361. Recurrent jellyfish blooms are a consequence of global oscillationsRobert H. Condon, Carlos M. Duarte, Kylie A. Pitt, Kelly L. Robinson, Cathy H. Lucas, Kelly R. Sutherland, Hermes Mianzan, Molly Bogeberg, Jennifer E. Purcell, Mary Beth Decker, Uye Shin-Ichi, Laurence P. Madin, Richard D. Brodeur, Steven Harold David Haddock, Alenka Malej, Gregory D. Parry, Elena Eriksen, Javier Quiñones, E. Marcelo Acha, Michel Harvey, James M. Arthur, William M. Graham, 2013, original scientific article Abstract: A perceived recent increase in global jellyfish abundance has been portrayed as a symptom of degraded oceans. This perception is based primarily on a few case studies and anecdotal evidence, but a formal analysis of global temporal trends in jellyfish populations has been missing. Here, we analyze all available long-term datasets on changes in jellyfish abundance across multiple coastal stations, using linear and logistic mixed models and effect-size analysis to show that there is no robust evidence for a global increase in jellyfish. Although there has been a small linear increase in jellyfish since the 1970s, this trend was unsubstantiated by effect-size analysis that showed no difference in the proportion of increasing vs. decreasing jellyfish populations over all time periods examined. Rather, the strongest nonrandom trend indicated jellyfish populations undergo larger, worldwide oscillations with an approximate 20-y periodicity, including a rising phase during the 1990s that contributed to the perception of a global increase in jellyfish abundance. Sustained monitoring is required over the next decade to elucidate with statistical confidence whether the weak increasing linear trend in jellyfish after 1970 is an actual shift in the baseline or part of an oscillation. Irrespective of the nature of increase, given the potential damage posed by jellyfish blooms to fisheries, tourism, and other human industries, our findings foretell recurrent phases of rise and fall in jellyfish populations that society should be prepared to face.
Published in DiRROS: 26.03.2025; Views: 110; Downloads: 121
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362. New Mediterranean marine biodiversity records (April, 2014) : collective article AKostas Kapiris, Lovrenc Lipej, Borut Mavrič, 2014, original scientific article Abstract: According to reports, the following 16 species have extended their distribution to other Mediterranean areas or have made a new appearance in other regions. The first category includes the following organisms: The rare and common Indo-Pacific seaweed Codium arabicum (Lebanese coasts), the acari Thalassarachna affinis (Marmara Sea), and the non-indigenous nudibranch Flabellina rubrolineata, which has also been found in many other areas of the Aegean Sea. In addition, the rare sea slug Thecacera pennigera (Piccolo of Taranto), the fangtooth moray Enchelycore anatina (National Marine Park of Zakynthos, Ionian Sea), the carangid Seriola fasciata (Gulf of Antalya), Lagocephalus sceleratus (SE. Ionian Sea), the reticulated leatherjacket Stephanolepis diaspros (Slovenia, N. Adriatic Sea), the marbled stingray, Dasyatis marmorata (NE Levantine), the starry smooth-hound Mustelus asterias (Iskenderun Bay, NE Mediterranean), the cephalopod Ommastrephes bartramii (Ionian Sea) have also been reported. The Atlantic crab Dyspanopeus sayi has expanded to many Italian areas and the blue crab Callinectes sapidus to a lake in N. Greece and in the S. Adriatic Sea. Finally, Farfantepenaeus aztecus has been found in the Ionian Sea, thus showing its wide expansion in the Mediterranean. The larval stages of Faccionella oxyrhyncha have been found, after many years, in the Aegean Sea and the first report of an existence on intersexual acari Litarachna duboscqi in Split
Published in DiRROS: 26.03.2025; Views: 138; Downloads: 67
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363. Mollusc fauna associated with the Cystoseira algal associations in the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic Sea)Valentina Pitacco, Martina Orlando-Bonaca, Borut Mavrič, Aleksandra Popovič, Lovrenc Lipej, 2014, original scientific article Abstract: Mollusc assemblages associated with Cystoseira associations were sampled in the southern part of the Gulf of Trieste during the summers of 2008 and 2012. Samples were collected by SCUBA diving in the infralittoral belt (from 1 to 4 m depth). The surface within frames of 20 x 20 cm was scraped off with sampleswere collected by hand or with an air-lift sampler. Four erected algal species were found Cystoseira barbata, C. compressa, C. corniculata and Halopithys incurva. A total of 69 species of molluscs were identified in those associations. Gastropoda were dominant, with the highest species richnessand abundance, followed bz Bivalvia and Polyplacophora. A large numberof juveniles were found, proving the importance of Cystoseira associations for mollusc recruitment. Differences in composition, structure and abundance of mollusc assemblages were found for sites dominated by different algal species, and correspond to different morphology and degree of development of canopy-forming species. The present study confirms that the dominant algal species within Cystoseira associations strongly influence, although at different levels, abundance and distribution of mollusc assemblages in the Northern Adriatic Sea.
Published in DiRROS: 26.03.2025; Views: 92; Downloads: 79
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364. Electrified dynamically responsive ammonia decomposition to hydrogen based on magnetic heating of a Ru nanocatalystŽiga Ponikvar, Anja Sedminek, Janvit Teržan, Luka Skubic, Žan Lavrič, Matej Huš, Miha Grilc, Blaž Likozar, Darko Makovec, Sašo Gyergyek, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: Storing and transporting pressurized or liquid hydrogen is expensive and hazardous. As a result, safer methods, such as chemical storage in ammonia, are becoming increasingly important. However, the instantaneous start of a conventionally heated decomposition reactor is challenging. Here we report on the electrified and dynamically responsive decomposition of ammonia as a means of releasing on-demand chemically bonded hydrogen based on the rapid magnetic heating of a well-designed Ru-based nanocomposite catalyst. Under relatively mild conditions (400 °C, 1 bar) a rapid decomposition rate of 5.33 molNH3 gRu-1 h-1 was achieved. Experimental observations under non-isothermal, dynamic conditions coupled with modelling at the level of density functional theory and micro-kinetic modeling confirmed the minute-scale response of the H2 release. The rapid response of our catalytic system would, at least in principle, enable the utilization of intermittent, renewable electricity and a tunable H2/NH3 ratio in the reactor’s effluent.
Published in DiRROS: 25.03.2025; Views: 166; Downloads: 44
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365. Refined radial basis function-generated finite difference analysis of non-Newtonian natural convectionMiha Rot, Gregor Kosec, 2025, original scientific article Abstract: In this paper, we present a refined radial basis function-generated finite difference solution for a non-Newtonian fluid in a closed differentially heated cavity. The non-Newtonian behavior is modeled with the Ostwald–de Waele power law and the buoyancy with the Boussinesq approximation. The problem domain is discretized with scattered nodes without any requirement for a topological relation between them. This allows a trivial generalization of the solution procedure to complex irregular three dimensional (3D) domains, which is also demonstrated by solving the problem in a two dimensional (2D) and 3D geometry mimicking a porous filter. The results in 2D are compared with two reference solutions that use the finite volume method in a conjunction with two different stabilization techniques, where we achieved good agreement with the reference data. The refinement is implemented on top of a dedicated meshless node positioning algorithm using piecewise linear node density function that ensures sufficient node density in the center of the domain while maximizing the node density in a boundary layer where the most intense dynamic is expected. The results show that with a refined approach, more than five times fewer nodes are required to obtain the results with the same accuracy compared to the regular discretization. The paper also discusses the convergence with refined discretization for different scenarios for up to nodes, the impact of method parameters, the behavior of the flow in the boundary layer, the behavior of the viscosity, and the geometric flexibility of the proposed solution procedure.
Published in DiRROS: 25.03.2025; Views: 176; Downloads: 57
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367. A family of C1 Clough-Tocher spline spaces on C0 piecewise quadratic domain partitionsJan Grošelj, Marjetka Knez, 2025, original scientific article Abstract: The paper addresses the construction of C1 splines on a curved domain that is parametrized by a C0 piecewise geometry mapping composed of quadratic Bézier triangles. The C1 splines are assembled from polynomials of a chosen total degree greater than or equal to four, and their construction is based on the Clough-Tocher splitting technique that ensures locality. In particular, the splines are locally characterized by an interpolation problem described by Hermite data, which resembles the standard macro-element concepts developed for C1 splines on triangulations.
Keywords: quadratic triangle, quadratic triangulation, isogeometric functions, Clough-Tocher refinement, spline space, dimension, basis functions
Published in DiRROS: 24.03.2025; Views: 183; Downloads: 98
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368. Influence of vineyard location, cluster thinning and spontaneous alcoholic fermentation on wine compositionFranc Čuš, Anastazija Jež Krebelj, Mateja Potisek, 2025, original scientific article Abstract: The influence of the vineyard location, the yield per vine and the type of alcoholic fermentation on the composition of Merlot wine from two consecutive vintages was investigated in a simultaneous experiment. Grapes from two locations and two crop loads per vine, from controlled and thinned vines, were vinified. At the same time, grapes from control vines were vinified with inoculated and spontaneous alcoholic fermentation. Comparisons of the wine composition were made using a targeted metabolomic approach, microbiological analysis and sensory evaluation. It has been confirmed that the composition of Merlot wine is essentially determined by the location of the vineyard. The analytical marker used to distinguish the two locations was the content of 3-mercaptohexan-1-ol (significantly higher in location B with 38–130%). It has also been shown that the type of alcoholic fermentation has a greater influence on the composition of the wine than the crop load. The analytical marker used for the cluster thinning was the pH of the wine, which increased significantly by 0.03 to 0.08 units with the lower crop load, and for the type of alcoholic fermentation, the concentration of 2-phenethyl acetate, which relates to the sum of acetates and 2-phenylethanol, which increased significantly by 58–299%, 54–218%, and 24–46% in the spontaneously fermented wines. Both the location of the vineyard and spontaneous alcoholic fermentation influenced the significant differences in the sensory characteristics of the wine, while cluster thinning had no such influence. The other influences of the two technical factors on the wine composition depended on the location of the vineyard and the vintage. It can also be concluded that spontaneous alcoholic fermentation reduced the influence of the vintage on the wine composition, while the opposite was the case with cluster thinning.
Keywords: terroir, crop load, spontaneous alcoholic fermentation, non-Saccharomyces yeasts
Published in DiRROS: 24.03.2025; Views: 207; Downloads: 80
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369. Prospective observational study of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with thoracic malignancies : adverse events, breakthrough infections and survival outcomesUrška Janžič, Andrej Janžič, Abed Agbarya, Urška Bidovec, Katja Mohorčič, Marina Čakš, Peter Korošec, Matija Rijavec, Erik Škof, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: Abstract: Due to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, a preventive tool in the form of vaccination was introduced. Thoracic cancer patients had one of the highest rates of morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 disease, but the lack of data about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in this population triggered studies like ours to explore these parameters in a cancer population. Out of 98 patients with thoracic malignancies vaccinated per protocol, 60–75% experienced some adverse events (AE) after their first or second vaccination, most of them were mild and did not interfere with their daily activities. Out of 17 severe AEs reported, all but one were resolved shortly after vaccination. No significant differences were noted considering AE occurrence between different cancer therapies received after the first or second vaccination dose, p = 0.767 and p = 0.441, respectively. There were 37 breakthrough infections either after the first (1), second (13) or third (23) vaccine dose. One patient died as a direct consequence of COVID-19 infection and respiratory failure, and another after disease progression with simultaneous severe infection. Eight patients had moderate disease courses, received antiviral therapies and survived without consequences. Vaccination did not affect the time to disease progression or death from underlying cancer.
Keywords: thoracic malignancies, cancer therapy, COVID-19 vaccination, adverse events, breakthrough infection
Published in DiRROS: 24.03.2025; Views: 183; Downloads: 95
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370. Protein stacking on the APTES-functionalized pyrochlore Bi2Ru2O7 clusters for ultrasensitive and selective immunosensingNikola Tasić, Nika Vranešič, Dino Metarapi, Kristina Mervič, Milan Žunić, Aleksandra Dapčević, Matjaž Finšgar, Samo B. Hočevar, 2025, original scientific article Abstract: With their unique physicochemical properties, such as metallic-like conductivity, favorable (electro)catalytic properties, electrochemical stability, and ease of functionalization, pyrochlores have found applications in various fields such as solid oxide fuel cells, batteries, thick film resistors, and temperature sensors; however, there are no reports on their application in electrochemical immunosensing. In this study, we exploited the (electro)catalytic nature and stability of the pyrochlore Bi2Ru2O7 clusters silanized with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) to demonstrate their potential for the effective stacking of functional proteins. Characterization of the clusters by XPS disclosed a dual environment of Bi, also indicating the presence of Bi2O3 alongside APTES-Bi2Ru2O7 clusters and, importantly, the predominant involvement of pyrochlore moieties in subsequent protein stacking. After stacking protein A and antibodies, the immunosensor revealed a nearly interference-free operation, high sensitivity, a detection limit of 118 fM SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and operation in a wide examined concentration range of 10−5−10−1 μg mL−1 with an r2 of 0.98. In combination with a short incubation time of 30 min, the pyrochlore-based immunosensor provides a solid platform for future point-of-need applications.
Keywords: Bi2Ru2O7 pyrochlore, APTES, SARS-CoV-2, spike protein, immunosensors, electrochemical
Published in DiRROS: 24.03.2025; Views: 222; Downloads: 110
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