Report on an acoustic survey for mackerel in the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat in July - August 1987

An acoustic survey in the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat was carried out in July-August 1987 by vessels from Denmark and Norway. This paper gives the distribution and the abundance estimates for mackerel

A statistical model for estimation of fish density including correlation in size, space, time and between species from research survey data

Trawl survey data with high spatial and seasonal coverage were analysed using a variant of the Log Gaussian Cox Process (LGCP) statistical model to estimate unbiased relative fish densities. The model estimates correlations between observations according to time, space, and fish size and includes zero observations and over-dispersion. The model utilises the fact the correlation between numbers of fish caught increases when the distance in space and time between the fish decreases, and the correlation between size groups in a haul increases when the difference in size decreases. Here the model is extended in two ways. Instead of assuming a natural scale size correlation, the model is further developed to allow for a transformed length scale. Furthermore, in the present application, the spatial- and size-dependent correlation between species was included. For cod (Gadus morhua) and whiting (Merlangius merlangus), a common structured size correlation was fitted, and a separable structure between the time and space-size correlation was found for each species, whereas more complex structures were required to describe the correlation between species (and space-size). The within-species time correlation is strong, whereas the correlations between the species are weaker over time but strong within the year

Nodal domains of Maass forms I

This paper deals with some questions that have received a lot of attention since they were raised by Hejhal and Rackner in their 1992 numerical computations of Maass forms. We establish sharp upper and lower bounds for the $L^2$-restrictions of these forms to certain curves on the modular surface. These results, together with the Lindelof Hypothesis and known subconvex $L^\infty$-bounds are applied to prove that locally the number of nodal domains of such a form goes to infinity with its eigenvalue.Comment: To appear in GAF

Circadian-Related Sleep Disorders and Sleep Medication Use in the New Zealand Blind Population: An Observational Prevalence Survey

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of self-reported circadian-related sleep disorders, sleep medication and melatonin use in the New Zealand blind population. DESIGN: A telephone survey incorporating 62 questions on sleep habits and medication together with validated questionnaires on sleep quality, chronotype and seasonality. PARTICIPANTS: PARTICIPANTS WERE GROUPED INTO: (i) 157 with reduced conscious perception of light (RLP); (ii) 156 visually impaired with no reduction in light perception (LP) matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status, and (iii) 156 matched fully-sighted controls (FS). SLEEP HABITS AND DISTURBANCES: The incidence of sleep disorders, daytime somnolence, insomnia and sleep timing problems was significantly higher in RLP and LP compared to the FS controls (p<0.001). The RLP group had the highest incidence (55%) of sleep timing problems, and 26% showed drifting sleep patterns (vs. 4% FS). Odds ratios for unconventional sleep timing were 2.41 (RLP) and 1.63 (LP) compared to FS controls. For drifting sleep patterns, they were 7.3 (RLP) and 6.0 (LP). MEDICATION USE: Zopiclone was the most frequently prescribed sleep medication. Melatonin was used by only 4% in the RLP group and 2% in the LP group. CONCLUSIONS: Extrapolations from the current study suggest that 3,000 blind and visually impaired New Zealanders may suffer from circadian-related sleep problems, and that of these, fewer than 15% have been prescribed melatonin. This may represent a therapeutic gap in the treatment of circadian-related sleep disorders in New Zealand, findings that may generalize to other countries

Injectivity of sections of convex harmonic mappings and convolution theorems

In the article the authors consider the class ${\mathcal H}_0$ of sense-preserving harmonic functions $f=h+\overline{g}$ defined in the unit disk $|z|<1$ and normalized so that $h(0)=0=h'(0)-1$ and $g(0)=0=g'(0)$, where $h$ and $g$ are analytic in the unit disk. In the first part of the article we present two classes $\mathcal{P}_H^0(\alpha)$ and $\mathcal{G}_H^0(\beta)$ of functions from ${\mathcal H}_0$ and show that if $f\in \mathcal{P}_H^0(\alpha)$ and $F\in\mathcal{G}_H^0(\beta)$, then the harmonic convolution is a univalent and close-to-convex harmonic function in the unit disk provided certain conditions for parameters $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are satisfied. In the second part we study the harmonic sections (partial sums) $$s_{n, n}(f)(z)=s_n(h)(z)+\overline{s_n(g)(z)},$$ where $f=h+\overline{g}\in {\mathcal H}_0$, $s_n(h)$ and $s_n(g)$ denote the $n$-th partial sums of $h$ and $g$, respectively. We prove, among others, that if $f=h+\overline{g}\in{\mathcal H}_0$ is a univalent harmonic convex mapping, then $s_{n, n}(f)$ is univalent and close-to-convex in the disk $|z|< 1/4$ for $n\geq 2$, and $s_{n, n}(f)$ is also convex in the disk $|z|< 1/4$ for $n\geq2$ and $n\neq 3$. Moreover, we show that the section $s_{3,3}(f)$ of $f\in {\mathcal C}_H^0$ is not convex in the disk $|z|<1/4$ but is shown to be convex in a smaller disk.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures; To appear in Czechoslovak Mathematical Journa

Nightly treatment of primary insomnia with prolonged release melatonin for 6 months: a randomized placebo controlled trial on age and endogenous melatonin as predictors of efficacy and safety

&lt;p&gt;Background: Melatonin is extensively used in the USA in a non-regulated manner for sleep disorders. Prolonged release melatonin (PRM) is licensed in Europe and other countries for the short term treatment of primary insomnia in patients aged 55 years and over. However, a clear definition of the target patient population and well-controlled studies of long-term efficacy and safety are lacking. It is known that melatonin production declines with age. Some young insomnia patients also may have low melatonin levels. The study investigated whether older age or low melatonin excretion is a better predictor of response to PRM, whether the efficacy observed in short-term studies is sustained during continued treatment and the long term safety of such treatment.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Methods: Adult outpatients (791, aged 18-80 years) with primary insomnia, were treated with placebo (2 weeks) and then randomized, double-blind to 3 weeks with PRM or placebo nightly. PRM patients continued whereas placebo completers were re-randomized 1:1 to PRM or placebo for 26 weeks with 2 weeks of single-blind placebo run-out. Main outcome measures were sleep latency derived from a sleep diary, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Quality of Life (World Health Organzaton-5) Clinical Global Impression of Improvement (CGI-I) and adverse effects and vital signs recorded at each visit.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Results: On the primary efficacy variable, sleep latency, the effects of PRM (3 weeks) in patients with low endogenous melatonin (6-sulphatoxymelatonin [6-SMT] ≤8 μg/night) regardless of age did not differ from the placebo, whereas PRM significantly reduced sleep latency compared to the placebo in elderly patients regardless of melatonin levels (-19.1 versus -1.7 min; P = 0.002). The effects on sleep latency and additional sleep and daytime parameters that improved with PRM were maintained or enhanced over the 6-month period with no signs of tolerance. Most adverse events were mild in severity with no clinically relevant differences between PRM and placebo for any safety outcome.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Conclusions: The results demonstrate short- and long-term efficacy and safety of PRM in elderly insomnia patients. Low melatonin production regardless of age is not useful in predicting responses to melatonin therapy in insomnia. The age cut-off for response warrants further investigation.&lt;/p&gt

Strategy implementation: what is the failure rate?

It is often claimed that 50–90% of strategic initiatives fail. Although these claims have had a significant impact on management theory and practice, they are controversial. We aim to clarify why this is the case. Towards this end, an extensive review of the literature is presented, assessed, compared and discussed. We conclude that while it is widely acknowledged that the implementation of a new strategy can be a difficult task, the true rate of implementation failure remains to be determined. Most of the estimates presented in the literature are based on evidence that is outdated, fragmentary, fragile or just absent. Careful consideration is advised before using current estimates to justify changes in the theory and practice. A set of guiding principles is presented for assisting researchers to produce better estimates of the rates of failure

Ecological succession of a Jurassic shallow-water ichthyosaur fall.

After the discovery of whale fall communities in modern oceans, it has been hypothesized that during the Mesozoic the carcasses of marine reptiles created similar habitats supporting long-lived and specialized animal communities. Here, we report a fully documented ichthyosaur fall community, from a Late Jurassic shelf setting, and reconstruct the ecological succession of its micro- and macrofauna. The early 'mobile-scavenger' and 'enrichment-opportunist' stages were not succeeded by a 'sulphophilic stage' characterized by chemosynthetic molluscs, but instead the bones were colonized by microbial mats that attracted echinoids and other mat-grazing invertebrates. Abundant cemented suspension feeders indicate a well-developed 'reef stage' with prolonged exposure and colonization of the bones prior to final burial, unlike in modern whale falls where organisms such as the ubiquitous bone-eating worm Osedax rapidly destroy the skeleton. Shallow-water ichthyosaur falls thus fulfilled similar ecological roles to shallow whale falls, and did not support specialized chemosynthetic communities