This investigation examines the dynamical processes that drive the anomalous friction torque associated with intraseasonal length-of-day fluctuations. Diagnostic analyses with National Centers for Environmental Protection– National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration outgoing longwave radiation data are performed. The approach adopted i...

The 2002 Olympic Winter Games were held in Utah from February 8 to March 16, 2002. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the anthrax release in October 2001, the need for bioterrorism surveillance during the Games was paramount. A team of informaticists and public health specialists from Utah and Pittsburgh implemented the Real-time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance (RODS) ...

Blowing dust from excessively tilled fallow fields is a major soil loss and air quality concern in the low precipitation (<12 inches annually) wheat production region of the Inland Pacific Northwest (PNW). A 2-year, tillage-based winter wheatsummer fallow (WW-SF) rotation is practiced on more than 90% of rainfed cropland in the region. Earlier research proved that the undercutter method for non...

Toro Toro (T) and Yungas (Y) have been described as genetically well differentiated populations of the Lutzomyia longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva, 1912) complex in Bolivia. Here we use geometric morphometrics to compare samples from these populations and new populations (Bolivia and Nicaragua), representing distant geographical origins, qualitative morphological variation ("one-spot" or "two-spots" ph...

Crocidolite is a well known causative agent for mesothelioma. Studies have shown that the pathogenicity of the fiber from different mines varies considerably and it has been postulated the parameter that appears most likely to account for this variation is fiber width. Epidemiological studies have shown that ‘thin’ fibers from mining areas of Western Australia and the Cape Province, in South Af...

We report on previously unknown early archaeological sites in the Bolivian lowlands, demonstrating for the first time early and middle Holocene human presence in western Amazonia. Multidisciplinary research in forest islands situated in seasonally-inundated savannahs has revealed stratified shell middens produced by human foragers as early as 10,000 years ago, making them the oldest archaeologi...

Chagas disease is one of the most important vector-borne diseases in Latin America. The disease, caused by the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is commonly transmitted to humans by Triatoma infestans in South America. Using mitochondrial DNA sequences, we assessed alternative biogeographic scenarios of dispersal of T. infestans using coalescence simulations. We also assessed phylogeograp...