BACKGROUND Appalachia is characterized by poor health behaviors, poor health status, and health disparities. Recent interventions have not demonstrated much success in improving health status or reducing health disparities in the Appalachian region. Since one's perception of personal health precedes his or her health behaviors, the purpose of this project was to evaluate the self-rated health o...

The Himalaya-Tibetan orogen has become the paradigm for continental collision and is central to deciphering continental tectonics. Neogene extension in the orogen is not predicted by plate tectonic theory, and its significance is widely debated. In the Himalaya, north-south extension is restricted to the Southern Tibetan Detachment System (STDS), which juxtaposes the High Himalayan Crystalline ...

INTRODUCTION Rural US residents smoke at higher rates than urban or suburban residents. We report results from a community-based smoking cessation intervention in Appalachian Kentucky. STUDY DESIGN Single-blind, group-randomized trial with outcome measurements at baseline, 17 weeks and 43 weeks. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS This faith-placed CBPR project was located in six counties of rural Appalac...

Background Diabetes mellitus is a major health concern and the number of Americans diagnosed with the disease is quickly increasing, affecting all aspects of an individual’s life and requiring significant self-involvement. Little is known about how low-income Appalachian women with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) manage their diabetes from day-to-day. This population struggles to effectively ma...

Clayey soil found in coal mines in Appalachian Ohio is often sold to landfills for constructing Recompacted Soil Liners (RSL) in landfills. Since clayey soils possess low hydraulic conductivity, the suitability of mined clay for RSL in Ohio is first assessed by determining its clay content. When soil samples are tested in a laboratory, the same engineering properties are typically expected for ...

Carbonatites, usually occurring within intra-continental rift-related settings, have strong light rare earth element (LREE) enrichment; they rarely contain economic heavy REE (HREE). Here, we report the identification of Late Triassic HREE-Mo-rich carbonatites in the northernmost Qinling orogen. The rocks contain abundant primary HREE minerals and molybdenite. Calcite-hosted fluid inclusions, i...

Climatic controls on fluvial landscapes are commonly characterized in terms of mean annual precipitation. However, physical erosion processes are driven by extreme events and are therefore more directly related to the intensity, duration, and frequency of individual rainfall events. Climate also influences erosional processes indirectly by controlling vegetation. In this study, we explore how i...