Visually accurate multi-field weather visualization

Journal ArticleWeather visualization is a difficult problem because it comprises volumetric multi-field data and traditional surface-based approaches obscure details of the complex three-dimensional structure of cloud dynamics. Therefore, visually accurate volumetric multi-field visualization of storm scale and cloud scale data is needed to effectively and efficiently communicate vital information to weather forecasters, improving storm forecasting, atmospheric dynamics models, and weather spotter training. We have developed a new approach to multi-field visualization that uses field specific, physically-based opacity, transmission, and lighting calculations per-field for the accurate visualization of storm and cloud scale weather data. Our approach extends traditional transfer function approaches to multi-field data and to volumetric illumination and scattering

Efficient rendering of atmospheric phenomena

Journal ArticleRendering of atmospheric bodies involves modeling the complex interaction of light throughout the highly scattering medium of water and air particles. Scattering by these particles creates many well-known atmospheric optical phenomena including rainbows, halos, the corona, and the glory. Unfortunately, most radiative transport approximations in computer graphics are ill-suited to render complex angularly dependent effects in the presence of multiple scattering at reasonable frame rates. Therefore, this paper introduces a multiple-model lighting system that efficiently captures these essential atmospheric effects. We have solved the rendering of fine angularly dependent effects in the presence of multiple scattering by designing a lighting approximation based upon multiple scattering phase functions. This model captures gradual blurring of chromatic atmospheric optical phenomena by handling the gradual angular spreading of the sunlight as it experiences multiple scattering events with anisotropic scattering particles. It has been designed to take advantage of modern graphics hardware; thus, it is capable of rendering these effects at near interactive frame rates

New Micropeptins with Anti-Neuroinflammatory Activity Isolated from a Cyanobacterial Bloom

Metabolite mining of environmentally collected aquatic and marine microbiomes offers a platform for the discovery of new therapeutic lead molecules. Combining a prefractionated chromatography library with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based molecular networking and biological assays, we isolated and characterized two new micropeptins (1 and 2) along with the previously characterized micropeptin 996. These metabolites showed potency in anti-neuroinflammatory assays using BV-2 mouse microglial cells, showing a 50% reduction in inflammation in a range from 1 to 10 μM. These results show promise for cyanobacterial peptides in the therapeutic realm apart from their impact on environmental health and provide another example of the utility of large prefractionated natural product libraries for therapeutic hit and lead identification

Inhibitory Effects of Skin Permeable Glucitol-core Containing Gallotannins from Red Maple Leaves on Elastase and their Protective Effects on Human Keratinocytes

Glucitol-core containing gallotannins (GCGs) from the red maple (Acer rubrum) species have been reported to exhibit skin beneficial activities but their inhibitory effects on elastase remain unclear. Herein, we evaluated a series of GCGs for their anti-elastase activity, skin permeability, and cytoprotective effects in human keratinocytes HaCaT cells. GCGs’ anti-elastase effects were enhanced as their number of galloyl groups increased, which may be attributed to the formation of more stable protein–ligand complexes. In addition, GCGs were predicted to have moderate skin permeability and ginnalin A (GA) showed favorable permeability in the PAMPA model and cell uptake assay. Moreover, GA, ginnalin B, and maplexin F (at 50 µM) reduced H2O2-induced reactive oxygen species in HaCaT cells by 70.8, 92.8, and 84.6%, respectively. In conclusion, red maple GCGs are skin permeable elastase inhibitors with antioxidant activity, which may contribute to their overall skin beneficial effects and support their potential for cosmeceutical applications

Isolation of Isotrichophycin C and Trichophycins G–I from a Collection of Trichodesmium thiebautii

The trichophycin family of compounds are chlorinated polyketides first discovered from environmental collections of a bloom-forming Trichodesmium sp. cyanobacterium. In an effort to fully capture the chemical space of this group of metabolites, the utilization of MS/MS-based molecular networking of a Trichodesmium thiebautii extract revealed a metabolome replete with halogenated compounds. Subsequent MS-guided isolation resulted in the characterization of isotrichophycin C and trichophycins G–I (1–4). These new metabolites had intriguing structural variations from those trichophycins previously characterized, which allowed for a comparative study to examine structural features that are associated with toxicity to murine neuroblastoma cells. Additionally, we propose the absolute configuration of the previously characterized trichophycin A (5). Overall, the metabolome of the Trichodesmium bloom is hallmarked by an unprecedented amount of chlorinated molecules, many of which remain to be structurally characterized

A multifrequency study of the large radio galaxies 3C46 and 3C452

We present low-frequency observations starting from ~150 MHz with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), and high-frequency observations with the Very Large Array (VLA) of two large radio galaxies 3C46 and 3C452. These observations were made with the objectives of estimating their spectral ages and examining any evidence of diffuse extended emission at low radio frequencies due to an earlier cycle of activity. While no evidence of extended emission due to an earlier cycle of activity has been found, the spectral ages have been estimated to be ~15 and 27 Myr for the oldest relativistic plasma seen in the regions close to the cores for 3C46 and 3C452 respectively. The spectra in the vicinity of the hotspots are consistent with a straight spectrum with injection spectral indices of ~1.0 and 0.78 respectively, somewhat steeper than theoretical expectations.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 10 pages, 8 figures and 4 table

Screening the PRISM Library against Staphylococcus aureus Reveals a Sesquiterpene Lactone from Liriodendron tulipifera with Inhibitory Activity

Infections caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus continue to pose threats to human health and put a financial burden on the healthcare system. The overuse of antibiotics has contributed to mutations leading to the emergence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus, and there is a critical need for the discovery and development of new antibiotics to evade drug-resistant bacteria. Medicinal plants have shown promise as sources of new small-molecule therapeutics with potential uses against pathogenic infections. The principal Rhode Island secondary metabolite (PRISM) library is a botanical extract library generated from specimens in the URI Youngken Medicinal Garden by upper-division undergraduate students. PRISM extracts were screened for activity against strains of methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA). An extract generated from the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) demonstrated growth inhibition against MSSA, and a bioassay-guided approach identified a sesquiterpene lactone, laurenobiolide, as the active constituent. Intriguingly, its isomers, tulipinolide and epi-tulipinolide, lacked potent activity against MSSA. Laurenobiolide also proved to be more potent against MSSA than the structurally similar sesquiterpene lactones, costunolide and dehydrocostus lactone. Laurenobiolide was the most abundant in the twig bark of the tulip tree, supporting the twig bark’s historical and cultural usage in poultices and teas

Effects Of Length, Complexity, And Grammatical Correctness On Stuttering In Spanish-Speaking Preschool Children

Purpose: To explore the effects of utterance length, syntactic complexity, and grammatical correctness on stuttering in the spontaneous speech of young, monolingual Spanish-speaking children. Method: Spontaneous speech samples of 11 monolingual Spanish-speaking children who stuttered, ages 35 to 70 months, were examined. Mean number of syllables, total number of clauses, utterance complexity (i.e., containing no clauses, simple clauses, or subordinate and/or conjoined clauses), and grammatical correctness (i.e., the presence or absence of morphological and syntactical errors) in stuttered and fluent utterances were compared. Results: Findings revealed that stuttered utterances in Spanish tended to be longer and more often grammatically incorrect, and contain more clauses, including more subordinate and/or conjoined clauses. However, when controlling for the interrelatedness of syllable number and clause number and complexity, only utterance length and grammatical incorrectness were significant predictors of stuttering in the spontaneous speech of these Spanish-speaking children. Use of complex utterances did not appear to contribute to the prediction of stuttering when controlling for utterance length. Conclusions: Results from the present study were consistent with many earlier reports of English-speaking children. Both length and grammatical factors appear to affect stuttering in Spanish-speaking children. Grammatical errors, however, served as the greatest predictor of stuttering.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Estimates of new and total productivity in central Long Island Sound from in situ measurements of nitrate and dissolved oxygen

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Estuaries and Coasts 36 (2013): 74-97, doi:10.1007/s12237-012-9560-5.Biogeochemical cycles in estuaries are regulated by a diverse set of physical and biological variables that operate over a variety of time scales. Using in situ optical sensors, we conducted a high-frequency time-series study of several biogeochemical parameters at a mooring in central Long Island Sound from May to August 2010. During this period, we documented well-defined diel cycles in nitrate concentration that were correlated to dissolved oxygen, wind stress, tidal mixing, and irradiance. By filtering the data to separate the nitrate time series into various signal components, we estimated the amount of variation that could be ascribed to each process. Primary production and surface wind stress explained 59% and 19%, respectively, of the variation in nitrate concentrations. Less frequent physical forcings, including large-magnitude wind events and spring tides, served to decouple the relationship between oxygen, nitrate, and sunlight on about one-quarter of study days. Daytime nitrate minima and dissolved oxygen maxima occurred nearly simultaneously on the majority (> 80%) of days during the study period; both were strongly correlated with the daily peak in irradiance. Nighttime nitrate maxima reflected a pattern in which surface-layer stocks were depleted each afternoon and recharged the following night. Changes in nitrate concentrations were used to generate daily estimates of new primary production (182 ± 37 mg C m-2 d-1) and the f-ratio (0.25), i.e., the ratio of production based on nitrate to total production. These estimates, the first of their kind in Long Island Sound, were compared to values of community respiration, primary productivity, and net ecosystem metabolism, which were derived from in situ measurements of oxygen concentration. Daily averages of the three metabolic parameters were 1660 ± 431, 2080 ± 419, and 429 ± 203 mg C m-2 d-1, respectively. While the system remained weakly autotrophic over the duration of the study period, we observed very large day-to-day differences in the f-ratio and in the various metabolic parameters.This work was supported by the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, the Sounds Conservancy of the Quebec-Labrador Foundation, and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Carpenter-Sperry Fund.2014-01-0

Determination of glucose exchange rates and permeability of erythrocyte membrane in preeclampsia and subsequent oxidative stress-related protein damage using dynamic-19F-NMR

The cause of the pregnancy condition preeclampsia (PE) is thought to be endothelial dysfunction caused by oxidative stress. As abnormal glucose tolerance has also been associated with PE, we use a fluorinated-mimic of this metabolite to establish whether any oxidative damage to lipids and proteins in the erythrocyte membrane has increased cell membrane permeability. Data were acquired using 19F Dynamic-NMR (DNMR) to measure exchange of 3-fluoro-3-deoxyglucose (3-FDG) across the membrane of erythrocytes from 10 pregnant women (5 healthy control women, and 5 from women suffering from PE). Magnetisation transfer was measured using the 1D selective inversion and 2D EXSY pulse sequences, over a range of time delays. Integrated intensities from these experiments were used in matrix diagonalisation to estimate the values of the rate constants of exchange and membrane permeability. No significant differences were observed for the rate of exchange of 3-FDG and membrane permeability between healthy pregnant women and those suffering from PE, leading us to conclude that no oxidative damage had occurred at this carrier-protein site in the membrane