Looking to the future Essay Example for Free

Looking to the future Essay The purpose of this assignment is to identify and describe my personal, professional and academic goal, apply the Smart Goal process and explain each component, create how I will predict success in achieving my goals based on my past positive experiences, and my personality as it relates to being an online student. Obtaining my BA in Complimentary and Alternate Health while, attending Ashford University online will most definitely help with achieving my long-term academic, personal and professional goals. My Goals and SMART Goals Creating a game plan for success can be challenging, however after evaluating my future, building on past positive experiences, I need to determine what I need, to reach my long-term goal which is to become a Registered Dietician by the age of 48. By starting with my BA in Complimentary and Alternate Health I can achieve my short-term goal. This is a four year degree program that requires 120 credits to complete the Degree program. In the past, I attended school while being a full time mom and employee. I worked long hours and attend school at night; I was able to complete college with an Associate Degree in Business Office Technology. This is an example of setting SMART goals. After completing my degree program online at Ashford University I plan to continue with online classes at Auburn University. My long-term goal is to achieve my Master of Science with an emphasis in Nutrition Science. These goals will take hard work and commitment but they are realistic as well as achievable. Accountability and Countering Challenges Accomplishing these goals will take accountability, which starts with me. I am responsible for my success so I must have a plan that includes; overcoming obstacles that might have a negative impact on me being successful in school, I must set expectations for myself and meet them.

Is Assistance without Knowledge and Understanding Really Helpful? :: Essays Papers

Is Assistance without Knowledge and Understanding Really Helpful? According to the "demographic transition," after the industrial revolution death rates started falling more rapidly than birth rates causing an increase in population growth. When population growth drew the attention of scientists and policy makers in the 1950s, demographics and development in poor countries were the main concern but no real efforts were made to seek out solutions. Referred to as the World Population Conference, the first international meeting on population convened in 1954 in Rome. That year the Khanna study emerged as the first birth control program to have a control as well as a test population. Because the researchers expectations and schemas guided their perceptions and inquiries, biases plagued the Khanna study, which failed to show an effect of birth control on fertility rates. Foreign to the culture of rural India but aware of the serious population problem, the researchers developed the Khanna study with the assumption that the Punjabi people needed to and wanted to reduce their birth rates. In his book Myth of Population Control, Mahmood Mamdani explains that there was "a significant gap between the [researchers] perceptions and the reality of the village"(Mamdani, 35). The researching staff members were all of the urban, educated, middle class; they viewed children as financial burdens and therefore, believed that controlling birth rates would help Punjab move ahead economically. However, according to the article "New Perspectives on Population: Lessons from Cairo," it is "economic insecurity [that] encourages people to have large families"(Ashford, 31). Indeed, this was the case in the rural villages of Punjab, where people believe children are an asset to the family; more children mean more working hands. "Except for two staff members, no one was will ing to admit that the villagers might be acting rationally" when they choose to have many children (Mamdani, 48). Knowing and understanding the relationship of cultural, social, and economic factors in a population is clearly an integral part in forming successful assessments of and assistance to that population. The Khanna study researchers took for granted that the women in the Punjab villages who accepted the contraceptives were in fact using them. "Although 39 percent of the fertile wives had used the foam tablets, only 8 percent had used them consistently for four months or more" (Mamdani, 31). The researchers did not anticipate this confusion between "acceptance" and "use" because in their world of experience there was no difference between the two. Is Assistance without Knowledge and Understanding Really Helpful? :: Essays Papers Is Assistance without Knowledge and Understanding Really Helpful? According to the "demographic transition," after the industrial revolution death rates started falling more rapidly than birth rates causing an increase in population growth. When population growth drew the attention of scientists and policy makers in the 1950s, demographics and development in poor countries were the main concern but no real efforts were made to seek out solutions. Referred to as the World Population Conference, the first international meeting on population convened in 1954 in Rome. That year the Khanna study emerged as the first birth control program to have a control as well as a test population. Because the researchers expectations and schemas guided their perceptions and inquiries, biases plagued the Khanna study, which failed to show an effect of birth control on fertility rates. Foreign to the culture of rural India but aware of the serious population problem, the researchers developed the Khanna study with the assumption that the Punjabi people needed to and wanted to reduce their birth rates. In his book Myth of Population Control, Mahmood Mamdani explains that there was "a significant gap between the [researchers] perceptions and the reality of the village"(Mamdani, 35). The researching staff members were all of the urban, educated, middle class; they viewed children as financial burdens and therefore, believed that controlling birth rates would help Punjab move ahead economically. However, according to the article "New Perspectives on Population: Lessons from Cairo," it is "economic insecurity [that] encourages people to have large families"(Ashford, 31). Indeed, this was the case in the rural villages of Punjab, where people believe children are an asset to the family; more children mean more working hands. "Except for two staff members, no one was will ing to admit that the villagers might be acting rationally" when they choose to have many children (Mamdani, 48). Knowing and understanding the relationship of cultural, social, and economic factors in a population is clearly an integral part in forming successful assessments of and assistance to that population. The Khanna study researchers took for granted that the women in the Punjab villages who accepted the contraceptives were in fact using them. "Although 39 percent of the fertile wives had used the foam tablets, only 8 percent had used them consistently for four months or more" (Mamdani, 31). The researchers did not anticipate this confusion between "acceptance" and "use" because in their world of experience there was no difference between the two.

Acoustic Signal Based Traffic Density Engineering Essay

Traffic monitoring and parametric quantities estimation from urban to battlefield environment traffic is fast-emerging field based on acoustic signals. This paper considers the job of vehicular traffic denseness appraisal, based on the information nowadays in cumulative acoustic signal acquired from a roadside-installed individual mike. The happening and mixture weightings of traffic noise signals ( Tyre, Engine, Air Turbulence, Exhaust, and Honks etc ) are determined by the prevalent traffic denseness conditions on the route section. In this work, we extract the short-run spectral envelope characteristics of the cumulative acoustic signals utilizing MFCC ( Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients ) . The ( Scaly Conjugate Gradient ) SCG algorithm, which is a supervised acquisition algorithm for network-based methods, is used to calculate the second-order information from the two first-order gradients of the parametric quantities by utilizing all the preparation datasets. Adaptive Neuro-F uzzy classifier is used to pattern the traffic denseness province as Low ( 40 Km/h and supra ) , Medium ( 20-40 Km/h ) , and Heavy ( 0-20 Km/h ) . For the development geographicss where the traffic is non-lane driven and helter-skelter, other techniques ( magnetic cringle sensors ) are unsuitable. Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy classifier is used to sort the acoustic signal sections crossing continuance of 20-40 s, which consequences in a categorization truth of?95 % for 13-D MFCC coefficients, ~95 % for first order derived functions and ~95 % for 2nd order derived functions of cepstral coefficients. Keywords: Acoustic signal, Noise, Traffic, Density, Neuro-Fuzzy. Introduction As the figure of vehicle in urban countries is of all time increasing, it has been a major concern of metropolis governments to ease effectual control of traffic flows in urban countries [ 1 ] . Particularly in first-come-first-serve hours, even a hapless control at traffic signals may ensue in a long clip traffic jam doing a concatenation of holds in traffic flows and besides CO2 emanation [ 2 ] . Density of traffic on roads and main roads has been increasing invariably in recent old ages due to motorisation, urbanisation, and population growing. Intelligent traffic direction systems are needed to avoid traffic congestions or accidents and to guarantee safety of route users. Traffic in developed states is characterized by lane driven. Use of magnetic cringle sensors, picture cameras, and velocity guns proved to be efficient attack for traffic monitoring and parameter extraction but the installing, operational and care cost of these detectors significantly adds to the high operational disbursal of these devices during their life rhythms. Therefore research workers have been developing several Numberss of detectors, which have a figure of important advantages and disadvantages relative to each other. Nonintrusive traffic-monitoring engineerings based on ultrasound, radio detection and ranging ( Radio, Laser, and Photo ) , picture and audio signals. All above present different features in footings of hardiness to alterations in environmental conditions ; industry, installing, and fix costs ; safety ordinance conformity, and so forth [ 3 ] . Traffic surveillance systems based on picture cameras cover a wide scope of different undertakings, such as vehicle count, lane tenancy, velocity measurings and categorization, but they besides detect critical events as fire and fume, traffic jams or lost lading. The job of traffic monitoring and parametric quantity appraisal is most normally solved by deploying inductive cringles. These cringles are really intrusive to the route paving and, hence cost associated with these is really high. Most video analytics systems on main roads focus on numeration and categorization [ 4 ] , [ 5 ] , [ 6 ] , [ 7 ] , [ 8 ] . Using general intent surveillance cameras for traffic analysis is demanding occupation. The quality of surveillance informations is by and large hapless, and the scope of operational conditions ( e.g. , dark clip, inclement, and mutable conditions ) requires robust techniques. The usage of route side acoustic signal seems to be good attack for traffic monitoring and parametric q uantity appraisal intent holding really low installing, operation and care cost ; low-power demand ; operate in twenty-four hours and dark status. Conventional pattern categorization involves constellating developing samples and tie ining bunchs to given classs with restrictions of lacking of an effectual manner of specifying the boundaries among bunchs. On the contrary, fuzzed categorization assumes the boundary between two neighbouring categories as a uninterrupted, overlapping country within which an object has partial rank in each category [ 9 ] . In brief, we use fuzzed IF-THEN regulations to depict a classifier. Assume that K forms, p= 1, .. K are given from two categories, where is an n-dimensional chip vector. Typical fuzzed categorization regulations for n = 2 are like If is little and is really big so = ( ) belongs to C1 If is big and is really little so = ( ) belongs to C2 Where are the characteristics of form ( or object ) P, little and really big are lingual footings characterized by appropriate rank maps. The firing strength or the grade of rightness of this regulation with regard to a given object is the grade of belonging of this object to the category C. Most of the categorization jobs consist of medium and large-scale datasets, illustration: familial research, character or face acknowledgment. For this different methods, such as nervous webs ( NNs ) , support vector machines, and Bayes classifier, have been implemented to work out these jobs. The network-based methods can be trained with gradient based methods, and the computations of new points of the web parametric quantities by and large depend on the size of the datasets. One of the network-based classifiers is the Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier ( NFC ) , which combines the powerful description of fuzzed categorization techniques with the larning capablenesss of NNs. The Scaled Conjugate Gradient ( SCG ) algorithm is based on the second-order gradient supervised learning process [ 10 ] . The SCG executes a trust part measure alternatively of the line hunt measure to scale the measure size. The line hunt attack requires more parametric quantities to find the measure size, which consequences in increasing preparation clip for any learning method. In a trust part method, the distance for which the theoretical account map will be trusted is updated at each measure. The trust part methods are more robust than line-search methods. The disadvantage associated with line-search method is eliminated in the SCG by utilizing the trust part method [ 10 ] . We start with a word picture of the route side cumulative acoustic signal which consisting several noise signals ( tyre noise, engine noise, air turbulency noise, and honks ) , the mixture weightings in the cumulative signal varies, depending on the traffic denseness conditions [ 11 ] . For low traffic conditions, vehicles tend to travel with medium to high velocities, and therefore, their cumulative acoustic signal is dominated by tyre noise and air turbulency noise [ 11 ] , [ 12 ] . On the other manus, for a to a great extent congested traffic, the acoustic signal is dominated by engine-idling noise and the honks. Therefore, in this work, we extract the spectral characteristics of the wayside acoustic signal utilizing Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients ( MFCC ) , and so Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier is used to find the traffic denseness province ( low, Medium and Heavy ) . This consequences in 95 % truth when 20-30 s of audio signal grounds is presented. We begin with description of the assorted noise signals in the cumulative acoustic signal in Section II. Overview of past work based on acoustic signal for traffic monitoring is provided in Section III, followed by characteristic extraction utilizing Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients in IV. Finally, the experimental apparatus and the categorization consequences by SCG-NFC are provided in Section V, and the decision is summarized in Section VI. VEHICULAR ACOUSTIC SIGNAL A vehicular acoustic signal is mixture of assorted noise signals such as tyre noise, engine tick overing noise, noise due to wash up, engine block noise, noise due to aerodynamic effects, noise due to mechanical effects ( e.g. , axle rotary motion, brake, and suspension ) , air-turbulence noise and the honks. The mixture weighting of spectral constituents at any location is depends upon the traffic denseness status and vehicle velocity. In former instance if we consider traffic denseness as freely fluxing so acoustic signal is chiefly due to tyre noise and air turbulency noise. For medium flow traffic acoustic signal is chiefly due to broad set thrust by noise, some honks. For heavy traffic status the acoustic signal is chiefly due to engine tick overing noise and several honks. A typical vehicle produces assorted noise depends on its speed, burden and mechanical status. In general, estimate can be done as vehicular acoustic signal is categorized as, Tyre noise Tyre noise refers to resound produced by turn overing Sur as an interaction of turn overing Sur with route surface. The tyre noise is besides considered as chief beginning of vehicle ‘s entire noise at a velocity higher than 50 kilometers per hours [ 12 ] , [ 13 ] . Tyre noise has two constituents: air noise and vibrational noise [ 13 ] , [ 14 ] . Air noise dominant in the frequence ranges between 1 KHz to 3 KHz. On the other manus vibrational noise is dominant in the frequence scope 100 Hz to 1000 Hz. Effect is generated by route and Sur, which forms a geometrical construction that amplifies the noise ( elaboration consequences in tyre noise constituent in the frequence scope 600 Hz to 2000 Hz ) , produced due to tyre-road interaction [ 14 ] , [ 15 ] , [ 16 ] . The directionality of horn depends upon tyre geometry, tyre yarn geometry, weight and torsion of Sur. The entire Sur noise power along with horn consequence lies in the frequence scope 700-1300 Hz. Fig. 1. Relationship between the noise of the Sur and the noise of the vehicle harmonizing to its velocity. The Sur noise is caused by three different factors: The Sur hitting the land ( Fig 2 ) The quiver of the air through the tread form ( Fig 3 ) The quivers go throughing through the Sur ( Fig 4 ) ( B ) ( degree Celsius ) Fig. 2. ( a ) Tyre hitting the land, ( B ) Vibration of the air through the pace form, ( degree Celsius ) Vibrations go throughing through the Sur Engine noise Engine noise is produced due to internal burning of engine. Engine noise contains a deterministic harmonic train and stochastic constituent due to aerate intake [ 11 ] . The fuel burning in engine cylinder leads to deterministic harmonic train where lowest harmonic tone refers to cylinder fire rate. On the other manus stochastic constituent is mostly due to the turbulent air flow in the air consumption, the engine chilling systems, and the alternator fans. The engine noise varies with velocity and the acceleration of vehicle [ 11 ] , [ 17 ] . A stationary vehicle produces distinguishable engine tick overing noise whereas traveling vehicle produces different engine noise in correspondence with cylinder fire rate. In the recent old ages, makers designs quieter engine to stamp down the noise degree. So engine noise might be strong on front side of auto compared to other waies. Exhaust noise The exhaust noise is produced due to full fumes system. The system goes from the engine burning compartment through exhaust tubings to the exhaust silencer nowadays at the dorsum of the vehicle bring forthing exhaust noise. The exhaust noise is straight relative to burden of the vehicle [ 18 ] . The exhaust noise is characterised by holding power spectrum around lower frequences. Exhaust noise is affected by turbo coursers and after ice chest [ 18 ] , [ 19 ] . Air Turbulence noise Air turbulency noise is produced due to the air flow generated by the boundary bed of the vehicle. It is outstanding instantly after the vehicle base on ballss by the detector ( e.g. mike ) . It produces typical drive-by-noise or whoosh sound. The Air turbulency noise depends on the aeromechanicss of the vehicle, wind velocity and its orientation [ 20 ] , [ 21 ] . ACOUSTIC SIGNALS FOR TRAFFIC MONITORING Today ‘s urban environment is supported by applications of computing machine vision techniques and pattern acknowledgment techniques including sensing of traffic misdemeanor, vehicular denseness appraisal, vehicular velocity estimate, and the designation of route users. Currently magnetic cringle sensor is most widely used detector for traffic monitoring in developing states [ 22 ] . However traffic monitoring by utilizing these detectors still have really high installing and care cost. This non merely includes the direct cost of labour intensive Earth work but besides, possibly more significantly, the indirect cost associated with the break of traffic flow. Besides these techniques require traffic to be orderly flow, traffic to be lane driven and in most instances it should be homogenous. Mentioning to the developing parts such India and Asia the traffic is non lane driven and extremely helter-skelter. Highly heterogenous traffic is present due to many two Wheelers, three Wheelers, four Wheelers, auto-rickshaws, multi-wheeled coachs and trucks, which does non follow lane. So it is the major concern of metropolis authorization to supervise such helter-skelter traffic. In such environment the cringle sensors and computer-vision-based trailing techniques are uneffective. The usage of route side acoustic signal seems to be good option for traffic monitoring intent holding really low installing, operation and care cost. Vehicular Speed Appraisal Doppler frequence displacement is used to supply a theoretical description of individual vehicle velocity. Premise made that distance to the closest point of attack is known the solution can suit any line of reaching of the vehicle with regard to the mike. [ 23 ] , [ 24 ] . Feeling techniques based on inactive sound sensing are reported in [ 25 ] , [ 26 ] . These techniques utilizes microphone array to observe the sound moving ridges generated by route side vehicles and are capable of capable of supervising traffic conditions on lane-by-lane and vehicle-by-vehicle footing in a multilane carriageway. S. Chen et Al develops multilane traffic feeling construct based inactive sound which is digitized and processed by an on-site computing machine utilizing a correlativity based algorithm. The system holding low cost, safe inactive sensing, unsusceptibility to adverse conditions conditions, and competitory fabrication cost. The system performs good for free flow traffic nevertheless for congested traffic public presentation is hard to accomplish [ 27 ] . Valcarce et Al. work the differential clip holds to gauge the velocity. Pair of omnidirectional mikes was used and technique is based on maximal likeliness rule [ 3 ] . Lo and Ferguson develop a nonlinear least squares method for vehicle velocity appraisal utilizing multiple mikes. Quasi-Newton method for computational efficiency was used. The estimated velocity is obtained utilizing generalized cross correlativity method based on time-delay-of-arrival estimations [ 28 ] . Cevher et Al. uses individual acoustic detector to gauge vehicle ‘s velocity, breadth and length by jointly gauging acoustic moving ridge forms. Wave forms are approximated utilizing three envelop form constituents. Consequences obtained from experimental apparatus shows the vehicle velocities are estimated as ( 18.68, 4.14 ) m/s by the picture camera and ( 18.60, 4.49 ) m/s by the acoustic method [ 29 ] . They besides had estimated a individual vehicle ‘s velocity, engine ‘s unit of ammunitions per minute ( RPM ) , the figure of cylinders, and its length and breadth based on its acoustical moving ridge forms [ 17 ] . Traffic Density Estimation Time appraisal for making from beginning to finish utilizing existent clip traffic denseness information is major concern of metropolis governments. J. Kato proposed method for traffic denseness appraisal based on acknowledgment of temporal fluctuations that appear on the power signals in conformity with vehicle base on ballss through mention point [ 30 ] . HMM is used for observation of local temporal fluctuations over little periods of clip, extracted by ripple transmutation. Experimental consequences show good truth for sensing of transition of vehicles Vehicular Categorization Classification larning strategies normally use one of the undermentioned attacks: Statistical classifiers based on Bayes determination theory, assume an implicit in chance distribution for unknown forms, e.g. maximal likelihood appraisal, maximal posterior chance appraisal, Gaussian mixture theoretical accounts, concealed Markov theoretical accounts or k-nearest neighbour method. Syntactic or structural classifiers based on additive or nonlinear interrelatednesss of characteristics in the characteristic vector lead to linear/non-linear classifier. Acoustic characteristic coevals are chiefly based on three spheres: clip, frequence, and both time-frequency sphere. Time sphere characteristic coevals offers really low computational demand, but characteristics are frequently hampered by environmental noise or air current effects. Frequency sphere characteristic coevals see a stationary spectrum in a given clip frame. As traveling vehicles are non-stationary signals, the influence of Doppler effects and signal energy alterations either have to be neglected or the investigated clip frame must be chosen short plenty to afford quasi stationary signal behaviour. Time-frequency sphere characteristic coevals see the non-stationary signal behaviour of go throughing vehicles and it lead to accurate steps of signal energies in clip and frequence sphere at the same time, these attacks are holding a high computational complexness. TABLE I. Vehicular acoustic characteristic extractors and classifiers Sphere Ref. Feature Extractor Classifier used Accuracy Time [ 31 ] TE, PCA Fuzzy Logic, MLNN 73-79 % 95-97.5 % [ 32 ] Correlation based algorithm Frequency [ 33 ] HLA NN Vehicle: 88 % Cylinder: 95 % [ 34 ] HLA, DWT, STFT, PCA k-NNS, MPP kNN: 85 % MPP: 88 % [ 35 ] AR mod. MLNN up to 84 % Time-Frequency [ 36 ] DWT MPP 98.25 % [ 34 ] HLA, DWT, STFT, PCA k-NNS, MPP kNN: 85 % MPP: 88 % TABLE II. Acronyms from subdivision III and IV TE Time Energy Distribution MLNN Multi Layer Neural Network. PCA Principal Components Analysis NN Artificial Neural Network HLA Harmonic Line Association k-NNS K – Nearest Neighbor Search DWT Discrete Wavelet Transform MPP Maximum Distance Approach STFT Short Time Fourier Analysis AR mod. Autoregressive Mold CWT Continuous Wavelet Transform FEATURE EXTRACTION USING MFCC An omnidirectional mike was placed on the prosaic pavement at approximately 1 to 1.5 m tallness, and it recorded the cumulative signal at 16000 Hz trying frequence. Samples were collected for clip continuances of around 30s for different traffic denseness province conditions ( low, medium and heavy ) . The assorted traffic denseness states induce different cumulative acoustic signals. To turn out the above statement, we have examined the spectrograph of the different traffic province ‘s cumulative acoustic signals. Fig. 3. Spectrogram of the low denseness traffic ( above 40 kilometers per hour ) . Fig. 4. Spectrogram of the Medium denseness traffic ( 20 to 40 kilometers per hour ) . Fig. 5. Spectrogram of the Heavy denseness traffic ( 0 to 20 kilometers per hour ) . For the low denseness traffic status in Fig. 3, we merely see the wideband drive-by noise and the air turbulency noise of the vehicles. No honks or really few honks are observed for low denseness traffic status. For the medium denseness traffic status in Fig. 4, we can see some wideband drive-by noise, some honk signals, and some concentration of the spectral energy in the low-frequency ranges ( 0, 0.1 ) of the normalized frequence or equivalently ( 0, 800 ) Hz. For the heavy denseness traffic status in Fig. 5, we notice about no wideband drive-by engine noise or air turbulency noise and are dominated by several honk signals. We note the several harmonics of the honk signals, and they are runing from ( 2, 6 ) kilohertz. The end of characteristic extraction is to give a good representation of the vocal piece of land from its response features at any peculiar clip. Mel-Frequency cepstral coefficients ( MFCC ) , which are the Discrete Cosine Transform ( DCT ) coefficients of a Mel-filter smoothed logarithmic power spectrum. First 13-20 cepstral coefficients of a signal ‘s short clip spectrum compactly capture the smooth spectral envelope information. We have decided to utilize first 13 cepstral coefficients to stand for acoustic signal for matching traffic denseness province. These coefficients have been really successfully applied as the acoustic characteristics in address acknowledgment, talker acknowledgment, and music acknowledgment and to vast assortment of job spheres. Features extraction utilizing MFCC is as follows, Pre-emphasis Pre-emphasis stage emphasizes higher frequences. The pre-emphasis is a procedure of go throughing the signal through a filter. It is designed to increase, within a set of frequences, the magnitude of some ( normally higher ) frequences with regard to the magnitude of the others ( normally lower ) frequences in order to better the overall SNR. Y [ n ] = x [ n ] -?x [ n-1 ] , ? ˆ ( 0.9, 1 ) ( 1 ) Where ten [ n ] denotes input signal, y [ n ] denotes end product signal and the coefficient ? is in between 0.9 to 1.0, ?= 0.97 normally. The end of pre-emphasis is to counterbalance the high-frequency portion that was suppressed during the sound aggregation. Framing and Windowing Typically, address is a non-stationary signal ; therefore its statistical belongingss are non changeless across clip. The acquired signal is assumed to be stationary within a short clip interval. The input acoustic signal is segmented into frames of 20~40 MS with optional convergence of 1/3~1/2 of the frame size. Typically each frame has to be multiplied with a overacting window in order to maintain the continuity of the first and the last points in the frame. Its equation is as follows, W [ n ] = ( 2 ) Where N is frame size Y [ n ] = X [ n ] * W [ n ] ( 3 ) Where Y [ n ] = Output signal Ten [ n ] = Input signal W [ n ] = Hamming Window Due to the physical restraints, the traffic denseness province could alter from one to another ( low to medium flow to heavy ) over at least 5-30 min continuance. Therefore, we decided to utilize comparatively longer primary analysis Windowss of the typical size 500 MS and displacement size of 100 MSs to obtain the spectral envelope. Fig. 6. Primary Windowss of size=500 MS and shifted by 100 MSs to obtain a sequence of MFCC characteristic vectors. DFT Normally, Fast Fourier Transform ( FFT ) is used to calculate the DFT. It converts each frame of N samples from clip sphere into frequence sphere. The calculation of the FFT-based spectrum as follow, Ten [ k ] = ( 4 ) Where N is the frame size in samples, x [ n ] is the input acoustic signal, and. X [ k ] is the corresponding FFT-based spectrum. Triangular bandpass filtering The frequences range in FFT spectrum is really broad and acoustic signal does non follow the additive graduated table. Each filter ‘s magnitude frequence response is triangular in form and equal to integrity at the Centre frequence and diminish linearly to zero at centre frequence of two next filters. We so multiply the absolute magnitude of the DFT samples by the triangular frequence responses of the 24 Mel-filters that have logarithmically increasing bandwidth and cover a frequence scope of 0-8 kilohertz in our experiments. Each filter end product is the amount of its filtered spectral constituents. Following equation is used to calculate the Mel for given frequence degree Fahrenheit in HZ: F ( Mel ) = 2595 * log 10 [ 1+f/700 ] ( 5 ) The ith Mel-filter bank energy ( is obtained as ( = ( * , thousand ˆ ( 0, N/2 ) ( 6 ) Where ( is the triangular frequence response of the ith Mel-filter. These 24 Mel-filter bank energies are so transformed into 13 MFCC utilizing DCT. DCT This is the procedure to change over the log Mel spectrum into clip sphere utilizing DCT. The consequence of the transition is called Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient. The set of coefficient is called acoustic vectors. = cos ( ?j ) , j ˆ ( 0, 12 ) ( 7 ) Data energy and Spectrum The acoustic signal and the frames alterations, such as the incline of a formant at its passages. Therefore, there is demand to add characteristics related to the alteration in cepstral characteristics over clip. 13 characteristic ( 12 cepstral characteristics plus energy ) . Energy=? X2 [ T ] ( 8 ) Where X [ t ] = signal Fig. 7. Input Acoustic signal, matching log filterbank energies and Mel frequence cepstrum for low traffic denseness province Fig. 8. Input Acoustic signal, matching log filterbank energies and Mel frequence cepstrum for Medium traffic denseness province Fig. 9. Input Acoustic signal, matching log filterbank energies and Mel frequence cepstrum for Heavy traffic denseness province ADAPTIVE NEURO FUZZY CLASSIFIER An adaptative web is a multi-layer feed-forward web where each node performs a peculiar map based on incoming signals and a set of parametric quantities refering to node. Fuzzy categorization systems, which are founded on the footing on fuzzy regulations, have been successfully applied to assorted categorization undertakings [ 37 ] . The fuzzed systems can be constituted with nervous webs, and attendant systems are called as Neuro-fuzzy systems [ 37 ] . The Neuro-fuzzy classifiers define the category distributions and demo the input-output dealingss, whereas the fuzzed systems describe the systems utilizing natural linguistic communication. Nervous webs are employed for developing the system parametric quantities in neuro-fuzzy applications. An ANFC consist of input, rank map, fuzzification, defuzzification, standardization and end product beds [ 37, 38, 39 ] . Fig. 10. An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier Figure 10 demonstrates generalized classifier architecture with two input variables x1and x2. The preparation informations are categorized by three categories C1 and C2. Each input is represented by two lingual footings, therefore we have four regulations. Membership bed: The end product of the node is the grade to which the given input satisfies the lingual label associated to this node. Normally, bell-shaped rank maps are chosen to stand for the lingual footings. ( U ) = exp [ – ( ) 2 ] ( 9 ) Where [ ai1, ai2, bi1, bi2 ] is the parametric quantity set. The bell-shaped maps vary harmonizing to alterations in the values of these parametric quantities, therefore exhibiting assorted signifiers of rank maps on lingual labels Ai and Bi. In fact, any uninterrupted, such as trapezoidal and triangular-shaped rank maps are besides campaigners for node maps in this bed. The initial values of the parametric quantities are set in such a manner that the rank maps along each axis satisfy ˆ-completeness, normalcy and convexness. The parametric quantities are so tuned or trained with a descent-type method. Fuzzification bed: Each node generates a signal corresponding to the conjunctive combination of single grades of lucifer. All nodes in this bed are labelled by T, because we can take any t-norm for patterning the logical and operator. The nodes of this bed are called regulation nodes. In order to cipher the grade of belongingness to certain category label the additive combination of the firing strengths of the regulations at Layer 3 and use a sigmoid map at Layer 4. If we are given the preparation set { ( ) , k = 1, .. .. , K } where refers to the k-th input form and = Experimental Consequences We have collected the route side cumulative acoustic signal samples from chhatrapati square to T-point of Nagpur metropolis. Datas were collected with 16 KHz trying frequence. These informations covered three wide traffic denseness categories ( low, medium and heavy ) . Feature extraction is done utilizing MFCC where primary window size is 500 MS and displacement size is of 100 MS. Case 1: First 13 cepstral coefficients were considered. TABLE III. Classification truths of assorted traffic denseness categories based on individual frame. Traffic Density Class Accuracy ( % ) Low 74 Medium 64 Heavy 72 Case 2: The full characteristic vectors consisted of the first 13 MFCC coefficients and their first and 2nd order clip derived functions computed. This led to a 39-D characteristic vector per frame. TABLE IV. Classification truths of assorted traffic denseness categories based on first and 2nd order derived functions of first frame. Traffic Density Class First order derived function Second order derived function Low 75 74 Medium 66 64 Heavy 78 72 Case 3: MFCC coefficients correspond to full frames are considered ( i.e. T= sample signal length in clip, ex. T=30s ) . Decision This paper describes a simple technique which uses MFCC characteristics of route side cumulative acoustic signal to sort traffic denseness province as Low, Medium and Heavy utilizing Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Classifier. As this technique uses simple mike ( cost: 500 Rs ) so its installing, operational and care cost is really low. This technique work good under non lane driven and helter-skelter traffic status, and is independent of illuming status. Classification truth achieved utilizing Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy classifier is of ~95 % for 13-D MFCC coefficients, ~95 % for first order derived functions and ~95 % for 2nd order derived functions of cepstral coefficients. The research on vehicular acoustic signal which is mixture of engine noise, tyre noise, noise due to mechanical effects etc. expands from vehicular velocity appraisal to denseness appraisal. The usage of route side acoustic signal seems to be an alternate, research shows acceptable truth for acoustic signal. Vehicular categorization with Acoustic signals proved to be first-class attack peculiarly for battleground vehicles, and besides for metropolis vehicles. Clearer definitions of scenarios and applications are required to bring forth a more consistent organic structure of work. New application countries are likely to emerge for traffic signal timings optimisation utilizing cumulative acoustic signals and besides categorization of bikes proved to be emerging country for research. Finally the categorization systems can be extended in a manner that extracted characteristics are utilised as characteristic fingerprints, which affords trailing of vehicles over multiple detector nodes.

Strombidae Protected Fisheries - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 21 Words: 6150 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Strombus gigas, A Threatened But Protected Species Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Strombidae Protected Fisheries" essay for you Create order 65 species of Strombidae are still in existence and the majority of those are found in the Indo-Pacific Oceans (ConchNews). 6 species of Strombidae are found throughout the Caribbean and Florida oceans (McCarthy, 2007): S. alatus, S. costatus, S. gallus, S. gigas, S. pugilis, and S. raninus, one of which, Strombus gigas, known as the Queen Conch, has highest commercial fisheries value of the six species and is commercially threatened. In 1990 the parties to the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region (Cartagena Convention) included S. gigas in Annex II of its Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW Protocol) as a species that may be used on a rational and sustainable basis and that requires protective measures (NOAA). Consequently on 11th June 1992 the United States listed S. gigas under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), Appendix II; classi fied as commercially threatened (Theile, 2005). S. gigas then became the first large-scale fisheries product regulated by CITES (NOAA). This requires countries to harvest at a sustainable rate before they can obtain a permit to export (Thiele, 2001). The SPAW Protocol and CITES treaties are generally a positive step for the species, assisting efforts to ensure use and trade of S. gigas, however this is largely a commercial move and should not be confused with meaning it is officially on the endangered/threatened species list. S. gigas is simply on a list of species, fauna and flora not yet threatened or endangered, but with legal commitment by the governments to prevent them becoming so by implementing plans for management by establishment of closed seasons and regulation of their harvest and trade (Thiele, 2005). The Caribbean Fishery Management Council supports a regional International Queen Conch initiative, to promote a common international management strategy for the sustainable use of S resources in the Caribbean region, by making recommendations to address specific issues. E.g. International Queen Conch Initiatives (FAO 2003). In January 1991, 12 of the 14 Governments of the Caribbean Community officially launched the CARI COM Fisheries Resource Assessment and Management Programme (CFRAMP) to promote sustainable use and conservation of the fisheries resources, setting up the 1994 Lobster and Conch Resource Assessment Unit to provide data on conch and lobster resources in the Caribbean (Haughton 2004). Fig 1.1 The wider Caribbean region showing hypothetical Exclusive Economic Zones of countries those of CARICOM countries are shaded grey (Haughton, 2004). 1.2 Commercial Importance History Of Queen Conch Fisheries S. gigas, have been harvested by Caribbean fishermen for centuries (Stoner 1997), in some regions old conch shell middens show conch have been fished for over 1400 years (Torres, 2002) used for religious ceremonies, for trade and ornamentation, and a source of protein from its meat. Fishing pressure, previously entirely small-scale local fisheries on surrounding islands, has now developed into a large commercial trade commodity with an important fishery resource in the Caribbean area and increasing international demand for the rare meat (Berg Olsen 1989). Outside of the live meat trade, S. gigas is also known for its pearls and shells, sold by locals and tradesmen to tourist as souvenirs as a by-product of conch meat harvest. The increase in intensive fishing pressure caused by its rising commercial value since the 1970s (Cochrane et al 1996) has caused queen conch populations to decline throughout their distribution range (Stoner, 1997; Theile, 2005). This is largely due to the slow maturation growth to harvest size of 3-4 years (Davis) ensuring S. gigas are unable to offset the development of fisheries technical enhancements allowing them to fish larger quantities and at previously unobtainable depths (Wells 1989). The use of scuba and hookah gear from 1984 has now become widespread and due to the depletion of near-shore shallow water stocks because of overfishing, former deep-water refugia (20 m) is now increasingly accessible and subject to the same intense exploitation (CFMC/CFRAMP, 1999), shifting fishing efforts from near-shore to offshore areas in parts of the Bahamas, Colombia, Mexico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (CITES, AC19 Doc. 8.3 2003). In 1986, the U.S. banned all fishing of Strombus g igas populations instead importing approx. 80% of world trade, 1,000t year-1 (NOAA 2003), from Caribbean Islands. The majority of S. gigas populations the U.S are importing from have continued to decline. CITES reviews, following species listing in 1992, report population densities in some areas to be so low that recruitment failure is a risk to local fisheries in parts of Belize, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Panama, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with stock collapses and resulting in total or temporary closure of the fishery in Bermuda, Cuba, Colombia, Florida, Mexico, the Netherlands Antilles, the Virgin Islands and Venezuela (CITES AC19, Doc. 8.3 2003). The primary cause for the population decline is widely demonstrated to be commercial trade overfishing (Stoner, 1994) but Stoner (1994) implies habitat degradation may be a secondary factor, especially in the shallow water nursery habitats of seagrass meadows, which are crucial to Strombus gigas sustainab ility. There are still some larger areas that still maintain stable populations, the Bahamas (Stoner Ray, 1996), Jamaica (Stoner Schwarte 1994) and the Turks and Caicos Islands due to hatchery replacement (Bene Tewfik, 2001) as well as smaller areas of St. Lucia, St Vincent and Virgin Islands (taken from Table 1, p76 Cochrane, 1996). The significant trade review undertaken in 1995, at the 13th meeting of the Animals Committee, formulated recommendations in 1997 requiring states to prove conformity to CITES and slowly by March 1999 most states had conformed. By 2005 Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago had been removed from the Review of Significant Trade of S. gigas (CITES SC54 Doc. 42, 2006). However, CITES recognizes that despite being registered for over 10 years stock declines continue to occur (Notification No. 2006/055, 2006) and in 2006 the Animals Committee concluded that trade was of urgent concern in 3 range states and of possible concern in a further 13 (CITES SC54 Doc. 42, 2006). The important exporting countries of Haiti and Grenada have released no information and with low adult densities reported from fishing all exports from the se states have been suspended as they may currently being exploited at rates that may be unsustainable (CITES AC22 Doc. 10.1). The National Marine Fisheries Service support the CITES embargo on queen conch imports (NOAA, 2003) which will remain until evidence is provided that the CITES recommendations have been implemented (Thiele, 2001). 1.3 Biology of Strombus gigas Strombus gigas are large, soft-bodied, marine shelled gastropod molluscs. They have a thin layer of tissues between the body and the shell, a mantle, which creates a hard external spiral-shaped shell up to 30 cm in length from calcium carbonate extracted from the seawater and sediments. This outer shell develops the distinctive pink coloured flared lip that easily identifies the species and is why the shell also has a horny periostracum coating to deter predators. The body is divided into the head, the visceral mass, and the foot. posterior anterior Fig 1.2 Adult female conch without her shell (FWRI, 2006) The conch head has a pair of tentacles tipped with light-sensitive eyestalks and a long proboscis radula that has thousands of tiny denticle protrusions for feeding. The foot, at the posterior, is a pointed, sickle-shaped, hardened operculum tip used to propel forward in a unique type of hopping locomotion commonly referred to as stromboid leap propulsion. This enables escape from predators by breaking up their scent trail (FWRI, 2006). They have a siphonal canal with an indentation near the anterior end called a stromboid notch. (Hyman 1967, Abbott 1974 quoted https://bellsouthpwp.net/c/u/culpsb/conchnews/strombidae). 1.3.1 Ecology of Strombus gigas Strombus gigas inhabits the neotropical Atlantic waters of Bermuda, southern Floridian and Mexican coasts of Central America in the Gulf of Mexico Caribbean Sea region, and off the South America coasts of Venezuela and Brazil. Strombus gigas are herbivorous, grazing primarily on algae, grasses, and floating organic debris and are consequently usually found in warm, shallow, clear, subtidal water of oceanic or near-oceanic salinities settled on sandy substrates, in rocky habitats, on coral reefs or coral rubble sea floors amongst seagrass and algae (McCarthy, 2007; Cochrane, 1996). Strombus gigas can be found in discrete aggregations up to hundreds or thousands of individuals who actively select these preferable habitats (Stoner, 1997). Adult S. gigas are typically found at depths less than 100 meters concentrated in water 10- 30 meters deep due to the photosynthetic light requirements of algae and plant growth (Randall 1964). Predators of the Queen Conch are known to be around 130 ma rine species including various species of mollusc, lobster, turtles, crabs, sharks, rays, snappers and Nassau Grouper, (Coulston, 1987; Culp and Stoner 1999; CITES AC19 Doc 8.3; Culp et al, 1997). As a defence they bury into the sand to hide, unprotected/unburied conch being less likely to survive (Coulston 1987). Conchs burying behaviours show wide variations, possibly related to environmental conditions of water temp conch increase burying in cooler winter period (Appeldoorn 1985) and wind/sea conditions conch are more active at high tide as a response to increased predator activity in the upper intertidal zone (). The increased amount of attached organisms on the shell of older conch suggests a decrease in long-term burying activity with increases in conch size (Iverson et al, 1986). 1.3.2 Conch Reproduction In the wild, adult queen conch maintain a 1:1 sex ratio in an undisturbed population (Cochrane, 1996), and sexual maturity for males and females occurs by approximately between 3.5 and 5 years, usually when the flared lip is greater than approximately 0.5 cm thick (Appeldoorn, 1988b; Berg and Olsen, 1989). Onset of sexual maturity varies within and between different Strombus gigas populations depending on their site specific habitat quality, food availability and water depth all changing growth rates (Martin-Mora et al., 1995), with faster growth rates inducing earlier maturation (Berg, 1976). Queen conch are dioecious (McCarthy, 2007), fertilization is internal when the male inserts a verge into the females siphonal notch, the female retaining the male sperm till fertilisation during the process of laying eggs (McCarty, 2007). The seasonal reproductive period increases copulation as a linear function of bottom water temperature the summer months (Stoner et al. 1992). Water quality, food supply, a 12-hour photoperiod, and temperature limitations all negatively affect individual female pairing, copulation, and egg-laying reproduction causing a decrease in egg masses (Stoner 1992; Shawl 2004). Females lay demersal egg masses in long continuous strands up to 50 to 75 feet long containing 185,000 to 460,000 eggs in each strand (Shawl Davis 1994). These are deposited in requirement sand substrate (Shawl Davies 2004) at an average rate of 1.5m hr-1, completing in less than a day (Randall 1964). Spawning can multiple times during an egg-laying season, the length of which varies depending on geographic location (Stoner?), but lasts typically 6 8 months usually between March and October (TABLE ?) with stimuli other than temperature, such as declining photoperiod, inducing the end of reproductive activity (Stoner et al, 1992) 1.3.3 Life Cycle of Queen Conch Fig 1. 3 Life cycle of the Queen Conch, Strombus gigas 1.3.3.1 Migration and Dispersal The life cycle of Strombus gigas begins by embryonic development that proceeds rapidly, dependent on temperature, after the fertilization of spawning reaching the gastrula stage after 16 hours. The pelagic larvae emerge within 72 hours 5/6 days after spawning (Cochrane 1996). This is also influenced by temperature and by the presence of phytoplankton (Stoner, 1997). By around 12 days they are lobed, free-swimming veligers, found in open water up to 100 meters deep, localised in above the thermocline, where they drift over 18-40 days in the currents of the upper layers feeding on the plankton (Posada and Appeldoorn, 1994; Stoner, 1997). During this period long distance transport by surface currents to deeper water areas (Iversen, et. al 1990) can occur up to 900km (Davis et al., 1993). Larvae then descend, 17 to 22 days after hatching, settling into the adult benthic habitats, when induced by settling cues of substrate (Boettcher and Targett 1996) and location. Larvae then require an environmental stimulus to induce metamorphose response such as the presence of specific algae foods Laurencia poitei and the epiphyte Fosliella spp. found on Thalassia testudinum (Davis, 1994) usually associated within site substratum and sediment (Davis and Stoner, 1994). Metamorphosis is usually within five days of settlement, unique in developmental history as the competence period is shorter than the precompetence period, instead of equal to or longer than the precompetence period. They are competent for only 6 days at 28 to 30C, losing this ability if the required conditions within the habitat cannot be met (Davis and Stoner, 1994). Short-term competence is ordinarily associated with metamorphosis to a broad spectrum of cues and this explains the conch response to a variety of ben thic cues found in juvenile conch seagrass habitats (Davis 1994). The larvae reach metamorphosis between 25 and 29 days turning lobes into feet while the proboscis develops to about 0.2 cm in length developing a small transparent shell within 24 hours called a protoconch (James Wood). Again development shows environmental variation for example larvae of March, April, May, and September have slower development than the larvae of June, July and August. The survival at settlement averaged 305.18% with highest survival June and July with 386.30%, lowest March (227.22%) and September (207.02%) (Brito-Manzano Aldana Aranda, 2004). 1.3.3.2 Juvenile Strombus gigas Young Queen Conch (one year) settle to benthic life on sandy substrate (Cochrane, 1996) where they remain buried as they have a particularly high mortality rate (63%) from predation, and if unburied conch 1.3-3.7cm long show complete mortality (Iverson, 1989). Very few small conch have been found in nature unburied (Ray Stoner, 1995) suggesting that conch may be buried almost continuously until shell lengths reach 5-10cm, when juveniles emerge and become epibenthic, periodically reburying to avoid winter storms (CFMC 1999). After emerging juvenile S. gigas shift habitat from the area of settlement (Sandt Stoner, 1993) aggregating 0.2-2 ind./m2, up to 100,000 individuals over large areas (100 ha) of shallow depth with high tidal circulation where algae production is sufficient and moderate or dense seagrass coverage (Stoner Lally 1996) This specific habitat is chosen as it reduces mortality from predation shown by (Stoner Ray, 1993) who found that 50% of juveniles outside a seagra ss area were killed. (Stoner, 1997) deems these crucial productive nursery habitats must be protected for population stability are determined by a complex unique interaction of oceanographic features, such as seagrass/algae communities and larval recruitment. 1.3.3.3 Conch Morphology Conch shell growth is deterministic; from approx. 3 years conch stops increasing in shell length, growing only by thickening of the shell, particularly the flared lip that it starts producing. At sexual maturity, which occurs at approximately 3 years (Berg 1976) and lasts approximately 7-10 months (Glazer and Berg, 1992), lip flare growth initiates (Appledoorn 1988). Both growth directions occur simultaneously until adult shell length is reached (Appledoorn 1988). Measuring shell lengths is the most accurate method to date juveniles estimates for mean shell length range from approx. 10.8cm for a 1-year old animal, 17cm for a 2-years old animal, and 20.5cm for +3years (Berg, 1976). In adults shell lip thickness increase has been used to estimate growth from maturation in years (Appeldoorn, 1988a, 1990). This is only a relative measure as the deterministic growth affects estimates of juvenile growth and therefore accurate aging, and mortality (CFMC/CFRAMP, 1999). The shell length of a dult S. gigas can decrease by bioerosion of the shell on substrate types, and interior volume of the shell can shrink with age inducing significantly smaller body size (CFMC/CFRAMP, 1999), both factors hindering accurate aging. Extreme spatial variation occurs in shell size of different S. gigas populations. Factors affecting shell size include site habitat quality, food availability and quality and water depth (Martin-Mora et al., 1995), which coupled with the presence of predators and increased depth are all thought to slow juvenile and adult conch morphometric growth. Growth rate is positively correlated to final shell length, indicated by slower growing conch tending to reach smaller final shell lengths and greater age at maturation (Alcolado, 1976). Increased predation can cause weaker, thicker or denser/heavier shells with shorter spines (Delgado et al. 2002; Stoner Davis, 1994), and increasing depth causes tighter coiling of the shell resulting in a wider, thicker shells and fewer, longer spines (Alcolado, 1976, quoted in McCarthy, 2007). 1.3.4 Migrations Conch travel up to 100 yards per day, mostly at night migrating for two reasons: Firstly, a long-lived ontogenetic migration movement of larger juveniles leaving nursery areas moving into deeper water (Stoner et al. 1988), in the direction of the seasonally synchronous tidal currents, increasing in conch density with the passage of the migration. This serves as a density-dependent or habitat-dependant dispersal mechanism for juvenile conchs from centres of recruitment (Stoner et al. 1988). The second reason is a summer migration of adults inshore to shallower water grass beds for spawning (Appledoorn 1993). This begins when temperatures start to increase (Stoner and Standt 1992; Coulston 1987) and the conch return offshore to sand or algae habitat and deeper water. Conch have also been observed to move to deeper water with age (Stoner, 1997). 1.3.5 Natural Mortality of Strombus gigas The Queen Conch is a relatively slow-growing long-lived species, reaching a maximum longevity of between 20 30 years with an average of 26. In deeper water this can be extended to 40 years (NOAA). Appeldoorn (1988) derived a relationship between age and natural mortality that exponentially decreases until the conch reaches sexual maturity (Appeldoorn, 1988). Mortality along with most other morphometric and maturity data also varies seasonally, due to habitat, predation and food limitation (Stoner and Glazer, 1998) but natural mortality of S. gigas has not been accurately quantified due to bioerosion of the shell by substrate (CITES AC19 Doc 8.3, 2003), and it is thought that aging any S. gigas specimen greater than 10 years old should be considered is unreliable, and therefore the complete lifespan of queen conch is unknown (SEDAR, 2007). 1.4 The Biological/Ecological Importance of Strombus gigas Strombus gigas is an important member of marine benthic and macrofauna communities in seagrass meadows. As a hebrivory mollusc, S. gigas regulates the abundance of seagrass detritus and algal blooms of bottom-dwelling algae such as Batophora oerstedi, performing a visual cleaning of the sediment surface from the normal light brown colour to white, clearing filamentous algae and small detrital particles (Stoner et al., 1995). By decreasing significantly the standing crop of biomass of dead or detritus remains of senescent seagrass blades, seagrass epiphytes, macrodetritus and macroalgae, without reducing living seagrass biomass, S. gigas grazing, similar to other important marine herbivory grazers such as Diadema, potentially stimulates rates of primary production of algae, macrophytes, seagrasses and the role of below ground nutrient reserves (Valentine, 1999). In comparison, S. gigas grazing on epiphytes and detritus could adversely influence other components of the benthic communit y such as amphipods and other smaller Mollusca invertebrates, which are dependent upon detritus for food or cover, reduced in numbers by S. gigas grazing. S. gigas must therefore play a major role in the trophic flux of the tropical seagrass community. Over-exploitation may cause significant ecological changes, including an increase in small grazers or rapid accumulation of organic matter in the sediments and trophic cascade changes that may reduce productivity and limit recruitment of S. gigas and all other species (Klumpp, et al 1992.). 1.5 Future Outlook and Conservation Conserving Reproductive Stocks Having ascertained as above, that conch are important to the ecosystem, the CITES inclusion highlighted global concerns, although mainly for the fisheries economy rather than ecological importance. With this well-documented decline of S. gigas that led to the CITES inclusion, research programs were developed designed to monitor conch stock and to determine how best to rehabilitate the depleted population. Attempts at researching methods to halt the decline and preserve the species have been focusing on both preserving the current stocks of native S. gigas specimens and maintaining stocks by ensuring reproduction or transplanting hatchery reared juveniles into the wild. Increasing interest in preserving the natural global stock led to a focused account of conch reproduction, potential mariculture hatcheries and maintenance of the species as a successful fisheries economy. However, to maintain any mariculture or fishery a strong healthy stock of native conch will need to be conserved. Two methods to protect and preserve high densities of native adult queen conch are at the forefront of conservation of the fisheries economy: depth refugia and marine reserves (Stoner, 1997). 1.5.1 Depth Refugia As S. gigas are herbivorous, predominantly found in well-lighted photosynthetic algal regions of shallow sub tidal zones 10-30m deep. The majority of S. gigas are therefore accessible to scuba divers driving the maximum abundance of adult conch to greater depth. Numbers at depths are generally very low (Stoner, 1997) and in response to declining shallow water populations one potential form of management for maintaining a healthy reproductive native population is to limit fishing to free diving (Posada Garcfa-Moliner, 1996). Relatively natural populations of adult conch are, in comparison, uncommon in depths 10 m showing the highest abundance at depth beyond the reach of free-diving conch fisherman. The limit would allow the survival of these small, deepwater refuge populations, ensuring some reproduction to replenish the regional stocks (). A possible problem is that because the vast majority of queen conch spends their first 2-3 years in shallow water, migrating when mature from ba nk nursery sites into deeper water, those on the bank in the fished area may be harvested before reaching water sufficiently deep to protect them from free-diving fishermen (). Also young adults and adults that do not migrate to deep water are then all accessible to free divers; the intense fishing for conch in shallow water could ultimately reduce deep-water refuge stocks (). 1.5.2 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) Protected marine areas provide an alternative technique already employed to maintaining high densities of adult conch. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are the globally designated marine specific protected sites, and are used as a management tool for limiting the ecosystem effects of fishing, including the biological and socio-economic aspects. Although increasing, currently only an estimated 0.6% of the worlds oceans are designated MPAs, the largest being the Great Barrier Reef, however many of the largest can be found in the Caribbean oceans. UNEP-WCMC, 2002, defined MPAs as any area of the intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment. The MPAsprotect all species and rare habitats or nursing grounds in that environment, which can include historical features such as shipwrecks, and cultural sites o f interest (such as known whale routes). MPAs aim to protect their environment according to area and species, by restricting access, mining and fishing practices, and by prioritising preservation and conservation. In extreme cases tourism is restricted, use of certain boats, and ultrasound are either banned or restricted in the conservation areas. 1.5.2.1 Does Marine Protection work? Ecological Effects of MPAs There is sufficient evidence that fishing negatively affects ecosystems (Sumaila, et al, 2000) and to reduce fishing is the main principle of fishery model predictions. Models predict that the establishment of MPAs, in particular, for overexploited commercial populations, can reduce negative effects of fishing consequently maintaining local economies, and livelihoods of fishermen (Behnken, 1993). Reserve protection ensuring a natural source of maintaining species diversity for the future, creating an ecological success and benefiting sustainability of future fisheries economies, as well as rehabilitate those that have collapsed (Halpern, 2003). The scientific consensus is that, marine reserves, on average, regardless of their size, and with exceptions, result in long-lasting significantly higher density, biomass, individual size, and diversity (Lubchenco et al, 2000) when evaluated for both overall communities and by each functional group within these communities (carnivorous fishes, herbivorous fishes, planktivorous fishes/invertebrate eaters, and invertebrates) within reserves as opposed to outside the reserve (or after reserve establishment vs. before) (Halpern, 2003) and often rapid increases in the abundance, and productivity of marine organisms. By providing refuge nursery areas protecting resident species and heritage protection of important habitats such as coral, MPAs increase density of species and decrease mortality, habitat destruction and any indirect ecosystem effects. On average, research provides evidence that creating a reserve can raise mean organism size, double density, (nearly) triple biomass, and increase diversity of communities by 20-30% relative to the values for unprotected areas (Halper, 2003) and Halpern deems the results to be robust despite the many potential sources of error in the individual studies with considerable variance (Halpern, 2003). Outside reserve boundaries the few studies that have examined spill over effects (Lubche nco et al, 2000), but the increase in density and diversity of marine life, is predicted to increase reproduction potential and by permanently eliminating fishing practices, change the ecosystem from disturbed to mature (Sumaila et al, 2000) restoring community structure (McClanahan and Obura, 1995). Outside of the reserve there is potential for the abundance of exploited species to also increase in areas adjacent to reserves via regionally larval export replenishing populations (Lubechncho et al, 2000). 1.5.2.2 Strombus gigas Specific MPA Restrictions Do they Work? Long-lived slow growing epibenthic species and those requiring highly structured habitat would be expected to thrive in the MPA albeit a long process rebuilding the habitat structure (Watling and Norse, 1998). For S. gigas, the establishment of marine reserves is theoretically the best way to allow populations to recover (Stoner 1997) as from a single-species point of view, MPA are designed to restore populations to pre-industrial fishing levels by reducing the probability of extinction for marine species resident within them by using fishing restrictions (Lubchenco et al, 2000). Invertebrate density trends as shown by other species and functional groups, imply diversity will be higher inside reserves but so far invertebrate biomass has been documented lower within reserves (Halpern, 2003). Indirectly the reserve may however affect numbers of S. gigas predatory fishes, and for invertebrate biomass in particular, the effectiveness depends on its position in the localised food chain. C urrently there are few S. gigas specific evaluation of the biological impact of a reserve on the stock of queen conch, the first conducted in the Turks and Caicos islands (Bene Tewfick, 2003), followed by (Stoner and Ray, 1996) comparing the density of adult queen conch in the 1984 Restricted Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park and in the fished area near Lee Stocking Island, Exuma Cays. Both studies showed increased densities of S. gigas in the reserve as shown in Table 1, Benes results showing density 6 times higher within the reserve and S. gigas shell length significantly smaller in the reserve than in the fished areas describing the existence of a crowding effect (high density induced reduction in growth rate) within the reserve (Bene Tewfik, 2003) hypothesized due to a) reduced fishing mortality following creation of reserve b) existence of natural barriers that impede emigration of adults to outside the reserve. (Stoner, 1997) concluded that marine reserves can conserve spawners i ndicated by juvenile conch numbers increasing in Exuma Park and that the increased larval production within the reserve transporting downstream to areas of fished populations (Stoner, 1997). Table 1. Density of adult queen conch in the Exurna Cays Land and Sea Park near the island of Waderick Wells and in the fished area near Lee Stocking Island, Exuma Cays. (mean + SE for each depth interval). (Stoner Ray, (1996) Habitat/Depth (m) Fishery Reserve Fished Area Bank 53.6 1.7 Shelf 0-2.5 0 0 0 0 2.5-5 34 22 2.2 1.7 5-10 49 18 7.2 4.1 10-15 270 85 60 47 15-20 104 58 88 32 20-25 148 72 18 9 25-30 122 70 0 0 As ecological effect results show, reserves are the best way to provide protection whilst evaluating threats to ocean communities (Lubchenco, et al, 2000), however the even limited exploitation or resumption of fishing practice within the protected area decreases documented benefits (Jennings, 1996; Attwood et al., 1997 Wantiez, 1997; Alcala and Russ, 1990). (Halpern, 2003) reports less positive results in other MPA studies as well, but these studies have been mostly disregarded as interlinked confounding factors, such reserves with unfavourable habitats (Tegner, 1993) and not protecting a sufficient portion of critical habitat (Armstrong et al., 1993) were likely to have caused the less significant result (Sumaila et al, 2000). 1.5.2.3 Future Effectiveness of MPAs for Queen Conch Stocks MPAs alone may not guarantee the long-term persistence of the targeted species as external anthropogenic factors, for example pollution effects and climatic changes, may impact and damage the ecosystem in unpredictable and undetectable ways (Allison et al., 1998) but precautionary principle suggests they may provide some sort of protection. To produce effective reserves diversity of marine habitats must be encompassed alongside other management tools coupled with long term monitoring evaluating management impacts within and outside the reserves (Lubchenco et al, 2000). The effectiveness of any MPA is dependant on its size and its location in relation to life-history characteristics and habitat requirement of the targeted species the MPA aims to protect (Sumaila et al, 2000). 1.5.2.3.1 Location and habitat requirement Both larval dispersal and adult migration patterns must be considered important. Knowledge of home range, larval dispersal, location of settlement, migration patterns, the contribution of neighbouring spawning populations and physical oceanography (Halpern, 2003; Sumaila etal, 2000) all become crucial to be considered when determining the location, size, and number of reserves necessary to protect the targeted species and increase ability to retain a sustainable population (Allison et al., 1998). Permanent or temporal closures will protect critical habitats of nurseries, spawning and feeding grounds and populations during crucial life history events such as migrations and spawning aggregations. The reserve must be not only downstream receiving a regular supply of larva from a spawning population, but must be established in locations where they will contribute to further downstream fisheries (Stoner, 1997). If the rate of adult migration to outside the reserve is fast, efficiency of t he reserve is likely to decrease, as a large proportion of individuals would still be vulnerable to exploitation (Sumaila et al., 2000). 1.5.2.3.2 Size Dependency Successful reserves should be large enough that reproductive stock cannot migrate out, and areas that supply larvae into populations must have some level of protection as well (Stoner, 1997). Stoner, (1997) concludes that the apparent success of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park is due, in part, to its large size. However (Halpern, 2003) states the likelihood to increase biomass or density is independent of reserve size, suggesting effects of MPAs increase directly rather than proportionally with increasing size of a reserve. Halpern acknowledges Stoners view, in that he theorises equal relative differences in biological measures between small and large reserves can translate into greater absolute differences for the larger reserves. They both conclude larger reserves are required in order to reach the conservation and protection objectives of marine reserves. Building large reserves is difficult with global boundaries and evidence is suggesting that a network of reserves that spans l arge geographic areas would encompassing enough to adequately protect and provide a stable platform for the long-term persistence of marine communities against environmental variability or anthropogenic pollution as much as a single reserve (Ballantine, 1997; Lubchenco et al, 2000) The worlds two largest coral reefs are the Great Barrier Reef in Australia followed by the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) and both are good examples of networks of MPAs. The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) extends from the southern half of the Yucatan Peninsula to the Bay Islands of Honduras incorporating the second longest barrier reef in the world (Almada-Villela et. al2003). All coral reef of the MBRS are included within MPAs, and in Honduras all areas off the north coast are included in MPAs as it has diverse assemblage of coral habitats and reef unique in the Western hemisphere are to be preserved. The network system provides the stabilization and some protection of coastal landscapes, and its regulations help preserve important habitats for all marine life, including those of commercial value, ensuring continued employment and income to indigenous people living on MBRS coastal areas. They are assisting the bordering Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras in set ting up communal policies, regulations, and institutional arrangements for the conservation and sustainable use of the area (MBRS). 1.6 Current Honduran Queen Conch Fisheries The broad shelf off north-eastern Honduras and Nicaragua is where the principal fisheries for lobsters, shrimp, and conchs are conducted, with the exception of wildlife refuges in the north Utila, north Roatan, and the northwest side of Guanaja (Miller(3)). Earlier Artisanal free diving Fishing of 1970-1980s, evolved into organized industrial commercial fishing and conchs which were so abundant in places some could be seen from shore in clear waters became depleted in shallow coastal waters spurred by a consistent demand for conch meat in the United States, expanding as scuba gear in 1984 up 37 m in the conch grounds off the north-eastern Honduras coast. Since the mid-1980s, the number of divers employed to catch lobsters and conchs from Honduran industrial vessels has increased sharply, currently totalling about 1,800 make 12, 12 trips/year, taking 15,000-30,000 pounds of conch meat/12-day trip. An estimated 50 fishermen from the Bay Islands, using only mask and fins, and 7 from Pue rto Cortes area, using scuba gear, currently seek lobsters and conchs, taking on average 2-3 conchs a day. In coastal villages eastward of La Ceiba, some fishermen catch conchs by free diving with a mask and fins 10-20 conchs/day, but sometimes none (Zuniga(8)). Only the meat of conchs is taken by cracking a hole to cut the muscle attachment from the shell, often discarding the shell (Fermin(9) or selling to a company in San Pedro Sula, which uses it for making tiles (Galindo(4)). In 1-2 dives, a diver gets about, 15-20lb up to 100-120 lbs and received US$0.95/pound for conch meat (1996). The catches are taken to Roatan, where they are repacked and sold principally in the United States. The fishermen sell to middlemen who in 1996 paid them US$1.43/pound for conch meat whos then sells in the city of La Ceiba and receives US$2.482.86/pound for conch meat (Zuniga(8)). Conch meat sold for US$3.43/pound in markets in San Pedro Sula and Tela in March 1996 (personal observ.). Aquatic produ ction Landings (it) Conch meats = 291 1.7 Honduran MPAs, The Cayos Cochinos Marine Reserve In Honduras, since 1988, 18 officially recognised and 4 proposed protected marine areas have been designated (MPA Global, Marine Protected Area Database) most recently in 2003, the Legislative Presidential decree 114-2003 designated the the Cayos Cochinos islands, off the coast of Northern Honduras, a Marine Natural Monument (Andraka Bouroncle, 2004), and the Honduran Coral Reef Foundation (HCRF) obtained protection for these islands/reefs and the responsibility of the conservation of the islands for 10 years. Fig 4: Detailed Map of the designated Cayos Cochinos Marine National Park The Cayos Cochinos MPA consists of two small islands Cayo Menor (Cochino Pequero) and Cayo Mayor (Cochinor Grande) and 13 coral cays off the north Honduran coast, where the HCRF Management Program implemented focus on the recuperation of the key habitat, taking into account the life cycle of fish, mollusc, and crustaceans, to guarantee the sustainability of the fish in the MPA. This area and management also protection of commercial specials in critical states to provide alternatives to diversify the fishing activities, to alleviate the pressure on the Cayos Cochinos, without significantly affecting the local culture of fishing and by implementing zones with regulations for the conservation and management of these resources, controlled by park rangers and local volunteers monitoring these zones (HCRF). Honduras charges artisanal fishermen to pay a $1.00 per year and industrial corporations $10 a year, for a licence which allows them to fish conch freely with no minimum length regulati on until Honduras closed season of March 16 August 31. 1.8 Aims: In 1997 prior to the establishment of the Marine Protected Area the Smithsonian Institute completed Queen Conch surveys around the islands and showed that stocks were heavily over fished with Adult S. gigas were estimated at 7.3 individuals per hectare, and Juvenile S. gigas also 7.3 individuals per hectare (Tewfik Guzman, 1998). The objective of this project was to repeat these dive surveys, measure the size of all conchs recorded and classify into size categories as in 1997, using the visual abundance survey data to observe whether the management measures implemented by Honduran Coral Reef Foundation in 2002 are protecting the Queen Conch stocks and increasing numbers within the MPA in comparison to 1997. 1.8.1 Visual Abundance Survey Data It was chosen to use visual abundance surveys for assessment of the conch populations as they give fishery-independent estimates of exploitable biomass, future recruitment, as well as habitat distribution, condition, and use by conch populations. Divers can be towed behind boats to count but the benthic nature requires that divers to survey the substrate over a measured area. This allows absolute determination of density and direct observation of individual conch on various substrate types as well as enabling collection of morphometric data. These surveys within the region are reasonably inexpensive and very accessible, short in duration given the limited shelf area of most countries. Large-scale surveys may only be needed every few years as long as other data collections continue in the interim periods. Visual surveys are particularly valuable when used with other data, such as catch and effort, and when a number of surveys have been completed (CFMC CFRAMP 1999). Visual assessments for conch have been done over the years on various spatial scales including: Berg et al. (1992a,b), Friedlander et al. (1994), Appeldoorn (1995b), Berg and Glazer (1995), Tewfik et al. (1997), Tewfik and Bene (2000), Appeldoom and Rodriguez (1994), Berg and Oisen (1989), Appeldoom and B. Rodriguez, Mahon (1990), Smith and van Neirop (1984), Stoner and Ray (1996), Tewfik (1996), Torres Rosado (1987), Weil and Laughlin (1984) and Wood and Olsen (1983).