Ligia Grischa: A successful Swiss colony on the Dakota Territory frontier

In 1877 a small group of Swiss immigrants from the Graubunden canton formed a cooperative with another Swiss group in Stillwater, Minnesota, to begin a colony in eastern South Dakota. These settlers founded the Badus Swiss colony on the open prairie in Lake County, Dakota Territory {later South Dakota}, based on cooperative rules written in Switzerland in 1424. This settlement was one of the last Swiss colonies created in the United States during the great nineteenth-century European migration, and one of the westernmost Swiss settlements in the United States. There were two major factors that contributed to the Badus Swiss colonists achieving their goals of individual self-sufficient family farms and assimilating into American society. First, cultural preadaptation {i.e., organizational bylaws} provided the colonists with the knowledge and skills in its formative years to create a colony. The history, organization, institutions, and artifacts of the Badus colony reveal cultural traits that were present in their home country. Second, its affiliation with a nearby Irish settlement hastened Swiss assimilation, compared to what it would have been had the Swiss remained an isolated group. Both immigrant groups were Roman Catholic, which facilitated a bond based on the common religion

Ligia Grischa: A successful Swiss colony on the Dakota Territory frontier

In 1877 a small group of Swiss immigrants from the Graubunden canton formed a cooperative with another Swiss group in Stillwater, Minnesota, to begin a colony in eastern South Dakota. These settlers founded the Badus Swiss colony on the open prairie in Lake County, Dakota Territory {later South Dakota}, based on cooperative rules written in Switzerland in 1424. This settlement was one of the last Swiss colonies created in the United States during the great nineteenth-century European migration, and one of the westernmost Swiss settlements in the United States. There were two major factors that contributed to the Badus Swiss colonists achieving their goals of individual self-sufficient family farms and assimilating into American society. First, cultural preadaptation {i.e., organizational bylaws} provided the colonists with the knowledge and skills in its formative years to create a colony. The history, organization, institutions, and artifacts of the Badus colony reveal cultural traits that were present in their home country. Second, its affiliation with a nearby Irish settlement hastened Swiss assimilation, compared to what it would have been had the Swiss remained an isolated group. Both immigrant groups were Roman Catholic, which facilitated a bond based on the common religion

Longitudinal changes of brain microstructure and function in nonconcussed female rugby players

ObjectiveTo longitudinally assess brain microstructure and function in female varsity athletes participating in contact and noncontact sports.MethodsConcussion-free female rugby players (n = 73) were compared to age-matched (ages 18-23) female swimmers and rowers (n = 31) during the in- and off-season. Diffusion and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) measures were the primary outcomes. The Sports Concussion Assessment Tool and head impact accelerometers were used to monitor symptoms and impacts, respectively.ResultsWe found cross-sectional (contact vs noncontact) and longitudinal (in- vs off-season) changes in white matter diffusion measures and rs-fMRI network connectivity in concussion-free contact athletes relative to noncontact athletes. In particular, mean, axial, and radial diffusivities were increased with decreased fractional anisotropy in multiple white matter tracts of contact athletes accompanied with default mode and visual network hyperconnectivity (p \u3c 0.001). Longitudinal diffusion changes in the brainstem between the in- and off-season were observed for concussion-free contact athletes only, with progressive changes observed in a subset of athletes over multiple seasons. Axial diffusivity was significantly lower in the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum in those contact athletes with a history of concussion.ConclusionsTogether, these findings demonstrate longitudinal changes in the microstructure and function of the brain in otherwise healthy, asymptomatic athletes participating in contact sport. Further research to understand the long-term brain health and biological implications of these changes is required, in particular to what extent these changes reflect compensatory, reparative, or degenerative processes

Rain-induced turbulence and air-sea gas transfer

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 114 (2009): C07009, doi:10.1029/2008JC005008.Results from a rain and gas exchange experiment (Bio2 RainX III) at the Biosphere 2 Center demonstrate that turbulence controls the enhancement of the air-sea gas transfer rate (or velocity) k during rainfall, even though profiles of the turbulent dissipation rate ɛ are strongly influenced by near-surface stratification. The gas transfer rate scales with ɛ inline equation for a range of rain rates with broad drop size distributions. The hydrodynamic measurements elucidate the mechanisms responsible for the rain-enhanced k results using SF6 tracer evasion and active controlled flux technique. High-resolution k and turbulence results highlight the causal relationship between rainfall, turbulence, stratification, and air-sea gas exchange. Profiles of ɛ beneath the air-sea interface during rainfall, measured for the first time during a gas exchange experiment, yielded discrete values as high as 10−2 W kg−1. Stratification modifies and traps the turbulence near the surface, affecting the enhancement of the transfer velocity and also diminishing the vertical mixing of mass transported to the air-water interface. Although the kinetic energy flux is an integral measure of the turbulent input to the system during rain events, ɛ is the most robust response to all the modifications and transformations to the turbulent state that follows. The Craig-Banner turbulence model, modified for rain instead of breaking wave turbulence, successfully predicts the near-surface dissipation profile at the onset of the rain event before stratification plays a dominant role. This result is important for predictive modeling of k as it allows inferring the surface value of ɛ fundamental to gas transfer.This work was funded by a generous grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Climate Center. Additional funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (OCE-05-26677) and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program (N00014-04-1-0621)

Dual modification of Alzheimer’s disease PHF-tau protein by lysine methylation and ubiquitylation: a mass spectrometry approach

In sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD), neurofibrillary lesion formation is preceded by extensive post-translational modification of the microtubule associated protein tau. To identify the modification signature associated with tau lesion formation at single amino acid resolution, immunopurified paired helical filaments were isolated from AD brain and subjected to nanoflow liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry analysis. The resulting spectra identified monomethylation of lysine residues as a new tau modification. The methyl-lysine was distributed among seven residues located in the projection and microtubule binding repeat regions of tau protein, with one site, K254, being a substrate for a competing lysine modification, ubiquitylation. To characterize methyl lysine content in intact tissue, hippocampal sections prepared from post mortem late-stage AD cases were subjected to double-label confocal fluorescence microscopy using anti-tau and anti-methyl lysine antibodies. Anti-methyl lysine immunoreactivity colocalized with 78 ± 13% of neurofibrillary tangles in these specimens. Together these data provide the first evidence that tau in neurofibrillary lesions is post-translationally modified by lysine methylation

Will They Answer the Phone if They Know It’s Us? Using Caller ID to Improve Response Rates

Survey response rates have been declining over the last several decades. In terms of telephone surveys, this decline is often attributed to the wide availability of call screening technologies and respondents’ reluctance to answer calls from unknown numbers. This has led some to posit that calling respondents from local area codes (or familiar area codes) and using identifiers that are both recognizable and trustworthy may improve survey response rates. In fact, anecdotal evidence within our own agency has suggested that this may be the case; however, research outside of our agency has produced mixed findings in regards to these claims. At the National Agricultural Statistics Service, we conducted a series of experiments to determine if the information presented on caller ID would influence response rates. Specifically, we examined whether calling respondents using in-state area codes rather than out-of-state area codes and different identifiers (i.e., USDA versus Ag Counts) improved response rates. In addition, we surveyed respondents regarding their use of caller ID and its influence on their decision to answer our call. In this report, we discuss the findings from this study and their implications

Barcelona Bikes in Boise: Can Boise be Successful Where Other U.S. Cities Have Failed?

The problem of Boise’s transportation is no secret to anyone who tries to drive in the city during rush hour. Various solutions have been pondered and several improvements have been attempted. However, Boise has certain social and spatial characteristics that would make it ideal for one solution that seems to have gone unnoticed thus far. The popular areas of Boise are spatially condensed, which means shorter distances to get form Point A to Point B. The crime rates within the city are low, especially compared to other urban areas. Combining these distinguishing features with other characteristics, Boise has the opportunity to be successful with a community bike-sharing program. Our research focuses on the idea of Boise initiating a community bike-sharing program. We intend to show that Boise has the right mix of social and spatial characteristics for successful implementation of such a program. We will examine the reasons why other bike sharing programs throughout the country have failed and determine how to modify existing models from Asian and European countries appropriately to fit Boise’s needs. The project will provide a cost analysis, which will include the cost of implementation and the price of preventative maintenance. The project will consist of a survey on how current community members would feel about installing this program. Finally, this project will examine other related factors to ensure a successful operation, including the placement of bike kiosks, integrating the bikes with the existing public transit system run by Valley Regional transit, etc. The results and final analysis will hopefully present a non-traditional idea that can make Boise a unique city in America