Sources of age determination errors for sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria)

This study was undertaken to resolve problems in age determination of sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria). Aging of this species has been hampered by poor agreement (averaging less than 45%) among age readers and by differences in assigned ages of as much as 15 years. Otoliths from fish that had been injected with oxytetracycline (OTC) and that had been at liberty for known durations were used to determine why age determinations were so difficult and to help determine the correct aging procedure. All fish were sampled from Oregon southwards, which represents the southern part of their range. The otoliths were examined with the aid of image processing. Some fish showed little or no growth on the otolith after eight months at liberty, whereas otoliths from other fish grew substantially. Some fish lay down two prominent hyaline zones within a single year, one in the summer and one in the winter. We classified the otoliths by morphological type and found that certain types are more likely to lay down multiple hyaline zones and other types are likely to lay down little or no zones. This finding suggests that some improvement could be achieved by detailed knowledge of the growth characteristics of the different types. This study suggests that it may not be possible to obtain reliable ages from sablefish otoliths. At the very least, more studies will be required to under-stand the growth of sablefish otoliths

Concurrent sodium channelopathies and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis supports shared pathogenesis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an invariably fatal adult-onset neurodegenerative disorder; approximately 10% of ALS is monogenic but all ALS exhibits significant heritability. The skeletal muscle sodium channelopathies are a group of inherited, non-dystrophic ion channel disorders caused by heterozygous point mutations in the SCN4A gene, leading to clinical manifestations of congenital myotonia, paramyotonia, and periodic paralysis syndromes. We provide clinical and genetic evidence of concurrence of these two rare disorders which implies a possible shared underlying pathophysiology in two patients. We then identify an enrichment of ALS-associated mutations in another sodium channel, SCN7A, from whole genome sequencing data of 4495 ALS patients and 1925 controls passing multiple testing correction (67 variants, p = 0.0002, Firth logistic regression). These findings suggest dysfunctional sodium channels may play a role upstream in the pathogenesis of ALS in a subset of patients, potentially opening the door to novel personalized medicine approaches

An atlas of reproductive development in rockfishes, genus Sebastes

The genus Sebastes consists of over 100 fish species, all of which are viviparous and long-lived. Previous studies have presented schemes on the reproductive biology of a single targeted species of the genus Sebastes, but all appear to possess a similar reproductive biology as evidenced by this and other studies. This atlas stages major events during spermatogenesis, oogenesis, and embryogenesis, including atresia, in six species of Sebastes (S. alutus, S. elongatus, S. helvomaculatus, S. polyspinis, S. proriger, and S. zacentrus). Our study suggests that the male reproductive cycle of Sebastes is characterized by 11 phases of testicular development, with 10 stages of sperm development and 1 stage of spermatozoa atresia. Ovarian development was divided into 12 phases, with 10 stages of oocyte development, 1 stage of embryonic development, and 1 stage of oocyte atresia. Embryonic development up to parturition was divided into 33 stages following the research of Yamada and Kusakari (1991). Reproductive development of all six species examined followed the developmental classifications listed above which may apply to all species of Sebastes regardless of the number of broods produced annually. Multiple brooders vary in that not all ova are fertilized and progress to embryos; a proportion of ova are arrested at the pre-vitellogenic stage. Reproductive stage examples shown in this atlas use S. elongates for spermatic development, S. proriger for oocyte development, and S. alutus for embryological development, because opportunistic sampling only permitted complete analysis of each respective developmental phase for those species. The results of this study and the proposed reproductive phases complement the recommended scheme submitted by Brown-Peterson et al. (2011), who call for a standardization of terminology for describing reproductive development of fishes

Visions in monochrome: Families, marriage and the individualisation thesis

This paper takes issue with the way in which the individualisation thesis – in which it is assumed that close relationships have become tenuous and fragile - has become so dominant in ‘new’ sociological theorising about family life. Although others have criticised this thesis, in this paper the main criticism derives from empirical research findings carried out with members of transnational families living in Britain whose values and practices do not fit easily with ideas of individualisation. It is argued that we need a much more complex and less linear notion of how families change across generations and in time

De novo deletions and duplications of 17q25.3 cause susceptibility to cardiovascular malformations

BACKGROUND: Genomic disorders resulting from deletion or duplication of genomic segments are known to be an important cause of cardiovascular malformations (CVMs). In our previous study, we identified a unique individual with a de novo 17q25.3 deletion from a study of 714 individuals with CVM. METHODS: To understand the contribution of this locus to cardiac malformations, we reviewed the data on 60,000 samples submitted for array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) studies to Medical Genetics Laboratories at Baylor College of Medicine, and ascertained seven individuals with segmental aneusomy of 17q25. We validated our findings by studying another individual with a de novo submicroscopic deletion of this region from Cytogenetics Laboratory at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Using bioinformatic analyses including protein-protein interaction network, human tissue expression patterns, haploinsufficiency scores, and other annotation systems, including a training set of 251 genes known to be linked to human cardiac disease, we constructed a pathogenicity score for cardiac phenotype for each of the 57 genes within the terminal 2.0 Mb of 17q25.3. RESULTS: We found relatively high penetrance of cardiovascular defects (~60 %) with five deletions and three duplications, observed in eight unrelated individuals. Distinct cardiac phenotypes were present in four of these subjects with non-recurrent de novo deletions (range 0.08 Mb-1.4 Mb) in the subtelomeric region of 17q25.3. These included coarctation of the aorta (CoA), total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR), ventricular septal defect (VSD) and atrial septal defect (ASD). Amongst the three individuals with variable size duplications of this region, one had patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) at 8 months of age. CONCLUSION: The distinct cardiac lesions observed in the affected patients and the bioinformatics analyses suggest that multiple genes may be plausible drivers of the cardiac phenotype within this gene-rich critical interval of 17q25.3

Tourism and toponymy: Commodifying and Consuming Place Names

Academic geographers have a long history of studying both tourism and place names, but have rarely made linkages between the two. Within critical toponymic studies there is increasing debate about the commodification of place names, but to date the role of tourism in this process has been almost completely overlooked. In some circumstances, toponyms can become tourist sights based on their extraordinary properties, their broader associations within popular culture, or their role as metanyms for some other aspect of a place. Place names may be sights in their own right or ‘markers’ of a sight and, in some cases, the marker may be more significant than the sight to which it refers. The appropriation of place names through tourism also includes the production and consumption of a broad range of souvenirs based on reproductions or replicas of the material signage that denote place names. Place names as attractions are also associated with a range of performances by tourists, and in some cases visiting a place name can be a significant expression of fandom. In some circumstances, place names can be embraced and promoted by tourism marketing strategies and are, in turn, drawn into broader circuits of the production and consumption of tourist space

Observation of Hadronic W Decays in t-tbar Events with the Collider Detector at Fermilab

We observe hadronic W decays in t-tbar -> W (-> l nu) + >= 4 jet events using a 109 pb-1 data sample of p-pbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). A peak in the dijet invariant mass distribution is obtained that is consistent with W decay and inconsistent with the background prediction by 3.3 standard deviations. From this peak we measure the W mass to be 77.2 +- 4.6 (stat+syst) GeV/c^2. This result demonstrates the presence of two W bosons in t-tbar candidates in the W (-> l nu) + >= 4 jet channel.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Search for Chargino-Neutralino Associated Production at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider

We have searched in $p \bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.8 TeV for events with three charged leptons and missing transverse energy. In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, we expect trilepton events from chargino-neutralino (\chione \chitwo) pair production, with subsequent decay into leptons. We observe no candidate $e^+e^-e^\pm$, $e^+e^-\mu^\pm$, $e^\pm\mu^+\mu^-$ or $\mu^+\mu^-\mu^\pm$ events in 106 pb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity. We present limits on the sum of the branching ratios times cross section for the four channels: \sigma_{\chione\chitwo}\cdot BR(\chione\chitwo\to 3\ell+X) 81.5 \mgev\sp and M_\chitwo > 82.2 \mgev\sp for $\tan\beta=2$, $\mu =-600$~\mgev\sp and M_\squark= M_\gluino.Comment: 9 pages and 3 figure

Search for charged Higgs decays of the top quark using hadronic tau decays

We present the result of a search for charged Higgs decays of the top quark, produced in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\surd s =$ 1.8 TeV. When the charged Higgs is heavy and decays to a tau lepton, which subsequently decays hadronically, the resulting events have a unique signature: large missing transverse energy and the low-charged-multiplicity tau. Data collected in the period 1992-1993 at the Collider Detector at Fermilab, corresponding to 18.7$\pm$0.7~pb$^{-1}$, exclude new regions of combined top quark and charged Higgs mass, in extensions to the standard model with two Higgs doublets.Comment: uuencoded, gzipped tar file of LaTeX and 6 Postscript figures; 11 pp; submitted to Phys. Rev.

Inclusive jet cross section in pˉp{\bar p p} collisions at s=1.8\sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV

The inclusive jet differential cross section has been measured for jet transverse energies, $E_T$, from 15 to 440 GeV, in the pseudorapidity region 0.1$\leq | \eta| \leq$0.7. The results are based on 19.5 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the CDF collaboration at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The data are compared with QCD predictions for various sets of parton distribution functions. The cross section for jets with $E_T>200$ GeV is significantly higher than current predictions based on O($\alpha_s^3$) perturbative QCD calculations. Various possible explanations for the high-$E_T$ excess are discussed.Comment: 8 pages with 2 eps uu-encoded figures Submitted to Physical Review Letter