Dominance of grain size impacts on seasonal snow albedo at deforested sites in New Hampshire

Snow cover serves as a major control on the surface energy budget in temperate regions due to its high reflectivity compared to underlying surfaces. Winter in the northeastern United States has changed over the last several decades, resulting in shallower snowpacks, fewer days of snow cover, and increasing precipitation falling as rain in the winter. As these climatic changes occur, it is imperative that we understand current controls on the evolution of seasonal snow albedo in the region. Over three winter seasons between 2013 and 2015, snow characterization measurements were made at three open sites across New Hampshire. These near-daily measurements include spectral albedo, snow optical grain size determined through contact spectroscopy, snow depth, snow density, black carbon content, local meteorological parameters, and analysis of storm trajectories using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model. Using analysis of variance, we determine that land-based winter storms result in marginally higher albedo than coastal storms or storms from the Atlantic Ocean. Through multiple regression analysis, we determine that snow grain size is significantly more important in albedo reduction than black carbon content or snow density. And finally, we present a parameterization of albedo based on days since snowfall and temperature that accounts for 52% of variance in albedo over all three sites and years. Our improved understanding of current controls on snow albedo in the region will allow for better assessment of potential response of seasonal snow albedo and snow cover to changing climate

Untargeted metabolomic profile for the detection of prostate carcinoma-preliminary results from PARAFAC2 and PLS-DA Models

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is the main biomarker for the screening of prostate cancer (PCa), which has a high sensibility (higher than 80%) that is negatively offset by its poor specificity (only 30%, with the European cut-off of 4 ng/mL). This generates a large number of useless biopsies, involving both risks for the patients and costs for the national healthcare systems. Consequently, efforts were recently made to discover new biomarkers useful for PCa screening, including our proposal of interpreting a multi-parametric urinary steroidal profile with multivariate statistics. This approach has been expanded to investigate new alleged biomarkers by the application of untargeted urinary metabolomics. Urine samples from 91 patients (43 affected by PCa; 48 by benign hyperplasia) were deconjugated, extracted in both basic and acidic conditions, derivatized with different reagents, and analyzed with different gas chromatographic columns. Three-dimensional data were obtained from full-scan electron impact mass spectra. The PARADISe software, coupled with NIST libraries, was employed for the computation of PARAFAC2 models, the extraction of the significative components (alleged biomarkers), and the generation of a semiquantitative dataset. After variables selection, a partial least squares–discriminant analysis classification model was built, yielding promising performances. The selected biomarkers need further validation, possibly involving, yet again, a targeted approach

Síndrome OHVIRA com Remanescente Uretérico

OHVIRA syndrome is characterized by a didelphys uterus with an obstructed/blind hemi-vagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis. We presented a case of a female child with a pre-natal diagnosis of left renal agenesis whose post-natal imaging findings were consistent with OHVIRA syndrome.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The EU and US : friends or rivals

As boas relações entre a União Europeia e os EUA são essenciais para a estabilidade global. Mas as actuais relações transatlânticas permanecem constrangidas sobretudo como resultado da guerra no Iraque e da abordagem unilateral da primeira administração George W. Bush. As divergências entre UE-EUA têm aumentado nas áreas políticas e estratégicas bem como nas áreas económicas e sociais. Uma das maiores divergências incide sobre a governação global e sobre o papel atribuído à ONU e a outras instituições multilaterais. Também existe um elevado grau de anti-americanismo (ou de oposição às políticas da administração Bush) na Europa, e de ressentimento para com a Europa (ou melhor, para com a França e Alemanha) nos EUA. A UE não tem ideia de como lidar com a única superpotência mundial. Normalmente prefere- se o bilateral aos canais europeus. Mas as actuais estruturas UE-EUA não permitem uma discussão séria sobre muitas destas diferenças. Nem a OTAN é uma estrutura adequada para um diálogo estratégico transatlântico, como o chanceler Schroeder referiu na Conferencia Wehrkunde, em Munique, em Janeiro de 2005

Phosphotyrosine-protein-phosphatases and human reproduction: an association between low molecular weight acid phosphatase (ACP1) and spontaneous abortion.

ACP1 (low molecular weight acid phosphatase) genetic polymorphism has been studied in 173 women with a history of two or more consecutive spontaneous abortions and in 1508 control subjects, including 482 normal pregnant women. The proportion of carriers of ACP1 *C allele (* A/ *C, *B/*C) in women with a history of repeated spontaneous abortion is lower than in normal pregnant women and other control groups, Women with repeated spontaneous abortion show a specific decrease of ACPI S isoform concentration as compared to normal pregnant women, The other component of ACP I activity, the F isoform, does not show a significant difference between the two groups. The data suggest that women with ACP1 genotypes showing a high concentration of S isoform are relatively 'protected' against spontaneous abortion, Preliminary analysis of a sample of 352 normal puerperae along with their newborn babies supports this hypothesis