Counts of Growth Layer Groups (GLGs) in the dentin of marine mammal teeth are widely used as indicators of age. In most marine mammals, observations document that GLGs are deposited yearly, but in beluga whales, some studies have supported the view that two GLGs are deposited each year. Our understanding of beluga life-history differs substantially depending on assumptions regarding the timing ...

A software model estimating zones of impact on marine mammals around man-made noise [C. Erbe and D. M. Farmer, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 1327-1331 (2000)] is applied to the case of icebreakers affecting beluga whales in the Beaufort Sea. Two types of noise emitted by the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Henry Larsen are analyzed: bubbler system noise and propeller cavitation noise. Effects on bel...

Although polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants are important organic contaminants in the tissues of marine mammals, including those species from the Arctic, there is exceedingly little direct evidence on congener-specific biotransformation. We determined and compared the in vitro metabolism of environmentally relevant PCB (4,4'-di-CB15, 2,3',...

Beluga whale alphaherpesvirus 1 was isolated from a blowhole swab taken from a juvenile beluga whale. The genome is 144,144 bp in size and contains 86 putative genes. The virus groups phylogenetically with members of the genus Varicellovirus in subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and is the first alphaherpesvirus sequenced from a marine mammal.

Beluga is an environment for programming and reasoning about formal systems given by axioms and inference rules. It implements the logical framework LF for specifying and prototyping formal systems via higher-order abstract syntax. It also supports reasoning: the user implements inductive proofs about formal systems as dependently typed recursive functions. A distinctive feature of Beluga is th...

Beluga is an environment for programming and reasoning about formal systems given by axioms and inference rules. It implements the logical framework LF for specifying and prototyping formal systems via higher-order abstract syntax. It also supports reasoning: the user implements inductive proofs about formal systems as dependently typed recursive functions. A distinctive feature of Beluga is th...

Cytochromes P450 (CYP, phase I) and conjugating (phase II) enzymes can be induced by and influence the toxicokinetics (metabolism) and toxicity of xenobiotic contaminants in exposed organisms. Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) from the endangered St. Lawrence (SL) River Estuary population exhibit deleterious health effects and various severe pathologies that have been associated with contami...

We present an overview of Beluga, a dependently-typed programming and proof development environment. Beluga uses a two-level approach: it supports specifying formal systems within the logical framework LF and on top of LF, it provides a dependently-typed functional language that supports manipulating and analyzing LF objects via pattern matching. A distinct feature of Beluga is the explicit sup...

Population Identity: Based on studies of mitochondrial DNA, Cook Inlet belugas are genetically distinct from the other four beluga populations that occur in western and northern Alaska (O’Corry-Crowe et al. 1997; O’Corry-Crowe, pers. comm.). There have been only two beluga sightings recorded in the region between Cook Inlet and the nearest beluga population in Bristol Bay (Frost and Lowry 1990;...