bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Genetic factors in exercise adoption, adherence and obesity
Authors: Herring M. P. , Sailors M. H. , Bray M. S. 
Published: September 2013

SummaryPhysical activity and exercise play critical roles in energy balance. While many interventions targeted at increasing physical activity have demonstrated efficacy in promoting weight loss or maintenance in the short term, long term adherence to such programmes is not frequently observed. Numerous factors have been examined for their ability to predict and/or influence physical activity and exercise adherence. Although physical activity has been demonstrated to have a strong genetic component in both animals and humans, few studies have examined the association between genetic variation and exercise adherence. In this review, we provide a detailed overview of the non‐genetic and genetic predictors of physical activity and adherence to exercise. In addition, we report the results of analysis of 26 single nucleotide polymorphisms in six candidate genes examined for association to exercise adherence, duration, intensity and total exercise dose in young adults from the Training Interventions and Genetics of Exercise Response (TIGER) Study. Based on both animal and human research, neural signalling and pleasure/reward systems in the brain may drive in large part the propensity to be physically active and to adhere to an exercise programme. Adherence/compliance research in other fields may inform future investigation of the genetics of exercise adherence.
Diurnal Wind Cycles Forcing Inertial Oscillations: A Latitude-Dependent Resonance Phenomenon
Authors: Shibuya Ryosuke , Sato Kaoru , Nakanishi Mikio 
Published: September 2013

AbstractThe latitudinal dependence of inertial oscillation (IO) in a diurnally evolving atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is examined using a large-eddy simulation (LES). Previous studies that used LES were unable to simulate such an ABL on a time scale of several days because of high computational cost. By using an LES with a simple radiation scheme, the present study has succeeded in simulating the diurnal behavior of the ABL above the nocturnal stable layer as a function of the latitude. The reality of model simulations is confirmed by comparison with Wangara experiments.It is shown that a resonance-like amplification of the IO appears only at two latitudes where the respective inertial periods are 24 and 12 h. A horizontal wind oscillation with strong dependence on latitude is observed during an entire day. The oscillation amplitude is maximized slightly above the nocturnal stable layer. It seems that this maximum corresponds to the nocturnal low-level jet, whose mechanism is explained in terms of IO. Thus, the IO shown in the present study includes the nocturnal jet as a structural component. It is also shown that a wavelike structure whose phases propagate downward with near-inertial frequency at each latitude is observed above the ABL at all latitudes. This feature is consistent with that of inertia–gravity waves propagating energy upward. Previous observational and model studies indicate the dominance of inertia–gravity waves with inertial frequencies in the middle and high latitudes in the lower stratosphere. Results of the present study suggest that the IO in the ABL is a possible source of such inertia–gravity waves.
Multiyear CloudSat and CALIPSO Observations of the Dependence of Cloud Vertical Distribution on Sea Surface Temperature and Tropospheric Dynamics
Authors: Nair Anish Kumar M. , Rajeev K. 
Published: September 2013

AbstractUtilizing the synergy of the capabilities of CloudSat and Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) and ~4.5 years of their observations, this paper investigates the dependence of the altitude distribution and thickness of tropical clouds on sea surface temperature (SST). Variations in the altitude distribution of clouds with SST show three distinct regimes: SST &lt; 27.5°C, 27.5° &lt; SST &lt; 29°C, and SST &gt; 29°C. At an SST &lt; 27.5°C, the convection is rather weak, so that most of the clouds are limited to &lt;2-km altitude with peak occurrence at 1–1.5 km. The frequency of occurrence of the low-altitude clouds as well as the prominence of the peak at ~1.5 km consistently decreases for SST &gt; 24°C. Vertical development of clouds through the 3–12-km-altitude region increases for SST &gt; 27.5°C to achieve maximum cloud occurrence and thickness in the SST range of 29°–30.5°C. Penetration of the deep convective clouds to altitudes &gt;15 km and their frequency of occurrence increase with SST until ~30°C. These observations reveal two differences with the SST dependence of total cloudiness observed using passive imager data: (i) the increase in cloudiness at an SST &gt; 26°–27°C observed using the imager data is found to be influenced by the increase in cirrus clouds generated by deep convective outflows and is not directly driven by the local SST, and (ii) the total cloudiness does not decrease for SST &gt; 29.5°C as observed using imagers, but weakly increases until an SST of ~30.5°C. The role of the spatial gradient of SST and atmospheric dynamical parameters in modulating the observed SST dependence of cloudiness at different SST regimes is investigated.
The Atmospheric Energy Constraint on Global-Mean Precipitation Change
Authors: Pendergrass Angeline G. , Hartmann Dennis L. 
Published: September 2013

Abstract
Models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) robustly predict that the rate of increase in global-mean precipitation with global-mean surface temperature increase is much less than the rate of increase of water vapor. The goal of this paper is to explain in detail the mechanisms by which precipitation increase is constrained by radiative cooling. Changes in clear-sky atmospheric radiative cooling resulting from changes in temperature and humidity in global warming simulations are in good agreement with the multimodel, global-mean precipitation increase projected by GCMs (~1.1 W m−2 K−1).
In an atmosphere with fixed specific humidity, radiative cooling from the top of the atmosphere (TOA) increases in response to a uniform temperature increase of the surface and atmosphere, while atmospheric cooling by exchange with the surface decreases because the upward emission of longwave radiation from the surface increases more than the downward longwave radiation from the atmosphere. When a fixed relative humidity (RH) assumption is made, however, uniform warming causes a much smaller increase of cooling at the TOA, and the surface contribution reverses to an increase in net cooling rate due to increased downward emission from water vapor. Sensitivity of precipitation changes to lapse rate changes is modest when RH is fixed. Carbon dioxide reduces TOA emission with only weak effects on surface fluxes, and thus suppresses precipitation. The net atmospheric cooling response and thereby the precipitation response to CO2-induced warming at fixed RH are mostly contributed by changes in surface fluxes. The role of clouds is discussed.
Intermodel spread in the rate of precipitation increase across the CMIP5 simulations is attributed to differences in the atmospheric cooling.
Impact of Urbanization on Heavy Convective Precipitation under Strong Large-Scale Forcing: A Case Study over the Milwaukee–Lake Michigan Region
Authors: Yang Long , Smith James A. , Baeck Mary Lynn , Bou-Zeid Elie , Jessup Stephen M. , Tian Fuqiang , Hu Heping 
Published: September 2013

Abstract
In this study, observational and numerical modeling analyses based on the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) are used to investigate the impact of urbanization on heavy rainfall over the Milwaukee–Lake Michigan region. The authors examine urban modification of rainfall for a storm system with continental-scale moisture transport, strong large-scale forcing, and extreme rainfall over a large area of the upper Midwest of the United States. WRF simulations were carried out to examine the sensitivity of the rainfall distribution in and around the urban area to different urban land surface model representations and urban land-use scenarios. Simulation results suggest that urbanization plays an important role in precipitation distribution, even in settings characterized by strong large-scale forcing. For the Milwaukee–Lake Michigan region, the thermodynamic perturbations produced by urbanization on the temperature and surface pressure fields enhance the intrusion of the lake breeze and facilitate the formation of a convergence zone, which create favorable conditions for deep convection over the city. Analyses of model and observed vertical profiles of reflectivity using contoured frequency by altitude displays (CFADs) suggest that cloud dynamics over the city do not change significantly with urbanization. Simulation results also suggest that the large-scale rainfall pattern is not sensitive to different urban representations in the model. Both urban representations, the Noah land surface model with urban land categories and the single-layer urban canopy model, adequately capture the dominant features of this storm over the urban region.
Determining the Optimal Spatial Distribution of Weather Station Networks for Hydrological Modeling Purposes Using RCM Datasets: An Experimental Approach
Authors: Arsenault Richard , Brissette François 
Published: September 2013

Abstract
In many hydrological studies, the main limiting factor in model performance is the low meteorological data quality. In some cases, no meteorological records even exist. Installing weather stations becomes a necessity in these areas when water resource management becomes an issue. The objective of this study is to propose a new experimental and exploratory method for determining the optimal density of a weather station network when being used for long-term hydrological modeling. Data from the Canadian Regional Climate Model at 15-km resolution (CRCM15) were used to create a virtual network of stations with long and complete series of meteorological data over the Toulnustouc River basin in central Québec, Canada. The weather stations to be fed to HSAMI, Hydro-Québec's lumped rainfall–runoff hydrological model, were selected in order to minimize the number of stations while maintaining the best hydrological performance possible using a multi-objective optimization algorithm. It was shown that the number of stations making up the network on the Toulnustouc River basin should be at least two but not higher than four. If the stations are positioned optimally, there is little to no gain to be made with a denser network. The optimization algorithm clearly identified that combinations of two or three stations can result in better hydrological performance than if a high-density network was fed to the model. Thus, the major conclusion of this study is that if weather stations are positioned at optimal locations, a very few number of them are required to model runoff with as good as or better performance than when a high-density network is used.
Examination of a Real-Time 3DVAR Analysis System in the Hazardous Weather Testbed
Authors: Smith Travis M. , Gao Jidong , Calhoun Kristin M. , Stensrud David J. , Manross Kevin L. , Ortega Kiel L. , Fu Chenghao , Kingfield Darrel M. , Elmore Kimberly L. , Lakshmanan Valliappa , Riedel Christopher 
Published: September 2013

Abstract
Forecasters and research meteorologists tested a real-time three-dimensional variational data assimilation (3DVAR) system in the Hazardous Weather Testbed during the springs of 2010–12 to determine its capabilities to assist in the warning process for severe storms. This storm-scale system updates a dynamically consistent three-dimensional wind field every 5 min, with horizontal and average vertical grid spacings of 1 km and 400 m, respectively. The system analyzed the life cycles of 218 supercell thunderstorms on 27 event days during these experiments, producing multiple products such as vertical velocity, vertical vorticity, and updraft helicity. These data are compared to multiradar–multisensor data from the Warning Decision Support System–Integrated Information to document the performance characteristics of the system, such as how vertical vorticity values compare to azimuthal shear fields calculated directly from Doppler radial velocity. Data are stratified by range from the nearest radar, as well as by the number of radars entering into the analysis of a particular storm. The 3DVAR system shows physically realistic trends of updraft speed and vertical vorticity for a majority of cases. Improvements are needed to better estimate the near-surface winds when no radar is nearby and to improve the timeliness of the input data. However, the 3DVAR wind field information provides an integrated look at storm structure that may be of more use to forecasters than traditional radar-based proxies used to infer severe weather potential.
Sustainability: Ethics and the Future
Authors: Sinha Anup 
Published: September 2013

Sustainable development is essentially about taking a view of future generations of people inhabiting the world. It is also about defining actions in the present time of achieving the desired goal of bequeathing a livable world for the future. The view has to revolve around how much importance we assign to the well being of future inhabitants. It is an ethical position that we collectively, as the generation living now, have to take. Making moral judgments about the distant future is difficult for two reasons—there is a plurality of ethical positions and building a collective ethic may be impossible. Yet without a shared view we cannot have concerted action now. This article looks at some of the alternative positions and their practical implications for policy actions. The possibility of having a wider, shared ethic is also discussed. The real challenge lies in knowing nature better and making that knowledge part of culture. Then only there could be a convergence in concerns for the future, for Nature and for the yet unborn generations of human beings.
The unique evolution of the programmed cell death 4 protein in plants
Authors: Cheng Shijun , Liu Renyi , Gallie Daniel R 
Published: September 2013

Abstract

Background
The programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4) protein is induced in animals during apoptosis and functions to inhibit translation and tumor promoter-induced neoplastic transformation. PDCD4 is composed of two MA3 domains that share similarity with the single MA3 domain present in the eukaryotic translation initiation factor (eIF) 4G, which serves as a scaffold protein to assemble several initiation factors needed for the recruitment of the 40S ribosomal subunit to an mRNA. Although eIF4A is an ATP-dependent RNA helicase that binds the MA3 domain of eIF4G to promote translation initiation, binding of eIF4A to the MA3 domains of PDCD4 inhibits protein synthesis. Genes encoding PDCD4 are present in many lower eukaryotes and in plants, but PDCD4 in higher plants is unique in that it contains four MA3 domains and has been implicated in ethylene signaling and abiotic stress responses. Here, we examine the evolution of PDCD4 in plants.

Results
In older algal lineages, PDCD4 contains two MA3 domains similar to the homolog in animals. By the appearance of early land plants, however, PDCD4 is composed of four MA3 domains which likely is the result of a duplication of the two MA3 domain form of the protein. Evidence from fresh water algae, from which land plants evolved, suggests that the duplication event occurred prior to the colonization of land. PDCD4 in more recently evolved chlorophytes also contains four MA3 domains but this may have resulted from an independent duplication event. Expansion and divergence of the PDCD4 gene family occurred during land plant evolution with the appearance of a distinct gene member following the evolution of basal angiosperms.

Conclusions
The appearance of a unique form of PDCD4 in plants correlates with the appearance of components of the ethylene signaling pathway, suggesting that it may represent the adaptation of an existing protein involved in programmed cell death to one that functions in abiotic stress responses through hormone signaling.
Peach genetic resources: diversity, population structure and linkage disequilibrium
Authors: Li Xiong-wei , Meng Xian-qiao , Jia Hui-juan , Yu Ming-liang , Ma Rui-juan , Wang Li-rong , Cao Ke , Shen Zhi-jun , Niu Liang , Tian Jian-bao , Chen Miao-jin , Xie Ming , Arus Pere , Gao Zhong-shan , Aranzana Maria Jose 
Published: September 2013

AbstractBackgroundPeach (Prunus persica(L.) Batsch) is one of the most important model fruits in the Rosaceae family. Native to the west of China, where peach has been domesticated for more than 4,000 years, its cultivation spread from China to Persia, Mediterranean countries and to America. Chinese peach has had a major impact on international peach breeding programs due to its high genetic diversity. In this research, we used 48 highly polymorphic SSRs, distributed over the peach genome, to investigate the difference in genetic diversity, and linkage disequilibrium (LD) among Chinese cultivars, and North American and European cultivars, and the evolution of current peach cultivars.ResultsIn total, 588 alleles were obtained with 48 SSRs on 653 peach accessions, giving an average of 12.25 alleles per locus. In general, the average value of observed heterozygosity (0.47) was lower than the expected heterozygosity (0.60). The separate analysis of groups of accessions according to their origin or reproductive strategies showed greater variability in Oriental cultivars, mainly due to the high level of heterozygosity in Chinese landraces. Genetic distance analysis clustered the cultivars into two main groups: one included four wild relatedPrunus, and the other included most of the Oriental and Occidental landraces and breeding cultivars. STRUCTURE analysis assigned 469 accessions to three subpopulations: Oriental (234), Occidental (174), and Landraces (61). Nested STRUCTURE analysis divided the Oriental subpopulation into two different subpopulations: ‘Yu Lu’ and ‘Hakuho’. The Occidental breeding subpopulation was also subdivided into nectarine and peach subpopulations. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis in each of these subpopulations showed that the percentage of linked (r2 > 0.1) intra-chromosome comparisons ranged between 14% and 47%. LD decayed faster in Oriental (1,196 Kbp) than in Occidental (2,687 Kbp) samples. In the ‘Yu Lu’ subpopulation there was considerable LD extension while no variation of LD with physical distance was observed in the landraces. From the first STRUCTURE result, LG1 had the greatest proportion of alleles in LD within all three subpopulations.ConclusionsOur study demonstrates a high level of genetic diversity and relatively fast decay of LD in the Oriental peach breeding program. Inclusion of Chinese landraces will have a greater effect on increasing genetic diversity in Occidental breeding programs. Fingerprinting with genotype data for all 658 cultivars will be used for accession management in different germplasms. A higher density of markers are needed for association mapping in Oriental germplasm due to the low extension of LD. Population structure and evaluation of LD provides valuable information for GWAS experiment design in peach.
Stem cells isolated from adipose tissue of obese patients show changes in their transcriptomic profile that indicate loss in stemcellness and increased commitment to an adipocyte-like phenotype
Authors: Oñate Blanca , Vilahur Gemma , Camino-López Sandra , Díez-Caballero Alberto , Ballesta-López Carlos , Ybarra Juan , Moscatiello Fabrizio , Herrero Javier , Badimon Lina 
Published: September 2013

AbstractBackgroundThe adipose tissue is an endocrine regulator and a risk factor for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease when by excessive accumulation induces obesity. Although the adipose tissue is also a reservoir for stem cells (ASC) their function and “stemcellness” has been questioned. Our aim was to investigate the mechanisms by which obesity affects subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT) stem cells.ResultsTranscriptomics, in silico analysis, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blots were performed on isolated stem cells from subcutaneous abdominal WAT of morbidly obese patients (ASCmo) and of non-obese individuals (ASCn). ASCmo and ASCn gene expression clustered separately from each other. ASCmo showed downregulation of “stemness” genes and upregulation of adipogenic and inflammatory genes with respect to ASCn. Moreover, the application of bioinformatics and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) showed that the transcription factor Smad3 was tentatively affected in obese ASCmo. Validation of this target confirmed a significantly reduced Smad3 nuclear translocation in the isolated ASCmo.ConclusionsThe transcriptomic profile of the stem cells reservoir in obese subcutaneous WAT is highly modified with significant changes in genes regulating stemcellness, lineage commitment and inflammation. In addition to body mass index, cardiovascular risk factor clustering further affect the ASC transcriptomic profile inducing loss of multipotency and, hence, capacity for tissue repair. In summary, the stem cells in the subcutaneous WAT niche of obese patients are already committed to adipocyte differentiation and show an upregulated inflammatory gene expression associated to their loss of stemcellness.
Circulating microRNA expression profile and systemic right ventricular function in adults after atrial switch operation for complete transposition of the great arteries
Authors: Lai Clare TM , Ng Enders KO , Chow Pak-cheong , Kwong Ava , Cheung Yiu-fai 
Published: September 2013

Abstract

Background
Data on the use of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) as biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases are emerging. Little, however, is known on the expression profile of circulating of microRNAs in congenital heart malformations with a systemic right ventricle that is prone to functional impairment. We aimed to test the hypothesis that circulating miRNA profile is altered in patients late after atrial switch operation for complete transposition of the great arteries (TGA) and further explored possible relationships between alteration of circulating miRNAs and systemic ventricular contractility.

Methods
Circulating miRNA expression profiling of serum samples from 5 patients and 5 healthy controls was performed. The results were validated in 26 patients and 20 controls using real-time quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction for candidate miRNAs with fold changes >3 by expression profiling. Systemic ventricular myocardial acceleration during isovolumic contraction (IVA) was determined by colour tissue Doppler echocardiography.

Results
Compared with controls, patients had significantly lower systemic ventricular IVA (p = 0.002). Of the 23 upregulated miRNAs identified by profiling, 11 were validated to be increased in patients compared with controls: miR-16, miR-106a, miR-144*, miR-18a, miR-25, miR-451, miR-486-3p, miR-486-5p, miR-505*, let-7e and miR-93. Among the validated 11 miRNAs, miR-18a (r = −0.45, p = 0.002) and miR-486-5p (r = −0.35, p = 0.018) correlated negatively with systemic ventricular IVA for the whole cohort.

Conclusions
A distinct serum miRNA expression signature exists in adults with complete TGA after atrial switch operation, with serum miR-18a and miR-486-5p being associated with systemic ventricular contractility.