State of the California current 2013-14: El niño looming

In 2013, the California current was dominated by strong coastal upwelling and high productivity. Indices of total cumulative upwelling for particular coastal locations reached some of the highest values on record. Chlorophyll a levels were high throughout spring and summer. Catches of upwelling-related fish species were also high. After a moderate drop in upwelling during fall 2013, the California current system underwent a major change in phase. Three major basin-scale indicators, the PDO, the NPGO, and the ENSO-MEI, all changed phase at some point during the winter of 2013/14. The PDO changed to positive values, indicative of warmer waters in the North Pacific; the NPGO to negative values, indicative of lower productivity along the coast; and the MEI to positive values, indicative of an oncoming El Niño. Whereas the majority of the California Current system appears to have transitioned to an El Niño state by August 2014, based on decreases in upwelling and chlorophyll a concentration, and increases in SST, there still remained pockets of moderate upwelling, cold water, and high chlorophyll a biomass at various central coast locations, unlike patterns seen during the more major El Niños (e.g., the 97-98 event). Catches of rockfish, market squid, euphausiids, and juvenile sanddab remained high along the central coast, whereas catches of sardine and anchovy were low throughout the CCS. 2014 appears to be heading towards a moderate El Niño state, with some remaining patchy regions of upwellingdriven productivity along the coast. Superimposed on this pattern, three major regions have experienced possibly non-El Niño-related warming since winter: the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, and offshore of southern California. It is unclear how this warming may interact with the predicted El Niño, but the result will likely be reduced growth or reproduction for many key fisheries species

State of the California current 2012-13: No such thing as an “average” year

This report reviews the state of the California Current System (CCS) between winter 2012 and spring 2013, and includes observations from Washington State to Baja California. During 2012, large-scale climate modes indicated the CCS remained in a cool, productive phase present since 2007. The upwelling season was delayed north of 42°N, but regions to the south, especially 33° to 36°N, experienced average to above average upwelling that persisted throughout the summer. Contrary to the indication of high production suggested by the climate indices, chlorophyll observed from surveys and remote sensing was below average along much of the coast. As well, some members of the forage assemblages along the coast experienced low abundances in 2012 surveys. Specifically, the concentrations of all lifestages observed directly or from egg densities of Pacific sardine, Sardinops sagax, and northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax, were less than previous years’ survey estimates. However, 2013 surveys and observations indicate an increase in abundance of northern anchovy. During winter 2011/2012, the increased presence of northern copepod species off northern California was consistent with stronger southward transport. Krill and small-fraction zooplankton abundances, where examined, were generally above average. North of 42°N, salps returned to typical abundances in 2012 after greater observed concentrations in 2010 and 2011. In contrast, salp abundance off central and southern California increased after a period of southward transport during winter 2011/2012. Reproductive success of piscivorous Brandt’s cormorant, Phalacrocorax penicillatus, was reduced while planktivorous Cassin’s auklet, Ptychoramphus aleuticus was elevated. Differences between the productivity of these two seabirds may be related to the available forage assemblage observed in the surveys. California sea lion pups from San Miguel Island were undernourished resulting in a pup mortality event perhaps in response to changes in forage availability. Limited biological data were available for spring 2013, but strong winter upwelling coastwide indicated an early spring transition, with the strong upwelling persisting into early summer

Autism as a disorder of neural information processing: directions for research and targets for therapy

The broad variation in phenotypes and severities within autism spectrum disorders suggests the involvement of multiple predisposing factors, interacting in complex ways with normal developmental courses and gradients. Identification of these factors, and the common developmental path into which theyfeed, is hampered bythe large degrees of convergence from causal factors to altered brain development, and divergence from abnormal brain development into altered cognition and behaviour. Genetic, neurochemical, neuroimaging and behavioural findings on autism, as well as studies of normal development and of genetic syndromes that share symptoms with autism, offer hypotheses as to the nature of causal factors and their possible effects on the structure and dynamics of neural systems. Such alterations in neural properties may in turn perturb activity-dependent development, giving rise to a complex behavioural syndrome many steps removed from the root causes. Animal models based on genetic, neurochemical, neurophysiological, and behavioural manipulations offer the possibility of exploring these developmental processes in detail, as do human studies addressing endophenotypes beyond the diagnosis itself

Diagnostic and prognostic impact of serum HE4 detection in endometrial carcinoma patients

Background:To date, no good marker for screening or disease monitoring of endometrial cancer (EC) is available. The aims of this study were to investigate HE4 gene, protein expression and serum HE4 (sHE4) levels in a panel of ECs and normal endometria (NEs) and to correlate sHE4 with patient clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis.Methods:Using quantitative real-time PCR we tested 46 ECs and 20 NEs for HE4 gene expression. Protein expression was analysed by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays in 153 ECs and 33 NEs. Pre-operative serum samples from 138 EC and 76 NE patients were analysed with HE4-EIA assay. Association between sHE4 and patient clinicopathological characteristics or outcome was evaluated.Results:Protein and HE4 gene were significantly upregulated in EC tissues and sera, compared with controls. High sHE4 levels were significantly associated with worse EC clinical characteristics. By univariate survival analysis, high sHE4 levels significantly correlated with decreased overall survival, progression-free survival and disease-free survival, retaining their independent prognostic value on the poorly differentiated EC cohort.Conclusion:We demonstrate, for the first time, that high sHE4 levels correlates with an aggressive EC phenotype and may constitute an independent prognostic factor for poorly differentiated-ECs. Determination of sHE4 could be clinically useful in identifying high-risk EC patients for a more aggressive adjuvant therapy.British Journal of Cancer advance online publication, 5 April 2011; doi:10.1038/bjc.2011.109 www.bjcancer.com

Microdroplet-Enabled Highly Parallel Co-Cultivation of Microbial Communities

Microbial interactions in natural microbiota are, in many cases, crucial for the sustenance of the communities, but the precise nature of these interactions remain largely unknown because of the inherent complexity and difficulties in laboratory cultivation. Conventional pure culture-oriented cultivation does not account for these interactions mediated by small molecules, which severely limits its utility in cultivating and studying “unculturable” microorganisms from synergistic communities. In this study, we developed a simple microfluidic device for highly parallel co-cultivation of symbiotic microbial communities and demonstrated its effectiveness in discovering synergistic interactions among microbes. Using aqueous micro-droplets dispersed in a continuous oil phase, the device could readily encapsulate and co-cultivate subsets of a community. A large number of droplets, up to ∼1,400 in a 10 mm×5 mm chamber, were generated with a frequency of 500 droplets/sec. A synthetic model system consisting of cross-feeding E. coli mutants was used to mimic compositions of symbionts and other microbes in natural microbial communities. Our device was able to detect a pair-wise symbiotic relationship when one partner accounted for as low as 1% of the total population or each symbiont was about 3% of the artificial community