Disturbance indicators for time series reconstruction and marine ecosystem health impact assessment

A systematic reconstruction of Multiple Marine Ecological Disturbances (MMEDs) involving disease occurrence, morbidity and mortality events has been undertaken so that a taxonomy of globally distributed marine disturbance types can be better quantified and common forcing factors identified. Combined disturbance data include indices of morbidity, mortality and disease events affecting humans, marine invertebrates, flora and wildlife populations. In the search for the best disturbance indicators of ecosystem change, the unifying solution for joining data from disparate fields is to organize data into space/time/topic hierarchies that permit convergence of data due to shared and appropriate scaling. The scale of the data selects for compatible methodologies, leading to better data integration, dine series reconstruction and the discovery of new relationships. Information technology approaches designed to assist this process include bibliographic keyword searches, data-mining, data-modeling and geographic information system design. Expert consensus, spatial, temporal, categorical and statistical data reduction methods are used to reclassify thousands of independent anomaly observations into eight functional impact groups representing anoxic-hypoxic, biotoxin-exposure, disease, keystone-chronic, mass-lethal, new-novel-invasive, physically forced and trophic-magnification disturbances. Data extracted from the relational database and Internet (http://www.heedmd.org) geographic information system demonstrate non-random patterns relative to expected dependencies. When data are combined they better reflect response to exogenous forcing factors at larger scales (e.g. North Atlantic and Southern Ocean Oscillation index scales) than is apparent without grouping. New hypotheses have been generated linking MMEDs to climate system forcing , variability and changes within the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. A more general global survey known collectively as the Health Ecological and Economic Dimensions (HEED) project demonstrates the potential application of the methodology to the Baltic Sea and other large marine ecosystems. The rescue of multi-decadal climatic, oceanographic, fisheries economic, and public health anomaly data combined with MMED data provides a tool to help researchers create regional disturbance regimes to illustrate disturbance impact. A recommendation for a central data repository is proposed to better coordinate the many data observers, resource managers, and agencies collecting pieces of marine disturbance information needed for monitoring ecosystem condition

Search for domain wall dark matter with atomic clocks on board global positioning system satellites

Cosmological observations indicate that 85% of all matter in the Universe is dark matter (DM), yet its microscopic composition remains a mystery. One hypothesis is that DM arises from ultralight quantum fields that form macroscopic objects such as topological defects. Here we use GPS as a ~ 50,000 km aperture DM detector to search for such defects in the form of domain walls. GPS navigation relies on precision timing signals furnished by atomic clocks hosted on board GPS satellites. As the Earth moves through the galactic DM halo, interactions with topological defects could cause atomic clock glitches that propagate through the GPS satellite constellation at galactic velocities ~ 300 km/s. Mining 16 years of archival GPS data, we find no evidence for DM in the form of domain walls at our current sensitivity level. This allows us to improve the limits on certain quadratic scalar couplings of domain wall DM to standard model particles by several orders of magnitude.Comment: 7 pages (main text), and 12 pages for Supplementary Information. v3: Update titl

Petition for a Writ of Certiorari

The Writ of Certiorari included eleven questions presented for the Court: 1. Did the pre-trial publicity prejudice the community so that no fair or impartial jury could have been impaneled? 2. Did the trial judge fail to adequately protect the petit jury, once empaneled, from prejudicial extrinsic influences? 3. Did the trial judge fail to adequately interrogate the jurors when they had been exposed to prejudicial extrinsic matter through the news media during trial? 4. Did the trial judge fail to maintain constitutionally adequate decorum in the courtroom during trial? 5. Did the trial judge deny petitioner a public trial by assigning nearly all of the seats in the courtroom to newsmen? 6. Did the trial judge, in the special circumstances of this case, violate petitioner\u27s constitutional right to a fair and impartial judge by failing to recuse himself despite his firm belief, undisclosed to petitioner, that petitioner was guilty as hell and that the case against him was open and shut ? 7. Did the trial judge violate petitioner\u27s federal constitutional right against self-incrimination by receiving evidence that petitioner had refused to take a lie detector test and truth serum? 8. Did the action of the bailiffs who permitted jurors to telephone outsiders during the course of deliberations in violation of Ohio law violate petitioner\u27s federal constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial? 9. Did the court below deprive petitioner of proper review of other claimed federal constitutional violations? 10. Did the court below improperly foreclose without litigation the question of the sufficiency of the evidence? 11. Did the court below erroneously rule that no combination of individual errors, none of which rises to the stature of a federal constitutional violation, can in the aggregate show that the state court trial fell short of the requirements of due process of law

Petition for a Writ of Certiorari

The Writ of Certiorari included eleven questions presented for the Court: 1. Did the pre-trial publicity prejudice the community so that no fair or impartial jury could have been impaneled? 2. Did the trial judge fail to adequately protect the petit jury, once empaneled, from prejudicial extrinsic influences? 3. Did the trial judge fail to adequately interrogate the jurors when they had been exposed to prejudicial extrinsic matter through the news media during trial? 4. Did the trial judge fail to maintain constitutionally adequate decorum in the courtroom during trial? 5. Did the trial judge deny petitioner a public trial by assigning nearly all of the seats in the courtroom to newsmen? 6. Did the trial judge, in the special circumstances of this case, violate petitioner\u27s constitutional right to a fair and impartial judge by failing to recuse himself despite his firm belief, undisclosed to petitioner, that petitioner was guilty as hell and that the case against him was open and shut ? 7. Did the trial judge violate petitioner\u27s federal constitutional right against self-incrimination by receiving evidence that petitioner had refused to take a lie detector test and truth serum? 8. Did the action of the bailiffs who permitted jurors to telephone outsiders during the course of deliberations in violation of Ohio law violate petitioner\u27s federal constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial? 9. Did the court below deprive petitioner of proper review of other claimed federal constitutional violations? 10. Did the court below improperly foreclose without litigation the question of the sufficiency of the evidence? 11. Did the court below erroneously rule that no combination of individual errors, none of which rises to the stature of a federal constitutional violation, can in the aggregate show that the state court trial fell short of the requirements of due process of law

Brief for Petitioner

Brief outlining the support and circumstances of why Sam Sheppard was not allowed a fair trial for the murder of his wife, Marylin. Includes a clear Statement of the Case, Statement of Facts, Statement of Questions Involved, Legal History of the Case, and the seven legal arguments presented by Sheppard\u27s Counsel. Presented Arguments: 1. Arraignment without counsel 2. Denial of a peremptory challenge 3. Illicit communications to the jurors 4. Seizure of petitioner\u27s house and new evidence 5. Lie-Detector evidence 6. Illegally constituted Ohio Supreme Court 7. Inadequate review by Ohio Supreme Cour

Brief for Petitioner

Brief outlining the support and circumstances of why Sam Sheppard was not allowed a fair trial for the murder of his wife, Marylin. Includes a clear Statement of the Case, Statement of Facts, Statement of Questions Involved, Legal History of the Case, and the seven legal arguments presented by Sheppard\u27s Counsel. Presented Arguments: 1. Arraignment without counsel 2. Denial of a peremptory challenge 3. Illicit communications to the jurors 4. Seizure of petitioner\u27s house and new evidence 5. Lie-Detector evidence 6. Illegally constituted Ohio Supreme Court 7. Inadequate review by Ohio Supreme Cour

Pharmaceutical pollution in marine waters and benthic flora of the southern Australian coastline

Environmental context Most human pharmaceutical waste is discharged to the environment. While the presence of pharmaceuticals in freshwater systems is well documented globally, little is known of the impact on marine ecosystems. We measured pharmaceuticals in a marine environment in south-eastern Australia and found pharmaceutical concentrations around 24 000 times higher in benthic flora than in the marine surface waters. We discuss the potential use of seaweeds as biological indicators of pharmaceutical pollution. Rationale Pharmaceuticals are emerging pollutants of concern with a range of adverse consequences for organisms and ecosystems. Their presence in freshwater and estuarine systems has been well documented, but less is known about their prevalence in open ocean, or their uptake by benthic flora. This preliminary survey of the southern Australian coastline sought to measure the concentrations of key pharmaceuticals in both surface waters and benthic flora. Methodology This study used LC-MS/MS to measure the concentration carbamazepine, tramadol and venlafaxine in (1) samples from wastewater treatment plants, (2) ocean surface waters and (3) several species of benthic flora. Surface waters and benthic flora were sampled at two sites near waste water treatment plant (WWTP) discharges, and one site away from any discharge. Results All three pharmaceuticals were detected in surface water samples with their risk assessed (via risk quotient) as medium risk (carbamazepine) or low risk (venlafaxine, tramadol). All three pharmaceuticals were also detected in benthic flora, particularly in brown macroalgae Tramadol was measured at a maximum of 34.7 ng