Hybrid striped bass aquaculture survey and the market potential

The following study was conducted to explore and assess the extent to which a market for hybrid striped bass could be developed and to recommend appropriate marketing strategies

Marine environmental DNA biomonitoring reveals seasonal patterns in biodiversity and identifies ecosystem responses to anomalous climatic events

Marine ecosystems are changing rapidly as the oceans warm and become more acidic. The physical factors and the changes to ocean chemistry that they drive can all be measured with great precision. Changes in the biological composition of communities in different ocean regions are far more challenging to measure because most biological monitoring methods focus on a limited taxonomic or size range. Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis has the potential to solve this problem in biological oceanography, as it is capable of identifying a huge phylogenetic range of organisms to species level. Here we develop and apply a novel multi-gene molecular toolkit to eDNA isolated from bulk plankton samples collected over a five-year period from a single site. This temporal scale and level of detail is unprecedented in eDNA studies. We identified consistent seasonal assemblages of zooplankton species, which demonstrates the ability of our toolkit to audit community composition. We were also able to detect clear departures from the regular seasonal patterns that occurred during an extreme marine heatwave. The integration of eDNA analyses with existing biotic and abiotic surveys delivers a powerful new long-term approach to monitoring the health of our world's oceans in the context of a rapidly changing climate

The solar wind disappearance event of 11 May 1999: source region evolution

Context. A recent, detailed study of the well-known solar wind disappearance event of 11 May 1999 traced its origin to a coronal hole (CH) lying adjacent to a large active region (AR), AR8525 in Carrington rotation 1949. The AR was located at central meridian on 05 May 1999 when the flows responsible for this event began. We examine the evolution of the AR-CH complex during 5-6 May 1999 to study the changes that apparently played a key role in causing this disappearance event. Aims. To study the evolution of the solar source region of the disappearance event of 11 May 1999. Methods. Using images from the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) and the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) to examine the evolution of the CH and AR complex at the source region of the disappearance event. Results. We find a dynamic evolution taking place in the CH-AR boundary at the source region of the disappearance event of 11 May 1999. This evolution, which is found to reduce the area of the CH, is accompanied by the formation of new loops in EUV images that are spatially and temporally correlated with emerging flux regions as seen in MDI data. Conclusions. In the period leading up to the disappearance event of 11 May 1999, our observations, during quiet solar conditions and in the absence of CMEs, provide the first clear evidence for Sun-Earth connection originating from an evolving AR-CH region located at central meridian. With the exception of corotating interacting regions (CIR), these observations provide the first link between the Sun and space weather effects at 1 AU, arising from non-explosive solar events.Comment: The paper has recently been accepted in A&A letters and this version is an 8 page article with 4 figure

Family satisfaction with critical care in the UK: a multicentre cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess family satisfaction with intensive care units (ICUs) in the UK using the Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit 24-item (FS-ICU-24) questionnaire, and to investigate how characteristics of patients and their family members impact on family satisfaction. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study nested within a national clinical audit database. SETTING: Stratified, random sample of 20 adult general ICUs participating in the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre Case Mix Programme. PARTICIPANTS: Family members of patients staying at least 24 hours in ICU were recruited between May 2013 and June 2014. INTERVENTIONS: Consenting family members were sent a postal questionnaire 3 weeks after the patient died or was discharged from ICU. Up to four family members were recruited per patient. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Family satisfaction was measured using the FS-ICU-24 questionnaire. MAIN RESULTS: A total of 12 346 family members of 6380 patients were recruited and 7173 (58%) family members of 4615 patients returned a completed questionnaire. Overall and domain-specific family satisfaction scores were high (mean overall family satisfaction 80, satisfaction with care 83, satisfaction with information 76 and satisfaction with decision-making 73 out of 100) but varied significantly across adult general ICUs studied and by whether the patient survived ICU. For family members of ICU survivors, characteristics of both the family member (age, ethnicity, relationship to patient (next-of-kin and/or lived with patient) and visit frequency) and the patient (acute severity of illness and receipt of invasive mechanical ventilation) were significant determinants of family satisfaction, whereas, for family members of ICU non-survivors, only patient characteristics (age, acute severity of illness and duration of stay) were significant. CONCLUSIONS: Overall family satisfaction in UK adult general ICUs was high but varied significantly. Adjustment for differences in family member/patient characteristics is important to avoid falsely identifying ICUs as statistical outliers. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN47363549

Density of neutral interstellar hydrogen at the termination shock from Ulysses pickup ion observations

By reevaluating a 13-month stretch of Ulysses SWICS H pickup ion measurements near 5 AU close to the ecliptic right after the previous solar minimum, this paper presents a determination of the neutral interstellar H density at the solar wind termination shock and implications for the density and ionization degree of hydrogen in the LIC. The density of neutral interstellar hydrogen at the termination shock was determined from the local pickup ion production rate as obtained close to the cut-off in the distribution function at aphelion of Ulysses. As shown in an analytical treatment for the upwind axis and through kinetic modeling of the pickup ion production rate at the observer location, with variations in the ionization rate, radiation pressure, and the modeling of the particle behavior, this analysis turns out to be very robust against uncertainties in these parameters and the modeling. Analysis using current heliospheric parameters yields the H density at the termination shock equal to $0.087\pm0.022$ cm$^{-3}$, including observational and modeling uncertainties.Comment: Re-edited version, density revised downward due to data re-processing, accepted by A&

Re-theorising the core: a ‘globalized’ business elite in Santiago, Chile

World systems theory continues to be a widely adopted approach in theorisations of the contemporary world economy. An important epistemological component to world systems theory is the metaphor of core-periphery. Recent work within the approach has sought to transcend earlier criticisms of regional conceptions of cores, peripheries and semi-peripheries by an increasing sensitivity to local differences and an increasing emphasis on Wallerstein's original idea of core-periphery as process, operating at all scales in the contemporary world system. However, this paper argues that the core-periphery metaphor currently used by world systems theorists is founded around a restrictively narrow spatial epistemology. Such a narrow epistemology implements the core-periphery metaphor only as something which produces territorial outcomes in the physical world. This paper contends that recent work within the social services, concerned with the globalization debate and issues of spatial epistemology, should inform world systems theory in producing a reformulated spatial understanding of the core-periphery metaphor, embodying a wider conception of space to include abstract social spaces. This argument is developed in the notion that the world economy must also be understood as having a ‘social core’: a transnational diasporic business elite exercising decision-making power over the capitalist world system. The contention is grounded in the presentation of research into a case study of such a ‘globalized’ business elite in the capital city of Chile, Santiago

The effect of amblyopia treatment on stereoacuity

Purpose: To explore how stereoacuity changes in patients while they are being treated for amblyopia. Methods: The Monitored Occlusion Treatment for Amblyopia Study (MOTAS) comprised 3 distinct phases. In the first phase, baseline, assessments of visual function were made to confirm the initial visual and binocular visual deficit. The second phase, refractive adaptation, now commonly termed “optical treatment,” was an 18-week period of spectacle wear with measurements of logMAR visual acuity and stereoacuity with the Frisby test at weeks 0, 6, 12, and 18. In the third phase, occlusion, participants were prescribed 6 hours of patching per day. Results: A total of 85 children were enrolled (mean age, 5.1 ± 1.5 years). In 21 children amblyopia was associated with anisometropia; in 29, with strabismus; and in 35, with both. At study entry, poor stereoacuity was associated with poor visual acuity (P < 0.001) in the amblyopic eye and greater angle of strabismus (P < 0.001). Of 66 participants, 25 (38%) who received refractive adaptation and 19 (29%) who received occlusion improved by at least one octave in stereoacuity, exceeding test–retest variability. Overall, 38 (45%) improved one or more octaves across both treatment phases. Unmeasureable stereoacuity was observed in 56 participants (66%) at study entry and in 37 (43%) at study exit. Conclusions: Stereoacuity improved for almost one half of the study participants. Improvement was observed in both treatment phases. Factors associated with poor or nil stereoacuity at study entry and exit were poor visual acuity of the amblyopic eye and large-angle strabismus

The remnants of galaxy formation from a panoramic survey of the region around M31

In hierarchical cosmological models, galaxies grow in mass through the continual accretion of smaller ones. The tidal disruption of these systems is expected to result in loosely bound stars surrounding the galaxy, at distances that reach $10 - 100$ times the radius of the central disk. The number, luminosity and morphology of the relics of this process provide significant clues to galaxy formation history, but obtaining a comprehensive survey of these components is difficult because of their intrinsic faintness and vast extent. Here we report a panoramic survey of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). We detect stars and coherent structures that are almost certainly remnants of dwarf galaxies destroyed by the tidal field of M31. An improved census of their surviving counterparts implies that three-quarters of M31's satellites brighter than $M_V < -6$ await discovery. The brightest companion, Triangulum (M33), is surrounded by a stellar structure that provides persuasive evidence for a recent encounter with M31. This panorama of galaxy structure directly confirms the basic tenets of the hierarchical galaxy formation model and reveals the shared history of M31 and M33 in the unceasing build-up of galaxies.Comment: Published in Nature. Supplementary movie available at https://www.astrosci.ca/users/alan/PANDAS/Latest%20news%3A%20movie%20of%20orbit.htm