Fibrosis in the kidney: is a problem shared a problem halved?

Fibrotic disorders are commonplace, take many forms and can be life-threatening. No better example of this exists than the progressive fibrosis that accompanies all chronic renal disease. Renal fibrosis is a direct consequence of the kidney's limited capacity to regenerate after injury. Renal scarring results in a progressive loss of renal function, ultimately leading to end-stage renal failure and a requirement for dialysis or kidney transplantation

Data Mining the Brain to Decode the Mind

In recent years, neuroscience has begun to transform itself into a “big data” enterprise with the importation of computational and statistical techniques from machine learning and informatics. In addition to their translational applications such as brain-computer interfaces and early diagnosis of neuropathology, these tools promise to advance new solutions to longstanding theoretical quandaries. Here I critically assess whether these promises will pay off, focusing on the application of multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to the problem of reverse inference. I argue that MVPA does not inherently provide a new answer to classical worries about reverse inference, and that the method faces pervasive interpretive problems of its own. Further, the epistemic setting of MVPA and other decoding methods contributes to a potentially worrisome shift towards prediction and away from explanation in fundamental neuroscience

Climate Impacts, Political Institutions, and Leader Survival: Effects of Drought and Flooding Precipitation.

We explore how the political survival of leaders in different political regimes is affected by drought and flooding precipitation, which are the two major anticipated impacts of anthropogenic climate change. Using georeferenced climate data for the entire world and the Archigos dataset for the period of 1950-2010, we find that irregular political exits, such as coups or revolutions, are not significantly affected by climate impacts. Similarly, drought has a positive but insignificant effect on all types of political exits. On the other hand, we find that floods increase political turnover through the regular means such as elections or term limits. Democracies are better able to withstand the pressures arising from the economic and social disruptions associated with high precipitation than other institutional arrangements. Our results further suggest that, in the context of floods, political institutions play a more important role than economic development for the leaders’ political survival

Nano-FTIR Investigation of the CM Chondrite Allan Hills 83100

Mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy has been used with great success to quantitatively determine the mineralogy of geologic samples. It has been employed in a variety of contexts from determining bulk composition of powdered samples to spectroscopic imaging of rock thin sections via micro-Fourier transform infrared (micro-FTIR) imaging spectroscopy. Recent advances allow for IR measurements at the nanoscale. Near field nanoscale infrared imaging and spectroscopy with a broadband source (nano-FTIR) enable understanding of the spatial relationships between compositionally distinct materials within a sample. This will be of particular use when analyzing returned samples from Bennu and Ryugu, which are thought to be compositionally like CI or CM1/2 carbonaceous chondrites. Returned samples will likely contain olivine/pyroxene chondrules that have been transformed into hydrous phyllosilicates, sulfides, carbonates, and other alteration phases. The use of near-field infrared techniques to probe the boundaries between once pristine chondrules and alteration phases at the nanoscale is a novel approach to furthering our understanding of the compositional evolution of carbonaceous asteroids and the processes that drive their evolution. Here we report the results of nano-FTIR spectroscopy and imaging measurements performed on the carbonaceous chondrite Allan Hills (ALH) 83100 (CM1/2). We show with nanoscale resolution that spatially resolved Fe-Mg variations exist within the phyllosilicates around a chondrule rim. We also present effects of crystal orientation on the nano-FTIR spectra to account for the spectral differences between the meteorite and mineral spectra

The long-term strength of Europe and its implications for plate-forming processes.

Field-based geological studies show that continental deformation preferentially occurs in young tectonic provinces rather than in old cratons. This partitioning of deformation suggests that the cratons are stronger than surrounding younger Phanerozoic provinces. However, although Archaean and Phanerozoic lithosphere differ in their thickness and composition, their relative strength is a matter of much debate. One proxy of strength is the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere, Te. Unfortunately, spatial variations in Te are not well understood, as different methods yield different results. The differences are most apparent in cratons, where the 'Bouguer coherence' method yields large Te values (> 60 km) whereas the 'free-air admittance' method yields low values (< 25 km). Here we present estimates of the variability of Te in Europe using both methods. We show that when they are consistently formulated, both methods yield comparable Te values that correlate with geology, and that the strength of old lithosphere (> or = 1.5 Gyr old) is much larger (mean Te > 60 km) than that of younger lithosphere (mean Te < 30 km). We propose that this strength difference reflects changes in lithospheric plate structure (thickness, geothermal gradient and composition) that result from mantle temperature and volatile content decrease through Earth's history