Cirene : air-sea iInteractions in the Seychelles-Chagos thermocline ridge region

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 90 (2009): 1337-1350, doi:10.1175/2008BAMS2499.1.The Vasco—Cirene program ex-plores how strong air—sea inter-actions promoted by the shallow thermocline and high sea surface temperature in the Seychelles—Chagos thermocline ridge results in marked variability at synoptic, intraseasonal, and interannual time scales. The Cirene oceano-graphic cruise collected oceanic, atmospheric, and air—sea flux observations in this region in Jan-uary—February 2007. The contem-poraneous Vasco field experiment complemented these measure-ments with balloon deployments from the Seychelles. Cirene also contributed to the development of the Indian Ocean observing system via deployment of a moor-ing and 12 Argo profilers. Unusual conditions prevailed in the Indian Ocean during Janu-ary and February 2007, following the Indian Ocean dipole climate anomaly of late 2006. Cirene measurements show that the Seychelles—Chagos thermocline ridge had higher-than-usual heat content with subsurface anomalies up to 7°C. The ocean surface was warmer and fresher than average, and unusual eastward currents prevailed down to 800 m. These anomalous conditions had a major impact on tuna fishing in early 2007. Our dataset also sampled the genesis and maturation of Tropical Cyclone Dora, including high surface temperatures and a strong diurnal cycle before the cyclone, followed by a 1.5°C cool-ing over 10 days. Balloonborne instruments sampled the surface and boundary layer dynamics of Dora. We observed small-scale structures like dry-air layers in the atmosphere and diurnal warm layers in the near-surface ocean. The Cirene data will quantify the impact of these finescale features on the upper-ocean heat budget and atmospheric deep convection.CNES funded the Vasco part of the experiment; INSU funded the Cirene part. R/V Suroît is an Ifremer ship. The contributions from ODU, WHOI, and FOI (Sweden) are supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 0525657. The participation of the University of Miami group was funded though NASA (NNG04HZ33C). PMEL participation was supported through NOAA’s Office of Climate Observation

Zebrafish Mutants calamity and catastrophe Define Critical Pathways of Gene–Nutrient Interactions in Developmental Copper Metabolism

Nutrient availability is an important environmental variable during development that has significant effects on the metabolism, health, and viability of an organism. To understand these interactions for the nutrient copper, we used a chemical genetic screen for zebrafish mutants sensitive to developmental copper deficiency. In this screen, we isolated two mutants that define subtleties of copper metabolism. The first contains a viable hypomorphic allele of atp7a and results in a loss of pigmentation when exposed to mild nutritional copper deficiency. This mutant displays incompletely penetrant skeletal defects affected by developmental copper availability. The second carries an inactivating mutation in the vacuolar ATPase that causes punctate melanocytes and embryonic lethality. This mutant, catastrophe, is sensitive to copper deprivation revealing overlap between ion metabolic pathways. Together, the two mutants illustrate the utility of chemical genetic screens in zebrafish to elucidate the interaction of nutrient availability and genetic polymorphisms in cellular metabolism

Нові явища у функціонально-стилістичному вживанні протиставних сполучників в українській літературній мові кінця ХХ — початку ХХІ століть

У статті досліджено зміни у функціонуванні найуживаніших протиставних сполучників у мові української преси та художньої літератури кінця ХХ — почат ку ХХІ століть, обґрунтовано слабку семантико-синтаксичну спеціалізацію протиставних сполучників та визначено їхні транспозиційні можливості.In the article the changes in the functioning of the most used adversative conjunctions in the language of Ukrainian press and artistic literature of the end of the XX — the beginning of the XXI centuries have been investigated, weak semantic-syntactic specialization of adversative conjunctions has been explained and their transisting resources have been determined

Syndromic (phenotypic) diarrhea in early infancy

Syndromic diarrhea (SD), also known as phenotypic diarrhea (PD) or tricho-hepato-enteric syndrome (THE), is a congenital enteropathy presenting with early-onset of severe diarrhea requiring parenteral nutrition (PN). To date, no epidemiological data are available. The estimated prevalence is approximately 1/300,000–400,000 live births in Western Europe. Ethnic origin does not appear to be associated with SD. Infants are born small for gestational age and present with facial dysmorphism including prominent forehead and cheeks, broad nasal root and hypertelorism. Hairs are woolly, easily removed and poorly pigmented. Severe and persistent diarrhea starts within the first 6 months of life (≤ 1 month in most cases) and is accompanied by severe malabsorption leading to early and relentless protein energy malnutrition with failure to thrive. Liver disease affects about half of patients with extensive fibrosis or cirrhosis. There is currently no specific biochemical profile, though a functional T-cell immune deficiency with defective antibody production was reported. Microscopic analysis of the hair show twisted hair (pili torti), aniso- and poilkilotrichosis, and trichorrhexis nodosa. Histopathological analysis of small intestine biopsy shows non-specific villous atrophy with low or no mononuclear cell infiltration of the lamina propria, and no specific histological abnormalities involving the epithelium. The etiology remains unknown. The frequent association of the disorder with parental consanguinity and/or affected siblings suggests a genetic origin with an autosomal recessive mode of transmission. Early management consists of total PN. Some infants have a rather milder phenotype with partial PN dependency or require only enteral feeding. Prognosis of this syndrome is poor, but most patients now survive, and about half of the patients may be weaned from PN at adolescence, but experience failure to thrive and final short stature

Similarities between the tropical Atlantic seasonal cycle and ENSO: An energetics perspective

The tropical Pacific and Atlantic Oceans have similar mean states - easterly winds and a zonally sloping thermocline which shoals in the east - but strikingly different sea surface temperature..

Maternal characteristics associated with the dietary intake of nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosamines in women of child-bearing age: a cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multiple <it>N</it>-nitroso compounds have been observed in animal studies to be both mutagenic and teratogenic. Human exposure to <it>N</it>-nitroso compounds and their precursors, nitrates and nitrites, can occur through exogenous sources, such as diet, drinking water, occupation, or environmental exposures, and through endogenous exposures resulting from the formation of <it>N</it>-nitroso compounds in the body. Very little information is available on intake of nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosamines and factors related to increased consumption of these compounds.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using survey and dietary intake information from control women (with deliveries of live births without major congenital malformations during 1997-2004) who participated in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), we examined the relation between various maternal characteristics and intake of nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosamines from dietary sources. Estimated intake of these compounds was obtained from the Willet Food Frequency Questionnaire as adapted for the NBDPS. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the consumption of these compounds by self-reported race/ethnicity and other maternal characteristics.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Median intake per day for nitrates, nitrites, total nitrites (nitrites + 5% nitrates), and nitrosamines was estimated at 40.48 mg, 1.53 mg, 3.69 mg, and 0.472 μg respectively. With the lowest quartile of intake as the referent category and controlling for daily caloric intake, factors predicting intake of these compounds included maternal race/ethnicity, education, body mass index, household income, area of residence, folate intake, and percent of daily calories from dietary fat. Non-Hispanic White participants were less likely to consume nitrates, nitrites, and total nitrites per day, but more likely to consume dietary nitrosamines than other participants that participated in the NBDPS. Primary food sources of these compounds also varied by maternal race/ethnicity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Results of this study indicate that intake of nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosamines vary considerably by race/ethnicity, education, body mass index, and other characteristics. Further research is needed regarding how consumption of foods high in nitrosamines and <it>N</it>-nitroso precursors might relate to risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes and chronic diseases.</p

Genome-Wide Analysis of Human Disease Alleles Reveals That Their Locations Are Correlated in Paralogous Proteins

The millions of mutations and polymorphisms that occur in human populations are potential predictors of disease, of our reactions to drugs, of predisposition to microbial infections, and of age-related conditions such as impaired brain and cardiovascular functions. However, predicting the phenotypic consequences and eventual clinical significance of a sequence variant is not an easy task. Computational approaches have found perturbation of conserved amino acids to be a useful criterion for identifying variants likely to have phenotypic consequences. To our knowledge, however, no study to date has explored the potential of variants that occur at homologous positions within paralogous human proteins as a means of identifying polymorphisms with likely phenotypic consequences. In order to investigate the potential of this approach, we have assembled a unique collection of known disease-causing variants from OMIM and the Human Genome Mutation Database (HGMD) and used them to identify and characterize pairs of sequence variants that occur at homologous positions within paralogous human proteins. Our analyses demonstrate that the locations of variants are correlated in paralogous proteins. Moreover, if one member of a variant-pair is disease-causing, its partner is likely to be disease-causing as well. Thus, information about variant-pairs can be used to identify potentially disease-causing variants, extend existing procedures for polymorphism prioritization, and provide a suite of candidates for further diagnostic and therapeutic purposes

Antioxidant intervention of smoking-induced lung tumor in mice by vitamin E and quercetin

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epidemiological and in vitro studies suggest that antioxidants such as quercetin and vitamin E (VE) can prevent lung tumor caused by smoking; however, there is limited evidence from animal studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the present study, Swiss mouse was used to examine the potential of quercetin and VE for prevention lung tumor induced by smoking.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our results suggest that the incidence of lung tumor and tumor multiplicity were 43.5% and 1.00 ± 0.29 in smoking group; Quercetin has limited effects on lung tumor prevention in this in vivo model, as measured by assays for free radical scavenging, reduction of smoke-induced DNA damage and inhibition of apoptosis. On the other hand, vitamin E drastically decreased the incidence of lung tumor and tumor multiplicity which were 17.0% and 0.32 ± 0.16, respectively (p < 0.05); and demonstrated prominent antioxidant effects, reduction of DNA damage and decreased cell apoptosis (p < 0.05). Combined treatment with quercetin and VE in this animal model did not demonstrate any effect greater than that due to vitamin E alone. In addition, gender differences in the occurrence of smoke induced-lung tumor and antioxidant intervention were also observed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that VE might prevent lung tumor induced by smoking in Swiss mice.</p