WOODLAND POND SALAMANDER ABUNDANCE IN RELATION TO FOREST MANAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN

Woodland ponds are important landscape features that help sustain populations of amphibians that require this aquatic habitat for successful reproduction. Species abundance patterns often reflect site-specific differences in hydrology, physical characteristics, and surrounding vegetation. Large-scale processes such as changing land cover and environmental conditions are other potential drivers influencing amphibian populations in the Upper Midwest, but little information exists on the combined effects of these factors. We used Blue-spotted (Ambystoma laterale Hallowell) and Spotted Salamander (A. maculatum Shaw) monitoring data collected at the same woodland ponds thirteen years apart to determine if changing environmental conditions and vegetation cover in surrounding landscapes influenced salamander movement phenology and abundance. Four woodland ponds in northern Wisconsin were sampled for salamanders in April 1992-1994 and 2005-2007. While Bluespotted Salamanders were more abundant than Spotted Salamanders in all ponds, there was no change in the numbers of either species over the years. However, peak numbers of Blue-spotted Salamanders occurred 11.7 days earlier (range: 9-14 days) in the 2000s compared to the 1990s; Spotted Salamanders occurred 9.5 days earlier (range: 3 - 13 days). Air and water temperatures (April 13- 24) increased, on average, 4.8 oC and 3.7 oC, respectively, between the decades regardless of pond. There were no discernible changes in canopy openness in surrounding forests between decades that would have warmed the water sooner (i.e., more light penetration). Our finding that salamander breeding phenology can vary by roughly 10 days in Wisconsin contributes to growing evidence that amphibian populations have responded to changing climate conditions by shifting life-cycle events. Managers can use this information to adjust monitoring programs and forest management activities in the surrounding landscape to avoid vulnerable amphibian movement periods. Considering direct and indirect stressors such as changing habitat and environmental conditions simultaneously to better understand trends in space and time can help improve monitoring programs for this taxa, which is at major risk of continued declines

InSight Aerothermal Environment Assessment

The Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft, which successfully touched down on the planet surface on November 26, 2018, was proposed as a near build-to-print copy of the Mars Phoenix vehicle to reduce the overall cost and risk of the mission. Since the lander payload and the atmospheric entry trajectory were similar enough to those of the Phoenix mission, it was expected that the Phoenix thermal protection material thickness would be sufficient to withstand the entry heat load. However, allowances were made for increasing the heatshield thickness because the planned spacecraft arrival date coincided with the Mars dust storm season. The aftbody Thermal Protection System (TPS) components were not expected to change. In a first for a US Mars mission, the aerothermal environments for InSight included estimates of radiative heat flux to the aftbody from the wake. The combined convective and radiative heat fluxes were used to determine if the as-flown Phoenix thermal protection system (TPS) design would be sufficient for InSight. Although the radiative heat fluxes on the aftbody were predicted to be comparable to, or even higher than the local convective heat fluxes, all analyses of the aftbody TPS showed that the design would still be adequate. Aerothermal environments were computed for the vehicle from post-flight reconstruction of the atmosphere and trajectory and compared with the design environments. These comparisons showed that the predicted as-flown conditions were less severe than the design conditions

An Assessment to Benchmark the Seismic Performance of a Code-Conforming Reinforced-Concrete Moment-Frame Building

This report describes a state-of-the-art performance-based earthquake engineering methodology that is used to assess the seismic performance of a four-story reinforced concrete (RC) office building that is generally representative of low-rise office buildings constructed in highly seismic regions of California. This “benchmark” building is considered to be located at a site in the Los Angeles basin, and it was designed with a ductile RC special moment-resisting frame as its seismic lateral system that was designed according to modern building codes and standards. The building’s performance is quantified in terms of structural behavior up to collapse, structural and nonstructural damage and associated repair costs, and the risk of fatalities and their associated economic costs. To account for different building configurations that may be designed in practice to meet requirements of building size and use, eight structural design alternatives are used in the performance assessments. Our performance assessments account for important sources of uncertainty in the ground motion hazard, the structural response, structural and nonstructural damage, repair costs, and life-safety risk. The ground motion hazard characterization employs a site-specific probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and the evaluation of controlling seismic sources (through disaggregation) at seven ground motion levels (encompassing return periods ranging from 7 to 2475 years). Innovative procedures for ground motion selection and scaling are used to develop acceleration time history suites corresponding to each of the seven ground motion levels. Structural modeling utilizes both “fiber” models and “plastic hinge” models. Structural modeling uncertainties are investigated through comparison of these two modeling approaches, and through variations in structural component modeling parameters (stiffness, deformation capacity, degradation, etc.). Structural and nonstructural damage (fragility) models are based on a combination of test data, observations from post-earthquake reconnaissance, and expert opinion. Structural damage and repair costs are modeled for the RC beams, columns, and slabcolumn connections. Damage and associated repair costs are considered for some nonstructural building components, including wallboard partitions, interior paint, exterior glazing, ceilings, sprinkler systems, and elevators. The risk of casualties and the associated economic costs are evaluated based on the risk of structural collapse, combined with recent models on earthquake fatalities in collapsed buildings and accepted economic modeling guidelines for the value of human life in loss and cost-benefit studies. The principal results of this work pertain to the building collapse risk, damage and repair cost, and life-safety risk. These are discussed successively as follows. When accounting for uncertainties in structural modeling and record-to-record variability (i.e., conditional on a specified ground shaking intensity), the structural collapse probabilities of the various designs range from 2% to 7% for earthquake ground motions that have a 2% probability of exceedance in 50 years (2475 years return period). When integrated with the ground motion hazard for the southern California site, the collapse probabilities result in mean annual frequencies of collapse in the range of [0.4 to 1.4]x10 -4 for the various benchmark building designs. In the development of these results, we made the following observations that are expected to be broadly applicable: (1) The ground motions selected for performance simulations must consider spectral shape (e.g., through use of the epsilon parameter) and should appropriately account for correlations between motions in both horizontal directions; (2) Lower-bound component models, which are commonly used in performance-based assessment procedures such as FEMA 356, can significantly bias collapse analysis results; it is more appropriate to use median component behavior, including all aspects of the component model (strength, stiffness, deformation capacity, cyclic deterioration, etc.); (3) Structural modeling uncertainties related to component deformation capacity and post-peak degrading stiffness can impact the variability of calculated collapse probabilities and mean annual rates to a similar degree as record-to-record variability of ground motions. Therefore, including the effects of such structural modeling uncertainties significantly increases the mean annual collapse rates. We found this increase to be roughly four to eight times relative to rates evaluated for the median structural model; (4) Nonlinear response analyses revealed at least six distinct collapse mechanisms, the most common of which was a story mechanism in the third story (differing from the multi-story mechanism predicted by nonlinear static pushover analysis); (5) Soil-foundation-structure interaction effects did not significantly affect the structural response, which was expected given the relatively flexible superstructure and stiff soils. The potential for financial loss is considerable. Overall, the calculated expected annual losses (EAL) are in the range of $52,000 to$97,000 for the various code-conforming benchmark building designs, or roughly 1% of the replacement cost of the building ($8.8M). These losses are dominated by the expected repair costs of the wallboard partitions (including interior paint) and by the structural members. Loss estimates are sensitive to details of the structural models, especially the initial stiffness of the structural elements. Losses are also found to be sensitive to structural modeling choices, such as ignoring the tensile strength of the concrete (40 EAL) or the contribution of the gravity frames to overall building stiffness and strength (15 change in EAL). Although there are a number of factors identified in the literature as likely to affect the risk of human injury during seismic events, the casualty modeling in this study focuses on those factors (building collapse, building occupancy, and spatial location of building occupants) that directly inform the building design process. The expected annual number of fatalities is calculated for the benchmark building, assuming that an earthquake can occur at any time of any day with equal probability and using fatality probabilities conditioned on structural collapse and based on empirical data. The expected annual number of fatalities for the code-conforming buildings ranges between 0.05*10 -2 and 0.21*10 -2 , and is equal to 2.30*10 -2 for a non-code conforming design. The expected loss of life during a seismic event is perhaps the decision variable that owners and policy makers will be most interested in mitigating. The fatality estimation carried out for the benchmark building provides a methodology for comparing this important value for various building designs, and enables informed decision making during the design process. The expected annual loss associated with fatalities caused by building earthquake damage is estimated by converting the expected annual number of fatalities into economic terms. Assuming the value of a human life is$3.5M, the fatality rate translates to an EAL due to fatalities of $3,500 to$5,600 for the code-conforming designs, and $79,800 for the non-code conforming design. Compared to the EAL due to repair costs of the code-conforming designs, which are on the order of$66,000, the monetary value associated with life loss is small, suggesting that the governing factor in this respect will be the maximum permissible life-safety risk deemed by the public (or its representative government) to be appropriate for buildings. Although the focus of this report is on one specific building, it can be used as a reference for other types of structures. This report is organized in such a way that the individual core chapters (4, 5, and 6) can be read independently. Chapter 1 provides background on the performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) approach. Chapter 2 presents the implementation of the PBEE methodology of the PEER framework, as applied to the benchmark building. Chapter 3 sets the stage for the choices of location and basic structural design. The subsequent core chapters focus on the hazard analysis (Chapter 4), the structural analysis (Chapter 5), and the damage and loss analyses (Chapter 6). Although the report is self-contained, readers interested in additional details can find them in the appendices

Food spoilage in beeswax impregnated cotton cloth wraps compared to standard storage methods

Beeswax food wraps have gained popularity as a sustainable, natural alternative to single use options such as plastic bags, plastic wrap, and wax paper. Despite limited evidence, sellers advertise beeswax wraps as having antimicrobial benefits that help food stay fresh longer. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the ability of beeswax impregnated cotton cloth to inhibit food spoilage relative to traditional methods. We designed a prospective trial in which strawberry, bread, and cheese specimens were wrapped in one of the 3 materials: 1) beeswax impregnated cotton cloth, 2) wax paper, or 3) plastic bags alone and followed for 15 days at 65oF for progression of mold growth and other signs of deterioration. For most specimen/timepoint combinations (87%), we found no differences between storage methods. For the 13% of specimen/timepoint combinations where we did note a significant difference, beeswax wraps fared the worst. While beeswax wraps may be preferred as a natural food storage material, their ability to preserve food is no better than conventional options

A New Human NHERF1 Mutation Decreases Renal Phosphate Transporter NPT2a Expression by a PTH-Independent Mechanism

Background: The sodium-hydrogen exchanger regulatory factor 1 (NHERF1) binds to the main renal phosphate transporter NPT2a and to the parathyroid hormone (PTH) receptor. We have recently identified mutations in NHERF1 that decrease renal phosphate reabsorption by increasing PTH-induced cAMP production in the renal proximal tubule. Methods: We compared relevant parameters of phosphate homeostasis in a patient with a previously undescribed mutation in NHERF1 and in control subjects. We expressed the mutant NHERF1 protein in Xenopus Oocytes and in cultured cells to study its effects on phosphate transport and PTH-induced cAMP production. Results: We identified in a patient with inappropriate renal phosphate reabsorption a previously unidentified mutation (E68A) located in the PDZ1 domain of NHERF1.We report the consequences of this mutation on NHERF1 function. E68A mutation did not modify cAMP production in the patient. PTH-induced cAMP synthesis and PKC activity were not altered by E68A mutation in renal cells in culture. In contrast to wild-type NHERF1, expression of the E68A mutant in Xenopus oocytes and in human cells failed to increase phosphate transport. Pull down experiments showed that E68A mutant did not interact with NPT2a, which robustly interacted with wild type NHERF1 and previously identified mutants. Biotinylation studies revealed that E68A mutant was unable to increase cell surface expression of NPT2a. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the PDZ1 domain is critical for NHERF1- NPT2a interaction in humans and for th

Transposable element-mediated rearrangements are prevalent in human genomes.

Transposable elements constitute about half of human genomes, and their role in generating human variation through retrotransposition is broadly studied and appreciated. Structural variants mediated by transposons, which we call transposable element-mediated rearrangements (TEMRs), are less well studied, and the mechanisms leading to their formation as well as their broader impact on human diversity are poorly understood. Here, we identify 493 unique TEMRs across the genomes of three individuals. While homology directed repair is the dominant driver of TEMRs, our sequence-resolved TEMR resource allows us to identify complex inversion breakpoints, triplications or other high copy number polymorphisms, and additional complexities. TEMRs are enriched in genic loci and can create potentially important risk alleles such as a deletion in TRIM65, a known cancer biomarker and therapeutic target. These findings expand our understanding of this important class of structural variation, the mechanisms responsible for their formation, and establish them as an important driver of human diversity

Conformal Ablative Thermal Protection System for Planetary and Human Exploration Missions: Overview of the Technology Maturation Efforts Funded by NASA's Game Changing Development Program

The Office of Chief Technologist (OCT), NASA has identified the need for research and technology development in part from NASA's Strategic Goal 3.3 of the NASA Strategic Plan to develop and demonstrate the critical technologies that will make NASA's exploration, science, and discovery missions more affordable and more capable. Furthermore, the Game Changing Development Program (GCDP) is a primary avenue to achieve the Agency's 2011 strategic goal to "Create the innovative new space technologies for our exploration, science, and economic future." In addition, recently released "NASA space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities," by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences stresses the need for NASA to invest in the very near term in specific EDL technologies. The report points out the following challenges (Page 2-38 of the pre-publication copy released on February 1, 2012): Mass to Surface: Develop the ability to deliver more payload to the destination. NASA's future missions will require ever-greater mass delivery capability in order to place scientifically significant instrument packages on distant bodies of interest, to facilitate sample returns from bodies of interest, and to enable human exploration of planets such as Mars. As the maximum mass that can be delivered to an entry interface is fixed for a given launch system and trajectory design, the mass delivered to the surface will require reduction in spacecraft structural mass; more efficient, lighter thermal protection systems; more efficient lighter propulsion systems; and lighter, more efficient deceleration systems. Surface Access: Increase the ability to land at a variety of planetary locales and at a variety of times. Access to specific sites can be achieved via landing at a specific location (s) or transit from a single designated landing location, but it is currently infeasible to transit long distances and through extremely rugged terrain, requiring landing close to the site of interest. The entry environment is not always guaranteed with a direct entry, and improving the entry system's robustness to a variety of environmental conditions could aid in reaching more varied landing sites.

Development of Thermal Protection Materials for Future Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Systems

Entry Systems will play a crucial role as NASA develops the technologies required for Human Mars Exploration. The Exploration Technology Development Program Office established the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) Technology Development Project to develop Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials for insertion into future Mars Entry Systems. An assessment of current entry system technologies identified significant opportunity to improve the current state of the art in thermal protection materials in order to enable landing of heavy mass (40 mT) payloads. To accomplish this goal, the EDL Project has outlined a framework to define, develop and model the thermal protection system material concepts required to allow for the human exploration of Mars via aerocapture followed by entry. Two primary classes of ablative materials are being developed: rigid and flexible. The rigid ablatives will be applied to the acreage of a 10x30 m rigid mid L/D Aeroshell to endure the dual pulse heating (peak approx.500 W/sq cm). Likewise, flexible ablative materials are being developed for 20-30 m diameter deployable aerodynamic decelerator entry systems that could endure dual pulse heating (peak aprrox.120 W/sq cm). A technology Roadmap is presented that will be used for facilitating the maturation of both the rigid and flexible ablative materials through application of decision metrics (requirements, key performance parameters, TRL definitions, and evaluation criteria) used to assess and advance the various candidate TPS material technologies

Co-option of endogenous retroviruses through genetic escape from TRIM28 repression

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) have rewired host gene networks. To explore the origins of co-option, we employed an active murine ERV, IAPEz, and an embryonic stem cell (ESC) to neural progenitor cell (NPC) differentiation model. Transcriptional silencing via TRIM28 maps to a 190 bp sequence encoding the intracisternal A-type particle (IAP) signal peptide, which confers retrotransposition activity. A subset of "escapee" IAPs (∼15%) exhibits significant genetic divergence from this sequence. Canonical repressed IAPs succumb to a previously undocumented demarcation by H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 in NPCs. Escapee IAPs, in contrast, evade repression in both cell types, resulting in their transcriptional derepression, particularly in NPCs. We validate the enhancer function of a 47 bp sequence within the U3 region of the long terminal repeat (LTR) and show that escapee IAPs convey an activating effect on nearby neural genes. In sum, co-opted ERVs stem from genetic escapees that have lost vital sequences required for both TRIM28 restriction and autonomous retrotransposition