Aeration and its Effects on Zooplankton

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of aeration primarily on zooplankton

Ensemble prediction for nowcasting with a convection-permitting model - II: forecast error statistics

A 24-member ensemble of 1-h high-resolution forecasts over the Southern United Kingdom is used to study short-range forecast error statistics. The initial conditions are found from perturbations from an ensemble transform Kalman filter. Forecasts from this system are assumed to lie within the bounds of forecast error of an operational forecast system. Although noisy, this system is capable of producing physically reasonable statistics which are analysed and compared to statistics implied from a variational assimilation system. The variances for temperature errors for instance show structures that reflect convective activity. Some variables, notably potential temperature and specific humidity perturbations, have autocorrelation functions that deviate from 3-D isotropy at the convective-scale (horizontal scales less than 10 km). Other variables, notably the velocity potential for horizontal divergence perturbations, maintain 3-D isotropy at all scales. Geostrophic and hydrostatic balances are studied by examining correlations between terms in the divergence and vertical momentum equations respectively. Both balances are found to decay as the horizontal scale decreases. It is estimated that geostrophic balance becomes less important at scales smaller than 75 km, and hydrostatic balance becomes less important at scales smaller than 35 km, although more work is required to validate these findings. The implications of these results for high-resolution data assimilation are discussed

Acoustic scattering by impedance screens/cracks with fractal boundary: well-posedness analysis and boundary element approximation

We study time-harmonic scattering in $\mathbb{R}^n$ ($n=2,3$) by a planar screen (a "crack" in the context of linear elasticity), assumed to be a non-empty bounded relatively open subset $\Gamma$ of the hyperplane $\mathbb{R}^{n-1}\times \{0\}$, on which impedance (Robin) boundary conditions are imposed. In contrast to previous studies, $\Gamma$ can have arbitrarily rough (possibly fractal) boundary. To obtain well-posedness for such $\Gamma$ we show how the standard impedance boundary value problem and its associated system of boundary integral equations must be supplemented with additional solution regularity conditions, which hold automatically when $\partial\Gamma$ is smooth. We show that the associated system of boundary integral operators is compactly perturbed coercive in an appropriate function space setting, strengthening previous results. This permits the use of Mosco convergence to prove convergence of boundary element approximations on smoother "prefractal" screens to the limiting solution on a fractal screen. We present accompanying numerical results, validating our theoretical convergence results, for three-dimensional scattering by a Koch snowflake and a square snowflake

Integrated washland management for flood defence and biodiversity

A combination of reform of agricultural policy, changing priorities in the countryside, growing commitment to protect and enhance biodiversity, and concerns about increased flood risk in lowlands have drawn attention to the potential contribution that managed washlands can make to deliver benefits to biodiversity and flood management. In this context, and with funding from Defra and English Nature, the study reported here1 set out to determine the scope for simultaneously achieving flood management and biodiversity objectives, and how this might be achieved in practice. The broad purpose is to inform policy on washland creation and management, including mechanisms for implementation if deemed appropriate

Acetylation of importin-α nuclear import factors by CBP/p300.

Histone acetylases were originally identified because of their ability to acetylate histone substrates 1, 2 and 3. Acetylases can also target other proteins such as transcription factors 4, 5, 6 and 7. We asked whether the acetylase CREB-binding protein (CBP) could acetylate proteins not directly involved in transcription. A large panel of proteins, involved in a variety of cellular processes, were tested as substrates for recombinant CBP. This screen identified two proteins involved in nuclear import, Rch1 (human importin-α) and importin-α7, as targets for CBP. The acetylation site within Rch1 was mapped to a single residue, Lys22. By comparing the context of Lys22 with the sequences of other known substrates of CBP and the closely related acetylase p300, we identified G/SK (in the single-letter amino acid code) as a consensus acetylation motif. Mutagenesis of the glycine, as well as the lysine, severely impaired Rch1 acetylation, supporting the view that GK is part of a recognition motif for acetylation by CBP/p300. Using an antibody raised against an acetylated Rch1 peptide, we show that Rch1 was acetylated at Lys22 in vivo and that CBP or p300 could mediate this reaction. Lys22 lies within the binding site for a second nuclear import factor, importin-β. Acetylation of Lys22 promoted interaction with importin-β in vitro. Collectively, these results demonstrate that acetylation is not unique to proteins involved in transcription. Acetylation may regulate a variety of biological processes, including nuclear import