Trace Elements in Soils of the South Texas Uranium District: Concentrations, Origin, and Environmental Significance

UT Librarie

Trace and Potentially Toxic Elements Associated With Uranium Deposits in South Texas

The environmentally sensitive trace elements molybdenum, arsenic, and selenium are concentrated with uranium in ore deposits inSouth Texas. Cattle grazing in some pastures in mining areas have contracted molybdenosis, a cattle disease resulting from an imbalance of molybdenum and copper. To determine natural concentrations of the elements in soils in the South Texas area and to evaluate possible effects of mining on adjacent agricultural land, two sets of soil samples were collected and analyzed for molybdenum, arsenic, selenium, and copper. Two hundred and fifty-six samples were collected in a statistically random design from soils developed on the Whitsett Formation, Catahoula Formation, or Oakville Sandstone, the major uranium hosts of the area, and 182 samples were collected nonrandomly from areas of mining or mineralization to test specific hypotheses concerning the presence and origin of anomalously high concentrations of the elements. Results of the random sampling show that the different geologic formations have different characteristic trace element concentrations. The Whitsett Formation has higher molybdenum (resulting from minor near-surface mineralization) and lower copper concentrations than the other two formations. With the exception of molybdenum in the Whitsett Formation and copper in all three formations, the trace element concentrations are similar to published average concentrations in soils worldwide. Sampling in areas of mining and mineralization indicates that high concentrations of molybdenum, arsenic, or selenium occur dominantly in two situations: (1) in areas of shallow mineralization, resulting from natural processes and (2) in drainages adjacent to older abandoned mines, resulting from runoff from the mines. Moderately high concentrations also occur in a few reclaimed areas. Windblown dust from mining areas has not measurably affected trace element concentrations in adjacent areas. Comparison of molybdenum and copper concentrations in soils and grasses and theoretical considerations of the availability to plants of molybdenum and copper in soils suggest that forage in much of the area studied could have anomalously low copper/molybdenum ratios—low enough to induce molybdenosis in cattle. This report was submitted in fulfillment of Grant No. R804616-01-0 by the Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, under the sponsorship of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This report covers the period April 1977 to April 1979, and work was completed as of August 31, 1978.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Transpapillary drainage has no added benefit on treatment outcomes in patients undergoing EUS-guided transmural drainage of pancreatic pseudocysts: a large multicenter study

Background and Aims The need for transpapillary drainage (TPD) in patients undergoing transmural drainage (TMD) of pancreatic fluid collections (PFCs) remains unclear. The aims of this study were to compare treatment outcomes between patients with pancreatic pseudocysts undergoing TMD versus combined (TMD and TPD) drainage (CD) and to identify predictors of symptomatic and radiologic resolution. Methods This is a retrospective review of 375 consecutive patients with PFCs who underwent EUS-guided TMD from 2008 to 2014 at 15 academic centers in the United States. Main outcome measures included TMD and CD technical success, treatment outcomes (symptomatic and radiologic resolution) at follow-up, and predictors of treatment outcomes on logistic regression. Results A total of 375 patients underwent EUS-guided TMD of PFCs, of which 174 were pseudocysts. TMD alone was performed in 95 (55%) and CD in 79 (45%) pseudocysts. Technical success was as follows: TMD, 92 (97%) versus CD, 35 (44%) (P = .0001). There was no difference in adverse events between the TMD (15%) and CD (14%) cohorts (P = .23). Median long-term (LT) follow-up after transmural stent removal was 324 days (interquartile range, 72-493 days) for TMD and 201 days (interquartile range, 150-493 days) (P = .37). There was no difference in LT symptomatic resolution (TMD, 69% vs CD, 62%; P = .61) or LT radiologic resolution (TMD, 71% vs CD, 67%; P = .79). TPD attempt was negatively associated with LT radiologic resolution of pseudocyst (odds ratio, 0.11; 95% confidence interval, 0.02-0.8; P = .03). Conclusions TPD has no benefit on treatment outcomes in patients undergoing EUS-guided TMD of pancreatic pseudocysts and negatively affects LT resolution of PFCs

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

Association of Hospital Procedural Volume With Outcomes of Percutaneous Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the association between percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) procedural volume and in-hospital outcomes. BACKGROUND: Several studies have demonstrated an inverse volume-outcome relationship for patients undergoing invasive cardiac procedures. Whether a similar association exists for percutaneous LAAO remains unknown. METHODS: Patients undergoing LAAO in 2017 were identified in the Nationwide Readmissions Database. Hospitals were categorized into 3 groups on the basis of tertiles of annual procedural volume: low (5 to 15 cases/year), medium (17 to 31 cases/year), and high (32 to 211 cases/year). Multivariate hierarchical logistic regression and restricted cubic spline analyses were performed to examine the association of hospital LAAO volume and outcomes. The primary outcome was in-hospital major adverse events (MAE), defined as a composite of mortality, stroke or transient ischemic attack, bleeding or transfusion, vascular complications, myocardial infarction, systemic embolization, and pericardial effusion or tamponade requiring pericardiocentesis or surgery. RESULTS: This study included 5,949 LAAO procedures performed across 196 hospitals with a median annual procedural volume of 41 (interquartile range: 25 to 67). Low-volume hospitals had higher rates of in-hospital MAE (9.5% vs. 5.6%; p \u3c 0.001), stroke or transient ischemic attack (2.1% vs. 1.3%; p = 0.049), and bleeding or transfusion (6.1% vs. 3.5%; p = 0.002) compared with high-volume hospitals. No differences were noted for other components of MAE and index length of stay. On multivariate analysis, higher procedural volume was associated with lower rates of in-hospital MAE, with an adjusted odds ratio for medium versus low volume of 0.69 (95% confidence interval: 0.46 to 1.04; p = 0.08) and for high versus low volume of 0.55 (95% confidence interval: 0.37 to 0.82; p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Higher hospital procedural volume is associated with better outcomes for LAAO procedures. Further studies are needed to determine if this relationship persists for long-term outcomes