The Geologic Times, Vol. 6

The sixth issue of the Earth Science Association\u27s newsletter, The Geologic Times. Contents: What Makes Mercury So Dark? by Kathleen E. Vander Kaaden What Are You Going To Do After Graduation? by Hannah Newcombe Seismic Refraction Applications At SSU by Kyle McCaffery Comic by Adam Surette What Is New In The ESA Community?!https://digitalcommons.salemstate.edu/esa/1005/thumbnail.jp

The Geologic Times, Vol. 3

The third issue of the Earth Science Association\u27s newsletter, The Geologic Times. Contents: Hawaiian Excursions - What Does A Semester Abroad Look Like? by Sharissa Thompson Trying To Inspire The Future Generation by Lisa Rusch Mineral of the Month: Amphibole: Garbage Mineral Supergroup by Cora Van Hazinga Student Present Their Research At NEGSA by Rebecca Wright The NAA - North Appalachian Anomaly by Arianna Gaffneyhttps://digitalcommons.salemstate.edu/esa/1002/thumbnail.jp

The Geologic Times, Vol. 4

The fourth issue of the Earth Science Association\u27s newsletter, The Geologic Times. Contents: Formation And Collapse Of The Adirondack Mountains by Erkan Toraman Living Sustainably With Active Volcanoes: Hazards And Resources by Sara Mana Node Country For Old Men by Cora Van Hazinga The Field Camp Experience... by Emily Doyle What is new in the ESA community?!https://digitalcommons.salemstate.edu/esa/1003/thumbnail.jp

Using the Extrusive Volcanic Features of Mt. Marsabit, Kenya to Identify Regional Tectonic Stress

Extrusive volcanic features like vents, craters, and cones can produce alignments and other linear structures that indicate the orientations of feeder dikes and regional tectonic stresses. These dikes form parallel to the maximum compressional stress (σ1) and perpendicular to minimum compressive stress (σ3), and/or exploit preexisting planes of weakness. Volcanic constructs fed by these magmatic intrusions are therefore indicators of tectonic stress directions and subsurface structural fabrics, which can be deduced through detailed mapping and assessment of the spacing, shapes, and linear arrays of these volcanic features. Mt Marsabit (2.32°N, 37.97°E) is a massive 6,300 km2 off-axis volcano located in Northern Kenya on the eastern shoulder of the Kenyan Rift, 170 km east from the center of the East African Rift System (EARS). Initial construction began in the Miocene, with the peak of volcanic activity occurring in the Pliocene. A multitude of maar craters, scoria cones, and tuff cones developed in the Quaternary, primarily along the northern and eastern slopes. These extrusive volcanic features were mapped in the late eighties but have not been revisited using modern technology. Here we present findings from our analyses of the morphologies and alignments of 242 of extrusive volcanic features found on Marsabit. We then interpret the subsurface feeder system to off-axis volcanism in this sector of the EARS. Methodologies modified from Paulsen and Wilson (2010) and Muirhead et al. (2015) are used to map volcanic craters and cones using Google Earth. The orientations, shapes, and positions of volcanic features observed over the 8,000 km2 region indicate the presence of NE-SW orientated feeder dikes, which trend oblique to the general N-S trends observed in nearby sectors of the EARS such as faults found immediately south of Lake Turkana and the Elgeyo escarpment of the Kenyan rift. The strong NE-SW orientation of volcanic lineaments on Marsabit suggests that either a local NW-SE extension direction or a NE-SW orientated crustal fabric controls the geometry of the underlying plumbing system to this off-axis volcano. From this data we have created a series of rose diagrams to indicate the possible angles and locations of subsurface dikes, illustrating the regional tectonic stress field in Marsabit. We then compare these rose diagrams to other features found in the EARS

Retail Chicken Carcasses as a Reservoir of Multidrug-Resistant .

is a major cause of foodborne disease outbreaks worldwide, mainly through poultry. Recently, there has been an increase in multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections globally. The increased drug resistance results in increased costs and poorer health outcomes due to unavailability or delayed treatment. This study aims to determine the prevalence of in retail raw chicken meat and identify their antimicrobial resistance profiles. A total of 270 retail raw chicken carcasses (local and imported) were collected from three hypermarket chains in Qatar between November 2017 and April 2018. Thirty carcasses were contaminated with (11.11%). The prevalence of in locally produced chicken was higher than in imported chicken (OR = 2.56, 95% CI: 1.18-5.53,  = 0.016). No significant differences were found between the prevalence and storage temperature or hypermarket chain. The highest resistance rates in the isolates were reported to tetracycline (73.7%) followed by nitrofurantoin (53.3%), ampicillin (50%), amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ceftriaxone (26.7%), and ciprofloxacin (23.3%). Eight isolates were potential extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producers, all in imported frozen chicken ( < 0.0001). Additionally, 43.3% of the isolates were MDR and associated with frozen chicken (OR = 16.88, 95% CI: 2.55-111.47,  = 0.002). The findings indicate that while the prevalence of in retail chicken in Qatar is moderate, a large proportion of them are MDR.This research was funded by, Biomedical Research Centre, Qatar University, grant number “BRC-2018-ID-01 to Nahla O. Eltai.

High-resolution CT phenotypes in pulmonary sarcoidosis: a multinational Delphi consensus study

One view of sarcoidosis is that the term covers many different diseases. However, no classification framework exists for the future exploration of pathogenetic pathways, genetic or trigger predilections, patterns of lung function impairment, or treatment separations, or for the development of diagnostic algorithms or relevant outcome measures. We aimed to establish agreement on high-resolution CT (HRCT) phenotypic separations in sarcoidosis to anchor future CT research through a multinational two-round Delphi consensus process. Delphi participants included members of the Fleischner Society and the World Association of Sarcoidosis and other Granulomatous Disorders, as well as members' nominees. 146 individuals (98 chest physicians, 48 thoracic radiologists) from 28 countries took part, 144 of whom completed both Delphi rounds. After rating of 35 Delphi statements on a five-point Likert scale, consensus was achieved for 22 (63%) statements. There was 97% agreement on the existence of distinct HRCT phenotypes, with seven HRCT phenotypes that were categorised by participants as non-fibrotic or likely to be fibrotic. The international consensus reached in this Delphi exercise justifies the formulation of a CT classification as a basis for the possible definition of separate diseases. Further refinement of phenotypes with rapidly achievable CT studies is now needed to underpin the development of a formal classification of sarcoidosis

The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.Peer reviewe

New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution

The evolutionary history of extant hominoids (humans and apes) remains poorly understood. The African fossil record during the crucial time period, the Miocene epoch, largely comprises isolated jaws and teeth, and little is known about ape cranial evolution. Here we report on the, to our knowledge, most complete fossil ape cranium yet described, recovered from the 13 million-year-old Middle Miocene site of Napudet, Kenya. The infant specimen, KNM-NP 59050, is assigned to a new species of Nyanzapithecus on the basis of its unerupted permanent teeth, visualized by synchrotron imaging. Its ear canal has a fully ossified tubular ectotympanic, a derived feature linking the species with crown catarrhines. Although it resembles some hylobatids in aspects of its morphology and dental development, it possesses no definitive hylobatid synapomorphies. The combined evidence suggests that nyanzapithecines were stem hominoids close to the origin of extant apes, and that hylobatid-like facial features evolved multiple times during catarrhine evolution