Change in the Leading Mode of North America\u27s Wintertime Stationary Eddies

Extreme winter weather events in North America have become more frequent and increasingly destructive. This phenomenon was linked to a jet stream pattern that generates abnormally warm conditions in the west and cold conditions in the east, referred to as the North American Winter Dipole. Studies have shown that the Dipole may have amplified and this amplification could be linked to global warming. By analyzing the atmospheric and oceanic data worldwide, the wintertime circulation in the Northern Hemisphere shows signs of a persistent change after the 1980s. In the first part of this study, we examine how the ocean has changed in correspondence to the Dipole and the evolution of the pattern change. In the second part of this study, we use multiple global reanalysis datasets to construct the Dipole index. The result validates the reported Dipole variation during the modern period. We also use the Dipole variance to investigate the Dipole’s behavior in the paleoclimate and future warming conditions. Overall, we sought to better understand how the Dipole pattern evolves and how it may link to the different forcing, as a way to anticipate future change in North America’s winter

Effects of dietary fatty acid composition on lipid metabolism and body fat accumulation in ovariectomized rats

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a state of excess energy storage resulting in body fat accumulation, and postmenopausal obesity is a rising issue. In this study using ovariectomized (OVX) rats, we mimicked low estrogen levels in a postmenopausal state in order to investigate the effects of different amounts and types of dietary fatty acids on body fat accumulation and body lipid metabolism. METHODS: At 9 weeks of age, rats ( RESULTS: After OVX, compared to the S group, the C group showed significantly higher body weight, and insulin and leptin levels. Compared to the C group, the H group had lower hepatic triglyceride level and FAS enzyme activity, and higher hepatic ACO and CPT-1 gene expressions and enzyme activities. CONCLUSIONS: An OVX leads to severe weight gain and lipid metabolism abnormalities, while according to previous studies, high fat diet may worsen the situation. However, during our experiment, we discovered that the experimental oil mixture with 60% MUFAs and P/S = 5 may ameliorate these imbalances

NYCU-TWO at Memotion 3: Good Foundation, Good Teacher, then you have Good Meme Analysis

This paper presents a robust solution to the Memotion 3.0 Shared Task. The goal of this task is to classify the emotion and the corresponding intensity expressed by memes, which are usually in the form of images with short captions on social media. Understanding the multi-modal features of the given memes will be the key to solving the task. In this work, we use CLIP to extract aligned image-text features and propose a novel meme sentiment analysis framework, consisting of a Cooperative Teaching Model (CTM) for Task A and a Cascaded Emotion Classifier (CEC) for Tasks B&C. CTM is based on the idea of knowledge distillation, and can better predict the sentiment of a given meme in Task A; CEC can leverage the emotion intensity suggestion from the prediction of Task C to classify the emotion more precisely in Task B. Experiments show that we achieved the 2nd place ranking for both Task A and Task B and the 4th place ranking for Task C, with weighted F1-scores of 0.342, 0.784, and 0.535 respectively. The results show the robustness and effectiveness of our framework. Our code is released at github.Comment: De-Factify 2: Second Workshop on Multimodal Fact Checking and Hate Speech Detection, co-located with AAAI 202

North American Winter Dipole: Observed and Simulated Changes in Circulations

In recent years, a pair of large-scale circulation patterns consisting of an anomalous ridge over northwestern North America and trough over northeastern North America was found to accompany extreme winter weather events such as the 2013–2015 California drought and eastern U.S. cold outbreaks. Referred to as the North American winter dipole (NAWD), previous studies have found both a marked natural variability and a warming-induced amplification trend in the NAWD. In this study, we utilized multiple global reanalysis datasets and existing climate model simulations to examine the variability of the winter planetary wave patterns over North America and to better understand how it is likely to change in the future. We compared between pre- and post-1980 periods to identify changes to the circulation variations based on empirical analysis. It was found that the leading pattern of the winter planetary waves has changed, from the Pacific–North America (PNA) mode to a spatially shifted mode such as NAWD. Further, the potential influence of global warming on NAWD was examined using multiple climate model simulations

A novel method to identify cooperative functional modules: study of module coordination in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Identifying key components in biological processes and their associations is critical for deciphering cellular functions. Recently, numerous gene expression and molecular interaction experiments have been reported in <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</it>, and these have enabled systematic studies. Although a number of approaches have been used to predict gene functions and interactions, tools that analyze the essential coordination of functional components in cellular processes still need to be developed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this work, we present a new approach to study the cooperation of functional modules (sets of functionally related genes) in a specific cellular process. A cooperative module pair is defined as two modules that significantly cooperate with certain functional genes in a cellular process. This method identifies cooperative module pairs that significantly influence a cellular process and the correlated genes and interactions that are essential to that process. Using the yeast cell cycle as an example, we identified 101 cooperative module associations among 82 modules, and importantly, we established a cell cycle-specific cooperative module network. Most of the identified module pairs cover cooperative pathways and components essential to the cell cycle. We found that 14, 36, 18, 15, and 20 cooperative module pairs significantly cooperate with genes regulated in early G1, late G1, S, G2, and M phase, respectively. Fifty-nine module pairs that correlate with Cdc28 and other essential regulators were also identified. These results are consistent with previous studies and demonstrate that our methodology is effective for studying cooperative mechanisms in the cell cycle.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this work, we propose a new approach to identifying condition-related cooperative interactions, and importantly, we establish a cell cycle-specific cooperation module network. These results provide a global view of the cell cycle and the method can be used to discover the dynamic coordination properties of functional components in other cellular processes.</p

One-stage reconstruction of large lower lip defect and oral competence with free composite anterolateral thigh-tensor fasciae latae flap

SummaryReconstruction for a large lower lip defect is a challenge to reconstructive surgeons. The most challenging problem is to maintain oral competence and prevent sialorrhea. We present three cases of such a defect reconstructed with composite anterolateral thigh-tensor fascia lata free flaps in one stage. The patients reported in this communication had advanced squamous cell carcinoma in the lower lip. A large lower lip defect (>90%) resulted in each case from wide excision of the tumor. A composite anterolateral thigh-tensor fasciae latae free flap was used to reconstruct the defect and to restore the dynamic oral competence in one stage. A tensor fasciae latae sling was attached by two strips sutured together to the upper orbicularis oris muscle in the first case. The four-strip method, a modification of the method described by Serkan,1 was adopted in the second case. The upper two strips bilaterally sutured to the orbicularis oris muscles in a mode somewhat different from Serkan’s method. The tensor fasciae latae sling was attached by two strips sutured to the periosteum of both zygomatic eminences in the third case. The tensor fasciae latae sling of Case 1 failed with persistent sialorrhea. The second case had good oral competence and comprehensible speech ability without sialorrhea. The third case had an acceptable result before he was lost to follow-up. A composite anterolateral thigh-tensor fasciae latae free flap is a good choice for a large lower lip defect to achieve oral competence reconstruction in one stage. Simultaneous dynamic and static suspensions are suggested to maintain oral competence and prevent sialorrhea