Exploring a Small Thrust Fault and Related Features on U.S. Highway 62/68, Near Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky

One of the most unusual highway cuts in all of Kentucky is located approximately 395 ft (120 m) south of the high bridge that crosses Lawrence Creek on U.S. Highway 62/68, near Maysville, Mason County (see Figs. 1-2). The Carter coordinate location of the outcrop is 400 FSL x 900 FEL, 24-AA-69, which corresponds to 38°40\u273 N latitude, 83°48\u2710 W longitude. The roadcut is approximately 1,315 ft (400 m) long, and rises in benches to a height of almost 110 ft (33 m). About 30 to 36 ft (9 to 11 m) of the Grant Lake Limestone is exposed at the top of the cut, accounting for about one-third of the total thickness of that formation. Below this, 108 ft (33 m) of the Fairview Formation is exposed, almost its full thickness. A low-angle overthrust fault is revealed in limestones and shales of Late Ordovician age (Fig. 3A-B). Many interesting small-scale deformational structures, a small cave passage, and other karst and solution features are associated with this thrust fault. Two key questions are, How is this fault related to other, larger scale structural features in the area and When did the faulting occur

Lithostratigraphy of the Grant Lake Limestone and Grant Lake Formation (Upper Ordovician) in Southwestern Ohio

Author Institution: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological SurveyThe Grant Lake Limestone, including, in ascending order, the Bellevue, the Corryville, and the Straight Creek Members, and the Grant Lake Formation, including, in ascending order, the Bellevue, the Corryville, and the Mount Auburn Members, are herein defined as lithostratigraphic units in southwestern Ohio. Regional bedrock mapping, shale-percentage and geophysical logs, and mean shale percentage of lithostratigraphic units demonstrate a progressive change from a limestone-dominant stratigraphic section in the Maysville, KY, region to a shale-dominant stratigraphic section in the Cincinnati, OH, region. The Grant Lake Limestone is redefined to account for the progressive decrease in limestone content observed northwestward away from Maysville, KY. The Grant Lake Formation is introduced to describe the shaledominant lateral equivalent of the Grant Lake Limestone in the Cincinnati, OH, region. The Bellevue Limestone, the Corryville Formation, and the Mount Auburn Formation are reduced to members because, in some cases, they are not mappable at 1:62,500 or smaller scales. The Straight Creek Member is introduced to describe the limestone-dominant lateral equivalent of the shale-dominant Mount Auburn Member. The limestone-dominant and shale-dominant lithologies of the Grant Lake Limestone and the Grant Lake Formation can be recognized in shale-percentage and geophysical logs. Correlation between logs led to recognition of these stratigraphic units in the subsurface of southwestern Ohio

Forecast dataset associated with “From Random Forests to Flood Forecasts: A Research to Operations Success Story”

Gridded forecasts from the Colorado State University-Machine Learning Probabilities (CSU-MLP) system for excessive rainfall prediction over the continental United States. The dataset includes probabilistic forecasts for days 1, 2, and 3 from the 2017, 2019, and 2020 versions of the CSU-MLP forecast system. For the day 2 and 3 forecasts, daily forecasts are included from 19 June 2018 through 15 October 2020; for day-1 forecasts a period from 15 March 2019 through 15 October 2020 is used.Because excessive rainfall is poorly defined and difficult to forecast, there is a need for tools for Weather Prediction Center (WPC) forecasters to use when generating Excessive Rainfall Outlooks (EROs), which are issued for the contiguous United States at lead times of 1--3 days. To address this need, a probabilistic forecast system for excessive rainfall, known as the Colorado State University-Machine Learning Probabilities (CSU-MLP) system, was developed based on ensemble reforecasts, precipitation observations, and machine learning algorithms, specifically random forests. The CSU-MLP forecasts were designed to emulate the EROs, with the goal being a tool that forecasters can use as a ``first guess'' in the ERO forecast process. Resulting from close collaboration between CSU and WPC and evaluation at the Flash Flood and Intense Rainfall experiment, iterative improvements were made to the forecast system and it was transitioned into operational use at WPC. Quantitative evaluation shows that the CSU-MLP forecasts are skillful and reliable, and they are now being used as a part of the WPC forecast process. This project represents an example of a successful research-to-operations transition, and highlights the potential for machine learning and other post-processing techniques to improve operational predictions.This research and operational transition was supported by NOAA Joint Technology Transfer Initiative grants NA16OAR4590238 and NA18OAR4590378

Potential Sand and Gravel Resources of the Mansfield 30 x 60 minute quadrangle

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), Division of Geological Survey has completed a reconnaissance map showing areas of mineable sand and gravel resources in the Mansfield, Ohio, 30 x 60 minute (scale 1:100,000) quadrangle. The main purpose of this map was to create a reconnaissance-level map that would show the potential for mining sand and gravel in this quadrangle. The map shows areas of surficial materials in increments of 10 feet and then differentiates sand, sand and gravel, and ice-contact deposits from finer grained materials, such as glacial till, lacustrine clay and silt, and alluvial materials. The sand and sand-and-gravel units include both surficial and buried outwash and valley train deposits and ice-contact deposits, such as kames, kame terraces, and eskers. To determine if a sand-and-gravel deposit was economically viable, this map shows the total thickness or accumulation of sand and gravel in the Mansfield 30 x 60-minute quadrangle.United States Geological Survey: National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalitio

CD44 Plays a Functional Role in Helicobacter pylori-induced Epithelial Cell Proliferation

The cytotoxin-associated gene (Cag) pathogenicity island is a strain-specific constituent of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) that augments cancer risk. CagA translocates into the cytoplasm where it stimulates cell signaling through the interaction with tyrosine kinase c-Met receptor, leading cellular proliferation. Identified as a potential gastric stem cell marker, cluster-of-differentiation (CD) CD44 also acts as a co-receptor for c-Met, but whether it plays a functional role in H. pylori-induced epithelial proliferation is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that CD44 plays a functional role in H. pylori-induced epithelial cell proliferation. To assay changes in gastric epithelial cell proliferation in relation to the direct interaction with H. pylori, human- and mouse-derived gastric organoids were infected with the G27 H. pylori strain or a mutant G27 strain bearing cagA deletion (ΔCagA::cat). Epithelial proliferation was quantified by EdU immunostaining. Phosphorylation of c-Met was analyzed by immunoprecipitation followed by Western blot analysis for expression of CD44 and CagA. H. pylori infection of both mouse- and human-derived gastric organoids induced epithelial proliferation that correlated with c-Met phosphorylation. CagA and CD44 co-immunoprecipitated with phosphorylated c-Met. The formation of this complex did not occur in organoids infected with ΔCagA::cat. Epithelial proliferation in response to H. pylori infection was lost in infected organoids derived from CD44-deficient mouse stomachs. Human-derived fundic gastric organoids exhibited an induction in proliferation when infected with H. pylori, that was not seen in organoids pre-treated with a peptide inhibitor specific to CD44. In the wellestablished Mongolian gerbil model of gastric cancer, animals treated with CD44 peptide inhibitor Pep1, resulted in the inhibition of H. pylori-induced proliferation and associated atrophic gastritis. The current study reports a unique approach to study H. pylori interaction with the human gastric epithelium. Here, we show that CD44 plays a functional role in H. pyloriinduced epithelial cell proliferation

Organizing Effects of Sex Steroids on Brain Aromatase Activity in Quail

Preoptic/hypothalamic aromatase activity (AA) is sexually differentiated in birds and mammals but the mechanisms controlling this sex difference remain unclear. We determined here (1) brain sites where AA is sexually differentiated and (2) whether this sex difference results from organizing effects of estrogens during ontogeny or activating effects of testosterone in adulthood. In the first experiment we measured AA in brain regions micropunched in adult male and female Japanese quail utilizing the novel strategy of basing the microdissections on the distribution of aromatase-immunoreactive cells. The largest sex difference was found in the medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (mBST) followed by the medial preoptic nucleus (POM) and the tuberal hypothalamic region. A second experiment tested the effect of embryonic treatments known to sex-reverse male copulatory behavior (i.e., estradiol benzoate [EB] or the aromatase inhibitor, Vorozole) on brain AA in gonadectomized adult males and females chronically treated as adults with testosterone. Embryonic EB demasculinized male copulatory behavior, while vorozole blocked demasculinization of behavior in females as previously demonstrated in birds. Interestingly, these treatments did not affect a measure of appetitive sexual behavior. In parallel, embryonic vorozole increased, while EB decreased AA in pooled POM and mBST, but the same effect was observed in both sexes. Together, these data indicate that the early action of estrogens demasculinizes AA. However, this organizational action of estrogens on AA does not explain the behavioral sex difference in copulatory behavior since AA is similar in testosterone-treated males and females that were or were not exposed to embryonic treatments with estrogens

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo