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Euphausiids, or krill, are important energy links between primary producers and higher trophic levels in the California Current Ecosystem (CCE), but a thorough understanding of their variability at the coast-wide scale is limited. Using fisheries acoustics data collected during biennial joint US–Canada Integrated Ecosystem and Acoustic Trawl Surveys for Pacific hake (Merluccius productus), we developed a time series (n = 8 years; 2007–2019 odd years inclusive, and 2012) of krill abundance and examined relationships with environmental factors. Krill were located in waters off the west coasts of the United States and Canada, primarily in shallow basins and on the continental shelf, with greatest kernel density estimates near Cape Mendocino and the Juan de Fuca eddy system. Coast-wide krill abundance was variable, and lowest in 2015 during an extended marine heat wave, when 91% were located in British Columbia. Using hierarchical generalized additive models, we predicted greatest krill abundance in cooler waters (0.2°C below the time series average), within 10–20 km of the shelf break, and in bottom depths between 200 and 400 m. This newly developed coast-wide time series of krill abundance and distribution will inform ecosystem-based fisheries management efforts, and offers additional opportunities for studies of krill-dependent fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.

To review the evidence base for mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for the treatment of anxiety and depression in older people. A systematic review was conducted, based on Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. Any study design focusing on qualitative or quantitative data was considered for review. Inclusion criteria were mindfulness-based cognitive therapy; symptoms of anxiety and/or depression; older age; and qualitative and/or quantitative methods. Studies not in English were excluded from the review. Ten studies evaluating the use of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to treat older participants with anxiety and/or depression were identified as potentially eligible for inclusion. Of these, nine met the eligibility criteria and were of sufficient methodological quality to be included in the review. These nine studies included five mixed method studies, one non-controlled quasi-experimental study, one wait-list controlled quasi-experimental study, a collection of five single case reports and a randomized controlled trial. To date there is insufficient evidence for the use of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to treat anxiety and depression in older adults. Existing preliminary studies report positive results but have multiple methodological weaknesses that limit their utility in informing clinical practice. Further rigorous research is warranted, to establish an evidence base for mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in older people with anxiety and/or depression.

Five Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) were deployed off the west coasts of the U.S. and Canada in summer 2018 as a first step toward evaluating the effectiveness and efficacy of USVs as survey/research platforms. The Saildrone USVs (Saildrone, Inc.) surveyed a total of 5,400 nmi along 124 transects between Vancouver Island, BC and the Southern California Bight, CA, mirroring the transect design of the Coastal Pelagic Species Survey conducted with the NOAA Fisheries Survey Vessel (FSV) Reuben Lasker. Such a survey design allowed the comparison of USV and FSV acoustic data while also evaluating the operational feasibility and navigational performance of the USVs. Acoustic data were analyzed and their quality evaluated. The potential applications of using USVs to conduct quantitative ecosystem acoustic surveys will also be discussed.

Compared with oocytes matured in vivo, in vitro-matured oocytes are compromised in their capacity to support early embryo development. Delaying spontaneous in vitro meiotic maturation using specific phosphodiesterase (PDE) isoenzyme inhibitors may permit more complete oocyte cytoplasmic maturation, possibly by prolonging cumulus cell (CC)-oocyte gap junctional communication during meiotic resumption. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the isoenzyme 3- (oocyte) and isoenzyme 4- (granulosa cell) specific PDE inhibitors on the kinetics of in vitro maturation and on subsequent oocyte developmental competence. Cumulus-oocyte complexes from antral bovine follicles were isolated and cultured in the presence of the specific PDE inhibitors milrinone (type 3) or rolipram (type 4) (100 mM). In the presence of FSH, both PDE inhibitors only slightly extended CC-oocyte gap junctional communication over the first 9 h, but they completely blocked meiotic resumption during this period (P , 0.001). The indefinite inhibitory effect of milrinone on meiotic resumption (30% at germinal vesicle stage after 48 h) was overridden by 24 h when treated with FSH, but not with hCG, suggesting a form of induced meiotic resumption. Oocytes treated with FSH with or without either PDE inhibitor were inseminated at either 24, 26, or 28 h. Treated with either the type 3 or type 4 PDE inhibitor significantly (P , 0.05) increased embryo development to the blastocyst stage by 33%‐39% (to an average of 52% blastocysts) compared with control oocytes (38%) after insemination at 28 h, and significantly (P , 0.05) increased blastocyst cell numbers when inseminated at 24 h. These results suggest that delayed spontaneous meiotic maturation, coupled with extended gap junctional communication between the CCs and the oocyte has a positive effect on oocyte cytoplasmic maturation, thereby improving oocyte developmental potential. cumulus cells, cyclic adenosine monophosphate, embryo, meiosis, phosphodiestrases

In the growing follicle, communication between the oocyte and its surrounding follicular cells is essential for normal oocyte and follicular development. Maturation of the fully grown oocyte in vivo is associated with the loss of cumulus cell-oocyte gap junctional communication, preventing entry of meioticmodulating factors such as cAMP into the oocyte. We have previously shown that oocyte and cumulus cell cAMP levels can be independently regulated using inhibitors of cell-specific phosphodiesterase (PDE) isoenzymes. The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of cell type-specific PDE inhibitors on the maintenance of cumulus cell-oocyte gap junction communication (GJC) and oocyte meiotic progression. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were aspirated from antral follicles of abattoir-derived ovaries. Cumulus cell-oocyte GJC during oocyte maturation was quantified using the fluorescent dye, calceinAM. COCs were cultured in the presence of specific PDE inhibitors, milrinone (an oocyte PDE3 inhibitor) or rolipram (a cumulus cell PDE4 inhibitor), and were pulsed with calcein-AM to allow dye transfer between the two cell types. Following cumulus cell removal, fluorescence in denuded oocytes was measured by microphotometry, and meiotic progression was assessed. In control COCs, dye transfer from cumulus cells to the oocyte fell progressively from 0 to 9 h, after which oocyte-cumulus cell GJC was completely lost. Loss of GJC was significantly attenuated (P , 0.05) during this time in response to treatment with milrinone and rolipram. Forskolin maintained GJC at the initia l0hl eveluntil 3‐4 h of culture, whereas treatment with milrinone and forskolin together actually increased the level of dye transfer above that in COCs treated with forskolin alone. Importantly, all treatments that prolonged GJC also delayed meiotic resumption, with meiosis generally resuming when fluorescence had fallen to ;40% of initial levels. These results, together with our previous studies, demonstrate that treatments that maintain or elevate cAMP levels in cumulus cells, oocytes, or both result in prolonged oocyte-cumulus cell communication and delayed meiotic resumption. cumulus cells, cyclic adenosine monophosphate, meiosis, oocyte development, phosphodiesterases

Background Relatively little is known about how scorecards presenting performance indicators influence medication safety. We evaluated the effects of implementing a ward-level medication safety scorecard piloted in two English NHS hospitals and factors influencing these. Methods We used a mixed methods, controlled before and after design. At baseline, wards were audited on medication safety indicators; during the ‘feedback’ phase scorecard results were presented to intervention wards on a weekly basis over 7 weeks. We interviewed 49 staff, including clinicians and managers, about scorecard implementation. Results At baseline, 18.7% of patients (total n=630) had incomplete allergy documentation; 53.4% of patients (n=574) experienced a drug omission in the preceding 24 h; 22.5% of omitted doses were classified as ‘critical’; 22.1% of patients (n=482) either had ID wristbands not reflecting their allergy status or no ID wristband; and 45.3% of patients (n=237) had drugs that were either unlabelled or labelled for another patient in their drug lockers. The quantitative analysis found no significant improvement in intervention wards following scorecard feedback. Interviews suggested staff were interested in scorecard feedback and described process and culture changes. Factors influencing scorecard implementation included ‘normalisation’ of errors, study duration, ward leadership, capacity to engage and learning preferences. Discussion Presenting evidence-based performance indicators may potentially influence staff behaviour. Several practical and cultural factors may limit feedback effectiveness and should be considered when developing improvement interventions. Quality scorecards should be designed with care, attending to evidence of indicators’ effectiveness and how indicators and overall scorecard composition fit the intended audience.

Although it is well established that health care professionals use tacit and codified knowledge to provide front-line care, less is known about how these two forms of knowledge can be combined to support improvement related to patient safety. Patient safety interventions involving the codification of knowledge were co-designed by university and hospital-based staff in two English National Health Service (NHS) hospitals to support the governance of medication safety and mortality and morbidity (MM) meetings. At hospital A, a structured mortality review process was introduced into three clinical specialities from January to December 2010. A qualitative approach of observing MM meetings (n = 30) and conducting interviews (n = 40) was used to examine the impact on meetings and on front-line clinicians and hospital managers. At hospital B, a medication safety 'scorecard' was administered on a general medicine and elderly care ward from September to November 2011. Weekly feedback meetings were observed (n = 18) and interviews with front-line staff conducted (n = 10) to examine how knowledge codification influenced behaviour. Codification was shown to support learning related to patient safety at the micro (front-line service) level by structuring the sharing of tacit knowledge, but the presence of professional and managerial boundaries at the organisational level affected the codification initiatives' implementation. The findings suggest that codifying knowledge to support improvement presents distinct challenges at the group and organisational level; translating knowledge across these levels is contingent on the presence of enabling organisational factors, including the alignment of learning from clinical practice with its governance.

[1] In the northern California Current, the onset of the 2005 upwelling season was five weeks later than usual, and well-established upwelling with a cold surface signature did not occur until about seven weeks after this. As part of the joint US-Canada Pacific hake survey, from 14–16 July 2005 we occupied the Newport Hydrographic line at 44.65°N, from the Oregon coast to 83 km offshore. Instead of the cold surface layer expected in July, we observed anomalously warm water. For example, 10-m temperature at the shelf station NH-5 was the warmest ever recorded in July at this location: 6.2°C above average, with observations back to 1961. We explore the pivotal role played by cumulative (time-integrated) wind forcing in the development of upwelling, in both 2005 and previous years. We find that 80% of July surface layer (0–30 m) interannual temperature variance can be explained by cumulative upwelling index from the spring transition.

In the growing follicle, communication between the oocyte and its surrounding follicular cells is essential for normal oocyte and follicular development. Maturation of the fully grown oocyte in vivo is associated with the loss of cumulus cell-oocyte gap junctional communication, preventing entry of meiotic-modulating factors such as cAMP into the oocyte. We have previously shown that oocyte and cumulus cell cAMP levels can be independently regulated using inhibitors of cell-specific phosphodiesterase (PDE) isoenzymes. The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of cell type-specific PDE inhibitors on the maintenance of cumulus cell-oocyte gap junction communication (GJC) and oocyte meiotic progression. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were aspirated from antral follicles of abattoir-derived ovaries. Cumulus cell-oocyte GJC during oocyte maturation was quantified using the fluorescent dye, calcein-AM. COCs were cultured in the presence of specific PDE inhibitors, milrinone (an oocyte PDE3 inhibitor) or rolipram (a cumulus cell PDE4 inhibitor), and were pulsed with calcein-AM to allow dye transfer between the two cell types. Following cumulus cell removal, fluorescence in denuded oocytes was measured by microphotometry, and meiotic progression was assessed. In control COCs, dye transfer from cumulus cells to the oocyte fell progressively from 0 to 9 h, after which oocyte-cumulus cell GJC was completely lost. Loss of GJC was significantly attenuated (P0.05) during this time in response to treatment with milrinone and rolipram. Forskolin maintained GJC at the initial 0 h level until 3-4 h of culture, whereas treatment with milrinone and forskolin together actually increased the level of dye transfer above that in COCs treated with forskolin alone. Importantly, all treatments that prolonged GJC also delayed meiotic resumption, with meiosis generally resuming when fluorescence had fallen to approximately 40% of initial levels. These results, together with our previous studies, demonstrate that treatments that maintain or elevate cAMP levels in cumulus cells, oocytes, or both result in prolonged oocyte-cumulus cell communication and delayed meiotic resumption.

It is difficult to attribute underwater animal sounds to the individuals producing them. This paper presents a system developed to solve this problem for dolphins by linking acoustic locations of the sounds of captive bottlenose dolphins with an overhead video image. A time-delay beamforming algorithm localized dolphin sounds obtained from an array of hydrophones dispersed around a lagoon. The localized positions of vocalizing dolphins were projected onto video images. The performance of the system was measured for artificial calibration signals as well as for dolphin sounds. The performance of the system for calibration signals was analyzed in terms of acoustic localization error, video projection error, and combined acoustic localization and video error. The 95% confidence bounds for these were 1.5, 2.1, and 2.1 m, respectively. Performance of the system was analyzed for three types of dolphin sounds: echolocation clicks, whistles, and burst-pulsed sounds. The mean errors for these were 0.8, 1.3, and 1.3 m, respectively. The 95% confidence bound for all vocalizations was 2.8 m, roughly the length of an adult bottlenose dolphin. This system represents a significant advance for studying the function of vocalizations of marine animals in relation to their context, as the sounds can be identified to the vocalizing dolphin and linked to its concurrent behavior.

The differential regulation of cAMP levels within the oocyte and somatic (cumulus) cell compartments of the bovine follicle, and the subsequent regulation of oocyte meiotic maturation was examined through specific cell-type localisation of phosphodiesterases (PDEs). Selective PDE inhibitors were used to modulate cAMP levels in each of the two follicular compartments and to examine their effects on oocyte meiotic maturation. Ovaries were obtained from an abattoir and cumulus-oocyte complexes (COC) were aspirated from antral follicles into culture medium supplemented with 4 mg/ml BSA and 2mM 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX). COC, denuded oocytes (DO), or mural granulosa cells (MGC) were cultured either with or without forskolin or FSH, in the presence of specific PDE inhibitors; either milrinone (PDE3 inhibitor), cilostamide (PDE3 inhibitor), or rolipram (PDE4 inhibitor). COC/DO cultures were assessed for meiotic progression and cAMP content, and MGC for cAMP production. The type 3 PDE inhibitor, but not the type 4, prevented spontaneous meiotic maturation and elevated intraoocyte cAMP in cultured denuded oocytes. In contrast, the type 4 PDE inhibitor had no effect on the oocyte, but elevated mural granulosa and cumulus cell cAMP production. The results of this study indicate that specific PDE subtypes are differentially localised within the two compartments of the bovine follicle—the type 3 PDE in the oocyte and the type 4 PDE in the granulosa cells. In addition, oocyte cAMP levels are primarily regulated in bovine oocytes by its degradation by PDE, whereas granulosa cell cAMP levels are controlled mainly by active adenylate cyclase, with both sources able to participate in oocyte meiotic regulation.

The population of Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) has seen an explosion in the Eastern North Pacific over the last several years. The species has gone from being rarely seen in the waters off OR, WA, and BC to becoming a major predator in the marine food web in this area. This population explosion has the potential to cause large impacts in major fish stocks. The biennial 2009 Joint U.S.‐Canada Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) acoustic trawl survey also noted large amounts of Humboldt over much of the survey area. Because Humboldt squid could be acoustically confused with Pacific hake, and because the presence of Humboldt squid disrupted the normal shoaling pattern of hake, an estimated depth threshold was used to help distinguish Humboldt squid from hake. Accordingly, the biomass estimate of Pacific hake for 2009 was less certain. Several methods were explored to quantify the uncertainty and assess the reliability of the hake biomass estimate.

Echo integration is a commonly used technique for assessment of fish stocks. In echo integration, a frequently used method to increase the signal‐to‐noise ratio is to ignore data below a set volume backscattering threshold. Although this form of thresholding is common, objective and replicable techniques for choosing this threshold are rarely used. Two opposing goals come into play when choosing an optimal threshold for estimating fish biomass using echo integration: maximizing the energy from backscatterers of interest, while simultaneously minimizing the energy from backscatterers not of interest. Both empirical and modeling techniques for choosing optimal thresholds were demonstrated using data from the 2003 integrated acoustic and trawl survey of Pacific hake. Empirical techniques were based on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. An ROC curve is a graphical plot of the number of true positives versus false positives for a binary classification system as the discrimination threshold is varied. Modeling techniques were based on volume backscattering data generated from modeled TS and density of hake and nonhake scatterers. For the case study using the 2003 Pacific hake survey, the historical threshold used for the southern portion of the survey was shown to be nonoptimal for that year.