Assessing the Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Extreme Storms: The Case of Revere,MA., USA

Climate change may affect the frequency, intensity, and geographic distribution of severe coastal storms. Concurrent sea-level rise would raise the baseline of flooding during such events. Meanwhile, social vulnerability factors such as poverty and disability hinder the ability to cope with storms and storm damage. While physical changes are likely to remain scientifically uncertain into the foreseeable future, the ability to mitigate potential impacts from coastal flooding may be fostered by better understanding the interplay of social and physical factors that produce human vulnerability. This study does so by integrating the classic causal model of hazards with social, environmental, and spatial dynamics that lead to the differential ability of people to cope with hazards. It uses Census data, factor analysis, data envelopment analysis, and floodplain maps to understand the compound social and physical vulnerability of coastal residents in the city of Revere, MA, USA. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Preparation of high resolution chromosomes from amniotic fluid cells

A relatively simple method of obtaining high resolution chromosomes from amniotic fluid cells is described. The elongated chromosomes are achieved by adding ethidium bromide (5μg/ml) to the culture 4 1/2 hours before harvesting and the high resolution banding can be produced by usual banding procedures.     

Delayed onset of vocal recognition in Australian sea lion pups (Neophoca cinerea)

In pinnipeds, maternal care strategies and colony density may influence a species’ individual recognition system. We examined the onset of vocal recognition of mothers by Australian sea lion pups (Neophoca cinerea). At 2 months of age, pups responded significantly more to the calls of their own mothers than alien female calls demonstrating a finely tuned recognition system. However, newborn pups did not respond differentially to the calls of their mother from alien female calls suggesting that vocal recognition had not yet developed or is not yet expressed. These findings are in stark contrast to other otariid species where pups learn their mother’s voice before their first separation. Variance in colony density, pup movements, and natal site fidelity may have reduced selective pressures on call recognition in young sea lions, or alternatively, another sensory system may be used for recognition in the early stage of life.     

Trends in anecdotal fox sightings in Tasmania accounted for by psychological factors

There has been little evaluation of anecdotal sightings as a means to confirm new incursions of invasive species. This paper explores the potential for equivocal information communicated by the media to account for patterns of anecdotal reports. In 2001, it was widely reported that red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) had been deliberately released in the island state of Tasmania (Australia), although this claim was later revealed to be baseless. Regardless, by 2013 a total of 3153 anecdotal fox sightings had been reported by members of the public, which implied their distribution was wide. For each month in 2001–2003, we defined a monthly media index (MMI) of fox‐related media coverage, an index of their relative seasonal abundance (abundance), and a factor denoting claims of fox evidence (claimed evidence) regardless of its evidentiary quality. We fitted a generalized linear model with Poisson error for monthly totals of anecdotal sightings with factors of year and claimed evidence and covariates of MMI, abundance, and hours of darkness. The collective effect of psychological factors (MMI, claimed evidence, and year) relative to biophysical factors (photoperiod and abundance) was highly significant (χ² = 122.1, df = 6, p < 0.0001), whereas anticipated changes in abundance had no significant influence on reported sightings (p = 0.15). An annual index of fox media from 2001 to 2010 was strongly associated with the yearly tally of anecdotal sightings (p = 0.018). The odds ratio of sightings ranked as reliable by the fox eradication program in any year decreased exponentially at a rate of 0.00643 as the total number of sightings increased (p < 0.0001) and was indicative of an observer‐expectancy bias. Our results suggest anecdotal sightings are highly susceptible to cognitive biases and when used to qualify and quantify species presence can contribute to flawed risk assessments.     

Large eddy simulation of flow and scalar transport in a vegetated channel

Predicting flow and mass transport in vegetated regions has a broad range of applications in ecology and engineering practice. This paper presents large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent flow and scalar transport within a fully developed open-channel with submerged vegetation. To properly represent the scalar transport, an additional diffusivity was introduced within the canopy to account for the contribution of stem wakes, which were not resolved by the LES, to turbulent diffusion. The LES produced good agreement with the velocity and concentration fields measured in a flume experiment. The simulation revealed a secondary flow distributed symmetrically about the channel centerline, which differed significantly from the circulation in a bare channel. The secondary circulation accelerated the vertical spread of the plume both within and above the canopy layer. Quadrant analysis was used to identify the form and shape of canopy-scale turbulent structures within and above the vegetation canopy. Within the canopy, sweep events contributed more to momentum transfer than ejection events, whereas the opposite occurred above the canopy. The coherent structures were similar to those observed in terrestrial canopies, but smaller in scale due to the constraint of the water surface.     

Conceiving a fetus for bone marrow donation: An ethical problem in prenatal diagnosis

We present a family who sought prenatal diagnosis in order to bear a healthy child to serve as an HLA–identical bone marrow donor for their son affected with Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome. They intended to abort HLA-incompatible fetuses who would have been unsuitable bone marrow donors. This case led us to conclude that prenatal diagnosis should not be used to benefit a third party or facilitate the conception or abortion of a fetus for the purpose of generating an organ for transplantation. The limits of parental autonomy and physician responsibility are discussed.     

Behavioral transitions with the evolution of cooperative nest founding by harvester ant queens

Research on the evolution of cooperative groups tends to explore the costs and benefits of cooperation, with less focus on the proximate behavioral changes necessary for the transition from solitary to cooperative living. However, understanding what proximate changes must occur, as well as those pre-conditions already in place, is critical to understanding the origins and evolution of sociality. The California harvester ant Pogonomyrmex californicus demonstrates population-level variation in colony founding over a close geographic range. In adjacent populations, queens either found nests as single individuals (haplometrosis) or form cooperative groups of nonrelatives (pleometrosis). We compared aggregation, aggression, and tolerance of queens from one pleometrotic and two haplometrotic populations during nest initiation, to determine which behaviors show an evolutionary shift and which are present at the transition to pleometrosis. Surprisingly, within-nest aggregative behavior was equally present among all populations. In nesting boxes with multiple available brood-rearing sites, both queen types readily formed and clustered around a single common brood pile, suggesting that innate attraction to brood (offspring) facilitates the transition to social aggregation. In contrast, queens from the three populations differed in their probabilities of attraction on the ground to nest sites occupied by other queens and in levels of aggression. Our results suggest that some key behavioral mechanisms facilitating cooperation in P. californicus are in place prior to the evolution of pleometrosis and that the switch from aggression to tolerance is critical for the evolution of stable cooperative associations.