Rillenkarren on Gypsum in Nova Scotia

Rillenkarren are defined as densely packed, rainfall generated, bedrock channels, forming on slopes. They are usually no more than a few centimetres in width. Their lengths are dependant on the down-slope extent of exposed bedrock, Rillenkarren exist in many karst terraines on many types of rock. Rillenkarren on gypsum were measured at four differing sites in Nova Scotia. The results are compared with previous data for naturel rillenkarren on limestones. It was found that gypsum rillenkarren tend to exhibit a smaller mean width that those on limestone. Mean lenghts could not be established because rillenkarren elongation on the gypsum was limited by the length of the exposed surface. These conclusions result from the first systematic study of naturally occurring rillenkarren on gypsum and are contrary to the previously speculated dimensions reported by various authors.Les lapiès de fissure (rillenkarren ) sont des formes de ruissellement qui se présentent comme des cannelures groupées sur des pentes. Leur largeur dépasse rarement quelques centimètres; leur longueur dépend de l'étendue de la roche à nu sur le versant. Les lapiès s'observent dans beaucoup de régions karstiques et sur différents types de roches. On a mesuré des lapiès de fissure dans quatre sites de la Nouvelle-Écosse, puis on a comparé les résultats avec des données trouvées antérieurement sur les lapiès de fissure sur calcaire. Il en ressort que les lapiès de fissure sur gypse sont généralement plus étroits que les lapiès sur calcaire. On n'a pu établir leur longueur moyenne parce qu'elle était limitée par la longueur de la surface à nu. Ces conclusions sont le résultat de la première étude systématique menée sur les lapiès de fissure naturels et diffèrent des dimensions déjà rapportées par différents auteurs

The Age of the Kirkdale Cave Palaeofauna

The Kirkdale Cave palaeofauna represents the original and classic \u27warm\u27, interglacial mammalian cave deposit in Britain. Although long considered to be \u27Ipswichian\u27 in age, no previous attempts to obtain radiometric dates have been recorded. Here we report a uranium-series disequilibrium date of 121,000 ± 4000 yr BP on a flowstone capping that overlay the original bone bed. The precision of the date exceeds that obtained at any other British Interglacial cave site, and permits tentative correlation with the high precision ice core records now available

The Age of the Woolly Rhino from Dream Cave, Derbyshire, UK

The Dream Cave woolly rhinoceros, Coelodonta antiquitatis, is a classic specimen of a cold-stage fossil fauna from central England. The find was illustrated and described by Dean William Buckland in his seminal tome Reliquiae Diluvianae (1823) during the first half of the 19th century, and made a significant contribution to the development of Buckland\u27s views on the origin of extinct and extirpated fossil vertebrates. The report presents the first, albeit indirect, radiometric dates on the specimen, and argues that the animal fell into the cave just before 37,000 years BP, during the middle of Marine Isotope Stage 3 Interstadial (41 - 39 ka BP)

Emotion regulation in emerging adults with major depressive disorder and frequent cannabis use

In people with mental health issues, approximately 20% have co-occurring substance use, often involving cannabis. Although emotion regulation can be affected both by major depressive disorder (MDD) and by cannabis use, the relationship among all three factors is unknown. In this study, we used fMRI to evaluate the effect that cannabis use and MDD have on brain activation during an emotion regulation task. Differences were assessed in 74 emerging adults aged 16–23 with and without MDD who either used or did not use cannabis. Severity of depressive symptoms, emotion regulation style, and age of cannabis use onset were also measured. Both MDD and cannabis use interacted with the emotion regulation task in the left temporal lobe, however the location of the interaction differed for each factor. Specifically, MDD showed an interaction with emotion regulation in the middle temporal gyrus, whereas cannabis use showed an interaction in the superior temporal gyrus. Emotion regulation style predicted activity in the right superior frontal gyrus, however, this did not interact with MDD or cannabis use. Severity of depressive symptoms interacted with the emotion regulation task in the left middle temporal gyrus. The results highlight the influence of cannabis use and MDD on emotion regulation processing, suggesting that both may have a broader impact on the brain than previously thought

Are Ethnic and Gender Specific Equations Needed to Derive Fat Free Mass from Bioelectrical Impedance in Children of South Asian, Black African-Caribbean and White European Origin? Results of the Assessment of Body Composition in Children Study

Background Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a potentially valuable method for assessing lean mass and body fat levels in children from different ethnic groups. We examined the need for ethnic- and gender-specific equations for estimating fat free mass (FFM) from BIA in children from different ethnic groups and examined their effects on the assessment of ethnic differences in body fat. Methods Cross-sectional study of children aged 8–10 years in London Primary schools including 325 South Asians, 250 black African-Caribbeans and 289 white Europeans with measurements of height, weight and arm-leg impedance (Z; Bodystat 1500). Total body water was estimated from deuterium dilution and converted to FFM. Multilevel models were used to derive three types of equation {A: FFM = linear combination(height+weight+Z); B: FFM = linear combination(height2/Z); C: FFM = linear combination(height2/Z+weight)}. Results Ethnicity and gender were important predictors of FFM and improved model fit in all equations. The models of best fit were ethnicity and gender specific versions of equation A, followed by equation C; these provided accurate assessments of ethnic differences in FFM and FM. In contrast, the use of generic equations led to underestimation of both the negative South Asian-white European FFM difference and the positive black African-Caribbean-white European FFM difference (by 0.53 kg and by 0.73 kg respectively for equation A). The use of generic equations underestimated the positive South Asian-white European difference in fat mass (FM) and overestimated the positive black African-Caribbean-white European difference in FM (by 4.7% and 10.1% respectively for equation A). Consistent results were observed when the equations were applied to a large external data set. Conclusions Ethnic- and gender-specific equations for predicting FFM from BIA provide better estimates of ethnic differences in FFM and FM in children, while generic equations can misrepresent these ethnic differences

Kepler-16: A Transiting Circumbinary Planet

We report the detection of a planet whose orbit surrounds a pair of low-mass stars. Data from the Kepler spacecraft reveal transits of the planet across both stars, in addition to the mutual eclipses of the stars, giving precise constraints on the absolute dimensions of all three bodies. The planet is comparable to Saturn in mass and size, and is on a nearly circular 229-day orbit around its two parent stars. The eclipsing stars are 20% and 69% as massive as the sun, and have an eccentric 41-day orbit. The motions of all three bodies are confined to within 0.5 degree of a single plane, suggesting that the planet formed within a circumbinary disk.Comment: Science, in press; for supplemental material see http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2011/09/14/333.6049.1602.DC1/1210923.Doyle.SOM.pd

An ammonia spectral map of the L1495-B218 filaments in the Taurus molecular cloud. I. Physical properties of filaments and dense cores

We present deep NH3 observations of the L1495-B218 filaments in the Taurus molecular cloud covering over a 3° angular range using the K-band focal plane array on the 100 m Green Bank Telescope. The L1495-B218 filaments form an interconnected, nearby, large complex extending over 8 pc. We observed NH3 (1, 1) and (2, 2) with a spectral resolution of 0.038 km s−1 and a spatial resolution of 31''. Most of the ammonia peaks coincide with intensity peaks in dust continuum maps at 350 and 500 μm. We deduced physical properties by fitting a model to the observed spectra. We find gas kinetic temperatures of 8–15 K, velocity dispersions of 0.05–0.25 km s−1, and NH3 column densities of 5 × 1012 to 1 × 1014 cm−2. The CSAR algorithm, which is a hybrid of seeded-watershed and binary dendrogram algorithms, identifies a total of 55 NH3 structures, including 39 leaves and 16 branches. The masses of the NH3 sources range from 0.05 to 9.5 ${{M}_{\odot }}$. The masses of NH3 leaves are mostly smaller than their corresponding virial mass estimated from their internal and gravitational energies, which suggests that these leaves are gravitationally unbound structures. Nine out of 39 NH3 leaves are gravitationally bound, and seven out of nine gravitationally bound NH3 leaves are associated with star formation. We also found that 12 out of 30 gravitationally unbound leaves are pressure confined. Our data suggest that a dense core may form as a pressure-confined structure, evolve to a gravitationally bound core, and undergo collapse to form a protostar

The Nitric Oxide Donor DETA-NONOate Decreases Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Expression and Activity in Rat Aortic Smooth Muscle and Abdominal Aortic Explants

Our objective was to examine the role of an exogenous nitric oxide (NO) donor, DETA-NONOate (DETA), on matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9, MMP-2, and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases (TIMP)-1 expression and activity in interleukin (IL)-1β-induced rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RA-SMCs) and rat aortic explants (RAEs). RA-SMCs were incubated with IL-1β (2 ng/ml), an inflammatory cytokine known to induce MMP-9 expression, and increasing concentrations of DETA (0, 1.0, 10, 100 μM; n = 3/group) for 48 hr. RAEs were incubated with IL-1β (2 ng/mL) and increasing concentrations of DETA (0, 5.0, 50, 100, and 500 μM; n = 3/group) for 48 hr. Media were collected and assayed for NO x by the Griess reaction and MMP-9 activity by zymography. Messenger RNA (mRNA) was extracted from cells and analyzed for MMP-9, MMP-2, and TIMP-1 expression levels by quantitative real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. All statistical analyses were performed by analysis of variance. In RA-SMCs and RAEs, DETA administration resulted in a dose-dependent increase in media NO x concentration (RA-SCM p < 0.01, RAE p < 0.01) and a concurrent decrease in both MMP-9 expression (RASMC p = 0.01, RAE p = 0.01) and activity (RASMC p = 0.04, RAE p = 0.006). There were no significant differences seen in MMP-2 and TIMP-1 expression or activity in response to DETA exposure. DETA decreased IL-1β-induced MMP-9 expression and activity in both RA-SMCs and RAEs in a dose-dependent fashion. In addition, DETA administration had no effect on MMP-2 or TIMP-1 expression or activity in vitro. These data suggest that NO donors may be beneficial in decreasing MMP-9 levels and might serve to inhibit MMP-9-dependent vessel wall remodeling seen during abdominal aortic aneurysm formation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41371/1/10016_2005_Article_9429.pd

SoDaH: the SOils DAta Harmonization database, an open-source synthesis of soil data from research networks, version 1.0

Data collected from research networks present opportunities to test theories and develop models about factors responsible for the long-term persistence and vulnerability of soil organic matter (SOM). Synthesizing datasets collected by different research networks presents opportunities to expand the ecological gradients and scientific breadth of information available for inquiry. Synthesizing these data is challenging, especially considering the legacy of soil data that have already been collected and an expansion of new network science initiatives. To facilitate this effort, here we present the SOils DAta Harmonization database (SoDaH; https://lter.github.io/som-website, last access: 22 December 2020), a flexible database designed to harmonize diverse SOM datasets from multiple research networks. SoDaH is built on several network science efforts in the United States, but the tools built for SoDaH aim to provide an open-access resource to facilitate synthesis of soil carbon data. Moreover, SoDaH allows for individual locations to contribute results from experimental manipulations, repeated measurements from long-term studies, and local- to regional-scale gradients across ecosystems or landscapes. Finally, we also provide data visualization and analysis tools that can be used to query and analyze the aggregated database. The SoDaH v1.0 dataset is archived and available at https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/9733f6b6d2ffd12bf126dc36a763e0b4 (Wieder et al., 2020)

Early Emergence of Ethnic Differences in Type 2 Diabetes Precursors in the UK: The Child Heart and Health Study in England (CHASE Study)

Peter Whincup and colleagues carry out a cross-sectional study examining ethnic differences in precursors of of type 2 diabetes among children aged 9–10 living in three UK cities