Cephalopod Beaks Research Articles

Ommastrephes caroli (Cephalopoda: Ommastrephidae) from the Adriatic Sea: Morphometry, Age, and Genetic Characterization

This study gives the first data on the body and beak morphometric characteristics, age, and genetic structure of neon flying squid, a rarely caught cephalopod in the Adriatic Sea. We identified specimens as recently resurrected Ommastrephes caroli species using two mitochondrial markers, 16S ribosomal RNA gene and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. Overall, 23 juveniles (3 females, 3 males, and 17 unsexed), with a dorsal mantle range of 65–152 mm, were caught in September 2020 in the waters of the Korčula Channel, island of Palagruža, and island of Jabuka, thus providing the most abundant sample of this species in the Mediterranean waters. The length–weight relationship showed an isometric growth. The results of the beak/length regressions suggest hood length is a useful characteristic for biomass estimation studies, as it showed a good linear fit to the dorsal mantle length. Statolith growth increments were easily visible and statolith microstructure analysis was successfully used to determine the age of 22 individuals. The estimated age ranged from 36 to 64 days (mean = 48 days). The back-calculation analysis showed that the squid hatched during July and August 2020, indicating that O. caroli spawns during the warmer, summertime period. Considering the size and age of the caught individuals, the Adriatic Sea could represent a potential feeding ground for this species. The genetic structure analyses indicate the existence of separate Atlantic and Mediterranean/Adriatic subclusters; however, this warrants further investigation.

Numerical and experimental studies of airflows at exhaust hoods with inlet extensions

Local exhaust ventilation is used to capture contaminants and maintain a comfortable atmosphere in premises. Exhaust hoods with extension units (canopy hoods) are commonly used in open-type local exhaust devices. The goal of this study was to use computational and experimental methods to determine the effect of adding an extension to a local exhaust hood on the separated-flow streamlines, vortex zones, exhaust velocity distribution, and local drag coefficient. We used the discrete vortex method together with computational fluid dynamics to investigate air flows near round and slotted extended exhaust hoods. We then compared the computed airflow velocity field, vortex zone outlines at the inlet of a local exhaust hood, and local drag coefficient factor with data from a field experiment. Outlines of vortex zones resulting from flow separation at the inlet of the hood were considered for a hood length of 5 times gauge (the radius of a round hood or half-width of a slotted exhaust hood), hood tilt angles of 90°, 75°, 60°, 45°, and 30°, and extension lengths of 0; 0.5; 1; and 2 times gauge. We found that longer extensions caused the first vortex zone to enlarge, and the contaminant capture velocity of the local exhaust hood to decrease. We identified the behavior of the local drag coefficient at various hood tilt angles, extension lengths (as listed above), and hood lengths (including 2, 3, and 5 times gauge), and translated them into equations for computing the local drag coefficient.

A comparative analysis of the puncturing abilities of cephalopod beak rostra using engineering tools

Cephalopods, a diverse class of carnivorous marine predators, exhibit a wide range of feeding behaviours and foraging strategies related to their lifestyle, habitat and morphological adaptations. Their beaks play a crucial role in capturing and processing prey. This study investigates the link between the shape of the rostrum of cephalopod beaks and their function through a mix of experimental and computational approaches. Fourteen upper beak rostrum models from a range of cephalopod species, representing their morphological and ecological diversity, were 3D-printed, and subjected to uniaxial puncture tests. Force and displacement were recorded to estimate puncture ability. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was used to explore the form–function relationship under loading conditions mimicking biting and pulling, analysing stress patterns across different rostrum morphologies. The results show that rostrum size significantly influenced puncture performance, with smaller rostra requiring less force and displacement for puncturing. However, larger rostra exhibited higher structural stiffness, suggesting increased vulnerability to stress during biting. Morphology-driven tests demonstrated species-specific differences in puncture abilities, with rostrum sharpness playing a crucial role. FEA results further indicated that longer and sharper rostra were more susceptible to stress, potentially impacting their overall structural integrity. The findings highlight the trade-off between rostrum size and sharpness in cephalopod beaks, with implications for prey selection and feeding efficiency. The study contributes to understanding the morpho-functional aspects of cephalopod beaks and their role in prey capture and consumption, shedding light on the evolutionary pressures shaping these remarkable marine predators.

Geometric morphometrics casts light on phylogenetic relevance of cephalopod beak morphological.

The feeding organ of cephalopod species, the beak, can be used to reveal important ecological information. In this study, geometric morphometric approaches were employed to investigate the phylogenetic relevance and classification effect of beak lateral profile shape. The two-dimensional beak morphologies of 1164 pairs of 24 species from 13 genera and five families were constructed, and their evolutionary relationships and taxonomic status were confirmed using geometric morphometrics and molecular biology approaches. We also assessed the phylogenetic signals of beak shape. The analysis results show shape variation in the beak mainly in the rostrum, hood, and lateral wall. The overall shape parameters (all PCs) of the upper and lower beak are more useful for species identification. The shapes of the upper and lower beak show a strong phylogenetic signal, and the phenogram based on the beak shape basically reflected the families' taxonomic positions. We also hypothesized that the shape variation in the beaks of cephalopods may be ascribed to genetic and environmental differences. In summary, beaks are a reliable material for the classification of cephalopod species. Geometric morphometric approaches are a powerful tool to reveal the identification, phylogenetic relevance and phenotypic diversity of beak shape in cephalopods.

Fusing Local Shallow Features and Global Deep Features to Identify Beaks.

Cephalopods are an essential component of marine ecosystems, which are of great significance for the development of marine resources, ecological balance, and human food supply. At the same time, the preservation of cephalopod resources and the promotion of sustainable utilization also require attention. Many studies on the classification of cephalopods focus on the analysis of their beaks. In this study, we propose a feature fusion-based method for the identification of beaks, which uses the convolutional neural network (CNN) model as its basic architecture and a multi-class support vector machine (SVM) for classification. First, two local shallow features are extracted, namely the histogram of the orientation gradient (HOG) and the local binary pattern (LBP), and classified using SVM. Second, multiple CNN models were used for end-to-end learning to identify the beaks, and model performance was compared. Finally, the global deep features of beaks were extracted from the Resnet50 model, fused with the two local shallow features, and classified using SVM. The experimental results demonstrate that the feature fusion model can effectively fuse multiple features to recognize beaks and improve classification accuracy. Among them, the HOG+Resnet50 method has the highest accuracy in recognizing the upper and lower beaks, with 91.88% and 93.63%, respectively. Therefore, this new approach facilitated identification studies of cephalopod beaks.

In situ-preservation of jaws in the upper Turonian acanthoceratid ammonite Prionocyclus germari (Reuss, 1845): Palaeobiological and taphonomic aspects

Cephalopod mandibles are rare in the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin (BCB) of Central Europe, occurring only as isolated jaw elements, the sole exception being a specimen of Yezoites bladenensis found with a lower jaw in situ in the second half of the 19th century. Here, we present a second record, a specimen of the acanthoceratoid ammonite Prionocyclus germari (Upper Cretaceous, upper Turonian). The ammonite preservation shows similarities to ammonoids from Solnhofen-type Lagerstätten, including phosphatised siphuncles, while the flattened ammonite conch is poorly preserved or fully dissolved. The lower jaw of P. germari is referred to the genus Praestriaptychus. Linking the jaw apparatus with an index ammonite taxon of the uppermost Turonian fills a gap in our knowledge of Upper Cretaceous acanthoceratoid ammonite jaw anatomy. The preservation of altered (secondarily carbonised) organic matter has been revealed by Raman spectroscopy analysis at the tip of the aptychus.The associated fauna and flora, consisting of complete crustaceans, fish, chondrichthyans and gymnosperm plant remains, reflect an unusual and unique preservational/taphonomic window within the BCB.

Cephalopod beaks from the stomachs of Indo-Pacific finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides) and a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) stranded in the Gulf of Thailand

Cephalopod beaks from the stomachs of Indo-Pacific finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides) and a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) stranded in the Gulf of Thailand

In-silico Docking and Toxicity Analysis of N-acetyl D- glucosamine with Antimicrobial Proteins- A Novel Targeting against Antimicrobial Resistance

Nutraceuticals are popular health-promoting agents for various disease ailments such as food supplements, health promoters, etc. The rising antimicrobial resistance concerns are a serious challenge to researchers and need of the hour to be addressed by developing novel antimicrobial agents. One prospective nutraceutical that has been chosen as a candidate for development as an antibacterial agent is N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. GlcNAc is a monomer of chitin, a substance found in the cell walls of several fungi, mollusks, and cephalopod beaks. The present study aimed to evaluate NAG’s antimicrobial potential by in-silico docking using Molegro virtual docker MVD 2013.6.0 as a novel approach. N-acetyl-D-glucosamine was tested against various targets like penicillin-binding protein (PDB3UDI) ligase (PDB2zdq), isomerase/isomerase inhibitor (PDB3TTZ), transferase (PDB2VEG), thymidylate kinase (PDB5UIV), dihydrofolate reductase (PDB3SRW), rifampicin-resistant, RNA polymerase (PDB6VVT) in diff erent confi rmations. Based on the docking scores obtained NAG was found to have potent activity against Acinetobacter baumannii, Thermus thermophilus, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Salmonella typhi, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Candida albicans proving the therapeutic approach that can develop the NAG as antimicrobial agent. The toxicity analysis was performed using TEST software using diff erent methods proving there no report of endotoxicity of GlcNAc molecule that tend to be promising for developing the GlcNAc as lead for antimicrobial resistance. The future lies in evaluating the in-vivo antimicrobial potential studies of NAG.

Recent Advances in Chitosan-Based Applications-A Review.

Chitosan derived from chitin gas gathered much interest as a biopolymer due to its known and possible broad applications. Chitin is a nitrogen-enriched polymer abundantly present in the exoskeletons of arthropods, cell walls of fungi, green algae, and microorganisms, radulae and beaks of molluscs and cephalopods, etc. Chitosan is a promising candidate for a wide variety of applications due to its macromolecular structure and its unique biological and physiological properties, including solubility, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and reactivity. Chitosan and its derivatives have been known to be applicable in medicine, pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics, agriculture, the textile and paper industries, the energy industry, and industrial sustainability. More specifically, their use in drug delivery, dentistry, ophthalmology, wound dressing, cell encapsulation, bioimaging, tissue engineering, food packaging, gelling and coating, food additives and preservatives, active biopolymeric nanofilms, nutraceuticals, skin and hair care, preventing abiotic stress in flora, increasing water availability in plants, controlled release fertilizers, dye-sensitised solar cells, wastewater and sludge treatment, and metal extraction. The merits and demerits associated with the use of chitosan derivatives in the above applications are elucidated, and finally, the key challenges and future perspectives are discussed in detail.

Elemental and spectral chemometric analyses of Octopus vulgaris beaks as reliable markers of capture location.

The high demand and economic relevance of cephalopods make them prone to food fraud, including related to harvest location. Therefore, there is a growing need to develop tools to unequivocally confirm their capture location. Cephalopod beaks are nonedible, making this material ideal for traceability studies as it can also be removed without a loss of commodity economic value. Within this context, common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) specimens were captured in five fishing areas along the Portuguese coast. Untargeted multi-elemental total X-ray fluorescence analysis of the octopus beaks revealed a high abundance of Ca, Cl, K, Na, S, and P, concomitant with the keratin and calcium phosphate nature of the material. We tested a suite of discrimination models on both elemental and spectral data, where the elements contributing most to discriminate capture location were typically associated with diet (As), human-related pressures (Zn, Se, and Mn), or geological features (P, S, Mn, and Zn). Among the six different chemometrics approaches used to classify individuals to their capture location according to their beaks' element concentration, classification trees attained a classification accuracy of 76.7%, whilst reducing the number of explanatory variables for sample classification and highlighting variable importance for group discrimination. However, using X-ray spectral features of the octopus beaks further improved classification accuracy, with the highest classification of 87.3% found with partial least-squares discriminant analysis. Ultimately, element and spectral analyses of nonedible structures such as octopus beaks can provide an important, complementary, and easily accessible means to support seafood provenance and traceability, whilst integrating anthropogenic and/or geological gradients.

Unravelling the phylogenetic and ecological drivers of beak shape variability in cephalopods

Cephalopod beaks are essential for prey acquisition and fragmentation during feeding. Thus, it is expected that ecological pressures affect cephalopod beak shape. From a practical perspective, these structures are also used to identify gut contents of marine megafauna, such as toothed whales, sharks, seabirds, and large pelagic fishes. Here, we investigated the relative importance of ecological pressures and phylogenetic relatedness in the evolution of beak shape using a wide range of Mediterranean cephalopod species. Phylogenetic analyses based on complete mitogenomes and nuclear ribosomal genes provided a well-supported phylogeny among the 18 included cephalopods. Geometric morphometric and stable isotope methods were implemented to describe interspecific beak shape and trophic niche variability, respectively. Phylogenetic signal was detected in the shape of both parts of the beak (upper and lower). However, lower beak shape was more distinct among closely related species, in line with the empirical notion that lower beak morphology is more useful as an identification tool in cephalopods. Interestingly, no association between beak shape and trophic niche (stable isotope values) was found. These results suggest that the evolution of cephalopod beak shape as quantified here is mainly driven by phylogenetic relationships, while feeding habits play a minor role.Graphical abstract

CREATION AND MAINTENANCE PROCESSES OF MALACOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS OF CEPHALOPOD BEAKS

The cephalopods have in their mouth a pair of chitinous beaks used to cut their prey. The identification of these beaks is diagnostic for species and considered a difficult task, although very useful in the identification of species and their ecological inferences. This work aimed to create and maintain a didactic collection of cephalopod beaks. The curation process involved since the preparation of the preserving liquid and bottles to the choice and identification of the specimens. It was chosen to keep the collection stored in a humid way, in 80% vol. alcohol and 5% glycerin. A total of 562 beaks, from 50 taxa from different sources along the Brazilian coast, were identified from stomach contents of predators, scientific collections and commercial fishing. Although the available bibliography on curating biological collections, the lack of specific material on malacological collections, especially on cephalopod beaks, makes the curation process more difficult, hence the importance of organizing scientific and educational collections for these purposes.Keywords:Â Cephalopoda; beaks; curation; species identification.

The significance of cephalopod beaks as a research tool: An update.

The use of cephalopod beaks in ecological and population dynamics studies has allowed major advances of our knowledge on the role of cephalopods in marine ecosystems in the last 60years. Since the 1960's, with the pioneering research by Malcolm Clarke and colleagues, cephalopod beaks (also named jaws or mandibles) have been described to species level and their measurements have been shown to be related to cephalopod body size and mass, which permitted important information to be obtained on numerous biological and ecological aspects of cephalopods in marine ecosystems. In the last decade, a range of new techniques has been applied to cephalopod beaks, permitting new kinds of insight into cephalopod biology and ecology. The workshop on cephalopod beaks of the Cephalopod International Advisory Council Conference (Sesimbra, Portugal) in 2022 aimed to review the most recent scientific developments in this field and to identify future challenges, particularly in relation to taxonomy, age, growth, chemical composition (i.e., DNA, proteomics, stable isotopes, trace elements) and physical (i.e., structural) analyses. In terms of taxonomy, new techniques (e.g., 3D geometric morphometrics) for identifying cephalopods from their beaks are being developed with promising results, although the need for experts and reference collections of cephalopod beaks will continue. The use of beak microstructure for age and growth studies has been validated. Stable isotope analyses on beaks have proven to be an excellent technique to get valuable information on the ecology of cephalopods (namely habitat and trophic position). Trace element analyses is also possible using beaks, where concentrations are significantly lower than in other tissues (e.g., muscle, digestive gland, gills). Extracting DNA from beaks was only possible in one study so far. Protein analyses can also be made using cephalopod beaks. Future challenges in research using cephalopod beaks are also discussed.

Gelatinous cephalopods as important prey for a deep-sea fish predator

We quantified cephalopods consumed by longnose lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox, n = 1267 stomachs containing cephalopod remains) from 2009 to 2018 in the central North Pacific Ocean (between 0–35° N and 135–175° W). When cephalopods identified from beak remains in the stomach contents were included in diet analyses, clear increases in the abundance of gelatinous taxa and the inferred foraging depths of lancetfish were evident. Ontogeny in cephalopod consumption was evident for lancetfish, corroborating past diet studies. Small lancetfish (fork length < 97 cm) fed on smaller, muscular cephalopods from shallow habitats (0–500 m, e.g., Ommastrephidae, Onychoteuthidae), while large lancetfish (fork length ≥ 97 cm) consumed larger, gelatinous cephalopods from deeper waters (depths greater than 500 m, e.g., Amphitretidae, Cranchiidae). Cephalopod beaks were more abundant in the diets of large lancetfish, representing 37.8% of identified cephalopods, numerically. Although beaks likely remain in stomachs longer than soft tissues, they did not simply accumulate with increasing predator size. Cephalopods identified from beaks were also significantly larger than those identified from soft tissues. Despite having low average energy densities, large gelatinous cephalopods are important prey for lancetfish in deep habitats, with energetic values that are comparable to smaller, more muscular cephalopods (95.3 ± 125.8 kJ and 120.2 ± 169.4 kJ, respectively). Holistic consideration of cephalopod beaks in diet analyses will help to elucidate predator foraging behaviors and the trophic and ecological roles of gelatinous cephalopods in deep pelagic food webs.

Analysis of fall kinematics and injury risks in ground impact in car-pedestrian collisions using impulse

In vehicle-to-pedestrian collisions, pedestrian injuries occur due to contact with the car and the ground. Previous studies investigated pedestrian kinematic behavior using a parameter study or through statistical analysis although the force interaction between the pedestrian and the vehicle has not been considered.In this study, multibody analyses were conducted for vehicle–pedestrian collisions for adult and child pedestrian with various vehicle shapes. The impulse and impulse moment acting on the pedestrian from the vehicle were introduced, and the kinematic behavior, rotation and ground impact of the pedestrian model were examined. It was found that if an impulse moment acts on the pedestrian when the pedestrian re-contacts with the hood of the car, the angular velocity of the pedestrian’s torso changes in the opposite direction (away from the car), and the torso angle prior to the ground contact decreases to less than 90°. This re-contact between the pedestrian and the vehicle was more likely to occur for cases where the collision involves an adult pedestrian, lower hood leading edge (HLE), longer hood length, and lower collision velocity. When the pedestrian torso angle in contact with the ground was less than 90°, the head vertical impact velocity with respect to the ground became less than 2.9 m/s which corresponds to the injury threshold of the head.This study demonstrated that pedestrian-vehicle re-contact is crucial for reducing ground injury. The vehicle shape, pedestrian size, and collision velocity can determine whether re-contact of the pedestrian with the vehicle occurs. This can then explain the factors affecting pedestrian ground impact injury (e.g., higher HLE, higher risk of ground head injury for children) that were shown in previous studies. A strategy to mitigate ground injury is to apply enough impulse moment onto the pedestrian’s upper body from the hood in order to change the torso angular velocity during re-contact, thus making the torso angle less than 90°prior to the ground contact.

Characteristics of human movement and injury in a side collision between the front of a small car and a bicycle

ObjectiveOur research groups have studied the movement and injury characteristics of the human body in a side collision between the front of a small car and a pedestrian. This study discusses the movement and injury characteristics of the human body in a side collision between the front of a small car and bicycle. MethodsA total of 31 cases of traffic accidents caused by small car collisions when riding a bicycle across a road were collected. Through on-site inspection and trace inspection of the accident vehicles and bicycles, the speed of the car during the collision was calculated, the collision relationship between the small car and bicycle was determined, and the injury site and degree were determined through autopsy. The car speed was divided into two groups: <60 km/h and >60 km/h. Injuries of the skull, cervical spine, ribs, pelvis, femur and tibiofibular were analysed, and the correlations with the height of the bicycle controller, the height of the bicycle seat, the height of the car hood and the length of hood were discussed. PC-Crash was used for simulation analysis to further clarify the injury process. ResultsThe ratio of the height of the bicycle seat to the height of the hood plus the length of the hood in the windshield-damaged group was larger than that in the undamaged windshield group (P < 0.05). No cervical fracture was found when V < 60 km/h, and 52.94% of cases had cervical fracture when V > 60 km/h. The ratio of the height of the bicycle seat to the height of the hood in the pelvic fracture group was smaller than that in the nonpelvic fracture group (P < 0.05). The incidence of tibiofibular fracture was less than 65%. ConclusionsWhen a side impact between a car front and a bicycle occurs, the resulting human injury is related not only to the speed but also to the height of the bicycle seat and the height and length of the hood of the car. The incidence of tibiofibular fractures was significantly lower than that of small car front-pedestrian side impacts.

Every hooked beak is maintained by a prey: Ecological signal in cephalopod beak shape

AbstractBeaks are among the few hard parts of coleoid cephalopods and are informative for species identification. Although mandible shape has been shown to be adaptive in many vertebrate taxa, it has been suggested that the shape of coleoid beaks does not bear any ecological signal. Yet, previous studies only explored beak shape in 2D and none have provided an in‐depth investigation of the potential relationship with ecological variables such as habitat use or diet.The goal of the present study was to understand whether variation in cephalopod beak shape reflects ecology and/or is more driven by phylogenetic relatedness as suggested previously.We imaged 101 lower and 108 upper beaks in 3D using underwater photogrammetry and micro‐CT scanning. Our 3D morphometric analysis conducted on 75 species of cephalopod shows that there is a significant but moderate phylogenetic signal. However, comparative phylogenetically informed analyses demonstrate that beak shape is also driven by ecology.We detected significant differences in beak shape between species inhabiting different habitats (pelagic, benthic or demersal) and of different trophic levels. Our results further suggest that beak shape variation can be summarized along a continuum between two main functions: fast closing versus hard biting.These results provide novel insights into the drivers of beak shape diversity in coleoid cephalopods and suggest that beak shape has evolved adaptively in relation to diet and habitat use.Read the freePlain Language Summaryfor this article on the Journal blog.

Predicting prey recovery from scats of California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) for novel prey species and sizes

ABSTRACTDiet studies of marine top predators increasingly inform assessments of prey stocks and ecosystems, as well as predator ecology. Prey hard parts provide quantitative information on diet composition. However, species and size variation in digestion of hard parts, and thus in recovery rates, introduces bias in diet reconstruction. Captive feeding studies estimate species- and size-specific recovery rates of prey hard parts in pinnipeds, but such studies can only include a small subset of prey species and sizes consumed by these commonly generalist predators. We developed a generalized linear mixed effects model that estimates recovery rates of otoliths in California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) scats from otolith morphometrics, based on previously published captive feeding studies. The resulting model explains 85% of the variance in recovery rates among common teleost prey species of California sea lions. We also reestimated cephalopod beak recovery rate in California sea lion scats using an intercept-only mixed effects model. The resulting models can estimate recovery rates—and numerical correction factors—for novel teleost and cephalopod prey species and sizes in California sea lion scats, supporting more accurate reconstruction of diet composition in the wild and suggesting a way forward for other pinniped species.

Experimental Investigation on Filtration and Cooling Effect of Kitchen Hood Ventilation System from Water-Mist Recirculation Spray: Water-Mist Spray Cycle

A Water-mist spray system in several heavy-duty kitchen hood canopies is installed to efficiently control the high heat loads and grease emissions produced from the cooking process and for safety purposes. The main purpose of this study is to reduce water consumption by introducing the water-mist recirculation system to replace the current method water-mist system since it is working as water loss. A standard ASTM 2519 and UL 1046 full-scaled experiment is developed in the laboratory. An existing Halton Europe/Asian water-mist operating system is adopted in this study. Twelve (12) cycles (at 24 hours of water-mist activation) have been studied to determine the maximum water-mist activation cycle. The data are collected at two (2) hours water-mist activation at every water-mist recirculation cycle. The water-mist spray fluids viscosity is 0.7 cP from fresh water until the 4th cycle (8 hours water-mist spray) and increase 14.29% (0.8 cP) at the 5th cycle to the 12th cycle. On average, the difference in gas emissions percentage for CO concentration between fresh water until the 4th cycle is 10.81 – 18.92% while the CO2 concentration is 12.33 – 18.22%. On average, the difference in cooling effects percentage for ducting temperature between fresh water until the 4th cycle is 5.55% while the hood temperature is 2.33%. From the study, the water-mist recirculation system could save up to 611,667 litres per year and 466,798.5 litres per year water for all U.S, European, and Asian kitchen hood designs per hood length. By adopting the new water-mist recirculation system to the current water-mist kitchen hood, the water operational cost for water successfully reduced to RM 4,889.63 per year and RM 6,977.86 per year for U.S design and European or Asian design per hood length respectively. The water-mist recirculation system has great potential to improve the current water-mist system for the commercial kitchen hood.

Cephalopods in the diet of Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) from the Mediterranean Sea: A review

AbstractThe Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus, is a deep‐sea cetacean with a predominantly teuthophagous diet. Its distribution in the northwest Mediterranean is generally in deeper waters, but there is little information on diet or feeding areas. To extend knowledge of the diet of G. griseus, the stomach contents of six stranded Risso's dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea were analyzed. A total of 578 cephalopod beaks (166 uppers and 392 lowers) were found, identified as 386 individuals from 19 different species of Coleoidea cephalopods, one Sepiolida, eight Octopoda, and ten species belonging to the Order Oegopsida. This adds six species of cephalopods to those previously recorded in the Mediterranean Sea: Rondeletiola minor, Eledone moschata, Scaeurgus unicirrhus, Bathypolypus sponsalis, Pteroctopus tetracirrhus and Taonius pavo. In this study the most abundant prey family was Histioteuthidae. In addition, based on the available literature, the diet of 39 Risso's dolphins was reviewed in Mediterranean waters. The abundance of cephalopod species in the diet of these specimens was compared according to genus, geographical area, season, and age. The habitat of the prey of G. griseus was reviewed, suggesting a teuthophagous diet in this area. This study helps to identify both the prey species and the areas where prey are available in the northwest Mediterranean, which are key factors in establishing the limits and regulations of the “Northwest Mediterranean Sea, Slope and Canyon IMMA System” (Important Areas for Marine Mammals) proposed by the Working Group on Marine Mammal Protected Areas (MMPATF ‐ IUCN).