The Polar Bear Management Agreement for the Southern Beaufort Sea : An Evaluation of the First Ten Years of a Unique Conservation Agreement

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) of the southern Beaufort Sea population, distributed from approximately Icy Cape, west of Point Barrow, Alaska, to Pearce Point, east of Paulatuk in Canada, are harvested by hunters from both countries. In Canada, quotas to control polar bear hunting have been in place, with periodic modifications, since 1968. In Alaska, passage of the United Sates Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of 1972 banned polar bear hunting unless done by Alaska Natives for subsistence hunt, leaving open the potential for an overharvest with no possible legal management response until the population was declared depleted. Recognizing that as a threat to the conservation of the shared polar bear population, the Inuvialuit Game Council from Canada and the North Slope Borough from Alaska negotiated and signed a user-to-user agreement, the Polar Bear Management Agreement for the Southern Beaufort Sea, in 1988. We reviewed the functioning of the agreement through its first 10 years and concluded that, overall, it has been successful because both the total harvest and the proportion of females in the harvest have been contained within sustainable limits. However, harvest monitoring needs to be improved in Alaska, and awareness of the need to prevent overharvest of females needs to be increased in both countries. This agreement is a useful model for other user-to-user conservation agreements.Les ours polaires (Ursus maritimus) constituant la population de la mer de Beaufort méridionale sont répartis d'environ Icy Cape, à l'ouest de Point Barrow (Alaska), à Pearce Point, à l'est de Paulatuk (Canada). Ils sont prélevés par des chasseurs des deux pays. Au Canada, les quotas visant le contrôle de la chasse à l'ours polaire sont en vigueur - avec des modifications périodiques - depuis 1968. En Alaska, l'adoption en 1972 de la loi américaine (MMPA) visant la protection des mammifères marins a interdit la chasse à l'ours polaire sauf la chasse de subsistance pratiquée par les Autochtones alaskiens. La MMPA n'a toutefois placé aucune restriction sur le nombre ou la composition de la chasse de subsistance, laissant la porte ouverte à une éventuelle surexploitation sans possibilité d'une réaction de gestion sur le plan légal jusqu'à ce que la population soit déclarée décimée. Reconnaissant en cela une menace à la conservation de la population commune d'ours polaires, le Conseil canadien de gestion du gibier et le North Slope Borough de l'Alaska ont négocié et signé en 1988 une entente entre usagers, le Polar Bear Management Agreement pour la mer de Beaufort méridionale. On a examiné le fonctionnement de l'entente durant sa première décennie pour conclure que, dans l'ensemble, elle a porté fruit car le total des prises et la proportion de femelles prélevées ont été maintenus dans des limites viables. Il faut toutefois améliorer le contrôle du prélèvement en Alaska et accroître dans les deux pays la sensibilisation à la nécessité de prévenir une surexploitation des femelles. Cette entente constitue un modèle pour d'autres accords entre usagers en matière de conservation

Sorptive fractionation of organic matter and formation of organo-hydroxy-aluminum complexes during litter biodegradation in the presence of gibbsite

Solid and aqueous phase Al species are recognized to affect organic matter (OM) stabilization in forest soils. However, little is known about the dynamics of formation, composition and dissolution of organo-Al hydroxide complexes in microbially-active soil systems, where plant litter is subject to microbial decomposition in close proximity to mineral weathering reactions. We incubated gibbsite-quartz mineral mixtures in the presence of forest floor material inoculated with a native microbial consortium for periods of 5, 60 and 154 days. At each time step, samples were density separated into light (2.0 g cm⁻³) fractions. The light fraction was mainly comprised of particulate organic matter, while the intermediate and heavy density fractions contained moderate and large amounts of Al-minerals, respectively. Multi-method interrogation of the fractions indicated the intermediate and heavy fractions differed both in mineral structure and organic compound composition. X-ray diffraction analysis and SEM/EDS of the mineral component of the intermediate fractions indicated some alteration of the original gibbsite structure into less crystalline Al hydroxide and possibly proto-imogolite species, whereas alteration of the gibbsite structure was not evident in the heavy fraction. DRIFT, Py-GC/MS and STXM/NEXAFS results all showed that intermediate fractions were composed mostly of lignin-derived compounds, phenolics, and polysaccharides. Heavy fraction organics were dominated by polysaccharides, and were enriched in proteins, N-bearing compounds, and lipids. The source of organics appeared to differ between the intermediate and heavy fractions. Heavy fractions were enriched in ¹³C with lower C/N ratios relative to intermediate fractions, suggesting a microbial origin. The observed differential fractionation of organics among hydroxy-Al mineral types suggests that microbial activity superimposed with abiotic mineral-surface-mediated fractionation leads to strong density differentiation of organo-mineral complex composition even over the short time scales probed in these incubation experiments. The data highlight the strong interdependency of mineral transformation, microbial community activity, and organic matter stabilization during biodegradation.Keywords: Chemical composition, Drift spectroscopy, Acid forest soils, X-ray microscopy, Diffuse reflectance, Iron oxide, goethite, Carbon, Humic acid, Fulvic aci

Implementation of a pharmacogenomics consult service to support the INGENIOUS trial

Hospital systems increasingly utilize pharmacogenomic testing to inform clinical prescribing. Successful implementation efforts have been modeled at many academic centers. In contrast, this report provides insights into the formation of a pharmacogenomics consultation service at a safety-net hospital, which predominantly serves low-income, uninsured, and vulnerable populations. The report describes the INdiana GENomics Implementation: an Opportunity for the UnderServed (INGENIOUS) trial and addresses concerns of adjudication, credentialing, and funding

Yrast structure of the two-proton- and three-neutron-hole nucleus Hg203 from the decay of a 53/2+ isomer

The decay of a new, 53/2+, isomer at 8281 keV in Hg203 has been studied by γ coincidence spectroscopy. A half-life of 146(30) ns was measured. In addition, another isomeric, 39/2+, level with a half-life of 7.8(1.5) ns was observed. Some elements of the Rydstroem shell-model interaction have been adjusted to reproduce level energies in nuclei with two to four holes in the Pb208 core. With this interaction, the new states in the five-hole nucleus Hg203 are reproduced with an rms error of 105 keV

New neutron-rich nuclei Zr103,104 and the A100 region of deformation

Partial decay schemes in the neutron-rich nuclei Zr103 and Zr104 have been measured for the first time and rotational bands in Zr100 102 have been extended to spins of up to 10Latin small letter h with stroke by observing prompt rays from the spontaneous fisson of Cm248. These nuclei are among the most deformed known at low spin and excitation energy. The level structures in the odd-A nuclei show that the h11/2 intruder orbital plays an important role in stabilizing the deformation in this region

Maintenance Therapies for Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas after Autologous Transplantation: A Consensus Project of ASBMT, CIBMTR, and the Lymphoma Working Party of EBMT

Importance: Maintenance therapies are often considered as a therapeutic strategy in patients with lymphoma following autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (auto-HCT) to mitigate the risk of disease relapse. With an evolving therapeutic landscape, where novel drugs are moving earlier in therapy lines, evidence relevant to contemporary practice is increasingly limited. The American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT), Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), and European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) jointly convened an expert panel with diverse expertise and geographical representation to formulate consensus recommendations regarding the use of maintenance and/or consolidation therapies after auto-HCT in patients with lymphoma. Observations: The RAND-modified Delphi method was used to generate consensus statements where at least 75% vote in favor of a recommendation was considered as consensus. The process included 3 online surveys moderated by an independent methodological expert to ensure anonymity and an in-person meeting. The panel recommended restricting the histologic categories covered in this project to Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and follicular lymphoma. On completion of the voting process, the panel generated 22 consensus statements regarding post auto-HCT maintenance and/or consolidation therapies. The grade A recommendations included endorsement of: (1) brentuximab vedotin (BV) maintenance and/or consolidation in BV-na\uefve high-risk HL, (2) rituximab maintenance in MCL undergoing auto-HCT after first-line therapy, (3) rituximab maintenance in rituximab-na\uefve FL, and (4) No post auto-HCT maintenance was recommended in DLBCL. The panel also developed consensus statements for important real-world clinical scenarios, where randomized data are lacking to guide clinical practice. Conclusions and Relevance: In the absence of contemporary evidence-based data, the panel found RAND-modified Delphi methodology effective in providing a rigorous framework for developing consensus recommendations for post auto-HCT maintenance and/or consolidation therapies in lymphoma.

Detector Description and Performance for the First Coincidence Observations between LIGO and GEO

For 17 days in August and September 2002, the LIGO and GEO interferometer gravitational wave detectors were operated in coincidence to produce their first data for scientific analysis. Although the detectors were still far from their design sensitivity levels, the data can be used to place better upper limits on the flux of gravitational waves incident on the earth than previous direct measurements. This paper describes the instruments and the data in some detail, as a companion to analysis papers based on the first data.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures 17 Sept 03: author list amended, minor editorial change