Figure 4: Trаnsаctiоns Dаtaset Transactiоn ID Items Bоught 1 {a, b, d, e} 2 {b, c, d} 3 {a, b, d, e} 4 {a, c, d, e} 5 {b, c, d, e} 6 {b, d, e} 7 {c, d} 8 {a, b, c} 9 {a, d, e} 10 {b, d} Review the table labeled Figure 4: Transactions Dataset. You are using rule mining on a large dataset, and the table is a part of the dataset. If the itemset {a,b,c,d} is determined to be frequent, which of the transactions in the table are also frequent?
The Hоrrific Wаy Fish Are Cаught fоr Yоur Aquаrium—With Cyanide Up to 90 percent of saltwater aquarium fish imported to the U.S. are caught using cyanide. A new petition is calling for the government to crack down. By Rachael Bale PublishedMarch 10, 2016 Editor's note, June 5, 2018: The government rejected the petition in the summer of 2016, in part because the cyanide test it called for had not been independently validated. A study published in May 2018 calls into question the veracity of the data underpinning the method promoted in the petition. Read more here. They’re in your dentist’s office, in restaurants, hotel resorts, and homes all over the world. The saltwater aquarium, with its bright coral and even brighter fish, brings a piece of the wild into your living room. But do you really know where those saltwater fish come from? A full 98 percent—yes, almost all—species of saltwater fish currently can’t be bred in captivity on a commercial scale. They must instead be taken from ocean reefs. And how is that done? Most of the time, with sodium cyanide. Sodium cyanide is a highly toxic chemical compound that many fish collectors in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia (the largest exporters of tropical fish) crush and dissolve in squirt bottles to spray on the fish—and the reef and all the other marine life in the vicinity. Stunned, the target fish can then easily be scooped up. Up to 90 percent of the 11 million tropical fish that enter the U.S. each year are caught illegally with cyanide, according to a 2008 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Other data suggests the number is significantly smaller, but researchers say that the percentage is beside the point—any cyanide use on reefs is seriously problematic. The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit environmental conservation organization, along with the Humane Society and For the Fishes, a Hawaii-based organization that developed the award-winning Tank Watch app*, filed a petition Monday calling on the U.S. government to crack down on these illegal imports. “Compared to many environmental catastrophes currently facing the world’s oceans, this is one that can easily be solved,” said Nicholas Whipps of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Because the U.S. is such a powerful market player in this industry, the burden to stop this practice falls disproportionately on the United States’ shoulders.” Where do tropical fish in saltwater aquariums come from? They’re almost exclusively taken from the reefs of Southeast Asia to Fiji to Kenya to Hawaii. People are trying to breed popular species in captivity, but no one has really figured it out yet. There are about 1,800 species of marine aquarium fish in the trade, and breeders have only managed to successfully raise a few of those, including several types of clownfish and gobies. Yes, it IS illegal to catch fish with cyanide. The Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia have all banned cyanide fishing, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, yet it still happens on a large scale. Enforcement just isn’t strong enough. In the Philippines, private planes allegedly bring in cyanide to the fishermen and then whisk away the live fish, the World Wildlife Fund reported. But it’s oh-so lucrative. Live fish make fishermen a lot more money than dead ones, so more and more fishermen have turned from supplying the fish-for-food trade to the fish-for-aquariums trade, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The marine aquarium trade is worth about $200 million a year. What does cyanide do to the targeted fish? Umberger cites a scientific study on cyanide exposure, and it’s not pretty: Upon being squirted with cyanide, fish suffer “severe gasping, followed by loss of balance and a complete loss of all respiratory activity.” Some fish get too much exposure and simply die then and there. Many, many more die in transit. Others may hang on until they’re in an unsuspecting aquarium owner’s tank and then give out. "The name of the game for those in the trade is 'sell the fish as quickly as possible' because then you’re passing the risk on to the next buyer,” said Rene Umberger, the director of For the Fishes. What does it do to the rest of the marine life? Cyanide that doesn’t kill a fish temporarily impairs its ability to swim and breathe. Then there’s the coral. Each live fish caught with cyanide destroys about a square yard of coral, according to biologist Sam Mamauag of the International Marinelife Alliance, in the Philippines. Even in lower doses, cyanide can cause coral bleaching and mess with the coral’s biology. Sometimes, the coral is killed outright. Once the coral’s dead, the entire ecosystem collapses. Without coral, reef fish, crustaceans, plants, and other animals no longer have food, shelter, and breeding grounds. The effects ripple up the food chain, affecting thousands of species—us included. Reef habitats provide food for tens of millions of people and contribute to the livelihoods, through commercial fishing and tourism, of many more. What can the U.S. do? The U.S. has a law called the Lacey Act, which makes it illegal to import any wildlife caught contrary to another country’s laws. That gives U.S. law enforcement the ability to turn away shipments of fish sourced using cyanide. But no U.S. agencies now test imported fish for traces of cyanide, Whipps said. The new petition calls on the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to use the Lacey Act authority to crack down on cyanide-caught fish by requiring testing and certification of imported tropical fish. What can you do? Advocates are calling on aquarium hobbyists to buy only fish bred in captivity. Some stores have labels, but the best way to find out is to ask. For the Fishes’ free app Tank Watch*, which was developed with the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, and software developer Aysling, helps you identify reef-friendly species. *Disclosure: National Geographic Society is a partner and judge in the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Tank Watch won $10,000 in the challenge and is now competing for the $500,000 grand prize. This story was corrected on March 14 and March 22, 2016, to reflect the fact that commercial-scale breeding of marine aquarium fish occurs for about two percent of traded species and that the most recent estimates of marine aquarium fish imported to the U.S. are 11 million per year, not 12.5 million. The story has also removed the lower bound of the estimate of the percent of fish imported to the U.S. caught using cyanide because that number was drawn from an estimate using only on one country.
Richer pаrаsite diversity leаds tо healthier frоgs, says new CU study By: Pieter Jоhnson Published: May 21, 2012 Increases in the diversity of parasites that attack amphibians cause a decrease in the infection success rate of virulent parasites, including one that causes malformed limbs and premature death, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study. According to CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Pieter Johnson, scientists are concerned about how changes in biodiversity affect the risk of infectious diseases in humans and wildlife. Charting the relationships between parasites and amphibians is important since few studies have examined the influence of parasite diversity on disease, and the fact that amphibians are declining faster than any group of animals on the planet due to human activities like habitat loss, pollution and emerging diseases, Johnson said. In the new study, the team sampled 134 California ponds for the parasites, known as trematodes, comparing their abundance and distribution with the health of more than 2,000 Pacific chorus frogs. The CU team combined the field studies with extensive lab experiments that charted the health of the frogs in the presence of different combinations of the six most common amphibian parasites, including the Ribeiroia group whose larvae burrow into tadpole limb regions and form cysts that disrupt normal frog and toad leg development, causing extra or missing limbs. The new study showed when the chorus frogs were exposed to all six trematode types simultaneously, the infection success rate was 42 percent lower than for frogs exposed to only a single species of parasite. “Our results show increases in parasite diversity consistently cause a decrease in infection success by the most virulent parasite,” said Johnson of the ecology and evolutionary biology department. A paper by Johnson and co-author Jason Hoverman, a CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher, appears in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The project was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and a David and Lucile Packard Foundation fellowship awarded to Johnson in 2008. While the six parasites used in the study are responsible for about 95 percent of trematode infections in the wild, most of the world’s parasites cause limited damage to host individuals, said Johnson. In the PNAS study, only two parasites, Ribeiroia and a parasite group called Echinostoma -- which can trigger amphibian mortality -- were known to be particularly dangerous to their host species. The primary study results support the idea that higher biodiversity can help protect against certain diseases, but few previous studies had considered the diversity of the parasites themselves. Because many parasites compete with each other, ecological systems richer in parasites can act as a buffer against virulent pathogens. Johnson said the combination of extensive field and lab work helped strengthen the study results. One surprising study finding was that under certain conditions, increases in parasite diversity could increase or decrease host disease. In that aspect of the study, the infection rates were dependent on the order in which the six parasite species were added to the habitats of the frogs, and whether newly added parasite species replaced other parasites or were added alongside them, he said. If a dangerous parasite is first on the scene, it tends to be replaced when less dangerous species are added, decreasing the odds of host disease. But if a dangerous parasite species is added to an environment already harboring parasites, the study showed either a neutral effect or an increase in disease, Johnson said. “Collectively, our findings illustrate the importance of considering the hidden role of parasite diversity in affecting disease risk,” said Johnson. “While our study was on amphibian diseases, there is ample evidence to suggest similar processes can be occurring in humans and other groups of animals.” Recent studies also have shown similar relationships between host diversity and the risk of disease in some plants, mammals, birds and coral. A decrease in vertebrate host species for ticks carrying Lyme disease, for example, can increase the risk of Lyme disease in humans, said Johnson. “It could be that the most dangerous parasites occur in greater numbers in disturbed environments,” said Hoverman, who recently accepted a position as assistant professor at Purdue University’s forestry and natural resources department. “If we are trying to minimize disease risk in humans or in threatened groups of animals like amphibians, studies like this will be able to tell us which scenarios are most likely to occur.” The new study has implications for declining biodiversity being seen across the planet as a result of human activities, including amphibians, said Johnson. Roughly 40 percent of amphibian species around the world are in decline, and more than 200 have gone extinct since the 1970s, some as a result of the often-fatal chytrid fungus that infects amphibian skin. Some scientists argue that rapid global amphibian decline seen today is driving the next great mass extinction event, he said. Trematodes have a complex life cycle that involve snails, amphibians and predators. Host snails release parasite larvae in the water, infecting amphibians and causing deformities that include extra or missing legs. Deformed frogs and toads rarely survive long because of their susceptibility to predators like wading birds, which ingest them and later release trematodes that infect other snails, completing the life cycle. Deformed frogs first gained attention in the mid-1990s when a group of Minnesota schoolchildren discovered a pond where more than half of the leopard frogs had missing or extra limbs, said Johnson. Since then reports of deformed amphibians have been widespread in the United States, leading to speculation they were being caused by factors like pollution, increased ultraviolet radiation or parasitic infection. A 2008 study by Johnson showed American toads who pal around with gray tree frogs reduce their chances of parasitic infections known to cause limb malformations because trematode larva that infect tree frog tadpoles are killed by the tadpoles’ immune systems. In 2007, Johnson led a study showing high levels of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus used in North American farming and ranching activities fuel trematode infections by elevating the abundance and reproduction of snail species that host the parasites.
In regаrds tо bоth аrticles: Hоw cаn understanding complex ecological interactions, such as the role of parasites in frog populations and the impact of harmful capture practices on coral reefs, inform your responsibilities and practices as a vet tech in promoting animal health and conservation? Reflect on the balance between individual animal care and broader ecological impacts.
Hоw dоes the relаtiоnship between pаrаsites and the health of frogs challenge the traditional view of parasites as solely harmful organisms? Reflect on how this understanding might influence your approach to treating animals with parasitic infections
Whаt аre the ethicаl and envirоnmental implicatiоns оf using cyanide to capture saltwater tropical fish for aquariums? How should these considerations affect the decisions you make as a future vet tech when advising clients on pet care and sourcing?
Whаt nursing cоurse аre yоu currently tаking?
Highlight the lоcаtiоn оf the the beаr's heаrt
A bаker is mаking а cake fоr an оccasiоn. The occasion is also the day you were born.