Multi-species and multi-interest management: An ecosystem approach to market squid (Loligo opalescens) harvest in California

Market squid (Loligo opalescens) plays a vital role in the California ecosystem and serves as a major link in the food chain as both a predator and prey species. For over a century, market squid has also been harvested off the California coast from Monterey to San Pedro. Expanding global markets, coupled with a decline in squid product from other parts of the world, in recent years has fueled rapid expansion of the virtually unregulated California fishery. Lack of regulatory management, in combination with dramatic increases in fishing effort and landings, has raised numerous concerns from the scientific, fishing, and regulatory communities. In an effort to address these concerns, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) hosted a panel discussion at the October 1997 California Cooperative Oceanic and Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) Conference; it focused on ecosystem management implications for the burgeoning market squid fishery. Both panel and audience members addressed issues such as: the direct and indirect effects of commercial harvesting upon squid biomass; the effects of harvest and the role of squid in the broader marine community; the effects of environmental variation on squid population dynamics; the sustainability of the fishery from the point of view of both scientists and the fishers themselves; and the conservation management options for what is currently an open access and unregulated fishery. Herein are the key points of the ecosystem management panel discussion in the form of a preface, an executive summary, and transcript. (PDF contains 33 pages.)

The role of sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) in the conservation of British rivers

This paper discusses the particular contribution of the SSSI (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) as a way of nature conservation for rivers. In 1989, the Nature Conservancy Council proposed a dual selection system for selection of rivers; either (1) "Whole river" SSSIs representing the main types of river, or rivers which show classic and representative transitions down their lengths, or (2) "Sectional" SSSIs which are shorter stretches of river with high nature conservation interest. The NCC has recently classified all SSSIs with a river interest into 4 categories: - river SSSIs, river valley SSSIs, river adds interest - where the river clearly adds biological interest to the site, and rivers of incidental interest. The overall length of river SSSIs amounts to almost 1000 km.

No meio da travessia: a prática dos assistentes sociais nos serviços de saúde da Aeronáutica/RJ

O presente trabalho analisa a realidade da prática dos assistentes sociais nos serviços de saúde da Aeronáutica/RJ, tendo como referência o projeto ético - político profissional do Serviço Social expresso no Código de Ética do Assistente Social, na Lei n 8.662/1993 que regulamenta a profissão, bem como nas Diretrizes Curriculares da ABEPSS. O interesse em realizar este estudo em um espaço profissional, pouco debatido no meio acadêmico, define-se pela necessidade de uma investigação teórica que possibilite analisar, revelar e divulgar um segmento da categoria, muitas vezes desconhecido e estranho ao conjunto dos profissionais do Serviço Social. Entendemos que este estudo apresenta um caráter predominantemente exploratório. Para uma melhor compreensão do universo militar da Aeronáutica, tornou-se imprescindível, captarmos na realidade concreta, os limites e as possibilidades do movimento do real na sua historicidade. Para tanto, tivemos como alicerce o referencial teórico marxista crítico-dialético que possibilita ir para além da aparência dos fatos. É certo que uma instituição cujo funcionamento se aproxima do modelo de instituição fechada e conservadora, fundamentada nos princípios da hierarquia e da disciplina, sinalize, a priori, uma inviabilidade real de um projeto profissional emancipatório. Ao realizarmos uma análise dos depoimentos das assistentes sociais entrevistadas, buscamos considerar a cotidianidade da prática profissional, que revela presenças e ausências, aponta problemas imediatos desvela/oculta, caminhando do particular para o universal. Este estudo teve com lócus de investigação os Hospitais da Aeronáutica do Rio de Janeiro: HAAF, HCA e HFAG. Tem-se nesses espaços, uma atuação desafiante para aqueles profissionais que buscam romper com práticas burocráticas e conservadoras e que visam fortalecer práticas democráticas e coletivas de atendimento às demandas no contexto institucional.

An evaluation of volumetric interest points

This paper presents the first performance evaluation of interest points on scalar volumetric data. Such data encodes 3D shape, a fundamental property of objects. The use of another such property, texture (i.e. 2D surface colouration), or appearance, for object detection, recognition and registration has been well studied; 3D shape less so. However, the increasing prevalence of depth sensors and the diminishing returns to be had from appearance alone have seen a surge in shape-based methods. In this work we investigate the performance of several detectors of interest points in volumetric data, in terms of repeatability, number and nature of interest points. Such methods form the first step in many shape-based applications. Our detailed comparison, with both quantitative and qualitative measures on synthetic and real 3D data, both point-based and volumetric, aids readers in selecting a method suitable for their application. © 2011 IEEE.

Robust pairwise matching of interest points with complex wavelets

We present a matching framework to find robust correspondences between image features by considering the spatial information between them. To achieve this, we define spatial constraints on the relative orientation and change in scale between pairs of features. A pairwise similarity score, which measures the similarity of features based on these spatial constraints, is considered. The pairwise similarity scores for all pairs of candidate correspondences are then accumulated in a 2-D similarity space. Robust correspondences can be found by searching for clusters in the similarity space, since actual correspondences are expected to form clusters that satisfy similar spatial constraints in this space. As it is difficult to achieve reliable and consistent estimates of scale and orientation, an additional contribution is that these parameters do not need to be determined at the interest point detection stage, which differs from conventional methods. Polar matching of dual-tree complex wavelet transform features is used, since it fits naturally into the framework with the defined spatial constraints. Our tests show that the proposed framework is capable of producing robust correspondences with higher correspondence ratios and reasonable computational efficiency, compared to other well-known algorithms. © 1992-2012 IEEE.

Shape vs. volume: Invariant shape descriptors for 3D region of interest characterization in MRI

We propose a new approach for quantifying regions of interest (ROIs) in medical image data. Rotationally invariant shape descriptors (ISDs) were applied to 3D brain regions extracted from MRI scans of 5 Parkinson's patients and 10 control subjects. We concentrated on the thalamus and the caudate nucleus since prior studies have suggested they are affected in Parkinson's disease (PD). In the caudate, both the ISD and volumetric analyses found significant differences between control and PD subjects. The ISD analysis however revealed additional differences between the left and right caudate nuclei in both control and PD subjects. In the thalamus, the volumetric analysis showed significant differences between PD and control subjects, while ISD analysis found significant differences between the left and right thalami in control subjects but not in PD patients, implying disease-induced shape changes. These results suggest that employing ISDs for ROI characterization both complements and extends traditional volumetric analyses. © 2006 IEEE.