Possible tsunami along the northwestern coast of the United States inferred from Indian traditions

Subduction of the Juan de Fuca and Gorda plates beneath western North America presents a paradox; despite the fact that there is good evidence of 3 to 4 cm/yr of ongoing convergence, there is a remarkable paucity of either historic or instrumentally recorded shallow subduction earthquakes. Steady aseismic slip along the entire Cascadia subduction zone provides one explanation for this seismic quiescence. However, the Cascadia subduction zone shares many features, including temporal quiescence, with other subduction zones that have experienced very large shallow subduction earthquakes (Heaton and Kanamori, 1984). Yet, there is no direct geologic or historical evidence presently available to confirm that great shallow subduction earthquakes have occurred along the coast of Washington, Oregon, and northern California. However, there are reports describing Indian legends of great sea-level disturbances that may be related to large nearby earthquakes. In this letter, we briefly review the history of exploration and settlement of this region by nonnative people and then discuss legends from Indians in northern Washington and northern California

Alternative Sources of Large Seasonal Ground-water Supplies in the Headwaters of the Susquehanna River Basin, New York

The northern divide of the Susquehanna River basin crosses 29 broad valleys that contain thick glacial deposits but are drained only by small headwater streams. Much groundwater could be withdrawn from sand and gravel deposits in these valleys with little immediate effect on streamflow. A digital model of the headwater reach of one typical valley suggests that pumping 10.8 million gal/day for 2 months every summer would lower the water table as much as 33 ft, cause the upper 1,900 ft of the stream draining the valley to go dry, and reduce streamflow downvalley by 1.2 million gal/day by the time pumping ceased. Saturated thickness of surficial sand and gravel exceeds 40 ft in about half the headwater valley reaches; the valley floor areas range from 0.2 to 9 sq mi. Seepage losses from small streams that carry runoff from adjacent till-covered uplands are a major source of recharge to aquifers in these valleys under natural conditions and would increase if the water table were lowered by seasonal withdrawals. Some aquifers beneath extensive clay layers in these and other valleys of the Susquehanna River basin may be partially independent of streams but not easily evaluated. (USGS

UNLV Wind Orchestra

Program listing performers and works performed

UNLV Wind Orchestra

Program listing performers and works performed

Leveraging Academic Partnerships to Improve Logistics at Nonprofit Organizations

This article presents the results of a partnership between a nonprofit organization and a team of academic researchers that developed a low-cost spreadsheet-based tool that allows organizations to effectively schedule vehicle operations. Specifically, the tool (1) handles the real-world constraints present in moderately complex logistics environments; and (2) uses general computing hardware and software that is already deployed in most organizations, thereby rendering the solution radically low cost (effectively free). We deployed this tool to a humanitarian organization, the Idaho Foodbank, which realized a substantial improvement in its fleet efficiency and a corresponding reduction in route-planning time. The methodology used to manage this collaboration with academia can be leveraged by other nonprofit organizations attempting to overcome the financial barriers that commonly prevent budget-constrained organizations from accessing advanced technologies

UNLV Wind Orchestra

Program listing performers and works performed

Chemotherapy and Stem Cell Transplantation Increase p16

AbstractThe expression of markers of cellular senescence increases exponentially in multiple tissues with aging. Age-related physiological changes may contribute to adverse outcomes in cancer survivors. To investigate the impact of high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation on senescence markers in vivo, we collected blood and clinical data from a cohort of 63 patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation. The expression of p16INK4a, a well-established senescence marker, was determined in T-cells before and 6months after transplant. RNA sequencing was performed on paired samples from 8 patients pre- and post-cancer therapy. In patients undergoing allogeneic transplant, higher pre-transplant p16INK4a expression was associated with a greater number of prior cycles of chemotherapy received (p=0.003), prior autologous transplantation (p=0.01) and prior exposure to alkylating agents (p=0.01). Transplantation was associated with a marked increase in p16INK4a expression 6months following transplantation. Patients receiving autologous transplant experienced a larger increase in p16INK4a expression (3.1-fold increase, p=0.002) than allogeneic transplant recipients (1.9-fold increase, p=0.0004). RNA sequencing of T-cells pre- and post- autologous transplant or cytotoxic chemotherapy demonstrated increased expression of transcripts associated with cellular senescence and physiological aging. Cytotoxic chemotherapy, especially alkylating agents, and stem cell transplantation strongly accelerate expression of a biomarker of molecular aging in T-cells

Multidisciplinary clinic approach improves overall survival outcomes of patients with metastatic germ-cell tumors

Background To report our experience utilizing a multidisciplinary clinic (MDC) at Indiana University (IU) since the publication of the International Germ Cell Cancer Collaborative Group (IGCCCG), and to compare our overall survival (OS) to that of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. Patients and methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of all patients with metastatic germ-cell tumor (GCT) seen at IU from 1998 to 2014. A total of 1611 consecutive patients were identified, of whom 704 patients received an initial evaluation by our MDC (including medical oncology, pathology, urology and thoracic surgery) and started first-line chemotherapy at IU. These 704 patients were eligible for analysis. All patients in this cohort were treated with cisplatin–etoposide-based combination chemotherapy. We compared the progression-free survival (PFS) and OS of patients treated at IU with that of the published IGCCCG cohort. OS of the IU testis cancer primary cohort (n = 622) was further compared with the SEER data of 1283 patients labeled with ‘distant’ disease. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate PFS and OS. Results With a median follow-up of 4.4 years, patients with good, intermediate, and poor risk disease by IGCCCG criteria treated at IU had 5-year PFS of 90%, 84%, and 54% and 5-year OS of 97%, 92%, and 73%, respectively. The 5-year PFS for all patients in the IU cohort was 79% [95% confidence interval (CI) 76% to 82%]. The 5-year OS for the IU cohort was 90% (95% CI 87% to 92%). IU testis cohort had 5-year OS 94% (95% CI 91% to 96%) versus 75% (95% CI 73% to 78%) for the SEER ‘distant’ cohort between 2000 and 2014, P-value <0.0001. Conclusion The MDC approach to GCT at high-volume cancer center associated with improved OS outcomes in this contemporary dataset. OS is significantly higher in the IU cohort compared with the IGCCCG and SEER ‘distant’ cohort

The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR: A Search for Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay of Germanium-76

The observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay would determine whether the neutrino is a Majorana particle and provide information on the absolute scale of neutrino mass. The MAJORANA Collaboration is constructing the DEMONSTRATOR, an array of germanium detectors, to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76-Ge. The DEMONSTRATOR will contain 40 kg of germanium; up to 30 kg will be enriched to 86% in 76-Ge. The DEMONSTRATOR will be deployed deep underground in an ultra-low-background shielded environment. Operation of the DEMONSTRATOR aims to determine whether a future tonne-scale germanium experiment can achieve a background goal of one count per tonne-year in a 4-keV region of interest around the 76-Ge neutrinoless double-beta decay Q-value of 2039 keV.Comment: Submitted to AIP Conference Proceedings, 19th Particles & Nuclei International Conference (PANIC 2011), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, July 24-29, 2011; 3 pages, 1 figur