L.P. Wasson to Mr. Merideth (1 October 1962)

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/mercorr_anti/1136/thumbnail.jp

AIDS Discrimination under Federal, State, and Local Law after Arline

In School Board v. Arline, the United States Supreme Court determined that people who suffer from tuberculosis can be protected from employment discrimination by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Arline is certain to affect people afflicted with AIDS-related disorders who suffer discrimination. In this Article, Professor Wasson examines the Arline decision and the effect it will have on AIDS-related discrimination. Also, he examines provisions of the United States Constitution, acts of Congress, state law, and municipal ordinances, all of which might provide alternative measures of protection for those who suffer AIDS-related discrimination

Improving the quantification of land cover pressure on stream ecological status at the riparian scale using High Spatial Resolution Imagery

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the interest of High Spatial Resolution Imagery (HSRI) and the limits of coarse land cover data such as CORINE Land Cover (CLC), for the accurate characterization of land cover structure along river corridors and of its functional links with freshwater ecological status on a large scale. For this purpose, we compared several spatial indicators built from two land cover maps of the Herault river corridor (southern France): one derived from the CLC database, the other derived from HSRI. The HSRI-derived map was obtained using a supervised object-based classification of multi-source remotely-sensed images (SPOT 5 XS-10 m and aerial photography-0.5 m) and presents an overall accuracy of 70 %. The comparison between the two sets of spatial indicators highlights that the HSRI-derived map allows more accuracy in the quantification of land cover pressures near the stream: the spatial structure of the river landscape is finely resolved and the main attributes of riparian vegetation can be quantified in a reliable way. The next challenge will consist in developing an operational methodology using HSRI for large-scale mapping of river corridor land cover,, for spatial indicator computation and for the development of related pressure/impact models, in order to improve the prediction of stream ecological status

Comparison of Reproductive Performance of Crossbred Ewes Bred for Either Fall or Spring Lambing at Two Different Locations: Progress Report

The objective of the current study was to measure the performance of crossbred ewes lambing in the fall compared to similar ewes lambing in the spring at two different locations

Meteorites on Mars observed with the Mars Exploration Rovers

Reduced weathering rates due to the lack of liquid water and significantly greater typical surface ages should result in a higher density of meteorites on the surface of Mars compared to Earth. Several meteorites were identified among the rocks investigated during Opportunity’s traverse across the sandy Meridiani plains. Heat Shield Rock is a IAB iron meteorite and has been officially recognized as ‘‘Meridiani Planum.’’ Barberton is olivine-rich and contains metallic Fe in the form of kamacite, suggesting a meteoritic origin. It is chemically most consistent with a mesosiderite silicate clast. Santa Catarina is a brecciated rock with a chemical and mineralogical composition similar to Barberton. Barberton, Santa Catarina, and cobbles adjacent to Santa Catarina may be part of a strewn field. Spirit observed two probable iron meteorites from its Winter Haven location in the Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater. Chondrites have not been identified to date, which may be a result of their lower strengths and probability to survive impact at current atmospheric pressures. Impact craters directly associated with Heat Shield Rock, Barberton, or Santa Catarina have not been observed, but such craters could have been erased by eolian-driven erosion.Additional co-authors: DW Ming, RV Morris, PA de Souza Jr, SW Squyres, C Weitz, AS Yen, J Zipfel, T Economo

Assessing tidal marsh resilience to sea-level rise at broad geographic scales with multi-metric indices

Tidal marshes and the ecosystem services they provide may be at risk from sea-level rise (SLR). Tidal marsh resilience to SLR can vary due to differences in local rates of SLR, geomorphology, sediment availability and other factors. Understanding differences in resilience is critical to inform coastal management and policy, but comparing resilience across marshes is hindered by a lack of simple, effective analysis tools. Quantitative, multi-metric indices are widely employed to inform management of benthic aquatic ecosystems, but not coastal wetlands. Here, we develop and apply tidal marsh resilience to sea-level rise (MARS) indices incorporating ten metrics that contribute to overall marsh resilience to SLR. We applied MARS indices to tidal marshes at 16 National Estuarine Research Reserves across the conterminous U.S. This assessment revealed moderate resilience overall, although nearly all marshes had some indication of risk. Pacific marshes were generally more resilient to SLR than Atlantic ones, with the least resilient marshes found in southern New England. We provide a calculation tool to facilitate application of the MARS indices to additional marshes. MARS index scores can inform the choice of the most appropriate coastal management strategy for a marsh: moderate scores call for actions to enhance resilience while low scores suggest investment may be better directed to adaptation strategies such as creating opportunities for marsh migration rather than attempting to save existing marshes. The MARS indices thus provide a powerful new approach to evaluate tidal marsh resilience and to inform development of adaptation strategies in the face of SLR

Use of Microarray Test Data for Toxicogenomic Prediction-Multi-Intelligent Systems for Toxicogenomic Applications (MISTA)

The YAHSGS LLC and Oak Ridge National Laboratory established a CRADA to develop a computational neural network and wavelets software to facilitate providing national needs for toxicity prediction and overcome the voracious drain of resources (money and time) being directed to the development of pharmaceutical agents. The research project was supported through a STTR Phase I task by NIEHS in 2004. The research deploys state-of-the-art computational neural networks and wavelets to make toxicity prediction on three independent bases: (1) quantitative structure-activity relationships, (2) microarray data, and (3) Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing technology. Upon completion of Phase I, a prototype software Multi-Intelligent System for Toxicogenomic and Applications (MISTA) was developed, the utility's feasibility was demonstrated, and a Phase II proposal was jointly prepared and submitted to NIEHS for funding evaluation. The goals and objectives of the program have been achieved