Sardine (Sardina pilchardus Walbaum) characterisation off the Spanish Atlantic coast

In 1983 both Spain and Portugal begun to conduct acoustic surveys in the Atlantic waters of the Iberian Peninsula. The main goal for these surveys was the assessment of the main pelagic fish species, but focussed on sardine. Some years the surveyed area was extended as far as the distribution of blue whiting, but in general covering only the continental shelf. Since 1988 the Spanish surveys are undertook in spring, during the spawning period of this fish species. As most of the pelagic fish species sardine occurs in schools. From the school data base gathered during the acoustic surveys, the echo-traces were allocated into fish species following a criteria. This scrutiny is based on the fish proportion found at the fishing station, but a learning process was also used which consisted in relating school characteristics (shape and energy) and its location (geographical location, distance to the coast, sea bottom typology among others) with fish species. This paper describes the main characteristics of the sardine schools, which have been extracted manually from paper echograms from 1992 to 1997 surveys (except 1994). A series of variables for each school were obtained: position (latitude, longitude, time, distant to the next school, distant to coast, minimum school depth and total water column depth), morphologic (height, length, area and perimeter), energetic (school energy -SA value- and density -energy/ area-) and environmental parameters (temperature and salinity). These were described by box plot, scatter plot and other basic exploratory methods. From this analysis, differences among years and geographic areas have been found in sardine schools. The relation of such changes with the total sardine abundance estimates as well as the implication in the survey design were also discussed

Spatio-temporal patterns and morphological characterisation of multispecies pelagic fish schools in the North-Western Mediterranean Sea

Echosounder data from four surveys (1992, 1993, 1995 and 1996) is used to investigate the spatio-temporal variability of school behaviour in North-Western Mediterranean waters. The schools are described using morphological, energetic, spatial and temporal descriptors. The variability in the morphological, positional and energetic parameters of the schools is attributable more to the size of the school's individuals (juveniles or adults) than to the relative composition (percentage) of pelagic species in the area. This fact made difficult the identification of species in the studied area. The concentration of schools in certain geographic zones is determined by local oceanographic characteristics that favour the trophic or reproductive activity of these species. The diurnal aggregative behaviour of pelagic species is typical of the zone and no schools were detected at night. The biomass of the pelagic species in the area under consideration has diminished during the 4-year study period and no relationship was found between the number of schools and the biomass evaluated. This is the first time that the schools of small pelagic fishes from the Spanish Mediterranean Sea have been described and the information could be useful to the management and exploitation of the fisheries in the areaPublicado

Spatio-temporal patterns in pelagic fish school abundance and size: a study of pelagic fish aggregation using acoustic surveys from Senegal to Shetland

As part of the EU funded project CLUSTER, databases were constructed of pelagic fish schools identified during a series of acoustic surveys in the NW North Sea, Bay of Biscay, western Mediterranean and Agean Seas and off Senegal. Among other descriptors, the databases usually included the height, length and energy (S,,) of each school. The number of schoo!.s per 1 nmi EDSU was also recorded. The relationship between these descriptors and a range of external variables (eg bottom depth, time of day and location) were examined using a suite of multiple regression models. The results indicate strong non-linear dependencies in some of the surveys on time of day and water depth. School count per EDSU tended to be high during the middle part of the day and lower at dawn and dusk. Furthermore, the ‘shape’ of this dependence on time of day is non-constant and changes with location and year. Possible explanations for such patterns and the differences and similarities between the survey areas will be discussed, as well as the impact of these findings on the conduct and analysis of acoustic surveys. In addition, we have examined the spatio-temporal pattern of sampling in each of the survey series and we will present an analysis of the impact of survey design on the potential for such spatio-temporal modelling studies

Sensitivity analysis of school parameters to compare schools from different surveys: a review of the standardisation task of the EC-FAIR programme CLUSTER

Echo traces seen on echo grams contain a lot of information about the aggregation of fish in schools. But the acosutic image obtained with a vertical biomass assessment echosounder contains distorsions mainly due to the beam angle, the equipment settings and the school depth. When the acoustic image of aggregation patterns changes over the years or varies between stocks, it is important to know up to what extent biological interpretation is meaningful!. The present paper reviews the work performed by a group of scientist within the EC FAIR programme CLUSTER. Simulations were performed to correct school parameters. Digital data were replayed to assess the importance of these corrections. Charts were derived to limit biological interpretation of changes on the school acoustic images

Consistency in the correlation of school parameters across years and stocks

Acoustic surveys have been undertaken in different parts of the waters around Europe. In this paper we consider those taking place in NE Atlantic waters – off the NE Scottish coast, the Bay of Biscay and off the Spanish Atlantic coast – and in the Mediterranean Sea – the Catalonian Sea, the Gulf of Lion and the Aegean Sea. Retained school variables were: corrected school length (m), school height (m), school area (m2), school perimeter (m), school energy (Nautical area scattering coefficent, SA), school density (energy vs. area), school depth (m) and bottom-depth-under-school (m). STATIS (Structuration de Tableux à Trois Indices de la Statisque), a multi-table analysis based on the Principal Component Analysis was used to analyse the correlation in different schools, parameters and intra- and interstock relationships. In all stocks, the first three axes extracted explained between 86.89% (Sete) and 91.84% (Aberdeen) of the total variance, because the annual variability present in the correlation structure of each stock is not widely dispersed. In all stocks, the first factorial axis was typified by the morphological variables (school length, school height, school area and school perimeter), which showed a very clear pattern with all of them being closely related. There were major differences between all stocks in regard to the general correlation relationship of the energetic variables analysed i.e. school energy and school density. Energy and density showed less variability than the morphological variables in all stocks with the exception of one survey. There were some differences between stocks in relation to the correlation of bathymetric variables. In all cases, school density and, to a lesser extent, school energy were opposed to the bathymetric variables, so that schools with higher densities would be located near the surface and in shallower areas. A complete analysis of all the surveys of each stock showed a homogeneous pattern which was very similar to most of the stocks considered separately. All morphological variables are well grouped and show a strong positive correlation. In general, therefore, all the schools analysed increased and decreased equally in all their dimensions. Both bathymetric variables are strongly correlated.Publicado

Search for Scalar Diphoton Resonances in the Mass Range 65−60065-600 GeV with the ATLAS Detector in pppp Collision Data at s\sqrt{s} = 8 TeVTeV

A search for scalar particles decaying via narrow resonances into two photons in the mass range 65–600 GeV is performed using $20.3\text{}\text{}{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=8\text{}\text{}\mathrm{TeV}$ $pp$ collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The recently discovered Higgs boson is treated as a background. No significant evidence for an additional signal is observed. The results are presented as limits at the 95% confidence level on the production cross section of a scalar boson times branching ratio into two photons, in a fiducial volume where the reconstruction efficiency is approximately independent of the event topology. The upper limits set extend over a considerably wider mass range than previous searches

Search for Higgs and ZZ Boson Decays to J/ψγJ/\psi\gamma and Υ(nS)γ\Upsilon(nS)\gamma with the ATLAS Detector

A search for the decays of the Higgs and $Z$ bosons to $J/\psi\gamma$ and $\Upsilon(nS)\gamma$ ($n=1,2,3$) is performed with $pp$ collision data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of up to $20.3\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected at $\sqrt{s}=8\mathrm{TeV}$ with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess of events is observed above expected backgrounds and 95% CL upper limits are placed on the branching fractions. In the $J/\psi\gamma$ final state the limits are $1.5\times10^{-3}$ and $2.6\times10^{-6}$ for the Higgs and $Z$ bosons, respectively, while in the $\Upsilon(1S,2S,3S)\,\gamma$ final states the limits are $(1.3,1.9,1.3)\times10^{-3}$ and $(3.4,6.5,5.4)\times10^{-6}$, respectively

Finska tingsdomares bedömningar av partsutlåtanden givna på plats i rätten eller via videokonferens

Professionals within the judicial system sometimes believe they can assess whether someone is lying or not based on cues such as body language and emotional expression. Research has, however, shown that this is impossible. The Finnish Supreme Court has also given rulings in accordance with this demonstrated fact. There has also been previous research on whether party or witness statements are assessed differently in court depending on whether they are given live, via videoconference, or via prerecorded video. In the present study, we investigated how a Finnish sample of district judges (N=47) assigned probative value to different variables concerning the statement or the statement giver, such as body language and emotional expression. We also investigated the connection between the judges’ beliefs about the relevance of body language and emotional expression and their preference for live statements or statements via videoconference. The judges reported assigning equal amounts of probative value to statements given live and statements given via videoconference. However, judges found it easier to detect deception live, and this preference correlated with how relevant they thought body language is when assessing the probative value of the statement. In other words, a slight bias to assess live statements more favorably than statements given via videoconference might still exist. More effort needs to be put into making judges and Supreme Courts aware of robust scientific results that have been the subject of decades of research, such as the fact that one cannot assess whether someone is lying or not based on cues such as body language