Eutrophication-like response to climate warming: an analysis of Lago Maggiore (N. Italy) zooplankton in contrasting years

Global mean surface temperatures are increasing. All ecosystems are likely to be affected and there is much interest at present in predicting the effects. In freshwater environments, we expect to observe, among other things, effects similar to those observed under eutrophication, such as increases in zooplankton population density and biomass as a result of enhanced population growth rates. Lago Maggiore underwent rapid eutrophication during the 60s and 70s, with a return to oligotrophy during the 80s and the 90s. Thus, it provides a case study to test the hypothesized eutrophication-like effects of recent climate warming. More specifically, we compare zooplankton biomass and density during the exceptionally warm years of the recent oligotrophic phase with values during the non-warm years of oligotrophy, and during years of the mesotrophic phase. This permits an analysis of zooplankton biomass and density with respect to temperature increase compared with the effects of eutrophication. Zooplankton population density and biomass sharply increased in 2003, the warmest year of the last century, as a result of Cladocera, particularly Daphnia, attaining values typical of the mesotrophic phase. These values were exceptional compared to typical values and were strongly different from those attained during cooler years since re-oligotrophication. Mean annual values of zooplankton density and biomass recorded in 2003 were fully comparable to typical values during the mesotrophic period. This observation confirms the hypothesis of an overall eutrophication-like effect of climate warming. Seasonal trends, characterized by an earlier start of population growth, are consistent with the effects of an increase in water temperature, as observed in laboratory experiments on the reproductive and growth strategies of Daphni

Towards Comprehensive AI-Based Onboard FDIR: System Design and First Results

Health monitoring of spacecrafts is a crucial task in Space operations. Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR) plays a critical role in ensuring the safety and successful operation of a spacecraft by detecting and isolating faults, and then executing recovery actions. Currently, the FDIR process is carried out mostly on ground, with only anomaly detection typically performed onboard the spacecraft using out-of-limit (OOL) threshold techniques, whereas fault isolation and recovery is managed by operators on the ground. This approach has two major limitations. Firstly, OOL approach is not capable of identifying subtle anomalies that occur within the parameters’ nominal operational range, limiting its effectivity in identifying a wide range of anomalies. Secondly, the need for ground investigation to isolate the fault prior to the implementation of a recovery action introduces a delay in the overall FDIR pipeline. This approach has two major limitations. Firstly, OOL approach is not capable of identifying subtle anomalies that occur within the parameters’ nominal operational range, limiting its effectivity in identifying a wide range of anomalies. Secondly, the need for ground investigation to isolate the fault prior to the implementation of a recovery action introduces a delay in the overall FDIR pipeline

Right fronto-parietal white matter disruption contributes to speech impairments in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

INTRODUCTION Non-linguistic properties of speech are widely heterogeneous and require complex neurological integration. The association between white matter integrity and the severity of dysarthria was investigated in a group of patients diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). METHODS Thirty-six patients diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis completed a magnetic resonance imaging protocol inclusive of diffusion-weighted images. A clinical assessment of pneumo-phono-articulatory abilities was conducted for each patient, and a composite score of residual speech capacity was calculated. Tract-Based Spatial Statistics was carried out to model the potential association between residual speech capacity and microstructural properties of white matter (fractional anisotropy, mean and radial diffusivity). RESULTS A significant negative association was found between residual speech capacity and mean diffusivity in a large white matter cluster located in frontal, parietal and right temporal regions. These subcortical areas were characterised by pathological microstructural disruption, as revealed bypost hoc analyses. CONCLUSIONS Non-linguistic aspects of speech are associated with microstructural integrity of frontal, parietal and right temporal white matter in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Such mapping is consistent with the centres responsible of volitional control of speech and sensory feedback during non-linguistic speech production

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.Peer reviewe