Stable Isotope Records from Mount Logan, Eclipse Ice Cores and Nearby Jellybean Lake. Water Cycle of the North Pacific Over 2000 Years and Over Five Vertical Kilometres: Sudden Shifts and Tropical Connections

Three ice cores recovered on or near Mount Logan, together with a nearby lake record (Jellybean Lake), cover variously 500 to 30 000 years. This suite of records offers a unique view of the lapse rate in stable isotopes from the lower to upper troposphere. The region is climatologically important, being beside the Cordilleran pinning-point of the Rossby Wave system and the Aleutian Low. Comparison of stable isotope series over the last 2000 years and model simulations suggest sudden and persistent shifts between modern (mixed) and zonal flow regimes of water vapour transport to the Pacific Northwest. The last such shift was in A.D. 1840. Model simulations for modern and “pure” zonal flow suggest that these shifts are consistent regime changes between these flow types, with predominantly zonal flow prior to ca. A.D. 1840 and modern thereafter. The 5.4 and 0.8 km asl records show a shift at A.D. 1840 and another at A.D. 800. It is speculated that the A.D. 1840 regime shift coincided with the end of the Little Ice Age and the A.D. 800 shift with the beginning of the European Medieval Warm Period. The shifts are very abrupt, taking only a few years at most.Trois carottes de glace prélevées à proximité du mont Logan, combinées à une coupe stratigraphique du lac Jellybean, couvrent une période comprise entre 500 et 30 000 ans. Elles renseignent sur les taux de changement de la composition isotopique de la troposphère. La région étudiée est importante au niveau climatologique puisqu’elle est au point de convergence des ondes de Rossby et de la dépression des Aléoutiennes. La comparaison entre la composition isotopique depuis 2000 ans et les résultats des simulations suggère des changements brusques et persistants entre les régimes de transport de vapeur d’eau modernes et zonaux dans le nord-est du Pacifique, où le dernier changement s’est produit en 1840 de notre ère. Les simulations indiquent que les changements de flux correspondent aux changements de régime, avec un flux zonal avant ca 1840 pour passer au type moderne ensuite. Les forages à 5,4 et 0,8 km d’altitude montrent un changement en A.D. 1840 et un autre en l’an 800. On présume que ces changements de régime coïncident respectivement avec la fin du Petit Âge Glaciaire et le début de la période médiévale chaude, ces changements s’étant produits en quelques années seulement

Exploring the mycobacteriophage metaproteome: Phage genomics as an educational platform

Bacteriophages are the most abundant forms of life in the biosphere and carry genomes characterized by high genetic diversity and mosaic architectures. The complete sequences of 30 mycobacteriophage genomes show them collectively to encode 101 tRNAs, three tmRNAs, and 3,357 proteins belonging to 1,536 "phamilies" of related sequences, and a statistical analysis predicts that these represent approximately 50% of the total number of phamilies in the mycobacteriophage population. These phamilies contain 2.19 proteins on average; more than half (774) of them contain just a single protein sequence. Only six phamilies have representatives in more than half of the 30 genomes, and only three - encoding tape-measure proteins, lysins, and minor tail proteins - are present in all 30 phages, although these phamilies are themselves highly modular, such that no single amino acid sequence element is present in all 30 mycobacteriophage genomes. Of the 1,536 phamilies, only 230 (15%) have amino acid sequence similarity to previously reported proteins, reflecting the enormous genetic diversity of the entire phage population. The abundance and diversity of phages, the simplicity of phage isolation, and the relatively small size of phage genomes support bacteriophage isolation and comparative genomic analysis as a highly suitable platform for discovery-based education. © 2006 Hatfull et al

Historical black carbon deposition in the Canadian High Arctic: a >250-year long ice-core record from Devon Island

Black carbon aerosol (BC), which is emitted from natural and anthropogenic sources (e.g., wildfires, coal burning), can contribute to magnify climate warming at high latitudes by darkening snow- and ice-covered surfaces, and subsequently lowering their albedo. Therefore, modeling the atmospheric transport and deposition of BC to the Arctic is important, and historical archives of BC accumulation in polar ice can help to validate such modeling efforts. Here we present a >250-year ice-core record of refractory BC (rBC) deposition on Devon ice cap, Canada, spanning the years from 1735 to 1992. This is the first such record ever developed from the Canadian Arctic. The estimated mean deposition flux of rBC on Devon ice cap for 1963-1990 is 0.2mg m-2a-1, which is at the low end of estimates from Greenland ice cores obtained using the same analytical method ( g1/4 0.1-4mg m-2a-1). The Devon ice cap rBC record also differs from the Greenland records in that it shows only a modest increase in rBC deposition during the 20th century. In the Greenland records a pronounced rise in rBC is observed from the 1880s to the 1910s, which is largely attributed to midlatitude coal burning emissions. The deposition of contaminants such as sulfate and lead increased on Devon ice cap in the 20th century but no concomitant rise in rBC is recorded in the ice. Part of the difference with Greenland could be due to local factors such as melt-freeze cycles on Devon ice cap that may limit the detection sensitivity of rBC analyses in melt-impacted core samples, and wind scouring of winter snow at the coring site. Air back-trajectory analyses also suggest that Devon ice cap receives BC from more distant North American and Eurasian sources than Greenland, and aerosol mixing and removal during long-range transport over the Arctic Ocean likely masks some of the specific BC source-receptor relationships. Findings from this study suggest that there could be a large variability in BC aerosol deposition across the Arctic region arising from different transport patterns. This variability needs to be accounted for when estimating the large-scale albedo lowering effect of BC deposition on Arctic snow/ice

Tephrochronology

Tephrochronology is the use of primary, characterized tephras or cryptotephras as chronostratigraphic marker beds to connect and synchronize geological, paleoenvironmental, or archaeological sequences or events, or soils/paleosols, and, uniquely, to transfer relative or numerical ages or dates to them using stratigraphic and age information together with mineralogical and geochemical compositional data, especially from individual glass-shard analyses, obtained for the tephra/cryptotephra deposits. To function as an age-equivalent correlation and chronostratigraphic dating tool, tephrochronology may be undertaken in three steps: (i) mapping and describing tephras and determining their stratigraphic relationships, (ii) characterizing tephras or cryptotephras in the laboratory, and (iii) dating them using a wide range of geochronological methods. Tephrochronology is also an important tool in volcanology, informing studies on volcanic petrology, volcano eruption histories and hazards, and volcano-climate forcing. Although limitations and challenges remain, multidisciplinary applications of tephrochronology continue to grow markedly

Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) and their applications [forthcoming]

Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) and Their Application

Photovoltaic performance measurements in Europe: PV-catapult round robin tests

Two sets of modules have been sent around to different testing installations across Europe, one set to laboratories performing indoor calibrations and one set to laboratories performing outdoor power and energy ratings. The results show that for crystalline and polycrystalline devices, a very good agreement between laboratories has been achieved. A lower agreement between laboratories has been achieved for thin film devices and further need for research is identified

Total hemoglobin mass, aerobic capacity, and hbb gene in polish road cyclists

The relationship between genes, amount of hemoglobin, and physical performance are still not clearly defined. The aim of this study was to examine the association between-551C/T and intron 2, +16 C/G polymorphisms in the beta hemoglobin (HBB) gene and total hemoglobin mass (tHbmass) and aerobic capacity in endurance athletes. Total hemoglobin mass and aerobic capacity indices, i. e.,VO2max, oxygen uptake at anaerobic threshold (VO2AT), maximal power output (Pmax), and power at anaerobic threshold (PAT) were determined in 89 young road cyclists, female (n = 39) and male (n = 50), who were genotyped for 2 polymorphisms in the HBB gene. The relative values of aerobic capacity indices differed significantly among intron 2, +16 C/G polymorphisms of the HBB gene only in female cyclists; athletes with GG genotype had significantly higher values of V O2max (p = 0.003), VO2AT (p = 0.007), PAT (p = 0.015), and Pmax (p = 0.004) than C carriers. No relationships were found between the C-carrier model (CC + CG vs. GG in the case of intron 2, +16 C/G and CC + CT vs. TT for -551 C/T polymorphisms of the HBB gene) and relative values of tHbmass. Our results demonstrated that the HBB gene could be related to aerobic capacity, but it seems that it does not result from an increase in the amount of hemoglobin in the blood

Nonheritable Cellular Variability Accelerates the Evolutionary Processes of Cancer

Heritable genetic or epigenetic changes in cells are thought to drive tumor development, metastasis, and drug resistance. This essay discusses the possibility that nonheritable phenotypic variability contributes to the evolution of cancer, suggesting new approaches to treatment