Flood fatalities in eastern Kentucky and the public health legacy of mountaintop removal coal mining

Heavy rains at night caused severe flooding in eastern Kentucky on 28 July 2022, resulting in 39 deaths. Using publicly available information, we assembled a database of these fatalities, including demographic characteristics and location of death. We perturbed fatality locations and plotted them on a topographical map highlighting mountaintop removal mining with valley fill sites, where mountaintops were excavated to mine thin seams of coal. This map reveals many flood fatalities occurred along rivers or streams near such sites. Previous research suggests that surface mining has contributed to the majority of land cover change in this region, and this has increased storm water runoff. The legacy of coal mining in Central Appalachia could thus present immediate challenges to public health and safety beyond more frequently studied health outcomes associated with occupational and environmental exposures. A review of prior surface mining legislation to assess its effectiveness is warranted

A Finite Difference Representation of Neutrino Radiation Hydrodynamics in Spherically Symmetric General Relativistic Space-Time

We present an implicit finite difference representation for general relativistic radiation hydrodynamics in spherical symmetry. Our code, Agile-Boltztran, solves the Boltzmann transport equation for the angular and spectral neutrino distribution functions in self-consistent simulations of stellar core collapse and postbounce evolution. It implements a dynamically adaptive grid in comoving coordinates. Most macroscopically interesting physical quantities are defined by expectation values of the distribution function. We optimize the finite differencing of the microscopic transport equation for a consistent evolution of important expectation values. We test our code in simulations launched from progenitor stars with 13 solar masses and 40 solar masses. ~0.5 s after core collapse and bounce, the protoneutron star in the latter case reaches its maximum mass and collapses further to form a black hole. When the hydrostatic gravitational contraction sets in, we find a transient increase in electron flavor neutrino luminosities due to a change in the accretion rate. The muon- and tauon-neutrino luminosities and rms energies, however, continue to rise because previously shock-heated material with a non-degenerate electron gas starts to replace the cool degenerate material at their production site. We demonstrate this by supplementing the concept of neutrinospheres with a more detailed statistical description of the origin of escaping neutrinos. We compare the evolution of the 13 solar mass progenitor star to simulations with the MGFLD approximation, based on a recently developed flux limiter. We find similar results in the postbounce phase and validate this MGFLD approach for the spherically symmetric case with standard input physics.Comment: reformatted to 63 pages, 24 figures, to be published in ApJ

Adult asthma associated with roadway density and housing in rural Appalachia: the Mountain Air Project (MAP).

BACKGROUND: Appalachian Kentucky is a rural area with a high prevalence of asthma among adults. The relative contribution of environmental exposures in the etiology of adult asthma in these populations has been understudied. OBJECTIVE: This manuscript describes the aims, study design, methods, and characteristics of participants for the Mountain Air Project (MAP), and focuses on associations between small area environmental exposures, including roadways and mining operations, and lifetime and current asthma in adults. METHODS: A cohort of residents, aged 21 and older, in two Kentucky counties, was enrolled in a community-based, cross-sectional study. Stratified cluster sampling was used to select small geographic areas denoted as 14-digit USGS hydrologic units (HUCs). Households were enumerated within selected HUCs. Community health workers collected in-person interviews. The proximity of nearby active and inactive coal mining operations, density of oil and gas operations, and density of roadways were characterized for all HUCs. Poisson regression analyses were used to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios. RESULTS: From 1,459 eligible households contacted, 1,190 individuals were recruited, and 972 persons completed the interviews. The prevalence of lifetime asthma was 22.8%; current asthma was 16.3%. Adjusting for covariates, roadway density was positively associated with current asthma in the second (aPR = 1.61; 95% CI 1.04-2.48) and third tertiles (aPR = 2.00; 95% CI 1.32-3.03). Increased risk of current asthma was associated with residence in public, multi-unit housing (aPR = 2.01; 95% CI 1.27-3.18) compared to a residence in a single-family home. There were no notable associations between proximity to coal mining and oil and gas operations and asthma prevalence. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that residents in rural areas with higher roadway density and those residing in public housing units may be at increased risk for current asthma after accounting for other known risk factors. Confirming the role of traffic-related particulates in producing high asthma risk among adults in this study contributes to the understanding of the multiple environmental exposures that influence respiratory health in the Appalachia region

Ultrafast Electronic Energy Transfer in an orthogonal molecular dyad

The St Andrews group acknowledges support from the European Research Council (grant number 321305) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant EP/L017008/1). I.D.W.S. also acknowledges support from a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.Understanding electronic energy transfer (EET) is an important ingredient in the development of artificial photosynthetic systems and photovoltaic technologies. Although EET is at the heart of these applications and crucially influences their light-harvesting efficiency, the nature of EET over short distances for covalently bound donor and acceptor units is often not well understood. Here we investigate EET in an orthogonal molecular dyad (BODT4) in which simple models fail to explain the very origin of EET. Based on nonadiabatic ab initio molecular dynamics calculations and fluorescence depolarization experiments we gain detailed microscopic insights into the ultrafast electro-vibrational dynamics following photoexcitation. Our analysis offers molecular-level insights into these processes and reveals that it takes place on timescales ≲ 100 fs and occurs through an intermediate charge-transfer state.PostprintPeer reviewe

Overnight Immune Regulation and Subjective Measures of Sleep: A Three Night Observational Study in Adolescent Track and Field Athletes

To ensure health maintenance of young athletes, immunological stress due to physical exercise has to be balanced for performance development and health maintenance. Sleep is an important influencing factor for immune regulation because of its regenerating effect. In an attempt to assess overnight immune regulation, this observational study aimed to examine associations between changes in capillary immunological blood markers and measures of sleep in adolescent athletes. Over a period of three nights, 12 male ( n = 6) and female ( n = 6) adolescent track and field athletes aged 16.4 ± 1.1 years were monitored for their sleep behavior (e.g., sleep duration, sleep depth) and immune regulation by using subjective (e.g., sleep) and objective (capillary blood markers) measurement tools. Over the 4 day (three nights), athletes followed their daily routines (school, homework, free time activities, and training). Training was performed for different disciplines (sprint, hurdles, and long-jump) following their daily training routines. Training included dynamic core stability training, coordination training, speed training, resistance training, and endurance training. Capillary blood samples were taken 30–45 min after the last training session (10:00–12:00 a.m. or 5:00–6:00 p.m.) and every morning between 7:00 and 10:00 a.m. Changes in capillary blood markers from post-training to the next morning and morning-to-morning fluctuations in capillary blood markers were analyzed over a three-night period using a generalized estimating equations (GEE) statistical approach. Associations of overnight changes with measures of sleep were analyzed using GEE. We found significant decreases in white blood cell count (WBC), granulocytes (GRAN), granulocytes% (GRAN%), monocytes (MID), and granulocyte-lymphocyte-ratio. In contrast, lymphocytes% (LYM%) increased significantly and systemic inflammation index showed no difference from post-training to the next morning. Furthermore, there was a significant decrease in WBC and GRAN between morning 1 and morning 3. At morning 4, values returned to baseline (morning 1), irrespective if athletes performed a training session or rested on day 3. Furthermore, sleep duration was significantly and negatively associated with changes in WBC (β z = −0.491) and lymphocytes (β z = −0.451). Our results indicate that overnight sleep duration is an important parameter of immunological overnight regulation for adolescent athletes

Comparative Analysis of Tandem Repeats from Hundreds of Species Reveals Unique Insights into Centromere Evolution

Centromeres are essential for chromosome segregation, yet their DNA sequences evolve rapidly. In most animals and plants that have been studied, centromeres contain megabase-scale arrays of tandem repeats. Despite their importance, very little is known about the degree to which centromere tandem repeats share common properties between different species across different phyla. We used bioinformatic methods to identify high-copy tandem repeats from 282 species using publicly available genomic sequence and our own data. The assumption that the most abundant tandem repeat is the centromere DNA was true for most species whose centromeres have been previously characterized, suggesting this is a general property of genomes. Our methods are compatible with all current sequencing technologies. Long Pacific Biosciences sequence reads allowed us to find tandem repeat monomers up to 1,419 bp. High-copy centromere tandem repeats were found in almost all animal and plant genomes, but repeat monomers were highly variable in sequence composition and in length. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis of sequence homology showed little evidence of sequence conservation beyond ~50 million years of divergence. We find that despite an overall lack of sequence conservation, centromere tandem repeats from diverse species showed similar modes of evolution, including the appearance of higher order repeat structures in which several polymorphic monomers make up a larger repeating unit. While centromere position in most eukaryotes is epigenetically determined, our results indicate that tandem repeats are highly prevalent at centromeres of both animals and plants. This suggests a functional role for such repeats, perhaps in promoting concerted evolution of centromere DNA across chromosomes

Low-Energy Quasiparticles in Cuprate Superconductors: A Quantitative Analysis

A residual linear term is observed in the thermal conductivity of optimally-doped Bi-2212 at very low temperatures whose magnitude is in excellent agreement with the value expected from Fermi-liquid theory and the d-wave energy spectrum measured by photoemission spectroscopy, with no adjustable parameters. This solid basis allows us to make a quantitative analysis of thermodynamic properties at low temperature and establish that thermally-excited quasiparticles are a significant, perhaps even the dominant mechanism in suppressing the superfluid density in cuprate superconductors Bi-2212 and YBCO.Comment: Revised version with additional page, figure, table and reference; to appear in Physical Review B (1 August 2000

On the algebraic K-theory of the complex K-theory spectrum

Let p>3 be a prime, let ku be the connective complex K-theory spectrum, and let K(ku) be the algebraic K-theory spectrum of ku. We study the p-primary homotopy type of the spectrum K(ku) by computing its mod (p,v_1) homotopy groups. We show that up to a finite summand, these groups form a finitely generated free module over a polynomial algebra F_p[b], where b is a class of degree 2p+2 defined as a higher Bott element.Comment: Revised and expanded version, 42 pages

Toxic Exposure of Songbirds to Lead in the Southeast Missouri Lead Mining District

Mining and smelting in the Southeast Missouri Lead Mining District has caused widespread contamination of soils with lead (Pb) and other metals. Soils from three study sites sampled in the district contained from approximately 1,000–3,200 mg Pb/kg. Analyses of earthworms [33–4,600 mg Pb/kg dry weight (dw)] collected in the district showed likely high Pb exposure of songbirds preying on soil organisms. Mean tissue Pb concentrations in songbirds collected from the contaminated sites were greater (p \u3c 0.05) than those in songbirds from reference sites by factors of 8 in blood, 13 in liver, and 23 in kidney. Ranges of Pb concentrations in livers (mg Pb/kg dw) were as follows: northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) = 0.11–3.0 (reference) and 1.3–30 (contaminated) and American robin (Turdus migratorius) = 0.43–8.5 (reference) and 7.6–72 (contaminated). Of 34 adult and juvenile songbirds collected from contaminated sites, 11 (32 %) had hepatic Pb concentrations that were consistent with adverse physiological effects, 3 (9 %) with systemic toxic effects, and 4 (12 %) with life-threatening toxic effects. Acid-fast renal intranuclear inclusion bodies, which are indicative of Pb poisoning, were detected in kidneys of two robins that had the greatest renal Pb concentrations (952 and 1,030 mg/kg dw). Mean activity of the enzyme delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) in red blood cells, a well-established bioindicator of Pb poisoning in birds, was decreased by 58–82 % in songbirds from the mining sites. We conclude that habitats within the mining district with soil Pb concentrations of C1,000 mg Pb/kg are contaminated to the extent that they are exposing ground-feeding songbirds to toxic concentrations of Pb

Toxic Exposure of Songbirds to Lead in the Southeast Missouri Lead Mining District

Mining and smelting in the Southeast Missouri Lead Mining District has caused widespread contamination of soils with lead (Pb) and other metals. Soils from three study sites sampled in the district contained from approximately 1,000–3,200 mg Pb/kg. Analyses of earthworms [33–4,600 mg Pb/kg dry weight (dw)] collected in the district showed likely high Pb exposure of songbirds preying on soil organisms. Mean tissue Pb concentrations in songbirds collected from the contaminated sites were greater (p \u3c 0.05) than those in songbirds from reference sites by factors of 8 in blood, 13 in liver, and 23 in kidney. Ranges of Pb concentrations in livers (mg Pb/kg dw) were as follows: northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) = 0.11–3.0 (reference) and 1.3–30 (contaminated) and American robin (Turdus migratorius) = 0.43–8.5 (reference) and 7.6–72 (contaminated). Of 34 adult and juvenile songbirds collected from contaminated sites, 11 (32 %) had hepatic Pb concentrations that were consistent with adverse physiological effects, 3 (9 %) with systemic toxic effects, and 4 (12 %) with life-threatening toxic effects. Acid-fast renal intranuclear inclusion bodies, which are indicative of Pb poisoning, were detected in kidneys of two robins that had the greatest renal Pb concentrations (952 and 1,030 mg/kg dw). Mean activity of the enzyme delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) in red blood cells, a well-established bioindicator of Pb poisoning in birds, was decreased by 58–82 % in songbirds from the mining sites. We conclude that habitats within the mining district with soil Pb concentrations of C1,000 mg Pb/kg are contaminated to the extent that they are exposing ground-feeding songbirds to toxic concentrations of Pb