Supraglacial dust and debris characterization via in situ and optical remote sensing methods

Supraglacial dust and debris affects many glaciologic variables, including radiative absorption, ablation, generation of supraglacial melt as well as mass flux. Earth observing satellite technology has advanced greatly in recent decades and allows for unprecedented spatial, temporal and spectral imaging of Earth’s glaciers. While remote sensing of ‘clean’ glacier ice can be done quite successfully, strategies for satellite mapping of supraglacial debris remain in development. This work provides the first visible to thermal infrared full optical spectrum satellite data analysis of supraglacial dust and debris characterization and differentiation. Dust and debris covered glaciers in the following six contrasting study regions were targeted: Iceland, Nepal, New Zealand, southern Norway, Svalbard and Switzerland. A combination of field spectrometry and surface samples of snow, ice and debris were utilized to investigate supraglacial dust and debris diversity. This in situ data served as ground truth for evaluating spaceborne supraglacial debris mapping capabilities. Glacier snow, ice and debris samples were analyzed for mineral composition and inorganic elemental abundances via the following analytical geochemical techniques: X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. A synoptic data set from four contrasting alpine glacier regions – Svalbard, southern Norway, Nepal and New Zealand – and 70 surface snow, ice and debris samples was presented, comparing supraglacial composition variability. Distinct supraglacial geochemical abundances were found in major, trace and rare earth elemental concentrations between the four study regions. Elemental variations were attributed to both natural and anthropogenic processes. Over 8800 glacier surface spectra were collected in Nepal, Svalbard and Switzerland, as well as from Nepal, New Zealand and Switzerland debris samples. Surface glacier debris mineralogy and moisture content were assessed from field spectra. Spaceborne supraglacial dust and debris mineral mapping techniques using visible to shortwave reflective and thermal emissive data were evaluated. Successful methods for mineral identification allowed mapping of volcanic vs. continental supraglacial debris, as well as different mineral classes within one glacier’s supraglacial debris. Granite- vs. schist-dominant debris was mapped on Khumbu glacier in Nepal. Iron-rich vs. iron-poor serpentine debris was mapped on Zmutt glacier in the Swiss Alps. Satellite emissivity derived silica mapping suggested potential use of silica thresholds for delineation of debris covered glacier extent or sediment transport and weathering processes. Satellite derived surface temperatures were compared in Iceland, Nepal, Switzerland and New Zealand glacier study regions, with results demonstrating variations in supraglacial temperatures coincident with changing mineral abundances. Consistently higher surface temperatures with increasing dust and debris cover were mapped at all four glacier study regions. Repeat supraglacial debris imagery was used to estimate ablation area velocities and particulate transport times at debris covered glaciers. Velocity derivations used in conjunction with supraglacial composition variation analysis from shortwave and thermal infrared false color composites, allowed for estimation of glacial mass flux in the Khumbu Himalayas. In short, the visible to thermal infrared satellite spectral analysis, combined with in situ spectral and geochemical ground truth data, proved that glacier dust and debris characterization is possible via satellite spectral data. Furthermore, this supraglacial dust and debris satellite characterization can be applied to a range of glaciologic studies, including thermal, mass balance and surface process interpretations on large spatial and temporal scales

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Atlas of prostate cancer heritability in European and African-American men pinpoints tissue-specific regulation

Although genome-wide association studies have identified over 100 risk loci that explain ∼33% of familial risk for prostate cancer (PrCa), their functional effects on risk remain largely unknown. Here we use genotype data from 59,089 men of European and African American ancestries combined with cell-type-specific epigenetic data to build a genomic atlas of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) heritability in PrCa. We find significant differences in heritability between variants in prostate-relevant epigenetic marks defined in normal versus tumour tissue as well as between tissue and cell lines. The majority of SNP heritability lies in regions marked by H3k27 acetylation in prostate adenoc7arcinoma cell line (LNCaP) or by DNaseI hypersensitive sites in cancer cell lines. We find a high degree of similarity between European and African American ancestries suggesting a similar genetic architecture from common variation underlying PrCa risk. Our findings showcase the power of integrating functional annotation with genetic data to understand the genetic basis of PrCa

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Secondary and Tertiary Transmission of Vaccinia Virus from US Military Service Member

During February and March 2010, the New York State Department of Health investigated secondary and tertiary vaccinia contact transmission from a military vaccinee to 4 close contacts. Identification of these cases underscores the need for strict adherence to postvaccination infection control guidance to avoid transmission of the live virus