We present a study in human-centered automation that has potential to reduce patient side effects from high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT). To efficiently deliver radiation to the prostate while minimizing trauma to sensitive structures such as the penile bulb, we modified the Acubot-RND 7-axis robot to guide insertion of diamond-tip needles into desired skew-line geometric arrangements.We ex…
The aim of this survey was to study the cover and the composition of macroepiphytic species on the leaves of Posidonia oceanica in the east of Tunisia. Surveys were conducted in December 2009 (winter period), March (spring period and August 2010 (summer period) in a fringing reef located in Chebba. At each sampling date, 15 adult leaves were randomly collected and divided into basal and apical …
The mechanisms through which brown-marbled grouper accomplishes resistance to infection, particularly against Vibrios, are not yet fully understood. In this study, brown-marbled grouper fingerlings were experimentally infected with Vibrio parahaemolyticus, to identify disease resistance grouper, and the serum proteome profiles were compared between resistant and susceptible candidates, via t…
In this paper, the impact of interface charges on the performance of a short-channel symmetric dielectric pocket double-gate (DP-DG) MOSFET has been investigated. An analytical drain current model for DP-DG MOSFET has been developed, which is also useful for investigating the impact of dual-material ATLAS 3-D simulator. In addition, exhaustive simulation has been carried out to address the im…
The capability of noninvasive and precise micromanipulation of sensitive, living cells is necessary for understanding their underlying biological processes. Optical tweezers (OT) is an effective tool that uses highly focused laser beams for accurate manipulation of cells and dielectric beads at microscale. However, direct exposure of the laser beams on the cells can negatively influence their b…
The speed of intervention is one of the major factors in increasing the survival rate of patients suffering from acute coronary ischemia. The two principal techniques currently in use: pharmacological and interventional, can be employed to re-canalize coronary arteries, but the former is slow acting and often leads to incomplete reperfusion, while the latter requires specialized personnel in a…
Public clouds provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to users who do not own sufficient compute resources. IaaS achieves the economy of scale by multiplexing, and therefore faces the challenge of scheduling tasks to meet the peak demand while preserving Quality-of-Service (QoS). Previous studies proposed proactive machine purchasing or cloud federation to resolve this problem. However, the …
A nonlinear ADC dedicated to the digitization of neural signals in implantable brain-machine interfaces is presented. Benefitting from an exponential quantization function, effective resolution of the proposed ADC in the digitization of action potentials is almost 2 bits more than its physical number of bits. Hence, it is shown in this paper that the choice of a proper nonlinear quantization f…
We consider the problem of segmenting and tracking deformable objects in color video with depth (RGBD) data available from commodity sensors such as the Asus Xtion Pro Live or Microsoft Kinect. We frame this problem with very few assumptions—no prior object model, no stationary sensor, and no prior 3-D map—thus making a solution potentially useful for a large number of applications, includi…
A common observation is that egg size increases with maternal size within populations. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon. Most recently, it was suggested that the optimal egg size depends on female size due to correlations between (i) breeding time and egg size selection and (ii) female size and breeding time, and as such, the positive egg size–maternal size re…
A 60-d feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary maize starch on growth performance, feed utilization, and apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC) and key hepatic enzyme activities regulating glycolytic and gluconeogenic metabolic pathways of juvenile obscure puffer, Takifugu obscurus (Abe) (initial body weight = 7.9±0.2 g). Five isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets cont…
The effect of four different light regimes on growth was studied in lenok, Brachymystax lenok. Fish with average weights of 5.5 g were subjected to four different photoperiods (0L:24D, 6L:18D, 12L:12D and 24L:0D) for 35 days. The specific growth rate (SGR) of lenok in 24-h darkness had a significantly higher SGR than those in the continuous light regime (P < 0.05); however, there was no signifi…
We have fabricated an amorphous InGaZnO thinfilm transistor with HfLaO gate dielectric, and the influence of annealing the gate dielectric in oxygen on the device characteristics is investigated in detail. It is demonstrated that this annealing treatment can effectively suppress the negative oxide charges. In addition, the effect of this annealing treatment to suppress the acceptor-like border…
Resource scheduling in infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is one of the keys for large-scale Cloud applications. Extensive research on all issues in real environment is extremely difficult because it requires developers to consider network infrastructure and the environment, which may be beyond the control. In addition, the network conditions cannot be predicted or controlled. Therefore, perfo…
In this study, the complete foxl2 complementary (c)DNA sequence was isolated by simple modular-architecture research tool (SMART)er rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). Two year-old female spotted scat, Scatophagus argus, were reared at different temperatures (23, 26 and 29∘ C) for 6 weeks, or fed with different concentrations of dietary fish oil (0, 2 or 6%) for 8 weeks. Ovarian developm…
In the present study we investigated the biogeography of macrozooplankton and fish biomass in the Bay of Biscay. In this region, we defined six different landscapes based on the hydrogeographical characteristics observed in spring 2009. We then related landscape’s characteristics and environmental parameters such as light attenuation depth and chlorophyll-a with macrozooplankton and fish aco…
Abstract The Columbia River Basin (Basin) is located in the Pacific Northwest, United States. The 370 hydroelectric dams in the Basin provide the Pacific Northwest with many services including hydropower generation, flood control, agricultural irrigation and navigation. The basin also provides habitat for a variety of anadromous and resident fishes and wildlife species. Balancing the energy dem…
1. Asian topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva has been recognized as a highly invasive cyprinid fish species in Europe that may present risk to native fish communities. 2. The present study aimed to investigate whether a native piscivorous fish, pike Esox lucius, is able to reduce the establishment success and invasiveness of topmouth gudgeon in shallow ponds. A large-scale, replicated whole-p…
Larval growth and hatching days of lanternfishes Diogenichthys laternatus and Myctophum nitidulum (Myctophidae) collected in September 2012 in nearshore waters (
This study focused on the comparison of growth and mortality of Lion’s Paw scallops Nodipecten subnodosus from Gulf of California and Pacific populations and their reciprocal transplants, cultured in suspended module and bottom culture in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Environmental parameters were monitored to determine site-specific differences and were correlated with scallops’ populati…
Natural populations of unisexual species occur among fish, amphibians and reptiles through normal reproductive strategies such as gynogenesis and hybridogenesis (Cimino, 1971; Dawley, 1989; Goddard and Schultz, 1993). Such unisexual populations have been reported in about 90 biotypes, which are commonly known as polyploids (Dawley, 1989; Vrijenhoek et al., 1989; Vasil’ev et al., 2005; Janko e…
Diel drift patterns of larvae of the endangered cyprinid Gnathopogon caerelescens in an inlet of the Ibanaiko Lagoon, connected to Lake Biwa in Japan, were assessed in April 2012. Peak occurrence of yolk-sac larvae was within a few hours after dark. Drift of newly hatched larvae is considered to be an important biological mechanism that ensures larval dispersal and recruitment from the inlets…
Annual fishes, which inhabit temporary pools with extremely limited habitat complexity and niche availability, display remarkable sexual dimorphism, rapid growth, and enormous investment into reproduction, all traits associated with high energy requirement. This study tests three hypotheses for two syntopic annual fishes (Austrolebias minuano and Cynopoecilus fulgens) found in six wetlands of …
Betanodavirus infection was diagnosed in larvae of farm-raised tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (L.), in central Thailand. Extensive vacuolar degeneration and neuronal necrosis were observed in histological sections with positive immunohistochemical staining for betanodavirus. Molecular phylogenetic analysis was performed based on the nucleotide sequences (1333 bases) of the capsid protein gene…
Flavobacterium psychrophilum is the causative agent of bacterial cold-water disease (BCWD) and causes severe loss of aquaculture production of ayu sweetfish Plecoglossus altivelis altivelis (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846) in Japan (Wakabayashi, Toyama & Iida 1994). The characteristics of BCWD in ayu are different from those of BCWD in salmonid fishes. BCWD in ayu generally occurs when water tempera…
Marine exit timing of sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka populations on the Haida Gwaii Archipelago, British Columbia, Canada, is described, with specific focus on Copper Creek. Marine exit in Copper Creek occurs>130 days prior to spawning, one of the longest adult freshwater residence periods recorded for any O. nerka population. Copper Creek presents an easy upstream migration, with mild wate…
China has a long history of aquaculture, and it contributes the largest aquaculture production worldwide. Aside from expanding aquaculture area and maximizing unit yield, introducing new potential species is greatly encouraged. Icefish (Salangidae) from Taihu Lake have been introduced into other lakes and reservoirs throughout the country since 1979. Neosalanx tangkahkeii was introduced into th…
The immune response in rainbow trout fry against Flavobacterium psychrophilum was elucidated using an immersion-based challenge with or without prior exposure to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Samples were taken from the head kidney 4, 48, 125 and 192 h after immersion, and the regulation of several genes was examined. Bacterial load was assessed based on the presence of 16S rRNA and correlated wit…
A previous study documented a correlation between Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua) recruitment in the Gulf of Maine and an annual index of the north component of May winds. This correlation was supported by modeling studies that indicated strong recruitment of Gulf of Maine Atlantic Cod results from high retention of spring-spawned larvae in years when winds were predominately out of the north, whic…
1. Predators exert a strong selective force on the ecosystems in which they exist, thereby altering the structure of ecological communities and leading to the evolution of prey defences. However, how interspecific differences in defence ability affect habitat partitioning amongst competing prey species remains unresolved. 2. We examined how prey defences affect species distribution in a natu…
Feeding guilds and spatial, seasonal and ontogenetic changes in the diets of 24 fish species in a tropical bay in Southeastern Brazil were examined. The hypotheses tested were that groups of species form specific trophic guilds and that the feeding partitioning differs along the niche dimensions. Five trophic guilds (Polychaeta, Copepoda, Teleostei, Teleostei/Crustacea and Polychaeta/ Crustacea…
Population abundance, distribution and habitat preference of the Mediterranean sympatric seahorses Hippocampus guttulatus and Hippocampus hippocampus were investigated in a semi-enclosed sea system (Apulian coast, Ionian Sea). A total of 242 individuals of seahorses were sighted in the 11 transects surveyed in summer 2011. Hippocampus guttulatus (n = 225) were 14 times more abundant than H. hip…
Predation risk is high for the many small coral reef fishes, requiring successful sheltering or other predator defence mechanisms. Coral-dwelling gobies of the genus Gobiodon live in close association with scleractinian corals of the genus Acropora. Earlier studies indicated that the low movement frequency of adult fishes and the development of skin toxins (crinotoxicity) are predation avoidanc…
The majority of the global inland fisheries catch is obtained in developing countries. However, there are severe constraints in collection of information on inland fisheries leading to doubts over the reliability of the available information at the global and regional scales. A major constraint of data collection is the dispersed characteristics of inland fisheries, which cannot be covered by t…
This paper presents a new efficient methodology for the optimal design of discrete test signals in black-box dynamic nonlinear system identification. The approach is based on a new criterion which weights the parameter covariances with the magnitudes of output sensitivities both to reduce the parameter estimation error and also allow the optimization of the output fitness. Optimization using th…
A method to measure programmed charges in EEPROM devices is presented. The measurement of the charges was made with subtraction of images captured using a laser timing probe. The effect of the charges is expressed over the captured images due to the plasma dispersion effect. Index Terms—Measurement by laser beam, measurements technique, microscopy, optics.
1. Iberian Atlantic waters are heavily exploited by Spanish and Portuguese fisheries. Overlaps between fishery target species and cetacean diet, and between fishing grounds and cetacean foraging areas, can lead to cetacean–fishery interactions including bycatch mortality of cetaceans. 2. The present study assesses cetacean distribution, habitat preferences and hotspots for cetacean–fisher…
Myocardial infarction (MI), also known as a heart attack, is the leading cause of death in the U.S. It often occurs due to the occlusion of coronary arteries, thereby leading to insufficient blood and oxygen supply that damage cardiac muscle cells. Because blood vessels are branching throughout the heart, MI occurs at different spatial locations (e.g., anterior and inferior portions) of the hea…
The purpose of this paper was to study the community structure, in terms of species composition, abundance and spatial distribution, of fish larvae in a wide coastal area of Sicily facing the Southeastern Tyrrhenian Sea, extending for 2300 km2 from Cape Cefalu to the west, to Cape Rasocolmo in the east. This study analyses how species are assembled in relation to an inshore–offshore gradient…
1. Streams and rivers represent a special and complex case of dendritic networks, where comparable stretches of river habitat are isolated from each other by river stretches with different abiotic conditions as well as the terrestrial matrix. The capacity of stream insects for ‘within-network’ (i.e. instream) and ‘out-of-network’ (i.e. lateral overland) dispersal varies dramatically, ma…
Bluegill Lepomis macrochirus and green sunfish Lepomis cyanellus were examined using geometric morphometrics to evaluate the variation in morphology between fishes that reside in lentic (e.g. lakes) and lotic (e.g. streams) ecosystems. Live fishes were collected from reservoirs and rivers in central Indiana, while additional fishes were sampled from museum collections at Ball State University a…
This paper describes a technique for uniform step coverage of aluminum metal (Al) on ZnO film in the fabrication of MEMS acoustic sensor. The MEMS acoustic sensors were fabricated by etching ZnO layer in three different etchants: HCl, NH4Cl with electrolytically added copper ions, and NH4OH with electrolytically added copper ions. For the first time, a technique is reported, which uses aqueous …
Population genetic analyses based on both mitochondrial cytochrome b and the internal transcribed spacer 2 of recombinant (r)DNA genes were implemented to examine hypotheses of population differentiation in the angular angel shark Squatina guggenheim, one of the four most-widespread endemic species inhabiting coastal ecosystems in the south-western Atlantic Ocean. A total of 82 individuals of S…
Stomach contents were collected and analysed from 22 bull trout Salvelinus confluentus at the edge of the Chilko Lake and Chilko River in British Columbia, Canada, during spring outmigration of sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka smolts. Twenty of the 22 (>90%) stomachs contained prey items, virtually all identifiable prey items were outmigrant O. nerka smolts and stomach contents represented a l…
Current sensing readout is one of the most frequent techniques used in biosensing due to the charge-transfer phenomena occurring at solid-liquid interfaces. The development of novel nanodevices for biosensing determines new challenges for electronic interface design based on current sensing, especially when compact and efficient arrays need to be organized, such as in recent trends of rapid la…
In this study, a continuous cell line (named as CPB) was established from Siniperca chuatsi brain and has been subcultured >140 times. CPB cell line predominantly consisted of fibroblast-like cells that could grow better in Leibovitz’s L-15 supplemented with 10% foetal bovine serum at 28∘ C. Polymerase chain reaction amplification of 18s recombinant (r)RNA confirmed the origin of this cell …
Suboptimal egg incubation temperature is a risk factor for the development of skeletal deformities in teleosts. Triplicate diploid and triploid Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., egg batches were incubated at 6, 8 and 10 °C up until first feeding, whereupon fish were reared on a natural temperature before examination for externally visible skeletal deformities (jaw and spine) and radiographed f…
This study was conducted to investigate the use of corn starch (CS) as a replacer of seaweed powder (SWP) in the diets of juvenile abalone, Haliotis discus hannai. Six experimental diets were formulated with CS to replace SWP at 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% (Con, CS20, CS40, CS60, CS80, and CS100, respectively). Abalones averaging 0.44±0.01 g (mean ± SD) were distributed into 18 tanks, and fed…
This study assessed whether the abundance of girellids and kyphosids was related to cover of the palatable green algae, Ulva australis and Ulva compressa, on rocky intertidal reefs in Jervis Bay, New SouthWales, Australia. No relationship was found between Ulva spp. cover and abundance of Girella tricuspidata, Girella elevata and Kyphosus sydneyanus during a period of relatively low Ulva spp. c…
This study evaluates the link between sea warming and three important aspects of the population dynamics of bluefish, Pomatomus saltatrix, in the north-western (NW) Mediterranean: condition (health measures), reproduction and abundance (as reflected in catch per unit effort, CPUE). We compared the bluefish populations from two areas with different thermal regimes: the Gulf of Roses and the Ebre…