Crabeater seal diving behaviour in eastern Antarctica

Copyright © 2007 Inter-Research.Southern Ocean waters are highly productive and contain important food resources for many indigenous predators, including humans. Management of these resources has fallen under the regulation of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which has identified a suite of predators as indicator species for monitoring ecosystem fluctuations, including crabeater seals. For crabeater seals to fulfil this role, however, they must respond predictably to fluctuations in krill distribution and abundance. Here, we investigated the validity of using the diving behaviour of this species as an indicator of krill distribution and abundance. We used behavioural data collected from 23 crabeater seals fitted with satellite-linked time-depth recorders off eastern Antarctica to quantify habitat use as a function of the amount of time they spent within geographic regions with varying environmental characteristics. This was then linked with diving behaviour in those regions. By integrating geographic location and diving parameters, we demonstrated that habitat use and foraging behaviour within eastern Antarctic waters fluctuated in response to seasonal and spatial environmental variability. Our attempts to use oceanographic variables to develop models of crabeater seal habitat use and behaviour demonstrated real limitations in inferring behaviour from a simple set of environmental factors, but we identified ocean depth and the proximity to the ice edge as factors influencing seasonal habitat use and diving behaviour. Whilst our understanding of the influences driving crabeater seal distribution has improved as a result of telemetry studies, it would appear premature to infer cross-species patterns in distribution and abundance with krill given the low predictive power of models derived in the present study. Furthermore, the dynamic and regionally variable use of pelagic habitat by this widely abundant Antarctic predator has important implications for the estimation of crabeater seal biomass.Stephen M. Wall, Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Colin J. Southwell, Nicholas J. Gales, Mark A. Hindel

The absence of jets in cataclysmic variable stars

We show that the recently developed thermal model which successfully describes how jets are launched by young stellar objects, when applied to system containing disk-accreting white dwarfs naturally explain the otherwise surprising absence of jets in cataclysmic variable stars. Our main argument uses the crucial element of the thermal model, namely that the accreted material is strongly shocked due to large gradients of physical quantities in the boundary layer, and then cools on a time scale longer than its ejection time from the disk. In our scenario the magnetic fields are weak, and serve only to recollimate the outflow at large distances from the source, or to initiate the shock, but not as a jet-driving agent. Using two criteria in that model, for the shock formation and for the ejection of mass, we find the mass accretion rate above which jets could be blown from accretion disks around young stellar objects and white dwarfs. We find that these accretion mass rates are ~10^{-7} Mo/yr, and ~10^{-6} Mo/yr for young stellar objects and white dwarfs respectively. Considering the uncertainties of the model, these limits could overestimate the critical value by a factor of ~10.Comment: Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic

Potent and selective antisense oligonucleotides targeting single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the Huntington disease gene / allele-specific silencing of mutant huntingtin

Huntington disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by CAG-expansion in the huntingtin gene (HTT) that results in a toxic gain of function in the mutant huntingtin protein (mHTT). Reducing the expression of mHTT is therefore an attractive therapy for HD. However, wild-type HTT protein is essential for development and has critical roles in maintaining neuronal health. Therapies for HD that reduce wild-type HTT may therefore generate unintended negative consequences. We have identified single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) targets in the human HD population for the disease-specific targeting of the HTT gene. Using primary cells from patients with HD and the transgenic YAC18 and BACHD mouse lines, we developed antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) molecules that potently and selectively silence mHTT at both exonic and intronic SNP sites. Modification of these ASOs with S-constrained-ethyl (cET) motifs significantly improves potency while maintaining allele selectively in vitro. The developed ASO is potent and selective for mHTT in vivo after delivery to the mouse brain. We demonstrate that potent and selective allele-specific knockdown of the mHTT protein can be achieved at therapeutically relevant SNP sites using ASOs in vitro and in vivo

Formation and Primary Heating of The Solar Corona - Theory and Simulation

An integrated Magneto-Fluid model, that accords full treatment to the Velocity fields associated with the directed plasma motion, is developed to investigate the dynamics of coronal structures. It is suggested that the interaction of the fluid and the magnetic aspects of plasma may be a crucial element in creating so much diversity in the solar atmosphere. It is shown that the structures which comprise the solar corona can be created by particle (plasma) flows observed near the Sun's surface - the primary heating of these structures is caused by the viscous dissipation of the flow kinetic energy.Comment: 46 pages including 7 pages of figures, Submitted to Phys.Plasma

Dark resonances for ground state transfer of molecular quantum gases

One possible way to produce ultracold, high-phase-space-density quantum gases of molecules in the rovibronic ground state is given by molecule association from quantum-degenerate atomic gases on a Feshbach resonance and subsequent coherent optical multi-photon transfer into the rovibronic ground state. In ultracold samples of Cs_2 molecules, we observe two-photon dark resonances that connect the intermediate rovibrational level |v=73,J=2> with the rovibrational ground state |v=0,J=0> of the singlet $X^1\Sigma_g^+$ ground state potential. For precise dark resonance spectroscopy we exploit the fact that it is possible to efficiently populate the level |v=73,J=2> by two-photon transfer from the dissociation threshold with the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) technique. We find that at least one of the two-photon resonances is sufficiently strong to allow future implementation of coherent STIRAP transfer of a molecular quantum gas to the rovibrational ground state |v=0,J=0>.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Variational Monte Carlo analysis of the Hubbard model with a confining potential: one-dimensional fermionic optical lattice systems

We investigate the one-dimensional Hubbard model with a confining potential, which may describe cold fermionic atoms trapped in an optical lattice. Combining the variational Monte Carlo simulations with the new stochastic reconfiguration scheme proposed by Sorella, we present an efficient method to systematically treat the ground state properties of the confined system with a site-dependent potential. By taking into account intersite correlations as well as site-dependent on-site correlations, we are able to describe the coexistence of the metallic and Mott insulating regions, which is consistent with other numerical results. Several possible improvements of the trial states are also addressed.Comment: 7 pages, 15 figures; removed unnecessary graphs (p.8-p.32 in the old version are removed

Kangaroo Population Trends In The Australian Rangelands, 1980-87

This paper presents results from the third set of extensive aerial surveys of Australia's kangaroo populations, flown in 1987. Although it is now known that sightability correction factors used in the first two surveys were too low, particularly for both species of grey kangaroos, we retain the same corrections to allow for comparability between surveys. Total populations declined by 22% for Reds and 34% each for Greys, but trends were not consistent across the continent. Decreases were occurred throughout the eastern pastoral zones, being most pronounced in NSW and least pronounced in Queensland. Declines in these areas and in the South Australian Pastoral Zone corresponded with the 1982-83 drought. In contrast, populations rose in WA, where there had been good rainfall

The Australian Kangaroo Populations, 1984

Between the first Australian-wide aerial survey of kangaroos in 1980-82 and the second in 1984, indices of relative abundance determined by the same methods show that red kangaroos declined by 24% and western and eastern greys by 35%. The declines are attributed mainly to drought in the eastern half of the continent, partly offset by increases in the western half. We estimate numbers in 1984 at 6.3 million red kangaroos (cf. 8.3 in 1980-82), 1.2 million western greys (1.8) and 5.8 million eastern greys (9.0), a total of 13 millions of all three species compared with 19 millions in 1980-82. This is an overall drop of about 30%. Because recent work suggests that the sightability of both species of grey kangaroos is lower than that for reds, estimates of grey kangaroos will be less than the real numbers and should, therefore, be regarded as indices of relative abundance rather than as absolute estimates

IKK phosphorylates Huntingtin and targets it for degradation by the proteasome and lysosome

Expansion of the polyglutamine repeat within the protein Huntingtin (Htt) causes Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disease associated with aging and the accumulation of mutant Htt in diseased neurons. Understanding the mechanisms that influence Htt cellular degradation may target treatments designed to activate mutant Htt clearance pathways. We find that Htt is phosphorylated by the inflammatory kinase IKK, enhancing its normal clearance by the proteasome and lysosome. Phosphorylation of Htt regulates additional post-translational modifications, including Htt ubiquitination, SUMOylation, and acetylation, and increases Htt nuclear localization, cleavage, and clearance mediated by lysosomal-associated membrane protein 2A and Hsc70. We propose that IKK activates mutant Htt clearance until an age-related loss of proteasome/lysosome function promotes accumulation of toxic post-translationally modified mutant Htt. Thus, IKK activation may modulate mutant Htt neurotoxicity depending on the cell's ability to degrade the modified species