Seafloor communities and habitat disturbances in the North Sea

Many different organisms live at the seafloor. These organisms are a crucial component of marine ecosystems, as they play an important role in the food web. Their abundance is strongly regulated by the environment, as each species is adapted to certain conditions. Whereas some species thrive in deep and calm waters, others flourish under more dynamic conditions with waves and currents. The environment of a species also affects the impact of human activities, like demersal fisheries. Demersal fisheries target groundfish, but damage other species and the structure of the seafloor in the catching process. The impacts of this are larger for species in calm environments than for species in dynamic areas. In this thesis, I combined detailed observations of organisms at the seafloor with fisheries data and environmental conditions. I demonstrated that environmental conditions structured the distribution of seafloor-disturbing fisheries, and that such fisheries impact species differently depending on their way of life. The discovery of ross worm reefs in the southern North Sea revealed the importance of seafloor structures as environmental variables in the structuring of both fisheries and organisms. Here, seafloor structures like large sand dunes and smaller sand waves and megaripples create a very heterogeneous landscape. The distribution of the ecological valuable reefs matched the pattern created by megaripples. The troughs of different seafloor structures had higher organism abundancies, which may also explain the higher fishing intensity in the sand dunes troughs. I therefore argue that management should account for such local environmental differences

Waardekaarten Borssele

IMARES is gevraagd om waardekaarten en tabellen te leveren van alle bodem beroerende Nederlandse visserijschepen binnen het Borssele gebied, een gebied gelegen buiten de twaalfmijlszone. Voor alle geselecteerde schepen is de totale vangst in 1000xeuro, gemiddeld over de 3 jaar, weergegeven op een resolutie van 1/16 ICES-kwadrant weergegeven

Procedimientos de obtención de lípidos portadores como sistemas de liberación de ingredientes alimentarios bioactivos

Tesis doctoral inédita. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Química Física Aplicada. Fecha de lectura: 10-04-201

MMP-2 and MMP-9 in normal mucosa are independently associated with outcome of colorectal cancer patients.

BackgroundUpregulation of the matrix metalloproteinases MMP-2 and MMP-9 in various cancers has been associated with worse survival of the patients.MethodsWe assessed MMP-2 and MMP-9 levels in normal colorectal mucosa from colorectal cancer patients in relation to the course of the disease.ResultsA high protein expression of MMP-2 as well as MMP-9 in normal mucosa was found to be correlated with worse 5-year survival. The combination of both parameters was an even stronger prognostic factor. These protein levels were found not to be related to the corresponding single nucleotide polymorphisms of MMP-2 (-1306C>T) and MMP-9 (-1562C>T). Multivariate analyses indicated that the MMP-2 and MMP-9 levels in normal mucosa are prognostic for survival, independent of TNM classification.ConclusionMMP-2 and MMP-9 levels in normal mucosa are indicative of the course of disease in colorectal cancer patients

MMP-2 geno-phenotype is prognostic for colorectal cancer survival, whereas MMP-9 is not.

The prognostic significance of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and tumour protein levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 was evaluated in 215 colorectal cancer patients. Single-nucleotide polymorphism MMP-2(-1306T) and high MMP-2 levels were significantly associated with worse survival. Extreme tumour MMP-9 levels were associated with poor prognosis but SNP MMP-9(-1562C>T) was not. Tumour MMP levels were not determined by their SNP genotypes

Growing Pains: Psychological evaluation of children with short stature after intrauterine growth retardation, before and after two years of growth hormone treatment

Since the availability of biosynthetic human growth hormone (hGH) in 1985, many studies on the effects of hGH administration on various groups of children with short stature have been performed. The present study reports on the psychological evaluation of children with short stature after intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) , before and after two years of hGH treatment. Prior to the description of the study, the terms 'short stature' and 'intrauterine growth retardation' will be defined and possible etiological factors will be discussed

Kwaliteit van onderzoek in het HBO

Dit hoofdstuk geeft een overzicht van mogelijkheden waarmee de kwaliteit van onderzoek in het HBO vergroot kan worden. Er worden acht aanknopingspunten geboden: 1) verbeteren van de randvoorwaarden voor onderzoek; 2) bevorderen van goed gedrag van de onderzoeker; 3) validatie en review; 4) gebruiken van kwaliteitscriteria; 5) prestatiemeting en beoordeling; 6) kwaliteitszorgsystemen; 7) toezicht op kwaliteitszorg en 8) zichtbaar maken van kwaliteit van Open Access publicaties

Biodiversity and food web indicators of community recovery in intertidal shellfish reefs

Contains fulltext : 168969.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)8 p