An 18-year record (1998-2016) of permafrost soil temperature, soil water content, and meteorological data from a high Arctic permafrost site Bayelva (Svalbard)

Since 1998 we record hourly data from the Bayelva site close to Ny-Alesund, on Spitsbergen Island in the Svalbard archipelago (78°551 N, 11°571 E), where continuous permafrost underlies the un- glaciated coastal areas. The West Spitsbergen Ocean Current, a branch of the North Atlantic Current, warms this area to an average air temperature of about −13 °C in January and +5 °C in July, and provides about 400 mm of precipitation annually, falling mostly as snow between September and May. Significant warming of air temperatures has been detected since 1960, which is generally attributed to changes in the radiation budget and in atmospheric circulation. This warming is also reflected in the permafrost temperatures, as recorded from boreholes as well as increased active layer thaw depths. The scientific goal is to establish a long term- permafrost observational site to investigate the observed warming of permafrost and potential causes. At the site, weather components (radiation components, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, snow) and soil temperature and moisture in the seasonally thawing surface layer. In 2007, additional instruments were added: an eddy covariance system and a 10 m permafrost temperature profile. In 2012, this site was equipped with a 220 V power supply and data transfer cables that are buried in the soil. Data are transferred hourly to Potsdam and loggers and sensors can be accessed and programmed remotely from AWI. Due to this major improvement, we obtained a data record without gaps since 2012. Thus, this site is included as validation site in satellite missions, for example in NASA’s soil moisture active passive mission (SMAP). We give an overview of the available data, as well as the processing and cleaning routines that are applied

España a la cabeza en la litigación derivada del cártel de los fabricantes de camiones. Primeras sentencias del Tribunal Supremo Español y su relevancia en Europa

In a series of 15 cassation judgments, the Supreme Court resolves fundamental issues for the private application of competition law within the Spanish jurisdiction, but which are projected to the rest of the Member States in very similar proceedings. These judgments analyse, among other things, the judge’s power to assess damages, the (non-) necessity of access to evidence inter partes, proportionality and the rules on economic expert testimony, as well as interests and limitation. The fifteen judgments condemned the members of the truck cartel to compensate various truck purchasers with a minimum of 5% of the purchase value plus interest. This cartel has generated the largest wave of antitrust litigation in Europe, both at national level and before the ECJ, which has already ruled on several occasions, most recently in the Tráficos Manuel Ferrer case.En un conjunto de 15 sentencias de casación, el Tribunal Supremo resuelve cuestiones fundamentales para la aplicación privada del Derecho de la Competencia en la jurisdicción española pero que se proyectan sobre el resto de los Estados miembros en procedimientos muy similares. Estas sentencias analizan, entre otras cosas, la facultad del juez para estimar los daños y perjuicios, la (no) necesidad de acceder a las fuentes de prueba inter partes, la proporcionalidad y las normas para los informes periciales económicos, así como los intereses y la prescripción. Las quince sentencias condenan a los miembros del cártel de camiones a indemnizar a diversos compradores de camiones con un porcentaje mínimo del 5% del valor de la compraventa más intereses. Este cartel ha generado la mayor ola de litigación antitrust en Europa tanto a nivel nacional como ante el TJUE que se ha pronunciado ya en diversas ocasiones, la más reciente en el asunto Tráficos Manuel Ferrer

Molecular characterization and exclusion of porcine GUSB as a candidate gene for congenital hernia inguinalis/scrotalis

BACKGROUND: Inguinal hernias are usually caused by a congenital defect, which occurs as a weakness of the inguinal canal. Porcine β-glucuronidase gene (GUSB) was chosen as functional candidate gene because of its involvement in degradation of hyaluronan within gubernacular tissue during descent of testes. Since a genome-wide linkage analysis approach has shown evidence that two regions on porcine chromosome 3 (SSC 3) are involved in the inheritance of hernia inguinalis/scrotalis in German pig breeds, GUSB also attained status as a positional candidate gene by its localization within a hernia-associated chromosomal region. RESULTS: A contig spanning 17,157 bp, which contains the entire GUSB, was assembled. Comparative sequence analyses were conducted for the GUSB gene locus. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located within the coding region of GUSB were genotyped in 512 animals. Results of transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) for two out of a total of five detected SNPs gave no significant association with the outcome of hernia in pigs. CONCLUSION: On the basis of our studies we are able to exclude the two analyzed SNPs within the porcine GUSB gene as causative for the transmission of inguinal hernia

FluxWIN – The role of non-growing season processes in the methane and nitrous oxide budgets in pristine northern ecosystems

The importance of non-growing season greenhouse gas fluxes to annual budgets in pristine northern terrestrial ecosystems is growing in awareness. Greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes during the non-growing season and freeze-thaw dynamics are still underrepresented and may be a reason why current process-based models predict inadequate annual methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) budgets. FluxWIN is therefore investigating ecological and biogeochemical processes in global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles during the non-growing and shoulder seasons by combining high-frequency greenhouse gas measurements, biogeochemical monitoring and process-based modeling. Siikaneva, nearby Hyytiälä Research Station in boreal Finland, is an ICOS-certified site and well situated within long-term scientific infrastructure to compare and combine high-frequency greenhouse gas measurement techniques and investigate freeze-thaw dynamics. An automated static chamber technique is used with inline laser gas analysis to obtain soil-atmosphere CH4 and N2O exchange in real time. Additional automated sampling of diffusion tubing will sample soil gas concentrations in the same analytical system. We control for climatic variability and isolate differences in non-growing season emissions by using a moisture gradient from well-drained upland soils to adjacent wetland ecosystems. The use of these automated high-frequency GHG measurements in combination with year-round biogeochemical monitoring maximizes the likelihood of capturing episodic emissions and their drivers, which are particularly important during fall freeze and spring thaw periods. The gained information on ecosystem function and biogeochemical cycles for temperate, boreal, and arctic regions will improve feedback estimates to climate change by including non-growing season processes in global-scale process-based models

Summer surface water chemistry dynamics in different landscape units from Yedoma Ice Complex to the Lena River

The effect of climate warming on the degradation of permafrost in Arctic coastal lowlands and associated hydrological and biogeochemical processes varies between different types of permafrost deposits. The Lena River Delta consists of three geomorphological main terraces that differ in their genesis and stratigraphic, cryological, geomorphological and hydrological characteristics. The third terrace was formed during the late Pleistocene and consists mainly of Yedoma-type Ice Complex deposits, whereas the first terrace has formed during the Holocene by deltaic processes. Permafrost degradation on both terraces releases dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to thermokarst lakes and via streams DOC gets transported to the Lena River channels and the Arctic Ocean. This presentation shows 1. differences in the surface water chemistry between the first terrace and the Yedoma Ice Complex and their landforms, 2. analyses of the temporal variability of DOC during the summer, and 3. an estimation of summer DOC flux for the considered catchment of about 6.45 km2. Between June and September 2013 and 2014, respectively summer surface water and soil water samples were collected in a small catchment in the south of Kurungnakh Island in the central Lena River Delta. This catchment covers the first terrace as well as the Yedoma Ice Complex and is characterized by thermokarst lakes and streams on both terraces. Two weirs were installed in the main stream along the drainage flow path to continuously measure discharge during summer 2013. We divided the study area into landscape units and compared pH, electrical conductivity, stable isotopic composition and DOC concentrations between units and between terraces. The considered landscape units are streams and thermokarst lakes on Yedoma Ice Complex and on the first terrace, Yedoma uplands, streams, which are fed by the Ice Complex, a relict lake on the first terrace and the Olenyokskaya Channel, a main branch of the Lena River. DOC concentrations in the landscape units on Yedoma Ice Complex ranged between 3.5 mg L-1 (streams) and 52.5 mg L−1 (soilwater of Yedoma uplands) and on the first terrace between 2.8 mg L−1 (streams) and 15.6 mg L−1 (relict lake). The electrical conductivity on Yedoma Ice Complex ranged between 35 μS cm-1 (soilwater of Yedoma uplands) and 151 μS cm−1 (streams) and on the first terrace between 54 μS cm−1 (streams and relict lake) and 140 μS cm−1 (streams). δ18O values on Yedoma Ice Complex and first terrace ranged between -22.4 ‰ (soilwater of Yedoma uplands) and -16.4 ‰ (streams) and between -20.4 ‰and -14.7 ‰ (streams), respectively. δD ranged between -165.6 ‰ (soilwater of Yedoma uplands) and 125.5 ‰ (streams, which are fed by the Ice Complex) and between -160.8 ‰ and -119.4 ‰ (streams). Source waters on the Yedoma Ice Complex had higher DOC concentrations and lower electrical conductivity than Yedoma Ice Complex thermokarst lakes and the drainage flow path. This suggests that more labile organic carbon, perhaps derived from permafrost degradation on the Yedoma Ice Complex, enriches the lake but is removed from the lake, for example, by mineralization in the water column. Along the drainage flow path no further decrease of DOC concentration was observed, despite increasing discharge from weir 1 at the beginning of the flow path to almost two and a half times at weir 2 at the end of the flow path, and despite decreasing discharge during the measuring period from 1814 m3 d−1 in the end of July to 199 m3 d−1 in the end of August for weir 1 and from 2819 m3 d−1 in the end of July to 567 m3 d−1 in the end of August for weir 2. The temporal variability of DOC concentration during the sampling periods was low. In 2013 one sample site of soil water collection fluctuated slightly in August between 10.5 mg L−1 and 13.3 mg L−1, whereas the remaining landscape units showed no temporal variability. In 2014 the DOC concentration of the relict lake on the first terrace decreased from July (13.5 mg L−1) to September (11.1 mg L−1). Otherwise there were no changes in DOC concentration in the remaining landscape units. DOC measurements of the Olenyokskaya Channel show a decrease in DOC concentration from 12.4 mg L−1 in June to 7.6 mg L−1 in September. Using discharge data of 2013 a summer DOC flux of about 220 kg in 29 days for the study site above weir 2 with an area of 6.45 km2 was calculated

Quantification of a full year water balance of a thermokarst lake in East Siberia based on field measurements

Thermokarst lakes and basins are major components of the ice-rich permafrost landscapes in East Siberian coastal regions. One of the major control factors of thermokarst lake development is the local water balance. Variations in environmental and climate conditions due to climate change might have severe impacts on the water balance. Higher evapotranspiration and an increased active layer thickness could enhance the water flow and thus favor the thermal degradation of the tundra landscape. In this study we quantified precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff and storage of a thermokarst lake on Kurungnakh island. The island is located in the central part of the Lena River delta, northern Siberia and underlain by continuous, ice-rich permafrost to about 400-600m depth. The investigated lake has a surface area of approximately 1.2 km² with a maximum depth of about 8 m and a volume of about 4x106 m3. Field measurements of the water balance components were conducted in the period from August 2014 to end of July 2015. Precipitation was recorded by an automatic rain gauge, at a nearby site on Kurungnakh Island. The outflow of the lake was determined with an automatic sensor on a RBC-flume. The evaporation of the thermokarst lake was calculated by using water temperature of the lake, climate data from weather stations on Kurungnakh Island and the neighboring Samoylov Island. The lake water storage was measured using an automated water level sensor. A previous study (Niemann, 2014) investigated only the summer balance (August 2013) of the lake and showed that evaporation dominated the water balance during this time period. Here we analyzed the seasonal and annual water balance components (precipitation, evaporation, runoff, change in storage) of the lake and the contribution of snow cover to the water storage

Study protocol for Psilocybin in patients with fibromyalgia: brain biomarkers of action.

BACKGROUND: Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Fibromyalgia is a particularly debilitating form of widespread chronic pain. Fibromyalgia remains poorly understood, and treatment options are limited or moderately effective at best. Here, we present a protocol for a mechanistic study investigating the effects of psychedelic-assisted-therapy in a fibromyalgia population. The principal focus of this trial is the central mechanism(s) of psilocybin-therapy i.e., in the brain and on associated mental schemata, primarily captured by electroencephalography (EEG) recordings of the acute psychedelic state, plus pre and post Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). METHODS: Twenty participants with fibromyalgia will complete 8 study visits over 8 weeks. This will include two dosing sessions where participants will receive psilocybin at least once, with doses varying up to 25mg. Our primary outcomes are 1) Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZc) recorded acutely using EEG, and the 2) the (Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (BEAQ) measured at baseline and primary endpoint. Secondary outcomes will aim to capture broad aspects of the pain experience and related features through neuroimaging, self-report measures, behavioural paradigms, and qualitative interviews. Pain Symptomatology will be measured using the Brief Pain Inventory Interference Subscale (BPI-IS), physical and mental health-related function will be measured using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). Further neurobiological investigations will include functional MRI (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (changes from baseline to primary endpoint), and acute changes in pre- vs post-acute spontaneous brain activity - plus event-related potential functional plasticity markers, captured via EEG. DISCUSSION: The results of this study will provide valuable insight into the brain mechanisms involved in the action of psilocybin-therapy for fibromyalgia with potential implications for the therapeutic action of psychedelic-therapy more broadly. It will also deliver essential data to inform the design of a potential subsequent RCT

Permafrost thaw subsidence of Siberian yedoma: field measurements and TerraSAR-X interferometry

In permafrost active layer cycles of excess ice formation in winter and loss in summer result in seasonal vertical movements of the ground in both directions. Additionally, relatively uniform thawing of the ice-rich layer at the permafrost table, contributing to irreversible lowering of the surface, was reported for a number of Arctic locations. We use a simple method to quantify surface lowering (subsidence) and uplift in the Lena River Delta, Siberian Arctic, using more than 30 reference rods (fiberglass and metal) installed deeply in permafrost. We repeatedly measured the length of a rod part, which is emerged above the ground, in 2013-2017. Measurements show seasonal subsidence in a range from 0 to 4.6 cm (median: 1.6 cm; 8 measurements) in the cold summer of 2013 and from 0.8 to 8.6 cm (median: 4.8 cm; 31 measurements) in the warm summer of 2014. A pronounced multi-year subsidence of 9.3±5.7 cm was measured in the end of summer 2017 relative to the initial measurements in spring 2013. Additionally, we observed high spatial variability of subsidence even at the sub-meter scale. Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR), most often used to measure ground displacement caused by tectonic or volcanic processes, is adapted now for the detection of subsidence in permafrost. Our study tests the viability of repeat pass (11 days) TerraSAR-X (TSX) data for the detection of thaw subsidence over the same study area. Due to TSX short wavelength and, therefore, shallow penetration depth, interferometry is strongly hampered by poor phase coherence. We built a stack of 11-day interferograms for the summer of 2013 where coherence of some single interferograms was on the edge of the acceptable. The stack showed only a minor subsidence with a mean of 0.3±0.3 cm over the studied area. Given the discrepancy between the DInSAR and field data we discuss the limitations of TSX data for an accurate representation of permafrost thaw subsidence

Molecular Classification of Neuroendocrine Tumors of the Thymus

INTRODUCTION: The WHO classification of pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) is also used to classify thymic NETs (TNETs) into typical and atypical carcinoid (TC and AC), large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC), and small cell carcinoma (SCC), but little is known about the usability of alternative classification systems. METHODS: One hundred seven TNET (22 TC, 51 AC, 28 LCNEC, and 6 SCC) from 103 patients were classified according to the WHO, the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society, and a grading-related PNET classification. Low coverage whole-genome sequencing and immunohistochemical studies were performed in 63 cases. A copy number instability (CNI) score was applied to compare tumors. Eleven LCNEC were further analyzed using targeted next-generation sequencing. Morphologic classifications were tested against molecular features. RESULTS: Whole-genome sequencing data fell into three clusters: CNIlow, CNIint, and CNIhigh. CNIlow and CNIint comprised not only TC and AC, but also six LCNECs. CNIhigh contained all SCC and nine LCNEC, but also three AC. No morphologic classification was able to predict the CNI cluster. Cases where primary tumors and metastases were available showed progression from low-grade to higher-grade histologies. Analysis of LCNEC revealed a subgroup of intermediate NET G3 tumors that differed from LCNEC by carcinoid morphology, expression of chromogranin, and negativity for enhancer of zeste 2 polycomb repressive complex 2 subunit (EZH2). CONCLUSIONS: TNETs fall into three molecular subgroups that are not reflected by the current WHO classification. Given the large overlap between TC and AC on the one hand, and AC and LCNEC on the other, we propose a morphomolecular grading system, Thy-NET G1-G3, instead of histologic classification for patient stratification and prognostication. peerReviewe