Calibrating Water Depths of Ordovician Communities: Lithological and Ecological Controls on Depositional Gradients in Upper Ordovician Strata of Southern Ohio and North-Central Kentucky, USA

Limestone and shale facies of the Upper Ordovician Grant Lake Formation (Katian: Cincinnatian, Maysvillian) are well exposed in the Cincinnati Arch region of southern Ohio and north-central Kentucky, USA. These rocks record a gradual change in lithofacies and biofacies along a gently northward-sloping ramp. This gradient spans very shallow, olive-gray, platy, laminated dolostones with sparse ostracodes in the south to offshore, nodular, phosphatic, brachiopod-rich limestones and marls in the north. This study uses facies analysis in outcrop to determine paleoenvironmental parameters, particularly those related to water depth (e.g., position of the photic zone and shoreline, relative degree of environmental energy). Within a tightly correlated stratigraphic interval (the Mount Auburn and Straight Creek members of the Grant Lake Formation and the Terrill Member of the Ashlock Formation), we document the occurrence of paleoenvironmental indicators, including desiccation cracks and light-depth indicators, such as red and green algal fossils and oncolites. This permitted recognition of a ramp with an average gradient of 10.20 cm water depth per horizontal kilometer. Thus, shallow subtidal (.lagoonal.) deposits in the upramp portion fall within the 1.5.6 m depth range, cross-bedded grainstones representing shoal-type environments fall within the 6.18 m depth range and subtidal, shell-rich deposits in the downramp portion fall within the 20.30 m depth range. These estimates match interpretations of depth independently derived from faunal and sedimentologic evidence that previously suggested a gentle ramp gradient and contribute to ongoing and future high-resolution paleontologic and stratigraphic studies of the Cincinnati Arch region

An overview of physics teacher professional development activities organized within the Italian PLS-Physics plan over the past five years

The Italian PLS-"Piano Lauree Scientifiche"project has among its objectives the improvement of school-university cooperation, with a special emphasis on in-service teacher professional development. In pursuit of such goal, growing resources and an increasing effort to strengthen the collaboration with schools have been employed in the past years. A working group within the physics section of the PLS project has developed a questionnaire to inquire about teacher formation activities organized during the past five years. After extensive revision and testing, the university network of PLS-Physics was asked to fill the questionnaire. The resulting data from 139 initiatives provides an interesting perspective on the kind of activities, organizational choices and educational priorities for teacher professional development within the PLS-physics project

Understanding first-year students’ curiosity and interest about physics : Lessons learned from the HOPE project

This paper focuses on results of an interview based survey of first-year university physics students, carried out within the EU Horizons in Physics Education (HOPE) project (http://hopenetwork.eu/). 94 interviews conducted in 13 universities have been analyzed to investigate the factors that inspire young people to study physics. In particular, the main motivational factor, which was proven to consist of personal interest and curiosity, was unfolded into different categories and detailed interest profiles were produced. The results are arguably useful to help academic curriculum developers and teaching personnel in physics departments to provide guidance to students in developing and focusing their interest towards specific sub-fields and/or to design targeted recruitment and outreach initiatives.Peer reviewe

The core of secondary level quantum education: a multi-stakeholder perspective

Quantum physics (QP) education at the secondary school level is still in its infancy. Not only is there ongoing discussion about how to teach this subject, but there is also a lack of coherence in the selection of concepts to be taught, both across countries and over time. To contribute to this discussion, we investigated the perspectives of high school teachers, university-level physics educators, and physics education researchers regarding the essential concepts in QP and the corresponding illustrations that should be introduced at the secondary school level. We examined the prominence of different key concepts and illustrations, as well as the level of consensus among the various professional groups. Our analysis revealed that certain key concepts are universally valued across all professional groups, while others are specific to particular groups. Additionally, we explored the relationships between these key concepts and their corresponding illustrations. Overall, our study offers valuable insights into the perspectives of different stakeholders, emphasizing the essential concepts and visualizations that should be considered when designing and implementing the teaching of QP at the secondary school level

Metagenomic binning of a marine sponge microbiome reveals unity in defense but metabolic specialization

Marine sponges are ancient metazoans that are populated by distinct and highly diverse microbial communities. In order to obtain deeper insights into the functional gene repertoire of the Mediterranean sponge Aplysina aerophoba, we combined Illumina short-read and PacBio long-read sequencing followed by un-targeted metagenomic binning. We identified a total of 37 high-quality bins representing 11 bacterial phyla and two candidate phyla. Statistical comparison of symbiont genomes with selected reference genomes revealed a significant enrichment of genes related to bacterial defense (restriction-modification systems, toxin-antitoxin systems) as well as genes involved in host colonization and extracellular matrix utilization in sponge symbionts. A within-symbionts genome comparison revealed a nutritional specialization of at least two symbiont guilds, where one appears to metabolize carnitine and the other sulfated polysaccharides, both of which are abundant molecules in the sponge extracellular matrix. A third guild of symbionts may be viewed as nutritional generalists that perform largely the same metabolic pathways but lack such extraordinary numbers of the relevant genes. This study characterizes the genomic repertoire of sponge symbionts at an unprecedented resolution and it provides greater insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying microbial-sponge symbiosis

Technology assessment of geothermal pumping equipment. final report, July 1978

Twenty-eight separate interviews were conducted with DOE personnel, DOE contractors doing geothermal research, persons associated with geothermal installations, companies engaged in the drilling and completion of geothermal well, and pump manufactures. The reports of these interviews are presented and summarized and conclusions are drawn

A swollen crinoid pluricolumnal from the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky, USA: the oldest record of an amorphous paleopathologic response in Crinoidea?; pp. 317–322

Swollen or otherwise malformed crinoid remains are relatively common in the Phanerozoic. However, published reports typically describe swellings associated with a discrete pit, boring, embedment structure or encruster, and, moreover, are overwhelmingly from Silurian or younger strata. Here, the rare occurrence of an amorphously swollen crinoid pluricolumnal is described from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Grant Lake Formation of north-central Kentucky, USA. This represents one of the oldest examples of crinoid malformation potentially resulting from interaction with a parasite or epibiont, one of the oldest examples of swelling in a crinoid column, and likely represents the oldest record of amorphous swelling. The pluricolumnal is morphologically generalized, making definitive identification difficult. Potential candidates include the diplobathrid camerate Pycnocrinus and the large, morphologically aberrant disparid Anomalocrinus. Regardless, if generated by an antagonistic biotic interaction, this specimen seems to support the hypothesis that crinoids with large calyxes and relatively complex arm morphologies were preferentially utilized as hosts for parasites and commensals over crinoids with simpler morphologies in the Ordovician

A Single Photo for Calibration and Measurement: A Low-Cost Spectrometry Setup

In the last decades spectroscopy began to play an essential role in physics education research with the recognition that atomic spectra constitute a good occasion to study the concepts of quantum mechanics. Moreover, activities in which atomic spectra are studied in order to understand star structure and evolution have proved particularly engaging for students. In this sense, the hydrogen atom spectrum is especially important in astronomy. Other researchers showed how interdisciplinary experimental activities involving interferometry and applied optics offer a good occasion to teach fundamental concepts of radiation-matter interaction

Spectral study of Na source with a smartphone and a diffraction grating

A home-made spectrometer, based on the use of inexpensive diffraction transmission gratings coupled with a smartphone camera, can be assembled and employed to obtain quantitative spectra of different sources with surprisingly high accuracy to the point of being able to observe the separation of the Na-doublet (the wavelength difference between the two emission D-lines of the sodium spectrum). We describe the set up and data analysis required to acquire the emission spectra of a low-pressure sodium discharge lamp and perform such measurement. The experiment addresses a relevant and engaging topic in physics, namely optical spectroscopy, and is suitable for the undergraduate laboratory and for working with high school students