The Marshes of Back Bay, Virginia

An inventory was undertaken to determine the type and extent of the emergent tidal wetlands in Back Bay, which, historically, has ranged from a lunar tidal brackish estuary to a wind tidal freshwater system. The inventory was conducted primarily by boat with visual observations made for each marsh. The configuration and areal extent of each marsh was determined from USGS topographic maps and confirmed with aerial photography where necessary. Approximately 9925 acres of wetlands as defined by the Commonwealth of Virginia were identified within the watershed. These wetlands supported a very diverse flora consisting of over 109 species. The five dominant species accounted for almost 75% of the wetland acreage. They included: cattails, Typha spp., (4004 acres), needlerush, ]uncus roemerianus, (2371 acres), big cordgrass, Spartina cynosuroides, (605 acres), saltmeadow hay, Sp.artina patens, (449 acres) and switchgrass Panicum virgatum, (427 acres). The remainder of the species represented a diverse mixture of brackish plants with a significant component of freshwater species. The emergent tidal wetlands are dominated by plants typically indicative of brackish conditions even though the system now tends toward freshwater conditions under normal circumstances. These brackish species are probably relicts from when Back Bay was directly influenced by the salinity and tides afforded by inlets to the ocean. The brackish communities because of their continued dominance appear to be more adaptable to the periods of freshwater than the freshwater species are to periods of brackish conditions. These historical oscillations between brackish and fresh conditions are probably responsible for much of the plant diversity found. These plant communities are not static either, as evidenced by changes in the coverage of common reed, Phragmites australis, which has increased substantially between this inventory done in 1977 and recent (1990) observations

Automatic translation among spoken languages

The Machine Aided Voice Translation (MAVT) system was developed in response to the shortage of experienced military field interrogators with both foreign language proficiency and interrogation skills. Combining speech recognition, machine translation, and speech generation technologies, the MAVT accepts an interrogator's spoken English question and translates it into spoken Spanish. The spoken Spanish response of the potential informant can then be translated into spoken English. Potential military and civilian applications for automatic spoken language translation technology are discussed in this paper

Voriconazole induced periostitis

Case report

The “secret” impact of population statistics on the metrics of diabetes

The accuracy of disease metrics is dependent on the quality of population-based data. Many diseases, including diabetes, are age and sex dependant. Accurate age- and sexspecific population survey data, population estimates and projections are required to assess the scale and trends in the burden of these diseases. No assessment of the quality of population data being used in the UAE diabetes metrics has been published. We provide insight into the availability and quality of published population data, which is currently being used to inform diabetes research and health services planning in the UAE. We show the absence of credible population-based data impedes the accurate assessment of disease prevalence, incidence and trends. This means that many statements about the burden of this disease in relative and absolute terms are not robust. There has been only one study of sufficient reliability of the prevalence of diabetes in the UAE and this was undertaken in 2000. Hence the calculation and reporting of trends is problematic. Population estimates for the UAE are based on out of date data and are extremely variable. Population projections for the UAE and other Middle East countries with large expatriate labour forces are improbable. The clinical and other implications of accurate population-based metrics are wide reaching. If prevalence rates are to be used to guide public policy and infrastructure planning, then we need to use valid data, including population and population-based data. Whilst specific reference is made to diabetes, and the issues affecting the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries of the Middle East; the impact of inaccurate population–based metrics have application in other regions, and other diseases

POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF RESTRICTED ACCESS STRATEGIES FOR MULTISPECIES FISHERIES

The commercial fishery that primarily targets king mackerel, stone crab, snappers, groupers and spiny lobster in Monroe and Collier counties is one of the most important commercial fisheries in Florida. These species currently face problems of overfishing and/or over capitalization. A dual-based restricted profit function is used to estimate the economic and technical interactions that exist in this multi-species fishery, primarily using own-price and cross-price elasticities of supply. It is found that the production technology does not exhibit input-output separability and nonjointness-in-inputs over all species groups. This result suggests that these key species may be more efficiently managed as a group, rather than with the use of existing single species regulations. Spiny lobster and stone crab, the dominant value species in the fishery, are shown to have very elastic substitution relationships with king mackerel.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,