Supporting regional coastal and ocean managers: Linking ocean observing tools and capabilities to the priority needs of managers and users in the southeast region

Ocean observing has been recognized by the US Commission on Ocean Policy, the Ocean Research and Resources Advisory Panel, the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, and many other ocean policy entities and initiatives as foundational to meeting the nation’s need for more effective coastal and ocean management. The Interim Report of the Interagency Task Force on Ocean Policy (September 2009) has called for strengthening the nation’s capacity for observing the nation’s ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes systems. (PDF contains 3 pages)

Addressing and adapting to contemporary coastal management issues in the central Philippines

With arguably the world’s most decentralized coastal governance regime, the Philippines has implemented integrated coastal management (ICM) for over 30 years as one of the most successful frameworks for coastal resource management in the country. Anthropogenic drivers continue to threaten the food security and livelihood of coastal residents; contributing to the destruction of critical marine habitats, which are heavily relied upon for the goods and services they provide. ICM initiatives in the Philippines have utilized a variety of tools, particularly marine protected areas (MPAs), to promote poverty alleviation through food security and sustainable forms of development. From the time marine reserves were first shown to effectively address habitat degradation and decline in reef fishery production (Alcala et al., 2001) over 1,100 locally managed MPAs have been established in the Philippines; yet only 10-20% of these are effectively managed (White et al., 2006; PhilReefs, 2008). In order to increase management effectiveness, biophysical, legal, institutional and social linkages need to be strengthened and “scaled up” to accommodate a more holistic systems approach (Lowry et al., 2009). This summary paper incorporates the preliminary results of five independently conducted studies. Subject areas covered are the social and institutional elements of MPA networks, ecosystem-based management applicability, financial sustainability and the social vulnerability of coastal residents to climate change in the Central Philippines. Each section will provide insight into these focal areas and suggest how management strategies may be adapted to holistically address these contemporary issues. (PDF contains 4 pages)

The intramolecular Buchner reaction of α-diazo-β-ketonitriles : development and application to the total synthesis of (+)-Salvileucalin B

Since its discovery in 1896, the Buchner reaction has fascinated chemists for more than a century. The highly reactive nature of the carbene intermediates allows for facile dearomatization of stable aromatic rings, and provides access to a diverse array of cyclopropane and seven-membered ring architectures. The power inherent in this transformation has been exploited in the context of a natural product total synthesis and methodology studies.

The total synthesis work details efforts employed in the enantioselective total synthesis of (+)-salvileucalin B. The fully-substituted cyclopropane within the core of the molecule arises from an unprecedented intramolecular Buchner reaction involving a highly functionalized arene and an α-diazo-β-ketonitrile. An unusual retro-Claisen rearrangement of a complex late-stage intermediate was discovered on route to the natural product.

The unique reactivity of α-diazo-β-ketonitriles toward arene cyclopropanation was then investigated in a broader methodological study. This specific di-substituted diazo moiety possesses hitherto unreported selectivity in intramolecular Buchner reactions. This technology was enables the preparation of highly functionalized norcaradienes and cyclopropanes, which themselves undergo various ring opening transformations to afford complex polycyclic structures.

Finally, an enantioselective variant of the intramolecular Buchner reaction is described. Various chiral copper and dirhodium catalysts afforded moderate stereoinduction in the cyclization event.

Spectral analysis and control to obtain sub-5 fs pulses by femtosecond filamentation

A spectral-filter method is numerically demonstrated to obtain sub-5 fs pulses by using femtosecond filamentation in fused silica. Instead of employing spectral phase compensation, by properly employing a high-pass filter to select the broadened high-frequency spectra that are located almost in phase in the tailing edge of the self-compressed pulses owing to self-steepening, as short as single-cycle pulses can be obtained. For instance, for an input pulse with a duration of 50 fs and energy 2.2 mu J, the minimum pulse duration can reach to similar to 4 fs (about 1.5 cycles) by applying a proper spectral filter. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America

Multi-model inference ranking and applications to physics at the Large Hadron Collider

In the measurement of the Higgs Boson decaying into two photons the parametrization of an appropriate background model is essential for fitting the Higgs signal mass peak over a continuous background. This diphoton background modeling is crucial in the statistical process of calculating exclusion limits and the significance of observations in comparison to a background-only hypothesis. It is therefore ideal to obtain knowledge of the physical shape for the background mass distribution as the use of an improper function can lead to biases in the observed limits. Using an Information-Theoretic (I-T) approach for valid inference we apply Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) as a measure of the separation for a fitting model from the data. We then implement a multi-model inference ranking method to build a fit-model that closest represents the Standard Model background in 2013 diphoton data recorded by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Potential applications and extensions of this model-selection technique are discussed with reference to CMS detector performance measurements as well as in potential physics analyses at future detectors.

Double refraction and reflection of sequential crystal interfaces with arbitrary orientation of the optic axis and application to optimum design

The general formulation of double refraction or internal double reflection for any directions of incidence and arbitrary orientation of the optic axis in a uniaxial crystal is analysed in terms of Huygens' principle. Then double refraction and double reflection along the sequential interfaces in a crystal are discussed. On this basis, if the parameters of the interface are chosen appropriately, the range of angular separation between the ordinary ray and extraordinary ray can be much greater, It is useful for crystal element design. Finally, as an example, an optimum design of the Output end interface for a 2 x 2 electro-optic switch is given.

The significance of sedimentation and sediments to phytoplankton growth in drinking-water reservoirs

In the mesotrophic-eutrophic Saidenbach Reservoir in Saxony, the nanoplankton and cyanobacteria have increased at the expense of diatom dominance, due to a doubling of the external phosphorus load in the last 15 years. However, the phosphorus sedimentation flux is still very high (up to 80% of the input), corresponding to more than 2 g m2 d-1 in terms of dry weight. There is a strong correlation between the abundance of diatoms in the euphotic zone and their sedimentation flux (with a delay of about 2 weeks). Only about 25% of the deposited material could be clearly attributed to plankton biomass; the remainder resulted from flocculation and precipitation processes or directly from the inflow of clay minerals. The ash content of the deposited material was high (73%). Thus the sedimentation flux can be considered to operate as an internal water-treatment/oligotrophication process within the lake. The neighbouring Neunzehnhain Reservoir still has a very clear water with a transparency up to 18 m depth. Though the sediment was not much lower than Saidenbach sediment in total phosphorus and total numbers of bacteria, sulphide was always absent and the ratio of Fe 2+ to Fe 3+ was very low in the upper (0- 5 cm) layer. Thus the external and internal phosphorus loads do not attain the critical level necessary to induce a ”phosphorus - phytoplankton” feedback loop.

SNPs in microRNAs and susceptibility to Late-Onset Alzheimer´s disease

Case-control association study of SNPs in microRNAs and susceptibility to Late-Onset Alzheimer´s disease.

Understanding function and function-to-form evolution

This is a report on a workshop held at Cambridge University Engineering Design Centre, 17-10 June 1992. This workshop was held to discuss the issue of 'function' and 'function-to-form' evolution in mechanical design. The authors organised this workshop as they felt that their understanding of these topics was incomplete and that discussions between researchers might help to clarify some key issues.

The topic chosen for the workshop proved to be a stimulating one. The term 'function' is part of a designer's daily vocabulary, however there is poor agreement about its definition. In order to develop computer systems to support product evolution, a precise definition is required. Further the value of 'function' and 'function-to-form' evolution as a good choice of workshop topic is evident from the lack of firm conclusions that resulted from the sessions. This lack of consensus made for lively discussion and left participants questioning many of their preconceived ideas.

Attendance at the workshop was by invitation only. A list of the participants (not all those invited could attend due to time and financial constraints) is given in Appendix 1.

Treewidth: theory and applications to computer science

This report is an introduction to the concept of treewidth, a property of graphs that has important implications in algorithms. Some basic concepts of graph theory are presented in the first chapter for those readers that are not familiar with the notation. In Chapter 2, the definition of treewidth and some different ways of characterizing it are explained. The last two chapters focus on the algorithmic implications of treewidth, which are very relevant in Computer Science. An algorithm to compute the treewidth of a graph is presented and its result can be later applied to many other problems in graph theory, like those introduced in the last chapter.

The Interplay between Natural Selection and Susceptibility to Melanoma on Allele 374F of SLC45A2 Gene in a South European Population

We aimed to study the selective pressures interacting on SLC45A2 to investigate the interplay between selection and susceptibility to disease. Thus, we enrolled 500 volunteers from a geographically limited population (Basques from the North of Spain) and by resequencing the whole coding region and intron 5 of the 34 most and the 34 least pigmented individuals according to the reflectance distribution, we observed that the polymorphism Leu374Phe (L374F, rs16891982) was statistically associated with skin color variability within this sample. In particular, allele 374F was significantly more frequent among the individuals with lighter skin. Further genotyping an independent set of 558 individuals of a geographically wider population with known ancestry in the Spanish population also revealed that the frequency of L374F was significantly correlated with the incident UV radiation intensity. Selection tests suggest that allele 374F is being positively selected in South Europeans, thus indicating that depigmentation is an adaptive process. Interestingly, by genotyping 119 melanoma samples, we show that this variant is also associated with an increased susceptibility to melanoma in our populations. The ultimate driving force for this adaptation is unknown, but it is compatible with the vitamin D hypothesis. This shows that molecular evolution analysis can be used as a useful technology to predict phenotypic and biomedical consequences in humans.

Energy transfer and infrared-to-visible upconversion luminescence of Er3+/Yb3+-codoped halide modified tellurite glasses

We report on the energy transfer and frequency upconversion spectroscopic properties of Er3+-doped and Er3+/Yb3+-codoped TeO2-ZnO-Na2O-PbCl2 halide modified tellurite glasses upon excitation with 808 and 978 nm laser diode. Three intense emissions centered at around 529, 546 and 657 nm, alongwith a very weak blue emission at 4 10 nm have clearly been observed for the Er3+/Yb3+-codoped halide modified tellurite glasses upon excitation at 978 nm and the involved mechanisms are explained. The quadratic dependence of fluorescence on excitation laser power confirms the fact that the two-photon contribute to the infrared to green-red upconversion emissions. And the blue upconversion at 410 nm involved a sequential three-photon absorption process. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.