bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Aniridia among children and teenagers in Sweden and Norway
Authors: Edén Ulla , Beijar Caroline , Riise Ruth , Tornqvist Kristina 
Published: May 2008

Abstract.Purpose:  To investigate patients under the age of 20 with aniridia in Sweden and Norway in order to estimate the prevalence of aniridia, to describe clinical signs and identify complications in the young, which will help improve diagnostic tools and treatment.Methods:  A thorough search for patients with aniridia (of all ages) was performed. Sixty‐two of the 181 patients were under the age of 20. Fifty‐two of them were examined and they constituted the study population. Patient history was obtained and all participants underwent clinical ophthalmologic examination, including photography. Blood samples were taken for mutation analysis.Results:  Epidemiological data are only based on the results in Sweden. The age‐specific prevalence in Sweden was 1:47 000, male/female ratio was 0.57, mean age 12 years and median age 14 years. The proportion of sporadic cases including WAGR (Wilms tumour, Aniridia, Genitourinary abnormalities, Mental Retardation) and Gillespie syndrome (aniridia, cerebellar ataxia and mental retardation) was 48%. In the entire study population (Sweden and Norway), the mean visual acuity (VA) was 0.2 (range 0.04–0.9). We found VA < 0.3 in 80% and <0.1 in 18% of the patients. Twenty‐two patients (42%) had one or more of the sight threatening complications such as cataract/lens luxation, corneal clouding or glaucoma.Conclusion:  Descriptions of aniridia in the younger are rare. This study shows that aniridia seems to be more common than previously estimated and that some complications appear early in life. Watchfulness as regards these complications and regular examinations are essential even in the youngest.
bla
IMP-4
in Different Genetic Contexts in
Enterobacteriaceae
Isolates from Australia
Authors: Espedido Björn A. , Partridge Sally R. , Iredell Jonathan R. 
Published: May 2008

ABSTRACT

The IMP-4 metallo-β-lactamase, originally recognized in
Acinetobacter
spp. from Hong Kong, more recently appeared simultaneously in isolates of the family
Enterobacteriaceae
from Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. The
bla
IMP-4
-
qacG2
-
aacA4
-
catB3
cassette array was found in isolates from both cities, but in different wider genetic contexts and on different plasmids, suggesting movement of this array by homologous recombination.
Persistently Infected Horses Are Reservoirs for Intrastadial Tick-Borne Transmission of the Apicomplexan Parasite
Babesia equi
Authors: Ueti Massaro W. , Palmer Guy H. , Scoles Glen A. , Kappmeyer Lowell S. , Knowles Donald P. 
Published: May 2008

ABSTRACT

Tick-borne pathogens may be transmitted intrastadially and transstadially within a single vector generation as well as vertically between generations. Understanding the mode and relative efficiency of this transmission is required for infection control. In this study, we established that adult male
Rhipicephalus microplus
ticks efficiently acquire the protozoal pathogen
Babesia equi
during acute and persistent infections and transmit it intrastadially to naïve horses. Although the level of parasitemia during acquisition feeding affected the efficiency of the initial tick infection, infected ticks developed levels of ≥10
4
organisms/pair of salivary glands independent of the level of parasitemia during acquisition feeding and successfully transmitted them, indicating that replication within the tick compensated for any initial differences in infectious dose and exceeded the threshold for transmission. During the development of
B. equi
parasites in the salivary gland granular acini, the parasites expressed levels of paralogous surface proteins significantly different from those expressed by intraerythrocytic parasites from the mammalian host. In contrast to the successful intrastadial transmission, adult female
R. microplus
ticks that fed on horses with high parasitemia passed the parasite vertically into the eggs with low efficiency, and the subsequent generation (larvae, nymphs, and adults) failed to transmit
B. equi
parasites to naïve horses. The data demonstrated that intrastadial but not transovarial transmission is an efficient mode for
B. equi
transmission and that persistently infected horses are an important reservoir for transmission. Consequently,
R. microplus
male ticks and persistently infected horses should be targeted for disease control.
Yersinia pestisType III Secretion System-Dependent Inhibition of Human Polymorphonuclear Leukocyte Function
Authors: Spinner Justin L. , Cundiff Jennifer A. , Kobayashi Scott D. 
Published: May 2008

ABSTRACTHuman polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs, or neutrophils) are the primary innate host defense against invading bacterial pathogens. Neutrophils are rapidly recruited to sites of infection and ingest microorganisms through a process known as phagocytosis. Following phagocytosis by human PMNs, microorganisms are killed by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and microbicidal products contained within granules.Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, is capable of rapid replication and dissemination from sites of infection in the host. AlthoughY. pestissurvives in macrophages, the bacterial fate following interaction with human PMNs is less clear. The ability ofY. pestisto inhibit phagocytosis by human PMNs was assessed by differential fluorescence microscopy and was shown to be dependent on expression of the type III secretion system (TTSS). Previous studies have demonstrated that TTSS expression in enteropathogenicYersiniaspp. also inhibits the respiratory burst in PMNs and macrophages, and we show here that human PMN ROS production is similarly repressed byY. pestis. However, exclusion of uningested TTSS-expressingY. pestiswith gentamicin revealed that intracellular bacteria are eliminated by human PMNs, similar to bacteria lacking the TTSS. In summary, our results suggest that theY. pestisTTSS contributes to extracellular survival following interactions with human PMNs and that the intracellular fate is independent of TTSS inhibition of neutrophil ROS production.
In Vivo Analysis of
Aspergillus fumigatus
Developmental Gene Expression Determined by Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR
Authors: Gravelat Fabrice N. , Doedt Thomas , Chiang Lisa Y. , Liu Hong , Filler Scott G. , Patterson Thomas F. , Sheppard Donald C. 
Published: May 2008

ABSTRACT

Very little is known about the developmental stages of
Aspergillus fumigatus
during invasive aspergillosis. We performed real-time reverse transcription-PCR analysis on lung samples from mice with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis to determine the expression of
A. fumigatus
genes that are expressed at specific stages of development. In established infection,
A. fumigatus
exhibited mRNA expression of genes specific to developmentally competent hyphae, such as
stuA
. In contrast, mRNA of genes expressed by conidia and precompetent hyphae was not detected. Many genes required for mycotoxin synthesis, including
aspHS, gliP, mitF
, and
metAP
, are known to be expressed by developmentally competent hyphae in vitro. Interestingly, each of these genes was expressed at significantly higher levels during invasive infection than in vitro. The expression of
gliP
mRNA in vitro was found to be highly dependent on culture conditions. Furthermore,
gliP
expression was found to be dependent on the transcription factor StuA both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, developmentally competent hyphae predominate during established invasive infection, and many mycotoxin genes are expressed at high levels in vivo. These results highlight the importance of the evaluation of putative virulence factors expressed by competent hyphae and analysis of gene expression levels during invasive infection rather than in vitro alone.
Modeling the Contribution of the Brussels Heat Island to a Long Temperature Time Series
Authors: Van Weverberg K. , De Ridder K. , Van Rompaey A. 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
A mesoscale meteorological model containing a detailed land surface model is used to assess the contribution of urban heating to the temperature record of the national recording station of Belgium in Uccle, near Brussels. The Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) was applied over a domain of 60 km × 60 km with a horizontal resolution of 1 km. Four meteorological episodes were selected, and, for each of these, the model was integrated using two different land cover situations. The first consisted of a detailed reconstruction of the early nineteenth-century setting of Brussels and its wide surroundings, while the second corresponded to the present-day land cover. Since the nineteenth century, when the recording station of Uccle was established, a major land cover change from an agricultural area to a built surface has taken place. The temperature difference between the simulations at the site of Uccle was assumed to represent the urban effect on the site since the beginning of recording. The urban heat island (UHI) of Brussels was found to have a significant impact on the temperature record in Uccle. The urban–rural temperature difference was found to build up during the evening, gradually decreasing during the night and becoming zero during the day. By analyzing the surface energy balance it was revealed that the UHI is mainly caused by a greater storage of energy in the urban fabric during the day and a release of this heat in the evening. The UHI had a significant average impact on the Uccle temperature record during two of the four selected weather situations. The effect amounted to 0.77°C in a cloudy weather situation with westerly winds and to 1.13°C in a clear and calm weather situation.
Drought Recurrence and Seasonal Rainfall Prediction in the Río Yaqui Basin, Mexico
Authors: Nicholas Robert E. , Battisti David S. 
Published: May 2008

AbstractA statistical approach is used to explore the variability of precipitation and meteorological drought in Mexico’s Río Yaqui basin on seasonal-to-decadal time scales. For this purpose, a number of custom datasets have been developed, including a monthly 1900–2004 precipitation index for the Yaqui basin created by merging two gridded land surface precipitation products, a 349-yr tree-ring-based proxy for Yaqui wintertime rainfall, and a variety of large-scale climate indices derived from gridded SST records. Although significantly more rain falls during the summer (June–September) than during the winter (November–April), wintertime rainfall is over 3 times as variable relative to the climatological mean. Summertime rainfall appears to be unrelated to any large-scale patterns of variability, but a strong relationship between ENSO and Yaqui rainfall during the winter months offers the possibility of meaningful statistical prediction for this season’s precipitation. Analysis of both historical and reconstructed rainfall data suggests that meteorological droughts as severe as the 1994–2002 Yaqui drought occur about 2 times per century, droughts of even greater severity have occurred in the past, and such droughts are generally associated with wintertime anomalies. Whereas summertime reservoir inflow is larger in the Yaqui basin, wintertime inflow is more variable (in both relative and absolute terms) and is much more strongly correlated with same-season rainfall. Using the identified wintertime ENSO–rainfall relationship, two simple empirical forecast models for possible use by irrigation planners are demonstrated.
An Urban Parameterization for a Global Climate Model. Part II: Sensitivity to Input Parameters and the Simulated Urban Heat Island in Offline Simulations
Authors: Oleson K. W. , Bonan G. B. , Feddema J. , Vertenstein M. 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
In a companion paper, the authors presented a formulation and evaluation of an urban parameterization designed to represent the urban energy balance in the Community Land Model. Here the robustness of the model is tested through sensitivity studies and the model’s ability to simulate urban heat islands in different environments is evaluated. Findings show that heat storage and sensible heat flux are most sensitive to uncertainties in the input parameters within the atmospheric and surface conditions considered here. The sensitivity studies suggest that attention should be paid not only to characterizing accurately the structure of the urban area (e.g., height-to-width ratio) but also to ensuring that the input data reflect the thermal admittance properties of each of the city surfaces. Simulations of the urban heat island show that the urban model is able to capture typical observed characteristics of urban climates qualitatively. In particular, the model produces a significant heat island that increases with height-to-width ratio. In urban areas, daily minimum temperatures increase more than daily maximum temperatures, resulting in a reduced diurnal temperature range relative to equivalent rural environments. The magnitude and timing of the heat island vary tremendously depending on the prevailing meteorological conditions and the characteristics of surrounding rural environments. The model also correctly increases the Bowen ratio and canopy air temperatures of urban systems as impervious fraction increases. In general, these findings are in agreement with those observed for real urban ecosystems. Thus, the model appears to be a useful tool for examining the nature of the urban climate within the framework of global climate models.
Hurricane “Rainfall Potential” Derived from Satellite Observations Aids Overland Rainfall Prediction
Authors: Jiang Haiyan , Halverson Jeffrey B. , Simpson Joanne , Zipser Edward J. 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission–based National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) product is used to quantify the rainfall distribution in tropical cyclones that made landfall in the United States during 1998–2004. A total of 37 tropical cyclones (TC) are examined, including 2680 three-hourly MPA precipitation observations. Rainfall distributions for overland and overocean observations are compared. It is found that the TC rainfall over ocean bears a strong relationship with the TC maximum wind, whereas the relationship for overland conditions is much weaker. The rainfall potential is defined by using the satellite-derived rain rate, the satellite-derived storm size, and the storm translation speed. This study examines the capability of the overocean rainfall potential to predict a storm’s likelihood of producing heavy rain over land. High correlations between rain potentials before landfall and the maximum storm total rain over land are found using the dataset of the 37 landfalling TCs. Correlations are higher with the average rain potential on the day prior to landfall than with averages over any other time period. A TC overland rainfall index is introduced based on the rainfall potential study. This index can be used to predict the storm peak rainfall accumulation over land. Six landfalling storms during the 2005 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season are examined to verify the capability of using this index to forecast the maximum storm total rain over land in the United States. The range of the maximum storm overland rain forecast error for these six storms is between 2.5% and 24.8%.
Volcanic Ash Transport from Mount Asama to the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Influenced by Large-Scale Local Wind Circulation
Authors: Tsunematsu Nobumitsu , Nagai Tomohiro , Murayama Toshiyuki , Adachi Ahoro , Murayama Yasuhiro 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
The eruption of the Mount Asama volcano on 16 September 2004 produced an ash cloud and led to ashfall in the Tokyo metropolitan area that lies on the Kanto Plain. Satellite images showed the ash cloud drifting toward the south in the morning but to the southeast in the afternoon. An aerosol lidar and a ceilometer, installed in the metropolitan area, continuously observed the southeastward-transported ash particles passing at altitudes of 2.6–4.5 km above mean sea level (MSL) in the nighttime. Results of meteorological analyses and numerical experiments showed that the south-to-southeasterly sea breezes and valley winds prevailed at altitudes below 1.5 km MSL over the Kanto Plain in the afternoon and the compensatory return flow (CRF) was formed aloft at altitudes of 1.5–4.5 km MSL as strong northwesterly winds, which were encouraged by a synoptic wind. The numerical experiments also showed that the direction of the ash transport turned from the south to the southeast following the formation of the northwesterly CRF. This demonstrates that the daytime ash transport was influenced by the CRF. The nocturnal ash transport, however, depended on the intensified synoptic wind. Thus, in addition to synoptic winds, the large-scale local wind circulation prevailing over the Kanto Plain can determine the direction of ash transport originating from the Mount Asama volcano and increase the possibility of ashfall in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
MODIS Global Cloud-Top Pressure and Amount Estimation: Algorithm Description and Results
Authors: Menzel W. Paul , Frey Richard A. , Zhang Hong , Wylie Donald P. , Moeller Chris C. , Holz Robert E. , Maddux Brent , Baum Bryan A. , Strabala Kathy I. , Gumley Liam E. 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua platforms provides unique measurements for deriving global and regional cloud properties. MODIS has spectral coverage combined with spatial resolution in key atmospheric bands, which is not available on previous imagers and sounders. This increased spectral coverage/spatial resolution, along with improved onboard calibration, enhances the capability for global cloud property retrievals. MODIS operational cloud products are derived globally at spatial resolutions of 5 km (referred to as level-2 products) and are aggregated to a 1° equal-angle grid (referred to as level-3 product), available for daily, 8-day, and monthly time periods. The MODIS cloud algorithm produces cloud-top pressures that are found to be within 50 hPa of lidar determinations in single-layer cloud situations. In multilayer clouds, where the upper-layer cloud is semitransparent, the MODIS cloud pressure is representative of the radiative mean between the two cloud layers. In atmospheres prone to temperature inversions, the MODIS cloud algorithm places the cloud above the inversion and hence is as much as 200 hPa off its true location. The wealth of new information available from the MODIS operational cloud products offers the promise of improved cloud climatologies. This paper 1) describes the cloud-top pressure and amount algorithm that has evolved through collection 5 as experience has been gained with in-flight data from NASA Terra and Aqua platforms; 2) compares the MODIS cloud-top pressures, converted to cloud-top heights, with similar measurements from airborne and space-based lidars; and 3) introduces global maps of MODIS and High Resolution Infrared Sounder (HIRS) cloud-top products.
Does Air Pollution Really Suppress Precipitation in Israel?
Authors: Alpert P. , Halfon N. , Levin Z. 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
Trends in the orographic rainfall ratio R0 over Israel are reevaluated. It is shown that the rainfall has not changed significantly over most of the mountainous stations, with some significant increases over the central mountains. The overall evaluation of R0 for all potential station pairs, calculating the ratio of each mountain station separately over each coastal or seashore station, indicates that about 50% of all pairs show a positive trend in R0. The high spatial variability, especially over the mountains, allows for finding orographic rainfall ratio trends that are significant in both the positive and negative directions. The correct definition of R0 in the Israeli case requires the use of a seashore cluster of stations. If some of the seashore stations are replaced by inland stations, and in particular stations that are right over the region of maximum positive rainfall urban enhancement due to the thermal heat island or other urban effects, a seemingly decreasing “orographic ratio” is unavoidable. In such a case, urban dynamical positive effects on coastal rainfall can be erroneously interpreted as pollution suppression of orographic rainfall. When seashore stations are selected as required by a proper definition of the orographic ratio, increasing R0 is obtained over central Israel and an insignificant trend over the north is found. Furthermore, evaluation of the ratio of rainfall for the upwind in comparison with the downwind side of the Galilee Mountains exhibits an increasing trend, opposite to the recent findings of Givati and Rosenfeld. The rainfall analysis shows no evidence of any suppression of rainfall over the mountains due to pollution, and at least in Israel other factors besides aerosols are predominant in defining the trends in the orographic rainfall ratio.
Applications of an Infrared Doppler Lidar in Detection of Wind Shear
Authors: Shun C. M. , Chan P. W. 
Published: May 2008

Abstract
In December 2005, operational wind shear alerting at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) reached an important milestone with the launch of the automatic Lidar (light detection and ranging) Windshear Alerting System (LIWAS). This signifies that the anemometer-based and radar-based wind shear detection technologies deployed worldwide in the twentieth century have been further advanced by the addition of the lidar—a step closer to all-weather coverage.
Unlike the microburst and gust front, which have a well-defined coherent vertical structure in the lowest several hundred meters of the atmosphere, terrain-induced wind shear tends to have high spatial and temporal variability. To detect the highly changeable winds to be encountered by the aircraft under terrain-induced wind shear situations, the Hong Kong Observatory devises an innovative glide path scan (GPScan) strategy for the lidar, pointing the laser beam toward the approach and departure glide paths, with the changes in azimuth and elevation angles concerted. The purpose of the GPScans is to derive the headwind profiles and hence the wind shear along the glide paths. Developed based on these GPScans, LIWAS is able to capture about 76% of the wind shear events reported by pilots over the most-used approach corridor under clear-air conditions. During the past two years, further developments of the lidar took place at HKIA, including the use of runway-specific lidar to further enhance the wind shear detection performance.