A Call for Ethical and Responsible Treatment of Invasive Species by Recreational Anglers

Invasive species pose a prominent threat to global biodiversity, with aquatic ecosystems being particularly susceptible. In an effort to limit the spread of aquatic invasive species, numerous public awareness programs have been launched, and several regions have enacted “must-kill” angling regulations, which prohibit the live release of invasive fish species when captured. Many education programs, however, demonize invasive species and lack any instruction for humane euthanasia. This unbalanced approach has translated into widespread mistreatment of invasive species among recreational anglers. This piece addresses these concerns by discussing their significance and providing recommendations for how education programs can adopt a more comprehensive approach to mitigate this issue

Investigating fish purchase patterns and preferences among the consumers of Sari

The present study aimed at looking into the fish consumption preferences and purchase patterns among 266 households of Sari in order to identify the fish market at Mazandaran province. To do so, a questionnaire was provided to be administered among consumers to state their preferences towards the type of fish species, purchased forms of fish as well as fish purchasing pattern in their family. Descriptive statistics as well as referential analysis was conducted through Friedman Test. Results showed that meat consumption priority among the households of Sari constituted the consumption of poultry meat, lamb, fish and beef, respectively. As to the investigation of fish purchase pattern, it was that almost two-thirds of households in Sari bought fish less than once a month and only a few percentage of them (4.1 percent) purchased them on a weekly basis. It was also revealed that consumers in Sari prefer marine fish more than farmed fish, and cold-water fish more than warm-water fish. Fresh, live and canned fish were the preferred forms of purchase for the consumers in Sari, and other forms of fish such as frozen, smoked and salted fish (total 7.9 percent) were rarely preferred by the consumers. Findings of the current research can contribute to powerful decision-making of companies and suppliers in terms of which product should be provided to the market for more sale. Therefore, recognizing the needs and desires of consumers and understanding their purchase behavior are effective steps to meet their expectations and ultimately increasing fish consumption

Status of fish consumption per capita of Tehran citizens

Status of fish consumption was analyzed by completing the 295 questionnaires in all 22 metropolitan regions of Tehran from different households in 2008. After reviewing the descriptive and statistics analysis along with the non-parametric statistics, the fish consumption per capita was extracted through formulas. The average and mode of purchasing of each household occurs 11 times per year with 5.1 Kg in each time . Considering the higher fish consumption growth rate in Iran, the sequence of interest in all kinds of protein is as follows: poultry, mutton, beef, Trout, wild fishes and Chinese carps. The highest interest of households to buy fish more than other protein resources is due to the nutrient value of it. An average of 33.2% purchasing is dedicated to the farmed fish. 59% of purchasers are interested to buy packed up fish products and pay attention to the label of nutrient values on the product package. Fish consumption per capita is 13.3 Kg, which is divided to 6.4 kg for farmed fishes, 5.8 Kg for wild fishes and 1.1 Kg for canned fish. The higher consumption per capita of Tehran citizens in comparison with other people from other cities, who are living in Tehran, is because of their tendency and freshness of farmed fishes. In contrast, the consumption of canned and wild fishes among people of littoral regions who live in Tehran is higher than others

Identifying the main factors affecting home consumption attitude to farmed fishes among Tehrani households

Using reference books, monitoring buyers behavior and interviewing the experts, the effective parameters on home consumption behavior of farmed fish were identified and compiled as a questionnaire. After the reliability and viability evaluation the questionnaire was filled randomly in the spring of 2008 for 295 households of different localities in Tehran. The allocation of questionnaires was conducted based on the proportion of population in each locality. The degree of importance of effective parameters and their priority were calculated by Friedman test. The results showed that, quality, taste, smell and protein content of grocery basket are the most important purchasing factors among Tehrani households. However, those who use only farmed fish or those who do not use fish at all, after quality, smell has the highest importance, and in the fourth priority, instead of protein content of grocery basket, fish bone has higher effect. We suggest that to improve consumption of farmed fish, apart from quality, the strategies of deodorizing, taste improvement and decreasing fish bones, shall be taken into consideration during harvest, transport and fish processing

Study on Tehran citizens behavior change in consumption of the aquatic products

To understand the change in fish consumption behavior of Tehran citizens (Iran), in the year 2005, an investigation was conducted using questionnaire. Using independent random method, 316 families covering all 22 districts of Tehran were selected. The results were combined with that acquired in the year 2001 to develop marketing programs. We used Fridman, K2 tests for nonparametric statistics and Z (normal distribution) and Phi Cramer index for analysis. The results showed that the quality and freshness of the products and the hygienic state of the distributing places had the highest effects on purchase. Also, the price and packaging had the same priority as in the year 2001. No significant relationship was found between income level of the families and their fish consuming tendency. Comparing the two years of study, we found that 16.6% more people preferred packed food in the year 2005 while per capita consumption had increased from 2.8 to 3.46kg. With the information on production date and health license already available on the products, the consumers demanded dietary contents. Considering the increase in marine fishery products, the families tended to consume more of the farmed aquatics with the live selling of rainbow trout being preferred the most. The behavior of consumers and their decisions to purchase fishery products in this period depended on production directions and economic development strategies which indicated positive aquaculture development programs in the country. We recommend continuing current policies regarding marketing factors. The results also showed that uncertainly about freshness and health of the products is the main reason for purchase from the representative fishery stores. The results shows more research and advertisement can improve awareness about packing advantages and its role in decreasing wastes and creating more added values

Prediction of copper recovery from geometallurgical data using D-vine copulas

Published: April 2019The accurate modelling of geometalhirgical data can significantly improve decision-making and help optimize mining operations. This case study compares models for predicting copper recovery from three indirect test measurements that are typically available, to avoid the cost of direct measurement of recovery. Geometallurgical data from 930 drill core samples, with an average length of 19 m, from an orebody in South America have been analysed. The data includes copper recovery and the results of three other tests: Bond mill index test; resistance to abrasion and breakage index; and semi-autogenous grinding power index test. A genetic algorithm is used to impute missing data at some locations so as to make use of all 930 samples. The distribution of the variables is modelled with D-vine copula and predictions of copper recovery are compared with those from regressions fitted by ordinary least squares and generalized least squares. The D-vine copula model had the least mean absolute error.E. Addo Jr, A.V. Metcalfe, E.K. Chanda, E. Sepulveda, W. Assibey-Bonsu, and A. Adel

Saliency Benchmarking Made Easy: Separating Models, Maps and Metrics

Dozens of new models on fixation prediction are published every year and compared on open benchmarks such as MIT300 and LSUN. However, progress in the field can be difficult to judge because models are compared using a variety of inconsistent metrics. Here we show that no single saliency map can perform well under all metrics. Instead, we propose a principled approach to solve the benchmarking problem by separating the notions of saliency models, maps and metrics. Inspired by Bayesian decision theory, we define a saliency model to be a probabilistic model of fixation density prediction and a saliency map to be a metric-specific prediction derived from the model density which maximizes the expected performance on that metric given the model density. We derive these optimal saliency maps for the most commonly used saliency metrics (AUC, sAUC, NSS, CC, SIM, KL-Div) and show that they can be computed analytically or approximated with high precision. We show that this leads to consistent rankings in all metrics and avoids the penalties of using one saliency map for all metrics. Our method allows researchers to have their model compete on many different metrics with state-of-the-art in those metrics: "good" models will perform well in all metrics.Comment: published at ECCV 201

Expression of a Novel Chimeric Truncated t-PA in CHO Cells Based on in Silico Experiments

Tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) is one of the fibrin-specific serine proteases that play a crucial role in the fibrinolytic system. The rapid clearance of the drug from the circulation, caused by its active uptake in the liver, has lead to complicated clinical applications. Different forms of plasminogen activators have been developed to treat thrombotic disease. Deletion of the first three domains of t-PA by gene manipulation techniques has shown a significant increase in its plasma half life. In order to compensate the disadvantage of higher bleeding risk, a novel chimeric truncated form of t-PA with 394 amino acids and more fibrin affinity compared to the truncated form was designed to be expressed in Chinese Hamster Ovarian (CHO) cells. The recombinant chimeric plasminogen activator consists of kringle 2 and serine protease (K2S) domains of t-PA, namely GHRP-SYQ-K2S. The level of expression was found to be 752 IU/ml with 566,917 IU/mg specific activity, based on amidolytic activity. The fibrin binding of this novel chimeric truncated t-PA was 86% of the full length t-PA at a fibrinogen concentration of 0.2 mg/ml. This could be a promising approach with more desirable pharmacodynamic properties compared to existing commercial forms