New genus and two new species of the family Ethmolaimidae (Nematoda: Chromadorida), found in two different cold-seep environments

This study describes a new genus Dystomanema gen. nov. with two new species, D. cadizensis sp. nov. and D. brandtae sp. nov. within the family Ethmolaimidae, subfamily Neotonchinae, based on specimens from two low-activity cold-seep environments at distant geographical locations. The new genus was first identified in samples from the Darwin mud volcano (1100 m depth) in the Gulf of Cadiz and later on also found in samples from a low-activity seep in the Larsen B embayment (820m depth) off the eastern Antarctic Peninsula. Until now, the family Ethmolaimidae contained nine genera: Ethmolaimus and Paraethmolaimus in the subfamily Ethmolaiminae, and Comesa, Filitonchoides, Filitonchus, Gomphionchus, Gomphionema, Nannolaimus, and Neothonchus in the subfamily Neotonchinae. The most important family characteristics are: an annulated cuticle bearing transverse rows of dots, cephalic sensilla arrangement of 6+6+4, a spiral amphid, an oesophagus with muscular posterior bulb, paired gonads and males with cup-shaped precloacal supplements. The new genus resembles Comesa and Neotonchus, but is typified by a ventrally displaced oral opening with three very small teeth that are easily overlooked. D. cadizensis gen. nov. sp. nov. is characterized by the 1401-2123 mu m long body; cuticle transversally striated with fine punctation; head conical; low lips; amphid spiralled 3 turns, oral opening ventrally displaced, male with outstretched testes; spicules of equal size; gubernaculum plate-like and ten to twelve conspicuous cup-shaped precloacal supplements with external longitudinal articulated flange. D. brandtae gen. nov. sp. nov. can be distinguished by the 2438-3280 mu m long body; cuticle transversally striated with fine punctuation; head conical; low lips; amphid spiraled 3+ turns; oral opening ventrally displaced; male with anterior testes outstretched and posterior one smaller and reflexed; spicules of equal size; gubernaculum plate-like and twenty conspicuous cup-shaped precloacal supplements with external longitudinal articulated flange. Notes on the ecology and habitat of the new genus are provided in light of its discovery in cold-seep environments.

Transregional linkages in the North-Eastern Atlantic - An ‘end-to-end ’ analysis of pelagic ecosystems

This review examines interregional linkages and gives an overview perspective on marine ecosystem functioning in the north-eastern Atlantic. It is based on three of the 'systems' considered by the European Network of Excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis (EUR-OC EANS was established in 2004 under the European Framework VI funding programme to promote integration of marine ecological research within Europe), the Arctic and Nordic Seas, North Atlantic shelf seas and North Atlantic. The three systems share common open boundaries and the transport of water, heat, nutrients and particulates across these boundaries modifies local processes. Consistent with the EUR-OC EANS concept of 'end-to-end' analyses of marine food webs, the review takes an integrated approach linking ocean physics, lower trophic levels and working up the food web to top predators such as marine mammals. We begin with an overview of the regions focusing on the major physical patterns and their implications for the microbial community, phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish and top predators. Human-induced links between the regional systems are then considered and finally possible changes in the regional linkages over the next century are discussed. Because of the scale of potential impacts of climate change, this issue is considered in a separate section. The review demonstrates that the functioning of the ecosystems in each of the regions cannot be considered in isolation and the role of the atmosphere and ocean currents in linking the North Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic shelf seas and the Arctic and Nordic Seas must be taken into account. Studying the North Atlantic and associated shelf seas as an integrated 'basin-scale' system will be a key challenge for the early twenty-first century. This requires a multinational approach that should lead to improved ecosystem-based approaches to conservation of natural resources, the maintenance of biodiversity, and a better understanding of the key role of the north-eastern Atlantic in the global carbon cycle.

Low molecular weight halocarbons in the Humber and Rhine estuaries determined using a new purge-and-trap gas chromatographic method

A number of chlorinated and brominated low molecular weight hydrocarbons (halocarbons) have been measured in and adjacent to the North Sea estuaries of the Humber and the Rhine. The measurements have been carried out using a newly constructed purge-and-trap sample work-up system coupled to megabore gas chromatography with electron capture detection. The results show that whereas the Humber is a pronounced source of the anthropogenic halocarbons carbon tetrachloride and perchloroethylene, the input from the Rhine into the North Sea of these compounds is more modest. Some halocarbons normally considered as mainly or even exclusively of natural origin are released from the two investigated estuaries into the North Sea. A distinct patch of high concentrations of the naturally produced compound bromoform was observed in the southwestern North Sea. The results have also been used to examine some of the halocarbons for common sources.

Family-level AMBI is valid for use in the north-eastern Atlantic but not for assessing the health of microtidal Australian estuaries

Analysis of benthic macroinvertebrate samples at a higher taxonomic level than species, e.g. family, potentially provides a more cost-effective protocol for environmental impact assessments and monitoring as it requires less time, funds and taxonomic expertise. Using the AMBI database, species ecological group scores are shown to be coherent within families. Faunal data from a wide range of environmental impact scenarios in the north-eastern Atlantic demonstrate that AMBI, calculated from mean values for families, exhibits a strong linear relationship with species-level AMBI, the correlation improving by using square-root transformed rather than untransformed abundances. In many regions of the world, however, the sensitivity of benthic macroinvertebrates to environmental perturbations is unknown, precluding the use of AMBI for environmental assessments. Yet the families are essentially the same as in the AMBI database. The utility of family-level AMBI is tested using data for four south-western Australian estuaries previously subjected to environmental quality assessments, but where only 17 species of the 144 taxa are included in the AMBI database. Although family-level AMBI scores reflect differences in environmental quality spatially and temporally within an estuary, they do not follow variations in environmental quality among estuaries. Indeed, south-western Australia estuaries are numerically dominated by families with high AMBI scores, probably due to the detrimental effects of natural accumulations of organic material in estuaries with long residence times. As taxonomic distinctness follows trends in environmental quality among estuaries, as well as temporally and spatially within a system, it provides an appropriate substitute for assessing the 'heath' of microtidal estuaries.

The Triumph of Epicure: A History of New Orleans Culinary Tourism

An examination of New Orleans's long history of culinary tourism dating back to the early 1800s.

Mysis salemaai in Ireland: new occurrences and existing population declines

We report two new occurrences of Mysis salemaai, a conservationally important glacial relict at the southern limit of its range, in Castlewellan Lake and Lough Scolban, in the North of Ireland. This increases the number of lakes in Ireland where the species has been recorded to thirteen. We consider lake area and maximum lake depth as factors that might determine the long-term survival of M. salemaai populations and show that these populations tend to occur in relatively large, deep, lakes. We also show that population densities in Lough Neagh and Lough Erne are declining.

Critical reappraisal of Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic Central and North Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean evolution

(l) The Pacific basin (Pacific area) may be regarded as moving eastwards like a double zip fastener relative to the continents and their respective plates (Pangaea area): opening in the East and closing in the West. This movement is tracked by a continuous mountain belt, the collision ages of which increase westwards. (2) The relative movements between the Pacific area and the Pangaea area in the W-E/E-W direction are generated by tidal forces (principle of hypocycloid gearing), whereby the lower mantle and the Pacific basin or area (Pacific crust = roof of the lower mantle?) rotate somewhat faster eastwards around the Earth's spin axis relative to the upper mantle/crust system with the continents and their respective plates (Pangaea area) (differential rotation). (3) These relative West to East/East to West displacements produce a perpetually existing sequence of distinct styles of opening and closing ocean basins, exemplified by the present East to West arrangement of ocean basins around the globe (Oceanic or Wilson Cycle: Rift/Red Sea style; Atlantic style; Mediterranean/Caribbean style as eastwards propagating tongue of the Pacific basin; Pacific style; Collision/Himalayas style). This sequence of ocean styles, of which the Pacific ocean is a part, moves eastwards with the lower mantle relative to the continents and the upper-mantle/crust of the Pangaea area. (4) Similarly, the collisional mountain belt extending westwards from the equator to the West of the Pacific and representing a chronological sequence of collision zones (sequential collisions) in the wake of the passing of the Pacific basin double zip fastener, may also be described as recording the history of oceans and their continental margins in the form of successive Wilson Cycles. (5) Every 200 to 250 m.y. the Pacific basin double zip fastener, the sequence of ocean styles of the Wilson Cycle and the eastwards growing collisional mountain belt in their wake complete one lap around the Earth. Two East drift lappings of 400 to 500 m.y. produce a two-lap collisional mountain belt spiral around a supercontinent in one hemisphere (North or South Pangaea). The Earth's history is subdivided into alternating North Pangaea growth/South Pangaea breakup eras and South Pangaea growth/North Pangaea breakup eras. Older North and South Pangaeas and their collisional mountain belt spirals may be reconstructed by rotating back the continents and orogenic fragments of a broken spiral (e.g. South Pangaea, Gondwana) to their previous Pangaea growth era orientations. In the resulting collisional mountain belt spiral, pieced together from orogenic segments and fragments, the collision ages have to increase successively towards the West. (6) With its current western margin orientated in a West-East direction North America must have collided during the Late Cretaceous Laramide orogeny with the northern margin of South America (Caribbean Andes) at the equator to the West of the Late Mesozoic Pacific. During post-Laramide times it must have rotated clockwise into its present orientation. The eastern margin of North America has never been attached to the western margin of North Africa but only to the western margin of Europe. (7) Due to migration eastwards of the sequence of ocean styles of the Wilson Cycle, relative to a distinct plate tectonic setting of an ocean, a continent or continental margin, a future or later evolutionary style at the Earth's surface is always depicted in a setting simultaneously developed further to the West and a past or earlier style in a setting simultaneously occurring further to the East. In consequence, ahigh probability exists that up to the Early Tertiary, Greenland (the ArabiaofSouth America?) occupied a plate tectonic setting which is comparable to the current setting of Arabia (the Greenland of Africa?). The Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary Eureka collision zone (Eureka orogeny) at the northern margin of the Greenland Plate and on some of the Canadian Arctic Islands is comparable with the Middle to Late Tertiary Taurus-Bitlis-Zagros collision zone at the northern margin of the Arabian Plate.

Critérios de adequação em ecocardiografia e a repercussão clinica no outcome do paciente: a realidade do Lister Hospital - East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, Reino Unido

RESUMO - Introdução: Os critérios de adequação (Appropriate Use Criteria - AUC) em Ecocardiografia Transtorácica (ETT) foram publicados com o intuito de permitir o uso racional da ecocardiografia, de influenciar decisões clinicas, prestar cuidados de saúde de elevada qualidade e melhorar o outcome dos pacientes. A relação entre a adequação destes e o seu impacto clinico ainda não se encontra largamente estudada. Objectivo: Neste estudo pretendeu-se avaliar o grau de adesão aos AUC em ETT, em diferentes contextos de atendimento e de acordo com diferentes especialidades, bem como o impacto clínico do exame no outcome do paciente, num hospital público terciário no Reino Unido. Metodologia: 859 ETTs realizados consecutivamente no mês de Janeiro de 2014, foram revistos por forma a avaliar a sua adequação e foram classificados como adequados, incertos ou inadequados de acordo com as guidelines de 2011. De seguida os registos dos pacientes foram revistos com o intuito de avaliar o impacto clinico dos ETTs e foram classificados de acordo com uma das 3 seguintes categorias: (1) alteração ativa dos cuidados – por continuação ou descontinuação dos cuidados como resultado do ETT, (2) continuação dos cuidados – sem continuação ou descontinuação dos cuidados, mas comunicação ao paciente dos resultados do ETT, (3) sem alteração dos cuidados – os cuidados ao paciente já estavam a ser aplicados previamente ao resultado do ETT, causa de sintomas já estabelecida no momento da requisição para exame, exame prévio explicativo dos sintomas e sem indicação aguda para novo ETT, terapêutica não alterada ou inexistência de documentação relativa aos achados ecocardiográficos. Pacientes cujos registos não se encontravam disponíveis foram excluídos (259). Todas as classificações foram avaliadas por uma cardiologista independente, sem relação direta com o estudo. Resultados: A nossa amostra apresentou uma média de idades de 63 ± 17 anos, com uma equilíbrio de géneros. A maioria dos exames foi solicitada em contexto de ambulatório (81,4%), pela Cardiologia (50,3%) e pela Medicina Geral e Familiar (13,4%). Relativamente aos achados ecocardiográficos dos exames, 7,6% demonstraram disfunção sistólica do ventrículo esquerdo moderada a grave, 4,0% revelaram doença valvular grave e 5,1% hipertensão pulmonar significativa. Em relação à adequação dos pedidos para ETTs, 76,5% foram adequados, 7,1% inadequados e 12,6% incertos. Relativamente ao impacto clínico dos ETTs, 42,7% dos exames revelaram uma alteração ativa nos cuidados, 15,6% mostraram uma continuação dos cuidados e 11,5% demonstraram não haver alteração nos cuidados. A idade (P=0,05), o contexto de atendimento (P<0,01) e o pedido realizado pela especialidade medicina geral e familiar (MGF) (P=0,02) foram os preditores mais importantes de uma alteração ativa nos cuidados. Numa perspectiva de prestação de cuidados a uma população mais idosa, o contexto de atendimento, a presença de achados ecocardiográficos significativos e a não alteração dos cuidados apresentam uma relação significativa com a idade. Conclusões: Os dados demonstram que quase 8 em cada 10 ETTs foram considerados adequados e que 4 em cada 10 exames não apresentaram alteração ativa dos cuidados.

Quebec North Shore Paper Company Limited fonds

The Q.N.S. [Quebec North Shore Paper Company] newsprint mill started in 1937 at Baie Comeau in Quebec. Being the first major industry in that area at the time, harbour facilities, a power station and an entire community was built around the mill. In 1952, a power station was built at the first falls of the Manicouagan River. The station generated much more power than necessary for the mill, but attracted an aluminum smelter a few years later in 1958.

Manual of the botany of the Northern United States : including the distriet east of the Mississipi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee

UANL

Dynamics of Infaunal Benthic Community of the Contenental Shelf of North-Eastern Arabian Sea

In this study dynamics of infaunal benthic community of the continental shelf of north-eastern Arabian sea. The benthic (under water sea) organisms play an important role in the marine food chain. It can be concluded that seasonal differences in the benthic community was observed in lower depths and absent in deeper depths. Increased richness and diversity during pre-monsoon may be related to the increased primary production which inturn influenced by the increased nutrient input due to winter convection. No single ecological factor could be considered as a master factor. In general the area supports moderately high benthic production and diversified community.