The Bonneville Salt Flats (BSF) appear to be entirely desolate when viewed from above, but they host rich microbial communities just below the surface salt crust. In this study, we investigated the metabolic potential of the BSF microbial ecosystem. The predicted and measured metabolic activities provide new insights into the ecosystem functions of evaporite landscapes and are an important analog for potential subsurface microbial ecosystems on ancient and modern Mars.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOmega (Westport)
November 2024
Kübler-Ross's five-stage model of death and dying-denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance-is one of the most popular theoretical models to come out of the 20th century. How did an obscure theory of the dying process come to dominate our understanding of emotional processes altogether? Building on previous work in the sociology of knowledge, I analyze the diffusion and institutionalization of Kübler-Ross's five-stage model in scientific and journalistic fields. Specifically, I analyze all 3216 citations of Kübler-Ross in the and the database using qualitative and quantitative text analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReligious responses to COVID-19 as portrayed in a major news source raise the issue of conflict or cooperation between religious bodies and public health authorities. We compared articles in the New York Times relating to religion and COVID-19 with the COVID-19 statements posted on 63 faith-based organizations' web sites, and with the guidance documents published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) specifically for religious bodies. We used computational text analysis to identify and compare sentiments and topics in the three bodies of text.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFractured rock aquifers cover much of Earth's surface and are important mountain sites for groundwater recharge but are poorly understood. To investigate groundwater systematics of a fractured-dominated aquifer in Baja California Sur, Mexico, we examined the spatial patterns of aquifer recharge and connectivity using the geochemistry of springs. We evaluate a range of geochemical data within the context of two endmember hypotheses describing spatial recharge patterns and fracture connectivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Decreasing pain catastrophizing and improving self-efficacy to self-manage chronic pain symptoms are important treatment targets in the context of interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation. Greater pain catastrophizing has been shown to be associated with greater impact of pain symptoms on functioning; conversely, greater pain self-efficacy has been associated with lower pain intensity and lower levels of disability.
Objective: To prospectively evaluate interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation outcomes, as well as to evaluate the mediating effects of both pain catastrophizing and pain self-efficacy on outcome.