Compositional Discrimination of Decompression and Decomposition Gas Bubbles in Bycaught Seals and Dolphins

Gas bubbles in marine mammals entangled and drowned in gillnets have been previously described by computed tomography, gross examination and histopathology. The absence of bacteria or autolytic changes in the tissues of those animals suggested that the gas was produced peri- or post-mortem by a fast decompression, probably by quickly hauling animals entangled in the net at depth to the surface. Gas composition analysis and gas scoring are two new diagnostic tools available to distinguish gas embolisms from putrefaction gases. With this goal, these methods have been successfully applied to pathological studies of marine mammals. In this study, we characterized the flux and composition of the gas bubbles from bycaught marine mammals in anchored sink gillnets and bottom otter trawls. We compared these data with marine mammals stranded on Cape Cod, MA, USA. Fresh animals or with moderate decomposition (decomposition scores of 2 and 3) were prioritized. Results showed that bycaught animals presented with significantly higher gas scores than stranded animals. Gas composition analyses indicate that gas was formed by decompression, confirming the decompression hypothesis.     

Patterns of kinesin evolution reveal a complex ancestral eukaryote with a multifunctional cytoskeleton

Background  

The genesis of the eukaryotes was a pivotal event in evolution and was accompanied by the acquisition of numerous new cellular features including compartmentalization by cytoplasmic organelles, mitosis and meiosis, and ciliary motility. Essential for the development of these features was the tubulin cytoskeleton and associated motors. It is therefore possible to map ancient cell evolution by reconstructing the evolutionary history of motor proteins. Here, we have used the kinesin motor repertoire of 45 extant eukaryotes to infer the ancestral state of this superfamily in the last common eukaryotic ancestor (LCEA).     

Biomedical word sense disambiguation with ontologies and metadata: automation meets accuracy

Background  

Ontology term labels can be ambiguous and have multiple senses. While this is no problem for human annotators, it is a challenge to automated methods, which identify ontology terms in text. Classical approaches to word sense disambiguation use co-occurring words or terms. However, most treat ontologies as simple terminologies, without making use of the ontology structure or the semantic similarity between terms. Another useful source of information for disambiguation are metadata. Here, we systematically compare three approaches to word sense disambiguation, which use ontologies and metadata, respectively.     

Ten years of forest restoration in the Upwey Corridor,Dandenong Ranges,Victoria

The Upwey Corridor Biodiversity Project has seen substantial investment by agencies and in‐kind voluntary work by the community over a ten year period. Comparison of Habitat Hectare scores prior to the project and after ten years showed that significant improvement in ecological condition of weed‐degraded areas is possible given adequate investment, appropriate re‐treatment and continuous management.     

The use of AFLPs to examine genetic relatedness in barley

The generation of AFLPs in spring barley cultivars provided genetic information relating to the development of the crop in the UK since 1953. Principal co-ordinate (PCO) analysis of genetic similarities (gs) confirmed the marked contrast in the cultivars used in the 1970s and 1980s. The earliest cultivars, many derived from Proctor, were succeeded by tall-strawed, disease-resistant types with high yield but poor malting potential. In the 1980s they were in turn replaced by short-strawed cultivars with excellent yield and good malting quality, which originated from Triumph. A PCO plot of gs provided insight into the effects of selection for disease resistance and the antagonism between malting quality and particular resistance genes. The analysis of gs was more useful than pedigrees and estimates of kinship in revealing the genetic relationship between cultivars. Theoretical considerations for maximising the efficiency of an AFLP genotyping programme are discussed in the context of the number of primer pairs required to distinguish genotypes at varying levels of similarity.     

SHIPBOARD LINE TRANSECT SURVEYS OF CRABEATER SEAL ABUNDANCE IN THE PACK-ICE OFF EAST ANTARCTICA: EVALUATION OF ASSUMPTIONS

We examine the extent to which the assumptions underlying line transect sampling are satisfied in shipboard surveys of crabeater seals ( Lobodon carcinophaga ) hauled out on the Antarctic pack-ice. Measurement of the perpendicular distance of seal groups from the ship with an electronic inclinometer fitted to a rifle stock was unbiased. Crabeater seals showed little movement in response to the approaching ship. Movement away from the ship by seals close to the ship's track was partially responsible for a relative lack of sightings close to the transect-line, but otherwise had little effect on the sighting histogram. Minor deviations from the transect direction to avoid running over seals violated the assumption of uniform distribution of groups, and contributed to a relative lack in sightings close to (<40 m) the transect-line. We estimate that 5%-10% of seal groups close to the transect-line were not sighted by bridge observers prior to passing abeam of the ship, but most of these missed groups were likely to have been sighted some distance behind-abeam. Shipboard transects provided a biased sample of four environmental features known to be related to crabeater seal abundance because of logistical difficulties in the ship traversing along straight transects through thick ice. Calculation of transect length L from successive GPS locations was mildly sensitive to the frequency of locations. We provide analytical recommendations to reduce or eliminate the effect of assumption violation when present and hence minimize bias in abundance estimation.