Natural Resource Assessments in Afghanistan Through High Resolution Digital Elevation Modeling and Multi-spectral Image Analysis

This viewgraph presentation provides USGS/USAID natural resource assessments in Afghanistan through the mapping of coal, oil and natural gas, minerals, hydrologic resources and earthquake and flood hazards

A Rare Case of Right Lower Lobe Intralobar Pulmonary Sequestration in an Adult

Pulmonary sequestration is a rare congenital abnormality which is often diagnosed in childhood. There are two types of sequestration which are differentiated by the presence, or lack of pleural lining dividing the aberrant lung tissue from functional lung. Data for the management of this pathology in adults remains scarce. Here we present a case of intralobar pulmonary sequestration in an adult. The management of this patient comprised of surgical treatment involving lobectomy and ligation of the feeding vessel. The patient had an uneventful recovery and final pathology revealed a chronic infection in the sequestration

Young transgenic hMTH1 mice are protected against dietary fat-induced metabolic stress—implications for enhanced longevity

hMTH1 protects against mutation during oxidative stress. It degrades 8-oxodGTP to exclude potentially mutagenic oxidized guanine from DNA. hMTH1 expression is linked to ageing. Its downregulation in cultured cells accelerates RAS-induced senescence, and its overexpression in hMTH1-Tg mice extends lifespan. In this study, we analysed the effects of a brief (5 weeks) high-fat diet challenge (HFD) in young (2 months old) and adult (7 months old) wild-type (WT) and hMTH1-Tg mice. We report that at 2 months, hMTH1 overexpression ameliorated HFD-induced weight gain, changes in liver metabolism related to mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. It prevented DNA damage as quantified by a comet assay. At 7 months old, these HFD-induced effects were less severe and hMTH1-Tg and WT mice responded similarly. hMTH1 overexpression conferred lifelong protection against micronucleus induction, however. Since the canonical activity of hMTH1 is mutation prevention, we conclude that hMTH1 protects young mice against HFD by reducing genome instability during the early period of rapid growth and maximal gene expression. hMTH1 protection is redundant in the largely non-growing, differentiated tissues of adult mice. In hMTH1-Tg mice, expression of a less heavily mutated genome throughout life provides a plausible explanation for their extended longevity

How should the completeness and quality of curated nanomaterial data be evaluated?

Nanotechnology is of increasing significance. Curation of nanomaterial data into electronic databases offers opportunities to better understand and predict nanomaterials' behaviour. This supports innovation in, and regulation of, nanotechnology. It is commonly understood that curated data need to be sufficiently complete and of sufficient quality to serve their intended purpose. However, assessing data completeness and quality is non-trivial in general and is arguably especially difficult in the nanoscience area, given its highly multidisciplinary nature. The current article, part of the Nanomaterial Data Curation Initiative series, addresses how to assess the completeness and quality of (curated) nanomaterial data. In order to address this key challenge, a variety of related issues are discussed: the meaning and importance of data completeness and quality, existing approaches to their assessment and the key challenges associated with evaluating the completeness and quality of curated nanomaterial data. Considerations which are specific to the nanoscience area and lessons which can be learned from other relevant scientific disciplines are considered. Hence, the scope of this discussion ranges from physicochemical characterisation requirements for nanomaterials and interference of nanomaterials with nanotoxicology assays to broader issues such as minimum information checklists, toxicology data quality schemes and computational approaches that facilitate evaluation of the completeness and quality of (curated) data. This discussion is informed by a literature review and a survey of key nanomaterial data curation stakeholders. Finally, drawing upon this discussion, recommendations are presented concerning the central question: how should the completeness and quality of curated nanomaterial data be evaluated

Changing climate both increases and decreases European river floods

Climate change has led to concerns about increasing river floods resulting from the greater water-holding capacity of a warmer atmosphere. These concerns are reinforced by evidence of increasing economic losses associated with flooding in many parts of the world, including Europe. Any changes in river floods would have lasting implications for the design of flood protection measures and flood risk zoning. However, existing studies have been unable to identify a consistent continental-scale climatic-change signal in flood discharge observations in Europe, because of the limited spatial coverage and number of hydrometric stations. Here we demonstrate clear regional patterns of both increases and decreases in observed river flood discharges in the past five decades in Europe, which are manifestations of a changing climate. Our results—arising from the most complete database of European flooding so far—suggest that: increasing autumn and winter rainfall has resulted in increasing floods in northwestern Europe; decreasing precipitation and increasing evaporation have led to decreasing floods in medium and large catchments in southern Europe; and decreasing snow cover and snowmelt, resulting from warmer temperatures, have led to decreasing floods in eastern Europe. Regional flood discharge trends in Europe range from an increase of about 11 per cent per decade to a decrease of 23 per cent. Notwithstanding the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the observational record, the flood changes identified here are broadly consistent with climate model projections for the next century, suggesting that climate-driven changes are already happening and supporting calls for the consideration of climate change in flood risk management

Improvement of Quality in Publication of Experimental Thermophysical Property Data: Challenges, Assessment Tools, Global Implementation, and Online Support

Article on the improvement of quality in the publication of experimental thermophysical property data

Megafloods in Europe can be anticipated from observations in hydrologically similar catchments

Megafloods that far exceed previously observed records often take citizens and experts by surprise, resulting in extremely severe damage and loss of life. Existing methods based on local and regional information rarely go beyond national borders and cannot predict these floods well because of limited data on megafloods, and because flood generation processes of extremes differ from those of smaller, more frequently observed events. Here we analyse river discharge observations from over 8,000 gauging stations across Europe and show that recent megafloods could have been anticipated from those previously observed in other places in Europe. Almost all observed megafloods (95.5%) fall within the envelope values estimated from previous floods in other similar places on the continent, implying that local surprises are not surprising at the continental scale. This holds also for older events, indicating that megafloods have not changed much in time relative to their spatial variability. The underlying concept of the study is that catchments with similar flood generation processes produce similar outliers. It is thus essential to transcend national boundaries and learn from other places across the continent to avoid surprises and save lives