Analysis of Fluvial Suspended Sediment Load Contribution through Anthropocene History to the South Atlantic Bight Coastal Zone, U.S.A.

Discerning the effects of anthropogenic activities (i.e., reservoir construction, land use change), as opposed to those of natural processes (i.e., climate variability), on suspended sediment flux has become an increasingly difficult challenge. This contribution presents water and suspended sediment flux from five major watersheds that discharge into the southeastern U.S. Atlantic, a region that is currently considered sediment starved. Three periods of Anthropocenetime were defined and evaluated: (1) “pre-European conditions” (1680–1700), (2) “pre-dam conditions (1905-1925), and (3) post-dam conditions (1985-2005). Physical and hydrologic watershed data were used to run a climate-driven hydrological transport numerical model (HydroTrend) to estimate suspended sediment flux for each period. Results indicate that the suspended sediment contribution to the South Atlantic Bight coastal zone increased by up to 145% as a result of accelerated soil erosion conditions caused by the arrival of European settlers and has since declined by approximately 55%, primarily because of the construction of large resevoirs. This trend suggests a return to pre-European sediment yields, approximately 100 years after historic peak of soil erosion in the southeastern Piedmont. Our results indicate that variations in sediment yield between time periods are primarily caused by direct anthropogenic forcings, while climate changes over the periods considered have played an insignificant role

IL-6 as a Biomarker for Therapeutic Resistance in Metastatic HR+, HER2- Breast Cancers

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp21/1184/thumbnail.jp

Quark Matter in Neutron Star Mergers

Binary neutron star mergers are expected to be one of the most promising source of gravitational waves (GW) for the network of laser interferometric and bar detectors becoming operational in the next few years. The merger wave signal is expected to be sensitive to the interior structure of the neutron star (NS). The structure of high density phases of matter is under current experimental investigation in heavy-ion collisions. We investigate the dependence of the merger process and its GW signal on the presence of quarks in these phases by performing numerical simulations, where the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method and the conformally flat approximation for the 3-geometry in general relativistic gravity are implemented.Comment: 4 Pages, 4 Figures, Proc. Nuclei in the Cosmos 7, 200

Enhancement of Resonant Thermonuclear Reaction Rates in Extremely Dense Stellar Plasmas

The enhancement factor of the resonant thermonuclear reaction rates is calculated for the extremely dense stellar plasmas in the liquid phase. In order to calculate the enhancement factor we use the screening potential which is deduced from the numerical experiment of the classical one-component plasma. It is found that the enhancement is tremendous for white dwarf densities if the ^{12}C + ^{12}C fusion cross sections show resonant behavior in the astrophysical energy range. We summarize our numerical results by accurate analytic fitting formulae.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, replaced with revised versio

Sustained, multifaceted improvements in mental well-being following psychedelic experiences in a prospective opportunity sample

In the last 15 years, psychedelic substances, such as LSD and psilocybin, have regained legitimacy in clinical research. In the general population as well as across various psychiatric populations, mental well-being has been found to significantly improve after a psychedelic experience. Mental well-being has large socioeconomic relevance, but it is a complex, multifaceted construct. In this naturalistic observational study, a comprehensive approach was taken to assessing well-being before and after a taking a psychedelic compound to induce a “psychedelic experience.” Fourteen measures of well-being related constructs were included in order to examine the breadth and specificity of change in well-being. This change was then analysed to examine clusters of measures changing together. Survey data was collected from volunteers that intended to take a psychedelic. Four key time points were analysed: 1 week before and 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 2 years after the experience (N = 654, N = 315, N = 212, and N = 64, respectively). Change on the included measures was found to cluster into three factors which we labelled: 1) “Being well”, 2) “Staying well,” and 3) “Spirituality.” Repeated Measures Multivariate Analysis of Variance revealed all but the spirituality factor to be improved in the weeks following the psychedelic experience. Additional Mixed model analyses revealed selective increases in Being Well and Staying Well (but not Spirituality) that remained statistically significant up to 2 years post-experience, albeit with high attrition rates. Post-hoc examination suggested that attrition was not due to differential acute experiences or mental-health changes in those who dropped out vs. those who did not. These findings suggest that psychedelics can have a broad, robust and sustained positive impact on mental well-being in those that have a prior intention to use a psychedelic compound. Public policy implications are discussed

Protein kinase Ymr291w/Tda1 is essential for glucose signaling in Saccharomyces cerevisiae on the level of hexokinase isoenzyme ScHxk2 phosphorylation

The enzyme ScHxk2 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a dual-function hexokinase that besides its catalytic role in glycolysis is involved in the transcriptional regulation of glucose-repressible genes. Relief from glucose repression is accompanied by the phosphorylation of the nuclear fraction of ScHxk2 at serine 15 and the translocation of the phosphoenzyme into the cytosol. Different studies suggest different serine/threonine protein kinases, Ymr291w/Tda1 or Snf1, to accomplish ScHxk2-S15 phosphorylation. The current paper provides evidence that Ymr291w/Tda1 is essential for that modification while protein kinases Ydr477w/Snf1, Ynl307c/Mck1, Yfr014c/Cmk1 and Ykl126w/Ypk1, which co-purified during Ymr291w/Tda1 tandem affinity purification, as well as protein kinases PKA and PKB homolog Sch9 are dispensable. Taking into account the detection of a significantly higher amount of the Ymr291w/Tda1 protein in cells grown in low-glucose media as compared to a high-glucose environment, Ymr291w/Tda1 is likely to contribute to glucose signaling in Saccharomyces cerevisiae on the level of ScHxk2-S15 phosphorylation in a situation of limited external glucose availability. The evolutionary conservation of amino acid residue serine 15 in yeast hexokinases and its phosphorylation is illustrated by the finding that YMR291W/TDA1 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the homologous KLLA0A09713 gene of Kluyveromyces lactis allow for cross-complementation of the respective protein kinase single-gene deletion strains

The Mystery of the Asymptotic Quasinormal Modes of Gauss-Bonnet Black Holes

We analyze the quasinormal modes of $D$-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes with the Gauss-Bonnet correction in the large damping limit and show that standard analytic techniques cannot be applied in a straightforward manner to the case of infinite damping. However, by using a combination of analytic and numeric techniques we are able to calculate the quasinormal mode frequencies in a range where the damping is large but finite. We show that for this damping region the famous $\ln(3)$ appears in the real part of the quasinormal mode frequency. In our calculations, the Gauss-Bonnet coupling, $\alpha$, is taken to be much smaller than the parameter $\mu$, which is related to the black hole mass.Comment: 12 pages and 5 figure