Automatic Detection of Seizures with Applications

There are an estimated two million people with epilepsy in the United States. Many of these people do not respond to anti-epileptic drug therapy. Two devices can be developed to assist in the treatment of epilepsy. The first is a microcomputer-based system designed to process massive amounts of electroencephalogram (EEG) data collected during long-term monitoring of patients for the purpose of diagnosing seizures, assessing the effectiveness of medical therapy, or selecting patients for epilepsy surgery. Such a device would select and display important EEG events. Currently many such events are missed. A second device could be implanted and would detect seizures and initiate therapy. Both of these devices require a reliable seizure detection algorithm. A new algorithm is described. It is believed to represent an improvement over existing seizure detection algorithms because better signal features were selected and better standardization methods were used

CPCP: Colorado Plateau Coring Project — 100 Million Years of Early Mesozoic Climatic, Tectonic, and Biotic Evolution of an Epicontinental Basin Complex

Early Mesozoic epicontinental basins of western North America contain a spectacular record of the climatic and tectonic development of northwestern Pangea as well as what is arguably the world's richest and most-studied Triassic-Jurassic continental biota. The Colorado Plateau and its environs (Fig. 1) expose the textbook example of these layered sedimentary records (Fig. 2). Intensely studied since the mid-nineteenth century, the basins, their strata, and their fossils have stimulated hypotheses on the development of the Early Mesozoic world as reflected in the international literature. Despite this long history of research, the lack of numerical time calibration, the presence of major uncertainties in global correlations, and an absence of entire suites of environmental proxies still loom large and prevent integration of this immense environmental repository into a useful global picture. Practically insurmountable obstacles to outcrop sampling require a scientific drilling experiment to recover key sedimentary sections that will transform our understanding of the Early Mesozoic world

Deglaciation of Fennoscandia

To provide a new reconstruction of the deglaciation of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, in the form of calendar-year time-slices, which are particularly useful for ice sheet modelling, we have compiled and synthesized published geomorphological data for eskers, ice-marginal formations, lineations, marginal meltwater channels, striae, ice-dammed lakes, and geochronological data from radiocarbon, varve, optically-stimulated luminescence, and cosmogenic nuclide dating. This 25 is summarized as a deglaciation map of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet with isochrons marking every 1000 years between 22 and 13 cal kyr BP and every hundred years between 11.6 and final ice decay after 9.7 cal kyr BP. Deglaciation patterns vary across the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet domain, reflecting differences in climatic and geomorphic settings as well as ice sheet basal thermal conditions and terrestrial versus marine margins. For example, the ice sheet margin in the high-precipitation coastal setting of the western sector responded sensitively to climatic variations leaving a detailed record of prominent moraines and ice-marginal deposits in many fjords and coastal valleys. Retreat rates across the southern sector differed between slow retreat of the terrestrial margin in western and southern Sweden and rapid retreat of the calving ice margin in the Baltic Basin. Our reconstruction is consistent with much of the published research. However, the synthesis of a large amount of existing and new data support refined reconstructions in some areas. For example, we locate the LGM extent of the ice sheet in northwestern Russia further east than previously suggested and conclude that it occurred at a later time than the rest of the ice sheet, at around 17-15 cal kyr BP, and propose a slightly different chronology of moraine formation over southern Sweden based on improved correlations of moraine segments using new LiDAR data and tying the timing of moraine formation to Greenland ice core cold stages. Retreat rates vary by as much as an order of magnitude in different sectors of the ice sheet, with the lowest rates on the high-elevation and maritime Norwegian margin. Retreat rates compared to the climatic information provided by the Greenland ice core record show a general correspondence between retreat rate and climatic forcing, although a close match between retreat rate and climate is unlikely because of other controls, such as topography and marine versus terrestrial margins. Overall, the time slice reconstructions of Fennoscandian Ice Sheet deglaciation from 22 to 9.7 cal kyr BP provide an important dataset for understanding the contexts that underpin spatial and temporal patterns in retreat of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, and are an important resource for testing and refining ice sheet models

The Spectroscopic Orbit of the Planetary Companion Transiting HD209458

We report a spectroscopic orbit with period P = 3.52433 +/- 0.00027 days for the planetary companion that transits the solar-type star HD209458. For the metallicity, mass, and radius of the star we derive [Fe/H] = 0.00 +/- 0.02, M = 1.1 +/- 0.1 solar masses, and R = 1.3 +/- 0.1 solar radii. This is based on a new analysis of the iron lines in our HIRES template spectrum, and also on the absolute magnitude and color of the star, and uses isochrones from four different sets of stellar evolution models. Using these values for the stellar parameters we reanalyze the transit data and derive an orbital inclination of i = 85.2 +/- 1.4 degrees. For the planet we derive a mass of Mp = 0.69 +/- 0.05 Jupiter masses, a radius of Rp = 1.54 +/- 0.18 Jupiter radii, and a density of 0.23 +/- 0.08 grams per cubic cm.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, LaTex, aastex, accepted for publication by ApJ Letter

Climatic, Tectonic, and Biotic Evolution in Continental Cores: Colorado Plateau Coring Project Workshop; St. George, Utah, 13-16 November 2007

A workshop was convened in St. George, Utah, to advance planning for the Colorado Plateau Coring Project (CPCP). The vast continental basins of the southwestern United States, particularly well exposed on the Colorado Plateau and its environs, contain one of the richest stratigraphic records of early Mesozoic age (between roughly 145 and 250 million years ago). This time period was punctuated by two of the major mass extinctions in the past 550 million years and witnessed the evolutionary appearance of the modern biota and dramatic climate changes on the continents. Since the mid-nineteenth century, classic studies of these basins, their strata, and their fossils have made this sequence instrumental in framing our context for the early Mesozoic world. Nonetheless, striking ambiguities in temporal resolution, uncertainties in global correlations with other early Mesozoic strata, and major doubts about latitudinal position still hamper testing of the major competing climatic, biotic, and tectonic hypotheses

Site Selected for Colorado Plateau Coring: Colorado Plateau Coring Project Workshop, Phase 2: 100 Million Years of Climatic, Tectonic, and Biotic Evolution From Continental Coring . . .

A workshop was convened in New Mexico to plan for the Colorado Plateau Coring Project (CPCP) and identify the target site for initial coring. The giant continental and near-shore to shallow marine epicontinental basins of the American Southwest are particularly well exposed on the Colorado Plateau and its environs and contain a rich record of early Mesozoic (~251-145 million years ago) strata. This time period was punctuated by two major mass extinctions and is notable for the evolutionary appearance of the modern biota and its apparent dramatic climate changes. Classic studies of these basins, their strata, and their fossils have made this sequence instrumental in framing the context for the early Mesozoic world. Ambiguities in temporal resolution, uncertainties in global correlations with other early Mesozoic strata, and major doubts about latitudinal position still hamper testing of competing climatic, biotic, and tectonic models for the evolution of western Pangea

Observations and Implications of the Star Formation History of the LMC

We present derivations of star formation histories based on color-magnitude diagrams of three fields in the LMC from HST/WFPC2 observations. A significant component of stars older than 4 Gyr is required to match the observed color-magnitude diagrams. Models with a dispersion-free age-metallicity relation are unable to reproduce the width of the observed main sequence; models with a range of metallicity at a given age provide a much better fit. Such models allow us to construct complete ``population boxes'' for the LMC based entirely on color-magnitude diagrams; remarkably, these qualitatively reproduce the age-metallicity relation observed in LMC clusters. We discuss some of the uncertainties in deriving star formation histories. We find, independently of the models, that the LMC bar field has a larger relative component of older stars than the outer fields. The main implications suggested by this study are: 1) the star formation history of field stars appears to differ from the age distribution of clusters, 2) there is no obvious evidence for bursty star formation, but our ability to measure bursts shorter in duration than $\sim$ 25% of any given age is limited by the statistics of the observed number of stars, 3) there may be some correlation of the star formation rate with the last close passage of the LMC/SMC/Milky Way, but there is no dramatic effect, and 4) the derived star formation history is probably consistent with observed abundances, based on recent chemical evolution models.Comment: Accepted by AJ, 36 pages including 12 figure

Designing and evaluating studies investigating non-antibiotic feed additives

In recent years, consumer interest in pork raised without or with limited in-feed antibiotics and the introduction of the Veterinary Feed Directive have driven producers to look for alternatives to the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in feed. There are numerous products already available that have the potential to be considered as AGP alternatives, although the effectiveness of many of these products has so far not been clearly demonstrated. Current data involving these AGP alternative ingredients are widely variable, and studies evaluating their effects lack consistent methodology and reporting of critical information. This leaves a significant gap in or knowledge about the effectiveness of these products and the ability to make comparisons across studies. In order to most efficiently identify useful AGP alternatives, it is necessary to first increase the consistency with which studies evaluating them are conducted. The objectives of this experiment were: 1) to develop and validate guidelines for studies on alternatives to AGPs to ensure progress in developing and assessing the scientific merit of such projects is as rapid as possible and to facilitate the comparison of research results across multiple studies, and 2) to evaluate the effects of example AGP alternatives in varying pen-group sizes