Application of ERTS-1 data to the protection and management of New Jersey's coastal environment

The author has identified the following significant results. A Coastal Zone Surveillance Program has been developed in which systematic comparisons of early ERTS-1 images and recently acquired images are regularly made to identify areas where changes have occurred. A methodology for assessing and documenting benefits has been established. Quantification of benefits has been directed toward four candidate areas: shore protection, ocean outfalls, coastal land resources, and offshore waste disposal. A refinement in the change detection analysis procedure has led to greater accuracy in spotting developmental changes in the Coastal Zone. Preliminary conclusions drawn from the Shore Erosion case study indicate that in the northern test area (developed beach) erosion has occurred more often, is generally more severe, and the beach is slower to recover than in the southern test area (natural beach). From these data it appears that it may be possible to define areas most likely to experience further erosion. The assumption of continued erosion in areas that have at one time experienced severe erosion is supported by the simple fact that as a beach narrows wave energy is concentrated on a narrower beach surface. The higher energy condition subsequently results in accelerated erosion

Application of ERTS-1 data to the protection and management of New Jersey's coastal environment

The author has identified the following significant results. Rapid access to ERTS data was provided by NASA GSFC for the February 26, 1974 overpass of the New Jersey test site. Forty-seven hours following the overpass computer-compatible tapes were ready for processing at EarthSat. The finished product was ready just 60 hours following the overpass and delivered to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. This operational demonstration has been successful in convincing NJDEP as to the worth of ERTS as an operational monitoring and enforcement tool of significant value to the State. An erosion/ accretion severity index has been developed for the New Jersey shore case study area. Computerized analysis techniques have been used for monitoring offshore waste disposal dumping locations, drift vectors, and dispersion rates in the New York Bight area. A computer shade print of the area was used to identify intensity levels of acid waste. A Litton intensity slice print was made to provide graphic presentation of dispersion characteristics and the dump extent. Continued monitoring will lead to the recommendation and justification of permanent dumping sites which pose no threat to water quality in nearshore environments

MRI radiomic features are independently associated with overall survival in soft tissue sarcoma

Purpose: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) represent a heterogeneous group of diseases, and selection of individualized treatments remains a challenge. The goal of this study was to determine whether radiomic features extracted from magnetic resonance (MR) images are independently associated with overall survival (OS) in STS. Methods and Materials: This study analyzed 2 independent cohorts of adult patients with stage II-III STS treated at center 1 (N = 165) and center 2 (N = 61). Thirty radiomic features were extracted from pretreatment T1-weighted contrast-enhanced MR images. Prognostic models for OS were derived on the center 1 cohort and validated on the center 2 cohort. Clinical-only (C), radiomics-only (R), and clinical and radiomics (C+R) penalized Cox models were constructed. Model performance was assessed using Harrell\u27s concordance index. Results: In the R model, tumor volume (hazard ratio [HR], 1.5) and 4 texture features (HR, 1.1-1.5) were selected. In the C+R model, both age (HR, 1.4) and grade (HR, 1.7) were selected along with 5 radiomic features. The adjusted c-indices of the 3 models ranged from 0.68 (C) to 0.74 (C+R) in the derivation cohort and 0.68 (R) to 0.78 (C+R) in the validation cohort. The radiomic features were independently associated with OS in the validation cohort after accounting for age and grade (HR, 2.4; Conclusions: This study found that radiomic features extracted from MR images are independently associated with OS when accounting for age and tumor grade. The overall predictive performance of 3-year OS using a model based on clinical and radiomic features was replicated in an independent cohort. Optimal models using clinical and radiomic features could improve personalized selection of therapy in patients with STS

Magnetic Resonance

Contains research objectives and reports on three research projects

Analysis of the rotation period of asteroids (1865) Cerberus, (2100) Ra-Shalom, and (3103) Eger - search for the YORP effect

The spin state of small asteroids can change on a long timescale by the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect, the net torque that arises from anisotropically scattered sunlight and proper thermal radiation from an irregularly-shaped asteroid. The secular change in the rotation period caused by the YORP effect can be detected by analysis of asteroid photometric lightcurves. We analyzed photometric lightcurves of near-Earth asteroids (1865) Cerberus, (2100) Ra-Shalom, and (3103) Eger with the aim to detect possible deviations from the constant rotation caused by the YORP effect. We carried out new photometric observations of the three asteroids, combined the new lightcurves with archived data, and used the lightcurve inversion method to model the asteroid shape, pole direction, and rotation rate. The YORP effect was modeled as a linear change in the rotation rate in time d\omega /dt. Values of d\omega/ dt derived from observations were compared with the values predicted by theory. We derived physical models for all three asteroids. We had to model Eger as a nonconvex body because the convex model failed to fit the lightcurves observed at high phase angles. We probably detected the acceleration of the rotation rate of Eger d\omega / dt = (1.4 +/- 0.6) x 10^{-8} rad/d (3\sigma error), which corresponds to a decrease in the rotation period by 4.2 ms/yr. The photometry of Cerberus and Ra-Shalom was consistent with a constant-period model, and no secular change in the spin rate was detected. We could only constrain maximum values of |d\omega / dt| < 8 x 10^{-9} rad/d for Cerberus, and |d\omega / dt| < 3 x 10^{-8} rad/d for Ra-Shalom

Triplicity and Physical Characteristics of Asteroid (216) Kleopatra

To take full advantage of the September 2008 opposition passage of the M-type asteroid (216) Kleopatra, we have used near-infrared adaptive optics (AO) imaging with the W.M. Keck II telescope to capture unprecedented high resolution images of this unusual asteroid. Our AO observations with the W.M. Keck II telescope, combined with Spitzer/IRS spectroscopic observations and past stellar occultations, confirm the value of its IRAS radiometric radius of 67.5 km as well as its dog-bone shape suggested by earlier radar observations. Our Keck AO observations revealed the presence of two small satellites in orbit about Kleopatra (see Marchis et al., 2008). Accurate measurements of the satellite orbits over a full month enabled us to determine the total mass of the system to be 4.64+/-0.02 10^18 Kg. This translates into a bulk density of 3.6 +/-0.4 g/cm3, which implies a macroscopic porosity for Kleopatra of ~ 30-50%, typical of a rubble-pile asteroid. From these physical characteristics we measured its specific angular momentum, very close to that of a spinning equilibrium dumbbell.Comment: 35 pages, 3 Tables, 9 Figures. In press to Icaru

Number-phase-squeezed few-photon state generated from squeezed atoms

This paper develops a method of manipulating the squeezed atom state to generate a few-photon state whose phase or photon-number fluctuations are prescribed at our disposal. The squeezed atom state is a collective atomic state whose quantum fluctuations in population difference or collective dipole are smaller than those of the coherent atom state. It is shown that the squeezed atom state can be generated by the interaction of atoms with a coherent state of the electromagnetic field, and that it can be used as a tunable source of squeezed radiation. A variety of squeezed states, including the photon-number squeezed state and the phase squeezed state, can be produced by manipulating the atomic state. This is owing to the fact that quantum-statistical information of the atomic state is faithfully transferred to that of the photon state. Possible experimental situations to implement our theory are discussed.Comment: 17 pages, RevTex, 14 figures, using epsf.sty, title is changed, discussion about dissipation is added, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Enhancements to Modified Chebyshev-Picard Iteration Efficiency for Perturbed Orbit Propagation

Modified Chebyshev Picard Iteration is an iterative numerical method for solving linear or non-linear ordinary differential equations. In a serial computational environment the method has been shown to compete with, or outperform, current state of practice numerical integrators. This paper presents several improvements to the basic method, designed to further increase the computational efficiency of solving the equations of perturbed orbit propagation

Functional and expression analysis of the metal-inducible dmeRF system from Rhizobium legumionosarum bv. viciae

A gene encoding a homolog to the cation diffusion facilitator protein DmeF from Cupriavidus metallidurans has been identified in the genome of Rhizobium leguminosarum UPM791. The R. leguminosarum dmeF gene is located downstream of an open reading frame (designated dmeR) encoding a protein homologous to the nickel- and cobalt-responsive transcriptional regulator RcnR from Escherichia coli. Analysis of gene expression showed that the R. leguminosarum dmeRF genes are organized as a transcriptional unit whose expression is strongly induced by nickel and cobalt ions, likely by alleviating the repressor activity of DmeR on dmeRF transcription. An R. leguminosarum dmeRF mutant strain displayed increased sensitivity to Co(II) and Ni(II), whereas no alterations of its resistance to Cd(II), Cu(II), or Zn(II) were observed. A decrease of symbiotic performance was observed when pea plants inoculated with an R. leguminosarum dmeRF deletion mutant strain were grown in the presence of high concentrations of nickel and cobalt. The same mutant induced significantly lower activity levels of NiFe hydrogenase in microaerobic cultures. These results indicate that the R. leguminosarum DmeRF system is a metal-responsive efflux mechanism acting as a key element for metal homeostasis in R. leguminosarum under free-living and symbiotic conditions. The presence of similar dmeRF gene clusters in other Rhizobiaceae suggests that the dmeRF system is a conserved mechanism for metal tolerance in legume endosymbiotic bacteria

Metal stressors consistently modulate bacterial conjugal plasmid uptake potential in a phylogenetically conserved manner.

Published onlineJOURNAL ARTICLEThe environmental stimulants and inhibitors of conjugal plasmid transfer in microbial communities are poorly understood. Specifically, it is not known whether exposure to stressors may cause a community to alter its plasmid uptake ability. We assessed whether metals (Cu, Cd, Ni, Zn) and one metalloid (As), at concentrations causing partial growth inhibition, modulate community permissiveness (that is, uptake ability) against a broad-host-range IncP-type plasmid (pKJK5). Cells were extracted from an agricultural soil as recipient community and a cultivation-minimal filter mating assay was conducted with an exogenous E. coli donor strain. The donor hosted a gfp-tagged pKJK5 derivative from which conjugation events could be microscopically quantified and transconjugants isolated and phylogenetically described at high resolution via FACS and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Metal stress consistently decreased plasmid transfer frequencies to the community, while the transconjugal pool richness remained unaffected with OTUs belonging to 12 bacterial phyla. The taxonomic composition of the transconjugal pools was distinct from their respective recipient communities and clustered dependent on the stress type and dose. However, for certain OTUs, stress increased or decreased permissiveness by more than 1000-fold and this response was typically correlated across different metals and doses. The response to some stresses was, in addition, phylogenetically conserved. This is the first demonstration that community permissiveness is sensitive to metal(loid) stress in a manner that is both partially consistent across stressors and phylogenetically conserved.The ISME Journal advance online publication, 2 August 2016; doi:10.1038/ismej.2016.98.We thank J Magid for access to the CRUCIAL field plot, LK Jensen for technical assistance in the laboratory and SM Milani for assistance in FACS sorting. This work was funded by the Villum Kann Rasmussen Foundation Center of Excellence CREAM (Center for Environmental and Agricultural Microbiology). UK is currently supported through an MRC/BBSRC grant (MR/N007174/1)