ALBERT

Notes: In the North Apennines of Italy, Upper Jurassic bedded chert stratigraphically overlies ophiolitic rocks and is overlain by Lower to Middle Cretaceous pelagic limestone and shale, and Upper Cretaceous flysch. The bedded chert, best exposed in East Liguria and on Elba, is typically 30–80 m thick, but occasionally reaches 150–200 m thickness. It consists of two main alternating lithologïes: siliceous mudstone (SM) and radiolarite (R).Chert sections commonly show characteristic stratigraphic changes. Lower cherts display a striking rhythmic alternation of R and ferruginous SM beds. In middle cherts, SM beds are much less ferruginous and shalier intercalations are locally present. In upper cherts, R beds are less frequent and SM beds are essentially non-ferruginous.R beds are generally 1–4 cm thick, and consist of 80–90% quartz, 5–15% clays and usually 〈 1% hematite. They are commonly parallel-laminated, and rarely size-graded. In size-graded beds, large radiolaria are more abundant near the bed base (commonly together with ophiolitic or SM clasts) and small radiolaria more abundant near the bed top. Sorting is poor throughout most R beds. R beds are interpreted as turbidites (cf. Nisbet & Price, 1974). Model calculations suggest that typical settling velocities of radiolaria during redeposition are 〈 1 cm sec−1, which is low and of restricted range relative to the 1–10 cm sec−1 settling velocities of clastic grains of comparable size range. Radiolaria therefore should have only a limited tendency to grade and sort during deposition from a turbulent current.SM beds are commonly 1–7 cm thick, although much thicker ones occur near the base of sections, and consist mainly of 50–70% quartz, 15–35% clays and 0–15% hematite. Microscopic clay-silica aggregates and highly corroded remnants of radiolaria are common. SM beds are interpreted as mainly ambient pelagic sediment which accumulated slowly in topographic lows, and which was modified by near-surface dissolution of biogenic silica. In SM beds which contain two texturally different layers, the lower one is interpreted as the top of the underlying radiolarian turbidite.North Apennine cherts represent the first sediment deposited on oceanic crust formed during the opening of the North Apennine part of the Tethys. The ophiolitic basement had a rugged topography which favoured the redeposition of siliceous sediment. Hematite and local Mn enrichments in SM beds in the lower chert sections represent hydrothermal precipitates inferred to have originated at a spreading axis. During seafloor spreading, accumulation of siliceous sediments progressively reduced the topography. Deposition of ophiolitic detritus within the sediments phased out during early chert sedimentation, and the hydrothermal contribution during early-middle chert sedimentation. As local basins filled, during late chert sedimentation, radiolarian turbidites became less frequent.The first limestones at the top of chert sections are calcareous ooze turbidites derived from above the CCD and deposited slightly below it. Gradual descent of the CCD to ocean floor depths at the end of the Jurassic (Bosellini & Winterer, 1975) led to the replacement of siliceous by carbonate sedimentation.

Notes: Oxidation-reduction potentials (Eh) of canned foods ranged from -18 to -438 mV. Foods packed in glass had higher redox potentials than those packed in cans. Only 4 out of 26 products tested reached positive redox values after exposure to air for 24 hr at 4°C. Inoculated containers of mushrooms, whole corn, cream corn, asparagus, beef gravy, kidney beans, green beans, cream of mushroom soup, cheddar cheese soup, and lima beans supported toxin production by C. botulinum; potatoes and beets did not.

Notes: The combination of zinc (II) with phytic acid has been investigated under a variety of reaction conditions. With the P:Zn ratios used, i.e. 1:1 or 6:1, in the preparations elemental analyses of the isolated products indicated P:Zn ratios of either 1, 1.2 or 1.5 dependent upon the initial P:Zn ratios and the various bases and salts used in the preparations. Of the total number of experiments carried out elemental analyses indicated that only about 25% of the isolated complexes had stoichiometric atomic ratios.

Notes: Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used to study gelatinization phenomena of corn, potato, acid-modified corn and smooth pea, and various legume starches. Two endothermic transitions were observed for starches heated in the presence of limited amounts of water (starch/water = 46–48% w/w). The effect of starch concentration on the shape of these two endotherms was studied for three legume starches. Considering the starch granule as a spherulite, the experimental data were treated thermodynamically by applying equations describing phase transitions of semi-crystalline polymers. Experimental evidence suggested that a solvation-assisted melting of starch crystallites took place during gelatinization and that the process was facilitated by the presence of the amorphous parts of the granule. The enthalpy change, ΔH, associated with the gelatinization varied among these starches within a range of 2.6–4.4 Cal/g. A comparison between DSC transition temperatures and characteristic gelatinization temperatures obtained by other methods was also made.

Notes: Copper was shown to accumulate in the gills, liver, kidney and plasma of sea water-adapted and freshwater-adapted Platichthys flesus exposed to elevated ambient concentrations of the metal. Exposure to sublethal concentrations of copper also caused deviations from control values, of the plasma ions sodium and chloride, indicative of impaired ion regulatory capacity.

Notes: It is a general assumption that handling time is a constant, given an unvarying size relationship between predator and prey, and an unchanging hunger level. These results indicate that handling times for a pellet of food shown by individual members of a shoal of goldfish decrease by some 20% as the number of fish in the shoal increases from two to 15. Two mechanisms for this reduction are suggested, both of which could act simultaneously. First, there is greater competition for available food resources in a larger shoal and, second, the reduced need for vigilance in a larger shoal will enable individuals to devote more effort to the handling of their food.

Notes: Triploid landlocked Atlantic salmon had a larger mean erythrocyte volume but lower erythrocyte count than diploids; the haematocrit was the same in diploids and triploids. Although the total blood haemoglobin content and the mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration were lower in triploids than in diploids, the actual mean corpuscular haemoglobin content of triploid erythrocytes was higher than that of diploids. The increase in triploid mean erythrocyte volume was mainly due to an increase in cell length; there was only a minor increase in cell width and no increase in cell height. The nucleus of triploid erythrocytes occupied a greater percentage of the corpuscular volume than did the diploid nucleus. Mean cytoplasmic haemoglobin concentration was found to be the same for diploids and triploids when this was taken into account

Notes: Scales from Lough Neagh pollan display a large number of checks, making age determination difficult. Sclerite counts showed that an annual check is formed on scales in May and a second accessory check in most young fish in October. The method of ageing from scales was supported by inspection of length-frequency plots and by following the growth of pollan in their first 2 years of life. The body-scale relationship was curvilinear. Back-calculation showed that pollan of both sexes attain a fork length of 29 cm in 5 years (1 ∞=28.9 cm; k= 0.65; l0= -0.06 year). There is no evidence that annual growth rates have changed since 1965. Possible environmental causes of scale check formation are discussed.

Notes: Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum, the convict cichlid, is a biparental, substrate-spawning, Central American cichlid. Male-female pairs were kept for 4 months on one of three food rations: high–1 g food daily; medium–1 g three times per week; low–1 g per week. The number of spawnings was directly related to the food ration. The fecundity of the females on the low and medium rations declined. At all rations the inter-spawning interval and egg size increased during the experiment. Egg size was positively related to ration and the length of the inter-spawning interval, but the latter was inversely related to ration. Females on the high ration grew in weight while those on the low ration lost weight. Histological examination of the ovaries at the end of the experiment suggested that low rations reduced the proportion of oocytes that become vitellogenic. At the end of the experiment, the total, gonad and liver weight of females at a given length were significantly related to ration. No similar, significant effect was found for the males, although growth in length of the males was related to ration. Ration had no detectable effect on the histological appearance of the testes.