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The exchange of individuals among habitat patches (connectivity) has broad relevance for the conservation and management of marine metapopulations. Elemental fingerprinting-based research conducted over the past 12 years along the open coastline and bays of San Diego County in southern California evaluated connectivity patterns for seven species: one native and two invasive mussels, an oyster, a brachyuran crab, and two fishes. The studies spanned different years and seasons but overlapped considerably in space, allowing comparisons of dispersal patterns across species, and assessment of the relative importance of location, circulation, and intra-annual and inter-annual variability. We asked whether the species exhibited commonalities in directional transport, transport distances, sources and sinks, self-recruitment, and bay-ocean exchange. Linked connectivity-demographic analyses conducted for two species of mytilid mussels and two fishes allowed evaluation of the contributions of realized connectivity to metapopulation dynamics relative to other life-history attributes. Common trends across species include average along-shore dispersal distances of 15–35 km and seasonal changes in direction of dispersal that mirrored patterns of along-shore circulation. We observed greater isolation of back-bay populations, significant exchange from front bay to ocean, and high self-recruitment in locations on the northern, open coast, and in the southern bays. Connectivity was rarely the most influential driver of growth and persistence of metapopulations, but influenced the importance of other vital rates. Several locations served consistently as sources of larvae or as nurseries for multiple species, but there were few sites in common that were sinks. For the mussels, reproductive timing guided directional transport. These results imply that local management (e.g., habitat protection, opening of the mouths of lagoons, location of aquaculture farms) may be effective along this coastline. Regional, multi-species assessments of exchange of larvae should move us closer to ecosystem-based management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fingerprints from 109 unidentified human remains (UHR) cases at the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office were submitted to two fingerprint agencies to determine whether a significant number of additional identifications would occur from this effort. Fifty-one persons (47%) were identified as a direct result of this study, including several cold cases dating back as far as 1979. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibrio cholerae strains are capable of inhabiting multiple niches in the aquatic environment and in some cases cause disease in humans. However, the ecology and biodiversity of these bacteria in environmental settings remains poorly understood. We used the genomic fingerprinting technique enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence PCR (ERIC-PCR) to profile 835 environmental isolates from waters and sediments obtained at nine sites along the central California coast. We identified 115 ERIC-PCR genotypes from 998 fingerprints, with a reproducibility of 98.5% and a discriminatory power of 0.971. When the temporal dynamics at a subset of sampling sites were explored, several genotypes provided evidence for cosmopolitan or geographically restricted distributions, and other genotypes displayed nonrandom patterns of cooccurrence. Partial Mantel tests confirmed that genotypic similarity of isolates across all sampling events was correlated with environmental similarity (0.04 ≤ r ≤ 0.05), temporal proximity (r = 0.09), and geographic distance (r = 0.09). A neutral community model for all sampling events explained 61% of the variation in genotype abundance. Cooccurrence indices (C-score, C-board, and Combo) were significantly different than expected by chance, suggesting that the V. cholerae population may have a competitive structure, especially at the regional scale. Even though stochastic processes are undoubtedly important in generating biogeographic patterns in diversity, deterministic factors appear to play a significant, albeit small, role in shaping the V. cholerae population structure in this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of "tar-like material" and "slag" within a ravine traversing a mobile home park and former oil field promulgated its remediation and a subsequent lawsuit brought by the park's owner against the former Dominquez Oil Field (Compton, CA) operator claiming these materials were derived from historic oil production operations. In this study, archived samples of these materials from the (remediated) ravine were characterized for their physical (density, microscopic character, magnetic properties, and float-sink behavior) and chemical properties, the latter including chemical fingerprinting of the total extractable hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and petroleum biomarkers, to determine their nature and source(s). Physical testing confirmed the "slag" was iron and/or steel (ferrous) slag that had experienced variable cooling histories. A chemical fingerprinting comparison of the "tar-like material" and Dominquez Field (Monterey Formation) crude oil revealed that the crude oil - or its weathered equivalent - was not the source of the tar-like material. The tar-like material exhibited evidence of heating consistent with a distillation residuum - the heavy fraction(s) of a distilled crude oil produced during refining. The most likely source of the tar-like material is a refined petroleum asphalt. The co-occurrence of ferrous slag - a common road asphaltic concrete aggregate and road base - and petroleum asphalt in the site's ravine was reconciled as being most likely derived from recurrent road-paving operations that occurred at the mobile home park in the 1980s - and not from historic oil field operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the operations of the laboratory section of the California State Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. The Director of the Department is the Attorney General of California. Approximately 280 persons are employed in the Fingerprint, Record, Special Services, Investigation, and Laboratory sections of this Bureau. First established in 1905 by the State Legislature as a central depository for fingerprints, the Bureau was discontinued in 1909, due to the fact that no money was appropriated for its operation. In 1917 the State Legislature re-established the Bureau. The laboratory conducts examinations and comparisons of all types of physical evidence involved in criminal cases in the State of California, with the exception of questioned documents and latent fingerprints. A Polygraph Specialist is also attached to the Special Services Section of the Bureau, and a soundproof room is provided for the interrogation of persons suspected of having committed criminal offenses. The space devoted to the Laboratory Section consists of five rooms, having a total floor space of approximately 1200 square feet. These rooms include an office and library, evidence storage room, shop for glass blowing and tool work.

The article details a case that occurred in Hawthorne, California in 1957 and was solved 46 years later. Gerald Fatten Mason was sentenced to two life terms in prison in 2003 for a crime committed in 1957 when he killed two police officers, robbed four teenagers and raped a 15-year-old girl. He was charged after the partial fingerprints taken from the vehicle he took in 1957 were run through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, a fingerprint database technology that only became available in 2002. His handwriting was also examined using modern technology not available during the 1950s.

The article reports that the criminal records of all registered nurses in California are now being investigated by state regulators following a "Los Angeles Time" report that some nurses had kept their licenses for years despite multiple convictions. According to the report, the California Board of Registered Nursing is urging all nurses to renew their licenses whether they have been convicted of any crimes in recent years. Also, it says that the Board must obtain fingerprints from the nurses who are licensed before 1990.

This article provides information on a technology developed by Redwood City, California-based DigitalPersona to accurately scan fingerprints for product security, as of June 2005. Vance Bjorn, chief technology officer at DigitalPersona, said it is one of those technologies that straddles security and convenience. He added that typically, there are 50 to 70 minutia points on a fingerprint. The challenge of fingerprint recognition is cutting through the static. There is a lot of variation in the real world, scars and cuts, different finger placements, and others. But the underlying signal of the fingerprint is so strong, because there is so much information unique to it, that even if some of the features are occluded, we can still reconstruct and define the features.