A preliminary characterisation of the habitat use and feeding of Allis shad (Alosa alosa) juveniles in the Minho River tidal freshwater wetlands

The availability of high-quality rearing areas and survival during the early life-history stages are considered key factors determining the number of recruits produced and are prerequisites for the successful recruitment of several fish species. To identify the freshwater habitat use of Allis shad, several samples were collected in the tidal and non-tidal freshwater areas of the Minho River during the autumn of 2009. The two places where juveniles were found are substantially different in terms of sediment texture and organic matter but similar in depth and water current velocities. The food items found in the stomach contents may indicate that movements of juveniles occur in the estuary.La disponibilidad de áreas de crecimiento adecuadas y la supervivencia de las primeras etapas de vida de los peces están consideradas factores clave para determinar la abundancia de diferentes especies. Con el fin de identificar áreas de crecimiento de juveniles de sábalo, se han realizado en el otoño de 2009 varios estudios de campo a lo largo de la zona de agua dulce que se encuentra afectada, o no, por las mareas del río Miño. Las dos zonas donde se han encontrado juveniles difirieron considerablemente en la textura de los sedimentos y materia orgánica, pero eran similares en profundidad y velocidad de corrientes. Los alimentos encontrados en el contenido estomacal sugieren la existencia de movimientos en el estuario

Double-Antiprism Central Configurations of the 3n-Body Problem

Abstract In this paper we study numerically a new type of central configurations of the 3n-body problem with equal masses which consist of three n-gons contained in three planes z = 0 and z = ±β = 0. The n-gon on z = 0 is scaled by a factor α and it is rotated by an angle of π/n with respect to the ones on z = ±β. In this kind of configurations, the masses on the planes z = 0 and z = β are at the vertices of an antiprism with bases of different size. The same occurs with the masses on z = 0 and z = −β. We call this kind of central configurations double-antiprism central configurations. We will show the existence of central configurations of this type

On measuring welfare changes when varieties are endogenous

Extant studies take it for granted that there is a one-to-one mapping from a change in the equilib- rium allocation to a change in welfare. We show that such a premise does not apply to fairly standard mod- els of monopolistic competition. For any change in the equilibrium allocation, there exist an infinite number of possible welfare changes when the mass of varieties consumed differs between the two equilibria. Our re- sults thus reveal a fundamental difficulty in measuring welfare changes when varieties are endogenous.JEL Classification Codes: L13, D60http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/kanemoto_yoshitsugu

New trade models, elusive welfare gains

経済学 / EconomicsWe generalize the formulae for welfare changes by Arkolakis, Costinot, and Rodríguez-Clare (2012) and Melitz and Redding (2014a) to allow for various cardinalizations of the subutility functions for varieties. Despite the same macro restrictions and the same equilibrium allocations, our new formula coincides with the original ones if and only if the number of varieties is invariant to foreign shocks. When product diversity responds to foreign shocks, different cardinalizations generate different welfare changes, thus revealing a fundamental difficulty in quantifying welfare gains implied by new trade models.JEL Classification Codes: F11, F12http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/kanemoto_yoshitsugu

Microdevices for extensional rheometry of low viscosity elastic liquids : a review

Extensional flows and the underlying stability/instability mechanisms are of extreme relevance to the efficient operation of inkjet printing, coating processes and drug delivery systems, as well as for the generation of micro droplets. The development of an extensional rheometer to characterize the extensional properties of low viscosity fluids has therefore stimulated great interest of researchers, particularly in the last decade. Microfluidics has proven to be an extraordinary working platform and different configurations of potential extensional microrheometers have been proposed. In this review, we present an overview of several successful designs, together with a critical assessment of their capabilities and limitations

Assessment of practical applicability and clinical relevance of a commonly used LDL-C polygenic score in patients with severe hypercholesterolemia

Background and aims: Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels vary in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and can be explained by a single deleterious genetic variant or by the aggregate effect of multiple, common small-effect variants that can be captured in a polygenic score (PS). We set out to investigate the contribution of a previously published PS to the inter-individual LDL-C variation and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk in patients with a clinical FH phenotype. Methods: First, in a cohort of 628 patients referred for genetic FH testing, we evaluated the distribution of a PS for LDL-C comprising 12 genetic variants. Next, we determined its association with coronary artery disease (CAD) risk using UK Biobank data. Results: The mean PS was higher in 533 FH-variant-negative patients (FH/M-) compared with 95 FH-variant carriers (1.02 vs 0.94, p < 0.001). 39% of all patients had a PS equal to the top 20% from a population-based reference cohort and these patients were less likely to carry an FH variant (OR 0.22, 95% CI 0.10–0.48) compared with patients in the lowest 20%. In UK Biobank data, the PS explained 7.4% of variance in LDL-C levels and was associated with incident CAD. Addition of PS to a prediction model using age and sex and LDL-C did not increase the c-statistic for predicting CAD risk. Conclusions: This 12-variant PS was higher in FH/M- patients and associated with incident CAD in UK Biobank data. However, the PS did not improve predictive accuracy when added to the readily available characteristics age, sex and LDL-C, suggesting limited discriminative value for CAD

The inheritance of late blight resistance derived from Solanum habrochaites

Late blight caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans is a destructive disease of tomato in Brazil and other tropical and subtropical regions. The purpose of the present study was to analyses the inheritance of resistance to late blight and determine the genetic factors contributing to the resistance in the inbred line in '163A'. The Line '163A' resulted from interspecific cross between Solanum lycopersicum and S. habrochaites f. glabratum. Inoculated field with mixture isolates of pathogen with 1000 spores mL-1 and naturally infested field trials showed that the expression of '163A' against multiple isolates of the pathogen was stable. The genetic analysis supported the hypothesis of two recessive genes controlling the resistance. The scaling test of additive-dominance model showed that is a good fit for the data confirming the absence or neglect of epistasis

Pedagogical approaches for e-assessment with authentication and authorship verification in Higher Education

Checking the identity of students and authorship of their online submissions is a major concern in Higher Education due to the increasing amount of plagiarism and cheating using the Internet. The literature on the effects of e-authentication systems for teaching staff is very limited because it is a novel procedure for them. A considerable gap is to understand teaching staff’ views regarding the use of e-authentication instruments and how they impact trust in e-assessment. This mixed-method study examines the concerns and practices of 108 teaching staff who used the TeSLA - Adaptive Trust-based e-Assessment System in six countries: UK, Spain, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Finland and Turkey. The findings revealed some technological, organisational and pedagogical issues related to accessibility, security, privacy and e-assessment design and feedback. Recommendations are to provide: a FAQ and an audit report with results, to raise awareness about data security and privacy, to develop policies and guidelines about fraud detection and prevention, e-assessment best practices and course team support