Increases in synchrony among Central Coast salmon populations in British Columbia over the last 60 years

Understanding the dynamics of salmon populations is important for conservation and management, but the factors driving spatial and temporal variation in many salmon populations remain poorly understood. Understanding these patterns is important for many coastal First Nations, who play an important role in the monitoring and management of salmon in their traditional territories. Using data from 200 unique spawning locations on the Central Coast of British Columbia, we quantified patterns in abundance and coherence of salmon over space and time to measure the extent to which portfolio effects stabilize variation in stocks. We found strong declines in Sockeye Salmon abundance across the Central Coast. This decline was accompanied by an increase in population synchrony among stocks. Chum and Pink Salmon also showed generally similar patterns to Sockeye, though the odd-year lineage of Pink Salmon showed increased abundance in recent years. These changes in synchrony within salmon populations may be important as synchronization increases the risk of declines due to boom and bust dynamics. To explore possible drivers of changes, we test if factors such as changes in fishing rates, ocean conditions, or increased competition on the high seas explained changes in synchrony through time. To expand this work, over the next two years we will be working with First Nations throughout the Salish Sea to assess the status of salmon and their habitats. This future work will position us to better understand the drivers of changes in the synchrony among salmon populations on wider spatial scales

Determinants of serum polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides measured in women from the child health and development study cohort, 1963-1967.

We examined predictors of organochlorine concentrations in serum specimens from women who were pregnant in the 1960s and participated in the Child Health and Development Study in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. That study enrolled pregnant women at the Kaiser-Permanente Medical Facilities, conducted interviews, and drew blood specimens; these specimens were centrifuged and the resulting serum specimens were frozen and placed in long-term storage. For the current investigation, organochlorines were measured by dual-column GC-electron capture detection in specimens collected in 1963-1967 from 399 pregnant women during the second and third trimesters. Using multiple linear regression models adjusted for serum lipids, we evaluated factors predicting concentrations of 11 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, their sum, and several pesticides and metabolites. Variables evaluated were age, race, place of birth, date of blood draw, body mass index, occupation, past residence on a farm, parity, and duration of pregnancy at blood draw. Concentrations of highly chlorinated PCBs and the sum of the PCBs increased with age. Concentrations of certain PCB congeners, as well as the sum, were significantly higher among nonwhites and increased with calendar date of blood draw. (italic)p,p(/italic) -DDT and (italic)p,p(/italic) -DDE concentrations were about 50% higher for nonwhites compared with whites and for those born in California or the southeastern United States versus elsewhere in the United States. Higher body mass index was associated with lower concentrations of several PCBs and (italic)p,p(/italic) -DDE but with higher heptachlor epoxide and DDT levels. The increase in use of PCBs during the 1960s is apparently detectable as increasing concentrations in maternal sera between 1963 and 1967. Marked racial and regional differences in serum pesticide levels were likely caused by geographic variation in previous agricultural and vector-control uses. The relationship to body mass index appears to be complex

The Pacific salmon explorer: a data driven look at salmon populations and their habitats

The lack of a centralized, standardized, and easily accessible repository of information on the state of natural resources, and threats to them, can undermine efforts to make informed, transparent, and evidenced-based management and conservation decisions. This is the case with Pacific salmon in British Columbia (BC), where a lack of information on the current status of salmon population and their habitats is undermining public confidence in the ability of government agencies to sustainability manage Pacific salmon populations. In an effort to provide broader public access to salmon datasets, the Pacific Salmon Foundation embarked on a major initiative to synthesize the best available information on Pacific salmon populations and their freshwater habitats throughout northern and central BC. Drawing upon these experiences, we illustrate how broadly available government datasets can be used to monitor and assess the status of salmon populations and their habitats. We show how large public datasets can help to provide information on a suite of indicators of salmon population condition including estimates of freshwater production, spawner abundance, harvest, trends in abundance, run-timing, population productivity, and assessments of biological status. This biological information is coupled with remote-sensed data that is used to quantify cumulative pressures on freshwater salmon habitats. All of this information is made available to the public through the Pacific Salmon Explorer (www.salmonexplorer.ca), an online data visualization tool that allows users to explore salmon-related information through a series of interactive maps and figures as well as download source datasets. While initially developed for northern and central BC, the PSF is now scaling the Pacific Salmon Explorer up to all salmon-bearing watersheds in BC, including those that enter into the Salish Sea. Our novel and scalable approach provides a model for how large quantities of disparate information can be compiled, analyzed, and communicated to decision-makers and the public

Holographic Metamagnetism, Quantum Criticality, and Crossover Behavior

Using high-precision numerical analysis, we show that 3+1 dimensional gauge theories holographically dual to 4+1 dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory undergo a quantum phase transition in the presence of a finite charge density and magnetic field. The quantum critical theory has dynamical scaling exponent z=3, and is reached by tuning a relevant operator of scaling dimension 2. For magnetic field B above the critical value B_c, the system behaves as a Fermi liquid. As the magnetic field approaches B_c from the high field side, the specific heat coefficient diverges as 1/(B-B_c), and non-Fermi liquid behavior sets in. For B<B_c the entropy density s becomes non-vanishing at zero temperature, and scales according to s \sim \sqrt{B_c - B}. At B=B_c, and for small non-zero temperature T, a new scaling law sets in for which s\sim T^{1/3}. Throughout a small region surrounding the quantum critical point, the ratio s/T^{1/3} is given by a universal scaling function which depends only on the ratio (B-B_c)/T^{2/3}. The quantum phase transition involves non-analytic behavior of the specific heat and magnetization but no change of symmetry. Above the critical field, our numerical results are consistent with those predicted by the Hertz/Millis theory applied to metamagnetic quantum phase transitions, which also describe non-analytic changes in magnetization without change of symmetry. Such transitions have been the subject of much experimental investigation recently, especially in the compound Sr_3 Ru_2 O_7, and we comment on the connections.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures v2: added ref

The Contribution of Benzene to Smoking-Induced Leukemia

Cigarette smoking is associated with an increased risk of leukemia; benzene, an established leukemogen, is present in cigarette smoke. By combining epidemiologic data on the health effects of smoking with risk assessment techniques for low-dose extrapolation, we assessed the proportion of smoking-induced total leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) attributable to the benzene in cigarette smoke. We fit both linear and quadratic models to data from two benzene-exposed occupational cohorts to estimate the leukemogenic potency of benzene. Using multiple-decrement life tables, we calculated lifetime risks of total leukemia and AML deaths for never, light, and heavy smokers. We repeated these calculations, removing the effect of benzene in cigarettes based on the estimated potencies. From these life tables we determined smoking-attributable risks and benzene-attributable risks. The ratio of the latter to the former constitutes the proportion of smoking-induced cases attributable to benzene. Based on linear potency models, the benzene in cigarette smoke contributed from 8 to 48% of smoking-induced total leukemia deaths [95% upper confidence limit (UCL), 20-66%], and from 12 to 58% of smoking-induced AML deaths (95% UCL, 19-121%). The inclusion of a quadratic term yielded results that were comparable; however, potency models with only quadratic terms resulted in much lower attributable fractions--all < 1%. Thus, benzene is estimated to be responsible for approximately one-tenth to one-half of smoking-induced total leukemia mortality and up to three-fifths of smoking-related AML mortality. In contrast to theoretical arguments that linear models substantially overestimate low-dose risk, linear extrapolations from empirical data over a dose range of 10- to 100-fold resulted in plausible predictions

Intergenerational Wealth Transmission and the Dynamics of Inequality in Small-Scale Societies

Small-scale human societies range from foraging bands with a strong egalitarian ethos to more economically stratified agrarian and pastoral societies. We explain this variation in inequality using a dynamic model in which a population’s long-run steady-state level of inequality depends on the extent to which its most important forms of wealth are transmitted within families across generations. We estimate the degree of intergenerational transmission of three different types of wealth (material, embodied, and relational), as well as the extent of wealth inequality in 21 historical and contemporary populations. We show that intergenerational transmission of wealth and wealth inequality are substantial among pastoral and small-scale agricultural societies (on a par with or even exceeding the most unequal modern industrial economies) but are limited among horticultural and foraging peoples (equivalent to the most egalitarian of modern industrial populations). Differences in the technology by which a people derive their livelihood and in the institutions and norms making up the economic system jointly contribute to this pattern

Amici Curiae Brief of New York law school professors in People v. Harris: Constitutionality of the New York Death Penalty Statute Under the State Constitution\u27s Cruel and Unusual Punishments and Antidiscrimination Clauses

Amici are teachers in New York law schools who have studied the operation of the death penalty for the purpose of teaching the subject, writing about it in scholarly journals, or representing persons accused or convicted of capital crimes. Most of us have worked in the field both as academics and as pro bono counsel for condemned inmates. Collectively, we have had first-hand experience in hundreds of death cases, in dozens of jurisdictions, extending over more than a third of a century. Our experience has convinced us that capital punishment cannot be administered with the fairness, reliability, and freedom from discrimination that a penalty so grave and irreversible requires. This is no accident or transitory condition; it is the consequence of certain innate attributes of the penalty of death. The purpose of our brief is to analyze those attributes and explain why they are fundamentally at war with the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause and the Antidiscrimination Clause of New York’s Bill of Rights. We hope to persuade the Court that it should not temporize with the death penalty in the face of this basic incompatibility but should hold the 1995 death penalty statute altogether unconstitutional

Wealth Transmission and Inequality among Hunter‐Gatherers

We report quantitative estimates of intergenerational transmission and population-wide inequality for wealth measures in a set of hunter-gatherer populations. Wealth is defined broadly as factors that contribute to individual or household well-being, ranging from embodied forms such as weight and hunting success to material forms such household goods, as well as relational wealth in exchange partners. Intergenerational wealth transmission is low to moderate in these populations, but is still expected to have measurable influence on an individual’s life chances. Wealth inequality (measured with Gini coefficients) is moderate for most wealth types, matching what qualitative ethnographic research has generally indicated (if not the stereotype of hunter-gatherers as extreme egalitarians). We discuss some plausible mechanisms for these patterns, and suggest ways in which future research could resolve questions about the role of wealth in hunter-gatherer social and economic life

Maternal DDT Exposures in Relation to Fetal and 5-Year Growth

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is an organo-chlorine pesticide still used in areas of the world where malaria vector control is needed. Few studies have examined in utero exposures to DDT in relation to fetal and early childhood growth in populations with substantial exposure to DDT. Furthermore, only a portion of these studies have investigated in utero exposures and growth during childhood