The Bait Purse-seine Fishery for Atlantic Menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, in the Virginia Portion of Chesapeake Bay

Through the mid 1990’s, the bait purse-seine fishery for Atlantic menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, in the Virginia portion of Chesapeake Bay was essentially undocumented. Beginning in 1995, captains of Virginia bait vessels maintained deck logs of their daily fishing activities; concurrently, we sampled the bait landings for size and age composition of the catch. Herein, we summarize 15 years (1995–2009) of data from the deck logbooks, including information on total bait landings by purse seine, proportion of fishing to nonfishing days, proportion of purse-seine sets assisted by spotter pilots, nominal fishing effort, median catches, and temporal and areal trends in catch. Age and size composition of the catch are described, as well as vessel and gear characteristics and disposition of the catch

An experimental investigation of leading-edge vortex augmentation by blowing

A wind tunnel test was conducted to determine the effects of over-the-wing blowing as a means of augmenting the leading-edge vortex flow of several pointed-tip, sharp-edged planforms. Arrow, delta, and diamond wings with leading-edge sweeps of 30 and 45 degrees were mounted on a body-of-revolution fuselage and tested in a low-speed wind tunnel at a Mach number of 0.2. Nozzle location data, pitch data, and flow-visualization pictures were obtained for a range of blowing rates. Results show pronounced increases in vortex lift due to the blowing

Pluto's Light Curve in 1933-1934

We are reporting on a new accurate photographic light curve of Pluto for 1933-1934 when the heliocentric distance was 40 AU. We used 43 B-band and V-band images of Pluto on 32 plates taken on 15 nights from 19 March 1933 to 10 March 1934. Most of these plates were taken with the Mount Wilson 60" and 100" telescopes, but 7 of the plates (now at the Harvard College Observatory) were taken with the 12" and 16" Metcalf doublets at Oak Ridge. The plates were measured with an iris diaphragm photometer, which has an average one-sigma photometric error on these plates of 0.08 mag as measured by the repeatability of constant comparison stars. The modern B and V magnitudes for the comparison stars were measured with the Lowell Observatory Hall 1.1-m telescope. The magnitudes in the plate's photographic system were converted to the Johnson B- and V-system after correction with color terms, even though they are small in size. We find that the average B-band mean opposition magnitude of Pluto in 1933-1934 was 15.73 +- 0.01, and we see a roughly sinusoidal modulation on the rotational period (6.38 days) with a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.11 +- 0.03 mag. With this, we show that Pluto darkened by 5% from 1933-1934 to 1953-1955. This darkening from 1933-1934 to 1953-1955 cannot be due to changing viewing geometry (as both epochs had identical sub-Earth latitudes), so our observations must record a real albedo change over the southern hemisphere. The later darkening trend from 1954 to the 1980s has been explained by changing viewing geometry (as more of the darker northern hemisphere comes into view). Thus, we now have strong evidence for albedo changes on the surface of Pluto, and these are most easily explained by the systematic sublimation of frosts from the sunward pole that led to a drop in the mean surface albedo.Comment: Icarus in press, 24 page

Parallel Processing Implementations of a Contextual Classifier for Multispectral Remote Sensing Data

Contextual classifiers are being developed as a method to exploit the spatial/spectral context of a pixel to achieve accurate classification. Classification algorithms such as the contextual classifier typically require large amounts of computation time. One way to reduce the execution time of these tasks is through the use of parallelism. The applicability of the CDC Flexible Processor system and of a proposed multimicroprocessor system (PASM) for implementing contextual classifiers is examined

High-resolution Elemental Mapping of the Lunar Surface

New instruments and missions are being proposed to study the lunar surface as a result of the resurgence of interest in returning to the Moon. One instrument recently proposed is similar in concept to the x-ray fluorescence detectors flown on Apollo, but utilizes fluorescence from the L- and M-shells rather than the K-shell. This soft X-Ray Flourescence Imager (XRFI) is discussed

The Distribution of Purse-Seine Sets and Catches in the Gulf Menhaden Fishery in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, 1994-98

Captains Daily Fishing Reports (CDFRs) are daily logs of fishing activities that are completed by vessel captains in the gulf menhaden purse-seine fishery. CDFRs of menhaden vessels from Mississippi and Louisiana for 1994-98 were computerized and analyzed. Over the 5-yr study period, 33,780 CDFRs were processed, representing 115,104 purse-seine sets. On average, the fleet made 23,021 sets per year. Airplane pilots assisted for 64.0-75.8% of the sets. Modal number of sets per day ranged from 4 to 5, and median catch per set ranged from 17 to 22 metric tons. Vessels made at least one set on 63-76% of the available fishing days. Vessels failed to leave the dock most often because of adverse weather. Between 86 and 92% of the annual catch occurred off the Louisiana coast, with lesser quantities coming from the Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama waters. Cumulatively, 55% of the harvest occurred within three miles of shore, and 93% came from within 10 miles of shore. Two main centers of fishing activity were located off the Louisiana coast: one, within Breton and Chandeleur sounds and the other along the western Louisiana coast from Atchafalaya Bay to Sabine Pass. Annual catch by 10 X 10-min rectangles of latitude and longitude within these centers of fishing activity regularly exceeded 20,000 metric tons. Areas of the greatest catches and effort tended to cluster near extant menhaden factories. Catch per unit effort was generally high across the range of the gulf menhaden fishery, and exceeded 20 metric tons per purse-seine set in a majority of the areas

The role of voltage-gated potassium channels in the regulation of mouse uterine contractility

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Uterine smooth muscle cells exhibit ionic currents that appear to be important in the control of uterine contractility, but how these currents might produce the changes in contractile activity seen in pregnant myometrium has not been established. There are conflicting reports concerning the role of voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels and large-conductance, calcium-activated potassium (BK) channels in the regulation of uterine contractility. In this study we provide molecular and functional evidence for a role for Kv channels in the regulation of spontaneous contractile activity in mouse myometrium, and also demonstrate a change in Kv channel regulation of contractility in pregnant mouse myometrium.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Functional assays which evaluated the effects of channel blockers and various contractile agonists were accomplished by quantifying contractility of isolated uterine smooth muscle obtained from nonpregnant mice as well as mice at various stages of pregnancy. Expression of Kv channel proteins in isolated uterine smooth muscle was evaluated by Western blots.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Kv channel blocker 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) caused contractions in nonpregnant mouse myometrium (EC50 = 54 micromolar, maximal effect at 300 micromolar) but this effect disappeared in pregnant mice; similarly, the Kv4.2/Kv4.3 blocker phrixotoxin-2 caused contractions in nonpregnant, but not pregnant, myometrium. Contractile responses to 4-AP were not dependent upon nerves, as neither tetrodotoxin nor storage of tissues at room temperature significantly altered these responses, nor were responses dependent upon the presence of the endometrium. Spontaneous contractions and contractions in response to 4-AP did not appear to be mediated by BK, as the BK channel-selective blockers iberiotoxin, verruculogen, or tetraethylammonium failed to affect either spontaneous contractions or 4-AP-elicited responses. A number of different Kv channel alpha subunit proteins were found in isolated myometrium from both nonpregnant and term-pregnant mice, and one of these proteins – Kv4.3 – was found to disappear in term-pregnant tissues.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest a role for Kv channels in the regulation of uterine contractility, and that changes in the expression and/or function of specific Kv channels may account for the functional changes seen in pregnant myometrium.</p

Origin of ferroelectricity in the multiferroic barium fluorides BaMF4

We present a first principles study of the series of multiferroic barium fluorides with the composition BaMF4, where M is Mn, Fe, Co, or Ni. We discuss trends in the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties, and we show that the ferroelectricity in these systems results from the "freezing in" of a single unstable polar phonon mode. In contrast to the case of the standard perovskite ferroelectrics, this structural distortion is not accompanied by charge transfer between cations and anions. Thus, the ferroelectric instability in the multiferroic barium fluorides arises solely due to size effects and the special geometrical constraints of the underlying crystal structure.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 3 table

Generation of chirp-free picosecond pulses

The frequency spectrum of moderately chirped laser pulses depends upon the portion of the beam which is accepted by the spectrometer. Observation of the development of the chirp in a mode-locked pulse train allows to determine the small incipient chirp of early pulses. A product, bandwidth times pulse duration, of 0.47 ± 0.03 is consistently observed for single pulses switched from a passively mode-locked Nd-glass system