The Nassau grouper spawning aggregation off the west end of Little Cayman, Cayman Islands was monitored for five consecutive years (2002-2006). An aggregation of approximately 2,000 Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) appears to be stable over the last three years of the study period. Over five years, times of peak numbers of Nassau groupers ranged from one to five days after the full moon (January or February). Nearly 300 spawning bursts were recorded over the study period. On average, spawning bursts were recorded 21 minutes before sunset to 11 minutes after sunset, but were observed as early as an hour before sunset to 20 minutes after sunset. The timing and number of spawning bursts were variable each year. All spawning bursts were observed in the months of January or February. Spawning periods ranged from three to six days in duration and ranged in moon phase from one day after the full moon to eight days after the full moon. The month for the major spawning event appeared to be influenced by the date of January's full moon. Late January full moons (occurring 30 days or more after the winter solstice) resulted in major spawning events in January. Conversely, early January full moons resulted in major spawning events in February. Currents were slack or negligible during nights of spawning. Over a period of 24-48 hours and during sunset dives, prior to the first spawning night, the percentage of Nassau groupers in the bicolor phase increased to 80%, at which time spawning occurred. This shift in color phase may be used to predict when spawning will occur. The formation and the physical location of the Nassau grouper aggregation had low variability throughout the monitoring period. Aberrant colorations of individual Nassau groupers were observed at the study site. Subsequent sightings both on and off the spawning site suggests permanent anomalous pigmentation that was useful for tracking inter-year survivorship. Twenty-one other fish species displaying spawning coloration or behavior were recorded at the site.

Mass spawning aggregations of Caribbean grouper species are a conservation priority because of declines due to over-fishing. Previous studies have documented five historical aggregation sites in the Cayman Islands. Today, three of these sites are inactive or commercially extinct. In January 2002, the Reef Environmental Education Foundation led an expedition to Little Cayman Island to document a recently re-discovered spawning aggregation of Nassau grouper, Epinephelus striatus. A team of divers estimated the abundance, color phase composition, and courtship and spawning behavior of the aggregating grouper. The color phase composition of the aggregation shifted both during the course of each evening and throughout the 10-day project. Divers documented atypical coloration and courtship behavior in 10 additional fish species, of which five were seen spawning. Artisanal fishing occurred daily on the aggregation. The Cayman Islands Department of the Environment collected landings data and sampled catches to obtain length and sex ratios. The Cayman fishing fleet, while small, had a significant impact on the aggregation with a harvest of almost 2 000 Nassau grouper during the 10-day project. The study site supports the largest known Nassau grouper aggregation in the Cayman Islands. The relatively large size of fish and the high proportion of males indicate that this site supports a relatively healthy aggregation compared to other Nassau grouper aggregation sites throughout the Caribbean.

Introduction: Background To Language And The Web. What the Book is Not. Human Communication. Unit 1 Getting Really Wired. The Physical Context Of Websites. A Terrible Beauty is Born. How Personal Computers Began. Everything Within. The Origins of the Web. The March of Time. Developments in Web Design. Unit 2 Front Of House. Institutional Websites. Virtually There. Websites as Metaphorical Buildings. Basic Burger - Nothing on it. Developments in Web Graphics. Marking Territory. Web Address Names. Mapping Territory. Finding your Way Around. Unit 3 Boundaries. Real And Imagined. Personal Websites. How the Web Defeats Boundaries. Publishing for Everyone. Does the Language of Websites Exist? Doppelganger: Your Web Personality. Unit 4 Streamers And Flashers. Sound And Video. Content On The Web. The Digital Revolution. It's Alive. Multi-Media Content. Narrative Enforcement. Popup Windows and Spam. Unit 5 Ready Or Not. Searching The Web. Indexes and Catalogues. Computers as Searchers. The Language of Dead Links. Comparing Search Engines. Advanced Searching and Boolean Logic. Unit 6 The Raw Materials of Web Writing. Two Languages of the Web. What you See is Not What you Get. Index of Terms. Bibliography

In this study, we demonstrate that all sequences necessary and sufficient for the expression of a Xenopus borealis alpha 3B embryonic/larval skeletal actin gene, reside in a 156-nucleotide fragment of the promoter that spans nucleotides -197 to -42. This region of the promoter contains three imperfect repeats of the CC(A/T)6GG (CArG) box motif that have been demonstrated to be important in the expression of other sarcomeric actin genes. Deletion of the actin promoter, using Xenopus microinjection techniques as a transient assay system for promoter activity, shows that the most distal CArG box (CArG box 3) is essential for the full expression of the gene. Under our assay conditions, the most proximal CArG box (CArG box 1) exhibits two binding activities using bandshift analysis. One of these binding activities contains components antigenically related to a serum-response factor (transcription factor), whilst the second does not. In contrast, CArG box3 produces only a single retarded band using electrophoretic mobility-shift analysis. Although the shifted complex coelectrophoreses with the CArG box 1/serum-response factor complex, the band produced by CArG box3 appears to be distinct from SRF. In addition to the CArG motifs, a further upstream regulatory element has been identified in the actin promoter between nucleotides -197 and -167. In the actin promoter, a downstream region can apparently fulfil this function.

We have isolated a genomic clone, related in sequence to the skeletal-actin gene sub-family. It is expressed in the skeletal muscle of embryos from the neurula stage onwards and in tadpoles, but not in adults. The equivalent Xenopus laevis gene is expressed as a major transcript in adult muscle, as well as at earlier stages. The intron/exon structure is typical of vertebrate skeletal-actin genes, as is the possession of multiple copies of three serum-response elements in the promoter of this gene. The Xenopus actin and beta-globin genes were fused in their second introns. This construct, which contained 2.4 kb of upstream sequence, was injected into fertilized eggs at the two-cell stage. It showed the normal pattern of tissue-specific transcription. Thus all of the information necessary for appropriate expression of this actin gene in the embryo is contained in the region that extends from a point 2.4 kb upstream of transcription initiation to the centre of the second exon. A series of enhancer constructs were made in which upstream regions of the actin gene were placed upstream of a X. laevis beta-globin gene. The region immediately adjacent to the promoter, containing the three serum-response elements, was able to drive muscle-specific expression, and there was also a general enhancement of transcription by regions further upstream.