Viet Nam in 3D : Using Geospatial Technology to Better Understand Military History

Color poster with text images, maps, and photographs.Many Viet Nam conflict historians have struggled with describing the tortuous relief of the Viet Nam landscape. Traditional hard copy maps, lacking a three-dimensional perspective, along with mere textual descriptions, are often inadequate in describing how terrain was one of many difficulties soldiers faced during the Viet Nam conflict. Advancements in computer mapping technology have provided a valuable set of tools for visualizing historic information. This study focuses on the Khe Sanh battlefield, and how the relief and its hilltops were key factors in the battles that occurred there in 1967 and 1968.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

Becoming Locals : Place-Making and the Hmong in Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Color poster with text, maps, and photographs.Since they first began arriving in the United States in the late 1970s, Hmong refugees have established numerous communities across Wisconsin and Minnesota. Though immigration from Southeast Asia continues, the Hmong community is well-established as first- and second-generation Hmong-Americans participate in community and local place-making. This study examines the incorporation of immigrants into the non-immigrant host community in Eau Claire County.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Program

Results from the worldwide coma morphology campaign for comet ISON (C/2012 S1)

We present the results of a global coma morphology campaign for comet C/2012 S1 (ISON), which was organized to involve both professional and amateur observers. In response to the campaign, many hundreds of images, from nearly two dozen groups were collected. Images were taken primarily in the continuum, which help to characterize the behavior of dust in the coma of comet ISON. The campaign received images from January 12 through November 22, 2013 (an interval over which the heliocentric distance decreased from 5.1 AU to 0.35 AU), allowing monitoring of the long-term evolution of coma morphology during comet ISON׳s pre-perihelion leg. Data were contributed by observers spread around the world, resulting in particularly good temporal coverage during November when comet ISON was brightest but its visibility was limited from any one location due to the small solar elongation. We analyze the northwestern sunward continuum coma feature observed in comet ISON during the first half of 2013, finding that it was likely present from at least February through May and did not show variations on diurnal time scales. From these images we constrain the grain velocities to ~10 m s−1, and we find that the grains spent 2–4 weeks in the sunward side prior to merging with the dust tail. We present a rationale for the lack of continuum coma features from September until mid-November 2013, determining that if the feature from the first half of 2013 was present, it was likely too small to be clearly detected. We also analyze the continuum coma morphology observed subsequent to the November 12 outburst, and constrain the first appearance of new features in the continuum to later than November 13.99 UT

Metformin treatment exerts antiinvasive and antimetastatic effects in human endometrial carcinoma cells

Context: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrinopathy in women associated with an increased risk of endometrial hyperplasia. We sought to study the effects of metformin treatment (widely used in the management of PCOS women) on human endometrial adenocarcinoma cells. Objectives: To study the effects of metformin treatment on in vitro invasion and metastasis in human endometrial adenocarcinoma cells. Also, given the link between inflammation with endometrial cancer invasion and metastasis, we explored the roles of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) as well as v-akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog 1 (Akt) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (Erk(1/2)) signaling pathways. Design: Sera were obtained from PCOS and control subjects. In vitro invasion were assessed in human endometrial cells (ECC-1 cells) by wound-healing motility and migration assays. NF-kappa B was studied by stably transfecting ECC-1 cells with acis- reporter plasmid containing luciferase reporter gene linked to five repeats of NF-kappa B binding sites. The gelatinolytic activities of secreted MMP-2/9 in conditioned media were measured by gelatin zymography. Akt and Erk(1/2) phosphorylation were assessed by Western blotting. Results: In vitro invasion in ECC-1 cells was significantly attenuated by sera from PCOS women after 6 months of metformin treatment (850 mg twice daily) compared to matched controls (P < 0.01). These effects appear to be associated with NF-kappa B, MMP-2/9, as well as Akt and Erk(1/2) pathways that are known to be important regulators of inflammation, tumor invasion and metastasis. Conclusions: Metformin, potentially, may serve as adjuvant treatment in the management of patients with endometrial cancer. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 96: 808-816, 2011