Resettling,disconnecting or displacing? Attending to local sociality,culture and history in disaster settings

In many disaster settings, top‐down responses emphasise ‘expert‐led’ solutions that often involve relocating disaster‐affected communities. While the intention might be to move people from harm's way and facilitate recovery, failure to attend to local pre‐disaster circumstances as well as the interplay between power, resilience and vulnerability within and around affected communities often sees resettlement reconfigure as displacement or disconnection. This oversight may even usher in a new phase of dispossession and disadvantage for marginalised groups (particularly in colonial settings). This paper explores experiences in Australia, Japan and Taiwan to reflect on what issues of local sociality, local culture and local resilience need to be attended to in framing ‘better’ disaster responses.     

Triploid Induction in the Yellowtail Tetra,Astyanax altiparanae,Using Temperature Shock: Tools for Conservation and Aquaculture

Triploidization is an interesting tool to produce sterile fish. In the yellowtail tetra, Astyanax altiparanae, this can be applied for aquaculture and surrogate technologies. In this study, we compared the efficacy of cold (2 C) or heat shock (38 C, 40 C, and 42 C) on triploid induction in the yellowtail tetra. The eggs were treated with cold or heat shock, 2 min postfertilization (30 min in cold shock or 2 min in heat shock). Intact embryos served as the control group. Ploidy status was confirmed by karyotyping, flow cytometry, and nuclear diameter of erythrocytes. The hatching rate decreased after cold shock (12.69 ± 15.76%) and heat shock at 42 C (0.35 ± 0.69%) in comparison with the control group (63.19 ± 16.82%). At 38 C and 40 C, hatching rates (61.29 ± 17.73% and 61.75 ± 22.1%, respectively) were not decreased. Only one triploid arose at 38 C (1/80). At 40 C, a high number of triploids arose (72/78). At 42 C, very few embryos developed into the hatching stage. A large number of haploid individuals arose after cold shock (61/75), with only one triploid. Our results indicate that heat shocking of embryos at 40 C is optimum for triploid production in the yellowtail tetra.     

Importance of shingle beaches as habitat for Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum

Fisheries Science - We carried out surveys to clarify how the density (no. of individuals/m2) and condition factor (CF) of Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum differ between estuarine tidal flats...     

Effect of Illuminance Transition Rate on Survival of Juvenile Pacific Bluefin Tuna,Thunnus orientalis

To investigate the reason for the high mortality of cultured juvenile Pacific bluefin tuna (PBT), especially during land‐based culture, we examined the effect of the rate of light‐intensity change during the dawn period. Juvenile PBT kept in a natural light environment (control) were compared with those exposed to an artificially slowed change in light intensity during the dawn period (test group). For the test group, lamps, which were connected to automatic timers and placed above the rearing tank, were switched on from 0345 to 0515 h at 15‐min intervals. After 9 d, the survival rate of the test and control group was identical. Between Day 1 and Day 6, whole‐body cortisol levels were not different between groups. However, whole‐body glucose levels in the test group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Both groups displayed a diel rhythm in plasma cortisol concentration that peaked at 0300–0600 h. These results suggest that slowing the increase in light intensity during the dawn period did not improve survival and that low light intensity itself induces high mortality in cultured PBT juveniles.     

Effects of light and microsite conditions on tree size of 6-year-old Cryptomeria japonica planted in a group selection opening

We examined the extent to which direct and indirect measures of light and microsite conditions could explain variation in tree height and diameter at the base of 6-year-old Cryptomeria japonica trees planted in a group selection opening of about 0.32 ha on a steep slope at Shiiba, Miyazaki Prefecture, southern Japan. We first used the gap light index (GLI) and soil thickness (ST) as directly measured indices. For an indirect measure of light, we used a between-cohort competition index (BCI) estimated from the position and total height of residual trees. For indirect measures of microsite, we examined topographic indices (slope, plan and profile curvature, average slope gradient, and relative elevation) derived from digital elevation models (DEMs) with different resolutions ranging from 2 to 10 m. The multiple linear regression using GLI and ST explained about 45% of variation in tree size, while simple regression using only GLI explained about 35%. The contribution of ST was about half of GLI. The multiple regressions using BCI and the topographic indices did not explain any more variation than using BCI alone (R ² of about 0.26). We conclude that microsite conditions with shallower soil and steeper slope have negative effects on tree growth in group selection openings, although the relative importance is smaller than light conditions. More comprehensive studies considering several openings with more heterogeneous topography including different species are needed to generalize our growth prediction using the indirect measures, which are useful for practical forest management.     

Establishment of a new cell-based assay to measure the activity of sweeteners in fluorescent food extracts

Taste receptors have been defined at the molecular level in the past decade, and cell-based assays have been developed using cultured cells heterologously expressing these receptors. The most popular approach to detecting the cellular response to a tastant is to measure changes in intracellular Ca(2+) concentration using Ca(2+)-sensitive fluorescent dyes. However, this method cannot be applied to food-derived samples that contain fluorescent substances. To establish an assay system that would be applicable to fluorescent samples, we tested the use of Ca(2+)-sensitive photoproteins, such as aequorin and mitochondrial clytin-II, as Ca(2+) indicators in a human sweet taste receptor assay. Using these systems, we successfully detected receptor activation in response to sweetener, even when fluorescent compounds coexisted. This luminescence-based assay will be a powerful tool to objectively evaluate the sweetness of food-derived samples even at an industry level.     

Identification of whale species by thin-layer isoelectric focusing of sarcoplasmic proteins.

Thin-layer isoelectric focusing was applied to the identification of whale (Cetacea) species by using water-soluble sarcoplasmic proteins of skeletal muscles. Twenty-eight samples consisting of 4 species (10 samples) of baleen whales (Mysticeti) and 8 species (18 samples) of toothed whales (Odontoceti) were analyzed. Each sample (approximately 1 g) was electrophoresed with Ampholine PAGplate, pH 3.5-9.5. The electrophoretic profiles were species-specific on the 4 toothed whale species that did not have a marked intra-species difference, and all 4 baleen whale species. However, the profiles were not specific on the 4 other dolphin species, even though they were discriminable from the other 4 toothed whale species. Numerical values of pIs and relative peak heights were obtained by densitometric analysis of the isoelectro-focused protein bands. The bands were also species-specific for the 8 toothed whale species mentioned. The values may be applicable to species identification without the need for a standard sample, which may not be readily obtainable. Experiments on test samples of minke and sel whales showed that bloodletting with ice water made the densities of isoelectro-focused bands thinner, although species identification was still possible by using the inside part of muscles. Heat treatment at below 60 degrees C for 10 min caused little denaturation; at higher temperatures the protein bands were diminished in a temperature-dependent fashion. Therefore, the present isoelectric focusing analysis should be applicable to small samples of whale meat, excluding several species of dolphins.     

Poxvirus infection in Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus)

An outbreak was encountered of numerous yellowish cutaneous nodules in one- to two-year-old farmed Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) in Kasaba Bay Crocodile Farm at Lake Tanganyika in Zambia during 1988. Out of 4000 crocodiles of different age groups, 300 yearlings were affected and 82 of those affected died. The lesions were prominent on the head, especially around the eyelids, the nostrils, both sides of the mouth, ventral neck, ventral pale belly, limbs and the root of the tail. Histologically, the epidermal lesions revealed large focal areas of marked acanthosis accompanied by hyperkeratosis and parakeratosis. In the prickle cells, there were multiple small neutrophilic granular inclusions and large eosinophilic homogeneous cytoplasmic inclusions. Electron microscopically, there were numerous poxvirus particles and matrices in the cytoplasm of many prickle cells. Dark blue homogeneous cytoplasmic inclusions in toluidine blue sections consisted of an electron opaque matrix with mature viral particles (160 x 200 x 230 nm). Furthermore, there were clumps of granular matrix containing immature viral particles (200 x 399 nm) in the cytoplasm. Various features of viral developing processes were observed.