Mercury in seafood is a neurotoxicant that threatens human health. Dynamic rates of mercury emission, re-emission, and atmospheric deposition warrant studies into mercury concentrations in fish ...because many are consumed by humans and can serve as sentinels of mercury levels in the environment. We modeled trends in total mercury content in an apex marine fish predator, Atlantic blue marlin Makaira nigricans, whose muscle tissues were opportunistically sampled from North Carolina (USA) sportfishing tournaments over a discontinuous time period: between 1975 and 77 and 1998–2021 (n = 148). The model-estimated influence of marlin weight on total mercury concentration was constant across years (shared slope) allowing for comparisons of weight-corrected mercury concentrations among years. Weight-corrected total mercury concentrations revealed an inter-decadal decline of approximately 45 % between the 1970s and late 1990s and then variable but relatively stable concentrations through 2021. The mean (SD) wet weight concentration of total mercury was 9.47 (4.11) from 1975 to 77 and 4.17 (2.61) from 2020 to 2021. Methylmercury and selenium were measured on a subset of fish to address questions related to human health and consumption. Methylmercury levels (mean = 0.72 μg/g) were much lower than total mercury (mean = 4.69 μg/g) indicating that total mercury is not a good proxy for methylmercury in Atlantic blue marlin. Selenium, examined as a Se:Hg molar ratio and as a selenium health benefit value (HBVSe), showed high protective value against mercury toxicity. Long-term trends in the concentration of mercury in blue marlin should continue to be monitored to determine whether policies to mitigate anthropogenic contributions to global mercury are achieving their intended goals and to provide information to inform safe human consumption.
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•Long-term studies of offshore marine apex predators are valuable for indexing ambient heavy metal concentrations.•Atlantic blue marlin muscle collected from 1975 to 2021 was analyzed for total mercury, methylmercury, and selenium.•Total mercury concentrations declined from the 1970s to late 1990s, but remained approximately constant during this century.•Methylmercury is a small percentage of total mercury in Atlantic blue marlin, which is not typically observed in fish.•High selenium concentrations in Atlantic blue marlin tissue may substantially offset mercury toxicity in human consumers.
Most reef fish surveys use bait to attract individuals to bite hooks, enter traps, or be counted on underwater video. The behavior of fish around baited gears, however, is poorly understood despite ...its importance for estimating catchability. We used a fine-scale acoustic positioning system to elucidate the movement behaviors of 11 telemetered gray triggerfish Balistes capriscus around 54 baited fish traps deployed at a 37 m deep site in Raleigh Bay, North Carolina, USA. Median positional error rates from a reference transmitter were 1–2 m, suggesting fish positions were accurate and precise. Overall, 104 170 spatial positions were determined for gray triggerfish over the 42 d study. There were 27 instances of telemetered gray triggerfish responding to baited fish traps. These fish responded from initial distances up to 312 m (mean = 68 m) from traps and spent 4–95% (mean = 35%) of their time within 20 m of traps. Using generalized additive models, we determined that telemetered gray triggerfish were most likely to respond to baited traps when they were initially located close to (<100 m), and down-current from, baited traps. There were substantial differences in gray triggerfish responses and water clarity across the 3 recapture periods, suggesting gray triggerfish use vision, olfaction, and perhaps sound to locate bait. Our modeling approach is general, and could be used to quantify the behavior of myriad organisms around sampling gears in various types of aquatic systems.
Estimates of animal abundance are widely used to support conservation and resource management. For populations in open systems, abundance estimates from tagging data can be highly uncertain or ...biased. Here, we develop a novel approach to estimate abundance of an open population by pairing two models, each utilizing distinct tagging data. Using data from telemetry tags, we infer movement rates to and from the study site with a Markovian model allowing for an environmental effect. Then, using data from conventional passive tags, we apply a Lincoln–Petersen abundance estimator modified to account for mortality and movement. After developing the model within a Bayesian framework, we demonstrate its application to data on gray triggerfish (Balistes capriscus) tagged in the Atlantic Ocean off North Carolina, USA. For this open population, we estimate site abundance to be ∼1000 fish (∼2000 fish·km
–2
) and additionally find evidence for an effect of hurricanes on movement. The general approach may be useful for fisheries, wildlife, and other ecological studies utilizing multiple tag types, particularly for estimating abundance of an open population.
Objective
Our objective was to use sportfishing tournament data to determine whether sizes of Dolphinfish Coryphaena hippurus have been changing in the western North Atlantic (WNA) over recent ...decades.
Methods
We sampled North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida marine sportfishing tournament landings for Dolphinfish lengths. Linear models were separately fitted to length data for males and females by regressing length against year. A subset of these models (analysis of covariance) considered tournament as a factor.
Result
An analysis of covariance model with a separate regression slope for each tournament provided the best fit to the data for male and female Dolphinfish. Meaningful temporal declines in the length of males and females were found for four of the five tournaments (no changes in length were observed for the fifth tournament). Median total length declines of 168, 105, 103, and 426 mm were predicted for males, and declines of 354, 133, 131, and 246 mm were predicted for females. Declines in the largest observed sizes of Dolphinfish (97.5% confidence limit) were found for most tournament‐ and sex‐specific combinations of data and could suggest excess fishing mortality on the population.
Conclusion
Declines in Dolphinfish size in the WNA region could have ramifications for conservation of the population given that these size changes translate into reduced individual fecundity of female Dolphinfish. Causes of the size decline could be fishing effects, environmental effects, or a combination of these. Reductions in individual size may be occurring simultaneously with declines in abundance identified in other recent research using fishery‐dependent data collected in the WNA.
Impact statement
Using fishery‐dependent data to study changes in fish size can be difficult because the assumption of constant selectivity is infrequently met. Our study shows the utility of using sportfishing tournament data to track changes in fish size when selectivity can be assumed to remain constant throughout the sampling period. Our results are informative for U.S. federal fishery managers who are considering updates to output controls (e.g., size limits and bag limits) to help conserve the Dolphinfish stock in the western North Atlantic region.
Abstract
The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to evaluate the impact of all-
trans
retinoic acid (ATRA) in combination with non-intensive chemotherapy in older unfit patients (> 60 years) ...with newly diagnosed
NPM1
-mutated acute myeloid leukemia. Patients were randomized (1:1) to low-dose chemotherapy with or without open-label ATRA 45 mg/m
2
, days 8–28; the dose of ATRA was reduced to 45 mg/m
2
, days 8–10 and 15 mg/m
2
, days 11–28 after 75 patients due to toxicity. Up to 6 cycles of cytarabine 20 mg/day s.c., bid, days 1–7 and etoposide 100 mg/day, p.o. or i.v., days 1–3 with (ATRA) or without ATRA (CONTROL) were intended. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). Between May 2011 and September 2016, 144 patients (median age, 77 years; range, 64–92 years) were randomized (72, CONTROL; 72, ATRA). Baseline characteristics were balanced between the two study arms. The median number of treatment cycles was 2 in ATRA and 2.5 in CONTROL. OS was significantly shorter in the ATRA compared to the CONTROL arm (
p
= 0.023; median OS: 5 months versus 9.2 months, 2-years OS rate: 7% versus 10%, respectively). Rates of CR/CRi were not different between treatment arms; infections were more common in ATRA beyond treatment cycle one. The addition of ATRA to low-dose cytarabine plus etoposide in an older, unfit patient population was not beneficial, but rather led to an inferior outcome.
The clinical trial is registered at clinicaltrialsregister.eu (EudraCT Number: 2010-023409-37, first posted 14/12/2010).
Three types of reference simulations, as recommended by the Chemistry–Climate Model Initiative (CCMI), have been performed with version 2.51 of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ...– Hamburg (ECHAM)/Modular Earth Submodel System (MESSy) Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model: hindcast simulations (1950–2011), hindcast simulations with specified dynamics (1979–2013), i.e. nudged towards ERA-Interim reanalysis data, and combined hindcast and projection simulations (1950–2100). The manuscript summarizes the updates of the model system and details the different model set-ups used, including the on-line calculated diagnostics. Simulations have been performed with two different nudging set-ups, with and without interactive tropospheric aerosol, and with and without a coupled ocean model. Two different vertical resolutions have been applied. The on-line calculated sources and sinks of reactive species are quantified and a first evaluation of the simulation results from a global perspective is provided as a quality check of the data. The focus is on the intercomparison of the different model set-ups. The simulation data will become publicly available via CCMI and the Climate and Environmental Retrieval and Archive (CERA) database of the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ). This manuscript is intended to serve as an extensive reference for further analyses of the Earth System Chemistry integrated Modelling (ESCiMo) simulations.
We conducted a prospective cohort study of 795 outpatients, many of whom were human immunodeficiency virus-infected men who have sex with men, to characterize risk of skin and soft-tissue infection ...(SSTI) associated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) nares and perianal colonization. Multivariate analysis revealed that perianal colonization, drug use, and prior SSTIs were strongly associated with development of an SSTI. Of the patients who were colonized with MRSA at study entry, 36.7% developed an SSTI during the ensuing 12 months, compared with 8.1% of persons who were not colonized with MRSA.
The West German Study Group PlanB trial evaluated an anthracycline-free chemotherapy standard (six cycles of docetaxel and cyclophosphamide TC) in the routine treatment of human epidermal growth ...factor receptor 2-negative early breast cancer (EBC).
Patients with pT1 to pT4c, all pN+, and pN0/high-risk EBC were eligible. High-risk pN0 was defined by one or more of the following: pT greater than 2, grade 2 to 3, high urokinase-type plasminogen activator/plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, hormone receptor (HR) negativity, and less than 35 years of age. After an early amendment, all HR-positive tumors underwent recurrence score (RS) testing, with chemotherapy omission recommended in RS less than or equal to 11 pN0 to pN1 disease. Patients were randomly assigned to four cycles of epirubicin (E)
/cyclophoshamide (C)
followed by four cycles of docetaxel (T)
or six cycles of T
C
(administered once every 3 weeks). The primary end point was disease-free survival (DFS); secondary end points were overall survival (OS) and safety. The protocol specified P = .05 for a noninferiority margin of 4.4% for all patients combined.
Of the 3,198 registered patients, 348 (RS ≤ 11) omitted chemotherapy, and 401 were not randomly assigned. The intention-to-treat population included 2,449 patients (1,227 EC-T v 1,222 TC: postmenopausal, 62.2% v 60.8%; pN0, 58.2% v 59.5%; pT1, 57.6% v 52.3%; HR positive, 81.4% v 82.2%; RS greater than 25 in HR-positive patients, 26.2% v 27.5%). Within the safety population (1,167 v 1,178 patients), 87.5% v 93.0% completed therapy. After a 60-month median follow-up, 5-year outcomes were similar in the EC-T and TC arms (DFS, 89.6% 95% CI, 87.9% to 91.5% v 89.9% 95% CI, 88.1% to 91.8%; OS, 94.5% 95% CI, 93.1% to 95.9% v 94.7% 95% CI, 93.3% to 96.1%). The DFS difference was within the noninferiority margin of the original trial design. Five treatment-related deaths were reported for TC (one for EC-T), despite a trend toward more-severe adverse events in the latter. Interaction analysis revealed no predictive trends with respect to key factors, including triple-negative, luminal A/B-like, pN, age, and RS status.
In the West German Study Group PlanB trial, 5-year outcomes for TC and EC-T were equally excellent. Six cycles of TC is an effective/safe option in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative EBC with pN0 high genomic risk or pN1 EBC with genomically intermediate- to high-risk disease.
In this work we present a significant advancement in cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) growth in terms of crystal quality and domain size, and indicate its potential use in photovoltaics. To date, the ...use of 3C-SiC for photovoltaics has not been considered due to the band gap of 2.3eV being too large for conventional solar cells. Doping of 3C-SiC with boron introduces an energy level of 0.7eV above the valence band. Such energy level may form an intermediate band (IB) in the band gap. This IB concept has been presented in the literature to act as an energy ladder that allows absorption of sub-bandgap photons to generate extra electron–hole pairs and increase the efficiency of a solar cell. The main challenge with this concept is to find a materials system that could realize such efficient photovoltaic behavior. The 3C-SiC bandgap and boron energy level fits nicely into the concept, but has not been explored for an IB behavior.
For a long time crystalline 3C-SiC has been challenging to grow due to its metastable nature. The material mainly consists of a large number of small domains if the 3C polytype is maintained. In our work a crystal growth process was realized by a new approach that is a combination of initial nucleation and step-flow growth. In the process, the domains that form initially extend laterally to make larger 3C-SiC domains, thus leading to a pronounced improvement in crystalline quality of 3C-SiC. In order to explore the feasibility of IB in 3C-SiC using boron, we have explored two routes of introducing boron impurities; ion implantation on un-doped samples and epitaxial growth on un-doped samples using pre-doped source material. The results show that 3C-SiC doped with boron is an optically active material, and thus is interesting to be further studied for IB behavior.
For the ion implanted samples the crystal quality was maintained even after high implantation doses and subsequent annealing. The same was true for the samples grown with pre-doped source material, even with a high concentration of boron impurities.
We present optical emission and absorption properties of as-grown and boron implanted 3C-SiC. The low-temperature photoluminescence spectra indicate the formation of optically active deep boron centers, which may be utilized for achieving an IB behavior at sufficiently high dopant concentrations. We also discuss the potential of boron doped 3C-SiC base material in a broader range of applications, such as in photovoltaics, biomarkers and hydrogen generation by splitting water.
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•Growth of high quality cubic silicon carbide is demonstrated.•Boron doped 3C-SiC has optically active states.•Optically active states indicates 3C as a candidate for intermediate band solar cell.
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