scholarly journals Culture of Lobotes surinamensis (Tripletail)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Saillant ◽  
Jason Lemus ◽  
James Franks

The Tripletail, Lobotes surinamensis, is a pelagic fish found in tropical and sub-tropical waters of all oceans. Tripletails are often associated with floating debris and make frequent incursions in bays and estuaries where they are targeted by recreational fishermen. In Mississippi waters the species is typically present during the late spring and summer season that also correspond to the period of sexual maturation and spawning (Brown-Peterson and Franks 2001). Tripletail is appreciated as a gamefish but is also prized for its flesh of superior quality. The fast growth rate of juveniles in captivity documented by Franks et al. (2001) and the excellent quality of Tripletail flesh both contribute to the potential of this species for marine aquaculture. In addition, the production of cultured juveniles would be precious to develop a better understanding of the biology, early life history and habitat use of Tripletail larvae and juveniles, a topic largely undocumented to date, through experimental releases and controlled studies. The culture of tripletail thus supports the Tidelands Trust Fund Program through improved conservation of natural resources, potential enhancement of fisheries productivity and potential development of a new economic activity on the Gulf coast producing tripletail via aquaculture. The Objective of this project was to initiate development of methods and techniques needed to spawn captive held tripletail broodfish and raise their offspring to evaluate their growth and development in captivity. In this report we will present the results of studies aiming to develop methods and protocols for captive spawning of tripletail and the first data obtained on the early development of tripletail larvae. A major issue that was encountered with tripletail broodstock development during the project lied in the difficulties associated with identifying the sex of adults caught in the wild and candidates for being incorporated in mating sets for spawning. This issue was addressed during the course of the project by examining the potential of a non-lethal method of hormonal sexing. The results of these preliminary investigations are presented in the third part of this report. All protocols used in the project were determined with the guidance of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of the University of Southern Mississippi (USM IACUC protocol number 10100108).

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamden K Strunk ◽  
Douglas Bristol ◽  
William Takewell

Our purpose in writing this is to recount and analyze the push for queer-positive policy at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) over the past several years, understanding the spaces that opened for such work, and why such spaces rapidly open and close on the USM campus. We cannot begin to tell the story of our experience working for queer-positive programming and spaces, and the challenges we have encountered in that work, without first contextualizing that work within the institution of The University of Southern Mississippi, the system in which it exists, and the state of Mississippi. The University of Southern Mississippi, founded in 1910, hovers near the 15,000 mark in enrollment, and has campuses in Hattiesburg, MS and Long Beach, MS, plus some small research sites along the Gulf Coast. It, like many in Mississippi, has constant budget shortfalls, and a cycle of enrollment/financial emergencies, while struggling to find consistent quality of students and enrollment numbers. It exists in a system that places it alongside the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and Mississippi State University for budgeting and evaluation purposes, an unfortunate reality many years.


Koedoe ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard W.T. Coetzee ◽  
Sam M. Ferreira ◽  
Kristine Maciejewski

The global conservation status of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) was last assessed in 1996. The species presents particular difficulty in monitoring because it can be cryptic, require expertise to handle, and caudal tail tags and transmitters are often lost. Some studies advocate mark-recapture techniques based on photograph identification of the unique scute markings of crocodile tails as a non-invasive means of monitoring their populations. Researchers developed this method with crocodiles in captivity. In this study, we test the technique under field conditions by monitoring crocodiles from 2015 to 2017 in the Sunset Dam in the Kruger National Park. Using a Cormack-Jolly-Seber open population model, we found that the dam may host 15–30 individuals, but that there is a high turnover of individuals and much uncertainty in model outputs. The dam’s population thus has high rates of immigration and emigration. The method proved challenging under field conditions, as there was bias in identifying scute markings consistently. The efficient use of the method requires an exceptional quality of photographic equipment. Animal crypsis, however, remains an issue. In this study, we discuss how to improve the mark-recapture photography methodology, especially to adapt the technique for citizen science initiatives.Conservation implications: Using scute mark-recapture photography presents challenges under field conditions. These challenges require innovative, practical and analytical solutions to successfully use the technique before monitoring programmes, aimed at ensuring the persistence of crocodiles in the wild, can be implemented.


2021 ◽  
pp. 5-19
Author(s):  
Yurii Skyba ◽  
Hanna Lebedynets

Ensuring and improving the quality of teaching and learning, in particular the academics’ potential development, is reflected in strategic European and domestic documents, namely in the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, the Paris Communiqué, the Strategy for Higher Education in Ukraine for 2021-2031 and others. The expediency for academics’ potential development is confirmed by the results of a national survey on the needs for the development of Ukrainian universities in the process of reforming higher education in the context of European integration. The article highlights the problems of academics’ potential development. Based on foreign and domestic experience, the theoretical bases for academics’ potential development, in particular the conceptual and terminological apparatus and structural components of teaching metacompetence are substantiated. The concept «potential of an academic» is defined as a set of intellectual, intangible resources, conditions and opportunities created for the production and accumulation of new knowledge, ideas, technologies, competencies and other productive properties at the university, which combines two levels of connections functioning in unity. The first level of connections are resources that are the result of past and present, and the second – opportunities, i.e. those abilities and connections that are future-oriented, constantly changing, evolving, forming new abilities, characteristics, including elements of the future development. The following components are distinguished in the structure of teaching metacompetence: prognostic; design; objective; innovative; pedagogical partnership; organizational; information and digital; reflexive; linguistic and communicative; inclusive; motivational; health-preserving; emotional-ethical and evaluative-analytical. The development of the above components of teaching metacompetence will help ensure the quality of higher education and increase the competitiveness of the university in the educational services market.


2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Narayan ◽  
Ketan Christi ◽  
Craig Morley

We present research and management implications for captive propagation of the endangered Fijian Ground Frog Platymantis vitiana to develop methods for supplementing populations in the wild. In 2004, a captive propagation program was instituted at Kula Ecopark, Sigatoka, Fiji. However, there was little success with only a single froglet reared after three years. In 2006, a more intensive programme was undertaken between the University of the South Pacific (USP), Kula Ecopark and the community on Viwa Island. The aim of this programme was to create an outdoor enclosure to mimic natural habitat conditions so the frogs could exhibit natural breeding behaviour. A total of 39 froglets was reared after one year of this programme. We provide information on the methods of captive management, reproductive biology, captive diet varieties, and on problems of rearing froglets in captivity. This research is useful baseline information in guiding captive propagation techniques in zoological parks like the Kula Ecopark and for organizations such as the National Trust of Fiji.


2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Darnon ◽  
Céline Buchs ◽  
Fabrizio Butera

When interacting on a learning task, which is typical of several academic situations, individuals may experience two different motives: Understanding the problem, or showing their competences. When a conflict (confrontation of divergent propositions) emerges from this interaction, it can be solved either in an epistemic way (focused on the task) or in a relational way (focused on the social comparison of competences). The latter is believed to be detrimental for learning. Moreover, research on cooperative learning shows that when they share identical information, partners are led to compare to each other, and are less encouraged to cooperate than when they share complementary information. An epistemic vs. relational conflict vs. no conflict was provoked in dyads composed by a participant and a confederate, working either on identical or on complementary information (N = 122). Results showed that, if relational and epistemic conflicts both entailed more perceived interactions and divergence than the control group, only relational conflict entailed more perceived comparison activities and a less positive relationship than the control group. Epistemic conflict resulted in a more positive perceived relationship than the control group. As far as performance is concerned, relational conflict led to a worse learning than epistemic conflict, and - after a delay - than the control group. An interaction between the two variables on delayed performance showed that epistemic and relational conflicts were different only when working with complementary information. This study shows the importance of the quality of relationship when sharing information during cooperative learning, a crucial factor to be taken into account when planning educational settings at the university.


1995 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Fernández ◽  
Miguel A. Mateo ◽  
José Muñiz

The conditions are investigated in which Spanish university teachers carry out their teaching and research functions. 655 teachers from the University of Oviedo took part in this study by completing the Academic Setting Evaluation Questionnaire (ASEQ). Of the three dimensions assessed in the ASEQ, Satisfaction received the lowest ratings, Social Climate was rated higher, and Relations with students was rated the highest. These results are similar to those found in two studies carried out in the academic years 1986/87 and 1989/90. Their relevance for higher education is twofold because these data can be used as a complement of those obtained by means of students' opinions, and the crossing of both types of data can facilitate decision making in order to improve the quality of the work (teaching and research) of the university institutions.


Skull Base ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (03) ◽  
Author(s):  
John de Almeida ◽  
Allan Vescan ◽  
Jolie Ringash ◽  
Patrick Gullane ◽  
Fred Gentili ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 650 ◽  
pp. 7-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
HW Fennie ◽  
S Sponaugle ◽  
EA Daly ◽  
RD Brodeur

Predation is a major source of mortality in the early life stages of fishes and a driving force in shaping fish populations. Theoretical, modeling, and laboratory studies have generated hypotheses that larval fish size, age, growth rate, and development rate affect their susceptibility to predation. Empirical data on predator selection in the wild are challenging to obtain, and most selective mortality studies must repeatedly sample populations of survivors to indirectly examine survivorship. While valuable on a population scale, these approaches can obscure selection by particular predators. In May 2018, along the coast of Washington, USA, we simultaneously collected juvenile quillback rockfish Sebastes maliger from both the environment and the stomachs of juvenile coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch. We used otolith microstructure analysis to examine whether juvenile coho salmon were age-, size-, and/or growth-selective predators of juvenile quillback rockfish. Our results indicate that juvenile rockfish consumed by salmon were significantly smaller, slower growing at capture, and younger than surviving (unconsumed) juvenile rockfish, providing direct evidence that juvenile coho salmon are selective predators on juvenile quillback rockfish. These differences in early life history traits between consumed and surviving rockfish are related to timing of parturition and the environmental conditions larval rockfish experienced, suggesting that maternal effects may substantially influence survival at this stage. Our results demonstrate that variability in timing of parturition and sea surface temperature leads to tradeoffs in early life history traits between growth in the larval stage and survival when encountering predators in the pelagic juvenile stage.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Sina Saeedy ◽  
Mojtaba Amiri ◽  
Mohammad Mahdi Zolfagharzadeh ◽  
Mohammad Rahim Eyvazi

Quality of life and satisfaction with life as tightly interconnected concepts have become of much importance in the urbanism era. No doubt, it is one of the most important goals of every human society to enhance a citizen’s quality of life and to increase their satisfaction with life. However, there are many signs which demonstrate the low level of life satisfaction of Iranian citizens especially among the youth. Thus, considering the temporal concept of life satisfaction, this research aims to make a futures study in this field. Therefore, using a mixed model and employing research methods from futures studies, life satisfaction among the students of the University of Tehran were measured and their views on this subject investigated. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analysed together in order to test the hypotheses and to address the research questions on the youth discontentment with quality of life. Findings showed that the level of life satisfaction among students is relatively low and their image of the future is not positive and not optimistic. These views were elicited and discussed in the social, economic, political, environmental and technological perspectives. Keywords:  futures studies, quality of life, satisfaction with life, youth


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