Lidar backscattering measurements of background stratospheric aerosols

A comparative lidar-dustsonde experiment was conducted in San Angelo, Texas, in May 1974 in order to estimate the uncertainties in stratospheric-aerosol backscatter for the NASA Langley 48-inch lidar system. The lidar calibration and data-analysis procedures are discussed. Results from the Texas experiment indicate random and systematic uncertainties of 35 and 63 percent, respectively, in backscatter from a background stratospheric-aerosol layer at 20 km

Seasonal, lunar, and diel patterns in spawning by the giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta

Temporal patterns in giant barrel sponge (Xestospongia muta) spawning were compiled from 32 observations spanning 17 years and three Caribbean locations (Florida, Belize, and Haiti). The records were analyzed for patterns in seasonality, lunar periodicity, and diel rhythm to develop a predictive spawning window. Results indicate that spawning is concentrated from mid-April to late May. Most spawning events occurred around the first quarter moon; a smaller pulse occurred just before the third quarter moon. All spawning events were observed in the morning and fell within 779–987 min of the previous night’s sunset. Eggs of X. muta were all negatively buoyant and blanketed the areas within and surrounding the sponge; this limited gamete dispersal may be the driver behind heavily localized genetic retention

Quenching Effects in the Hadron Spectrum

Lattice QCD has generated a wealth of data in hadronic physics over the last two decades. Until relatively recently, most of this information has been within the "quenched approximation" where virtual quark--anti-quark pairs are neglected. This review presents a descriptive discussion of the effects of removing this approximation in the calculation of hadronic masses.Comment: To appear in "Lattice Hadron Physics", ed. A.C. Kalloniatis, D.B. Leinweber and A.G. William

Bias for consonantal information over vocalic information in 30-month-olds: cross-linguistic evidence from French and English.

Using a name-based categorization task, Nazzi found in 2005 that French-learning 20-month-olds can make use of one-feature consonantal contrasts between new labels but fail to do so with one-feature vocalic contrasts. This asymmetry was interpreted as developmental evidence for the proposal that consonants play a more important role than vowels at the lexical level. In the current study using the same task, we first show that by 30 months French-learning infants can make use of one-feature vocalic contrasts (e.g., /pize/-/pyze/). Second, we show that in a situation where infants must neglect either a consonantal one-feature change or a vocalic one-feature change (e.g., match a /pide/ with either a /tide/ or a /pyde/), both French- and English-learning 30-month-olds choose to neglect the vocalic change rather than the consonantal change. We argue that these results suggest that by 30 months of age, infants still give less weight to vocalic information than to consonantal information in a lexically related task even though they are able to process fine vocalic information

Liquidus Tracking: Controlled Rate Vitrification for the Cryopreservation of Larger Volumes and Tissues

BACKGROUND: Vitrification of cells or tissue at controlled cooling rates suitable for larger volumes, and with reduced cryoprotectant toxicity. OBJECTIVE: To set out the current understanding of the LiquidusTracking (LT) vitrification technique, and to discuss the challenges and benefits of translating the method into laboratory protocols more generally applicable to meet requirements of large volume and 3-D cryo-banking in the era of regenerative medicine. METHODS: By adding small amounts of cryoprotectants at each step and subsequently cooling the sample just above its freezing point before further increasing CPA concentration, cryoprotectant toxicity is minimized. RESULT: CPA toxicity can be reduced by lowering the temperature. Different manual approaches to LT were evaluated and further improved. CONCLUSIONS: Manual liquidus tracking is complicated and exhibits potential high variability. Nevertheless, this approach offers the possibility of testing several conditions simultaneously and could be used to pre-test conditions prior to automatic LT development

Genome sequences of four Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains isolated from the English Channel and the River Thames

This is the final version. Available from American Society for Microbiology via the DOI in this record.Data availability: Assembled and annotated genomes are publicly available within JGI IMG/M (https://img.jgi.doe.gov/) using the following taxon IDs: V. parahaemolyticus EXE V18/004 (2816332655); V. parahaemolyticus V12/024 (2816332656); V. parahaemolyticus V05/313 (2816332657) and V. parahaemolyticus V05/027 (2816332658). Read data is available on the European Nucleotide Archive under the following accession numbers: V. parahaemolyticus EXE V18/004: ERS3342146; V. parahaemolyticus V12/024: ERS3342147; V. parahaemolyticus V05/313: ERS3342148 and V. parahaemolyticus V05/027 ERS3342149.Vibrio parahaemolyticus, is the lead causative agent for seafood-borne human gastroenteritis. Whilst occurrence has traditionally been uncommon in Europe and the UK, rising sea surface temperatures have resulted in an increased prevalence. Here, we present the complete genome sequences of four novel V. parahaemolyticus strains, isolated from the UK.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC

Microscopic expressions for the thermodynamic temperature

We show that arbitrary phase space vector fields can be used to generate phase functions whose ensemble averages give the thermodynamic temperature. We describe conditions for the validity of these functions in periodic boundary systems and the Molecular Dynamics (MD) ensemble, and test them with a short-ranged potential MD simulation.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures, Revtex. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Severe Lumbar Disability Is Associated With Decreased Psoas Cross-Sectional Area in Degenerative Spondylolisthesis

Study Design: Retrospective cohort. Objectives: Alterations in lumbar paraspinal muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) may correlate with lumbar pathology. The purpose of this study was to compare paraspinal CSA in patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis and severe lumbar disability to those with mild or moderate lumbar disability, as determined by the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 101 patients undergoing lumbar fusion for degenerative spondylolisthesis. Patients were divided into ODI score ≤40 (mild/moderate disability, MMD) and ODI score \u3e40 (severe disability, SD) groups. The total CSA of the psoas and paraspinal muscles were measured on preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results: There were 37 patients in the SD group and 64 in the MMD group. Average age and body mass index were similar between groups. For the paraspinal muscles, we were unable to demonstrate any significant differences in total CSA between the groups. Psoas muscle CSA was significantly decreased in the SD group compared with the MMD group (1010.08 vs 1178.6 mm2, P =.041). Multivariate analysis found that psoas CSA in the upper quartile was significantly protective against severe disability (P =.013). Conclusions: We found that patients with severe lumbar disability had no significant differences in posterior lumbar paraspinal CSA when compared with those with mild/moderate disability. However, severely disabled patients had significantly decreased psoas CSA, and larger psoas CSA was strongly protective against severe disability, suggestive of a potential association with psoas atrophy and worsening severity of lumbar pathology. © The Author(s) 2018