Sea surface temperature patterns on the West Florida Shelf using growing hierarchical self-organizing maps

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society 2006. 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 Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 23 (2006): 325–338, doi:10.1175/JTECH1848.1.Neural network analyses based on the self-organizing map (SOM) and the growing hierarchical self-organizing map (GHSOM) are used to examine patterns of the sea surface temperature (SST) variability on the West Florida Shelf from time series of daily SST maps from 1998 to 2002. Four characteristic SST patterns are extracted in the first-layer GHSOM array: winter and summer season patterns, and two transitional patterns. Three of them are further expanded in the second layer, yielding more detailed structures in these seasons. The winter pattern is one of low SST, with isotherms aligned approximately along isobaths. The summer pattern is one of high SST distributed in a horizontally uniform manner. The spring transition includes a midshelf cold tongue. Similar analyses performed on SST anomaly data provide further details of these seasonally varying patterns. It is demonstrated that the GHSOM analysis is more effective in extracting the inherent SST patterns than the widely used EOF method. The underlying patterns in a dataset can be visualized in the SOM array in the same form as the original data, while they can only be expressed in anomaly form in the EOF analysis. Some important features, such as asymmetric SST anomaly patterns of winter/summer and cold/warm tongues, can be revealed by the SOM array but cannot be identified in the lowest mode EOF patterns. Also, unlike the EOF or SOM techniques, the hierarchical structure in the input data can be extracted by the GHSOM analysis.Support was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Grant N00014-98-1-0158 for observations and modeling of the west Florida continental shelf circulation and Grant N00014-02-1-0972 for the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System

Reductive electrosynthesis of crystalline metal-organic frameworks

Electroreduction of oxoanions affords hydroxide equivalents that induce selective deposition of crystalline metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) on conductive surfaces. The method is illustrated by cathodic electrodeposition of Zn[subscript 4]O(BDC)[subscript 3] (MOF-5; BDC = 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate), which is deposited at room temperature in only 15 min under cathodic potential. Although many crystalline phases are known in the Zn[superscript 2+]/BDCsuperscript 2–] system, MOF-5 is the only observed crystalline MOF phase under these conditions. This fast and mild method of synthesizing MOFs is amenable to direct surface functionalization and could impact applications requiring conformal coatings of microporous MOFs, such as gas separation membranes and electrochemical sensors.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Energy Initiative (Seed Fund Program)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CHE-9808061)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DBI-9729592)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DMR- 0819762

A new extract of the plant calendula officinalis produces a dual in vitro effect: cytotoxic anti-tumor activity and lymphocyte activation

BACKGROUND: Phytopharmacological studies of different Calendula extracts have shown anti-inflamatory, anti-viral and anti-genotoxic properties of therapeutic interest. In this study, we evaluated the in vitro cytotoxic anti-tumor and immunomodulatory activities and in vivo anti-tumor effect of Laser Activated Calendula Extract (LACE), a novel extract of the plant Calendula Officinalis (Asteraceae). METHODS: An aqueous extract of Calendula Officinalis was obtained by a novel extraction method in order to measure its anti-tumor and immunomodulatory activities in vitro. Tumor cell lines derived from leukemias, melanomas, fibrosarcomas and cancers of breast, prostate, cervix, lung, pancreas and colorectal were used and tumor cell proliferation in vitro was measured by BrdU incorporation and viable cell count. Effect of LACE on human peripheral blood lymphocyte (PBL) proliferation in vitro was also analyzed. Studies of cell cycle and apoptosis were performed in LACE-treated cells. In vivo anti-tumor activity was evaluated in nude mice bearing subcutaneously human Ando-2 melanoma cells. RESULTS: The LACE extract showed a potent in vitro inhibition of tumor cell proliferation when tested on a wide variety of human and murine tumor cell lines. The inhibition ranged from 70 to 100%. Mechanisms of inhibition were identified as cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase and Caspase-3-induced apoptosis. Interestingly, the same extract showed an opposite effect when tested on PBLs and NKL cell line, in which in vitro induction of proliferation and activation of these cells was observed. The intraperitoneal injection or oral administration of LACE extract in nude mice inhibits in vivo tumor growth of Ando-2 melanoma cells and prolongs the survival day of the mice. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that LACE aqueous extract has two complementary activities in vitro with potential anti-tumor therapeutic effect: cytotoxic tumor cell activity and lymphocyte activation. The LACE extract presented in vivo anti-tumoral activity in nude mice against tumor growth of Ando-2 melanoma cells

Risk Factors for Cervical Precancer and Cancer in HIV-Infected, HPV-Positive Rwandan Women

Although cervical cancer is an AIDS-defining condition, infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may only modestly increase the risk of cervical cancer. There is a paucity of information regarding factors that influence the natural history of human papillomavirus (HPV) in HIV-infected women. We examined factors associated with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 or cancer (CIN3+) in Rwandan women infected with both HIV and HPV (HIV+/HPV+).In 2005, 710 HIV+ Rwandan women ≥25 years enrolled in an observational cohort study; 476 (67%) tested HPV+. Each woman provided sociodemographic data, CD4 count, a cervical cytology specimen and cervicovaginal lavage (CVL), which was tested for >40 HPV genotypes by MY09/MY11 PCR assay. Logistic regression models calculated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of associations of potential risk factors for CIN3+ among HIV+/HPV+ women.Of the 476 HIV+/HPV+ women 42 (8.8%) were diagnosed with CIN3+. Factors associated with CIN3+ included ≥7 (vs. 0-2) pregnancies, malarial infection in the previous six months (vs. never), and ≥7 (vs. 0-2) lifetime sexual partners. Compared to women infected by non-HPV16 carcinogenic HPV genotypes, HPV16 infection was positively associated and non-carcinogenic HPV infection was inversely associated with CIN3+. CD4 count was significantly associated with CIN3+ only in analyses of women with non-HPV16 carcinogenic HPV (OR = 0.62 per 100 cells/mm(3), CI = 0.40-0.97).In this HIV+/HPV+ population, lower CD4 was significantly associated with CIN3+ only in women infected with carcinogenic non-HPV16. We found a trend for higher risk of CIN3+ in HIV+ women reporting recent malarial infection; this association should be investigated in a larger group of HIV+/HPV+ women

Female Chromosome X Mosaicism is Age-Related and Preferentially Affects the Inactivated X Chromosome

To investigate large structural clonal mosaicism of chromosome X, we analysed the SNP microarray intensity data of 38,303 women from cancer genome-wide association studies (20,878 cases and 17,425 controls) and detected 124 mosaic X events 4 2 Mb in 97 (0.25%) women. Here we show rates for X-chromosome mosaicism are four times higher than mean autosomal rates; X mosaic events more often include the entire chromosome and participants with X events more likely harbour autosomal mosaic events. X mosaicism frequency increases with age (0.11% in 50-year olds; 0.45% in 75-year olds), as reported for Y and autosomes. Methylation array analyses of 33 women with X mosaicism indicate events preferentially involve the inactive X chromosome. Our results provide further evidence that the sex chromosomes undergo mosaic events more frequently than autosomes, which could have implications for understanding the underlying mechanisms of mosaic events and their possible contribution to risk for chronic diseases