Australia's coastal fisheries and farmed seafood: An ecological basis for determining sustainability

In response to consumer concerns about the sustainability of Australian-sourced seafood we derive a set of criteria within an explicit decision-process that can be used to determine whether locally farmed and wild-caught Australian seafood products meet standards of ecological sustainability and Ecologically Sustainable Development. These criteria substantially address the ecological deficiencies we identified in other systems commonly used for assessing seafood sustainability. The criteria address the issues that are relevant to local seafood production, and are populated with indicators (metrics) and benchmarks relevant to the Australian context. The indicators establish performance thresholds drawn from public domain data about the products, including observed empirical data and proxies, and include default decisions to be applied in the absence of adequate information. This decision structure is set within a peer-reviewed expert jury decision-making process. The criteria, decision process and decision outcomes from assessment of a number of pilot products were tested in a real seafood market (Melbourne), where we found a high level of producer, reseller and consumer acceptance of the judgements and ratings. The use of ecologically-derived standards results in several outcomes that differ from those of other seafood assessment systems, especially those assessments more focused on production standards, such as government, industry and NGO-supported programs, popularly used in Australia and worldwide. We conclude that despite high levels of uncertainty surrounding many of the population parameters, ecological patterns and processes, empirical cost-effective proxies can be used to reasonably estimate a form of sustainability that matches consumer interests/expectations for production of fresh local seafood. Despite the plethora of industry and government programs, there remains a significant but presently unmet consumer demand for ecologically-based, technically robust, independently derived, and readily available information about the local sustainability attributes of Australian wild-caught and farmed fresh seafood

THRESHOLD BEHAVIOR OF (GAAL)AS-GAAS LASERS AT LOW-TEMPERATURES

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An Anti-Human ICAM-1 Antibody Inhibits Rhinovirus-Induced Exacerbations of Lung Inflammation

Human rhinoviruses (HRV) cause the majority of common colds and acute exacerbations of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Effective therapies are urgently needed, but no licensed treatments or vaccines currently exist. Of the 100 identified serotypes, ∼90% bind domain 1 of human intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) as their cellular receptor, making this an attractive target for development of therapies; however, ICAM-1 domain 1 is also required for host defence and regulation of cell trafficking, principally via its major ligand LFA-1. Using a mouse anti-human ICAM-1 antibody (14C11) that specifically binds domain 1 of human ICAM-1, we show that 14C11 administered topically or systemically prevented entry of two major groups of rhinoviruses, HRV16 and HRV14, and reduced cellular inflammation, pro-inflammatory cytokine induction and virus load in vivo. 14C11 also reduced cellular inflammation and Th2 cytokine/chemokine production in a model of major group HRV-induced asthma exacerbation. Interestingly, 14C11 did not prevent cell adhesion via human ICAM-1/LFA-1 interactions in vitro, suggesting the epitope targeted by 14C11 was specific for viral entry. Thus a human ICAM-1 domain-1-specific antibody can prevent major group HRV entry and induction of airway inflammation in vivo

Liver-Targeting of Interferon-Alpha with Tissue-Specific Domain Antibodies

PMCID: PMC3581439This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Expansion of oxygen minimum zones may reduce available habitat for tropical pelagic fishes

Climate model predictions1, 2 and observations3, 4 reveal regional declines in oceanic dissolved oxygen, which are probably influenced by global warming5. Studies indicate ongoing dissolved oxygen depletion and vertical expansion of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) in the tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean6, 7. OMZ shoaling may restrict the usable habitat of billfishes and tunas to a narrow surface layer8, 9. We report a decrease in the upper ocean layer exceeding 3.5 ml l−1 dissolved oxygen at a rate of ≤1 m yr−1 in the tropical northeast Atlantic (0–25° N, 12–30° W), amounting to an annual habitat loss of ~5.95×1013 m3, or 15% for the period 1960–2010. Habitat compression and associated potential habitat loss was validated using electronic tagging data from 47 blue marlin. This phenomenon increases vulnerability to surface fishing gear for billfishes and tunas8, 9, and may be associated with a 10–50% worldwide decline of pelagic predator diversity10. Further expansion of the Atlantic OMZ along with overfishing may threaten the sustainability of these valuable pelagic fisheries and marine ecosystems

Utilization of case presentations in medical microbiology to enhance relevance of basic science for medical students

Background : Small-group case presentation exercises (CPs) were created to increase course relevance for medical students taking Medical Microbiology (MM) and Infectious Diseases (ID) Methods : Each student received a unique paper case and had 10 minutes to review patient history, physical exam data, and laboratory data. Students then had three minutes to orally present their case and defend why they ruled in or out each of the answer choices provided, followed by an additional three minutes to answer questions. Results : Exam scores differed significantly between students who received the traditional lecture-laboratory curriculum (Group I) and students who participated in the CPs (Group II). In MM, median unit exam and final exam scores for Group I students were 84.4% and 77.8%, compared to 86.0% and 82.2% for Group II students (P < 0.018; P < 0.001; Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test). Median unit and final ID exam scores for Group I students were 84.0% and 80.0%, compared to 88.0% and 86.7% for Group II students (P < 0.001; P < 0.001). Conclusion : Students felt that the CPs improved their critical thinking and presentation skills and helped to prepare them as future physicians

Bimanual grasp planning reflects changing rather than fixed constraint dominance

We studied whether motor-control constraints for grasping objects that are moved to new positions reflect a rigid constraint hierarchy or a flexible constraint hierarchy. In two experiments, we asked participants to move two plungers from the same start locations to different target locations (both high, both low, or one high and one low). We found that participants grasped the plungers symmetrically and at heights that ensured comfortable or easy-to-control end postures when the plungers had the same target heights, but these grasp tendencies were reduced when the plungers had different target heights. In addition, when the plungers had different mass distributions, participants behaved in ways that suggested still-different emphases of the relevant grasp constraints. When the plungers had different mass distributions, participants sacrificed bimanual symmetry for end-state comfort. The results suggest that bimanual grasp planning relies on a flexible rather than static hierarchy. Different constraints take on different degrees of importance depending on the nature of the task and on the level of task experience. The results have implications for the understanding of perceptual-motor skill learning. It may be that one mechanism underlying such learning is changing the priorities of task constraints

Exotendons for assistance of human locomotion

BACKGROUND: Powered robotic exoskeletons for assistance of human locomotion are currently under development for military and medical applications. The energy requirements for such devices are excessive, and this has become a major obstacle for practical applications. Legged locomotion in many animals, however, is very energy efficient. We propose that poly-articular elastic mechanisms are a major contributor to the economy of locomotion in such specialized animals. Consequently, it should be possible to design unpowered assistive devices that make effective use of similar mechanisms. METHODS: A passive assistive technology is presented, based on long elastic cords attached to an exoskeleton and guided by pulleys placed at the joints. A general optimization procedure is described for finding the best geometrical arrangement of such "exotendons" for assisting a specific movement. Optimality is defined either as minimal residual joint moment or as minimal residual joint power. Four specific exotendon systems with increasing complexity are considered. Representative human gait data were used to optimize each of these four systems to achieve maximal assistance for normal walking. RESULTS: The most complex exotendon system, with twelve pulleys per limb, was able to reduce the joint moments required for normal walking by 71% and joint power by 74%. A simpler system, with only three pulleys per limb, could reduce joint moments by 46% and joint power by 47%. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that unpowered passive elastic devices can substantially reduce the muscle forces and the metabolic energy needed for walking, without requiring a change in movement. When optimally designed, such devices may allow independent locomotion in patients with large deficits in muscle function