Catch composition, catch rates and size selectivity of three long-line methods in the Algarve (southern Portugal)

Three long-line methods have been studied in the Algarve: 1) small-hook long-line for inshore (less than 30 m) ‘white’ sea breams (Sparidae); 2) small-hook long-line for deeper water (40-60 m) ‘red’ sea breams; and 3) deep water (500-700 m) semi-pelagic long-line for hake Merluccius merluccius (Linnaeus, 1758). Selectivity studies were carried out with three hook sizes in the first two cases: Mustad round-bent Quality 2369 hooks, numbers 15, 13, and 11, baited with a standardsized razor-shell Ensis siliqua (Linnaeus, 1758). Four hook sizes (numbers 10, 9, 7, and 5) of Stell round-bent, eyed hooks were used in the semi-pelagic long-line selectivity study, baited with a half of a standard-sized sardine. Some factors affecting catch composition and catch rates of the small hook long-lines were also evaluated: bait, gangion length, setting time, fishing ground, and depth. Species diversity was relatively high, with 40, 36 and 27 species, respectively, in the three studies. However, the catches were dominated by a limited number of species. Catch rates (number of fish per 100 hooks) were variable (< 5 %; > 20 %), with a general decrease in catch rate with increasing hook size in all the studies. In general, the catch size distributions for the different hook sizes for each species were highly overlapping, with little or no evidence of differences in size selectivity. Hooks caught a wide size-range for each species, with few or no illegal-sized fish, in most cases. Some implications of these results for the management of multi-species, multi-gear fisheries are discussed.

Electrochemistry of Heteroleptic Tris(phthalocyaninato) Rare Earth(III) Complexes

The electrochemical characteristics of a series of heteroleptic tris(phthalocyaninato) complexes with identical rare earths or mixed rare earths (Pc)M(OOPc)M(OOPc) [M = Eu...Lu, Y; H2Pc = unsubstituted phthalocyanine, H2(OOPc) = 3,4,12,13,21,22,30,31-octakis(octyloxy)phthalocyanine] and (Pc)Eu(OOPc)Er(OOPc) have been recorded and studied comparatively by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in CH2Cl2 containing 0.1 M tetrabutylammonium perchlorate (TBAP). Up to five quasi-reversible one-electron oxidations and four one-electron reductions have been revealed. The half-wave potentials of the first, second and fifth oxidations depend on the size of the metal center, but the fifth changes in the opposite direction to that of the first two. Moreover, the difference in redox potentials of the first oxidation and first reduction for (Pc)M(OOPc)M(OOPc), 0.85−0.98 V, also decreases linearly along with decreasing rare earth ion radius, clearly showing the rare earth ion size effect and indicating enhanced π−π interactions in the triple-deckers connected by smaller lanthanides. This order follows the red-shift seen in the lowest energy band of triple-decker compounds. The electronic differences between the lanthanides and yttrium are more apparent for triple-decker sandwich complexes than for the analogous double-deckers. By comparing triple-decker, double-decker and mononuclear [ZnII] complexes containing the OOPc ligand, the HOMO−LUMO gap has been shown to contract approximately linearly with the number of stacked phthalocyanine ligands.

Smoothing a Discrete Hazard Function for the Number of Patients Colonized with Methicillin-Resistance Staphylococcus Aureus in an Intensive Care Unit

A new method for estimating the time to colonization of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) patients is developed in this paper. The time to colonization of MRSA is modelled using a Bayesian smoothing approach for the hazard function. There are two prior models discussed in this paper: the first difference prior and the second difference prior. The second difference prior model gives smoother estimates of the hazard functions and, when applied to data from an intensive care unit (ICU), clearly shows increasing hazard up to day 13, then a decreasing hazard. The results clearly demonstrate that the hazard is not constant and provide a useful quantification of the effect of length of stay on the risk of MRSA colonization which provides useful insight.

Tracking people in 3D using position, size and shape

This paper presents a prototype tracking system for tracking people in enclosed indoor environments where there is a high rate of occlusions. The system uses a stereo camera for acquisition, and is capable of disambiguating occlusions using a combination of depth map analysis, a two step ellipse fitting people detection process, the use of motion models and Kalman filters and a novel fit metric, based on computationally simple object statistics. Testing shows that our fit metric outperforms commonly used position based metrics and histogram based metrics, resulting in more accurate tracking of people.

Diesel bus emissions of submicrometer particles measured in a tunnel study

The emission factors of a bus fleet consisting of approximately three hundreds diesel powered buses were measured in a tunnel study under well controlled conditions during a two-day monitoring campaign in Brisbane. The number concentration of particles in the size range 0.017-0.7 m was monitored simultaneously by two Scanning Mobility Particle Sizers located at the tunnel’s entrance and exit. The mean value of the number emission factors was found to be (2.44±1.41)×1014 particles km-1. The results are in good agreement with the emission factors determined from steady-state dynamometer testing of 12 buses from the same Brisbane City bus fleet, thus indicating that when carefully designed, both approaches, the dynamometer and on-road studies, can provide comparable results, applicable for the assessment of the effect of traffic emissions on airborne particle pollution.

ERP success: Does organisation size matter?

Organisations invest enormous sums of money in acquiring Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, presumably expecting positive impacts to the organisation and its functions. Despite the optimistic motives some ERP projects have reported nil or detrimental impacts. This paper studies the proposition that the size of an organisation (e.g. small, large) may have contributed to the differences in receiving benefits reported in prior studies in this domain. The alleged differences in organisational performance are empirically measured using a prior validated model, using five constructs and fortytwo sub-constructs. Information is gathered from three hundred and ten respondents representing twenty-seven public sector organisations. Results suggests that (1) larger organisations have received more benefits compared to small organisations, (2) small organisations demonstrated higher reliance on their ERP systems, (3) employment cohorts demonstrate significant differences in perceived benefits in small and large organisations.

Relationship between indoor/outdoor concentrations of particles : a critical review

The relationship between indoor and outdoor concentration levels of particles in the absence and in the presence of indoor sources has been attracting an increasing level of attention. Understanding of the relationship and the mechanisms driving it, as well as the ability to quantify it, are of importance for assessment of source contribution, assessment of human exposure and for control and management of particles. It became particularly important to address this topic when evidence came from epidemiological studies on the close association between outdoor concentration levels of particles and health effects, yet with many studies showing that indoor concentrations could be significantly higher than those outdoors. This paper presents a summary of an extensive literature review on this topic conducted with an aim to identify general trends in relation to the I/O relationship emerging from studies conducted worldwide. The review considered separately a larger body of papers published on PM10, PM2.5, as well as the smaller database on particle number and number or volume size distribution. A specific focus of this paper is on naturally ventilated houses. The conclusion from the review is that despite the multiplicity of factors that play role in affecting the relationship, there are clear trends emerging in relation to the I/O relationship for particle mass concentration, enabling more general predictions to be made about the relationship. However, more research is still needed on particle number concentration and size distribution.