NASA Ames DEVELOP Interns Collaborate with the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project to Monitor and Study Restoration Efforts using NASA's Satellites

In the past, natural tidal marshes in the south bay were segmented by levees and converted into ponds for use in salt production. In an effort to provide habitat for migratory birds and other native plants and animals, as well as to rebuild natural capital, the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project (SBSPRP) is focused on restoring a portion of the over 15,000 acres of wetlands in California's South San Francisco Bay. The process of restoration begins when a levee is breached; the bay water and sediment flow into the ponds and eventually restore natural tidal marshes. Since the spring of 2010 the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) DEVELOP student internship program has collaborated with the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project (SBSPRP) to study the effects of these restoration efforts and to provide valuable information to assist in habitat management and ecological forecasting. All of the studies were based on remote sensing techniques -- NASA's area of expertise in the field of Earth Science, and used various analytical techniques such as predictive modeling, flora and fauna classification, and spectral detection, to name a few. Each study was conducted by a team of aspiring scientists as a part of the DEVELOP program at Ames

Satellite-Based Drought Reporting on the Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation (NN) is the largest reservation in the US, and faces challenges related to water management during long-term and widespread drought episodes. The Navajo Nation is a federally recognized tribe, which has boundaries within Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo Nation has a land area of over 70,000 square kilometers. The Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources (NNDWR) reports on drought and climatic conditions through the use of regional Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) values and a network of in-situ rainfall, streamflow, and climate data. However, these data sources lack the spatial detail and consistent measurements needed to provide a coherent understanding of the drought regime within the Nation's regional boundaries. This project, as part of NASA's Western Water Applications Office (WWAO), improves upon the recently developed Drought Severity Assessment Tool (DSAT) to ingest satellite-based precipitation data to generate SPI values for specific administrative boundaries within the reservation. The tool aims to: (1) generate SPI values and summary statistics for regions of interest on various timescales, (2) to visualize SPI values within a web-map application, and (3) produce maps and comparative statistical outputs in the format required for annual drought reporting. The co-development of the DSAT with NN partners is integral to increasing the sustained use of Earth Observations for water management applications. This tool will provide data to support the NN in allocation of drought contingency dollars to the regions most adversely impacted by declines in water availability

A Comparison of Groundwater Storage Using GRACE Data, Groundwater Levels, and a Hydrological Model in Californias Central Valley

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) measures changes in total water storage (TWS) remotely, and may provide additional insight to the use of well-based data in California's agriculturally productive Central Valley region. Under current California law, well owners are not required to report groundwater extraction rates, making estimation of total groundwater extraction difficult. As a result, other groundwater change detection techniques may prove useful. From October 2002 to September 2009, GRACE was used to map changes in TWS for the three hydrological regions (the Sacramento River Basin, the San Joaquin River Basin, and the Tulare Lake Basin) encompassing the Central Valley aquifer. Net groundwater storage changes were calculated from the changes in TWS for each of the three hydrological regions and by incorporating estimates for additional components of the hydrological budget including precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, snow pack, and surface water storage. The calculated changes in groundwater storage were then compared to simulated values from the California Department of Water Resource's Central Valley Groundwater- Surface Water Simulation Model (C2VSIM) and their Water Data Library (WDL) Geographic Information System (GIS) change in storage tool. The results from the three methods were compared. Downscaling GRACE data into the 21 smaller Central Valley sub-regions included in C2VSIM was also evaluated. This work has the potential to improve California's groundwater resource management and use of existing hydrological models for the Central Valley

Counter Tobacco: Laying the Groundwork for Tobacco Retailer Licensing in North Carolina

Background: Tobacco use, primarily of cigarettes, is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States (Danaei et al., 2009; Mokdad, Marks, Stroup, & Gerberding, 2004; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2004). In North Carolina, 12,200 of our state's citizens die every year from tobacco use, and the state spends $769 million in tobacco-related Medicaid costs. Additionally, despite widespread prevention efforts, cigarette-smoking rates remain high among youth (Everett et al., 1999). Exposure and access to tobacco is also an area reflective of striking disparities along racial, socio-economic, and age lines. It is therefore imperative that North Carolina take progressive steps to decrease youth cigarette use. One way in which states and localities are reducing tobacco use is by creating tobacco control policies that act at the point-of-sale (POS). POS policies are those that are directed at the location and event of purchase of tobacco products. One POS policy that has been used in the majority of states, but not in North Carolina, is tobacco retailer licensing. Tobacco retailer licensing laws can effectively decrease access and smoking rates, illegal sales of tobacco products and resulting tax revenue losses, and the burden of enforcement costs on the state when fees from licensing fund enforcement efforts. Methods: As a group of Capstone students from the Department of Health Behavior at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, we produced four deliverables to lay the groundwork for tobacco retailer licensing in North Carolina. These deliverables are presented in the following order: 1) Tobacco retailer maps of Chapel Hill and Durham County 2) Policy brief 3) Social marketing materials, and 4) Manuscript. To assess the locations of tobacco retailers in two local communities, team members collected Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data on every tobacco retailer in Chapel Hill and Durham County. From these data, team members created maps of tobacco retailers in Chapel Hill and Durham County and examined spatial patterns based on available data, such as census information on racial composition and income of census blocks. To create a policy brief that advocates of POS policies could use to communicate with policy makers, a review of the scientific, legal, and advocacy materials on licensing tobacco retailers was conducted. To inform and inspire advocacy among potential allies around tobacco retailer licensing, the team created social marketing materials that were message-tested with Durham and Chapel Hill residents as well as community leaders, and revised materials with this input to create final versions. Finally, the team drafted a manuscript to document existing published evidence of POS tobacco marketing, youth tobacco use, and youth purchase of tobacco at tobacco retail outlets near schools. Results: We increased the North Carolina tobacco advocacy community and the general public's knowledge about tobacco retailer licensing. The data collected and materials produced were presented to members of the Orange County Health Department, the North Carolina Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch, the North Carolina Alliance for Health, and community leaders from Durham and Chapel Hill as testimony for the need for tobacco retailer licensing in these areas. Finally, all of the materials will be made available on the Counter Tobacco website for advocates to continue to use. Discussion: Working with the tobacco control advocacy and policy-making communities provided the Capstone team with the opportunity to continually refine the priorities and deliverables of our project. These experiences provided a solid foundation of policy advocacy and social marketing skills for Capstone team members. The Capstone team's activities and materials will advance POS policies in North Carolina and across the country.Master of Public Healt

Impaired CXCL12 signaling contributes to resistance of pancreatic cancer subpopulations to T cell-mediated cytotoxicity

Pancreatic cancer remains largely unresponsive to immune modulatory therapy attributable in part to an immunosuppressive, desmoplastic tumor microenvironment. Here, we analyze mechanisms of cancer cell-autonomous resistance to T cells. We used a 3D co-culture model of cancer cell spheroids from the KPC (LSL-Kras(G12D/+)/LSL-Trp53(R172H/+)/p48-Cre) pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) model, to examine interactions with tumor-educated T cells isolated from draining lymph nodes of PDAC-bearing mice. Subpopulations of cancer cells resistant to these tumor-educated T cells were isolated from the in vitro co-culture and their properties compared with sensitive cancer cells. In co-culture with resistant cancer cell subpopulations, tumor-educated T cells showed reduced effector T cell functionality, reduced infiltration into tumor cell spheroids and decreased induction of apoptosis. A combination of comparative transcriptomic analyses, cytometric and immunohistochemistry techniques allowed us to dissect the role of differential gene expression and signaling pathways between sensitive and resistant cells. A decreased expression of the chemokine CXCL12 (SDF-1) was revealed as a common feature in the resistant cell subpopulations. Adding back CXCL12 reversed the resistant phenotype and was inhibited by the CXCR4 inhibitor AMD3100 (plerixafor). We conclude that reduced CXCL12 signaling contributes to PDAC subpopulation resistance to T cell-mediated attack

Development and evaluation of a hospital discharge information package to empower parents in caring for a child with a fever

Objectives: First, to explore parents’ views on and experiences of managing their febrile child and to assess their behaviour and needs when in search of information about fever; second, to develop and evaluate a hospital discharge information package about fever in children. Design: Mixed methods: (A) qualitative study with semistructured interviews and a focus group discussion (FGD) and (B) quantitative survey. Setting: Emergency department, non-acute hospital setting and day nursery in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Participants: Parents of children <18 years (interviews, n=22) parents of children under 5 years (FGD (n=14), survey (n=38)). Intervention: Information package about fever in children (leaflet and website including videos). Outcome measures quantitative survey: Knowledge of fever and confidence in caring for a febrile child (Likert scale 0–5). Results: Parents found fever mostly alarming, especially high fever. Help-seeking behaviour was based on either specific symptoms or on an undefined intuition. When parents did not feel recognised in their concern or felt criticised, anxiety increased as well as the threshold to seek healthcare for future illnesses. Information was needed, especially for situations when the general practitioner or social network were less easily available. This information should be reliable, consistent, available in multiple formats and include advice on management of fever at home and precise referral to medical services. Parents reported improved knowledge about fever (p<0.05) and mentioned improved confidence in caring for a child with fever at home after consulting the information package. Conclusion: Parents of children with a fever visiting the hospital are concerned about specific symptoms or based on an undefined intuition. Rather than telling parents that they should manage their child’s illness at home, healthcare professionals should recognise parental intuition and provide clear information on alarming signs and potential diagnoses to empower parents in the management of their febrile child

Subdomain-mediated axon-axon signaling and chemoattraction cooperate to regulate afferent innervation of the lateral habenula

A dominant feature of neural circuitry is the organization of neuronal projections and synapses into specific brain nuclei or laminae. Lamina-specific connectivity is controlled by the selective expression of extracellular guidance and adhesion molecules in the target field. However, how (sub)nucleus-specific connections are established and whether axon-derived cues contribute to subdomain targeting are largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that the lateral subnucleus of the habenula (lHb) determines its own afferent innervation by sending out efferent projections that express the cell adhesion molecule LAMP to reciprocally collect and guide dopaminergic afferents to the lHb-a phenomenon we term subdomain-mediated axon-axon signaling. This process of reciprocal axon-axon interactions cooperates with lHb-specific chemoattraction mediated by Netrin-1, which controls axon target entry, to ensure specific innervation of the lHb. We propose that cooperation between pretarget reciprocal axon-axon signaling and subdomain-restricted instructive cues provides a highly precise and general mechanism to establish subdomain-specific neural circuitry

A rock-surface microweathering index from Schmidt hammer R-values and its preliminary application to some common rock types in southern Norway

An index of the degree of rock-surface microweathering based on Schmidt hammer R-values is developed for use in the field without laboratory testing. A series of indices - I2 to In, where n is the number of successive blows with the hammer - is first proposed based on the assumption that the R-values derived from successive impacts on the same spot on a weathered rock surface converge on the value characteristic of an unweathered surface of the same lithology. Of these indices, the I5 index, which measures the difference between the mean R-value derived from first and fifth impacts as a proportion of the mean R-value from the fifth impact, is regarded as optimal: use of fewer impacts (e.g. in an I2 index) underestimates the degree of weathering whereas use of more impacts (e.g. in an I10 index) makes little difference and is therefore inefficient and may also induce an artificial weakening of the rock. Field tests of these indices on weathered glacially-scoured bedrock outcrops of nine common metamorphic and igneous rock types from southern Norway show, however, that even after ten impacts, successive R-values fail to approach the values characteristic of unweathered rock surfaces (e.g. bedrock from glacier forelands and road cuttings). An improved *I5 index is therefore preferred, in which the estimated true R-value of an unweathered rock surface is substituted. Weathered rock surfaces exposed to the atmosphere for ~10,000 years in southern Norway exhibit *I5 indices of 36-57%, values that reflect a similarly high degree of weathering irrespective of the rock type