Freshwater Drum Spawning and Fecundity in the Upper Mississippi River

One hundred freshwater drum ovaries from 1981 collections were examined to provide spawning and fecundity information for the long-term fisheries monitoring program at the Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station. Objectives were to estimate freshwater drum fecundity in the Upper Mississippi River and relate sexual maturity to size or age. The mean fecundity estimate for ripe fish was 85,800 ova per female. Total estimated number of ova showed no relationship with length or weight, but there was a relationship with age. Mean number of ova for a given age group increased with age. Female freshwater drum in Pool 14 may become sexually mature at age 4, but females age 5 and older comprised over 95% of the 100 females representing the spawning population

Comparison of Otolith and Scale Age Determinations for Freshwater Drum from the Mississippi River

A comparative aging study was conducted using scales and otoliths from 123 freshwater drum collected in Pool 14 of the Mississippi River. Two independent readings by 2 investigators resulted in full agreement on ages assigned using otoliths, but only 64% agreement using the scale method. A final age was determined for the remaining scale samples based on the most commonly assigned age. However, there was no agreement on assigned ages for 12% of the scales examined. Otoliths were validated as an accurate method for aging freshwater drum by age frequency histograms for 3 consecutive years. The marked 3-year periodicity in appearance of strong year-classes allowed these strong year-classes to be followed through successive years of study providing a check on the reliability of this aging method. Scales were concluded to be only 61% reliable for aging freshwater drum. The observed trend indicated that assigned ages using scales were commonly overestimated for fish age 9 and younger and underestimated for older fish

Temporal Dynamics of Host Molecular Responses Differentiate Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Influenza A Infection

Exposure to influenza viruses is necessary, but not sufficient, for healthy human hosts to develop symptomatic illness. The host response is an important determinant of disease progression. In order to delineate host molecular responses that differentiate symptomatic and asymptomatic Influenza A infection, we inoculated 17 healthy adults with live influenza (H3N2/Wisconsin) and examined changes in host peripheral blood gene expression at 16 timepoints over 132 hours. Here we present distinct transcriptional dynamics of host responses unique to asymptomatic and symptomatic infections. We show that symptomatic hosts invoke, simultaneously, multiple pattern recognition receptors-mediated antiviral and inflammatory responses that may relate to virus-induced oxidative stress. In contrast, asymptomatic subjects tightly regulate these responses and exhibit elevated expression of genes that function in antioxidant responses and cell-mediated responses. We reveal an ab initio molecular signature that strongly correlates to symptomatic clinical disease and biomarkers whose expression patterns best discriminate early from late phases of infection. Our results establish a temporal pattern of host molecular responses that differentiates symptomatic from asymptomatic infections and reveals an asymptomatic host-unique non-passive response signature, suggesting novel putative molecular targets for both prognostic assessment and ameliorative therapeutic intervention in seasonal and pandemic influenza

Impingement and entrainment of fishes at the Dairyland Power Cooperative Alma, Wisconsin power plants

The objective of this two-year study was to document the occurrence of impingement and entrainment of fishes at two of Dairyland Power Cooperative's cooling water intakes on Navigation Pool 5 of the Upper Mississippi River during 1979 and 1980. Impingement at the 208 MW Alma units 1-5 intake during 1979-1980 consisted of 33 species from 13 families. During 1979 sampling, 586 fishes were impinged. During 1980 sampling at Alma 1-5, 1165 fishes were impinged. The weekly 24-hour impingement samples were used to project the two-year annual mean impingement of 10,735 fishes. Gizzard shad(40.0%) and black crappie (23.1%) were the most commonly impinged species during the study. The annual entrainment of larval fishes at Alma 1-5 was estimated at 125,000 during 1980. Impingement studies at the 350 MW J. P. Madgett Station intake began with its operation in November 1979 and continued through 1980. IMring sampling, 29 species from 9 families were impinged, including 3 crystal darters (ammocrypta asprella), which had not been previously recorded in Pool 5. A total of 3980 impinged fishes were sampled during the 11 months of the study. The weekly 24-hour impingement samples were used to project the total impingement of 33,791 fishes for the J. P. Madgett intake during the study period. Gizzard shad comprised 63.8% of the total numbers and 14.0% were freshwater drum. Annual variations in impingement were attributed to varying densities of juvenile fishes in the vicinity of the intakes. This was likely influenced primarily by spawning success. Over 90% of all fishes impinged were juveniles. A fish mortality study at the J. P. Madgett intake showed that survival of impinged fishes was species-specific. Survival of all fishes impinged during sampling was 16.6%. The efficiency of removal of fishes from the fish trays on the vertical traveling screens by the low pressure spray jets was calculated to be approximately 96%. The combined estimated total biomass of fishes impinged at both intakes during 1980 represented approximately 0.4% by weight of the total annual harvest of Pool 5. Both intake structures were located in areas that were not conducive to high fish densities. Differences between impingement rates at the two intake structures was likely due, in part, to the larger surface area and greater intake volume at the J. P. Madgett intake

Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams

Data analysis workflows in many scientific domains have become increasingly complex and flexible. Here we assess the effect of this flexibility on the results of functional magnetic resonance imaging by asking 70 independent teams to analyse the same dataset, testing the same 9 ex-ante hypotheses1. The flexibility of analytical approaches is exemplified by the fact that no two teams chose identical workflows to analyse the data. This flexibility resulted in sizeable variation in the results of hypothesis tests, even for teams whose statistical maps were highly correlated at intermediate stages of the analysis pipeline. Variation in reported results was related to several aspects of analysis methodology. Notably, a meta-analytical approach that aggregated information across teams yielded a significant consensus in activated regions. Furthermore, prediction markets of researchers in the field revealed an overestimation of the likelihood of significant findings, even by researchers with direct knowledge of the dataset2–5. Our findings show that analytical flexibility can have substantial effects on scientific conclusions, and identify factors that may be related to variability in the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results emphasize the importance of validating and sharing complex analysis workflows, and demonstrate the need for performing and reporting multiple analyses of the same data. Potential approaches that could be used to mitigate issues related to analytical variability are discussed.Depto. de Psicobiología y Metodología en Ciencias del ComportamientoFac. de PsicologíaTRUEpu