Data assimilative modeling investigation of Gulf Stream Warm Core Ring interaction with continental shelf and slope circulation

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 119 (2014): 5968–5991, doi:10.1002/2014JC009898.A data assimilative ocean circulation model is used to hindcast the interaction between a large Gulf Stream Warm Core Ring (WCR) with the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) shelf and slope circulation. Using the recently developed Incremental Strong constraint 4D Variational (I4D-Var) data assimilation algorithm, the model assimilates mapped satellite sea surface height (SSH), sea surface temperature (SST), in situ temperature, and salinity profiles measured by expendable bathythermograph, Argo floats, shipboard CTD casts, and glider transects. Model validations against independent hydrographic data show 60% and 57% error reductions in temperature and salinity, respectively. The WCR significantly changed MAB continental slope and shelf circulation. The mean cross-shelf transport induced by the WCR is estimated to be 0.28 Sv offshore, balancing the mean along-shelf transport by the shelfbreak jet. Large heat/salt fluxes with peak values of 8900 W m−2/4 × 10−4 kg m−2 s−1 are found when the WCR was impinging upon the shelfbreak. Vorticity analysis reveals the nonlinear advection term, as well as the residual of joint effect of baroclinicity and bottom relief (JEBAR) and advection of potential vorticity (APV) play important roles in controlling the variability of the eddy vorticity.Research support provided through ONR grants N00014-06-1-0739, N00014-10-1-0367, and NSF grant OCE-0927470 is much appreciated. B. Powell was supported by ONR grant N00014-09-10939. K. Chen was supported by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Postdoctoral Scholar Program.2015-03-1

Koinonia

Spotlight FeatureThinking Globally in a Local Context, Jolene Cassellius Family and Balance, Shannon Schans Cultivating Philanthropy in the Co-Curriculum: An Alternative to the Narcissism of the iGeneration, Brian Powell InterviewThe Ministry of Reconciliation: A Conversation with Brenda Salter McNeil, Glen Kinoshita Thinking TheologicallyThought About Thinking Lately? How About Thinking Christianly?, Michael Santarosa Book ReviewHush: Moving From Silence to Healing After Childhood Sexual Abuse, reviewed by Carol Harding I\u27m the Teacher, You\u27re the Student: A Semester in the University Classroom, reviewed by Ryan K. Giffin Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical\u27s Inside View of White Christianity, reviewed by Jesse Brown FeaturesThe President\u27s Corner Editor\u27s Desk Regional Updateshttps://pillars.taylor.edu/acsd_koinonia/1080/thumbnail.jp

Experimental evidence of genome-wide impact of ecological selection during early stages of speciation-with-gene-flow

Theory predicts that speciation-with-gene-flow is more likely when the consequences of selection for population divergence transitions from mainly direct effects of selection acting on individual genes to a collective property of all selected genes in the genome. Thus, understanding the direct impacts of ecologically based selection, as well as the indirect effects due to correlations among loci, is critical to understanding speciation. Here, we measure the genome-wide impacts of host-associated selection between hawthorn and apple host races of Rhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae), a model for contemporary speciation-with-gene-flow. Allele frequency shifts of 32 455 SNPs induced in a selection experiment based on host phenology were genome wide and highly concordant with genetic divergence between co-occurring apple and hawthorn flies in nature. This striking genome-wide similarity between experimental and natural populations of R. pomonella underscores the importance of ecological selection at early stages of divergence and calls for further integration of studies of eco-evolutionary dynamics and genome divergence

The toll-like receptor 3 pathway in homeostasis, responses to injury and wound repair

In addition to their established roles in host defence, Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) have emerging roles in control of homeostasis, injury and wound repair. The dsRNA-sensing receptor, TLR3, has been particularly implicated in such processes in several different tissues including the skin, intestine and liver, as well as in the control of reparative mechanisms in the brain, heart and kidneys, following ischemia reperfusion injury. In this review, we provide an overview of TLR3 signalling and functions in inflammation, tissue damage and repair processes, as well as therapeutic opportunities that may arise in the future from knowledge of such pathways

Infection of Arabidopsis by cucumber mosaic virus triggers jasmonate‐dependent resistance to aphids that relies partly on the pattern‐triggered immunity factor BAK1

Many aphid-vectored viruses are transmitted nonpersistently via transient attachment of virus particles to aphid mouthparts and are most effectively acquired or transmitted during brief stylet punctures of epidermal cells. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the aphid-transmitted virus cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) induces feeding deterrence against the polyphagous aphid Myzus persicae. This form of resistance inhibits prolonged phloem feeding but promotes virus acquisition by aphids because it encourages probing of plant epidermal cells. When aphids are confined on CMV-infected plants, feeding deterrence reduces their growth and reproduction. We found that CMV-induced inhibition of growth as well as CMV-induced inhibition of reproduction of M. persicae are dependent upon jasmonate-mediated signalling. BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE1-ASSOCIATED KINASE1 (BAK1) is a co-receptor enabling detection of microbe-associated molecular patterns and induction of pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). In plants carrying the mutant bak1-5 allele, CMV induced inhibition of M. persicae reproduction but not inhibition of aphid growth. We conclude that in wildtype plants CMV induces two mechanisms that diminish performance of M. persicae: a jasmonate-dependent and PTI-dependent mechanism that inhibits aphid growth, and a jasmonate-dependent, PTI-independent mechanism that inhibits reproduction. The growth of two crucifer specialist aphids, Lipaphis erysimi and Brevicoryne brassicae, was not affected when confined on CMV-infected A. thaliana. However, B. brassicae reproduction was inhibited on CMV-infected plants. This suggests that in A. thaliana CMV-induced resistance to aphids, which is thought to incentivize virus vectoring, has greater effects on polyphagous than on crucifer specialist aphids

NFIRAOS: TMT facility adaptive optics with conventional DMs

Although many of the instruments planned for the TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope) have their own closely-coupled adaptive optics systems, TMT will also have a facility Adaptive Optics (AO) system feeding three instruments on the Nasmyth platform. For this Narrow-Field Infrared Adaptive Optics System, NFIRAOS (pronounced nefarious), the TMT project considered two architectures. One, described in this paper, employs conventional deformable mirrors with large diameters of about 300 mm and this is the reference design adopted by the TMT project. An alternative design based on MEMS was also studied, and is being presented separately in this conference. The requirements for NFIRAOS include 0.8-5 microns wavelength range, 30 arcsecond diameter output field of view (FOV), excellent sky coverage, and diffraction- limited atmospheric turbulence compensation (specified at 133 nm RMS including residual telescope and science instrument errors.) The reference design for NFIRAOS includes multiple sodium laser guide stars over a 70 arcsecond FOV, and an infrared tip/tilt/focus/astigmatism natural guide star sensor within instruments. Larger telescopes require greater deformable mirror (DM) stroke. Although initially NFIRAOS will correct a 10 arcsecond science field, it uses two deformable mirrors in series, partly to provide sufficient stroke for atmospheric correction over the 30 m telescope aperture, but mainly to partially correct a 2 arcminute diameter "technical" field to sharpen near-IR natural guide stars and improve sky coverage. The planned upgrade to full performance includes replacing the groundconjugated DM with a higher actuator density, and using a deformable telescope secondary mirror as a "woofer." NFIRAOS incorporates an instrument rotator and selection of three live instruments: a near-Infrared integral field Imaging spectrograph, a near-infrared echelle spectrograph, and after upgrading NFIRAOS to full multi-conjugation, a wide field (30 arcsecond) infrared camera

Competitive Boosterism: How Milwaukee Lost the Braves

By any measure, major-league baseball in North America surely qualifies as big business. The national pastime is a vital component of today\u27s urban political economy, and baseball teams resemble other high-prestige businesses in that cities must compete for the privilege of hosting them - whatever their true worth. A study analyzes the transfer of the Milwaukee Braves baseball franchise to Atlanta in 1965 as the outcome of competitive boosterism or the active participation of local elites in luring trade, industry, and investment from other cities for the purpose of economic development