Dataset Information

Effectiveness of novel fabrics to resist punctures and lacerations from white shark (Carcharodon carcharias): Implications to reduce injuries from shark bites.

ABSTRACT: Increases in the number of shark bites, along with increased media attention on shark-human interactions has led to growing interest in preventing injuries from shark bites through the use of personal mitigation measures. The leading cause of fatality from shark bite victims is blood loss; thus reducing haemorrhaging may provide additional time for a shark bite victim to be attended to by emergency services. Despite previous shark-proof suits being bulky and cumbersome, new technological advances in fabric has allowed the development of lightweight alternatives that can be incorporated onto traditional wetsuits. The ability for these fabrics to withstand shark bites has not been scientifically tested. In this report, we compared two types of recently developed protective fabrics that incorporated ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibre onto neoprene (SharkStop and ActionTX) and compared them to standard neoprene alternatives. We tested nine different fabric variants using three different tests, laboratory-based puncture and laceration tests, along with field-based trials involving white sharks Carcharodon carcharias. Field-based trials consisted of measuring C. carcharias bite force and quantifying damages to the new fabrics following a bite from 3-4 m total length C. carcharias. We found that SharkStop and ActionTX fabric variants were more resistant to puncture, laceration, and bites from C. carcharias. More force was required to puncture the new fabrics compared to control fabrics (laboratory-based tests), and cuts made to the new fabrics were smaller and shallower than those on standard neoprene for both types of test, i.e. laboratory and field tests. Our results showed that UHMWPE fibre increased the resistance of neoprene to shark bites. Although the use of UHMWPE fibre (e.g. SharkStop and ActionTX) may therefore reduce blood loss resulting from a shark bite, research is needed to assess if the reduction in damages to the fabrics extends to human tissues and decreased injuries.

SUBMITTER: Whitmarsh SK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6860444 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effectiveness of novel fabrics to resist punctures and lacerations from white shark (Carcharodon carcharias): Implications to reduce injuries from shark bites.

Whitmarsh Sasha K SK Amin Dhara B DB Costi John J JJ Dennis Joshua D JD Huveneers Charlie C

PloS one 20191118 11

Increases in the number of shark bites, along with increased media attention on shark-human interactions has led to growing interest in preventing injuries from shark bites through the use of personal mitigation measures. The leading cause of fatality from shark bite victims is blood loss; thus reducing haemorrhaging may provide additional time for a shark bite victim to be attended to by emergency services. Despite previous shark-proof suits being bulky and cumbersome, new technological advance ...[more]

PMID: 31738770

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Project description:BackgroundThe white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is a globally distributed, apex predator possessing physical, physiological, and behavioral traits that have garnered it significant public attention. In addition to interest in the genetic basis of its form and function, as a representative of the oldest extant jawed vertebrate lineage, white sharks are also of conservation concern due to their small population size and threat from overfishing. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the biology of white sharks, and genomic resources are unavailable. To address this deficit, we combined Roche-454 and Illumina sequencing technologies to characterize the first transciptome of any tissue for this species.ResultsFrom white shark heart cDNA we generated 665,399 Roche 454 reads (median length 387-bp) that were assembled into 141,626 contigs (mean length 503-bp). We also generated 78,566,588 Illumina reads, which we aligned to the 454 contigs producing 105,014 454/Illumina consensus sequences. To these, we added 3,432 non-singleton 454 contigs. By comparing these sequences to the UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot database we were able to annotate 21,019 translated open reading frames (ORFs) of ≥ 20 amino acids. Of these, 19,277 were additionally assigned Gene Ontology (GO) functional annotations. While acknowledging the limitations of our single tissue transcriptome, Fisher tests showed the white shark transcriptome to be significantly enriched for numerous metabolic GO terms compared to the zebra fish and human transcriptomes, with white shark showing more similarity to human than to zebra fish (i.e. fewer terms were significantly different). We also compared the transcriptome to other available elasmobranch sequences, for signatures of positive selection and identified several genes of putative adaptive significance on the white shark lineage. The white shark transcriptome also contained 8,404 microsatellites (dinucleotide, trinucleotide, or tetranucleotide motifs ≥ five perfect repeats). Detailed characterization of these microsatellites showed that ORFs with trinucleotide repeats, were significantly enriched for transcription regulatory roles and that trinucleotide frequency within ORFs was lower than for a wide range of taxonomic groups including other vertebrates.ConclusionThe white shark heart transcriptome represents a valuable resource for future elasmobranch functional and comparative genomic studies, as well as for population and other biological studies vital for effective conservation of this globally vulnerable species.

Dataset Information

Effectiveness of novel fabrics to resist punctures and lacerations from white shark (Carcharodon carcharias): Implications to reduce injuries from shark bites.

Publications

Effectiveness of novel fabrics to resist punctures and lacerations from white shark (Carcharodon carcharias): Implications to reduce injuries from shark bites.

Similar Datasets

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