Application of shuttle imaging radar to geologic mapping

Images from the Shuttle Imaging Radar - B (SIR-B) experiment covering the area of the Panamint Mountains, Death Valley, California, were examined in the field and in the laboratory to determine their usefulness as aids for geologic mapping. The covered area includes the region around Wildrose Canyon where rocks ranging in age from Precambrian to Cenozoic form a moderately rugged portion of the Panamint Mountains, including sharp ridges, broad alluviated upland valleys, and fault-bounded grabens. The results of the study indicate that the available SIR-B images of this area primarily illustrate variations in topography, except in the broadly alluviated areas of Panamint Valley and Death Valley where deposits of differing reflectivity can be recognized. Within the mountainous portion of the region, three textures can be discerned, each representing a different mode of topographic expression related to the erosion characteristics of the underlying bedrock. Regions of Precambrian bedrock have smooth slopes and sharp ridges with a low density of gullies. Tertiary monolithologic breccias have smooth, steep slopes with an intermediate density of gullies with rounded ridges. Tertiary fanglomerates have steep rugged slopes with numerous steep-sided gullies and knife-sharp ridges. The three topographic types reflect the consistancy and relative susceptibility to erosion of the bedrock; the three types can readily be recognized on topographic maps. At present, it has not been possible to distinguish on the SIR-B image of the mountainous terrain the type of bedrock, independent of the topographic expression

A Cl- cotransporter selective for NH4+ over K+ in glial cells of bee retina

There appears to be a flux of ammonium (NH4+/NH3) from neurons to glial cells in most nervous tissues. In bee retinal glial cells, NH4+/NH3 uptake is at least partly by chloride-dependant transport of the ionic form NH4+. Transmembrane transport of NH4+ has been described previously on transporters on which NH4+ replaces K+, or, more rarely, Na+ or H+, but no transport system in animal cells has been shown to be selective for NH4+ over these other ions. To see if the NH4+-Cl− cotransporter on bee retinal glial cells is selective for NH4+ over K+ we measured ammonium-induced changes in intracellular pH (pHi) in isolated bundles of glial cells using a fluorescent indicator. These changes in pHi result from transmembrane fluxes not only of NH4+, but also of NH3. To estimate transmembrane fluxes of NH4+, it was necessary to measure several parameters. Intracellular pH buffering power was found to be 12 mM. Regulatory mechanisms tended to restore intracellular [H+] after its displacement with a time constant of 3 min. Membrane permeability to NH3 was 13 μm s−1. A numerical model was used to deduce the NH4+ flux through the transporter that would account for the pHi changes induced by a 30-s application of ammonium. This flux saturated with increasing [NH4+]o; the relation was fitted with a Michaelis-Menten equation with Km ≈ 7 mM. The inhibition of NH4+ flux by extracellular K+ appeared to be competitive, with an apparent Ki of ∼15 mM. A simple standard model of the transport process satisfactorily described the pHi changes caused by various experimental manipulations when the transporter bound NH4+ with greater affinity than K+. We conclude that this transporter is functionally selective for NH4+ over K+ and that the transporter molecule probably has a greater affinity for NH4+ than for K+

Geochemical Preservation of the Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion (SPICE) Event in Dolomites of the Furongian Franconia Formation in the Illinois Basin

U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Regional Carbon Sequestraion Partnership Program Contract Number DE-FC26-05NT42588Ope

Children's Evaluations of Interlocutors in Foreigner Talk Contexts

A growing literature suggests accent serves as an important social category for infants and young children. Children show early social preferences for native over non-native speakers; this tendency may lay the foundation for future accent prejudice observed in adulthood. However, children do not hear non-native accents in a vacuum. Children’s experiences with accent take place within a broader communicative context, including how others respond to non-native accents. One factor that may be of particular importance is the speech register typically associated with native speakers talking to non-native speakers, a register known as Foreigner Talk. By exploring how Foreigner Talk may be used as social information by children, we can better understand how children learn about non-native speakers. This dissertation examined how and when children (5-10-year-olds; N = 424) and adults (N = 514) use registers as social information regarding addressees and/or speakers in native/non-native speaker interactions. Study 1 investigated the role of registers (Foreigner Talk, Baby Talk, Teacher Talk, and Peer Talk) in providing social information about addressees. Study 2 investigated how social information about an addressee (appearance, language, origin) is integrated with Foreigner Talk to inform evaluations. These studies provide evidence that children’s evaluations of addressees are informed by Foreigner Talk by 5.5 years and by an integration of both Foreigner Talk and other social information after 7. Like older children, adults incorporated register and social group information into their ratings. In Studies 3a and 3b, I investigated whether children use register as social information about speakers. In Study 3a, I examined a maximal contrast (i.e., Baby Talk vs. Teacher Talk), and found children (by age 5) evaluated speakers based on their register use, giving lower ratings to speakers who used Baby Talk; after 6, they began to use addressee social group membership to inform evaluations (e.g., lower ratings for a speaker who used Baby Talk with a teacher). In Study 3b, I studied whether Foreigner Talk use informs evaluations of speakers and found that, after 7, children gave higher ratings to speakers when their register mapped onto their addressee’s social group (e.g., Foreigner Talk to a foreign peer). In contrast, adults provided lower ratings to speakers who used Foreigner Talk. Study 4 brought together the elements examined in the previous studies by asking participants to evaluate both native and non-native speakers in conversations in which Foreigner Talk was or was not used to repair communication. Children (ages 5-10) did not account for the need for communication repair or non-native accent in their ratings of interlocutors, instead providing lower ratings to both speakers and addressees when Foreigner Talk was used than when it was not. In contrast, adults only provided lower ratings to native speakers who used Foreigner Talk. Together, these studies provide a first investigation into how register is used by children to learn about others. In all studies presented here, children’s evaluations of interlocutors (speakers and addressees) were affected by register use. Furthermore, the presented studies speak to the potential social ramifications of Foreigner Talk, highlighting that children often have negative evaluations of those who are the recipients of Foreigner Talk and those who use it. This provides future avenues of research for understanding how the interactions children observe between native and non-native speakers may reinforce their biased attitudes against non-native speakers.PHDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155151/1/dlabotka_1.pd

The laurentian record of neoproterozoic glaciation, tectonism, and eukaryotic evolution in Death Vally, California

Neoproterozoic strata in Death Valley, California contain eukaryotic microfossils and glacial deposits that have been used to assess the severity of putative Snowball Earth events and the biological response to extreme environmental change. These successions also contain evidence for syn-sedimentary faulting that has been related to the rifting of Rodinia, and in turn the tectonic context of the onset of Snowball Earth. These interpretations hinge on local geological relationships and both regional and global stratigraphic correlations. Here we present new geological mapping, measured stratigraphic sections, carbon and strontium isotope chemostratigraphy, and micropaleontology from the Neoproterozoic glacial deposits and bounding strata in Death Valley. These new data enable us to refine regional correlations both across Death Valley and throughout Laurentia, and construct a new age model for glaciogenic strata and microfossil assemblages. Particularly, our remapping of the Kingston Peak Formation in the Saddle Peak Hills and near the type locality shows for the first time that glacial deposits of both the Marinoan and Sturtian glaciations can be distinguished in southeastern Death Valley, and that beds containing vase-shaped microfossils are slump blocks derived from the underlying strata. These slump blocks are associated with multiple overlapping unconformities that developed during syn-sedimentary faulting, which is a common feature of Cyrogenian strata along the margin of Laurentia from California to Alaska. With these data, we conclude that all of the microfossils that have been described to date in Neoproterozoic strata of Death Valley predate the glaciations and do not bear on the severity, extent or duration of Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth events

U.S. adults' beliefs and explanations about health disparities

Public health data highlight disease outcome disparities corresponding to age, social class, and race, which are due to biological, behavioral, and/or structural factors (depending on the disparity). We examined whether adults are aware of these disparities and how they explain them. This study recruited U.S. adults (N = 241) through Mechanical Turk and examined whether they thought that there was a relation between social categories and illness. We examined their judgments and explanations for transmitting and contracting COVID-19 or the common cold. We found that adults thought that older adults and poor people were more likely than younger adults and rich people to get sick, whereas younger adults were more likely than older adults to transmit disease. People relied on biological explanations for disparities due to age, and structural explanations for disparities due to social class. However, the results for race were more mixed, suggesting that people do not always assume that social categories are related to illness

Timing of detachment faulting in the Bullfrog Hills and Bare Mountain area, southwest Nevada: Inferences from 40Ar/39Ar, K-Ar, U-Pb and fission track thermochronology

Crustal extension in the Bullfrog Hills and Bare Mountain area of southwest Nevada is associated with movement along a regional detachment fault. Normal faulting in the upper plate and rapid cooling (denudation) of the lower plate were coeval with Miocene silicic volcanism and with west-northwest transport along the detachment fault. A west-northwest progression of tilting along upper plate normal faults is indicated by ages of the volcanic rocks in relation to angular unconformities. Near the breakaway, tilting in the upper plate occurred between 12.7 and 11.6 Ma, continued less strongly past 10.7 Ma, and was over by 8.2 Ma. Ten to 20 km west of the breakaway, tilting occurred between 10.7 and 10.33 Ma, continued less strongly after 10.33 Ma, and was over by 8.1 Ma. The cooling histories of the lower plate metamorphic rocks were determined by thermochronologic dating methods: K-Ar and Ar-40/(39)A on muscovite, biotite, and hornblende, Ar-40/(39)A on K-feldspar, U-Pb on apatite, zircon, and sphene, and fission track on apatite, zircon, and sphene. Lower plate rocks 10 km west of the breakaway cooled slowly from Early Cretaceous lower-amphibolite facies conditions through 350+/-50 degrees to 300+/-50 degrees C between 57 and 38 Ma, then cooled rapidly from 205+/-50 degrees to 120+/-5O degrees C between 12.6+/-1.6 and 11.1+/-1.9 Ma. Lower plate rocks 20 km west of the breakaway cooled slowly from Early Cretaceous upper-amphibolite facies conditions through 500+/-50 degrees C at 78-67 Ma, passed through 350+/-50 degrees to 300+/-50 degrees C between 16.3+/-0.4 and 10.5+/-0.3 Ma, then cooled rapidly from 285+/-50 degrees to 120+/-50 degrees C between 10.2 and 8.6 Ma. Upper plate tilting and rapid cooling (denudation) of the lower plate occurred simultaneously in the respective areas. The early slow-cooling part of the lower plate thermal histories was probably related to erosion at the Earth's surface, which stripped off about 9 km of material in 50 to 100 m.y. The results indicate an initial fault dip greater than or equal to 30 degrees and a 12 mm yr(-1) west-northwest migration of the locus of rapid tilting in the upper plate

An investigation of sands on the uplands adjacent to the Sangamon River floodplain : possibilites as a "blend sand" resource

Ope

Deepening responses associated with improved progression-free survival with ixazomib versus placebo as posttransplant maintenance in multiple myeloma

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Quality of life and symptoms among patients with relapsed/refractory AL amyloidosis treated with ixazomib-dexamethasone versus physician's choice

Patient-reported outcomes in AL amyloidosis have not been well-studied. We analyzed health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and AL amyloidosis symptoms data from the phase 3 TOURMALINE-AL1 trial (NCT01659658) (ixazomib-dexamethasone, n = 85; physician's choice of chemotherapy [PC], n = 83). HRQOL and symptom burden were measured with the SF-36v2, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy/Gynecologic Oncology Group Neurotoxicity subscale (FACT/GOG-Ntx), and an amyloidosis symptom questionnaire (ASQ). Score changes during treatment were analyzed descriptively and using repeated-measures linear mixed models; analyses were not adjusted for multiplicity. Least-squares (LS) mean changes from baseline were significantly higher (better HRQOL) for ixazomib-dexamethasone at several cycles for SF-36v2 Role Physical and Vitality subscales (p <.05); no subscales demonstrated significant differences favoring PC. For FACT/GOG-Ntx, small but significant differences in LS mean changes favored ixazomib-dexamethasone over PC at multiple cycles for seven items and both summary scores; significant differences favored PC for one item (trouble hearing) at multiple cycles. ASQ total score trended downward (lower burden) in both arms; significant LS mean differences favored ixazomib-dexamethasone over PC at some cycles (p <.05). Patients with relapsed/refractory AL amyloidosis treated with ixazomib-dexamethasone experienced HRQOL and symptoms that were similar to or trended better than patients treated with PC despite longer duration of therapy