Ross Gyre variability modulates oceanic heat supply toward the West Antarctic continental shelf

C.J.P., G.A.M., M.R.M., L.D.T., and S.T.G. were supported by NSF PLR-1425989 and OPP-1936222 (Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project). C.J.P. received additional support from a NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship. G.A.M. received additional support from UKRI Grant Ref. MR/W013835/1. G.E.M. was supported by NSF OPP-2220969. R.Q.P. was supported by the High Meadows Environmental Institute Internship Program. R.M. was supported by the General Sir John Monash Foundation. A.F.T. was supported by NSF OPP-1644172 and NASA grant 80NSSC21K0916. M.R.M. also acknowledges funding from NSF awards OCE-1924388 and OPP-2319829 and NASA awards 80NSSC22K0387 and 80NSSC20K1076.West Antarctic Ice Sheet mass loss is a major source of uncertainty in sea level projections. The primary driver of this melting is oceanic heat from Circumpolar Deep Water originating offshore in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Yet, in assessing melt variability, open ocean processes have received considerably less attention than those governing cross-shelf exchange. Here, we use Lagrangian particle release experiments in an ocean model to investigate the pathways by which Circumpolar Deep Water moves toward the continental shelf across the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. We show that Ross Gyre expansion, linked to wind and sea ice variability, increases poleward heat transport along the gyre’s eastern limb and the relative fraction of transport toward the Amundsen Sea. Ross Gyre variability, therefore, influences oceanic heat supply toward the West Antarctic continental slope. Understanding remote controls on basal melt is necessary to predict the ice sheet response to anthropogenic forcing.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Diffusing an Innovation: Clinician Perceptions of Continuous Predictive Analytics Monitoring in Intensive Care

Background The purpose of this article is to describe neonatal intensive care unit clinician perceptions of a continuous predictive analytics technology and how those perceptions influenced clinician adoption. Adopting and integrating new technology into care is notoriously slow and difficult; realizing expected gains remain a challenge. Methods Semistructured interviews from a cross-section of neonatal physicians (n ¼ 14) and nurses (n ¼ 8) from a single U.S. medical center were collected 18 months following the conclusion of the predictive monitoring technology randomized control trial. Following qualitative descriptive analysis, innovation attributes from Diffusion of Innovation Theory-guided thematic development. Results Results suggest that the combination of physical location as well as lack of integration into work flow or methods of using data in care decisionmaking may have delayed clinicians from routinely paying attention to the data. Once data were routinely collected, documented, and reported during patient rounds and patient handoffs, clinicians came to view data as another vital sign. Through clinicians’ observation of senior physicians and nurses, and ongoing dialogue about data trends and patient status, clinicians learned how to integrate these data in care decision making (e.g., differential diagnosis) and came to value the technology as beneficial to care delivery. Discussion The use of newly created predictive technologies that provide early warning of illness may require implementation strategies that acknowledge the risk–benefit of treatment cliniciansmust balance and take advantage of existing clinician trainingmethods

Identification and expression of voltage-gated calcium channel Β subunits in Zebrafish

Voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC) play important roles in electrically excitable cells and embryonic development. The VGCC Β subunits are essential for membrane localization of the channel and exert modulatory effects on channel functions. In mammals, the VGCC Β subunit gene family contains four members. In zebrafish, there appear to be seven VGCC Β subunits including the previously identified Β1 subunit. cDNAs for six additional VGCC Β subunit homologs were identified in zebrafish, their chromosomal locations determined and their expression patterns characterized during embryonic development. These six genes are primarily expressed in the nervous system with cacnb4a also expressed in the developing heart. Sequence homology, genomic synteny and expression patterns suggest that there are three pairs of duplicate genes for Β2, Β3, and Β4 in zebrafish with distinct expression patterns during embryonic development. Developmental Dynamics 237:3842–3852, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61457/1/21776_ftp.pd

Supercooled Southern Ocean waters

In cold polar waters, temperatures sometimes drop below the freezing point, a process referred to as supercooling. However, observational challenges in polar regions limit our understanding of the spatial and temporal extent of this phenomenon. We here provide observational evidence that supercooled waters are much more widespread in the seasonally ice-covered Southern Ocean than previously reported. In 5.8% of all analyzed hydrographic profiles south of 55°S, we find temperatures below the surface freezing point (“potential” supercooling), and half of these have temperatures below the local freezing point (“in situ” supercooling). Their occurrence doubles when neglecting measurement uncertainties. We attribute deep coastal-ocean supercooling to melting of Antarctic ice shelves and surface-induced supercooling in the seasonal sea-ice region to wintertime sea-ice formation. The latter supercooling type can extend down to the permanent pycnocline due to convective sinking plumes—an important mechanism for vertical tracer transport and water-mass structure in the polar ocean

Active centromere and chromosome identification in fixed cell lines

BACKGROUND: The centromere plays a crucial role in ensuring the fidelity of chromosome segregation during cell divisions. However, in cancer and constitutional disorders, the presence of more than one active centromere on a chromosome may be a contributing factor to chromosome instability and could also have predictive value in disease progression, making the detection of properly functioning centromeres important. Thus far, antibodies that are widely used for functional centromere detection mainly work on freshly harvested cells whereas most cytogenetic samples are stored long-term in methanol-acetic acid fixative. Hence, we aimed to identify antibodies that would recognise active centromere antigens on methanol-acetic acid fixed cells. RESULTS: A panel of active centromere protein antibodies was tested and we found that a rabbit monoclonal antibody against human CENP-C recognises the active centromeres of cells fixed in methanol-acetic acid. We then tested and compared combinations of established methods namely centromere fluorescence in situ hybridisation (cenFISH), centromere protein immunofluorescence (CENP-IF) and multicolour FISH (mFISH), and showed the usefulness of CENP-IF together with cenFISH followed by mFISH (CENP-IF-cenFISH-mFISH) with the aforementioned anti-CENP-C antibody. We further demonstrated the utility of our method in two cancer cell lines with high proportion of centromere defects namely neocentromere and functional dicentric. CONCLUSIONS: We propose the incorporation of the CENP-IF-cenFISH-mFISH method using a commercially available rabbit monoclonal anti-CENP-C into established methods such as dicentric chromosome assay (DCA), prenatal karyotype screening in addition to constitutional and cancer karyotyping. This method will provide a more accurate assessment of centromere abnormality status in chromosome instability disorders

Integrative genomic analysis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia lacking a genetic biomarker in the UKALL2003 clinical trial

Incorporating genetics into risk-stratification for treatment of childhood B-progenitor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL) has contributed significantly to improved survival. In about 30% B-ALL (B-other-ALL) without well-established chromosomal changes, new genetic subtypes have recently emerged, yet their true prognostic relevance largely remains unclear. We integrated next generation sequencing (NGS): whole genome sequencing (WGS) (n = 157) and bespoke targeted NGS (t-NGS) (n = 175) (overlap n = 36), with existing genetic annotation in a representative cohort of 351 B-other-ALL patients from the childhood ALL trail, UKALL2003. PAX5alt was most frequently observed (n = 91), whereas PAX5 P80R mutations (n = 11) defined a distinct PAX5 subtype. DUX4-r subtype (n = 80) was defined by DUX4 rearrangements and/or ERG deletions. These patients had a low relapse rate and excellent survival. ETV6::RUNX1-like subtype (n = 21) was characterised by multiple abnormalities of ETV6 and IKZF1, with no reported relapses or deaths, indicating their excellent prognosis in this trial. An inferior outcome for patients with ABL-class fusions (n = 25) was confirmed. Integration of NGS into genomic profiling of B-other-ALL within a single childhood ALL trial, UKALL2003, has shown the added clinical value of NGS-based approaches, through improved accuracy in detection and classification into the range of risk stratifying genetic subtypes, while validating their prognostic significance

American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research

McDonald D, Hyde E, Debelius JW, et al. American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research. mSystems. 2018;3(3):e00031-18

Response of Antarctic ocean circulation to increased meltwater

The implications of ocean freshening from accelerating Antarctic land-ice loss are poorly understood, due to the scarcity of observations near the Antarctic coast, and the high spatial and temporal resolution required to resolve Antarctic continental shelf processes in ocean models. Here, a high-resolution global ocean--sea-ice model is used to investigate the response of Antarctic continental shelf circulation to increasing meltwater. Two freshwater perturbation experiments are conducted, using projected Antarctic ice-loss rates under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 emissions scenarios at 2100.We find that surface freshening near the Antarctic coast increases stratification and reduces the formation of cold, dense waters on the Antarctic continental shelf that, in the current climate, drive abyssal ocean circulation and ventilation. In our simulations, the connection between the abyssal ocean and the cold Antarctic shelf collapses within 10 years following the application of projected 2100 meltwater forcing, as downwelling surface waters on the continental shelf are freshened by glacial runoff, leaving them too buoyant to sink to the abyssal ocean. Around Antarctica, coastal freshening increases lateral density gradients between the cool, fresh shelf and the warm, saline open ocean, strengthening frontal structures that separate the adjacent water-masses, and accelerating geostrophic currents that flow westward along the coast and along the continental shelf break. This process acts to homogenise shelf waters and increasingly isolate the cool continental shelf from the warmer open ocean, leading to a net cooling on the continental shelf. Acceleration of the circumpolar coastal current results in remote temperature feedbacks unique to these experiments; most notable being a strong cooling signal on the West Antarctic shelf, an historically warm region associated with high rates of ice shelf melt, generated by the advection of cold Weddell Sea shelf waters around the Antarctic Peninsula by the strengthening coastal current. However, shelf cooling is not a circumpolar response to freshening. Deep warm anomalies arise in the Ross Sea, Adelie Coast, and Prydz Bay continental shelf dense water source regions under enhanced meltwater forcing, as full depth convention collapses and surface cooling fluxes diminish. Warming is strongest in the Ross Sea, where the absence of strong frontal structures and zonal currents at the shelf break grants warm, open ocean waters uninhibited access to the shelf. On the Prydz Bay and Adelie Coast shelf, warming due to convective shutdown is counterbalanced by decreased shoreward advective heat transport, due to strengthening frontal structures at the shelf break. As such, we find that coastal freshening induces both warm and cool anomalies at different locations along the Antarctic continental shelf, suggesting that shelf freshening by meltwater can both accelerate ice shelf melt (a positive feedback) and inhibit melt (a negative feedback) depending on regional factors. These findings improve our understanding of the complex suite of climate effects associated with the melting of Antarctica's land-ice. Both the disruption of abyssal overturning and shifts in heat transport to ice shelves have implications for sea-level rise; as reduced deep ocean ventilation may increase oceanic heat content (effecting steric sea-level), and accelerating land-ice loss, in regions of warming, adds mass to the oceans (effecting eustatic sea-level)

A Study Of Perceptions About Change Processes, Causes Of Problems, Power Elements And The Effects Of Activity Of Students And Black Parents In Change Attempts On Their Beliefs And Perceptions In The Willow Run School District.

PhDEducational psychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/190392/2/7403698.pd