Northwest Tribal Registry--Seattle Indian Health Board Record Linkage Project.

In the last ten years several reports using a variety of health data sets have shown a high proportion of racial misclassification for Northwest American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AI/ANs). The result of this has been an underestimation of the burden of various diseases among Northwest AI/ANs. To address health issues related to misclassification, the Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center has developed the Northwest Tribal Registry (NTR), which contains a demographic data set of 135,060 Northwest AI/ANs, and which can be used for record linkage studies to ascertain accurate disease rates for Northwest AI/ANs. However, the Seattle Indian Health Board Registration contains a large number of Northwest AI/ANs, and it has not yet been incorporated into the NTR. To ascertain the degree of concordance between the NTR and SIHB Registration, we conducted a record linkage study linking these two files. RESULTS: Of the 23,337 entries in the SIHB Registration, only 7,005 (30%) linked or matched with the NTR, leaving 16,332 who were not matched. Among the SIHB-NTR matches, 1,597 (22.8%) were from Northwest tribes; among the SIHB-NTR non-matches, only 3,413 (20.9%) were from Northwest tribes. CONCLUSION: The NTR is missing information on a substantial number of AI/ANs who have utilized the Seattle Indian Health Board for health care services. However, less than a fourth of these individuals are from Northwest tribes served by the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board

Innovating transcriptomics for practitioners in freshwater fish management and conservation: best practices across diverse resource-sector users

Thriving freshwater fish populations contribute to people’s economic prosperity and wellbeing. Yet, freshwater fish populations are in critical condition around the globe. Most stressors to freshwater fishes, fisheries, and culture stem from habitat impacts, water-quality issues, and aquatic invasive species. Logistical difficulties of monitoring fish health are compounded by the limitations of conventional (capture-based) sampling methods, which provide only a temporal “snapshot” and generate data lacking in sensitivity and prognostic ability. Here, we propose an innovative genomics approach to develop a health toolkit that will allow resource-sector users to determine the health status of freshwater fishes, including their coping capacity, to environmental stressors. The stress-response transcription profile (STP)-chip is a suite of quantitative gene transcription assays that represents key gene pathways broadly associated with fish functional responses to environmental stress; therefore, the differential expression of well-selected genes can provide sensitive fish-health status indicators. Despite the scientific achievement of using genomics tools, actualizing the toolkit in practice is only successful if resource-sector users have full buy-in. We present seven case studies representing different practitioners and resource users – Indigenous rightsholders, environmental consultants (industry), commercial aquaculture, environmental charities (ENGO), and fishery commissions and managers (government) where each explores the benefits and risks associated with the adoption of a genomics fish-health toolkit. Using a co-production approach, wherein practitioners and resource users are engaged from the outset, these case studies reveal translational pathways that would be needed to overcome barriers to technological adoption and, hence, accelerate the responsible uptake of genomics-based applications in fisheries assessment, management, and conservation

Early Marine Migration Patterns of Wild Coastal Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarki clarki), Steelhead Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and Their Hybrids

Hybridization between coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki clarki) and steelhead or rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) has been documented in several streams along the North American west coast. The two species occupy similar freshwater habitats but the anadromous forms differ greatly in the duration of marine residence and migration patterns at sea. Intermediate morphological, physiological, and performance traits have been reported for hybrids but little information has been published comparing the behavior of hybrids to the pure species.This study used acoustic telemetry to record the movements of 52 cutthroat, 42 steelhead x cutthroat hybrids, and 89 steelhead smolts, all wild, that migrated from Big Beef Creek into Hood Canal (Puget Sound, Washington). Various spatial and temporal metrics were used to compare the behavior of the pure species to their hybrids. Median hybrid residence time, estuary time, and tortuosity values were intermediate compared to the pure species. The median total track distance was greater for hybrids than for either cutthroat or steelhead. At the end of each track, most steelhead (80%) were located near or north of the Hood Canal, as expected for this seaward migrating species, whereas most cutthroat (89%) were within 8 kilometers of the estuary. Most hybrids (70%) were detected leaving Hood Canal, though a substantial percentage (20%) remained near the Big Beef Creek estuary. More hybrids (7.5%) than pure cutthroat (4.5%) or steelhead (0.0%) were last detected in the southern reaches of Hood Canal.Given the similarity in freshwater ecology between the species, differences in marine ecology may play an important role in maintaining species integrity in areas of sympatry

Field Studies Reveal Strong Postmating Isolation between Ecologically Divergent Butterfly Populations

A mismatch between hybrid butterflies and their ecological environment restricts gene flow between populations that feed on different host plants, highlighting the potential importance of a seldom-studied mechanism of reproductive isolation

Calibration and evaluation of the Lemaitre damage model using axial- torsion fatigue tests on five engineering alloys

The Lemaitre damage model is evaluated using fatigue test data from five engineering alloys: 1045 steel, 16MnR steel, 7075-T651 Al alloy, extruded AZ61A Mg alloy, and extruded AZ31B Mg alloy. Tension-compression, torsion, proportional axial-torsion, and 90° out-of-phase axial-torsion loadings were investigated. The results show that the overall accuracy of the fatigue life estimates made by using the Lemaitre model is comparable to those obtained by fatigue models that require the definition of a loading cycle. A simple and effective method is described for determining the material constants of the Lemaitre model

Grain refinement of magnesium alloys: a review of recent research, theoretical developments and their application

This paper builds on the ‘‘Grain Refinement of Mg Alloys’’ published in 2005 and reviews the grain refinement research onMg alloys that has been undertaken since then with an emphasis on the theoretical and analytical methods that have been developed. Consideration of recent research results and current theoretical knowledge has highlighted two important factors that affect an alloy’s as-cast grain size. The first factor applies to commercial Mg-Al alloys where it is concluded that impurity and minor elements such as Fe and Mn have a substantially negative impact on grain size because, in combination with Al, intermetallic phases can be formed that tend to poison the more potent native or deliberately added nucleant particles present in the melt. This factor appears to explain the contradictory experimental outcomes reported in the literature and suggests that the search for a more potent and reliable grain refining technology may need to take a different approach. The second factor applies to all alloys and is related to the role of constitutional supercooling which, on the one hand, promotes grain nucleation and, on the other hand, forms a nucleation-free zone preventing further nucleation within this zone, consequently limiting the grain refinement achievable, particularly in low solute-containing alloys. Strategies to reduce the negative impact of these two factors are discussed. Further, the Interdependence model has been shown to apply to a broad range of casting methods from slow cooling gravity die casting to fast cooling high pressure die casting and dynamic methods such as ultrasonic treatment