Dissolved Oxygen Monitoring in Kings River and Leatherwood Creek

The Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes the basic structure used to regulate water quality. Under the CWA, States are required to assess water bodies relative to water‐quality standards and designated beneficial uses and then to submit lists of impaired bodies every other year to the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). In 2015, at least 4,800 water bodies were listed as impaired by dissolved oxygen across the US (USEPA, 2015). Aquatic species like fish and macroinvertebrates depend on adequate dissolved oxygen for survival. Low dissolved oxygen can lead to fish kills, reduced aquatic diversity, and nuisance smells from anaerobic conditions – ultimately, low dissolved oxygen concentrations result in water bodies not being able to meet the aquatic life designated use

Coupled noble gas-hydrocarbon evolution of the early Earth atmosphere upon solar UV irradiation

International audienceUsing a new photochemical model of the Earth's early atmosphere, the relationship between noble gas photoionization and organic photochemistry has been investigated from the Archean eon to the present day. We have found that the enhanced UV emission of the young Sun triggered a peculiar atmospheric chemistry in a CH4-rich early atmosphere that resulted in the increased formation of an organic haze, similar to the preliminary results of a previous study (Ribas et al., 2010). We have investigated the interaction between this haze and noble gases photoionized by the UV light from the younger Sun. Laboratory experiments have shown indeed that ionized xenon trapping into organics (1) is more efficient that other ionized noble gases trapping and (2) results in a significant enrichment of heavy xenon isotopes relative to the light ones (e.g., Frick et al., 1979; Marrocchi et al., 2011). We find moreover preferential photoionization of xenon that peaks at an altitude range comparable to that of the organic haze formation, in contrast to other noble gases. Trapping and fractioning of ionized xenon in the organic haze could therefore have been far more efficient than for other noble gases, and could have been particularly effective throughout the Archean eon, since the UV irradiation flux from the young Sun was expected to be substantially higher than today (Ribas et al., 2010; Claire et al., 2012). Thus we suspect that the unique isotopic fractionation of atmospheric xenon and its elemental depletion in the atmosphere relative to other noble gases, compared to potential cosmochemical components, could have resulted from a preferential incorporation of the heaviest xenon isotopes into organics. A fraction of atmospheric xenon could have been continuously trapped in the forming haze and enriched in its heavy isotopes, while another fraction would have escaped from the atmosphere to space, with, or without isotope selection of the lightest isotopes. The combination of these two processes over long periods of time provides thereby a key process for explaining the evolution of its isotopic composition in the atmosphere over time that has been observed in Archean archives (Pujol et al., 2011)

Immune DNA signature of T-cell infiltration in breast tumor exomes.

Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have been associated with favorable prognosis in multiple tumor types. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) represents the largest collection of cancer molecular data, but lacks detailed information about the immune environment. Here, we show that exome reads mapping to the complementarity-determining-region 3 (CDR3) of mature T-cell receptor beta (TCRB) can be used as an immune DNA (iDNA) signature. Specifically, we propose a method to identify CDR3 reads in a breast tumor exome and validate it using deep TCRB sequencing. In 1,078 TCGA breast cancer exomes, the fraction of CDR3 reads was associated with TILs fraction, tumor purity, adaptive immunity gene expression signatures and improved survival in Her2+ patients. Only 2/839 TCRB clonotypes were shared between patients and none associated with a specific HLA allele or somatic driver mutations. The iDNA biomarker enriches the comprehensive dataset collected through TCGA, revealing associations with other molecular features and clinical outcomes

Methods for in-flight robustness evaluation

The goal of this program was to combine modern control concepts with new identification techniques to develop a comprehensive package for estimation of 'robust flutter boundaries' based on experimental data. The goal was to use flight data, combined with a fundamental physical understanding of flutter dynamics, to generate a prediction of flutter speed and an estimate of the accuracy of the prediction. This report is organized as follows: the specific contributions of this project will be listed first. Then, the problem under study will be stated and the general approach will be outlined. Third, the specific system under study (F- 18 SRA) will be described and a preliminary data analysis will be performed. Then, the various steps of the flutter boundary determination will be outlined and applied to tile F-18 SRA data and others

Subspace Identification with Multiple Data Sets

Most existing subspace identification algorithms assume that a single input to output data set is available. Motivated by a real life problem on the F18-SRA experimental aircraft, we show how these algorithms are readily adapted to handle multiple data sets. We show by means of an example the relevance of such an improvement

Projected surface water for fruit and vegetable irrigation under a changing climate in the US

Increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, resulting in climate impacts, are raising concerns over the hydrologic cycle and its effects upon agricultural productivity. If rainfall patterns change, meeting an increased demand for fruits and vegetables will pose a challenge for domestic production regions in the United States (U.S.). Information on potential water supply scarcity in the current production regions provides decision makers with critical information for risk mitigation for future production. We used a hydrologic balance-based model of historic and future water availability to evaluate risk of available irrigation water to support major fruit and vegetable production the US. The purpose of this work was to develop and demonstrate a method for assessing the risk of irrigation water availability to climate change

Socioeconomic position and the impact of increasing availability of lower energy meals vs. menu energy labelling on food choice: two randomized controlled trials in a virtual fast-food restaurant

International audienceBackground Food consumed outside of the home is often high in energy and population level interventions that reduce energy intake of people from both lower and higher socioeconomic position (SEP) are needed. There is a lack of evidence on the effectiveness and SEP equity of structural-based (e.g. increasing availability of lower energy options) and information provision (e.g. menu energy labelling) interventions on food choice. Methods Across two online experiments, participants of lower and higher SEP made meal choices in a novel virtual fast-food restaurant. To be eligible to take part, participants were required to be UK residents, aged 18 or above, fluent in English, have access to a computer with an internet connection and have no dietary restrictions. Participants were randomized to one of four conditions in a 2 × 2 between-subjects design: menu energy labelling present vs. absent and increased availability of lower energy options (75% of menu options lower energy) vs. baseline availability (25% of menu options lower energy). Participants also completed measures of executive function and food choice motives. Results The analysis of pooled data from both studies ( n = 1743) showed that increasing the availability of lower energy options resulted in participants ordering meals with significantly less energy on average (− 71 kcal, p < 0.001, partial η 2 = 0.024) and this effect was observed irrespective of participant SEP. Menu labelling had no significant effect on energy ordered (− 18 kcal, p = 0.116, partial η 2 = 0.001) in participants from both higher and lower SEP. Furthermore, we found no evidence that executive function or food choice motives moderated the effect of increasing lower energy menu options or energy labelling on total energy ordered. Conclusions In a virtual fast-food environment, energy labelling was ineffective in reducing total energy ordered for both higher and lower SEP participants. Increasing the availability of lower energy options had an equitable effect, reducing total energy ordered in participants from higher and lower SEP. Trial registration Study protocols and analysis plans were pre-registered on the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/ajcr6/ )