Long–term evolution and coupling of the boundary layers in the Stratus Deck Regions of the eastern Pacific (STRATUS) data report

The surface mooring component of the CLIVAR Long Term Evolution and Coupling of the Boundary Layers in the Stratus Deck Regions study (STRATUS) took place from October 2000 in the eastern tropical Pacific. As part of the Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate Processes in the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere System (EPIC), STRATUS is a CLIVAR study with the goal of investigating links between sea surface temperature variability in the eastern tropical Pacific and climate over the American continents. This study started a three-year occupation off Chili in order to collect accurate time series of surface forcing and upper ocean variability. The Upper Ocean Processes (UOP) Group at WHOI deployed one fully instrumented surface mooring near 20°S 85°W in October 2000, at the western edge of the stratocumulus cloud deck found west of Peru and Chile, to achieve a good understanding of the role of clouds in the eastern Pacific in modulating atmosphere-ocean coupling. Data from the moorings will improve our understanding of the air-sea fluxes and be used to examine the processes that control sea surface temperature in the cold tongue/intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and in the stratus deck region. The first surface mooring (STRATUS 1) was deployed in October 2000 by the UOP group and replaced by a second mooring one year later with almost identical instrumentation (STRATUS 2). STRATUS 1 was equipped with meteorological instrumentation, including two Improved METeorological (IMET) systems. The mooring also carried Vector Measuring Current Meters (VMCMs), single point temperature, salinity and conductivity recorders, and an acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) to monitor the upper 500m of the ocean. In addition to the traditional instruments, several other experimental instruments were deployed with limited success on the mooring line including an acoustic current meter, bio-optical instrumentation packages, and an acoustic rain gauge. This report describes the instrumentation deployed on the first STRATUS surface mooring (STRATUS 1 mooring) from October 2000 to October 2001, along with information on the processing and quality control of the returned data. It presents a detailed overview of the meteorological and physical oceanographic data including time series plots, statistics and spectra of key parameters. It also presents the estimated air-sea heat, moisture and momentum fluxes.Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Grant Numbers NA81RJ1223

Pan American Climate Studies (PACS) data report

The surface mooring component of the NOAA Pan American Climate Study (PACS) took place from April 1997 to September 1998 in the eastern tropical Pacific. PACS was a NOAA funded study with the goal of investigating links between sea surface temperature variability in the tropical oceans near the Americas and climate over the American continents. Two air-sea interaction surface moorings were deployed along 125°W, spanning a strong meridional sea-surface temperature gradient. One mooring site was located in the cold tongue south of the equator, and the other site was in the region of warm ocean found north of the equator, near the northernmost summer location of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The moorings were deployed to improve our understanding of air-sea fluxes and the procsses that control the evolution of the sea surface temperature field in the region. Four air-sea interaction buoys were deployed to occupy two sites for a period of 17 months. The sites were along 125°W near 3°S and 10°N. The Upper Ocean Processes Group at WHOI deployed the first two moorings in April 1997. These moorings were replaced with a second pair of moorings in December 1997. The final recovery occurred in September 1998. Each of these buoys on these moorings were equipped with meteorological instrumentation, including a Vector Averaging Wind Recorder (VAWR) and an Improved METeorological (IMET) system. The moorings also carried Vector Measuring Current Meters (VMCMS), single point temperature recorders and a few conductivity sensors on the mooring line to monitor the upper 200m of the ocean. In addition to the traditional instruments, several other experimental instruments were deployed with limited success on the mooring line including acoustic current meters, acoustic rain gauges and bio-optical instrument packages. This report describes the instrumentation deployed on the PACS surface moorings, along with information on the processing and quality control of the returned data. It presents a detailed overview of the meteorological and physical oceanographic data including time series plots, statistics and spectra of key parameters. It also presents analysis of the estimated air-sea heat, moisture and momentum fluxes.Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Contract No. NA96GP0428

A comparison of buoy meteorological systems

During May and June 2000, an intercomparison was made of buoy meteorological systems from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), and the Japanese Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC). Two WHOI systems mounted on a 3 m discus buoy, two PMEL systems mounted on separate buoy tower tops and one JAMSTEC system mounted on a wooden platform were lined parallel to, and 25 m from Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts. All systems used R. M. Young propeller anemometers, Rotronic relative humidity and air temperature sensors and Eppley short-wave radiation sensors. The PMEL and WHOI systems used R. M.Young self-siphoning rain gauges, while the JAMSTEC system used a Scientific Technology ORG-115 optical rain gauge. The PMEL and WHOI systems included an Eppley PIR long-wave sensor, while the JAMSTEC had no longwave sensor. The WHOI system used an AIR DB-1A barometric pressure sensor. PMEL and JAMSTEC systems used Paroscientific Digiquartz sensors. The Geophysical Instruments and Measurements Group (GIM) from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) installed two Portable Radiation Package (PRP) systems that include Eppley short-wave and long-wave sensors on a platform near the site. It was apparent from the data that for most of the sensors, the correlation between data sets was better than the absolute agreement between them. The conclusions made were that the sensors and associated electronics from the three different laboratories performed comparably.Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Grant Number NA96GPO429

Female Audit Partners and Extended Audit Reporting: UK Evidence

This study investigates whether audit partner gender is associated with the extent of auditor disclosure and the communication style regarding risks of material misstatements that are classified as key audit matters (KAMs). Using a sample of UK firms during the 2013–2017 period, our results suggest that female audit partners are more likely than male audit partners to disclose more KAMs with more details after controlling for both client and audit firm attributes. Furthermore, female audit partners are found to use a less optimistic tone and provide less readable audit reports, compared to their male counterparts, suggesting that behavioural variances between female and male audit partners may have significant implications on their writing style. Therefore, this study offers new insights on the role of audit partner gender in extended audit reporting. Our findings have important implications for audit firms, investors, policymakers and governments in relation to the development, implementation and enforcement of gender diversity

Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of blood DNA methylation in newborns and children identifies numerous loci related to gestational age

Background Preterm birth and shorter duration of pregnancy are associated with increased morbidity in neonatal and later life. As the epigenome is known to have an important role during fetal development, we investigated associations between gestational age and blood DNA methylation in children. Methods We performed meta-analysis of Illumina's HumanMethylation450-array associations between gestational age and cord blood DNA methylation in 3648 newborns from 17 cohorts without common pregnancy complications, induced delivery or caesarean section. We also explored associations of gestational age with DNA methylation measured at 4-18 years in additional pediatric cohorts. Follow-up analyses of DNA methylation and gene expression correlations were performed in cord blood. DNA methylation profiles were also explored in tissues relevant for gestational age health effects: fetal brain and lung. Results We identified 8899 CpGs in cord blood that were associated with gestational age (range 27-42 weeks), at Bonferroni significance, P <1.06 x 10(- 7), of which 3343 were novel. These were annotated to 4966 genes. After restricting findings to at least three significant adjacent CpGs, we identified 1276 CpGs annotated to 325 genes. Results were generally consistent when analyses were restricted to term births. Cord blood findings tended not to persist into childhood and adolescence. Pathway analyses identified enrichment for biological processes critical to embryonic development. Follow-up of identified genes showed correlations between gestational age and DNA methylation levels in fetal brain and lung tissue, as well as correlation with expression levels. Conclusions We identified numerous CpGs differentially methylated in relation to gestational age at birth that appear to reflect fetal developmental processes across tissues. These findings may contribute to understanding mechanisms linking gestational age to health effects.Peer reviewe

Optical transmissivity of superlattices with nonlinear magnetic susceptibility and absorption

The optical transmissivities of model superlattices, which include nonlinear response and absorption, are calculated. We assume that the nonlinearity has its origin in the spins of the antiferromagnetic layer which, when illuminated with frequency near resonance, exhibits absorption. We find that the absorption can be minimized by appropriate selection of the superlattice geometry and that the gap soliton resonance, while significantly damped, should remain a distinctive characteristic. © 1990 The American Physical Society

Effects on the Ocular Surface from Reading on Different Smartphone Screens: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of smartphone reading on the ocular surface and to compare the various effects of different screens and light conditions on the ocular surface. One hundred nineteen volunteers were randomly divided into: light + organic light‐emitting diode (OLED), light + electronic ink (eINK), dark + OLED, and dark + eINK. Ocular surface examinations, including noninvasive break‐up time (NIBUT), noninvasive keratograph tear meniscus height (NIKTMH), ocular redness, fluorescein break‐up time (FBUT), corneal fluorescein staining, meibomian gland assessment, Schirmer I Test, and blinking frequency, were performed before and after a reading task. Symptoms were evaluated using the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and Computer Vision Syndrome Questionnaire (CVS‐Q). NIBUT and FBUT were decreased statistically significantly after participants read on an OLED screen for 2 hours compared with the baseline in light and dark environments, whereas no statistically significant decrease was observed on an eINK screen. NIKTMH was statistically significantly decreased after reading on an OLED screen in light and dark settings, and the eINK screen had a lesser effect on NIKTMH. An obvious increase in the ocular redness, OSDI and CVS‐Q scores was observed after reading on an OLED screen, whereas the eINK screen had a lesser effect on these indicators. Blink rate increased gradually in OLED subgroups during the reading task, whereas no statistically significant difference was observed in the eINK subgroups. Our research suggested that reading on an OLED screen can cause ocular surface disorder and obvious subjective discomfort, whereas reading on an eINK screen can minimize ocular surface disorder in both dark and light environments

Detecting disease-associated genomic outcomes using constrained mixture of Bayesian hierarchical models for paired data

Detecting disease-associated genomic outcomes is one of the key steps in precision medicine research. Cutting-edge high-throughput technologies enable researchers to unbiasedly test if genomic outcomes are associated with disease of interest. However, these technologies also include the challenges associated with the analysis of genome-wide data. Two big challenges are (1) how to reduce the effects of technical noise; and (2) how to handle the curse of dimensionality (i.e., number of variables are way larger than the number of samples). To tackle these challenges, we propose a constrained mixture of Bayesian hierarchical models (MBHM) for detecting disease-associated genomic outcomes for data obtained from paired/matched designs. Paired/matched designs can effectively reduce effects of confounding factors. MBHM does not involve multiple testing, hence does not have the problem of the curse of dimensionality. It also could borrow information across genes so that it can be used for whole genome data with small sample sizes

Cross table of the 3-cluster partitions obtained by <i>eLNNpaired</i>, <i>limma</i>, <i>gt</i>, <i>samr</i>, and <i>lmPerGene</i>.

<p>Cross table of the 3-cluster partitions obtained by <i>eLNNpaired</i>, <i>limma</i>, <i>gt</i>, <i>samr</i>, and <i>lmPerGene</i>.</p