bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Court battle over badge rules at Jet Propulsion Lab
Authors: showstack Randy 
Published: December 2007

A group of 28 scientists, engineers, and administrative support staff, who are contract workers associated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., has mounted a court battle over a requirement that all NASA employees and contractors must complete a questionnaire with a waiver authorizing NASA to conduct broad background investigations into professional and personal areas of their lives. Workers need to complete this document (Standard Form 85 for low‐risk positions) in order to receive new identification badges that provide access to JPL.This requirement to complete the document applies to the JPL workforce of 5000, most of whom are contract workers whose positions NASA has designated as nonsensitive or low risk. The plaintiffs (also referred to as appellants), who are employees of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) working at JPL on NASA projects, consider the waiver in particular as allowing an invasion of privacy that also could adversely affect the retention and hiring of contractors and an open scientific environment.
Reaching the end of the FUSE
Authors: Showstack Randy 
Published: December 2007

The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) space telescope will be turned off on 18 October, after its pointing system failed. The NASA mission, which has been managed by a team of researchers with the Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland, produced spectrographs at short ultraviolet light wavelengths below the range in which the Hubble Space Telescope operates.By analyzing FUSE data, astronomers were able to measure temperatures, densities, and chemical compositions of many objects. The 8‐year mission, extended from its original 3 years, resulted in numerous discoveries, including a glimpse into molecular hydrogen in Mars's atmosphere and a first‐ever observation of molecular nitrogen outside our solar system. While FUSE'S scientific data will remain available to astronomers for years, the science team will close out the mission in less than a year. After 30 years or so, FUSE'S orbit is expected to decay and the satellite will burn up in the atmosphere.
Surveying hydrology, ecology and climate effects of northern peatlands
Authors: Slater Lee , Comas Xavier , Reeve Andrew , Jol Harry 
Published: December 2007

Northern peatlands comprise the largest wetland complex worldwide, covering approximately 4 million square kilometers across Eurasia and North America. They form a critical component of the global carbon (C) cycle by acting as net sources of CH4 but net sinks of CO2. Studies of northern peatlands have increased in recent years due to uncertainties in (1) mechanisms and rates of carbon gas exchange between peatlands and the atmosphere, and (2) the effect of northernlatitude climate warming on peatlandatmosphere carbon gas fluxes.New technologies are required to evaluate the volume of carbon stored in peatlands, spatial patterns of free phase gas production, and temporal variability in gas exchange to the atmosphere. The Division of Earth Sciences of the U.S. National Science Foundation funded a 5‐day, field‐based, intensive workshop focused on engaging the community in addressing key peatlands science challenges through near‐surface geophysical methods. The workshop was based at the University of Maine, in Orono, and used nearby Caribou Bog, a field site instrumented for hydrological and geophysical research.
Comment on “Emergence of complex societies after sea level stabilized”
Authors: Washington Paul A. 
Published: December 2007

Day et al. [2007] made a provocative proposal: that complex societies evolved in response to the increased productivity of coastal marine ecosystems following sea level stabilization (SLS). Although the known record of complex societies does roughly coincide with SLS, neither the linkage to increased marine productivity nor the assertion that complex societies emerged at that time is warranted.Although increased marine productivity would have influenced coastal societies, the most prominent early societies (e.g., Nile, Mesopotamia, Indus, Yellow) relied primarily on riparian grain production. Coeval Mississippi Valley society was centered more than 300 kilometers inland and relied on riverine resources (freshwater fish and so forth) [Saunders et al., 2005]. These are the societies that apparently first constructed permanent structures (temples, permanent buildings, mound systems).
Conference marks fiftieth anniversary of global CO2 record
Authors: Butler James , Marquis Melinda 
Published: December 2007

The fiftieth anniversary of the global CO2 record, begun by Charles David Keeling at the South Pole and in Hawaii during the International Geophysical Year (IGY; 1957–1958), will be celebrated at a symposium in Kona, Hawaii, near the Mauna Loa Observatory, on 28–30 November 2007.At the time of Keeling's initial efforts, little was known about CO2 in the atmosphere and no reliable atmospheric record existed. Indeed, many scientists were not certain that one could detect meaningful patterns such as seasonal changes, hemispheric differences, and fossil fuel emissions with measurements of such a low‐concentration constituent of the atmosphere. The early measurements by Keeling began what was to become a coordinated global monitoring network involving scientists and agencies from countries around the world. Information derived from this network—which now includes many greenhouse gases, isotopes, and other tracers—has been crucial for informing national and international assessments of global climate change, not the least of which are the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports.
Deep drill hole for the New Madrid Seismic Zone
Authors: Cramer Chris H. , Wolf Lorraine W. 
Published: December 2007

A 5‐ to 6‐kilometer‐deep scientific drill hole is the ultimate goal of Fault Observatory for the Central U.S. (FOCUS), a new multidisciplinary, multi‐institutional working group that formed at a workshop held at the University of Memphis, in Tennessee. Beneficial shortand intermediate‐term science goals are also part of establishing this borehole geo‐observatory in the most prominent, widely known intraplate earthquake zone in the world.The midcontinent has a long, complex history of tectonism. Precambrian basement rocks record intense tectonic deformations that preceded the accumulation of thick sedimentary sequences of sediments that constitute the present‐day Mississippi Embayment. Despite its location far from the active North American plate margins, the New Madrid seismic zone of the central United States exhibits a persistent pattern of seismicity. What causes this intraplate seismicity? How does the intraplate lithosphere support the forces that maintain earthquake productivity in this supposedly stable tectonic setting? Is there evidence for spatial or temporal migration of seismicity in the continental interior?
Comment on “Amateur observations of atmospheric phenomena during the IGY”
Authors: Feldstein Yasha I. , Yevlashin Leonid S. 
Published: December 2007

Following the article by Schröder [2007], we point out the key roles played by several Russian scientists in the planning and implementation of observations of aurorae during the International Geophysical Year (IGY).The leader of the program and the organizer of the visual observational network in the USSR was Nikolay V. Pushkov (1903–1981), director of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation (IZMIRAN, Troitsk, Russia, now called the Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radiowave Propagation). As a member of the Comite Special de l'Annee Geophysique Internationale (CSAGI), Pushkov was actively involved in the inception of the international program of visual observations of aurorae that was accepted for the period of the IGY.
[Comment on “Keep Religion out of National Space Policy”] Guidelines for writing about science and religion
Authors: Slabinski Victor J. 
Published: December 2007

When scientists write about the relation between science and religion, I suggest they follow four principles: (1) Be accurate in statements of fact and in the use of terminology; (2) use examples that are germane to the issue at hand; (3) provide conclusions that follow logically from the given premises and discussion; and (4) acknowledge that the practice of science has its own dogma.Scientists routinely follow the first three principles when writing their science reports. But a recent Eos article on science and religion [Carter, 2006] violated these three principles. It is important to discuss how scientists sometimes err in statements on religion because nonscientists will detect any errors and will conclude that scientists cannot make a rational case for their position.
Further comment on “A perspective on global warming, dimming, and brightening”
Authors: Schmidt Gavin A. , Romanou Anastasia , Liepert Beate 
Published: December 2007

In a recent Eos Forum article, Stanhill [2007] suggested that there is an unexplained inconsistency between “global dimming” and global warming. This contention is mistaken.Stanhill's argument is based on select local observations that show reductions in the surface shortwave downwelling radiation (SWD) from the 1950s to the 1980s of about 20 watts per square meter (W/m2) [Stanhill and Cohen, 2005]. Stanhill errs in equating these surface flux changes (the “dimming”) with the radiative forcing from anthropogenic greenhouse gases (currently about 2.6 W/m2). Radiative forcing is defined at the tropopause (not the surface) specifically to provide a good prediction for eventual model responses. Changes in aerosols and clouds result in large changes in SWD, but they do not translate into similarly large changes in tropopause forcing since the aerosols and clouds absorb energy in addition to reflect it.
Yingjuan Ma receives 2007 F.L. Scarf Award
Authors: Anonymous  
Published: December 2007

Yingjuan Ma has been awarded the AGU F.L. Scarf Award, given annually to a recent Ph.D. recipient for outstanding dissertation research that contributes directly to solarplanetary sciences. Ma's thesis is entitled “3D multi‐species global MHD studies of the solar wind interaction with Mars and Saturn's magnetospheric plasma flow with Titan.” She will be formally presented with the award at the SPA Section Dinner during the 2007 AGU Fall Meeting, which will be held 10–14 December in San Francisco, California.Yingjuan Ma received her B.S. in 1997 and a M.S. in 2000 in space science from University of Science and Technology of China. She received her Ph.D. in atmospheric and space sciences under the supervision of Andrew F. Nagy in 2006 at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her research interests include MHD modeling of plasma interactions around unmagnetized and weakly magnetized solar system bodies.
West Antarctic links to sea level estimation
Authors: Vaughan David G. , Holt John W. , Blankenship Donald D. 
Published: December 2007

A recent report from Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC, 2007] highlighted the increasingly precise observations of sea level rise that are obtainable from satellite measurements and the greater certainty in the projected impacts of climate change on nonpolar glaciers and thermal expansion of the oceans. This improved understanding heightens confidence in projections of sea level rise, but the IPCC's assessment specifically excludes the contribution that could arise from rapid changes in the flow of ice sheets.The Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) ice sheet (Figure 1, top), which occupies approximately one third of the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS), is an area of particular concern. Many recent satellite studies have shown it to be the most rapidly changing portion of the Antarctic ice sheet. Indeed, this part of the Antarctic ice sheet is making a contribution to sea level rise comparable to that of the entire Greenland ice sheet. Further changes in this area could substantially increase future rates of sea level rise.
Northern Eurasia in the global Earth system
Authors: Groisman Pavel , Sokolik Irina , Hibbard Kathy , Brasseur Guy , Katzenberger John 
Published: December 2007

Northern Eurasia is undergoing significant changes associated with warming climate and with socioeconomic changes during the entire twentieth century. Climatic changes over this vast landmass interact and affect the rate of global change through atmospheric circulation and through strong biogeophysical and biogeochemical couplings. Current and future interactions and feedbacks to the global system of this carbon‐ rich, cold‐region component of the Earth system remain to a large extent unknown.The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI; http://neespi.org), an international and interdisciplinary program, was established to address these issues. NEESPI's overarching science question is, How do we develop our predictive capability of terrestrial ecosystems dynamics over northern Eurasia for the 21st century to support global projections as well as informed decision‐making and numerous practical applications in the region? Since 2004, more than 100 international research projects have joined NEESPI, and the initiative has been endorsed by several international programs and projects.
Comment on “Recent unrest at Canary Islands' Teide Volcano?”
Authors: Pérez Nemesio M. , Hernández Pedro A. 
Published: December 2007

Many seismic, geochemical, hydrological, and microgravity signatures support Tenerife's recent volcanic unrest [Péerez et al., 2004; Marrero et al., 2005; Almendros et al., 2007; Gottsmann et al., 2006; López et al., 2006; Tarraga et al., 2006; Pérez et al., 2007]. Volcanic unrest at Tenerife may or may not affect Teide's shallow magmatic system and therefore prompt its reawakening. García et al. [2006] claimed a reawakening of Teide, and a coauthor (R. Ortiz) predicted an explosive eruption with a 70% probability [Olaizola, 2005]. They reported a picture of a “plume” at the volcano's summit on October 2004 as evidence of Teide's reawakening.On the contrary, continuous monitoring of carbon dioxide emissions at Teide as well as a visual and close inspection of the summit cone did not support any outburst of gases at that time. Other data that do not support the reactivation of the shallow magma chamber beneath Teide are the low rate of sulfur dioxide emissions [Weber et al., 2006], small observed fluctuation of the helium isotope ratio, and other geochemical signatures from the fumaroles. Also, the first results of a permanent GPS network do not report deformation (T. Sagiya et al., Establishment of the Canary Islands GPS network for volcano monitoring and its initial results, submitted to Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 2007).
Reply to Comment on “Recent unrest at Canary Islands' Teide Volcano?”
Authors: Carracedo Juan Carlos , Troll Valentin R. , Torrado Francisco Pérez , Hansen Alex , Badiola Eduardo Rodríguez , Paris Raphael , Guillou Hervé , Scaillet Stéphane 
Published: December 2007

Small‐magnitude seismic episodes unrelated to a volcanic eruption have been a relatively frequent feature in all the Canaries without causing any significant public alarm. Conversely, great alarm was raised in May 2004 in Tenerife, when apparently numerous low‐magnitude seismic signals were recorded, although only a few of them were actually felt in nearby villages.Public alarm was raised by (1) the publication on a Web site of imperceptible seismic signals as low as 0.6 on the Richter scale, most of which were not even adequately localized and yet were reproduced almost daily in the local and national press without further comment or explanation; (2) a Spanish national scientific committee being replaced by a local committee that was scientifically advised by a private company; and (3) publicity given by the media to the prediction made by members of the local committee of a potentially large scale explosive eruption in October 2004 (dubbed “the October volcano” by residents). Interestingly, obvious fumarole activity was absent in autumn 2004 during an inspection of Teide summit by three of us.
Comment on “The first accurate description of an aurora”
Authors: Silverman Sam 
Published: December 2007

Schröder [2006] discusses Das Buch der Natur (The Book of Nature), written by Konrad von Megenberg between 1348 and 1350. The Buch was the first encyclopedia of natural phenomena written in German. (For a contemporary German translation, see Schulz [1897]; for definitions of Megenberg's astronomical terminology, see Deschler [1977]). Megenberg translated the Liber de Natura Rerum, written by Thomas of Cantimpre between 1225 and 1240.Descriptions of optical atmospheric phenomena are found in chapters 12 and 14 of Book 2. My discussion rests largely on Deschler's translation. Chapter 12, entitled “About fire in the air,” contains descriptions of phenomena such as meteors and fireballs, and concludes with a description of a ball or sphere, whose periphery is brighter and less dense than its middle, so that it looks like a crown. Here Deschler (p. 305) considers that Megenberg may be thinking of an auroral form.
Causes of warming and thawing permafrost in Alaska
Authors: Osterkamp T. E. 
Published: December 2007

There is a perception that climatic warming was the cause of the twentieth‐century global warming and thawing of permafrost and associated terrain instability (thermokarst) [Gore, 2006; Perkins, 2007; Zielinski, 2007; Delisle, 2007]. While pertinent data are sparse, published results do not support this viewpoint [Zhang et al., 2001; Osterkamp, 2007]. This brief report reviews the warming of permafrost in Alaska during the twentieth century and shows that snow cover has played a significant role in it.Air temperatures in Alaska increased from the late 1800s until the early 1940s and decreased during the third quarter of the century. While the long‐term data are sparse, snow cover appears to have increased during the third quarter. Air temperatures increased sharply (1°–2°C) at the start of the fourth quarter, but trends to the end of the century were variable. Some sites warmed while others showed little or no warming or a cooling.
A new perspective on the Earth's plasmasphere
Authors: De Keyser Johan , Darrouzet Fabien , Plerrard Viviane 
Published: December 2007

Sixty years ago, Owen Storey concluded that “whistler” radio waves propagate along the geomagnetic field lines through a dispersive medium, which is now known as the plasmasphere. This was confirmed by Gringauz's plasma measurements on Lunik 2 in 1962. In recent years, satellites such as NASA's Imager for Magnetopause‐to‐Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) and the European Space Agency's Cluster probes have offered what previous spacecraft could not: a nonlocal perspective.As IMAGE and Cluster have accumulated more than 6 years of observations, researchers from both communities judged the time was ripe for a review at a workshop organized last September by the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (http.7/ www.aeronomy.be/en/workshop/ plasmasphere/overview.htm). This meeting report summarizes some highlights of the meeting.
A three-dimensional stochastic spatio-temporal model of cell spreading
Authors: Xiong Yuguang , Rangamani Padmini , Dubin-Thaler Benjamin , Sheetz Michael , Iyengar Ravi 
Published: December 2007

AbstractCell motility is important for many physiological processes and the underlyingbiochemical reactions motility have been well characterized. Mathematical models, usingthe biochemical reactions and focused on different types of spreading behavior have beenconstructed and analyzed. In this study, we build on these previous models to develop athree-dimensional stochastic model of isotropic spreading of mammalian fibroblasts. The model is composed of three actin remodeling reactions that occur stochastically in space and time and are regulated by membrane resistance forces. Numerical simulations indicate that the model qualitatively captures the experimentally observed isotropic cell spreading behavior. We analyzed the effects of varying branching reaction rates, membrane resistance forces and capping protein concentrations on the dynamics of isotropic spreading. The simulations allowed us to identify the range within which branching reaction rates and membrane force values cooperate to yield isotropic spreading behavior. The model predicts increasing capping protein concentration would lead to a linear decrease in average peripheral velocity. We tested this prediction experimentally using varying concentrations of a pharmacologic agent (Cytochalasin D) that caps growing actin filaments. We find that the experimental results agree with the numerical simulations. Thus, a spatio-temporally complex model made up of a simple set of stochastic reactions near the cell surface, when constrained by membrane forces, can yield deterministic behavior as characterized by isotropic cell spreading.
Proteinases and signalling: pathophysiological and therapeutic implications via PARs and more
Authors: Ramachandran R , Hollenberg M D 
Published: December 2007

Proteinases like thrombin, trypsin and tissue kallikreins are now known to regulate cell signaling by cleaving and activating a novel family of G‐protein‐coupled proteinase‐activated receptors (PARs 1–4) via exposure of a tethered receptor‐triggering ligand. On their own, short synthetic PAR‐selective PAR‐activating peptides (PAR‐APs) mimicking the tethered ligand sequences can activate PARs 1, 2 and 4 and cause physiological responses bothin vitroandin vivo.Using the PAR‐APs as sentinel probesin vivo, it has been found that PAR activation can affect the vascular, renal, respiratory, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal and nervous systems (both central and peripheral nervous system) and can promote cancer metastasis and invasion. In general, responses triggered by PARs 1, 2 and 4 are in keeping with an innate immune inflammatory response, ranging from vasodilatation to intestinal inflammation, increased cytokine production and increased or decreased nociception. Further, PARs have been implicated in a number of disease states, including cancer and inflammation of the cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. In addition to activating PARs, proteinases can cause hormone‐like effects by other signalling mechanisms, like growth factor receptor activation, that may be as important as the activation of PARs. We, therefore, propose that the PARs themselves, their activating serine proteinases and their associated signalling pathways can be considered as attractive targets for therapeutic drug development. Thus, proteinases in general must now be considered as ‘hormone‐like’ messengers that can signal eitherviaPARs or other mechanisms.British Journal of Pharmacology(2008)153, S263–S282; doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0707507; published online 3 December 2007