Novel Bio-Logging Tool for Studying Fine-Scale Behaviors of Marine Turtles in Response to Sound

Increases in the spatial scale and intensity of activities that produce marine anthropogenic sound highlight the importance of understanding the impacts and effects of sound on threatened species such as marine turtles. Marine turtles detect and behaviorally respond to low-frequency sounds, however few studies have directly examined their behavioral responses to specific types or intensities of anthropogenic or natural sounds. Recent advances in the development of bio-logging tools, which combine acoustic and fine-scale movement measurements, have allowed for evaluations of animal responses to sound. Here, we describe these tools and present a case study demonstrating the potential application of a newly developed technology (ROTAG, Loggerhead Instruments, Inc.) to examine behavioral responses of freely swimming marine turtles to sound. The ROTAG incorporates a three-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer to record the turtle\u27s pitch, roll, and heading; a pressure sensor to record turtle depth; a hydrophone to record the turtle\u27s received underwater acoustic sound field; a temperature gauge; and two VHF radio telemetry transmitters and antennas for tag and turtle tracking. Tags can be programmed to automatically release via a timed corrodible link several hours or days after deployment. We describe an example of the data collected with these tags and present a case study of a successful ROTAG deployment on a juvenile green turtle (Chelonia mydas) in the Paranaguá Estuary Complex, Brazil. The tag was deployed for 221 min, during which several vessels passed closely (\u3c2 km) by the turtle. The concurrent movement and acoustic data collected by the ROTAG were examined during these times to determine if the turtle responded to these anthropogenic sound sources. While fine-scale behavioral responses were not apparent (second-by-second), the turtle did appear to perform dives during which it remained still on or near the sea floor during several of the vessel passes. This case study provides proof of concept that ROTAGs can successfully be applied to free-ranging marine turtles to examine their behavioral response to sound. Finally, we discuss the broad applications that these tools have to study the fine-scale behaviors of marine turtles and highlight their use to aid in marine turtle conservation and management

Some basement rocks from Bear Mountain to the Housatonic Highlands

Guidebook for field trips in western Massachusetts, northern Connecticut and adjacent areas of New York: 67th annual meeting October 10, 11, and 12, 1975: Trip A-1; C-

Choosing Meteorological Input for the Global Modeling Initiative Assessment of High Speed Aircraft

The Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) science team is developing a three dimensional chemistry and transport model (CTM) to be used in assessment of the atmospheric effects of aviation. Requirements are that this model be documented, be validated against observations, use a realistic atmospheric circulation, and contain numerical transport and photochemical modules representing atmospheric processes. The model must also retain computational efficiency to be tractable to use for multiple scenarios and sensitivity studies. To meet these requirements, a facility model concept was developed in which the different components of the CTM are evaluated separately. The first use of the GMI model will be to evaluate the impact of the exhaust of supersonic aircraft on the stratosphere. The assessment calculations will depend strongly on the wind and temperature fields used by the CTM. Three meteorological data sets for the stratosphere are available to GMI: the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model (CCM2), the Goddard Earth Observing System Data Assimilation System (GEOS DAS), and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies general circulation model (GISS). Objective criteria were established by the GMI team to identify the data set which provides the best representation of the stratosphere. Simulations of gases with simple chemical control were chosen to test various aspects of model transport. The three meteorological data sets were evaluated and graded based on their ability to simulate these aspects of stratospheric measurements. This paper describes the criteria used in grading the meteorological fields. The meteorological data set which has the highest score and therefore was selected for GMI is CCM2. This type of objective model evaluation establishes a physical basis for interpretation of differences between models and observations. Further, the method provides a quantitative basis for defining model errors, for discriminating between different models, and for ready re-evaluation of improved models. These in turn will lead to a higher level of confidence in assessment calculations

Career success across the globe: Insights from the 5C project

The Cross-Cultural Collaboration on Contemporary Careers (5C Project) conducted in-depth, longitudinal qualitative research into what career success means to people in a diverse range of countries; specifically: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UK, and USA. This paper presents the seven major meanings of career success that emerged across these diverse global cultures and thus may be deemed relevant all around the world. These are financial security (being able to consistently provide the basic necessities for living), financial achievement (steadily making more money, wealth, incentives, and perks), learning and development (via continuous informal learning on the job and/or formal training and education), work-life-balance (between work and non-work, relationships, activities and interests), positive relationships (as signified by, for instance, enjoying working with people who you respect and admire), positive impact (by helping others in one’s immediate social environment and/or leaving some sort of legacy to a community, or society more broadly), and entrepreneurship founding one’s own enterprise or being able to invent and develop one’s own projects within the work context). We describe examples of each from different cultures and offer practical implications of these meanings for the primary stakeholders of career research: individuals, organizations, as well as counselors, coaches and consultants

CYLD Inhibits Melanoma Growth and Progression through Suppression of the JNK/AP-1 and β1-Integrin Signaling Pathways

The molecular mechanisms mediating cylindromatosis (CYLD) tumor suppressor function appear to be manifold. Here, we demonstrate that, in contrast to the increased levels of phosphorylated c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (pJNK), CYLD was decreased in a majority of the melanoma cell lines and tissues examined. Exogenous expression of CYLD but not its catalytically deficient mutant markedly inhibited melanoma cell proliferation and migration in vitro and subcutaneous tumor growth in vivo. In addition, the melanoma cells expressing exogenous CYLD were unable to form pulmonary tumor nodules following tail-vein injection. At the molecular level, CYLD decreased β1-integrin and inhibited pJNK induction by tumor necrosis factor-α or cell attachment to collagen IV. Moreover, CYLD induced an array of other molecular changes associated with modulation of the “malignant” phenotype, including a decreased expression of cyclin D1, N-cadherin, and nuclear Bcl3, and an increased expression of p53 and E-cadherin. Most interestingly, coexpression of the constitutively active MKK7 or c-Jun mutants with CYLD prevented the above molecular changes, and fully restored melanoma growth and metastatic potential in vivo. Our findings demonstrate that the JNK/activator protein 1 signaling pathway underlies the melanoma growth and metastasis that are associated with CYLD loss of function. Thus, restoration of CYLD and inhibition of JNK and β1-integrin function represent potential therapeutic strategies for treatment of malignant melanoma

Overcoming High Energy Backgrounds at Pulsed Spallation Sources

Instrument backgrounds at neutron scattering facilities directly affect the quality and the efficiency of the scientific measurements that users perform. Part of the background at pulsed spallation neutron sources is caused by, and time-correlated with, the emission of high energy particles when the proton beam strikes the spallation target. This prompt pulse ultimately produces a signal, which can be highly problematic for a subset of instruments and measurements due to the time-correlated properties, and different to that from reactor sources. Measurements of this background have been made at both SNS (ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN, USA) and SINQ (PSI, Villigen, Switzerland). The background levels were generally found to be low compared to natural background. However, very low intensities of high-energy particles have been found to be detrimental to instrument performance in some conditions. Given that instrument performance is typically characterised by S/N, improvements in backgrounds can both improve instrument performance whilst at the same time delivering significant cost savings. A systematic holistic approach is suggested in this contribution to increase the effectiveness of this. Instrument performance should subsequently benefit.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Proceedings of ICANS XXI (International Collaboration on Advanced Neutron Sources), Mito, Japan. 201

Estimates of Alpha/Beta (alpha/beta) Ratios for Individual Late Rectal Toxicity Endpoints: An Analysis of the CHHiP Trial

Purpose: Changes in fraction size of external beam radiation therapy exert nonlinear effects on subsequent toxicity. Commonly described by the linear-quadratic model, fraction size sensitivity of normal tissues is expressed by the α/β ratio. We sought to study individual α/β ratios for different late rectal effects after prostate external beam radiation therapy. Methods and Materials: The CHHiP trial (ISRCTN97182923) randomized men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer 1:1:1 to 74 Gy/37 fractions (Fr), 60 Gy/20 Fr, or 57 Gy/19 Fr. Patients in the study had full dosimetric data and zero baseline toxicity. Toxicity scales were amalgamated to 6 bowel endpoints: bleeding, diarrhea, pain, proctitis, sphincter control, and stricture. Lyman-Kutcher-Burman models with or without equivalent dose in 2 Gy/Fr correction were log-likelihood fitted by endpoint, estimating α/β ratios. The α/β ratio estimate sensitivity was assessed using sequential inclusion of dose modifying factors (DMFs): age, diabetes, hypertension, inflammatory bowel or diverticular disease (IBD/diverticular), and hemorrhoids. 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were bootstrapped. Likelihood ratio testing of 632 estimator log-likelihoods compared the models. Results: Late rectal α/β ratio estimates (without DMF) ranged from bleeding (G1 + α/β = 1.6 Gy; 95% CI, 0.9-2.5 Gy) to sphincter control (G1 + α/β = 3.1 Gy; 95% CI, 1.4-9.1 Gy). Bowel pain modelled poorly (α/β, 3.6 Gy; 95% CI, 0.0-840 Gy). Inclusion of IBD/diverticular disease as a DMF significantly improved fits for stool frequency G2+ (P = .00041) and proctitis G1+ (P = .00046). However, the α/β ratios were similar in these no-DMF versus DMF models for both stool frequency G2+ (α/β 2.7 Gy vs 2.5 Gy) and proctitis G1+ (α/β 2.7 Gy vs 2.6 Gy). Frequency-weighted averaging of endpoint α/β ratios produced: G1 + α/β ratio = 2.4 Gy; G2 + α/β ratio = 2.3 Gy. Conclusions: We estimated α/β ratios for several common late adverse effects of rectal radiation therapy. When comparing dose-fractionation schedules, we suggest using late a rectal α/β ratio ≤ 3 Gy