Habitat mapping effort at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary – Current status and future needs

With elevating interest to establish conservation efforts for groundfish stocks and continued scrutiny over the value of marine protected areas along the west coast, the importance of enhancing our knowledge of seabed characteristics through mapping activities is becoming increasingly more important, especially in a timely manner. Shortly after the inception of the Seabed Mapping Initiative instituted with the US Geological Survey (USGS), the National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP) assembled a panel of habitat mapping experts. They determined that the status of existing data sets and future data acquisition needs varied widely among the individual sanctuaries and that more detailed site assessments were needed to better prioritize mapping efforts and outline an overall joint strategy. To assist with that specific effort and provide pertinent information for the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary’s (OCNMS) Management Plan Review, this report summarizes the mapping efforts that have taken place at the site to date; calculates a timeframe for completion of baseline mapping efforts when operating under current data acquisition limitations; describes an optimized survey strategy to dramatically reduce the required time to complete baseline surveying; and provides estimates for the needed vessel sea-days (DAS) to accomplish baseline survey completion within a 2, 5 and 10 year timeframe. (PDF contains 38 pages.)

Voyages and travels into Brasil and east-Indies : containing an exact description of the dutch Brasil and divers parts of the east-Indies, their provinces, cities, living creatures, and products, the manners, customs, habits and religion the inhabitants : with a particular account of all the remarkable passages that happened during the author's stay of nine years in Brasil, especially in relation to the revolt of the portugueses, and the intestine war carried on there from 1640 to 1649 : as also a most ample description of the most famous city of batavia in the east-Indies

Joan Nieuhoff, viajante alemão, nasceu em Usen, Vesfália, em 1618, e morreu em Madagascar, em 1672. Trabalhou na Companhia das Índias Orientais, foi nomeado agente em Batávia, em 1654. Em 1655, foi à China tratar da abertura dos portos daquele país ao comércio holandês. Governou o Ceilão de 1662 a 1667. Em 1672, desembarcando em Madagascar, foi morto pelos nativos.

eduPERT: a participants viewpoint, including some history and the current/future status

Supporting presentation slides from the Janet network end to end performance initiative workshop

Rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine mammals: An analysis of current views and practices.

Stranded marine mammals have long attracted public attention. Those that wash up dead are, for all their value to science, seldom seen by the public as more than curiosities. Animals that are sick, injured, orphaned or abandoned ignite a different response. Generally, public sentiment supports any effort to rescue, treat and return them to sea. Institutions displaying marine mammals showed an early interest in live-stranded animals as a source of specimens -- in 1948, Marine Studios in St. Augustine, Florida, rescued a young short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus), the first ever in captivity (Kritzler 1952). Eventually, the public as well as government agencies looked to these institutions for their recognized expertise in marine mammal care and medicine. More recently, facilities have been established for the sole purpose of rehabilitating marine mammals and preparing them for return to the wild. Four such institutions are the Marine Mammal Center (Sausalito, CA), the Research Institute for Nature Management (Pieterburen, The Netherlands), the RSPCA, Norfolk Wildlife Hospital (Norfolk, United Kingdom) and the Institute for Wildlife Biology of Christian-Albrects University (Kiel, Germany).(PDF contains 68 pages.)

Seafood safety: economics of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) programmes

Seventy percent of the world's catch of fish and fishery products is consumed as food. Fish and shellfish products represent 15.6 percent of animal protein supply and 5.6 percent of total protein supply on a worldwide basis. Developing countries account for almost 50 percent of global fish exports. Seafood-borne disease or illness outbreaks affect consumers both physically and financially, and create regulatory problems for both importing and exporting countries. Seafood safety as a commodity cannot be purchased in the marketplace and government intervenes to regulate the safety and quality of seafood. Theoretical issues and data limitations create problems in estimating what consumers will pay for seafood safety and quality. The costs and benefits of seafood safety must be considered at all levels, including the fishers, fish farmers, input suppliers to fishing, processing and trade, seafood processors, seafood distributors, consumers and government. Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) programmes are being implemented on a worldwide basis for seafood. Studies have been completed to estimate the cost of HACCP in various shrimp, fish and shellfish plants in the United States, and are underway for some seafood plants in the United Kingdom, Canada and Africa. Major developments within the last two decades have created a set of complex trading situations for seafood. Current events indicate that seafood safety and quality can be used as non-tariff barriers to free trade. Research priorities necessary to estimate the economic value and impacts of achieving safer seafood are outlined at the consumer, seafood production and processing, trade and government levels. An extensive list of references on the economics of seafood safety and quality is presented. (PDF contains 56 pages; captured from html.)

Maintaining the "public good" nature of improved fish strains: dissemination of knowledge and materials

Many sources of information that discuss currents problems of food security point to the importance of farmed fish as an ideal food source that can be grown by poor farmers, (Asian Development Bank 2004). Furthermore, the development of improved strains of fish suitable for low-input aquaculture such as Tilapia, has demonstrated the feasibility of an approach that combines “cutting edge science” with accessible technology, as a means for improving the nutrition and livelihoods of both the urban poor and poor farmers in developing countries (Mair et al. 2002). However, the use of improved strains of fish as a means of reducing hunger and improving livelihoods has proved to be difficult to sustain, especially as a public good, when external (development) funding sources devoted to this area are minimal1. In addition, the more complicated problem of delivery of an aquaculture system, not just improved fish strains and the technology, can present difficulties and may go explicitly unrecognized (from Sissel Rogne, as cited by Silje Rem 2002). Thus, the involvement of private partners has featured prominently in the strategy for transferring to the public technology related to improved Tilapia strains. Partnering with the private sector in delivery schemes to the poor should take into account both the public goods aspect and the requirement that the traits selected for breeding “improved” strains meet the actual needs of the resource poor farmer. Other dissemination approaches involving the public sector may require a large investment in capacity building. However, the use of public sector institutions as delivery agents encourages the maintaining of the “public good” nature of the products.

Inland fisheries resources and the current status of aquaculture in Sri Lanka

The aim of this working paper was to evaluate the potential of different fisheries enhancement and aquacultural systems to benefit marginal farmers who manage small rainfed irrigation systems in the lowland Dry zone of Sri Lanka. Analysis was based on secondary data and key informant interviews with professional fishermen and marginal farmers in N.W Province. [PDF contains 57 pages]

Mechanisms Responsible for the Trophic Effect of Beta-Adrenoceptors on the I-to Current Density in Type 1 Diabetic Rat Cardiomyocytes

Background/Aims: In diabetic ventricular myocytes, transient outward potassium current (I-to) amplitude is severely reduced because of the impaired catecholamine release that characterizes diabetic autonomic neuropathy. Sympathetic nervous system exhibits a trophic effect on I-to since incubation of myocytes with noradrenaline restores current amplitude via beta-adrenoceptor (beta AR) stimulation. Here, we investigate the intracellular signalling pathway though which incubation of diabetic cardiomyocytes with the beta AR agonist isoproterenol recovers I-to amplitude to normal values. Methods: Experiments were performed in ventricular myocytes isolated from streptozotocin-diabetic rats. I-to current was recorded by using the patch-clamp technique. Kv4 channel expression was determined by immunofluorescence. Protein-protein interaction was determined by coimmunoprecipitation. Results: Stimulation of beta AR activates first a G alpha s protein, adenylyl cyclase and Protein Kinase A. PKA-phosphorylated receptor then switches to the G alpha i protein. This leads to the activation of the beta AR-Kinase-1 and further receptor phosphorylation and arrestin dependent internalization. The internalized receptor-arrestin complex recruits and activates cSrc and the MAPK cascade, where Ras, c-Raf1 and finally ERK1/2 mediate the increase in Kv4.2 and Kv4.3 protein abundance in the plasma membrane. Conclusion: beta(2)AR stimulation activates a G alpha s and G alpha i protein dependent pathway where the ERK1/2 modulates the Ito current amplitude and the density of the Kv4.2 and Kv4.2 channels in the plasma membrane upon sympathetic stimulation in diabetic heart.

Critical current anisotropy in high temperature superconductors

After nearly 15 years of research effort, High Temperature Superconductors (HTS) are finding a wide range of practical applications. A clear understanding of the factors controlling the current carrying capacity of these materials is a prerequisite to their successful technological development. The critical current density (Jc) in HTS is directly dependent on the structure and pinning of the Flux Line Lattice (FLL) in these materials. This thesis presents an investigation of the Jc anisotropy in HTS. The use of thin films grown on off c-axis (vicinal) substrates allowed the effect of current directions outside the cuprate planes to be studied. With this experimental geometry Berghuis, et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 12, pg. 2332) observed a striking flux channelling effect in vicinal YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) films. By confirming, and extending, this observation, it is demonstrated that this is an intrinsic effect. The results obtained, appear to fit well with the predictions of a field angle dependent cross-over from a three dimensional rectilinear FLL to a kinked lattice of strings and pancakes. The pinning force density for movement of strings inside the cuprate planes is considerably less than that on vortex pancake elements. When the FLL is entirely string-like this reduced pinning leads to the observed channelling minima. It is observed that anti-phase boundaries enhance the Jc in vicinal YBCO films by strongly pinning vortex strings. The effect on the FLL structure cross-over of increasing anisotropy has been elucidated using de-oxygenated vicinal YBCO films. Intriguingly, the counter intuitive prediction that the range of applied field angle for which the kinked lattice is fully developed reduces with increasing anisotropy, appears to be confirmed. Although vortex channelling cannot be observed in c-axis YBCO films, the pinning force density for vortex string channelling has been extracted by observing string dragging. By studying the effect of rotating the applied field at a constant angle to the cuprate planes, it is possible to observe the cross-over into the string pancake regime in c-axis films. In the 3D region, the observed behaviour is well explained by the anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau model. Measurements were also made on thin films of the much more anisotropic Bi 2Sr2CaCu2O8+x material, grown on vicinal substrates. The absence of any flux channelling effect and clear adherence to the expected Kes-Law behaviour in the observed Jc characteristics does not provide evidence for the existence of the predicted ‘crossing lattice’ in Bi 2Sr2CaCu2O8+x .

Design and Development of a Low-Cost Optical Current Sensor

In this paper we demonstrate the design of a low-cost optical current sensor. The sensor principle is the Faraday rotation of a light beam through a magneto-optical material, SF2, when a magnetic field is present. The prototype has a high sensitivity and a high linearity for currents ranging from 0 up to 800 A. The error of the optical fibre sensor is smaller than 1% for electric currents over 175 A.

Role of G protein coupled inwardly rectifier K+ channels (GIRK) on the neurobiology depression

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