The Affectionate Walrus

Many different species of very young seal and sea lion pups are extremely friendly to man after they overcome their initial fear upon being captured. Sometimes this will require a matter of days but in other species, such as a few-days-old Steller sea lion pup, they will have lost all sense of fear within the first fifteen minutes after their capture. ... the walrus which has been hunted by the Eskimos for many years is the most naturally affectionate of all marine mammals. They weigh about one hundred and twenty pounds at birth and show almost no fear of man even up to a year of age in the wild. Very young walrus can be easily trained to nurse a special formula from a bottle and they require about a gallon of formula per day. ... Whereas the Weddell seal pup may rest its head upon your knee, the walrus is not satisfied unless it can climb all over you even after he gets up to fifteen hundred pounds or more. It therefore soon becomes unsafe to get into a pool with them because of the danger of being drowned, and out of water one may be pinned down so as to require help to get up, particularly if there is more than one walrus. If anyone sits down where there are two or three young walrus being raised by hand, they will all try to climb upon you at the same time. In the case of most marine mammals if any object such as a hydrophone is placed in their pool they completely ignore it, but the walrus is there almost immediately and has it in his mouth or is playing with it in his flippers. It is therefore difficult to obtain underwater recordings of them unless the hydrophone is placed in some inaccessible place. Even placing dummy hydrophones in the tank for a week ahead of time helps very little if they see the new hydrophone go in. If one throws a half gallon nursing bottle half full of formula into their pool, they will occasionally pick it up in their flippers, lie on their back and nurse from the bottle while holding it up over them with their flippers. Their baby-like whimper and low-pitch woof! woof! and their apparent desire for physical contact with human beings make them one of the most attractive of the marine mammals

Smoking, dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly, a systematic review.

Background. Nicotine may aid reaction time, learning and memory, but smoking increases cardiovascular risk. Cardiovascular risk factors have been linked to increased risk of dementia. A previous meta-analysis found that current smokers were at higher risk of subsequent dementia, Alzheimers disease, vascular dementia and cognitive decline. Methods. In order to update and examine this further a systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out using different search and inclusion criteria, database selection and more recent publications. Both reviews were restricted to those aged 65 and over. Results. The review reported here found a significantly increased risk of Alzheimers disease with current smoking and a likely but not significantly increased risk of vascular dementia, dementia unspecified and cognitive decline. Neither review found clear relationships with former smoking. Conclusion. Current smoking increases risk of Alzheimers disease and may increase risk of other dementias. This reinforces need for smoking cessation, particularly aged 65 and over. Nicotine alone needs further investigation. © 2008 Peters et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Spatial Hedonic Models for Measuring the Impact of Sea-Level Rise on Coastal Real Estate

This study uses a unique integration of geospatial and hedonic property data to estimate the impact of sea-level rise on coastal real estate in North Carolina. North Carolina’s coastal plain is one of several large terrestrial systems around the world threatened by rising sea-levels. High-resolution topographic LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data are used to provide accurate inundation maps for all properties that will be at risk under six different sea-level rise scenarios. A simulation approach based on spatial hedonic models is used to provide consistent estimates of the property value losses. Results indicate that the northern part of the North Carolina coastline is comparatively more vulnerable to the effect of sea-level rise than the southern part. Low-lying and heavily developed areas in the northern coastline are especially at high risk from sea-level rise. Key Words: Climate change, coastal real estate, sea-level rise, spatial hedonic models

Measuring the Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Marine Recreational Shore Fishing in North Carolina

We develop estimates of the economic effects of sea level rise on marine recreational shore fishing in North Carolina. We estimate the relationship between angler behavior and spatial differences in beach width using the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey and geospatial data. We exploit the empirical relationship between beach width and site choice by simulating the effects of (1) sea level rise on beach width and (2) beach width on angler site choice. We find that the welfare losses are potentially substantial, ranging up to a present value of $1.26 billion over 75 years. Key Words: marine recreational fishing, travel cost method, climate change, sea level rise

The Rate of Evaporation through Surface Films

The purpose of this investigation was to study the influence of surface tension on the rate of evaporation of water through surface films. We determined the rate of evaporation of pure water and water from solutions of calcium and sodium chlorides of concentrations varying from zero to nearly saturation

Some Recent Developments in High Pressure Windows

The field of optical studies at high pressures has been limited to a range of a few thousand atmospheres not because glass would not withstand a higher pressure but because the proper window support had not been used in order to utilize the maximum strength of the glass

The Effect of Pressures up to 17,000 Atmospheres upon Some Colloidal Suspensions

In some work which was being conducted at Wesleyan during the past year, on the effect of pressures upon some living organisms, it was noticed that when the water containing these organisms was subjected to pressures of more than a few hundred atmospheres a turbidity was usually developed. This suggested that something in the solution was being precipitated by means of pressure. Upon inspection it was found that this was some of the colloidal constituents in the water, and it was desired to determine whether or not pressure alone would cause the precipitation of a pure colloidal suspension. A number of colloidal suspensions were chosen at random and subjected to pressures varying from a few atmospheres to 17,000 atmospheres

The Dissociation of Some Organic and Inorganic Substances at High Temperature

The following investigation was undertaken to ascertain whether the well-known conductivity in many gaseous reactions at high temperatures is due entirely to the reaction or due partially to the dissociation of one or the other or both of the constituents into charged particles

A Study of the Reactions Involved in a System of Zn and H2SO4 under Pressures Up To 16,000 Atmospheres

A continuation of the investigation described in the previous paper. A method is described for following the rate of the reaction at very high pressures in which the pressure can be varied rapidly and the rate of the reaction continuously read. Very little effect upon the rate of the reaction, directly due to pressure, was noticed up to pressures of 6000 atmospheres. The pressure cells used for this work were exhibited including one that was ruptured at a very high pressure