bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Forecasting Occurrence and Intensity of Geomagnetic Activity With Pattern‐Matching Approaches
Authors: Haines C. , Owens M. J. , Barnard L. , Lockwood M. , Ruffenach A. , Boykin K. , McGranaghan R. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractVariability in near‐Earth solar wind conditions gives rise to space weather, which can have adverse effects on space‐ and ground‐based technologies. Enhanced and sustained solar wind coupling with the Earth's magnetosphere can lead to a geomagnetic storm. The resulting effects can interfere with power transmission grids, potentially affecting today's technology‐centered society to great cost. It is therefore important to forecast the intensity and duration of geomagnetic storms to improve decision making capabilities of infrastructure operators. The 150 years aaH geomagnetic index gives a substantial history of observations from which empirical predictive schemes can be built. Here we investigate the forecasting of geomagnetic activity with two pattern‐matching forecast techniques, using the long aaH record. The techniques we investigate are an Analogue Ensemble (AnEn) Forecast, and a Support Vector Machine (SVM). AnEn produces a probabilistic forecast by explicitly identifying analogs for recent conditions in the historical data. The SVM produces a deterministic forecast through dependencies identified by an interpretable machine learning approach. As a third comparative forecast, we use the 27 days recurrence model, based on the synodic solar rotation period. The methods are analyzed using several forecast metrics and compared. All forecasts outperform climatology on the considered metrics and AnEn and SVM outperform 27 days recurrence. A Cost/Loss analysis reveals the potential economic value is maximized using the AnEn, but the SVM is shown as superior by the true skill score. It is likely that the best method for a user will depend on their need for probabilistic information and tolerance of false alarms.
Modeling the Impacts of Urban Flood Risk Management on Social Inequality
Authors: Moulds Simon , Buytaert Wouter , Templeton Michael R. , Kanu Ishmael 
Published: May 2021

AbstractThe exposure of urban populations to flooding is highly heterogeneous, with the negative impacts of flooding experienced disproportionately by the poor. In developing countries experiencing rapid urbanization and population growth a key distinction in the urban landscape is between planned development and unplanned, informal development, which often occurs on marginal, flood‐prone land. Flood risk management in the context of informality is challenging, and may exacerbate existing social inequalities and entrench poverty. Here, we adapt an existing socio‐hydrological model of human‐flood interactions to account for a stratified urban society consisting of planned and informal settlements. In the first instance, we use the model to construct four system archetypes based on idealized scenarios of risk reduction and disaster recovery. We then perform a sensitivity analysis to examine the relative importance of the differential values of vulnerability, risk‐aversion, and flood awareness in determining the relationship between flood risk management and social inequality. The model results suggest that reducing the vulnerability of informal communities to flooding plays an important role in reducing social inequality and enabling sustainable economic growth, even when the exposure to the flood hazard remains high. Conversely, our model shows that increasing risk aversion may accelerate the decline of informal communities by suppressing economic growth. On this basis, we argue for urban flood risk management which is rooted in pro‐poor urban governance and planning agendas which recognize the legitimacy and permanence of informal communities in cities.
Are Xenoliths From Southwestern Kaapvaal Craton Representative of the Broader Mantle? Constraints From Magnetotelluric Modeling
Authors: Özaydın Sinan , Selway Kate , Griffin William L. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractMost of our knowledge of the composition and water content of the cratonic mantle comes from xenoliths found in alkaline magmatic rocks (e.g., kimberlites). However, it is debatable whether such mantle‐xenolith samples are representative of the mantle over larger lateral extents or only represent more local metasomatized conduits. To investigate this, we made 3D deterministic and 1D probabilistic models of magnetotelluric (MT) data from the southwestern Kaapvaal Craton and carried out quantitative interpretations. The results indicate that water content decreases with depth between 100 and 160 km, broadly matching the distribution of metasomatism inferred from garnet‐xenocrysts. Spatially pervasive phlogopite could exist for a colder geotherm (37 mW/m2) whereas it is not required for the more likely geotherm of 40.2 mW/m2. Most water contents measured from xenolith samples agree with those calculated from the MT models within error, but the discrepancies between them suggest a local metasomatic control over xenolith water contents.
How Salty Is the Global Ocean: Weighing It All or Tasting It a Sip at a Time?
Authors: Ponte R. M. , Sun Q. , Liu C. , Liang X. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractGlobal ocean mean salinity is a key indicator of the Earth's hydrological cycle and the exchanges of freshwater between land and ocean, but its determination remains a challenge. Aside from traditional methods based on gridded salinity fields derived from in situ measurements, we explore estimates of based on liquid freshwater changes derived from space gravimetry data corrected for sea ice effects. For the 2005–2019 period analyzed, the different series show little consistency in seasonal, interannual, and long‐term variability. In situ estimates show sensitivity to choice of product and unrealistic variations. A suspiciously large rise in since ∼2015 is enough to measurably affect halosteric sea level estimates and can explain recent discrepancies in the global mean sea level budget. Gravimetry‐based estimates are more realistic, inherently consistent with estimated freshwater contributions to global mean sea level, and provide a way to calibrate the in situ estimates.
Climate More Important for Chinese Flood Changes Than Reservoirs and Land Use
Authors: Yang Long , Yang Yixin , Villarini Gabriele , Li Xiang , Hu Hongchang , Wang Lachun , Blöschl Günter , Tian Fuqiang 
Published: May 2021

AbstractRiver regulations and changing land management practices are generally perceived to be the dominant drivers of river flood changes in countries with rapid economic growth, such as China. Here, we demonstrate based on the most comprehensive flood database to date, that climate variations dominate the spatial pattern of changes in annual flood peak discharge in China, despite intense human alterations of the river and land systems over the past four decades. Regional flood increases are mainly associated with increasing precipitation due to changes in the East Asian Summer Monsoon, tropical cyclones and the subtropical westerly jet. Regional flood decreases are due to decreased soil moisture in the North China plain. Our results highlight the need for flood management policies to go beyond local measures and adapt to the effects of climate change.
Particle Triggered Reactions as an Important Mechanism of Alkalinity and Inorganic Carbon Removal in River Plumes
Authors: Wurgaft E. , Wang Z. A. , Churchill J. H. , Dellapenna T. , Song S. , Du J. , Ringham M. C. , Rivlin T. , Lazar B. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractThe effects of heterogeneous reactions between river‐borne particles and the carbonate system were studied in the plumes of the Mississippi and Brazos rivers. Measurements within these plumes revealed significant removal of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA). After accounting for all known DIC and TA sinks and sources, heterogeneous reactions (i.e., heterogeneous CaCO3 precipitation and cation exchange between adsorbed and dissolved ions) were found to be responsible for a significant fraction of DIC and TA removal, exceeding 10% and 90%, respectively, in the Mississippi and Brazos plume waters. This finding was corroborated by laboratory experiments, in which the seeding of seawater with the riverine particles induced the removal of the DIC and TA. The combined results demonstrate that heterogeneous reactions may represent an important controlling mechanism of the seawater carbonate system in particle‐rich coastal areas and may significantly impact the coastal carbon cycle.
Variations in Thermosphere Composition and Ionosphere Total Electron Content Under “Geomagnetically Quiet” Conditions at Solar‐Minimum
Authors: Cai Xuguang , Burns Alan G. , Wang Wenbin , Qian Liying , Pedatella Nicholas , Coster Anthea , Zhang Shunrong , Solomon Stanley C. , Eastes Richard W. , Daniell Robert E. , McClintock William E. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractWe conducted observational and modeling studies of thermospheric composition and ionospheric total electron content (TEC) variations during two geomagnetically quiet periods (maximum Kp = 1.7) at solar minimum. Daytime thermospheric O and N2 column density ratio (∑O/N2) observed by Global‐scale Observations of the Limb and Disk and TEC from a network of ground‐based Global Navigation Satellites System receivers both exhibited large (∼30% of reference values) and long‐lived (5–11 h) day‐to‐day variations in roughly the same mid‐latitude geographic regions. Numerical simulations replicated the observed variability, though not perfectly. Analysis of the simulations suggested that the variations were mainly generated in the high‐latitudes and were subsequently advected equatorward and westward. When high‐latitudes input was turned off in simulations, the variations were negligible. This suggested the potentially important role of high‐latitude geomagnetic forcing in thermospheric composition and ionospheric density variations at mid‐latitudes even during some “geomagnetically quiet” periods at solar‐minimum.
Revisiting the Malvinas Current Upper Circulation and Water Masses Using a High‐Resolution Ocean Reanalysis
Authors: Artana Camila , Provost Christine , Poli Lea , Ferrari Ramiro , Lellouche Jean‐Michel 
Published: May 2021

AbstractWe use 25 years of a high‐resolution ocean reanalysis (1/12°) to revisit the Malvinas Current (MC) from the South (Drake Passage) to the North (Brazil‐Malvinas Confluence) from the synoptic to interannual time scales. The Malvinas Plateau is home to active eddy mixing, eddy dissipation and deep winter mixed layers occasionally reaching 600 m depth. The MC is organized in two jets which merge around 44°S as the continental slope steepens. The upper 900 m transport mean decreases from 40 Sv at 51°S to 35 Sv at 41°S indicating offshore leakage along the MC path. The MC plays a minor role in the velocity variations observed at the Confluence at seasonal and interannual scales; those are driven by changes in the intensity of the Brazil Current over the slope (34–36°S). Computing MC transport time series at different latitudes requires care because the section eastern limits are embedded in an energetic region. Transport time series were produced at selected latitudes using different criteria and showed common features. They show little seasonality (relative seasonal standard deviation of 2%) and no significant trend. The MC is a steady current: the relative standard deviation is on the order of 10% increasing to 20% near and on the Malvinas Plateau and near the Confluence. In contrast, velocity trends are large in the Brazil Current with the overshoot migrating southward. The associated increase in mesoscale activity south of 44°S in the Argentine Basin might contribute to blocking events occasionally reducing the MC transport.
Projected Seismic Activity at the Tiger Stripe Fractures on Enceladus, Saturn, From an Analog Study of Tidally Modulated Icequakes Within the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Authors: Olsen Kira G. , Hurford Terry A. , Schmerr Nicholas C. , Huang Mong‐Han , Brunt Kelly M. , Zipparo Sophia , Cole Hank M. , Aster Richard C. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractDissipation of tidal energy is expected to generate seismicity on icy‐ocean worlds; however, the distribution and timing of this seismic activity throughout an orbital cycle is not known. We used new observations from an icy‐ocean‐world analog environment on Earth to examine the relationship between tidally driven tensile stress and seismic activity within an ice shell. We investigated a pair of rifts within Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf which are tidally stressed in a manner analogous to the orbital cycle of tidal stress experienced by Enceladus' Tiger Stripe Fractures. We found that seismic activity at the Antarctic rifts is sensitive to both the amplitude and the rate of tensile stress across the rifts. We combined these findings with calculated stress values along Enceladus' Tiger Stripe Fractures to predict seismic‐activity levels expected along the ice‐shell fractures. We predict a peak in seismicity along the four Tiger Stripe Fractures when Enceladus is 90°–120° past pericenter in its orbit around Saturn, at which point tensile stresses would reach ∼2/3 of their maximum value. We also used the magnitude distribution of icequakes along Antarctic rifts to investigate implications for the likely size of stick‐slip rupture patches along icy faults on Enceladus. Our findings predict that the Tiger Stripe Fractures should produce sustained, low‐magnitude seismic events that involve rupture along discrete portions of each fracture's total length. We predict that seismicity would fall to 50% of peak levels when stresses across the Tiger Stripe Fractures are dominantly compressional.
CD137 (4-1BB) stimulation leads to metabolic and functional reprogramming of human monocytes/macrophages enhancing their tumoricidal activity
Authors: Stoll A. , Bruns H. , Fuchs M. , Völkl S. , Nimmerjahn F. , Kunz M. , Peipp M. , Mackensen A. , Mougiakakos D. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractImmunotherapies have heralded a new era in the cancer treatment. In addition to checkpoint inhibitors, agonistic antibodies against co-stimulatory immune receptors hold the potential to invoke efficient antitumor immunity. Targeting CD137 has gained momentum based on its ability to drive NK- and T-cell-based responses. CD137-engaging mAbs have already entered clinical trials for different types of tumors showing promising results. Despite the efforts to translate CD137-mediated immunotherapy into clinical practice, little remains known regarding the role of CD137 in human monocytes/macrophages.We found CD137 being expressed on monocytes of healthy controls and at even higher levels in patients with multiple myeloma or CLL. CD137HI(GH) monocytes displayed a distinct phenotypic, transcriptomic, and metabolic profile. They possessed an increased phagocytic capacity enabling superior antibody-dependent phagocytosis (ADPC) of multiple myeloma and lymphoma cells that were treated with anti-CD38 or anti-CD20 mAbs. Triggering CD137 promoted both metabolic and tumoricidal activity in an extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-dependent fashion. In addition, we observed a phenotypic, transcriptomic, and functional skewing towards a M1-like phenotype.Overall, we introduce CD137 as a positive immune checkpoint on human monocytes/macrophages, which can have therapeutic implications especially in view of synergistic effects when combining CD137 agonists with tumor-targeting antibodies.
Thyroid MALT lymphoma: self-harm to gain potential T-cell help
Authors: Wu Fangtian , Watanabe Natsuko , Tzioni Maria-Myrsini , Akarca Ayse , Zhang Chunye , Li Yan , Chen Zi , Cucco Francesco , Carmell Natasha , Noh Jaeduk Yoshimura , Ito Koichi , Dobson Rachel , Moody Sarah , Yao Wenqing , Zhang Wenyan , Liu Weiping , Liu Hongxiang , Okosun Jessica , Chott Andreas , Bi Yingwen , Chuang Shih-Sung , Raderer Markus , Li Jian-Yong , Marafioti Teresa , Du Ming-Qing 
Published: May 2021

AbstractThe development of extranodal marginal zone lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) is driven by chronic inflammatory responses and acquired genetic changes. To investigate its genetic bases, we performed targeted sequencing of 93 genes in 131 MALT lymphomas including 76 from the thyroid. We found frequent deleterious mutations of TET2 (86%), CD274 (53%), TNFRSF14 (53%), and TNFAIP3 (30%) in thyroid MALT lymphoma. CD274 was also frequently deleted, together with mutation seen in 68% of cases. There was a significant association between CD274 mutation/deletion and TNFRSF14 mutation (p = 0.001). CD274 (PD-L1) and TNFRSF14 are ligands for the co-inhibitory receptor PD1 and BTLA on T-helper cells, respectively, their inactivation may free T-cell activities, promoting their help to malignant B-cells. In support of this, both the proportion of activated T-cells (CD4+CD69+/CD4+) within the proximity of malignant B-cells, and the level of transformed blasts were significantly higher in cases with CD274/TNFRSF14 genetic abnormalities than those without these changes. Both CD274 and TNFRSF14 genetic changes were significantly associated with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (p = 0.01, p = 0.04, respectively), and CD274 mutation/deletion additionally associated with increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p = 0.0001). In conclusion, CD274/TNFRSF14 inactivation in thyroid MALT lymphoma B-cells may deregulate their interaction with T-cells, promoting co-stimulations and impairing peripheral tolerance.
Targeting circular RNAs as a therapeutic approach: current strategies and challenges
Authors: He Alina T. , Liu Jinglei , Li Feiya , Yang Burton B. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractSignificant progress has been made in circular RNA (circRNA) research in recent years. Increasing evidence suggests that circRNAs play important roles in many cellular processes, and their dysregulation is implicated in the pathogenesis of various diseases. CircRNAs are highly stable and usually expressed in a tissue- or cell type-specific manner. Therefore, they are currently being explored as potential therapeutic targets. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function approaches are typically performed using circRNA expression plasmids and RNA interference-based strategies, respectively. These strategies have limitations that can be mitigated using nanoparticle and exosome delivery systems. Furthermore, recent developments show that the cre-lox system can be used to knockdown circRNAs in a cell-specific manner. While still in the early stages of development, the CRISPR/Cas13 system has shown promise in knocking down circRNAs with high specificity and efficiency. In this review, we describe circRNA properties and functions and highlight their significance in disease. We summarize strategies that can be used to overexpress or knockdown circRNAs as a therapeutic approach. Lastly, we discuss major challenges and propose future directions for the development of circRNA-based therapeutics.
Obsessive–compulsive symptoms and information seeking during the Covid-19 pandemic
Authors: Loosen Alisa M. , Skvortsova Vasilisa , Hauser Tobias U. 
Published: May 2021

AbstractIncreased mental-health symptoms as a reaction to stressful life events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, are common. Critically, successful adaptation helps to reduce such symptoms to baseline, preventing long-term psychiatric disorders. It is thus important to understand whether and which psychiatric symptoms show transient elevations, and which persist long-term and become chronically heightened. At particular risk for the latter trajectory are symptom dimensions directly affected by the pandemic, such as obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms. In this longitudinal large-scale study (N = 406), we assessed how OC, anxiety and depression symptoms changed throughout the first pandemic wave in a sample of the general UK public. We further examined how these symptoms affected pandemic-related information seeking and adherence to governmental guidelines. We show that scores in all psychiatric domains were initially elevated, but showed distinct longitudinal change patterns. Depression scores decreased, and anxiety plateaued during the first pandemic wave, while OC symptoms further increased, even after the ease of Covid-19 restrictions. These OC symptoms were directly linked to Covid-related information seeking, which gave rise to higher adherence to government guidelines. This increase of OC symptoms in this non-clinical sample shows that the domain is disproportionately affected by the pandemic. We discuss the long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on public mental health, which calls for continued close observation of symptom development.
Transcriptome-wide association study identifies new susceptibility genes and pathways for depression
Authors: Li Xiaoyan , Su Xi , Liu Jiewei , Li Huijuan , Li Ming ,   the 23andMe Research Team, Li Wenqiang , Luo Xiong-Jian 
Published: May 2021

AbstractDepression is the most prevalent mental disorder with substantial morbidity and mortality. Although genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified multiple risk variants for depression, due to the complicated gene regulatory mechanisms and complexity of linkage disequilibrium (LD), the biological mechanisms by which the risk variants exert their effects on depression remain largely unknown. Here, we perform a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) of depression by integrating GWAS summary statistics from 807,553 individuals (246,363 depression cases and 561,190 controls) and summary-level gene-expression data (from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of 1003 individuals). We identified 53 transcriptome-wide significant (TWS) risk genes for depression, of which 23 genes were not implicated in risk loci of the original GWAS. Seven out of 53 risk genes (B3GALTL, FADS1, TCTEX1D1, XPNPEP3, ZMAT2, ZNF501 and ZNF502) showed TWS associations with depression in two independent brain expression quantitative loci (eQTL) datasets, suggesting that these genes may represent promising candidates. We further conducted conditional analyses and identified the potential risk genes that driven the TWAS association signal in each locus. Finally, pathway enrichment analysis revealed biologically pathways relevant to depression. Our study identified new depression risk genes whose expression dysregulation may play a role in depression. More importantly, we translated the GWAS associations into risk genes and relevant pathways. Further mechanistic study and functional characterization of the TWS depression risk genes will facilitate the diagnostics and therapeutics for depression.
UPF1 promotes chemoresistance to oxaliplatin through regulation of TOP2A activity and maintenance of stemness in colorectal cancer
Authors: Zhu Congcong , Zhang Long , Zhao Senlin , Dai Weixing , Xu Yun , Zhang Yuqin , Zheng Hongtu , Sheng Weiqi , Xu Ye 
Published: May 2021

AbstractUPF1 is proved to dysregulate in multiple tumors and influence carcinogenesis. However, the role of UPF1 in oxaliplatin resistance in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unknown. In our study, UPF1 is upregulated in CRC in mRNA and protein levels and overexpression of UPF1 predicts a poor overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in CRC patients and is an independent risk factor for recurrence. UPF1 promotes chemoresistance to oxaliplatin in vitro and in vivo. UPF1-induced oxaliplatin resistance can be associated with interaction between zinc finger of UPF1 and Toprim of TOP2A and increasing phosphorylated TOP2A in a SMG1-dependent manner. Moreover, UPF1 maintains stemness in a TOP2A-dependent manner in CRC. Taken together, UPF1 was overexpressed and predicted a poor prognosis in CRC. UPF1 enhanced chemoresistance to oxaliplatin in CRC, which may result from regulation of TOP2A activity and maintenance of stemness. Our findings could provide a new therapy strategy for chemoresistance to oxaliplatin in CRC patients.