CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE BENGUELA ECOLOGY PROGRAMME TO PELAGIC FISHERIES MANAGEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

In 1982, the Benguela Ecology Programme (BEP) created a formal, multi-institutional research partnership in South Africa. During the next two decades, the BEP directed many aspects of pelagic ecosystem research in the southern Benguela upwelling region, aiming to improve fisheries management, particularly that of anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus. Although much reduced in scale, the BEP is now in its fifth phase. Its early critics believed that much of the money invested in its ecosystem-type research had not benefited fisheries management, whereas its supporters maintain that many aspects of current pelagic fisheries management are founded on the BEP legacy. Ecosystem research underpinned the design of hydroacoustic surveys, and resulted in the development of expert system models aimed at predicting recruitment strength of anchovy. Current efforts to develop an ecosystem approach to management of the pelagic fishery in South Africa draw on the knowledge and understanding generated by more than 20 years of ecosystem research. However, despite this strong foundation, there is still uncertainty about the causes of interannual variability in pelagic fish recruitment. It is suggested that this time span is too short, and ecosystem monitoring and research should persist for decades to reap their full rewards. The BEP enabled productive partnerships to be established between academic and State researchers and fisheries managers, and improved linkages and communication to the fishing industry. Afr. J. mar. Sci. 26: 37–5

Extreme oceanographic events recorded in the Southern Benguela during the 1999-2000 summer season

Two unusual oceanographic events occurred during the 1999-2000 summer season off the west coast of South Africa. The first was a strong and sustained warming that occurred in mid-December and lasted for two weeks. The second was an enhanced cooling that lasted from mid to late summer. These two events were the result of fluctuations in wind-induced upwelling. The spatial as well as the temporal extent of these conditions are analysed and the corresponding atmospheric setting is described. Using climatological data, the 1999-2000 summer season is placed in the long-term context of the climatic variability in the region. The influence of those two events on phytoplankton and anchovy recruitment may have contributed to a record high level of anchovy recruitment in 2000

Validity of a multidimensional comprehensive psychosocial screening instrument based on the ESC cardiovascular prevention guidelines:Evidence from the general and cardiovascular patient population

Aim To evaluate the psychometric properties and validity of the updated version of the Dutch multidimensional Comprehensive Psychosocial Screening Instrument in patients with coronary heart disease and the general population, based upon guideline recommendations from the European Society for Cardiology. Method 678 participants (Mage = 48.2, SD = 16.8; 46% male) of the Dutch general population and 312 cardiac patients (Mage = 65.9, SD = 9.9; 77% male) who recently received percutaneous coronary intervention completed the Comprehensive Psychosocial Screening Instrument and validated questionnaires for depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), Type D personality (DS14), hostility (CMHS), anger (STAS-T), trauma (SRIP), and chronic work and family stress (ERI, MMQ-6). Results Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed that the eight screened risk factors were best measured as separate entities, rather than broader indications of distress. Inter-instrument agreement, assessed with the intraclass coefficient (ICC) and the screening accuracy indicators (receiving operator characteristic [ROC] curves, sensitivity, specificity, and the positive and negative predictive values [PPV; NPV]) were good for most screened risk factors. PPV was low in low prevalence risk factors like anxiety, trauma, and depression. Conclusion Overall, the current version of the Comprehensive Psychosocial Screening Instrument has an acceptable performance in both populations, with a fair to excellent level of agreement with established full questionnaires. Besides a few suggestions for further refinement, the screener may be implemented in primary care and cardiological practice

Use of grid tools to support CMS distributed analysis

In order to prepare the Physics Technical Design Report, due by end of 2005, the CMS experiment needs to simulate, reconstruct and analyse about 100 million events, corresponding to more than 200 TB of data. The data will be distributed to several Computing Centres. In order to provide access to the whole data sample to all the world-wide dispersed physicists, CMS is developing a layer of software that uses the Grid tools provided by the LCG project to gain access to data and resources and that aims to provide a user friendly interface to the physicists submitting the analysis jobs. To achieve these aims CMS will use Grid tools from both the LCG-2 release and those being developed in the framework of the ARDA project. This work describes the current status and the future developments of the CMS analysis system

Progress report on recommendations from the International review panel report for the 2013 International Fisheries Stock assessment workshop:sardine

The international review panel report (MARAM/IWS/DEC13/General/4 Final Report) contained the following recommendations pertinent to sardine in response to key questions put to them at the annual stock assessment review meeting held at UCT from 2-6 December 2013. Comments on any progress in response to these recommendations are inserted in italics. As a general point of background information, the Small Pelagic Scientific Working Group agreed earlier in 2014 to finalise OMP-14 based on a single sardine stock operating model only, but coupled with some spatial management, the spirit of which is to be a “warm up period” with the expectation that the next OMP will quite likely require spatial management components. The development of new operating models and a new OMP is to be brought forward, commencing in early 2015 with the aim of being finalised before the end of 2016

Students’ entrepreneurial learning through an internship abroad: A cross-cultural experience

Background: Cross-cultural learning provides students with the opportunity for improved self-awareness when they are placed in unfamiliar situations where their understanding of who they are and what they can do is challenged or expanded. This paper built on the concepts of experiential learning in rich contexts and self-image shocks and explored the research question on how cross-cultural learning in entrepreneurship exchange programmes offered students unique personal learning possibilities and outcomes. Aim: The aim was to build new theoretical and empirical knowledge on the influence and importance of cross-cultural learning in entrepreneurship education (EE). Setting: The study involved South African (SA) students taking part in an internship programme in the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem of Bergen, Norway. Methods: Adopting a longitudinal design and purposive sampling, four SA students were included in the study. Data were acquired from two reflective group sessions, on two separate instances, and a final student reflection report. The interviews were transcribed and coded along with the written reflection reports and these data sources were subjected to thematic analysis. Results: Four themes were uncovered: Learning about the entrepreneurial culture triggers comparison with own culture, Embracing uncertainty and developing entrepreneurial capabilities, Transformational learning through self-image shocks, Can I become a future entrepreneur? Where am I going? Conclusion: The research highlighted the importance of cross-cultural experience and foreignness as powerful triggers in stimulating students’ introspection and development of self-image. Contribution: The research combines two research streams, hence advancing our theoretical conceptualisation of cross-cultural learning in EE

CMS Monte Carlo production in the WLCG computing Grid

Monte Carlo production in CMS has received a major boost in performance and scale since the past CHEP06 conference. The production system has been re-engineered in order to incorporate the experience gained in running the previous system and to integrate production with the new CMS event data model, data management system and data processing framework. The system is interfaced to the two major computing Grids used by CMS, the LHC Computing Grid (LCG) and the Open Science Grid (OSG). Operational experience and integration aspects of the new CMS Monte Carlo production system is presented together with an analysis of production statistics. The new system automatically handles job submission, resource monitoring, job queuing, job distribution according to the available resources, data merging, registration of data into the data bookkeeping, data location, data transfer and placement systems. Compared to the previous production system automation, reliability and performance have been considerably improved. A more efficient use of computing resources and a better handling of the inherent Grid unreliability have resulted in an increase of production scale by about an order of magnitude, capable of running in parallel at the order of ten thousand jobs and yielding more than two million events per day

The CMS Monte Carlo Production System: Development and Design

The CMS production system has undergone a major architectural upgrade from its predecessor, with the goal of reducing the operational manpower needed and preparing for the large scale production required by the CMS physics plan. The new production system is a tiered architecture that facilitates robust and distributed production request processing and takes advantage of the multiple Grid and farm resources available to the CMS experiment

The present agreed hypothesis for South African sardine stock structure

https://digitalcommons.ithaca.edu/ithacan_1938-39/1004/thumbnail.jp