The composition and weathering of the continents over geologic time

The composition of continental crust records the balance between construction by tectonics and destruction by physical and chemical erosion. Quantitative constraints on how igneous addition and chemical weathering have modified the continents’ bulk composition are essential for understanding the evolution of geodynamics and climate. Using novel data-analytic techniques we have extracted temporal trends in sediments’ protolith composition and weathering intensity from the largest available compilation of sedimentary major-element compositions: ∼ 15,000 samples from 4.0 Ga to the present. We find that the average Archean upper continental crust was silica rich and had a similar compositional diversity to modern continents. This is consistent with an early-Archean, or earlier, onset of plate tectonics. In the Archean, chemical weathering sequestered ∼ 25 % more CO2 per mass eroded for the same weathering intensity than in subsequent time periods, consistent with carbon mass-balance despite higher Archean outgassing rates and more limited continental exposure. Since 2.0 Ga, over long (> 0.5 Ga) timescales, crustal weathering intensity has remained relatively constant. On shorter timescales over the Phanerozoic, weathering intensity is correlated to global climate state, consistent with a weathering feedback acting in response to changes in CO2 sources or sinks

The Type 2 Diabetes Knowledge Portal: an open access genetic resource dedicated to type 2 diabetes and related traits

Associations between human genetic variation and clinical phenotypes have become a foundation of biomedical research. Most repositories of these data seek to be disease-agnostic and therefore lack disease-focused views. The Type 2 Diabetes Knowledge Portal (T2DKP) is a public resource of genetic datasets and genomic annotations dedicated to type 2 diabetes (T2D) and related traits. Here, we seek to make the T2DKP more accessible to prospective users and more useful to existing users. First, we evaluate the T2DKP's comprehensiveness by comparing its datasets with those of other repositories. Second, we describe how researchers unfamiliar with human genetic data can begin using and correctly interpreting them via the T2DKP. Third, we describe how existing users can extend their current workflows to use the full suite of tools offered by the T2DKP. We finally discuss the lessons offered by the T2DKP toward the goal of democratizing access to complex disease genetic results

The Type 2 Diabetes Knowledge Portal: an Open access Genetic Resource Dedicated to Type 2 Diabetes and Related Traits

Associations between human genetic variation and clinical phenotypes have become a foundation of biomedical research. Most repositories of these data seek to be disease-agnostic and therefore lack disease-focused views. The Type 2 Diabetes Knowledge Portal (T2DKP) is a public resource of genetic datasets and genomic annotations dedicated to type 2 diabetes (T2D) and related traits. Here, we seek to make the T2DKP more accessible to prospective users and more useful to existing users. First, we evaluate the T2DKP\u27s comprehensiveness by comparing its datasets with those of other repositories. Second, we describe how researchers unfamiliar with human genetic data can begin using and correctly interpreting them via the T2DKP. Third, we describe how existing users can extend their current workflows to use the full suite of tools offered by the T2DKP. We finally discuss the lessons offered by the T2DKP toward the goal of democratizing access to complex disease genetic results

The composition and weathering of the continents over geologic time

The composition of continental crust records the balance between construction by tectonics and destruction by physical and chemical erosion. Quantitative constraints on how igneous addition and chemical weathering have modified the continents’ bulk composition are essential for understanding the evolution of geodynamics and climate. Using novel data analytic techniques we have extracted temporal trends in sediments’ protolith composition and weathering intensity from the largest available compilation of sedimentary major element compositions: ∼15,000 samples from 4.0 Ga to the present. We find that the average Archean upper continental crust was silica-rich and had a similar compositional diversity to modern continents. This is consistent with an early Archean, or earlier, onset of plate tectonics. In the Archean, chemical weathering sequestered ∼25 % more CO2 per mass eroded for the same weathering intensity than in subsequent time periods, consistent with carbon mass balance despite higher Archean outgassing rates and more limited continental exposure. Since 2.0 Ga, over long (>0.5 Gyr) timescales, crustal weathering intensity has remained relatively constant. On shorter timescales over the Phanerozoic, weathering intensity is correlated to global climate state, consistent with a weathering feedback acting in response to changes in CO2 sources or sinks

Determinants of penetrance and variable expressivity in monogenic metabolic conditions across 77,184 exomes

Penetrance of variants in monogenic disease and clinical utility of common polygenic variation has not been well explored on a large-scale. Here, the authors use exome sequencing data from 77,184 individuals to generate penetrance estimates and assess the utility of polygenic variation in risk prediction of monogenic variants

Geobiology of a lower Cambrian carbonate platform, Pedroche Formation, Ossa Morena Zone, Spain

The Cambrian Pedroche Formation comprises a mixed siliciclastic-carbonate succession recording subtidal deposition on a marine platform. Carbonate carbon isotope chemostratigraphy confirms previous biostratigraphic assignment of the Pedroche Formation to the Atdabanian regional stage of Siberia, correlative to Cambrian Series 2. At the outcrop scale, thrombolitic facies comprise ~. 60% of carbonate-normalized stratigraphy and coated-grains another ~. 10%. Petrographic point counts reveal that skeletons contribute at most 20% to thrombolitic inter-reef and reef-flank lithologies; on average, archaeocyath clasts make up 68% of skeletal materials. In contrast, petrographic point counts show that skeletons comprise a negligible volume of biohermal and biostromal thrombolite, associated nodular carbonate facies, and ooid, oncoid and peloid grainstone facies. As such, archaeocyathan reefal bioconstructions represent a specific and limited locus of skeletal carbonate production and deposition. Consistent with data from coeval, globally dispersed lower Cambrian successions, our analysis of the Pedroche Formation supports the view that lower Cambrian carbonates have more in common with earlier, Neoproterozoic deposits than with younger carbonates dominated by skeletal production and accumulation. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.Jessica R. Creveling, David Fernández-Remolar, Marta Rodríguez-Martínez, Silvia Menéndez, Kristin D. Bergmann, Benjamin C. Gill, John Abelson, Ricardo Amils, Bethany L. Ehlmann, Diego C. García-Bellido, John P. Grotzinger, Christian Hallmann, Kathryn M. Stack, Andrew H. Knol

Determinants of penetrance and variable expressivity in monogenic metabolic conditions across 77,184 exomes

Hundreds of thousands of genetic variants have been reported to cause severe monogenic diseases, but the probability that a variant carrier develops the disease (termed penetrance) is unknown for virtually all of them. Additionally, the clinical utility of common polygenetic variation remains uncertain. Using exome sequencing from 77,184 adult individuals (38,618 multi-ancestral individuals from a type 2 diabetes case-control study and 38,566 participants from the UK Biobank, for whom genotype array data were also available), we apply clinical standard-of-care gene variant curation for eight monogenic metabolic conditions. Rare variants causing monogenic diabetes and dyslipidemias display effect sizes significantly larger than the top 1% of the corresponding polygenic scores. Nevertheless, penetrance estimates for monogenic variant carriers average 60% or lower for most conditions. We assess epidemiologic and genetic factors contributing to risk prediction in monogenic variant carriers, demonstrating that inclusion of polygenic variation significantly improves biomarker estimation for two monogenic dyslipidemias

Visual Literacy (Grade 9-12): Art Today -- Course Description and Outline

Process is hugely contrasting among all artists around the world. Each artist has their own way of developing a way of thinking, seeing and making to reach their need to get something out (or in simpler terms, create art). In this middle school art class, students will explore the different mediums of art with strict guidelines of craft and technique but freedom in the subject of what they can create on their own. It is important for 6th grade students to cooperate with each other to solve problems and create an identity through their own art making process. Dewey explains experience, “Under conditions of resistance and conflict, aspects and elements of the self and the world that are implicated in this interaction qualify experience with emotions and ideas so that conscious intent emerges. Oftentimes, however, the experience had is inchoate. Things are experienced but not in such a way that they are composed into an experience. There is distraction and dispersion; what we observe and what we think, what we desire and what we get, are at odds with each other. We put our hands to the plow and turn back; we start and then we stop, not because the experience has reached the end for the sake of which it was initiated but because of extraneous interruptions…