A History of The Mid-America Conference on History

After conferring with colleagues, I created the Mid-America Conference on History (MACH) in 1977. At the time I was an associate professor of history at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri. The MACH sought to mirror other regional ventures such as the Northern Great Plains History Conference, which was established in 1966. The motivation was similar for I had also experienced the high costs of attending national meetings of the Organization of American Historians or the American Historical Association held in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, or Washington, D.C. More importantly, the opportunity to present at national meetings proved difficult for junior faculty, especially from less prominent institutions. My vision was to create a smaller version of the Southern Historical Association (SHA) conference that drew primarily from middle America and that shared the same professional standards and intimate environment of the SHA

A History of The Missouri Conference on History, 1959-2016

The Missouri Conference on History (MCOH) emerged in 1959 and has continued without missing a year, despite undergoing organizational changes over time. Many individuals have contributed to make it one of the most successful state conferences ever. This is a story worth telling, especially at time when many people are reconsidering the history of the Midwest and how to support the infrastructure necessary to promote the study of that history

Design and Synthesis of Hoogsteen-Binding Peptide Nucleic Acid Monomers with Extended Linkers for Triple Helical U-A Recognition in RNA

RNA provides many functions within biological systems. For example, noncoding RNA (ncRNA), a form of RNA that is not part of transcription or translation, serves a variety of unique roles, such as catalysis or gene regulation. ncRNA generally forms double helical motifs that are ripe for molecular recognition. Sequence selective recognition of double helical RNA (dhRNA) can be achieved using Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNA) through triple helical formation by Hoogsteen hydrogen bonding of PNA nucleobases in the major groove of dhRNA. However, strong, and selective recognition is typically limited to polypurine strands and pyrimidine recognition remains an unsolved problem. A promising solution uses extended nucleobases to reach across the Hoogsteen face of the RNA base pair, bypassing the pyrimidine, and binding with the distal purine. Using this strategy, we designed and synthesized new extended nucleobases to help uncover the ideal linker length and heterocyclic substitution for optimal molecular recognition

Continental-Scale Partitioning of Fire Emissions During the 1997 to 2001 El Niño/La Niña Period

During the 1997 to 1998 El Niño, drought conditions triggered widespread increases in fire activity, releasing CH_4 and CO_2 to the atmosphere. We evaluated the contribution of fires from different continents to variability in these greenhouse gases from 1997 to 2001, using satellite-based estimates of fire activity, biogeochemical modeling, and an inverse analysis of atmospheric CO anomalies. During the 1997 to 1998 El Niño, the fire emissions anomaly was 2.1 ± 0.8 petagrams of carbon, or 66 ± 24% of the CO_2 growth rate anomaly. The main contributors were Southeast Asia (60%), Central and South America (30%), and boreal regions of Eurasia and North America (10%)

In reply

http://dx.doi.org/10.1197/j.aem.2006.02.00

Top-down estimates of global CO sources using MOPITT measurements

We present a synthesis inversion of CO emissions from various geographical regions and for various source categories for the year 2000 using CO retrievals from the MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) instrument. We find a large discrepancy between our top‐down estimates and recent bottom‐up estimates of CO emissions from fossil fuel/biofuel (FFBF) use in Asia. A key conclusion of this study is that CO emissions in East Asia (EAS) are about a factor of 1.8–2 higher than recent bottom‐up estimates

The Time Value of Housing: Historical Evidence on Discount Rates

Most London housing transactions involve trading long leases of varying lengths. We exploit this to estimate the time value of housing – the relationship between the price of a property and the term of ownership – over a 100 years and derive implied discount rates. For our empirical analysis, we compile a unique historical data set (1987–92) to abstract from the right to extend leases currently enjoyed by tenants. Across a variety of specifications and samples, we find that leasehold prices are consistent with a time declining schedule and low long‐term discount rates in housing markets

A Late Pleistocene channelized subglacial meltwater system on the Atlantic continental shelf south of Ireland

The study of palaeo-glacial landforms and sediments can give insights into the nature and dynamics of ice sheets. This is particularly the case with regards to the subglacial record, which is challenging to observe in contemporary glaciated settings and hence remains only partially understood. The subglacial hydrological system is an essential component of ice dynamics, where increased water pressure enhances ice motion and sediment deformation, thus reducing ice-bed contact. Tunnel valleys are large, sinuous, steep-sided incisions that, together with smaller scale meltwater channels, indicate subglacial meltwater discharge beneath large ice sheets. Through the use of high-resolution marine geophysical data, a system of buried and exposed tunnel valleys, possible subglacial or proglacial meltwater channels and palaeo-fluvial valleys have been identified across the shelf of the Celtic Sea between Ireland and Britain. The presence of steep-sided and overdeepened tunnel valleys is indicative of a large channelized meltwater drainage system beneath the former Irish Sea Ice Stream, the most extensive ice stream to drain the last British–Irish Ice Sheet. After the rapid ice expansion across the Celtic Sea shelf around 28–26 ka, the tunnel valleys were carved into both bedrock and glacigenic sediments and are associated with rapid ice stream retreat northwards into the Irish Sea Basin between 25.6 and 24.3 ka. The presence of a major subglacial meltwater system on the relatively shallow shelf suggests that significant erosive meltwater discharge occurred during the last deglaciation and highlights the important contribution of meltwater to the retreat of the British–Irish Ice Sheet on the continental shelf

Predicting Fire Season Severity in South America Using Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies

Fires in South America cause forest degradation and contribute to carbon emissions associated with land use change. Here we investigated the relationship between year-to-year changes in satellite-derived estimates of fire activity in South America and sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. We found that the Oceanic Ni o Index (ONI) was correlated with interannual fire activity in the eastern Amazon whereas the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) index was more closely linked with fires in the southern and southwestern Amazon. Combining these two climate indices, we developed an empirical model that predicted regional annual fire season severity (FSS) with 3-5 month lead times. Our approach provides the foundation for an early warning system for forecasting the vulnerability of Amazon forests to fires, thus enabling more effective management with benefits for mitigation of greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions

Climate controls on the variability of fires in the tropics and subtropics

In the tropics and subtropics, most fires are set by humans for a wide range of purposes. The total amount of burned area and fire emissions reflects a complex interaction between climate, human activities, and ecosystem processes. Here we used satellite-derived data sets of active fire detections, burned area, precipitation, and the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR) during 1998-2006 to investigate this interaction. The total number of active fire detections and burned area was highest in areas that had intermediate levels of both net primary production (NPP; 500-1000 g C