Epidemic malaria and warmer temperatures in recent decades in an East African highland

Climate change impacts on malaria are typically assessed with scenarios for the long-term future. Here we focus instead on the recent past (1970–2003) to address whether warmer temperatures have already increased the incidence of malaria in a highland region of East Africa. Our analyses rely on a new coupled mosquito–human model of malaria, which we use to compare projected disease levels with and without the observed temperature trend. Predicted malaria cases exhibit a highly nonlinear response to warming, with a significant increase from the 1970s to the 1990s, although typical epidemic sizes are below those observed. These findings suggest that climate change has already played an important role in the exacerbation of malaria in this region. As the observed changes in malaria are even larger than those predicted by our model, other factors previously suggested to explain all of the increase in malaria may be enhancing the impact of climate change

Seasonal evaluation of the land surface scheme HTESSEL against remote sensing derived energy fluxes of the Transdanubian region in Hungary

The skill of the land surface model HTESSEL is assessed to reproduce evaporation in response to land surface characteristics and atmospheric forcing, both being spatially variable. Evaporation estimates for the 2005 growing season are inferred from satellite observations of the Western part of Hungary and compared to model outcomes. Atmospheric forcings are obtained from a hindcast run with the Regional Climate Model RACMO2. Although HTESSEL slightly underpredicts the seasonal evaporative fraction as compared to satellite estimates, the mean, 10th and 90th percentile of this variable are of the same magnitude as the satellite observations. The initial water as stored in the soil and snow layer does not have a significant effect on the statistical properties of the evaporative fraction. However, the spatial distribution of the initial soil and snow water significantly affects the spatial distribution of the calculated evaporative fraction and the models ability to reproduce evaporation correctly in low precipitation areas in the considered region. HTESSEL performs weaker in dryer areas. In Western Hungary these areas are situated in the Danube valley, which is partly covered by irrigated cropland and which also may be affected by shallow groundwater. Incorporating (lateral) groundwater flow and irrigation, processes that are not included now, may improve HTESSELs ability to predict evaporation correctly. Evaluation of the model skills using other test areas and larger evaluation periods is needed to confirm the results. <br><br> Based on earlier sensitivity analysis, the effect of a number of modifications to HTESSEL has been assessed. A more physically based reduction function for dry soils has been introduced, the soil depth is made variable and the effect of swallow groundwater included. However, the combined modification does not lead to a significantly improved performance of HTESSEL

Ultimate Performance of the ATLAS Superconducting Solenoid

A 2 tesla, 7730 ampere, 39 MJ, 45 mm thin superconducting solenoid with a 2.3 meters warm bore and 5.3 meters length, is installed in the center of the ATLAS detector and successfully commissioned. The solenoid shares its cryostat with one of the detector's calorimeters and provides the magnetic field required for the inner detectors to accurately track collision products from the LHC at CERN. After several years of a stepwise construction and test program, the solenoid integration 100 meters underground in the ATLAS cavern is completed. Following the on-surface acceptance test, the solenoid is now operated with its final cryogenic, powering and control system. A re-validation of all essential operating parameters is completed. The performance and test results of underground operation are reported and compared to those previously measured

Applying NV center-based quantum sensing to study intracellular free radical response upon viral infections

Although viruses are known to modify the free radical concentration in infected cells, the exact location and concentrations of such changes remain unknown. Although this information is important to understand the virus pathogenesis and design better anti-viral drugs or vaccines, obtaining it with the conventional free radical/ROS detection techniques is impossible. Here, we elucidate the utility of diamond magnetometry for studying the free radical response of baby hamster kidney-21 cells upon Semliki Forest virus infection. Specifically, we optically probe the alterations in free radical concentration near infectious viruses via measuring the spin–lattice relaxation (T(1)) of NV defect ensembles embedded in intracellular nanodiamonds. We performed measurements both at random locations as well as close to the virus entry by conjugating viruses to nanodiamond sensors. We observed alterations of T(1), which represent the intracellular free radical concentration during the viral replication process. Moreover, relaxometry is also used to monitor real-time free radical variation during the early infectious process

Definitiestudie afwegingskader : naar een klimaatbestendig Nederland : definitiestudie Fase 1, kaders voor afweging

Onzekerheid over (omvang en tempo van) de gevolgen van klimaatverandering vormt een essentieel punt bij beslissingen over de ruimtelijke inrichting. De mate waarin en de snelheid waarmee veranderingen optreden zijn niet precies bekend. Een afwegingskader geeft de overheid en de planontwikkelaar instrumenten in handen om de risico’s, de kansen, de kosten en de baten van klimaatadaptatie op verschillende onderscheiden thema’s inzichtelijk te maken. Afwegen: hoe doe je dat. Daarvoor wordt in drie stappen een kader voor gegeven

P73 Preliminary results of the Study of Acute Liver Transplant (SALT): NSAID exposure and risk of acute liver failure leading to transplantation in 7 European countries

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