Nineteenth-century Ship-based Catches of Gray Whales, Eschrichtius robustus, in the Eastern North Pacific

The 19th century commercial ship-based fishery for gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus, in the eastern North Pacific began in 1846 and continued until the mid 1870’s in southern areas and the 1880’s in the north. Henderson identified three periods in the southern part of the fishery: Initial, 1846–1854; Bonanza, 1855–1865; and Declining, 1866–1874. The largest catches were made by “lagoon whaling” in or immediately outside the whale population’s main wintering areas in Mexico—Magdalena Bay, Scammon’s Lagoon, and San Ignacio Lagoon. Large catches were also made by “coastal” or “alongshore” whaling where the whalers attacked animals as they migrated along the coast. Gray whales were also hunted to a limited extent on their feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi Seas in summer. Using all available sources, we identified 657 visits by whaling vessels to the Mexican whaling grounds during the gray whale breeding and calving seasons between 1846 and 1874. We then estimated the total number of such visits in which the whalers engaged in gray whaling. We also read logbooks from a sample of known visits to estimate catch per visit and the rate at which struck animals were lost. This resulted in an overall estimate of 5,269 gray whales (SE = 223.4) landed by the ship-based fleet (including both American and foreign vessels) in the Mexican whaling grounds from 1846 to 1874. Our “best” estimate of the number of gray whales removed from the eastern North Pacific (i.e. catch plus hunting loss) lies somewhere between 6,124 and 8,021, depending on assumptions about survival of struck-but-lost whales. Our estimates can be compared to those by Henderson (1984), who estimated that 5,542–5,507 gray whales were secured and processed by ship-based whalers between 1846 and 1874; Scammon (1874), who believed the total kill over the same period (of eastern gray whales by all whalers in all areas) did not exceed 10,800; and Best (1987), who estimated the total landed catch of gray whales (eastern and western) by American ship-based whalers at 2,665 or 3,013 (method-dependent) from 1850 to 1879. Our new estimates are not high enough to resolve apparent inconsistencies between the catch history and estimates of historical abundance based on genetic variability. We suggest several lines of further research that may help resolve these inconsistencies

Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium: Accelerating Evidence-Based Practice of Genomic Medicine

Despite rapid technical progress and demonstrable effectiveness for some types of diagnosis and therapy, much remains to be learned about clinical genome and exome sequencing (CGES) and its role within the practice of medicine. The Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) consortium includes 18 extramural research projects, one National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) intramural project, and a coordinating center funded by the NHGRI and National Cancer Institute. The consortium is exploring analytic and clinical validity and utility, as well as the ethical, legal, and social implications of sequencing via multidisciplinary approaches; it has thus far recruited 5,577 participants across a spectrum of symptomatic and healthy children and adults by utilizing both germline and cancer sequencing. The CSER consortium is analyzing data and creating publically available procedures and tools related to participant preferences and consent, variant classification, disclosure and management of primary and secondary findings, health outcomes, and integration with electronic health records. Future research directions will refine measures of clinical utility of CGES in both germline and somatic testing, evaluate the use of CGES for screening in healthy individuals, explore the penetrance of pathogenic variants through extensive phenotyping, reduce discordances in public databases of genes and variants, examine social and ethnic disparities in the provision of genomics services, explore regulatory issues, and estimate the value and downstream costs of sequencing. The CSER consortium has established a shared community of research sites by using diverse approaches to pursue the evidence-based development of best practices in genomic medicine

Specialization: stoneware pottery production in northcentral Texas, 1850-1910

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1992Ceramic specialization, a key concept in both scientific and cultural evolutionary archaeology, continues to be poorly defined more than ten years after Rice published her model of ceramic specialization (Rice 1981). Rice and others continue to struggle toward an accepted definition of what specialization is and how it can be identified in the archaeological record. Two critical models underpin Rice's model of specialization: an attribute model specifying a correlation between specialization and kinds of artifact attributes, and a distribution model specifying a correlation among specialization, the distribution of production loci, and the finished products.I evaluate Rice's model of specialization using historical and archaeological data available for nineteenth- and twentieth-century stoneware pottery-kiln sites and domestic farmstead sites in Northcentral Texas. Deed/title records, population census schedules, tax rolls, and business advertisements provide historical information on the temporal and spatial distributions of production methods, and resource, production, and domestic loci. I conduct macro- and micro-analysis of archaeological stoneware ceramics from seven pottery kilns and five farmsteads and of clay specimens from seven clay outcrops to verify the historical information and to evaluate the ceramic attributes that Rice identifies as appropriate for examining ceramic specialization.Although the historical and archaeological data indicate that stoneware production in Northcentral Texas was specialized, no correlation was found between Rice's attribute model and specialization, e.g., an association between paste composition and specialization. Rice's attribute model fails because specialization is not how pottery is made but rather who makes the pottery, i.e., a small number of individuals. Her attribute model specifies correlations between production types, e.g., specialized or nonspecialized, and specific attribute expressions rather than specific attribute relations.Contrastively, Rice's distribution model is not rejected and can be strengthened by developing appropriate empirical criteria for identifying low-volume specialized production sites. Historical and archaeological data reveal that contemporaneous resource, production, and household loci are not coterminous as assumed by Rice's distribution model. Stoneware pottery production was carried out by a small number of potters, with each nonceramic-producing household acquiring stonewares from several stoneware pottery-kiln sites

Archaeological Testing of the Lewisville Lake Shoreline, Denton County, Texas

This report describes the results of test excavations at 23 prehistoric and 16 historic sites on the periphery of Lewisville Lake, Denton County, Texas. The purpose of this report is to summarize the character and significance of the archaeological sites that were test excavated and recommendations for mitigation at those sites determined eligible for the National Register

Texas Community History Oral History Project

Transcript of an interview with with William and Ely Sledge and their reminiscences and experiences concerning their father's farm near Pilot Point, Texas, 1900-1980. They discuss comments about their African-American ancestors; their descriptions of various pieces of old farm equipment strewn about the homestead; sorghum mill and syrup- making; hog butchering and meat preservation; water well; description of farm buildings; segregated education; home remedies; garden area; canning; rural social life and entertainment; trading among neighbors; cash crops (peanuts, cotton); harvesting; description of the interior of the family farmhouse and its contents; listening to boxing contests (Joe Louis and "Jersey Joe" Walcott) on the family radio; store-bought and mail order catalog items; "Juneteenth" celebrations; description of personal documents and papers, 1878-1931

Discordant results between conventional newborn screening and genomic sequencing in the BabySeq Project

Abstract Purpose Newborn screening (NBS) is performed to identify neonates at risk for actionable, severe, early-onset disorders, many of which are genetic. The BabySeq Project randomized neonates to receive conventional NBS or NBS plus exome sequencing (ES) capable of detecting sequence variants that may also diagnose monogenic disease or indicate genetic disease risk. We therefore evaluated how ES and conventional NBS results differ in this population. Methods We compared results of NBS (including hearing screens) and ES for 159 infants in the BabySeq Project. Infants were considered "NBS positive" if any abnormal result was found indicating disease risk and "ES positive" if ES identified a monogenic disease risk or a genetic diagnosis. Results Most infants (132/159, 84%) were NBS and ES negative. Only one infant was positive for the same disorder by both modalities. Nine infants were NBS positive/ES negative, though seven of these were subsequently determined to be false positives. Fifteen infants were ES positive/NBS negative, all of which represented risk of genetic conditions that are not included in NBS programs. No genetic explanation was identified for eight infants referred on the hearing screen. Conclusion These differences highlight the complementarity of information that may be gleaned from NBS and ES in the newborn period