The equilibrium flow and mass balance of the Taku Glacier, Alaska 1950?2006

International audienceThe Taku Glacier, Alaska has advanced 7.5 km since the late nineteenth century, while all other primary outlet glaciers of the Juneau Icefield are in retreat. The Juneau Icefield Research Program has completed field work on the Taku Glacier annually since 1946. The collected observations of surface mass balance, glacier velocity and glacier thickness at Profile IV 29 km above the terminus and 4 km above the equilibrium line provide a means to assess the equilibrium nature of the Taku Glacier. Velocity measured over a twelve month span and annual summer velocity measurements completed at a Profile IV from 1950?2006 indicate insignificant variations in velocity seasonally or from year to year. The consistency of velocity over the 56-year period indicates that in the vicinity of the equilibrium line, the flow of the Taku Glacier has been in an equilibrium state. Surface mass balance was positive from 1946?1988 averaging +0.42 m a?1. This led to glacier thickening. From 1988?2006 an important change has occurred and annual balance has been ?0.14 m a?1, and the glacier thickness has ceased increasing along Profile IV. Field measurements of ice depth and surface velocity allow calculation of the volume flux at Profile IV. Volume flux is then compared with the surface balance flux from the region of the glacier above Profile IV, determined annually in the field. Above Profile IV the observed mean surface flux is 5.50×108 m3/a (±5%), while the calculated volume flux range flowing through profile IV is 5.00?5.47×108 m3/a. The mean surface flux has been greater than the volume flux, which has led to slow thickening of the Taku Glacier up to 1988. The thickening has not led to a change in the flow of Taku Glacier at Profile IV

Oligovalent Fab Display on M13 Phage Improved by Directed Evolution

Efficient display of antibody on filamentous phage M13 coat is crucial for successful biopanning selections. We applied a directed evolution strategy to improve the oligovalent display of a poorly behaving Fab fragment fused to phage gene-3 for minor coat protein (g3p). The Fab displaying clones were enriched from a randomly mutated Fab gene library with polyclonal anti-mouse IgG antibodies. Contribution of each mutation to the improved phenotype of one selected mutant was studied. It was found out that two point mutations had significant contribution to the display efficiency of Fab clones superinfected with hyperphage. The most dramatic effect was connected to a start codon mutation, from AUG to GUG, of the PelB signal sequence preceding the heavy chain. The clone carrying this mutation, FabM(GUG), displayed Fab 19-fold better and yielded twofold higher phage titers than the original Fab

The association of maternal-fetal attachment with smoking and smoking cessation during pregnancy in The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

BackgroundSmoking in pregnancy constitutes a preventable risk factor for fetal/child development and maternal-fetal attachment (MFA) seems to contain a momentum that can break the chain of adverse outcomes by promoting maternal prenatal health practices. This study aimed to explore the association of MFA with smoking at any time during pregnancy and smoking cessation in early pregnancy, and the modifying role of MFA on the expected effects of education and prenatal psychological distress (PPD) on prenatal smoking behavior.MethodsThe pregnant women (n=3766) participated in the The FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study in Finland between December 2011 and April 2015. The binary outcomes, smoking at any time during pregnancy and smoking cessation in early pregnancy, were obtained from self-reports at gestational weeks (gwks) 14 and 34 and The Finnish Medical Birth Register. MFA was assessed with the Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale (MFAS) at gwks 24 and 34. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine the association between MFA and maternal prenatal smoking behavior.FindingsThe prevalence of smoking was 16.5%, and 58.1% of the smokers quit smoking during pregnancy. The independent associations of total MFA scores with prenatal smoking behavior were not established (aOR=1.00-1.02, multiplicity adjusted p>0.05). A higher score in the altruistic subscale of MFA, Giving of self, associated with a higher probability of smoking cessation (24 gwks: aOR=1.13, 95% CI [1.04, 1.24], p=0.007, multiplicity adjusted p=0.062; 34 gwks: aOR=1.17, 95% CI [1.07, 1.29], p<0.001, multiplicity adjusted p=0.008). The modifying effect of MFA on the observed associations between PPD and smoking in pregnancy and between maternal education and smoking in pregnancy / smoking cessation in early pregnancy was not demonstrated. ConclusionsThe altruistic dimension of maternal-fetal attachment associates with an increased probability of smoking cessation during pregnancy and therefore strengthening altruistic maternal-fetal attachment may constitute a promising novel approach for interventions aiming at promoting smoking cessation during pregnancy

Accelerating glacier volume loss on Juneau icefield driven by hypsometry and melt-accelerating feedbacks

Globally, glaciers and icefields contribute significantly to sea level rise. Here we show that ice loss from Juneau Icefield, a plateau icefield in Alaska, accelerated after 2005 AD. Rates of area shrinkage were 5 times faster from 2015–2019 than from 1979–1990. Glacier volume loss remained fairly consistent (0.65–1.01 km3 a−1) from 1770–1979 AD, rising to 3.08–3.72 km3 a−1 from 1979–2010, and then doubling after 2010 AD, reaching 5.91 ± 0.80 km3 a−1 (2010–2020). Thinning has become pervasive across the icefield plateau since 2005, accompanied by glacier recession and fragmentation. Rising equilibrium line altitudes and increasing ablation across the plateau has driven a series of hypsometrically controlled melt-accelerating feedbacks and resulted in the observed acceleration in mass loss. As glacier thinning on the plateau continues, a mass balance-elevation feedback is likely to inhibit future glacier regrowth, potentially pushing glaciers beyond a dynamic tipping point

Iron Deficiency and the Well-being of Older Adults: Early Results From a Randomized Nutrition Intervention

Iron deficiency is widespread throughout the developing world. We provide new evidence on the effect of iron deficiency on economic and social prosperity of older adults drawing on data from a random assignment treatment-control design intervention. The Work and Iron Status Evaluation is an on-going study following over 17,000 individuals in Central Java, Indonesia. Half the respondents receive a treatment of 120 mg of iron every week for a year; the controls receive a placebo. Compliance is monitored carefully. Results from the first six months of the intervention are presented for adults age 30 through 70 years. Males who were iron deficient prior to the intervention and who are assigned to the treatment are better off in terms of physical health, psycho-social health and economic success. These men are more likely to be working, sleep less, lose less work time to illness, are more energetic, more able to conduct physically arduous activities and their psycho-social health is better. There is evidence that economic productivity of these males also increased. Among iron-deficient males assigned to the treatment who were also self-employed prior to the baseline, hourly earnings rose substantially and so they earned more on a monthly basis. Benefits for women are in the same direction but the effects are more muted. The results provide unambiguous evidence in support of the hypothesis that health has a causal effect on economic prosperity of males during middle and older ages

Prenatal maternal distress associates with a blunted cortisol response in rhinovirus-positive infants

Introduction: Prenatal exposure to maternal psychological distress (PD) may have programming effects on the fetus/infant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and subsequently on the development of the fetus’ immune function. Therefore, our aim was to study whether prenatal exposure to PD is related to early infant HPA axis reactivity in the context of a subclinical rhinovirus infection that challenges infants HPA axis postnatally.Methods: This study included 336 10-week-old infants from the nested case control Focus Cohort of the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. The outcome was infant HPA axis reactivity in a stress test. The acute stressor comprised of pediatric examination with venipuncture and nasal swabs for virus assessment. Saliva cortisol samples were collected at 5 time points: baseline, 0, 15, 25 and 35 min after the stressor. HPA axis reactivity was defined by the cumulative post-stressor cortisol concentration.Results: HPA axis reactivity was blunted in the PD/rhinovirus + group compared to the average of control/rhinovirus+, PD/rhinovirus-, and control/rhinovirus- groups (difference: 14.7 ln [nmol/L] × min, 95% confidence interval 3.8–25.6, p =  .008). HPA axis reactivity was significantly blunted only in boys with rhinovirus detected when separately tested for boys and girls (p =  .04).Conclusion: Our finding of PD-exposed rhinovirus-positive infants having blunted cortisol secretion gives rise to a hypothesis that maternal PD during pregnancy influences infant HPA axis functioning and the functioning of the immune system. Future studies are needed to test whether this suppression of the HPA axis that co-occurs with rhinovirus infection associates with later disease development (e.g., asthma).</p

Foodways in transition: food plants, diet and local perceptions of change in a Costa Rican Ngäbe community

Background Indigenous populations are undergoing rapid ethnobiological, nutritional and socioeconomic transitions while being increasingly integrated into modernizing societies. To better understand the dynamics of these transitions, this article aims to characterize the cultural domain of food plants and analyze its relation with current day diets, and the local perceptions of changes given amongst the Ngäbe people of Southern Conte-Burica, Costa Rica, as production of food plants by its residents is hypothesized to be drastically in recession with an decreased local production in the area and new conservation and development paradigms being implemented. Methods Extensive freelisting, interviews and workshops were used to collect the data from 72 participants on their knowledge of food plants, their current dietary practices and their perceptions of change in local foodways, while cultural domain analysis, descriptive statistical analyses and development of fundamental explanatory themes were employed to analyze the data. Results Results show a food plants domain composed of 140 species, of which 85 % grow in the area, with a medium level of cultural consensus, and some age-based variation. Although many plants still grow in the area, in many key species a decrease on local production–even abandonment–was found, with much reduced cultivation areas. Yet, the domain appears to be largely theoretical, with little evidence of use; and the diet today is predominantly dependent on foods bought from the store (more than 50 % of basic ingredients), many of which were not salient or not even recognized as ‘food plants’ in freelists exercises. While changes in the importance of food plants were largely deemed a result of changes in cultural preferences for store bought processed food stuffs and changing values associated with farming and being food self-sufficient, Ngäbe were also aware of how changing household livelihood activities, and the subsequent loss of knowledge and use of food plants, were in fact being driven by changes in social and political policies, despite increases in forest cover and biodiversity. Conclusions Ngäbe foodways are changing in different and somewhat disconnected ways: knowledge of food plants is varied, reflecting most relevant changes in dietary practices such as lower cultivation areas and greater dependence on food from stores by all families. We attribute dietary shifts to socioeconomic and political changes in recent decades, in particular to a reduction of local production of food, new economic structures and agents related to the State and globalization

Dark matter scenarios in the minimal SUSY B-L model

We perform a study of the dark matter candidates of a constrained version of the minimal R-parity-conserving supersymmetric model with a gauged $U(1)_{B-L}$. It turns out that there are four additional candidates for dark matter in comparison to the MSSM: two kinds of neutralino, which either correspond to the gaugino of the $U(1)_{B-L}$ or to a fermionic bilepton, as well as "right-handed" CP-even and -odd sneutrinos. The correct dark matter relic density of the neutralinos can be obtained due to different mechanisms including new co-annihilation regions and resonances. The large additional Yukawa couplings required to break the $U(1)_{B-L}$ radiatively often lead to large annihilation cross sections for the sneutrinos. The correct treatment of gauge kinetic mixing is crucial to the success of some scenarios. All candidates are consistent with the exclusion limits of Xenon100.Comment: 45 pages, 22 figures; v2: extended discussion of direct detection cross section, matches published versio

Two loop electroweak corrections to Bˉ→Xsγ\bar B\rightarrow X_s\gamma and Bs0→μ+μ−B_s^0\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^- in the B-LSSM

The rare decays $\bar B\rightarrow X_s\gamma$ and $B_s^0\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^-$ are important to research new physics beyond standard model. In this work, we investigate two loop electroweak corrections to $\bar B\rightarrow X_s\gamma$ and $B_s^0\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^-$ in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the SM with local $B-L$ gauge symmetry (B-LSSM), under a minimal flavor violating assumption for the soft breaking terms. In this framework, new particles and new definition of squarks can affect the theoretical predictions of these two processes, with respect to the MSSM. Considering the constraints from updated experimental data, the numerical results show that the B-LSSM can fit the experimental data for the branching ratios of $\bar B\rightarrow X_s\gamma$ and $B_s^0\rightarrow \mu^+\mu^-$. The results of the rare decays also further constrain the parameter space of the B-LSSM.Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, Published in EPJ