No evidence of extraterrestrial noble metal and helium anomalies at Marinoan glacial termination

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters 437 (2016): 76-88, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2015.12.040.High concentrations of extraterrestrial iridium have been reported in terminal Sturtian and Marinoan glacial marine sediments and are used to argue for long (likely 3-12 Myr) durations of these Cryogenian glaciations. Reanalysis of the Marinoan sedimentary rocks used in the original study, supplemented by sedimentary rocks from additional terminal Marinoan sections, however, does not confirm the initial report. New platinum group element concentrations, and 187Os/188Os and 3He/4He signatures are consistent with crustal origin and minimal extraterrestrial contributions. The discrepancy is likely caused by different sample masses used in the two studies, with this study being based on much larger samples that better capture the stochastic distribution of extraterrestrial particles in marine sediments. Strong enrichment of redox-sensitive elements, particularly rhenium, up-section in the basal postglacial cap carbonates, may indicate a return to more fully oxygenated seawater in the aftermath of the Marinoan snowball earth. Sections dominated by hydrogenous osmium indicate increasing submarine hydrothermal sources and/or continental inputs that are increasingly dominated by young mantle-derived rocks after deglaciation. Sedimentation rate estimates for the basal cap carbonates yield surprisingly slow rates of a few centimeters per thousand years. This study highlights the importance of using sedimentary rock samples that represent sufficiently large area-time products to properly sample extraterrestrial particles representatively, and demonstrates the value of using multiple tracers of extraterrestrial matter.We are grateful for support from a 2008 WHOI Summer Student Fellowship for CAW. BPE acknowledges financial support from WHOI’s Ocean and Climate Change Institute (CH11320) and U.S. NSF SGER grant EAR-0821878. Fieldwork in NW Canada was licensed by the Aurora Research Institute and supported by a grant to PFH from the Astrobiology Institute of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Fieldwork in NW Canada and Namibia was supported by grants EAR-9905495 and EAR-0417422 (to PFH) from the US NSF. We thank Jon Husson (Harvard University) and Ricardo Trindade (University of São Paulo, Brazil) for excellent support during fieldwork in Namibia in August of 2005

Lahaina groundwater tracer study -- Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii

The studies presented in this report provide the positive establishment of hydrologic connections between the municipal wastewater injection from the LWRF and the nearshore region of the Kaanapali coast on the Island of Maui, Hawaii, and provide the results from the study’s principal objectives, which have been to: (1) implement a tracer dye study from the LWRF (Section 3), (2) conduct continuous monitoring for the emergence of the injected tracer dyes at the most probable points of emergence at nearshore sites within the coastal reaches of the LWRF (Section 2), (3) conduct an airborne infrared sea surface temperature mapping survey of coastal zone fronting the LWRF in an effort to detect cool and/or warm temperature anomalies that may be indicative of cool submarine groundwater discharge and warm wastewater effluent (Section 4), (4) complete radon and radium radiochemical surveys to detect the emergence points and flow rates of the naturally occurring submarine groundwater along the coastal zone (Section 5), (5) complete geochemical and stable isotopic analyses of LWRF effluent, upland well waters, terrestrial surface waters, marine waters, and submarine groundwater discharge in an effort to help partition the relative contribution of effluent waters to the ocean (Section 6), and (6) combine complete dye emergence breakthrough curves with which to develop groundwater models to determine the LWRFs effluent flow paths and rates of emergence to the coastal zone (Section 7).U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyDepartment of Health, State of HawaiiU.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Cente

Comparison of variant calling methods for whole genome sequencing data in dairy cattle

Accurate identification of SNPs from next-generation sequencing data is crucial for high-quality downstream analysis. Whole genome sequence data of 65 key ancestors of genotyped Swiss dairy populations were available for investigation (24 billion reads, 96.8% mapped to UMD31, 12x coverage). Four publically available variant calling programmes were assessed and different levels of pre-calling handling for each method were tested and compared. SNP concordance was examined with Illumina’s BovineHD Genotyping BeadChip®. Depending on variant calling software used, between 16,894,054 and 22,048,382 SNP were identified (multi-sample calling). A total of 14,644,310 SNP were identified by all four variant callers (multi-sample calling). InDel counts ranged from 1,997,791 to 2,857,754; 1,708,649 InDels were identified by all four variant callers. A minimum of pre-calling data handling resulted in the highest non-reference sensitivity and the lowest non-reference discrepancy rates

Use of fecal volatile organic compound analysis to discriminate between nonvaccinated and BCG-Vaccinated cattle prior to and after \u3ci\u3eMycobacterium bovis\u3c/i\u3e challenge

Bovine tuberculosis is a zoonotic disease of global public health concern. Development of diagnostic tools to improve test accuracy and efficiency in domestic livestock and enable surveillance of wildlife reservoirs would improve disease management and eradication efforts. Use of volatile organic compound analysis in breath and fecal samples is being developed and optimized as a means to detect disease in humans and animals. In this study we demonstrate that VOCs present in fecal samples can be used to discriminate between non-vaccinated and BCG-vaccinated cattle prior to and after Mycobacterium bovis challenge

Use of fecal volatile organic compound analysis to discriminate between nonvaccinated and BCG-Vaccinated cattle prior to and after \u3ci\u3eMycobacterium bovis\u3c/i\u3e challenge

Bovine tuberculosis is a zoonotic disease of global public health concern. Development of diagnostic tools to improve test accuracy and efficiency in domestic livestock and enable surveillance of wildlife reservoirs would improve disease management and eradication efforts. Use of volatile organic compound analysis in breath and fecal samples is being developed and optimized as a means to detect disease in humans and animals. In this study we demonstrate that VOCs present in fecal samples can be used to discriminate between non-vaccinated and BCG-vaccinated cattle prior to and after Mycobacterium bovis challenge

What is a good medical decision? A research agenda guided by perspectives from multiple stakeholders

Informed and shared decision making are critical aspects of patient-centered care, which has contributed to an emphasis on decision support interventions to promote good medical decision making. However, researchers and healthcare providers have not reached a consensus on what defines a good decision, nor how to evaluate it. This position paper, informed by conference sessions featuring diverse stakeholders held at the 2015 Society of Behavioral Medicine and Society for Medical Decision Making annual meetings, describes key concepts that influence the decision making process itself and that may change what it means to make a good decision: interpersonal factors, structural constraints, affective influences, and values clarification methods. This paper also proposes specific research questions within each of these priority areas, with the goal of moving medical decision making research to a more comprehensive definition of a good medical decision, and enhancing the ability to measure and improve the decision making process

LATERAL BRANCHING OXIDOREDUCTASE acts in the final stages of strigolactone biosynthesis inArabidopsis

Strigolactones are a group of plant compounds of diverse but related chemical structures. They have similar bioactivity across a broad range of plant species, act to optimize plant growth and development, and promote soil microbe interactions. Carlactone, a common precursor to strigolactones, is produced by conserved enzymes found in a number of diverse species. Versions of the MORE AXILLARY GROWTH1 (MAX1) cytochrome P450 from rice and Arabidopsis thaliana make specific subsets of strigolactones from carlactone. However, the diversity of natural strigolactones suggests that additional enzymes are involved and remain to be discovered. Here, we use an innovative method that has revealed a missing enzyme involved in strigolactone metabolism. By using a transcriptomics approach involving a range of treatments that modify strigolactone biosynthesis gene expression coupled with reverse genetics, we identified LATERAL BRANCHING OXIDOREDUCTASE (LBO), a gene encoding an oxidoreductase-like enzyme of the 2-oxoglutarate and Fe(II)-dependent dioxygenase superfamily. Arabidopsis lbo mutants exhibited increased shoot branching, but the lbo mutation did not enhance the max mutant phenotype. Grafting indicated that LBO is required for a graft-transmissible signal that, in turn, requires a product of MAX1. Mutant lbo backgrounds showed reduced responses to carlactone, the substrate of MAX1, and methyl carlactonoate (MeCLA), a product downstream of MAX1. Furthermore, lbo mutants contained increased amounts of these compounds, and the LBO protein specifically converts MeCLA to an unidentified strigolactone-like compound. Thus, LBO function may be important in the later steps of strigolactone biosynthesis to inhibit shoot branching in Arabidopsis and other seed plants

Characteristics of Patients with Oseltamivir-Resistant Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, United States

During April 2009–June 2010, thirty-seven (0.5%) of 6,740 pandemic (H1N1) 2009 viruses submitted to a US surveillance system were oseltamivir resistant. Most patients with oseltamivir-resistant infections were severely immunocompromised (76%) and had received oseltamivir before specimen collection (89%). No evidence was found for community circulation of resistant viruses; only 4 (unlinked) patients had no oseltamivir exposure

Phenotyping of field-grown wheat in the UK highlights contribution of light response of photosynthesis and flag leaf longevity to grain yield

Improving photosynthesis is a major target for increasing crop yields and ensuring food security. Phenotyping of photosynthesis in the field is critical to understand the limits to crop performance in agricultural settings. Yet, detailed phenotyping of photosynthetic traits is relatively scarce in field-grown wheat, with previous studies focusing on narrow germplasm selections. Flag leaf photosynthetic traits, crop development, and yield traits were compared in 64 field-grown wheat cultivars in the UK. Pre-anthesis and post-anthesis photosynthetic traits correlated significantly and positively with grain yield and harvest index (HI). These traits included net CO2 assimilation measured at ambient CO2 concentrations and a range of photosynthetic photon flux densities, and traits associated with the light response of photosynthesis. In most cultivars, photosynthesis decreased post-anthesis compared with pre-anthesis, and this was associated with decreased Rubisco activity and abundance. Heritability of photosynthetic traits suggests that phenotypic variation can be used to inform breeding programmes. Specific cultivars were identified with traits relevant to breeding for increased crop yields in the UK: pre-anthesis photosynthesis, post-anthesis photosynthesis, light response of photosynthesis, and Rubisco amounts. The results indicate that flag leaf longevity and operating photosynthetic activity in the canopy can be further exploited to maximize grain filling in UK bread wheat