Understanding Social Resilience in the Maine Lobster Industry

The Maine lobster Homarus americanus fishery is considered one of the most successful fisheries in the world due in part to its unique comanagement system, the conservation ethic of the harvesters, and the ability of the industry to respond to crises and solve collective-action problems. However, recent threats raise the question whether the industry will be able to respond to future threats as successfully as it has to ones in the past or whether it is now less resilient and can no longer adequately respond to threats. Through ethnographic research and oral histories with fishermen, we examined the current level of social resilience in the lobster fishery. We concentrated on recent threats to the industry and the ways in which it has responded to them, focusing on three situations: a price drop beginning in 2008, a recovery in 2010–2011, and a second collapse of prices in 2012. In addition, we considered other environmental and regulatory concerns identified by fishermen. We found that the industry is not responding effectively to recent threats and identified factors that might explain the level of social resilience in the fishery

Geometric effects of sustainable auxetic structures integrating the particle swarm optimization and finite element method

The development of new materials based on industrial wastes has been the focus of much research for a sustainable world. The growing demand for tyres has been every year exacerbating environmental problems due to indiscriminate disposal in the nature, making a potentially harmful waste to public health. The incorporation of rubber particles from scrap tyres into polymeric composites has achieved high toughness and moderate mechanical properties. This work investigates the geometric effects (thickness, width and internal cell angle) of auxetic structures made of recycled rubber composites based on experimental and numerical data. The response surface models integrated with the swarm intelligence and finite element analysis were proposed in order to obtain a range of solutions that provides useful information to the user during the selection of geometric parameters for reentrant cells. The results revealed the cell thickness ranges from 39-40 mm and 5.98-6 mm, and the cell angle range from -0.01 to -0.06º maximize the ultimate strength. The same parameters were able to optimize the modulus of elasticity of rubber auxetic structures, excepting for the angle factor which must be set between -30º and 27.7º. The optimal Poisson's ratio was found when the cell angle ranged from -30º to -28.5º, cell width ranged from 5-5.6 mm and 2 mm in thickness

Milking and partial characterization of venom from the Brazilian spider Vitalius dubius (Theraphosidae)

The theraphosid spider genus Vitalius contains several species found in southeastern Brazil. In this work, we used electrostimulation to obtain venom from Vitalius dubius and examined its general composition. Male spiders yielded significantly less (p < 0.05) venom (12.5 +/- 0.7 mg of liquid/spider, n = 16: mean +/- S.E.M.) than female spiders (25.5 +/- 2.0 mg of liquid/spider, n = 11). However, when corrected for spider weight, males yielded slightly more venom (2.89 +/- 0.16 mg/g vs. 2.45 +/- 0.76 mg/g for males and females, respectively, p 0.05). Venom yield correlated linearly with spider weight for spiders weighing up to similar to 12-13 g, but decreased in very heavy females. There was a marked decrease in venom yield after the first milking. The protein concentration of pooled venom was 18.3 +/- 2.4 mg/ml (n = 4) and accounted for 16.6 +/- 4.7% of the dry venom weight. The venom contained high hyaluronidase activity (275 +/- 24 TRU/mg of protein, n = 4), with a molecular mass of similar to 45 kDa estimated by zymography. SDS-PAGE revealed a few proteins with molecular masses - 14 kDa but showed two staining bands of pepticles < 14 kDa. The venom reacted in ELISA with affinity-purified IgG from commercial arachnidic antivenom. Immunoblotting with this IgG detected proteins of 30-140 kDa only. Fractionation of the venom by reverse-phase chromatography resulted in five major and eight minor peaks. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.53115316