Geology and Geochemistry of the Ship Creek and Monashka Creek reservoirs, Southcentral Alaska

Graywacke from the Ship Creek watershed, dissolves incongruently in distilled water. The dissolution appears to follow a first-order rate law which in integrated form is: k = -2.303/t log No-Q/No where No is the concentration in ppm of Ca, Mg, Na or K in the graywacke, Q is the total quantity of these ions leached in time t(days), k is the rate constant in days-1. Experimentally derived rate constants for the dissolution of graywacke in distilled water at 5oC are log k+2CA, -4.128 day-1; log k+2Mg, -6.174 day-1; log k+Na, -5.800 day-1; and log k+K, -5.249 day-1. The above constants are for 40 to +100 mesh graywacke. A surface area correction term must be inserted in the above equation if it is applied to a different size fraction. Using the above equation and rate constants, the chemical composition of a water in contact with graywacke was calculated. With the exception of magnesium, the agreement between the calculated composition and that of Ship Creek water was good. Assuming that the groundwater in the Ship Creek watershed contacts about 1.5X104cm2 graywacke per liter, 120 to 360 days are required at 5oC to produce the concentration of ions observed in Ship Creek. Release of exchangeable H+ from the soil mat to the reservoir water will not significant1y lower the pH of the water. Leaching of heavy metals from sulfides contained in the bedrock of the two watersheds does not pose a water quality hazard. Lineaments in the bedrock at Monashka Creek may provide channels through which water may seep from the reservoir. These are not expected to pose a problem in retaining water in the reservoir, but they may result in small, new springs down grade from the reservoir.The work upon which this report is based was supported by funds provided by the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research and Technology, as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1964, Public Law 88-379, as amended. (Project A-045-ALAS

Incidental music: Enhancing the emotional experience of the audience

Environmental psychologists, who study transactions between individuals and their physical settings, maintain when an individual’s environment is changed, his/her behavior and experience are also changed by the environment (Gifford, 2002). Like other segments of the theatrical setting, a manipulation of the environment can enhance or constrain audience actions. Physical elements, as well as other ambient factors such as lighting, color, quality of materials, set design, music, fragrance, and room temperature are just a sample of the dramatic elements used to orchestrate the environment. However, this paper explores the relationship between the elements utilized to create enhanced experiences for the audience through the introduction of incidental music to dramatic performances that take place in all theatrical settings and venues, ranging from traditional theatres to special events

On the triple origin of blue stragglers

Blue straggler stars (BSSs) are stars observed to be hotter and bluer than other stars with the same luminosity in their environment. As such they appear to be much younger than the rest of the stellar population. Two main channels have been suggested to produce such stars: (1) collisions between stars in clusters or (2) mass transfer between, or merger of, the components of primordial short-period binaries. Here we suggest a third scenario, in which the progenitor of BSSs are formed in primordial (or dynamically formed) hierarchical triple stars. In such configurations the dynamical evolution of the triples through the Kozai mechanism and tidal friction can induce the formation of very close inner binaries. Angular momentum loss in a magnetized wind or stellar evolution could then lead to the merger of these binaries (or to mass transfer between them) and produce BSSs in binary (or triple) systems. We study this mechanism and its implications and show that it could naturally explain many of the characteristics of the BSS population in clusters, most notably the large binary fraction of long period BSS binaries; their unique period-eccentricity distribution (with typical periods > 700 days); and the typical location of these BSSs in the color-magnitude diagram, far from the cluster turn-off point of their host clusters. We suggest that this scenario has a major (possibly dominant) role in the formation of BSSs in open clusters and give specific predictions for the the BSSs population formed in this manner. We also note that triple systems may be the progenitors of the brightest planetary nebulae in old elliptical galaxies, which possibly evolved from BSSs.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Minor additions; ApJ, in pres

Life in Hot Carbon Monoxide: The Complete Genome Sequence of Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans Z-2901

We report here the sequencing and analysis of the genome of the thermophilic bacterium Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans Z-2901. This species is a model for studies of hydrogenogens, which are diverse bacteria and archaea that grow anaerobically utilizing carbon monoxide (CO) as their sole carbon source and water as an electron acceptor, producing carbon dioxide and hydrogen as waste products. Organisms that make use of CO do so through carbon monoxide dehydrogenase complexes. Remarkably, analysis of the genome of C. hydrogenoformans reveals the presence of at least five highly differentiated anaerobic carbon monoxide dehydrogenase complexes, which may in part explain how this species is able to grow so much more rapidly on CO than many other species. Analysis of the genome also has provided many general insights into the metabolism of this organism which should make it easier to use it as a source of biologically produced hydrogen gas. One surprising finding is the presence of many genes previously found only in sporulating species in the Firmicutes Phylum. Although this species is also a Firmicutes, it was not known to sporulate previously. Here we show that it does sporulate and because it is missing many of the genes involved in sporulation in other species, this organism may serve as a “minimal” model for sporulation studies. In addition, using phylogenetic profile analysis, we have identified many uncharacterized gene families found in all known sporulating Firmicutes, but not in any non-sporulating bacteria, including a sigma factor not known to be involved in sporulation previously

Mutations in DYNC2LI1 disrupt cilia function and cause short rib polydactyly syndrome.

The short rib polydactyly syndromes (SRPSs) are a heterogeneous group of autosomal recessive, perinatal lethal skeletal disorders characterized primarily by short, horizontal ribs, short limbs and polydactyly. Mutations in several genes affecting intraflagellar transport (IFT) cause SRPS but they do not account for all cases. Here we identify an additional SRPS gene and further unravel the functional basis for IFT. We perform whole-exome sequencing and identify mutations in a new disease-producing gene, cytoplasmic dynein-2 light intermediate chain 1, DYNC2LI1, segregating with disease in three families. Using primary fibroblasts, we show that DYNC2LI1 is essential for dynein-2 complex stability and that mutations in DYNC2LI1 result in variable length, including hyperelongated, cilia, Hedgehog pathway impairment and ciliary IFT accumulations. The findings in this study expand our understanding of SRPS locus heterogeneity and demonstrate the importance of DYNC2LI1 in dynein-2 complex stability, cilium function, Hedgehog regulation and skeletogenesis

KELT-11b: A Highly Inflated Sub-Saturn Exoplanet Transiting the V=8 Subgiant HD 93396

We report the discovery of a transiting exoplanet, KELT-11b, orbiting the bright ($V=8.0$) subgiant HD 93396. A global analysis of the system shows that the host star is an evolved subgiant star with $T_{\rm eff} = 5370\pm51$ K, $M_{*} = 1.438_{-0.052}^{+0.061} M_{\odot}$, $R_{*} = 2.72_{-0.17}^{+0.21} R_{\odot}$, log $g_*= 3.727_{-0.046}^{+0.040}$, and [Fe/H]$= 0.180\pm0.075$. The planet is a low-mass gas giant in a $P = 4.736529\pm0.00006$ day orbit, with $M_{P} = 0.195\pm0.018 M_J$, $R_{P}= 1.37_{-0.12}^{+0.15} R_J$, $\rho_{P} = 0.093_{-0.024}^{+0.028}$ g cm$^{-3}$, surface gravity log ${g_{P}} = 2.407_{-0.086}^{+0.080}$, and equilibrium temperature $T_{eq} = 1712_{-46}^{+51}$ K. KELT-11 is the brightest known transiting exoplanet host in the southern hemisphere by more than a magnitude, and is the 6th brightest transit host to date. The planet is one of the most inflated planets known, with an exceptionally large atmospheric scale height (2763 km), and an associated size of the expected atmospheric transmission signal of 5.6%. These attributes make the KELT-11 system a valuable target for follow-up and atmospheric characterization, and it promises to become one of the benchmark systems for the study of inflated exoplanets.Comment: 15 pages, Submitted to AAS Journal

(31) P and (1) H MRS of DB-1 melanoma xenografts: lonidamine selectively decreases tumor intracellular pH and energy status and sensitizes tumors to melphalan.

In vivo (31) P MRS demonstrates that human melanoma xenografts in immunosuppressed mice treated with lonidamine (LND, 100 mg/kg intraperitoneally) exhibit a decrease in intracellular pH (pH(i) ) from 6.90 ± 0.05 to 6.33 ± 0.10 (p \u3c 0.001), a slight decrease in extracellular pH (pH(e) ) from 7.00 ± 0.04 to 6.80 ± 0.07 (p \u3e 0.05) and a monotonic decline in bioenergetics (nucleoside triphosphate/inorganic phosphate) of 66.8 ± 5.7% (p \u3c 0.001) relative to the baseline level. Both bioenergetics and pH(i) decreases were sustained for at least 3 h following LND treatment. Liver exhibited a transient intracellular acidification by 0.2 ± 0.1 pH units (p \u3e 0.05) at 20 min post-LND, with no significant change in pH(e) and a small transient decrease in bioenergetics (32.9 ± 10.6%, p \u3e 0.05) at 40 min post-LND. No changes in pH(i) or adenosine triphosphate/inorganic phosphate were detected in the brain (pH(i) , bioenergetics; p \u3e 0.1) or skeletal muscle (pH(i) , pH(e) , bioenergetics; p \u3e 0.1) for at least 120 min post-LND. Steady-state tumor lactate monitored by (1) H MRS with a selective multiquantum pulse sequence with Hadamard localization increased approximately three-fold (p = 0.009). Treatment with LND increased the systemic melanoma response to melphalan (LPAM; 7.5 mg/kg intravenously), producing a growth delay of 19.9 ± 2.0 days (tumor doubling time, 6.15 ± 0.31 days; log(10) cell kill, 0.975 ± 0.110; cell kill, 89.4 ± 2.2%) compared with LND alone of 1.1 ± 0.1 days and LPAM alone of 4.0 ± 0.0 days. The study demonstrates that the effects of LND on tumor pH(i) and bioenergetics may sensitize melanoma to pH-dependent therapeutics, such as chemotherapy with alkylating agents or hyperthermia