Abstract: Given the ecological significance of mysids in brackish and freshwater food chains and the potential importance in toxicity testing in estuarine systems, it is important to understand the distribution of these animals. However, to date, few studies have been undertaken on mysids in the Auckland region. DThe main focus of this study was to find out the distribution of estuarine mysids in this region. Reconnaissance surveys took place to locate mysid habitats in the estuarine waters entering the Manukau Harbour and the East Coast estuarine environments from May of 2006 to January 2009. The samples were taken using a hand held dip net with 500 µm mesh size along an eighty meter transect at the edge of the stream during day time at low tide. At each site four replicate surveys were undertaken (transects of 10 m length, 10 m apart). Five species of mysids have been identified from and are described for estuarine environments in the Manukau Harbour and along the Auckland East Coast: the sometimes sympatric Tenagomysis chiltoni and T. novaezealandiae, and the non-sympatric and patchily distributed Gastrosaccus australis, T. macropsis and a potentially new Tenagomysis sp.. The present distributional studies in the North Island reflects that the native mysid T. novaezealandiae is the dominant mysid species along the east coast, and the most geographically widespread species on both east and the west coasts, while T. chiltoni was equally dominant with T. novaezealandiae in the Manukau Harbour. G. australis and T. macropsis reported from North Island estuarine waters for the first time. The salinity ranges where species occurred were different: T. chiltoni 0-18‰, T. novaezealandiae 0-26‰ and G. australis 1.5-12.6‰. T. chiltoni, Tenagomysis sp. and T. novaezealandiae shows that the higher percentages of females than males.

Abstract: The trophic position of an organism can be determined by the stable isotope studies of nitrogen and carbon. The main objective of this study was to determine the trophic position of two mysid species, Tenagomysis chiltoni and T. novaezealandiae in the Kakamatua stream ecosystem in using ¹³C and ¹⁵N isotopes. Samples were collected during two weeks period in late December 2008 and early January 2009 including primary producers, leaf litter, aquatic invertebrates, fish species and sediment samples. Aquatic invertebrates and fish were collected from the stream using a hand net. Litter samples were collected randomly from the stream floor. Samples were sealed in plastic bags, and stored in a freezer until processing. All the samples were oven-dried, then ground to obtain a homogeneous powder. Three replicates of each sample were prepared. Samples were processed by the Waikato Stable Isotope Unit, of , . A trophic-level effect of ¹³C and ¹⁵N enrichment was clearly observed. Stable isotopic data indicated that T. chiltoni and T. novaezealandiae exhibited variety of feeding habits (feeding on the first and the second trophic levels) and can be considered as omnivores. Among the other invertebrates analysed, mysids seem to be an important invertebrate fauna which are capable of energy transferring towards the higher trophic level both from primary food sources and the secondary consumers as well. Differences in the isotopic composition were observed among same species depending upon the ontogenetic development.

Abstract: The accumulation of large and small plastic debris is a problem throught the world’s seas and coastlines. Azew gulf is an important southern West Mediterranean coast receiving discharges from many sources. Abundance and sizes of plastic debris in ten stations from intertidal sediments have been reported in this study. The results of the present study shows high plastic fragments accumulation in sediments up to 13.9 % and mostly debris were in size between 0.5 cm and 01 cm. The abundance of plastic debris could be associated with coastal urban centers and their anthropogenic activities (waste rejection). The high presence found can be explained too by the transport of plastic debris via the surface water circulation. This first quantitative and physical study contributes to the enrichment of data on plastic debris pollution and underscores further researches on ecological aspects of this pollution.

Abstract: Research work is focused on the taxonomic composition of macrobenthic in three marine water Shelf (Vadinar Shelf, Okha Shelf and Kandla Shelf) Gulf of Kutch Costal water during November 2011 to December 2012. In present investigation 39 species of macrobenthic were to the different groups i.e., Polychaetes, Crustaceans, Nematodes, Mollusca. Observation study period in the Shelf Vadinar, the macrobenthic was composed of nine taxa of Polychaetes, three taxa of Nematodes, three taxa of Crustaceans and three taxa of Mollusca a, while in Kandla Shelf ten taxa of Polychaetes, six taxa of Nematodes, three taxa of Crustaceans, three taxa of Mollusca and in Vadinar Shelf thirteen taxa of Polychaetes, nine taxa of Nematodes, three taxa of Crustaceans and three taxa of Mollusca, were encountered respectively. Comparison of the obtained results with those of earlier investigations occurred during November 2011 to December 2012 showed that changes have occurred in the interval. The total macrobenthic composition is significantly changed in all the three water bodies. Comparison of diversity and density in three Shelf was studied with diversity indices.

Abstract: This paper studies the ports performance in financial, customer, internal business process, Learning and growth and Sovereignty by employing PROMTHEE and Analytical Hierarchical process (AHP) methods. Due to manipulating the balanced score card in port’s performance evaluation, this study is conducted in two steps. In the first step, according to the expert’s point of view, a new perspective called Sovereignty is added to the existing four standard perspectives of balanced score card. AHP method is applied in second step to measure the weight of all mentioned five perspectives according to their importance level in ports performance evaluation. Then by using PROMETHEE studied ports such as Khoramshahr, Imam Khomeini port, Bushehr, ShahidRajaee, ShahidBahonar, Anzali and Amir Abad prioritized. The resulted obtained by the PROMETHEE model showed that, ShahidRajaee, Imam Khomeini and Bushehr ports get the first, second and third score, respectively.

Abstract: Diseases caused by metabolic dysfunction such as diabetes and obesity have serious effect on human’s health. Hence, it’s important for human to find effective functional food or drugs against metabolic dysfunction. The marine environment represents a relatively untapped source that can be applied to various aspects. Meanwhile, numerous marine-based compounds have been identified as having diverse biological activities, with some reported to interfere with the pathogenesis of diseases. On the basis of their bioactive properties, this review focuses on the potential use of marine-derived compounds to against metabolic dysfunction, including diabetes and obesity.

Abstract: Air-sea interaction plays a dominant role in modulating the ocean-atmospheric circulation pattern and in bringing about changes in global weather and climatic systems. In the present paper a one-dimensional multi-level numerical planetary boundary layer (PBL) model with a TKE-ε closure scheme was applied to simulate the air-sea interaction parameters over northern part of Bay of Bengal (Indian Ocean). The oceanographic research ship observed high-resolution sounding data comprising of the vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, zonal and meridional component of wind was used as initial and boundary conditions to integrate the model. The temporal evolution of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), marine boundary layer (MBL) height, sensible and latent heat fluxes are simulated for the duration of study. The model simulated vertical profiles of potential temperature, specific humidity, zonal and meridional wind compare reasonably well with the observations.

Abstract: In the present study, physico-chemical parameters of water samples were compared with the water quality standard of Bureau of Indian standard and the state pollution control board. Variations of different parameters investigated were as follows: Temperature (24.2-30.9°C), dissolved oxygen (2.9-10.9 mg/L), pH (6.05-8.6), electrical conductivity (5.16–17.33 mS/cm), TDS (4510–11900 mg/L), chloride content (4389-12575 mg/l), nitrate (13.03-24.01 mg/l), phosphate (0.55-2.59 mg/l), calcium (125.4-400.8 mg/l), magnesium (153.16-474.13 mg/l) and total hardness (800-2090 mg/l). The significant variations of p among different study sites with high load of calcium, chloride, nitrate and phosphate in most of the study sites indicating the pollution status of the estuarine water.

Abstract: Hydraulic structures cause disturbances in uniform flow and sediment transport. Downstream of these structures flow velocities increase due to constriction of the channel. Bed protection is often constructed in order to decrease the maximum scour hole and to shift the scour holes that involve a potential risk to structural stability to a greater distance from the hydraulic structure. Both hydraulic and geotechnical characteristics influence these two design parameters and are treated in more detail in subsequent sub-sections. Attention is paid to the processes relevant to sedimentation and consolidation, because these affect the erosion behavior of beds with cohesive sediments. The scour which may occur near a structure can be considered to be a result of bed scour caused by different processes. Owing to shear failures or flow slides, the scour process may progressively damage the bed protection. This will lead to the failure of hydraulic structures. The paper also discussed the effects of the angle of wave attack on coastal areas formation and the effect of wave attack angle variation on the sediment transport rates.

Abstract: Nowadays the development speed of the technology is beyond of the human perception. However, every new and innovate profession is not completely safe and sound. How to identify and recognize those work menace and risks is the question that in this study we want to clarify it. There are many methods to concern about risks assessment and here we can refer to Job safety analysis, Safety Audit and etc. What do we mean by Job safety analysis is to put all the processes and activities into a detailed analysis in order to reach the main goal of the work. In this analytical-descriptive study, the vintage is mainly focus on the identification and Job safety analysis of the quay side cranes operator in Imam Khomeini port and offering convenient controlling strategies for reduction and prevention of the probable incidents and unfavorable events. The resulted data of the risks evaluation showed that in the checking level for the facilitating before the start, the risk of the insufficient room in the powerhouse and the body parts contact with the considered items attends the risk priority of 54 and in the discharging level: the risks of the wires cut and falling of the cargo on the stuff and the trucks attends the risk priority of 100 and in the discharging and loading ironware level: the risk of the hook wire cut attends the risk priority of 100 respectively. Finally for each mentioned risk, some suggestive control methods were presented.