Yellowstone Sage Belts 1958 to 2008: 50 Years of Change in the Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) Communities of Yellowstone National Park

In 1958, 13 belt transects were established within the ungulate winter range in the northern portion of Yellowstone National Park to study how shrub communities were affected by grazing from ungulate populations. Between 1958 and 2008, the belts have been measured and photographed by different researchers at least once per decade, which has resulted in a comprehensive 50 year time series of how these communities have responded to climatic change, herbivory, and natural disturbance. In this study, we compare the percent cover, seedling establishment, and plant survival in these communities at two points in time (1958 and 2008); and explore which factors – climatic, herbivory, or disturbance – were most influential to changes in canopy cover and number of seedlings after 50 years. The recovery of the big sagebrush community after the North Fork fire is also discussed. Herbivory has controlled tree growth on the shrub belts. Climate and lack of disturbance have resulted in an increase in big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) cover on many shrub belts inside and outside of exclosures. Invasive annual species have become important drivers of vegetation change at the lowest elevation site

A Fire Severity Mapping System for Real-Time Fire Management Applications and Long-Term Planning: The FIRESEV project

Accurate, consistent, and timely fire severity maps are needed in all phases of fire management including planning, managing, and rehabilitating wildfires. The problem is that fire severity maps are commonly developed from satellite imagery that is difficult to use for planning wildfire responses before a fire has actually happened and can’t be used for real-time wildfire management because of the timing of the imagery delivery. Moreover, imagery is difficult to use for controlled fires such as prescribed burning. This study, called FIRESEV (FIRE SEVerity Mapping Tools) created a comprehensive set of tools and protocols to deliver, create, and evaluate fire severity maps for all phases of fire management. The first tool is a Severe Fire Potential Map (SFPM) that quantifies the potential for fires to burn with high severity, should they occur, for any 30m x 30m piece of ground across the western United States. This map was developed using empirical models that related topographic, vegetation, and fire weather variables to burn severity as mapped using the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) digital products. This SFPM map is currently available on the Fire Research and Management Exchange System (FRAMES, http://www.frames.gov/firesev) web site and can be used to plan for future wildfires or for managing wildfires in real time, e.g. by including it as a layer in Wildland Fire Decision Support System or other GIS analysis. The next tool was the inclusion of a fire severity mapping algorithm in the Wildland Fire Assessment Tool (WFAT) developed by the National Interagency Fuels Technology Transfer (NIFTT) team. WFAT is used for fuel treatment planning to predict potential fire effects under prescribed fire weather conditions (http://www.frames.gov/partner-sites/niftt/tools/niftt-current-resources/). Now, fire severity can be mapped explicitly from fire effects simulation models (FOFEM, Consume) for real-time and planning wildfire applications. Next, the FIRESEV project showed how results from the WFAT simulated fire severity can be integrated with satellite imagery to improve fire severity mapping. And last, the FIRESEV project produced a suite of research studies, synthesis papers, and popular articles designed to improve the description, interpretation, and mapping of fire severity for wildland fire management: (1) a research study created a completely objective method of quantifying fire severity from fire effects to obtain nine unique classes of fire severity, (2) a research study comprehensively contrasted all current classifications of fire severity using Composite Burn Index (CBI) as measured on over 300 plots across the western United States to determine commonalities and differences, and (3) a synthesis paper was written discussing the problems involved in measuring, describing, and quantifying fire severity. This FIRESEV project yielded over 15 deliverables that we feel provides a comprehensive suite of products to create useful fire severity maps, along with current satellite imagery products, and also FIRESEV provides a thorough background on how to measure, interpret, and apply fire severity in fire management

Pre-transplantation novel agent induction predicts progression-free survival for patients with immunoglobulin light-chain amyloidosis undergoing high-dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplantation

INTRODUCTION: High-dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplant (HDM/SCT) is an effective treatment modality for immunoglobulin light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, however, its application remains restricted to patients with good performance status and limited organ involvement. In recent years, the paradigm for AL amyloidosis has changed with the introduction of novel agents such as immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) and proteasome inhibitors (PIs). We hypothesized that use of novel agent induction regimens has improved outcomes for patients with AL amyloidosis undergoing HDM/SCT at our center. METHODS: All patients with AL amyloidosis, age ≥ 18 years who underwent HDM/SCT between 2001 and 2014 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington Medical Center were included in this study. Any regimen administered within 6 months prior to HDM/SCT including an IMiD or a PI was considered a novel induction regimen. Use of induction regimen was evaluated in a Cox proportional hazard model for association with progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Forty-five patients with AL amyloidosis underwent HDM/SCT. The median age was 57.2 years (range, 39 – 74.4), 15 (33.3%) were women. The median number of organs involved was 2 (range 1 – 5), with 20 patients having only 1 (44.4%), 10 patients having 2 (22.2%), and 15 patients (33.3%) having ≥ 3 organs involved. Novel agent induction regimens were used prior to HDM/SCT in 21 patients (46.7%); these comprised PI in 13/21 (57.1%), IMiD alone in 6/21 (28.6%), PI and cyclophosphamide (CyBorD) in 3/21 (14.3%), and IMiD and PI in 3/21 (14.3%). Use of a novel agent induction regimen was associated with improved progressive-free survival (PFS), but not overall survival (OS). The 3-year PFS for patients who received a novel agent induction was 79%, while for those who did not was 53% (Hazard ratio [HR] = 0.317, p = 0.048). The 3-year OS for patients who received novel agent induction regimens was 95%, while for those who did not was 71% (HR = 0.454, p = 0.247). DISCUSSION: Our data suggest that use of a novel agent induction regimen including an IMiD or PI prior to HDM/SCT for patients with AL amyloidosis could improve outcomes, with improvement in PFS. Although these results are limited by sample size and lack of randomization, these results support possible further investigation of novel agent induction regimens in the context of a prospective clinical trial

United States Department of Energy Grand Junction Office Report PGJ/F-024(82)

From Introduction: "The purpose of the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is to identify and delineate areas and environments with the Shiprock 1ºx2º Quadrangle, New Mex., Ariz., Colo., and Utah, that exhibit characteristics favorable for the occurrence of uranium deposits that have potential to contain at least 100 metric tons U3O8 total endowment with an average minimum grade of 100 ppm (0.01 percent).

United States Department of Energy Grand Junction Office Report PGJ/F-012(82)

From purpose and scope: The purpose of the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is to identify and delineate areas and environments within the Aztec 10X20 Quadrangle, New Mexico and Colorado, that exhibit characteristics favorable for the occurrence of uranium deposits that have the potential to contain at least 100 metric tons U3 08 total endowment with a minimum grade of 100 ppm (0.01 percent) U3 08 . Evaluation is based on geochemical, mineralogic, hydrologic, aerial radiometric, sedimentologic, and general geologic characteristics of the formations in the quadrangle

United States Department of Energy Grand Junction Office Report PGJ/F-016(82)

From Introduction: "The evaluation involved a comprehensive review and synthesis of the geologic literature, knowledge of on-going research, fieldwork, and the work of several geologists with uranium-related experience and knowledge of the rocks in the quadrangle.