NMFS / Interagency Working Group Evaluation of CITES Criteria and Guidelines.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: At present, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) criteria used to assess whether a population qualifies for inclusion in the CITES Appendices relate to (A) size of the population, (B) area of distribution of the population, and (C) declines in the size of the population. Numeric guidelines are provided as indicators of a small population (less than 5,000 individuals), a small subpopulation (less than 500 individuals), a restricted area of distribution for a population (less than 10,000 km2), a restricted area of distribution for a subpopula-tion (less than 500 km2), a high rate of decline (a decrease of 50% or more in total within 5 years or two generations whichever is longer or, for a small wild population, a decline of 20% or more in total within ten years or three generations whichever is longer), large fluctuations (population size or area of distribution varies widely, rapidly and frequently, with a variation greater than one order of magnitude), and a short-term fluctuation (one of two years or less). The Working Group discussed several broad issues of relevance to the CITES criteria and guidelines. These included the importance of the historical extent of decline versus the recent rate of decline; the utility and validity of incorporating relative population productivity into decline criteria; the utility of absolute numbers for defining small populations or small areas; the appropriateness of generation times as time frames for examining declines; the importance of the magnitude and frequency of fluctuations as factors affecting risk of extinction; and the overall utility of numeric thresh-olds or guidelines

Snake River Sockeye Salmon Habitat and Limnological Research: 2005 Annual Report.

In March 1990, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to list Snake River sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) as endangered. Snake River sockeye salmon were officially listed as endangered in November 1991 under the Endangered Species Act (56 FR 58619). In 1991, the Snake River Sockeye Salmon Habitat and Limnological Research Project was implemented. This project is part of an interagency effort to prevent the extinction of the Redfish Lake stock of Snake River sockeye salmon. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribal goal for this project is two tiered: The immediate goal is to increase the population of Snake River sockeye salmon while preserving the unique genetic characteristics of the Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU). The Tribes long term goal is to maintain a viable population that warrants delisting and provides Tribal harvest opportunities. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) provides funding for this interagency recovery. Collaborators in the recovery effort include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), the University of Idaho (UI), and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (SBT). This report summarizes activities conducted by Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Fisheries Department personnel during the 2005 calendar year. Project tasks include: (1) monitor limnological parameters of the Sawtooth Valley lakes to assess lake productivity; (2) conduct lake fertilization in Pettit and Alturas lakes; (3) reduce the number of mature kokanee spawning in Fishhook and Alturas Lake creeks; (4) monitor and enumerate sockeye salmon smolt migration from Pettit and Alturas lakes; (5) monitor spawning kokanee escapement and estimate fry recruitment in Fishhook, Alturas Lake, and Stanley Lake creeks; (6) conduct sockeye and kokanee salmon population surveys; (7) evaluate potential competition and predation between stocked juvenile sockeye salmon and a variety of fish species in Redfish, Pettit, and Alturas lakes; and (8) assist IDFG with captive broodstock production activities

Electron-lattice relaxation, and soliton structures and their interactions in polyenes

Density matrix renormalisation group calculations of a suitably parametrised model of long polyenes (polyacetylene oligomers), which incorporates both long range Coulomb interactions and adiabatic lattice relaxation, are presented. The triplet and 2Ag states are found to have a 2-soliton and 4-soliton form, respectively, both with large relaxation energies. The 1Bu state forms an exciton-polaron and has a very small relaxation energy. The relaxed energy of the 2Ag state lies below that of the 1Bu state. The soliton/anti-soliton pairs are bound.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 4 eps figures included using epsf. To appear in Physical Review Letters. Fig. 1 fixed u

Investigation of A1g phonons in YBa2Cu3O7 by means of LAPW atomic-force calculations

We report first-principles frozen-phonon calculations for the determination of the force-free geometry and the dynamical matrix of the five Raman-active A1g modes in YBa2Cu3O7. To establish the shape of the phonon potentials atomic forces are calculated within the LAPW method. Two different schemes - the local density approximation (LDA) and a generalized gradient approximation (GGA) - are employed for the treatment of electronic exchange and correlation effects. We find that in the case of LDA the resulting phonon frequencies show a deviation from experimental values of approximately -10%. Invoking GGA the frequency values are significantly improved and also the eigenvectors are in very good agreement with experimental findings.Comment: 15 page

Earthquake Early Warning ShakeAlert 2.0: Public Rollout

The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system is designed to automatically identify and characterize the initiation and rupture evolution of large earthquakes, estimate the intensity of ground shaking that will result, and deliver alerts to people and systems that may experience shaking, prior to the occurrence of shaking at their location. It is configured to issue alerts to locations within the West Coast of the United States. In 2018, ShakeAlert 2.0 went live in a regional public test in the first phase of a general public rollout. The ShakeAlert system is now providing alerts to more than 60 institutional partners in the three states of the western United States where most of the nation’s earthquake risk is concentrated: California, Oregon, and Washington. The ShakeAlert 2.0 product for public alerting is a message containing a polygon enclosing a region predicted to experience modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) threshold levels that depend on the delivery method. Wireless Emergency Alerts are delivered for M 5+ earthquakes with expected shaking of MMI≥IV⁠. For cell phone apps, the thresholds are M 4.5+ and MMI≥III⁠. A polygon format alert is the easiest description for selective rebroadcasting mechanisms (e.g., cell towers) and is a requirement for some mass notification systems such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. ShakeAlert 2.0 was tested using historic waveform data consisting of 60 M 3.5+ and 25 M 5.0+ earthquakes, in addition to other anomalous waveforms such as calibration signals. For the historic event test, the average M 5+ false alert and missed event rates for ShakeAlert 2.0 are 8% and 16%. The M 3.5+ false alert and missed event rates are 10% and 36.7%. Real‐time performance metrics are also presented to assess how the system behaves in regions that are well‐instrumented, sparsely instrumented, and for offshore earthquakes

A Plan for a Long-Term, Automated, Broadband Seismic Monitoring Network on the Global Seafloor

Establishing an extensive and highly durable, long‐term, seafloor network of autonomous broadband seismic stations to complement the land‐based Global Seismographic Network has been a goal of seismologists for decades. Seismic signals, chiefly the vibrations from earthquakes but also signals generated by storms and other environmental processes, have been processed from land‐based seismic stations to build intriguing but incomplete images of the Earth’s interior. Seismologists have mapped structures such as tectonic plates and other crustal remnants sinking deep into the mantle to obtain information on their chemical composition and physical state; but resolution of these structures from land stations is not globally uniform. Because the global surface is two‐thirds ocean, increasing the number of seismic stations located in the oceans is critical for better resolution of the Earth’s interior and tectonic structures. A recommendation for a long‐term seafloor seismic station pilot experiment is presented here. The overarching instrumentation goal of a pilot experiment is performance that will lead to the installation of a large number of long‐term autonomous ocean‐bottom seismic stations. The payoff of a network of stations separated from one another by a few hundred kilometers under the global oceans would be greatly refined resolution of the Earth’s interior at all depths. A second prime result would be enriched understanding of large‐earthquake rupture processes in both oceanic and continental plates. The experiment would take advantage of newly available technologies such as robotic wave gliders that put an affordable autonomous prototype within reach. These technologies would allow data to be relayed to satellites from seismometers that are deployed on the seafloor with long‐lasting, rechargeable batteries. Two regions are presented as promising arenas for such a prototype seafloor seismic station. One site is the central North Atlantic Ocean, and the other high‐interest locale is the central South Pacific Ocean

Yeast:One cell, one reference sequence, many genomes?

The genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae – brewer’s or baker’s yeast – was the first eukaryotic genome to be sequenced in 1996. The identity of that yeast genome has been not just a product of sequencing, but also of its use after sequencing and particularly of its mobilization in scientific literature. We ask “what is the yeast genome?” as an empirical question by investigating “the yeast genome” as a discursive entity. Analyzing publications that followed sequencing points to several “yeast genomes” existing side-by-side: genomes as physical molecules, digital texts, and a historic event. Resolving this unified-yet-multiple “genome” helps make sense of contemporary developments in yeast genomics such as the synthetic yeast project, in which apparently “the same” genome occupies multiple roles and locations, and points to the utility of examining specific non-human genomes independent of the Human Genome Project

Excited states of linear polyenes

We present density matrix renormalisation group calculations of the Pariser- Parr-Pople-Peierls model of linear polyenes within the adiabatic approximation. We calculate the vertical and relaxed transition energies, and relaxed geometries for various excitations on long chains. The triplet (3Bu+) and even- parity singlet (2Ag+) states have a 2-soliton and 4-soliton form, respectively, both with large relaxation energies. The dipole-allowed (1Bu-) state forms an exciton-polaron and has a very small relaxation energy. The relaxed energy of the 2Ag+ state lies below that of the 1Bu- state. We observe an attraction between the soliton-antisoliton pairs in the 2Ag+ state. The calculated excitation energies agree well with the observed values for polyene oligomers; the agreement with polyacetylene thin films is less good, and we comment on the possible sources of the discrepencies. The photoinduced absorption is interpreted. The spin-spin correlation function shows that the unpaired spins coincide with the geometrical soliton positions. We study the roles of electron-electron interactions and electron-lattice coupling in determining the excitation energies and soliton structures. The electronic interactions play the key role in determining the ground state dimerisation and the excited state transition energies.Comment: LaTeX, 15 pages, 9 figure

Developing core sets for persons following amputation based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a way to specify functioning

Amputation is a common late stage sequel of peripheral vascular disease and diabetes or a sequel of accidental trauma, civil unrest and landmines. The functional impairments affect many facets of life including but not limited to: Mobility; activities of daily living; body image and sexuality. Classification, measurement and comparison of the consequences of amputations has been impeded by the limited availability of internationally, multiculturally standardized instruments in the amputee setting. The introduction of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) by the World Health Assembly in May 2001 provides a globally accepted framework and classification system to describe, assess and compare function and disability. In order to facilitate the use of the ICF in everyday clinical practice and research, ICF core sets have been developed that focus on specific aspects of function typically associated with a particular disability. The objective of this paper is to outline the development process for the ICF core sets for persons following amputation. The ICF core sets are designed to translate the benefits of the ICF into clinical routine. The ICF core sets will be defined at a Consensus conference which will integrate evidence from preparatory studies, namely: (a) a systematic literature review regarding the outcome measures of clinical trails and observational studies, (b) semi-structured patient interviews, (c) international experts participating in an internet-based survey, and (d) cross-sectional, multi-center studies for clinical applicability. To validate the ICF core sets field-testing will follow. Invitation for participation: The development of ICF Core Sets is an inclusive and open process. Anyone who wishes to actively participate in this process is invited to do so