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Ground-based measurements of tropospheric and stratospheric bromine monoxide above Nairobi (1° S, 36° E)

International audienceGround based observations of stratospheric and tropospheric bromine monoxide, BrO, from a multi axial differential optical absorption spectrometer, MAXDOAS, located at the UNEP/UNON site in Nairobi (1° S, 36° E) are presented for the year 2003. Differences in BrO slant column densities at 90° and 80° solar zenith angle retrieved from the zenith-sky measurements are used to study stratospheric BrO. They show only small variations with season, as expected for the small seasonality in stratospheric Bry and NO2 in this region. A pronounced diurnal variation can be observed, the average value for the morning being 1.3×1014 molecules/cm2 and for the evening 1.5×1014 molecules/cm2. The measurements are compared with simulations from a one-dimensional photochemical stacked box model which is coupled with a radiative transfer model to allow direct comparisons between the observations and the model calculations. In general the model reproduces the measurements very well. The differences in the absolute values are 15% for the evening and 20% for the morning which is within the limits of the combined uncertainties. Both seasonality and diurnal variation are well reproduced by the model. A sensitivity study shows that inclusion of the reaction BrONO2 + O(3P) significantly improves the agreement between model calculations and measurements, indicating an important role of this reaction in the stratosphere near to the equator. Tropospheric BrO columns and profile information is derived from the combined results obtained in the different viewing directions for the average over several clear days. The resulting tropospheric BrO columns are in the range of 4?7.5×1012 molecules/cm2 which is significant but lower than in previous studies at mid and high latitudes. The vertical distribution of the tropospheric BrO peaks at about 3 km indicating the absence of local sources at this high altitude site

A global catalogue of large SO \u3c inf\u3e 2 sources and emissions derived from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) measurements from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite sensor processed with the new principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm were used to detect large point emission sources or clusters of sources. The total of 491 continuously emitting point sources releasing from about 30 kt yr-1 to more than 4000 kt yr-1 of SO2 per year have been identified and grouped by country and by primary source origin: volcanoes (76 sources); power plants (297); smelters (53); and sources related to the oil and gas industry (65). The sources were identified using different methods, including through OMI measurements themselves applied to a new emission detection algorithm, and their evolution during the 2005-2014 period was traced by estimating annual emissions from each source. For volcanic sources, the study focused on continuous degassing, and emissions from explosive eruptions were excluded. Emissions from degassing volcanic sources were measured, many for the first time, and collectively they account for about 30 % of total SO2 emissions estimated from OMI measurements, but that fraction has increased in recent years given that cumulative global emissions from power plants and smelters are declining while emissions from oil and gas industry remained nearly constant. Anthropogenic emissions from the USA declined by 80 % over the 2005-2014 period as did emissions from western and central Europe, whereas emissions from India nearly doubled, and emissions from other large SO2-emitting regions (South Africa, Russia, Mexico, and the Middle East) remained fairly constant. In total, OMI-based estimates account for about a half of total reported anthropogenic SO2 emissions; the remaining half is likely related to sources emitting less than 30 kt yr-1 and not detected by OMI

Predicted residual activity of rilpivirine in HIV-1 infected patients failing therapy including NNRTIs efavirenz or nevirapine

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"Rilpivirine is a second-generation nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) currently indicated for first-line therapy, but its clinical benefit for HIV-1 infected patients failing first-generation NNRTIs is largely undefined. This study quantified the extent of genotypic rilpivirine resistance in viral isolates from 1212 patients upon failure of efavirenz- or nevirapine-containing antiretroviral treatment, of whom more than respectively 80% and 90% showed high-level genotypic resistance to the failing NNRTI. Of all study patients, 47% showed a rilpivirine resistance-associated mutation (RPV-RAM), whereas preserved residual rilpivirine activity was predicted in half of the patients by three genotypic drug resistance interpretation algorithms. An NNRTI-dependent impact on rilpivirine resistance was detected. Compared with the use of nevirapine, the use of efavirenz was associated with a 32% lower risk of having a RPV-RAM and a 50% lower risk of predicted reduced rilpivirine susceptibility. Most prevalent RPV-RAMs after nevirapine experience were Y181C and H221Y, whereas L100I+K103N, Y188L and K101E occurred most in efavirenz-experienced patients. Predicted rilpivirine activity was not affected by HIV-1 subtype, although frequency of individual mutations differed across subtypes. In conclusion, this genotypic resistance analysis strongly suggests that the latest NNRTI, rilpivirine, may retain activity in a large proportion of HIV-1 patients in whom resistance failed while they were on an efavirenz- or nevirapine-containing regimen, and may present an attractive option for second-line treatment given its good safety profile and dosing convenience. However, prospective clinical studies assessing the effectiveness of rilpivirine for NNRTI-experienced patients are warranted to validate knowledge derived from genotypic and phenotypic drug resistance studies.

Single-Nucleus RNA-Seq Is Not Suitable for Detection of Microglial Activation Genes in Humans

Single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) is used as an alternative to single-cell RNA-seq, as it allows transcriptomic profiling of frozen tissue. However, it is unclear whether snRNA-seq is able to detect cellular state in human tissue. Indeed, snRNA-seq analyses of human brain samples have failed to detect a consistent microglial activation signature in Alzheimer's disease. Our comparison of microglia from single cells and single nuclei of four human subjects reveals that, although most genes show similar relative abundances in cells and nuclei, a small population of genes (∼1%) is depleted in nuclei compared to whole cells. This population is enriched for genes previously implicated in microglial activation, including APOE, CST3, SPP1, and CD74, comprising 18% of previously identified microglial-disease-associated genes. Given the low sensitivity of snRNA-seq to detect many activation genes, we conclude that snRNA-seq is not suited for detecting cellular activation in microglia in human disease

Early warning system of natural hazards and decrease of climat impact from aviation; ALARM funded project

Aviation safety can be jeopardised by multiple hazards arising from natural phenomena, e.g., severe weather, aerosols/gases from natural hazard, and space weather. Furthermore, there are the anthropogenic emissions and climate impact of aviation that could be reduced. To mitigate such risk and/or to decrease climate impact, tactical decision-making processes could be enhanced through the development of multihazard monitoring and Early Warning System (EWS). With this objective in mind, ALARM consortium has implemented alert products (i.e., observations, detection and data access in near realtime) and tailored product (notifications, flight level — FL contamination, risk area, and visualization of emission/risk level) related to Natural Airborne Hazard (NAH, i.e., volcanic, dust and smoke clouds) and environmental hotspots. New selective detection, nowcasting and forecasts of such risks for aviation have been implemented as part of ALARM prototype EWS. This system has two functionalities. One is to provide alerts on a global coverage using remote sensing from satellites and models (focus on NAH, space weather activity and environmental hotspots). A second focuses on detecting severe weather and exceptional SO2 conditions around a selection of few airports, on providing nowcasts and forecasts of risk conditions

Intermediate-mass black holes and ultraluminous X-ray sources in the Cartwheel ring galaxy

Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the Cartwheel galaxy show ~17 bright X-ray sources (>~5x10^38 erg s^-1), all within the gas-rich outer ring. We explore the hypothesis that these X-ray sources are powered by intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) accreting gas or undergoing mass transfer from a stellar companion. To this purpose, we run N-body/SPH simulations of the galaxy interaction which might have led to the formation of Cartwheel, tracking the dynamical evolution of two different IMBH populations: halo and disc IMBHs. Halo IMBHs cannot account for the observed X-ray sources, as only a few of them cross the outer ring. Instead, more than half of the disc IMBHs are pulled in the outer ring as a consequence of the galaxy collision. However, also in the case of disc IMBHs, accretion from surrounding gas clouds cannot account for the high luminosities of the observed sources. Finally, more than 500 disc IMBHs are required to produce <~15 X-ray sources via mass transfer from very young stellar companions. Such number of IMBHs is very large and implies extreme assumptions. Thus, the hypothesis that all the observed X-ray sources in Cartwheel are associated with IMBHs is hardly consistent with our simulations, even if it is still possible that IMBHs account for the few (<~1-5) brightest ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs).Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, MNRAS, in press, higher resolution version at http://www-theorie.physik.unizh.ch/~mapelli/astroph/cartwheel_ULX2.p