Permafrost Thermal Regime from Two 30-m Deep Boreholes in Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica

Two 30-m deep permafrost temperature-monitoring boreholes were installed in bedrock, one at Marble Point and one in the Wright Valley, in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. A soil climate-monitoring station in till is located near each borehole. The ground surface temperature (GST) was highly correlated with the air temperature at both sites in 2008. Thermal offsets were small (< 1 degrees C) in the till and negligible in the boreholes. The active layer was thicker in the boreholes than in the till, presumably because of the higher thermal diffusivity of the rock. The measured depth of zero annual temperature amplitude was around 27 m at Wright Valley and 25 m at Marble Point. Permafrost thickness was estimated at about 680 m at Wright Valley and 490 m at Marble Point. The GST history, reconstructed using an inversion procedure, suggests a slight cooling from 1998 to 2003 followed by a slight warming to 2008. Longer temperature records or deeper boreholes would be required to establish if long-term climate change has occurre

Creating subjectivities

Welcome to the first launch issue of Subjectivity, previously the International Journal of Critical Psychology. Subjectivity is an international, transdisciplinary journal that will explore the social, cultural, historical and material processes, dynamics and structures of human experience. As topic, problem and resource, notions of subjectivity are relevant to many disciplines, including cultural studies, sociology, social theory, science and technology studies, geography, anthropology, gender and feminist studies and psychology. The journal will bring together scholars from across the social sciences and the humanities in a collaborative project to identify the processes by which subjectivities are produced, explore subjectivity as a locus of social change, and examine how emerging subjectivities remake our social worlds. Our aim, then, is a re-prioritization of subjectivity as a primary category of social, cultural, psychological, historical and political analysis

The European/International Fibromuscular Dysplasia Registry and Initiative (FEIRI)-clinical phenotypes and their predictors based on a cohort of 1000 patients

AIMS: Since December 2015, the European/International Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD) Registry enrolled 1022 patients from 22 countries. We present their characteristics according to disease subtype, age and gender, as well as predictors of widespread disease, aneurysms and dissections.METHODS AND RESULTS: All patients diagnosed with FMD (string-of-beads or focal stenosis in at least one vascular bed) based on CTA, MRA and/or catheter-based angiography were eligible.Patients were predominantly women (82%) and Caucasians (88%). Age at diagnosis was 46\ub116 years (12% 6565yo), 86% were hypertensive, 72% had multifocal and 57% multivessel FMD. Compared to patients with multifocal FMD, patients with focal FMD were younger, more often men, had less often multivessel FMD but more revascularizations. Compared to women with FMD, men were younger, had more often focal FMD and arterial dissections. Compared to younger patients with FMD, patients 6565yo had more often multifocal FMD, lower eGFR and more atherosclerotic lesions. Independent predictors of multivessel FMD were age at FMD diagnosis, stroke, multifocal subtype, presence of aneurysm or dissection and family history of FMD. Predictors of aneurysms were multivessel and multifocal FMD. Predictors of dissections were age at FMD diagnosis, male gender, stroke and multivessel FMD.CONCLUSIONS: The European/International FMD Registry allowed large-scale characterization of distinct profiles of patients with FMD and, more importantly, identification of a unique set of independent predictors of widespread disease, aneurysms and dissections, paving the way for targeted screening, management and follow-up of FMD.TRANSLATIONAL PERSPECTIVE: Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) is nowadays considered as a systemic arterial disease, warranting brain-to-pelvis vascular imaging in all patients. However, most current evidence is derived from a limited number of expert centres. Furthermore, one size may not fit all. Based on analysis of the first thousand patients enrolled in the European/International FMD registry (46 centres; 22 countries) we characterized distinct patient profiles according to FMD subtype, age and gender and identified predictors of widespread disease, aneurysms and dissections, paving the way for individualized management and follow-up. Further studies will allow refining patient characterization according to ethnicity, genetic profile and imaging biomarkers