Decline in an Atlantic Puffin population : evaluation of magnitude and mechanisms

Funding: This study was funded annually by Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust (www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk) with contributions from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (jncc.defra.gov.uk). Funding was received from these two sources by Fair Isle Bird Observatory from 1986 to 2013. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee and Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust supplied guidance on study design, data collection, analyses, preparation of the manuscript and the decision to publish.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Amplitude equations and pattern selection in Faraday waves

We present a systematic nonlinear theory of pattern selection for parametric surface waves (Faraday waves), not restricted to fluids of low viscosity. A standing wave amplitude equation is derived from the Navier-Stokes equations that is of gradient form. The associated Lyapunov function is calculated for different regular patterns to determine the selected pattern near threshold. For fluids of large viscosity, the selected wave pattern consists of parallel stripes. At lower viscosity, patterns of square symmetry are obtained in the capillary regime (large frequencies). At lower frequencies (the mixed gravity-capillary regime), a sequence of six-fold (hexagonal), eight-fold, ... patterns are predicted. The regions of stability of the various patterns are in quantitative agreement with recent experiments conducted in large aspect ratio systems.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, Revte

Identification and functional analysis of novel phosphorylation sites in the RNA surveillance protein Upf1.

One third of inherited genetic diseases are caused by mRNAs harboring premature termination codons as a result of nonsense mutations. These aberrant mRNAs are degraded by the Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay (NMD) pathway. A central component of the NMD pathway is Upf1, an RNA-dependent ATPase and helicase. Upf1 is a known phosphorylated protein, but only portions of this large protein have been examined for phosphorylation sites and the functional relevance of its phosphorylation has not been elucidated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using tandem mass spectrometry analyses, we report the identification of 11 putative phosphorylated sites in S. cerevisiae Upf1. Five of these phosphorylated residues are located within the ATPase and helicase domains and are conserved in higher eukaryotes, suggesting a biological significance for their phosphorylation. Indeed, functional analysis demonstrated that a small carboxy-terminal motif harboring at least three phosphorylated amino acids is important for three Upf1 functions: ATPase activity, NMD activity and the ability to promote translation termination efficiency. We provide evidence that two tyrosines within this phospho-motif (Y-738 and Y-742) act redundantly to promote ATP hydrolysis, NMD efficiency and translation termination fidelity

Formation of Ionization-Cone Structures in Active Galactic Nuclei: I. Stationary Model and Linear Stability Analysis

We discuss causes of the formation of the observed kinematics and morphology of cones of ionized matter in the neighborhood of the nuclei of Seyfert galaxies. The results of linear stability analysis of an optically thin conic jet where radiation cooling and gravity play an important part are reported. The allowance for radiation cooling is shown to result in strong damping of all acoustic modes and to have insignificant effect on unstable surface Kelvin--Helmholtz modes. In the case of waveguide--resonance internal gravity modes radiative cooling suppresses completely the instability of waves propagating away from the ejection source and, vice versa, reduces substantially the growth time scale of unstable sourceward propagating modes. The results obtained can be used to study ionization cones in Seyfert galaxies with radio jets. In particular, our analysis shows that surface Kelvin--Helmholtz modes and volume harmonics are capable of producing regular features observed in optical emission-line images of such galaxies.Comment: 13 pages, published in Astrophysical Bulleti

Impurity-induced stabilization of solitons in arrays of parametrically driven nonlinear oscillators

Chains of parametrically driven, damped pendula are known to support soliton-like clusters of in-phase motion which become unstable and seed spatiotemporal chaos for sufficiently large driving amplitudes. We show that the pinning of the soliton on a "long" impurity (a longer pendulum) expands dramatically its stability region whereas "short" defects simply repel solitons producing effective partition of the chain. We also show that defects may spontaneously nucleate solitons.Comment: 4 pages in RevTeX; 7 figures in ps forma

On the equivalence of different approaches for generating multisoliton solutions of the KPII equation

The unexpectedly rich structure of the multisoliton solutions of the KPII equation has been explored by using different approaches, running from dressing method to twisting transformations and to the tau-function formulation. All these approaches proved to be useful in order to display different properties of these solutions and their related Jost solutions. The aim of this paper is to establish the explicit formulae relating all these approaches. In addition some hidden invariance properties of these multisoliton solutions are discussed

Gateway to Curiosity: Medical Marijuana Ads and Intention and Use during Middle School

Abstract Over the past several years, medical marijuana has received increased attention in the media, and marijuana use has increased across the United States. Studies suggest that as marijuana has become more accessible and adults have become more tolerant regarding marijuana use, adolescents perceive marijuana as more beneficial and are more likely to use if they are living in an environment that is more tolerant of marijuana use. One factor that may influence adolescents' perceptions about marijuana and marijuana use is their exposure to advertising of this product. We surveyed 6 th -8 th grade youth in 2010 and 2011 in 16 middle schools in southern California (n= 8214; 50% male; 52% Hispanic; mean age = 13) and assessed exposure to advertising for medical marijuana, marijuana intentions and marijuana use. Cross-lagged regressions showed a reciprocal association of advertising exposure with marijuana use and intentions during middle school. Greater initial medical marijuana advertising exposure was significantly associated with a higher probability of marijuana use and stronger intentions to use one year later, and initial marijuana use and stronger intentions to use were associated with greater medical marijuana advertising exposure one year later. Prevention programs need to better explain medical marijuana to youth, providing information on the context for proper medical use of this drug and the potential harms from use during this developmental period. Furthermore, as this is a new frontier, it is important to consider regulating medical marijuana advertisements, as is currently done for alcohol and tobacco products. Keywords adolescents; medical marijuana; advertising; marijuana use Teen marijuana use is rising across the United States HHS Public Access Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript risk youth found that most of these youth perceived marijuana use as "normal," with 90% voicing positive attitudes toward marijuana use In this study, we focus on advertising for medical marijuana. People who have a medical marijuana card typically have a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana, and are afforded some protection from arrest and criminal sanctions. Some studies have begun to assess how legalization of medical marijuana has affected attitudes toward marijuana. In a large study in Montana across several counties, Friese and Grube (2013) assessed 17,482 adolescents age 13-19 and examined the association between adolescent marijuana use and voter approval of medical marijuana and number of medical marijuana cards issued. They found that youth were more likely to report greater lifetime and past 30 day use of marijuana when they lived in counties with a higher percentage of voters approving legalization of medical marijuana; the number of medical marijuana cards was not related to marijuana use Exposure to medical marijuana advertising may be an important influence on adolescents' perceptions about marijuana and marijuana use. Many studies have shown, for example, that there is a strong association between alcohol advertising and subsequent drinking among youth Given the potential problems that marijuana use during adolescence can cause in later life, we need to better understand the factors that may affect intentions to use and initiation during this developmental period. We know of no prior research in this area; therefore, the current longitudinal study takes an important first look at the cross-lagged associations of advertising for medical marijuana on younger adolescents' intentions to use marijuana in the next six months and their actual marijuana use. We examined cross-lagged associations longitudinally because the reinforcing spirals model of media exposure and risk behavior has shown that exposure and behavior can mutually reinforce each other and potentially increase risk-taking behavior over time Method The sample comprised 6 th -8 th grade students initially recruited in 2008 in 16 middle schools across three school districts in southern California to evaluate the CHOICE substance use prevention program for middle school students (D 'Amico, et al., 2012). Schools were selected and matched to their nearest neighbor school based on the squared Euclidean distance measure, estimated using publicly available information on ethnic diversity, approximate size, and standardized test scores (D 'Amico, et al., 2012). Across all schools, 92% of parents returned a consent form at the baseline, and approximately 71% of parents gave permission for their child to participate in the original Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript study. Ninety-four percent of consented students completed the baseline survey, which is higher or comparable to other school-based survey completion rates with this population We began to collect data on exposure to medical marijuana advertising at wave 4 because a proposition to legalize marijuana was being discussed in the California Senate in January 2010 and was added to the California ballot in November 2010 (California Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Act). The mean age of the sample at this time was 13. Youth were ethnically and racially diverse (e.g., 52% Hispanic; 17% Asian) and rates of substance use across waves were comparable to national samples Surveys Responses were protected by a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health; procedures were approved by the individual schools and the institution's internal review board. Covariates included age, gender, race/ethnicity, academic performance, and intervention status. Of note, there were no intervention effects on marijuana use, and initial intervention effects on alcohol use were no longer significant after wave 3 of the study (when we began collecting data on exposure to medical marijuana advertising); nonetheless, we controlled for CHOICE participation in the present analyses. Exposure to medical marijuana advertising: "In the past three months, how often have you seen advertisements for medical marijuana on billboards, in magazines, or somewhere else?" (response options ranged from 1=not at all to 7=every day). Advertising exposure was highly skewed and dichotomized as no exposure versus any exposure. Youth who were exposed reported seeing ads on average about once a month. Intention to smoke marijuana: "Do you think you will use any marijuana in the next six months?" (response options ranged from 1=definitely no to 4=definitely yes). Marijuana use: "During the past month, how many times did you use marijuana (pot, weed, grass, hash)?" (response options ranged from 1=0 days to 7=20 to 30 days). We dichotomized marijuana use into "any use" versus "no use" given that past month use rates were low, as expected for this age group, and models would not converge using the continuous measure. Results The analytic sample comprised 8,214 individuals who responded at waves 4 or 5. Maximum likelihood (ML) estimation was employed using Mplus 6.11 (Muthén & Muthén, 2011) with standard errors corrected for clustering at the school level. ML was used rather than the default WLSMV for several reasons. First, the assumptions that must be made when estimating models with missing data are more restrictive with WLSMV than with ML Twenty-two percent of adolescents at wave 4 and 30% at wave 5 reported seeing at least one advertisement for medical marijuana on billboards, in magazines, or somewhere else in the past three months. With regard to demographic and academic covariates, higher academic performance was associated with greater exposure to advertising (p < .01), being male (p = . 014), and Asian (relative to white; p < .01) were associated with being exposed to fewer advertisements. For marijuana use at wave 4, higher academic performance was associated with greater likelihood of use (p < .01) and being of Asian descent or other race was associated with lower likelihood of use (p < .01 and p = .03, respectively). For intentions to use, higher academic performance was associated with higher intentions (p < .01), and being of Asian descent (p < .01) was associated with lower intentions. For the cross-lagged regression models, at both waves, as expected, these younger adolescents reported fairly low levels of past month marijuana use (wave 4: 3.3%; wave 5: 4.8%) and low intentions to use in the next six months (wave 4: mean = 1.41, sd = 0.95; wave 5: mean = 1.48, sd = 0.98). Exposure to medical marijuana ads at wave 4 predicted stronger intentions to use (b = 0.73, SE=0.06, OR = 2.07, p < .001), and actual use (b = 0.79, SE = 0.25, OR = 2.20, p = .002) at wave 5. Thus, youth who reported seeing any ads for medical marijuana were twice as likely as youth who reported never seeing an ad to use marijuana and to report higher intentions to use marijuana one year later. Marijuana use at wave 4 (b = 1.07, SE = 0.10, OR = 2.92, p <.001) and intentions to use (b = 0.09, SE=0.03, OR = 1.09, p = 0.008) also predicted exposure to medical marijuana ads at wave 5. For example, youth who reported marijuana use were almost three times as likely to report seeing ads one year later

The Hispanic Paradox: Race/Ethnicity and Nativity, Immigrant Enclave Residence and Cognitive Impairment Among Older US Adults

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137472/1/jgs14806.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137472/2/jgs14806_am.pd

From paradox to pattern shift: Conceptualising liminal hotspots and their affective dynamics

This article introduces the concept of liminal hotspots as a specifically psychosocial and sociopsychological type of wicked problem, best addressed in a process-theoretical framework. A liminal hotspot is defined as an occasion characterised by the experience of being trapped in the interstitial dimension between different forms-of-process. The paper has two main aims. First, to articulate a nexus of concepts associated with liminal hotspots that together provide general analytic purchase on a wide range of problems concerning “troubled” becoming. Second, to provide concrete illustrations through examples drawn from the health domain. In the conclusion, we briefly indicate the sense in which liminal hotspots are part of broader and deeper historical processes associated with changing modes for the management and navigation of liminality