Three unusual mortalities events involving bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus Montagu 1821) occurred along Florida's northern Gulf of Mexico coast between 1999 and 2006. The causes of these ...events, in which over 300 bottlenose dolphins are known to have died, are still under investigation. The impact of these mortality events cannot be fully evaluated, because little prior information on bottlenose dolphin abundance and distribution patterns exist in this region. Thus, the goals of this study were to estimate seasonal abundance, develop site-fidelity indices, and describe distribution patterns of bottlenose dolphins in St. Joseph Bay, Gulf County, Florida, USA. This study site was chosen because it was impacted by all three unusual mortality events and was the geographic focus of the 2004 event Mark-recapture photo-identification surveys were conducted across multiple seasons from February 2005 through July 2007. Site-fidelity indices were calculated for each identifiable dolphin based upon all photo-ID efforts undertaken in the area. Distribution patterns were investigated by short-term (12-94 days) radio-tracking of tagged individuals across seasons (April-July, n=9; July-October, n=15). Mark-recapture closed and robust abundance estimates, as well as site-fidelity indices suggest that St. Joseph Bay supports a resident community of 78-152 bottlenose dolphins. During spring and autumn, this region experiences an influx of dolphins, as demonstrated by closed and robust abundance estimates of 313-410 and 237-340, respectively. These results are supported by the distribution patterns of radio-tagged individuals. Individuals tagged in summer tended to stay within or near St. Joseph Bay, whereas two individuals tagged in spring ranged more than 40km from the study site. This study provides the first detailed examination of bottlenose dolphin abundance and distribution patterns for this region of the northern Gulf coast of Florida. These results suggest that unusual mortality events probably had, and will in the future have, seasonally variable effects on bottlenose dolphins in St. Joseph Bay. Future mortality events that occur during the summer and winter in St. Joseph Bay may predominantly affect resident individuals, while those that occur during the spring and autumn will probably affect both residents and seasonal visitors.
The development of an active collaboration between the department of behavioral medicine and psychiatry of the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Western State Hospital is described. The ...collaboration includes clinical research and opportunities for training residents and medical students. University faculty provide clinical and administrative leadership at all levels of the hospital's organization. The hospital's clinical functioning has improved through direct involvement of university faculty in patient care, and its recruitment of physicians and psychologists has increased due to expansion of academic opportunities and program improvements. The authors use examples from the collaboration experience to illustrate key issues, such as strong leadership, sufficient resources, and an understanding of systems factors, that are necessary to overcome resistance to change.
Three 12‐m sperm whales (Physeter catodon) were tagged and tracked west of Dominica in the southeast Caribbean to follow the surfacing patterns and movements of these presumed subadult males. Whale N ...was tagged in April 1993 with a 30‐MHz radio tag and tracked for two days. Whale H was tagged in April 1995 with a 30‐MHz radio tag and tracked for 4.6 d. Whale A was tagged in April 1995 with a satellite‐monitored tag tracked by ARGOS for 21.5 d, the first four of which were concurrent with the tracking of Whale H, an associate. The tagged whales remained west of Dominica for at least 2, 5, and 13 d, respectively. Whales N and A then moved southward to waters off Martinique. There were no apparent effects on the whales by tagging or the presence of the tags. The whales averaged speeds of 2.6‐3.5 km/h. Surfacings, indicated by tag signals, were of two types: short surfacings apparently primarily for respiration, averaging 7‐10.5 min between repeated longer dives, occurring day and night; and extended surfacings seemingly for rest and social interactions with conspecifics, occurring mostly in daylight. Whales were near the surface for 20.4%–22.6% of the total time (26.6%–27.1% during the day and 14.9%–17.1% at night). Delayed blowing was observed as Whale N surfaced for 8.3 min between 47‐ and 45‐min dives but delayed the first of its 31 blows for 1.5 min after surfacing.
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Three 12‐m sperm whales (
Physeter catodon
) were tagged and tracked west of Dominica in the southeast Caribbean to follow the surfacing patterns and movements of these presumed subadult ...males. Whale N was tagged in April 1993 with a 30‐MHz radio tag and tracked for two days. Whale H was tagged in April 1995 with a 30‐MHz radio tag and tracked for 4.6 d. Whale A was tagged in April 1995 with a satellite‐monitored tag tracked by ARGOS for 21.5 d, the first four of which were concurrent with the tracking of Whale H, an associate. The tagged whales remained west of Dominica for at least 2, 5, and 13 d, respectively. Whales N and A then moved southward to waters off Martinique. There were no apparent effects on the whales by tagging or the presence of the tags. The whales averaged speeds of 2.6‐3.5 km/h. Surfacings, indicated by tag signals, were of two types: short surfacings apparently primarily for respiration, averaging 7‐10.5 min between repeated longer dives, occurring day and night; and extended surfacings seemingly for rest and social interactions with conspecifics, occurring mostly in daylight. Whales were near the surface for 20.4%–22.6% of the total time (26.6%–27.1% during the day and 14.9%–17.1% at night). Delayed blowing was observed as Whale N surfaced for 8.3 min between 47‐ and 45‐min dives but delayed the first of its 31 blows for 1.5 min after surfacing.
At a time when psychiatry's repertoire of successful treatment strategies is burgeoning and the public is seeking primary medical care with greater emphasis on humanistic issues, psychiatry has been ...paradoxically losing status and trainees, partly because it has failed to make its expertise integratable by nonpsychiatric physicians. In response to the educational and patient care deficiencies that result, two universities developed a teaching and clinical program that leads to partial integration of their departments of psychiatry and internal medicine. This collaborative approach includes a conjoint internal medicine-behavioral medicine inpatient unit and a residency program leading to Board eligibility in both specialties.
The silicon vertex tracker (SVT) of the BaBar experiment at PEP-II is described. This is the crucial device for the measurement of the B meson decay vertices to extract CP-asymmetries. It consists of ...five layers of double-sided AC-coupled silicon strip detectors, read out by a full-custom integrated circuit, capable of simultaneous acquisition, digitization and transmission of data. It represents the core of the BaBar tracking system, providing position measurements with a precision of 10 /spl mu/m (inner layers) and 30/spl mu/m (outer layers). The relevant performances of the SVT are presented, and the experience acquired during the construction, installation and the first five years of data-taking is described. Innovative solutions are highlighted, like the sophisticated alignment procedure, imposed by the design of the silicon tracker, integrated in the beam-line elements and mechanically separated from the other parts of BaBar. The harshness of the background conditions in the interaction region required several studies on the radiation damage of the sensors and the front-end chips, whose results are presented. Over the next five years the luminosity is predicted to increase by a factor three, leading to radiation and occupancy levels significantly exceeding the detector design. Extrapolation of future radiation doses and occupancies is shown together with the expected detector performance and lifetime. Upgrade scenarios to deal with the increased luminosity and backgrounds are discussed.
We describe a shared mission operations concept planned for use in support of the Hermes Global Orbiter mission, a proposed Discovery mission to study the planet Mercury. Voyager, a currently flying ...interplanetary mission, and Hermes are planning to enter into shared mission operations, a relationship which will permit a new low-cost approach to deep space flight operations. Modifications made to the Voyager Mission Operations System plus incremental staffing increases will enable shared mission operations and allow Hermes to avoid the typically high costs associated with development and staffing of a separate mission operations system. We show that shared mission operations will provide reliable and robust operations for both Hermes and Voyager, and will allow Hermes to benefit from the depth of the Voyager experience. This shared mission operations approach is innovative, and will demonstrate a management and operations approach not used before for simultaneous support of scientifically unrelated missions.
Psychiatry has been integrated into the Department of Internal Medicine at the West Virginia University School of Medicine as a means of ameliorating the educational and patient care deficiencies ...engendered by the traditional mind-body dichotomy in medical education. A major project derived from this merger of clinical and teaching activities has been the transformation of the university hospital psychiatric ward in to the Conjoint Medicine Service. This service, to which patients with a variety of emotional and medical problems are admitted, is staffed by medical house officers and a general internist in a close collaborative relationship with the Department of Psychiatry. The nursing care is oriented toward patient education, exemplified by group sessions. House staff and students are trained to recognize and evaluate the underlying emotional and interrelational factors which affect each patient's health status and prognosis as a routine part of a comprehensive medical work-up. Student and patient acceptance of this integrated approach has been enthusiastic.
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