Detection of Human Influence on a New, Validated 1500-Year Temperature Reconstruction

Climate records over the last millennium place the twentieth-century warming in a longer historical context. Reconstructions of millennial temperatures show a wide range of variability, raising questions about the reliability of currently available reconstruction techniques and the uniqueness of late-twentieth-century warming. A calibration method is suggested that avoids the loss of low-frequency variance. A new reconstruction using this method shows substantial variability over the last 1500 yr. This record is consistent with independent temperature change estimates from borehole geothermal records, compared over the same spatial and temporal domain. The record is also broadly consistent with other recent reconstructions that attempt to fully recover low-frequency climate variability in their central estimate. High variability in reconstructions does not hamper the detection of greenhouse gas-induced climate change, since a substantial fraction of the variance in these reconstructions from the beginning of the analysis in the late thirteenth century to the end of the records can be attributed to external forcing. Results from a detection and attribution analysis show that greenhouse warming is detectable in all analyzed high-variance reconstructions (with the possible exception of one ending in 1925), and that about a third of the warming in the first half of the twentieth century can be attributed to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The estimated magnitude of the anthropogenic signal is consistent with most of the warming in the second half of the twentieth century being anthropogenic

Prospective Study of TMVR Using Balloon-Expandable Aortic Transcatheter Valves in MAC: MITRAL Trial 1-Year Outcomes

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate 1-year outcomes of valve-in-mitral annular calcification (ViMAC) in the MITRAL (Mitral Implantation of Transcatheter Valves) trial. BACKGROUND: The MITRAL trial is the first prospective study evaluating the feasibility of ViMAC using balloon-expandable aortic transcatheter heart valves. METHODS: A multicenter prospective study was conducted, enrolling high-risk surgical patients with severe mitral annular calcification and symptomatic severe mitral valve dysfunction at 13 U.S. sites. RESULTS: Between February 2015 and December 2017, 31 patients were enrolled (median age 74.5 years [interquartile range (IQR): 71.3 to 81.0 years], 71% women, median Society of Thoracic Surgeons score 6.3% [IQR: 5.0% to 8.8%], 87.1% in New York Heart Association functional class III or IV). Access was transatrial (48.4%), transseptal (48.4%), or transapical (3.2%). Technical success was 74.2%. Left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) with hemodynamic compromise occurred in 3 patients (transatrial, n = 1; transseptal, n = 1; transapical, n = 1). After LVOTO occurred in the first 2 patients, pre-emptive alcohol septal ablation was implemented to decrease risk in high-risk patients. No intraprocedural deaths or conversions to open heart surgery occurred during the index procedures. All-cause mortality at 30 days was 16.7% (transatrial, 21.4%; transseptal, 6.7%; transapical, 100% [n = 1]; p = 0.33) and at 1 year was 34.5% (transatrial, 38.5%; transseptal, 26.7%; p = 0.69). At 1-year follow-up, 83.3% of patients were in New York Heart Association functional class I or II, the median mean mitral valve gradient was 6.1 mm Hg (IQR: 5.6 to 7.1 mm Hg), and all patients had ≤1+ mitral regurgitation. CONCLUSIONS: At 1 year, ViMAC was associated with symptom improvement and stable transcatheter heart valve performance. Pre-emptive alcohol septal ablation may prevent transcatheter mitral valve replacement-induced LVOTO in patients at risk. Thirty-day mortality of patients treated via transseptal access was lower than predicted by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons score. Further studies are needed to evaluate safety and efficacy of ViMAC

Prospective Evaluation of TMVR for Failed Surgical Annuloplasty Rings: MITRAL Trial Valve-in-Ring Arm 1-Year Outcomes

OBJECTIVES: The authors report 1-year outcomes of high-risk patients with failed surgical annuloplasty rings undergoing transseptal mitral valve-in-ring (MViR) with the SAPIEN 3 aortic transcatheter heart valve (THV). BACKGROUND: The MITRAL (Mitral Implantation of Transcatheter Valves) trial is the first prospective study evaluating transseptal MViR with the SAPIEN 3 aortic THV in high-risk patients with failed surgical annuloplasty rings. METHODS: Prospective enrollment of high-risk patients with symptomatic moderate to severe or severe mitral regurgitation (MR) or severe mitral stenosis and failed annuloplasty rings at 13 U.S. sites. The primary safety endpoint was technical success. The primary THV performance endpoint was absence of MR grade ≥2+ or mean mitral valve gradient ≥10 mm Hg (30 days and 1 year). Secondary endpoints included procedural success and all-cause mortality (30 days and 1 year). RESULTS: Thirty patients were enrolled between January 2016 and October 2017 (median age 71.5 years [interquartile range: 67.0 to 76.8 years], 36.7% women, median Society of Thoracic Surgeons score 7.6% [interquartile range: 5.1% to 11.8%], 76.7% in New York Heart Association functional class III or IV). Technical success was 66.7% (driven primarily by need for a second valve in 6 patients). There was no intraprocedural mortality or conversion to surgery. The primary performance endpoint was achieved in 85.7% of survivors at 30 days (24 of 28) and 89.5% of patients alive at 1 year with echocardiographic data available (17 of 19). All-cause mortality at 30 days was 6.7% and at 1 year was 23.3%. Among survivors at 1-year follow-up, 84.2% were in New York Heart Association functional class I or II, the median mean mitral valve gradient was 6.0 mm Hg (interquartile range: 4.7 to 7.3 mm Hg), and all had ≤1+ MR. CONCLUSIONS: Transseptal MViR was associated with a 30-day mortality rate lower than predicted by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons score. At 1 year, transseptal MViR was associated with symptom improvement and stable THV performance

The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11663 deg^2 of imaging data, with most of the roughly 2000 deg^2 increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry over 250 deg^2 along the Celestial Equator in the Southern Galactic Cap. A coaddition of these data goes roughly two magnitudes fainter than the main survey. The spectroscopy is now complete over a contiguous area of 7500 deg^2 in the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000 galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC-2), reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milli-arcseconds per coordinate. A systematic error in bright galaxy photometr is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat-fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities. (Abridged)Comment: 20 pages, 10 embedded figures. Accepted to ApJS after minor correction

A nine country survey of youth in Europe: selected findings and issues

A nine country survey of the life orientations, values and institutional trust of 8948 young people at the upper end of the secondary school age range was set up at the University of Würzburg in the year 2000. Key findings demonstrate that these young people value personal autonomy and are orientated to success in their professional lives and that they especially trust human rights and environmental groups. Religion is associated positively with humanitarianism and in some countries negatively with modernity. These findings provide an indication of the typical life stances of future opinion-formers and illustrate methodological issues thrown up by international research

Tracking down carbon inputs underground from an arid zone Australian calcrete.

Freshwater ecosystems play a key role in shaping the global carbon cycle and maintaining the ecological balance that sustains biodiversity worldwide. Surficial water bodies are often interconnected with groundwater, forming a physical continuum, and their interaction has been reported as a crucial driver for organic matter (OM) inputs in groundwater systems. However, despite the growing concerns related to increasing anthropogenic pressure and effects of global change to groundwater environments, our understanding of the dynamics regulating subterranean carbon flows is still sparse. We traced carbon composition and transformations in an arid zone calcrete aquifer using a novel multidisciplinary approach that combined isotopic analyses of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and inorganic carbon (DIC) (δ13CDOC, δ13CDIC, 14CDOC and 14CDIC) with fluorescence spectroscopy (Chromophoric Dissolved OM (CDOM) characterisation) and metabarcoding analyses (taxonomic and functional genomics on bacterial 16S rRNA). To compare dynamics linked to potential aquifer recharge processes, water samples were collected from two boreholes under contrasting rainfall: low rainfall ((LR), dry season) and high rainfall ((HR), wet season). Our isotopic results indicate limited changes and dominance of modern terrestrial carbon in the upper part (northeast) of the bore field, but correlation between HR and increased old and 13C-enriched DOC in the lower area (southwest). CDOM results show a shift from terrestrially to microbially derived compounds after rainfall in the same lower field bore, which was also sampled for microbial genetics. Functional genomic results showed increased genes coding for degradative pathways-dominated by those related to aromatic compound metabolisms-during HR. Our results indicate that rainfall leads to different responses in different parts of the bore field, with an increase in old carbon sources and microbial processing in the lower part of the field. We hypothesise that this may be due to increasing salinity, either due to mobilisation of Cl- from the soil, or infiltration from the downstream salt lake during HR. This study is the first to use a multi-technique assessment using stable and radioactive isotopes together with functional genomics to probe the principal organic biogeochemical pathways regulating an arid zone calcrete system. Further investigations involving extensive sampling from diverse groundwater ecosystems will allow better understanding of the microbiological pathways sustaining the ecological functioning of subterranean biota

A Genome-Wide Association Study of Diabetic Kidney Disease in Subjects With Type 2 Diabetes

dentification of sequence variants robustly associated with predisposition to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has the potential to provide insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of DKD in type 2 diabetes (T2D) using eight complementary dichotomous and quantitative DKD phenotypes: the principal dichotomous analysis involved 5,717 T2D subjects, 3,345 with DKD. Promising association signals were evaluated in up to 26,827 subjects with T2D (12,710 with DKD). A combined T1D+T2D GWAS was performed using complementary data available for subjects with T1D, which, with replication samples, involved up to 40,340 subjects with diabetes (18,582 with DKD). Analysis of specific DKD phenotypes identified a novel signal near GABRR1 (rs9942471, P = 4.5 x 10(-8)) associated with microalbuminuria in European T2D case subjects. However, no replication of this signal was observed in Asian subjects with T2D or in the equivalent T1D analysis. There was only limited support, in this substantially enlarged analysis, for association at previously reported DKD signals, except for those at UMOD and PRKAG2, both associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate. We conclude that, despite challenges in addressing phenotypic heterogeneity, access to increased sample sizes will continue to provide more robust inference regarding risk variant discovery for DKD.Peer reviewe