Nonmethane hydrocarbon measurements in the North Atlantic Flight Corridor during the Subsonic Assessment Ozone and Nitrogen Oxide Experiment

Mixing ratios of nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) were not enhanced in whole air samples collected within the North Atlantic Flight Corridor (NAFC) during the fall of 1997. The investigation was conducted aboard NASA's DC-8 research aircraft, as part of the Subsonic Assessment (SASS) Ozone and Nitrogen Oxide Experiment (SONEX). NMHC enhancements were not detected within the general organized tracking system of the NAFC, nor during two tail chases of the DC-8's own exhaust. Because positive evidence of aircraft emissions was demonstrated by enhancements in both nitrogen oxides and condensation nuclei during SONEX, the NMHC results suggest that the commercial air traffic fleet operating in the North Atlantic region does not contribute at all or contributes negligibly to NMHCs in the NAFC. Copyright 2000 by the American Geophysical Union

Patterns of CO2 and radiocarbon across high northern latitudes during International Polar Year 2008

High-resolution in situ CO2 measurements were conducted aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the ARCTAS/POLARCAT field campaign, a component of the wider 2007-2008 International Polar Year activities. Data were recorded during large-scale surveys spanning the North American sub-Arctic to the North Pole from 0.04 to 12 km altitude in spring and summer of 2008. Influences on the observed CO2 concentrations were investigated using coincident CO, black carbon, CH3CN, HCN, O3, C2Cl4, and Δ14CO2 data, and the FLEXPART model. In spring, the CO2 spatial distribution from 55̊N to 90̊N was largely determined by the long-range transport of air masses laden with Asian anthropogenic pollution intermingled with Eurasian fire emissions evidenced by the greater variability in the mid-to-upper troposphere. At the receptor site, the enhancement ratios of CO2 to CO in pollution plumes ranged from 27 to 80 ppmv ppmv-1 with the highest anthropogenic content registered in plumes sampled poleward of 80̊N. In summer, the CO2 signal largely reflected emissions from lightning-ignited wildfires within the boreal forests of northern Saskatchewan juxtaposed with uptake by the terrestrial biosphere. Measurements within fresh fire plumes yielded CO2 to CO emission ratios of 4 to 16 ppmv ppmv-1 and a mean CO2 emission factor of 1698 ± 280 g kg-1 dry matter. From the 14C in CO2 content of 48 whole air samples, mean spring (46.6 ± 4.4%) and summer (51.5 ± 5%) D14CO2 values indicate a 5%seasonal difference. Although the northern midlatitudes were identified as the emissions source regions for the majority of the spring samples, depleted Δ14CO2 values were observed in <1% of the data set. Rather, ARCTAS Δ14CO2 observations (54%) revealed predominately a pattern of positive disequilibrium (1-7%) with respect to background regardless of season owing to both heterotrophic respiration and fire-induced combustion of biomass. Anomalously enriched Δ14CO2 values (101-262%) measured in emissions from Lake Athabasca and Eurasian fires speak to biomass burning as an increasingly important contributor to the mass excess in Δ14CO2 observations in a warming Arctic, representing an additional source of uncertainty in the quantification of fossil fuel CO2

Evolution of oligomeric state through allosteric pathways that mimic ligand binding.

Evolution and design of protein complexes are almost always viewed through the lens of amino acid mutations at protein interfaces. We showed previously that residues not involved in the physical interaction between proteins make important contributions to oligomerization by acting indirectly or allosterically. In this work, we sought to investigate the mechanism by which allosteric mutations act, using the example of the PyrR family of pyrimidine operon attenuators. In this family, a perfectly sequence-conserved helix that forms a tetrameric interface is exposed as solvent-accessible surface in dimeric orthologs. This means that mutations must be acting from a distance to destabilize the interface. We identified 11 key mutations controlling oligomeric state, all distant from the interfaces and outside ligand-binding pockets. Finally, we show that the key mutations introduce conformational changes equivalent to the conformational shift between the free versus nucleotide-bound conformations of the proteins.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AAAS at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6216/1254346.abstract

Impacts of biomass burning in Southeast Asia on ozone and reactive nitrogen over the western Pacific in spring

Aircraft measurements of ozone (O3) and its precursors (reactive nitrogen, CO, nonmethane hydrocarbons) were made over the western Pacific during the Transport and Chemical Evolution Over the Pacific (TRACE-P) campaign, which was conducted during February-April 2001. Biomass burning activity was high over Southeast Asia (SEA) during this period (dry season), and convective activity over SEA frequently transported air from the boundary layer to the free troposphere, followed by eastward transport to the sampling region over the western Pacific south of 30°N. This data set allows for systematic investigations of the chemical and physical processes in the outflow from SEA. Methyl chloride (CH3Cl) and CO are chosen as primary and secondary tracers, respectively, to gauge the degree of the impact of emissions of trace species from biomass burning. Biomass burning is found to be a major source of reactive nitrogen (NO x, PAN, HNO3, and nitrate) and O3 in this region from correlations of these species with the tracers. Changes in the abundance of reactive nitrogen during upward transport are quantified from the altitude change of the slopes of the correlations of these species with CO. NOx decreased with altitude due to its oxidation to HNO3. On the other hand, PAN was conserved during transport from the lower to the middle troposphere, consistent with its low water solubility and chemical stability at low temperatures. Large losses of HNO3 and nitrate, which are highly water soluble, occurred in the free troposphere, most likely due to wet removal by precipitation. This has been shown to be the major pathway of NOy loss in the middle troposphere. Increases in the mixing ratios of O3 and its precursors due to biomass burning in SEA are estimated using the tracers. Enhancements of CO and total reactive nitrogen (NOy), which are directly emitted from biomass burning, were largest at 2-4 km. At this altitude the increases in NOy and O3 were 810 parts per trillion by volume (pptv) and 26 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) above their background values of 240 pptv and 31 ppbv, respectively. The slope of the O3-CO correlation in biomass burning plumes was similar to those observed in fire plumes in northern Australia, Africa, and Canada. The O3 production efficiency (OPE) derived from the O3-CO slope and NOx/CO emission ratio (ER) is shown to be positively correlated with the C2H4 /NOx ER, indicating that the C2H4/NO x ER is a critical parameter in determining the OPE. Comparison of the net O3 flux across the western Pacific region and total O3 production due to biomass burning in SEA suggests that about 70% of O3 produced was transported to the western Pacific. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union

Imaging the Two Gaps of the High-TC Superconductor Pb-Bi2Sr2CuO6+x

The nature of the pseudogap state, observed above the superconducting transition temperature TC in many high temperature superconductors, is the center of much debate. Recently, this discussion has focused on the number of energy gaps in these materials. Some experiments indicate a single energy gap, implying that the pseudogap is a precursor state. Others indicate two, suggesting that it is a competing or coexisting phase. Here we report on temperature dependent scanning tunneling spectroscopy of Pb-Bi2Sr2CuO6+x. We have found a new, narrow, homogeneous gap that vanishes near TC, superimposed on the typically observed, inhomogeneous, broad gap, which is only weakly temperature dependent. These results not only support the two gap picture, but also explain previously troubling differences between scanning tunneling microscopy and other experimental measurements.Comment: 6 page

An assessment of western North Pacific ozone photochemistry based on springtime observations from NASA's PEM-West B (1994) and TRACE-P (2001) field studies

The current study provides a comparison of the photochemical environments for two NASA field studies focused on the western North Pacific (PEM-West-B (PWB) and TRACE-P (TP)). These two studies were separated in calendar time by approximately 7 years. Both studies were carried out under springtime conditions, with PWB being launched in 1994 and TP being deployed in 2001 (i.e., 23 February - 15 March 1994 and 10 March-15 April 2001, respectively). Because of the 7-year time separation, these two studies presented a unique scientific opportunity to assess whether evidence could be found to support the Department of Energy\u27s projections in 1997 that increases in anthropogenic emissions from East Asia could reach 5%/yr. Such projections would lead one to the conclusion that a significant shift in the atmospheric photochemical properties of the western North Pacific would occur. To the contrary, the findings from this study support the most recent emission inventory data [Streets et al., 2003] in that they show no significant systematic trend involving increases in any O3 precursor species and no evidence for a significant shift in the level of photochemical activity over the western North Pacific. This conclusion was reached in spite of there being real differences in the concentration levels of some species as well as differences in photochemical activity between PWB and TP. However, nearly all of these differences were shown to be a result of a near 3-week shift in TP\u27s sampling window relative to PWB, thus placing it later in the spring season. The photochemical enhancements seen during TP were most noticeable for latitudes in the range of 25-45°N. Most important among these were increases in J(O1D), OH, and HO2 and values for photochemical ozone formation and destruction, all of which were typically two times larger than those calculated for PWB. A comparison of these airborne results with ozonesonde data from four Japanese stations provided further evidence showing that the 3-week shift in the respective sampling windows of PWB and TP was a likely cause for the differences seen in O3 levels and in photochemical activity between the two airborne studies. Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union

Myasthenia Gravis Appearing After Thymectomy: a Case Report and Review of the Literature

A small proportion of thymoma patients without myasthenia gravis (MG) have been observed to develop MG after total removal of the thymoma. However, the underlying cause is not yet known due to the rarity of postoperative MG patients. We report a 39-year-old man in whom MG appeared after surgical removal of a thymoma. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging showed no signs of recurrent or metastatic thymoma. Administration of pyridostigmine bromide resulted in the prompt improvement of myasthenic symptoms. Our observations indicate that postoperative follow-up care with monitoring of possible postoperative MG is necessary after resecting a thymoma

Wilson Expansion of QCD Propagators at Three Loops: Operators of Dimension Two and Three

In this paper we construct the Wilson short distance operator product expansion for the gluon, quark and ghost propagators in QCD, including operators of dimension two and three, namely, A^2, m^2, m A^2, \ovl{\psi} \psi and m^3. We compute analytically the coefficient functions of these operators at three loops for all three propagators in the general covariant gauge. Our results, taken in the Landau gauge, should help to improve the accuracy of extracting the vacuum expectation values of these operators from lattice simulation of the QCD propagators.Comment: 20 pages, no figure