Fluxes and fluences of SEP events derived from SOLPENCO

International audienceWe have developed aran04 a tool for rapid predictions of proton flux and fluence profiles observed during gradual solar energetic particle (SEP) events and upstream of the associated traveling interplanetary shocks. This code, named SOLPENCO (for SOLar Particle ENgineering COde), contains a data base with a large set of interplanetary scenarios under which SEP events develop. These scenarios are basically defined by the solar longitude of the parent solar activity, ranging from E75 to W90, and by the position of the observer, located at 0.4 AU or at 1.0 AU, from the Sun. We are now analyzing the performance and reliability of SOLPENCO. We address here two features of SEP events especially relevant to space weather purposes: the peak flux and the fluence. We analyze how the peak flux and the fluence of the synthetic profiles generated by SOLPENCO vary as a function of the strength of the CME-driven shock, the heliolongitude of the solar parent activity and the particle energy considered. In particular, we comment on the dependence of the fluence on the radial distance of the observer (which does not follow an inverse square law), and we draw conclusions about the influence of the shock as a particle accelerator in terms of its evolving strength and the heliolongitude of the solar site where the SEP event originated

Environmental Inequality Dataset

The Disaggreated RSEI model data (also known as RSEI-GM, or Geographic Microdata) version 2.3.4 was downloaded from the Amazon Web Service created by EPA. The RSEI-GM provides detailed air model results from EPA’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model. The results include chemical concentration, toxicity-weighted concentration and score, calculated for each 810 meter square grid cell in a 49-km circle around the emitting facility, for every year from 1988 through 2014. The data can be used to examine trends in air pollution from industrial facilities over time and across geographies. In order to allow for evaluation of toxic-weighted concentration over time, we used only the core chemicals and industries that have been consistently required to report since 1988. Thus we filtered the RSEI-GM disaggregated dataset to exclude additional chemicals and industries added after 1988. Crosswalks to translate data from the RSEI grid cell system to U.S. census block geographies, provided by EPA, were used to combine RSEI results with census data and aggregate the results to the census tract level. We used the Longitudinal Tract Database created by Brown University, which adjusts data from previous years to 2010 census tract boundaries, to combine census demographic information for years 1989 through 2004. We used the 2006-2010 American Community Survey (ACS) for years 2005 through 2009 and the 2010-2014 ACS for years 2010 through 2014. This data were then used to calculate measures of environmental inequality. The ZIP file with the dataset is available below under additional files

Comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of cell lines as models of primary tumors across 22 tumor types.

Cancer cell lines are a cornerstone of cancer research but previous studies have shown that not all cell lines are equal in their ability to model primary tumors. Here we present a comprehensive pan-cancer analysis utilizing transcriptomic profiles from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia to evaluate cell lines as models of primary tumors across 22 tumor types. We perform correlation analysis and gene set enrichment analysis to understand the differences between cell lines and primary tumors. Additionally, we classify cell lines into tumor subtypes in 9 tumor types. We present our pancreatic cancer results as a case study and find that the commonly used cell line MIA PaCa-2 is transcriptionally unrepresentative of primary pancreatic adenocarcinomas. Lastly, we propose a new cell line panel, the TCGA-110-CL, for pan-cancer studies. This study provides a resource to help researchers select more representative cell line models

Evaluation of severity score-guided approaches to macrolide use in community-acquired pneumonia

International guidelines including those in the UK, Japan, Australia and South Africa recommend the avoidance of macrolides in patients with low-severity community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We hypothesised that severity scores are poor predictors of atypical pneumonia and response to macrolide therapy, and thus, inadequate tools for guiding antibiotic prescriptions. Secondary analysis of four independent prospective CAP datasets was conducted. The predictive values of the CURB-65 and pneumonia severity index (PSI) for clinically important groups of causative pathogens were evaluated. The effect of macrolide use according to risk class was assessed by multivariable analysis. Patients (3297) were evaluated, and the predictive values of CURB-65 and PSI for atypical pathogens were poor (AUC values of 0.37 and 0.42, respectively). No significant differences were noted among the effects of macrolide use on mortality in patients with mild, moderate and severe CAP, according to either CURB-65 (interaction testing severe versus mild disease OR=0.74 (0.29–1.89)) or PSI (severe versus mild disease OR=3.4 (0.055–2.10)), indicating that severity scores were not significant modifiers of response to macrolide therapy. Severity scores did not accurately predict response to macrolide therapy in CAP, suggesting that current guidance to use these tools for empirical antibiotic choices might not be justified

Risk factors for <i>Clostridium difficile</i> infection in hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia

Objectives: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is strongly associated with anti-biotic treatment, and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the leading indication for anti-biotic prescription in hospitals. This study assessed the incidence of and risk factors for CDI in a cohort of patients hospitalized with CAP. Methods: We analysed data from a prospective, observational cohort of patients with CAP in Edinburgh, UK. Patients with diarrhoea were systematically screened for CDI, and risk factors were determined through time-dependent survival analysis. Results: Overall, 1883 patients with CAP were included, 365 developed diarrhoea and 61 had laboratory-confirmed CDI. The risk factors for CDI were: age (hazard ratio [HR], 1.06 per year; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-1.08), total number of antibiotic classes received (HR, 3.01 per class; 95% CI, 2.32-3.91), duration of antibiotic therapy (HR, 1.09 per day; 95% CI, 1.00-1.19 and hospitalization status (HR, 13.1; 95% CI, 6.0-28.7). Antibiotic class was not an independent predictor of CDI when adjusted for these risk factors (P &gt; 0.05 by interaction testing).Conclusions: These data suggest that reducing the overall antibiotic burden, duration of antibiotic treatment and duration of hospital stay may reduce the incidence of CDI in patients with CAP.</p

Ground-truthing daily and lunar patterns of coral reef fish call rates on a US Virgin Island reef

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ferguson, S., Jensen, F., Hyer, M., Noble, A., Apprill, A., & Mooney, T. Ground-truthing daily and lunar patterns of coral reef fish call rates on a US Virgin Island reef. Aquatic Biology, 31, (2022): 77–87, https://doi.org/10.3354/ab00755.Coral reefs comprise some of the most biodiverse habitats on the planet. These ecosystems face a range of stressors, making quantifying community assemblages and potential changes vital to effective management. To understand short- and long-term changes in biodiversity and detect early warning signals of decline, new methods for quantifying biodiversity at scale are necessary. Acoustic monitoring techniques have proven useful in observing species activities and biodiversity on coral reefs through aggregate approaches (i.e. energy as a proxy). However, few studies have ground-truthed these acoustic analyses with human-based observations. In this study, we sought to expand these passive acoustic methods by investigating biological sounds and fish call rates on a healthy reef, providing a unique set of human-confirmed, labeled acoustic observations. We analyzed acoustic data from Tektite Reef, St. John, US Virgin Islands, over a 2 mo period. A subset of acoustic files was manually inspected to identify recurring biotic sounds and quantify reef activity throughout the day. We found a high variety of acoustic signals in this soundscape. General patterns of call rates across time conformed to expectations, with dusk and dawn showing important and significantly elevated peaks in soniferous fish activity. The data reflected high variability in call rates across days and lunar phases. Call rates did not correspond to sound pressure levels, suggesting that certain call types may drive crepuscular trends in sound levels while lower-level critical calls, likely key for estimating biodiversity and behavior, may be missed by gross sound level analyses.This research was funded by the National Science Foundation Biological Oceanography award 1536782. The experiments were conducted under National Park Service Scientific Research and Collecting Permits VIIS-2016-SCI-0017-20, and we thank the Park staff for their support

In situ X-ray Diffraction Computed Tomography studies examining the thermal and chemical stabilities of working Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ membranes during oxidative coupling of methane

In this study we present the results from two in situ X-ray diffraction computed tomography experiments of catalytic membrane reactors (CMRs) using Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ (BSCF) hollow fibre membranes and Na-Mn-W/SiO2 catalyst during the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) reaction. The negative impact of CO2, when added to the inlet gas stream, is seen to be mainly related to the C2+ yield, while no evidence of carbonate phase(s) formation is found during the OCM experiments. The main degradation mechanism of the CMR is suggested to be primarily associated with the solid-state evolution of the BSCF phase rather than the presence of CO2. Specifically, in situ XRD-CT and post-mortem SEM/EDX measurements revealed a collapse of the cubic BSCF phase, formation of secondary phases, which include needle-like structures and hexagonal Ba6Co4O12, and formation of a BaWO4 layer, the latter being a result of chemical interaction between the membrane and catalyst materials at high temperatures

Observation-based modelling of the energetic storm particle event of 14 July 2012

Aims. We model the energetic storm particle (ESP) event of 14 July 2012 using the energetic particle acceleration and transport model named 'PArticle Radiation Asset Directed at Interplanetary Space Exploration' (PARADISE), together with the solar wind and coronal mass ejection (CME) model named 'EUropean Heliospheric FORcasting Information Asset' (EUHFORIA). The simulation results illustrate both the capabilities and limitations of the utilised models. We show that the models capture some essential structural features of the ESP event; however, for some aspects the simulations and observations diverge. We describe and, to some extent, assess the sources of errors in the modelling chain of EUHFORIA and PARADISE and discuss how they may be mitigated in the future. Methods. The PARADISE model computes energetic particle distributions in the heliosphere by solving the focused transport equation in a stochastic manner. This is done using a background solar wind configuration generated by the ideal magnetohydrodynamic module of EUHFORIA. The CME generating the ESP event is simulated by using the spheromak model of EUHFORIA, which approximates the CME's flux rope as a linear force-free spheroidal magnetic field. In addition, a tool was developed to trace CME-driven shock waves in the EUHFORIA simulation domain. This tool is used in PARADISE to (i) inject 50 keV protons continuously at the CME-driven shock and (ii) include a foreshock and a sheath region, in which the energetic particle parallel mean free path, lambda(parallel to), decreases towards the shock wave. The value of lambda(parallel to) at the shock wave is estimated from in situ observations of the ESP event. Results. For energies below similar to 1 MeV, the simulation results agree well with both the upstream and downstream components of the ESP event observed by the Advanced Composition Explorer. This suggests that these low-energy protons are mainly the result of interplanetary particle acceleration. In the downstream region, the sharp drop in the energetic particle intensities is reproduced at the entry into the following magnetic cloud, illustrating the importance of a magnetised CME model.Peer reviewe