Normative Findings for Periocular Anthropometric Measurements among Chinese Young Adults in Hong Kong

Measurement of periocular structures is of value in several clinical specialties including ophthalmology, optometry, medical and clinical genetics, oculoplastic surgery, and traumatology. Therefore we aimed to determine the periocular anthropometric norms for Chinese young adults using a noninvasive 3D stereophotography system. Craniofacial images using the 3dMDface system were acquired for 103 Chinese subjects (51 males and 52 females) between the ages of 18 and 35 years. Anthropometric landmarks were identified on these digital images according to standard definitions, and linear distances between these landmarks were calculated. It was found that ocular measurements were significantly larger in Chinese males than females for intercanthal width, biocular width, and eye fissure lengths. No gender differences were found in the eye fissure height and the canthal index which ranged between 43 and 44. Both right and left eye fissure height-length ratios were significantly larger in females. This is the first study to employ 3D stereophotogrammetry to create a database of anthropometric normative data for periocular measurements. These data would be useful for clinical interpretation of periocular pathology and serve as reference values when planning aesthetic and posttraumatic surgical interventions

Measuring Brain Activity Correlates of Behavior: A Methodological Overview

The present article was prepared as an introduction to current approaches to studying brain activity correlates of behavior. Our goals are to (1) acquaint readers with current methods for detecting brain activity correlates of behavior and (2) suggest examples of scientific opportunities for collaborative research with brain scientists

The North Pacific Oxygen Uptake Rates Over the Past Half-Century

The transport of dissolved oxygen (O2) from the surface ocean into the interior is a critical process sustaining aerobic life in mesopelagic ecosystems, but its rates and sensitivity to climate variations are poorly understood. Using a circulation model constrained to historical variability by assimilation of observations, we show that the North Pacific thermocline effectively takes up O2 primarily by expanding the area through which O2-rich mixed layer water is detrained into the thermocline. The outcrop area during the critical winter season varies in concert with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). When the central North Pacific Ocean is in a cold phase, the winter outcrop window for the Central Mode Water class (CMW; a neutral density range of γ = 25.6 - 26.6) expands southward allowing more O2-rich surface water to enter the ocean’s interior. An increase in volume flux of water to the CMW density class is partly compensated by a reduced supply to the shallower densities of Subtropical Mode Water (γ = 24.0 - 25.5). The thermocline has become better oxygenated since the 1980s due partly to strong O2 uptake. Positive O2 anomalies appear first near the outcrop and subsequently downstream in the subtropical gyre. In contrast to the O2 variations within the ventilated thermocline, observed O2 in Intermediate Water (density range of γ = 26.7 – 27.2) shows a declining trend over the past half-century, a trend not explained by the open ocean water mass formation rate

An objective map of global dissolved oxygen anomaly data based on World Ocean Database (2013) from 1950 to 2015

Dataset: Global Upper Ocean Dissolved Oxygen Anomaly DatasetAn objective map of global dissolved oxygen anomaly data based on World Ocean Database (2013) from 1950 to 2015. These data were published in Ito et al. (2017). For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/816978NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-1737158, NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-1737188, NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-173728

An objective map of global dissolved oxygen anomaly data based on World Ocean Database (2013) from 1965 to 2015

Dataset: Global Upper Ocean Dissolved Oxygen Anomaly DatasetAn objective map of global dissolved oxygen anomaly data based on World Ocean Database (2013) from 1965 to 2015. For a complete list of measurements, refer to the full dataset description in the supplemental file 'Dataset_description.pdf'. The most current version of this dataset is available at: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/816978NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-1737158, NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-1737188, NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE) OCE-173728

Role of the Seasonal Cycle in the Subduction Rates of Upper–Southern Ocean Waters

Abstract A kinematic approach is used to diagnose the subduction rates of upper–Southern Ocean waters across seasonally migrating density outcrops at the base of the mixed layer. From an Eulerian viewpoint, the term representing the temporal change in the mixed layer depth (which is labeled as the temporal induction in this study; i.e., Stemp = ∂h/∂t where h is the mixed layer thickness, and t is time) vanishes over several annual cycles. Following seasonally migrating density outcrops, however, the temporal induction is attributed partly to the temporal change in the mixed layer thickness averaged over a density outcrop following its seasonally varying position and partly to the lateral movement of the outcrop position intersecting the sloping mixed layer base. Neither the temporal induction following an outcrop nor its integral over the outcrop area vanishes over several annual cycles. Instead, the seasonal eddy subduction, which arises primarily because of the subannual correlations between the seasonal cycles of the mixed layer depth and the outcrop area, explains the key mechanism by which mode waters are transferred from the mixed layer to the underlying pycnocline. The time-mean exchange rate of waters across the base of the mixed layer is substantially different from the exchange rate of waters across the fixed winter mixed layer base in mode water density classes. Nearly 40% of the newly formed Southern Ocean mode waters appear to be diapycnally transformed within the seasonal pycnocline before either being subducted into the main pycnocline or entrained back to the mixed layer through lighter density classes

Data-based assessment of environmental controls on global marine nitrogen fixation

© The Author(s), 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 11 (2014): 691-708, doi:10.5194/bg-11-691-2014.There are a number of hypotheses concerning the environmental controls on marine nitrogen fixation (NF). Most of these hypotheses have not been assessed against direct measurements on the global scale. In this study, we use ~ 500 depth-integrated field measurements of NF covering the Pacific and Atlantic oceans to test whether the spatial variance of these measurements can be explained by the commonly hypothesized environmental controls, including measurement-based surface solar radiation, mixed layer depth, average solar radiation in the mixed layer, sea surface temperature, wind speed, surface nitrate and phosphate concentrations, surface excess phosphate (P*) concentration and subsurface minimum dissolved oxygen (in upper 500 m), as well as model-based P* convergence and atmospheric dust deposition. By conducting simple linear regression and stepwise multiple linear regression (MLR) analyses, surface solar radiation (or sea surface temperature) and subsurface minimum dissolved oxygen are identified as the predictors that explain the most spatial variance in the observed NF data, although it is unclear why the observed NF decreases when the level of subsurface minimum dissolved oxygen is higher than ~ 150 μM. Dust deposition and wind speed do not appear to influence the spatial patterns of NF on global scale. The weak correlation between the observed NF and the P* convergence and concentrations suggests that the available data currently remain insufficient to fully support the hypothesis that spatial variability in denitrification is the principal control on spatial variability in marine NF. By applying the MLR-derived equation, we estimate the global-integrated NF at 74 (error range 51–110) Tg N yr−1 in the open ocean, acknowledging that it could be substantially higher as the 15N2-assimilation method used by most of the field samples underestimates NF. More field NF samples in the Pacific and Indian oceans, particularly in the oxygen minimum zones, are needed to reduce uncertainties in our conclusion.This project was supported by the NSF Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) (EF-0424599), an NSF Emerging Topics in Biogeochemical Cycles grant (ETBC, AGS-1020594), and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Studies of Brain Activity Correlates of Behavior in Individuals with and without Developmental Disabilities

There is a rich assortment of brain imaging methodologies that permits evaluation of the covert events that are necessary to complete a comprehensive account of behavior. Among the latter methodologies, our laboratories have begun to explore event-related potential (ERP) research to complement traditional behavior analysis

Genome-wide association study of proneness to anger

BACKGROUND: Community samples suggest that approximately 1 in 20 children and adults exhibit clinically significant anger, hostility, and aggression. Individuals with dysregulated emotional control have a greater lifetime burden of psychiatric morbidity, severe impairment in role functioning, and premature mortality due to cardiovascular disease. METHODS: With publically available data secured from dbGaP, we conducted a genome-wide association study of proneness to anger using the Spielberger State-Trait Anger Scale in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study (n = 8,747). RESULTS: Subjects were, on average, 54 (range 45-64) years old at baseline enrollment, 47% (n = 4,117) were male, and all were of European descent by self-report. The mean Angry Temperament and Angry Reaction scores were 5.8 +/- 1.8 and 7.6 +/- 2.2. We observed a nominally significant finding (p = 2.9E-08, lambda = 1.027 - corrected pgc = 2.2E-07, lambda = 1.0015) on chromosome 6q21 in the gene coding for the non-receptor protein-tyrosine kinase, Fyn. CONCLUSIONS: Fyn interacts with NDMA receptors and inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3)-gated channels to regulate calcium influx and intracellular release in the post-synaptic density. These results suggest that signaling pathways regulating intracellular calcium homeostasis, which are relevant to memory, learning, and neuronal survival, may in part underlie the expression of Angry Temperament

Extensive hydrogen supersaturations in the western South Atlantic Ocean suggest substantial underestimation of nitrogen fixation

The nitrogen cycle is fundamental to Earth's biogeochemistry. Yet major uncertainties of quantification remain, particularly regarding the global oceanic nitrogen fixation rate. Hydrogen is produced during nitrogen fixation and will become supersaturated in surface waters if there is net release from diazotrophs. Ocean surveys of hydrogen supersaturation thus have the potential to illustrate the spatial and temporal distribution of nitrogen fixation, and to guide the far more onerous but quantitative methods for measuring it. Here we present the first transect of high resolution measurements of hydrogen supersaturations in surface waters along a meridional 10,000 km cruise track through the Atlantic. We compare measured saturations with published measurements of nitrogen fixation rates and also with model-derived values. If the primary source of excess hydrogen is nitrogen fixation and has a hydrogen release ratio similar to Trichodesmium, our hydrogen measurements would point to similar rates of fixation in the North and South Atlantic, roughly consistent with modelled fixation rates but not with measured rates, which are lower in the south. Possible explanations would include any substantial nitrogen fixation by newly discovered diazotrophs, particularly any having a hydrogen release ratio similar to or exceeding that of Trichodesmium; under-sampling of nitrogen fixation south of the equator related to excessive focus on Trichodesmium; and methodological shortcomings of nitrogen fixation techniques that cause a bias towards colonial diazotrophs relative to unicellular forms. Alternatively our data are affected by an unknown hydrogen source that is greater in the southern half of the cruise track than the northern