The Demographics of Terrestrial Planets in the Venus Zone

Understanding the physical characteristics of Venus, including its atmosphere, interior, and its evolutionary pathway with respect to Earth, remains a vital component for terrestrial planet evolution models and the emergence and/or decline of planetary habitability. A statistical strategy for evaluating the evolutionary pathways of terrestrial planets lies in the atmospheric characterization of exoplanets, where the sample size provides sufficient means for determining required runaway greenhouse conditions. Observations of potential exoVenuses can help confirm hypotheses about Venus' past, as well as the occurrence rate of Venus-like planets in other systems. Additionally, the data from future Venus missions, such as DAVINCI, EnVision, and VERITAS, will provide valuable information regarding Venus, and the study of exoVenuses will be complimentary to these missions. To facilitate studies of exoVenus candidates, we provide a catalog of all confirmed terrestrial planets in the Venus Zone, including transiting and non-transiting cases, and quantify their potential for follow-up observations. We examine the demographics of the exoVenus population with relation to stellar and planetary properties, such as the planetary radius gap. We highlight specific high-priority exoVenus targets for follow-up observations including: TOI-2285 b, LTT 1445 A c, TOI-1266 c, LHS 1140 c, and L98-59 d. We also discuss follow-up observations that may yield further insight into the Venus/Earth divergence in atmospheric properties.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Water scarcity hotspots travel downstream due to human interventions in the 20th and 21st century

Water scarcity is rapidly increasing in many regions. In a novel, multi-model assessment, we examine how human interventions (HI: land use and land cover change, man-made reservoirs and human water use) affected monthly river water availability and water scarcity over the period 1971-2010. Here we show that HI drastically change the critical dimensions of water scarcity, aggravating water scarcity for 8.8% (7.4-16.5%) of the global population but alleviating it for another 8.3% (6.4-15.8%). Positive impacts of HI mostly occur upstream, whereas HI aggravate water scarcity downstream; HI cause water scarcity to travel downstream. Attribution of water scarcity changes to HI components is complex and varies among the hydrological models. Seasonal variation in impacts and dominant HI components is also substantial. A thorough consideration of the spatially and temporally varying interactions among HI components and of uncertainties is therefore crucial for the success of water scarcity adaptation by HI

Human Monoclonal Antibodies Neutralizing Cytomegalovirus (CMV) for Prophylaxis of CMV Disease: Report of a Phase I Trial in Bone Marrow Transplant Recipients

The safety and pharmacokinetics of the two neutralizing human IgG1 monoclonal antibodies to cytomegalovirus (CMV) SDZ89-104 and 89-109 in bonemarrowtransplant (BM1)recipients was assessed in an open phase I trial. Thirteen patients, 8 seropositive and 5 seronegative for CMV, were treated with allogeneic or autologous bone marrow transplantation. SDZ 89-104 was given to 5 and SDZ 89-109 to 8 patients. Patients were divided into high-and low-dose groups. A fixed prestudy dose of 0.1 mg/kg was given 4 days before BMT. On days 3, 17, 31,45, 59, and 73, patients were treated with either 0.5 or 2 mg/kg of the respective antibody. Results indicate that doses of 2 mg/kg of SDZ 89-104 or SDZ 89-109 in alternating weeks can be safely administered to BMT patients. Serum trough levels measured by antiidiotype ELISA were ∼10 µg/ml after administration of 0.5 mg/kg and ∼50 µg/ml after treatment with 2 mg/kg of SDZ 89-104 or SDZ 89-109. High serum levels defined by antiidiotype ELISA techniques closely paralleled increased neutralizing activity. Serum half-lives calculatedfrom these data were ∼6 day

The use of indigenous knowledge in development: problems and challenges

The use of indigenous knowledge has been seen by many as an alternative way of promoting development in poor rural communities in many parts of the world. By reviewing much of the recent work on indigenous knowledge, the paper suggests that a number of problems and tensions has resulted in indigenous knowledge not being as useful as hoped for or supposed. These include problems emanating from a focus on the (arte)factual; binary tensions between western science and indigenous knowledge systems; the problem of differentiation and power relations; the romanticization of indigenous knowledge; and the all too frequent decontextualization of indigenous knowledge

Carbon residence time dominates uncertainty in terrestrial vegetation responses to future climate and atmospheric CO2.

Future climate change and increasing atmospheric CO2 are expected to cause major changes in vegetation structure and function over large fractions of the global land surface. Seven global vegetation models are used to analyze possible responses to future climate simulated by a range of general circulation models run under all four representative concentration pathway scenarios of changing concentrations of greenhouse gases. All 110 simulations predict an increase in global vegetation carbon to 2100, but with substantial variation between vegetation models. For example, at 4 °C of global land surface warming (510-758 ppm of CO2), vegetation carbon increases by 52-477 Pg C (224 Pg C mean), mainly due to CO2 fertilization of photosynthesis. Simulations agree on large regional increases across much of the boreal forest, western Amazonia, central Africa, western China, and southeast Asia, with reductions across southwestern North America, central South America, southern Mediterranean areas, southwestern Africa, and southwestern Australia. Four vegetation models display discontinuities across 4 °C of warming, indicating global thresholds in the balance of positive and negative influences on productivity and biomass. In contrast to previous global vegetation model studies, we emphasize the importance of uncertainties in projected changes in carbon residence times. We find, when all seven models are considered for one representative concentration pathway × general circulation model combination, such uncertainties explain 30% more variation in modeled vegetation carbon change than responses of net primary productivity alone, increasing to 151% for non-HYBRID4 models. A change in research priorities away from production and toward structural dynamics and demographic processes is recommended.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 2007-2013) under Grant 238366. R.B., R.K., R.D., A.W., and P.D.F. were supported by the Joint Department of Energy and Climate Change/Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (GA01101). A.I. and K.N. were supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S-10) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), and we thank the climate modeling groups responsible for the GFDL-ESM2M, HadGEM2-ES, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MIROC-ESM-CHEM, and NorESM1-M models for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP, the US Department of Energy’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. This work has been conducted under the framework of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP). The ISI-MIP Fast Track project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with project funding Reference 01LS1201A.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from PNAS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.122247711

The timing of unprecedented hydrological drought under climate change

Droughts that exceed the magnitudes of historical variation ranges could occur increasingly frequently under future climate conditions. However, the time of the emergence of unprecedented drought conditions under climate change has rarely been examined. Here, using multimodel hydrological simulations, we investigate the changes in the frequency of hydrological drought (defined as abnormally low river discharge) under high and low greenhouse gas concentration scenarios and existing water resource management measures and estimate the time of the first emergence of unprecedented regional drought conditions centered on the low-flow season. The times are detected for several subcontinental-scale regions, and three regions, namely, Southwestern South America, Mediterranean Europe, and Northern Africa, exhibit particularly robust results under the high-emission scenario. These three regions are expected to confront unprecedented conditions within the next 30 years with a high likelihood regardless of the emission scenarios. In addition, the results obtained herein demonstrate the benefits of the lower-emission pathway in reducing the likelihood of emergence. The Paris Agreement goals are shown to be effective in reducing the likelihood to the unlikely level in most regions. However, appropriate and prior adaptation measures are considered indispensable when facing unprecedented drought conditions. The results of this study underscore the importance of improving drought preparedness within the considered time horizons

Parents' assessment of parent-child interaction interventions – a longitudinal study in 101 families

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of the study was to describe families with small children who participated in parent-child interaction interventions at four centres in Sweden, and to examine long term and short term changes regarding the parents' experience of parental stress, parental attachment patterns, the parents' mental health and life satisfaction, the parents' social support and the children's problems.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this longitudinal study a consecutive sample of 101 families (94 mothers and 54 fathers) with 118 children (median age 3 years) was assessed, using self-reports, at the outset of the treatment (T1), six months later (T2) and 18 months after the beginning of treatment (T3). Analysis of the observed differences was carried out using Wilcoxon's Signed-Rank test and Cohen's d.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results from commencement of treatment showed that the parents had considerable problems in all areas examined. At the outset of treatment (T1) the mothers showed a higher level of problem load than the fathers on almost all scales. In the families where the children's problems have also been measured (children from the age of four) it appeared that they had problems of a nature and degree otherwise found in psychiatric populations. We found a clear general trend towards a positive development from T1 to T2 and this development was also reinforced from T2 to T3. Aggression in the child was one of the most common causes for contact. There were few undesired or unplanned interruptions of the treatment, and the attrition from the study was low.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study has shown that it is possible to reach mothers as well as fathers with parenting problems and to create an intervention program with very low dropout levels – which is of special importance for families with small children displaying aggressive behaviour. The parents taking part in this study showed clear improvement trends after six months and this development was reinforced a year later. This study suggests the necessity of clinical development and future research concerning the role of fathers in parent-child interaction interventions.</p

Tooth brushing, tongue cleaning and snacking behaviour of dental technology and therapist students

Objective: To determine the tooth brushing, tongue cleaning and snacking behaviour of dental technology and therapist students. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of students of Federal School of Dental Therapy and Technology Enugu, Nigeria. Self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on demography, frequency, duration and technique of tooth brushing and tongue cleaning as well as information on consumption of snacks. Results: A total of 242 students responded. Dental technology students made up 52.5% of the respondents and dental therapist in training made up 47.5%. Majority (63.2%) of the respondents considered the strength of tooth brush when purchasing a tooth brush and 78.9% use tooth brushes with medium strength. Seven-tenth (71.9%) of the respondents brush their teeth twice daily and 52.1% brush for 3&#x2013;5 minutes. About one-third (30.2%) brush their teeth in front of a mirror. Chewing stick was used by 51.7% of respondents in addition to the use of tooth brush. Tongue cleaning was done by 94.2% with only 9.5% using a tongue cleaner. Only 20.2% reported regular snacks consumption. Nine-tenth (90.4%) of respondents were previously involved in educating others, apart from their colleagues, on tooth brushing. Conclusion: This survey revealed that most of the dental therapy and technology students had satisfactory tooth-brushing behaviour. The zeal to educate others about proper tooth brushing revealed in this study suggests that the students may be helpful in oral health promotion

Membrane fluidity matters: Hyperthermia from the aspects of lipids and membranes

Hyperthermia is a promising treatment modality for cancer in combination both with radio- and chemotherapy. In spite of its great therapeutic potential, the underlying molecular mechanisms still remain to be clarified. Due to lipid imbalances and 'membrane defects' most of the tumour cells possess elevated membrane fluidity. However, further increasing membrane fluidity to sensitise to chemo-or radiotherapy could have some other effects. In fact, hyperfluidisation of cell membrane induced by membrane fluidiser initiates a stress response as the heat shock protein response, which may modulate positively or negatively apoptotic cell death. Overviewing some recent findings based on a technology allowing direct imaging of lipid rafts in live cells and lipidomics, novel aspects of the intimate relationship between the 'membrane stress' of tumour cells and the cellular heat shock response will be highlighted. Our findings lend support to both the importance of membrane remodelling and the release of lipid signals initiating stress protein response, which can operate in tandem to control the extent of the ultimate cellular thermosensitivity. Overall, we suggest that the fluidity variable of membranes should be used as an independent factor for predicting the efficacy of combinational cancer therapies