Movements and spawning of white marlin (Tetrapturus albidus) and blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) off Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

With a focus on white marlin (Tetrapturus albidus), a concurrent electronic tagging and larval sampling effort was conducted in the vicinity of Mona Passage (off southeast Hispaniola), Dominican Republic, during April and May 2003. Objectives were 1) to characterize the horizontal and vertical movement of adults captured from the area by using pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs); and 2) by means of larval sampling, to investigate whether fish were reproducing. Trolling from a sportfishing vessel yielded eight adult white marlin and one blue marlin (Makaira nigricans); PSAT tags were deployed on all but one of these individuals. The exception was a female white marlin that was unsuitable for tagging because of injury; the reproductive state of its ovaries was examined histologically. Seven of the PSATs reported data summaries for water depth, temperature, and light levels measured every minute for periods ranging from 28 to 40 days. Displacement of marlin from the location of release to the point of tag pop-up ranged from 3l.6 to 267.7 nautical miles (nmi) and a mean displacement was 3.4 nmi per day for white marlin. White and blue marlin mean daily displacements appeared constrained compared to the results of other marlin PSAT tagging studies. White marlin ovarian sections contained postovulatory follicles and final maturation-stage oocytes, which indicated recent and imminent spawning. Neuston tows (n=23) yielded 18 istiophorid larvae: eight were white marlin, four were blue marlin, and six could not be identified to species. We speculate that the constrained movement patterns of adults may be linked to reproductive activity for both marlin species, and, if true, these movement patterns may have several implications for management. Protection of the potentially important white marlin spawning ground near Mona Passage seems warranted, at least until further studies can be conducted on the temporal and spatial extent of reproduction and associated adult movement

Integrated Science Entry Grades Connection with End-of-Course Completion Grades in Science in a College of Education in Ghana

Previous experience is essential in the teaching and learning process because it serves as a basis for learners in tackling subsequent problems. It is on the basis of this, the researchers took up this study to explore the relationship between the entry grades of pre-service teachers in integrated science and their end-of-course completion grades in science-related courses at the college level. The quantitative descriptive survey research design was employed in this study. A sample of 124 pre-service teachers was purposively selected for the study with a checklist as the data collection instrument. Frequencies, percentages, and Spearman’s rho were used to analyse the data collected. The study discovered a noteworthy result regarding the relationship between entry grades and academic performance in science-related courses. The findings revealed a weak positive correlation between pre-service teachers' integrated science entry grades from the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and their subsequent performance in general biology, chemistry, and physics at the college level. It emphasised the limited effectiveness of relying only on entry grades as a criterion for college admissions. Based on the findings, it was recommended that policymakers and colleges of education move beyond the singular reliance on entry grades in admissions and consider a more comprehensive approach incorporating a broader range of factors that influence academic performance. Keywords: Entry grades, integrated science, pre-service teachers, biology, chemistry, physics DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-23-05 Publication date:August 31st 202

A method for measuring acid mucopolysaccharides in serum-containing tissue culture media

The details of a simple, relatively rapid method for measuring uronic acid-containing acid mucopolysaccharides in protein-rich tissue culture media are presented. The procedure would appear to be most useful in those situations where hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate are the primary mucopolysaccharides present.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32374/1/0000449.pd

Factors Influencing Farmer’s Participation in Agricultural Projects: The case of the Agricultural Value Chain Mentorship Project in the Northern Region of Ghana

Farmers’ participation in agricultural projects has a direct bearing on technology awareness, adoption, livelihoods, environment, nutrition, poverty, performance of the agricultural sector and the macro economy. This study therefore sought to identify factors, which delimitate farmer’s participation in agricultural projects using the case of the Agricultural Value Chain Mentorship Project. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to collect cross sectional data from 180 farmers in the Saboba and Chereponi districts of the Northern Region of Ghana. The study adopts the binary probit model and results of the analysis indicate that number of years in school, access to production credit and agricultural extension service are factors that significantly determine farmer’s participation in agricultural projects. It appears that farmer’s interest in agricultural projects can be permanently sustained by providing them with tangible benefits such as production credit and agricultural extension services. Keywords: AVCMP, Chereponi, Farmer-Based Organization, Participation, Probit, Sabob

The Outbursts and Orbit of the Accreting Pulsar GS 1843-02 = 2S 1845-024

We present observations of a series of 10 outbursts of pulsed hard X-ray flux from the transient 10.6 mHz accreting pulsar GS 1843-02, using the Burst and Transient Source Experiment on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. These outbursts occurred regularly every 242 days, coincident with the ephemeris of the periodic transient GRO J1849-03 (Zhang et al. 1996), which has recently been identified with the SAS 3 source 2S 1845-024 (Soffitta et al. 1998). Our pulsed detection provides the first clear identification of GS 1843-02 with 2S 1845-024. We present a pulse timing analysis which shows that the 2S 1845-024 outbursts occur near the periastron passage of the neutron star's highly eccentric (e = 0.88+-0.01) 242.18+-0.01 day period binary orbit about a high mass (M > 7 solar masses) companion. The orbit and transient outburst pattern strongly suggest the pulsar is in a binary system with a Be star. Our observations show a long-term spin-up trend, with most of the spin-up occurring during the outbursts. From the measured spin-up rates and inferred luminosities we conclude that an accretion disk is present during the outbursts.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

Floating oil-covered debris from Deepwater Horizon : identification and application

Author Posting. © IOP Publishing, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of IOP Publishing. Re-use is limited to non-commercial purposes. The definitive version was published in Environmental Research Letters 7 (2012): 015301, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/015301.The discovery of oiled and non-oiled honeycomb material in the Gulf of Mexico surface waters and along coastal beaches shortly after the explosion of Deepwater Horizon sparked debate about its origin and the oil covering it. We show that the unknown pieces of oiled and non-oiled honeycomb material collected in the Gulf of Mexico were pieces of the riser pipe buoyancy module of Deepwater Horizon. Biomarker ratios confirmed that the oil had originated from the Macondo oil well and had undergone significant weathering. Using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's records of the oil spill trajectory at the sea surface, we show that the honeycomb material preceded the front edge of the uncertainty of the oil slick trajectory by several kilometers. We conclude that the observation of debris fields deriving from damaged marine materials may be incorporated into emergency response efforts and forecasting of coastal impacts during future offshore oil spills, and ground truthing predicative models.This research was supported by NSF grant OCE-1043976 to CR

Population normative data for the 10/66 Dementia Research Group cognitive test battery from Latin America, India and China: a cross-sectional survey

Background: 1) To report site-specific normative values by age, sex and educational level for four components of the 10/66 Dementia Research Group cognitive test battery; 2) to estimate the main and interactive effects of age, sex, and educational level by site; and 3) to investigate the effect of site by region and by rural or urban location. Methods: Population-based cross-sectional one phase catchment area surveys were conducted in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, China and India. The protocol included the administration of the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia (CSI 'D', generating the COGSCORE measure of global function), and the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) verbal fluency (VF), word list memory (WLM, immediate recall) and recall (WLR, delayed recall) tests. Only those free of dementia were included in the analysis. Results: Older people, and those with less education performed worse on all four tests. The effect of sex was much smaller and less consistent. There was a considerable effect of site after accounting for compositional differences in age, education and sex. Much of this was accounted for by the effect of region with Chinese participants performing better, and Indian participants worse, than those from Latin America. The effect of region was more prominent for VF and WLM than for COGSCORE and WLR. Conclusion: Cognitive assessment is a basic element for dementia diagnosis. Age- and education-specific norms are required for this purpose, while the effect of gender can probably be ignored. The basis of cultural effects is poorly understood, but our findings serve to emphasise that normative data may not be safely generalised from one population to another with quite different characteristics. The minimal effects of region on COGSCORE and WLR are reassuring with respect to the cross-cultural validity of the 10/66 dementia diagnosis, which uses only these elements of the 10/66 battery.Clinical NeurologySCI(E)SSCI17ARTICLEnull

From "trial community' to "experimental publics':how clinical research shapes public participation

In relation to clinical trials, it is far more usual to speak of the community (singular, static) than of publics (multiple, emergent). Rarely defined, the community is commonly taken to be the existing people in a given area, which the trial will engage, mobilise or sensitise to facilitate successful recruitment and retention. Communities are assumed to pre-exist the research, to be timeless, and to be a whole (sometimes consisting of different parts, referred to as stakeholder groups). In this paper, we suggest a conceptual shift from ‘trial community’ to ‘experimental publics’. Using an empirical case study of an HIV prevention trial in Zambia, we draw out the following key points: firstly, publics do not pre-exist research activities but are enacted in concert with them. Secondly, publics are dynamic and transient. And thirdly, experimental publics are situated at the intersection of various forms of inclusion and exclusion, both locally and globally. Our findings emphasise the need to create long-term forms of participation in science, which transcend both the instrumental goals and the individual timelines of specific trials