Classification of Coastal Communities Reporting Commercial Fish Landings in the U.S. Northeast Region: Developing and Testing a Methodology

The National Marine Fisheries Service is required by law to conduct social impact assessments of communities impacted by fishery management plans. To facilitate this process, we developed a technique for grouping communities based on common sociocultural attributes. Multivariate data reduction techniques (e.g. principal component analyses, cluster analyses) were used to classify Northeast U.S. fishing communities based on census and fisheries data. The comparisons indicate that the clusters represent real groupings that can be verified with the profiles. We then selected communities representative of different values on these multivariate dimensions for in-depth analysis. The derived clusters are then compared based on more detailed data from fishing community profiles. Ground-truthing (e.g. visiting the communities and collecting primary information) a sample of communities from three clusters (two overlapping geographically) indicates that the more remote techniques are sufficient for typing the communities for further in-depth analyses. The in-depth analyses provide additional important information which we contend is representative of all communities within the cluster.

Pitfalls in the analysis of ancient human mtDNA

The retrieval of DNA from ancient human specimens is not always successful owing to DNA deterioration and contamination although it is vital to provide new insights into the genetic structure of ancient people and to reconstruct the past history. Normally, only short DNA fragments can be retrieved from the ancient specimens. How to identify the authenticity of DNA obtained and to uncover the information it contained are difficult. We employed the ancient mtDNAs reported from Central Asia (including Xinjiang, China) as an example to discern potentially extraneous DNA contamination based on the updated mtDNA phylogeny derived from mtDNA control region, coding region, as well as complete sequence information. Our results demonstrated that many mtDNAs reported are more or less problematic. Starting from a reliable mtDNA phylogeney and combining the available modern data into analysis, one can ascertain the authenticity of the ancient DNA, distinguish the potential errors in a data set, and efficiently decipher the meager information it harbored. The reappraisal of the mtDNAs with the age of more than 2000 years from Central Asia gave support to the suggestion of extensively (pre)historical gene admixture in this region.

Managing Information Risks in asset management - Experiences from an in-depth case study in the utility industry

Information is one of the most important resources in our globalized economy. The value of information often exceeds the value of physical assets. Information quality has, in many ways, an impact on asset management organisations and asset managers struggle to understand and to quantify it, which is a prerequisite for effective information quality improvement. Over the past few years, we have developed an innovative management concept that addresses these new asset management challenges: a process for Total Information Risk Management (TIRM), which has been already tested in a number of asset management industries. The TIRM process enables to manage information quality more effectively in asset management organisations as it focuses specifically on the risks that are imposed by information quality. In this paper, we show how we have applied the TIRM process in an in-depth study at a medium-sized European utility provider, the Manx Electricity Authority (MEA), at the Isle of Man.

Understanding the kink formation in GaAs/InAs heterostructural nanowires

The kinks formation in heterostructural nanowires was observed to be dominant when InAs nanowires were grown on GaAs nanowires. Nanowires were grown through vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism in an MOCVD (metalorganic chemical vapor deposition) reactor. GaAs nanowires were grown in [1 1 1 ]B direction on a GaAs (1 1 1 )B substrate. When InAs nanowires grown on the GaAs nanowires, most of the InAs nanowires changed their growth directions from [1 1 1 ]B to other 〈111〉B directions. The kinks formation is ascribed to the large compressive misfit strain at the GaAs/InAs interface (7.2% lattice mismatch between GaAs and InAs) and the high mobility of indium species during MOCVD growth. The in-depth analysis of the kinks formation was done by growing InAs for short times on the GaAs nanowires and characterizing the samples. The hindrance to compressively strain InAs to form coherent layers with GaAs pushed the InAs/Au interfaces to the sides of the GaAs nanowires growth ends. New InAs/Au interfaces have generated at the sides of GaAs nanowires, due to lateral growth of InAs on GaAs nanowires. These new interfaces led the InAs nanowires growth in other 〈111〉B directions. The morphological and structural features of these heterostructural kinked nanowires were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. © 2006 IEEE.

Speciation and Phylogeography of Opsariichthys bidens (Pisces: Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) in China: Analysis of the Cytochrome b Gene of mtDNA from Diverse Populations

Gao-Yan Li, Xu-Zhen Wang, Ya-Hui Zhao, Jie Zhang, Chun-Guang Zhang, and Shun-Ping He (2009) Speciation and phylogeography of Opsariichthys bidens (Pisces: Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) in China: analysis of the cytochrome b gene of mtDNA from diverse populations. Zoological Studies 48(4): 569-583. The cyprinid fish Opsariichthys bidens Gunther is distributed in all major river systems of continental East Asia, and represents an attractive model for phylogeographic studies among cyprinid species or within a given species. In this study, we investigated the phylogeographic and demographic history of this species, using partial sequences of the cytochrome (cyt) b gene in mitochondrial (mt)DNA. Fish samples were collected from almost all major river systems where O. bidens is distributed in China. Sequence analysis showed remarkably high polymorphism, with 125 haplotypes in the 234 specimens examined, and with 89.8% of haplotypes occurring in only 1 specimen. A neutrality test indicated that some groups were not at mutation-drift equilibrium, suggesting a past population expansion. These results were supported by a mismatch distribution analysis. Based on our analysis, O. bidens consists of 4 groups belonging to 2 clades. The divergence time of the 2 clades was estimated to be 11.06-8.04 my. This value corresponds to the time of the 2nd uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the emergence of the East Asian monsoon, and the Epoch-6 Event. A two species scheme is proposed. http://zoolstud.sinica.edu.tw/Journals/48.4/569.pdf

UV-photooxidation as pretreatment step in inorganic analysis of environmental samples

Many laboratories deal with the determination of heavy metals, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. The first step in chemical analysis is a proper preparation of the investigated samples. The presence of organic substances can cause problems in many analytical methods. This paper describes the application of UV irradiation as a method of destruction of organic matter in the investigated samples.

A systematic approach to standard addition methods in instrumental analysis

Nine cases of standard addition methods in instrumental analysis, including linear instruments, a non-linear response, the electrochemical Nernst equation, and radiochemical techniques.