Alaska groundfish: A financial feasibility analysis

Abstract

This article reports the financial feasibility of several Alaska groundfish production options that are currently being considered by the U.S. fishing and processing industry. General conclusions are that, at present prices, the options examined are only marginally attractive investments. A 25‐percent increase in the wholesale prices of frozen groundfish products (fillets and fillet blocks) would substantially improve financial feasibility. Such an increase is considered the maximum likely to occur over the next decade.     

Saltatory search: a theoretical analysis

Many animal search in a saltatory fashion: they move forward,pause briefly, and move forward again. Although many optimal-foragingmodels have been developed, most do not address how an animalsearches for food. We view search strategies as "time-distance"functions to allow not only for the possibility of oscillationsin body speed, as implied by saltatory search, but other movementpatterns as well, including cruise search. The key feature ofour models is distinguishing between the body position and thescan position (where the forager is looking). We see the varyingmovement of saltatory search as a consequence of the curvaturein the functions that relate body speed to benefits (Jensen'sinequality)     

A theoretical analysis of the selection of differentially expressed genes

A great deal of recent research has focused on the challenging task of selecting differentially expressed genes from microarray data ("gene selection"). Numerous gene selection algorithms have been proposed in the literature, but it is often unclear exactly how these algorithms respond to conditions like small sample sizes or differing variances. Choosing an appropriate algorithm can therefore be difficult in many cases. In this paper we propose a theoretical analysis of gene selection, in which the probability of successfully selecting differentially expressed genes, using a given ranking function, is explicitly calculated in terms of population parameters. The theory developed is applicable to any ranking function which has a known sampling distribution, or one which can be approximated analytically. In contrast to methods based on simulation, the approach presented here is computationally efficient and can be used to examine the behavior of gene selection algorithms under a wide variety of conditions, even when the number of genes involved runs into the tens of thousands. The utility of our approach is illustrated by comparing three widely-used gene selection methods.     

A theoretical approach to the analysis of axonal transport.

A theoretical model of intra-axonal transport is proposed that presupposes a carrier system moving down the axon in a distal direction. Protein and particle transport is achieved by their reversible association with the distally moving carriers. Mathematical equations representing the concentrations of moving carriers and proteins and/or particles within the axon at any position and time are proposed. Analysis of the equations demonstrates that a traveling wave solution for the particle concentration (an experimental fact) is possible provided the chemical interaction between particles and carriers exhibits positive cooperativity. The phase velocity of the wave solution is interpreted as the observed velocity of the intra-axonal transport, known to be independent of position of observation. In addition, the theory predicts a spectrum of transport velocities for different proteins, in agreement with observations. The velocity of a given protein is dependent on its affinity to the carrier.     

A theoretical analysis of radiation interception in a two-species plant canopy.

Classical radiation interception laws for monospecific canopies cannot be used directly for bispecific canopies. They are always based on the gap frequency concept (i.e., the probability of no interception), which does not provide any information about the sharing of intercepted radiation between species. A theoretical analysis is reported that relates the radiation interception probabilities to the geometrical structure of the crop (i.e., the leaf area density and the leaf angle distribution of each component) and the foliage dispersion. The leaf dispersion globally describes the spatial relations between the leaf elements; it may be regular if the leaves avoid mutual shading, random, or clumped if they tend to overlap. For such two-species canopies, the leaf dispersions within each component (WSLD: within-species leaf dispersion) and between two species (BSLD: between-species leaf dispersion) are distinguished. Using bivariate multinomial distributions, general expressions for the gap frequency and the interception probabilities of a homogeneous vegetation layer were set as exponential functions of the foliage thickness, taking into account a number of dispersion parameters as small as possible. First, one WSLD for each species describes the rate of foliage overlap between the leaves of this species; it is quite similar to the leaf dispersion of single-species canopies. Second, the rate of foliage overlap between species is characterized by one BSLD. As in monospecific canopies, this parameter is positive, zero, or negative, respectively, for regular, random, or clumped BSLD. Third, another BSLD parameter has to be used if the foliage overlap between species is more than random (i.e., in the case of clumped BSLD); the latter shows the direction of overlap between species and may be taken as the probability of finding a leaf element of the first species in the case of marked overlapping. Suggestions for estimating the leaf dispersion parameters and possible uses of such relations are also discussed.     

Inverse Medea as a novel gene drive system for local population replacement: a theoretical analysis

One strategy to control mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, on a regional scale is to use gene drive systems to spread disease-refractory genes into wild mosquito populations. The development of a synthetic Medea element that has been shown to drive population replacement in laboratory Drosophila populations has provided encouragement for this strategy but has also been greeted with caution over the concern that transgenes may spread into countries without their consent. Here, we propose a novel gene drive system, inverse Medea, which is strong enough to bring about local population replacement but is unable to establish itself beyond an isolated release site. The system consists of 2 genetic components--a zygotic toxin and maternal antidote--which render heterozygous offspring of wild-type mothers unviable. Through population genetic analysis, we show that inverse Medea will only spread when it represents a majority of the alleles in a population. The element is best located on an autosome and will spread to fixation provided any associated fitness costs are dominant and to very high frequency otherwise. We suggest molecular tools that could be used to build the inverse Medea system and discuss its utility for a confined release of transgenic mosquitoes.     

A theoretical analysis for determining the nonlinear hydraulic permeability of a soft tissue from a permeation experiment

The nonlinear nature of the hydraulic permeability, as well as the corresponding pressure and displacement fields, in a soft tissue are studied for steady-state permeation. From a two-phase continuum model analytical expressions are derived that can be used with the results from a permeation experiment to determine the dependence of the permeability on the strain. In the process it is found that, because of the compaction of the tissue arising from fluid flow, it is necessary to distinguish between the apparent and intrinsic permeability. The former, which is an averaged quantity, is the permeability usually obtained in permeation studies. However, as shown from the analysis, it can differ substantially from the latter, which is the local permeability in the tissue.     

The energetics of coprophagy: a theoretical analysis

Lagomorphs, many rodents and some other small mammals eat their faeces during the part of the day when they are not foraging for fresh food. One of the possible benefits of this habit of coprophagy is that it may enable them to extract more energy from their food. A computer model is used to assess the likely benefits and explore their relationships to food, feeding rate and gut morphology. The predicted benefits are much larger for hindgut fermenters than for foregut fermenters, and especially large for hindgut fermenters with relatively small fermentation chambers. They are larger for poor foods (with lower proportions of cell contents) than for richer ones. At low feeding rates the energetic advantage of coprophagy may disappear if the faeces from food eaten during one feeding period emerge largely during the next, but this can be avoided by adjusting the rate of passage of gut contents during the intervening rest period.     

A feasibility study of multispectral image analysis of skin tumors

To develop a noninvasive, early-detection method for skin cancers, a feasibility study of multispectral image analysis was investigated. The three most frequently occurring skin cancer types, ten basal-cell carcinomas (BCCs), ten squamous-cell carcinomas (SCCs) and five malignant melanomas (MMs) were studied, along with ten normal moles. Images were acquired by a charge-coupled device camera using eight narrow-band filters ranging from 450 nm to 800 nm, at 50-nm intervals. To extract main features of these tumors, principal components analysis (PCA) was performed, because it projects the multidimensional (here, eight-dimensional) data in the direction of maximum data variance. Then, the primary PCA components for red, green, and blue subset images were analyzed in terms of hue-saturation-intensity (HSI). By hue distributions, the BCCs and SCCs were differentiated from the MMs and normal moles. Texture information was used to further classify tumor types after the HSI analysis. The texture analysis, performed using a spatial gray-level co-occurrence matrix (SGCM), could separate MMs from normal moles. The BCCs and SCCs were further studied by Fisher's linear discriminant analysis. Distribution was described as a Gaussian mixture model. By this classification procedure, seven BCCs, eight SCCs, five MMs, and ten NMs were correctly classified. Three BCCs and two SCCs were unseparable. Thus, multispectral skin cancer image analysis has potential to diagnose skin cancers.     

A novel theoretical approach to the analysis of dendritic transients.

A novel theoretical framework for analyzing dendritic transients is introduced. This approach, called the method of moments, is an extension of Rall's cable theory for dendrites. It provides analytic investigation of voltage attenuation, signal delay, and synchronization problems in passive dendritic trees. In this method, the various moments of a transient signal are used to characterize the properties of the transient. The strength of the signal is measured by the time integral of the signal, its characteristic time is determined by its centroid ("center of gravity"), and the width of the signal is determined by a measure similar to the standard deviation in probability theory. Using these signal properties, the method of moments provides theorems, expressions, and efficient algorithms for analyzing the voltage response in arbitrary passive trees. The method yields new insights into spatiotemporal integration, coincidence detection mechanisms, and the properties of local interactions between synaptic inputs in dendritic trees. The method can also be used for matching dendritic neuron models to experimental data and for the analysis of synaptic inputs recorded experimentally.     

A theoretical and experimental analysis of bacterial growth in the bladder

A mathematical model of human micturition dynamics and bacterial growth predicts the population growth rate required for a bladder infection to become established in the absence of adhesin-mediated surface growth. Escherichia coli strains isolated from the urinary tract have significantly higher in vitro growth rates in urine than strains isolated from the intestinal flora. The results suggest that, for E. coli isolated from the urinary tract, adhesin-mediated surface growth may not be required for infections to become established and persist. The growth-rate differences observed between urinary tract and intestinal isolates suggests that the ability to survive and efficiently utilize the resources available in urine is an important adaptation for E. coli inhabiting the urinary tract.     

A feasibility study of a Salix viminalis gravel hydroponic system to renovate primary settled wastewater

A Salix viminalis/gravel system based on hydroponics was developed for wastewater renovation in order to avoid the problems of soil damage and pollution associated with long-term application of wastewater to soil. For such a system to work the mineral elements applied must match closely the requirements of the tree species. To examine this the growth and nutrient uptake of S. viminalis in wastewater was compared with that in Long Ashton nutrient solution (1/4 strength). S. viminalis grew more slowly in wastewater than in Long Ashton solution, but exhibited no obvious deficiency or toxicity symptoms. Since industrial wastewaters often contain metals, the extent to which copper might inhibit wastewater treatment in this system was also examined. S. viminalis was grown in wastewater amended with 10 and 100 ppm copper. Trees were unaffected by wastewater with 10 ppm copper when compared to trees grown in wastewater alone. Wastewater containing with 100 ppm copper was too toxic for the trees to thrive and wastewater treatment was reduced. Treatment efficiencies for unamended wastewater were 57.7% for nitrogen, 90.6% for phosphorus and 24.9% for potassium. These efficiencies are much greater than those quoted for a Salix/soil system, and thus Salix/gravel systems may have potential for wastewater treatment in environmentally sensitive areas or situations.     

Two mechanisms of protein folding: A theoretical analysis

In the current paper, two presumable mechanisms of protein folding are discussed; one of them, the “nucleation mechanism”, is exemplified by 3β-corner domains containing proteins, while the other, “structural units mechanism”, is exemplified by serine proteases. The analysis of the spatial structure of 3β-corners and of the common features of the amino acid sequences encoding them made it possible to conclude, that 3β-corners are capable of assuming their unique structures on their own and can serve as the nuclei or preformed structural units in the process of protein folding. The high order protein structures may be obtained by the further successive addition of β strands to a 3β-corner acting as a nucleus, according to certain rules and restrictions. On the other hand, 3β-corner may serve as a preformed structural unit, and the association of two 3β-corners may result in the formation of such 3D structures, which can be found in the domains of serine proteases and similar proteins.     

A theoretical account of cue averaging in the rodent head direction system

Head direction (HD) cell responses are thought to be derived from a combination of internal (or idiothetic) and external (or allothetic) sources of information. Recent work from the Jeffery laboratory shows that the relative influence of visual versus vestibular inputs upon the HD cell response depends on the disparity between these sources. In this paper, we present simulation results from a model designed to explain these observations. The model accurately replicates the Knight et al. data. We suggest that cue conflict resolution is critically dependent on plastic remapping of visual information onto the HD cell layer. This remap results in a shift in preferred directions of a subset of HD cells, which is then inherited by the rest of the cells during path integration. Thus, we demonstrate how, over a period of several minutes, a visual landmark may gain cue control. Furthermore, simulation results show that weaker visual landmarks fail to gain cue control as readily. We therefore suggest a second longer term plasticity in visual projections onto HD cell areas, through which landmarks with an inconsistent relationship to idiothetic information are made less salient, significantly hindering their ability to gain cue control. Our results provide a mechanism for reliability-weighted cue averaging that may pertain to other neural systems in addition to the HD system.