Observation of mesospheric air inside the arctic stratospheric polar vortex in early 2003

During several balloon flights inside the Arctic polar vortex in early 2003, unusual trace gas distributions were observed, which indicate a strong influence of mesospheric air in the stratosphere. The tuneable diode laser (TDL) instrument SPIRALE (Spectroscopie InFrarouge par Absorption de Lasers Embarqués) measured unusually high CO values (up to 600 ppb) on 27 January at about 30 km altitude. The cryosampler BONBON sampled air masses with very high molecular Hydrogen, extremely low SF6 and enhanced CO values on 6 March at about 25 km altitude. Finally, the MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectrometer showed NOy values which are significantly higher than NOy* (the NOy derived from a correlation between N2O and NOy under undisturbed conditions), on 21 and 22 March in a layer centred at 22 km altitude. Thus, the mesospheric air seems to have been present in a layer descending from about 30 km in late January to 25 km altitude in early March and about 22 km altitude on 20 March. We present corroborating evidence from a model study using the KASIMA (KArlsruhe Simulation model of the Middle Atmosphere) model that also shows a layer of mesospheric air, which descended into the stratosphere in November and early December 2002, before the minor warming which occurred in late December 2002 lead to a descent of upper stratospheric air, cutting of a layer in which mesospheric air is present. This layer then descended inside the vortex over the course of the winter. The same feature is found in trajectory calculations, based on a large number of trajectories started in the vicinity of the observations on 6 March. Based on the difference between the mean age derived from SF6 (which has an irreversible mesospheric loss) and from CO2 (whose mesospheric loss is much smaller and reversible) we estimate that the fraction of mesospheric air in the layer observed on 6 March, must have been somewhere between 35% and 100%

Technical Note: Intercomparison of ILAS-II version 2 and 1.4 trace species with MIPAS-B measurements

The Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer (ILAS)-II sensor aboard the Japanese ADEOS-II satellite was launched into its sun-synchronous orbit on 14 December 2002 and performed solar occultation measurements of trace species, aerosols, temperature, and pressure in the polar stratosphere until 25 October 2003. Vertical trace gas profiles obtained with the balloon version of the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS-B) provide one of the sparse data sets for validating ILAS-II version 2 and 1.4 data. The MIPAS-B limb emission spectra were collected on 20 March 2003 over Kiruna (Sweden, 68° N) at virtually the same location that has been sounded by ILAS-II about 5.5 h prior to the sampling of MIPAS-B. The intercomparison of the new ILAS-II version 2 (Northern Hemispheric sunrise) data to MIPAS-B vertical trace gas profiles shows a good to excellent agreement within the combined error limits for the species O<sub>3</sub>, N<sub>2</sub>O, CH<sub>4</sub>, H<sub>2</sub>O (above 21 km), HNO<sub>3</sub>, ClONO<sub>2</sub>, and CFC-11 (CCl<sub>3</sub>F) in the compared altitude range between 16 and 31 km such that these data appear to be very useful for scientific analysis. With regard to the previous version 1.4 ILAS-II data, significant improvements in the consistency with MIPAS-B are obvious especially for the species CH<sub>4</sub> and H<sub>2</sub>O, but also for O<sub>3</sub>, HNO<sub>3</sub>, ClONO<sub>2</sub>, NO<sub>2</sub>, and N<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>. However, comparing gases like NO<sub>2</sub>, N<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>, and CFC-12 (CCl<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub>) exhibits only poor agreement with MIPAS-B such that these species cannot be assumed to be validated at the present time

Influence of Apple stem grooving virus on Malus sieboldii-derived apple proliferation resistant rootstocks

Apple stem grooving virus (ASGV, Capillovirus) is widely spread in apple growing regions. As it causes no symptoms on most cultivated apple varieties and rootstocks it is considered latent in Malus x domestica. In Asia, however, ASGV has been found associated with topworking disease of apple rootstocks originating from Malus sieboldii. Recently, M. sieboldii and its hybrids have gained new interest in Europe as they confer resistance to apple proliferation (AP) disease. A new breeding program aiming to develop AP-resistant rootstocks of agronomic value for modern apple culture, reported unexpected tree decline which was to be associated with ASGV. As little information is available on the variability of ASGV isolates in Germany, the complete genome of a German isolate of ASGV associated with tree decline was cloned and sequenced. Sequence comparisons with available ASGV isolates revealed two regions of high variability in the genome. The genetic variability of additional isolates from Germany and other countries were collected and the variable areas characterised. In addition ASGV was successfully maintained in micropropagated apple trees and could be transmitted by in vitro grafting to various genotypes, making it possible to study in vitro the effect of the virus and virus/phytoplama combination on M. sieboldii-derived genotypes. Keywords: Latent apple viruses, Candidatus Phytoplasma mali, micropropagation, in vitro grafting, genetic variabilit

The Clustering of Massive Halos

The clustering properties of dark matter halos are a firm prediction of modern theories of structure formation. We use two large volume, high-resolution N-body simulations to study how the correlation function of massive dark matter halos depends upon their mass and formation history. We find that halos with the lowest concentrations are presently more clustered than those of higher concentration, the size of the effect increasing with halo mass; this agrees with trends found in studies of lower mass halos. The clustering dependence on other characterizations of the full mass accretion history appears weaker than the effect with concentration. Using the integrated correlation function, marked correlation functions, and a power-law fit to the correlation function, we find evidence that halos which have recently undergone a major merger or a large mass gain have slightly enhanced clustering relative to a randomly chosen population with the same mass distribution.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures; text improved, references and one figure added; accepted for publication in Ap

A New Look at the Axial Anomaly in Lattice QED with Wilson Fermions

By carrying out a systematic expansion of Feynman integrals in the lattice spacing, we show that the axial anomaly in the U(1) lattice gauge theory with Wilson fermions, as determined in one-loop order from an irrelevant lattice operator in the Ward identity, must necessarily be identical to that computed from the dimensionally regulated continuum Feynman integrals for the triangle diagrams.Comment: 1 figure, LaTeX, 18 page

The Mass Spectrum of Light and Heavy Hadrons from Improved Lattice Actions

We use improved lattice actions for glue, light quarks and heavy quarks for which we use lattice NRQCD to compute hadron masses. Our results are in good agreement with experiment, except for charmed hadrons. It seems that charmed quar ks are not well approximated as heavy quarks nor as light quarks.Comment: 14 pages +6 pages figures, plain-tex fil

Strong Coupling Constant with Flavour Thresholds at Four Loops in the MS-bar Scheme

We present in analytic form the matching conditions for the strong coupling constant alpha_s^(n_f)(mu) at the flavour thresholds to three loops in the modified minimal-subtraction scheme. Taking into account the recently calculated coefficient beta_3 of the Callan-Symanzik beta function of quantum chromodynamics, we thus derive a four-loop formula for alpha_s^(n_f)(mu) together with appropriate relationships between the asymptotic scale parameters Lambda^(n_f) for different numbers of flavours n_f.Comment: 10 pages (Latex), 3 figures (Postscript

Molecular basis for passive immunotherapy of Alzheimer's disease

Amyloid aggregates of the amyloid-{beta} (A{beta}) peptide are implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease. Anti-A{beta} monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been shown to reduce amyloid plaques in vitro and in animal studies. Consequently, passive immunization is being considered for treating Alzheimer's, and anti-A{beta} mAbs are now in phase II trials. We report the isolation of two mAbs (PFA1 and PFA2) that recognize A{beta} monomers, protofibrils, and fibrils and the structures of their antigen binding fragments (Fabs) in complex with the A{beta}(1–8) peptide DAEFRHDS. The immunodominant EFRHD sequence forms salt bridges, hydrogen bonds, and hydrophobic contacts, including interactions with a striking WWDDD motif of the antigen binding fragments. We also show that a similar sequence (AKFRHD) derived from the human protein GRIP1 is able to cross-react with both PFA1 and PFA2 and, when cocrystallized with PFA1, binds in an identical conformation to A{beta}(1–8). Because such cross-reactivity has implications for potential side effects of immunotherapy, our structures provide a template for designing derivative mAbs that target A{beta} with improved specificity and higher affinity

U(3) chiral perturbation theory with infrared regularization

We include the eta-prime in chiral perturbation theory without employing 1/N_c counting rules. The method is illustrated by calculating the masses and decay constants of the Goldstone boson octet (pions, kaons, eta) and the singlet eta-prime up to one-loop order. The effective Lagrangian describing the interactions of the eta-prime with the Goldstone boson octet is presented up to fourth chiral order and the loop integrals are evaluated using infrared regularization, which preserves Lorentz and chiral symmetry.Comment: 29 page