Impact of Daily Arctic Sea Ice Variability in CAM3.0 during Fall and Winter

Climate projections suggest that an ice-free summer Arctic Ocean is possible within several decades and with this comes the prospect of increased ship traffic and safety concerns. The daily sea ice concentration tendency in five Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) simulations is compared with observations to reveal that many models underestimate this quantity that describes high-frequency ice movements, particularly in the marginal ice zone. To investigate whether high-frequency ice variability impacts the atmosphere, the Community Atmosphere Model, version 3.0 (CAM3.0), is forced by sea ice with and without daily fluctuations. Two 100-member ensemble experiments with daily varying (DAILY) and smoothly varying (SMTH) sea ice are conducted, along with a climatological control, for an anoma- lously low ice period (August 2006–November 2007). Results are presented for three periods: September 2006, October 2006, and December–February (DJF) 2006/07. The atmospheric response differs between DAILY and SMTH. In September, sea ice differences lead to an anomalous high and weaker storm activity over northern Europe. During October, the ice expands equatorward faster in DAILY than SMTH in the Siberian seas and leads to a local response of near-surface cooling. In DJF, there is a 1.5-hPa positive sea level pressure anomaly over North America, leading to anomalous northerly flow and anomalously cool continental U.S. temperatures. While the atmospheric responses are modest, the differences arising from high temporal frequency ice variability cannot be ignored. Increasing the accuracy of coupled model sea ice variations on short time scales is needed to improve short-term coupled model forecasts

A one-year experimental Arctic reanalysis and comparisons with ERA-40 and NCEP/NCAR reanalyses.

[1] A one-year (1998) experimental Arctic reanalysis was produced using an experimental Arctic reanalysis system (EARS), which was based on the MM5 model and 3DVAR data assimilation, implemented in combination with an intermittent nudging scheme. TOVS retrieval data and conventional surface observations and upper-air sounding data are assimilated by EARS, which is driven by the ERA-40 reanalysis. The domain covers a pan-Arctic region at a horizontal resolution of 30 km. The EARS reanalysis results, as well as ERA-40 and NCEP/NCAR reanalyses (NNRP), are verified against station observations. Comparisons show that the ERA-40 analysis is significantly better than NNRP for the metrics of rootmean-square error and bias. The EARS performed significantly better than both ERA-40 and NNRP at lower levels; it produced especially good results for surface wind and upper-air humidity. For the surface temperature, dew point, relative humidity, sea level pressure, as well as upperair variables, the yearly average of the EARS results lie in between those of the ERA-40 and NNRP, closer to those of ERA-40. Citation: Fan, X., J. E. Walsh, and J. R. Kriege

Quality Assessment of Meteorological Data for the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea Coastal Region using Automated Routines

Meteorological observations from more than 250 stations in the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea coastal, interior, and offshore regions were gathered and quality-controlled for the period 1979 through 2009. These stations represent many different observing networks that operate in the region for the purposes of aviation, fire weather, coastal weather, climate, surface radiation, and hydrology and report data hourly or sub-hourly. A unified data quality control (QC) has been applied to these multi-resource data, incorporating three main QC procedures: the threshold test (identifying instances of an observation falling outside of a normal range); the step change test (identifying consecutive values that are excessively different); and the persistence test (flagging instances of excessively high or low variability in the observations). Methods previously developed for daily data QC do not work well for hourly data because they flag too many data entries. Improvements were developed to obtain the proper limits for hourly data QC. These QC procedures are able to identify the suspect data while producing far fewer Type I errors (the erroneous flagging of valid data). The fraction of flagged data for the entire database illustrates that the persistence test was failed the most often (1.34%), followed by the threshold (0.99%) and step change tests (0.02%). Comparisons based on neighboring stations were not performed for the database; however, correlations between nearby stations show promise, indicating that this type of check may be a viable option in such cases. This integrated high temporal resolution dataset will be invaluable for weather and climate analysis, as well as regional modeling applications, in an area that is undergoing significant climatic change.Des observations météorologiques provenant de plus de 250 stations des régions côtières, intérieures et extracôtières de la mer de Beaufort et de la mer des Tchouktches ont été recueillies pendant la période allant de 1979 à 2009, puis elles ont fait l’objet d’un contrôle de la qualité. Ces stations relèvent de plusieurs réseaux d›observation différents qui existent dans la région à des fins d›aviation, de météorologie forestière, de météorologie côtière, de climat, de rayonnement de surface et d’hydrologie, et elles fournissent des données horaires ou subhoraires. Un contrôle de la qualité (CQ) unifié des données a été appliqué à ces données provenant de sources multiples en faisant appel à trois méthodes principales de CQ, soit le test d’acceptabilité (qui a permis de déterminer dans quels cas une observation ne faisait pas partie de la gamme normale); le test de la variation discrète (qui a permis de détecter les valeurs consécutives qui sont excessivement différentes); et le test de la persistance (qui a permis de repérer les cas de variabilité excessivement élevée ou basse). Les anciennes méthodes de CQ des données quotidiennes ne donnent pas de bons résultats dans le cas des données horaires parce qu’elles se trouvent à signaler un trop grand nombre d’entrées de données. Des améliorations ont été apportées afin d’obtenir les bonnes limites en vue du CQ des données horaires. Ces méthodes de CQ permettent de repérer les données douteuses et produisent beaucoup moins d’erreurs de type I (le signalement erroné de données valables). La fraction de données signalées pour l’ensemble de la base de données illustre que le test de persistance a échoué le plus souvent (1,34 %), suivi du test d’acceptabilité (0,99 %) et des tests de la variation discrète (0,02 %). Des comparaisons effectuées avec les données de stations avoisinantes n’ont pas été effectuées pour la base de données. Cependant, des corrélations entre les stations annexes s’avéraient prometteuses, ce qui a laissé entendre que ce type de vérification pourrait présenter une option viable dans de tels cas. Cet ensemble de données intégrées à haute résolution temporelle aura une très grande valeur pour l’analyse météorologique et climatique ainsi que pour les applications de modélisation régionale dans une région où le changement climatique est important

A system of ODEs for a Perturbation of a Minimal Mass Soliton

We study soliton solutions to a nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a saturated nonlinearity. Such nonlinearities are known to possess minimal mass soliton solutions. We consider a small perturbation of a minimal mass soliton, and identify a system of ODEs similar to those from Comech and Pelinovsky (2003), which model the behavior of the perturbation for short times. We then provide numerical evidence that under this system of ODEs there are two possible dynamical outcomes, which is in accord with the conclusions of Pelinovsky, Afanasjev, and Kivshar (1996). For initial data which supports a soliton structure, a generic initial perturbation oscillates around the stable family of solitons. For initial data which is expected to disperse, the finite dimensional dynamics follow the unstable portion of the soliton curve.Comment: Minor edit

The differential hormonal milieu of morning versus evening, may have an impact on muscle hypertrophic potential

Substantial gains in muscle strength and hypertrophy are clearly associated with the routine performance of resistance training. What is less evident is the optimal timing of the resistance training stimulus to elicit these significant functional and structural skeletal muscle changes. Therefore, this investigation determined the impact of a single bout of resistance training performed either in the morning or evening upon acute anabolic signalling (insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), myogenic index and differentiation) and catabolic processes (cortisol). Twenty-four male participants (age 21.4±1.9yrs, mass 83.7±13.7kg) with no sustained resistance training experience were allocated to a resistance exercise group (REP). Sixteen of the 24 participants were randomly selected to perform an additional non-exercising control group (CP) protocol. REP performed two bouts of resistance exercise (80% 1RM) in the morning (AM: 0800 hrs) and evening (PM: 1800 hrs), with the sessions separated by a minimum of 72 hours. Venous blood was collected immediately prior to, and 5 min after, each resistance exercise and control sessions. Serum cortisol and IGFBP-3 levels, myogenic index, myotube width, were determined at each sampling period. All data are reported as mean ± SEM, statistical significance was set at P≤0.05. As expected a significant reduction in evening cortisol concentration was observed at pre (AM: 98.4±10.5, PM: 49.8±4.4 ng/ml, P0.05). Timing of resistance training regimen in the evening appears to augment some markers of hypertrophic potential, with elevated IGFBP-3, suppressed cortisol and a superior cellular environment. Further investigation, to further elucidate the time course of peak anabolic signalling in morning vs evening training conditions, are timely

Mutations in INPP5K Cause a Form of Congenital Muscular Dystrophy Overlapping Marinesco-Sjögren Syndrome and Dystroglycanopathy.

Congenital muscular dystrophies display a wide phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity. The combination of clinical, biochemical, and molecular genetic findings must be considered to obtain the precise diagnosis and provide appropriate genetic counselling. Here we report five individuals from four families presenting with variable clinical features including muscular dystrophy with a reduction in dystroglycan glycosylation, short stature, intellectual disability, and cataracts, overlapping both the dystroglycanopathies and Marinesco-Sjögren syndrome. Whole-exome sequencing revealed homozygous missense and compound heterozygous mutations in INPP5K in the affected members of each family. INPP5K encodes the inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase K, also known as SKIP (skeletal muscle and kidney enriched inositol phosphatase), which is highly expressed in the brain and muscle. INPP5K localizes to both the endoplasmic reticulum and to actin ruffles in the cytoplasm. It has been shown to regulate myoblast differentiation and has also been implicated in protein processing through its interaction with the ER chaperone HSPA5/BiP. We show that morpholino-mediated inpp5k loss of function in the zebrafish results in shortened body axis, microphthalmia with disorganized lens, microcephaly, reduced touch-evoked motility, and highly disorganized myofibers. Altogether these data demonstrate that mutations in INPP5K cause a congenital muscular dystrophy syndrome with short stature, cataracts, and intellectual disability

Air pollution, cardiovascular endpoints and susceptibility by stress and material resources: a systematic review of the evidence

Abstract Background and Methods Evidence shows that both the physical and social environments play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease. The purpose of this systematic review is two-fold: First, we summarize research from the past 12 years from the growing number of studies focused on effect modification of the relationships between air pollution and cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes by socioeconomic position (SEP) and; second, we identify research gaps throughout the published literature on this topic and opportunities for addressing these gaps in future study designs. Results We identified 30 articles that examined the modifying effects of either material resources or psychosocial stress (both related to SEP) on associations between short and long-term air pollution exposure and CVD endpoints. Although 18 articles identified at least one interaction between an air pollutant and material resource indicator, 11 others did not. Support for susceptibility to air pollution by psychosocial stress was weaker; however, only three articles tested this hypothesis. Further studies are warranted to investigate how air pollution and SEP together may influence CVD. Conclusions We recommend that such research include thorough assessment of air pollution and SEP correlations, including spatial correlation; investigate air pollution indices or multi-pollutant models; use standardized metrics of SEP to enhance comparability across studies; and evaluate potentially susceptible populations.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137632/1/12940_2017_Article_270.pd

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements