Short Note Reports Research Articles

Movement patterns and underestimation of the maximum age of a Vulnerable endemic guitarfish species inferred from mark-recapture studies

Data collected from mark-recapture programmes have proven invaluable in assessing the movements and growth of numerous fishery species along the South African coastline. This short note reports on tag and recapture information on the Vulnerable endemic lesser guitarfish Acroteriobatus annulatus. This species appears to exhibit site-affinity behaviour, with an observed mean distance moved of 38.5 km (SD 121.4, range 0–726 km). The recapture of two individuals (tagged as adults; ∼100 cm total length) 6 and 12 years after tagging suggests that the maximum age for this species is likely more than double the current maximum recorded age of 7 years (estimated from vertebral ring counts). This has major implications for the management of this bycatch species (with a declining population trend), and for other guitarfish species occurring in South Africa for which the maximum age is currently unknown.

New findings of Nudipleura (Mollusca: Gastropoda) along the central-eastern coast of Sicily (Ionian Sea)

The present short note reports the finding of five Nudipleura species: one (Taringa cf. telopia) new for the Mediterranean, two (Doto maculata and Okenia longiductis) new for Sicily, one (Berthella stellata) new for the central-eastern coast of Sicily and, finally, a new record of Taringa tritorquis for the same area. For each species, information on date and site of finding, external morphology, taxonomic history, previous reports and remarks, are discussed. The finding of these species could depend on two different reasons: 1) the examined areas are transit zones for several ships which could transport the veligers or/and juvenile stages through fouling or ballast water; 2) since in these areas the marine Heterobranchia fauna has been poorly studied, many of the found species could have been overlooked until now. This work highlights the importance of a continuous monitoring to expand and deepen the knowledge of marine Heterobranchia fauna.

Calliptamus italicus at 3050 m: a first evidence of dispersal across the Alps? (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

Calliptamus italicus (Linnaeus, 1758) is a polyphagous grasshopper widely distributed from Europe to central Asia, known to perform long-range migrations during its gregarious phase, especially in the eastern part of its range. In the Alps, this species mostly occurs in dry grassland habitats in valley floors or on well-exposed slopes, usually establishing resident populations below 2000 m, but information on its dispersal patterns in this geographical area are still lacking. This short note reports an unusual observation of C. italicus at high eleva- tion (3050 m) in the Cottian Alps, with a description of the associated local habitat features and short-term weather conditions. Although based on a single record, hypotheses on the possible underlying dispersal processes are provided, discussing whether this observation may represent or not a first evidence of a migration behaviour by Italian locusts across the Alpine ridge. The performance of either a local movement or a long-range migration is firstly hypothesized, due to the apparent suitability of the short-term weather conditions (i.e. no rain, increase in temperatures and wind intensity). However, since the specimen was missing the left hind leg, thus potentially compro- mising its dispersal capacity, a third hypothesis of an animal- or human-mediated transport is also considered. Given that the available data are not sufficient to definitely ascertain whether C. italicus is able to disperse in autonomy across the Alps or not, further records are needed in future to verify the hypotheses presented here and to enhance the detail of the environmental variables possibly involved.

First Record of Fowlea Sanctijohannis Boulenger, 1890 (Serpentes: Colubridae) From Uttarakhand state, North India With a Photographic Plate and Comments on its Taxonomic Status

This short note reports about the occurrence of Fowlea sanctijohannis Boulenger, 1890 in the State of Uttarakhand, North India. Species has been recorded from the Lansdowne Forest Division, which falls under the tropical dry deciduous forest type. Based on the morphological characters and quite a few available records; ecological data and taxonomic status has been illustrated. The species was earlier reported from only northern and northeastern parts of India (the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the States of Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam). This report constitutes the first ever record of a new range of Fowlea sanctijohannis in the North India. Besides, this report also establishes an addition to the herpetofauna of the Uttarakhand State. It is recommended that a baseline study be initiated to demark the geographical distribution and status of the species in India for its better protection and conservation.

The first report of selected herbicides and fungicides in water and fish from a highly utilized and polluted freshwater urban impoundment.

Many of South Africa's freshwater impoundments are compromised by pesticide pollution, and the Roodeplaat Dam, near Pretoria, is no exception. This paper is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report of the herbicides Dacthal, metribuzin, simazine, tebuthiuron, terbuthylazine, and the fungicides azoxystrobin, carbendazim, epoxiconazole, metalaxyl (Ridomil), propiconazole, pyrimethanil and thiabendazole in a South African freshwater impoundment. This short note reports on the screening results of water and muscle tissue samples against a comprehensive library of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in the polluted Roodeplaat Dam. Muscle samples of Oreochromis mossambicus screened positive for p,p'-DDE and p,p'-DDD and for DCPA (chlorthal-methyl). The muscle tissue of Clarias gariepinus screened positive for p,p'-DDE and p,p'-DDD, chlorpyrifos, trans-chlordane, DCPA and terbuthylazine. The presence of these pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in this impoundment is of great concern as there is substantial evidence of adverse health effects in fish exposed to these chemicals.

Vinegar and weight loss in women of eighteenth-century France: a lesson from the past.

This short note reports the eighteenth-century account of Mademoiselle Lapaneterie, a French woman who started drinking vinegar to lose weight and died one month later. The case, which was first published by Pierre Desault in 1733, has not yet been reported by present-day behavioural scholars. Similar reports about cases in 1776 are also presented, confirming that some women were using vinegar for weight loss. Those cases can be conceived as a lesson from the past for contemporary policies against the deceptive marketing of potentially hazardous weight-loss products.

A note on a lowest order divergence‐free Stokes element on quadrilaterals

This short note reports a lowest order divergence‐free Stokes element on quadrilateral meshes. The velocity space is based on a P1 spline element over the crisscross partition of a quadrilateral, and the pressure is approximated by piecewise constant. For a given quadrilateral mesh, this element is stable if and only if the well‐known Q1‐P0 element is also stable. Although this method is a subspace method of Qin‐Zhang's P1‐P0 element, their velocity solutions are precisely equal. Moreover, an explicit basis representation is also provided. These theoretical findings are verified by numerical tests.

Faking Resistance of a Quasi-ipsative Forced-Choice Personality Inventory without Algebraic Dependence

This short research note reports on a study on the robustness of a quasi-ipsative forced-choice (FC) personality inventory for controlling the effects of faking. A sample of 126 active managers was randomly divided in three independent groups, with 42 individuals per group. We used an experimental three-group design in which the independent variable was the instructional set (faking, neutral, and honest), and the dependent variables were the scores in the Big Five personality dimensions. The results showed that the average effect sizes were .01, -.02, and 0 for the comparisons among fakinghonest, faking-neutral, and neutral-honest groups. These findings showed that the quasi-ipsative FC format with algebraic non-dependence among the scales is a very robust way of controlling faking. We recommend practitioners to use this technology for making personnel ion decisions.

The feasibility of assessing speech and non-speech function of the speech apparatus in adults with cerebral palsy

ABSTRACTThis short note reports on observations concerning the feasibility of a set of speech and non-speech assessment tasks in an investigation of dysarthria in 21 adults (15 males/6 females; median 23 years) with cerebral palsy and concomitant cognitive impairment. The participants were assessed with nine tasks representing standard components of clinical dysarthria assessment (i.e. six speech and three non-speech tasks). The tasks were evaluated for their feasibility on the basis of common clinical criteria. Our results indicated that, overall, speech tasks were more feasible than non-speech tasks. Several participants showed signs of dysexecutive behaviour on some of the non-speech tasks, but not on the speech tasks. The current note provides tentative clues regarding the impact of cognitive deficits on the feasibility of assessment tasks in the diagnosis of dysarthria.

Preliminary Investigation of Ba-rich Sanidine in Phonolites of Badmer, Rajasthan

Abstract: In melaphonolite of the Sarnu-Dandali, Badmer alkaline complex, high Ba- K-feldspar (sanidine) occurs as phenocrysts. Ba concentration ranges between 2% and 10% by weigth from core to rim. Many BSE images of this Ba-rich sanidine were examined. Large numbers of zoned Ba-rich sanidine phenocrysts were analysed using electron microprobe. BaO shows positive correlation with Al2O3 while there is negative correlation between BaO and K2O suggesting substitution of K by Ba. Petrographic evidence is clear that K-feldspar phenocrysts reacted with the melt which was getting richer in Ba during fractionation of melanephelinite to melaphonolite and subsequently this Ba deposited on the rims of K-feldspar. This short note reports results of preliminary investigation of number of Ba-rich sanidine grains from melaphonolite of Badmer and suggests incompatible behaviour Ba and that it was getting enriched in the melt during crystallization of magma.

Classic papers in psychology: From theory to practice

Who are the most prestigious authors cited in today’s psychology textbooks and journals? And where are (or where were) they based? This short note reports on the answers gained to such questions by using the Web of Science Core Collection to find the authors of the most highly cited papers in psychology published between 1927 and 2012. The findings suggest that well–known historic figures of the past have now been replaced with tool makers.

Cancer note from the slums

This short note reports on the difficulties facing a community leader in Guayaquil, whom the author has known for more than 30 years, in getting and affording treatment for breast cancer. It serves as a reminder that low-income households in low- and middle-income nations face many of the same health risks from non-communicable diseases as higher-income groups, but cannot get appropriate treatment from public health care and cannot afford private treatment.

Sinelobus stanfordi (Richardson, 1901): A new crustacean invader in Europe

This short note reports on the first European records of Sinelobus stanfordi (Crustacea: Tanaidacea: Tanaidae). The species ha s been recorded from five different water bodies in the Dutch coastal area and in the docks of the Belgian harbour of Antwerp. S. stanfordi was until now not known to inhabit (North-) European coasts and estuaries. It is thus very likely that its origin is non-indigenous.

Fulvia fragilis (Forsskål in Niebuhr, 1775) (Bivalvia: Cardiidae), an alien species new to the Maltese malacofauna

* Corresponding author Abstract This short note reports the presence of the lessepsian bivalve Fulvia fragilis (Forsskal in Niebuhr, 1775) in Maltese waters at the central Mediterranean. The first occurrence here at the SE of Malta, in the bay behind the Freeport terminal, with much recent shipping activities, strongly suggests that the mode of transportation is through ballast water.

A Godunov-type Finite Volume Scheme for Meso- and Micro-scale Flows in Three Dimensions

This short note reports the extension of the f-waves approximate Riemann solver (Ahmad and Lindeman, 2007; LeVeque, 2002; Bale et al., 2002) for three-dimensional meso- and micro-scale atmospheric flows. The Riemann solver employs flux-based wave decomposition for the calculation of Godunov fluxes and does not require the explicit definition of the Roe matrix to enforce conservation. The other important feature of the Riemann solver is its ability to incorporate source term due to gravity without introducing discretization errors. The resulting finite volume scheme is second-order accurate in space and time. The finite-difference schemes currently used in atmospheric flow models are neither conservative nor able to resolve regions of sharp gradients. The finite volume scheme described in this paper is fully conservative and has the ability to resolve regions of sharp gradients without introducing spurious oscillations in the solution. The scheme shows promise in accurately resolving flows on the meso- and micro-scales and should be considered for implementation in the dynamical cores of next generation meso- and micro-scale atmospheric flow models.

Fluorescence properties of Sm 3+: ZnCl 2BaCl 2LiCl glass

This short note reports the emission spectra of Sm 3+ (1 mol%): ZnCl 2BaCl 2LiCl glass. The measured spectral profiles and the data confirm the dependence of emission peak intensities and their lifetimes on the excitation wavelengths used. Under an UV source, we have also noticed a bright and strong orange-reddish emission color. We have identified four emission transitions such as 4 G 5/2→ 6 H 5/2 (564 nm), 4 G 5/2→ 6 H 7/2 (602 nm), 4 G 5/2→ 6 H 9/2 (644 nm), and 4 G 5/2→ 6 H 11/2 (703 nm) from the fluorescence spectra of Sm 3+-doped ZnCl 2BaCl 2LiCl glass at all the excitation wavelengths employed.

Derivation of the threshold and absolute temperature Tc=273.16 K from the topology of quantum space-time

This short note reports on an exact formula for determining the threshold and absolute temperature Tc=273.16K from “elementary considerations” using exclusively the topological invariants of E(∞) quantum space-time. It also gives a short outline of the derivation leading to the main result and its relevance to cosmology and high energy physics.

Convergence in access to safe water and adequate sanitation: an analysis across countries and time

This short note reports that developing countries have tended to converge in terms of percentage of population having access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation between 1980 and 1993-1996. It suggests that this represents a good message, but no reason for complacency. Enormous efforts are still needed until all people on earth can enjoy access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

Undaria pinnatifida (Fucophyceae, Laminariales) spread in the central Mediterranean: Its occurrence in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Ionian Sea, southern Italy)

The present short note reports the occurrence of the brown alga Undaria pinnatifida (Harvey) Suringar in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Ionian Sea, central Mediterranean, southern Italy), an enclosed basin subject to domestic and industrial pollution.

Absorption spectrum - energy level structure parameters of Ho3+:LiTaO3 crystal

This short note reports the values of energy level structure parameters of Racah (El, E2, E3). Slater Integral (F2, F4, F6). spin-orbit (ζ4f). Configurational interaction(α,β,γ) from the measured absorption spectrum of Ho3+:LiTaO3 crystal. The experimental absorption band energies have satisfactorily been correlated with the theoretical data with an r.m.s deviation of ±102 cm−1 on performing a least-square fit analysis.