An assemblage of fossil sockeye salmon was discovered in Pleistocene lake sediments along the South Fork Skokomish River, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. The fossils were abundant near the head of a former glacial lake at 115 m elevation. Large adult salmon are concentrated in a sequence of death assemblages that include individuals with enlarged breeding teeth and worn caudal fins indicating migration, nest digging, and spawning prior to death. The specimens were 4 yr old and 45–70 cm in total length, similar in size to modern sockeye salmon, not landlocked kokanee. The fossils possess most of the characteristics of sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, but with several minor traits suggestive of pink salmon, O. gorbuscha. This suggests the degree of divergence of these species at about 1 million yr ago, when geological evidence indicates the salmon were deposited at the head of a proglacial lake impounded by the Salmon Springs advance of the Puget lobe ice sheet. Surficial geology and topography record a complicated history of glacial damming and river diversion that implies incision of the modern gorge of the South Fork Skokomish River after deposition of the fossil-bearing sediments.

We present here the low-dispersion optical spectra of 295 QSO candidates. The great majority of the objects were originally selected as QSOs from the Parkes 2700 MHz radio survey, although we have also included spectra of several optically selected QSOs. A few of the QSO candidates are now better described as radio galaxies and BL Lac objects. This collection of spectra is not suitable for statistical studies unless due consideration is given to selection effects.

Savage et al. (1977) found that the radio source PKS 1448-232 coincided with a stellar object of about magnitude 16.4 having an ultraviolet excess. A low resolution spectrum obtained with the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) confirmed this object as a QSO with zem = 2.22 and revealed many absorption lines short-ward of the La emission. Consequently this object was included in a programme of spectroscopy at intermediate resolution with the AAT to investigate QSO absorption lines. Savage et al. have given a finding chart with an optical position of 14h48m09s.3, −23°17′10″ (1950.0). The radio fluxes are 0.40 Jy at 2.7 GHz and 0.31 Jy at 5.0 GHz.

We assessed characteristics associated with community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) carriage among residents of 22 nursing homes. Of MRSA-positive swabs, 25% (208/824) were positive for CA-MRSA. Median facility CA-MRSA percentage was 22% (range, 0%–44%). In multivariate models, carriage was associated with age less than 65 years (odds ratio, 1.2; P < .001) and Hispanic ethnicity (odds ratio, 1.2; P = .006). Interventions are needed to target CA-MRSA.

Understanding tropical succession requires insight into propagule availability, which constrains possible woody plant recruitment, yet seed rain composition in multiple post-agricultural sites has seldom been examined. We monitored seed rain for 60 wk in five abandoned pastures in southern Costa Rica, collecting a total of 1 140 688 seeds of 165 morphospecies. Most seeds (80.1%) arrived during the wet season. Species richness was highest in the wet season and greater in forest than in pasture. Seed rain density was greatest at the forest/pasture edge and decreased drastically just a few metres into pastures. In and near the forest, animal-dispersed seeds were more abundant than seeds dispersed by other means, while wind-dispersed taxa increased in relative importance at greater distances from the forest. Total seed input to pastures did not reflect size of adjacent forest fragments, although seed rain density varied more than threefold among sites. Among-site variation in density of regenerating woody seedlings was roughly proportional to among-site variation in seed rain. Morphospecies composition differed significantly among sites. Also, seed rain and woody plant colonists were rather dissimilar in composition, suggesting that while propagule availability is necessary for early woody plant establishment, it is a poor predictor of successional trajectory.

The Fe/Mg abundance ratio may be one of the fundamental indicators for nucleosynthesis in the Early Universe. Even at the highest redshift, QSO broad-lined regions (BLRs) exhibit prominent 2000-3000Å Fe II(UV) band and Mg II 2800Å resonance doublet emission in the restframe UV. The Mg is formed in Type-II SNe, while Fe has been traditionally thought to be produced in Type Ia SNe. These different origins imply a sharp falloff in Fe abundance at very high-z. However, these predictions are clouded by uncertainties about the nature of the first stars and in the nuclear yields from supernovae models. Our theoretical studies of Fe II in QSO BLRs show that Fe and Mg abundance cannot be directly deduced from the observed Fe II(UV)/Mg II, because it is sensitive to luminosity and microturbulence, as well as abundance. Observationally, support for a luminosity dependence comes from SDSS data for QSOs that show a Fe II(UV)/Mg II correlation with luminosity at z ∼ 1.8–2.0.

Metal multilayers are a unique way to manufacture reliable conductive members for MEMS devices. These members are particularly suited for electrostatic switches. Unlike elemental Al, which experiences curvature problems during processing, the residual stress in these beams can be controlled and calibrated during stress measurements to have repeatable shapes and stresses upon release. In this study, curvature experiments were performed to determine the optimal deposition parameters (pressure, thickness) to produce metal multilayer beams with zero average stress and zero bending moment, which can be obtained by alternating tensile and compressive layers within. Resistivity measurements were made to determine the effect of interfaces on resistivity.

Flat radio spectrum quasars from the Parkes half-Jansky survey show an enormous range of optical to near-IR colors. The spectra of these quasars suggest that this diversity is probably due to variable amounts of dust somewhere along the line of sight.

Two CCD detector systems for the U. K. Schmidt Telescope that would allow a southern digital sky sulvey of faint objects to be carried out are described.

A full version of this paper was presented at Workshop on Optical Surveys for Quasars (Tucson, January 1988) and will be published in the Proceedings.

We are investigating a complete sample of flat-spectrum extragalactic radio quasars drawn from the Parkes 2.7 GHz survey. The sample is being used to map the space distribution of radio quasars and to determine their luminosity function. Accurate positions are being measured for a selection of the brighter quasars in order to establish an extragalactic position reference frame in the Southern Hemisphere.

The absorption lines in QSO spectra may be produced in material surrounding the QSO, in intergalactic clouds and in the interstellar gas of galaxies along the line of sight to the QSO. The intergalactic clouds produce weak Lyα absorption lines. The intervening galaxies produce absorption line systems with heavy element abundances and ionizations similar to the H i clouds in the halo of our galaxy. The material surrounding the QSO produces broad absorption troughs. Evidence suggests a continuity in spatial correlation and heavy element abundances for the Lyα clouds and intervening galaxies.

The “sets” in this paper are actually multi-sets. That is, we allow an element to occur several times in a set and distinguish between the number of elements in a set and the number of distinct elements in the set. On the few occasions when we need to avoid repetition we will use the term “ordinary set.“

Definition. Let G be a group and let S a set of elements of G. An r-sum in S is an ordered subset of S of cardinality r; the result of that r-sum is the product of its elements in the designated order.

Definition. If S is a set, r(x, S) denotes the number of times x appears in S and [x, S] is a set consisting of r(x, S) copies of x. An n-set or n-subset is a set consisting of n elements. Hence [x, S] is an r(x, S)-subset of S.

Nearly a decade elapsed between the discovery by Wampler at al. (1973) that the QSO OQ172 has a redshift of 3.53 and the discovery by Peterson et al. (1982) that the QSO Pks 2000–330 has a redshift of 3.78. During that time, radio and optical searches were vigorously pursued to find QSO's with redshifts greater than 3.5, but none were found. In this paper, we discuss selection effects in optical and radio searches and show how these selection effects have limited the redshift range of previous surveys. We propose a combination of radio and optical techniques that may be used to find high redshift QSO's and provide us with an undistorted view of the Universe beyond a redshift of 3.5.

The evidence for the evolution of the intergalactic clouds that produce the Lyman-alpha absorption lines in the spectra of QSOs is reviewed. The recent detection of OVI in clouds that produce both Lyman-alpha and Lyman-beta absorption lines is discussed. The identification of molecular hydrogen in the spectrum of 1442+101 (OQ172) is not confirmed by high resolution spectra.

The absorption line spectra of some QSOs are similar to the absorption line spectra imposed by the interstellar medium in our own galaxy on the spectra of hot stars (see Figure 1). the spectra of other QSOs show P Cygni profiles similar to those of hot stars with mass outflow (see Figure 2). the absorption lines in both of these types of spectra are due to the resonant transitions of hydrogen and of the more abundant elements.

The distribution of galaxies on the sky is not random, but has structure on a scale of ~ 30 Mpc. Similar structure in the cosmic background radiation is not present. Another expected source of structure in the background radiation is the finite size of the light horizon in the early Universe. The lack of observable structure in the background radiation implies extreme initial isotropy. Quantum effects may be responsible for this isotropy, and for the initial perturbations from which galaxies and clusters of galaxies formed.