Achievements and Challenges in the Science of Space Weather

In June 2016 a group of 40 space weather scientists attended the workshop on Scientific Foundations of Space Weather at the International Space Science Institute in Bern. In this lead article to the volume based on the talks and discussions during the workshop we review some of main past achievements in the field and outline some of the challenges that the science of space weather is facing today and in the future.Peer reviewe

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

Latitudinal and Local Time Variation of Ionospheric Turbulence Parameters during the Conjugate Point Equatorial Experiment in Brazil

Previous authors have reported on the morphology of GPS scintillations and irregularity zonal drift during the 2002 Conjugate Point Equatorial Experiment (COPEX) in Brazil. In this paper, we characterize the turbulent ionospheric medium that produced these scintillations. Using 10 Hz GPS carrier-to-noise measurements at Boa Vista (2.9°N, 60.7°W), Alta Floresta (9.9°S, 56.1°W), and Campo Grande (20.5°S, 54.7°W), we report on the variation of turbulent intensity, phase spectral index, and irregularity zonal drift as a function of latitude and local time for the evening of 1-2 November 2002. The method of analysis is new and, unlike analytical theories of scintillation based on the Born or Rytov approximations, it is valid when the scintillation index saturates due to multiple-scatter effects. Our principal findings are that (1) the strength of turbulence tended to be largest near the crests of the equatorial anomaly and at early postsunset local times, (2) the turbulent intensity was generally stronger and lasted two hours longer at Campo Grande than at Boa Vista, (3) the phase spectral index was similar at the three stations but increased from 2.5 to 4.5 with local time, and (4) our estimates of zonal irregularity drift are consistent with those provided by the spaced-receiver technique

Digital signal processing for ionospheric propagation diagnostics

For decades, analog beacon satellite receivers have generated multifrequency narrowband complex data streams that could be processed directly to extract total electron content (TEC) and scintillation diagnostics. With the advent of software-defined radio, modern digital receivers generate baseband complex data streams that require intermediate processing to extract the narrowband modulation imparted to the signal by ionospheric structure. This paper develops and demonstrates a processing algorithm for digital beacon satellite data that will extract TEC and scintillation components. For algorithm evaluation, a simulator was developed to generate noise-limited multifrequency complex digital signal realizations with representative orbital dynamics and propagation disturbances. A frequency-tracking procedure is used to capture the slowly changing frequency component. Dynamic demodulation against the low-frequency estimate captures the scintillation. The low-frequency reference can be used directly for dual-frequency TEC estimation. å©2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved