Oceanographic results during VERTEX particle interceptor trap experiment 17 August to 8 September 1980

This report presents oceanographic data supporting the detailed chemical studies in the VERTEX Particle Interceptor Trap (PIT) experiment off the central California coast. Prior to the deployment of the PITs, an oceanographic survey of the intended study area was made on R/V CAYUSE from 17 to 21 August 1980. During this cruise, twenty CTD stations (Fig. 1) were occupied in a grid centered about the PIT site selected earlier based on archival oceanographic data. During the second leg of the VERTEX experiment from 25 August to 3 September, CTO profiles were taken as time permitted. In addition, a short survey near the PITs was made on 2 September. The intent of the pre-deployment cruise was to obtain data characterizing the vertical and horizontal variability of physical and chemical properties and to map the geostrophic flow field. Toward this end, vertical profiles of salinity, temperature and dissolved oxygen were made using a Plessey 9040 CTOa profiler. Considerable effort was expended to make vertical beam attenuation profiles to

Oceanographic results from the VERTEX 3 Particle Interceptor Trap Experiment off central Mexico,October-December,1982

In this report, we present oceanographic results from VERTEX 3 Particle Interceptor Trap (PIT) experiment conducted off the western-coast of Mexico during October to November 1982. The oceanographic data presented here were obtained during three cruise legs by Moss Landing Marine Laboratory scientists aboard R/V Cayuse while the detailed chemical studies were done by other scientists aboard R/V Wecoma. Only the oceanographic data will be presented in this report. (PDF contains 82 pages)

Results of abundance surveys of juvenile Atlantic and gulf Menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus and B. patronus

The estuarine populations of juvenile Atlantic and gulf menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus and B. patronus) were sampled during two-boat, surface-trawl, abundance surveys extensively conducted in the 1970s. Juvenile Atlantic menhaden were sampled in 39 estuarine streams along the U.S. Atlantic coast from northern Florida into Massachusetts. Juvenile gulf menhaden were sampled in 29 estuarine streams along the Gulf of Mexico from southeast Texas into western Florida. A stratified, two-stage, cluster sampling design was used. Annual estimates of relative juvenile abundance for each species of menhaden were obtained from catch-effort data from the surveys. There were no significant correlations, for either species, between the relative juvenile abundance estimates and fishery-dependent estimates of year-class strength. From 1972 to 1975, the relative abundance of juvenile Atlantic menhaden in north Atlantic estuaries decreased to near zero. (PDF file contains 22 pages.)

Query-by-Example Spoken Term Detection ALBAYZIN 2012 evaluation: overview, systems, results, and discussion

Query-by-Example Spoken Term Detection (QbE STD) aims at retrieving data from a speech data repository given an acoustic query containing the term of interest as input. Nowadays, it has been receiving much interest due to the high volume of information stored in audio or audiovisual format. QbE STD differs from automatic speech recognition (ASR) and keyword spotting (KWS)/spoken term detection (STD) since ASR is interested in all the terms/words that appear in the speech signal and KWS/STD relies on a textual transcription of the search term to retrieve the speech data. This paper presents the systems submitted to the ALBAYZIN 2012 QbE STD evaluation held as a part of ALBAYZIN 2012 evaluation campaign within the context of the IberSPEECH 2012 Conference(a). The evaluation consists of retrieving the speech files that contain the input queries, indicating their start and end timestamps within the appropriate speech file. Evaluation is conducted on a Spanish spontaneous speech database containing a set of talks from MAVIR workshops(b), which amount at about 7 h of speech in total. We present the database metric systems submitted along with all results and some discussion. Four different research groups took part in the evaluation. Evaluation results show the difficulty of this task and the limited performance indicates there is still a lot of room for improvement. The best result is achieved by a dynamic time warping-based search over Gaussian posteriorgrams/posterior phoneme probabilities. This paper also compares the systems aiming at establishing the best technique dealing with that difficult task and looking for defining promising directions for this relatively novel task.

Association between CASP8-652 6N Del Polymorphism (rs3834129) and Colorectal Cancer Risk: Results from a Multi-Centric Study

The common 2652 6N del variant in the CASP8 promoter (rs3834129) has been described as a putative low-penetrance risk factor for different cancer types. In particular, some studies suggested that the deleted allele (del) was inversely associated with CRC risk while other analyses failed to confirm this. Hence, to better understand the role of this variant in the risk of developing CRC, we performed a multi-centric case-control study. In the study, the variant 2652 6N del was genotyped in a total of 6,733 CRC cases and 7,576 controls recruited by six different centers located in Spain, Italy, USA, England, Czech Republic and the Netherlands collaborating to the international consortium COGENT (COlorectal cancer GENeTics). Our analysis indicated that rs3834129 was not associated with CRC risk in the full data set. However, the del allele was under-represented in one set of cases with a family history of CRC (per allele model OR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.69-0.90) suggesting this allele might be a protective factor versus familial CRC. Since this multi-centric case-control study was performed on a very large sample size, it provided robust clarification of the effect of rs3834129 on the risk of developing CRC in Caucasians.

Utilization of waste waters in fish production: preliminary results from fish culture studies in floating cages in a sewage pond, New Bussa, Nigeria

The utilization of waste waters in aquaculture were briefly reviewed. At the National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research (NIFFR), stocking density (20 to 160 fish/m super(3)) experiments using Sarotherodon galilaeus (without supplementary feeding) in floating cages were carried out in a sewage pond (0.4ha surface area). Cage culture of S. galilaeus was observed to have potentials in waste waters aquaculture. Recommendations were made on the execution of an intergrated waste water management and utilization.

Results from RV Utafiti research cruises

Monthly fish surveys were made from 1997-1999 in the Kenyan waters of Lake Victoria in order to estimate the magnitude of fisheries resources. Sample sites were defined using GPS while thirty minute hauls in alternate grid squares were made. Demersal fish biomass was estimated using the swept area method, while for trawling two different trawl nets were used. Collected fish was sorted into species, measured (TL) and weighed. Smaller fish were mixed on deck and sub-samples taken. Sexual maturity stages of fish were also observed. Areas with consistency high catches were located outside major urban and riverine influence where most artisanal fishermen were concentrated. Very low catches were obtained from areas that had recently been covered by water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes

Results of the first hydroacoustic survey of the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria

A lakewide hydroacoustic research programme was designed in the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria in order to ascertain the status of fish stocks. Data obtained from the hydroacoustic surveys were complemented with by catch data from multi mesh gillnets and frame trawls to validate acoustic estimates. Fish were distributed over the whole survey area, though the densities and species composition varied from place to place. Echo traces showed the fish formed schools during daytime and became more dispersed towards evening. Approximately equivalent indices of abundance were estimated for Rastrineobola argentea and Haplocromines. The distribution of the freshwater prawn, Caridina nilotica and the lakefly Chaoborus sp. was patchy. Dense swarms of Chaoborus larvae were observed to disperse from the lake bottom as the night approached thus assuring echo-traces formed by fish on the echogram and making their interpretation difficult. Caridina nilotica were observed to form dense echo-traces at the thermocline

Control of wettability of carbon nanotube array by reversible dry oxidation for superhydrophobic coating and supercapacitor applications

In this thesis, dry chemical modification methods involving UV/ozone, oxygen plasma, and vacuum annealing treatments are explored to precisely control the wettability of CNT arrays. By varying the exposure time of these treatments the surface concentration of oxygenated groups adsorbed on the CNT arrays can be controlled. CNT arrays with very low amount of oxygenated groups exhibit a superhydrophobic behavior. In addition to their extremely high static contact angle, they cannot be dispersed in DI water and their impedance in aqueous electrolytes is extremely high. These arrays have an extreme water repellency capability such that a water droplet will bounce off of their surface upon impact and a thin film of air is formed on their surface as they are immersed in a deep pool of water. In contrast, CNT arrays with very high surface concentration of oxygenated functional groups exhibit an extreme hydrophilic behavior. In addition to their extremely low static contact angle, they can be dispersed easily in DI water and their impedance in aqueous electrolytes is tremendously low. Since the bulk structure of the CNT arrays are preserved during the UV/ozone, oxygen plasma, and vacuum annealing treatments, all CNT arrays can be repeatedly switched between superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic, as long as their O/C ratio is kept below 18%.

The effect of oxidation using UV/ozone and oxygen plasma treatments is highly reversible as long as the O/C ratio of the CNT arrays is kept below 18%. At O/C ratios higher than 18%, the effect of oxidation is no longer reversible. This irreversible oxidation is caused by irreversible changes to the CNT atomic structure during the oxidation process. During the oxidation process, CNT arrays undergo three different processes. For CNT arrays with O/C ratios lower than 40%, the oxidation process results in the functionalization of CNT outer walls by oxygenated groups. Although this functionalization process introduces defects, vacancies and micropores opening, the graphitic structure of the CNT is still largely intact. For CNT arrays with O/C ratios between 40% and 45%, the oxidation process results in the etching of CNT outer walls. This etching process introduces large scale defects and holes that can be obviously seen under TEM at high magnification. Most of these holes are found to be several layers deep and, in some cases, a large portion of the CNT side walls are cut open. For CNT arrays with O/C ratios higher than 45%, the oxidation process results in the exfoliation of the CNT walls and amorphization of the remaining CNT structure. This amorphization process can be implied from the disappearance of C-C sp2 peak in the XPS spectra associated with the pi-bond network.

The impact behavior of water droplet impinging on superhydrophobic CNT arrays in a low viscosity regime is investigated for the first time. Here, the experimental data are presented in the form of several important impact behavior characteristics including critical Weber number, volume ratio, restitution coefficient, and maximum spreading diameter. As observed experimentally, three different impact regimes are identified while another impact regime is proposed. These regimes are partitioned by three critical Weber numbers, two of which are experimentally observed. The volume ratio between the primary and the secondary droplets is found to decrease with the increase of Weber number in all impact regimes other than the first one. In the first impact regime, this is found to be independent of Weber number since the droplet remains intact during and subsequent to the impingement. Experimental data show that the coefficient of restitution decreases with the increase of Weber number in all impact regimes. The rate of decrease of the coefficient of restitution in the high Weber number regime is found to be higher than that in the low and moderate Weber number. Experimental data also show that the maximum spreading factor increases with the increase of Weber number in all impact regimes. The rate of increase of the maximum spreading factor in the high Weber number regime is found to be higher than that in the low and moderate Weber number. Phenomenological approximations and interpretations of the experimental data, as well as brief comparisons to the previously proposed scaling laws, are shown here.

Dry oxidation methods are used for the first time to characterize the influence of oxidation on the capacitive behavior of CNT array EDLCs. The capacitive behavior of CNT array EDLCs can be tailored by varying their oxygen content, represented by their O/C ratio. The specific capacitance of these CNT arrays increases with the increase of their oxygen content in both KOH and Et4NBF4/PC electrolytes. As a result, their gravimetric energy density increases with the increase of their oxygen content. However, their gravimetric power density decreases with the increase of their oxygen content. The optimally oxidized CNT arrays are able to withstand more than 35,000 charge/discharge cycles in Et4NBF4/PC at a current density of 5 A/g while only losing 10% of their original capacitance.