Identificación de SNPs de la región 17q21.31 en poblaciones humanas

En este estudio se han optimizado para su análisis mediante la técnica HRM los cebadores responsables de la amplificación de dos SNPs (rs199456 y rs199457), con los cuales es posible identificar los haplotipos H1 y H2 y los subhaplotipos H2' y H2D de la región 17q21.31 del cromosoma 17. Los genes que se encuentran en esta región, especialmente MAPT, están implicados en enfermedades neurodegenerativas como el Alzehimer, ciertas variantes de retraso mental y dificultades para el aprendizaje. El haplotipo H2 muestra una distribución muy característica, puesto que sólo aparece en poblaciones del continente europeo, especialmente en el sudoeste. Una vez optimizados los cebadores, se han utilizado para identificar los haplotipos de una serie de muestras de ADN de población del norte de Navarra. Con los datos disponibles en la bibliografía, se ha analizado la distribución en Europa de los diferentes haplotipos, encontrándose para H2 una clina latitudinal.

An oceanographic atlas of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean, based on data from EASTROPIC Expedition, October-December 1955.

ENGLISH: EASTROPIC Expedition was a cooperative oceanographic study of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean conducted during the period 2 October through 16 December 1955. The five participating agencies and the ships they operated were: Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), Spencer F. Baird and Horizon; Pacific Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (POFI) of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, now Honolulu Biological Laboratory (HBL) of the U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Hugh M. Smith; California Department of Fish and Game, N. B. Scofield; the Peruvian Navy, Bondu; and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission which operated no vessels but supplied equipment and personnel. In addition to these planned participations in EASTROPIC Expedition, valuable information was provided by CCOFI Cruise 5512 of the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations, conducted during the period 29 November -16 December 1955 with the two vessels Stranger and Black Douglas. While the observational programs of most of the agencies involved, in part, special hydrographic-biological studies of known features and processes in the region (see reports listed under Data Sources) the deployment of ships and therefore of observations was sufficient that EASTROPIC Expedition could be considered a survey of the eastern tropical Pacific. This report is concerned with that aspect of the Expedition and is a presentation in atlas form of most of the hydrographic data collected. For reasons given below, emphasis has been placed on the upper 300 m of the water column. SPANISH: La Expedición EASTROPIC es un estudio oceanográfico cooperativo del Océano Pacífico Oriental Tropical llevado a cabo durante el período del 2 de octubre al 16 de dícíembre de 1955. Las cinco agencias participantes y los barcos operados por ellas son los siguientes: Scrípps Instítutíon of Oceanography (SIO) , Spencer F. Baird y Horizon; Pacific Oceanic Fisheries Investigatíons (PO'FI) del U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ahora Honolulu Biological Laboratory (BHL) del U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Hugh M. Smith; California Department of Fish and Game, N. B. Scofield; la Marina Peruana, Bondu; y la Comisión Interamericana del Atún Tropical que no dirigió ningún barco pero proporcionó equipo y personal. Además de estas participaciones planeadas en la Expedición EASTROPIC, fué suministrada información de valor por el Crucero CCOFI 5512 del California Cooperative Fisheries Investigatíons, llevado a cabo durante el período del 29 de noviembre al 16 de diciembre de 1955 con los barcos Stranger y Black Douglas. Aunque los programas de observación de la mayoría de las agencias, comprendieron en parte estudios especiales hidrográficos y biológicos de las características y de los procesos conocidos de la región (véase los informes indicados bajo Fuente de Datos), el despliegue de los barcos, y por lo tanto, de las observaciones, fué suficiente para que la Expedición EASTROPIC pudiera ser considerada como una encuesta del Pacífico Oriental Tropical. Este informe se refiere a este aspecto de la Expedición y es una presentación, en forma de un atlas, de la mayoría de los datos hidrográficos recolectados. Por las razones que se dan a continuación, se le dió énfasis a los 300 m., superiores de la columna de agua. (PDF contains 136 pages.)

Measures of turbidity in coastal waters, Coconut Island, Oahu, Hawaii, August 31 - September 2, 2005: workshop proceedings

A three day workshop on turbidity measurements was held at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology from August 3 1 to September 2, 2005. The workshop was attended by 30 participants from industry, coastal management agencies, and academic institutions. All groups recognized common issues regarding the definition of turbidity, limitations of consistent calibration, and the large variety of instrumentation that nominally measure "turbidity." The major recommendations, in order of importance for the coastal monitoring community are listed below: 1. The community of users in coastal ecosystems should tighten instrument design configurations to minimize inter-instrument variability, choosing a set of specifications that are best suited for coastal waters. The IS0 7027 design standard is not tight enough. Advice on these design criteria should be solicited through the ASTM as well as Federal and State regulatory agencies representing the majority of turbidity sensor end users. Parties interested in making turbidity measurements in coastal waters should develop design specifications for these water types rather than relying on design standards made for the analysis of drinking water. 2. The coastal observing groups should assemble a community database relating output of specific sensors to different environmental parameters, so that the entire community of users can benefit from shared information. This would include an unbiased, parallel study of different turbidity sensors, employing a variety of designs and configuration in the broadest range of coastal environments. 3. Turbidity should be used as a measure of relative change in water quality rather than an absolute measure of water quality. Thus, this is a recommendation for managers to develop their own local calibrations. See next recommendation. 4. If the end user specifically wants to use a turbidity sensor to measure a specific water quality parameter such as suspended particle concentration, then direct measurement of that water quality parameter is necessary to correlate with 'turbidity1 for a particular environment. These correlations, however, will be specific to the environment in which they are measured. This works because there are many environments in which water composition is relatively stable but varies in magnitude or concentration. (pdf contains 22 pages)

31. Jahrestagung der "West European Fish Technologit´s Association" in Espoo, Finnland

Vom 27.-31. Mai 2001 fand in Espoo, Finnland, die 31. Jahrestagung der WEFTA (West European FishTechnologist’s Association) statt. 75 Teilnehmer aus15 europäischen Ländern, der FAO und der Europäischen Kommission sowie aus den USA und Kanadawaren der Einladung des VTT Biotechnology, eines großen finnischen Forschungsinstituts auf dem Gebiete der Biotechnologie und biologischer Materialien, zu dieser Tagung gefolgt. Die Durchführung in einemKongresszentrum in Espoo, nahe der finnische Hauptstadt Helsinki direkt am Bottnischen Meerbusen gelegen, ermöglichte einen straffen organisatorischen Ablauf und die Einhaltung des Zeitplanes der mit 41 Vorträgen und 18 Postern recht umfangreichen Veranstaltung, die in 7 Themenkomplexe gegliedert war. Nachfolgend werden wesentliche Ergebnisse der einzelnen Beiträge zusammengefasst

Leistungsmessung an Bord von Fischereifahrzeugen zur Kontrolle der 300-PS-Begrenzung in der Schollenbox

For monitoring of the engine power of fishing vessels permitted for fishery in the plaice box with engine power of 300 HP or less at sea three different portable power measurement systems are developed and tested. A system measuring the twist of the propeller shaft by two divisible gearwheels mounted on the shaft worked well at shafts with roller bearing at both sides of the measured interval of 100–300 mm length. Only at a very few fishing vessels this system is applicable and therefore for monitoring purposes not suitable. The application of a commercial available system measuring the stress at the surface of the shaft was simplified for application by non experts. The torque is measured by strain gauges. The calibration of the system, measuring and recording of the power is done by a PC automatically. A small polished facet on the shaft protected against oxidation is needed for easy and quick application. In this case the system can be used by technical personnel of supervision boats for monitoring of the engine power at sea in a short time. A third power measurement system determinates the torque by measuring the displacement of two supports clamped on the shaft at a distance of 100 mm. The displacement is measured by a micrometer gauge mounted on one of the supports. Readout of the rotating gauge display is possible taking advantage of stroboscopic effect. The system needs no conditioning of the shaft and can be used by non technicians. The development is not finished until now and some additional investigations and tests are required. Additional measures for monitoring of the power on fishing vessels by self recording power measurement systems and sealed fuel racks with limited injection are reported and discussed.

Determination of source finiteness and depth of large earthquakes

In this thesis, a method to retrieve the source finiteness, depth of faulting, and the mechanisms of large earthquakes from long-period surface waves is developed and applied to several recent large events.

In Chapter 1, source finiteness parameters of eleven large earthquakes were determined from long-period Rayleigh waves recorded at IDA and GDSN stations. The basic data set is the seismic spectra of periods from 150 to 300 sec. Two simple models of source finiteness are studied. The first model is a point source with finite duration. In the determination of the duration or source-process times, we used Furumoto's phase method and a linear inversion method, in which we simultaneously inverted the spectra and determined the source-process time that minimizes the error in the inversion. These two methods yielded consistent results. The second model is the finite fault model. Source finiteness of large shallow earthquakes with rupture on a fault plane with a large aspect ratio was modeled with the source-finiteness function introduced by Ben-Menahem. The spectra were inverted to find the extent and direction of the rupture of the earthquake that minimize the error in the inversion. This method is applied to the 1977 Sumbawa, Indonesia, 1979 Colombia-Ecuador, 1983 Akita-Oki, Japan, 1985 Valparaiso, Chile, and 1985 Michoacan, Mexico earthquakes. The method yielded results consistent with the rupture extent inferred from the aftershock area of these earthquakes.

In Chapter 2, the depths and source mechanisms of nine large shallow earthquakes were determined. We inverted the data set of complex source spectra for a moment tensor (linear) or a double couple (nonlinear). By solving a least-squares problem, we obtained the centroid depth or the extent of the distributed source for each earthquake. The depths and source mechanisms of large shallow earthquakes determined from long-period Rayleigh waves depend on the models of source finiteness, wave propagation, and the excitation. We tested various models of the source finiteness, Q, the group velocity, and the excitation in the determination of earthquake depths.

The depth estimates obtained using the Q model of Dziewonski and Steim (1982) and the excitation functions computed for the average ocean model of Regan and Anderson (1984) are considered most reasonable. Dziewonski and Steim's Q model represents a good global average of Q determined over a period range of the Rayleigh waves used in this study. Since most of the earthquakes studied here occurred in subduction zones Regan and Anderson's average ocean model is considered most appropriate.

Our depth estimates are in general consistent with the Harvard CMT solutions. The centroid depths and their 90 % confidence intervals (numbers in the parentheses) determined by the Student's t test are: Colombia-Ecuador earthquake (12 December 1979), d = 11 km, (9, 24) km; Santa Cruz Is. earthquake (17 July 1980), d = 36 km, (18, 46) km; Samoa earthquake (1 September 1981), d = 15 km, (9, 26) km; Playa Azul, Mexico earthquake (25 October 1981), d = 41 km, (28, 49) km; El Salvador earthquake (19 June 1982), d = 49 km, (41, 55) km; New Ireland earthquake (18 March 1983), d = 75 km, (72, 79) km; Chagos Bank earthquake (30 November 1983), d = 31 km, (16, 41) km; Valparaiso, Chile earthquake (3 March 1985), d = 44 km, (15, 54) km; Michoacan, Mexico earthquake (19 September 1985), d = 24 km, (12, 34) km.

In Chapter 3, the vertical extent of faulting of the 1983 Akita-Oki, and 1977 Sumbawa, Indonesia earthquakes are determined from fundamental and overtone Rayleigh waves. Using fundamental Rayleigh waves, the depths are determined from the moment tensor inversion and fault inversion. The observed overtone Rayleigh waves are compared to the synthetic overtone seismograms to estimate the depth of faulting of these earthquakes. The depths obtained from overtone Rayleigh waves are consistent with the depths determined from fundamental Rayleigh waves for the two earthquakes. Appendix B gives the observed seismograms of fundamental and overtone Rayleigh waves for eleven large earthquakes.

NOx emission and thermal efficiency of a 300 MWe utility boiler retrofitted by air staging

Full-scale experiments were performed on a 300 MWe utility boiler retrofitted with air staging. In order to improve boiler thermal efficiency and to reduce NOx emission, the influencing factors including the overall excessive air ratio, the secondary air distribution pattern, the damper openings of CCOFA and SOFA, and pulverized coal fineness were investigated. Through comprehensive combustion adjustment, NOx emission decreased 182 ppm (NOx reduction efficiency was 44%), and boiler heat efficiency merely decreased 0.21%. After combustion improvement, high efficiency and low NOx emission was achieved in the utility coal-fired boiler retrofitted with air staging, and the unburned carbon in ash can maintain at a desired level where the utilization of fly-ash as byproducts was not influenced.

New technologies driving decade-bandwidth radio astronomy : quad-ridged flared horn and compound-semiconductor LNAs

Among the branches of astronomy, radio astronomy is unique in that it spans the largest portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, e.g., from about 10 MHz to 300 GHz. On the other hand, due to scientific priorities as well as technological limitations, radio astronomy receivers have traditionally covered only about an octave bandwidth. This approach of "one specialized receiver for one primary science goal" is, however, not only becoming too expensive for next-generation radio telescopes comprising thousands of small antennas, but also is inadequate to answer some of the scientific questions of today which require simultaneous coverage of very large bandwidths.

This thesis presents significant improvements on the state of the art of two key receiver components in pursuit of decade-bandwidth radio astronomy: 1) reflector feed antennas; 2) low-noise amplifiers on compound-semiconductor technologies. The first part of this thesis introduces the quadruple-ridged flared horn, a flexible, dual linear-polarization reflector feed antenna that achieves 5:1-7:1 frequency bandwidths while maintaining near-constant beamwidth. The horn is unique in that it is the only wideband feed antenna suitable for radio astronomy that: 1) can be designed to have nominal 10 dB beamwidth between 30 and 150 degrees; 2) requires one single-ended 50 Ohm low-noise amplifier per polarization. Design, analysis, and measurements of several quad-ridged horns are presented to demonstrate its feasibility and flexibility.

The second part of the thesis focuses on modeling and measurements of discrete high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and their applications in wideband, extremely low-noise amplifiers. The transistors and microwave monolithic integrated circuit low-noise amplifiers described herein have been fabricated on two state-of-the-art HEMT processes: 1) 35 nm indium phosphide; 2) 70 nm gallium arsenide. DC and microwave performance of transistors from both processes at room and cryogenic temperatures are included, as well as first-reported measurements of detailed noise characterization of the sub-micron HEMTs at both temperatures. Design and measurements of two low-noise amplifiers covering 1--20 and 8—50 GHz fabricated on both processes are also provided, which show that the 1--20 GHz amplifier improves the state of the art in cryogenic noise and bandwidth, while the 8--50 GHz amplifier achieves noise performance only slightly worse than the best published results but does so with nearly a decade bandwidth.

Rückläufige Tendenz des Dorschbestandes in der zentralen Ostsee hält an - (262. Forschungsreise des FFK "Solea" vom 31.1.-10.2.1989)

Die stark rückläufige Tendenz des Dorschbestandes in der zentralen Ostsee, östlich von Bornholm, über die in den letzten Jahren berichtet wurde, hält nach den Untersuchungen des FFK "Solea" (31.1. - 10.2.1989)an. Im Bornholm Becken lag der durchschnittliche Grundschleppnetzfang je Stunde auf Wassertiefen flacher als 75 m, wo ausreichende Sauerstoffverhältnisse am Boden waren, im EG-Bereich mit 2,5 Korb nochmals niedriger als 1988 (3 Korb). Er lag damit fast um 2/3 niedriger als im langjährigen Mittel 1980-1986. Die besten Fänge wurden mit jeweils 3,5 Korb im Ostzipfel des EG-Meeres, im sogenannten "Bermuda Dreieck", und südlich von Nexö auf jeweils 72 m Wassertiefe erzielt. Im großen und ganzen war der Dorsch im Wassertiefenbereich zwischen 50 und 75 m des Bornholm Beckens recht gleichmäßig verteilt.

Key to the identification of the naupliar instars of the genus Cyclops. [Translation from: Arb.biol.Stat.Kossino 5 31-39, 1927. ]

This is a short excerpt of the original paper giving the key to the identification of the naupliar instars of the genus Cyclops.