A framework for quantifying hydrologic effects of soil structure across scales

Earth system models use soil information to parameterize hard-to-measure soil hydraulic properties based on pedotransfer functions. However, current parameterizations rely on sample-scale information which often does not account for biologically-promoted soil structure and heterogeneities in natural landscapes, which may significantly alter infiltration-runoff and other exchange processes at larger scales. Here we propose a systematic framework to incorporate soil structure corrections into pedotransfer functions, informed by remote-sensing vegetation metrics and local soil texture, and use numerical simulations to investigate their effects on spatially distributed and areal averaged infiltration-runoff partitioning. We demonstrate that small scale soil structure features prominently alter the hydrologic response emerging at larger scales and that upscaled parameterizations must consider spatial correlations between vegetation and soil texture. The proposed framework allows the incorporation of hydrological effects of soil structure with appropriate scale considerations into contemporary pedotransfer functions used for land surface parameterization

A framework for quantifying hydrologic effects of soil structure across scales

Earth system models use soil information to parameterize hard-to-measure soil hydraulic properties based on pedotransfer functions. However, current parameterizations rely on sample-scale information which often does not account for biologically-promoted soil structure and heterogeneities in natural landscapes, which may significantly alter infiltration-runoff and other exchange processes at larger scales. Here we propose a systematic framework to incorporate soil structure corrections into pedotransfer functions, informed by remote-sensing vegetation metrics and local soil texture, and use numerical simulations to investigate their effects on spatially distributed and areal averaged infiltration-runoff partitioning. We demonstrate that small scale soil structure features prominently alter the hydrologic response emerging at larger scales and that upscaled parameterizations must consider spatial correlations between vegetation and soil texture. The proposed framework allows the incorporation of hydrological effects of soil structure with appropriate scale considerations into contemporary pedotransfer functions used for land surface parameterization

Consistent Two-Flow Network for Tele-Registration of Point Clouds

Rigid registration of partial observations is a fundamental problem in various applied fields. In computer graphics, special attention has been given to the registration between two partial point clouds generated by scanning devices. State-of-the-art registration techniques still struggle when the overlap region between the two point clouds is small, and completely fail if there is no overlap between the scan pairs. In this paper, we present a learning-based technique that alleviates this problem, and allows registration between point clouds, presented in arbitrary poses, and having little or even no overlap, a setting that has been referred to as tele-registration. Our technique is based on a novel neural network design that learns a prior of a class of shapes and can complete a partial shape. The key idea is combining the registration and completion tasks in a way that reinforces each other. In particular, we simultaneously train the registration network and completion network using two coupled flows, one that register-and-complete, and one that complete-and-register, and encourage the two flows to produce a consistent result. We show that, compared with each separate flow, this two-flow training leads to robust and reliable tele-registration, and hence to a better point cloud prediction that completes the registered scans. It is also worth mentioning that each of the components in our neural network outperforms state-of-the-art methods in both completion and registration. We further analyze our network with several ablation studies and demonstrate its performance on a large number of partial point clouds

Relative humidity and its effect on aerosol optical depth in the vicinity of convective clouds

The hygroscopic growth of aerosols is controlled by the relative humidity (RH) and changes the aerosols' physical and hence optical properties. Observational studies of aerosol–cloud interactions evaluate the aerosol concentration using optical parameters, such as the aerosol optical depth (AOD), which can be affected by aerosol humidification. In this study we evaluate the RH background and variance values, in the lower cloudy atmosphere, an additional source of variance in AOD values beside the natural changes in aerosol concentration. In addition, we estimate the bias in RH and AOD, related to cloud thickness. This provides the much needed range of RH-related biases in studies of aerosol–cloud interaction. Twelve years of radiosonde measurements (June–August) in thirteen globally distributed stations are analyzed. The estimated non-biased AOD variance due to day-to-day changes in RH is found to be around 20% and the biases linked to cloud development around 10%. Such an effect is important and should be considered in direct and indirect aerosol effect estimations but it is inadequate to account for most of the AOD trend found in observational studies of aerosol–cloud interactions

Potential Protective Link Between Type I Diabetes and Parkinson's Disease Risk and Progression

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies suggested an association between Parkinson's disease (PD) and type 2 diabetes, but less is known about type 1 diabetes (T1D) and PD. OBJECTIVE: This study sought to explore the association between T1D and PD. METHODS: We used Mendelian randomization, linkage disequilibrium score regression, and multi-tissue transcriptome-wide analysis to examine the association between PD and T1D. RESULTS: Mendelian randomization showed a potentially protective role of T1D for PD risk (odds ratio [OR], 0.97; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94-0.99; P = 0.039), as well as motor (OR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.88-0.99; P = 0.044) and cognitive progression (OR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.08-2.09; P = 0.015). We further found a negative genetic correlation between T1D and PD (rg = -0.17; P = 0.016), and we identified eight genes in cross-tissue transcriptome-wide analysis that were associated with both traits. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest a potential genetic link between T1D and PD risk and progression. Larger comprehensive epidemiological and genetic studies are required to validate our findings. © 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Derivation of species-specific hybridization-like knowledge out of cross-species hybridization results

BACKGROUND: One of the approaches for conducting genomics research in organisms without extant microarray platforms is to profile their expression patterns by using Cross-Species Hybridization (CSH). Several different studies using spotted microarray and CSH produced contradicting conclusions in the ability of CSH to reflect biological processes described by species-specific hybridization (SSH). RESULTS: We used a tomato-spotted cDNA microarray to examine the ability of CSH to reflect SSH data. Potato RNA was hybridized to spotted cDNA tomato and potato microarrays to generate CSH and SSH data, respectively. Difficulties arose in obtaining transcriptomic data from CSH that reflected those obtained from SSH. Nevertheless, once the data was filtered for those corresponding to matching probe sets, by restricting proper cutoffs of probe homology, the CSH transcriptome data showed improved reflection of those of the SSH. CONCLUSIONS: This study evaluated the relative performance of CSH compared to SSH, and proposes methods to ensure that CSH closely reflects the biological process analyzed by SSH

Strong correlations and orbital texture in single-layer 1T-TaSe2

Strong electron correlation can induce Mott insulating behaviour and produce intriguing states of matter such as unconventional superconductivity and quantum spin liquids. Recent advances in van der Waals material synthesis enable the exploration of Mott systems in the two-dimensional limit. Here we report characterization of the local electronic properties of single- and few-layer 1T-TaSe2 via spatial- and momentum-resolved spectroscopy involving scanning tunnelling microscopy and angle-resolved photoemission. Our results indicate that electron correlation induces a robust Mott insulator state in single-layer 1T-TaSe2 that is accompanied by unusual orbital texture. Interlayer coupling weakens the insulating phase, as shown by reduction of the energy gap and quenching of the correlation-driven orbital texture in bilayer and trilayer 1T-TaSe2. This establishes single-layer 1T-TaSe2 as a useful platform for investigating strong correlation physics in two dimensions

Phylogenetic Relationships and Evolutionary Patterns of the Order Collodaria (Radiolaria)

Collodaria are the only group of Radiolaria that has a colonial lifestyle. This group is potentially the most important plankton in the oligotrophic ocean because of its large biomass and the high primary productivity associated with the numerous symbionts inside a cell or colony. The evolution of Collodaria could thus be related to the changes in paleo-productivity that have affected organic carbon fixation in the oligotrophic ocean. However, the fossil record of Collodaria is insufficient to trace their abundance through geological time, because most collodarians do not have silicified shells. Recently, molecular phylogeny based on nuclear small sub-unit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) confirmed Collodaria to be one of five orders of Radiolaria, though the relationship among collodarians is still unresolved because of inadequate taxonomic sampling. Our phylogenetic analysis has revealed four novel collodarian sequences, on the basis of which collodarians can be divided into four clades that correspond to taxonomic grouping at the family level: Thalassicollidae, Collozoidae, Collosphaeridae, and Collophidae. Comparison of the results of our phylogenetic analyses with the morphological characteristics of each collodarian family suggests that the first ancestral collodarians had a solitary lifestyle and left no silica deposits. The timing of events estimated from molecular divergence calculations indicates that naked collodarian lineages first appeared around 45.6 million years (Ma) ago, coincident with the diversification of diatoms in the pelagic oceans. Colonial collodarians appeared after the formation of the present ocean circulation system and the development of oligotrophic conditions in the equatorial Pacific (ca. 33.4 Ma ago). The divergence of colonial collodarians probably caused a shift in the efficiency of primary production during this period