Changing ocean temperatures, circulation patterns affecting young Atlantic cod food supply

June 20, 2013 ? Changing ocean water temperatures and circulation patterns have profoundly affected key Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf zooplankton species in recent decades, and may be influencing the recovery of Atlantic cod and other fish stocks in the region.

NOAA researcher Kevin Friedland and colleagues looked at the distribution and abundance of important zooplankton species, sea surface water temperatures, and cod abundance. They found that zooplankton species critical for the survival of Atlantic cod larvae have declined in abundance in the same areas where Atlantic cod stocks have struggled to rebuild after an extended period of overfishing.

"Temperature is a governing factor in the growth, reproduction and distribution of marine organisms. Shifting temperature distributions, whether triggered by natural or human factors, can cause the redistribution of plankton communities on regional and basin-wide scales," said Friedland, lead author on the study and a scientist at NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC).

The change in thermal habitats has had biological consequences on multiple levels in the food chain, according to the study in press in the journal Progress in Oceanography.

"The geographic and depth distributions of fish and shellfish populations can also change based on their preferred thermal habitats. Future changes in thermal conditions are expected to lead to further shifts in the distributional ranges of species by, in many cases, the loss and gain of local populations," said Friedland.

Friedland and his colleagues found that ocean water temperatures of the Northeast Continental Shelf have increased in recent decades, but these changes have not been uniform over the entire ecosystem. Warm water habitats (16 to 27 C, 60 to 80 F) have increased and cool water habitats (5 to 15 C, 41 to 59 F), historically the core habitats in the ecosystem, have declined; however, the coldest habitats in the ecosystem (1-4 C, 34-39 F) have either stayed the same or increased slightly during the study period 1982-2011. This discontinuity is attributed to changes in circulation in the northern Gulf of Maine associated with the Labrador Current.

Atlantic cod off the Northeast U.S. are managed as two stock units, the more northerly in the Gulf of Maine and the more southerly on and around Georges Bank. There are upward of ten known spawning populations within these two stocks, and the very young fish that they produce are found in specific larval development areas. Two zooplankton species that serve as food for Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) larvae are Pseudocalanus spp, and Centropages typicus. The former is associated with winter-spawning cod, and the latter with spring-spawning cod.

The researchers developed indices of zooplankton and cod abundance in six index areas, relating larval feeding and development areas to associated areas where adults reside. They found that Pseudocalanus spp has declined in abundance on parts of Georges Bank and in the eastern Gulf of Maine, areas where cod have been less abundant in recent years. Centropages typicus declined in abundance in the eastern Gulf of Maine as well. The areas where these zooplankton species have declined are spatially discrete and are related to the change in core thermal habitat of the ecosystem.

The abundance of zooplankton species is measured by the NEFSC's Ecosystem Monitoring Program (EcoMon), which conducts shelf-wide bimonthly surveys of the ecosystem. Data and observations from the NEFSC's spring bottom trawl surveys were also analyzed.

Although the researchers concentrated on Atlantic cod recruitment success and population trends, many of the zooplankton species examined are important as prey for early life stages of other fish species and marine mammals. These zooplankton species are important within the Northeast Shelf ecosystem, and can serve as model organisms to test the effect of thermal habitat on changes within the food web.

An Ecosystem Advisory issued by the NEFSC on April 25, 2013 provides additional information related to the Northeast Shelf ecosystem, notably a description of the extreme warming that occurred on the Shelf during 2012 and the associated shifts in thermal habitat.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/HoI8ezH_3kg/130620132414.htm

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'World War Z': The Reviews Are In!

Critics are divided on troubled Brad Pitt zombie flick.
By Todd Gilchrist

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709360/world-war-z-brad-pitt-reviews.jhtml

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HTC Desire 200 goes official: 3.5 inches of low-end Android with Beats Audio and 5MP camera (updated)

After a dribble of leaks, including one that was entirely accurate, HTC has thrown the Desire 200 live on its website. We're still missing some key info on pricing and availability, but the specs have been laid out in full: a neat form factor housing a 3.5-inch, 320 x 480 LCD display; an aging Snapdragon S1 1GHz processor running an unidentified version of Android (likely 4.0) and HTC's Sense skin; 4GB of expandable storage and 512MB RAM; a 3G modem for HSDPA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps; 5-megapixel camera; and, finally, a pair of "high quality" Beats Audio in-ears (although the webpage depicts a pair of Solos). If anything lifts it above other budget Androids, it'll be the decent-looking build quality and styling, coupled with the small size, which we hope will come for a very functional price tag.

Update: We have a price, courtesy of Engadget Chinese, but it only applies to Taiwan: NT$4990, which equates to around $165.

Filed under: Cellphones, HTC

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Source: HTC

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/TqCgObif_oE/

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How do you find great apps? - Talk Mobile 2013 Hangout!

Why is it so hard to find great apps? That's the topic for today's Talk Mobile, and right here, right now, we're going to hang out and chat about it!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/HCwN2PsCMb4/story01.htm

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Unions give lift to Turkish protest movement

ISTANBUL (AP) ? Turkish labor groups fanned a wave of defiance against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authority, leading rallies and a one-day strike to support activists whose two-week standoff with the government has shaken the country's secular democracy.

Riot police again deployed in Turkey's two main cities, and authorities kept up their unyielding stance against the street demonstrations centering on Istanbul's Taksim Square. But Monday's police sweep was less forceful than in recent days, with only scattered firing of tear gas and water cannon on pockets of protesters.

After activists were ousted from their sit-in in adjacent Gezi Park over the weekend, two labor confederations that represent some 330,000 workers picked up the slack Monday by calling a strike and demonstrations nationwide. Unionists turned up by the thousands in Ankara, Istanbul, coastal Izmir and elsewhere.

The turnout defied Turkey's interior minister, Muammer Guler, who warned that anyone taking part in unlawful demonstrations would "bear the legal consequences." But one analyst called the rallies a "legitimate and a lawful expression of constitutional rights."

"People are raising their voices against the excessive use of police force," said Koray Caliskan, a political science professor at Istanbul's Bosphorus University. Demonstrators, he said, were showing they were no longer cowed by authorities, and "the fear threshold has been broken."

In a sign that authorities were increasingly impatient, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc floated the prospect that authorities could call in troops to quash the protests.

Erdogan's opponents have grown increasingly suspicious about what they call a gradual erosion of freedoms and secular values under his Islamic-rooted ruling party. It has passed new curbs on alcohol and tried, but later abandoned its plans, to limit women's access to abortion.

The government set off protests nationwide and drew criticism abroad over a police crackdown that began May 31 against environmentalists and other activists in Taksim Square who were protesting against plans to tear down trees and re-develop Gezi Park. Thousands have flooded the streets nightly since then, many honking car horns and waving Turkish flags.

Erdogan, who has held power for 10 years and was re-elected in 2011, mobilized his supporters over the weekend in two huge rallies ? insisting his duty was to keep order, railing against media coverage of the protests and lashing out at unspecified foreigners whom he said want to hurt Turkey.

TV images Monday showed crowds of government supporters in Istanbul facing down some protesters and chanting "the hands targeting the police should be broken." On Twitter, a trending topic urged protesters to stay home ? some expressing concern that pro-government mobs might attack them.

But overnight, for hours, a lone man stood silently on Taksim Square, eventually joined by about 20 other people who did likewise before police escorted them away. The group put up no resistance. Pockets of unrest erupted elsewhere in Istanbul, with police resorting to water cannon and tear gas at times.

The labor rallies had a more structured feel than the counterculture-style sit-in at Gezi Park's tent city, and the work stoppage involved many professionals who make up a liberal, urban class that mostly backs the anti-Erdogan protesters. But labor strikes often have little visible impact on daily life in Turkey, a country of about 75 million, and Monday's rallies were no different.

Feride Aksu Tanik, of the Turkish Doctors Union, said it had called its work stoppage "to protest against the police force that attacks children, youngsters and everyone violently, and to the detentions of doctors who provide voluntary services to the injured."

Turkey's doctors association said Monday that four people, including a police officer, had died in violence linked to the crackdown, and an investigation was ongoing into the death of a fifth person who was exposed to tear gas. More than 7,800 people have been injured; six remained in critical condition and 11 people lost their eyesight.

The tough tactics used by the government to disperse protesters during the past two weeks have drawn international criticism.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany ? home to some 3 million Turks ? told German broadcaster RTL she was "appalled" to see footage of police forces moving in to clear Gezi Park over the weekend. She criticized the crackdown by Turkish police as "much too strong."

___

Keaten reported from Ankara, Turkey. Ezgi Akin in Ankara, Burak Sayin and Sophiko Megrelidze in Istanbul, and Juergen Baetz in Berlin contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/unions-lift-turkish-protest-movement-002632503.html

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Woods matches worst score in a major

ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) ? This isn't the kind of record Tiger Woods had in mind at the U.S. Open.

Woods went out-of-bounds on his second tee shot of the final round at Merion and closed with a 4-over 74. That gave him his worst 72-hole score as a pro in the U.S. Open, and it tied for his high score in any major.

"I did a lot of things right," Woods said. "Unfortunately, I did a few things wrong, as well."

Woods finished at 13-over 293.

His previous high score in a U.S. Open was 290 at The Olympic Club in 1998 and Shinnecock Hills in 2004. Woods shot 294 at Oakland Hills in 1996 as an amateur.

Just two days ago, Woods was four shots out of the lead and very much in the hunt to end his five-year drought in the majors. Then, he went 76-74 for his worst weekend in a major championship. Just over two weeks ago, the world's No. 1 player had won three of his last four events on the PGA Tour and was starting to establish his dominance.

But he looked ordinary at Merion.

Starting the final round 10 shots behind, Woods made a birdie putt on the opening hole. Instead of a fist pump, he offered only a mild wave. Whatever hopes he had of at least getting his name on the leaderboard ended quickly. Woods pushed his tee shot to the right on the par-5 second hole, over the trees and out-of-bounds. His next tee shot was close to going out-of-bounds, stopping a few yards away in front of a tree. He wound up with a triple bogey.

It was his only big number of the week, though his 20 bogeys were startling.

"I struggled with the speed all week," Woods said. "These greens are grainy. It's one of the older bent grasses ? creeping bent. I struggled with the speed, especially right around the hole. Putts were breaking a lot more. I gave it a little more break and then it would hang. That's kind of the way it was this week."

The 293 matched his high score at any major, last year at the Masters when he tied for 40th.

Woods did not mention any pain in his left elbow, though he kept that a mystery throughout the week. He was flexing and shaking his left hand on shots out of the rough early in the week, saying only that it was painful. He later revealed that he first hurt it at The Players Championship last month, which he won. But he didn't mention the shot or even which round it happened.

Merion remained a mystery for Woods throughout the week. For the first time since Olympic in 1998 ? the year he was rebuilding his swing ? he failed to break par in any of the four rounds at a U.S. Open.

"It played tricky. The rough was up," Woods said. "They were raking the rough up every morning into the grain, and the pins were really tough."

Woods plays again in two weeks at the AT&T National at Congressional, where he is the defending champion. His next major is the British Open at Muirfield, where in 2002 he was going for the calendar Grand Slam until he got caught in a vicious weather pattern of a cold, sideways rain and shot 81 to fall from contention. The final major of the year is at Oak Hill for the PGA Championship, where 10 years ago Woods never shot better than 72 and wound up at 12-over 292.

"There's always a lesson to be learned in every tournament, whether you win or lose," Woods said. "I'll look back at the things I did right and the things I did wrong."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/woods-matches-worst-score-major-213019904.html

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Testosterone improves verbal learning and memory in postmenopausal women

June 17, 2013 ? Postmenopausal women had better improvement in verbal learning and memory after receiving treatment with testosterone gel, compared with women who received sham treatment with a placebo, a new study found.

Results were presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

"This is the first large, placebo-controlled study of the effects of testosterone on mental skills in postmenopausal women who are not on estrogen therapy," said principal investigator Susan Davis, MBBS (MD), PhD, of Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. "Our study has confirmed our similar findings from two smaller studies in postmenopausal women and suggests that testosterone therapy may protect women against cognitive decline after menopause."

Menopause has been linked with memory decline because of a decrease in levels of the protective hormone estrogen. Yet testosterone also is an important hormone in women because it has a role in sexual desire, bone density and energy while improving mood. In men, studies have shown that testosterone replacement has favorable effects on brain function.

In this new, investigator-initiated study, the Australian researchers randomly assigned 92 healthy postmenopausal women, ages 55 to 65, who were not receiving estrogen therapy, to receive one of two treatments for 26 weeks. The treatments were a testosterone gel (LibiGel, BioSante Pharmaceuticals) applied daily to the upper arm, or a placebo, an identical-appearing gel containing none of the medication. Neither the study participants nor the investigators were aware of which gel the women received.

Before treatment and at 12 and 26 weeks of treatment, subjects underwent comprehensive testing of their cognitive function (mental skills) using a computer-based battery of tests designed for people with normal brain function (CogState). Ninety women completed the study. The investigators found no cognitive differences between groups before the start of treatment.

After 26 weeks, the women who received testosterone therapy had a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in verbal learning and memory -- how well they recalled words from a list, Davis reported. The average test score for the testosterone-treated group was 1.6 points greater than that of the placebo group. No differences between the groups were evident for any other cognitive test.

Women receiving testosterone therapy reported no major side effects related to the gel. Their testosterone levels increased with treatment but remained in the normal female range.

Although further study is needed in more women, Davis said the results are important. "There is no effective treatment to date to prevent memory decline in women, who are higher risk of dementia than men," she said.

No testosterone-only product has yet received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for use in women. BioSante provided the study drug and partial funding for this study but had no control over study design or data analysis. CogState Australia provided computation of the cognitive testing, which the researchers then analyzed. Davis reported receiving funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council as a principal research fellow.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/IG0C0YWkojA/130617142043.htm

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