Benthic marine litter in shallow fishing grounds in the NW Mediterranean Sea.

Fisheries are one of the main economic sectors affected by marine litter, which can damage gear, reduce catch, and require time to repair or clean nets. This study aims to evaluate the type and density of marine litter in two shallow fishing grounds in the NW Mediterranean Sea, both belonging to the Natura 2000 network. Moreover, it quantifies the fraction of marine litter within the total catch to help understand the potential influence of marine litter on fisheries. Two study areas were selected, one in the vicinity of urban populated areas and high navigational traffic and one in a rural site off an agricultural area. The urban area had more benthic marine litter (393 to 198 kg km-2) including clinker (residue from coal-burning steamships), fabric, plastics, and processed wood and accounting for up to 38% of the total catch. The rural area had far less marine litter (34-56 kg km-2), accounting for only 5% of the total catch. Marine litter may have potential negative effects on fisheries; thus we propose that government credit trading programs could be promoted to help recover litter from fishing catches, to reduce fishing costs and hazards to marine ecosystems.

Removing allometric effects of body size in morphological analysis.

In the present paper, a normalization technique to scale data that exhibit an allometric growth is presented and the way it has to be used is described. It is shown how the method has been derived from the theoretical equations of allometric growth. Consequently, the method completely removes all the information related to size, not only scaling all individuals to the same size, but also adjusting their shape to that they would have in the new size according to allometry. In the particular case of isometry when the measures are of identical dimension, this normalization coincides with ratios (one of the most popular methods but only valid in this particular case). This procedure is a theoretical generalization of the technique used by Thorpe (1975, Biol. J. Linn. Soc.7, 27-43; 1976, Biol. Rev.51, 407-452) which was recorded as one of the most efficient methods in the empirical evaluation done by Reist (1985, Can. J. Zool.63, 1429-1439).

CD34+ cell dose and CD33- subsets: collection and engraftment kinetics in autologous peripheral blood stem cells transplantation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: We analyzed the factors that affected the number and quality of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) collected for transplant in order to establish a minimum threshold for rapid hematopoietic recovery. DESIGN AND METHODS: From January 1995 to November 1996, a consecutive series of 67 patients, with hematologic and solid tumors underwent autologous PBSC transplantation. Collection of PBSC was performed after mobilization with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) or with chemotherapy (CT) plus G-CSF. We calculated the factors that influenced PBSC collection, the kinetics of granulocyte and platelet recovery and the threshold value of CD34+ cells for a rapid recovery. The data were analyzed by means of multivariate Cox regression model and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methodology. RESULTS: Our results showed that mobilization with chemotherapy plus G-CSF was associated with a higher yield of PBSC in comparison with mobilization with G-CSF alone. Disease status, fewer cycles of conventional prior chemotherapy and absence of prior radiation therapy also influenced the yield of PBSC. The number of CD34+ cells, CD34+CD33- cell subsets, the mobilization schedule, and the conditioning regimen correlated significantly with time to hematopoietic recovery. In the multivariate analysis only the CD34+CD33- cell content and the total number of CD34+ were related with rapid neutrophil and platelet recovery, respectively. Use of G-CSF after transplant significantly shortened the neutrophil recovery time only in patients transplanted with suboptimal dose of PBSC. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest the utility of quantitation of CD34+ cells subsets to predict quick engraftment.