1,733 research outputs found
The genetic structure of Nautilus pompilius populations surrounding Australia and the Philippines.
Understanding the distribution of genetic diversity in exploited species is fundamental to successful conservation. Genetic structure and the degree of gene flow among populations must be assessed to design appropriate strategies to prevent the loss of distinct populations. The cephalopod Nautilus pompilius is fished unsustainably in the Philippines for the ornamental shell trade and has limited legislative protection, despite the species' recent dramatic decline in the region. Here, we use 14 microsatellite markers to evaluate the population structure of N. pompilius around Australia and the Philippines. Despite their relative geographical proximity, Great Barrier Reef individuals are genetically isolated from Osprey Reef and Shark Reef in the Coral Sea (FST =0.312, 0.229, respectively). Conversely, despite the larger geographical distances between the Philippines and west Australian reefs, samples display a small degree of genetic structure (FST =0.015). Demographic scenarios modelled using approximate Bayesian computation analysis indicate that this limited divergence is not due to contemporary gene flow between the Philippines and west Australia. Instead, present-day genetic similarity can be explained by very limited genetic drift that has occurred due to large average effective population sizes that persisted at both locations following their separation. The lack of connectivity among populations suggests that immigrants from west Australia would not facilitate natural recolonization if Philippine populations were fished to extinction. These data help to rectify the paucity of information on the species' biology currently inhibiting their conservation classification. Understanding population structure can allow us to facilitate sustainable harvesting, thereby preserving the diversity of genetically distinct stocks. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Shrimp by-catch species from industrial shrimp trawl fisheries in Lagos, Nigeria coastal waters
A fisheries-dependent surveys was conducted to identify and quantify the species composition of shrimp by-catch and its effect on fishery sustainability. Samples were bought monthly, from October 2009 to June 2010 from landings site, at Apapa-Liverpool market Lagos. 25 fish species belonging to 18 families targeted in other inshore fisheries constituted the by-catch species. The percent of weight compositions of some economically important by-catch species were: Pseudotolithus senegalensis (5.76%),Ilisha africana (14.65%), Pentanemus quinquarius (2.94%), Pteriscion peli (6.60%), Galeoides decadactylus (3.17%), Cynoglossus senegalens is (6.76%) and Chloroscombrus chysurus (10.81%). About 80% of the shrimp by-catch species were juvenile fin fish. However, continuous harvest without appropriate mitigating measures poses a threat to sustainability of coastal capture fisheries. Recommendations are proffered in order to conserve the resources for sustainable development
Pentacene islands grown on ultra-thin SiO2
Ultra-thin oxide (UTO) films were grown on Si(111) in ultrahigh vacuum at
room temperature and characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy. The
ultra-thin oxide films were then used as substrates for room temperature growth
of pentacene. The apparent height of the first layer is 1.57 +/- 0.05 nm,
indicating standing up pentacene grains in the thin-film phase were formed.
Pentacene is molecularly resolved in the second and subsequent molecular
layers. The measured in-plane unit cell for the pentacene (001) plane (ab
plane) is a=0.76+/-0.01 nm, b=0.59+/-0.01 nm, and gamma=87.5+/-0.4 degrees. The
films are unperturbed by the UTO's short-range spatial variation in tunneling
probability, and reduce its corresponding effective roughness and correlation
exponent with increasing thickness. The pentacene surface morphology follows
that of the UTO substrate, preserving step structure, the long range surface
rms roughness of ~0.1 nm, and the structural correlation exponent of ~1.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
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New Constraints on Terrestrial and Oceanic Sources of Atmospheric Methanol
We use a global 3-D chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) to interpret new aircraft, surface, and oceanic observations of methanol in terms of the constraints that they place on the atmospheric methanol budget. Recent measurements of methanol concentrations in the ocean mixed layer (OML) imply that in situ biological production must be the main methanol source in the OML, dominating over uptake from the atmosphere. It follows that oceanic emission and uptake must be viewed as independent terms in the atmospheric methanol budget. We deduce that the marine biosphere is a large primary source (85 Tg a−1) of methanol to the atmosphere and is also a large sink (101 Tg a−1), comparable in magnitude to atmospheric oxidation by OH (88 Tg a−1). The resulting atmospheric lifetime of methanol in the model is 4.7 days. Aircraft measurements in the North American boundary layer imply that terrestrial plants are a much weaker source than presently thought, likely reflecting an overestimate of broadleaf tree emissions, and this is also generally consistent with surface measurements. We deduce a terrestrial plant source of 80 Tg a−1, comparable in magnitude to the ocean source. The aircraft measurements show a strong correlation with CO (R2=0.51−0.61) over North America during summer. We reproduce this correlation and slope in the model with the reduced plant source, which also confirms that the anthropogenic source of methanol must be small. Our reduced plant source also provides a better simulation of methanol observations over tropical South America.Earth and Planetary SciencesEngineering and Applied Science
Quantitative analysis of breast cancer tissue composition and associations with tumor subtype
The tumor microenvironment is an important determinant of breast cancer progression, but standard methods for describing the tumor microenvironment are lacking. Measures of microenvironment composition such as stromal area and immune infiltrate are labor-intensive and few large studies have systematically collected this data. However, digital histologic approaches are becoming more widely available, allowing high-throughput, quantitative estimation. We applied such methods to tissue microarrays of tumors from 1687 women (mean 4 cores per case) in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study Phase 3. Tumor composition was quantified as percentage of epithelium, stroma, adipose, and lymphocytic infiltrate (with the latter as presence/absence using a ≥1% cutoff). Composition proportions and presence/absence were evaluated in association with clinical and molecular features of breast cancer (intrinsic subtype and RNA-based risk of recurrence [ROR] scores) using multivariable linear and logistic regression. Lower stromal content was associated with aggressive tumor phenotypes, including triple-negative (31.1% vs. 41.6% in HR+/HER2-; RFD [95% CI]: −10.5%, [-13.1, −7.9]), Basal-like subtypes (29.0% vs. 44.0% in Luminal A; RFD [95% CI]: −14.9%, [-17.8, −12.0]), and high RNA-based PAM50 ROR scores (27.6% vs. 48.1% in ROR low; RFD [95% CI]: −20.5%, [24.3, 16.7]), after adjusting for age and race. HER2+ tumors also had lower stromal content, particularly among RNA-based HER2-enriched (35.2% vs. 44.0% in Luminal A; RFD [95% CI]: −8.8%, [-13.8, −3.8]). Similar associations were observed between immune infiltrate and tumor phenotypes. Quantitative digital image analysis of the breast cancer microenvironment showed significant associations with demographic characteristics and biological indicators of aggressive behavior
Cosmological expansion and local systems: a Lema\^{i}tre-Tolman-Bondi model
We propose a Lema\^{i}tre-Tolman-Bondi system mimicking a two-body system to
address the problem of the cosmological expansion versus local dynamics. This
system is strongly bound but participates in the cosmic expansion and is
exactly comoving with the cosmic substratum
Rho-omega Mixing and the Pion Electromagnetic Form-Factor
The suggestion of momentum dependence in the amplitude for rho-omega mixing
has generated concern over related implications for vector meson dominance and
the photon-rho coupling. We discuss two established representations of vector
meson dominance and show that one of these is completely consistent with such a
coupling. We then apply it to a calculation of the pion electromagnetic
form-factor. Our analysis leads to a new value for the on-shell rho-omega
mixing amplitude of (-3800 +/- 370) MeV^2.Comment: 11 pages with epsfig.sty. Publication details added to title pag
Constraints on the momentum dependence of rho-omega mixing
Within a broad class of models we show that the amplitude for rho^0-omega
mixing must vanish at the transition from timelike to spacelike four momentum.
Hence in such models the mixing is either zero everywhere or is necessarily
momentum-dependent. This lends support to the conclusions of other studies of
rho-omega mixing and calls into question standard assumptions about the role of
rho-omega mixing in the theoretical understanding of charge-symmetry breaking
in nuclear systems.Comment: 8 pages. Publication details added to title pag
Looking for magnetic monopoles at LHC with diphoton events
Magnetic monopoles have been a subject of interest since Dirac established
the relation between the existence of monopoles and charge quantization. The
intense experimental search carried thus far has not met with success. The
Large Hadron Collider is reaching energies never achieved before allowing the
search for exotic particles in the TeV mass range. In a continuing effort to
discover these rare particles we propose here other ways to detect them. We
study the observability of monopoles and monopolium, a monopole-antimonopole
bound state, at the Large Hadron Collider in the channel for
monopole masses in the range 500-1000 GeV. We conclude that LHC is an ideal
machine to discover monopoles with masses below 1 TeV at present running
energies and with 5 fb of integrated luminosity.Comment: This manuscript contains information appeared in Looking for magnetic
monopoles at LHC, arXiv:1104.0218 [hep-ph] and Monopolium detection at the
LHC.,arXiv:1107.3684 [hep-ph] by the same authors, rewritten for joint
publication in The European Physica Journal Plus. 26 pages, 22 figure
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