Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68787/2/10.2307_3344648.pd

Spatial and seasonal patterns and long term variability of the composition of the haze in the United States: an analysis of data from the IMPROVE network

July 1996.Principal investigators: William C. Malm, Marc L. Pitchford.Includes bibliographical references.This report describes data for the three year period, March 1992 through February 1995, of the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) measurement program. IMPROVE is a cooperative visibility monitoring effort between the United States Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) federal land management agencies, and state air agencies

On the potential of regional-scale emissions zoning as an air quality management tool for the grand canyon

Air arriving at the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River during 1988-1989 is attributed to one of four geographic quadrants--NE, SE, SW, NW--on the basis of routinely calculated back-trajectories. Most of the haze observed at the Canyon is attributed to the SW quadrant, which contains the populous and industrialized areas of southern California. Air from either northern quadrant tends to be significantly clearer than air from either southern quadrant. Clear northern air is most common during the winter, and is rarely observed during the summer tourist season, when steady flow from the southwest is the norm. Various possible interpretations of these empirical results are discussed, with varying implications for emissions management policy.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31947/1/0000900.pd

Meteorological and Back Trajectory Modeling for the Rocky Mountain Atmospheric Nitrogen and Sulfur Study II

The Rocky Mountain Atmospheric Nitrogen and Sulfur (RoMANS II) study with field operations during November 2008 through November 2009 was designed to evaluate the composition and sources of reactive nitrogen in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA. As part of RoMANS II, a mesoscale meteorological model was utilized to provide input for back trajectory and chemical transport models. Evaluation of the model's ability to capture important transport patterns in this region of complex terrain is discussed. Previous source-receptor studies of nitrogen in this region are also reviewed. Finally, results of several back trajectory analyses for RoMANS II are presented. The trajectory mass balance (TrMB) model, a receptor-based linear regression technique, was used to estimate mean source attributions of airborne ammonia concentrations during RoMANS II. Though ammonia concentrations are usually higher when there is transport from the east, the TrMB model estimates that, on average, areas to the west contribute a larger mean fraction of the ammonia. Possible reasons for this are discussed and include the greater frequency of westerly versus easterly winds, the possibility that ammonia is transported long distances as ammonium nitrate, and the difficulty of correctly modeling the transport winds in this area

The Influence of Recovery and Training Phases on Body Composition, Peripheral Vascular Function and Immune System of Professional Soccer Players

Professional soccer players have a lengthy playing season, throughout which high levels of physical stress are maintained. The following recuperation period, before starting the next pre-season training phase, is generally considered short but sufficient to allow a decrease in these stress levels and therefore a reduction in the propensity for injury or musculoskeletal tissue damage. We hypothesised that these physical extremes influence the body composition, blood flow, and endothelial/immune function, but that the recuperation may be insufficient to allow a reduction of tissue stress damage. Ten professional football players were examined at the end of the playing season, at the end of the season intermission, and after the next pre-season endurance training. Peripheral blood flow and body composition were assessed using venous occlusion plethysmography and DEXA scanning respectively. In addition, selected inflammatory and immune parameters were analysed from blood samples. Following the recuperation period a significant decrease of lean body mass from 74.4±4.2 kg to 72.2±3.9 kg was observed, but an increase of fat mass from 10.3±5.6 kg to 11.1±5.4 kg, almost completely reversed the changes seen in the pre-season training phase. Remarkably, both resting and post-ischemic blood flow (7.3±3.4 and 26.0±6.3 ml/100 ml/min) respectively, were strongly reduced during the playing and training stress phases, but both parameters increased to normal levels (9.0±2.7 and 33.9±7.6 ml/100 ml/min) during the season intermission. Recovery was also characterized by rising levels of serum creatinine, granulocytes count, total IL-8, serum nitrate, ferritin, and bilirubin. These data suggest a compensated hypo-perfusion of muscle during the playing season, followed by an intramuscular ischemia/reperfusion syndrome during the recovery phase that is associated with muscle protein turnover and inflammatory endothelial reaction, as demonstrated by iNOS and HO-1 activation, as well as IL-8 release. The data provided from this study suggest that the immune system is not able to function fully during periods of high physical stress. The implications of this study are that recuperation should be carefully monitored in athletes who undergo intensive training over extended periods, but that these parameters may also prove useful for determining an individual's risk of tissue stress and possibly their susceptibility to progressive tissue damage or injury

Cardiac disease in patients with mucopolysaccharidosis: presentation, diagnosis and management

The mucopolysaccharidoses (MPSs) are inherited lysosomal storage disorders caused by the absence of functional enzymes that contribute to the degradation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). The progressive systemic deposition of GAGs results in multi-organ system dysfunction that varies with the particular GAG deposited and the specific enzyme mutation(s) present. Cardiac involvement has been reported in all MPS syndromes and is a common and early feature, particularly for those with MPS I, II, and VI. Cardiac valve thickening, dysfunction (more severe for left-sided than for right-sided valves), and hypertrophy are commonly present; conduction abnormalities, coronary artery and other vascular involvement may also occur. Cardiac disease emerges silently and contributes significantly to early mortality

A Genome-Wide Association Study of Diabetic Kidney Disease in Subjects With Type 2 Diabetes

dentification of sequence variants robustly associated with predisposition to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has the potential to provide insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of DKD in type 2 diabetes (T2D) using eight complementary dichotomous and quantitative DKD phenotypes: the principal dichotomous analysis involved 5,717 T2D subjects, 3,345 with DKD. Promising association signals were evaluated in up to 26,827 subjects with T2D (12,710 with DKD). A combined T1D+T2D GWAS was performed using complementary data available for subjects with T1D, which, with replication samples, involved up to 40,340 subjects with diabetes (18,582 with DKD). Analysis of specific DKD phenotypes identified a novel signal near GABRR1 (rs9942471, P = 4.5 x 10(-8)) associated with microalbuminuria in European T2D case subjects. However, no replication of this signal was observed in Asian subjects with T2D or in the equivalent T1D analysis. There was only limited support, in this substantially enlarged analysis, for association at previously reported DKD signals, except for those at UMOD and PRKAG2, both associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate. We conclude that, despite challenges in addressing phenotypic heterogeneity, access to increased sample sizes will continue to provide more robust inference regarding risk variant discovery for DKD.Peer reviewe

UNCERTAINTY ASSOCIATED WITH ESTIMATING A SHORT-TERM (1–3 HR) PARTICULATE MATTER CONCENTRATION FROM A HUMAN-SIGHTED VISUAL RANGE

Several state air quality agencies have developed policies to issue air quality health index (AQI) warnings based on low values of visual range (Vr). Vr has been defined in the context of how far away a black object has to be such that it is just noticeable or visible. This distance at which a landscape feature can just be detected is referred to as the Vr. AQI warnings are based on the levels of particulates (PM2.5) resulting from fire smoke, often with less than 24-hr average concentrations. Because monitoring data are not available in all places where an AQI warning might potentially be given, human-observed visual conditions (i.e., sighting distant targets to determine Vr) have been used to estimate ambient fine particulate (PM2.5) concentrations. This procedure, originally developed in the arid West, may be particularly questionable when applied where higher humidity (especially in the humid Southeast) interacts with background sulfate and nitrate particulates and other aerosols from non-fire sources to reduce visibility. Human errors estimating Vr can be large. One result may be that the public is given an incorrect impression of air quality risks to their health and well-being; either the AQI or other indices are overestimates, causing undue public alarm, or underestimates from which the public, or at least sensitive sections of the public, undergo avoidable risks

Introduction to visibility

May 1999.Under cooperative agreement CA2350-97-001: T097-04, T098-06