Managed aquifer recharge with reverse-osmosis desalinated seawater: modeling the spreading in groundwater using stable water isotopes

The spreading of reverse-osmosis desalinated seawater (DSW) in the Israeli coastal aquifer was studied using groundwater modeling and stable water isotopes as tracers. The DSW produced at the Hadera seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant is recharged into the aquifer through an infiltration pond at the managed aquifer recharge (MAR) site of Menashe, Israel. The distinct difference in isotope composition between DSW (δ18O&thinsp; = &thinsp;1.41&thinsp;‰; δ2H&thinsp; = &thinsp;11.34&thinsp;‰) and the natural groundwater (δ18O&thinsp; = &thinsp;−4.48&thinsp;‰ to −5.43&thinsp;‰; δ2H&thinsp; = &thinsp;−18.41&thinsp;‰ to −22.68&thinsp;‰) makes the water isotopes preferable for use as a tracer compared to widely used chemical tracers, such as chloride. Moreover, this distinct difference can be used to simplify the system to a binary mixture of two end-members: desalinated seawater and groundwater. This approach is validated through a sensitivity analysis, and it is especially robust when spatial data of stable water isotopes in the aquifer are scarce. A calibrated groundwater flow and transport model was used to predict the DSW plume distribution in the aquifer after 50 years of MAR with DSW. The results suggest that after 50 years, 94&thinsp;% of the recharged DSW was recovered by the production wells at the Menashe MAR site. The presented methodology is useful for predicting the distribution of reverse-osmosis desalinated seawater in various downstream groundwater systems.</p

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis to Inform Cancer Screening Guidelines in Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies

OBJECTIVES: To identify clinical factors associated with cancer risk in the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) and to systematically review the existing evidence related to cancer screening. METHODS: A systematic literature search was carried out on Medline, Embase and Scopus. Cancer risk within the IIM population (i.e. not compared to the general population) was expressed as risk ratios (RR) for binary variables and weighted mean differences (WMD) for continuous variables. Evidence relating to cancer screening practices in the IIMs were synthesised via narrative review. RESULTS: Sixty nine studies were included in the meta-analysis. Dermatomyositis subtype (RR 2.21), older age (WMD 11.19), male gender (RR 1.53), dysphagia (RR 2.09), cutaneous ulceration (RR 2.73), and anti-transcriptional intermediary factor-1 gamma positivity (RR 4.66) were identified as being associated with significantly increased risk of cancer. Polymyositis (RR 0.49) and clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis (RR 0.44) subtypes, Raynaud's phenomenon (RR 0.61), interstitial lung disease (RR 0.49), very high serum creatine kinase (WMD -1189.96) or lactate dehydrogenase (WMD -336.52) levels, and anti-Jo1 (RR 0.45) or anti-EJ (RR 0.17) positivity were identified as being associated with significantly reduced risk of cancer. Nine studies relating to IIM-specific cancer screening were included. Computed tomography (CT) scanning of the thorax, abdomen and pelvis appeared to be effective in identifying underlying asymptomatic cancers. DISCUSSION: Cancer risk factors should be evaluated in patients with IIM for risk stratification. Screening evidence is limited but CT scanning could be useful. Prospective studies and consensus guidelines are needed to establish cancer screening strategies in IIM patients

Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Global Warming in the Tibetan Plateau during the Last 50 Years Based on a Generalised Temperature Zone - Elevation Model

Temperature is one of the primary factors influencing the climate and ecosystem, and examining its change and fluctuation could elucidate the formation of novel climate patterns and trends. In this study, we constructed a generalised temperature zone elevation model (GTEM) to assess the trends of climate change and temporal-spatial differences in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) using the annual and monthly mean temperatures from 1961-2010 at 144 meteorological stations in and near the TP. The results showed the following: (1) The TP has undergone robust warming over the study period, and the warming rate was 0.318°C/decade. The warming has accelerated during recent decades, especially in the last 20 years, and the warming has been most significant in the winter months, followed by the spring, autumn and summer seasons. (2) Spatially, the zones that became significantly smaller were the temperature zones of -6°C and -4°C, and these have decreased 499.44 and 454.26 thousand sq km from 1961 to 2010 at average rates of 25.1% and 11.7%, respectively, over every 5-year interval. These quickly shrinking zones were located in the northwestern and central TP. (3) The elevation dependency of climate warming existed in the TP during 1961-2010, but this tendency has gradually been weakening due to more rapid warming at lower elevations than in the middle and upper elevations of the TP during 1991-2010. The higher regions and some low altitude valleys of the TP were the most significantly warming regions under the same categorizing criteria. Experimental evidence shows that the GTEM is an effective method to analyse climate changes in high altitude mountainous regions

Finding needles in haystacks: linking scientific names, reference specimens and molecular data for Fungi

DNA phylogenetic comparisons have shown that morphology-based species recognition often underestimates fungal diversity. Therefore, the need for accurate DNA sequence data, tied to both correct taxonomic names and clearly annotated specimen data, has never been greater. Furthermore, the growing number of molecular ecology and microbiome projects using high-throughput sequencing require fast and effective methods for en masse species assignments. In this article, we focus on selecting and re-annotating a set of marker reference sequences that represent each currently accepted order of Fungi. The particular focus is on sequences from the internal transcribed spacer region in the nuclear ribosomal cistron, derived from type specimens and/or ex-type cultures. Re-annotated and verified sequences were deposited in a curated public database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), namely the RefSeq Targeted Loci (RTL) database, and will be visible during routine sequence similarity searches with NR_prefixed accession numbers. A set of standards and protocols is proposed to improve the data quality of new sequences, and we suggest how type and other reference sequences can be used to improve identification of Fungi

Small chromosomes among Danish Candida glabrata isolates originated through different mechanisms

We analyzed 192 strains of the pathogenic yeast Candida glabrata from patients, mainly suffering from systemic infection, at Danish hospitals during 1985-1999. Our analysis showed that these strains were closely related but exhibited large karyotype polymorphism. Nine strains contained small chromosomes, which were smaller than 0.5 Mb. Regarding the year, patient and hospital, these C. glabrata strains had independent origin and the analyzed small chromosomes were structurally not related to each other (i.e. they contained different sets of genes). We suggest that at least two mechanisms could participate in their origin: (i) through a segmental duplication which covered the centromeric region, or (ii) by a translocation event moving a larger chromosome arm to another chromosome that leaves the centromere part with the shorter arm. The first type of small chromosomes carrying duplicated genes exhibited mitotic instability, while the second type, which contained the corresponding genes in only one copy in the genome, was mitotically stable. Apparently, in patients C. glabrata chromosomes are frequently reshuffled resulting in new genetic configurations, including appearance of small chromosomes, and some of these resulting "mutant" strains can have increased fitness in a certain patient "environment"

Evaluation of cell-free DNA approaches for multi-cancer early detection

In the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas (NCT02889978) substudy 1, we evaluate several approaches for a circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA)-based multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test by defining clinical limit of detection (LOD) based on circulating tumor allele fraction (cTAF), enabling performance comparisons. Among 10 machine-learning classifiers trained on the same samples and independently validated, when evaluated at 98% specificity, those using whole-genome (WG) methylation, single nucleotide variants with paired white blood cell background removal, and combined scores from classifiers evaluated in this study show the highest cancer signal detection sensitivities. Compared with clinical stage and tumor type, cTAF is a more significant predictor of classifier performance and may more closely reflect tumor biology. Clinical LODs mirror relative sensitivities for all approaches. The WG methylation feature best predicts cancer signal origin. WG methylation is the most promising technology for MCED and informs development of a targeted methylation MCED test

Phenotypic and genotypic diversity of wine yeasts used for acidic musts

The aim of this study was to examine the physiological and genetic stability of the industrial wine yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces bayanus var. uvarum under acidic stress during fermentation. The yeasts were sub-cultured in aerobic or fermentative conditions in media with or without l-malic acid. Changes in the biochemical profiles, karyotypes, and mitochondrial DNA profiles were assessed after minimum 50 generations. All yeast segregates showed a tendency to increase the range of compounds used as sole carbon sources. The wild strains and their segregates were aneuploidal or diploidal. One of the four strains of S. cerevisiae did not reveal any changes in the electrophoretic profiles of chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA, irrespective of culture conditions. The extent of genomic changes in the other yeasts was strain-dependent. In the karyotypes of the segregates, the loss of up to 2 and the appearance up to 3 bands was noted. The changes in their mtDNA patterns were much broader, reaching 5 missing and 10 additional bands. The only exception was S. bayanus var. uvarum Y.00779, characterized by significantly greater genome plasticity only under fermentative stress. Changes in karyotypes and mtDNA profiles prove that fermentative stress is the main driving force of the adaptive evolution of the yeasts. l-malic acid does not influence the extent of genomic changes and the resistance of wine yeasts exhibiting increased demalication activity to acidic stress is rather related to their ability to decompose this acid. The phenotypic changes in segregates, which were found even in yeasts that did not reveal deviations in their DNA profiles, show that phenotypic characterization may be misleading in wine yeast identification. Because of yeast gross genomic diversity, karyotyping even though it does not seem to be a good discriminative tool, can be useful in determining the stability of wine yeasts. Restriction analysis of mitochondrial DNA appears to be a more sensitive method allowing for an early detection of genotypic changes in yeasts. Thus, if both of these methods are applied, it is possible to conduct the quick routine assessment of wine yeast stability in pure culture collections depositing industrial strains

Tourists' consumption and interpretation of sport event imagery

In an era when popular and mass cultures are positioned further up the symbolic hierarchy, sport events are deemed by cities to be a valuable image or branding tools. Event strategies are often justified by their envisaged image effects and the celebrities, iconic structures and media exposure associated with sport events means that they are viewed as being particularly effective for this purpose. This paper evaluates the image effects of strategies deployed by three English cities; Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield. Each of these cities has used a combination of regular sport fixtures, ‘mega’ sport events and event bids to further their reputations as tourist destinations. Semi-structured interviews with a representative sample of potential tourists were used to provide evidence of the impacts of these initiatives. Despite some participants making connections with traffic chaos and violence, in general sport events appear to have encouraged positive connotations amongst potential tourists, including modernity, progress and vitality. Events seem to be regarded favourably at a cultural level, generating widespread positive meanings even when individual preferences vary. This has positive implications for cities deploying sport events as re-imaging or branding tools