Session 7 - Technology and the creation of wilderness: The Making of quabbin reservoir

Large dams in the United States have frequently been the targets of attacks by environmentalists who believe that the dams and the reservoirs they create are violations of wilderness. There are currently numerous proposals to dismantle some dams in order to restore river ecosystems to their pre-dam conditions, including Hetch Hetchy Reservoir’s O’ Shaunnessy Dam. Less attention has been paid to those dams and reservoirs that have arguably created protected areas that otherwise may have been subject to degradation from development. The Quabbin Reservoir, the primary water source for metropolitan Boston, serves as a prime example. Viewed as an engineering success in the 1930s, the Quabbin project consisted of two large earthen dams and a 25 mile-long tunnel to supply Boston with high-quality, unfiltered water from a submerged valley in central Massachusetts. Although building the reservoir required the taking of four towns by eminent domain, the reservoir and surrounding lands are now viewed favorably by the public as a “watershed wilderness.” This paper explores the ramifications of how technology—in this case, the construction of a large water supply system—serves as a creator of wilderness, as opposed to destroyer

A Shift in Values

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75745/1/j.1541-0072.1995.tb01743.x.pd

The Role of Proactive Risk Assessments in Ensuring Business Continuity in the Swine Industry during an FMD Outbreak

Emerging and reemerging pathogens of food animals, such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), have the potential to disrupt the supply of food commodities. In the event of an FMD outbreak in the United States, permit requests to move pigs and pork products must be supported by risk assessments (3)

Sole-Search: an integrated analysis program for peak detection and functional annotation using ChIP-seq data

Next-generation sequencing is revolutionizing the identification of transcription factor binding sites throughout the human genome. However, the bioinformatics analysis of large datasets collected using chromatin immunoprecipitation and high-throughput sequencing is often a roadblock that impedes researchers in their attempts to gain biological insights from their experiments. We have developed integrated peak-calling and analysis software (Sole-Search) which is available through a user-friendly interface and (i) converts raw data into a format for visualization on a genome browser, (ii) outputs ranked peak locations using a statistically based method that overcomes the significant problem of false positives, (iii) identifies the gene nearest to each peak, (iv) classifies the location of each peak relative to gene structure, (v) provides information such as the number of binding sites per chromosome and per gene and (vi) allows the user to determine overlap between two different experiments. In addition, the program performs an analysis of amplified and deleted regions of the input genome. This software is web-based and automated, allowing easy and immediate access to all investigators. We demonstrate the utility of our software by collecting, analyzing and comparing ChIP-seq data for six different human transcription factors/cell line combinations

Cost-Effectiveness of Pooled Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing for Acute HIV Infection after Third-Generation HIV Antibody Screening and Rapid Testing in the United States: A Comparison of Three Public Health Settings

Angela Hutchinson and colleagues conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of pooled nucleic acid amplification testing following HIV testing and show that it is not cost-effective at recommended antibody testing intervals for high-risk persons except in very high-incidence settings

Achievement of the planetary defense investigations of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was the first to demonstrate asteroid deflection, and the mission's Level 1 requirements guided its planetary defense investigations. Here, we summarize DART's achievement of those requirements. On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the secondary member of the Didymos near-Earth asteroid binary system, demonstrating an autonomously navigated kinetic impact into an asteroid with limited prior knowledge for planetary defense. Months of subsequent Earth-based observations showed that the binary orbital period was changed by –33.24 minutes, with two independent analysis methods each reporting a 1σ uncertainty of 1.4 s. Dynamical models determined that the momentum enhancement factor, β, resulting from DART's kinetic impact test is between 2.4 and 4.9, depending on the mass of Dimorphos, which remains the largest source of uncertainty. Over five dozen telescopes across the globe and in space, along with the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids, have contributed to DART's investigations. These combined investigations have addressed topics related to the ejecta, dynamics, impact event, and properties of both asteroids in the binary system. A year following DART's successful impact into Dimorphos, the mission has achieved its planetary defense requirements, although work to further understand DART's kinetic impact test and the Didymos system will continue. In particular, ESA's Hera mission is planned to perform extensive measurements in 2027 during its rendezvous with the Didymos–Dimorphos system, building on DART to advance our knowledge and continue the ongoing international collaboration for planetary defense

The good in nature and humanity : connecting science, religion, and spirituality with the natural world

xvi, 278 p. : ill. ; 24 cm

The good in nature and humanity: Connecting science, religion, and spirituality with the natural world

278 hal. ; ; 21 cm