Altimetry, gravimetry, GPS and viscoelastic modeling data for the joint inversion for glacial isostatic adjustment in Antarctica (ESA STSE Project REGINA)

The poorly known correction for the ongoing deformation of the solid Earth caused by glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) is a major uncertainty in determining the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet from measurements of satellite gravimetry and to a lesser extent satellite altimetry. In the past decade, much progress has been made in consistently modeling ice sheet and solid Earth interactions; however, forward-modeling solutions of GIA in Antarctica remain uncertain due to the sparsity of constraints on the ice sheet evolution, as well as the Earth's rheological properties. An alternative approach towards estimating GIA is the joint inversion of multiple satellite data – namely, satellite gravimetry, satellite altimetry and GPS, which reflect, with different sensitivities, trends in recent glacial changes and GIA. Crucial to the success of this approach is the accuracy of the space-geodetic data sets. Here, we present reprocessed rates of surface-ice elevation change (Envisat/Ice, Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite, ICESat; 2003–2009), gravity field change (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, GRACE; 2003–2009) and bedrock uplift (GPS; 1995–2013). The data analysis is complemented by the forward modeling of viscoelastic response functions to disc load forcing, allowing us to relate GIA-induced surface displacements with gravity changes for different rheological parameters of the solid Earth. The data and modeling results presented here are available in the PANGAEA database (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.875745). The data sets are the input streams for the joint inversion estimate of present-day ice-mass change and GIA, focusing on Antarctica. However, the methods, code and data provided in this paper can be used to solve other problems, such as volume balances of the Antarctic ice sheet, or can be applied to other geographical regions in the case of the viscoelastic response functions. This paper presents the first of two contributions summarizing the work carried out within a European Space Agency funded study: Regional glacial isostatic adjustment and CryoSat elevation rate corrections in Antarctica (REGINA)

Book Reviews: Raptors in Your Pocket: A Guide to Great Plains Birds of Prey; Dakota Flora: A Seasonal Sampler; The National Grasslands

Reviews of: Raptors in Your Pocket: A Guide to Great Plains Birds of Prey, Dana Gardner, 2006, University of Iowa Press, 16 pages (laminated). Dakota Flora: A Seasonal Sampler, David J. Ode, 2006, South Dakota State Historical Society Press, Pierre, South Dakota, 260 pages. The National Grasslands, Francis Moul, 2006, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 153 pages

The Impact of Structural and Functional Parameters in Glaucoma Patients on Patient-Reported Visual Functioning

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Structural characterization of the closed conformation of mouse guanylate kinase

Guanylate kinase (GMPK) is a nucleoside monophosphate kinase that catalyzes the reversible phosphoryl transfer from ATP to GMP to yield ADP and GDP. In addition to phosphorylating GMP, antiviral prodrugs such as acyclovir, ganciclovir, and carbovir and anticancer prodrugs such as the thiopurines are dependent on GMPK for their activation. Hence, structural information on mammalian GMPK could play a role in the design of improved antiviral and antineoplastic agents. Here we present the structure of the mouse enzyme in an abortive complex with the nucleotides ADP and GMP, refined at 2.1 Angstrom resolution with a final crystallographic R factor of 0.19 (R-free = 0.23). Guanylate kinase is a member of the nucleoside monophosphate (NMP) kinase family, a family of enzymes that despite having a low primary structure identity share a similar fold, which consists of three structurally distinct regions termed the CORE, LID, and NMP-binding regions. Previous studies on the yeast enzyme have shown that these parts move as rigid bodies upon substrate binding. It has been proposed that consecutive binding of substrates leads to "closing" of the active site bringing the NMP-binding and LID regions closer to each other and to the CORE region. Our structure, which is the first of any guanylate kinase with both substrates bound, supports this hypothesis. It also reveals the binding site of ATP and implicates arginines 44, 137, and 148 (in addition to the invariant P-loop lysine) as candidates for catalyzing the chemical step of the phosphoryl transfer

Efeito dos sistemas de manejo e plantio sobre a densidade de grupos funcionais de microrganismos, em solo de cerrado.

O crescimento da agricultura e pecuária, que pode resultar em abertura de novas áreas de plantio, tem motivado pesquisas que buscam sistemas de produção mais sustentáveis, cujo manejo causa menor impacto e degradação do solo. O manejo do solo e a cobertura vegetal alteram suas propriedades, principalmente, as microbiológicas, provocando mudanças na densidade de microrganismos funcionais. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito dos sistemas de manejo e dos diferentes sistemas de plantio, sobre a densidade de grupos funcionais de microrganismos em solos de Cerrado. As coletas de solo foram feitas em duas profundidades (0-5 cm e 5-20 cm) e dois períodos (seco e chuvoso), nos seguintes tratamentos: plantio direto (PD), plantio direto com rotação (PDR), plantio convencional (PC), plantio convencional com rotação (PCR) e Cerrado nativo (Mata mesofítica). A vegetação nativa apresentou as maiores densidades microbianas, nos períodos seco e chuvoso, em ambas as profundidades analisadas. Em geral, os tratamentos PDR e PD apresentaram maiores densidades microbianas nas camadas mais superficiais. Os dados de correlação linear (r) entre os grupos totais e funcionais de microrganismos e os atributos químicos do solo variaram entre os sistemas de preparo do solo. A correlação entre grupos funcionais de microrganismos e os atributos químicos do solo foram variáveis nos diferentes sistemas de manejo. Concluiu-se que o solo de cerrado apresentou maior densidade microbiana, não houve diferença na densidade microbiana entre os sistemas de preparo no período seco

Measurement of complex fragments and clues to the entropy production from 42-137-MeV/nucleon Ar + Au

Intermediate-rapidity fragments with A=1-14 emitted from 42-137-MeV/nucleon Ar + Au have been measured. Evidence is presented that these fragments arise from a common moving source. Entropy values are extracted from the mass distributions by use of quantum statistical and Hauser-Feshbach theories. The extracted entropy values of S/A≈2-2.4 are much smaller than the values expected from measured deuteron-to-proton ratios, but are still considerably higher than theoretically predicted values

Sublinear Estimation of Weighted Matchings in Dynamic Data Streams

This paper presents an algorithm for estimating the weight of a maximum weighted matching by augmenting any estimation routine for the size of an unweighted matching. The algorithm is implementable in any streaming model including dynamic graph streams. We also give the first constant estimation for the maximum matching size in a dynamic graph stream for planar graphs (or any graph with bounded arboricity) using $\tilde{O}(n^{4/5})$ space which also extends to weighted matching. Using previous results by Kapralov, Khanna, and Sudan (2014) we obtain a $\mathrm{polylog}(n)$ approximation for general graphs using $\mathrm{polylog}(n)$ space in random order streams, respectively. In addition, we give a space lower bound of $\Omega(n^{1-\varepsilon})$ for any randomized algorithm estimating the size of a maximum matching up to a $1+O(\varepsilon)$ factor for adversarial streams

Rosetta Brains: A Strategy for Molecularly-Annotated Connectomics

We propose a neural connectomics strategy called Fluorescent In-Situ Sequencing of Barcoded Individual Neuronal Connections (FISSEQ-BOINC), leveraging fluorescent in situ nucleic acid sequencing in fixed tissue (FISSEQ). FISSEQ-BOINC exhibits different properties from BOINC, which relies on bulk nucleic acid sequencing. FISSEQ-BOINC could become a scalable approach for mapping whole-mammalian-brain connectomes with rich molecular annotations