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Diagnostic dinosaur fossils of the southeastern United States are rare discoveries, and even more precious are those fossils that preserve a large portion of a skeleton. Sixty years ago, the dinosaur Lophorhothon atopus was described from Upper Cretaceous sediments of Alabama. It then represented the oldest, most complete, dinosaur in the southeastern United States. Based on a reexamination of the holotype material and a new specimen collected from the same beds, we provide a new diagnosis of this taxon. In particular, the solid nasal crest has several autapomorphies including caudally projecting frontal processes that are oval in cross section, meaning that they did not coalesce at the midline. Other autapomorphies are found on the prefrontal and squamosal. Combining the two Lophorhothon specimens provides nearly the entire skeleton for phylogenetic analysis, which we find as a hadrosauromorph just outside of Hadrosauridae. The original diagnosis of this taxon included the frontonasal fontanelle as a distinguishing character, but comparing the many examples of frontonasal openings across hadrosauromorph taxa shows that in at least a few species, such as Lophorhothon, the structures should be considered a frontonasal fenestra instead of a fontanelle. Additionally, the notion that dinosaurs from the East Coast of the United States represent primitive relicts is an idea that originated before many of the European and Asian hadrosauromorphs known today had been discovered. With new dating and phylogenetic information, it appears that Appalachian dinosaurs are on par evolutionarily with most of the global community and the term "relict fauna" should be abandoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We performed two surveys to uncover the status of philanthropic endowments in general internal medicine divisions. The initial survey of U.S. medical school departments of medicine found that only 14.1% of general internal medicine divisions hold endowments versus 21.9% of all other divisions, and that endowment sources for general medicine are atypical. The second survey of successfully endowed divisions found that sympathetic administrators and active pursuit of endowments were associated with endowment success. Aggressive pursuit of endowments, publicizing successes of general medicine, and consideration of endowment sources noted in this study are recommended to improve philanthropic contributions to general internal medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• BEP prints United States currency using alkyd-based inks that dry oxidatively. • ASTM, Beck-Koller (BK) Dryer measures dry time using a stylus, in real time, and is sensitive to environmental conditions. • Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) can measure dry time quickly (minutes to hours). • Dry times measured by DSC and BK Dryer correlate. • DSC offers increased accuracy and faster analysis time compared to the ASTM method. A new method for analyzing the drying characteristics of ink has been developed using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). DSC is able to determine the drying time of an ink in 30–45 min. In contrast, the ASTM method uses a Beck-Koller (BK) Dryer instrument to draw a stylus across an ink film to evaluate film drying, which can take hours or days depending on the film. This DSC method is comparative and does not reflect dry times under standard atmospheric conditions. A commercial offset ink was analyzed using DSC and BK Dryer methods. The two methods correlated highly (r = 0.976) with DSC offering comparable or smaller relative standard deviations and a significantly shorter analysis time. This method has the potential to analyze any oxygen-dependent coating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act and amended the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement a screening program to investigate the potential of pesticide chemicals and drinking water contaminants to adversely affect endocrine pathways. Consequently, the EPA launched the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) to develop and validate estrogen, androgen, and thyroid (EAT) pathway screening assays and to produce standardized and harmonized test guidelines for regulatory application. In 2009, the EPA issued the first set of test orders for EDSP screening and a total of 50 pesticide actives and 2 inert ingredients have been evaluated using the battery of EDSP Tier 1 screening assays (i.e., five in vitro assays and six in vivo assays). To provide a framework for retrospective analysis of the data generated and to collect the insight of multiple stakeholders involved in the testing, more than 240 scientists from government, industry, academia, and non-profit organizations recently participated in a workshop titled "Lessons Learned, Challenges, and Opportunities: The U.S. Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program." The workshop focused on the science and experience to date and was organized into three focal sessions: (a) Performance of the EDSP Tier 1 Screening Assays for Estrogen, Androgen, and Thyroid Pathways; (b) Practical Applications of Tier 1 Data; and (c) Indications and Opportunities for Future Endocrine Testing. A number of key learnings and recommendations related to future EDSP evaluations emanated from the collective sessions.