Major role of the equatorial current system in setting oxygen levels in the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean: a high-resolution model study

Understanding the causes of the observed expansion of tropical ocean's oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) is hampered by large biases in the representation of oxygen distribution in climate models, pointing to incorrectly represented mechanisms. Here we assess the oxygen budget in a global biogeochemical circulation model, focusing on the Atlantic Ocean. While a coarse (0.5°) configuration displays the common bias of too large and too intense OMZs, the oxygen concentration in an eddying (0.1°) configuration is higher and closer to observations. This improvement is traced to a stronger oxygen supply by a more realistic representation of the equatorial and off-equatorial undercurrents, outweighing the concurrent increase in oxygen consumption associated with the stronger nutrient supply. The sensitivity of the eastern tropical Atlantic oxygen budget to the equatorial current intensity suggests that temporal changes in the eastward oxygen transport from the well-oxygenated western boundary region might partly explain variations in the OMZs

Fever and hypothermia represent two populations of sepsis patients and are associated with outside temperature

Abstract Background Fever and hypothermia have been observed in septic patients. Their influence on prognosis is subject to ongoing debates. Methods We did a secondary analysis of a large clinical dataset from a quality improvement trial. A binary logistic regression model was calculated to assess the association of the thermal response with outcome and a multinomial regression model to assess factors associated with fever or hypothermia. Results With 6542 analyzable cases we observed a bimodal temperature response characterized by fever or hypothermia, normothermia was rare. Hypothermia and high fever were both associated with higher lactate values. Hypothermia was associated with higher mortality, but this association was reduced after adjustment for other risk factors. Age, community-acquired sepsis, lower BMI and lower outside temperatures were associated with hypothermia while bacteremia and higher procalcitonin values were associated with high fever. Conclusions Septic patients show either a hypothermic or a fever response. Whether hypothermia is a maladaptive response, as indicated by the higher mortality in hypothermic patients, or an adaptive response in patients with limited metabolic reserves under colder environmental conditions, remains an open question. Trial registration The original trial whose dataset was analyzed was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01187134) on August 23, 2010, the first patient was included on July 1, 2011

Scientific opportunies for bERLinPro 2020+, report with ideas and conclusions from bERLinProCamp 2019

The Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) paradigm offers the promise to generate intense electron beams of superior quality with extremely small six-dimensional phase space for many applications in the physical sciences, materials science, chemistry, health, information technology and security. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin started in 2010 an intensive R\&D programme to address the challenges related to the ERL as driver for future light sources by setting up the bERLinPro (Berlin ERL Project) ERL with 50 MeV beam energy and high average current. The project is close to reach its major milestone in 2020, acceleration and recovery of a high brightness electron beam. The goal of bERLinProCamp 2019 was to discuss scientific opportunities for bERLinPro 2020+. bERLinProCamp 2019 was held on Tue, 17.09.2019 at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Berlin, Germany. This paper summarizes the main themes and output of the workshop