Ocean Swimming Research Articles

The contribution of stakeholder engagement to cultural significance assessment: the case of values-based conservation management planning for the Ocean Swimming Pool, Portugal

IntroductionValues-based approaches are among the best practices for management and conservation planning. However, cultural significance assessments (of the attributes and values of cultural heritage) have generally been performed by experts (top-down) instead of including expert and nonexpert communities (top-down and bottom-up).ObjectivesThis paper presents a multitechnique approach in which different strategies are applied to assess the perceptions of cultural significance held by several actors (users, managers, staff, experts, children, students, virtual community) within the framework of the Keeping It Modern Grant awarded by the Getty Foundation (2020–2023) for the Ocean Swimming Pool (1960–1966) designed by Álvaro Siza in Matosinhos, Portugal.MethodInterviews, surveys, social media analysis, and workshops with children, students, and experts were adopted for the method, and, whenever possible, the ‘Imagine Ballarat’ Love, Change and Imagine questions were utilised as a resourceful instrument for assessing the significance attributed by multiple stakeholders.ResultsBased on the results, stakeholders’ opinions and values regarding the heritage site could be compared, which revealed the relationship between the values and the groups of actors, thereby deepening the complexity of heritage sites as National Monuments.ConclusionBy using this integrated perspective, we could define the cultural significance of a modern heritage site through an inclusive methodology while also establishing the grounds for conservation policies within a more broadly participative management of change.

Risk Assessment and Vulnerability Analysis of a Coastal Concrete Heritage Structure

This research focuses on the risk management of reinforced concrete heritage constructions in coastal environments, with an emphasis on preserving their cultural significance. It addresses a critical gap in existing risk-related research, since this type of heritage site is often overlooked in heritage conservation research. The proposed methodology offers a flexible framework that links natural and human-induced hazards with their impacts on key heritage values, enabling the development of appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies and policies. Climate change-induced threats are also incorporated, allowing for more effective adaptation plans to safeguard concrete coastal heritage for future generations. The Ocean Swimming Pool in Matosinhos, Portugal, designed by the Pritzker Prize winner Álvaro Siza, serves as a pilot study to illustrate the practicality of the risk-based approach, considering its coastal location and exposure to various hazards. By using this case study, the research provides a roadmap for preserving and adapting heritage constructions in similar coastal settings. The integration of cultural values into risk management and conservation policies is a significant contribution of this research. It advocates for a proactive approach that considers the dynamic challenges posed by climate change while preserving the significance of cultural heritage. The adaptable nature of the proposed methodology allows for broader applications, potentially benefiting multiple heritage sites in coastal regions. Ultimately, this research calls for positive changes in risk management practices to ensure the preservation and longevity of culturally significant reinforced concrete heritage sites.

Assessment Methodology for Conservation Planning of Concrete Buildings: Ocean Swimming Pool (1960–2021) by Álvaro Siza in Portugal

ABSTRACT The paper intends to provide a building assessment methodology for the conservation planning of concrete buildings, presenting the demonstrative case-study of the Ocean Swimming Pool (design 1960–1966; conservation 2018–2021) conceived by the Pritzker Prize Álvaro Siza, in Portugal. The building is a landmark of 20th century architecture in the national and international context, being listed as National Monument and included in the World Heritage Tentative List. The article will focus particularly on the building assessment methodology, supported by the cross-analysis of the ‘documentary evidence’ and ‘physical evidence’, allowing for an integrated approach for conservation planning. The paper includes documentation on the building chronology and construction, as well as on the inspection and diagnosis using both non-destructive and minor destructive testing. Moreover, the article presents a pilot demonstration of concrete repair supported on the building knowledge and diagnosis. This real case study shows the advantages of integrating conservation criteria and methods used for traditional buildings to modern heritage in concrete (going beyond the common visible patch repair), in which there are still few case-studies illustrating good practices. This holistic approach has also contributed to the development of detailed policies for risk assessment, concrete conservation and maintenance in the framework of the Conservation Plan.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Monitoring of ocean surface circulation and swimming athletes’ physical training data based on IoT perception

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Monitoring of ocean surface circulation and swimming athletes’ physical training data based on IoT perception

Acquisition of antibiotic resistance genes on human skin after swimming in the ocean

The skin is a complex organ responsible for protecting the body from physical, chemical and biological insults. The skin microbiome is known to play an important role in protecting the host from skin infections. This study examined the skin microbiome and the changes in antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), antibiotic biosynthesis genes (ABSGs) and virulence factor genes (VFGs) on human skin before and after swimming in the ocean. Skin microbiome samples were collected from human participants before and after they swam in the ocean, and at 6 h and 24 h post-swim. The samples were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene and shotgun metagenomic sequencing. The results showed that not only is the skin microbiome composition altered after swimming, but the abundance and diversity of ARGs, ABSGs and VFGs on the skin increased post-swim. Overall, there was an increase in total ARGs by 70.6% from before to after swimming. The elevated number of ARGs persisted and continued to increase for at least 6 h post-swim with greater than a 300% increase in comparison with samples collected before ocean swimming. The outcomes of the study support the epidemiological observations of increased risk of skin infections after swimming in the ocean. Cleaning the skin immediately after recreational ocean activities is recommended to reduce the opportunity for infection.

Understanding Blue Spaces: Sport, Bodies, Wellbeing, and the Sea

This article introduces the special issue (JSSI 45.1 and 45.2) on ‘Understanding Blue Spaces’ which examines relationships between blue spaces, sport, physical activity, and wellbeing. The articles progress conversations across humanities, social sciences and inter-disciplinary areas of research on diverse sporting practices, that span local to trans-national contexts. This collection offers new insights into politics, possibilities, and problems of the role of blue spaces in our wellbeing—individually, socially, and ecologically. In addition to outlining the 10 articles in the SI, which include ocean swimming, surfing, sailing/yachting, and waka ama paddling, we contextualize this work, discussing key thematic areas both across these papers, and in the wider interdisciplinary body of work on blue spaces, wellbeing, and sport. Specifically, we outline the role of physical activities and leisure practices in how we access, understand, experience, and develop relationships to seas and oceans, as well as to self, places and communities of human and non-human others. We also discuss the ways in which particular bodies, individuals, and communities (human and more-than-human) are marginalized or excluded, and the need for understanding concepts such as wellbeing, place, and self beyond dominant European traditions. This SI highlights how localised experiences of blue spaces can be, while emphasising the need to recognize diverse cultural, economic, geographic, sociodemographic, and political factors that contribute to a disconnect with, or exclusion from blue spaces, impacting who can use blue spaces, how they can be used, how they can be researched, and how power is reproduced and contested.

'A lot better than medicine' - Self-organised ocean swimming groups as facilitators for healthy ageing.

Exercise, spending time in nature and feeling part of a supportive community all contribute to better physical and mental health and to healthy ageing. This focused ethnography investigates how participation in self-organised ocean swimming groups contributes to healthy ageing amongst older men and women in the Australian coastal city of Perth. It explores the ways marine life, personal experiences and social connectedness mediate their group use of public blue space, and highlights that group membership promotes participants' enhanced health and wellbeing, and supports development of self-efficacy and resilience. These findings suggest that more inclusive access to ocean swimming and other forms of active or adventure-based leisure activities should be advocated from a public health perspective.

Nutritional Evaluation of Indian Ocean Swimming Crab, Charybdis smithii (Portunidae), an Unconventional Crab Resource from the Indian Coast

ABSTRACTInvestigations were carried out to determine the nutritional profile of Indian Ocean swimming crab Charybdis smithii, which is emerging as an unconventional resource in trawl discards of India. The average protein content was 9.38 g/100 g, fat 0.86 g/100 g, ash 0.34 g/100 g, fiber 0.13 g/100 g, and carbohydrate 1.8 g/100 g. One-way analysis of variance showed no significant variations of constituents except in dry matter and carbohydrate between sexes. Macronutrients, Na (317.1, 327.6/100 g), K (148, 177.40 mg/100 g), Ca (187.90, 285.80 mg/100 g), and Mg (34.31, 41.49 mg/100 g), showed significant variation between sexes. The composition of micronutrients in male and female were Cu (0.28, 0.15 mg/100 g), Fe (0.57, 0.71 mg/100 g), and Zn (1.71, 2.75 mg/100 g). Mineral content showed significant difference between sexes. Amino acid analysis showed that 12.04 and 11.47 g/100 g essential amino acid glycine was present in male and female, respectively, and lysine concentration was 13.96 and 12.65 g/100 g, respectively. The nutritional profile of the species was determined the first time and shows that it is comparable with any other edible crabs and could be exploited as a commercial resource to supplement nutritional demand.

Dynamic Reusable Workflows for Ocean Science

Digital catalogs of ocean data have been available for decades, but advances in standardized services and software for catalog searches and data access now make it possible to create catalog-driven workflows that automate—end-to-end—data search, analysis, and visualization of data from multiple distributed sources. Further, these workflows may be shared, reused, and adapted with ease. Here we describe a workflow developed within the US Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) which automates the skill assessment of water temperature forecasts from multiple ocean forecast models, allowing improved forecast products to be delivered for an open water swim event. A series of Jupyter Notebooks are used to capture and document the end-to-end workflow using a collection of Python tools that facilitate working with standardized catalog and data services. The workflow first searches a catalog of metadata using the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalog Service for the Web (CSW), then accesses data service endpoints found in the metadata records using the OGC Sensor Observation Service (SOS) for in situ sensor data and OPeNDAP services for remotely-sensed and model data. Skill metrics are computed and time series comparisons of forecast model and observed data are displayed interactively, leveraging the capabilities of modern web browsers. The resulting workflow not only solves a challenging specific problem, but highlights the benefits of dynamic, reusable workflows in general. These workflows adapt as new data enter the data system, facilitate reproducible science, provide templates from which new scientific workflows can be developed, and encourage data providers to use standardized services. As applied to the ocean swim event, the workflow exposed problems with two of the ocean forecast products which led to improved regional forecasts once errors were corrected. While the example is specific, the approach is general, and we hope to see increased use of dynamic notebooks across geoscience domains.

26-Year-Old Man With Shortness of Breath After Open Ocean Swim

26-Year-Old Man With Shortness of Breath After Open Ocean Swim

Why few older adults participate in complex motor skills: a qualitative study of older adults' perceptions of difficulty and challenge.

BackgroundMaintaining neuromotor fitness across the life course is imperative. It can reduce falls in older individuals and improve/maintain physical and cognitive functioning. Complex motor skills (CMS) are involved in many physical activities (e.g., ball games, dance), which can improve neuromotor fitness. However, few older adults participate in CMS. This study aimed to understand how older adults perceive the degree of difficulty and challenge, using Gentile’s taxonomy of motor skills as a framework.MethodsSix focus groups (FGs) were conducted with older adults (aged 61–92 years; N = 36) using a semi-structured question guide, to explore older adults’ perceptions of difficulty and challenges associated with physical activity types. FGs were conducted in three villages and community groups in Sydney, Australia. Verbatim transcripts were coded inductively following a grounded theory approach to analysis to discover categories and concepts based on participants’ views.ResultsOlder adults perceived physical effort and pace as influencing difficulty where as challenging activities were not found to hinder older adults’ willingness to participate. Other challenges in performing activities were attributed to: skill level, environment conditions (e.g., pool versus ocean swimming) and variations influencing complexity. Social and interpersonal issues, such as embarrassment, rapport with instructors, prior experience/ familiarity, in addition to physical effort, were other central features of older adults’ perceptions of physical activities. Themes that appeared to increase the likelihood of participation in CMS were: age appropriate modification; enjoyment; social aspects; past experience; and having experienced instructors.ConclusionsThis study offers recommendations for increasing participation in CMS. Modifying activities to suit ability and age and increasing exposure during the life span may help maintain participation into old age. Gentile’s taxonomy provides an appropriate framework for classifying activities as simple or complex, which were recognised by participants on a descriptive level. Existing and new sports, which have been modified for old age, should be made available to older adults. Within the motor learning literature, the focus on older adults is limited. If activity complexity translates to improved cognitive abilities as well as improved individual neuromotor performance, the challenge of modifying activities to suit older adults’ preferences needs to be addressed.

Hydration and fueling strategies in recreational endurance swimmers

Introduction: Endurance ocean swimming is increasingly popular in Australia, however little data exists regarding hydration and feeding strategies.

Moving beyond lethal programs for shark hazard mitigation

Human anxiety about predators is deeply embedded in our evolutionary history and psychology. Sharks, as archetype predators, attract a disproportionate amount of fear because of our poor ability to assess the real threat associated with ‘fearsome’ risks such as shark bites (Sunstein & Zeckhauser, 2011). This disconnection between reality and human imagination is illustrated by the extreme media attention that surrounds incidents of shark bite (Muter et al., 2012) and the actual numbers of attacks that occur. Fatalities from shark bites remain much lower than in other recreational activities. For instance, in Western Australia, annual fatality rates from shark bite, at their highest, were 1.3 year−1 (2008–2013; Australian Shark Attack File, 2013; http://taronga.org.au/animalsconservation/conservation-science/australian-shark-attackfile/annual-australian-shark-attack-report-summary-2013), compared with cycling [average of 5 year−1 (2009– 2013); www.bitre.gov.au/statistics/safety/fatal_road_crash _database.aspx] and ocean swimming [average of 12.5 year−1 (2008–2013); http://surflifesavingwa.com.au/documents/ coastal-safety-web.pdf]. Analysis also suggests per capita incidents are declining in some locations such that any absolute increase in numbers of fatalities simply reflects growing human populations using coastal environments (Wetherbee, Lowe & Crow, 1994; West, 2011). Despite the relatively low risk of fatalities, governments have invested significant economic and human resources in mitigating risk associated with shark bites. Historically, such strategies have largely relied on catch-and-kill programs with the goal of driving localized depletions of animals that are considered a threat to humans. Currently, lethal programs, largely based on nets, which started in the 1930s (New South Wales, Australia) and 1960s (Queensland, Australia and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), each catch between 600 and 1500 sharks annually. While the frequency of shark bite incidents has also declined over this period, due either to the nets themselves or broader issues relating to general declines in shark populations or environmental change, there is growing recognition of the high ecological costs of lethal programs, particularly in terms of bycatch of other harmless sharks and nontarget species including cetaceans, turtles and rays. Irrespective of destructive bycatch, some of the most compelling reasons for moving beyond catch-and-kill programs for shark mitigation lie in our understanding of sharks themselves, their place in marine environments, their increasing economic value as a tourism resource and the fact that, as Hazin & Afonso (2014) show here, alternatives are now available. Sharks are highly susceptible to overexploitation with 15% of the world’s species threatened (Dulvy et al., 2014). Species targeted by lethal shark hazard mitigation programs are among some of the most vulnerable. We also know the oceans need sharks: as apex predators, they play critical roles in maintaining ecosystem structure and promoting resilience (Ferretti et al., 2010). Healthy shark populations increasingly generate significant tourism dollars and associated economic benefits for local communities, including species usually considered ‘dangerous’ (Gallagher & Hammerschlag, 2012). Finally, improvements in our understanding of shark biology derived from, for instance, telemetry and neuroscience can underpin nonlethal mitigation strategies such as warning systems predicated on movements and deterrents (Hammerschlag, Gallagher & Lazarre, 2011; Huveneers et al., 2013). Hazin & Afonso (2014) demonstrate the practical value of nonlethal strategies as an alternative to the traditional policy of catch and kill. Following an upsurge in incidents with sharks and bathers in north-eastern Brazil, the Metropolitan Region of Recife deployed longlines and drumlines to capture and relocate sharks thought to be a threat. This and a companion paper (Hazin et al., 2013) show that over a 4-year period, once potentially dangerous sharks had been captured and relocated, they tended to move away from protected beaches when released. Furthermore, mortality rates of bycatch not considered to be a threat to humans were generally much lower than in nets, as indeed was also the case for the target species. Importantly, when the program was in place, human interactions with sharks were very low, and increased at times when the program was suspended. Overall, bs_bs_banner

Mathematical modeling of the heat transfer process and protein denaturation during the thermal treatment of Patagonian marine crabs

Southern Ocean swimming crab Ovalipes trimaculatus and the Patagonian stone crab Platyxanthus patagonicus are fishing resources with commercial value. Thermal treatment of crabs is necessary to denature muscle proteins, facilitating meat detachment from the crab shell (picking procedure). The proximal composition, protein patterns of crab muscle, thermophysical properties and heat transfer coefficients were determined. Heat transfer during thermal processing of body (i.e., cephalothorax) and claws of both crab species was simulated using a finite element computational code; the simulations were experimentally validated. Color changes in crab muscle during the heating process were measured. Thermal denaturation kinetics of myofibrillar proteins was determined using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) in small samples previously heated in water under controlled conditions. DSC thermograms of raw crab muscle showed two peaks at 49.0±0.4 and 77.5±0.6°C corresponding to myosin and actin respectively. Activation energies for the denaturation of myosin (145.70kJ/mol) and actin (156.42kJ/mol) were calculated from Arrhenius equation. The degree of denaturation achieved by the myofibrillar proteins at the coldest point of the muscle in body and claws during the heating process was established by considering the protein denaturation kinetics determined by DSC, the activation energies and the heat penetration curves. Adequate conditions for the detachment of meat from the crab exoskeleton were established. The obtained results may help in determining the optimal heating times during the industrialization of these crustaceans.

Development of the mass participation Ocean Swim Series in New Zealand Interview with Scott Rice, Director, Quantum Events Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand

Scott Rice, a former New Zealand representative swimmer, saw an opening in the marketplace to introduce open water swimming. With the popularity of multi-sport, triathlon, paddling, cycling and running in the country, Scott knew that ocean swimming would capture the sport participant's imagination. He started in 2003 with the King of the Bays 2.8km ocean swim on Auckland's North Shore. The following year the Auckland Harbour Crossing was introduced, with participants swimming from the North Shore across the harbour and finishing at the viaduct in Auckland's central business district. By 2006 the State New Zealand Ocean Swim Series was in operation, with five events around the country, and in 2009 a sixth event was added to the series. The State NZ encourages people of all ages and abilities to take part: events now include a beginner's distance of 750m, a tag team relay and a 200m State Oceankids for children aged 10 and under. As many as 1,500 swimmers participate at each stop in the series. Through Quantum Events Ltd, in 2005 Scott created the Beach Series, which takes place over 16 weeks in the summer for ski paddlers, stand-up paddlers, waka-ama [outrigger canoe] paddlers, runners and swimmers. Close to 500 people attend the weekly Tuesday night gathering at Takapuna Beach on Auckland's North Shore. Quantum Events is the event management company which produces both the State New Zealand Ocean Swim Series and the Beach Series. Scott and his wife Natasha, who has also had a major part in working within Quantum Events, are now joined by four full-time staff and contractors working on various aspects of the business. GD: What is the role of the pro/elite athletes in this race from a marketing point of view? SR: They can provide the aspiration aspect for younger swimmers. Athletes can benchmark their abilities against these athletes, and this is a sport where you can line up next to the best in the world and compete. From a media point of view, their presence creates some hype around the event and assists in creating 'sporting celebs' in ocean swimming. This allows the events to cultivate an international field as well as to highlight the homegrown heroes. GD: How different would the race be if it only had the age-groupers? SR: From a media point of view, this is hard. We like to provide a human interest story in each of our events that focuses on an 'age-group athlete/celebrity', but like any sport on TV, people like to see the performance of the top athletes and see how the event unfolds. We do recognise the elite swimmers might grab the headlines, but what motivates us as organisers is the everyday kiwis that choose the State NZ Ocean Swim Series as their motivation, their goal, as they look to make a change in their lives. GD: What impact would it have on the viability of the event with only age-groupers? SR: There is a viability of the event without elite competitors. We are talking about 10 to 15 athletes who could be considered elite in a field of up to 1,500. The elite field provides the opportunity for coverage in newspapers and television that you would have to work a lot harder to achieve in a social event. GD: What tensions may exist between catering to the elite field and the large age-group field? SR: In the Ocean Swim Series there aren't any tensions that I can think of--there is usually a major difference in [physical] abilities, so at the start of the race they tend to clear away very quickly. The only issue in the Ocean Swims may come in a two-lap course, where faster swimmers are lapping slower swimmers, which at the end of the race can be the difference between first and second. GD: What is the role of the celebrity entrant? SR: For our event the celebrity plays a role where an event such as this becomes real and achievable to anyone--if a [local television drama] Shortland Street star can do it or a member of parliament, then a 'so can I' mentality exists. …

Surfer and Beachgoer Responsiveness to Coastal Water Quality Warnings

Fecal contamination of coastal waters has led local public health agencies to issue tens of thousands of beach advisories annually and to advise against ocean swimming and surfing for 72 hours following a rain. The responsiveness of recreationists to beach advisories and the “72 hour rule” is estimated by merging four years of multi-daily surfer and beachgoer counts at one beach in Southern California with hourly data on beach advisories, recent precipitation, meteorological conditions, and the UCSB academic calendar. Both surfing and beach-going decreased significantly following rainfall in response to the 72 hour rule, showing that recreationists are willing to engage in health risk-reducing avoiding behavior. However, neither surfing nor beach-going decreased significantly during beach advisories. Surfers were significantly more responsive to beach advisories during dry periods than during wet periods, consistent with the hypothesis that recreationists are most likely to respond to a risk warning that they believe provides accurate and additional health risk information beyond what they can observe personally. Additional studies of beach advisories elsewhere could clarify whether responsiveness to beach advisories varies by recreationist demographic, recreational activity, frequency of advisories, or frequency of repeat visitation. Increasing the accuracy and additional information provided by beach advisories, as proposed by numerous authors, could lead to increased responsiveness.

Body Composition Perceptions in Triathletes

~A Potelarius Research Network Study~ Body image distortion has been shown to be a factor in the development of disordered eating. No information is available on triathletes' perceptions of body composition compared to actual measurements. PURPOSE: Compare perceived vs measured body composition in triathletes. Assess triathletes' perceptions of optimal body composition for triathlon performance. Compare body composition perceptions of male vs female triathletes. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional METHODS: Subjects: Triathletes registered to compete in the 2006 Ford California Ironman Triathlon (1.2 mile ocean swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run). Instruments: 1. Pre-race Survey Triathletes filled out a questionnaire regarding demographics, triathlon history, training distances, perceived, optimal and previous body composition measurements. 2. Measurements Height & weight were measured using a calibrated scale. Body fat percentage was measured using a NIR spectrophotometric hand-held device (Futrex® 6100XL). RESULTS: During registration, 2120 triathletes checked-in and 457 participated in the study (21.6%). Seventy four percent of the subjects were male & 26 % female. The mean age of males was 36.6 +/− 19.0 years and females 35.8 +/− 8.9 years. The mean body fat for males was 17.2 +/−4.6% and for females 27.1 +/− 4.4%. Fifty six percent of males & 61% of females had completed at least one half Ironman triathlon. Eighty five percent of female triathletes and 81.1% of male triathletes estimated their body composition to be lower than the actual measurement (mean estimated body fat: males 13.1 +/− 5.7; females 20.6 +/− 6.1%). Female triathletes were as likely as male triathletes to underestimate their body fat percentage (p=0.41), although female triathletes underestimated their body fat percentage by a significantly greater amount (p<0.0001) than their male counterparts. Female triathletes reported a mean optimal body fat for performance in a half-Ironman triathlon to be 16.2 +/− 3.4% and males reported 9.7 +/− 3.5% CONCLUSIONS: Male and female triathletes underestimate their body fat percentage and may have unrealistic ideas about body composition for their sport.

Norman Myles Kroll

Norman Myles Kroll, an emeritus professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, and one of the pioneers of the field of quantum electrodynamics (QED), died in La Jolla, California, on 8 August 2004 after a brief illness.Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on 6 April 1922, Kroll attended Rice University in Houston, Texas, from 1938 to 1940, then received his BA in physics and mathematics and his MA (1943) in physics from Columbia University. During World War II, he joined fellow scientists in radar research for military applications. He followed with graduate studies at Columbia, where he worked with his mentor, Nobel laureate Willis Lamb, on the theoretical explanation of the Lamb shift. Kroll received his PhD in physics in 1948. He collaborated with Lamb on their famous paper “On the Self-Energy of a Bound Electron,” which was published in 1949 in the Physical Review and reprinted by Dover Publications in 1959 as part of Selected Papers on Quantum Electrodynamics . Based on Kroll’s thesis work, the paper provided the first theoretical explanation of the Lamb shift in QED and became one of the most important landmarks of the field.Kroll continued at Columbia as an assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor of physics, and quickly became a world leader in the field of QED. While at Columbia, Kroll pioneered important new calculations in QED using sophisticated theoretical tools in the evaluation of Feynman diagrams in higher orders of perturbation theory, tools used by generations of theorists in the last five decades. He was a Fulbright Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow in 1955—1956.In 1962, UCSD recruited Kroll to become one of its physics department’s founding members and thereby bring to UCSD the prestige and recognition of a world leader in research. During his four decades at UCSD, Kroll continued his research in QED, developed with Marshall Rosenbluth a theory of the free electron laser, and participated in the design of particle accelerators. In addition, he made numerous contributions to the development of UCSD as one of the nation’s leading research universities and twice served as chair of UCSD’s physics department, from 1963 to 1965 and from 1983 to 1988. After retiring from teaching in 1991, Kroll continued as professor emeritus and research physicist until his death.During his retirement years, Kroll kept a very active working relationship with SLAC, to which he commuted weekly until the fall of 2000. At SLAC, he was instrumental in developing the mathematical foundation for the design of a next-generation linear collider, a project that is among the highest priorities for particle physicists. Kroll’s career included visiting appointments to many other prestigious institutions, including the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey; Cornell University; the European Organization for Particle Physics in Geneva; the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen; and the University of Rome.A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Kroll was very highly regarded by his colleagues. He was a brilliant theoretical physicist with deep physical insight and broad scientific interests. In addition to making significant scientific contributions, Kroll served on a committee that advises UCSD’s chamber music series; he is remembered by friends and family for his lifelong interest in opera and chamber music. He also had a passion for gourmet food and fine wine and enjoyed ocean swimming, boogie boarding, hiking, and observing and identifying wild-flowers. We at UCSD will miss his keen intellect and wise counsel. Norman Myles Kroll PPT|High resolution© 2005 American Institute of Physics.

A Report on University Physical Education Training of Outdoor and Ocean Swimming

A Report on University Physical Education Training of Outdoor and Ocean Swimming

Studying the Risks of Ocean Swimming

To evaluate the hypothesis of a common etiology for cryptorchidism and hypospadias, we conducted two case-control studies nested in a nationwide cohort in Sweden, using record linkage between the Inpatient and Birth Registries. Cases were 2,782 and 1,220 boys operated for cryptorchidism or hypospadias, respectively. Five matched controls per case were randomly selected. Pregnancy and perinatal data were prospectively recorded in the Birth Registry. Data were modeled through conditional logistic regression. Both cryptorchidism (odds ratio (OR) = 2.22) and hypospadias (OR = 2.75) were positively associated with other congenital malformations and inversely with maternal parity (OR = 0.77 and 0.52, respectively, for parity 4+ compared with primiparae). There is evidence that being born small-for-gestational-age and before the 33rd gestational week have a greater-than-additive effect with respect to both cryptorchidism (OR = 6.19 vs 1.72 expected) and hypospadias (OR = 4.39 vs 2.60 expected) compared with non-small-for-gestational-age boys born at term. Hypospadias was positively associated with severe preeclampsia (OR = 2.11). We conclude that the etiologies of the two conditions are partly shared.