Experience Rating: Its Objectives, Problems and Economic Implications

Within a decade, the system of rate differentiation which has become one of the distinctive characteristics of the unemployment insurance program in the United States spread from the North Woods to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. The idea so vigorously advocated by Professors John R. Commons and Harold M. Groves, and their Wisconsin colleagues, having been first put into effect under the Wisconsin Law in 1938, was finally incorporated in the Mississippi Law in 1948. Though unknown to the older European systems, experience rating thus took a firm grip upon the program in this country

Does the marine biosphere mix the ocean?

Author Posting. © Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of Sears Foundation for Marine Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Marine Research 64 (2006): 541-561, doi:10.1357/002224006778715720.Ocean mixing is thought to control the climatically important oceanic overturning circulation. Here we argue the marine biosphere, by a mechanism like the bioturbation occurring in marine sediments, mixes the oceans as effectively as the winds and tides. This statement is derived ultimately from an estimated 62.7 TeraWatts of chemical power provided to the marine environment in net primary production. Various approaches argue something like 1% (.63 TeraWatts) of this power is invested in aphotic ocean mechanical energy, a rate comparable to wind and tidal inputs

North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) ignore ships but respond to alerting stimuli

Author Posting. © Royal Society, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of Royal Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 271 (2004): 227-231, doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2570.North Atlantic right whales were extensively hunted during the whaling era and have not recovered. One of the primary factors inhibiting their recovery is anthropogenic mortality caused by ship strikes. To assess risk factors involved in ship strikes, we used a multi-sensor acoustic recording tag to measure the responses of whales to passing ships and experimentally tested their responses to controlled sound exposures, which included recordings of ship noise, the social sounds of conspecifics and a signal designed to alert the whales. The whales reacted strongly to the alert signal, they reacted mildly to the social sounds of conspecifics, but they showed no such responses to the sounds of approaching vessels as well as actual vessels. Whales responded to the alert by swimming strongly to the surface, a response likely to increase rather than decrease the risk of collision.Funding for this work was provided by the Fisheries Service of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (contract no. NA87RJ0445), and was conducted under NOAA Fisheries permit to conduct scientific research no. 1014 issued to Dr Scott Kraus and Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans permits 2001-559 and 2002-568

Comparative manufacture and cell-based delivery of antiretroviral nanoformulations

Nanoformulations of crystalline indinavir, ritonavir, atazanavir, and efavirenz were manufactured by wet milling, homogenization or sonication with a variety of excipients. The chemical, biological, immune, virological, and toxicological properties of these formulations were compared using an established monocyte-derived macrophage scoring indicator system. Measurements of drug uptake, retention, release, and antiretroviral activity demonstrated differences amongst preparation methods. Interestingly, for drug cell targeting and antiretroviral responses the most significant difference among the particles was the drug itself. We posit that the choice of drug and formulation composition may ultimately affect clinical utility

Long-acting antituberculous therapeutic nanoparticles target macrophage endosomes.

Eradication of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection requires daily administration of combinations of rifampin (RIF), isoniazid [isonicotinylhydrazine (INH)], pyrazinamide, and ethambutol, among other drug therapies. To facilitate and optimize MTB therapeutic selections, a mononuclear phagocyte (MP; monocyte, macrophage, and dendritic cell)-targeted drug delivery strategy was developed. Long-acting nanoformulations of RIF and an INH derivative, pentenyl-INH (INHP), were prepared, and their physicochemical properties were evaluated. This included the evaluation of MP particle uptake and retention, cell viability, and antimicrobial efficacy. Drug levels reached 6 μg/10(6) cells in human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) for nanoparticle treatments compared with 0.1 μg/10(6) cells for native drugs. High RIF and INHP levels were retained in MDM for \u3e15 d following nanoparticle loading. Rapid loss of native drugs was observed in cells and culture fluids within 24 h. Antimicrobial activities were determined against Mycobacterium smegmatis (M. smegmatis). Coadministration of nanoformulated RIF and INHP provided a 6-fold increase in therapeutic efficacy compared with equivalent concentrations of native drugs. Notably, nanoformulated RIF and INHP were found to be localized in recycling and late MDM endosomal compartments. These were the same compartments that contained the pathogen. Our results demonstrate the potential of antimicrobial nanomedicines to simplify MTB drug regimens

Effects of vessel traffic on relative abundance and behaviour of cetaceans : the case of the bottlenose dolphins in the Archipelago de La Maddalena, north-western Mediterranean sea

Acknowledgements This study was part of the Tursiops Project of the Dolphin Research Centre of Caprera, La Maddalena. Financial and logistical support was provided by the Centro Turistico Studentesco (CTS) and by the National Park of the Archipelago de La Maddalena. We thank the Natural Reserve of Bocche di Bonifacio for the support provided during data collection. The authors thank the numerous volunteers of the Caprera Dolphin Research Centre and especially Marco Ferraro, Mirko Ugo, Angela Pira and Maurizio Piras whose assistance during field observation and skills as a boat driver were invaluable.Peer reviewedPostprin

Preparing the Perfect Cuttlefish Meal: Complex Prey Handling by Dolphins

Dolphins are well known for their complex social and foraging behaviours. Direct underwater observations of wild dolphin feeding behaviour however are rare. At mass spawning aggregations of giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) in the Upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia, a wild female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) was observed and recorded repeatedly catching, killing and preparing cuttlefish for consumption using a specific and ordered sequence of behaviours. Cuttlefish were herded to a sand substrate, pinned to the seafloor, killed by downward thrust, raised mid-water and beaten by the dolphin with its snout until the ink was released and drained. The deceased cuttlefish was then returned to the seafloor, inverted and forced along the sand substrate in order to strip the thin dorsal layer of skin off the mantle, thus releasing the buoyant calcareous cuttlebone. This stepped behavioural sequence significantly improves prey quality through 1) removal of the ink (with constituent melanin and tyrosine), and 2) the calcareous cuttlebone. Observations of foraging dolphin pods from above-water at this site (including the surfacing of intact clean cuttlebones) suggest that some or all of this prey handling sequence may be used widely by dolphins in the region. Aspects of the unique mass spawning aggregations of giant cuttlefish in this region of South Australia may have contributed to the evolution of this behaviour through both high abundances of spawning and weakened post-spawning cuttlefish in a small area (>10,000 animals on several kilometres of narrow rocky reef), as well as potential long-term and regular visitation by dolphin pods to this site

Sex bias in biopsy samples collected from free-ranging dolphins

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in European Journal of Wildlife Research 56 (2010): 151-158, doi:10.1007/s10344-009-0299-7.Biological samples of free-ranging dolphins are increasingly used to gain information on population structure and ecology. In small cetaceans, the gender of individuals usually cannot be determined at sea, and population sex ratio has to be inferred indirectly. We used molecular sexing to determine the gender of 340 biopsy samples of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, spotted dolphins, Stenella frontalis, and common dolphins, Delphinus delphis, collected around the Azores and Madeira. Sex ratio was globally skewed in favor of males, and differed between species and archipelagos. Skew was probably influenced by the selectivity of biopsy collectors and seasonal or year-round predominance of males in natural populations. Skew was also influenced by sampling duration and intensity. In the Azores, when several samples were successively collected within the same group, the proportion of female samples decreased as a function of sample order. This trend indicated a tendency for females to increasingly avoid the boat while samples were being collected. It showed that males and females reacted differently to the perturbation caused by the biopsy sampling process (i.e. sample collection and driving style).Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the FEDER program for funding the CETAMARH (POCTI/BSE/38991/01) and the GOLFINICHO (POCI/BIA-BDE/61009/2004) projects, S.Q.'s post-doctoral grants (IMAR/FCT- PDOC-006/2001-MoleGen and SFRH/BPD/19680/2004), M.A.S.'s doctoral (SFRH/BD/8609/2002) and post-doctoral (SFRH/BPD/29841/2006) grants, S.M.'s investigation assistant grant (CETAMARHII/POCTI/BSE/38991/2001) and I.C.'s investigation assistant grants (IMAR/FCT/GOLFINICHO/001/2005 and IMAR/FCT/GOLFINICHO/004/2006). FCT for its pluri-annual funding to Research Unit #531 and the EU funded program Interreg IIIb for funding the MACETUS project (MAC/4.2/M10) as well as R.P. and S.M.’s grants (IMAR/INTERREGIIIb/MACETUS/MAC1/2)

Why whales are big but not bigger : physiological drivers and ecological limits in the age of ocean giants

This research was funded in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (IOS-1656676, IOS-1656656; OPP-1644209 and 07-39483), the Office of Naval Research (N000141612477), and a Terman Fellowship from Stanford University. All procedures in USA were conducted under approval of the National Marine Fisheries Service (Permits 781-1824, 16163, 14809, 16111, 19116, 15271, 20430), Canada DFO SARA/MML 2010-01/SARA-106B, National Marine Sanctuaries (MULTI-2017-007), Antarctic Conservation Act (2009-014, 2015-011) and institutional IACUC committee protocols. Fieldwork, data collection and data processing for M. densirostris were funded by the Office of Naval Research grants N00014-07-10988, N00014-07-11023, N00014-08-10990, N00014-18-1-2062, and 00014-15-1-2553, and the U.S. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program Grant SI-1539. PLT gratefully acknowledges funding from funding the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (HR09011) and contributing institutions.The largest animals are marine filter feeders, but the underlying mechanism of their large size remains unexplained. We measured feeding performance and prey quality to demonstrate how whale gigantism is driven by the interplay of prey abundance and harvesting mechanisms that increase prey capture rates and energy intake. The foraging efficiency of toothed whales that feed on single prey is constrained by the abundance of large prey, whereas filter-feeding baleen whales seasonally exploit vast swarms of small prey at high efficiencies. Given temporally and spatially aggregated prey, filter feeding provides an evolutionary pathway to extremes in body size that are not available to lineages that must feed on one prey at a time. Maximum size in filter feeders is likely constrained by prey availability across space and time.PostprintPeer reviewe

Krill Excretion Boosts Microbial Activity in the Southern Ocean

Antarctic krill are known to release large amounts of inorganic and organic nutrients to the water column. Here we test the role of krill excretion of dissolved products in stimulating heterotrophic bacteria on the basis of three experiments where ammonium and organic excretory products released by krill were added to bacterial assemblages, free of grazers. Our results demonstrate that the addition of krill excretion products (but not of ammonium alone), at levels expected in krill swarms, greatly stimulates bacteria resulting in an order-of-magnitude increase in growth and production. Furthermore, they suggest that bacterial growth rate in the Southern Ocean is suppressed well below their potential by resource limitation. Enhanced bacterial activity in the presence of krill, which are major sources of DOC in the Southern Ocean, would further increase recycling processes associated with krill activity, resulting in highly efficient krill-bacterial recycling that should be conducive to stimulating periods of high primary productivity in the Southern Ocean.This research is a contribution to projects ICEPOS (REN2002-04165-CO3-O2) and ATOS (POL2006-00550/CTM), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation