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 ...

Hhighly efficient and reliable sealing technology is essential to improve the efficiency of precooled aeroengines. To explore effects large ambient temperature gradients on performance, thermo-hydrodynamic characteristics a supercritical helium spiral-grooved face seal were studied numerically, under low-temperature conditions. Considering real gas effect helium, thermal deformations analyzed d...

BACKGROUND Mercury is known to bioaccumulate and to magnify in marine mammals, which is a cause of great concern in terms of their general health. In particular, the immune system is known to be susceptible to long-term mercury exposure. The aims of the present study were (1) to determine the mercury level in the blood of free-ranging harbour seals from the North Sea and (2) to examine the link...

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...

Aim: The aim of the study was to compare the fracture resistance of endodontically treated teeth obturated with gutta percha using four different root canal sealers (MTA Fillapex, AH plus, Real Seal SE and Tubli Seal). Materials and methods: Sixty freshly extracted single rooted human mandibular premolar teeth were used. After standardizing the root length to 14 mm, the teeth were chemo mechani...

Introduction: Proper fitting of the stump inside the socket and appropriate selection of prosthetic suspension have positive effects on amputees’ satisfaction and could decrease gait deviation, skin problems, and stump atrophy. The suction sockets are commonly prescribed for transtibial amputees to have better suspension compared to the Pin and lock systems. The Seal-In® X5 (suction system) is ...