Microhabitat competition between Iberian fish species and the endangered Júcar nase (Parachondrostoma arrigonis; Steindachner, 1866)

"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Ecohydraulics on 24-01-2017, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24705357.2016.1276417"[EN] Competition with invasive species is recognized as having a major impact on biodiversity conservation. The upper part of the Cabriel River (Eastern Iberian Peninsula) harbours the most important population of the Júcar nase (Parachondrostoma arrigonis; Steindachner, 1866), a fish species in imminent danger of extinction. Currently, this species cohabits with several non-native species, such as the Iberian nase (Pseudochondrostoma polylepis; Steindachner, 1864) and the bermejuela (Achondrostoma arcasii; Steindachner, 1866). The potential habitat competition with these species was studied by analysing the spatial and temporal overlapping of suitable microhabitats. Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) were developed to model microhabitat selection and these GAMMs were used to assess the habitat suitability (i.e. probability of presence) under several flows simulated with River2D. The Júcar nase will compete, spatially and temporally, for the few suitable microhabitats with bermejuela and, to a lesser extent, with small Iberian nase; conversely, large Iberian nase was of minor concern, due to increased differences in habitat preferences. This study represents an important assessment of potential competition and, therefore, these results might assist to better define future management practices in the upper part of the Cabriel River.This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the SCARCE project (Consolider Ingenio 2010 CSD2009 00065); the Universitat Politècnica de València, through the project UPPTE/2012/294 [PAID 06 12]; it was also partially funded by the IMPADAPT project (CGL2013-48424-C2-1-R) with Spanish MINECO (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) and FEDER funds. The authors would like to thank the help of the Conselleria de Territori i Vivenda (Generalitat Valenciana) and the Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar (Spanish government), which provided environmental data to Alfredo Ollero, and the two anonymous reviewers who first suggested the submission of the paper to a regular journal. 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Soft X-ray emission from the inner disk of M33

We present a study, based on archival XMM-Newton observations, of the extended X-ray emission associated with the inner disk of M33. After the exclusion of point sources with L_X > 2 x 10^{35} erg/s (0.3-6 keV), we investigate the morphology and spectrum of the residual X-ray emission. This residual emission has a soft X-ray spectrum which can be fitted with a two-temperature thermal model, with kT = 0.2 keV and 0.6 keV. The soft X-ray surface brightness distribution shows a strong correlation with FUV emission, indicative of a close connection between recent star-formation activity and the production of soft X-rays. Within 3.5 kpc of the nucleus of M33, the soft X-ray and FUV surface brightness distributions exhibit similar radial profiles. This implies that the ratio of the soft X-ray luminosity (0.3-2.0 keV) to the star formation rate (SFR) per unit disk area remains fairly constant within this inner disk region. We derive a value for this ratio of 1-1.5 x 10^{39} (erg/s)/(M_sun/yr), consistent with previous studies. In the same region, the ratio of soft X-ray luminosity to stellar mass (derived from K-band photometry) is 4 x 10^{28} erg/s/M_sun, a factor of 5-10 higher than is typical of dwarf elliptical galaxies, suggesting that 10-20% of the unresolved emission seen in M33 may originate in its old stellar population. The remainder of the soft X-ray emission is equally split between two spatial components, one which closely traces the spiral arms of the galaxy and the other more smoothly distributed across the inner disk of M33. The former must represent a highly clumped low-filling factor component linked to sites of recent or ongoing star formation, whereas the distribution of the latter gives few clues as to its exact origin.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

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We present a study of the X-ray properties of a sample of six nearby late-type spiral galaxies based on XMM-Newton observations. Since our primary focus is on the linkage between X-ray emission and star formation in extended, extranuclear galactic disks, we have selected galaxies with near face-on aspect and sufficient angular extent so as to be readily amenable to investigation with the moderate spatial resolution afforded by XMM-Newton. After excluding regions in each galaxy dominated by bright point sources, we study both the morphology and spectral properties of the residual X-ray emission, comprised of both diffuse emission and the integrated signal of the fainter discrete source populations. The soft X-ray morphology generally traces the inner spiral arms and shows a strong correlation with the distribution of UV light, indicative of a close connection between the X-ray emission and recent star formation. The soft (0.3-2 keV) X-ray luminosity to star formation rate (SFR) ratio varies from 1-5 x 10^39 erg/s(/Msun/yr), with an indication that the lower range of this ratio relates to regions of lower SFR density. The X-ray spectra are well matched by a two-temperature thermal model with derived temperatures of typically ~0.2 keV and ~0.65 keV, in line with published results for other normal and star-forming galaxies. The hot component contributes a higher fraction of the soft luminosity in the galaxies with highest X-ray/SFR ratio, suggesting a link between plasma temperature and X-ray production efficiency. The physical properties of the gas present in the galactic disks are consistent with a clumpy thin-disk distribution, presumably composed of diffuse structures such as superbubbles together with the integrated emission of unresolved discrete sources including young supernova remnants.Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 17 pages, 6 figures, 7 table

Correlated optical, X-ray, and $-ray flaring activity seen with INTEGRAL during the 2015 outburst of V404 Cygni

Reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics. © 2015 ESO.After 25 years of quiescence, the microquasar V404 Cyg entered a new period of activity in June 2015. This X-ray source is known to undergo extremely bright and variable outbursts seen at all wavelengths. It is therefore an object of prime interest to understand the accretion-ejection connections. These can, however, only be probed through simultaneous observations at several wavelengths. We made use of the INTEGRAL instruments to obtain long, almost uninterrupted observations from 2015 June 20th, 15:50 UTC to June 25th, 4:05 UTC, from the optical V-band, up to the soft γ-rays. V404 Cyg was extremely variable in all bands, with the detection of 18 flares with fluxes exceeding 6 Crab (20--40 keV) within 3 days. The flare recurrence can be as short as ∼ 20~min from peak to peak. A model-independent analysis shows that the >6 Crab flares have a hard spectrum. A simple 10--400 keV spectral analysis of the off-flare and flare periods shows that the variation in intensity is likely to be due to variations of a cut-off power law component only. The optical flares seem to be at least of two different types: one occurring in simultaneity with the X-ray flares, the other showing a delay greater than 10 min. The former could be associated with X-ray reprocessing by either an accretion disk or the companion star. We suggest that the latter are associated with plasma ejections that have also been seen in radio.Peer reviewe

Bright Stars and Recent Star Formation in the Irregular Magellanic Galaxy NGC2366

The stellar content of the Im galaxy NGC 2366 is discussed on the basis of CCD BVR photometry. The three brightest blue and red stars have been used to estimate its distance, obtaining a balue of 2.9 Mpc. The spatial distribution of the young stellar population is discussed in the light of the integrated color indices and the color-magnitude diagrams of different zones of the galaxy. A generalized star formation burst seems to have taken place about 50 Myr ago. The youngest stars are preferentially formed in the South-West part of the bar, where the giant HII complex NGC 2363 is located, being younger and bluer. The bar seems to play a role favouring star formation in one of its extremes. Self-propagation however, does not seem to be triggering star formation at large scale. A small region, populated by very young stars has also been found at the East of the galaxy.Comment: Astronomical Journal, accepted. This is a uuencoded, compressed, tar file (102 Kbytes) of 1 text, 1 table postscript files. Figures are retrieved as a separate file. One single file with all figures and tables (552Kb) also available from http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~etelles/astronomy.htm

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Evolving and sustaining ocean best practices and standards for the next decade

The oceans play a key role in global issues such as climate change, food security, and human health. Given their vast dimensions and internal complexity, efficient monitoring and predicting of the planet's ocean must be a collaborative effort of both regional and global scale. A first and foremost requirement for such collaborative ocean observing is the need to follow well-defined and reproducible methods across activities: from strategies for structuring observing systems, sensor deployment and usage, and the generation of data and information products, to ethical and governance aspects when executing ocean observing. To meet the urgent, planet-wide challenges we face, methods across all aspects of ocean observing should be broadly adopted by the ocean community and, where appropriate, should evolve into "Ocean Best Practices." While many groups have created best practices, they are scattered across the Web or buried in local repositories and many have yet to be digitized. To reduce this fragmentation, we introduce a new open access, permanent, digital repository of best practices documentation (oceanbestpractices.org) that is part of the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). The new OBPS provides an opportunity space for the centralized and coordinated improvement of ocean observing methods. The OBPS repository employs user-friendly software to significantly improve discovery and access to methods. The software includes advanced semantic technologies for search capabilities to enhance repository operations. In addition to the repository, the OBPS also includes a peer reviewed journal research topic, a forum for community discussion and a training activity for use of best practices. Together, these components serve to realize a core objective of the OBPS, which is to enable the ocean community to create superior methods for every activity in ocean observing from research to operations to applications that are agreed upon and broadly adopted across communities. Using selected ocean observing examples, we show how the OBPS supports this objective. This paper lays out a future vision of ocean best practices and how OBPS will contribute to improving ocean observing in the decade to come

Deep Near Infrared Mapping of Young and Old Stars in Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies

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Research suggests that anxiety is maintained by an attentional bias to threat, and a growing base of evidence suggests that anxiety may additionally be associated with the deficient attentional processing of positive stimuli. The present study sought to examine whether such anxiety-linked attentional biases were associated with either stimulus driven or attentional control mechanisms of attentional selectivity. High and low trait anxious participants completed an emotional variant of an antisaccade task, in which they were required to prosaccade towards, or antisaccade away from a positive, neutral or threat stimulus, while eye movements were recorded. While low anxious participants were found to be slower to saccade in response to positive stimuli, irrespectively of whether a pro- or antisaccade was required, such a bias was absent in high anxious individuals. Analysis of erroneous antisaccades further revealed at trend level, that anxiety was associated with reduced peak velocity in response to threat. The findings suggest that anxiety is associated with the aberrant processing of positive stimuli, and greater compensatory efforts in the inhibition of threat. The findings further highlight the relevance of considering saccade peak velocity in the assessment of anxiety-linked attentional processing

Challenges for Sustained Observing and Forecasting Systems in the Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean community represented in this paper is the result of more than 30 years of EU and nationally funded coordination, which has led to key contributions in science concepts and operational initiatives. Together with the establishment of operational services, the community has coordinated with universities, research centers, research infrastructures and private companies to implement advanced multi-platform and integrated observing and forecasting systems that facilitate the advancement of operational services, scientific achievements and mission-oriented innovation. Thus, the community can respond to societal challenges and stakeholders needs, developing a variety of fit-for-purpose services such as the Copernicus Marine Service. The combination of state-of-the-art observations and forecasting provides new opportunities for downstream services in response to the needs of the heavily populated Mediterranean coastal areas and to climate change. The challenge over the next decade is to sustain ocean observations within the research community, to monitor the variability at small scales, e.g., the mesoscale/submesoscale, to resolve the sub-basin/seasonal and inter-annual variability in the circulation, and thus establish the decadal variability, understand and correct the model-associated biases and to enhance model-data integration and ensemble forecasting for uncertainty estimation. Better knowledge and understanding of the level of Mediterranean variability will enable a subsequent evaluation of the impacts and mitigation of the effect of human activities and climate change on the biodiversity and the ecosystem, which will support environmental assessments and decisions. Further challenges include extending the science-based added-value products into societal relevant downstream services and engaging with communities to build initiatives that will contribute to the 2030 Agenda and more specifically to SDG14 and the UN's Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development, by this contributing to bridge the science-policy gap. The Mediterranean observing and forecasting capacity was built on the basis of community best practices in monitoring and modeling, and can serve as a basis for the development of an integrated global ocean observing system