Stock assessment of the Australian east coast sea mullet (Mugil cephalus) fishery 2018

The sea mullet (Mugil cephalus) is found in tropical and subtropical waters around the world. On the east coast of Australia, sea mullet are harvested from a single continous stock which occurs from Baffle Creek in Queensland to Eden in New South Wales. Sea mullet undertake annual migrations along ocean beaches to spawn that make them susceptible to overfishing. This stock assessment covers the Australian east coast and incorporates Queensland and NSW catch data up to 2016. The vast majority of the harvest is taken in the commercial fishery, with the catch in NSW exceeding the Queensland catch (approximately 65% and 35% of the catch respectively). The current assessment combined data in an annual age-structured population model tailored for the biology, management and fishing history of sea mullet and estimates the sea mullet biomass in 2016 is around 50 per cent of unfished exploitable biomass (all sectors and jurisdictions). Biological information for sea mullet has revealed a cyclic pattern of new fish recruitment over years. This has produced a cyclic fluctuation in the exploitable biomass results with a midpoint at around 50% of virgin levels which is trending downward. The final year of the model occurs during a downward phase in a long term cycle of biomass peaks and troughs and fishing could exacerbate this downward biomass trend. The assessment noted that the Bundaberg to Noosa stock range was experiencing below average harvests. Further assessment of the extent of regional decline will increase our understanding of the relationshop between historical levels of fishing and environmental change. The assessment provides estimates of the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and recommends a total allowable catch to rebuild the stock to the Sustainable Fisheries Strategy (SFS) longer term target of 60% unfished biomass (as a proxy for MEY) by 2027

E-learning as a tool for knowledge transfer through traditional and independent study at two UK higher educational institutes: a case study

Much has been made of the advances in computer aided learning activities. Websites, virtual campus, the increased use of Web CT and chat rooms and further advances in the use of WebCT are becoming more commonplace in UK universities. This paper looks for ways of changing higher education students’ perception of the usefulness of recommended internet web sites for learning purposes, with the intention of increasing the usage rate of recommended module web-sites. The change could represent an adaptation of the existing, well-known technology to change students’ perception regarding its potentially formative role. Subsequently, the outcomes from this preliminary research could be used in order to enhance the quality of the Internet use for teaching and learning purposes

Harvest strategy evaluation to optimise the sustainability and value of the Queensland scallop fishery. Queensland scallop fishery - FRDC Project No 2006/024 Final Report

Objective 1. Measure spatial and temporal trawl frequency of scallop grounds using VMS data. This will provide a relative measure of how often individual undersized scallops are caught and put through a tumbler 2. Estimate discard mortality and growth rates for saucer scallops using cage experiments. 3. Evaluate the current management measures, in particular the seasonal closure, rotational closure and seasonally varying minimum legal sizes using stock assessment and management modeling models. Recommend optimal range of management measures to ensure long-term viability and value of the Scallop fishery based on a formal management strategy evaluation. Outcomes acheived to date: 1. Improved understanding of the survival rates of discarded sub-legal scallops; 2. Preliminary von Bertalanffy growth parameters using data from tagged-and-released scallops; 3. Changing trends in vessels and fishing gear used in the Queensland scallop fishery and their effect on scallop catch rates over time using standardised catch rates quantified; 4. Increases in fishing power of vessels operating in the Queensland scallop fishery quantified; 5. Trawl intensity mapped and quantified for all Scallop Replenishment Areas; 6. Harvest Strategy Evaluations completed

Low-mass pre--main-sequence stars in the Magellanic Clouds

[Abridged] The stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) suggests that sub-solar stars form in very large numbers. Most attractive places for catching low-mass star formation in the act are young stellar clusters and associations, still (half-)embedded in star-forming regions. The low-mass stars in such regions are still in their pre--main-sequence (PMS) evolutionary phase. The peculiar nature of these objects and the contamination of their samples by the evolved populations of the Galactic disk impose demanding observational techniques for the detection of complete numbers of PMS stars in the Milky Way. The Magellanic Clouds, the companion galaxies to our own, demonstrate an exceptional star formation activity. The low extinction and stellar field contamination in star-forming regions of these galaxies imply a more efficient detection of low-mass PMS stars than in the Milky Way, but their distance from us make the application of special detection techniques unfeasible. Nonetheless, imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope yield the discovery of solar and sub-solar PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds from photometry alone. Unprecedented numbers of such objects are identified as the low-mass stellar content of their star-forming regions, changing completely our picture of young stellar systems outside the Milky Way, and extending the extragalactic stellar IMF below the persisting threshold of a few solar masses. This review presents the recent developments in the investigation of PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds, with special focus on the limitations by single-epoch photometry that can only be circumvented by the detailed study of the observable behavior of these stars in the color-magnitude diagram. The achieved characterization of the low-mass PMS stars in the Magellanic Clouds allowed thus a more comprehensive understanding of the star formation process in our neighboring galaxies.Comment: Review paper, 26 pages (in LaTeX style for Springer journals), 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Space Science Review

Energy dependence of fusion evaporation-residue cross sections in the Si28+12C reaction

Fusion evaporation-residue cross sections for the Si28+12C reaction have been measured in the energy range 18≤Ec.m.≤136 MeV using time-of-flight techniques. Velocity distributions of mass-identified reaction products were used to identify evaporation residues and to determine the complete-fusion cross sections at high energies. The data are in agreement with previously established systematics which indicate an entrance-channel mass-asymmetry dependence of the incomplete-fusion evaporation-residue process. The complete-fusion evaporation-residue cross sections and the deduced critical angular momenta are compared with earlier measurements and the predictions of existing models

Test beam performance measurements for the Phase I upgrade of the CMS pixel detector

A new pixel detector for the CMS experiment was built in order to cope with the instantaneous luminosities anticipated for the Phase I Upgrade of the LHC. The new CMS pixel detector provides four-hit tracking with a reduced material budget as well as new cooling and powering schemes. A new front-end readout chip mitigates buffering and bandwidth limitations, and allows operation at low comparator thresholds. In this paper, comprehensive test beam studies are presented, which have been conducted to verify the design and to quantify the performance of the new detector assemblies in terms of tracking efficiency and spatial resolution. Under optimal conditions, the tracking efficiency is (99.95 ± 0.05) %, while the intrinsic spatial resolutions are (4.80 ± 0.25) μm and (7.99 ± 0.21) μm along the 100 μm and 150 μm pixel pitch, respectively. The findings are compared to a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the pixel detector and good agreement is found.Peer reviewe

P-Type Silicon Strip Sensors for the new CMS Tracker at HL-L-HC

Abstract: The upgrade of the LHC to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is expected to increase the LHC design luminosity by an order of magnitude. This will require silicon tracking detectors with a significantly higher radiation hardness. The CMS Tracker Collaboration has conducted an irradiation and measurement campaign to identify suitable silicon sensor materials and strip designs for the future outer tracker at the CMS experiment. Based on these results, the collaboration has chosen to use n-in-p type silicon sensors and focus further investigations on the optimization of that sensor type