The growth of the oceanic boundary layer during the COARE intensive observational period: Large Eddy simulation results

A principal goal of the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) is to gain an understanding of the processes that control mixing in the upper 100 m of the western tropical Pacific warm pool. The warm pool is an important heat reservoir for the global ocean and is responsible for many of the observed climatic changes associated with El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. This water mass is highly sensitive to mixed-layer processes that are controlled by surface heat, salinity, and momentum fluxes. During most of the year, these fluxes are dominated by solar heating and occasional squalls that freshen the top of the mixed layer and force shallow mixing of about 10-20 m. From November to April, the usual weather pattern is frequently altered by westerly wind bursts that are forced by tropical cyclones and intraseasonal oscillations. These wind bursts generate a strong eastward surface current and can force mixing as deep as 100 m over a period of days. Observations from the intensive observation period (IOP) in COARE indicate that mixed-layer deepening is accompanied by strong turbulence dissipation at the mixed layer base. A short westerly wind burst occurred during the first leg of TOGA-COARE, and lasted about 4-5 days. During this period, the maximum winds were about 10 m s{sup -1}, and the resulting eastward surface flow was about 0.5 m s{sup -1}. The strength of this event was somewhat weaker than a typical westerly wind burst, but the mixed-layer structure and growth are similar to the more vigorous wind bursts discussed

The Effect of Rainfall on the Surface Layer during a Westerly Wind Burst in the Western Equatorial Pacific

Measurements of a fresh surface anomaly (fresh lens) produced by rainfall during a westerly wind burst have been analyzed. The measurements were made in December 1992 as part of the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment in the western equatorial Pacific (2°S, 156°E). Measurements included radar estimates of rainfall, upper-ocean temperature (T), salinity (S), horizontal velocity, and microstructure. In situ observations of the fresh lens were made 5 to 7 hours after its formation. In the 5 hours after formation, the lens deepened to a depth of 40 m as indicated by its salinity anomaly. Salinity and temperature were highly correlated within the lens, consistent with its initial formation by cold rainfall. The T–S relation exhibited curvature, which can be explained by surface cooling and upper-ocean mixing subsequent to formation of the lens. The lens exhibited a horizontal velocity anomaly in the direction of wind, which extended down to a depth of 40 m. The horizontal velocity anomaly is consistent with momentum being trapped near the surface due to rain-induced stratification. Vertical velocity, estimated from the divergence of zonal velocity, showed downwelling at the leading edge of the lens and upwelling at the trailing edge. The magnitude of vertical velocity at a depth of 20 m is 20 m day⁻¹. Richardson numbers within the lens were low (0.25 to 0.5), suggesting that turbulent mixing was governed by critical-Ri instability. Wavenumber spectra of T and S in the upper 20 m exhibit a −5/3 range, which extends to wavenumbers below the range of local isotropy. Spectral levels were used to estimate turbulent dissipation rates of T and S, which were in turn used to estimate turbulent fluxes of heat and salt. Turbulent fluxes were also estimated from microstructure observations between depths of 10 and 60 m. Fluxes within the fresh lens were nearly uniform from 2 m to 35 m depth, then decreased to near zero at 45 m. The lifetime of fresh lenses during westerly wind bursts appears to be less than one day

Buoyancy arrest and shelf–ocean exchange

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Physical Oceanography 42 (2012): 644–658, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-11-0143.1.When steady flow in a stratified ocean passes between the continental slope and open ocean, its ability to cross isobaths is potentially limited by buoyancy arrest. If the bottom Ekman transport vanishes and there are no interior stresses, then steady linear flow on an f plane must be geostrophic and follow isobaths exactly. The influence of arrest on cross-shelf transport is investigated here to establish 1) whether there are substantial penetration asymmetries between cases with upwelling and downwelling in the bottom boundary layer; 2) over what spatial scales, hence in what parameter regime, buoyancy arrest is important; and 3) the effects of depth-dependent interior flow. The problem is approached using scalings and idealized numerical models. The results show that there is little or no asymmetry introduced by bottom boundary layer behavior. Further, if the stratification is weak or moderate, as measured by a slope Burger number s = αN/f (where α is the bottom slope, N is buoyancy frequency, and f is the Coriolis parameter), buoyancy arrest does not exert a strong constraint on cross-isobath exchange.This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Physical Oceanography program through Grant OCE-0849498.2012-10-0

MicroSoar: A New Instrument for Measuring Microscale Turbulence from Rapidly Moving Submerged Platforms

A new high-frequency turbulence measuring instrument, MicroSoar, has been developed, tested, and used to make scalar variance dissipation rate measurements. MicroSoar was mounted on the undercarriage of SeaSoar, a depth-programmable winged platform, and towed by a ship, at speeds up to 7 kt, in a depth range of the sea surface to 120 m. Sensors carried by MicroSoar were a fast thermistor, a pressure sensor, a microscale capillary conductivity sensor, and a three-axis accelerometer. With appropriate assumptions about the local T–S relation, measurements of microscale conductivity fluctuations can often be used to directly determine temperature variance dissipation rate (χ[subscript]T), the Cox number (C[subscript]x), and the scalar diathermal turbulent diffusivity (K[subscript]T). Compared to conventional quasi-free-fall tethered vertically profiling instruments, MicroSoar's major advantage lies in its ability to sample large fluid volumes and large geographic areas in a short time, and to provide, rapidly and simply, two-dimensional (horizontal–vertical) representations of the distribution of oceanic mixing rates

Towards Digital Thinking and Practices: Experiences of Sri Lankan Teachers and Students

Commonwealth Digital Education Leadership Training in Action (C-DELTA), an open and free online programme of the Commonwealth of Learning, provides a framework to foster digital education. The Open University of Sri Lanka implemented an intervention during 2020-2021 to promote digital education in Sri Lankan secondary schools, through the adoption of C-DELTA. This paper presents how C-DELTA supported developing digital thinking and practices among teachers and students, challenges faced and supports received by them, and impacts of the intervention. Participants’ experiences were captured through questionnaire surveys, concept maps, focus group interviews, reflective stories, and video narratives. The findings revealed that the intervention has enhanced developing digital learning skills of teachers and students, and changing their thinking and practices, yet, amid various challenges. While the implementation of C-DELTA in schools has been slow during the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic itself has shown the significance of improving digital literacy and digital practices

Constructive Hybrid Games

Hybrid games are models which combine discrete, continuous, and adversarial dynamics. Game logic enables proving (classical) existence of winning strategies. We introduce constructive differential game logic (CdGL) for hybrid games, where proofs that a player can win the game correspond to computable winning strategies. This is the logical foundation for synthesis of correct control and monitoring code for safety-critical cyber-physical systems. Our contributions include novel static and dynamic semantics as well as soundness and consistency.Comment: 60 pages, preprint, under revie

Cinnamon extract induces tumor cell death through inhibition of NFκB and AP1

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Cinnamomum cassia </it>bark is the outer skin of an evergreen tall tree belonging to the family Lauraceae containing several active components such as essential oils (cinnamic aldehyde and cinnamyl aldehyde), tannin, mucus and carbohydrate. They have various biological functions including anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-inflammation, anti-diabetic and anti-tumor activity. Previously, we have reported that anti-cancer effect of cinnamon extracts is associated with modulation of angiogenesis and effector function of CD8⁺T cells. In this study, we further identified that anti-tumor effect of cinnamon extracts is also link with enhanced pro-apoptotic activity by inhibiting the activities NFκB and AP1 in mouse melanoma model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Water soluble cinnamon extract was obtained and quality of cinnamon extract was evaluated by HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) analysis. In this study, we tested anti-tumor activity and elucidated action mechanism of cinnamon extract using various types of tumor cell lines including lymphoma, melanoma, cervix cancer and colorectal cancer <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>mouse melanoma model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cinnamon extract strongly inhibited tumor cell proliferation <it>in vitro </it>and induced active cell death of tumor cells by up-regulating pro-apoptotic molecules while inhibiting NFκB and AP1 activity and their target genes such as <it>Bcl-2</it>, <it>BcL-xL </it>and <it>survivin</it>. Oral administration of cinnamon extract in melanoma transplantation model significantly inhibited tumor growth with the same mechanism of action observed <it>in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study suggests that anti-tumor effect of cinnamon extracts is directly linked with enhanced pro-apoptotic activity and inhibition of NFκB and AP1 activities and their target genes <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>mouse melanoma model. Hence, further elucidation of active components of cinnamon extract could lead to development of potent anti-tumor agent or complementary and alternative medicine for the treatment of diverse cancers.</p

Genetic Biomarkers for ALS Disease in Transgenic SOD1G93A Mice

The pathophysiological mechanisms of both familial and sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) are unknown, although growing evidence suggests that skeletal muscle tissue is a primary target of ALS toxicity. Skeletal muscle biopsies were performed on transgenic SOD1G93A mice, a mouse model of ALS, to determine genetic biomarkers of disease longevity. Mice were anesthetized with isoflurane, and three biopsy samples were obtained per animal at the three main stages of the disease. Transcriptional expression levels of seventeen genes, Ankrd1, Calm1, Col19a1, Fbxo32, Gsr, Impa1, Mef2c, Mt2, Myf5, Myod1, Myog, Nnt, Nogo A, Pax7, Rrad, Sln and Snx10, were tested in each muscle biopsy sample. Total RNA was extracted using TRIzol Reagent according to the manufacturer's protocol, and variations in gene expression were assayed by real-time PCR for all of the samples. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the linear correlation between transcriptional expression levels throughout disease progression and longevity. Consistent with the results obtained from total skeletal muscle of transgenic SOD1G93A mice and 74-day-old denervated mice, five genes (Mef2c, Gsr, Col19a1, Calm1 and Snx10) could be considered potential genetic biomarkers of longevity in transgenic SOD1G93A mice. These results are important because they may lead to the exploration of previously unexamined tissues in the search for new disease biomarkers and even to the application of these findings in human studies

Catalytic conversion of light alkanes: Quarterly report, January 1-March 31, 1992

The first Quarterly Report of 1992 on the Catalytic Conversion of Light Alkanes reviews the work done between January 1. 1992 and March 31, 1992 on the Cooperative Agreement. The mission of this work is to devise a new catalyst which can be used in a simple economic process to convert the light alkanes in natural gas to oxygenate products which can either be used as clean-burning, high octane liquid fuels, as fuel components or as precursors to liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuel. During the past quarter we have continued to design, prepare, characterize and test novel catalysts for the mild selective reaction of light hydrocarbons with air or oxygen to produce alcohols directly. These catalysts are designed to form active metal oxo (MO) species and to be uniquely active for the homolytic cleavage of the carbon-hydrogen bonds in light alkanes producing intermediates which can form alcohols. We continue to investigate three molecular environments for the active catalytic species that we are trying to generate: electron-deficient porphryinic macrocycles (PHASE I), polyoxometallates (PHASE II), and regular oxidic lattices including zeolites and related structures as well as other molecular surface structures having metal oxo groups (PHASE III)