or uninsured. Avoidable ED utilization was quantified as a score (aED), calculated as the sum of New York University Algorithm probabilities multiplied by 100. Quantile regression models were used to predict the 25th, 50th, 75th, 95th, and 99th percentiles of avoidable ED scores with APC visits and insurance as predictors (Model 1) and with an interaction term (Model 2). Results: Having &gt;1 APC visit was negatively associated with aED at the lower percentiles and positively associated at higher percentiles. A higher aED was associated with having Medicaid insurance and a lower aED was associated with having private insurance, compared to being uninsured. In stratified models, having &gt;1 APC visit was negatively associated with aED at the 25th percentile for the uninsured and privately insured, but positively associated with aED at higher percentiles among the uninsured, Medicaid-insured, and privately insured. Conclusions: The association between APC utilization and avoidable ED utilization varied based on segments of the distribution of ED score and differed significantly by insurance type

Carbohydrate and protein contents of grain dusts in relation to dust morphology.

Grain dusts contain a variety of materials which are potentially hazardous to the health of workers in the grain industry. Because the characterization of grain dusts is incomplete, we are defining the botanical, chemical, and microbial contents of several grain dusts collected from grain elevators in the Duluth-Superior regions of the U.S. Here, we report certain of the carbohydrate and protein contents of dusts in relation to dust morphology. Examination of the gross morphologies of the dusts revealed that, except for corn, each dust contained either husk or pericarp (seed coat in the case of flax) fragments in addition to respirable particles. When viewed with the light microscope, the fragments appeared as elongated, pointed structures. The possibility that certain of the fragments within corn, settled, and spring wheat were derived from cell walls was suggested by the detection of pentoses following colorimetric assay of neutralized 2 N trifluoroacetic acid hydrolyzates of these dusts. The presence of pentoses together with the occurrence of proteins within water washings of grain dusts suggests that glycoproteins may be present within the dusts. With scanning electron microscopy, each dust was found to consist of a distinct assortment of particles in addition to respirable particles. Small husk fragments and "trichome-like" objects were common to all but corn dust

Status of Infant and Toddler Programs in Missouri

Includes bibliographical references.Early childhood is a critical period for cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional development. Research finds that children who attend high quality infant and toddler programs are better prepared to succeed in school and in the workforce than those who did not attend. Thus, the quality of infant and toddler programs has great implications for children's development. One of the tasks of a survey was to examine infant and toddler workforce issues and program quality.Funded by HHS Child Care Bureau and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Genome-wide association studies of the self-rating of effects of ethanol (SRE).

The level of response (LR) to alcohol as measured with the Self-Report of the Effects of Alcohol Retrospective Questionnaire (SRE) evaluates the number of standard drinks usually required for up to four effects. The need for a higher number of drinks for effects is genetically influenced and predicts higher risks for heavy drinking and alcohol problems. We conducted genome-wide association study (GWAS) in the African-American (COGA-AA, N = 1527 from 309 families) and European-American (COGA-EA, N = 4723 from 956 families) subsamples of the Collaborative Studies on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) for two SRE scores: SRE-T (average of first five times of drinking, the period of heaviest drinking, and the most recent 3 months of consumption) and SRE-5 (the first five times of drinking). We then meta-analyzed the two COGA subsamples (COGA-AA + EA). Both SRE-T and SRE-5 were modestly heritable (h2 : 21%-31%) and genetically correlated with alcohol dependence (AD) and DSM-IV AD criterion count (rg : 0.35-0.76). Genome-wide significant associations were observed (SRE-T: chromosomes 6, rs140154945, COGA-EA P = 3.30E-08 and 11, rs10647170, COGA-AA+EA P = 3.53E-09; SRE-5: chromosome13, rs4770359, COGA-AA P = 2.92E-08). Chromosome 11 was replicated in an EA dataset from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism intramural program. In silico functional analyses and RNA expression analyses suggest that the chromosome 6 locus is an eQTL for KIF25. Polygenic risk scores derived using the COGA SRE-T and SRE-5 GWAS predicted 0.47% to 2.48% of variances in AD and DSM-IV AD criterion count in independent datasets. This study highlights the genetic contribution of alcohol response phenotypes to the etiology of alcohol use disorders