Model simulations of chemical effects of sprites in relation with observed HO2 enhancements over sprite-producing thunderstorms

Recently, measurements by the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb Emission Sounder (SMILES) satellite instrument have been presented which indicate an increase in mesospheric HO2 above sprite-producing thunderstorms. The aim of this paper is to compare these observations to model simulations of chemical sprite effects. A plasma chemistry model in combination with a vertical transport module was used to simulate the impact of a streamer discharge in the altitude range 70–80 km, corresponding to one of the observed sprite events. Additionally, a horizontal transport and dispersion model was used to simulate advection and expansion of the sprite air masses. The model simulations predict a production of hydrogen radicals mainly due to reactions of proton hydrates formed after the electrical discharge. The net effect is a conversion of water molecules into H+OH. This leads to increasing HO2 concentrations a few hours after the electric breakdown. Due to the modelled long-lasting increase in HO2 after a sprite discharge, an accumulation of HO2 produced by several sprites appears possible. However, the number of sprites needed to explain the observed HO2 enhancements is unrealistically large. At least for the lower measurement tangent heights, the production mechanism of HO2 predicted by the model might contribute to the observed enhancements

Martian magnetism with orbiting sub-millimeter sensor:simulated retrieval system

A Mars-orbiting sub-millimeter sensor can be used to retrieve the magnetic field at low altitudes over large areas of significant planetary crustal magnetism of the surface of Mars from measurements of circularly polarized radiation emitted by the 368 GHz ground-state molecular oxygen absorption line. We design a full retrieval system for one example orbit to show the expected accuracies on the magnetic field components that one realization of such a Mars satellite mission could achieve. For one set of measurements around a tangent profile, we find that the two horizontal components of the magnetic field can be measured at about 200 nT error with a vertical resolution of around 4 km from 6 up to 70 km in tangent altitude. The error is similar regardless of the true strength of the magnetic field, and it can be reduced by repeated measurements over the same area. The method and some of its potential pitfalls are described and discussed

The SPARC Water Vapor Assessment II: assessment of satellite measurements of upper tropospheric humidity

Nineteen limb-viewing data sets (occultation, passive thermal, and UV scattering) and two nadir upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) data sets are intercompared and also compared to frost-point hygrometer balloon sondes. The upper troposphere considered here covers the pressure range from 300-100 hPa. UTH is a challenging measurement, because concentrations vary between 2-1000 ppmv (parts per million by volume), with sharp changes in vertical gradients near the tropopause. Cloudiness in this region also makes the measurement challenging. The atmospheric temperature is also highly variable ranging from 180-250 K. The assessment of satellite-measured UTH is based on coincident comparisons with balloon frost-point hygrometer sondes, multi-month mapped comparisons, zonal mean time series comparisons, and coincident satellite-to-satellite comparisons. While the satellite fields show similar features in maps and time series, quantitatively they can differ by a factor of 2 in concentration, with strong dependencies on the amount of UTH. Additionally, time-lag response-corrected Vaisala RS92 radiosondes are compared to satellites and the frost-point hygrometer measurements. In summary, most satellite data sets reviewed here show on average similar to 30 % agreement amongst themselves and frost-point data but with an additional similar to 30 % variability about the mean bias. The Vaisala RS92 sonde, even with a time-lag correction, shows poor behavior for pressures less than 200 hPa

The SPARC Water Vapor Assessment II: assessment of satellite measurements of upper tropospheric humidity

Nineteen limb-viewing data sets (occultation, passive thermal, and UV scattering) and two nadir upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) data sets are intercompared and also compared to frost-point hygrometer balloon sondes. The upper troposphere considered here covers the pressure range from 300–100 hPa. UTH is a challenging measurement, because concentrations vary between 2–1000 ppmv (parts per million by volume), with sharp changes in vertical gradients near the tropopause. Cloudiness in this region also makes the measurement challenging. The atmospheric temperature is also highly variable ranging from 180–250 K. The assessment of satellite-measured UTH is based on coincident comparisons with balloon frost-point hygrometer sondes, multi-month mapped comparisons, zonal mean time series comparisons, and coincident satellite-to-satellite comparisons. While the satellite fields show similar features in maps and time series, quantitatively they can differ by a factor of 2 in concentration, with strong dependencies on the amount of UTH. Additionally, time-lag response-corrected Vaisala RS92 radiosondes are compared to satellites and the frost-point hygrometer measurements. In summary, most satellite data sets reviewed here show on average ∼30 % agreement amongst themselves and frost-point data but with an additional ∼30 % variability about the mean bias. The Vaisala RS92 sonde, even with a time-lag correction, shows poor behavior for pressures less than 200 hPa

ダイガクセイ ノ シンミツ ナ カンケイ ニ オケル ボウリョク ニホン タイワン ベイコク ノ ヒカク

本研究は、日本、台湾、米国の大学生のデート暴力の特徴を報告したものである。３カ国の男女大学生に、葛藤解決方略尺度(Conflict Tactics Scale; Straus,1979)を用いて、交際相手に与えた暴力および非暴力的攻撃、交際相手から受けた暴力おやび非暴力的攻撃の回数について回答を求めた。分析は回答者の中から現在あるいは過去に交際相手のいる者あるいはいた者を対象として行い、３カ国の暴力や非暴力的攻撃の実態について検討した。非暴力的攻撃の場合には、生起頻度が50％を超えるものもあり、国や性別による差異もうかがえたが、全体の割合では３カ国を通じて女子の方が男子よりも攻撃の頻度が高く、また米国の女子学生は日本の女子学生よりも攻撃的であった。一方、暴力に関しては、激しい身体的暴力そのものの生起頻度が少なく、性別や国による差異は見られなかった。また、交際相手との暴力が相互的かどうかを検討したところ、３カ国ともに暴力や攻撃のないカップルが多かったが、暴力をふるう回答者のみに注目した場合には、カップルのどちらか一方が暴力をふるう場合よりも、相互に暴力的なカップルのほうが多かった。こうした結果について Straus (2008) の結果と比較検討し、考察を行った

Validation of the vertical profiles of HCl over the wide range of the stratosphere to the lower thermosphere measured by SMILES

Hydrogen chloride (HCl) is the most abundant (more than 95 %) among inorganic chlorine compounds Cly in the stratosphere. The HCl molecule has been observed to obtain long-term quantitative estimations of total budget of the stratospheric anthropogenic chlorine compounds. In this study, we provided HCl vertical profiles at altitudes of 16–100 km using the superconducting submillimeter-wave limb-emission sounder (SMILES) from space. We used the SMILES Level-2 research product version 3.0.0. The period of the SMILES HCl observation was from October 12, 2009 to April 21, 2010, and the latitude coverage was 40S–65N. The average HCl vertical profile showed an increase with altitude up to the stratopause (~ 45 km), approximately constant values between the stratopause and the upper mesosphere (~ 80 km), and a decrease from the mesopause to the lower thermosphere (~ 100 km). This behavior was observed in the all latitude regions, and reproduced by the SD-WACCM model. We compared the SMILES HCl vertical profiles in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere with HCl profiles from MLS on the Aura satellite, as well as from ACE-FTS on SCISAT and from TELIS (balloon-borne). The TELIS observations were performed using the superconductive limb emission technique, as used by SMILES. The globally averaged vertical HCl profiles of SMILES well agreed with those of MLS and ACE-FTS within 0.25 and 0.2 ppbv between 20 and 40 km, respectively. The SMILES HCl concentration was smaller than those of MLS and ACE/FTS as the altitude increased from 40 km, and the difference was approximately 0.4–0.5 ppbv at 50–60 km. The difference between SMILES and TELIS HCl observations was about 0.3 ppbv in the polar winter region between 20 and 34 km, except near 26 km. SMILES HCl error sources that may cause discrepancies with the other observations are investigated by a theoretical error analysis. We calculated errors caused by the uncertainties of spectroscopic parameters, instrument functions, and atmospheric temperature profiles. The jacobian for the temperature explains the negative bias of the SMILES HCl concentration at 50–60 km. The HCl vertical profile from the middle troposphere to the lower thermosphere is reported for the first time from SMILES observations; the data quality is quantified by comparisons with other measurements and via theoretical error analysis

The SPARC water vapour assessment II: biases and drifts of water vapour satellite data records with respect to frost point hygrometer records

Satellite data records of stratospheric water vapour have been compared to balloon-borne frost point hygrometer (FP) profiles that are coincident in space and time. The satellite data records of 15 different instruments cover water vapour data available from January 2000 through December 2016. The hygrometer data are from 27 stations all over the world in the same period. For the comparison, real or constructed averaging kernels have been applied to the hygrometer profiles to adjust them to the measurement characteristics of the satellite instruments. For bias evaluation, we have compared satellite profiles averaged over the available temporal coverage to the means of coincident FP profiles for individual stations. For drift determinations, we analysed time series of relative differences between spatiotemporally coincident satellite and hygrometer profiles at individual stations. In a synopsis we have also calculated the mean biases and drifts (and their respective uncertainties) for each satellite record over all applicable hygrometer stations in three altitude ranges (10–30 hPa, 30–100 hPa, and 100 hPa to tropopause). Most of the satellite data have biases <10 % and average drifts <1 % yr−1 in at least one of the respective altitude ranges. Virtually all biases are significant in the sense that their uncertainty range in terms of twice the standard error of the mean does not include zero. Statistically significant drifts (95 % confidence) are detected for 35 % of the ≈ 1200 time series of relative differences between satellites and hygrometers

A Novel Combination Cancer Therapy with Iron Chelator Targeting Cancer Stem Cells via Suppressing Stemness

Excess iron causes cancer and is thought to be related to carcinogenesis and cancer progression including stemness, but the details remain unclear. Here, we hypothesized that stemness in cancer is related to iron metabolism and that regulating iron metabolism in cancer stem cells (CSCs) may be a novel therapy. In this study, we used murine induced pluripotent stem cells that expressed specific stem cell genes such as Nanog, Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc, and two human cancer cell lines with similar stem cell gene expression. Deferasirox, an orally available iron chelator, suppressed expression of stemness markers and spherogenesis of cells with high stemness status in vitro. Combination therapy had a marked antitumor effect compared with deferasirox or cisplatin alone. Iron metabolism appears important for maintenance of stemness in CSCs. An iron chelator combined with chemotherapy may be a novel approach via suppressing stemness for CSC targeted therapy

Criterion and Construct Validity of the CogState Schizophrenia Battery in Japanese Patients with Schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: The CogState Schizophrenia Battery (CSB), a computerized cognitive battery, covers all the same cognitive domains as the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) Consensus Cognitive Battery but is briefer to conduct. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the criterion and construct validity of the Japanese language version of the CSB (CSB-J) in Japanese patients with schizophrenia. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Forty Japanese patients with schizophrenia and 40 Japanese healthy controls with matching age, gender, and premorbid intelligence quotient were enrolled. The CSB-J and the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia, Japanese-language version (BACS-J) were performed once. The structure of the CSB-J was also evaluated by a factor analysis. Similar to the BACS-J, the CSB-J was sensitive to cognitive impairment in Japanese patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between the CSB-J composite score and the BACS-J composite score. A factor analysis showed a three-factor model consisting of memory, speed, and social cognition factors. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study suggests that the CSB-J is a useful and rapid automatically administered computerized battery for assessing broad cognitive domains in Japanese patients with schizophrenia

CNVs in Three Psychiatric Disorders

BACKGROUND: We aimed to determine the similarities and differences in the roles of genic and regulatory copy number variations (CNVs) in bipolar disorder (BD), schizophrenia (SCZ), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS: Based on high-resolution CNV data from 8708 Japanese samples, we performed to our knowledge the largest cross-disorder analysis of genic and regulatory CNVs in BD, SCZ, and ASD. RESULTS: In genic CNVs, we found an increased burden of smaller (500 kb) exonic CNVs in SCZ/ASD. Pathogenic CNVs linked to neurodevelopmental disorders were significantly associated with the risk for each disorder, but BD and SCZ/ASD differed in terms of the effect size (smaller in BD) and subtype distribution of CNVs linked to neurodevelopmental disorders. We identified 3 synaptic genes (DLG2, PCDH15, and ASTN2) as risk factors for BD. Whereas gene set analysis showed that BD-associated pathways were restricted to chromatin biology, SCZ and ASD involved more extensive and similar pathways. Nevertheless, a correlation analysis of gene set results indicated weak but significant pathway similarities between BD and SCZ or ASD (r = 0.25–0.31). In SCZ and ASD, but not BD, CNVs were significantly enriched in enhancers and promoters in brain tissue. CONCLUSIONS: BD and SCZ/ASD differ in terms of CNV burden, characteristics of CNVs linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, and regulatory CNVs. On the other hand, they have shared molecular mechanisms, including chromatin biology. The BD risk genes identified here could provide insight into the pathogenesis of BD