Fish communities in rivers to be affected by Roadford Reservoir

This is the Fish communities in rivers to be affected by Roadford Reservoir report produced by South West Water Authority in 1978. Surveys were carried, out on the Rivers Wolf, Thrushel, Lew and Lumburn, which are likely to be affected directly and indirectly by the construction and use of Roadford Reservoir. Of the upper reaches of three rivers to be affected directly by water releases, two were found to support abundant stocks of salmon and trout, and the third was found to contain abundant stocks of trout and eels. The River Thrushel will be affected indirectly and in this river salmon and trout stocks were present in slightly lower abundance than in others. Population estimates, densities, mean lengths and approximate biomass values were calculated. Other species were present in all rivers, usually in great abundance.

A remarkable new species of Psednos (Teleostei: Liparidae) from the western North Atlantic Ocean

Psednos rossi new species (Teleostei: Liparidae) is described from two specimens collected in the North Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, at depths of 500–674 m. Psednos rossi belongs to the P. christinae group, which includes six other species and is characterized by 46–47 vertebrae and the absence of a coronal pore. Psednos rossi differs from those six species by having characters unique within the genus: straight spine, body not humpbacked at the occiput, and a very large mouth with a vertical oral cleft. Other distinguishing characters include a notched pectoral fin with 15–16 rays, eye 17–19% SL, and color in life orange-rose. With P. rossi, the genus Psednos as currently known includes 26 described and five undescribed species of small meso- or bathypelagic liparids from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.

羊草繁殖生物学特性的研究

羊草(Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvel. )又称碱草，隶属禾本科，赖草属，因其营养价值高，富含蛋白质，适口性好，抗旱，耐盐碱，耐贫瘠，抗逆性强，适应性广等优点，对我国发展草原畜牧业和退化草地、荒漠化治理方面具有举足轻重的作用。近年来，由于自然环境变劣，荒漠化加剧，以及过度放牧等不利影响，加之羊草本身固有的“三低”问题（即结实率低、出苗率低、产草量低）已对羊草生物多样性维持构成了严重的威胁，严重限制了我国人工草地建设和天然草地的改良和沙化治理的步伐。加强羊草生物学研究，开展羊草种质生物多样性保护，成为当前研究的紧迫课题。经对国内外相关文献的查新发现：国外发表的文献匮乏，国内的报导大多集中在草原生态等宏观领域，在羊草繁殖生物学方面缺乏系统的研究。本文以本课题组从国内外收集的羊草资源为材料，从以下几个方面进行了初步探索： 一、羊草繁殖性状与遗传多样性分子标记指标的相关分析。利用分子标记与形态标记对随机抽取的17份羊草种质进行了种质评估的比较研究。结果表明：两种方法均在17份供试材料中鉴别出9份羊草种质,说明分子标记方法用于羊草种质资源鉴定是可行的，并具有快速、准确、不受环境条件限制等优点。在40个10 Mer的随机引物当中筛选出21个有效引物，以之对9份羊草材料进行RAPD 分析，共扩增出115条带，其中95条带表现出多态性，多态比率82.61%，并筛选出S1213-900，S1213-1700，S1215-5500， S1396-1370，S1384-900，S1202-5180，S1220-2200，S1381-1580，S1211-1300，S1211-800为羊草种质所具有的10个特异性标记，据此可将羊草种质与披肩草、赖草加以区分。同时在羊草种内亦发现13条可区分供试羊草种质的特有标记。形态标记与分子标记相关性分析结果显示：羊草种质的小穗数，种子千粒重，叶色，有性繁殖量和结实率5个形态学指标与遗传多样性指标---特有带百分率及遗传距离之间，存在一定相关性。同时对羊草种质资源在收集和评价过程中存在的问题进行了探讨。 二、羊草不同基因型无性繁殖特性比较研究。以本课题组从吉林、内蒙古等省份收集的10个基因型羊草为供试材料，在相同的生态因子作用下，以吉生1号羊草为对照，对10个基因型羊草的叶数增量、芽数增量、芽高度、芽间距、芽重量、根量六个无性系形态性状指标进行测评。结果表明：基因型的差异也是影响羊草无性系生长发育的重要影响因子。因此，在今后的羊草无性繁殖生物学研究中，应综合考虑环境因子和基因型因子对羊草无性繁殖生长发育的影响。在所测评的10个基因型中，各基因型的形态性状指标差异很大，栽3基因型较其他基因型优于对照吉生1号，此结论可为今后培育羊草新种提供重要资料。 三、羊草幼穗离体培养方法的建立。其方法是取羊草幼穗为外植体，经0.1%升汞溶液表面消毒后，接种到含2mg/L的2,4-D的MS培养基上，置于恒温25℃条件下诱导愈伤组织。在加有1mg/L2,4-D的MS培养基上继代2次后，转移到含1mg/L KT和0.5mg/LNAA的MS培养基上分化培养得到再生芽。在除去激素后的基本培养基上获得了生根的试管苗。试管苗移栽到温室后生长正常。羊草试管苗的分化因基因型和外源激素条件的不同而异。 四、羊草有性生殖特性的研究。在自然条件下进行了羊草自交、异交结实性实验，采用FDA染色法检测羊草小孢子活性，并观测羊草雌蕊、雄蕊发育的时空特点。结果表明：在大田中羊草异交结实率远大于其自交结实率;成熟花药中有活性的花粉达到92.2%以上;同时，在发育时间顺序和空间结构上，羊草的雌蕊、雄蕊并不妨碍自体授粉。因此，初步结论认为羊草具自交不和性。

Climatic changes reflected in laminated Santa Barbara Basin sediments

Dating of annually varved sediments of Santa Barbara Basin down to AD 1650 in absence of precise radiometric methods was achieved by (1) counting varves and determining mean annual sedimentation rates from x-radiographs, and (2) correlation with historical rainfall and tree-ring records.

La pesca costera en la Argentina

Se aborda el estudio de la pesca costera en la Argentina (océano Atlántico sudoccidental) teniendo en cuenta los factores económicos, sociales y políticos que promovieron su retraso o desarrollo. Para comprenderlo se analizan las diversas etapas históricas desde la época de la conquista (1580) hasta nuestros días. Se detalla sobre la actualidad de las artes de pesca en pequeña escala, las características de los pescadores, el manejo de las pesquerías costeras y el conflicto por los recursos y perspectivas.

Assessment of CFD models for shock boundary-layer interaction

A workshop on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) prediction of shock boundary-layer interactions (SBLIs) was held at the 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting. As part of the workshop numerous CFD analysts submitted solutions to four experimentally measured SBLIs. This paper describes the assessment of the CFD predictions. The assessment includes an uncertainty analysis of the experimental data, the definition of an error metric and the application of that metric to the CFD solutions. The CFD solutions provided very similar levels of error and in general it was difficult to discern clear trends in the data. For the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes methods the choice of turbulence model appeared to be the largest factor in solution accuracy. Large-eddy simulation methods produced error levels similar to RANS methods but provided superior predictions of normal stresses.

Investigation of acoustic units for LVCSR systems

One important issue in designing state-of-the-art LVCSR systems is the choice of acoustic units. Context dependent (CD) phones remain the dominant form of acoustic units. They can capture the co-articulatory effect in speech via explicit modelling. However, for other more complicated phonological processes, they rely on the implicit modelling ability of the underlying statistical models. Alternatively, it is possible to construct acoustic models based on higher level linguistic units, for example, syllables, to explicitly capture these complex patterns. When sufficient training data is available, this approach may show an advantage over implicit acoustic modelling. In this paper a wide range of acoustic units are investigated to improve LVCSR system performance. Significant error rate gains up to 7.1% relative (0.8% abs.) were obtained on a state-of-the-art Mandarin Chinese broadcast audio recognition task using word and syllable position dependent triphone and quinphone models. © 2011 IEEE.

Mitochondrial variation of the "eyed" turtles (Sacalia) based on known-locality and trade specimens

Bryan L. Stuart is thanked for his hard work to collect wild specimens, as well as providing insightful and useful comments on the data. We thank Abigail Wolf of the Field Museum for providing photographs of specimens. Robert Murphy of the Royal Ontario M

Genome-wide SNP and haplotype analyses reveal a rich history underlying dog domestication

Advances in genome technology have facilitated a new understanding of the historical and genetic processes crucial to rapid phenotypic evolution under domestication(1,2). To understand the process of dog diversification better, we conducted an extensive genome-wide survey of more than 48,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms in dogs and their wild progenitor, the grey wolf. Here we show that dog breeds share a higher proportion of multi-locus haplotypes unique to grey wolves from the Middle East, indicating that they are a dominant source of genetic diversity for dogs rather than wolves from east Asia, as suggested by mitochondrial DNA sequence data(3). Furthermore, we find a surprising correspondence between genetic and phenotypic/functional breed groupings but there are exceptions that suggest phenotypic diversification depended in part on the repeated crossing of individuals with novel phenotypes. Our results show that Middle Eastern wolves were a critical source of genome diversity, although interbreeding with local wolf populations clearly occurred elsewhere in the early history of specific lineages. More recently, the evolution of modern dog breeds seems to have been an iterative process that drew on a limited genetic toolkit to create remarkable phenotypic diversity.

Origin and evolution of ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes from Guillardia theta nucleomorph to hominoid

The origin of eukaryotic ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes (E2s) can be traced back to the Guillardia theta nucleomorph about 2500 million years ago (Mya). E2s are largely vertically inherited over eukaryotic evolution [Lespinet, O., Wolf, Y.I., Koonin, E.V.,

Transplantable neural progenitor populations derived from Rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells

Cell-based therapies using embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in the treatment of neural disease will require the generation of homogenous donor neural progenitor (NP) populations. Here we describe an efficient culture system containing hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and G5 supplement for the production of highly enriched (88.3% +/- 8.1%)populations of NPs from rhesus monkey ESCs. Additional purification resulted in NP preparations that were 98% nestin positive. Moreover, NPs, as monolayers or neurospheres, could be maintained for prolonged periods of time in media containing HGF+G5 or G5 alone. In vitro differentiation and in vivo transplantation assays showed that NPs could differentiate into neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. The kinds and quantities of differentiated cells derived from NPs were closely correlated with their niches in vivo. Glial differentiation was predominant in periventricular areas, whereas cells migrating into the cortex were mostly neurons. Cell counts showed that 2 months after transplantation, approximately 25% of transplanted NPs survived and 65% - 80% of the surviving transplanted cells migrated along the ventricular wall or in a radial fashion. Subcloning demonstrated that several clonal lines derived from NPs expressed nestin and differentiated into three neural lineages in vitro and in rat brains in vivo. In contrast, some subcloned lines showed restricted differentiation both in vitro and in vivo in rat brains. These observations set the stage for obtaining highly enriched NPs and evaluating the efficacy of NP-based transplantation therapy in the nonhuman primate and will provide a platform for probing the molecular mechanisms that control neural induction.

Homologous feeder cells support undifferentiated growth and pluripotency in monkey embryonic stem cells

In the present study, five homologous feeder cell lines were developed for the culture and maintenance of rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells (rESCs). Monkey ear skin fibroblasts (MESFs), monkey oviductal fibroblasts (MOFs), monkey follicular granulosa fibroblast-like (MFG) cells, monkey follicular granulosa epithelium-like (MFGE) cells, and clonally derived fibroblasts from MESF (CMESFs) were established and compared with the ability of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) to support rESC growth. MESF, MOF, MFG, and CMESF cells, but not MFGE cells, were as good as or better than MEFs in supporting undifferentiated growth while maintaining the differentiation potential of the rESCs. In an effort to understand the unique properties of supportive feeder cells, expression levels for a number of candidate genes were examined. MOF, MESF, and MEF cells highly expressed leukemia inhibitory factor, ciliary neurotrophic factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, stem cell factor, transforming growth factor PI, bone morphogenetic protein 4, and WNT3A, whereas WNT2, WNT4, and WNT5A were downregulated, compared with MFGE cells. Additionally, all monkey feeder cell lines expressed Dkk1 and LRP6, antagonists of the WNT signaling pathway, but not WNT1, WNT8B, or Dkk2. rESCs grown on homologous feeders maintained normal karyotypes, displayed the characteristics of ESCs, including morphology, alkaline phosphatase, Oct4, the cell surface markers stage-specific embryonic antigen (SSEA)-3, SSEA-4, tumor-related antigen (TRA)-1-60, and TRA-1-81, and formed cystic embryoid bodies in vitro that included differentiated cells representing the three major germ layers. These results indicate that the four homologous feeder cell lines can be used to support the undifferentiated growth and maintenance of pluripotency in rESCs.

A comparative approach to somatic cell nuclear transfer in the rhesus monkey

BACKGROUND: Despite the potential utility of primate somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to biomedical research and to the production of autologous embryonic stem (ES) cells for cell- or tissue-based therapy, a reliable method for SCNT is not yet availab