Using random PCR in combination with next-generation sequencing, a novel parvovirus was detected in the brain of a young harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) with chronic non-suppurative meningo-encephalitis that was rehabilitated at the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre (SRRC) in the Netherlands. In addition, two novel viruses belonging to the family Anelloviridae were detected in the lungs of t...

Developing methods to reduce the incidental catch of non-target species is important, as by-catch mortality poses threats especially to large aquatic predators. We examined the effectiveness of a novel device, a "seal sock", in mitigating the by-catch mortality of seals in coastal fyke net fisheries in the Baltic Sea. The seal sock developed and tested in this study was a cylindrical net attach...

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between lip seal and malocclusion in Japanese children. Fifty-three patients aged 7 to 14 years (mean 10.24 +/- 1.93) were selected randomly, and compared with 20 subjects with normal occlusion aged 7 to 14 years (mean 10.50 +/- 2.56). The subjects were divided into a good lip seal group and poor lip seal group by observing the distance ...

A new low-cost design for a free-piston Stirling engi ne driven heat pump is presented. The new approach uses a linear-acting magnetic coupling to transfer engine power across a hermetic shell. Camp l i ance in the coupling affects the performance and stability of the system, especially with regard to matchin g the engine dynamics to the compressor load. This paper first describes test results ...

A general linear stability analysis of simple metal nanowires is presented using a continuum approach that correctly accounts for material-specific surface properties and electronic quantum-size effects. The competition between surface tension and electron-shell effects leads to a complex landscape of stable structures as a function of diameter, cross section, and temperature. By considering ar...

In this paper we study a new model for patterns in two dimensions, inspired by diblock copolymer melts with a dominant phase. The model is simple enough to be amenable not only to numerics but also to analysis, yet sophisticated enough to reproduce hexagonally packed structures that resemble the cylinder patterns observed in block copolymer experiments. Starting from a sharp-interface continuum...

Adaptation of pinnipeds to the marine habitat imposed parallel evolutions in their parasites. Ancestral pinnipeds must have harboured sucking lice, which were ancestors of the seal louse Echinophthirius horridus. The seal louse is one of the few insects that successfully adjusted to the marine environment. Adaptations such as keeping an air reservoir and the ability to hold on to and move on th...

Prior efforts to characterize the capabilities of the vibrissal system in seals have yielded conflicting results. Here, we measured the sensitivity of the vibrissal system of a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) to directly coupled sinusoidal stimuli delivered by a vibrating plate. A trained seal was tested in a psychophysical paradigm to determine the smallest velocity that was detectable at nine fr...

In the framework of spherical geometry for jellium and local spin density approximation, we have obtained the equilibrium rs values, r̄s(N, ζ), of neutral and singly ionized “generic” N -electron clusters for their various spin polarizations, ζ. Our results reveal that r̄s(N, ζ) as a function of ζ behaves differently depending on whether N corresponds to a closed-shell or an openshell cluster. Th...