Holocene History of a Portion of Northernmost Ellesmere Island

Radiocarbon dates and glaciological features of the Ward Hunt area along northernmost Ellesmere Island suggest the following chronology, which is consistent with worldwide climatic oscillations: 1) 10,000-4100 B.P.: deglaciation, and development of several marine levels, particularly one now 40 m above sea level, at 7500 ± 300 B.P.; 2) 4100-2400 years B.P.: climatic deterioration, glacial readvance and formation of ice shelves; 3) 2400-1400 years B.P.: general climatic amelioration; development of dust ablation horizon on Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, glacial retreat; 4) 1400 B.P.-present: climatic deterioration, with renewed thickening of Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, and beginnings of growth of ice rises; the last-mentioned experienced maximum growth in the interval between 350-170 years ago; slight glacial readvance. The isostatic rebound curve for northernmost Ellesmere Island differs from that of the Tanquary Fiord area 80 miles (128 km) to the south because of differing Pleistocene ice thicknesses. We estimate these to average at least 600 m for the former area and 1800 m for the latter

Agricultural Land Use Planning and Groundwater Quality

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75123/1/j.1468-2257.1983.tb00394.x.pd

Ashtekar's New Variables and Positive Energy

We discuss earlier unsuccessful attempts to formulate a positive gravitational energy proof in terms of the New Variables of Ashtekar. We also point out the difficulties of a Witten spinor type proof. We then use the special orthonormal frame gauge conditions to obtain a locally positive expression for the New Variables Hamiltonian and thereby a ``localization'' of gravitational energy as well as a positive energy proof.Comment: 12 pages Plain Te

Poincar\'e gauge theory with even and odd parity dynamic connection modes: isotropic Bianchi cosmological models

The Poincar\'e gauge theory of gravity has a metric compatible connection with independent dynamics that is reflected in the torsion and curvature. The theory allows two good propagating spin-0 modes. Dynamical investigations using a simple expanding cosmological model found that the oscillation of the 0$^+$ mode could account for an accelerating expansion similar to that presently observed. The model has been extended to include a $0^{-}$ mode and more recently cross parity couplings. We investigate the dynamics of this model in a situation which is simple, non-trivial, and yet may give physically interesting results that might be observable. We consider homogeneous cosmologies, more specifically, isotropic Bianchi class A models. We find an effective Lagrangian for our dynamical system, a system of first order equations, and present some typical dynamical evolution.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figures, submitted to IARD 2010 Conference Proceedings in {\em Journal of Physics: Conference Series}, eds. L. Horwitz and M. Land (2011

Phase separation due to quantum mechanical correlations

Can phase separation be induced by strong electron correlations? We present a theorem that affirmatively answers this question in the Falicov-Kimball model away from half-filling, for any dimension. In the ground state the itinerant electrons are spatially separated from the classical particles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Note: text and figure unchanged, title was misspelle

Poincare gauge theory of gravity: Friedman cosmology with even and odd parity modes. Analytic part

We propose a cosmological model in the framework of the Poincar\'e gauge theory of gravity (PG). The gravitational Lagrangian is quadratic in curvature and torsion. In our specific model, the Lagrangian contains (i) the curvature scalar $R$ and the curvature pseudo-scalar $X$ linearly and quadratically (including an $RX$ term) and (ii) pieces quadratic in the torsion {\it vector} $\cal V$ and the torsion {\it axial} vector $\cal A$ (including a ${\cal V}{\cal A}$ term). We show generally that in quadratic PG models we have nearly the same number of parity conserving terms (`world') and of parity violating terms (`shadow world'). This offers new perspectives in cosmology for the coupling of gravity to matter and antimatter. Our specific model generalizes the fairly realistic `torsion cosmologies' of Shie-Nester-Yo (2008) and Chen et al.\ (2009). With a Friedman type ansatz for an orthonormal coframe and a Lorentz connection, we derive the two field equations of PG in an explicit form and discuss their general structure in detail. In particular, the second field equation can be reduced to first order ordinary differential equations for the curvature pieces $R(t)$ and $X(t)$. Including these along with certain relations obtained from the first field equation and curvature definitions, we present a first order system of equations suitable for numerical evaluation. This is deferred to the second, numerical part of this paper.Comment: Latex computerscript, 25 pages; mistakes corrected, references added, notation and title slightly changed; accepted by Phys. Rev.

Molecular excitation in the Interstellar Medium: recent advances in collisional, radiative and chemical processes

We review the different excitation processes in the interstellar mediumComment: Accepted in Chem. Re

An Early Biomarker Algorithm Predicts Lethal Graft-Vs-Host Disease and Survival after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

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Biomarkers Predict Graft-Vs-Host Disease Outcomes Better Than Clinical Response after One Week of Treatment

Abstract Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), the primary cause of non-relapse mortality (NRM) following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, does not always respond to treatment with high dose systemic corticosteroids. We have recently shown that a combination of three biomarkers (TNFR1, ST2, and REG3α) measured at onset of GVHD can predict day 28 response to treatment and 6-month NRM (Levine, Lancet Haem, 2015). Our goal in the current study was to determine if the same biomarker-based Ann Arbor GVHD algorithm can alsopredict treatment response andmortality whenapplied after one week of systemic corticosteroid treatment. The study population consisted of 378 patients (pts) with acute GVHD from 11 centers in the Mount Sinai Acute GVHD International Consortium. All pts were treated with systemic steroids and provided a plasma or serum sample obtained after one week of treatment (±3 days). The median starting dose of systemic steroids for Grade II-IV GVHD was 2.0 mg/kg/day and for Grade I was 1.0 mg/kg/day, after which treatment varied. Patients were divided into test (n=236) and validation (n=142) cohorts. We applied the Ann Arbor GVHD algorithm to concentrations of TNFR1, ST2, and REG3α measured after one week of treatment to generate a predicted probability of 6-month NRM, which we term the treatment score (TS). We employed unsupervised k-medoidclustering to partition TS values from the test cohort into two groups (high and low). This unbiased approach identified a high score group made up of 25% of pts (n=58) in the test cohort. We observed that the day 28 response rate (complete, CR + partial, PR) was significantly lower in pts with high scores compared to low scores in the test cohort (24% vs 65%, p<0.0001) (Fig 1A). Analysis of the validation cohort using the same TS definitions showed similar differences in response rates (22% vs 61%, p<0.0001) (Fig 1B). Further, nearly four times as many pts with high scores in both cohorts died within 6 months from non-relapse causes compared to pts with low scores (test: 57% vs 17%, p<0.0001; validation: 57% vs 14%, p<0.0001) (Fig 1C/D). As expected, the majority of non-relapse deaths in pts treated for GVHD were directly attributable to GVHD (test: 95%; validation: 89%). Relapse rates for high and low score pts were similar (data not shown), and thus pts with a high TS experienced significantly worse overall survival in both cohorts (test: 37% vs 72%, p<0.0001; validation: 38% vs 79%, p<0.0001) (Fig 1E/F). Approximately half of the pts in each cohort (test: 48%; validation: 44%) responded (CR+PR) to the first week of steroids and these ptshad significantly lower 6-month NRM than non-responders (NR) (test: 17% vs 36%, p=0.0002; validation: 13% vs 36%, p=0.0014). Yet the TS continued to stratify mortality risk independently of clinical response. In the test cohort, pts with a high score comprised 16% of all early responders and experienced more than twice the NRM of early responders with a low score (33% vs 13%, p=0.022) (Fig 2A). Conversely, test cohort pts who did not respond by day 7, but had a low score, fared much better than non-responders with a high score (NRM 21% vs 68%, p<0.0001) (Fig 2B). Two thirds of early non-responders comprised this more favorable group. These highly significant results reproduced in the independent validation cohort in similar proportions (CR+PR: 45% vs 6%, p=0.0003; NR: 61% vs 22%, p=0.0001) (Fig 2C/D). Finally, a subset analysis revealed that pts classified as NR after one week of steroids due to isolated, yet persistent, grade I skin GVHD (24/378, 6%) overwhelmingly had low treatment scores (22/24, 92%) and experienced rates of NRM (9%) comparable to responders with low scores, thus forming a distinct, albeit small, subset of pts with non-responsive GVHD that fares particularly well (Fig 3). In conclusion, a treatment score based on three GVHD biomarkers measured after one week of steroids stratifies pts into two groups with distinct risks for treatment failure and 6-month NRM. It is particularly noteworthy that the TS identifies two subsets of pts with steroid refractory (SR) GVHD who have highly different outcomes (Fig 2B/D). The much larger group, approximately two thirds of all SR pts, may not need the same degree of treatment escalation as is traditional for clinical non-response, and thus overtreatment might be avoided. Because the TSis measured at a common decision making time point, it may prove useful to guide risk-adapted therapy. Disclosures Mielke: Novartis: Consultancy; MSD: Consultancy, Other: Travel grants; Celgene: Other: Travel grants, Speakers Bureau; Gilead: Other: Travel grants; JAZZ Pharma: Speakers Bureau. Kroeger:Novartis: Honoraria, Research Funding. Chen:Incyte Corporation: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding. Jagasia:Therakos: Consultancy. Kitko:Therakos: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Ferrara:Viracor: Patents & Royalties: GVHD biomarker patent. Levine:Viracor: Patents & Royalties: GVHD biomarker patent