Holocene dynamics of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds and possible links to CO2 outgassing

The Southern Hemisphere westerly winds (SHW) play an important role in regulating the capacity of the Southern Ocean carbon sink. They modulate upwelling of carbon-rich deep water and, with sea ice, determine the ocean surface area available for air–sea gas exchange. Some models indicate that the current strengthening and poleward shift of these winds will weaken the carbon sink. If correct, centennial- to millennial-scale reconstructions of the SHW intensity should be linked with past changes in atmospheric CO2, temperature and sea ice. Here we present a 12,300-year reconstruction of wind strength based on three independent proxies that track inputs of sea-salt aerosols and minerogenic particles accumulating in lake sediments on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island. Between about 12.1 thousand years ago (ka) and 11.2 ka, and since about 7 ka, the wind intensities were above their long-term mean and corresponded with increasing atmospheric CO2. Conversely, from about 11.2 to 7.2 ka, the wind intensities were below their long-term mean and corresponded with decreasing atmospheric CO2. These observations are consistent with model inferences of enhanced SHW contributing to the long-term outgassing of CO2 from the Southern Ocean

MR fluoroscopy in vascular and cardiac interventions (review)

Vascular and cardiac disease remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developed and emerging countries. Vascular and cardiac interventions require extensive fluoroscopic guidance to navigate endovascular catheters. X-ray fluoroscopy is considered the current modality for real time imaging. It provides excellent spatial and temporal resolution, but is limited by exposure of patients and staff to ionizing radiation, poor soft tissue characterization and lack of quantitative physiologic information. MR fluoroscopy has been introduced with substantial progress during the last decade. Clinical and experimental studies performed under MR fluoroscopy have indicated the suitability of this modality for: delivery of ASD closure, aortic valves, and endovascular stents (aortic, carotid, iliac, renal arteries, inferior vena cava). It aids in performing ablation, creation of hepatic shunts and local delivery of therapies. Development of more MR compatible equipment and devices will widen the applications of MR-guided procedures. At post-intervention, MR imaging aids in assessing the efficacy of therapies, success of interventions. It also provides information on vascular flow and cardiac morphology, function, perfusion and viability. MR fluoroscopy has the potential to form the basis for minimally invasive image–guided surgeries that offer improved patient management and cost effectiveness

Co-evolution of eukaryotes and ocean oxygenation in the Neoproterozoic era

The Neoproterozoic era (about 1,000 to 542 million years ago) was a time of turbulent environmental change. Large fluctuations in the carbon cycle were associated with at least two severe-possible Snowball Earth-glaciations. There were also massive changes in the redox state of the oceans, culminating in the oxygenation of much of the deep oceans. Amid this environmental change, increasingly complex life forms evolved. The traditional view is that a rise in atmospheric oxygen concentrations led to the oxygenation of the ocean, thus triggering the evolution of animals. We argue instead that the evolution of increasingly complex eukaryotes, including the first animals, could have oxygenated the ocean without requiring an increase in atmospheric oxygen. We propose that large eukaryotic particles sank quickly through the water column and reduced the consumption of oxygen in the surface waters. Combined with the advent of benthic filter feeding, this shifted oxygen demand away from the surface to greater depths and into sediments, allowing oxygen to reach deeper waters. The decline in bottom-water anoxia would hinder the release of phosphorus from sediments, potentially triggering a potent positive feedback: phosphorus removal from the ocean reduced global productivity and ocean-wide oxygen demand, resulting in oxygenation of the deep ocean. That, in turn, would have further reinforced eukaryote evolution, phosphorus removal and ocean oxygenation

Palaeozoic Innovations in the Micro- and Megafossil Plant Record: from the Earliest Plant spores to the Earliest Seeds

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