An Observational Study of Tropical Cyclone Spinup in Supertyphoon Jangmi (2008) from 24 to 27 September

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-12-00306.1An observational study of tropical cyclone intensification is performed using dropsondes, in situ flight-level data, satellite imagery, and Electra Doppler Radar (ELDORA) during the spinup of Tropical Storm Jangmi (2008) in the western North Pacific. This event was observed with research aircraft during the Tropical Cyclone Structure 2008 (TCS08) field experiment over the course of 3 days as Jangmi intensified rapidly from a tropical storm to a supertyphoon. The dropsonde analysis indicates that the peak azimuthally averaged storm-relative tangential wind speed occurs persistently within the boundary layer throughout the spinup period and suggests that significant supergradient winds are present near and just within the radius of maximum tangential winds. An examination of the ELDORA data in Tropical Storm Jangmi reveals multiple rotating updrafts near the developing eye beneath cold cloud top temperatures ≤ -65°C. In particular, there is a 12-km-wide, upright updraft with a peak velocity of 9m s¯¹ with collocated strong low-level (z < 2 km) convergence of 2 x 10¯³ s¯¹ and intense relative vorticity of 4 x 10¯³ s¯¹. The analysis of the corresponding infrared satellite imagery suggests that vortical updrafts are common before and during rapid intensification. The findings of this study support a recent paradigm of tropical cyclone intensification in which rotating convective clouds are important elements in the spinup process. In a system-scale view of this process, the maximum tangential wind is found within the boundary layer, where the tangential wind becomes supergradient before the air ascends into the eyewall updraft.Naval Postgraduate SchoolOffice of Naval Research (Grant N001408WR20129),National Science FoundationOffice of Naval Research (Grant N001408WR20129

Is graphene on copper doped?

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy have been used to characterise epitaxially ordered graphene grown on copper foil by low-pressure chemical vapour deposition. A short vacuum anneal to 200 °C allows observation of ordered low energy electron diffraction patterns. High quality Dirac cones are measured in ARPES with the Dirac point at the Fermi level (undoped graphene). Annealing above 300 °C produces n-type doping in the graphene with up to 350 meV shift in Fermi level, and opens a band gap of around 100 meV. Dirac cone dispersion for graphene on Cu foil after vacuum anneals (left: 200 °C, undoped; right: 500 °C, n-doped). Centre: low energy electron diffraction from graphene on Cu foil after 200 °C anneal. Data from Antares (SOLEIL)

Runx1 orchestrates sphingolipid metabolism and glucocorticoid resistance in lymphomagenesis

The three-membered RUNX gene family includes RUNX1, a major mutational target in human leukemias, and displays hallmarks of both tumour suppressors and oncogenes. In mouse models the Runx genes appear to act as conditional oncogenes, as ectopic expression is growth suppressive in normal cells but drives lymphoma development potently when combined with over-expressed Myc or loss of p53. Clues to underlying mechanisms emerged previously from murine fibroblasts where ectopic expression of any of the Runx genes promotes survival through direct and indirect regulation of key enzymes in sphingolipid metabolism associated with a shift in the ‘sphingolipid rheostat’ from ceramide to sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P). Testing of this relationship in lymphoma cells was therefore a high priority. We find that ectopic expression of Runx1 in lymphoma cells consistently perturbs the sphingolipid rheostat, while an essential physiological role for Runx1 is revealed by reduced S1P levels in normal spleen after partial Cre-mediated excision. Furthermore we show that ectopic Runx1 expression confers increased resistance of lymphoma cells to glucocorticoid-mediated apoptosis, and elucidate the mechanism of cross-talk between glucocorticoid and sphingolipid metabolism through Sgpp1. Dexamethasone potently induces expression of Sgpp1 in T-lymphoma cells and drives cell death which is reduced by partial knockdown of Sgpp1 with shRNA or direct transcriptional repression of Sgpp1 by ectopic Runx1. Together these data show that Runx1 plays a role in regulating the sphingolipid rheostat in normal development and that perturbation of this cell fate regulator contributes to Runx-driven lymphomagenesis

Population-Based Pragmatic Trial of Advance Care Planning in Primary Care in the University of California Health System.

Introduction: Varying intensity of advance care planning (ACP) interventions at the population level has not been compared among seriously ill patients in primary care. This project will implement, test, and disseminate real-world scalable ACP interventions among primary care clinics across three University of California Health systems. The three ACP interventions are (1) distribution of an advance directive (AD) with targeted ACP messaging, (2) the AD, messaging, plus prompting patients to engage with the Prepare For Your Care website (PREPARE), and (3) the AD, messaging, PREPARE, plus Care Coordinator engagement with patients and clinicians. Methods: We will identify a population cohort of seriously ill primary care patients and implement the ACP interventions using electronic health record (EHR) patient portals and postal mailings. Forty-five clinics across the three health systems will be cluster randomized to one of the three ACP interventions. The primary outcome for the population cohort is AD or Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment documentation in the EHR. A subset of the population cohort will be surveyed to assess patient-centered outcomes, including care consistent with goals at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months. Caregivers will be interviewed if patients are unable to be surveyed or die. ACP documentation, goal concordant care, and among decedents, health care utilization will be compared among intervention arms. Study Implementation: Challenges and Contributions: The project is guided by a Study Advisory Group and Community Advisory Groups at each site to ensure rigorous patient-centered methods and consistency of implementation. Intervention fidelity will be evaluated using the Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. Challenges to implementation of this three-site health system trial and to intervention fidelity stem from site/clinic/system cultures, increasing attention to end-of-life care from payers and regulators, and growing pressures by health systems to implement ACP interventions. Stakeholder engagement is required to ensure consistent interventions across sites

Municipal composts improve landscape plant establishment in compacted soil

Urban landscape soils are often compacted by construction activities, thereby restricting plant establishment. Common approaches to improve plant establishment on compacted soils are to till soil before plant installation, to apply compost, or to choose plants that can tolerate drought. This research was undertaken to evaluate the relative importance of remedial practices (tillage, compost application, and plant selection) on survival and growth of landscape plants in compacted, non-irrigated soil in a mediterranean climate (western Oregon, USA). In 2008, moist silt loam soil was compacted with a vibrating roller, followed by application of compost, tillage, and plant installation. Planting holes (25 cm deep x 15 cm diameter) for installation of transplants from 3.8-L pots were drilled into compacted soil using a power auger. We report soil and plant data for 2009. Pre-plant compost application increased plant growth and quality of both standard and drought-tolerant landscape plants. The first-year plant growth response to compost was the same for compost left on the soil surface or compost incorporated via roto-tilling. Apparently, enough compost fell into the planting holes on the “no till” plots to stimulate plant establishment. Biosolids compost provided more plant-available nitrogen than yard debris compost, but compost effects on plant growth and quality were similar for most plant varieties. Groundcover plants grew more with the biosolids compost than with the yard debris compost. We conclude that compost application is beneficial for plant establishment for all landscape species tested, and that it is not essential to incorporate the compost into soil before planting

A Vast Thin Plane of Co-rotating Dwarf Galaxies Orbiting the Andromeda Galaxy

Dwarf satellite galaxies are thought to be the remnants of the population of primordial structures that coalesced to form giant galaxies like the Milky Way. An early analysis noted that dwarf galaxies may not be isotropically distributed around our Galaxy, as several are correlated with streams of HI emission, and possibly form co-planar groups. These suspicions are supported by recent analyses, and it has been claimed that the apparently planar distribution of satellites is not predicted within standard cosmology, and cannot simply represent a memory of past coherent accretion. However, other studies dispute this conclusion. Here we report the existence (99.998% significance) of a planar sub-group of satellites in the Andromeda galaxy, comprising approximately 50% of the population. The structure is vast: at least 400 kpc in diameter, but also extremely thin, with a perpendicular scatter <14.1 kpc (99% confidence). Radial velocity measurements reveal that the satellites in this structure have the same sense of rotation about their host. This finding shows conclusively that substantial numbers of dwarf satellite galaxies share the same dynamical orbital properties and direction of angular momentum, a new insight for our understanding of the origin of these most dark matter dominated of galaxies. Intriguingly, the plane we identify is approximately aligned with the pole of the Milky Way's disk and is co-planar with the Milky Way to Andromeda position vector. The existence of such extensive coherent kinematic structures within the halos of massive galaxies is a fact that must be explained within the framework of galaxy formation and cosmology.Comment: Published in the 3rd Jan 2013 issue of Nature. 19 pages, 4 figures, 1 three-dimensional interactive figure. To view and manipulate the 3-D figure, an Adobe Reader browser plug-in is required; alternatively save to disk and view with Adobe Reade

Three centuries of shifting hydroclimatic regimes across the Mongolian Breadbasket

In its continuing move toward resource independence, Mongolia has recently entered a new agricultural era. Large crop fields and center-pivot irrigation have been established in the last 10 years across Mongolia's "Breadbasket": the Bulgan, Selenge and Tov aimags of northcentral Mongolia. Since meteorological records are typically short and spatially diffuse, little is known about the frequency and scale of past droughts in this region. We use six chronologies from the eastern portion of the breadbasket region to reconstruct streamflow of the Yeruu River. These chronologies accounted for 60.8% of May–September streamflow from 1959 to 1987 and 74.1% from 1988 to 2001. All split, calibration-verification statistics were positive, indicating significant model reconstruction. Reconstructed Yeruu River streamflow indicates the 20th century to be wetter than the two prior centuries. When comparing the new reconstruction to an earlier reconstruction of Selenge River streamflow, representing the western portion of the breadbasket region, both records document more pluvial events of greater intensity during 20th century versus prior centuries and indicate that the recent decade of drought that lead to greater aridity across the landscape is not unusual in the context of the last 300 years. Most interestingly, variability analyses indicate that the larger river basin in the western breadbasket (the Selenge basin) experiences greater swings in hydroclimate at multi-decadal to centennial time scales while the smaller basin in the eastern portion of the breadbasket (the Yeruu basin) is more stable. From this comparison, there would be less risk in agricultural productivity in the eastern breadbasket region, although the western breadbasket region can potentially be enormously productive for decades at a time before becoming quite dry for an equally long period of time. These results indicate that farmers and water managers need to prepare for both pluvial conditions like those in the late-1700s, and drier conditions like those during the early and mid-1800s. Recent studies have indicated that cultures with plentiful resources are more vulnerable when these resources become diminished. Thus, the instrumental records of the 20th century should not be used as a model of moisture availability. Most importantly, the geographic mismatch between precipitation, infrastructure, and water demand could turn out to be particularly acute for countries like Mongolia, especially as these patterns can switch in space through time

Improving garden soils with organic matter

This publication will help you understand the importance of soil organic matter levels to good plant performance. It also contains suggestions for suitable soil amendments. Any soil, no matter how compacted, can be improved by the addition of organic matter. The result will be a better environment for almost any kind of plant.Published May 2003. Reviewed August 2013. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo

Functional studies of signaling pathways in peri-implantation development of the mouse embryo by RNAi.

BACKGROUND: Studies of gene function in the mouse have relied mainly on gene targeting via homologous recombination. However, this approach is difficult to apply in specific windows of time, and to simultaneously knock-down multiple genes. Here we report an efficient method for dsRNA-mediated gene silencing in late cleavage-stage mouse embryos that permits examination of phenotypes at post-implantation stages. RESULTS: We show that introduction of Bmp4 dsRNA into intact blastocysts by electroporation recapitulates the genetic Bmp4 null phenotype at gastrulation. It also reveals a novel role for Bmp4 in the regulation the anterior visceral endoderm specific gene expression and its positioning. We also show that RNAi can be used to simultaneously target several genes. When applied to the three murine isoforms of Dishevelled, it leads to earlier defects than previously observed in double knock-outs. These include severe delays in post-implantation development and defects in the anterior midline and neural folds at headfold stages. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the BMP4 signalling pathway contributes to the development of the anterior visceral endoderm, and reveal an early functional redundancy between the products of the murine Dishevelled genes. The proposed approach constitutes a powerful tool to screen the functions of genes that govern the development of the mouse embryo.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Mulching woody ornamentals with organic materials

A wide variety of materials are sold as mulches and used in landscapes. This publication discusses mulching woody ornamentals (trees and shrubs) with organic materials. It covers the reasons for mulching, how to apply mulch, and how to maintain its beneficial effects over time. The information is presented in a question-and-answer format. The general principles described here also apply to a wide range of other organic materials. A table is included to help you compare the characteristics of materials used as mulches in western Oregon.Published March 2009. Reviewed December 2013. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo