Civilian Conservation Corps Program of the United States Department of the Interior (March 1933 to June 30, 1943)

I submit herewith my final report as the Department of the Interior Representative on the Advisory Council of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The report consists of two main parts, Observations and Summary and Recommendations, which are summarized below for your convenience

Organic synthesis on Mars by electrochemical reduction of CO2

The sources and nature of organic carbon on Mars have been a subject of intense research. Steele et al. (2012) showed that 10 martian meteorites contain macromolecular carbon phases contained within pyroxene- and olivine-hosted melt inclusions. Here, we show that martian meteorites Tissint, Nakhla, and NWA 1950 have an inventory of organic carbon species associated with fluid-mineral reactions that are remarkably consistent with those detected by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. We advance the hypothesis that interactions among spinel-group minerals, sulfides, and a brine enable the electrochemical reduction of aqueous CO2 to organic molecules. Although documented here in martian samples, a similar process likely occurs wherever igneous rocks containing spinel-group minerals and/or sulfides encounter brines

Neuropilin-2 regulates androgen-receptor transcriptional activity in advanced prostate cancer

Aberrant transcriptional activity of androgen receptor (AR) is one of the dominant mechanisms for developing of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Analyzing AR-transcriptional complex related to CRPC is therefore important towards understanding the mechanism of therapy-resistance. While studying its mechanism, we observed that a transmembrane protein called neuropilin-2 (NRP2) plays a contributory role in forming a novel AR-transcriptional complex containing nuclear pore proteins. Using immunogold electron microscopy, high-resolution confocal microscopy, chromatin immunoprecipitation, proteomics, and other biochemical techniques, we delineated the molecular mechanism of how a specific splice variant of NRP2 becomes sumoylated upon ligand stimulation and translocates to the inner nuclear membrane. This splice variant of NRP2 then stabilizes the complex between AR and nuclear pore proteins to promote CRPC specific gene expression. Both full-length and splice variants of AR have been identified in this specific transcriptional complex. In vitro cell line-based assays indicated that depletion of NRP2 not only destabilizes the AR-nuclear pore protein interaction but also inhibits the transcriptional activities of AR. Using an in vivo bone metastasis model, we showed that the inhibition of NRP2 led to the sensitization of CRPC cells toward established anti-AR therapies such as enzalutamide. Overall, our finding emphasize the importance of combinatorial inhibition of NRP2 and AR as an effective therapeutic strategy against treatment refractory prostate cancer

The Team Keck Treasury Redshift Survey of the GOODS-North Field

We report the results of an extensive imaging and spectroscopic survey in the GOODS-North field completed using DEIMOS on the Keck II telescope. Observations of 2018 targets in a magnitude-limited sample of 2911 objects to R=24.4 yield secure redshifts for a sample of 1440 galaxies and AGN plus 96 stars. In addition to redshifts and associated quality assessments, our catalog also includes photometric and astrometric measurements for all targets detected in our R-band imaging survey of the GOODS-North region. We investigate various sources of incompleteness and find the redshift catalog to be 53% complete at its limiting magnitude. The median redshift of z=0.65 is lower than in similar deep surveys because we did not select against low-redshift targets. Comparison with other redshift surveys in the same field, including a complementary Hawaii-led DEIMOS survey, establishes that our velocity uncertainties are as low as 40 km/s for red galaxies and that our redshift confidence assessments are accurate. The distributions of rest-frame magnitudes and colors among the sample agree well with model predictions out to and beyond z=1. We will release all survey data, including extracted 1-D and sky-subtracted 2-D spectra, thus providing a sizable and homogeneous database for the GOODS-North field which will enable studies of large scale structure, spectral indices, internal galaxy kinematics, and the predictive capabilities of photometric redshifts.Comment: 17 pages, 18 figures, submitted to AJ; v2 minor changes; see survey database at http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/realpublic/science/tksurvey

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Memorandum on Grand Canyon National Park and Monument in Relation to Colorado River Planning

Memorandum: From Conrad L. Wirth, to Stewart Udall, "Grand Canyon National Park and Monument in Relation to Colorado River Planning," 1961 (carbon copy), page 4regarding relationship of proposed Bridge Canyon development to Grand Canyon National Monument and Grand Canyon National Park, and (6) copy of memorandum of December 19 to Assistant Secretary Carver furnishing information requested by Assistant Secretary Holum regarding protection of Grand Canyon National Park. Conrad L. Wirth Director Attachments I concur: Secretary of the InteriorEpson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 3,101,625 byte

Memorandum on Grand Canyon National Park and Monument in Relation to Colorado River Planning

Memorandum: From Conrad L. Wirth, to Stewart Udall, "Grand Canyon National Park and Monument in Relation to Colorado River Planning," 1961 (carbon copy), page 2issued a "Notice of Initiation of Investigation" for this proposal. On June 14, 1949, Commissioner of Reclamation Straus and Director Drury and I representing the National Park Service met with Assistant Secretary Warne to discuss the proposed investigation. The Assistant Secretary upheld the position of the Service and stated in a memorandum to the Commissioner: I believe therefore that this investigation should be dropped and unless you have information which has not been presented to me that would justify an infringement on the National Park, you should instruct your field offices to desist. On July 30, 1949, Assistant Secretary Warne informed the Bureau of Reclamation that it could "resume and proceed with the Marble Canyon Dam Project investigation "but without the Kanab diversion feature." The National Park Service was agreeable-and still is-to a Marble Canyon development because it would not impair Grand Canyon National Park. August 29, 1949, Secretary Krug, approved a memorandum from the Service to Bureau of Reclamation setting forth these two decisions. Park and Monument Boundaries. These proposed revisions-formulated in 1955 following several years of studies and conferences-contemplate three additions to the Park and two deletions from the Monument. The major addition planned for the Park is the Kanab Creek area of 42,265 acres needed to protect the north side of Grand Canyon between the east boundary of the Monument and Tapeats Creek and the lower seven or eight miles of Kanab Creek Canyon. This portion of Grand Canyon was within the first Grand Canyon National Monument established in 1908 but because of the objections of grazing interests, it was left out of Grand Canyon National Park when it was established in 1919. Two other additions to the Park of 11,250 acres (Long Mesa) and 1,120 acres (two small roadside protection areas) are located on the South Rim. The two deletions from the Monument-25,440 acres on the North Rim and 4,080 acres on the South Rim-are all plateau lands away from the Canyon rim which are primarily suitable for grazing purposes. Insofar as it was concerned, the United States Forest Service concurred in these proposed boundary revisions in 1956. In 1957, Senators Goldwater and Hayden introduced S. 693 and this Service submitted a 2Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 3,469,968 byte

Memorandum on Grand Canyon National Park and Monument in Relation to Colorado River Planning

Memorandum: From Conrad L. Wirth, to Stewart Udall, "Grand Canyon National Park and Monument in Relation to Colorado River Planning," 1961 (carbon copy

Memorandum on Grand Canyon National Park and Monument in Relation to Colorado River Planning

Memorandum: From Conrad L. Wirth, to Stewart Udall, "Grand Canyon National Park and Monument in Relation to Colorado River Planning," 1961 (carbon copy), page 1UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WASHINGTON 25, D.C. Memorandum To: Secretary of the Interior Through: Assistant Secretary, Public Land Management From: Director, National Park Service Subject: Grand Canyon National Park and Monument in Relation to Colorado River Planning Grand Canyon National Park was set aside by an act of Congress in 1919 to preserve Grand Canyon unimpaired for public enjoyment. It should not now be impaired by water control developments planned for the Colorado River above and below the Park. Also, additional portions of the Grand Canyon-not now encompassed in the Park-require preservation. Therefore, I recommend the following: 1. That the Department of the Interior go on record as being opposed to the proposed Marble Canyon-Kanab Creek project and that no further investigations of this proposal be made by this Department. 2. That the Department approve the boundary revisions of Grand Canyon National Park and Grand Canyon National Monument, as shown on the attached map, and that it submit a draft of bill to Congress as an administration measure to accomplish the desired revisions. The Tunnel Proposal. The diversion of more than 90 percent of the Colorado River around the Park-allowing relatively a mere trickle to continue through it would destroy the chief agent in the creation of the Grand Canyon the Colorado River itself. The related structures would be an unsightly intrusion. In 1949, the Department took the position that there should be no further study of the Kanab tunnel diversion proposal. Here is the background: On May 12, 1949, the Rigion Three office of the BureauEpson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 24 bit, 3,514,979 byte