bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Great Slave Lake PyroCb of 5 August 2014: Observations, Simulations, Comparisons With Regular Convection, and Impact on UTLS Water Vapor
Authors: Kablick G. , Fromm M. , Miller S. , Partain P. , Peterson D. , Lee S. , Zhang Y. , Lambert A. , Li Z. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThis study analyzes a pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) that formed near Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada on 5 August 2014 using multiple satellite‐ and ground‐based data sets, meteorological reanalysis, and a cloud‐resolving model. Passive and active polar‐orbiting instruments and geostationary imagery detail the intense updraft column during the several hours‐long convective stage and capture the entire pyroCb life cycle. CloudSat radar reflectivity profiles and local soundings show the pyroCb cloud base was ≥1 km above the lifting condensation level. Comparisons with profiles through meteorological convection in the same region reaffirm previous evidence for delayed droplet growth within pyroconvective updrafts. The pyroCb penetrated the tropopause, reaching at least 14 km (θ≃ 380 K), and the detrained cirrus/smoke plume was tracked over the following 2 weeks using lagrangian trajectories, the Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization and Microwave Limb Sounder. Microwave Limb Sounder ice water content and water vapor mixing ratio (WVMR) observations in the aging plume show ice sublimation occurred in the stratosphere, producing individual WVMR anomalies up to +5 ppmv and plume‐averaged anomalies up to +2 ppmv. Reanalysis indicates the pyroCb formed in favorable convective conditions, but we show the fire itself triggered convection because meteorological triggers were not colocated during initiation. Cloud‐resolving model simulations confirm this result when controlled for surface fluxes, initial thermodynamics, and aerosol loading. Sensitivity tests show surface heat flux is dominant in determining overall pyroCb intensity, but aerosols and moisture inflow can effect small changes in updraft velocity, anvil ice concentration, and detrained WVMR.
Joint Dependence Between River Water Temperature, Air Temperature, and Discharge in the Yangtze River: The Role of the Three Gorges Dam
Authors: Liu Zhiyong , Chen Xiaohong , Liu Feng , Lin Kairong , He Yanhu , Cai Huayang 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThe water temperature of rivers is of considerable significance to freshwater ecosystems and human water use. In contrast to traditional regression models or other deterministic statistical models, we present a probabilistic approach to examine the joint dependence structures of water‐air temperature and water temperature‐discharge in the Yangtze River. Such dependence structures were built based on bivariate probabilistic models with well‐fitted marginal distributions of each variable. To investigate the stability of the dependence structures and the effects of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD), three stations (i.e., Cuntan, Yichang, and Datong) located in different sections of the river were involved in comparison between two periods, that is, pre‐TGD (1975–1987) and post‐TGD (2003–2014) periods (the dam began operating in 2003). Our results indicate that at the three stations the joint occurrence probabilities of the air‐water temperature events (e.g., the compound extreme events) tend to be lower for the second period. The dependence structures of water temperature and river discharge were stable between the two periods at the upstream station. For the downstream station relatively close to the TGD (Yichang station), a clear disturbance was observed in the dependence structures of water temperature‐discharge. In addition, relying on the established bivariate and trivariate dependence models, we further assessed the risk of different water temperature events under individual and coupled extreme conditions of air temperature and discharge. The trivariate model also revealed substantial changes in the probabilistic difference between the pre‐TGD and post‐TGD periods at Yichang station, indicating the impact from the TGD.
Multiyear Ground‐Based Measurements of Aerosol Optical Properties and Direct Radiative Effect Over Different Surface Types in Northeastern China
Authors: Zhao Hujia , Che Huizheng , Xia Xiangao , Wang Yaqiang , Wang Hong , Wang Peng , Ma Yanjun , Yang Hongbin , Liu Yuche , Wang Yangfeng , Gui Ke , Sun Tianze , Zheng Yu , Zhang Xiaoye 
Published: October 2018

AbstractAerosol microphysical and optical properties as well as aerosol direct radiative effect (ADRE) were measured at a few ground sites to investigate aerosol optical‐radiative characteristics in northeastern China. Bimodal size distributions showed a dominance of fine mode particles at Shenyang, a megacity, and more impacts from larger particles at Fushun and Dalian, industrial and coastal sites, respectively. High aerosol optical depths at 440 nm in July (0.67–1.25) were ascribed to hygroscopic effects or cloud processing. Single scattering albedos at 440 nm show strong to moderate absorption at the urban and industrial sites (0.84–0.86) and weaker absorption at the coastal and rural sites (0.92–0.94). The single scattering albedo wavelength dependence implied influences of dust at the urban, industrial, and coastal regions (shorter wavelengths) and biomass emissions at the rural site (longer wavelengths). Absorptive aerosol optical depths at the urban and industrial sites were ~2.5 and 3.7 times higher than at the coastal and rural sites. Large negative ADREs at the bottom of the atmosphere at the urban and industrial sites implied strong surface cooling and the larger ADREs at the top of the atmosphere at the coastal site indicated more cooling of the Earth‐atmosphere system. The main aerosol types at the urban and industrial sites were mixed absorbing particles, while weakly‐absorbing fine mode particles dominated the coastal and rural sites. This study provides new information on the aerosol distributions and potential regional climate effects of aerosols in northeastern China.
Evaluating Climate Sensitivity to CO2 Across Earth's History
Authors: Wolf E. T. , Haqq‐Misra J. , Toon O. B. 
Published: October 2018

AbstractCO2‐driven changes to climate have occurred during many epochs of Earth's history when the solar insolation, atmospheric CO2 concentration, and surface temperature of the planet were all significantly different than today. Each of these aspects affects the implied radiative forcings, climate feedbacks, and resultant changes in global mean surface temperature. Here we use a three‐dimensional climate system model to study the effects of increasing CO2 on Earth's climate, across many orders of magnitude of variation, and under solar inputs relevant for paleo, present, and future Earth scenarios. We find that the change in global mean surface temperature from doubling CO2 (i.e., the equilibrium climate sensitivity) may vary between 2.6 and 21.6 K over the course of Earth's history. In agreement with previous studies, we find that the adjusted radiative forcing from doubling CO2 increases at high concentrations up to about 1.5 bars partial pressure, generally resulting in larger changes in the surface temperature. We also find that the cloud albedo feedback causes an abrupt transition in climate for warming atmospheres that depends both on the mean surface temperature and the total solar insolation. Climate sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 has probably varied considerably across Earth's history.
Metabolite sensing and signaling in cell metabolism
Authors: Wang Yi-Ping , Lei Qun-Ying 
Published: October 2018

AbstractMetabolite sensing is one of the most fundamental biological processes. During evolution, multilayered mechanisms developed to sense fluctuations in a wide spectrum of metabolites, including nutrients, to coordinate cellular metabolism and biological networks. To date, AMPK and mTOR signaling are among the best-understood metabolite-sensing and signaling pathways. Here, we propose a sensor-transducer-effector model to describe known mechanisms of metabolite sensing and signaling. We define a metabolite sensor by its specificity, dynamicity, and functionality. We group the actions of metabolite sensing into three different modes: metabolite sensor-mediated signaling, metabolite-sensing module, and sensing by conjugating. With these modes of action, we provide a systematic view of how cells sense sugars, lipids, amino acids, and metabolic intermediates. In the future perspective, we suggest a systematic screen of metabolite-sensing macromolecules, high-throughput discovery of biomacromolecule-metabolite interactomes, and functional metabolomics to advance our knowledge of metabolite sensing and signaling. Most importantly, targeting metabolite sensing holds great promise in therapeutic intervention of metabolic diseases and in improving healthy aging.
Reduction spheroids preserve a uranium isotope record of the ancient deep continental biosphere
Authors: McMahon Sean , Hood Ashleigh v. S. , Parnell John , Bowden Stephen 
Published: October 2018

AbstractLife on Earth extends to several kilometres below the land surface and seafloor. This deep biosphere is second only to plants in its total biomass, is metabolically active and diverse, and is likely to have played critical roles over geological time in the evolution of microbial diversity, diagenetic processes and biogeochemical cycles. However, these roles are obscured by a paucity of fossil and geochemical evidence. Here we apply the recently developed uranium-isotope proxy for biological uranium reduction to reduction spheroids in continental rocks (red beds). Although these common palaeo-redox features have previously been suggested to reflect deep bacterial activity, unequivocal evidence for biogenicity has been lacking. Our analyses reveal that the uranium present in reduction spheroids is isotopically heavy, which is most parsimoniously explained as a signal of ancient bacterial uranium reduction, revealing a compelling record of Earth’s deep biosphere.
Dietary tuna hydrolysate modulates growth performance, immune response, intestinal morphology and resistance to Streptococcus iniae in juvenile barramundi, Lates calcarifer
Authors: Siddik Muhammad A. B. , Howieson Janet , Partridge Gavin J. , Fotedar Ravi , Gholipourkanani Hosna 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThis study investigated the effects of tuna hydrolysate (TH) inclusion in fishmeal (FM) based diets on the growth performance, innate immune response, intestinal health and resistance to Streptococcus iniae infection in juvenile barramundi, Lates calcarifer. Five isonitrogenous and isoenergetic experimental diets were prepared with TH, replacing FM at levels of 0% (control) 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%, and fed fish to apparent satiation three times daily for 8 weeks. The results showed that fish fed diets containing 5% and 10% TH had significantly higher final body weight and specific growth rate than the control. A significant reduction in blood glucose was found in fish fed 10%, 15% and 20% TH compared to those in the control whereas none of the other measured blood and serum indices were influenced by TH inclusion. Histological observation revealed a significant enhancement in goblet cell numbers in distal intestine of fish fed 5 to 10% TH in the diet. Moreover, fish fed 10% TH exhibited the highest resistance against Streptococcus iniae infection during a bacterial challenge trial. These findings therefore demonstrate that the replacement of 5 to 10% FM with TH improves growth, immune response, intestinal health and disease resistance in juvenile barramundi.
How algorithmic popularity bias hinders or promotes quality
Authors: Ciampaglia Giovanni Luca , Nematzadeh Azadeh , Menczer Filippo , Flammini Alessandro 
Published: October 2018

AbstractAlgorithms that favor popular items are used to help us select among many choices, from top-ranked search engine results to highly-cited scientific papers. The goal of these algorithms is to identify high-quality items such as reliable news, credible information sources, and important discoveries–in short, high-quality content should rank at the top. Prior work has shown that choosing what is popular may amplify random fluctuations and lead to sub-optimal rankings. Nonetheless, it is often assumed that recommending what is popular will help high-quality content “bubble up” in practice. Here we identify the conditions in which popularity may be a viable proxy for quality content by studying a simple model of a cultural market endowed with an intrinsic notion of quality. A parameter representing the cognitive cost of exploration controls the trade-off between quality and popularity. Below and above a critical exploration cost, popularity bias is more likely to hinder quality. But we find a narrow intermediate regime of user attention where an optimal balance exists: choosing what is popular can help promote high-quality items to the top. These findings clarify the effects of algorithmic popularity bias on quality outcomes, and may inform the design of more principled mechanisms for techno-social cultural markets.
Variable training but not sleep improves consolidation of motor adaptation
Authors: Thürer Benjamin , Weber Frederik D. , Born Jan , Stein Thorsten 
Published: October 2018

AbstractHow motor memory consolidates still remains elusive. Consolidation of motor skills has been shown to depend on periods of sleep. Conversely, motor adaptation during tasks not dependent on the hippocampus may not depend on sleep. Some research suggests that the training schedule affects the sleep dependency of motor adaptation tasks. Here, we investigated whether sleep differentially affects memory consolidation that depends on the training schedule. Healthy men were trained with their dominant, right hand on a force-field adaptation task and re-tested after an 11-h consolidation period involving overnight sleep (Sleep) or daytime wakefulness (Wake). Retesting included a transfer test of the non-dominant hand. Half of the subjects in each group adapted to different force-field magnitudes during training with low inter-trial force variability (Sleep-Blocked; Wake-Blocked), and the other half were trained with a high-variability schedule (Sleep-Random; Wake-Random). EEG was recorded during task execution and overnight polysomnography. Consolidation was comparable between Wake and Sleep groups, although performance changes over sleep correlated with sleep spindles nesting in slow-wave upstates. Higher training variability improved retest performance, including transfer learning, and these improvements correlated with higher alpha power in contralateral parietal areas. These enhanced consolidation effects might be fostered by feedback rather than feedforward mechanisms.
Genome-informed diagnostics for specific and rapid detection of Pectobacterium species using recombinase polymerase amplification coupled with a lateral flow device
Authors: Ahmed Firas A. , Larrea-Sarmiento Adriana , Alvarez Anne M. , Arif Mohammad 
Published: October 2018

AbstractPectobacterium species cause serious bacterial soft rot diseases worldwide on economically important fruit and vegetable crops including tomato and potato. Accurate and simple methods are essential for rapid pathogen identification and timely management of the diseases. Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) combined with a lateral flow device (LFD) was developed for specific detection of Pectobacterium sp. directly from infected plant materials with no need for DNA isolation. The specificity of RPA-LFD was tested with 26 Pectobacterium sp. strains and 12 non-Pectobacterium species and no false positive or false negative outcomes were observed. RPA primers and probe for host control were also developed to detect the host genome for enhanced reliability and accuracy of the developed assay. The detection limit of 10 fg was obtained with both sensitivity and spiked sensitivity assays. No inhibitory effects were observed on the RPA assay when targets (pathogen and host) were directly detected from infected potato and tomato sap. The developed RPA assay has numerous applications from routine diagnostics at point-of-care, biosecurity, surveillance and disease management to epidemiological studies. In addition, this tool can also be used to discover reservoir hosts for Pectobacterium species.
The infection of Harmonia axyridis by a parasitic nematode is mediated by entomopathogenic bacteria and triggers sex-specific host immune responses
Authors: Gegner Tobias , Carrau Tessa , Vilcinskas Andreas , Lee Kwang-Zin 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThe harlequin ladybird Harmonia axyridis is native to Asia but has been introduced into many countries as a biological control agent. It is now considered an invasive pest, threatening the biodiversity of native ladybirds globally, in part because of its superior immune system. H. axyridis is infected and killed by the parasitic nematode Parasitylenchus bifurcatus, which could therefore be developed as a biological strategy to counter the spread of this insect pest. However, effective control requires an understanding of the tripartite relationship between H. axyridis, P. bifurcatus and their potential bacterial mutualists. Here we describe the isolation of two species of nematode-associated bacteria (Serratia marcescens and Providencia rettgeri) which were highly virulent against H. axyridis in survival experiments. In addition, contact between the nematodes and beetles led to the sex-specific modulation of multiple host immunity-related genes after 24 and 48 h, with many genes encoding antimicrobial peptides rapidly and stably repressed in females whereas the same genes were initially induced in males before suppression at the later time point. These data provide evidence that the female immune system responds much more strongly to the nematodes and provokes, in turn, a more robust invasion strategy involving the bacterial mutualists.
An atypical RNA silencing suppression strategy provides a snapshot of the evolution of sweet potato-infecting potyviruses
Authors: Rodamilans Bernardo , Valli Adrián , Mingot Ares , San León David , López-Moya Juan José , García Juan Antonio 
Published: October 2018

AbstractPlant viruses usually encode proteins with RNA silencing suppression (RSS) activity to counteract plant defenses. In Potyvirus, the largest genus in the family Potyviridae, this role is taken over by the multifunctional HCPro, also involved in aphid transmission, polyprotein processing and virion formation. Recently, the large P1 of Sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV) was characterized finding an extra ORF produced after polymerase slippage, which originates the product P1N-PISPO. Transient expression assays showed that SPFMV P1 and P1N-PISPO presented RSS activity, while HCPro did not. In this work, we analyze possible differences between HCPro of SPFMV and other potyviruses, testing HCPro RSS activity in a transient expression assay, and using a Plum pox virus-based system to test the ability of SPFMV P1N-PISPO and HCPro to serve as RNA silencing suppressors in the context of a viral infection. Our results indicate that not only P1 and P1N-PISPO, but also HCPro display RSS activity when expressed in a suitable context, stressing the importance of the selected experimental system for testing anti-silencing capacity of proteins. The presence of multiple viral silencing suppressors in SPFMV adds complexity to an already intricate RSS system, and provides insight into the hypothetical evolution of sweet potato-infecting potyvirids.
Plasma-based multi-reforming for Gas-To-Liquid: tuning the plasma chemistry towards methanol
Authors: Snoeckx Ramses , Wang Weizong , Zhang Xuming , Cha Min Suk , Bogaerts Annemie 
Published: October 2018

AbstractBecause of its unique properties, plasma technology has gained much prominence in the microelectronics industry. Recently, environmental and energy applications of plasmas have gained a lot of attention. In this area, the focus is on converting CO2 and reforming hydrocarbons, with the goal of developing an efficient single-step ‘gas-to-liquid’ (GTL) process. Here we show that applying tri-reforming principles to plasma—further called ‘plasma-based multi-reforming’—allows us to better control the plasma chemistry and thus the formed products. To demonstrate this, we used chemical kinetics calculations supported by experiments and reveal that better control of the plasma chemistry can be achieved by adding O2 or H2O to a mixture containing CH4 and CO2 (diluted in N2). Moreover, by adding O2 and H2O simultaneously, we can tune the plasma chemistry even further, improving the conversions, thermal efficiency and methanol yield. Unlike thermocatalytic reforming, plasma-based reforming is capable of producing methanol in a single step; and compared with traditional plasma-based dry reforming, plasma-based multi-reforming increases the methanol yield by more than seven times and the thermal efficiency by 49%, as revealed by our model calculations. Thus, we believe that by using plasma-based multi-reforming, ‘gas-to-liquid’ conversion may be made efficient and scalable.
The Relations between 3-year Changes in Physical Fitness and Academic Performance in Nationally Representative Sample of Junior High School Students
Authors: Hsieh Shu-Shih , Tsai Jia-Ren , Chang Shao-Hsi , Cheng Chih-Fu , Sung Yao-Ting , Hung Tsung-Min 
Published: October 2018

AbstractThe objective of the current study was to examine the relationship between different components of physical fitness across 3 years of junior high school with academic performance assessed at the end of the period. Two nationwide representative datasets were used. The first was the physical fitness profile assessed at the beginning of each of the three school years. The second contained the scores on a standardized test administered at the end of the third year. All data were standardized by calculating percentile rank (PR). Students were classified as “High-fit” if their fitness scores ≧ top 25% PR on the age- and sex-adjusted norms. All other students were classified as “not high-fit”. The relationships between fitness and exam performance were tested adjusting for sex, body mass index, and level of urbanization. Students who were in the high-fit group in both years 1 and 3 academically outperformed those who were outside this classification during both assessments. The degree of outperformance was greatest for those who were aerobically fit, followed by those who were high-fit in terms of muscular endurance, muscular strength, and flexibility, respectively. It is therefore concluded that the relationship between physical fitness and academic performance in Taiwanese junior high school students is strongest in the case of aerobic fitness.