Proceedings of the US and Canada Scallop Science Summit: St. Andrews, New Brunswick, May 6–8, 2014

A council of stakeholders ranging from fishermen, to scientists, and fisheries managers from both Canada and the United States convened on May 6, 7, and 8, 2014 in St. Andrews, New Brunswick to review and discuss the most recent scientific information relevant to the sea scallop fisheries and aquaculture efforts in the US and Canada. The US and Canada Scallop Summit aimed to strengthen and broaden the knowledge base in the scallop fisheries, with a focus on the nearshore fisheries in the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy, as well as aquaculture efforts, and develop research priorities that aim to assist in the goal of profitable, sustainable fisheries that support coastal communities. More specifically, the overarching goals of this meeting were: i) to review and discuss the most recent scientific information relevant to the sea scallop fisheries and aquaculture efforts in the US and Canada among stakeholders – scientists, harvesters, and managers, ii) to bring together relevant groups – including scientists, harvesters, and managers, to increase coordination and collaboration on future scientific research opportunities, and iii) to provide an inclusive and participative forum to engage industry in scientific discussions and knowledge sharing. The summit involved 41 participants (mainly from Atlantic Canada and New England) and 14 presentations over four theme sessions. These proceedings provide an overall summary of the meeting presentations, questions, and discussion sessions

Parametric Study of Strain Rate Effects on Nanoparticle-Reinforced Polymer Composites

Crashworthiness, energy absorption capacity, and safety are important factors in the design of lightweight vehicles made of fiber-reinforced polymer composite (FRP) components. The relatively recent emergence of the nanotechnology industry has presented a novel means to augment the mechanical properties of various materials. As a result, recent attempts have contemplated the use of nanoparticles to further improve the resiliency of resins, especially when resins are used for mating FRP components. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the response of nanoreinforced polymer composites, subjected to various rates of loading, is of paramount importance for developing reliable structures. In this paper, the effects of nanoreinforcement on the mechanical response of a commonly used epoxy resin subjected to four different strain rates, are systematically investigated. The results are then compared to those of the neat resin. To characterize the mechanical properties of the nanocomposite, a combination of the strain rate-dependent mechanical (SRDM) model of Goldberg and his coworkers and Halpin-Tsai’s micromechanical approach is employed. Subsequently, a parametric study is conducted to ascertain the influences of particle type and their weight percentage. Finally, the numerical results are compared to the experimental data obtained from testing of the neat and the nanoreinforced epoxy resin

Explicit incorporation of spatial variability in a biomass dynamics assessment model

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Towards a methodical approach to implement biomimetic paradigms in the design of robotic systems for space applications

Biomimetic design is considered a promising source of novel solutions to problems in space engineering and robotics in particular. With the maturing of this discipline, however, a need is identified: a more systematic approach to its application to reduce the element of chance in the design of biomimetic systems. A methodology is proposed to address this concern and provide a basis for further development of biomimetic design procedures. The application of this process is illustrated through case studies of ongoing biomimetics research with relevance to space robotics in the form of climbing robots utilising synthetic dry adhesives

Incorporating intra-annual variability in fisheries abundance data to better capture population dynamics

To reduce the risk of overexploitation and the ensuing conservation and socio-economic consequences, fisheries management relies on receiving accurate scientific advice from stock assessments. Biomass dynamics models used in stock assessment tend to rely primarily on indices of abundance and commercial landings data. Standard practice for calculating the indices used in these models typically involves taking averages of survey tow data over large, diverse spatial domains. There is a lot of variability in the choice of methodologies used to propagate index uncertainty into the assessment model, many of which require specifying it through expert knowledge or prior distributions. Here we propose an alternative approach that treats each individual survey tow as an independent estimate of the true underlying biomass in the stock assessment model itself. This reduces information loss and propagates uncertainties into the model directly. A simulation study demonstrates that this approach accurately captures underlying population dynamics and reliably estimates variance parameters. We further demonstrate its utility with data from the Inshore Scallop Fishery of south-west Nova Scotia. Results show significant improvements in parameter estimation over previous models while providing similar predictions of biomass with less uncertainty. This reduced uncertainty can improve the resulting scientific advice and lead to improved decision-making by fisheries managers.publishedVersio

The superhydrophobicity of polymer surfaces: Recent developments

Superhydrophobicity is the extreme water repellence of highly textured surfaces. The field of superhydrophobicity research has reached a stage where huge numbers of candidate treatments have been proposed and jumps have been made in theoretically describing them. There now seems to be a move to more practical concerns and to considering the demands of individual applications instead of more general cases. With these developments, polymeric surfaces with their huge variety of properties have come to the fore and are fast becoming the material of choice for designing, developing, and producing superhydrophobic surfaces. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 49: 1203–1217, 201

Three-dimensional modeling of acoustic backscattering from fluid-like zooplankton

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2002. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 111 (2002): 1197-1210, doi:10.1121/1.1433813.Scattering models that correctly incorporate organism size and shape are a critical component for the remote detection and classification of many marine organisms. In this work, an acoustic scattering model has been developed for fluid-like zooplankton that is based on the distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) and that makes use of high-resolution three-dimensional measurements of the animal's outer boundary shape. High-resolution computerized tomography (CT) was used to determine the three-dimensional digitizations of animal shape. This study focuses on developing the methodology for incorporating high-resolution CT scans into a scattering model that is generally valid for any body with fluid-like material properties. The model predictions are compared to controlled laboratory measurements of the acoustic backscattering from live individual decapod shrimp. The frequency range used was 50 kHz to 1 MHz and the angular characteristics of the backscattering were investigated with up to a 1° angular resolution. The practical conditions under which it is necessary to make use of high-resolution digitizations of shape are assessed.This work was supported in part by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Education Office

Robust thermal control for CMOS-based lab-on-chip systems

The need for precise temperature control at small scales has provided a formidable challenge to the lab-on-chip community. It requires, at once, good thermal conductivity for high speed operation, good thermal isolation for low power consumption and the ability to have small (mm-scale) thermally independent regions on the same substrate. Most importantly, and, in addition to these conflicting requirements, there is a need to accurately measure the temperature of the active region without the need for device-to-device calibrations. We have developed and tested a design that enables thermal control of lab-on-chip devices atop silicon substrates in a way that could be integrated with the standard methods of mass-manufacture used in the electronics industry (i.e. CMOS). This is a significant step towards a single-chip lab-on-chip solution, one in which the microfluidics, high voltage electronics, optoelectronics, instrumentation electronics, and the world-chip interface are all integrated on a single substrate with multiple, independent, thermally-controlled regions based on active heating and passive cooling.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Canada (NSERC)Teledyne-DALSA Semiconducto

Feeding behavior of the ctenophore Thalassocalyce inconstans : revision of anatomy of the order Thalassocalycida

© 2009 The Authors. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License. The definitive version was published in Marine Biology 156 (2009): 1049-1056, doi:10.1007/s00227-009-1149-6.Behavioral observations using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in the Gulf of California in March, 2003, provided insights into the vertical distribution, feeding and anatomy of the rare and delicate ctenophore Thalassocalyce inconstans. Additional archived ROV video records from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute of 288 sightings of T. inconstans and 2,437 individual observations of euphausiids in the Gulf of California and Monterey Canyon between 1989 and 2005 were examined to determine ctenophore and euphausiid prey depth distributions with respect to temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration [dO]. In the Gulf of California most ctenophores (96.9%) were above 350 m, the top of the oxygen minimum layer. In Monterey Canyon the ctenophores were more widely distributed throughout the water column, including the hypoxic zone, to depths as great as 3,500 m. Computer-aided behavioral analysis of two video records of the capture of euphausiids by T. inconstans showed that the ctenophore contracted its bell almost instantly (0.5 s), transforming its flattened, hemispherical resting shape into a closed bi-lobed globe in which seawater and prey were engulfed. Euphausiids entrapped within the globe displayed a previously undescribed escape response for krill (‘probing behavior’), in which they hovered and gently probed the inner surfaces of the globe with antennae without stimulating further contraction by the ctenophore. Such rapid bell contraction could be effected only by a peripheral sphincter muscle even though the presence of circumferential ring musculature was unknown for the Phylum Ctenophora. Thereafter, several live T. inconstans were collected by hand off Barbados and microscopic observations confirmed that assumption.Supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and NOAA Grant #NA06OAR4600091