129 research outputs found

    Contributing Processes to Arctic Temperature Amplification for a Range of Forcing in MIROC GCM

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    第3回極域科学シンポジウム/第35回極域気水圏シンポジウム 11月30日(金) 国立国語研究所 2階多目的

    Seasonally variant low cloud adjustment over cool oceans

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    The Earth’s solar reflectance is reduced through rapid climate adjustments to increasing CO2, via a decrease in total cloud cover over ocean. Perturbations to marine boundary-layer clouds are essentially important for the global radiative balance at the top of the atmosphere. However, the physical robustness of low cloud adjustments to increasing CO2 has not been assessed systematically. Here we show that low cloud adjustment is distinct from that in total cloud and is seasonally variant. Among multiple climate models, marine boundary-layer clouds over the subtropics and extratropics (especially over the Northern Hemisphere) are consistently increased in the rapid adjustment, while middle and high clouds are greatly reduced. The increase in low cloud cover is only found during summer, associated with a summertime enhancement of lower tropospheric stability. We further examine mechanisms behind the rapid adjustments of low cloud and inversion strength of the boundary layer, using land surface temperature prescribing experiments in an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). Summertime increases in low cloud and enhanced inversion strength over the ocean simulated in this AGCM are attributed to (1) CO2-induced land warming; and (2) reduced radiative cooling in the lower troposphere due to increased CO2. The seasonality in the cloud adjustment implies an importance of seasonal variations in background cloud and atmospheric circulation related to the Hadley and monsoon circulations for radiative forcing, feedback and climate sensitivity

    Effectiveness and limitations of parameter tuning in reducing biases of top-of-atmosphere radiation and clouds in MIROC version 5

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    This study discusses how much of the biases in top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiation and clouds can be removed by parameter tuning in the present-day simulation of a climate model in the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) generation. We used output of a perturbed parameter ensemble (PPE) experiment conducted with an atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) without flux adjustment. The Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate version 5 (MIROC5) was used for the PPE experiment. Output of the PPE was compared with satellite observation data to evaluate the model biases and the parametric uncertainty of the biases with respect to TOA radiation and clouds. The results indicate that removing or changing the sign of the biases by parameter tuning alone is difficult. In particular, the cooling bias of the shortwave cloud radiative effect at low latitudes could not be removed, neither in the zonal mean nor at each latitude–longitude grid point. The bias was related to the overestimation of both cloud amount and cloud optical thickness, which could not be removed by the parameter tuning either. However, they could be alleviated by tuning parameters such as the maximum cumulus updraft velocity at the cloud base. On the other hand, the bias of the shortwave cloud radiative effect in the Arctic was sensitive to parameter tuning. It could be removed by tuning such parameters as albedo of ice and snow both in the zonal mean and at each grid point. The obtained results illustrate the benefit of PPE experiments which provide useful information regarding effectiveness and limitations of parameter tuning. Implementing a shallow convection parameterization is suggested as a potential measure to alleviate the biases in radiation and clouds

    Robust cloud feedback over tropical land in a warming climate

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    Cloud-related radiative perturbations over land in a warming climate are of importance for human health, ecosystem, agriculture, and industry via solar radiation availability and local warming amplification. However, robustness and physical mechanisms responsible for the land cloud feedback were not examined sufficiently because of the limited contribution to uncertainty in global climate sensitivity. Here we show that cloud feedback in general circulation models over tropical land is robust, positive, and is relevant to atmospheric circulation change and thermodynamic constraint associated with water vapor availability. In a warming climate, spatial variations in tropospheric warming associated with climatological circulation pattern result in a general weakening of tropical circulation and a dynamic reduction of land cloud during summer monsoon season. Limited increase in availability of water vapor also reduces the land cloud. The reduction of land cloud depends on global-scale oceanic warming and is not sensitive to regional warming patterns. The robust positive feedback can contribute to the warming amplification and drying over tropical land in the future

    Relationship between retreating sea ice and trend of cloud cover over the Arctic Ocean in Coupled GCM, MIROC

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    第3回極域科学シンポジウム/特別セッション「これからの北極研究」11月28日(水) 国立極地研究所 2階大会議

    Detection of the Onset of Ischemia and Carcinogenesis by Hypoxia-Inducible Transcription Factor-Based In Vivo Bioluminescence Imaging

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    An animal model for the early detection of common fatal diseases such as ischemic diseases and cancer is desirable for the development of new drugs and treatment strategies. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) is a transcription factor that regulates oxygen homeostasis and plays key roles in a number of diseases, including cancer. Here, we established transgenic (Tg) mice that carry HRE/ODD-luciferase (HOL) gene, which generates bioluminescence in an HIF-1-dependent manner and was successfully used in this study to monitor HIF-1 activity in ischemic tissues. To monitor carcinogenesis in vivo, we mated HOL mice with rasH2 Tg mice, which are highly sensitive to carcinogens and are used for short-term carcinogenicity assessments. After rasH2-HOL Tg mice were treated with N-methyl-N-nitrosourea, bioluminescence was detected noninvasively as early as 9 weeks in tissues that contained papillomas and malignant lesions. These results suggest that the Tg mouse lines we established hold significant potential for monitoring the early onset of both ischemia and carcinogenesis and that these lines will be useful for screening chemicals for carcinogenic potential

    A reversible lesion of the corpus callosum splenium with adult influenza-associated encephalitis/encephalopathy: a case report

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    <p>ABstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Influenza virus-associated encephalitis/encephalopathy is a severe childhood illness with a poor prognosis. Adult case reports are rare and, to date, there have been no reports of adults with a mild subcortical encephalopathy with reversible lesions of the corpus callosum splenium.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A previously healthy 35-year-old man presented with acute progressive tetraplegia, transcortical motor aphasia and a mild decrease in his consciousness during his recovery after receiving oseltamivir phosphate treatment, and influenza type A antiviral medication. The initial magnetic resonance imaging study at day 1 showed symmetrical diffuse lesions in the white matter and a lesion on the central portion of the corpus callosum splenium. These findings had resolved on follow-up studies at day 8 and day 146. His neurological deficits mostly recovered within 12 hours following methylprednisolone pulse therapy. The levels of interleukin-6 and interleukin-10 in his blood and cerebrospinal fluid were initially elevated, but rapidly decreased to normal levels by day 8.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is important for clinicians to recognize that even in adulthood, the subcortical encephalopathy observed during the therapeutic treatment for influenza type A infection can occur in conjunction with a reversible lesion of the corpus callosum, which may recover quickly. In addition, the cytokine storm in the blood system and the corticospinal cavity may play an important role in the etiology of the disease process.</p

    The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

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    「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection
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