Heavy mineral stratigraphy of the Unayzah Formation and Basal Khuff Clastics (Carboniferous to Permian) of Central Saudi Arabia

A study of heavy mineral assemblages in the Unayzah Reservoir sandstones of central Saudi Arabia has identified successive changes in provenance signature. These define four heavy mineral units that are of regional extent and largely coincident with the four main depositional units defined by previous authors: Unayzah C, Unayzah B, Unayzah A and the Basal Khuff Clastics. Sandstone bodies with anomalous mineral signatures also occur, however, especially within the Unayzah B Member. These are attributed to local supply of sand from pre-Unayzah Paleozoic sandstones exposed on the Central Arabian Arch and on intrabasinal highs. The stratigraphic changes in mineralogy reflect successive developments in the geography and climate of the region and in the pattern of sand sourcing and transport. The Unayzah C sands and the majority of Unayzah B sands were derived from the south but whereas the southerly derived Unayzah C sands appear to have been derived from pre-existing mature sandstones, those of Unayzah B were sourced from a wider range of rock types including crystalline basement. This contrast is interpreted as indicating that a significant hiatus may separate the two units. The Unayzah B sands are also characterised by the common presence of apatite, indicating that the source rocks were relatively unweathered. This observation is compatible with the glacial origin attributed to many of the Unayzah B sediments. A further change in provenance signature takes place at the base the newly recognised ‘un-named middle Unayzah member’, equivalent to the base of Unayzah A of previous authors. This is associated with the onset of red-bed sedimentation throughout the area. Unayzah A sedimentation was terminated by a fall in sea level that led to the formation of a widespread unconformity and to the development of deeply incised valleys along the western basin margin. In most of the study area this unconformity corresponds to the base of the Khuff Formation, but in the east of the area, where the succession is more complete, it is believed to occur within the Unayzah Formation, at a level equivalent to the base of the Upper Gharif Member of Oman. By identifying lateral and vertical changes in sand provenance, heavy mineral analysis provides an important additional tool in the stratigraphic analysis of the Permian sandstone succession of Saudi Arabia, both at the regional scale and wand at the scale of individual reservoir sandstone successions

The Far-Ultraviolet Spectrum and Short Timescale Variability of AM Herculis from Observations with the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope

Using the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), we have obtained 850-1850 angstrom spectra of the magnetic cataclysmic variable star AM Her in the high state. These observations provide high time resolution spectra of AM Her in the FUV and sample much of the orbital period of the system. The spectra are not well-modelled in terms of simple white dwarf (WD) atmospheres, especially at wavelengths shortward of Lyman alpha. The continuum flux changes by a factor of 2 near the Lyman limit as a function of orbital phase; the peak fluxes are observed near magnetic phase 0.6 when the accreting pole of the WD is most clearly visible. The spectrum of the hotspot can be modelled in terms of a 100 000 K WD atmosphere covering 2% of the WD surface. The high time resolution of the HUT data allows an analysis of the short term variability and shows the UV luminosity to change by as much as 50% on timescales as short as 10 s. This rapid variability is shown to be inconsistent with the clumpy accretion model proposed to account for the soft X-ray excess in polars. We see an increase in narrow line emission during these flares when the heated face of the secondary is in view. The He II narrow line flux is partially eclipsed at secondary conjunction, implying that the inclination of the system is greater than 45 degrees. We also present results from models of the heated face of the secondary. These models show that reprocessing on the face of the secondary star of X-ray/EUV emission from the accretion region near the WD can account for the intensities and kinematics of most of the narrow line components observed.Comment: 19 pp., 12 fig., 3 tbl. To appear in The Astrophysical Journal. Also available at http://greeley.pha.jhu.edu/papers/amherpp.ps.g

Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope Observations of Her X-1

We have obtained a far-ultraviolet spectrum of the X-ray binary Hercules X-1/HZ Herculis using the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope aboard the Astro-1 space shuttle mission in 1990 December. This is the first spectrum of Her X-1 that extends down to the Lyman limit at 912 A. We observed emission lines of O VI, N V, and C IV, and the far UV continuum extending to the Lyman limit. We examine the conditions of the emitting gas through line strengths, line ratios, and doublet ratios. The UV flux is lower by about a factor of 2 than expected at the orbital phase of the observation. We model the UV continuum with a simple power-law and with a detailed model of an X-ray-illuminated accretion disk and companion star. The power-law provides a superior fit, as the detailed model predicts too little flux below 1200 A. We note, however, that there are uncertainties in the interstellar reddening, in the background airglow spectrum, and in the long-term phase of the accretion disk. We have searched the data for UV line and continuum pulsations near the neutron star spin period but found none at a detectable level.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, accepted by the Astrophysical Journa

Therapeutic Neonatal Hepatic Gene Therapy in Mucopolysaccharidosis VII Dogs

Dogs with mucopolysaccharidosis VII (MPS VII) were injected intravenously at 2–3 days of age with a retroviral vector (RV) expressing canine β-glucuronidase (cGUSB). Five animals received RV alone, and two dogs received hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) before RV in an attempt to increase transduction efficiency. Transduced hepatocytes expanded clonally during normal liver growth and secreted enzyme with mannose 6-phosphate. Serum GUSB activity was stable for up to 14 months at normal levels for the RV-treated dogs, and for 17 months at 67-fold normal for the HGF/RV-treated dog. GUSB activity in other organs was 1.5–60% of normal at 6 months for two RV-treated dogs, which was likely because of uptake of enzyme from blood by the mannose 6-phosphate receptor. The body weights of untreated MPS VII dogs are 50% of normal at 6 months. MPS VII dogs cannot walk or stand after 6 months, and progressively develop eye and heart disease. RV- and HGF/RV-treated MPS VII dogs achieved 87% and 84% of normal body weight, respectively. Treated animals could run at all times of evaluation for 6–17 months because of improvements in bone and joint abnormalities, and had little or no corneal clouding and no mitral valve thickening. Despite higher GUSB expression, the clinical improvements in the HGF/RV-treated dog were similar to those in the RV-treated animals. This is the first successful application of gene therapy in preventing the clinical manifestations of a lysosomal storage disease in a large animal

Deletion of parasite immune modulatory sequences combined with immune activating signals enhances vaccine mediated protection against filarial nematodes

<p>Background: Filarial nematodes are tissue-dwelling parasites that can be killed by Th2-driven immune effectors, but that have evolved to withstand immune attack and establish chronic infections by suppressing host immunity. As a consequence, the efficacy of a vaccine against filariasis may depend on its capacity to counter parasite-driven immunomodulation.</p> <p>Methodology and Principal Findings: We immunised mice with DNA plasmids expressing functionally-inactivated forms of two immunomodulatory molecules expressed by the filarial parasite Litomosoides sigmodontis: the abundant larval transcript-1 (LsALT) and cysteine protease inhibitor-2 (LsCPI). The mutant proteins enhanced antibody and cytokine responses to live parasite challenge, and led to more leukocyte recruitment to the site of infection than their native forms. The immune response was further enhanced when the antigens were targeted to dendritic cells using a single chain Fv-αDEC205 antibody and co-administered with plasmids that enhance T helper 2 immunity (IL-4) and antigen-presenting cell recruitment (Flt3L, MIP-1α). Mice immunised simultaneously against the mutated forms of LsALT and LsCPI eliminated adult parasites faster and consistently reduced peripheral microfilaraemia. A multifactorial analysis of the immune response revealed that protection was strongly correlated with the production of parasite-specific IgG1 and with the numbers of leukocytes present at the site of infection.</p> <p>Conclusions: We have developed a successful strategy for DNA vaccination against a nematode infection that specifically targets parasite-driven immunosuppression while simultaneously enhancing Th2 immune responses and parasite antigen presentation by dendritic cells.</p&gt

Climate Change Meets the Law of the Horse

The climate change policy debate has only recently turned its full attention to adaptation - how to address the impacts of climate change we have already begun to experience and that will likely increase over time. Legal scholars have in turn begun to explore how the many different fields of law will and should respond. During this nascent period, one overarching question has gone unexamined: how will the legal system as a whole organize around climate change adaptation? Will a new distinct field of climate change adaptation law and policy emerge, or will legal institutions simply work away at the problem through unrelated, duly self-contained fields, as in the famous Law of the Horse? This Article is the first to examine that question comprehensively, to move beyond thinking about the law and climate change adaptation to consider the law of climate change adaptation. Part I of the Article lays out our methodological premises and approach. Using a model we call Stationarity Assessment, Part I explores how legal fields are structured and sustained based on assumptions about the variability of natural, social, and economic conditions, and how disruptions to that regime of variability can lead to the emergence of new fields of law and policy. Case studies of environmental law and environmental justice demonstrate the model’s predictive power for the formation of new distinct legal regimes. Part II applies the Stationarity Assessment model to the topic of climate change adaptation, using a case study of a hypothetical coastal region and the potential for climate change impacts to disrupt relevant legal doctrines and institutions. We find that most fields of law appear capable of adapting effectively to climate change. In other words, without some active intervention, we expect the law and policy of climate change adaptation to follow the path of the Law of the Horse - a collection of fields independently adapting to climate change - rather than organically coalescing into a new distinct field. Part III explores why, notwithstanding this conclusion, it may still be desirable to seek a different trajectory. Focusing on the likelihood of systemic adaptation decisions with perverse, harmful results, we identify the potential benefits offered by intervening to shape a new and distinct field of climate change adaptation law and policy. Part IV then identifies the contours of such a field, exploring the distinct purposes of reducing vulnerability, ensuring resiliency, and safeguarding equity. These features provide the normative policy components for a law of climate change adaptation that would be more than just a Law of the Horse. This new field would not replace or supplant any existing field, however, as environmental law did with regard to nuisance law, and it would not be dominated by substantive doctrine. Rather, like the field of environmental justice, this new legal regime would serve as a holistic overlay across other fields to ensure more efficient, effective, and just climate change adaptation solutions

CMB-S4 Science Book, First Edition

This book lays out the scientific goals to be addressed by the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background experiment, CMB-S4, envisioned to consist of dedicated telescopes at the South Pole, the high Chilean Atacama plateau and possibly a northern hemisphere site, all equipped with new superconducting cameras. CMB-S4 will dramatically advance cosmological studies by crossing critical thresholds in the search for the B-mode polarization signature of primordial gravitational waves, in the determination of the number and masses of the neutrinos, in the search for evidence of new light relics, in constraining the nature of dark energy, and in testing general relativity on large scales

Bone Marrow Transplantation for Feline Mucopolysaccharidosis I

Severe mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I) is a fatal neuropathic lysosomal storage disorder with significant skeletal involvement. Treatment involves bone marrow transplantation (BMT), and although effective, is suboptimal, due to treatment sequelae and residual disease. Improved approaches will need to be tested in animal models and compared to BMT. Herein we report on bone marrow transplantation to treat feline mucopolysaccharidosis I (MPS I). Five MPS I stably engrafted kittens, transplanted with unfractionated bone marrow (6.3 × 107–1.1 × 109 nucleated bone marrow cells per kilogram) were monitored for 13–37 months post-engraftment. The tissue total glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content was reduced to normal levels in liver, spleen, kidney, heart muscle, lung, and thyroid. Aorta GAG content was between normal and affected levels. Treated cats had a significant decrease in the brain GAG levels relative to untreated MPS I cats and a paradoxical decrease relative to normal cats. The α-l-iduronidase (IDUA) activity in the livers and spleens of transplanted MPS I cats approached heterozygote levels. In kidney cortex, aorta, heart muscle, and cerebrum, there were decreases in GAG without significant increases in detectable IDUA activity. Treated animals had improved mobility and decreased radiographic signs of disease. However, significant pathology remained, especially in the cervical spine. Corneal clouding appeared improved in some animals. Immunohistochemical and biochemical analysis documented decreased central nervous system ganglioside storage. This large animal MPS I study will serve as a benchmark of future therapies designed to improve on BMT

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

Climate change and water in the UK: past changes and future prospects

Climate change is expected to modify rainfall, temperature and catchment hydrological responses across the world, and adapting to these water-related changes is a pressing challenge. This paper reviews the impact of anthropogenic climate change on water in the UK and looks at projections of future change. The natural variability of the UK climate makes change hard to detect; only historical increases in air temperature can be attributed to anthropogenic climate forcing, but over the last 50 years more winter rainfall has been falling in intense events. Future changes in rainfall and evapotranspiration could lead to changed flow regimes and impacts on water quality, aquatic ecosystems and water availability. Summer flows may decrease on average, but floods may become larger and more frequent. River and lake water quality may decline as a result of higher water temperatures, lower river flows and increased algal blooms in summer, and because of higher flows in the winter. In communicating this important work, researchers should pay particular attention to explaining confidence and uncertainty clearly. Much of the relevant research is either global or highly localized: decision-makers would benefit from more studies that address water and climate change at a spatial and temporal scale appropriate for the decisions they mak