Workshop on Moon in Transition: Apollo 14, KREEP, and Evolved Lunar Rocks

Lunar rocks provide material for analyzing lunar history and now new evaluation procedures are available for discovering new information from the Fra Mauro highlands rocks, which are different from any other lunar samples. These and other topics were discussed at this workshop, including a new evaluation of the nature and history of KREEP, granite, and other evolved lunar rock types, and ultimately a fresh evaluation of the transition of the moon from its early anorthosite-forming period to its later stages of KREEPy, granitic, and mare magmatism. The summary of presentations and discussion is based on notes taken by the respective summarizers during the workshop

EFFECTS OF HIGH AND LOW MANAGEMENT INTENSITY ON PROFITABILITY FOR THREE WATERMELON GENOTYPES

A replicated, small plot study on watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunberg) Matsumura and Nakai] in 1997, 1999, and 2000 revealed that production management intensity affected yields and profitability of watermelon, in Oklahoma. Management intensity was based on a combination of cultural practices and levels of use of production methods. Low intensity management (LM) consisted of use of soil fertilization and weed control. High intensity management (HM) included the same weed control and fertilization as LM but also included use of plastic mulch, drip irrigation, insect pest control, and plant disease control. Cost and return analyses were based on the range of actual prices during the cropping season and the range of yields during the three years. Yields from the seedless triploid genotype 'Gem Dandy' consistently resulted in greater positive net revenue under HM than the diploid open pollinated 'Allsweet' or the hybrid diploid 'Sangria'. Under LM, yields from the seedless triploid also resulted in greater net revenues when conditions were favorable or lost less money than the open pollinated 'Allsweet' or the hybrid diploid 'Sangria' when conditions were unfavorable.Crop Production/Industries,

Impact of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines on Pneumonia Hospitalizations in High- and Low-Income Subpopulations in Brazil.

BackgroundPneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) are being used worldwide. A key question is whether the impact of PCVs on pneumonia is similar in low- and high-income populations. However, most low-income countries, where the burden of disease is greatest, lack reliable data that can be used to evaluate the impact. Data from middle-income countries that have both low- and high-income subpopulations can provide a proxy measure for the impact of the vaccine in low-income countries.MethodsWe evaluated the impact of PCV10 on hospitalizations for all-cause pneumonia in Brazil, a middle-income country with localities that span a broad range of human development index (HDI) levels. We used complementary time series and spatiotemporal methods (synthetic controls and hierarchical Bayesian spatial regression) to test whether the decline in pneumonia hospitalizations associated with vaccine introduction varied across the socioeconomic spectrum.ResultsWe found that the declines in all-cause pneumonia hospitalizations in children and young and middle-aged adults did not vary substantially across low and high HDI subpopulations. Moreover, the estimated declines seen in infants and young adults were associated with higher levels of uptake of the vaccine at a local level.ConclusionsThese results suggest that PCVs have an important impact on hospitalizations for all-cause pneumonia in both low- and high-income populations

Organic and Conventional Vegetable Production in Oklahoma

This study compares he profitability and risk related to conventional and organic vegetable production systems A linear programming model was used to find the optimal mix of vegetables in both production systems. And a target MOTAD (minimization of total absolute deviation) model was used to perform risk analysis in both organic and conventional production systemsCrop Production/Industries, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Possible Jurassic age for part of Rakaia Terrane: implications for tectonic development of the Torlesse accretionary prism

Greywacke sandstone and argillite beds comprising Rakaia Terrane (Torlesse Complex) in mid Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand, are widely regarded as Late Triassic (Norian) in age based on the occurrence of Torlessia trace fossils, Monotis, and other taxa. This paleontological age assignment is tested using published 40Ar/39Ar mica and U-Pb zircon ages for these rocks and published and new zircon fission track (FT) ages. The youngest U-Pb zircon ages in the Rakaia Terrane rocks in mid Canterbury are Norian, whereas 10-20% of the 40Ar/39Ar muscovite ages are younger than Norian. Numerical modelling of these mica ages shows that they cannot have originated from partial thermal overprinting in the Torlesse prism if the thermal maximum was short-lived and early in the prism history (210-190 Ma), as commonly inferred for these rocks. The young component of mica ages could, however, be explained by extended residence (200-100 Ma) at 265-290deg.C in the prism. Early Jurassic (c. 189 Ma) zircon FT ages for sandstone beds from Arthur's Pass, the Rakaia valley, and the Hermitage (Mt Cook) are interpreted not to have experienced maximum temperatures above 210deg.C, and therefore cannot have been reduced as a result of partial annealing in the Torlesse prism. This is based on identification of a fossil Cretaceous, zircon FT, partial annealing zone in low-grade schists to the west, and the characteristics of the age data. The Early Jurassic zircon FT ages and the young component of 40Ar/39Ar mica ages are regarded therefore as detrital ages reflecting cooling in the source area, and constrain the maximum depositional age of parts of the Rakaia Terrane in mid Canterbury. The zircon FT data also show the initiation (c. 100 Ma) of marked and widespread Late Cretaceous cooling of Rakaia Terrane throughout Canterbury, which is attributed to uplift and erosion of inboard parts of the Torlesse prism due to continuing subduction accretion at its toe. The critical wedge concept is proposed as a new framework for investigating the development of the Torlesse Complex. The Rakaia Terrane may have formed the core of an accretionary wedge imbricated against the New Zealand margin during the Middle or Late Jurassic. Late Jurassic nonmarine sediments (e.g., Clent Hills Formation) accumulated upon the inner parts of the prism as it enlarged, emerged, and continued to be imbricated. Exhumation of Otago Schist from c. 135 Ma may mark the development of a balance (steady state) between sediments entering the prism at the toe and material exiting at the inboard margin. The enlargement of the area of exhumation to all of Canterbury from c. 100 Ma may reflect a dynamic response to widening of the prism through the accretion of Cretaceous sediments. The model of a dynamic critical wedge may help to explain the various expressions of the Rangitata Orogeny

Pattern scaling using ClimGen: monthly-resolution future climate scenarios including changes in the variability of precipitation

Development, testing and example applications of the pattern-scaling approach for generating future climate change projections are reported here, with a focus on a particular software application called “ClimGen”. A number of innovations have been implemented, including using exponential and logistic functions of global-mean temperature to represent changes in local precipitation and cloud cover, and interpolation from climate model grids to a finer grid while taking into account land-sea contrasts in the climate change patterns. Of particular significance is a new approach for incorporating changes in the inter-annual variability of monthly precipitation simulated by climate models. This is achieved by diagnosing simulated changes in the shape of the gamma distribution of monthly precipitation totals, applying the pattern-scaling approach to estimate changes in the shape parameter under a future scenario, and then perturbing sequences of observed precipitation anomalies so that their distribution changes according to the projected change in the shape parameter. The approach cannot represent changes to the structure of climate timeseries (e.g. changed autocorrelation or teleconnection patterns) were they to occur, but is shown here to be more successful at representing changes in low precipitation extremes than previous pattern-scaling methods

Pericardial Fat and Echocardiographic Measures of Cardiac Abnormalities

Objective: Pericardial adipose tissue (PAT), a regional fat depot adjacent to the myocardium, may mediate the complex relation between obesity and cardiac left ventricular (LV) abnormalities. We sought to evaluate the association of PAT with echocardiographic measures of LV abnormalities in the Jackson Heart Study (JHS). Research Design and Methods: A total of 1,414 African Americans (35% men; mean age 58 years) from the JHS underwent computed tomographic assessment of PAT and abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) from 2007 to 2009 and echocardiography examination between 2000 and 2004. Echocardiographic measures of left atrial (LA) internal diameter, LV mass, LV ejection fraction (LVEF), and E-wave velocity-to-A-wave velocity ratio (E/A ratio) were examined in relation to PAT, VAT, BMI, and waist circumference (WC). Results: All adiposity measures were positively correlated with LA diameter and LV mass and negatively correlated with E/A ratio (P = 0.02 to 0.0001) and were not with LVEF (P = 0.36–0.61). In women, per 1-SD increment of PAT, we observed association with higher LV mass (9.0 $\pm$ 1.7 gm, P = 0.0001) and LA diameter (1.0 $\pm$ 0.1 mm, P = 0.0001). However, the magnitude of the association between PAT and cardiac measures was similar compared with VAT (P = 0.65 [LV mass]; P = 0.26 [LA diameter]) and was smallercompared with BMI (P = 0.002 [LV mass]; P = 0.01 [LA diameter]) and WC (P = 0.009 [LA diameter]). Conclusions: PAT is correlated with echocardiographic measures of cardiac LV abnormalities, but the association is not stronger than other adiposity measures

Relationships between Larval and Juvenile Abundance of Winter-Spawned Fishes in North Carolina, USA

We analyzed the relationships between the larval and juvenile abundances of selected estuarine-dependent fishes that spawn during the winter in continental shelf waters of the U.S. Atlantic coast. Six species were included in the analysis based on their ecological and economic importance and relative abundance in available surveys: spot Leiostomus xanthurus, pinfish Lagodon rhomboides, southern flounder Paralichthys lethostigma, summer flounder Paralichthys dentatus, Atlantic croaker Micropogonias undulatus, and Atlantic menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus. Cross-correlation analysis was used to examine the relationships between the larval and juvenile abundances within species. Tests of synchrony across species were used to find similarities in recruitment dynamics for species with similar winter shelf-spawning life-history strategies. Positive correlations were found between the larval and juvenile abundances for three of the six selected species (spot, pinfish, and southern flounder). These three species have similar geographic ranges that primarily lie south of Cape Hatteras. There were no significant correlations between the larval and juvenile abundances for the other three species (summer flounder, Atlantic croaker, and Atlantic menhaden); we suggest several factors that could account for the lack of a relationship. Synchrony was found among the three southern species within both the larval and juvenile abundance time series. These results provide support for using larval ingress measures as indices of abundance for these and other species with similar geographic ranges and winter shelf-spawning life-history strategies

FAD binding, cobinamide binding and active site communication in the corrin reductase (CobR)

Adenosylcobalamin, the coenzyme form of vitamin B12, is one Nature's most complex coenzyme whose de novo biogenesis proceeds along either an anaerobic or aerobic metabolic pathway. The aerobic synthesis involves reduction of the centrally chelated cobalt metal ion of the corrin ring from Co(II) to Co(I) before adenosylation can take place. A corrin reductase (CobR) enzyme has been identified as the likely agent to catalyse this reduction of the metal ion. Herein, we reveal how Brucella melitensis CobR binds its coenzyme FAD (flavin dinucleotide) and we also show that the enzyme can bind a corrin substrate consistent with its role in reduction of the cobalt of the corrin ring. Stopped-flow kinetics and EPR reveal a mechanistic asymmetry in CobR dimer that provides a potential link between the two electron reduction by NADH to the single electron reduction of Co(II) to Co(I)