Sea Otter, Enhydra lutris, mortalities in California, 1968 through 1993

Sea otter, Enhydra lutris, mortality in California and the relative contribution from specific causes was assessed for the 26 years from 1968 through 1993. There were 2,082 dead sea otters recorded from Tomales Bay (Marin County) south to Bluff Cove (Los Angeles County) during that period. The average number of carcasses recorded was 80 per year and seven per month. Sex was identified in 87% (n=1,819) of the cases and was composed of 47% female and 53% male. A relative age was assigned to 97% (n=2,017) of the cases and was composed of 28% pup, 18% subadult and 54% adult. Specific causes of death were determined for 26% (n=55 1) of the cases. The majority of these (n=381) were considered to be due to natural causes and included the following specific causes: shark bitten (n=78), probably shark bitten (n=106), other natural causes (n=140), and mating wounds (n=57). The remaining (n=170) were considered to be due to human-related causes and included the following specific causes: shot (n=72), probably shot (n=8), net drowned (n=76), and other human causes (n=14). The large proportion of carcasses without an identified specific cause of death prompted a more detailed necropsy effort in 1992 and 1993. During that period, 78 of the 232 recovered carcasses were examined by veterinary pathologists and a specific cause of death was determined in 76% (n=59) of the cases. This effort identified a wide range of specific causes of death that otherwise may have been categorized as "unknown without trauma". Considering the variety of diseases diagnosed in this expanded necropsy program, it would be prudent to continue this level of examination to refine our knowledge of sea otter pathology. (48pp.

Christological Name Theology in three Second Century communities

This dissertation seeks to consider the possible backgrounds for second century Christian name theology, the distinct regional applications of Name theology to Christology, and also to compare Rome, Syria, and Alexandria to one another and reveal how that application was different in each of the three regions. In order to understand the backgrounds for this theological idea, the first three chapters investigate the variety of theological uses of the word name in the Hebrew Bible, in other Jewish literature, and in the New Testament. The three communities are represented by 1 Clement and Shepherd of Hermas from Rome, Ascension of Isaiah and Odes of Solomon from Antiochian Syria, and Gospel of Truth and Excerpta ex Theodoto at Alexandria. All the second century Christian texts considered in this study make use of earlier Jewish ideas about the name of God or special names given by God. All of them adapt that theological term to their own immediate concerns; however, this study discovers some common traits among all of them. The name is given soteriological importance in each text. That salvation is determined in some way by possession of the name by the believer. Finally, in different ways each text places importance on the way the name interacts with creation. These common points serve as a basis for comparison of all the material undertaken in this study

From Social Tagging to Social Hierarchies: Sharing Deeper Structural Knowledge in Web 2.0

Social tagging systems, such as del.icio.us, have helped users find and reuse information by sharing individuals’ structural knowledge, i.e., the knowledge of relationships among documents and concepts. Besides being an Internet phenomenon, social tagging can help organizations manage their intranet document repositories. The structural knowledge embedded in tags is flat, shallow, and often ambiguous however. We develop a theoretical model to argue for potential benefits of sharing deeper structural knowledge in an electronic document repository through personal document hierarchies. Based on the theoretical model, we design a “social hierarchies” system. Deployment and exploratory study confirm the benefits of sharing personal hierarchies in a collaborative knowledge work environment and suggest future research directions

Subject-specific computational modeling of normal and dysplastic hips

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Correlations between the alpha angle and femoral head asphericity: Implications and recommendations for the diagnosis of cam femoroacetabular impingement

pre-printObjective: To determine the strength of common radiographic and radial CT views for measuring true femoral head asphericity. Patients and Methods: In 15 patients with cam femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) and 15 controls, alpha angles were measured by two observers using radial CT (0º, 30º, 60º, 90º) and digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) for the: anterior-posterior (AP), standing frog-leg lateral, 45° Dunn with neutral rotation, 45° Dunn with 40°external rotation, and cross-table lateral views. A DRR validation study was performed. Alpha angles were compared between groups. Maximum deviation from a sphere of each subject was obtained from a previous study. Alpha angles from each view were correlated with maximum deviation. Results: There were no significant differences between alpha angles measured on radiographs and the corresponding DRRs (p = 0.72). Alpha angles were significantly greater in patients for all views (p ≤0.002). Alpha angles from the 45° Dunn with 40° external rotation, cross-table lateral, and 60° radial views had the strongest correlations with maximum deviation (r = 0.831; r 20 = 0.823; r=0.808, respectively). The AP view had the weakest correlation (r = 0.358). Conclusion: DRRs were a validated means to simulate hip radiographs. The 45° Dunn with 40° external rotation, cross-table lateral, and 60º radial views best visualized femoral asphericity. Although commonly used, the AP view did not visualize cam deformities well. Overall, the magnitude of the alpha angle may not be indicative of the size of the deformity. Thus, 3D reconstructions and measurements of asphericity could improve the diagnosis of cam FAI. Key Words: Cam Femoroacetabular Impingement Alpha Angle, Femur Asphericity, Digitally Introduction Cam-type femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) has been implicated as a cause of chondrolabral damage, hip osteoarthritis (OA), and musculoskeletal pain in young adults [1-3]. Cam FAI is characterized by an aspherical femoral head and/or insufficient femoral head-neck offset [4,5]. Identifying the degree of femoral head asphericity is important as the underlying goal of surgery to correct cam FAI is to restore a more normal, spherical morphology to the femoral head. The alpha angle is a two-dimensional (2D) radiographic measure of femoral head asphericity that is commonly used to diagnose cam FAI [6-8]. Although, first proposed by Notzli et al. for only an oblique axial view of the femur, use of the alpha angle has been extended to several radiographic projections and radial computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance (MR) views [7,9-14]. Unfortunately, alpha angle measurements can vary between views of the same femur [10,15,16]. Consequently, the ideal view to diagnose cam FAI remains unknown [15,17]. One approach to identify the optimal view in which to measure the alpha angle has been to quantify observer repeatability. However, reports of repeatability have not been consistent and repeatability is not necessarily a measure of effectiveness [18,19]. Another approach has been to correlate alpha angles from standard radiographic views to oblique axial or radial MRI/CT views [12,14,15,17]. Still, alpha angle measurements from radial views are not generated automatically, and thus do not provide a true reference standard. In addition, radial views do not consider the geometry of the entire femoral head. Alternatively, subject-specific 3D reconstructions of femur morphology, generated from volumetric CT or MR images, can be used to visualize the anatomy of the entire femoral head. By fitting the 3D reconstruction to a sphere, UU IR Author Manuscript UU IR Author Manuscript University of Utah Institutional Repository Author Manuscript one can quantify the size of a deformity as maximum deviation from the sphere, herein referred to as 'true femoral head asphericity' [20,21]

EXISTENCE OF UNIQUE LIMITING PROBABILITY VECTORS IN STOCHASTIC PROCESSES WITH MULTIPLE TRANSITION MATRICES

Concepts associated with stochastic process containing multiple transition matricies are discussed. It is proved that under certain conditions, a process with m transition matrices has m unique limiting probability vectors. This result extends the notion of discrete Markov processes to problems with intrayear and interyear dynamics. An example using a large DP model illustrates the usefulness of the concepts developed to applied problems.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Age-related effects on breeding phenology and success of common guillemots Uria aalge at a North Sea colony

Capsule: Common Guillemots Uria aalge show delayed breeding and marked age-related changes in reproductive success consistent with improved performance with experience. Aims: To determine age of first breeding and age-related effects on breeding phenology and success of Common Guillemots. Methods: Resighting data from a long-term colour-ringing study of Common Guillemot chicks were combined with observations of breeding phenology and success to follow the recruitment process, breeding phenology and success of 62 birds at a major North Sea colony over a 30-year period. Results: The median age of first breeding of Common Guillemots was 6.6 years. There were no detectable costs of first breeding on return rates or the likelihood of breeding the next season but first time breeders bred later and less successfully. Age of first breeding and lifetime breeding success both varied among individuals but there was no clear optimal age of first breeding and early first breeding was not associated with higher lifetime breeding success. Conclusions: Common Guillemots in the Isle of May population delayed breeding for 3–4 years beyond physiological maturity. The marked increase in breeding success with age was consistent with improved performance with experience rather than selection for higher quality individuals. Findings from this study will inform population models by providing improved estimates of age of first breeding and age-related changes in reproductive performance

Efficient photon counting and single-photon generation using resonant nonlinear optics

The behavior of an atomic double lambda system in the presence of a strong off-resonant classical field and a few-photon resonant quantum field is examined. It is shown that the system possesses properties that allow a single-photon state to be distilled from a multi-photon input wave packet. In addition, the system is also capable of functioning as an efficient photodetector discriminating between one- and two-photon wave packets with arbitrarily high efficiency.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure