scholarly journals Emission of Methane and Heavier Alkanes From the La Brea Tar Pits Seepage Area, Los Angeles

2017 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 12,008-12,019 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Etiope ◽  
L. A. Doezema ◽  
C. Pacheco
Keyword(s):  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e26385
Author(s):  
Lindsay Walker ◽  
Erica Krimmel ◽  
Jann Vendetti ◽  
Austin Hendy

The Invertebrate Paleontology Collection at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLA) has received support from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF DBI 1702342) to digitize the museum’s unique and historic collection of 28,000+ fossil insects. The primary goal of this project, “Fossil Insects of L.A.”, is to increase access to these collections for both research and education. Key collections to be become discoverable through iDigBio and iDigPaleo include the Georg Statz Collection (Oligocene, Rott Formation, Germany) and three faunas from Southern California: Barstow (Miocene), Rancho La Brea (Pleistocene), and McKittrick (Pleistocene). Fossil Insects of L.A. constitutes the final contribution to the Fossil Insect Collaborative Thematic Collections Network (TCN), a consortium of institutions that have been digitizing the largest fossil insect collections in the United States. As a project beginning at the tail-end of the TCN’s active funding, Fossil Insects of L.A. is actively leveraging existing TCN knowledge and resources to streamline workflows and efficiently achieve project goals. In addition to basing imaging and preservation protocols on those designed by TCN partners, Fossil Insects of L.A. is using a layered approach to provide high-quality taxonomic information without sacrificing the pace of specimen digitization. Previously unidentified specimens are initially identified only to Order, allowing them to quickly continue through the digitization process; specimens can then be re-examined by experienced project participants and external experts, who are able to reference the specimen images generated during digitization. A critical and novel aspect of this component of the project’s workflow is the concurrent digitization of the literature associated with the Statz Collection. These data will be used as a test case for the "Enhancing Paleontological and Neontological Data Discovery API" (ePANDDA) project (NSF ICER 1821039), which seeks to associate related datasets found in iDigBio, iDigPaleo, and the Paleobiology Database. Fossil Insects of L.A. will digitize and make 10,960 specimens publically available online, of which over 6,200 will include images. An additional 15,684 specimen records from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits will also be included in the data mobilization. In doing so, Fossil Insects of L.A. intends to dramatically enhance the research potential of these formerly hidden collections, as well as synthesize and demonstrate digitization best practices generated through the TCN.


2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHANIE LE MENAGER

It is no secret that natural history museums strive to be archives of life, a common task grown more fraught in recent decades because of the crisis of biodiversity, the extinction of roughly 60,000 species per year. “Bio-informatics” has been a buzzword in the natural history literature of the twenty-first century, which recommends the digitization of museum collections such that global information sharing can keep scientists up to date about species loss. Some curators resent the emphasis upon information technology as the key to the continuing relevance of their collections, arguing, for instance, that “museums are the cornerstone of an object-oriented approach to the natural world.” The question of what durability means for natural history, and by extension for both “nature” and “history,” breaks around what counts as most lifelike: information or object, technology or bone. Los Angeles is a rich setting for the consideration of these questions, both because it is the world capital of the entertainment industry and because it hosts the world's largest archive of Pleistocene fossils, preserved in the asphaltum sinks that formed atop the Salt Lake Oil Field, itself the largest urban oil reserve. What petroleum means to evolving definitions of life, and thus to nature and history, has long been on display at the La Brea tar pits. What is not on display, namely micro-organisms grown up in the region's petroleum sludge, may be the saviors of our current geologic epoch and key to the renewal of the tired natural history concept.


2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Weber ◽  
Bertha A. Marquez ◽  
Charnise Taylor ◽  
Paul Raya ◽  
Paul Contreras ◽  
...  

2007 ◽  
Vol 73 (14) ◽  
pp. 4579-4591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jong-Shik Kim ◽  
David E. Crowley

ABSTRACT Bacteria commonly inhabit subsurface oil reservoirs, but almost nothing is known yet about microorganisms that live in naturally occurring terrestrial oil seeps and natural asphalts that are comprised of highly recalcitrant petroleum hydrocarbons. Here we report the first survey of microbial diversity in ca. 28,000-year-old samples of natural asphalts from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, CA. Microbiological studies included analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences and DNA encoding aromatic ring-hydroxylating dioxygenases from two tar pits differing in chemical composition. Our results revealed a wide range of phylogenetic groups within the Archaea and Bacteria domains, in which individual taxonomic clusters were comprised of sets of closely related species within novel genera and families. Fluorescent staining of asphalt-soil particles using phylogenetic probes for Archaea, Bacteria, and Pseudomonas showed coexistence of mixed microbial communities at high cell densities. Genes encoding dioxygenases included three novel clusters of enzymes. The discovery of life in the tar pits provides an avenue for further studies of the evolution of enzymes and catabolic pathways for bacteria that have been exposed to complex hydrocarbons for millennia. These bacteria also should have application for industrial microbiology and bioremediation.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
A R Holden ◽  
J R Southon

AbstractThis paper presents the first successful methods for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of asphalt-impregnated insect chitin from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in southern California. A persistent problem with stratigraphic correlation at this site is that asphalt flows are characteristically intermittent and are really discontinuous, which can result in mixing fossils of quite different ages. Direct14C dating of specimens circumvents this difficulty but requires a pretreatment method that can produce dates from relatively small samples (<10 mg) of insect cuticle, while successfully removing residual asphalt and sample preparation solvents as well as soil carbon contamination.14C dating accuracy was verified by comparing dates on insect chitin with ages for seeds and twigs compacted during a rapid entrapment event within a separately dated skull of the Western Camel,Camelops hesternusLeidy. All dates fell within a relatively narrow range of ~40,000–44,00014C yr BP, suggesting that such methods can be used with confidence on other insect material from this site. Insects are often superior paleoenvironmental indicators for establishing precise data points for climate fluctuations. This is because their lifecycles and present-day climate-restricted geographic distributions are well documented, and unlike migrating mammals and birds, insects offer crucial information about the local environment. Our results are therefore potentially significant for studies of paleoecological and paleoclimatic change within the Los Angeles Basin and coastal southern California, as well as reconstruction of entrapment events at Rancho La Brea.


Author(s):  
Kristiane M. Hill ◽  
Jennifer N. Swift ◽  
Carrie Howard ◽  
Aisling B. Farrell ◽  
Emily L. Lindsey

Author(s):  
J.S. Geoffroy ◽  
R.P. Becker

The pattern of BSA-Au uptake in vivo by endothelial cells of the venous sinuses (sinusoidal cells) of rat bone marrow has been described previously. BSA-Au conjugates are taken up exclusively in coated pits and vesicles, enter and pass through an “endosomal” compartment comprised of smooth-membraned tubules and vacuoles and cup-like bodies, and subsequently reside in multivesicular and dense bodies. The process is very rapid, with BSA-Au reaching secondary lysosmes one minute after presentation. (Figure 1)In further investigations of this process an isolated limb perfusion method using an artificial blood substitute, Oxypherol-ET (O-ET; Alpha Therapeutics, Los Angeles, CA) was developed. Under nembutal anesthesia, male Sprague-Dawley rats were laparotomized. The left common iliac artery and vein were ligated and the right iliac artery was cannulated via the aorta with a small vein catheter. Pump tubing, preprimed with oxygenated 0-ET at 37°C, was connected to the cannula.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1410-1421
Author(s):  
Erica Ellis ◽  
Mary Kubalanza ◽  
Gabriela Simon-Cereijido ◽  
Ashley Munger ◽  
Allison Sidle Fuligni

Purpose To effectively prepare students to engage in interprofessional practice, a number of Communication Disorders (COMD) programs are designing new courses and creating additional opportunities to develop the interprofessional competencies that will support future student success in health and education-related fields. The ECHO (Educational Community Health Outreach) program is one example of how the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Los Angeles, has begun to create these opportunities. The ultimate goal of the ECHO project is to increase both access to and continuity of oral health care across communities in the greater Los Angeles area. Method We describe this innovative interdisciplinary training program within the context of current interprofessional education models. First, we describe the program and its development. Second, we describe how COMD students benefit from the training program. Third, we examine how students from other disciplines experience benefits related to interprofessional education and COMD. Fourth, we provide reflections and insights from COMD faculty who participated in the project. Conclusions The ECHO program has great potential for continuing to build innovative clinical training opportunities for students with the inclusion of Child and Family Studies, Public Health, Nursing, and Nutrition departments. These partnerships push beyond the norm of disciplines often used in collaborative efforts in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Additionally, the training students received with ECHO incorporates not only interprofessional education but also relevant and important aspects of diversity and inclusion, as well as strengths-based practices.


2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 219-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Frühe ◽  
Hans-Joachim Röthlein ◽  
Rita Rosner

Traumatische Ereignisse im schulischen Kontext treten vergleichsweise häufig auf. So ist die Bestimmung von Kindern und Jugendlichen, die aktuell und auch zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt einer psychologischen Betreuung bedürfen, im Rahmen der Fürsorgepflicht notwendig. 48 Jugendliche zwischen 12 und 17 Jahren wurden in der Schule zu zwei Messzeitpunkten zur akuten und posttraumatischen Symptomatik sowie zu verschiedenen Risikofaktoren befragt. Verwendet wurde die neu entwickelte Checkliste zur Akuten Belastung (CAB) und die deutsche Version des University of Los Angeles at California Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (UCLA CPTSD-RI). Eine Woche nach dem Ereignis betrug der Anteil klinisch bedeutsamer Belastung 21 % und nach 10 – 15 Wochen 10 %. Ein mittlerer Zusammenhang zwischen akuter und posttraumatischer Belastung konnte nachgewiesen werden. Als bedeutsame Risikofaktoren für die Entwicklung einer posttraumatischen Belastung stellten sich der Konfrontationsgrad, peritraumatisch erlebte Angst sowie akute Beeinträchtigung heraus. Im Kontext der Betreuung betroffener Jugendlicher nach traumatischen Ereignissen sollte den Risikofaktoren mehr Beachtung geschenkt werden.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document