167 research outputs found

    Sustenance of phytoplankton in the subpolar North Atlantic during the winter through patchiness

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    This study investigates the influence of two factors that change the mixed layer depth and can potentially contribute to the phytoplankton sustenance over winter: 1) variability of air-sea fluxes and 2) three-dimensional processes arising from strong fronts. To study the role of these factors, we perform several three-dimensional numerical simulations forced with air-sea fluxes at different temporal averaging frequencies as well as different spatial resolutions. Results show that in the winter, when the average mixed layer is much deeper than the euphotic layer and the days are short, phytoplankton production is relatively insensitive to the high-frequency variability in air-sea fluxes. The duration of upper ocean stratification due to high-frequency variability in air-sea fluxes is short and hence has a small impact on phytoplankton production. On the other hand, slumping of fronts creates patchy, stratified, shallow regions that persist considerably longer than stratification caused by changes in air-sea fluxes. Simulations show that before spring warming, the average MLD with fronts is about 700 m shallower than the average MLD without fronts. Therefore, fronts increase the residence time of phytoplankton in the euphotic layer and contribute to phytoplankton growth. Results show that before the spring warming, the depth-integrated phytoplankton concentration is about twice as large as phytoplankton concentration when there are no fronts. Hence, fronts are important for setting the MLD and sustaining phytoplankton in the winter. Model results also show that higher numerical resolution leads to stronger restratification, shallower mixed layers, greater variability in the MLD and higher production of phytoplankton

    Enhancement in vertical fluxes at a front by mesoscale-submesoscale coupling

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    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 119 (2014): 8495–8511, doi:10.1002/2014JC010211.Oceanic frontal instabilities are of importance for the vertical exchange of properties in the ocean. Submesoscale, O(1) Rossby number, dynamics are particularly relevant for inducing the vertical (and lateral) flux of buoyancy and tracers in the mixed layer, but how these couple with the stratified pycnocline is less clear. Observations show surface fronts often persist beneath the mixed layer. Here we use idealized, three-dimensional model simulations to show how surface fronts that extend deeper into the pycnocline invoke enhanced vertical fluxes through the coupling of submesoscale and mesoscale instabilities. We contrast simulations in which the front is restricted to the mixed layer with those in which it extends deeper. For the deeper fronts, we examine the effect of density stratification on the vertical coupling. Our results show deep fronts can dynamically couple the mixed layer and pycnocline on time scales that increase with the peak stratification beneath the mixed layer. Eddies in the interior generate skew fluxes of buoyancy and tracer oriented along isopycnals, thus providing an adiabatic pathway for the interior to interact with the mixed layer at fronts. The vertical enhancement of tracer fluxes through the mesoscale-submesoscale coupling described here is thus relevant to the vertical supply of nutrients for phytoplankton in the ocean. A further implication for wind-forced fronts is that the vertical structure of the stream function characterizing the exchange between the interior and the mixed layer exhibits significant qualitative differences compared to a linear combination of existing parameterizations of submesoscale eddies in the mixed layer and mesoscale eddies in the interior. The discrepancies are most severe within the mixed layer suggesting a potential role for Ekman-layer dynamics absent in existing submesoscale parameterizations.S.R. and A.T. acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF OCE-0928138) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR N00014-09-1-0196, ONR N00014-12-1-0101). A.M. acknowledges funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF OCE-0928617) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR N00014-12-1-0101).2015-06-1

    Diurnal restratification events in the southeast Pacific trade wind regime

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    Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 44 (2014): 2569–2587, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-14-0026.1.This paper describes the occurrence of diurnal restratification events found in the southeast trade wind regime off northern Chile. This is a region where persistent marine stratus clouds are found and where there is a less than complete understanding of the dynamics that govern the maintenance of the sea surface temperature. A surface mooring deployed in the region provides surface meteorological, air–sea flux, and upper-ocean temperature, salinity, and velocity data. In the presence of steady southeast trade winds and strong evaporation, a warm, salty surface mixed layer is found in the upper ocean. During the year, these trade winds, at times, drop dramatically and surface heating leads to the formation of shallow, warm diurnal mixed layers over one to several days. At the end of such a low wind period, mean sea surface temperature is warmer. Though magnitudes of the individual diurnal warming events are consistent with local forcing, as judged by running a one-dimensional model, the net warming at the end of a low wind event is more difficult to predict. This is found to stem from differences between the observed and predicted near-inertial shear and the depths over which the warmed water is distributed. As a result, the evolution of SST has a dependency on these diurnal restratification events and on near-surface processes that govern the depth over which the heat gained during such events is distributed.RAW was supported by the NOAA Climate Program Office. SM and AT were supported by NASA Grant NNX12AD47G,ONR Grant N000140910196, and NSF-OCE 0928138 RAW.2015-03-0

    Spontaneous generation of near-inertial waves by the Kuroshio Front

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    Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 45 (2015): 2381–2406, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-14-0086.1.While near-inertial waves are known to be generated by atmospheric storms, recent observations in the Kuroshio Front find intense near-inertial internal-wave shear along sloping isopycnals, even during calm weather. Recent literature suggests that spontaneous generation of near-inertial waves by frontal instabilities could represent a major sink for the subinertial quasigeostrophic circulation. An unforced three-dimensional 1-km-resolution model, initialized with the observed cross-Kuroshio structure, is used to explore this mechanism. After several weeks, the model exhibits growth of 10–100-km-scale frontal meanders, accompanied by O(10) mW m−2 spontaneous generation of near-inertial waves associated with readjustment of submesoscale fronts forced out of balance by mesoscale confluent flows. These waves have properties resembling those in the observations. However, they are reabsorbed into the model Kuroshio Front with no more than 15% dissipating or radiating away. Thus, spontaneous generation of near-inertial waves represents a redistribution of quasigeostrophic energy rather than a significant sink.“The Study of Kuroshio Ecosystem Dynamics for Sustainable Fisheries (SKED)” supported by MEXT, MIT-Hayashi Seed Fund, ONR (Awards N000140910196 and N000141210101), NSF (Award OCE 0928617, 0928138) for support.2016-03-0

    Near-inertial kinetic energy budget of the mixed layer and shear evolution in the transition layer in the Arabian Sea during the monsoons

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    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 120 (2015): 6492–6507, doi:10.1002/2014JC010198.We present the horizontal kinetic energy (KE) balance of near-inertial currents in the mixed layer and explain shear evolution in the transition layer using observations from a mooring at 15.26° N in the Arabian Sea during the southwest monsoon. The highly sheared and stratified transition layer at the mixed-layer base varies between 5 m and 35 m and correlates negatively with the wind stress. Results from the mixed layer near-inertial KE (NIKE) balance suggest that wind energy at times can energize the transition layer and at other times is fully utilized within the mixed layer. A simple two layer model is utilized to study the shear evolution in the transition layer and shown to match well with observations. The shear production in this model arises from alignment of wind stress and shear. Although the winds are unidirectional during the monsoon, the shear in the transition layer is predominantly near-inertial. The near-inertial shear bursts in the observations show the same phasing and magnitude at near-inertial frequencies as the wind-shear alignment term.NASA Grant Number: NNX12AD47G, NSF Grant Number: 0928138, ONR Grant Numbers: N00014-11-1-0429 and N00014-10-1-0273, NSF Grant Number: OCE-07455082016-03-2

    Gastrointestinal stromal tumor causing ileo-ileal intussusception in an adult patient a rare presentation with review of literature

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    Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are mesenchymal tumors occurring anywhere along the gastrointestinal tract and are believed to originate from the interstitial cells of Cajal. They commonly arise in the stomach or small intestine. The usual growth pattern is exophytic invading adjacent organs or perforation into the peritoneal cavity which may result in bleeding or obstructive symptoms. Intussusception and obstruction is a very uncommon presentation of these lesions because of their tendency to grow in an extraluminal fashion. We report an unusual case of 59 yrs old man presenting with acute small bowel obstruction, which on exploration was found to be due to ileo-ileal intussusception and the lead point of intussusception was a tumor, which was histologically diagnosed as GIS

    Treatment of Pseudo Class III Malocclusion with Multiple Loop Protraction Utility Arch

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    Pseudo Class III malocclusion has been characterized by an anterior crossbite in the presence of a forward mandibular displacement. There are various methods to correct pseudo Class III malocclusion, e.g., Inclined planes, reverse stainless steel crown, bonded composite resin slopes, tongue blade, the removable appliance with auxiliary springs, and maxillary lingual arch with finger springs. In this article, we are presenting a case of pseudo Class III malocclusion treated with multiple loop protraction utility arch. Patient had functional mandibular anterior deviation resulting into traumatic anterior cross bite and concave profile. We fabricated multiple loop arch wire (0.016”×0.022” blue elgiloy) which was activated at four 90° bends without disturbing other segments of the arch

    Production and destruction of eddy kinetic energy in forced submesoscale eddy-resolving simulations

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    © The Author(s), 2016. This is the author's version of the work and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ocean Modelling 105 (2016): 44-59, doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2016.07.002.We study the production and dissipation of the eddy kinetic energy (EKE) in a submesoscale eddy field forced with downfront winds using the Process Study Ocean Model (PSOM) with a horizontal grid resolution of 0.5 km. We simulate an idealized 100 m deep mixed-layer front initially in geostrophic balance with a jet in a domain that permits eddies within a range of O(1km–100 km). The vertical eddy viscosities and the dissipation are parameterized using four different subgrid vertical mixing parameterizations: the k−ϵ,k−ϵ, the KPP, and two different constant eddy viscosity and diffusivity profiles with a magnitude of O(10−2m2s−1) in the mixed layer. Our study shows that strong vertical eddy viscosities near the surface reduce the parameterized dissipation, whereas strong vertical eddy diffusivities reduce the lateral buoyancy gradients and consequently the rate of restratification by mixed-layer instabilities (MLI). Our simulations show that near the surface, the spatial variability of the dissipation along the periphery of the eddies depends on the relative alignment of the ageostrophic and geostrophic shear. Analysis of the resolved EKE budgets in the frontal region from the simulations show important similarities between the vertical structure of the EKE budget produced by the k−ϵk−ϵ and KPP parameterizations, and earlier LES studies. Such an agreement is absent in the simulations using constant eddy-viscosity parameterizations.This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research Grant (N00014-09-1-0196).2018-07-1

    Jaw Morphology and Vertical Facial Types: A Cephalometric Appraisal

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    Aims and objectives: To evaluate the maxillary and mandibular morphology in different vertical facial types and to implicate the achieved results into diagnosis and treatment planning of patients requiring orthodontic treatment. Materials and methods: The present study is conducted on a sample of 120 subjects comprising of 60 males and 60 females in the age range of 18 to 25 years. The lateral head cephalograms of the subjects were divided into three groups, i.e. group I (hypodivergent), group II (normodivergent) and group III(hyperdivergent) with regard to vertical facial type by using the following three parameters, i.e. SN-MP (facial divergence angle), overbite depth indicator (ODI) and Jarabak ratio or facial height ratio (FHR). Differences among the groups and between genders were assessed by means of variance analysis and Newman- Keuls post hoc test. Results: Maxillary and mandibular anterior alveolar and maxillary postalveolar height was found to be greater for hyperdivergent group in comparison to others. Hyperdivergent facial types posseslong and narrow symphysis along with greater antegonial notch depth whereas hypodivergent showed an opposite tendency. Hyperdivergent facial types generally have a smaller maxillary area as compared to other facial types. However, total mandibular area does not vary among different vertical facial types. Sexual dichotomy was found with maxillary anterior alveolar and basal height, mandibular posterior alveolar and basal height, mandibular length, symphyseal depth, depth of the antegonial notch, symphyseal area and ext/total symphyseal area ratio. Conclusion: Vertical facial type may be related to the morphological and dentoalveolar pattern of both maxilla and mandible. Determination of this relationship may be of great help from diagnostic as well as therapeutic aspects of many vertical malocclusion problems
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