A Circum-Arctic Monitoring Framework for Quantifying Annual Erosion Rates of Permafrost Coasts

This study demonstrates a circum-Arctic monitoring framework for quantifying annual change of permafrost-affected coasts at a spatial resolution of 10 m. Frequent cloud coverage and challenging lighting conditions, including polar night, limit the usability of optical data in Arctic regions. For this reason, Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) data in the form of annual median and standard deviation (sd) Sentinel-1 (S1) backscatter images covering the months June–September for the years 2017–2021 were computed. Annual composites for the year 2020 were hereby utilized as input for the generation of a high-quality coastline product via a Deep Learning (DL) workflow, covering 161,600 km of the Arctic coastline. The previously computed annual S1 composites for the years 2017 and 2021 were employed as input data for the Change Vector Analysis (CVA)-based coastal change investigation. The generated DL coastline product served hereby as a reference. Maximum erosion rates of up to 67 m per year could be observed based on 400 m coastline segments. Overall highest average annual erosion can be reported for the United States (Alaska) with 0.75 m per year, followed by Russia with 0.62 m per year. Out of all seas covered in this study, the Beaufort Sea featured the overall strongest average annual coastal erosion of 1.12 m. Several quality layers are provided for both the DL coastline product and the CVA-based coastal change analysis to assess the applicability and accuracy of the output products. The predicted coastal change rates show good agreement with findings published in previous literature. The proposed methods and data may act as a valuable tool for future analysis of permafrost loss and carbon emissions in Arctic coastal environments

Multi-annual grassland mowing dynamics in Germany: spatio-temporal patterns and the influence of climate, topographic and socio-political conditions

Introduction: Grasslands cover one third of the agricultural area in Germany and are mainly used for fodder production. However, grasslands fulfill many other ecosystem functions, like carbon storage, water filtration and the provision of habitats. In Germany, grasslands are mown and/or grazed multiple times during the year. The type and timing of management activities and the use intensity vary strongly, however co-determine grassland functions. Large-scale spatial information on grassland activities and use intensity in Germany is limited and not openly provided. In addition, the cause for patterns of varying mowing intensity are usually not known on a spatial scale as data on the incentives of farmers behind grassland management decisions is not available.Methods: We applied an algorithm based on a thresholding approach utilizing Sentinel-2 time series to detect grassland mowing events to investigate mowing dynamics in Germany in 2018–2021. The detected mowing events were validated with an independent dataset based on the examination of public webcam images. We analyzed spatial and temporal patterns of the mowing dynamics and relationships to climatic, topographic, soil or socio-political conditions.Results: We found that most intensively used grasslands can be found in southern/south-eastern Germany, followed by areas in northern Germany. This pattern stays the same among the investigated years, but we found variations on smaller scales. The mowing event detection shows higher accuracies in 2019 and 2020 (F1 = 0.64 and 0.63) compared to 2018 and 2021 (F1 = 0.52 and 0.50). We found a significant but weak (R2 of 0–0.13) relationship for a spatial correlation of mowing frequency and climate as well as topographic variables for the grassland areas in Germany. Further results indicate a clear value range of topographic and climatic conditions, characteristic for intensive grassland use. Extensive grassland use takes place everywhere in Germany and on the entire spectrum of topographic and climatic conditions in Germany. Natura 2000 grasslands are used less intensive but this pattern is not consistent among all sites.Discussion: Our findings on mowing dynamics and relationships to abiotic and socio-political conditions in Germany reveal important aspects of grassland management, including incentives of farmers

Systematic analysis of gene expression in human brains before and after death.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have employed microarray techniques to study changes in gene expression in connection with human disease, aging and evolution. The vast majority of human samples available for research are obtained from deceased individuals. This raises questions about how well gene expression patterns in such samples reflect those of living individuals. RESULTS: Here, we compare gene expression patterns in two human brain regions in postmortem samples and in material collected during surgical intervention. We find that death induces significant expression changes in more than 10% of all expressed genes. These changes are non-randomly distributed with respect to their function. Moreover, we observe similar expression changes due to death in two distinct brain regions. Consequently, the pattern of gene expression differences between the two brain regions is largely unaffected by death, although the magnitude of differences is reduced by 50% in postmortem samples. Furthermore, death-induced changes do not contribute significantly to gene expression variation among postmortem human brain samples. CONCLUSION: We conclude that postmortem human brain samples are suitable for investigating gene expression patterns in humans, but that caution is warranted in interpreting results for individual genes.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Analysis of ice shelf front dynamics in Pine Island Bay (Antarctica) based on long-term SAR time series and deep learning

Ice shelves, the floating extensions of glaciers and ice sheets, create a safety band around Antarctica. They control the flow of ice that drains into the ocean by buttressing the upstream grounded ice. Loss of ice shelf stability and integrity results in reduced buttressing and leads to increased discharge contributing to global sea level rise. Therefore, it is important to monitor ice shelf dynamics to accurately estimate future sea level rise. So far, the potential of SAR data has not yet been full exhausted as data of early SAR satellites has only been used to a very limited extent for calving front monitoring. To fill this research gap, we made use of the entire ERS and Envisat archive within West Antarctic Pine Island Bay, a region that requires particular attention due to drastic ongoing changes. A 20-year time series (1992-2011) of ice shelf front dynamics was derived based on a deep neural network architecture that combines segmentation and edge detection. By testing different data preparation, training and post-processing configurations we identified the best performing model for ERS and Envisat data. This includes transfer learning based on a model originally trained on Sentinel-1 data and post-processing with filtering and temporal compositing to remove artefacts from geolocation errors and limited data availability. The resulting product of yearly, half-year and monthly ice shelf front positions reveals individual dynamic patterns for all five investigated ice shelves. The most considerable fluctuations were found for Pine Island Ice Shelf in terms of frequency of calving events (multiple cycles of calving and re-advance) and Thwaites ice tongue in terms of size of break-up (80 km retreat in early 2002). Despite different change rates and magnitudes, most ice shelves show similar signs of destabilisation. This manifests through retreating front positions and changing ice shelf geometries. Signs of weakening appear in the form of fracturing, disintegration events and loss of connection to lateral confinements

Detection of grassland mowing events for Germany by combining Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 time series

Grasslands cover one-third of the agricultural area in Germany and play an important economic role by providing fodder for livestock. In addition, they fulfill important ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, water purification, and the provision of habitats. These ecosystem services usually depend on the grassland management. In central Europe, grasslands are grazed and/or mown, whereby the management type and intensity vary in space and time. Spatial information on the mowing timing and frequency on larger scales are usually not available but would be required in order to assess the ecosystem services, species composition, and grassland yields. Time series of highresolution satellite remote sensing data can be used to analyze the temporal and spatial dynamics of grasslands. Within this study, we aim to overcome the drawbacks identified by previous studies, such as optical data availability and the lack of comprehensive reference data, by testing the time series of various Sentinel-2 (S2) and Sentinal-1 (S1) parameters and combinations of them in order to detect mowing events in Germany in 2019. We developed a threshold-based algorithm by using information from a comprehensive reference dataset of heterogeneously managed grassland parcels in Germany, obtained by RGB cameras. The developed approach using the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) derived from S2 led to a successful mowing event detection in Germany (60.3% of mowing events detected, F1-Score = 0.64). However, events shortly before, during, or shortly after cloud gaps were missed and in regions with lower S2 orbit coverage fewer mowing events were detected. Therefore, S1-based backscatter, InSAR, and PolSAR features were investigated during S2 data gaps. From these, the PolSAR entropy detected mowing events most reliably. For a focus region, we tested an integrated approach by combining S2 and S1 parameters. This approach detected additional mowing events, but also led to many false positive events, resulting in a reduction in the F1-Score (from 0.65 of S2 to 0.61 of S2 + S1 for the focus region). According to our analysis, a majority of grasslands in Germany are only mown zero to two times (around 84%) and are probably additionally used for grazing. A small proportion is mown more often than four times (3%). Regions with a generally higher grassland mowing frequency are located in southern, south-eastern, and northern Germany

Interleukin-6-dependent survival of multiple myeloma cells involves the Stat3-mediated induction of micro-RNA-21 through a highly conserved enhancer

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (Stat3) is implicated in the pathogenesis of many malignancies and essential for IL-6–dependent survival and growth of multiple myeloma cells. Here, we demonstrate that the gene encoding oncogenic microRNA-21 (miR-21) is controlled by an upstream enhancer containing 2 Stat3 binding sites strictly conserved since the first observed evolutionary appearance of miR-21 and Stat3. MiR-21 induction by IL-6 was strictly Stat3 dependent. Ectopically raising miR-21 expression in myeloma cells in the absence of IL-6 significantly reduced their apoptosis levels. These data provide strong evidence that miR-21 induction contributes to the oncogenic potential of Stat3

PORGY: Strategy-Driven Interactive Transformation of Graphs

This paper investigates the use of graph rewriting systems as a modelling tool, and advocates the embedding of such systems in an interactive environment. One important application domain is the modelling of biochemical systems, where states are represented by port graphs and the dynamics is driven by rules and strategies. A graph rewriting tool's capability to interactively explore the features of the rewriting system provides useful insights into possible behaviours of the model and its properties. We describe PORGY, a visual and interactive tool we have developed to model complex systems using port graphs and port graph rewrite rules guided by strategies, and to navigate in the derivation history. We demonstrate via examples some functionalities provided by PORGY.Comment: In Proceedings TERMGRAPH 2011, arXiv:1102.226

Recovery index, attentiveness and state of memory after xenon or isoflurane anaesthesia: a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Performance of patients immediately after anaesthesia is an area of special interest and so a clinical trial was conducted to compare Xenon with Isoflurane anaesthesia. In order to assess the early cognitive recovery the syndrome short test (SST) according to Erzigkeit (Geromed GmbH) was applied.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>ASA I and II patients undergoing long and short surgical interventions were randomised to receive either general anaesthesia with Xenon or Isoflurane. The primary endpoint was the validated SST which covering memory disturbances and attentiveness. The test was used on the day prior to intervention, one and three hours post extubation. The secondary endpoint was the recovery index (RI) measured after the end of the inhalation of Xenon or Isoflurane. In addition the Aldrete score was evaluated up to 180 min. On the first post-operative day the patients rated the quality of the anaesthetic using a scoring system from 1-6.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The demographics of the groups were similar. The sum score of the SST delivered a clear trend one hour post extubation and a statistically significant superiority for Xenon three hours post extubation (p < 0.01). The RI likewise revealed a statistically significant superiority of Xenon 5 minutes post extubation (p < 0.01). The Aldrete score was significantly higher for 45 min. The scoring system results were also better after Xenon anaesthesia (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results show that recovery from anaesthesia and the early return of post-operative cognitive functions are significantly better after Xenon anaesthesia compared to Isoflurane. The results of the RI for Xenon are similar with the previously published results.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>The trial was registered with the number ISRCTN01110844 <url>http://www.controlled-trials.com/isrctn/pf/01110844</url>.</p

63Cu(n,γ) cross section measured via 25 keV activation and time of flight

In the nuclear mass range A ≈ 60 to 90 of the solar abundance distribution the weak s-process component is the dominant contributor. In this scenario, which is related to massive stars, the overall neutron exposure is not sufficient for the s process to reach mass flow equilibrium. Hence, abundances and isotopic ratios are very sensitive to the neutron capture cross sections of single isotopes, and nucleosynthesis models need accurate experimental data. In this work we report on a new measurement of the 63Cu(n,γ ) cross section for which the existing experimental data show large discrepancies. The 63Cu(n,γ ) cross section at kBT = 25 keV was determined via activation with a quasistellar neutron spectrum at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Geel, and the energy dependence was determined with the time-of-flight technique and the calorimetric 4π BaF2 detector array DANCE at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.We provide new cross section data for the whole astrophysically relevant energy range.JRC.G.2-Standards for Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguard