1,041 research outputs found
Short-Beaked Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Occurrence in the Moray Firth, North-East Scotland
The short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is regarded as notably rare or absent from the northern North Sea, but recent evidence suggests a rising frequency of the species in these waters with increasing regional sea temperatures. The following paper documents the presence of D. delphis in the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland and provides the first evidence for the sustained occurrence of these delphinids in this region during the warmer summer months at least. Sightings were collated during systematic surveys of the outer Moray Firth between 2001 and 2009 by independent research teams from the CRRU and WDCS. A total of 13 encounters (with group sizes ranging from 2 to 450+ animals) were recorded with the species across this period, the first of which was in June 2006, with annual encounters being logged thereafter between the months of May and August from 2007 to 2009 inclusive. The animals were recorded in water depths of 51 to 209 m (mean depth: 88.6±42.2 m) and at a distance from shore of 5 to 32 km (mean distance: 16.6±8.0 k m). New born calves were observed in June and July, and photographic recaptures of identifiable ‘marked’ adults were determined in 2009. The consistent presence of common dolphins in the outer firth post 2005 and the recapture of recognizable individuals suggest a comparatively recent colonization of these waters by the species over a relatively short period of time. The impacts resulting from such a range expansion upon the existing cetacean community and the subsequent implications for management are discussed
Eggshell membrane: A possible new natural therapeutic for joint and connective tissue disorders. Results from two open-label human clinical studies
Kevin J Ruff1, Dale P DeVore2, Michael D Leu3, Mark A Robinson41ESM Technologies, LLC, Carthage, MO, USA; 2Membrell, LLC, Carthage, MO, USA; 3Private Practice, Jenks, OK, USA; 4Robinson Family Health Center, Carthage, MO, USABackground: Natural Eggshell Membrane (NEM®) is a novel dietary supplement that contains naturally occurring glycosaminoglycans and proteins essential for maintaining healthy joint and connective tissues. Two single center, open-label human clinical studies were conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of NEM® as a treatment for pain and inflexibility associated with joint and connective tissue disorders. Methods: Eleven (single-arm trial) and 28 (double-arm trial) patients received oral NEM® 500 mg once daily for four weeks. The primary outcome measure was to evaluate the change in general pain associated with the treatment joints/areas (both studies). In the single-arm trial, range of motion (ROM) and related ROM-associated pain was also evaluated. The primary treatment response endpoints were at seven and 30 days. Both clinical assessments were performed on the intent-to-treat (ITT) population within each study.Results: Single-arm trial: Supplementation with NEM® produced a significant treatment response at seven days for flexibility (27.8% increase; P = 0.038) and at 30 days for general pain (72.5% reduction; P = 0.007), flexibility (43.7% increase; P = 0.006), and ROM-associated pain (75.9% reduction; P = 0.021). Double-arm trial: Supplementation with NEM® produced a significant treatment response for pain at seven days for both treatment arms (X: 18.4% reduction; P = 0.021. Y: 31.3% reduction; P = 0.014). There was no clinically meaningful difference between treatment arms at seven days, so the Y arm crossed over to the X formulation for the remainder of the study. The significant treatment response continued through 30 days for pain (30.2% reduction; P = 0.0001). There were no adverse events reported during either study and the treatment was reported to be well tolerated by study participants. Conclusions: Natural Eggshell Membrane (NEM®) is a possible new effective and safe therapeutic option for the treatment of pain and inflexibility associated with joint and connective tissue (JCT) disorders. Supplementation with NEM®, 500 mg taken once daily, significantly reduced pain, both rapidly (seven days) and continuously (30 days). It also showed clinically meaningful results from a brief responder analysis, demonstrating that significant proportions of treated patients may be helped considerably from NEM® supplementation. The Clinical Trial Registration numbers for these trials are: NCT00750230 and NCT00750854.Keywords: arthritis, pain, stiffness, eggshell membrane, joint, connective tissue, complimentary, alternativ
Enhanced 'In-situ' catalysis via microwave selective heating: catalytic chain transfer polymerisation
An extremely facile, single stage, ‘in-situ’, Catalytic Chain Transfer Polymerisation (CCTP) process has been identified, where the optimal polymerisation process was shown to depend upon a combination of catalyst characteristics (i.e. solubility, sensitivity, activity) and the method of heating applied. In comparison to the current benchmark catalyst, the preparation of which is only about 40 % efficient, this represents a significant increase in waste prevention/atom efficiency and removes the need for organic solvent. It was also shown possible to significantly reduce the overall ‘in-situ’ reaction cycle time by adopting different processing strategies in order to minimise energy use. The application of microwave heating was demonstrated to overcome system diffusion/dilution issues and result in rapid, ‘in-situ’ catalyst formation. This allowed processing times to be minimised by enabling a critical concentration of the species susceptible to microwave selective heating to dominate the heat and mass transfer involved
Rapid and punctuated Late Holocene recession of Siling Co, central Tibet
This work was supported by a National Science Foundation grant from the Tectonics program (EAR-0911587) to E.K. and K.P.F. Additional support to E.W. was provided by grants from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB03010500). X.S. also thanks the support from the Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University through its funding from the National Research Foundation Singapore and the Singapore Ministry of Education under the Research Centers of Excellence initiative.Variations in the strength of the Asian monsoon during Holocene time are thought to have been associated with widespread changes in precipitation across much of Tibet. Local records of monsoon strength from cave deposits, ice cores, and lake sediments typically rely on proxy data that relate isotopic variations to changes in precipitation. Lake expansion and contraction in response to changing water balance are likewise inferred from sedimentologic, isotopic and paleobiologic proxies, but relatively few direct records of changes in lake volume from preserved shorelines exist. Here we utilize relict shoreline deposits and associated alluvial fan features around Siling Co, the largest lake in central Tibet, to reconstruct centennial-to-millennial-scale variations in lake area and volume over the Holocene. Mapping and surveying of lacustrine shorelines coupled with optically stimulated luminescence dating of associated deposits indicate protracted occupation of a highstand elevation from >8 ka to 4 ka, followed by rapid recession that was likely punctuated by several stillstands of centennial-scale duration. Calculation of the changes in lake surface area and past hydrologic indices of the Siling Co basin suggests the effective moisture during the early Holocene highstand was approximately three times greater than today. In contrast to other lakes in central and western Tibet, our results suggest that Siling Co did not begin to recede synchronously with decreasing solar insolation at ca. 9–8 ka. Rather, initial recession of Siling Co appears to correspond to a time period of enhanced aridity and weakened monsoon in both Africa and Asia at ca. 4.2 ka. Our results add to a growing body of literature that suggest a period of relatively severe aridity on the Tibetan Plateau at this time. We suggest that subsequent punctuated recession of Siling Co was punctuated by similar periods of abrupt climate change during the Late Holocene.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey X: A Redshift Survey in the Region of the Hubble Deep Field North
A redshift survey has been carried out in the region of the Hubble Deep Field
North using the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph at the Keck Observatory.
The resulting redshift catalog, which contains 671 entries, is a compendium of
our own data together with published LRIS/Keck data. It is more than 92%
complete for objects, irrespective of morphology, to mag in the HDF
itself and to mag in the Flanking Fields within a diameter of 8 arcmin
centered on the HDF, an unusually high completion for a magnitude limited
survey performed with a large telescope. A median redshift is reached
at .
Strong peaks in the redshift distribution, which arise when a group or poor
cluster of galaxies intersect the area surveyed, can be identified to in this dataset. More than 68% of the galaxies are members of these
redshift peaks. In a few cases, closely spaced peaks in can be resolved
into separate groups of galaxies that can be distinguished in both velocity and
location on the sky.
The radial separation of these peaks in the pencil-beam survey is consistent
with a characteristic length scale for the their separation of 70 Mpc
in our adopted cosmology (, ). Strong
galaxy clustering is in evidence at all epochs back to . (abstract
abridged)Comment: Accepted to the ApJ. This version contains all the figures and
tables. 2 minor typos in table 2b correcte
Increased Cell–Cell Coupling Increases Infarct Size and Does not Decrease Incidence of Ventricular Tachycardia in Mice
Increasing connexin43 (Cx43) gap junctional conductance as a means to improve cardiac conduction has been proposed as a novel antiarrhythmic modality. Yet, transmission of molecules via gap junctions may be associated with increased infarct size. To determine whether maintaining open gap junction channels impacts on infarct size and induction of ventricular tachycardia (VT) following coronary occlusion, we expressed the pH- and voltage-independent connexin isoform connexin32 (Cx32) in ventricle and confirmed Cx32 expression. Wild-type (WT) mice injected with adenovirus-Cx32 (Cx32inj) were examined following coronary occlusion to determine infarct size and inducibility of VT. There was an increased infarct size in Cx32inj hearts as compared to WT (WT 22.9 ± 4%; Cx32inj 44.3 ± 5%; p < 0.05). Programmed electrical stimulation showed no difference in VT inducibility in WT and Cx32inj mice (VT was reproducibly inducible in 55% of shams and 50% of Cx32inj mice (p > 0.05). Following coronary occlusion, improving cell–cell communication increased infarct size, and conferred no antiarrhythmic benefit
IR and UV Galaxies at z=0.6 -- Evolution of Dust Attenuation and Stellar Mass as Revealed by SWIRE and GALEX
We study dust attenuation and stellar mass of star-forming
galaxies using new SWIRE observations in IR and GALEX observations in UV. Two
samples are selected from the SWIRE and GALEX source catalogs in the
SWIRE/GALEX field ELAIS-N1-00 ( deg). The UV selected sample
has 600 galaxies with photometric redshift (hereafter photo-z) and NUV (corresponding to \rm L_{FUV} \geq 10^{9.6} L_\sun).
The IR selected sample contains 430 galaxies with mJy
(\rm L_{dust} \geq 10^{10.8} L_\sun) in the same photo-z range. It is found
that the mean ratios of the z=0.6 UV galaxies are
consistent with that of their z=0 counterparts of the same . For
IR galaxies, the mean ratios of the z=0.6 LIRGs (\rm
L_{dust} \sim 10^{11} L_\sun) are about a factor of 2 lower than local LIRGs,
whereas z=0.6 ULIRGs (\rm L_{dust} \sim 10^{12} L_\sun) have the same mean
ratios as their local counterparts. This is consistent
with the hypothesis that the dominant component of LIRG population has changed
from large, gas rich spirals at z to major-mergers at z=0. The stellar
mass of z=0.6 UV galaxies of \rm L_{FUV} \leq 10^{10.2} L_\sun is about a
factor 2 less than their local counterparts of the same luminosity, indicating
growth of these galaxies. The mass of z=0.6 UV lunmous galaxies (UVLGs: \rm
L_{FUV} > 10^{10.2} L_\sun) and IR selected galaxies, which are nearly
exclusively LIRGs and ULIRGs, is the same as their local counterparts.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal
Supplement series dedicated to GALEX result
Compression of Structured High-Throughput Sequencing Data
Large biological datasets are being produced at a rapid pace and create substantial storage challenges, particularly in the domain of high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Most approaches currently used to store HTS data are either unable to quickly adapt to the requirements of new sequencing or analysis methods (because they do not support schema evolution), or fail to provide state of the art compression of the datasets. We have devised new approaches to store HTS data that support seamless data schema evolution and compress datasets substantially better than existing approaches. Building on these new approaches, we discuss and demonstrate how a multi-tier data organization can dramatically reduce the storage, computational and network burden of collecting, analyzing, and archiving large sequencing datasets. For instance, we show that spliced RNA-Seq alignments can be stored in less than 4% the size of a BAM file with perfect data fidelity. Compared to the previous compression state of the art, these methods reduce dataset size more than 40% when storing exome, gene expression or DNA methylation datasets. The approaches have been integrated in a comprehensive suite of software tools (http://goby.campagnelab.org) that support common analyses for a range of high-throughput sequencing assays.National Center for Research Resources (U.S.) (Grant UL1 RR024996)Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America (Translational Research Program Grant LLS 6304-11)National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) (R01 MH086883
Photometric Observations of Three High Mass X-Ray Binaries and a Search for Variations Induced by Orbital Motion
We searched for long period variation in V-band, Ic-band and RXTE X-ray light
curves of the High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs) LS 1698 / RX J1037.5-5647, HD
110432 / 1H 1249-637 and HD 161103 / RX J1744.7-2713 in an attempt to discover
orbitally induced variation. Data were obtained primarily from the ASAS
database and were supplemented by shorter term observations made with the 24-
and 40-inch ANU telescopes and one of the robotic PROMPT telescopes. Fourier
periodograms suggested the existence of long period variation in the V-band
light curves of all three HMXBs, however folding the data at those periods did
not reveal convincing periodic variation. At this point we cannot rule out the
existence of long term V-band variation for these three sources and hints of
longer term variation may be seen in the higher precision PROMPT data. Long
term V-band observations, on the order of several years, taken at a frequency
of at least once per week and with a precision of 0.01 mag, therefore still
have a chance of revealing long term variation in these three HMXBs.Comment: Accepted, RAA, May, 201
How reliable are knee kinematics and kinetics during side-cutting manoeuvres?
INTRODUCTION: Side-cutting tasks are commonly used in dynamic assessment of ACL injury risk, but only limited information is available concerning the reliability of knee loading parameters. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of side-cutting data with additional focus on modelling approaches and task execution variables. METHODS: Each subject (n=8) attended six testing sessions conducted by two observers. Kinematic and kinetic data of 45° side-cutting tasks was collected. Inter-trial, inter-session, inter-observer variability and observer/trial ratios were calculated at every time-point of normalised stance, for data derived from two modelling approaches. Variation in task execution variables was regressed against that of temporal profiles of relevant knee data using one-dimensional statistical parametric mapping. RESULTS: Variability in knee kinematics was consistently low across the time-series waveform (≤5°), but knee kinetic variability was high (31.8, 24.1 and 16.9Nm for sagittal, frontal and transverse planes, respectively) in the weight acceptance phase of the side-cutting task. Calculations conveyed consistently moderate-to-good measurement reliability. Inverse kinematic modelling reduced the variability in sagittal (∼6Nm) and frontal planes (∼10Nm) compared to direct kinematic modelling. Variation in task execution variables did not explain any knee data variability. CONCLUSION: Side-cutting data appears to be reliably measured, however high knee moment variability exhibited in all planes, particularly in the early stance phase, suggests cautious interpretation towards ACL injury mechanics. Such variability may be inherent to the dynamic nature of the side-cutting task or experimental issues not yet known
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