Assessment of the effectiveness of head only and back-of-the-head electrical stunning of chickens

The study assesses the effectiveness of reversible head-only and back-of-the-head electrical stunning of chickens using 130–950 mA per bird at 50 Hz AC

Electric Power Grids Under High-Absenteeism Pandemics: History, Context, Response, and Opportunities.

Widespread outbreaks of infectious disease, i.e., the so-called pandemics that may travel quickly and silently beyond boundaries, can significantly upsurge the morbidity and mortality over large-scale geographical areas. They commonly result in enormous economic losses, political disruptions, social unrest, and quickly evolve to a national security concern. Societies have been shaped by pandemics and outbreaks for as long as we have had societies. While differing in nature and in realizations, they all place the normal life of modern societies on hold. Common interruptions include job loss, infrastructure failure, and political ramifications. The electric power systems, upon which our modern society relies, is driving a myriad of interdependent services, such as water systems, communication networks, transportation systems, health services, etc. With the sudden shifts in electric power generation and demand portfolios and the need to sustain quality electricity supply to end customers (particularly mission-critical services) during pandemics, safeguarding the nation's electric power grid in the face of such rapidly evolving outbreaks is among the top priorities. This paper explores the various mechanisms through which the electric power grids around the globe are influenced by pandemics in general and COVID-19 in particular, shares the lessons learned and best practices taken in different sectors of the electric industry in responding to the dramatic shifts enforced by such threats, and provides visions for a pandemic-resilient electric grid of the future. [Abstract copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Paralarvae of the complex Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis-Dosidicus gigas (Cephalopoda: Ommastrephidae) in the northern limit of the shallow oxygen minimum zone of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean (April 2012)

18 páginas, 10 figuras, 3 tablasThe three-dimensional distribution of the paralarvae of the complex Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis-Dosidicus gigas (Cephalopoda: Ommastrephidae) was analyzed at the northern limit of the shallow oxygen minimum zone in the Eastern Tropical Pacific in April 2012. The upper limit of the oxygen minimum water (∼44 µmol/kg or 1 mL/L) rises from ∼100 m depth in the entrance of the Gulf of California to ∼20 m depth off Cabo Corrientes. Most of the paralarvae of this complex, dominated by D. gigas, were concentrated in the Gulf entrance, between the thermocline (∼20 to ∼50 m depth) and the sea surface, in the warmest (>19°C) oxygenated (>176 µmol/kg) layer. The highest abundance of paralarvae was detected in an anticyclonic eddy (∼120 km diameter and >500 m deep), which contained lower-salinity water (<35 g/kg), consistent with formation in the California Current. Lower paralarvae abundance was recorded further south off Cabo Corrientes, where hypoxic layers were elevated as water shoaled nearshore. Almost no paralarvae were found in the north of the study area beyond the strong salinity front (∼34.8–35.4 g/kg) that bounded the anticyclone. These results showed an affinity of the paralarvae for lower-salinity, oxygenated water, illustrated by the influence of the mesoscale anticyclonic eddy and the salinity front in their distribution. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the expansion of the depth range of hypoxic water observed in the Eastern Tropical Pacific may be increasing environmental stress on the paralarvae by vertically restricting their habitat, and so affecting their survivalThis work was made possible thanks to the financial support of SEP-CONACyT (contracts 2014-236864) and by the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Multidisciplinary Project 2015-0176)Peer reviewe

Transport Activity of Rice Sucrose Transporters OsSUT1 and OsSUT5

Expression in Xenopus oocytes and electrophysiology was used to test for transport activity of the five sucrose transporter (SUT) homologs from rice. Expression of OsSUT1 and OsSUT5 resulted in sucrose-dependent currents that were analyzed by two-electrode voltage clamping. We examined the transport kinetics, substrate specificity and pH dependence of sucrose transport and K0.5 for sucrose. OsSUT1 showed similar features to those of other type II SUTs from monocots examined previously, with a K0.5 value of 7.50 mM at pH 5.6. In contrast, OsSUT5 had a higher substrate affinity (K0.5 = 2.32 mM at pH 5.6), less substrate specificity and less pH dependence compared with all type II SUTs tested to date. Regulation of the rice SUTs, as well as ZmSUT1 from maize and HvSUT1 from barley, by reduced (GSH) and oxidized (GSSG) forms of glutathione was tested. GSSG and GSH were found to have no significant effect on the activity of sucrose transporters when expressed in Xenopus oocytes. In conclusion, differences in transport activity between OsSUT1 and OsSUT5 indicate that type II SUTs have a range of transport activities that are tuned to their function in the plant

Linking a dermal permeation and an inhalation model to a simple pharmacokinetic model to study airborne exposure to di(n-butyl) phthalate

Six males clad only in shorts were exposed to high levels of airborne di(n-butyl) phthalate (DnBP) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) in chamber experiments conducted in 2014. In two 6 h sessions, the subjects were exposed only dermally while breathing clean air from a hood, and both dermally and via inhalation when exposed without a hood. Full urine samples were taken before, during, and for 48 h after leaving the chamber and measured for key DnBP and DEP metabolites. The data clearly demonstrated high levels of DnBP and DEP metabolite excretions while in the chamber and during the first 24 h once leaving the chamber under both conditions. The data for DnBP were used in a modeling exercise linking dose models for inhalation and transdermal permeation with a simple pharmacokinetic model that predicted timing and mass of metabolite excretions. These models were developed and calibrated independent of these experiments. Tests included modeling of the “hood-on” (transdermal penetration only), “hood-off” (both inhalation and transdermal) scenarios, and a derived “inhalation-only” scenario. Results showed that the linked model tended to duplicate the pattern of excretion with regard to timing of peaks, decline of concentrations over time, and the ratio of DnBP metabolites. However, the transdermal model tended to overpredict penetration of DnBP such that predictions of metabolite excretions were between 1.1 and 4.5 times higher than the cumulative excretion of DnBP metabolites over the 54 h of the simulation. A similar overprediction was not seen for the “inhalation-only” simulations. Possible explanations and model refinements for these overpredictions are discussed. In a demonstration of the linked model designed to characterize general population exposures to typical airborne indoor concentrations of DnBP in the United States, it was estimated that up to one-quarter of total exposures could be due to inhalation and dermal uptake

Comparative Influence of Ocean Conditions on Yellowfin and Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Catch from Longlines in the Gulf of Mexico

Directed fishing effort for Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), their primary spawning grounds in the western Atlantic, has been prohibited since the 1980s due to a precipitous decline of the spawning stock biomass. However, pelagic longlines targeted at other species, primarily yellowfin tuna and swordfish, continue to catch Atlantic bluefin tuna in the GOM as bycatch. Spatial and temporal management measures minimizing bluefin tuna bycatch in the GOM will likely become important in rebuilding the western Atlantic bluefin stock. In order to help inform management policy and understand the relative distribution of target and bycatch species in the GOM, we compared the spatiotemporal variability and environmental influences on the catch per unit effort (CPUE) of yellowfin (target) and bluefin tuna (bycatch). Catch and effort data from pelagic longline fisheries observers (1993–2005) and scientific tagging cruises (1998–2002) were coupled with environmental and biological data. Negative binomial models were used to fit the data for both species and Akaike's Information Criterion (corrected for small sample size) was used to determine the best model. Our results indicate that bluefin CPUE had higher spatiotemporal variability as compared to yellowfin CPUE. Bluefin CPUE increased substantially during the breeding months (March-June) and peaked in April and May, while yellowfin CPUE remained relatively high throughout the year. In addition, bluefin CPUE was significantly higher in areas with negative sea surface height anomalies and cooler sea surface temperatures, which are characteristic of mesoscale cyclonic eddies. In contrast, yellowfin CPUE was less sensitive to environmental variability. These differences in seasonal variability and sensitivity to environmental influences suggest that bluefin tuna bycatch in the GOM can be reduced substantially by managing the spatial and temporal distribution of the pelagic longline effort without substantially impacting yellowfin tuna catches

Trophic Ecology of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus thynnus) Larvae from the Gulf of Mexico and NW Mediterranean Spawning Grounds: A Comparative Stable Isotope Study

The present study uses stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon (δ15Nandδ13C) as trophic indicators for Atlantic bluefin tuna larvae (BFT) (6–10mm standard length) in the highly contrasting environmental conditions of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and the Balearic Sea (MED). These regions are differentiated by their temperature regime and relative productivity, with the GOM being significantly warmer and more productive. MED BFT larvae showed the highest δ15N signatures, implying an elevated trophic position above the underlyingmicrozooplankton baseline. Ontogenetic dietary shifts were observed in the BFT larvae from the GOM and MED which indicates early life trophodynamics differences between these spawning habitats. Significant trophic differences between the GOM and MED larvae were observed in relation to δ15N signatures in favour of the MED larvae, which may have important implications in their growth during their early life stages. These low δ15N levels in the zooplankton from the GOM may be an indication of a shifting isotopic baseline in pelagic food webs due to diatrophic inputs by cyanobacteria. Lack of enrichment for δ15N in BFT larvae compared to zooplankton implies an alternative grazing pathway from the traditional food chain of phytoplankton— zooplankton—larval fish. Results provide insight for a comparative characterization of the trophic pathways variability of the two main spawning grounds for BFT larvaeVersión del editor4,411

Surfactants at the design limit

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Langmuir, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b00336This article analyzes how the individual structural elements of surfactant molecules affect surface properties, in particular, the point of reference defined by the limiting surface tension at the aqueous cmc, γcmc. Particular emphasis is given to how the chemical nature and structure of the hydrophobic tails influence γcmc. By comparing the three different classes of surfactants, fluorocarbon, silicone, and hydrocarbon, a generalized surface packing index is introduced which is independent of the chemical nature of the surfactants. This parameter ϕcmc represents the volume fraction of surfactant chain fragments in a surface film at the aqueous cmc. It is shown that ϕcmc is a useful index for understanding the limiting surface tension of surfactants and can be useful for designing new superefficient surfactants